News Briefs
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
States take up immigration bills as Congress stays on sidelines
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- States have considered more than 1,100 bills that deal with aspects of immigration this year, while a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus April 23 called the Democratic leadership "spineless" for not taking up comprehensive immigration reform. Meanwhile, the House passed a bill to extend a visa program for religious workers, and the governors in three border states asked Congress to extend an operation that has placed National Guard troops along the U.S.-Mexican border. And Catholic organizations and religious orders joined with other church groups in signing a letter protesting a bill introduced in Congress that would force immigrant families to live in a detention center until their immigration cases are resolved. The National Conference of State Legislatures in a report released April 24 said that, as of the end of March, 26 states had enacted 44 laws and adopted 38 resolutions on immigration topics. In 35 states, 198 pieces of legislation were introduced dealing with law enforcement.
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Papal medallion given to people during visit features Capitol, U.N.
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- People who had the opportunity to greet Pope Benedict XVI personally during his U.S. visit received a special bronze commemorative medallion featuring a bas-relief of a bust of the pope on the front. On the obverse are bas-reliefs of the U.S. Capitol on the right, commemorating the Washington leg of his visit, and of the U.N. building in New York on the left, with the U.N. logo superimposed over it, to mark his U.S. stop in New York. There the chief event was a major papal speech on human rights at U.N. headquarters. Pope Benedict distributed the medallions to men, women and children who had been chosen to greet him at a variety of venues in Washington and New York during his April 15-20 trip to the United States, his first U.S. visit as pope. The front of the medallion, which is about two inches in diameter, shows the pope, with the Latin words "Benedictus XVI Pontifex Maximus" (Benedict XVI, Supreme Pontiff) encircling the papal sculpture. The obverse carries an inscription in Latin that translates: "Visits U.S. Cities and the United Nations April 15-20, 2008."
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Archbishop lauds pope's acknowledgment of Eastern Catholic churches
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI's special acknowledgment of the Eastern Catholic churches in the United States during his U.S. visit offered Ukrainian Archbishop Stefan Soroka of Philadelphia encouragement for his church to continue energetic evangelization in this country and in Ukraine. During his meeting with Catholic bishops at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington April 16, Pope Benedict recognized the presence of bishops from "all the venerable Eastern churches in communion with the successor of Peter." "Your presence here is a reminder of the courageous witness to Christ of so many members of your communities, often amid suffering in their respective homelands," the pope said during his address to the U.S. bishops, which followed a vespers service. The Ukrainian Catholic Church is one of 22 Eastern Catholic churches. It is fully in union with Rome but has maintained the liturgical and spiritual heritage shared with the Orthodox churches.
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Papal trip volunteers impress nuns with their generosity, spirit
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Any of the tens of thousands of people who saw New York's papal events in person or even those who came no closer to Pope Benedict XVI than their living-room television can attest to the precision with which the papal itinerary seemed to unfold. Among those who helped pull that off were 3,000 volunteers coordinated under the watchful and loving scrutiny of Sisters Joan Curtin, 63, and Deanna Sabetta, 67, who are both Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. "Cardinal Egan appointed us because of our experience working with volunteers," explained Sister Joan. She is in charge of the New York Archdiocese's Catechetical Office and oversees 10,000 volunteer catechists in the 10 counties that make up the archdiocese. Sister Deanna is the director of the archdiocesan Office of Vocations and the teacher volunteer program, which places teachers in inner-city Catholic schools. "The papal volunteers were the most gracious, generous people I've ever come across," Sister Joan said in an interview with Catholic News Service. "The hours didn't matter to them."
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WORLD
Rising food prices highlight controversy over biofuels
LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- Recent protests over rising food prices have highlighted the controversy over biofuels such as ethanol made from corn or diesel fuel made from vegetable oils. Both the United States and Europe have pledged to increase biofuel use, and about 30 percent of U.S. corn production this year will be used for ethanol, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. Calculating the exact impact of biofuel production on food price hikes is difficult. Despite the attention to biofuels as a factor in recent price increases, it probably had less of an impact than drought and other factors, said Lisa Kuennen of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency. Siwa Msangi, a research fellow at the food policy institute, said a recent study found that between 25 percent and 33 percent of the increase in food prices between 2000 and 2006 "seems to be driven by the biofuels effect."
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British legislators amend bill to protect religious criticism of gays
LONDON (CNS) -- British legislators have voted into the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill a clause to ensure that people are not prosecuted for criticisms based on their beliefs about homosexual lifestyles. The House of Lords voted April 21 for the amendment to the bill that Catholic and Anglican leaders said would have stopped Christians from expressing their beliefs about marriage and family. The amendment said that "the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred." The proposed law against incitement to hatred of homosexuals will carry a maximum penalty of seven years in jail for those found guilty. The amendment must pass the House of Commons before it becomes law later this year.
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Experts say high food prices permanent; bishops urge help for poor
LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- As protests over rising food costs spread around the globe, experts warn that high prices are here to stay, and Catholic bishops are calling for governments to take emergency measures to keep their poorest citizens from going hungry. Already this year, demonstrations linked to spiraling food prices have struck more than a dozen countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Protests forced Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis out of office April 12, and demonstrators have been killed in Cameroon, Peru and Mozambique. The price increases are fueled by a variety of factors that "are all coming together at once," said Lisa Kuennen, director of the public resource group at Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency. Drought last year in Australia and Canada pushed wheat prices up, while flooding destroyed crops in various countries, she said. High oil prices have increased the price of petroleum-based fertilizers and increased transportation costs.
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Pope urges bishops of Caucasus to witness to Christ through charity
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI asked the four bishops of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to teach their faithful to witness to Christ's love through their acts of charity. Meeting the bishops April 24 at the end of their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican, the pope said Christian charity cannot have any ulterior motives; it is not a subtle way for the tiny Catholic minority to win converts. "The exercise of charity cannot be a means in the service of proselytism because love is free," he told the bishops, who are required to visit the Vatican every five years to report on the status of their dioceses. The Catholic population in each of the three countries in the Caucasus region is extremely small. In Azerbaijan about 93 percent of the population is Muslim; in Armenia about 90 percent of the people belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church; and in Georgia almost 84 percent of the population is Orthodox, while about 10 percent is Muslim.
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Pope praises Vatican prayer project to encourage priests, vocations
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has praised a Vatican initiative to encourage eucharistic adoration for the holiness of priests and recruit "spiritual mothers" to pray for priests and for vocations to the priesthood. In an undated letter sent to the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy, which is promoting the initiative, the pope said he is "grateful for the thoughtful gesture" and for suggestions the congregation has put forward. In the letter, posted on the congregation's Web site, the pope said he hoped "the love and devotion to the eucharistic Jesus and devotion to Mary ... may give new fervor" to the life and apostolate of priests. The clergy congregation released to journalists April 22 a letter addressed to the world's priests from Cardinal Claudio Hummes, congregation prefect, and Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, congregation secretary. The letter details the intentions of the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests May 30, as well as some prayers priests have been invited to say.
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Quebec's Catholic bishops urge province to protect family farms
MONTREAL (CNS) -- Quebec's Catholic bishops have urged the provincial government not to leave the fate of the declining family farm in the hands of globalized agribusiness. "We need a social contract that involves the state, citizens and farmers, rather than merely providing service to the farming industry," said the social affairs committee of the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops, quoting Jacques Proulx, president of Rural Solidarity. "The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food must reappropriate its power to influence agricultural development." In their May Day message released April 24, the bishops commented on a report by the Quebec Commission on the Future of Agriculture and Agricultural Food Production. The report highlighted the changing agricultural patterns in Quebec, where industrialization has led to the abandonment of many traditional family farms. The bishops also decried the steady decline in the rural population since the 1960s when large multinational corporations began dominating agricultural production, requiring specialization and high productivity and leaving many family farms unable to compete.
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Religious march on Parliament to encourage climate change fight
LONDON (CNS) -- Almost 300 Catholic priests, nuns and monks marched on Britain's Parliament to demand stronger measures to tackle global warming. The group assembled outside Parliament April 23 before expressing its concerns to politicians, including Hilary Benn, secretary of state for the environment and rural affairs. The demonstrators held up banners bearing the slogans "Kick the Carbon Habit" and "Stop Climate Chaos." Among the organizers of the event were the English and Welsh bishops' Catholic Agency for Overseas Development and the Conference of Religious. Demonstrators hoped to persuade the government to agree to amendments to the Climate Change Bill that is passing through Parliament and is scheduled to become law later this year. They want the carbon-emissions-reduction target to be increased from at least 60 percent to at least 80 percent by 2050. They also want the United Kingdom's share of emissions from aviation and shipping to be included in the reduction.
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Quebec's bishops: Ombudsman needed to ensure migrants' rights
MONTREAL (CNS) -- Quebec's Catholic bishops said the Canadian government should have an independent ombudsman to ensure that migrant workers are treated justly. "If the work of seasonal laborers can help Quebec to keep a competitive edge and protect our Quebec products, we must recognize that this seasonal migration underlines the stark inequalities between rich and poor countries," said the social affairs committee of the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops. "Governments and employers are therefore responsible to ensure that these workers have just living conditions and their basic rights are respected." The arrival in the North each year of migrant workers from the South "reflects the scandal of inequality between rich and poor countries," said the bishops, noting the 4,500 workers who come annually from Mexico and Guatemala to Quebec to work on 350 farms. The seasonal workers are authorized to come to Quebec on the basis of a 1974 Canadian-Mexican agreement that provides Quebec farms with a low-cost labor force and Mexican workers with a seasonal income in Canadian dollars.
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PEOPLE
University's new prize goes to entrepreneur who helps relief groups
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- Lynn C. Fritz, a San Francisco entrepreneur with a mission to help aid agencies speed relief to the neediest victims of natural disasters, is the recipient of the first California Prize for Service and the Common Good established by the University of San Francisco. The prize from the Jesuit-run university comes with a $10,000 award and a handcrafted medal. It will be given each year to a person who creates advancements or innovations in either the public or the private sector on behalf of underserved people. Fritz founded the Fritz Institute in 2001. Through its BayPrep initiative, which seeks to improve disaster preparedness in the San Francisco Bay Area, the institute works with aid agencies to eliminate delays and confusion affecting institutional responses to humanitarian and natural disasters. The university wanted to honor an individual who is a product of Jesuit education and who exemplifies the ideals of Jesuit education. Fritz is a graduate of St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco and Georgetown University in Washington.
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English cardinal moves closer to sainthood with U.S. deacon's healing
LONDON (CNS) -- The sainthood cause of a 19th-century English cardinal has taken a step forward after the Vatican's medical commission ruled that there was no natural explanation for the healing of a U.S. deacon who prayed for the cardinal's intercession. The progress of the cause of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who shocked English society with his conversion to Catholicism, was announced April 24 by Peter Jennings, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England. "The case of Deacon Jack Sullivan from Marshfield near Boston, Mass., was discussed and voted on by" the medical commission of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, Jennings said in a statement. "The opinion of the doctors is positive," he said. The case now is passed on to a theological commission. The theologians are asked to certify that the alleged miracle took place after prayers for the sainthood candidate's intercession. A miracle attributed to Cardinal Newman's intercession is required before his beatification -- a step toward sainthood -- can occur.
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Cardinal: Relics of Padre Pio remind Catholics saints were people
SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy (CNS) -- Venerating the relics of St. Padre Pio is a reminder that the saints were real men and women who lived for God, said Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes. Cardinal Saraiva Martins celebrated Mass April 24 at San Giovanni Rotondo before officially unveiling the new, crystal tomb in which Padre Pio has been reburied. Pilgrims will be able to view the body of the Capuchin friar, who died Sept. 26, 1968. The Capuchins of San Giovanni Rotondo and the papal delegate for the shrine, Archbishop Domenico D'Ambrosio, have said the body will be on view at least until September, but perhaps for as long as a year, before the crystal will be covered. Padre Pio's body was exhumed March 2 to verify the state of the body and allow technicians to ensure its long-term preservation. The friars said the body was in "fair condition," although the skull and parts of the upper body showed serious decay. The archbishop and Capuchins hired Gems Studio, the London-based firm that makes figures for Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, to create a silicone mask -- including a short moustache and ample beard -- for the body.
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops