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Catholic News Service, updated the weekday evening of 8/29/2008 |
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Obama invokes American spirit, echoes 'Faithful Citizenship' themes
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Appealing to America's spirit of decency and Americans' respect for each other, Sen. Barack Obama has set the tone for the final two months of his historic presidential bid by urging the country to embrace personal responsibility and the fundamental belief that everyone is "my brother's keeper ... my sister's keeper." In accepting the Democratic nomination for president on the final night of his party's convention in Denver Aug. 28, the junior senator from Illinois introduced his blueprint which offered what he called a way into the future. The 42-minute speech to 85,000 people at Invesco Field and an international television audience echoed several themes from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' 2007 "Faithful Citizenship" document, which calls for individual voters to form their conscience around a variety of social concerns based on Catholic social teaching. Missing from Obama's discourse, however, was an extensive discussion of life issues, which the bishops have made a primary focus in their document that is being distributed during the 2008 election cycle. His comments on the issue were limited to two lines near the end of his speech. Obama said that, while people may disagree on whether abortion should remain legal or not, "surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country."
Catholic colleges top regional listing in magazine's annual ranking
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the 2009 list of the nation's best colleges, according to U.S. News & World Report's ranking, Catholic colleges and universities fared as they usually do -- at the top of regional lists for the North and Midwest but with only a few Catholic colleges in the overall national rankings. And while many colleges promote their placement in the annual list, some college leaders are rejecting it. Three Catholic colleges that typically make the top 50 list of national colleges did so once again. The University of Notre Dame in Indiana placed 18th; Georgetown University in Washington was 23rd and Boston College ranked 34th. Last year Notre Dame was 19th, Georgetown was again 23rd and Boston ranked 35th. Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., took first place this year as the best national university, ousting Princeton University in New Jersey from that spot for the first time in nine years. Princeton placed second and Yale University in New Haven, Conn., came in third. Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., topped the list of national liberal arts schools.
CUA opens academic year with new expressions of Catholic identity
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Tom Givliani eagerly participated in the academic year opening Mass at The Catholic University of America in Washington Aug. 28, not because it's the start of his senior year, but for how it unifies his faith and intellectual development. So, when Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl spoke about the university's significant role teaching church doctrine and its obligation to be in full communion with the Catholic Church, the 21-year-old engineering major from Coconut Creek, Fla., said the message was clear that he had a duty to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. It marked the first opening Mass at the 221-year-old pontifical university since Pope Benedict XVI met with U.S. Catholic educators on the campus last April and stressed that it was their responsibility to bring a Catholic identity to their schools. Catholic University officials have embraced the pope's message with a new outward show of Catholic distinctiveness.
Democratic Party courts Catholics, other faith-based voters
DENVER (CNS) -- The Democratic Party has made a concerted effort to court faith-based voters and party officials are happy to see religion come out of the closet at the Democratic National Convention. "We in the Democratic Party don't believe that you have to change your values to cater to people of faith," said Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, at the faith caucus Aug. 28. "We have been people of faith for a long time, but we haven't known how to talk about it." The 2008 Democratic National Convention featured the party's first interfaith gathering Aug. 24 and its inaugural faith caucuses Aug. 26 and 28. Faith-based Catholic Democratic organizations were spread throughout convention activities during the week. "We didn't move to bring faith to the party," Leah Daughtry, CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee, told attendees at the interfaith gathering. "Faith has always been here."
WORLD
Solar panels on Vatican hall first of several projects, says engineer
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican will begin installing some 2,400 solar panels in late September, the first of several projects aimed at exploiting renewable energy resources in the tiny city-state. The solar modules, which are being donated by a German company, will be fitted atop the roof of the Paul VI audience hall and will produce some 300,000 kilowatt-hours of power each year, said Mauro Villarini, the Vatican engineer coordinating the project. Construction of the solar-energy system will continue through October, while Pope Benedict XVI and some 250 bishops meet inside the audience hall for a synod on the Bible. In an interview Aug. 28 with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, Villarini said another solar-panel system would be installed this fall above the Vatican's employee cafeteria, providing 60 percent to 70 percent of the power needed to heat and cool the building. Both solar-energy systems are expected to be operating by the end of the year, Villarini said.
Supreme Court refuses to consider Mexico City abortion law
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The Mexican Supreme Court upheld a Mexico City abortion law when eight of the 11 justices refused to consider a constitutional challenge on the issue. Catholic officials across Mexico expressed sadness at the Aug. 28 decision, but also promised to focus their attention on better serving pregnant women who might be considering abortion. The Supreme Court "can make a crime legal, but it can never make moral ... the abominable murder of innocent children in the womb," Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City said in a statement posted on the Archdiocese of Mexico City Web site. He said the court was endorsing "an immoral law that not only decriminalizes abortion, but also hurts and infringes the fundamental rights of being human." Earlier the same week, the court ruled that the Mexico City Assembly had the authority to pass legislation legalizing abortion.
Pastoral challenge: Encouraging French Catholics to make room for God
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI is traveling to France in mid-September, making a four-day visit that is loaded with events and charged with pastoral challenges. The Sept. 12-15 trip was designed primarily to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Marian apparitions in Lourdes, one of the world's most popular pilgrimage sites. For the 81-year-old pope, it will be a trip to the heart of an increasingly de-Christianized Europe, an area where, as he once put it, the "great churches seem to be dying." The pope wants to encourage a revival, and his schedule offers him several possibilities. In meetings with civil and cultural leaders on the trip's first day, he is likely to defend the legitimate voice of religion in today's secularized European culture. By personally commemorating the anniversary of the Lourdes apparitions, the pope will have an opportunity to evoke the long tradition of Marian devotion in France and explain its relevance today. The papal events in Lourdes, a place where millions of sick pilgrims go to pray every year, will highlight the church's solidarity with the suffering. And his three meetings with French bishops -- two regional encounters behind closed doors and one national meeting with a public speech -- present occasions for a frank assessment of pastoral problems and strategies.
Aid workers says Russian-Georgian tensions won't help refugees
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Catholic aid workers in Georgia said diplomatic tensions between Russia and Georgia will not help refugees stranded by recent fighting between the two countries. "Over 128,000 have already been displaced inside Georgia by the conflict, and concern is mounting about what will happen to those who can't go back, who'll need housing, vocational training and a new start in life," said Laura Sheahen, an information officer for the U.S. bishops' Catholic Relief Services who visited Georgia in late August. In an Aug. 28 telephone interview with Catholic News Service, Sheahen said CRS was cooperating with other humanitarian organizations in funding food, hygiene equipment and medicine for refugees from the fighting. She said many people had returned to western Georgia but would face hardships obtaining fuel and repairing their homes during the coming winter. Father Witold Szulczynski, head of Caritas Georgia, said humanitarian aid was reaching the people of Tbilisi and that life appeared to be "returning to near-normal" in the war-damaged city of Gori. Caritas Georgia is the local affiliate of the international umbrella group of aid agencies, Caritas Internationalis.
PEOPLE
Catholics lead prayers at both political conventions this year
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In politics, every word, every action, every appearance, even every prayer, is analyzed in terms of how it helps one side or hurts the other. So the appearances of Jesuit Father Edward Reese and St. Joseph Sister Catherine Pinkerton in leading prayers at the Republican and Democratic conventions, respectively, are getting some attention. Father Reese, president of Brophy College Preparatory School in Phoenix, accepted the invitation from the Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and his wife, Cindy, to offer a prayer at the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 3 because he has known the couple for years. The McCains' sons, James and Jack, graduated from Brophy. "It's an honor to be asked," Father Reese told Catholic News Service. Sister Catherine, a lobbyist for Washington-based Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, gave the benediction to close business at the Democratic convention in Denver Aug. 27. While Sister Catherine serves on the Catholic National Advisory Council to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, she sees her appearance on the dais as nonpartisan. "I think it's a great opportunity for the church to show Catholic social teaching," the nun from Cleveland told CNS 24 hours after offering her prayer.
Indian priest describes mob ordeal 'like being tortured for Christ'
BANGALORE, India (CNS) -- Father Thomas Chellen, undergoing treatment at a Catholic hospital in Bhubaneswar, India, said he was grateful to be alive after a Hindu mob nearly set him on fire. "They had poured kerosene on my head, and one held a matchbox in his hands to light the fire. But thanks to divine providence, in the end, they did not do that. Otherwise, I would not have been there to tell this horror," the 55-year-old priest, director of the pastoral center at Konjamendi in the Indian state of Orissa, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from his hospital bed Aug. 28. Following the Aug. 23 murder of a Hindu leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, by Maoist extremists, Father Chellen said Hindu mobs started attacking Christian centers in Kandhamal, the district where the slain leader was based. Father Chellen said of the ordeal, "This is like being tortured for Christ."
McCain selects Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as running mate
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, selected by Sen. John McCain Aug. 28 as his vice-presidential running mate, won the praise of Catholic leaders earlier this year for embracing the arrival of her fifth child, born with Down syndrome in April. The Republican governor, who is a nondenominational Protestant, knew from early testing that her son Trig "would face special challenges," according to a family statement, but she and her husband Todd felt "privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives." The family's decision stands in contrast to statistics showing that more than 90 percent of women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to abort the child. Recent polls had indicated that if McCain picked a running mate who supported keeping abortion legal it would have cost him a significant number of votes.
Jim Lackey named manager of CNS Web Services
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Jim Lackey, who has led the Catholic News Service newsroom as general news editor for the past 19 years, has been appointed editor and manager of CNS Web Services. In his new position, Lackey will manage the agency's current Web-based news products and coordinate the development of new media projects. The appointment is effective Sept. 2. "Jim brings long experience as a journalist and editor in the Catholic press to this position. He also has been deeply involved in CNS's efforts to move into new forms of information media," said Tony Spence, CNS director and editor in chief. "He is an excellent choice to lead the new department." Spence said that CNS has been working over the past 18 months to reorganize its news operation and upgrade its technical systems to move into new media more aggressively.
Catholic Press Association names new executive director
CHICAGO (CNS) -- The Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada announced Aug. 29 it has named Milwaukee Catholic newspaper executive Tim Walter as its new executive director. Walter, 57, is currently the director of advertising and marketing for the Milwaukee-based group of Wisconsin Catholic newspapers. He has been with the Catholic Herald in Milwaukee for 19 years, also serving the Catholic Herald in both Madison and Superior and overseeing all revenue-generating operations for all three publications. Walter will assume his new post with the Chicago-based CPA Oct. 6. The association has a membership of nearly 600 magazines, newspapers and newsletters that reach a combined audience of more than 26 million readers. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, Walter brings to the CPA post a background as an administrator, marketer, salesperson, educator and entertainer.
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