Icon of St. Martin de Porres
Brother Robert Lentz, a Franciscan friar from Holy Name Province,
works on an icon of St. Martin de Porres in his studio at Holy Name
College in Silver Spring, Md., Nov. 6. Brother Lentz, a popular religious
icon painter, incorporates contemporary social themes into his works.
CNS photo/Octavio Duran |
Bil Keane dies
Bil Keane, the Catholic cartoonist who originated
the comic strip “The Family Circus” more than 50 years
ago, died Nov. 8 at age 89 in Paradise Valley, Ariz., near Phoenix,
of congestive heart failure. He taught himself to draw while a student
at Northeast Catholic High School in Philadelphia.
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Seton Hall pilot program cuts
tuition for achievers
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — Seton Hall University has initiated a pilot
program for next year that profoundly restructures the school’s
tuition, cutting costs by 60 percent for incoming students who are top
academic achievers in high school. Some national education experts have
expressed concerns that Seton Hall’s plan could speed up what they
say is a national trend to shift the focus of financial aid from awarding
scholarships based on need to awarding them on merit. Seton Hall says
its goal is to reward more students who have earned high marks in high
school and to help financially strapped families afford a private college
by giving them education at a state-school price.
Catholic college sues over contraception rule
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Belmont Abbey College is suing the federal government
over a new regulation that requires employer health insurance plans to
provide free coverage of contraceptives and sterilization, even if it
may be contrary to their religious beliefs. The civil lawsuit was filed
Nov. 10 in U.S. District Court in Washington by the Becket Fund for Religious
Liberty, a Washington-based nonprofit, public-interest law firm that is
representing the Catholic liberal arts college in Belmont.
Catholics: Vanderbilt policy to restrict freedom
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A proposal by Vanderbilt University to apply
its nondiscrimination policy to the leadership of student religious organizations
“will restrict freedom and diversity in student life by jeopardizing
authentic religious expression,” Father John Sims Baker, the Catholic
chaplain at Vanderbilt, wrote in a letter to the school’s chancellor.
The dispute began after a Vanderbilt student complained to university
officials that he was dismissed from a Christian fraternity because of
his sexual orientation.
Denzel Washington endows theater chair at Fordham
NEW YORK — Actor Denzel Washington has endowed a chair in theater
and established a scholarship for an undergraduate student who is studying
theater at his alma mater, Fordham University in New York. Actress Phylicia
Rashad has joined the Fordham faculty as the first to hold the Denzel
Washington chair in theater. Washington, who graduated from the Jesuit-run
university in 1977, said he wanted others to experience the positive influence
of mentors like the late Bob Stone, a former actor and Fordham professor
who mentored him.
CCHD rebuts new charges over funding of groups
WASHINGTON — Officials with the Catholic Campaign for Human Development
rebutted a report that 55 agencies funded by the U.S. bishops’ anti-poverty
program in 2010-11 were in conflict with church teaching. Bishop Jaime
Soto of Sacramento, Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton and Ralph McCloud,
CCHD executive director, said the charges leveled in an American Life
League study against all but one of the agencies were unfounded. McCloud
said funding was withdrawn from one organization cited in the report,
which was found to be distributing condoms. The 212-page report —
completed in March but not made public until October when it was posted
on the American Life League’s website, according to its primary
researcher — accused the grass-roots organizations of promoting
abortion, homosexuality and Marxist ideology contrary to church doctrine.
Nairobi has food, but people lack money
NAIROBI, Kenya — When Comboni Father Paulino Mondo noticed parishioners
at Sunday Mass at Holy Trinity Parish were starting to faint before Mass
ended, he realized it wasn’t exuberance. It was hunger. Now, Sunday
Masses last no longer than an hour and 15 minutes, and the usual socializing
after Mass has all but evaporated, as people quickly head home to conserve
their energy. The priest said the situation is not only little known outside
Kenya, but is a hidden problem right in Nairobi, where food is available,
but tens of thousands of people lack money to pay for it.
Bishops reject call for laypeople to say Mass
VIENNA — Austria’s Catholic bishops have rejected a call by
dissident church members for laypeople to begin celebrating Mass in parishes
with no priests. The bishops said that some demands connected to “this
call for disobedience at the initiative of priests and laity are simply
unsustainable” and breach “the central truth of our Catholic
faith.”
British court: Church may be liable for crimes
MANCHESTER, England — A British court has ruled that the Catholic
Church can be held legally liable for the crimes of abusive clergy, but
an English bishop said his diocese does not believe the woman on whose
testimony the case is based. The Nov. 8 ruling by the High Court in London
for the first time defined in British law the relationship of a priest
to his bishop as that of an employee to an employer, instead of seeing
the priest as effectively self-employed. This means that a bishop and
a diocese can be punished for the crimes of a priest.
Hanoi Redemptorists to Catholics: remain calm
HANOI, Vietnam — Redemptorists at a Hanoi parish have urged local
Catholics to keep calm after a mob led by government officials attacked
a convent and church in early November. The Asian church news agency UCA
News reported tens of thousands of people attended 10 special Masses celebrated
Nov. 5-6 at Thai Ha Church in the capital. Each Mass was attended by an
estimated 3,000-5,000 people. During the Masses, priests told parishioners
about the attacks and appealed to them to stay calm. On Nov. 3, around
100 people, accompanied by security officials and members of the press,
attacked the convent.
— Catholic News Service
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