Prayers
of remembrance
Delegates representing various religions visit Auschwitz-Birkenau
in Poland to pray for peace, Sept. 8. Up to 1.5 million people, mostly
Jews, died in the former Nazi death camp during World War II. At far
right is Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Pope John Paul II’s
former personal secretary and the current archbishop of Krakow.
CNS PHOTO/GRZEGORZ KOZAKIEWICZ/REUTERS |
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Pro-life leaders deplore murder
of Mich. activist
OWOSSO, Mich. (CNS) — Pro-life leaders condemned the Sept. 11 murder
of a Michigan man who was protesting against abortion outside a public
high school in Owosso, 10 miles west of Flint. The suspect, arrested by
police, said he targeted the man for his activism.
The dead man, James Pouillon, 63, a General Motors retiree, was shot about
7 a.m. while protesting outside Owosso High School in the city as students
were gathering for classes. A 33-year-old Owosso Township long-haul truck
driver, Harlan James “Hal” Drake, was arrested later that
morning. Police said Drake, once in custody, confessed to having killed
a second man. The body of James Fuoss, 61, was found on the property of
the gravel business he owned an hour after the Pouillon murder.
Prosecutors in Shiawassee County said Drake had singled out Pouillon because
of the visible style of his regular protests outside the school. It was
not immediately disclosed why Drake killed Fuoss.
Web site launched for peace in Africa
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Catholic Task Force on Africa has launched
a new Web site, www.yesafricamatters.org,
to spread the word on conditions in Africa prior to the Oct. 4-25 Synod
of Bishops for Africa at the Vatican.
The new Web site provides background on the connections between the Catholic
Church in the United States and Africa. It lists many of the partnerships
and twinning relationships as well as the missionary communities from
the United States in Africa. The site also contains a section specifically
on the synod with resources and links to universities and other advocacy
groups that can help readers better understand Africa’s current
challenges.
Beijing seminary to train pastoral workers
BEIJING (CNS) — The national Catholic seminary in Beijing will offer
a master’s degree to train mainland Chinese pastoral workers and
catechists. The seminary is now receiving applications to its first three-year
pastoral and catechetical master’s program that will start Oct.
5. The Ferdinand Verbiest Institute of the Catholic University of Leuven
in Belgium is helping to organize the program.
Swiss bishops oppose ban on minarets
FRIBOURG, Switzerland (CNS) — The Swiss Catholic bishops’
conference said it opposed a proposal to ban the construction of minarets
in Switzerland. They said the ban would hinder interreligious dialogue
and that Swiss building codes already regulate the construction and operation
of minarets, the high, slender towers attached to mosques.
The ban was proposed by the Swiss People’s Party, the largest party
in the Swiss parliament. Supporters of the initiative see minarets as
political symbols and signs of an increasing Islamic presence in Switzerland.
The proposal will be put to a nationwide referendum Nov. 29.
Pope to rekindle faith-art dialogue
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has invited hundreds of artists
to meet with him in the Vatican in an attempt to rekindle the special
historical relationship between faith and art. More than 500 personalities
from the worlds of art, theater, literature and music have been asked
to gather with the pope under the legendary Michelangelo frescoes in the
Sistine Chapel Nov. 21.
Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for
Culture, said the meeting was to be the first of many initiatives aimed
at bridging the gap that has developed between spirituality and artistic
expression over the last century or so. He said the Church hoped that
dialogue could help artists regain the “transcendence” that
once inspired the 16th-century painter and sculptor Michelangelo, his
contemporaries and countless other artists of religious works over the
centuries.
Detroit Archdiocese: layoffs, restructuring
DETROIT (CNS) — A major financial restructuring plan for the Archdiocese
of Detroit, which is losing approximately $42,000 per day, calls for a
29 percent decrease in the number of employees, the sale of buildings,
moving administrative support offices to a more cost-efficient property
in the city, and the elimination of the subsidy for The Michigan Catholic,
the archdiocesan newspaper.
The six-county archdiocese will be reorganized into four regions for the
delivery of programs, services and ministries to its 1.4 million Catholics
under the restructuring plan announced by Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron.
The archbishop said he had accepted the restructuring recommendations
from two separate committees, comprised of laypeople and clergy, following
a six-month study on the financial viability of the archdiocese.
Nun who backs ordination of women cannot teach
CINCINNATI (CNS) — A decision deemed to be a personnel matter in
the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has garnered international attention for
Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk and the woman religious he has determined
can no longer teach religious education on behalf of the archdiocese.
Sister Louise Akers, a 66-year-old Sister of Charity, met with the archbishop
in early August at her request to discuss why the archdiocesan Office
of Catechesis and Evangelization had removed her from its list of approved
teachers and speakers for archdiocesan programs and events.
The archbishop said she needed to publicly dissociate herself from the
Women’s Ordination Conference and rescind her support of women’s
ordination in order to receive permission to teach and lecture in the
name of the local Church.
In 1994 Pope John Paul II issued a document saying that, because Jesus
chose only men as his apostles, the Church is not authorized to ordain
women. He also said the position was a definitive, ordinary Church teaching
that must be firmly held by Catholics and is not subject to change.
Legionaries detail Order’s reforms
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Legionaries of Christ have initiated a number
of reforms since publicly acknowledging Feb. 4 that the order’s
founder, Mexican Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, fathered a child. The
reforms include the training of Legionaries on best practices when dealing
with minors to protect children from sex abuse; reconfiguring business
and management practices; and altering the depiction of Father Maciel
in the order’s communications, including Web sites and publications.
In February, Legionaries’ officials said they had only recently
learned their late founder had fathered a child. In the past, Father Maciel
had been accused of sexually abusing young seminarians in the order. Father
Maciel died Jan. 30, 2008, at the age of 87. In May 2006 the Vatican decided
after its own investigation against conducting a canonical trial, but
rather ordered the then-frail Father Maciel to withdraw to a life of prayer
and penance.
Church officials: drug cartels recruit youth
MEXICO CITY (CNS) — The executions of 18 young men during a prayer
service at a Mexican drug rehabilitation center Sept. 2 failed to surprise
many Church and public safety officials, who say Mexico’s drug cartels
increasingly are luring vulnerable youths into lives of addiction and
crime.
“Every day there are more young people” involved in the drug
trade, said Father Jose Jesus Mata Trejo, spokesman for the Archdiocese
of Chihuahua, to the south of Ciudad Juarez, where the executions occurred.
He said the cartels target vulnerable young people with few economic opportunities,
“pay them in cash and drugs,” and are developing domestic
markets for drugs due to difficulties in smuggling illegal merchandise
across the Mexican-U.S. border.
Investigators say gunmen interrupted the evening prayer at El Aliviane
rehabilitation center Sept. 2, lined up the participants and opened fire
with assault rifles. No motive has been given for the attack, but it occurred
in a Ciudad Juarez neighborhood located mere blocks from a busy bridge
that links the border city with El Paso, Texas.
Priest-governor won’t run for president of Philippines
MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — Father Eddie Panlilio, who has served
as governor of the Philippines’ Pampanga province since 2007, said
he will not run for president in 2010 and will instead throw his support
behind Sen. Benigno Aquino III. In July Father Panlilio had announced
he was ready to seek a dispensation from his priestly duties to run for
president. He has not exercised his ministry since 2007.
Asked about his next move, Father Panlilio said he might resume his ministry
or run for a second term as governor of Pampanga. He also said he is considering
running for other government posts.
Massachusetts diocese to close nineteen parishes
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) — The Springfield Diocese announced parish
reconfigurations and 19 parish closings during Aug. 29-30 weekend Masses.
Springfield Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell met with the pastor of each parish
that will be affected and wrote a letter for each parish to be read at
the Masses.
The diocese said the closures are needed because of a change in demographics,
a decline in the number of clergy, and financial pressures.
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