News Briefs
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Pope Benedict moved in meeting with abuse victims, cardinal says
BOSTON (CNS) -- Meeting victims of clergy sexual abuse at the papal nunciature in the nation's capital during his six-day U.S. visit was a moving experience for Pope Benedict XVI, said Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston. Speaking April 23 with The Pilot, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston, Cardinal O'Malley said the meeting between the pope and victims from the Boston Archdiocese was important to both parties. "The many times he addressed the sexual abuse crisis (during the trip) indicate how deeply he understands the situation of our church and what happens here," the cardinal said. "He obviously feels a great sorrow over what has happened and that he is ashamed but, at the same time, wants to encourage us on the path to healing and reconciliation. I think it was important for the victims to feel as though they had access to the Holy Father," Cardinal O'Malley added. The meeting was arranged after the cardinal's original request that the pope include a stop in Boston during his trip was denied. Cardinal O'Malley then proposed a meeting with victims at another location and the Vatican approved.
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Cardinal seeks meeting with Giuliani about Communion at papal Mass
NEW YORK (CNS) -- New York Cardinal Edward M. Egan will request a meeting with Rudolph Giuliani, saying in a statement he deeply regretted that the former New York mayor received Communion during a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI at St. Patrick's Cathedral April 19. A statement issued by Cardinal Egan April 28 said that when he first came to the archdiocese and Giuliani was mayor the two of them "had an understanding ... that he was not to receive the Eucharist because of his well-known support of abortion." Giuliani has long opposed efforts to limit access to abortion and supported state funding of abortions for poor women in New York. He was widely described as a pro-choice candidate during his run for president that ended earlier this year. Cardinal Egan's statement said he would be "seeking a meeting with him to insist that he abide by our understanding." Giuliani was among guests invited to attend the Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral celebrated by Pope Benedict. The Mass was described as being for clergy, deacons and religious, although there were other invited guests including Giuliani and current Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is Jewish. Giuliani told reporters as he left the Mass that he had received Communion.
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Ancient rock touched by St. Francis donated to San Francisco shrine
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- Two Franciscan friars from Assisi, Italy, came to San Francisco in April bearing a rare gift for the city and the archdiocese: a small rock from the Porziuncola, the stone chapel built by St. Francis of Assisi and his early followers more than 800 years ago. Banded with a red ribbon and bearing the wax seal of the Franciscan community in the saint's native town, the angular chunk of pink granite arrived in a felt-lined leather case with the gold-embossed image of the Porziuncola, where the Franciscan order was born, gracing its lid. The chapel in Assisi is sometimes known by its Latin name, Portiuncula. The rock circulated among admiring guests at a welcoming party at San Francisco International Airport April 22 and later starred at an April 24 reception at the de Young Museum. The rock's final destination is a replica of the Porziuncola under construction at the National Shrine of St. Francis in North Beach. Possibly the first relic of the 13th-century saint to enter the United States, it will be installed on the altar of the sister Porziuncola.
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Political turnaround: Democrats are the ones talking about religion
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Rev. Jim Wallis finds it unexpected and refreshing that the majority of "God talk" in this presidential election season has been among and about Democratic candidates and that the dialogue takes a broad view of what's important to religiously motivated voters. "The surprise is that something we believed in and hoped would happen happened a lot faster than we thought," said Rev. Wallis, CEO of Sojourners and an ordained minister of the Sojourners Community, at an April 24 panel discussion on the role of religion in politics. For more than a decade, Rev. Wallis has been among religious leaders pushing to get politicians to see that issues such as poverty, world debt and global warming are important to millions of voters who believe faith calls them to consider more than just abortion or narrowly defined "family values" as election issues. He said he was pleasantly surprised to see that even among white Christian evangelicals -- a plum voting bloc for Republican candidates in the last few elections -- poverty and the Iraq War were polling as higher priorities than abortion and same-sex marriage.
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Web site chronicles Catholic high school days from long ago
NEW YORK (CNS) -- If you're a 1943 graduate of Immaculate Conception Academy in Davenport, Iowa, and you lost your class photo, you're in luck. Rita Piro has a copy. In March Piro launched catholicschooldays.com, a Web site documenting U.S. Catholic high schools from about 1900 to the present day. The bulk of the site is devoted to memorabilia from schools that have closed, like yearbooks, newspaper articles and vintage photographs. Piro came up with the idea in 2007 after writing a book on the history of her alma mater, the Mary Louis Academy in Jamaica Estates, N.Y., where she chairs the foreign languages department. "What has struck me the most is that people have all had the same reaction: Their experience has been so different from what is portrayed," she said. "Catholic school was such an important thing, and they'll say, 'If it weren't for them I wouldn't be the person I am,' rather than, 'I remember this one, she used to hit me.' That's what you hear from the stereotypes," said Piro. She said she has listed every Catholic high school that existed in 1965, and about 90 percent of those before 1965.
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WORLD
Pope urges efforts to end renewed violence in African trouble spots
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI urged local and international efforts to quell renewed violence in African trouble spots. Addressing pilgrims at his Sunday blessing at the Vatican April 27, the pope cited worsening situations in Somalia, Sudan and Burundi and asked prayers for the innocent people involved. "The news arriving from some African countries continues to give reason for deep suffering and intense concern. I ask you not to forget these tragic circumstances and the brothers and sisters who are affected," the pope said. He pointed to a recent escalation of violence in Somalia, especially in the capital of Mogadishu, where rebels have launched attacks on government forces. The new fighting "has made the humanitarian situation increasingly dramatic for that beloved population, which has been oppressed for too many years under the burden of brutality and misery," the pope said. He said western Sudan's Darfur region, despite occasional hopes for peace, "remains a tragedy without end for hundreds of thousands of defenseless and abandoned people."
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Vatican official calls liturgical renewal 'irreversible path'
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Liturgical renewal launched by the Second Vatican Council is an "irreversible path" and has not been affected by Pope Benedict XVI's concession on wider use of the Tridentine rite, a Vatican official said. "The pope's decision has so far not produced any change in the celebrative practice of our ecclesial communities. His gesture was only one of service to unity," Archbishop Piero Marini, who arranged papal liturgies for more than 20 years, said in an interview April 25 in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. "Therefore let's look ahead and let's continue with enthusiasm the path undertaken by the council," he said. Late last year Archbishop Marini was named to head the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses. The archbishop remains involved in international liturgical issues, and he said a revision of the committee's statutes is giving it wider authority over eucharistic congresses at the national and regional level, too.
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Vatican dismisses French newspaper report that pope is in poor health
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican has dismissed a French newspaper report suggesting that Pope Benedict XVI is suffering from poor health. "Certainly the pope is a man of 81 years, but he is well and is carrying out all his tasks, as everyone can see on live TV," Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said April 26. Father Lombardi said the newspaper report was all the more surprising because it came immediately after the pope's successful six-day trip to the United States. "This was a demanding visit, long and tiring, in which he carried out all his commitments brilliantly without giving the slightest indication of uncertainty and without having to modify or reduce his program at all," Father Lombardi said. An article published April 25 in Le Figaro said the pope looked fatigued at times during his U.S. visit. It's no secret, the newspaper said, that the pope has a "fragile heart."
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Assisi, home of St. Francis, institutes ban on begging
ASSISI, Italy (CNS) -- Assisi -- the birthplace of St. Francis, saint of the poor -- has instituted a ban on begging. The mayor of Assisi, Claudio Ricci, signed an ordinance in mid-April that prohibits begging within 500 meters (550 yards) of any church, square or public building -- a decree that effectively makes the entire hill town off-limits to beggars. Ricci said he instituted the ban after numerous complaints from pilgrims, tourists and citizens about aggressive and insistent forms of begging outside the city's medieval churches. "The phenomenon was reaching proportions that went far beyond the poor beggar who occasionally asks for charity. This has become an organized and profitable activity," Ricci said. The measure drew criticism from leftist political leaders in Italy, who said the ban was simply the latest form of social intolerance. At the Vatican, Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, also expressed his concern. "Asking for charity is not a crime, and I don't see why it should be prohibited by law," Cardinal Martino told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
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75 percent of Americans surveyed read Bible passage in last year
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a survey conducted in nine countries in anticipation of the October world Synod of Bishops on the Bible, 75 percent of U.S. residents interviewed said they read a Bible passage in the previous 12 months. In Western and Eastern Europe, the percentage of Bible readers ranged from a low of 20 percent in Spain to a high of 38 percent in Poland. The study, commissioned by the Catholic Biblical Federation, began with 13,000 interviews in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Russia, Spain and Italy in November 2007. The president of the federation, Italian Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni, Narni and Amelia, presented the initial results of the survey April 28 during a Vatican press conference and said a second stage of the survey was being conducted in Argentina, South Africa, the Philippines and Australia. The majority of people in the first nine countries -- including 90 percent of Polish respondents -- said the Bible is an important source of truth, but more than 50 percent of those interviewed in each country said the Bible was difficult to understand.
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Homeless end occupation of historic basilica in Naples after 22 days
NAPLES, Italy (CNS) -- A group of 348 homeless people, including 115 children, occupied a historic basilica in Naples for 22 days, demanding that government officials find them permanent public housing. Masses at the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, popularly known as "the Carmine," were suspended after the basilica was occupied April 4 by more than 150 people who had been forcibly removed from a building they had been occupying illegally for several years. Homeless people from other cities joined those inside the basilica and the entire group said it would not leave until public housing was found for everyone. Police ordered the homeless to leave the basilica April 26 and, while several shouted insults at the Carmelite priests whose order has staffed the parish since the 13th century, everyone went peacefully. Buses waited outside to take the homeless to temporary shelter in an unused post office on the outskirts of Naples.
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Pope ordains new priests, tells them to spread Gospel joy
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI ordained 29 new priests, including an Iraqi, and told them their mission was to spread Gospel joy. "To be collaborators in the joy of others in a world that often is sad and negative, the fire of the Gospel must burn within you, the joy of the Lord must dwell within you," the pope said April 27 at the ordination Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. Twenty-eight of the new priests were ordained for the Diocese of Rome; the group consisted of 22 Italians and men from France, Haiti, Paraguay, Colombia, Chile and India. The 29th ordinand was Father Jarjis Robert Sayd, 34, a Baghdad native who will serve the church in Iraq. Reciting the "Regina Coeli" prayer after Mass with visitors in St. Peter's Square, the pope said that where Christ is preached with the strength of the Holy Spirit and welcomed with open hearts "society, even if it is full of many problems, becomes a 'city of joy.'"
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PEOPLE
Florida woman honors forgotten mothers in nursing homes with roses
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (CNS) -- Maria Meneses has a vision, but in order to see it through, she needs help. The vision: to deliver a rose to all female patients in nursing homes on Mother's Day. Her inspiration came from a desire to pay tribute to her late mother, Eneyda Meneses, who cared for a sick aunt in a nursing home for many years. "I don't have a mom. How else can I celebrate?" said Meneses, a parishioner of St. Patrick's on Miami Beach who made an Emmaus retreat eight years ago. One of the central themes of Emmaus is service to others, and Meneses said that after she made her retreat she yearned to give something back to Jesus as a small token of thanks. Like her favorite saint, St. Therese, the Little Flower of Lisieux, "We change the world a little bit at a time," Meneses said. "A little flower makes a big difference because it touches somebody's life." Meneses has been delivering flowers to a nursing home near her home for the past three years. She hopes to inspire others to join the bandwagon, especially people like herself who have made an Emmaus retreat.
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Baltimore pastor details evolution of multicultural ministry
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- At least 42 different nations are represented in the congregation at St. Matthew in Baltimore. The parish's multicultural ministry evolution began with the 1990 appointment of Father Joseph L. Muth Jr. as pastor of St. Matthew. Soon after his appointment, Father Muth noticed a small group of Africans from various nations in the congregation, but he quickly discovered they did not take part in the parish's social functions. After making inquiries, the Baltimore-born priest learned the newly arrived Africans didn't understand that a picnic or bull roast equaled a social gathering. Nor did they understand they were invited. "It dawned on me that there was a communication problem because we didn't fully understand one another's cultures," Father Muth said. "We had to figure out how to explain these things so that everyone understood. It was the only way we were going to be able to make them feel welcomed in our community."
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Iranian president praises Vatican's justice efforts, says newspaper
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised the Vatican's efforts to remedy injustices around the world, according to the April 29 edition of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. Because Catholics and Muslims together total nearly one-third of the world's population, both faiths should feel responsible for the future of humanity, he said. Ahmadinejad said the Iranian government appreciated the commitment of Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican against injustices such as war, poverty and the trampling of human rights. The Iranian leader's remarks came during an April 6 ceremony in the presidential palace in Tehran in which Archbishop Jean-Paul Gobel presented his letters of credential as apostolic nuncio to Iran. Archbishop Gobel relayed Pope Benedict's greetings to the president and all the people of Iran.
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John Carroll's unique gifts made U.S. church succeed, archbishop says
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Without Archbishop John Carroll's organizational genius, U.S. Catholics might have remained a tiny minority in the new country or been subject to a foreign-born superior for years, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan said in the first of a series of lectures honoring the first U.S. bishop. "Had he not stepped into the wasteland, either the microscopic Catholic Church would have languished, with members leaving, clergy adrift, souls lost to the faith and the church never quite 'making it' in the new country, or Rome would have appointed a foreign superior ... thus making the Catholic Church seem even more an outsider than ever," the archbishop said April 22 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. Among the greatest challenges Archbishop Carroll faced was that of remaining canonically loyal to Rome while balancing "the unique traits of American constitutionalism that codified religious freedom and the separation of church and state," said Archbishop Dolan.
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops