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Aid
in Afghanistan
U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Miguel Reyes from Delta Company, part of Task Force
1-66, holds a sick Afghan girl before an Army medic conducts a medical
check during a patrol in the village of Gul Kalacheh in Afghanistan’s
Kandahar province Sept. 19. Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala,
president of Pax Christi USA, has called for the end of the U.S.-led
war in Afghanistan.
CNS PHOTO/OLEG POPOV/REUTERS |
Stopping murder of
priests in Mexico
Father Wilfrido Mayren Pelaez, director of the
peace and reconciliation ministry in the Mexican Archdiocese of Antequera-Oaxaca,
is hoping that a change of government in Oaxaca will allow for a thorough
investigation into attacks against priests. He said at least three
priests have either been murdered or viciously attacked this year.
CNS PHOTO/DAVID AGREN |
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More oppose federally funded
stem-cell research
WASHINGTON (CNS) — A new public opinion poll released Sept. 16 shows
that 47 percent of Americans oppose federal funding of embryonic stem-cell
research, while 38 percent support such funding. The poll, conducted by
International Communications Research in Media, Pa., was commissioned
by the U.S. bishops’ pro-life secretariat.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they favor funding only the research
avenues that do not harm the donor, while only 21 percent favored funding
all stem-cell research, including research that involves killing embryos.
Catholic Worker groups part of faulty FBI probe
WASHINGTON (CNS) — A handful of Catholic Worker groups across the
country were among the anti-war activists, environmentalists and animal-rights
groups wrongly investigated by the FBI, according to a lengthy report
released Sept. 20 by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector
General.
According to Inspector General Glenn Fine, there was “little or
no basis” for the investigations. The groups included the anti-war
Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers),
the Catholic Worker, Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
and an individual Quaker peace activist.
Guide for Anglicans who join U.S. Catholic Church
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith has named Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington to guide
the incorporation of Anglican groups into the Catholic Church in the United
States. In this position, he will assist the Vatican congregation in implementing
the apostolic constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus” (“Groups
of Anglicans”), which provides for creating personal ordinariates
for Anglicans who want to enter into full communion with the Catholic
Church.
A personal ordinariate is a canonical structure similar to a diocese that
covers the area of a bishops’ conference. It allows Anglicans to
join the Church while retaining their distinctive patrimony and liturgical
practices. The constitution was issued by Pope Benedict XVI last November.
No ordinariates have been established anywhere yet, according to Vatican
officials.
ND names coordinator for life initiatives
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (CNS) — Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, president
of the University of Notre Dame, has named Mary K. Daly to the newly created
position of coordinator for university life initiatives. Daly, a 2010
Notre Dame graduate, was president of Notre Dame Right to Life as a student.
Father Jenkins created the post in response to a recommendation from the
Task Force on Supporting the Choice for Life, which said structures must
be created to implement previous recommendations and continue the work
of the group.
The group called for undergraduate “witness to life” research
opportunities in various academic disciplines; adoption of a policy statement
on the university’s “support for Catholic teaching on the
sanctity of human life from conception to natural death”; and guidelines
on how to “avoid formal or immediate material complicity in evils
such as abortion and torture” in charitable gifts and investments.
Schools told not to raise funds through gambling
EDMONTON, Alberta (CNS) — Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton has
banned “harmful gambling activities” by Catholic schools to
raise funds, but he admitted it is likely to be years for the new policy
to take effect. The archbishop planned to meet with school officials to
set a date to implement the ban, which is among a large number of archdiocesan
policies developed in an overall policy review.
Archbishop Smith said he recognizes that schools have become reliant on
gambling revenue and “will need some time to transition away from
this.” The new policy bans parishes, Catholic institutions and Catholic
organizations from fundraising through “harmful gambling activities”
including casino gaming, video lottery terminals and high-stakes bingo.
Group: 2008 book errs in views on moral issues
WASHINGTON (CNS) — In their 2008 book, “The Sexual Person,”
theologians Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler “reach a whole
range of conclusions that are contrary to Catholic teaching,” the
U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine said in a 24-page critique.
The document said the theologians’ methodology “marks a radical
departure from Catholic theological tradition” and their conclusions
“cannot provide a true norm for moral action and in fact are harmful
to one’s moral and spiritual life.” The committee specifically
cited errors in the book’s conclusions that homosexual acts, premarital
sex, contraception and artificial insemination can be morally acceptable,
in contrast to Church teachings.
Salzman chairs the theology department at Creighton University in Omaha,
Neb., and Lawler, who retired in 2005, is a professor emeritus there.
The doctrine committee, chaired by Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington,
said the critique was prompted by “the pastoral danger that readers
of the book could be confused or misled, especially since the book proposes
ways of living a Christian life that do not accord with the teaching of
the Church and the Christian tradition.”
HHS urged not to mandate contraception coverage
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Two officials of the U.S. bishops’ Office
of General Counsel have told the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
that it should not mandate that group and individual health plans include
coverage of contraception or sterilization as part of what the federal
agency considers preventive care for women.
“These drugs, devices and procedures prevent not a disease condition,
but the healthy condition known as fertility,” said Anthony Picarello
and Michael Moses, who are general counsel and associate general counsel,
respectively, at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They said contraception
and sterilization “pose significant risks of their own to women’s
life and health; and a federal program to mandate their inclusion would
pose an unprecedented threat to rights of conscience.”
Bishop criticizes policy on illegal migrants
PERTH, Australia (CNS) — The chairman of the Australian bishops’
social justice council criticized as cowardly the government’s policy
of locking up people who arrive illegally via people smugglers. Bishop
Christopher Saunders of Broome said politicians on both major parties
are playing on people’s fears by spreading the lie that Australia
is being “flooded” with illegal immigrants.
“It’s the old question of ‘what would Christ have done,’”
Bishop Saunders said Sept. 17, three days after the 95th illegal boat
was intercepted and arrived at Christmas Island. The number of people
in detention there awaiting processing reached 4,900.
“To think that just because they came through (in) some dangerous
manner — God only knows how many hundreds have drowned on the way
— instead of arriving in a Qantas jet, that we have to lock them
up, is an inappropriate response to people in need,” the bishop
said.
Group for Irish priests draws more members
DUBLIN (CNS) — The inaugural meeting of a new association to represent
the views of Irish priests drew six times more participants than organizers
expected. More than 300 priests attended the first meeting of the Association
of Catholic Priests in Port Laoise
Father Brendan Hoban, an association founder, said the group “hopes
to speak to the members of the Vatican’s apostolic visitation to
Ireland to voice our opposition to the new English-language translation
of the Mass. We believe the new translation . . . is
over-complicated and over-Latinized. There has been very little consultation
about it, but nobody seems to want it — it’s another example
of the Church trying to fix things that don’t need to be fixed and
not fixing the things that need fixing.”
The association said it would work for “full implementation of the
vision and teaching of the Second Vatican Council,” particularly
the primacy of individual conscience, the status and active participation
of all baptized people and establishing a Church where all believers will
be treated as equal; restructuring the Church’s governing system
to encourage consultation and transparency, particularly in the appointment
of Church leaders.
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