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NEWS BRIEFS Nov-16-2009

By Catholic News Service

U.S.

Cardinal discusses role of priests, need for unity within church

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Considering what the church would be like without the sacrament of holy orders, Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called on his fellow bishops to reflect on their relationships with their priests and help them grow in holiness and unite with them around Jesus. In his Nov. 16 speech opening the bishops' fall general assembly in Baltimore, Cardinal George also addressed ways of strengthening church unity, particularly with regard to Catholic universities, "to media claiming the right to be a voice for the church" and to organizations that do various work under Catholic auspices. He also spoke about the challenges of the church being "a leaven for the world's transformation," such as in the ongoing national debate about health care reform. In his traditional presidential address, the cardinal framed his thoughts on the role of priestly ministry as a part of the Year for Priests proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI in June. The cardinal talked about the bishops' role as "leaven for the world's transformation." He said the challenge to govern effectively as bishops "is to be public without being co-opted and to be who we are without being isolated."

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Bishops remember Salvadoran Jesuits on anniversary of 1989 murders

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops added their collective voice to those of others in honoring the memory of the six Salvadoran Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, all of whom were assassinated 20 years ago by a Salvadoran death squad. Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., chairman of the bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, said in a statement issued Nov. 16 -- the anniversary date of the murders -- that the bishops joined many others in "commemorating the lives and work of the six Jesuits and their collaborators." Jesuit Fathers Ignacio Ellacuria, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Segundo Montes, Amando Lopez, Juan Ramon Moreno and Joaquin Lopez y Lopez were slain by an elite U.S.-trained Salvadoran army brigade on the campus of Jesuit-run Central American University in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital, along with Julie Elba Ramos, 42, and her 16-year-old daughter Celina Mariset.

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Sex trafficking survivor turns her 'hell' into help for other victims

DAYTON, Ohio (CNS) -- The more than 300 people in a University of Dayton auditorium were stone silent, some wearing anguished expressions, as Theresa Flores shared her story of becoming a sex slave at age 15. Now a University of Dayton graduate and licensed social worker, Flores was among the panelists at a public forum during the Dayton Human Trafficking Accords international conference Nov. 9-10 at the university. Flores told how for two years she was drugged, raped and tortured in Detroit by a group of boys and men who manipulated her through threats and blackmail. She was forced to sneak out of her upscale suburban home at night or was picked up after school for sex. One time she was essentially put on display for a group of men and "auctioned off," not knowing if she would live or die. She is now the director of development for Gracehaven, a safe home in Dublin, Ohio, for girls under age 18 who have been victims of commercial sexual exploitation. "I decided to turn my hell into my heaven," she said. "I have dedicated my life to this cause. I don't want it to happen to anyone else."

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Priests told ministry to married, engaged couples crucial to church

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNS) -- Priests from across Ohio were told at a statewide convocation that their work with married and engaged couples is crucial in creating a "marriage-building church" in an era when the secular culture seems to place a low priority on the stability of marriage and family life. The state's bishops decided earlier this year to call priests together so they could talk about the U.S. bishops' proposed pastoral letter on marriage offering support to married couples and affirming that true marriage can only involve a man and a woman. "A pastoral letter like this is a fairly rare event, and the state's bishops felt it was important enough that it merited this kind of gathering in which all our priests could hear the same information at the same time and be better able to spread it to their parishes," said Bishop R. Daniel Conlon of Steubenville, convocation chairman, who helped draft the letter. The Nov. 5-6 convocation attracted 670 of the more than 1,000 who serve in Ohio as diocesan clergy, members of religious orders and priests of Eastern Catholic churches.

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WORLD

Respect for life means seeing it as God's gift, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Recognizing that each human life belongs to God is the only way to promote respect for every person, Pope Benedict XVI said in a speech to bishops from Brazil. Too often today, people see life as "a merely human product" rather than as "a gift of God welcomed in the loving intimacy of the marriage between a man and a woman," the pope said Nov. 14 to the bishops from the State of Sao Paulo making their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican to report on the status of their dioceses. Pope Benedict urged the bishops to undertake a "constant and methodical evangelization" of their people focused on educating their consciences not only to help them live their faith more deeply, but also to empower them to be a positive force for promoting respect for human life and human dignity in society. The pope asked the Brazilian bishops to speak to the hearts of their people, "reawaken their consciences" and rally them to act together "against the growing wave of violence and disrespect for the human person."

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Cardinal Kasper says provision for Anglicans is not anti-ecumenical

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The establishment of special structures for Anglicans who want to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church absolutely is not a signal of the end of ecumenical dialogue with the Anglican Communion, said the Vatican's chief ecumenist. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the visit Nov. 19-22 of Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, primate of the Anglican Communion, to the Vatican "demonstrates that there has been no rupture and reaffirms our common desire to talk to one another at a historically important moment." Archbishop Williams was scheduled to speak at a conference sponsored by Cardinal Kasper's office and to meet privately Nov. 21 with Pope Benedict. In an interview published in the Nov. 15 edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Cardinal Kasper said that the papal provision is not anti-ecumenical. "To think, as some commentators have said, that the pope made this decision just to 'expand his empire' is ridiculous," the cardinal said. "Let's stick to the facts. A group of Anglicans freely and legitimately asked to enter the Catholic Church. It was not our initiative."

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Luxury, waste are unacceptable when hunger is on the rise, says pope

ROME (CNS) -- Opulence and waste are unacceptable especially when hunger -- the cruelest form of poverty -- continues to rise, Pope Benedict XVI told world leaders at a summit on food security. The pope condemned the greed that fuels speculation on food prices, aid that debilitates agricultural production, and excessive exploitation of the earth's resources. Pope Benedict spoke Nov. 16 during the opening session of the United Nations' World Summit on Food Security. The three-day conference in Rome brought together leaders and delegates from countries around the world to find concrete solutions to end the scourge of hunger and malnutrition and find ways to stabilize food prices. The pope said the growing number of hungry people in the world is not directly linked to an increase in world population. There is enough food to feed the world, he said, adding that food shortages are caused by the rising price of foodstuffs, "the reduction in economic resources available to the poorest peoples and their limited access to markets and to food."

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World will end, but God's word will not, pope says during Angelus

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The world is finite and will someday end, but the word of God is eternal and will never die, Pope Benedict XVI said during his Sunday Angelus address Nov. 15. Everything created is "destined to pass away," but the words of Jesus "come from God and, therefore, are eternal," the pope said. Jesus' word is like a "seed of eternity" and those who accept his word will bear fruit and become part of the kingdom of God -- being in the world, but no longer of the world, he said. The transforming power of Christ's word "already now is manifested in a good life, animated by charity that in the end will produce the resurrection of the flesh," said the pope. After praying the Angelus, the pope recalled that Italians celebrated Thanksgiving Nov. 15. He expressed his spiritual closeness to all those who take time to recognize that the fruits of the earth and human labor are gifts from God. He also reminded everyone that it was necessary to respect the environment, which is "a precious resource" entrusted to humanity to safeguard.

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Church in China is showing signs of hope, cardinal tells priests

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While there are signs of hope for Catholics in China, today is still "more a time of sowing than of reaping," said the Vatican secretary of state in a letter to priests in China. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said efforts for reconciliation within the Catholic community and for "a respectful and constructive dialogue" with government authorities in China have led to signs of hope despite the "persisting difficulties." However, even two years after the publication of Pope Benedict XVI's letter to the Church in China, "it does not seem that the time has come to make definitive evaluations," wrote the cardinal in the Nov. 10 correspondence marking the Year for Priests. The cardinal touched on the many duties and challenges facing priests and how pastors in China could better minister to their people and continue efforts for reconciliation with Catholic clergy who are recognized by the government but have not requested recognition from the pope.

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Catholic leaders welcome government apology to 'Forgotten Australians'

PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- Australian Catholic bishops and religious leaders welcomed a government apology to the "Forgotten Australians" for the ordeals they suffered in state institutional care. During an emotional apology to the victims in the Great Hall of Parliament in Canberra Nov. 16, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd vowed such abuse would never happen again. Between 7,000 and 10,000 child migrants were separated from their families and shipped to Australia from the United Kingdom and Malta from the 1930s to the 1970s. Promised a better life, they were instead raised in institutions and orphanages, where many were subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse. Australian Catholic leaders prayed that the prime minister's apology would "play an important role in healing many of the wounds which were laid bare with great courage before the Senate Inquiry Into Children in Institutional Care," said a Nov. 16 statement signed by Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference. The Catholic leaders also renewed their 1996 apology to the people who suffered abuse at the hands of church personnel.

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Cardinal says Catholics called to bring hope to Middle East Christians

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians around the world are called to help their brothers and sisters in the Middle East who lack almost everything, including hope, said U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley, grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. "It is sad to say that the land where our blessed Lord suffered itself still suffers and our beloved fellow Christians continue to suffer from lack of mobility, lack of opportunity, and -- it might almost be said -- from lack of hope," the cardinal said Nov. 13. Opening the meeting of the Grand Magisterium, the knights' governing council, Cardinal Foley spoke about the extensive work the order's nearly 25,000 knights carry out on behalf of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which covers Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus. The knights fund seminaries, schools, hospitals and social centers throughout the patriarchate. Cardinal Foley told the knights' leadership that two events in 2010 would help bring the situation of Christians in the Holy Land to the world's attention: Pope Benedict XVI's scheduled visit to Cyprus in June and a special Synod of Bishops on the Middle East, which is scheduled to take place at the Vatican in October.

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PEOPLE

Pope names archbishop for Milwaukee, bishop for Fort Wayne-South Bend

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop Jerome E. Listecki of La Crosse, Wis., to be the archbishop of Milwaukee and Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Harrisburg, Pa., to be the bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind. He also accepted the resignation of Bishop John M. D'Arcy, who has headed the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend since 1985. He is 77 years old, two years past the age at which canon law requires bishops to turn in their resignation. The appointments and resignation were announced in Washington Nov. 14 by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States. In Milwaukee Archbishop Listecki, 60, succeeds Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, who was appointed to head the New York Archdiocese in February. Bishop Rhoades, who will turn 52 Nov. 26, succeeds Bishop D'Arcy, who earlier this year was at the forefront of strong criticism of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend for inviting President Barack Obama to give the commencement address and its decision to give him an honorary degree.

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Filmmaker sees immigration angle to traditional 'posada' celebration

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A prize-winning documentary about the plight of juvenile immigrants has been distributed to 7,200 Catholic organizations nationwide. "Posada," connects the difficult journeys of immigrants with the Advent tradition of Las Posadas, a 400-year-old custom from colonial Mexico taking place the nine days before Christmas, re-enacting the quest of Joseph and Mary to find shelter in Bethlehem. Jesuit Father Mark McGregor, who produced and directed the 60-minute film and is director of the Posadas Project out of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., said he wanted to link the ritual rejection of Joseph and Mary in the neighborhood posada to government policies against immigrants, who are turned away, if not sent back across the border. Father McGregor's film looks at minors who say they had little choice but to try for a better life in the United States than in Mexico or Central America. Distribution was made possible by grants from the U.S. bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign and Our Sunday Visitor.

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Vatican offers condolences to Serbians mourning patriarch's death

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The burden of leading the Serbian Orthodox Church in its post-communist reconstruction and during years of war and tension did not dampen the "humble and joyful" leadership of Patriarch Pavle, said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The patriarch, elected head of the Orthodox Church of Serbia in 1990, died Nov. 15 at the age of 95. He had suffered from serious heart and lung problems for the last two years. In a letter to the Serbian Orthodox bishops, Cardinal Kasper called the patriarch a "great example of faith and of consecration to God" and said he "fulfilled his service in very difficult years marked by wars and conflicts in Serbia and in other Balkan countries where the faithful of the Serbian Orthodox Church live."

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