Nuns
seek awareness
of human trafficking
Sisters of the Holy Cross lead the Human Trafficking Awareness Day
prayer service, which included the story of St. Josephine Bakhita,
at the Church of Our Lady of Loretto in Notre Dame, Ind., Jan. 11.
From left: Sisters Semerita Mbambu, Rose Kyomukama, Manorma Kerketta,
Jui Clara Corraya and Comfort Arthur. The prayer service was sponsored
by the Coalition for Corporate Responsibility for Indiana and Michigan,
a group of 11 orders of Catholic women religious, as part of its Super
Bowl 2012 Anti-Trafficking Initiative.
CNS photo/Sister
Margaret Ann Nowacki |
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Archbishop’s
residence
in Philadelphia to be sold
The Philadelphia archdiocese has confirmed its 10,000-square-foot
archbishop’s residence in Philadelphia is going to be sold.
Located near St. Joseph’s University, the mansion has served
as home to archbishops since the 1930s. The front of the residence
is pictured in a Jan. 4 photo.
CNS photo/Sarah Webb,
Catholic Standard & Times |
Proposed Vikings stadium raises concern
Father John Bauer, rector of the Basilica of
St. Mary in Minneapolis, called on parishioners and community members
to contact government officials to voice concerns about two proposed
sites for the Minnesota Vikings football stadium near the basilica,
particularly one that would be about 300 feet away. Traffic flow and
parking, Father Bauer said, would become more “daunting”
for the basilica’s 6,300 families. The basilica is pictured
in a 2003 photo.
CNS photo/Dave Hrbacek, The
Catholic Spirit
|
French president praises Joan of Arc
French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised his
country’s patron, St. Joan of Arc, for helping “forge
the national conscience. For the church, Joan is a saint. For the
republic, she’s the incarnation of the finest French virtues,
including a patriotism that consists of loving one’s homeland
without resenting others,” the president said Jan. 6 after attending
Mass at Domremy to mark the 600th anniversary of her birth. The statue
of Joan of Arc is seen in the courtyard of the headquarters of France’s
National Front political party in Nanterre.
CNS photo/Charles Platiau,
Reuters |
Faithful urged to continue Rev.
King’s legacy
GARY, Ind. — Two priests and one mayor recalled the late Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. in two words: action and service. Speaking Jan. 8 at Holy
Angels Cathedral in Gary, the three recounted the slain civil rights leader’s
belief in equality and nonviolence, challenging their audience to continue
that legacy.
Catholic publishers launch awards program
BALTIMORE — The Association of Catholic Publishers, a trade group,
will launch its “Excellence in Publishing” awards this year,
with the first prizes to be given during the May 29-June 1 Religious Booksellers
Trade Exhibit in St. Charles, Ill. The deadline to submit entries is Jan.
25. Submission guidelines and forms are available at the association’s
website, www.cbpa.org.
Professor to advise UN Vatican mission
NEWARK, N.J. — A law professor and former dean of Seton Hall University’s
School of Law has been appointed an adviser to the Holy See’s Permanent
Observer Mission to the United States. Elizabeth Defeis is an expert in
matters of international peacekeeping and human rights and is expected
to have her greatest impact in these areas.
Dominican sister dies at 102 in Nashville
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dominican Sister Mary Jeanne Partington, who
was a member of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville
for nearly 80 years, died Jan. 7 in the infirmary of the congregation’s
motherhouse. She was 102 years old and is thought to be the oldest Nashville
Dominican in the congregation’s history.
Bishops applaud sonogram decision
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Catholic bishops applauded the Jan. 11 decision
of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the state to enforce
a sonogram law requiring abortion providers to offer women the opportunity
to view the ultrasound images of their unborn children. “Providing
mothers access to sonograms informs them about the risks and complications
associated with abortion,” said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston.
Mormons feel misunderstood
WASHINGTON — Mormons in the United States might be getting more
attention these days, but they have mixed views on what this attention
means. According to a new Pew Forum poll, most members of the Church of
Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints feel that Americans don’t
know enough about their religion, but they also think the public perception
of them is becoming more positive. This spotlight refers to two Mormon
Republican presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman; a Broadway
musical about Mormons called “The Book of Mormon”; the recent
HBO series “Big Love” about a fundamentalist Mormon family,
and the hype over the “Twilight” vampire series written by
Mormon author Stephenie Meyer.
Family develops new Christian cemetery
TECOPA — Magnificat Ventures, a large corporation that regularly
builds Catholic churches in the Philippines, is developing a 17-acre cemetery
dedicated to St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Tecopa, in Inyo County.
Anthony Luis, executive director of training and sales for the project,
called St. Therese Mission, said the cemetery will not be a Catholic facility.
It is a private project and has no connection to the Diocese of Fresno,
where Tecopa is located. It will be a nondenominational Christian cemetery.
Maryland bishops sound alarm about poverty
BALTIMORE — Sounding the alarm about poverty in Maryland, the state’s
bishops called on Catholics to urge lawmakers to “make decisions,
pass legislation and appropriate public money in a manner that is charitable,
just and reflective of our shared human dignity.” In a joint statement
released Jan. 9, two days before the Maryland General Assembly was to
begin its 2012 session, Cardinal-designate Edwin F. O’Brien, Washington
Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl and Bishop W. Francis Malooly of Wilmington,
Del., said Maryland’s state administrators and members of the General
Assembly “have a moral obligation to act justly by enacting laws,
appropriating funds and executing policies in a manner that uplifts the
most vulnerable.”
No results yet from study of women religious
WASHINGTON — A three-year study of U.S. women religious called for
by the Vatican has been completed with the final comprehensive report
recently sent to Rome. No details of the findings in what the Church calls
an apostolic visitation were released by Mother Mary Clare Millea, superior
general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the apostolic
visitator appointed by the Vatican to undertake the study. Mother Clare
had submitted most of the reports on each of the nearly 400 religious
congregations in the U.S.
Spanish priest sees good learning about exorcism
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If everything you know about exorcism you learned
by watching the movie, “The Exorcist,” Father Jose Antonio
Fortea wants to exorcise those notions from your head. To learn about
exorcism, Father Fortea said the best textbook is the Bible, especially
the Gospels, because after all, Jesus was an exorcist. Father Fortea,
a priest of the Diocese of Alcala de Henares in Spain, is an exorcist.
He is the author of several books including “Interview With an Exorcist.”
SF Archdiocese wins tax case against city assessor
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) — A Superior Court judge made final his earlier
tentative decision to throw out a multimillion-dollar “delinquent”
tax bill imposed on the Archdiocese of San Francisco by the San Francisco
assessor-recorder. Judge Richard A. Kramer Jan. 9 confirmed a 43-page
“Tentative Statement of Decision” he issued in favor of the
archdiocese Nov. 18. For more than three years, the archdiocese fought
an attempt by Phil Ting, head of the Office of the Assessor-Recorder,
to impose transfer taxes totaling more than $20 million on more than 200
parish and school properties involved in an internal reorganization by
the archdiocese. The archdiocese maintained that the effort came despite
the fact that the city’s “documentary transfer tax”
ordinance, as it is called, applies only to property “sold”
in San Francisco and specifically exempts internal reorganizations of
this kind.
— Catholic News Service
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