News Briefs
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Panelists debate how money, morals, myths drive Americans' behavior
NEW YORK (CNS) -- American behavior is driven by intertwined forces of money, morals and myths in a constantly shifting struggle for pre-eminence, according to participants in a debate at Jesuit-run Fordham University. Three writers engaged one another and the audience Feb. 1 in a lively discussion on "What Rules America: Money, Morals or Myth?" Unlimited amounts of money rule politics and lead to a "participatory inequality," according to Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect magazine. Involvement in civic life and public institutions is the only possible counterweight to the power of wealth, he said. Robert A. George, editorial writer for the New York Post, said the Declaration of Independence enshrines an overarching morality in the United States that has a greater impact than Judeo-Christian principles. "We have a unique vision that our sense of equality is divinely inspired. Conflicts inevitably come about because of our inability to live up to the creed of our founding statements." He said, "Foundational morality ultimately ends up trumping religious contemporary moralities of the day. Once a debate, such as gay marriage, is argued under the rubric of equality under the law, the traditional myths, the traditional religious groups, end up having to surrender the ground." Susan Jacoby, author of "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism," said American exceptionalism is the country's "overarching myth." She quoted Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy to describe exceptionalism as "a community of perceptions, ideas, institutions and ambitions, which posits, among other things, that the United States is uniquely virtuous, uniquely powerful, uniquely destined to accomplish great things and thus uniquely authorized to act in ways to which Americans would object if done by other nations."
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Military chaplains told not to read archbishop's letter on HHS mandate
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A directive from the U.S. Army chief of chaplains that a letter opposing the Obama administration's contraceptive mandate not be read from the pulpit by Catholic military chaplains violated First Amendment rights of free speech and free exercise of religion, according to the head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio spoke with Secretary of the Army John McHugh about the chief of chaplains' response to the archbishop's Jan. 26 letter and the two "agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading of the archbishop's letter," according to a statement released by the military archdiocese to Catholic News Service Feb. 6. The two also agreed to McHugh's suggestion that one line, which read "We cannot -- we will not -- comply with this unjust law," be removed from the letter because of "the concern that it could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience," the statement added. The letter had been issued as part of a nationwide campaign by U.S. bishops protesting the Department of Health and Human Services requirement that all health plans -- even those covering employees of Catholic schools, hospitals and charitable institutions -- cover contraceptives, including some that can cause abortions, and sterilization free of charge. The archbishop said he and the archdiocese "stand firm in the belief, based on legal precedent, that such a directive from the Army constituted a violation of his constitutionally protected right of free speech and the free exercise of religion, as well as those same rights of all military chaplains and their congregants."
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WORLD
Vatican officials say 'corruption' charges by envoy to US are 'unfounded'
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In an unusually public rebuke of a high-ranking colleague, Vatican officials dismissed as baseless the accusations of "corruption and abuse of power" made in letters by an archbishop who is now apostolic nuncio to the United States. In a statement released by the Vatican Feb. 4, Cardinal-designate Giuseppe Bertello and Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the current and immediate past presidents of the Governorate of Vatican City State, described as a "cause of great sadness" the recent "unlawful publication" by Italian journalists of two letters addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state. The letters, written by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano when he was the governorate's secretary general, or second-highest official, contained assertions based on "erroneous evaluations" or "fears unsupported by proof," the statement said. Archbishop Vigano's letter to the pope, dated March 27, 2011, lamented "so many situations of corruption and abuse of power long rooted in the various departments" of the governorate, and warned that the archbishop's departure from his position there "would provoke profound confusion and dejection" among all those supporting his efforts at reform. Pope Benedict named the archbishop as nuncio to the United States in October 2011.
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Catholicism still dominant in Caribbean, but its influence wanes
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNS) -- Trinidad's only Catholic seminary educated future clergy members for six decades, sending graduates to ministries throughout the Caribbean. But by 2010, the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and the Uganda Martyrs had more staff than students and was losing nearly $100,000 a year. The Antilles Episcopal Conference closed it. The seminarians were shipped to the Dominican Republic's capital, where they were to finish their studies in Spanish -- as opposed to the English spoken in Trinidad. Caribbean bishops promised to reopen the seminary in 2013 with a plan to shore up finances, boost enrollment and find more resident faculty. The seminary's closing, however, was emblematic of deeper challenges the Catholic Church faces in the Caribbean. While still the dominant religion, Catholicism's influence has been waning here. When Pope Benedict XVI arrives in the Caribbean in March on a historic trip to Cuba, he will encounter a region in a state of religious flux and economic uncertainty. The Catholic Church's standing is being challenged by a rise in evangelicalism and a lack of indigenous clergy, as evidenced by the Trinidad seminary's closing. Add to those hurdles the region's complex colonial history, the prevalence of Afro-Caribbean religions -- such as Haitian Voodoo and Santeria -- and widespread poverty. "It's a challenging environment," said Archbishop Patrick Pinder of Nassau, Bahamas, president of the Antilles Episcopal Conference. "We're talking about developing countries that are faced with post-colonial challenges ... (including) the current economic crises."
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PEOPLE
Pope names vicar general of Oklahoma City to head diocese in Kansas
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has named the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Msgr. Edward J. Weisenburger, to head the Diocese of Salina, Kan. Bishop-designate Weisenburger, 51, succeeds Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, who was appointed Oklahoma City's archbishop in December 2010. The appointment was announced Feb. 6 in Washington by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States. The date for Bishop-designate Weisenburger's ordination and installation as 11th bishop of Salina was to be announced in the near future. Edward J. Weisenburger was born Dec. 23, 1960, in Alton, Ill. He spent two years of his childhood in Hays, Kan., but grew up primarily in Lawton, Okla., where he graduated from Eisenhower High School in 1979. He attended Conception Seminary College in Conception, Mo., where he graduated with honors in 1983. He then attended the American College Seminary at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, where he earned a bachelor's degree in theology and master's degrees in religious studies and in moral and religious sciences. Ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City on Dec. 19, 1987, he was parochial vicar at St. Mary Church in Ponca City, Okla., until he was sent to the University of St. Paul in Ottawa, Ontario, where he earned a licentiate in canon law.
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Auxiliary Bishop Estabrook of US military archdiocese dies at age 67
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Auxiliary Bishop Joseph W. Estabrook of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services died Feb. 4 in Houston following a lengthy illness. He was 67 years old. A priest of the Diocese of Albany, N.Y., where he was born, he was ordained an auxiliary for the military archdiocese in July 2004. He had been a chaplain in the Navy since 1977, earning the rank of captain in 1995. He retired from the Navy in September 2004. His body was to be received the evening of Feb. 9, followed by prayer, at Good Shepherd Church in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va. A funeral Mass was to be celebrated at the church the next morning. Interment with military honors will take place at Calvary Cemetery in Albany at a time yet to be announced. "The Archdiocese for the Military Services has lost an energetic and sensitive successor of the apostles, whose pastoral zeal and love for the men and women in uniform and their families electrified everything he did," said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, who heads the military archdiocese, which is based in Washington. "His valiant struggle with cancer and his sense of hope have given us all a lesson in how to live and how to face death. My heartfelt sympathy goes to his mother and family. They have given him exemplary care and showered him with love throughout his illness," he said in a statement.
Copyright (c) 2012 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop