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Catholic News Service, updated the weekday evening of 5/15/2008 |
 U.S.
Catechists hear strategies for increasing religious education access
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- One child might benefit from a tactile and descriptive tour of his religious education classroom. Another might be better able to learn with a strict routine, outlined on a picture schedule. A third might need a note-taker or captioned instructional films or videos. Those strategies and many more were discussed during a recent "Webinar" on catechesis for children and youths with disabilities, hosted by the Washington-based National Catholic Partnership on Disability and several other Catholic organizations. At least 500 participants at 325 sites around the country joined in the May 6 Web-based seminar, which focused on ways to bring children with autism spectrum disorders, developmental disabilities or visual or hearing impairments into full participation in religious education classes at the parish or diocesan level. Sister Kathleen Schipani, a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who is administrator of the Department for Pastoral Care for Persons With Disabilities in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said catechists should follow the example of Jesus, who asked the blind man Bartimaeus: "What do you want me to do for you?"
National coalition promotes collaboration to better serve needy
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Competitive and territorial barriers that once kept Catholic agencies from working too closely together are slowly breaking down in communities across the country in favor of stronger collaboration to better serve clients in need, according to a national organization that promotes the benefits of cooperation among church-based ministries. Cleveland-based Ministering Together has embarked on a new campaign to promote collaboration among Catholic Charities systems, Catholic hospitals, parishes and Catholic social service agencies as well as public entities in serving and advocating for families and sick, homeless, mentally ill and elderly people in need of multiple services. "The whole premise is built on the fact that we cannot do alone as well as what we can do together, and that we can serve God's people to a greater degree if you break down silos and look at the person as a whole person," said Sister Judith Ann Karam, president of the Cleveland-based Sisters of Charity Health System and a member of Ministering Together's executive committee.
WORLD
Chinese cardinal hopes Olympics encourage progress on human rights
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong said he hopes the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing will be a success and will help encourage progress on human rights in China. "I think the Olympics are important and represent a value that cannot be compromised by other things. For this reason, (Pope Benedict XVI) has also expressed his hope that they will be successful," Cardinal Zen told Vatican Radio in mid-May. The cardinal said the gathering of athletes from all over the world in harmonious competition was something worth protecting. "Naturally, one should take advantage of this occasion to encourage the Beijing government to make progress on human rights, too -- starting with the granting of greater freedom to those involved in communication -- as it promised when it asked to host the Olympics," he said. China's recent crackdown in Tibet has led some human rights activists to suggest a possible boycott of the Olympics. Cardinal Zen spoke to Vatican Radio during a visit to northern Italy, and he led a prayer service in Milan for the church in China.
Catholic volunteers get ready to serve athletes at Beijing Olympics
BEIJING (CNS) -- Mainland Catholic volunteers are getting ready to serve athletes from around the world who will compete in the Beijing Olympics in August. The Beijing Diocese has designated 16 people -- seven priests, five nuns and four seminarians -- to join the religious volunteer service group and work alongside Buddhist, Taoist, Muslim and Protestant volunteers, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. The Beijing Summer Olympics and the Paralympic Games will be Aug. 8-24 and Sept. 6-17, respectively. A religious service center will operate in the Olympic Village during the events. Father Joseph Zhao Qinglong, leader of the Catholic team, said the religious volunteers attended three training courses last year -- the longest one lasted two months, with sessions twice a week. "Our participation as volunteers can be a concrete service the church offers to society," he told UCA News recently.
Unity, stability of migrant families must be defended, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The unity and stability of families, including migrant and immigrant families, must be defended "with courage and patience," Pope Benedict XVI said. Addressing members of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers May 15, the pope said the traditional family always must be supported. "One must not forget that the family, including the migrant or itinerant family, is the original cell of society and must not be destroyed," he said. The family is "the community in which, from infancy, one is taught to adore and love God, learning the grammar of human and moral values and how to make good use of freedom in truth." Many families find it difficult to live up to their calling, he said, but the challenges multiply for families who are on the move together or whose lives are marked by long periods of separation. The plenary meeting of the pontifical council looked at "families who find themselves, for whatever reasons, separated from their homes and homelands," said Cardinal Renato Martino, council president.
Pope says charism of consecrated virgins can help all people
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While the rest of the world may think chastity is something "unintelligible and useless," the order of consecrated virgins is a charism that can be fruitful and beneficial to all people, Pope Benedict XVI said. "With your righteous life, you can be the stars that guide the journey of the world," he said in a May 15 private audience with about 500 consecrated virgins from across the globe. He said he wished to encourage them in their vocations and hoped they would grow daily in their awareness that this charism is "as bright and fertile in the eyes of faith as it is unintelligible and useless (in the eyes) of the world." The women were in Rome as part of a May 14-17 international congress of consecrated virgins discussing how to foster the order and how it is lived in the world. Consecrated by her local bishop, a consecrated virgin makes a promise of perpetual virginity, prayer and service to the church while living independently in society.
Rome university offers seminar for journalists covering church
ROME (CNS) -- A Rome pontifical university is offering journalists a weeklong seminar on covering the Catholic Church. The Sept. 8-14 seminar, "The Church Up Close: Covering Catholicism in the Age of Benedict XVI," will feature encounters with Vatican officials, on-site visits and discussions with veteran Vatican reporters. Offered by the School of Church Communications at the Opus Dei-run Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, the seminar is designed to give insight into the pope's thinking in the wake of his visit to the United States. "Covering an institution as old and as large as the Catholic Church has always been a huge challenge, and in today's shrinking world it's becoming ever more necessary to tell even local stories about the church from a global perspective," said Father John Wauck, one of the organizers. "The seminar should help reporters do that. What's more, Rome is an ideal setting for reflecting on religion and the media with journalists from around the world," he said.
Rome Diocese erects parish dedicated to use of Tridentine Mass
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Diocese of Rome has erected a "personal parish" in Rome's city center dedicated to the celebration of the Tridentine Mass. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, reported May 15 that Cardinal Camillo Ruini, papal vicar for Rome, recently designated the Church of the Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims as a parish where the pre-Second Vatican Council liturgy will be celebrated exclusively. The newspaper said the cardinal had entrusted the church to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 document, "Summorum Pontificum," allowed for wider use of the Mass in Latin using the 1962 Roman Missal. The document also said a bishop could designate a specific parish where the older form of the Mass would be used exclusively and not simply as an occasional alternative to the post-Vatican II liturgy.
Jesuit magazine criticizes 'Big Brother' TV show for its disservices
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The "Big Brother" television series risks creating a new generation of gladiators, when people act not according to ethical standards but according to what is necessary to survive, said an influential Jesuit journal. The influence the reality television show has on today's culture and future generations means alternative ways must be found that teach young people "more dignified" role models, it said. In a May 17 article released to journalists May 15, La Civilta Cattolica gave a lengthy description of the "Big Brother" series that started in the Netherlands in 1999 and soon spread to other parts of the world. In the United States, the 10th season of "Big Brother" will air in July; the eighth season wrapped up in Italy this spring. The article, written by Jesuit Father Francesco Occhetta, said the "Big Brother" formula is reminiscent of ancient pagan sacrifices, where the god being worshipped is the brother's all-seeing eye, the altar is the stage, and participants are regularly "sacrificed" in these new temples.
PEOPLE
Jesuit named to chair New York City Campaign Finance Board
NEW YORK (CNS) -- A Jesuit educator who is the president of a high school in the Cristo Rey network has been named chairman of the New York City Campaign Finance Board. Father Joseph Parkes, president of Cristo Rey New York High School in East Harlem, has served on the board for the last year. Mayor Michael Bloomberg named him to the position April 8. The five-member board is an independent, nonpartisan city agency charged with administering the city's campaign finance program, publishing a voter guide on city candidates and issues, and overseeing debates during election cycles. "Father Parkes has demonstrated exactly the kind of pragmatic, evenhanded, intelligent and independent leadership that the CFB needs and deserves," Bloomberg said in a statement. Father Parkes also holds seats on the boards of St. Peter's College in Jersey City, N.J., St. Aloysius School in Central Harlem, and St. Ann School in East Harlem.
Local Chinese Catholics share stories of devastation after quake
MIANYANG, China (CNS) -- Sister Zhang Yimei expressed gratitude to God for protecting her younger brother, a priest, during the recent earthquake, but is concerned for the well-being of the family of another nun serving in her parish. "My brother, Father Francis Zhang Yiqiang, was preparing for the centenary of the former seminary in Bailu town and just happened to be out buying things for the celebration when the church building collapsed," she told the Asian church news agency UCA News. The siblings serve in different parts of the Chengdu Diocese, near the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that shook Sichuan province in southwestern China May 12. Sister Yimei, 35, who serves at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Mianyang, told UCA News May 14 that the other nun, who was only identified as Sister Zhan, could not reach by phone her parents, one sister and two brothers-in-law in Bailu after the quake. She said Father Zhong Cheng, the parish priest, had driven to her home to find out what happened.
Polish Catholic woman who saved children from Nazis dies at 98
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Polish church leaders paid tribute to Irena Sendler, a Catholic social worker who saved approximately 2,500 Jewish children from being killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. "Everyone who survived the war is very much aware that her kind of heroism could be born only in someone with a very great heart," said Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, former secretary-general of the Polish bishops' conference. "Irena Sendler was one of those people able to resist the greatest evil that rampaged through the world in the past century. It's a pity her greatness was not noticed by the international institutions even after her actions were brought to light." Sendler, who died at 98 in Warsaw May 12, was buried May 15 in Warsaw. She was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations honor by Israel's Yad Vashem in 1965 and Poland's highest honor, the White Eagle, in 2003 for smuggling children from Warsaw's Jewish ghetto to safe homes, orphanages and Catholic convents in Poland.
Mexican bishop hopes to bring knowledge of youths to his new diocese
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Auxiliary Bishop Francisco Moreno Barron of Morelia admitted he does not know very much about the Diocese of Tlaxcala, where he will be installed as bishop in late May. "I'll be the best I can and the rest I leave to God," the 53-year-old theologian and philosopher told Catholic News Service. But Bishop Moreno, who is head of youth ministry for the Mexican bishops' conference, does know about Mexico's youths. When Bishop Moreno is installed in Tlaxcala May 28, he will take over a diocese that has been without a bishop for more than a year, following the death of Bishop Jacinto Guerrero Torres in December 2006. One of his most pressing tasks will be to care for and attract Catholic youths "because they are the future of society and the church," said the bishop.
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