News Briefs
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Immigration advocates urged to keep up their efforts despite obstacles
SALT LAKE CITY (CNS) -- Biblical prophets who proclaimed God's word often suffered for their work, but nevertheless kept the word burning within them, an Arizona bishop said as he urged immigration advocates gathered in Salt Lake City to keep up their efforts despite obstacles they face. Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo A. Nevares of Phoenix made the comments in his homily at the opening Mass for a three-day conference in mid-January that drew 230 immigration advocates from 43 states for three days of panels, workshops and networking. Titled "Immigration: A 50-State Issue," the conference was sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network. "Today, my brothers and sisters, it is our time to listen to God's word ever anew," Bishop Nevares said Jan. 11. "How do we practice that prophetic office today? By defending the immigrant from discrimination. By striving to be the voice for those who have no voice. By struggling to advocate for the dignity of every human person from the first moment of conception to natural death. By calling for the integrity and unity of all human families. And last but not least, that we urge our government leaders to pass a just equitable and comprehensive reform to immigration law and system which is broken," he said. The Mass was concelebrated by Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City and Auxiliary Bishop Arturo Cepeda of Detroit. Later, at the conference's opening dinner, Bishop Wester in his keynote address said that while Washington legislators seem to be at an impasse regarding comprehensive immigration reform, "we must never give up hope."
- - -
Copps pleased FCC has turned into 'a grass-roots organization'
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Michael Copps, who stepped down Jan. 1 after serving 10 years on the Federal Communications Commission -- including a brief stint as the interim FCC chair -- can point to many areas where the FCC made positive headway and warded off proposals he considered ill-advised. But perhaps what pleased Copps most was that "we turned the FCC into a grass-roots organization. We have a couple hundred people traveling the country, people crisscrossing to local groups, state groups" on communications issues. "We were just trying to open the commission more to input for the public at large, open it to stakeholders who don't have lobbyists working the corridors of the FCC and put(ting) together nice gift-wrapped packages for us. I've tried to get the FCC out on the road so we could learn what was on the mind of the American people," said Copps, a Catholic, in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service from his Virginia home. "I'm going to try to keep pushing on that" with the new FCC members, he added, "protecting American consumers and advancing the public interest." Copps said he can't claim total victory on a host of issues, but that traction got started during his tenure, including taking into account the needs of "minorities, the disability community -- who have to live with the consequences of our decision just as much as anybody else does. ... But this is an era where corporations and big entities have lots of influence in government at all levels." One partial victory, according to Copps, is the adoption of a national broadband strategy to give more people access to the Internet via broadband technology. "For eight years I was talking about the need for a broadband strategy. All we got back was 'the market will do it, the market will take care of that.'" Rather, he noted, "when we make progress as a country, we do it because we're all together -- the public sector, the private sector."
- - -
Friends, family, parishioners reflect on deep faith of missing couple
WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. (CNS) -- Friends and parishioners of St. Pius X Church in White Bear Lake reflected on the lives of Jerry and Barb Heil at an evening prayer service Jan. 18. On Jan. 19, divers resumed the search for 21 people still missing after a Costa Concordia cruise ship cruise ship crashed into the Italian coast Jan. 13. The Heils are the only Americans who remained unaccounted for among the more than 4,200 passengers. Eleven people died. At St. Pius X, about 450 people gathered to sing, pray, reflect, light candles and pay tribute to the Heils. "It was a fantastic tribute to the way they lived their lives," said Carri Petronack, St. Pius X social ministry coordinator. "A lot of people knew them, and they lived their life to be ready for heaven every day and go to the Lord." Several people commented on the Heil couple's tremendous display of faith, including their granddaughter, Lexi Heil. They are "amazing people (with) such a strong faith," she said. Barb Heil has been active in a close-knit parish rosary group. Jerry Heil is a member of the Knights of Columbus, which he joined in 1969 but rejoined more actively in 2002, said fellow Knight Duane Jabas. "He would keep out of the spotlight," Jabas said. "He was very active in our church."
- - -
WORLD
Bill protecting state secrets bad for South Africa, says archbishop
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- South Africa's bill on protecting state secrets could turn the country into a security state, said Cape Town Archbishop Stephen Brislin. The Protection of State Information Bill, which allows any government agency to apply for classification of information that is "valuable" to the state and criminalizes the possession and distribution of state secrets, "does not serve the interests of the nation and can be used to damage our democracy," Archbishop Brislin said in a Jan. 19 statement. "We, the Catholic Church in Cape Town, strongly appeal to the National Council of Provinces to amend" the bill "to bring it in line with our constitutional right to freedom of information," he said. The council will hold hearings in Cape Town Jan. 31 on the bill, which was passed by South Africa's national Parliament in November. Catholics have a "duty to continue opposing this bill," which "does not serve the common good," Archbishop Brislin said, noting that the bill violates the South African Constitution's "commitment to open and transparent government." The bill allows up to 25 years in jail for those who illegally publish classified information.
- - -
Pope urges agreement between Christians on ethical questions
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI said Christians of all denominations should come to agreement on ethical matters, especially regarding human life, family and sexuality. The pope, in a meeting Jan. 19 with an ecumenical group of Catholic and Lutheran leaders from Finland, said that differences among Christians regarding the "proper understanding of human nature and its dignity" had grown in recent years. He urged coming together to reach "a profound agreement" on anthropological questions so that society and policy-makers could be guided in their decisions regarding the important areas of human behavior, the role of the family and sexuality. The pope told the group, an ecumenical delegation on their annual pilgrimage to Rome, that the common witness between Catholics and Lutherans should be reinforced to face the challenges posed by a world that "lacks true direction and longs to hear the message of salvation." An ecumenical delegation sponsored by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland comes to Rome each year on the Feast of St. Henrik, the patron saint of Finland.
- - -
Pope warns of threat to freedom of religion, conscience in US
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI warned visiting U.S. bishops that "radical secularism" threatens the core values of American culture, and he called on the church in America, including politicians and other laypeople, to render "public moral witness" on crucial social issues. The pope spoke Jan. 19 to a group of U.S. bishops who were in Rome for their periodic "ad limina" visits, which included meetings with the pope and Vatican officials, covering a wide range of pastoral matters. Opening with a dire assessment of the state of American society, the pope told the bishops that "powerful new cultural currents" have worn away the country's traditional moral consensus, which was originally based on religious faith as well as ethical principles derived from natural law. Whether they claim the authority of science or democracy, the pope said, militant secularists seek to stifle the church's proclamation of these "unchanging moral truths." Such a movement inevitably leads to the prevalence of "reductionist and totalitarian readings of the human person and the nature of society." The pope drew an opposition between current "notions of freedom detached from moral truth" and Catholicism's "rational perspective" on morality, founded on the conviction that the "cosmos is possessed of an inner logic accessible to human reasoning." Using the "language" of natural law, he said, the church should promote social justice by "proposing rational arguments in public square."
- - -
As Tet nears, migrants return to Vietnam, get chance to renew faith
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (CNS) -- Catholic migrant workers based in Laos are returning home to be with their families in time for the Tet New Year holidays and, for many, the trip will offer a chance to renew their faith. Others, however, even within Vietnam, will not make the traditional journey to be with their family for the lunar new year, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. Paul Le Quoc Hai, a Catholic who works as a carpenter in Laos' Khammouan province, said he will take advantage of this Tet holiday to get his two children baptized. Hai, 39, said he will have to provide faith education for his children in the future. He said around 80 migrant Vietnamese Catholics live in the province and their children are not taught catechism. "We gather to pray at our houses while Laotian priests are not allowed to publicly provide pastoral activities or build churches," he told UCA News. According to Vietnamese government figures, approximately 25,000 Vietnamese migrants work in Laos. "The Tet holidays are a good opportunity for us to see our relatives and rekindle our faith," said Marie Huynh Thi Am, who returned to her home province of Quang Tri Jan. 16.
- - -
PEOPLE
Bishop Skurla named to head Byzantine Archeparchy of Pittsburgh
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop William C. Skurla of the Byzantine Eparchy of Passaic, N.J., as archbishop of the Byzantine Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. Archbishop Skurla, 55, will succeed Archbishop Basil M. Schott, who died in June 2010. The appointment was announced Jan. 19 in Washington by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States. His enthronement -- as the Eastern Catholic installation ceremony is known -- will take place April 18 in Pittsburgh. The Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh is the only self-governing Eastern Catholic Church in the United States, meaning it is directly under the authority of the pope rather than a Catholic patriarch in Eastern Europe or the Middle East. It stretches from Erie, Pa., to Texas and has 58,000 parishioners and 65 priests in 78 parishes. William Charles Skurla was born in Duluth, Minn., June 1, 1956, and attended local Catholic and public elementary schools. He graduated in 1974 from Chisholm High School, Chisholm, Minn. He attended Deerfield Academy postgraduate program in Deerfield, Mass., from 1974 to 1975. He then attended Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1981 with a concentration in philosophy in 1981. He entered the Byzantine Franciscan community in Sybertsville, Pa., in 1981 and studied for the priesthood at Mary Immaculate Seminary in Northampton, Pa., receiving master's degrees in divinity in 1986 and theology in 1987. Ordained a Franciscan priest in 1987, he was incardinated nine years later into the Eparchy of Van Nuys, Calif., where he served as pastoral administrator at St. Melany Byzantine Catholic Church in Tucson, Ariz., from 1993 until 2002. The eparchy is now known as the Holy Protection of Mary Eparchy of Phoenix.
- - -
Newly crowned Miss America knows talent, gifts are from God, says mom
MILWAUKEE (CNS) -- All smiles, Susan Kaeppeler, fourth-grade teacher at Kenosha's St. Joseph Academy's lower campus, was greeted with the red-carpet treatment when she arrived to class Jan. 16 after a whirlwind weekend where she saw her oldest daughter, Laura, crowned Miss America. The 23-year-old brunette, a Kenosha native, won the Miss America title at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas Jan. 14. "Some of the parents decorated her classroom, and made some posters and put them up in the gym as the school day began," Pauline McTernan, St. Joseph development director, said in a telephone interview with the Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Milwaukee Archdiocese. "We rolled out a red carpet, presented her with a crown, bouquet of flowers, and balloons and led her to the gym as the school day began. The teachers all wore T-shirts that said, 'I teach with Miss America's Mom.' It was so exciting!" Particularly touching to McTernan was Susan's impromptu speech as she reminded students what her daughter had said to them when she visited the school last October, as Miss Wisconsin, a title she won last June. "She asked if the students remembered Laura's message and no matter who she pointed to, the kids remembered what Laura had said to them," she said. "I will never forget it either, as it knocked my socks off. She told the students to put God first, to believe in yourself and to never give up. And the students got it; it just shows what type of girl Laura is. Her whole family is wonderful and has strong convictions and good character."
Copyright (c) 2012 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops