NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH & THE VATICAN

Turning green  Vatican takes step to become worlds 1st carbon neutral sovereignty

7/13/2007
Catholic Online

VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online)  The Vatican, in responding to its own call that mankind become a more aware and more active caretaker of the earth, will take a step to lift its carbon footprint and become the first entirely carbon neutral sovereign state in the world.

In a brief July 5 ceremony here, the Vatican declared that it had accepted a proposal to create a new Vatican climate forest in Europe that will offset all of the Vatican City States carbon dioxide omissions for this year.

Environmental protection, said Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, is not a political issue.

It is not enough to have a simple commitment for a few people. Instead it is necessary, as underlined by his holiness, to have the dawn of a new culture, of new attitudes and a new mode of living that makes man aware of his place a caretaker of the earth.

Planktos/KlimaFa, a climate ecorestoration company, made the donation of forestland in Hungarys Bukk National Park to create the new Vatican climate forest.

I am honored to receive this donation, Cardinal Poupard said. In this way, the Vatican will do its small part in contributing to the elimination of polluting emissions from carbon dioxide which is threatening the survival of the planet.

A carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide is recognized as a greenhouse gas, of which increasing levels in the atmosphere are linked to global warming and climate change. As plant life gives off oxygen, the planting of forests is seen as a way of mitigating the environmental impact of the consumption of natural resources.

"As the holy father, Pope Benedict XVI, had recently stated, the international community needs to respect and encourage a green culture, characterized by ethical values, Cardinal Poupard said.

The Book of Genesis tells us of a beginning in which God placed man as guardian over the earth to make it fruitful. When man forgets that he is a faithful servant of this earth, it becomes a desert that threatens the survival of all creation, he added.

"The Holy See's increasingly creative environmental leadership is both insightful and profound, said Russ George, Planktos chief executive officer and KlimaFa managing director. Not only is the Vatican steadily reducing its carbon footprint with energy efficiency and solar power, its choice of new mixed growth forests to offset the balance of its emissions shows a deep commitment to planetary stewardship as well. It eloquently makes the point that ecorestoration is a fitting climate change solution for a culture of life."

"We believe this climate forest initiative clearly reflects the Vatican's deep commitment to both environmental healing and the welfare of the poor, said David Gazdag, KlimaFa's managing director. Besides their local ecological and global climatic benefits, these projects offer many rewarding new eco-forestry jobs to struggling rural communities and increasing eco-tourism employment opportunities as these beautiful woodlands mature." The dimensions of the new Vatican climate forest will be determined by the Vaticans 2007 energy usage and the success of its current emission reduction efforts.

Planktos/KlimaFa also announced that it has committed to work with the Vatican and the Pontifical Council of Culture to develop methods to calculate the carbon emissions of individual Catholic churches and offer ecorestoration options to turn their carbon footprints green. The announcement came less than two months after the Vatican told member countries of the United Nations that the world community must address the threat posed by global warming and build more sustainable economies or face the continued drift toward tensions, conflicts and a crisis in the very existence of peoples.

In an May 10 statement to the U.N. Economic and Social Councils Commission on Sustainable Development on Turning Political Commitments into Action, Working together in Partnership, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio of the Holy Sees permanent mission to the U.N., stressed that the scientific evidence for global warming and mankinds role in the increase of greenhouse gasses becomes ever more unimpeachable and its effects already impacting the world community.

The consequences of climate change are being felt not only in the environment, but in the entire socio-economic system, Archbishop Migliore said, noting that such activity has a profound relevance, not just for the environment, but in ethical, economic, social and political terms as well.

Global warming, he said, will impact first and foremost the poorest and weakest who, even if they are among the least responsible for global warming, are the most vulnerable because they have limited resources or live in areas at greater risk.

The issues surrounding climate change are far-reaching, the Vatican nuncio said, pointing to the connection between it and the drive to acquire and consume energy and water resources and protecting human health and the environment.

The earth is our common heritage and we have a grave and far-reaching responsibility to ourselves and to future generations, he said.

The international community, Archbishop Migliore said, must come to terms to establish a common, global, long-term energy strategy, capable of satisfying legitimate short- and medium-term energy requirements, ensuring energy security, protecting human health and the environment and establishing precise commitments to address the question of climate change.

The nuncio spoke with some urgency, noting that the U.N. Security Council recently dealt with the relationship of energy, security and climate change.

We are already witnessing struggles for the control of strategic resources such as oil and fresh water, both of which are becoming ever scarcer, he said.

If we refuse to build sustainable economies now, we will continue to drift towards more tensions and conflicts over resources, Archbishop Migliore warned, pointing to many of the most vulnerable societies already facing energy problems and to the threatened very existence of coastal peoples and small island states.

Pope Benedict XVI addressed the issue in his World Peace Day 2007 message.

In the wide-ranging "The Human Person, the Heart of Peace," dated Jan. 1 and released Dec. 8, Benedict tied the ecology of nature with human ecology and social ecology, noting the inseparable link between peace with creation and peace among men.

Disregard for the environment always harms human coexistence, the pope said. There is an inseparable link between peace with creation and peace among men.

Concerning the environment, he pointed specifically to the increasingly serious problem of energy supplies and to the unprecedented race for available resources by some nations and blockage to resources impacting the development of other nations.

The destruction of the environment, its improper or selfish use, and the violent hoarding of the earth's resources cause grievances, conflicts and wars, precisely because they are the consequences of an inhumane concept of development, the pope said.

Indeed, if development were limited to the technical-economic aspect, obscuring the moral-religious dimension, it would not be an integral human development, but a one-sided distortion which would end up by unleashing man's destructive capacities, he said.


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From Teresa:

PROPOSAL FOR AL GORE, THE U.N.
AND ALL OTHER ECOLOGICAL BLEEDING HEARTS

Oh, how refreshing! - literally and figuratively - for some institution to lead the way in doing-as-it-preaches!

Contrast the Vatican's moves to the Al Gores and Barbra Streisands of the world who claim to be champions of the environment - but it's all empty babble because they live in totally air-conditioned megamansions, drive about in the gargantuan gas-guzzlers of the rich and privileged, move around in private planes instead of commercial transport, and stage megaconcerts that consume gigawatts of energy to stage and to watch.

Why don't the Al Gores and Barbra Streisands each set up their own personal carbon-emission offset forests too?

And why have all those do-gooders at the United Nations never thought of something similar?

Suppose all those liberal bleeding hearts - who certainly have the resources - each adopted a little piece of the Amazon Forest to promote, protect and conserve as their concrete contribution to ecology?

Bill Gates, George Soros, Mayor Bloomberg - all the megabucks philanthropists - could well channel some of their wealth to such a worthy cause.

Then use one of those well-funded agencies propagandizing for the ecology to administer all that largesse for offset forests, and make the Amazon a vehicle for ecological renewal rather than the continuing prey for exploiters of all sorts (including the ecological prophets who have done nothing so far but wring their hands!).

They could even appoint Al Gore to head it - but at least do something concrete, instead of simply issuing tomes of tendentious research about global warming!

By Paul Gray
July 13, 2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)

MELBOURNE, Australia (CNS) - An American bishop visiting Australia has defended the right of Catholic bishops to publicly rebuke politicians, including Catholics, who support pro-abortion laws.


ARCHBISHOP CELEBRATES MASS IN AUSTRALIA  Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver elevates the chalice while celebrating Mass with Australian Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, left, and Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, right, at St. Christopher's Cathedral in Canberra, Australia, July 7. Archbishop Chaput was in the Australian capital to address a national congress of Catholic students and young adults. (CNS)

"Abortion is about killing somebody else. It's about human beings," he said. "Do you keep quiet if someone's going to kill someone else, or do you speak up? And if you don't speak up or you say people have a right to kill someone else, can you honestly say you're in communion with the church?"

Archbishop Chaput said that those American bishops who spoke out on abortion during the last presidential election campaign in 2004, including himself, were not trying to make a name for themselves.

"We're just trying to be faithful to our role as bishops, and we want to remind our people that you can't be a Catholic if you're not a Catholic in ritual and how you lead your life," he said. "And how one votes, and how one leads if one's a political leader is the way you live your life."

Archbishop Chaput was in Australia for a young adult congress called "2028 Congress: The Church and the Next Generation." The July 6-8 congress in Canberra was sponsored by the Australian Catholic Young Adults Network and Australian Catholic Students Association.

Archbishop Chaput, who regularly is outspoken on immigration issues in the United States, said he was fascinated by the contrasting receptions received by his comments about the two topics.

"The people who were strongly critical of me for speaking about life issues at the time of the last presidential election have been very encouraging for me to speak up on the immigration issues," he said.

"It seems to me that those who claim separation of the church and state often do that because of a particular issue, not because they have a particular theoretical commitment to separation," he said. "If I speak about something they don't like, I should be separated. If I speak about something they support, they're happy. It's very odd."

He added, "And it cuts both ways, liberal and conservative. What I hope we develop are people who are Catholics, who aren't actually liberal or conservative, but who are just simply Catholic."

Archbishop Chaput said that there is a hierarchy of moral issues, with an issue like abortion being more "foundational" than issues like immigration.

"Foundational means that the rest of the system, whether it be a moral system or a theological system, has its basis on these foundational issues. For example, the right to life, the dignity of the individual from the moment of conception through natural life, is a foundation on which we build our understanding of just immigration laws, because just immigration laws depend on your belief in the dignity of individuals," he explained. "If you don't believe that, you're going to have very different immigration laws than if you do believe in it."

Another example, the archbishop said, is belief in the Trinity as more foundational than belief in the Immaculate Conception.

"Both are absolutely true, but they're not equally foundational," he said.

The archbishop said that the church's teaching against capital punishment is another example of a teaching that is not as foundational as the prohibition against abortion.

"The church teaches that you don't kill your brother, even if your brother is guilty," he said.

However, Archbishop Chaput said that one is without exception "and the other has exceptions. They are not foundationally the same.

"There can never be a situation, one incidence, where abortion is a moral act," he said. "There can be incidences where capital punishment is a necessary act to protect society and therefore a moral act, a morally acceptable act."


SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...

By Dan McAloon
July 13, 2007

Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)

SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) - Disgruntled horse trainers withdrew a legal threat against the 2008 World Youth Day vigil and papal Mass at Royal Randwick Racecourse and agreed to work with the New South Wales government on a compensation package.

Advertisement
In principle, the trainers now have no objection to the events being at the racecourse, local media reported.

Jim Hanna, communications director for World Youth Day, said news that the trainers had averted legal action "reflected the advanced nature of the discussions between all of the stakeholders."

He said compensation would probably be much lower than the $50 million (US$43.4 million) figure circulated in the media. In the period leading up to the vigil, Hanna said up to 200 horses could continue training at Randwick "on all but three days" and although it would be necessary to relocate horses to other race venues "no race meetings will be canceled."

The Randwick Trainers Association had said it would explore legal avenues to stop use of the racecourse for 10 weeks next year because of the July 15-20 World Youth Day activities.

In a statement, Hanna said World Youth Day organizers would be building an altar area "the size of a football field" and installing infrastructure, including fiber optic cable, "that had the potential to deliver long-term benefit to all racecourse users."

Hanna refused to name the location of the World Youth Day's opening Mass, saying the experience with Randwick made the planning committee "cautious of making any announcement" before the agreement had been completed.

SOURCE:http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=24711

By Cindy Wooden
July 13, 2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)

ROME (CNS) - Representatives of the Vatican and the Israeli government met in Jerusalem July 11 to continue work on an agreement regarding the financial and juridical status of Catholic institutions in Israel.

A brief statement released in Rome July 12 by the Israeli embassy to the Holy See said, "The delegations met in a climate of great cordiality, made progress and renewed their common determination to accelerate the work so that an agreement could be reached as soon as possible."

The negotiators will meet again Sept. 3 in Jerusalem, the statement said.

In late May the full membership of the Vatican-Israeli permanent working commission met for the first time in five years to discuss contested issues related to church property, taxation and the legal rights of church institutions in Israel.

Franciscan Father David Jaeger, who was part of the Vatican delegation at the May meeting, told Vatican Radio July 13 that the negotiations themselves have never run into big problems, but progress had been impeded by the fact that "it was difficult to schedule meetings."

"Once the meetings were set on a more or less regular basis, the negotiations went fairly well. But time is needed," he said, because the issues involved "are extremely complex."

From the beginning of the negotiations in 1994, Vatican officials have asked Israel to:

- Guarantee Catholic access to juridical due process through the Israeli court system when property disputes arise. Israel's position has been that church property disputes are matters to be handled by the government, not the courts.

- Formally extend the exemption from taxation enjoyed by church properties and institutions before Israeli statehood.

- Return confiscated church properties. The most discussed property has been the site of a church shrine, destroyed in the 1950s, in Caesarea.

SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...

Very heartening to know about the new Archbishop of Baltimore:


O'Brien brings conservative stance toward gays
By Stephen Kiehl
Baltimore Sun reporter
Originally published July 13, 2007


Months before the Vatican issued a formal policy barring gay men from the seminary, Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien made his own feelings clear.

"I think anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity, or who has strong homosexual inclinations, would be best not to apply to a seminary and not to be accepted into a seminary," O'Brien, then the leader of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, told the National Catholic Register in 2005.

His position became the Roman Catholic Church's. It was not the first time O'Brien played a central role in the church's relationship with its gay and lesbian members. In 1978, he helped found Courage, a group in New York that ministers to those with same-sex attractions and encourages them to lead celibate lives.

More recently, O'Brien has headed a seminary review, ordered by the Vatican, that examined all 229 U.S. seminaries for "evidence of homosexuality," as well as for faculty members who dissent from church teaching. The review has been completed but a final report is yet to be issued.

In an interview with The Sun yesterday, O'Brien said homosexuality is "not conducive to a healthy view and living out of celibacy" because "there's secrecy involved." The archbishop, who spent 12 years as a seminary rector in New York and Rome, said his view on admitting gays to the seminary is shaped by personal experience.

"There have been incidents that I've seen in seminaries and after the seminary where homosexual men strongly inclined do have special difficulties in living a counter-cultural value within a church that sees this to be a disorder," said O'Brien, the archbishop-designate of the Archdiocese Of Baltimore.

In 2005, during an interview with The NewsHour on PBS regarding the seminary review, O'Brien said, "We don't want our people to think, as our culture is now saying, there's really no difference whether one is gay or straight, is homosexual or heterosexual. We think for our vocation that there is a difference, and our people expect to have a male priesthood that sets a strong role model of maleness."

The military has also grappled with the issue of gays in its ranks, adopting in 1993 a "don't ask, don't tell" policy that ousts gays if their orientation becomes known by superiors. Several former generals recently called for its repeal.

Asked yesterday whether he supports the policy, O'Brien said, "It seems to be working."

With estimates from Catholic scholars and authors putting the proportion of gay priests at about half of the American priesthood, observers say O'Brien's arrival in Baltimore could have substantial effects on the two seminaries that fall under the archdiocese: St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore and Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg.

"My guess is he's not going to want homosexuals in his seminary," said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. Reese said O'Brien could make it clear to other bishops not to send gay seminarians to Baltimore.

St. Mary's Seminary is sometimes referred to as "The Pink Palace" by conservative Catholics (including Michael S. Rose, author of the 2002 book Goodbye, Good Men) for its reputation of tolerance toward gay seminarians. To send O'Brien, who is known for his traditional view on homosexuality, to Baltimore could be a signal from the Vatican that the days of such tolerance are over.

Indeed, some observers have suggested that the seminary review headed by O'Brien and the focus on gay priests that came in the aftermath of the sex abuse scandal have made gay priests and seminarians more cautious of expressing themselves, and they say that is not healthy for those training for the priesthood.

"You need a formation process that takes seriously their orientation, to help them be celibate," Reese said. He and others said the new directive barring seminary admission for gays sends a message to gay priests that their ordination was a mistake.

"God is calling and has called both straight and gay men to ministry as priests," said the Rev. Donald Cozzens, author of Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church. "I think it would be a loss for the church if gay men who believe they have a call to the priesthood would not be admitted to seminary training."

O'Brien's first work with gays and lesbians came when he was vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York and Cardinal Terence Cooke tasked him to repair relations with groups that felt marginalized by the church, including those who had divorced and remarried.

With the Rev. John Harvey and another priest, O'Brien founded the Courage group for gays and lesbians. It encouraged prayer, fellowship and mutual support as a means for members to deal with their attractions, and suggested gays and lesbians live "chaste lives," according to its Web site.

"We went all around the Archdiocese of New York during 1979 and part of 1980, giving talks to priests on helping people with same-sex attractions who were Catholic and wanted to lead a good, chaste life," Harvey, who remains the group's president, said yesterday.

Courage now has 110 chapters worldwide. But in the beginning, it was sometimes difficult to convince parish priests that its efforts were worthwhile.

"You really had to explain to people that this is a wonderful group and we had to show them the help we can offer," O'Brien said. The group is different, however, from those such as Exodus International, an interdenominational Christian organization that claims to convert gays to heterosexuality. O'Brien said he would not get involved with a group like that.

But Sam Sinnett, president of DignityUSA, a group for gay and lesbian Catholics, said that for years Courage promoted the idea of curing people of homosexuality.

"They keep talking about people changing their God-given sexual orientation," Sinnett said. "That's just not a possibility. And any professional knows that. To live in willful ignorance of that is a terrible thing, particularly for a moral teacher."

Sinnett said his group also disagrees with O'Brien's and the Vatican's position on gays in the seminary. "Any bishop in this country knows that some of their finest priests are gay and that many of their brother bishops are gay," he said. "Particularly in this day of shortages, to turn away vocations and to undercut the fine gay priests in a diocese - this is the poorest type of a leadership a bishop could give."

O'Brien rejected the notion that the new seminary policy sends the wrong message to gay priests. "Each case varies," he said.

But he added that he once received a letter from a gay priest who was "very angry" that he had been allowed through the seminary because it was difficult to reconcile celibacy with "being homosexually inclined in a strong way," O'Brien said.

The archbishop added, "I would think that a priest of whatever orientation, if he has the gift of grace and has been successful in leading a celibate life, should thank God and realize that not everyone ... has been so successful."

LA church to pay $600M for clergy abuse
By GILLIAN FLACCUS


LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14 (AP) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will settle its clergy abuse cases for at least $600 million, by far the largest payout in the church's sexual abuse scandal, The Associated Press learned Saturday.

Attorneys for the archdiocese and the plaintiffs are expected to announce the deal Monday, the day the first of more than 500 clergy abuse cases was scheduled for jury selection, according to two people with knowledge of the agreement. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the settlement had not been made public.

The archdiocese and its insurers will pay between $600 million and $650 million to about 500 plaintiffs  an average of $1.2 million to $1.3 million per person. The settlement also calls for the release of confidential priest personnel files after review by a judge assigned to oversee the litigation, the sources said.

The settlements would push the total amount paid out by the U.S. church since 1950 to more than $2 billion, with about a quarter of that coming from the Los Angeles archdiocese.

It wasn't immediately clear how the payout would be split among the insurers, the archdiocese and several Roman Catholic religious orders. A judge must sign off on the agreement, and final details were being ironed out.

Lead plaintiffs' attorney Ray Boucher confirmed the sides were working on a deal but would not discuss specifics. He said that negotiations would continue through the weekend and that there were still many unresolved aspects.

Tod Tamberg, archdiocese spokesman, declined to comment on any settlement details.

"The archdiocese will be in court Monday morning," he said.

Steven Sanchez, 47, was one of the plaintiffs set to go to trial Monday. He was expected to testify in the trial involving the late Rev. Clinton Hagenbach.

Sanchez, a financial adviser, said the past few months have been especially difficult because he had to repeat his story of abuse for depositions with his attorneys and archdiocese attorneys in preparation for trial.

"We're 48 hours away from starting the trial, and I've been spending a lot of time getting emotionally prepared to take them on, but I'm glad," he said. "It's been a long five years."

The settlement would be the largest ever by a Roman Catholic archdiocese since the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002. The largest payout so far has been by the Diocese of Orange, Calif., in 2004, for $100 million.

Facing a flood of abuse claims, five dioceses  Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego  sought bankruptcy protection.

The Los Angeles archdiocese, its insurers and various Roman Catholic orders have paid more than $114 million to settle 86 claims so far.

The largest of those came in December, when the archdiocese reached a $60 million settlement with 45 people whose claims dated from before the mid-1950s and after 1987  periods when it had little or no sexual abuse insurance. Several religious orders in California have also reached multimillion-dollar settlements in recent months, including the Carmelites, the Franciscans and the Jesuits.

However, more than 500 other lawsuits against the archdiocese had remained unresolved despite years of legal wrangling. Most of the outstanding lawsuits were generated by a 2002 state law that revoked for one year the statute of limitations for reporting sexual abuse.

Cardinal Roger Mahony recently told parishioners in an open letter that the archdiocese was selling its high-rise administrative building and considering the sale of about 50 other nonessential church properties to raise funds for a settlement.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge overseeing the cases recently ruled that Mahony could be called to testify in the second trial on schedule, and attorneys for plaintiffs wanted to call him in many more.

The same judge also cleared the way for four people to seek punitive damages  something that could have opened the church to tens of millions of dollars in payouts if the ruling had been expanded to other cases.S. church since 1950 to more than $2 billion, with about a quarter of that coming from the Los Angeles archdiocese.

It wasn't immediately clear how the payout would be split among the insurers, the archdiocese and several Roman Catholic religious orders. A judge must sign off on the agreement, and final details were being ironed out.

Lead plaintiffs' attorney Ray Boucher confirmed the sides were working on a deal but would not discuss specifics. He said that negotiations would continue through the weekend and that there were still many unresolved aspects.

Tod Tamberg, archdiocese spokesman, declined to comment on any settlement details.

"The archdiocese will be in court Monday morning," he said.

Steven Sanchez, 47, was one of the plaintiffs set to go to trial Monday. He was expected to testify in the trial involving the late Rev. Clinton Hagenbach.

Sanchez, a financial adviser, said the past few months have been especially difficult because he had to repeat his story of abuse for depositions with his attorneys and archdiocese attorneys in preparation for trial.

"We're 48 hours away from starting the trial, and I've been spending a lot of time getting emotionally prepared to take them on, but I'm glad," he said. "It's been a long five years."

The settlement would be the largest ever by a Roman Catholic archdiocese since the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002. The largest payout so far has been by the Diocese of Orange, Calif., in 2004, for $100 million.

Facing a flood of abuse claims, five dioceses  Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego  sought bankruptcy protection.

The Los Angeles archdiocese, its insurers and various Roman Catholic orders have paid more than $114 million to settle 86 claims so far.

The largest of those came in December, when the archdiocese reached a $60 million settlement with 45 people whose claims dated from before the mid-1950s and after 1987  periods when it had little or no sexual abuse insurance. Several religious orders in California have also reached multimillion-dollar settlements in recent months, including the Carmelites, the Franciscans and the Jesuits.

However, more than 500 other lawsuits against the archdiocese had remained unresolved despite years of legal wrangling. Most of the outstanding lawsuits were generated by a 2002 state law that revoked for one year the statute of limitations for reporting sexual abuse.

Cardinal Roger Mahony recently told parishioners in an open letter that the archdiocese was selling its high-rise administrative building and considering the sale of about 50 other nonessential church properties to raise funds for a settlement.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge overseeing the cases recently ruled that Mahony could be called to testify in the second trial on schedule, and attorneys for plaintiffs wanted to call him in many more.

The same judge also cleared the way for four people to seek punitive damages  something that could have opened the church to tens of millions of dollars in payouts if the ruling had been expanded to other cases

On 3 Uniquely Catholic "Gifts"
Interview With Expert in Ecumenism



WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 15, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The recent document on the Church's identity emphasizes the gifts Catholics offer to the quest for unity, says the director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church" on June 29, and an accompanying "Commentary."

In this interview with ZENIT, Father James Massa discusses what the document offers to ecumenism today, and considers reactions from Protestant communities.

Q: In your position as a leader in ecumenical and interreligious work, what is your assessment of the recent document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Catholic understanding of the Church?

Father Massa: I think it is a necessary and helpful clarification on how Catholics understand the nature of the Church. Jesus Christ founded the Church as a visible and unified society that would exist until his return. Catholics believe that this one Church of Christ exists in all its fullness in the Catholic Church alone.

That doesn't mean the one Church is not also present and active in Orthodox churches and Protestant communities for the salvation of their members. In fact, in these Christian bodies we find genuine elements of truth and holiness that inspire us, draw us into ecumenical dialogue, and make us yearn even more for the unity for which Christ prayed. Properly understood, the "Clarification" can be a real inducement to deeper and more honest dialogue between Catholics and their ecumenical partners.

Q: What has your impression been of the reaction among Protestants and other non-Catholics to the document?

Father Massa: It's clear that some prominent leaders in the Protestant world feel profoundly disappointed by the document. The Reverend Setri Nyomi, General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, is quoted as saying that it contradicts the "spirit of our Christian calling toward oneness in Christ." He and others wonder whether the Holy Father and the Catholic leadership are still serious about dialogue.

To my mind, this is an overreaction that misreads both the intended audience and substance of the document. The "Clarification" was directed at bishops and Catholic scholars, not our ecumenical partners. Secondly, it renounces none of the essential commitments that the Catholic Church has made since Vatican II to advance the cause of Christian unity.

Other reactions have been more positive. Ann Riggs of the Faith and Order USA Commission, for example, views the document as an invitation to a more sophisticated dialogue in which each side tries to understand the other's statements as coming out of a distinct tradition of doctrinal expression.

Metropolitan Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church called it "honest" and preferable to a diplomatic approach that dodges the tough issues. So the reaction has been mixed. But overall, I think its long term benefits for authentic ecumenism will outweigh any disadvantages.

Q: Why is this document needed now, at this moment in the journey toward full Christian unity?

Father Massa: Seven year after Dominus Iesus, we are still facing a problem with insufficient attention to the Catholic doctrine of the Church.

Perhaps in an effort to underscore God's saving work in other churches and Christian communities, some theologians have failed to make it clear that the one Church of Christ is uniquely identifiable with the Catholic Church.

Other churches and communities welcome the saving presence of Christ into their midst, but only in the Catholic Church does the one Church subsist in fullness. Contrary to what some Catholic theologians have written, there are no other "subsistences."

Taken out of context, the document's position on what groups deserve to be called a "church" might also appear to be jarring.

The Orthodox churches are rightly called such because they've retained the sacraments and the ministry that exists in apostolic succession.

Protestant communities lack a certain ecclesial substance, namely, the sacraments and ministry that unite us as one in the Body of Christ.

But even the Orthodox, though very close to us in faith and practice, are still "wounded" in their communion because they lack the Office of Peter, the Pope.

Q: What, if any, novelties are contained in the new document. Is this simply a restatement of Catholic teaching as articulated in other documents - if so, why the need? Or does it present new material - if so, what?

Father Massa: I don't think there is anything substantially new here. But I do believe that the restatement of the Catholic position offers those of us involved in the dialogues to take more seriously what are the Catholic "gifts" that we bring to the table.

Pope John Paul II said that ecumenism is less an exchange of ideas than an exchange of gifts. Eucharist-centered worship, episcopal ministry, and papal primacy are the unique Catholic gifts. They should never be placed "under a bushel basket."

Q: The final paragraph of the Commentary on the Document, which was also released by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, quotes Deus Caritas Est: "Union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself. & Communion draws me out of myself towards him, and thus also toward unity with all Christians." Do you think Benedict XVI will be a key element in achieving unity?

Father Massa: I do indeed believe that the present Holy Father is a credible ecumenist. He was such as an academician, as a bishop-prefect, and now as a Pope.

But he also cautions us not to think that "unity" is something that we ourselves achieve by means of our theological cleverness or skills in diplomacy. Unity is and always will be a gift from the Lord, and therefore something that we must wait upon in prayer and while doing appropriate works of love with the other and on behalf of the other.

Q: On another front, there was also a stir in the media after Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum was released July 7. Some said that document is anti-Semitic. What has given that impression? And how should the document be interpreted in the light of Catholic-Jewish relations?

In the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, the Holy Father is merely extending permission for the wider pastoral application of the Missal of 1962 - the so-called Tridentine Mass. The 1962 "Missale Romanum" already reflected Blessed John XXIII's revision of liturgical language often construed as anti-Semitic.

In 1965, Vatican II's "Nostra Aetate" - no. 4 - then repudiated all forms of anti-Semitism as having no place within Christian life. When the new Mass was published in 1969, the only prayer for the Jewish people on Good Friday completely reflects a renewed understanding of the Jews as God's chosen people, "first to hear the word of God."

Throughout his papacy, Pope John Paul II worked effectively to reconcile the Church with the Jewish people and to strengthen new bonds of friendship. Benedict XVI is continuing along the same lines.

But keep in mind, in 1988 John Paul II himself gave permission for the missal of 1962 to be used as a pastoral provision to assist Catholics who remained attached to the previous rites, thereby hoping to develop closer bonds within the family of the Church.

The present Holy Father - and here I quote him - remains committed to "the need to overcome past prejudices, misunderstandings, indifference and the language of contempt and hostility (and to continue) the Jewish-Christian dialogue & to enrich and deepen the bonds of friendship which have developed" - Benedict XVI, On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of Nostra Aetate, Oct. 27, 2005.

By GILLIAN FLACCUS



LOS ANGELES, July 16 (AP)- A judge on Monday approved a $660 million settlement between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and more than 500 alleged victims of clergy abuse, the largest payout yet in a nationwide sex abuse scandal.

Some of the plaintiffs sobbed as the deal was formally approved and a moment of silence was held for others who had died during the years of negotiations.

"This is the right result," said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz. "Settling the cases was the right thing to do, and it was done by dint of a number of extremely talented and dedicated people putting in an awful lot of time."

The deal came after more than five years of negotiations and is by far the largest payout by any diocese since the clergy abuse scandal emerged in Boston in 2002.

The individual payouts will vary according to the severity and duration of the abuse alleged. The plaintiffs' attorneys are expected to receive up to 40 percent of the settlement.

Ray Boucher, the lead plaintiffs' attorney, asked his clients to stand during the hearing and thanked them for their resolve and their courage.

"I know it's hard for most of the victims whose scars are very deep ... and I know many will never forgive the cardinal," he said. "But he took steps that I think that only he could take and if left to the lawyers and others in the church he would not have settled this case."

Cardinal Roger Mahony sat through the hearing but did not speak. Mahony, who has led the archdiocese since 1985, issued an apology on Sunday after the settlement was announced.

"There really is no way to go back and give them that innocence that was taken from them. The one thing I wish I could give the victims ... I cannot," Mahony said Sunday. "Once again, I apologize to anyone who has been offended, who has been abused. It should not have happened and should not ever happen again."

Outside court, though, some plaintiffs weren't ready to accept the cardinal's words.

Lee Bashforth held up a photo of himself as a young boy with the priest he says abused him. He called Mahony's apology "disingenuous" and said the settlement only saved the church from having to face questions before a jury.

"I hope that I'm no longer an 'alleged' victim. Six hundred and sixty million dollars should take that alleged off," said another plaintiff, Steve Sanchez. "Cardinal Mahony got off cheap today."

Mahony has said the settlement would not have an impact on the archdiocese's core ministry, but that the church would have to sell buildings, use some of its invested funds, and borrow money. The settlement also calls for the release of priests' confidential personnel files after review by a judge.

The attorney for the archdiocese, Michael Hennigan, appeared emotional as he told the court that his views of clergy sexual abuse changed during the years he spent trying to hammer out an agreement. He said private meetings with 70 of the plaintiffs made the most impact.

"I'd like to say that the church would have been reformed without these cases, but I don't know that's true," he said. "These cases have forever reformed the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It will never be the same."

The deal settles all 508 cases that remained against the archdiocese, which also paid $60 million in December to settle 45 cases that weren't covered by sexual abuse insurance.

The archdiocese will pay $250 million, insurance carriers will pay a combined $227 million and several religious orders will chip in $60 million. The remaining $123 million will come from litigation with religious orders that chose not to participate in the deal, with the archdiocese guaranteeing resolution of those 80 to 100 cases within five years, Hennigan said. The archdiocese is released from liability in those claims, said Tod Tamberg, church spokesman.

The settlements push the total amount paid out by the U.S. church since 1950 to more than $2 billion, with about a quarter of that coming from the Los Angeles archdiocese.

Previously, the Los Angeles archdiocese, its insurers and various Roman Catholic orders had paid more than $114 million to settle 86 claims. Several religious orders in California have also reached multimillion-dollar settlements in recent months, including the Carmelites, the Franciscans and the Jesuits.

Parishioners reacted with a mix of disappointment and relief to the latest settlement.

Vivian Viscarra, 50, who attends Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, said the victims deserve the payout even though it could hurt the church's ability to deliver important services.

"It's making me reevaluate my views of whether people in the ministry should be married. People do have needs," she said.S. church since 1950 to more than $2 billion, with about a quarter of that coming from the Los Angeles archdiocese.

Previously, the Los Angeles archdiocese, its insurers and various Roman Catholic orders had paid more than $114 million to settle 86 claims. Several religious orders in California have also reached multimillion-dollar settlements in recent months, including the Carmelites, the Franciscans and the Jesuits.

Parishioners reacted with a mix of disappointment and relief to the latest settlement.

Vivian Viscarra, 50, who attends Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, said the victims deserve the payout even though it could hurt the church's ability to deliver important services.

"It's making me reevaluate my views of whether people in the ministry should be married. People do have needs," she said.


Scepticism over apology
Los Angeles Times
July 17, 2007


LOS ANGELES: Cardinal Roger Mahony says he decided to settle the lawsuits with hundreds of abuse victims of predatory priests after talking with victims individually over the past year and realising how deeply they had been hurt.

In his first public statement since the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese's record $US660 million settlement was reached with 508 claimants, Cardinal Mahony said he told the victims: "Your life, I wish [it] were like a VHS tape & we could put the tape in & and delete these years of difficulty and misery."

But lawyers and advocates for the victims said that they were sceptical of his contrition, noting that the pact announced on Saturday, after 4½ years of negotiations, came just before the first case was set to go to trial, with the cardinal due to testify. And they said they feared they would never learn the full truth about the accused and those who might have shielded them, including Cardinal Mahony.

"He avoided the No. 1 thing he fears, which is disclosing under oath how much he knew and how little he did about predatory priests," said David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

The settlement ends all pending abuse litigation against the archdiocese.

===================================================================


I have felt absolutely no sympathy for the LA Archbishop from the moment I became aware of his existence a couple of years ago, because all I've ever read of him are reports about how he does and says all the things I find detestable in arrogantly liberal Catholic priests.

Looking at the monstrosity that he built as the main cathedral for the city dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels [though most people seem to have forgotten all about the Our Lady part] made me question his very sanity. Subsequent stories and pictures of the 1950s-Havana-cabaret-style 'religious festivals' he sponsors year-in and year-out inside that Church, with Kool-Aid pitchers instead of chalices for Mass, have only sunk my personal opinion of him to below-absolute zero.

His overall behavior before yesterday with respect to sex-abuse claims in his diocese made me wonder whether God was inflicting a Sodom-and-Gomorrah curse on LA in the person of its very archbishop. Perhaps this lightning bolt of retribution will bring him to his senses.

In his place, I think any decent person would offer to resign right away, so the Church will not have to carry him as a visible stigma representing the utter failure of discipline, responsibility and honesty within an institution that is supposed to be holy, a symbol of the filth that has been tolerated in the clergy (even if he himself may be personally chaste and correct).

I am sure I am not the only Catholic who feels the Church was not well-served when Cardinal Law was plucked out of Boston 5 years ago and rewarded by being named Arch-Priest of Rome's biggest Marian sanctuary, the third-ranking of all Papal Basilicas. I don't believe Pope Benedict will do anything similar with Mahoney.

It is not out of sanctimoniousness that I reflect on how - whatever the circumstances - the punishment must fit the crime (or the grave offense, in the case of Cardinals Law and Mahoney). But by the principle of command responsibility, the public needs to see that those in command are penalized, as much as the diocese of LA is now penalized by emptying its assets to make good on the offenses of some sinning priests.

Is there a law that says cardinals can't be sent to do missionary work? If I were Cardinal Mahoney, I'd offer to go serve in Darfur or China the rest of my days.

That said, I came about this 'edifying' post by Curt Jester on a different angle altogether:

July 15, 2007
A Tale of Two Cardinals


...In the middle of the L.A. Times article, one happens upon this staggering statistic:

---

In Los Angeles, some 75% of the archdiocese's 288 parishes were served at some time by a cleric accused of molesting, according to a Times study. As the scandal's details slowly emerged, it became clear that the church hierarchy knew about complaints against some priests and that at least a dozen were allowed to continue working in ministry after their conduct with children was questioned.

---

Now, just for fun, name another industry or organization wherein the boss could have overseen operations that led to the above quote in the L.A. Times and a $600,000,000 loss for the company/organization without any consequences?

People are also bound to wonder about the obvious difference in treatment between Cardinal Mahoney and Cardinal Law. The difference between the L.A. Times and the Boston Globe's coverage of their respective cardinals is striking. The L.A. Times has had some highly critical pieces on Cardinal Mahony in relation to priestly abuse, but not very many of them.

One difference that comes to mind is the cases that came to trial in L.A. are, as Diogenes previously noted, 44 representive cases the Archdiocese agreed could be litigated in court, range from 1958 to 1984. All of them prior to Mahony times Archbishop.

So there is no direct linkage to the Cardinal and the details of the cases prosecuted and post-1985 abuse cases will likely be settled out of court. So we just are not going to hear about the cases where he might have been involved in covering up abuse when he was still a priest and those cases he was obviously involved in as a Cardinal.

Though even the case cherry-picking does not account for the disparity in coverage. There have been some moves in the Archdiocese handling of priestly abuse under Cardinal Mahony that have been breathtaking in their arrogance.

The legal maneuvering to hide records of what the Archdiocese knew such as invoking confidentially of correspondence and putting any meetings between the Cardinal and a suspect as being spiritual guidance and protected.

In the case of abuser Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera the Archdiocese prevented further interviews under the guise of fear of an immigration crackdown. All of these legal tactics should have demanded spectacular headlines form the L.A. Times and other papers, but while there was coverage it certainly wasn't amped up as the Globe's was (of Cardinal Law).

The differences in coverage seem to be due to the fact that the L.A. Times is quite sympathetic to Cardinal Mahony and the issues the Cardinal has fought for over the years. Cardinal Law despite his quite obvious flaws and complicity in the abuse cover- ups was quite orthodox in his theology and heavily involved in the pro-life movement and of course this made him a prime target.

Cardinal Mahony in contrast makes some noises in a pro-life direction, but is hardly active in the movement and has no problem holding events for ardently pro-abortion politicians. The L.A. Times can easily see him as one of their own and while they are troubled about the abuse problems under his watch, well between friends, can't we overlook some flaws?

The media is certainly not going to shame Cardinal Mahony into resigning barring some yet unknown circumstances. The Cardinal is safe just as long as he doesn't become too pro-life or actually start showing signs of orthodoxy.

July 16, 2007.
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)

HAVANA, Cuba (CNS) - The Latin American bishops' council has drafted a more than 100-point plan to implement conclusions in the final document of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, said the council's newly elected president.

Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, Brazil, president of the council, known by its Spanish acronym as CELAM, said the church in Latin American must continue to respond to the "scandalous gap" between rich and poor in the region, attract lapsed Catholics back to the church and engage in pastoral work based on the conclusions of the conference held in Aparecida in May.

Some 70 delegates, including five cardinals, represented their bishops' conferences at the July 10-13 meeting at San Juan Maria Vianney house in Havana. Such meetings are held every two years, while general conferences, such as the one in Brazil, are held less frequently.

During the assembly, the bishops officially released the final version of the conclusions of the Aparecida conference. The document, which was approved by Pope Benedict XVI, calls for the church to be "in a permanent state of mission" and evangelization.

Archbishop Assis said that although the church faces "many challenges" it is "in tune with the times" and will adapt.

Acknowledging that the church must get in step with the 21st century, the archbishop said that "adapting to a new world, new languages, new technologies is a matter of formation and time."

"Countries, universities and businesses are renewing themselves, and the church is doing the same," he said.

Archbishop Assis noted the importance of deepening the identity of Catholics "in a world that is culturally and religiously pluralistic."

In response to the growth of evangelical and other Protestant churches in the region, every man and woman religious must be "a missionary who lives out the faith and who offers it to others as a means to personal fulfillment," he said.

He also expressed concern about "a huge, scandalous (income) gap" in the region. The region's countries must develop closer ties so they can respond to the people's needs, he said.

"In the globalized world, Latin America must unite so it has strength in international forums, to defend its rights and its interests," he said.

At the Aparecida conference, Archbishop Baltazar Porras Cardoza of Merida, Venezuela, was elected first vice president of CELAM, and Bishop Andres Stanovnik of Reconquista, Argentina, was elected second vice president.

The new CELAM leaders said they will begin laying the groundwork for implementing the conclusions of the Aparecida conference at their first coordinating meeting Aug. 6-10 in Bogota, Colombia.

Archbishop Porras said, "The document from Aparecida calls us to a deep transformation of our vocation as disciples."

He said that there must be an "acceptance of pluralism, acceptance of different viewpoints that complement one another instead of trying to eliminate others."

"That is one of the challenges facing the church today," said the archbishop. "We live in a pluralistic world. Instead of deciding how we are going to confront this situation, we must decide how we are going to accept it."

Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana said during the assembly's closing Mass that the conclusions from Aparecida call the entire church to be missionaries: "from bishops, priests and deacons to those in consecrated life and the laity."

"It is time to set aside any false sense of security and go out in mission," he said.

Meanwhile, CELAM participants expressed solidarity with the church in Cuba. It was the first time CELAM had met in the communist island nation.

"We are all very committed to the Cuban church and to our church throughout the region, and we view the task that lies ahead with hope and as a challenge that we must face together," said Archbishop Porras.

Auxiliary Bishop Juan de Dios Hernandez Ruiz of Havana, secretary-general of the Cuban bishops' conference, said hosting the meeting made the Catholic Church in Cuba feel "more than ever in harmony with the church of Latin America and the Caribbean."

Bishop Stanovnik called the bishops' presence in Havana a sign of "huge support for the Cuban church," which "means being close to it, accompanying it, encouraging it, not because there was a special strategy to hold (the meeting) here, but because Cuba was one of the three or four countries where this assembly had not yet been held."

Archbishop Assis said the bishops had met with Cuban officials and thanked the government for making it possible to hold the meeting in Havana.

"We are grateful for the meeting (with government officials), which was cordial," Archbishop Assis said. "We hope that there will be ongoing dialogue between government officials and the Cuban church about matters related to the church and its pastoral mission."

Relations between the church and the Cuban government have had ups and downs since the revolution that put Fidel Castro in power in 1959. Pope John Paul II's historic visit to the island in January 1998 lowered the tension, although there has been little progress on the church's most important demands, such as access to state-controlled media and education.

The assembly came at a time when the Cuban church "has pastoral experience and can make a contribution that is equal to that of other Latin American churches," said Cuban Bishop Emilio Aranguren Echeverria of Hoguin, who was elected to head CELAM's finance committee.

"There are times when the church's mission is limited, and people think it's just a matter of worship, evangelizing and catechesis," he said. "But the church's mission has a dimension of charitable works, service and outreach, because the church is called to live in society."

He said dialogue with government officials "will gradually become cleansed of a series of prejudices and assumptions that have often been made" because of "historical events" or "a specific ideological mentality."

"I hope (the dialogue) and the doors remain open," he said.


SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...

July 16, 2007.
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

MADRID, Spain (CNA) - Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid said the problems that plague Europe, such as a low birth rate, could be solved by returning to the Christian roots of the European culture which made it "a luminous point of reference" for the rest of the world.

Speaking on the COPE radio network, the cardinal recalled a recent speech he gave at Ratisbona Cathedral in Germany in which he said the serious problems and questions facing Europe would not be solved if the continent's Christian history is ignored.

Cardinal Rouco emphasized that recognizing the Christian roots of Europe does not jeopardize the independence of the institutions of the state, pointing to grave problems in Europe that require urgent attention, such as the aging population and the low birth rate, the wave of immigration, and the lack of moral, spiritual and religious values.

The cardinal noted that in Europe there is a tendency to forget that the central values of natural ethics have their basis in Christianity and that these values are necessary for finding solutions to Europe's most serious problems.

"Europe has a present and a future," the cardinal said. "To take any other path, or worse, one that is opposed to this, would be very difficult and the future would not be very rosy," he warned.


SOURCE:http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=24722

Thanks for posting Teresa. A price must be paid for the wickedness that occurred. Very distrubing to hear (although we are not sure to what extent) the Cardinal has partipated in a cover-up. I have heard some whispers of that before. I think the apology could have been said in a better way...mabye that's just me.

I'm not very familar with Card. Mahoney, but I have heard & seen some of his liturgical "creativeness" and how when there are 'religious festivals' for the Archdiocese, that orthodox speakers are rarely there. I agree with you, I don't think he will be dealt with in a way similar to Card. Law. I don't know how close he is to retirement age, I don't even think the Pope will wait that long. He's going to be dealt with with by Papa (after he testifies, perhaps?), only a replacement needs to be found. Card. Mahoney is not too big for missionary work, he should surely consider it.

The LA Lawsuit

As I understand it, Cardinal Mahoney won't have to testify in court now that this enormous settlement has been reached. Tonight, on CNN's Larry King Live television show, the settlement was one of the items discussed, complete with an abuse victim and one of the anti-Church attorneys complaining that the cardinal paid the money to protect himself from having to appear in court. It gave Larry even more ammunition to beat up on the Catholic Church, something he really seems to take a lot of pleasure doing.

===================================================================

Oh yes, beating-up is what the Church is in for this summer! Between the Vatican pre-Papal vacation developments and this one, the media have been handed their summer 'treats' on a platter - they won't have to go out looking for stories, they'll simply just rehash all their issues against the Church because they've been given all the convenient news pegs!

Teresa

My mistake, they wont have to go to trial since a settlement has been reached. Thanks, benefan. I didn't see Larry King tonight, but the attorney is the one who made the deal (presumably) and if they really wanted to see Card. Mahoney in court they didn't have to take the money. The article also says that the attorneys are excepted to receive up to 40% of the settlement. They would have probably received some monetary compensation anyway after the trial had been completed. But that could have been too emotional for some to go through.

Sexual abuse
not just a Catholic problem: Vatican
By Philip Pullella


VATICAN CITY, July 17 (Reuters) - Sexual abuse of children is not just a Catholic Church problem and other institutions should take steps to acknowledge and deal with such "wickedness" within their own ranks, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

The Vatican's chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, also said the record $660 million settlement between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and victims of sexual abuse was an attempt to "close a painful chapter and look forward."

"The Church is above all clearly pained by the suffering of the victims and their families, by the deep wounds caused by the grave and inexcusable behavior of some of its members," Lombardi said.

"It has decided to commit itself in every way to avoid a repetition of such wickedness," he said, adding that the Church now had a "a policy of prevention and creation of an ever more secure atmosphere for children and young people in all aspects of (its) pastoral programs."

Lombardi reaffirmed a position taken by other Catholic Church leaders in the past -- that other organized religions and institutions should also deal with paedophilia as publicly as the Catholic Church has been forced to by various scandals.

"The problem of the abuse of childhood and its adequate protection certainly does not regard only the (Catholic) Church, but also many other institutions and it is right that these take the necessary decisions as well," he said.

Lombardi said the Church was aware of its educational responsibilities to youth and intended to be "a protagonist in the struggle against paedophilia," which he said was on the rise worldwide.

The Los Angeles decision involved 508 plaintiffs in cases dating back to the 1940s. The pre-trial settlement means Cardinal Roger Mahony will not have to testify in court.

The settlement reached on Saturday after 4 1/2 years of negotiations came before the first trial was due to begin on Monday. Victims' attorneys would have called Mahony to testify about the church hierarchy's protection of abusive priests.

The Los Angeles settlement dwarfs other landmark payouts. The Archdiocese of Boston, where the U.S. scandal erupted in 2002, reached a 2003 deal for 550 people worth $85 million.

Boston's archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law, was forced to resign in disgrace in December 2002.

Leaders of the U.S. Catholic Church were found to have moved priests who abused minors to new parishes instead of defrocking them or reporting them to authorities.

In his interview with Vatican Radio, Lombardi spoke of the "sacrifices" the settlement would impose on the archdiocese.

The settlement funds will come from the archdiocese selling real estate assets, including the archdiocese's headquarters, insurers and various Catholic religious orders.

Before his election as pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger went out on a limb to decry the "filth" in the Church.

Benedict, who was elected in 2005, has taken a tougher stand on sexual abuse in the Church than his predecessor. Last year he disciplined Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the 86-year-old founder of the conservative Legionaries of Christ, who had been accused of sexually abusing boys decades ago.

July 17, 2007
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

GLASGOW , Scotland (Catholic Online) - The state oversteps its bounds by attempting to write out in law and in social policy the role of the father in the raising of children, said the Catholic bishops of Scotland.

In a July 13 letter written to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Scotland's two most senior Catholic officials, Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Edinburgh and St. Andrews and Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow, the president and vice president, respectively, of the Scottish Bishops' Conference, called for an urgent review of the timetable for the ongoing public consultation on the "Human Tissue and Embryology Bill," arguing elements of the draft legislation could be extremely harmful to the long-term welfare of children.

"The draft legislation proposes to remove the current reference in legislation to a child's need for a father," the prelates said.

"The proposals, they stressed, "constitute a sweeping attempt to rewrite traditional concepts of parenthood and the family."

Cardinal O'Brien and Archbishop Conti noted that passage of the draft bill would mean "that, prior to provision of fertility treatment, there will no longer be any requirement, nor guidance, to consider the child's need for a father."

They suggested that the draft provisions were "devised to accommodate the huge variety of new technologies that have followed in the wake of in vitro fertilization, and which facilitate the creation of children without any deference to historical social traditions or indeed to natural biology."

While noting that the draft bill is "under scrutiny" by a joint committee of the two houses of Parliament and is "a complex and lengthy document," the Catholic bishops' officials said that section three, which addresses the child's lack of need of a father, has had "very little public airing."

The joint committee's consultation on the bill will only last "for a mere two months, over the summer and during the parliamentary recess," calling the prime minister to act now to ensure "that these very important considerations are given the time they merit."

"We do not believe that there has been anywhere near sufficient widespread and informed public consultation on the matters in question and that to proceed in haste with regard to issues of such grave importance is both improper and dangerous," they concluded.


SOURCE:http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=24738

By Simon Caldwell
July 17, 2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)

LONDON (CNS) - An independent commission has urged the Catholic bishops of England and Wales to bring their child-protection measures in line with the Code of Canon Law amid fears that false allegations are driving priests away from working with young people.

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Produced by a commission headed by Baroness Cumberlege, a member of the House of Lords, the report published July 16 warned the bishops that "persistent and tenacious" fear among the clergy over malicious accusations of abuse needs to be addressed urgently.

The report, called "Safeguarding With Confidence," said many priests believe the system brought in five years ago after several high-profile clerical abuse cases is loaded unjustly against them. The report was the result of the first five-year review of the bishops' 2002 child protection policies.

Many priests believe the procedures treat them as if they are guilty as soon as an accusation has been received - even if the police later find there is no basis for the accusation, several priests told Catholic News Service. They said they are often immediately evicted from their homes, then spend years unable to practice their ministry while undergoing a series of grueling psychological "risk assessments."

Sometimes action has been taken against priests without telling them what exactly they have been accused of and who has made the allegation, both of which are in breach of canon law.

The report, which has 72 recommendations with the goal of implementing a single, uniform set of child protection policies in the church, insisted that the protection of children in the church must remain paramount. But it also addressed a "damaging tension that has driven a wedge" between the bishops and priests who feel they are being hung out to dry to save the skins of their superiors.

It said the church risked a "serious reversal" of some of the gains it had made in tackling child abuse if it failed to deal with tensions within its own ranks over the issue.

It urges the bishops to restore confidence by applying to the Vatican for a decree, or "recognitio," to bring their child protection measures into line with canon law. A similar territorial provision was granted to the U.S. bishops in 2002.

"A strong and vocal lobby of priests now believes that the system for dealing with allegations against them leaves them exposed and vulnerable and is a breach of canon law and natural justice," said the report.

"They believe they can no longer count on the support of their bishop (or) congregational leader because they perceive the system to be weighted against priests," it said.

"This has both eroded the trust between priests and bishops and between religious and congregational leaders and has engendered a fear among the clergy (including those in formation) of the false or malicious allegation - a fear which is tenacious and persistent despite there being no evidence of any upturn in the numbers of allegations made against priests," it said.

Figures released in June by the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults revealed that in 2006 police in England and Wales investigated 41 allegations of abuse in the church, which resulted in one conviction.

However, 24 allegations immediately resulted in no further action, suggesting that the majority of the allegations were unfounded.

Baroness Cumberlege sits on the Conservative Party benches of the British Parliament's House of Lords. From 1992 until 1997, she served in the government of Prime Minister John Major as a junior health minister. She had been commissioned to produce national reports on nursing and maternity services for two governments before undertaking the review of the child protection in the church.

Baroness Cumberlege told CNS in an interview July 13 that she was confident the Vatican would grant a "recognitio" because Msgr. Charles Scicluna, promoter of justice at the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, personally had assured her that "what we are proposing in no way conflicts with canon law."

In a statement released July 13, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said the review had been "thorough, painstaking and independent."

"Later this year, we will make a more formal response to the commission's findings once the best way forward has been discerned," he said.

Among its other findings, the commission identified a view held by some in the church that child protection policies and procedures are "too long, overly bureaucratic and impenetrable," and lacking in theological and spiritual context.

It said that "some resistance to change and a fear and suspicion that the authority of the leadership is being undermined has impeded the delivery of consistently good - let alone excellent - safeguarding arrangements."

There should also be "much more" focus on safeguarding vulnerable adults, the report added.


SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...

New Bishop of Beijing named -
reportedly with Vatican OK


VATICAN CITY, July 17 (Adnkronos) - The Chinese government through the Patriotic Association has named the new Archbishop of Beijing - Li Shan, 43, parish priest of the Parish of St. Joseph in the Chinese capital,who trained in the seminary of the 'official' Chinese Church.

This was learned by Adnkronos from authoritative sources at the Vatican.

The nomination will be formally made by Chinese authorities shortly. The Vatican has agreed to a choice that is apparently both that of the underground Church as well as the official Church in China. The agreement is a sign that Pope Benedict's appeal for unity within the Church in China may have led to one important step.

The sources said the 'negotiations' on this matter had begun before the Pope's letter - a copy of which the Vatican had provided the ?Chinese government beforehand - was made public.


Here is the background of Li Shan's selection, according to UCAN:

Beijing Diocese Elects New Bishop,
First Since Pope's Letter Published

HONG KONG, July 17 (UCAN) - Beijing diocese has held an election to fill the episcopal see left vacant when Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan died on April 20.

Church sources who asked not to be named told UCA News that Father Joseph Li Shan was elected on July 16 as the candidate to replace Bishop Fu. Father Li is parish priest of St. Joseph's Church, commonly known as Dongtang (East Church) in Wangfujing, a well-known shopping area in downtown Beijing.

The election result is to be submitted to the Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church of China for approval. Once approved, the episcopal ordination would be held within three months.

The Church sources also told UCA News on July 17 that about 50 diocesan priests, 20 nuns and 30 laypeople - two lay representatives from each parish - took part in the polling.

Father Paul Sun Shang'en, an elderly Beijing diocese priest, told UCA News on July 17 that 93 voters took part in the election, and that a Liturgy of the Word service and a homily preceded the balloting at Beijing Conference Center.

According to Father Sun, Father Li received 74 of the 93 votes cast.

The elderly priest, who has been in charge of diocesan affairs since Bishop Fu's death, also noted that one voter abstained from voting in the poll.

He also said that Father Peter Zhao Jianmin, director of the Institute for the Study of Christianity and Culture of Beijing diocese, got 10 votes, Father Matthew Zhen Xuebin, rector of Beijing seminary, received five, and Father Gao Yang, parish priest of St. Michael's Church in Dongjiaomin Lane, got three.

Father Sun confirmed that no government official was present during the voting.

Church sources in Beijing confirmed that the polling did take place on the morning of July 16 and all the candidates except Father Li studied abroad. They also noted that government officials had earlier lobbied all priests to ensure that Father Li would be elected.

Father Li, now in his early 40s, entered the Beijing seminary in 1983 and was ordained a priest in 1989. He has served in parishes and is currently vice chairman of the Church Affairs Commission of Beijing diocese, as well as a representative of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress.

Another Church source pointed out to UCA News that priests and laypeople have high regard for Father Li and that he is competent in pastoral work.

This is the first "self-election" of an episcopal candidate in the "open" Church community of mainland China since the letter of Pope Benedict XVI to Catholics in China was released on June 30.

In the "Letter of The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops, Priests, Consecrated Persons and Lay Faithful of the Catholic Church in the People's Republic of China," the pope admitted that the issue of episcopal appointments is "one of the most delicate problems" between the Holy See and the Chinese authorities.

Pope Benedict also asserted that the appointment of bishops by the pope guarantees the unity of the Church and hierarchical communion.

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Gerald O'Connell, UCAN correspondent at the Vatican, told korazym.org that "China is responding with action to the Pope's letter."

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But the report Reuters out of Beijing today was downbeat!


China nominates bishop,
threatening Vatican rift
By Chris Buckley


BEIJING, July 18 (Reuters) - China's state-controlled Catholic church has quietly nominated a new bishop for Beijing and the priest chosen said the government would decide whether to seek approval from Rome as Pope Benedict demanded.

The nomination of Father Li Shan, apparently so far without Vatican blessing, could widen the rift between Rome and Beijing weeks after the Pope issued a letter calling for a unified Chinese church free of state interference.

China's 8 to 12 million Catholics are split between an "above-ground" church approved by the ruling Communist Party and an "underground" church that rejects government ties and says it answers only to Rome.

The state-approved church widely honors the Pope as a spiritual figurehead, but the government restricts formal contacts with Rome, which has not had diplomatic ties with Beijing since 1951.

On June 30, Pope Benedict issued a letter on the Chinese church that urged reconciliation. But he said the Vatican must be allowed to pick bishops, possibly with some government consultation -- a claim China has rejected as interference in its domestic affairs.

The death in April of Beijing bishop Fu Tieshan, who did not have Rome's blessing, opened a vacancy in China's most prominent diocese and presented a test for China-Vatican relations.

Some church people have hoped that in the wake of the Pope's letter, China will make a gesture of goodwill by giving Rome some say in naming Fu's successor.

But the elevation of Li, who said he had not been in contact with the Vatican, may inflame tensions if he is appointed without papal blessing.

One priest familiar with the issue said Li may be in private contact with the Vatican and it was too early to assume he would be ordained without Vatican approval. Like other sources he requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue.

In 2006, the Vatican criticized China for naming several bishops without papal approval, sparking sharp exchanges over religious freedom and political control.

Li, a priest in his 40s for a church in the city's commercial heart, was endorsed by a group of dozens of clergy and lay people from the state-approved Beijing diocese on Monday, two sources familiar with the decision told Reuters.

The Union of Catholic Asian News, an Internet news service, reported that "government officials had earlier lobbied all priests to ensure that Father Li would be elected."

Li, who also uses the Christian name Joseph, told Reuters he had not been in contact with the Vatican and it was not for him to decide whether to do so.

"It's up to the government to decide," he said. "I haven't considered that, because there are a lot of things that need to be done. There's still a long time."

He said his nomination had been submitted to China's state-controlled Bishops' Conference, which in turn would consult with "other authorities."

These days the majority of bishops even in China's state-approved church have secured Rome's blessing, and in his letter the Pope said those ordained should make a point of announcing that approval when they take up their positions.

Two sources described Li as a kindly but unassertive priest. "He may be too meek to take on this very tough role," one of them said.

Father Li has been a vice chairman of the Beijing branch of the state-backed Catholic Patriotic Association and also belongs to the city People's Congress, a party-run parliament.

One source said Li's formal appointment could come as early as next week, when state-approved clergy gather in Beijing for celebrations marking fifty years since the founding of the Patriotic Association.


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And here's the AsiaNews report:


CHINA - VATICAN
The new Bishop of Beijing is elected

Father Joseph Li Shan is a pastor who has demonstrated independence from the Patriotic Association.
He is the first new bishop since Benedict XVI's letter.
Chosen by an 'independent' procedure and not appointed by the Pope, but his name was among those with Romes approval.


Beijing, July 18 (AsiaNews) - The 'community' of the Beijing diocese has chosen Fr. Joseph Li Shan, 43, as their new bishop. The news was gathered from Chinese Catholic sources, who clarify that his nomination took place on July 16th.

His election will be confirmed by the 'Council of Bishops, taking over the post left vacant by the death of Michele Fu Tieshan, Patriotic Archbishop of Beijing, who died on April 20th or maybe even earlier.

As president of the Patriotic Association, the organism by which the Communist Party controls the Catholic Church in the country, Msgr. Fu Tieshan always sided with the government and against the Holy See. On his death he was given a state burial, attended by numerous political figures and few faithful.

Fr. Li Shan's election is the first to take place in China following the publication of Benedict XVI's Letter to the Catholics of China. The procedure for his appointment was formally 'independent', insofar as he was elected by an assembly comprising priests, nuns and lay people and not nominated by the Pope.

He will similarly be confirmed by the Council of Bishops, a group which the Pope wrote in his Letter, "cannot be recognised as an Episcopal conference of the Apostolic See".

Regarding the choice of Fr. Li Shan, officially, the Vatican has limited itself to following the situation 'with great attention' but without any comment. Instead, according to Chinese Catholic sources, the name of Fr. Li Shan was among those put forward for the post of Beijing archbishop which did not raise objections in Rome, even in the absence an 'accord'.

Fr. Giuseppe Li Shan, in fact, is considered across the board as a good and true pastor. A man of faith, capable of relating to both the faithful and the political authorities. He is a native of Beijing; his family has a deep rooted Catholic tradition, giving him an advantage over someone not from the area. He has never travelled abroad, not even for study. If this creates some difficulties regarding international relations, on the other hand it makes him to a 'national product' in the eyes of the faithful and the authorities.

In his relations with the Patriotic Association he has been most succinct, rejecting the power of the AP. In recent years he has fought against the forced expropriation of Church property in his parish (Dong Tang) by members of the AP and the secretary of Fu Tieshan, Chen Maoju. This is why the faithful of Beijing admire him. His opposition to the AP and Fu's gang also put him in a good light with the local and national government.

Currently he is the parish priest of St Joseph's (Dong Tang), in Beijing's shopping area of Wangfujin.

By Cian Molloy
July 18, 2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)

DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has called on the Irish government to hold a community summit to address what he called "the revolting new culture of violence" in Irish society.

"The levels of violence and the repetitions of killings are reaching levels which are truly close to an emergency for our society," Archbishop Martin said July 15 during a Mass in Dublin. "I appeal to the government to convoke a summit of a wide range of leaders in society - not just those involved in the important work of law enforcement - but of all those in society who are in a position to forge a new national consensus to address the roots of this violence.

"We must take a stand as a society. Too many lives have been wasted, too many families shattered," said the archbishop.

"We have had three people killed in violent attacks in Ireland in one weekend," he said, referring to the July 13-15 murders of three men in the area.

Of the 14 homicides in the greater Dublin area this year, 10 have been gang-related. As Ireland has become more prosperous, the use of cocaine has mushroomed, and with it gang violence and turf wars.

"This is a new culture of meaningless violence, which only creates a climate of vengeance and fear and retaliation," he said. "It is a culture which breaks down and destroys neighborliness. That is not the direction which life in modern Ireland should be taking."


SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...

July 18, 2007.
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

HARARE Zimbabwe (CNA) - The outspoken critic of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Archbishop Pius Ncube of Harare, is being taken to court for allegedly having an affair with one of his secretaries.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday by the husband of the woman in question, Rosemary Sibanda, asks for the equivalent of $160,000 as compensation for emotional damages and the loss of companionship.

In reaction to the filing of charges against the cleric, the archbishop’s lawyer said that the claims are part of an “orchestrated attempt” to embarrass his client.

Photographs were published yesterday by the state-run media that claim to show the archbishop undressing in his bedroom with the plaintiff’s wife.

Democracy activist David Coltart, a Bulawayo attorney and longtime friend of Ncube, said the only incriminating photographs were blurred and did not conclusively show the archbishop.

Onesimus Sibanda, the husband who filed suit, is railroad technician. He was unlikely to have been able mount an elaborate "sting operation" and litigation alone, Coltart said.

Previously, state intelligence agents used a hidden camera in the treason case against Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai was acquitted in 2004 after more than a year of court hearings.

However, in an interview on state television, Archbishop Ncube said, "We all have weaknesses. That's why when we pray we always ask God for forgiveness.”

"I will not answer this question concerning my private life,” he said. “Yes, I did take a vow. There are a whole lot of other circumstances that take place in a person's life. I would not be able to answer those items."

The church leader has said that he will deal with the allegations in the courts and not on a television camera. “Yes I have been served with the summons but at this juncture I am saying let us deal with the courts since the case is already before the courts," he said, according to Reuters report.


SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...


Mugabe to Pray for Cleric in Sex Case


Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe addresses mourners at a state funeral in Harare, Wednesday July 18, 2007. Mugabe chided his countrymen over adultery, and said he would pray for Zimbabwean Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, an outspoken government critic. Ncube was named Monday in a civil adultery suit filed by a railroad worker who alleged his wife, a secretary in Ncube's office, had a two-year affair with the archbishop of the second city of Bulawayo

By Angus Shaw
July 18, 2007.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Associated Press) - President Robert Mugabe said he would pray for Zimbabwean Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, an outspoken government critic accused of having an affair.

Mugabe, speaking at a funeral for a former guerrilla leader, smiled when he mentioned the Ncube case, which has been a fixture in state media for three days. Ncube's lawyer has called the adultery case an "orchestrated attempt" to embarrass the cleric.

"To take other people's wives, is that a good game?" Mugabe asked mourners during the nationally televised funeral for Brig. Gen. Fakazi Muleya, who died of cancer.

The civil adultery suit was filed Monday by a railroad worker who alleged his wife, a secretary in Ncube's office, had a two-year affair with the archbishop of the city of Bulawayo. State TV crews accompanied court officials when they delivered the documents to the cleric.

Ncube has repeatedly accused Mugabe of human rights violations and called for him to step down. The cleric has also urged Zimbabweans to take to the streets to demonstrate against the government amid the nation's worst economic crisis since independence.

In 2005, Ncube said he prayed for Mugabe to die.

"To pray for people to die is bad. God is for us all. ... I will pray for him so he has some good manners," Mugabe said at Heroes Acre, a shrine for former guerrillas in the war that led to Zimbabwe's 1980 independence from Britain.

"I also know God, I am a Roman Catholic. I am a person who belongs to the church but I didn't have an affair with anyone," he added.

Mugabe, however, fathered two children with his secretary before his first wife died. He married the secretary, Grace Marufu, in 1996, and said later his first wife condoned his relationship because she knew she was barren.

On Tuesday, the official Herald newspaper published photographs allegedly taken by a camera hidden in Ncube's bedroom, claiming they show the archbishop undressing beside the woman he is accused of having an affair with. The photograph depicted Ncube sitting on a bed taking off his shirt, obscuring a woman seated behind him.

The Herald said many explicit pictures were taken by a private investigator hired by the man who filed the adultery case.

Zimbabwe once had one of the most diversified, vibrant economies in southern Africa. Its current decline, marked by inflation of 4,500 percent _ unofficially 9,000 percent _ had been linked to confiscation of farms from whites that started in 2000.

Mugabe said the rampant inflation was orchestrated by Western countries, including Britain and the United States, and "enemies" within Zimbabwe to bring about "regime change."

Last month, the government ordered price cuts of at least 50 percent in an attempt to curb inflation, leading to acute food shortages and near riots as cheaper goods went on sale.

Mugabe said manufacturers, suppliers and profiteers were "mistreating" consumers with inflated prices and forcing the government to intervene.

"If things are not found on the shelves it's not our fault, it's their fault," Mugabe said.


SOURCE: dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pub&dt=070719&cat=international&st=internationald8qfcaj0...

I found this article interesting because I have been noticing a lot of retreats and workshops offered by Jesuits and by several orders of nuns which focus on how to use Zen, yoga, mazes, enneagrams, psychological assessments, and a variety of other "unconventional" means to help with prayer, contemplation, and self discovery (all about me). Fewer and fewer retreats, it seems, focus on standard Catholic themes (all about God)--too boring and unimaginative, I guess. Anyhow, this article touches on the trend.


Despite pop works’ claims, Buddhist, Catholic beliefs collide, don’t blend

By Emily Stimpson
7/19/2007
Our Sunday Visitor

HUNTINGTON, Ind. (Our Sunday Visitor) – Looking for a quiet little place where you can hone your skills in Zen Buddhist meditation? The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia can help. Weekends devoted to Zen Buddhism are regularly scheduled events on the calendar of their retreat center in Spokane, Wash.

Or perhaps you’re more interested in doing a little reading before bedtime on the religious traditions of the East? Jesuit Father Robert Kennedy has just the book for you. His Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit (Continuum, $14.95) can school you in the ways of the Buddha and help reconcile your fascination with all things Asian to your Christian past.

And should you have any doubts about the compatibility of Buddhist practices with the Christian faith, look no further than Sister Elaine McInnes, whose book Zen Contemplation for Christians (Sheed and Ward, $15.95) dismisses such reservations as antiquated hang-ups from those dreadful days before the Second Vatican Council.

So, is she correct?

The simple answer is “no.” Nevertheless, thousands of Catholics and Christians from coast to coast are still buying into the belief that the best way to become a better Christian is to first become a better Buddhist. Thousands more are rejecting their Christian roots altogether and embracing the more exotic religious practices of the East.

‘Four Noble Truths’

Just what exactly is it about Buddhism that attracts these Westerners? And why do so many Christians stubbornly insist that the two faiths are compatible?

Answering those questions first requires some defining of terms, which with Buddhism is no easy task. Rather like Protestantism, there are many different types of Buddhism, with many different sets of beliefs. The most well-known in the West are Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, but the exact shape those forms take in America are different still from the shape they take in their native habitats.

Defining what constitutes a Buddhist is almost as difficult as defining Buddhism.

Because many forms of Buddhism require little to no community participation, a person can consider himself a Buddhist because he attends an occasional Buddhist retreat, practices Buddhist meditation or just attempts to incorporate the teachings of the Buddha into his daily life.

But according to Anthony Clark, a professor of Chinese history at the University of Alabama, for all the seeming and real differences in Buddhism, at their core, all forms share the same four fundamental principles. Those principles, referred to as the “Four Noble Truths,” came to the Buddha (born Siddhartha Gautama, c. 483 B.C.) while he was meditating one afternoon in the shade of a bodhi tree.

The “Four Noble Truths” are: 1) All of life is suffering.

2) Selfish desire causes that suffering.

3) Detachment from desire brings freedom from suffering.

4) Desire can be extinguished through following the “Eight-fold Path” – having right views, intentions, speech, actions, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.

Agnostic tendencies

In addition to the “Four Noble Truths,” most forms of Buddhism are agnostic – the question of whether God exists being irrelevant to the reality of the “Four Noble Truths” and the “Eight-fold Path.”

Most forms of Buddhism also deny the immortality of the soul. For Buddhists, said Clark, “The final goal is not just eradicating desire, but becoming free of suffering.”

The way they do that, he said, is by reaching nirvana, which ultimately means extinguishing the self and becoming part of the “great monad,” the universal oneness.

Buddhism also contains a strong component of relativism, viewing other religious practices and beliefs as acceptable because they are upaya, expedient means to achieving spiritual growth.

That element of relativism, Clark believes, at least in part accounts for so many Westerners’ attraction to Buddhism. “Buddhism allows you to be anything you want to be with all sorts of East Asian trappings,” he said.

Institutional ‘trappings’

Another strong point of attraction is that “Eight-fold Path.” Unlike Christianity, which puts control over the universe in God’s hands, not man’s, Buddhism gives its adherents a step-by-step plan for eliminating suffering from their lives and achieving, at least a form of, salvation.

For Phillip Harbin, who was a practicing Buddhist for almost 10 years before returning to Christianity and then converting to Catholicism, the emphasis placed on “personal effort and experience” was compelling. “It was rather like a spiritual independent study,” he said.

It also, said Harbin, is an independent study that comes with as many or as few institutional trappings of religion as the adherent likes. Monks, robes and prayer beads are there for those who want them. For those who want to practice a spirituality that brings them peace without having to conform to any institutional practices or demands, Buddhism offers that.

Father Francis Tiso, associate director of interreligious relations for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, sees at least one more force at work, particularly among Catholics who attempt to practice both Buddhism and Christianity: an absence of teaching about contemplative prayer in many Catholic settings.

“People are aware of a desire for God and know of the great contemplative saints,” Father Tiso said. “They simply want someone to instruct them in contemplative prayer.”

“Unfortunately, the secularism of the Enlightenment and the confiscation of monasteries in many parts of the world left the average Catholic with only a limited number of contemplative communities where one could connect with the tradition,” he added. “Even parish priests have little training in this aspect of Catholic life. So people look elsewhere, and the Buddhists eagerly provided instruction and guidance.”

Similar, but different

It is those people who Pope John Paul II expressly addressed in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope. Recognizing that increasing numbers of Christians were seeking something outside the Catholic Church which is more safely sought within, he urged them to exercise great caution when investigating the spiritual traditions of other religions.

He also stated clearly what priests like Father Kennedy and nuns like Sister McInnes deny: At their cores, Catholicism and Buddhism are radically different and many of their key doctrines oppose each other.

On one level, that basic opposition can be hard to see. Adherents rightly point to Buddhism’s ethical system, including its emphasis on compassion, and note its similarities to Catholicism. They also note the strain of common truth in Buddhism’s teaching that suffering results from selfish desire and unhealthy attachments.

That truth is what Clark called “Buddhism’s great message to the world.” But despite those positive aspects and similarities, he said, the similarities between Christianity and Buddhism exist only in practice, not in the theory motivating those practices.

“Christianity believes there is truth. Buddhism believes there is no truth. One believes there is a completely other God who exists. The other believes there is nothing that ultimately exists,” he said.

The differences go on. Christianity believes a loving God created the world, and the world, for all its brokenness, continues to reveal love and goodness. Buddhism rejects the world as evil and the source of suffering.

Christianity teaches its adherents to embrace suffering, as Christ did. Buddhism teaches its adherents that the escape from suffering is the goal of life. Christianity teaches that salvation, sanctification and even contemplative prayer are made possible by God’s grace. Buddhism teaches that disciplined practice of the “Eight-fold Path” will lead to nirvana.

Seeing contradictions

Those inherent contradictions don’t make Buddhism’s message of detachment or its followers’ practice of compassion any less noble, but they do make it impossible for good Catholics to also be good Buddhists. Helping Catholics recognize that, said Father Tiso, requires good pastoral care.

“There needs to be a willingness to take people’s questions about other faiths seriously,” he said. “And there needs to be more guidance for people who want to practice contemplative prayer.”

Clark agreed, noting that the best way to keep priests and nuns who also claim to be Zen masters from confusing questioning Catholics is good old-fashioned catechetics.

“Catechetics is the key to seeing the contradictions,” he said. “When people don’t see the contradictions is when people don’t know their own faith.”

Here's additional info on the Vatican state's new website.


Vaticanstate.va: Navigating the world's smallest country

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Seven weeks after Pope Benedict XVI praised Vatican civil servants for their work in "our little state, from the most visible to the most hidden," the state unveiled its own Web site.

The site -- www.vaticanstate.va -- is linked to and works closely with the Vatican's main Web site, www.vatican.va, but provides more information about the offices that help run the state, as opposed to the church.

Officially launched July 19 in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish, the site includes live pictures from five webcams.

With a click on their computer, Internet users can join pilgrims praying at Pope John Paul II's tomb in the grotto of St. Peter's Basilica. A camera high on the Vatican hill points toward the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. And three webcams have been set up on the dome itself: one looking at St. Peter's Square, another at the Vatican Gardens and the third at the home of the new Web site, the Vatican governor's office.

The site is set up for e-commerce, but online shoppers will have to wait until sometime in 2008 to order their Vatican stamps and coins or books, posters and reproductions from the Vatican Museums.

In an e-mail message July 18, the new webmaster said, "An exact date for the shopping has not been set," but the governor's office is working with the Vatican bank, formally the Institute for the Works of Religion, to make sure the site is user friendly and secure for credit-card transactions from around the world.

Oddly enough, the highly efficient Vatican postal service, which presumably would ship the goods, does not have its own section on the site, but the Vatican Telephone Service and the Vatican Pharmacy do.

The site includes a brief introduction to the government of Vatican City State, explaining that it is "an absolute monarchy. The head of state is the pope, who holds full legislative, executive and judicial powers."

Between the death of one pope and the election of another, the powers are assumed by the College of Cardinals, it says. And the cardinals who have not yet reached their 80th birthdays are responsible for electing the new pope.

The man chosen by the cardinals "becomes sovereign of Vatican City State the moment he accepts his election as pope," it says.

The site also explains how the pope generally delegates a portion of his powers to ensure the smooth governance of the state and the promulgation of laws regulating life for its 800 residents, its employees and visitors.

The state's courts merit a very brief description, but the 130-member Vatican police force gets a good-sized page. Perhaps because the police uniforms are not as famous as those worn by the Swiss Guards, seven photographs are included.

The Vatican fire department also falls under the responsibility of the governor's office, but it initially did not have its own section on the newly launched site.

With Pope Benedict XVI set to arrive July 27 in Castel Gandolfo, the home of his summer residence south of Rome, visitors to the new Web site could check out the villa's supermanicured gardens.

The site even points out that at 136 acres -- including 74 acres of gardens and 62 acres devoted to farming -- the villa's territory exceeds that of the 109-acre Vatican City State in the heart of Rome.

As the site launched, it had a detailed history of the villa, but almost nothing about the decorative plants in the gardens or the plants villa workers grow for sale. And it did not mention the milk-producing cows.

On the other hand, the section dealing with the Vatican Gardens names some of the species they host, like "the majestic camphor tree ('Cinnamomum glanduliferum')" and two varieties rare in Italy: an Australian silk-oak ("Grevillea robusta") and "two very tall examples of dawn redwood ('Metasequoia glyptostroboides')."

Like most official government Web sites, the Vatican City State site also includes an explanation and history of the Vatican flag and Vatican national anthem. Of course, there are links to sound files, giving visitors the option of hearing the anthem in its standard marching-band version or the much slower, fancier orchestral track.

Should the Vatican Pay for Abuse?


By Jeff Israely/Rome
Time Magazine
Wednesday, Jul. 18, 2007

Depending on the subject at hand, the day-to-day running of the worldwide Catholic Church can resemble either a sort of centralized sacred politburo or a loose confederation of autonomous dioceses. If you prefer a business model, it's top-down management vs. franchising. Though imperfect, these analogies can help address a lingering question in the wake of the Los Angeles archdiocese's record $660 million settlement with victims of clergy sex abuse: What is the Vatican's responsibility?

In Los Angeles, as in previous cases in the U.S. and elsewhere, the local diocese has essentially shouldered all of the administrative blame — and taken the financial hit — for the priest perpetrators and the bishops who failed to prevent their crimes, with no reference or responsibility assigned to the hierarchy in Rome. Still, victims' lawsuits frequently cite the Holy See, the Vatican-based juridical headquarters of the 1.1 billion-strong Catholic Church, and the Pope himself.

Since the issue exploded in 2002 with the scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston, it has been difficult to force the Vatican to respond directly to the innumerable court cases that have arisen, since, according to the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, the Holy See is outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. But two recent cases, in Oregon and Kentucky, have cracked open the door for the first time to the possibility that the Vatican could one day be held financially responsible and officials in Rome could be forced to testify. Lawyers are trying to prove in both cases that the abusive priests can be considered employees of the Holy See. A final decision on whether the Vatican is liable for any monetary damages is probably years away. However, victims' advocates are encouraged that judges in both the Portland and Louisville lawsuits have not tossed out the cases on immunity grounds as had happened in the past.

The question of responsibility extends beyond dollars and cents. Many Catholics believe that officials in Rome bear a significant moral and administrative burden as the leaders of a hierarchy that allowed these predator priests to inflict such damage. They point out that when the Pope wants to impose new rules for the liturgy, rein in theologians or tighten entrance into seminaries, Rome expects those edicts to be fully applied at the local level. And so, they ask, where was the strong hand from above when it came to protecting the most innocent parishioners? If the burden is on the individual bishops, shouldn't some blame extend to the Pope, past or present, who hired each of them for the job?

Going back in time — and indeed some of the cases cited in the Los Angeles archdiocese go back to the first half of the 20th century — it would seem the Vatican does share some responsibility for the way that its clergy are trained, hired and transferred, as well as for the climate of secrecy that allowed many of these criminals to linger. At the same time, individual dioceses do in fact have wide latitude in the daily management of their affairs, with Rome rarely intervening on administrative, financial or pastoral matters.

In more recent times, Rome has had a mixed record in responding to the crisis. Pope John Paul II called an unprecedented meeting in Rome of all the American Cardinals in April 2002 to address the abuse scandal, but was believed to have been largely shielded in his later years from the worst details. His successor has taken a tougher line, and indeed just months before he was elected to be Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote of the "filth" of the Church in apparent reference to the sex scandals. Among the boldest administrative moves of Benedict since his 2005 election was the disciplining last year of Mexico's Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the 86-year-old founder of the conservative Legionaries of Christ, who had long been accused of past sexual abuse.

In some way, the failings of Rome on this front continue to be personified by former Boston Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law, 75, who was largely seen as the symbol of the entire American scandal. After repeated calls to Rome to remove him were ignored, Law was finally eased out of the Boston job in December 2002, only to resurface the following year with a prestigious posting in Rome as the archpriest of the historic church of Santa Maria Maggiore. He was last spotted this month at the Fourth of July reception at the palatial Rome residence of Francis Rooney, the American ambassador to the Holy See. The new symbol of the crisis is undoubtedly the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, whose agreement to the enormous settlement saves him from testifying in court. An Archdiocese lawyer told reporters that Mahony had made several trips to Rome in recent weeks to get the Vatican's support for the deal. The L.A. archdiocese will sell off some of its prized real estate and take out loans to help pay the settlement.

In financial terms, however, headquarters in Rome points out the relative modesty of its resources. According to the Vatican's recently released 2006 budget, annual expenses and revenues are just over $300 million, which includes operations of Vatican City and of the Church's diplomatic corps. The income comes both from individual donations directly to the Pope, called Peter's Pence, which nearly doubled to $102 million last year, and from contributions from dioceses around the world, which take in the vast majority of donated funds from parishioners. Ultimately though, the actual net worth of the worldwide Church, over which the Pope always holds the last word, is indeed vastly greater than the Vatican operating budget would indicate. Indeed, simply weighing the value of certain works of art inside St. Peter's brings estimates to the word "priceless." Another reason, perhaps, why Church officials in Rome don't want to face the potential economic risks of these lawsuits.

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COMMENT BY TERESA:

I find this yet another gratuitous addition to what I see as Jeff Israely's hostile campaign against the Pope and the Church which began on or around the second anniversary of Pope Benedict's election.

Of course, this idea has been foremost among the League of Dedicated Vatican-Chasing Shysters, from the moment they latched on to vistas of the astronomical financial gains (to themselves mostly) suddenly made possible by universal disgust over priests who commit sexual offenses against minors and youths!

But for a so-called 'religion correspondent' to give it play without pointing out the sheer fallacies in the idea is just irresponsible and proof of extreme prejudice.

How can a sensible person who covers the Vatican for a living not fail to point out two important facts:

1) The Church is not a multi-national corporation - it is not even primarily an 'organization' in the ordinary human sense, because it was instituted by Christ and because it represents the mystical Body of Christ.

2) Sin - with the guilt attaching to it - is very much a personal, not collective, responsibility. Even a business CEO cannot be held responsible for a crime that an employee of his commits entirely on his own and not in the name of the company.

Furthermore, Israely is flat wrong when he states that "the Vatican does share some responsibility for the way that its clergy are trained, hired and transferred..."

All three responsibilities he mentions are well within the jurisdiction and autonomous authority of the local bishop, who approves the curriculum used in local seminaries and decides on everything that has to do with his diocese administratively, including assigning or transferring priests.

If the Vatican had ever descended to micromanagement from Rome of what takes place in every diocese, we would have heard from the offended bishops, surely.

The Church has the Magisterium (including all Papal decrees) and the Code of Canon Law that apply universally, and every bishop is expected to follow these in exercising his local autonomy.

How each bishop obeys or chooses to disobey the Magisterium - let alone simple common sense and human decency,to begin with - is the bishop's personal responsibility, and even the Pope can do very little about it because of how the bishop is defined in the Roman Catholic Church. [Very apropos and informative in this respect is a 2006 article I just posted in REFLECTIONS ABOUT OUR FAITH...]

MILAN - "A very great joy!" (Una grandissima gioia!) was the Pope'e reaction to the liberation of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, the Italian missionary abducted in southern Philippines last June 10.

Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the news was great joy for the whole Church.

At the start of his vacation in Lonrenzago last July 9, the Pope told newsmen that he offered daily prayers for Fr. Bossi.

Here are the stories about Fr. Bossi's release that were initially available. I first had access to the AsiaNews stories on their Italian service, but subsqeuently, both AP and AFP filed from Manila.


HE'S FINE AND HE HAS SPOKEN
TO HIS FAMILY, BUT HE WON'T
BE ASKED TO RESUME HIS WORK
IN PAYAO - 'TOO RISKY'

ZAMBOANGA, PHILIPPINES, July 19 (AsiaNews) - "I am well, I survived on rice and salt," Fr. Giancarlo Bossi told AsiaNews in a brief statement. "And I am happy now that I have spoken to my family. However, before going back to Italy, I would like to say goodbye personally to my parishioners in Payao."

Fr. Bossi had been delivered by his captors to General Caringal, constabulary chief of western Mindanao, and he was brought to the Philippine army base in Zamboanga for a medical check-up before being flown to Manila to meet with Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.

Fr. Luciano Benedetti, of the Piontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, to which Fr. Bossi belongs, said Fr. Bossi told him he will no longer touch a cigaret, although he was a heavy smoke earlier.

Benedetti says that apparently his abductors were simply local gangsters who had no direct connections with any of the Muslim separatist or extremist groups on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

It appears also that he was never taken far away from where he was abducted. Credit is being given to the Philippine constabulary (a national police force), who apparently worked patiently behind the scenes through channels in touch with the abductors.

"Our happiness at his release is shadowed only by the fact that Fr. Bossi obviously cannot go back to his assignment in Payao. We know how much he loves his parishioners, and how much he was loved back by the local people, including Muslims. But the risk is too much to have him go back."

[AsiaNews had a story minutes after Fr. Bossi was released, but it gave no details either of where it happened or how.]


The AP story is more informative [I had to go look in Yahoo News Italy to find this] but claims, contrary to PIME statements, that the priest's abductors were a rogue separatist faction:


Kidnapped Italian priest freed


MANILA, Philippines, July 19 - An Italian missionary priest kidnapped more than a month ago has been released after negotiations with a rogue faction of a Muslim separatist group, Philippine police said Friday.

The Rev. Giancarlo Bossi, 57, was kidnapped June 10 in the Southeast Asian nation's volatile south.

Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal, a regional police commander, said the Roman Catholic priest was freed at about 9 p.m. Thursday along the boundary between Lanao Del Sur and Lanau Del Norte provinces. "He is well, but he lost a lot of weight," Caringal said.

In Rome, Italian Premier Romano Prodi announced the release. "Father Giancarlo Bossi has been freed ... I'm truly emotional, happy," Prodi said. "Today is his mother's birthday, so it was also a very lucky coincidence."

On July 10, a Philippine marine convoy searching for Bossi was ambushed by Muslim insurgents in jungle on the southern island of Basilan, and 14 troops were killed. The military blamed the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf for the clash.

Pope Benedict XVI said last week that he was praying daily for Bossi, and Italy sent a longtime diplomat, Margherita Boniver, to the Philippines to work for his release. Benedict received the news of Bossi's release with "great joy," according to Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi.


AFP filed a later report:

Kidnapped Italian priest
freed in Philippines


MANILA, July 19(AFP) - Kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi was released by his captors in the southern Philippines and is now in government hands, a police official said Friday.

Bossi, who was very thin and had a very long beard, was unharmed but appeared weak and shaky after his ordeal, which lasted more than a month, said regional police head Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal.

No ransom was paid for his release, the police official said.

News of the release of the priest, who was known to suffer from hypertension, was immediately relayed to the Italian government and it made the development public.

Bossi was released in the southern province of Lanao del Sur by Commander Kidi, a former member of the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Caringal said.

He was then taken to a police camp in the city of Zamboanga, he added.

Police and military sources said Bossi's release was negotiated by a former MILF member who had since been elected to a local government position.

Bossi, 57, a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, was seized from his parish in the Zamboanga peninsula in the southern island of Mindanao on June 10.

Military officers in the region originally blamed renegade members of the MILF for the abduction.

Other officials said he might have been held by the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic extremist group believed to have ties with the Al-Qaeda terror network.

Marines searching for Bossi on MILF-held territory on Basilan island were ambushed by the group last week. Some 14 of the troops were killed in the ensuing firefight and 10 were later beheaded.

The Vatican's changing relationship with Europe
All Things Catholic
by John L. Allen, Jr.
Friday, July 20, 2007


Last Friday, I was in Washington, for a symposium on "Religion and Public Life in Europe" onsored by the National Intelligence Council. The event brought together a number of prominent academic and policy analysts - plus one plebian journalist - to ponder religious trends in Europe and what they might mean for trans-Atlantic relationships.

In order to promote free discussion, the event was off-the-record. I don't think it violates anybody's trust, however, for me to share what I said, since that part belongs to me. I was asked to talk about thinking in the Vatican these days on Europe, and where things might be heading.

Other than light editing for length, the following is the gist of my presentation.

* * *

Some of you know that for the last two years, I've been working on a project to identify what I call "Mega-Trends in Catholicism," meaning the most important forces shaping the Catholic future. For the sake of manageability, I've come up with a list of 10, which are:

1. World Catholicism
2. Secularism and Catholic Identity
3. Islam
4. The New Demography
5. Expanding Lay Roles
6. The Biotech Revolution
7. Globalization 8. Ecology
9. Multipolarism
10. Pentecostalism

It's important to say that this list is intended as a descriptive, not prescriptive, analysis. My aim is not to argue that these points represent where Catholicism should be going, but rather to identify where it actually is going. Today I'll attempt to pull out from this research a few implications for the Catholic church's approach to Europe.

In broad strokes, the bad news is that Europe will be less important to the Catholicism of the future, and in particular the European Union may almost disappear as a subject of positive political interest. This does not suggest a retreat from public life in Europe, but rather an engagement of a qualitatively different sort.

I'll comment briefly on three mega-trends mostly directly related to our topic. I'll then describe their likely implications for Europe in terms of three transitions in Catholic thinking:

From pragmatism to principle; from politics to culture; and from the European Union to multipolar diplomacy.

Mega-Trends

1. World Catholicism
A church long dominated by Europe and the United States is becoming steadily more global. The most important bit of data is this: In 1900, just 66 million Catholics, representing 25 percent of the global Catholic total, lived in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Today 720 million of the 1.1 billion Catholics in the world live in those regions, representing 66 percent, or two-thirds, of all Catholics alive. That's an enormously rapid shift, and it implies a rising Southern tide in Catholicism over the 21st century.

Mumbai, Nairobi and São Paulo will be to the 21st century what Paris and Milan were to the Counter-Reformation era in the 16th century, meaning the places where new energy first begins to stir. This will drive a far-reaching transformation of Catholic faith and practice.

2. Secularism and Catholic Identity
In response to runaway secularization in Europe and other pockets of the West, Catholicism today is practicing what sociologists call a 'plitics of identity', aggressively reinforcing its traditional doctrines, rites, and devotional practices.

It's a 21st century Catholic version of how Judaism responded to the destruction of the Temple and the reality of living in diaspora: 'building a fence around the law'.

Just last week has seen two classic examples, with decisions from Pope Benedict XVI to widen use of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass, and a declaration from the Vatican that Catholicism is the lone true church willed by Christ.

3. Multipolarism
While the economic and military superiority of the United States will not vanish in the 21st century, the rise of a number of other states and non-state actors is creating a more multi-polar world with multiple centers of power and influence.

Two clusters seem poised to be especially consequential: what Goldman Sachs calls the BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, who together represent 40 percent of the world's population, and whose combined economies by 2040 are projected to be larger than those of the United States or Europe; and an emerging Shi'a axis from the Mediterranean to Central Asia, in which Iran will play a leadership role.

Policy Shifts for Europe

With regard to Europe, these mega-trends are driving what I would call three reevaluations of traditional Catholic reflection and activism.

1. From Pragmatism to Principle
While the media referred to a battle between 'the Vatican' and the European Union over a proposed reference to God in the preamble to the new European constitutional document, insiders knew this wasn't quite accurate.

In reality, the Vatican, at least in terms of its diplomatic corps, regarded the so-called invocatio Dei as more symbolic than substantive. Their chief interest was in Article 52, which recognizes the juridical personality of religious bodies; stipulates that the constitution will not override national concordats with member states; and creates a mechanism for institutional dialogue between the EU and religious bodies.

Though Vatican diplomats argued on behalf of the invocatio Dei, some felt that a constitution without it was acceptable as long as Article 52 remained intact.

The truth is that it was never the Vatican versus the EU over the 'God clause'; it was Pope John Paul II versus the EU. When John Paul argued that a Europe without reference to its Christian heritage made no sense, he was not only attempting to persuade Brussels, he was also addressing sectors of Catholic opinion.

Under the weight of the Catholic identity movement, this intra-Catholic debate between pragmatism and principle has largely been resolved in favor of principle.

The clearest possible statement came on March 24, when Pope Benedict XVI received a delegation of European politicians and bishops taking part in a conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which was designed by its organizers to turn a new page in Vatican/EU relations.

Instead, Benedict on that day accused Europe of being in 'apostasy from itself', and argued that pragmatism is not realistic because it 'denies ideas and values inherent in human nature'.

What this suggests is that future Vatican policy on Europe will be more uncompromising and less amenable to Realpolitk solutions which aim to make a separate peace with secularism. This will have consequences across the broad, but one area likely to be especially combustible is same-sex marriage and gay rights.

A more identity-driven Catholicism may run up against the growing legal protection of homosexuality in Europe to produce legal action against the church under hate speech and anti-discrimination laws.

One under-40 Catholic priest I know, in this case a Canadian though he might easily be European, tells me that among priests of his generation, it's taken for granted that some may go to jail for defending Catholic teaching on sexuality. It's reminiscent of the way Catholic priests in Eastern Europe used to realistically accept that some of them might end up in Soviet gulags.

The church/state relationship in Europe will not always be quite this dramatic, but this shift does imply a more sharply defined and sometimes conflictual future.

2. From Politics to Culture
In the late John Paul years, there were three fairly clearly defined schools of thinking at the senior levels of Catholicism about the church's relationship with Europe: 1) the Vatican diplomacy school described above, based on striking pragmatic bargains; 2) the school around Cardinal Camillo Ruini of Italy, which held that Catholicism should aggressively challenge secularism, and that it still has the culture-shaping capacity to win on the political level here and now; and 3) the school around Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, which believed in an equally aggressive challenge to secularization, but had little hope for short-term success at the political level in today's European milieu, and therefore emphasized Christianity as a 'creative minority' making its voice heard in philosophical debates over values and first principles.

Under Pope Benedict XVI, it should be no surprise that the third school is in the ascendant.

One illustration of the difference came in June 2005, when Ruini led a campaign to urge Italian voters to abstain from a national referendum that would have liberalized the country's law on in vitro fertilization. When a majority of Italians failed to vote, the referendum was invalidated, and the church claimed victory.

The Ratzinger school welcomed the outcome, but some worried that it was a Pyrrhic victory because the underlying moral question was not settled. Privately, some would have preferred a clear No vote.

Vatican leaders today are also increasingly frustrated with accusations in Europe of what the Italians call ingerenza, or "interference," every time the church takes a position on a political debate, as if Catholicism seeks to impose a confessional position on a secular culture.

From the point of view of church leaders, the church does not propose its teaching on the force of its own positive law, but rather because that teaching is true - that is, it corresponds to deep ontological realities inscribed into the very nature of the human person.

Partly for this reason, the International Theological Commission, the chief advisory body to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is today working on a document on Natural Law theory, meaning a mode of reasoning not based on confessional teachings or divine revelation, but rather on an analysis of nature which is, at least in principle, open to everyone.

This project will be the model of Vatican engagement with Europe in the future - concerned with a long-term recovery of objective philosophical and moral criteria of discernment.

Among other things, over time this may produce a fairly balanced Vatican approach to Muslim immigration in Europe - concerned about a loss of Europe's Christian specificity, but welcoming a new cultural subgroup that shares much of its religious and moral agenda. In France, we already see the outlines of a Muslim/Catholic alliance versus the apostles of laïcité.

To be clear, this does not mean a retreat from political questions - far from it. But it suggests an approach less focused on immediate outcomes than underlying concepts.

3. From the European Union to Multipolar Diplomacy
For most of its history, Vatican diplomacy has operated on what might be called a 'Great Power' theory, meaning that the church would attach itself to the great Catholic power of the day and look to it to protect its interests and advance its concerns.

For most of the post-World War II period, a fundamental diplomatic project of the Holy See was to promote the emergence of the European Union as the next Catholic, or at least Catholic-influenced, power.

Today, the wind has gone out of the sails of that project due to runaway secularization in Europe, and the growing hostility of secular elites to the church. As a practical matter, the Holy See today looks far more to the United States than to the EU as its natural interlocutor.

Yet the experience of the Iraq War, coupled with historical Vatican ambivalence about the allegedly Calvinistic character of American culture, and more recent memories of conflict under the Clinton administration, make that alliance inherently unstable.

In the future, Catholicism is likely to pursue a more bric-a-brac diplomatic style, looking to different poles of a multipolar world as its natural allies on different questions.

Specifically, one can look to a future in which the Vatican partners with the United States on questions of religious freedom and human rights, with Muslim states on the 'culture wars', and with the developing nations of the South on matters of social justice.

The prospects for Catholic partnerships with Shi'a Islam will be particularly interesting to track, given what Vali Nasr has rightly identified as striking structural similarities between the two traditions: their emphasis on clergy and divine intermediaries; belief in intercessory prayer; popular feasts and devotions; the centrality of sacrificial death and atonement; and belief in tradition alongside scripture.

Despite the current radicalization of Shi'a, Catholicism is arguably the global actor best positioned to engage it in dialogue. Those prospects may grow as below-replacement fertility levels in Iran begin to trigger a rapid aging of the population.

As Phillip Longman has observed, aging societies tend to be peaceful ones, because they can't afford to maintain large armies and also pay for pensions and health care, and also because as children become more scarce, parents are less inclined to encourage them to blow themselves up.

Not only does a multipolar Vatican diplomacy leave Europe a bit out in the cold, it also promises sharper conflicts with Europe, and this time not just on gay rights.

Catholic leaders from the global south are often bitterly critical of Europe and the United States on matters of economic justice and militarism; for example, many southern bishops talk about the World Bank and the IMF the way American bishops do Planned Parenthood, that is, as the church's central bête noir.

Perceptions of unfair trading practices in Europe, especially its massive agricultural subsidies, are a matter of deep southern Catholic resentment. Under the impress of multipolar diplomacy, we might anticipate a future in which the flashpoints of church/state relations in Europe could be expressed as 'sex, secularism, and subsidies'.

Conclusion

None of what I've said should be read to mean that the Vatican, or global Catholicism, has thrown in the towel on Europe. In many ways, from the Catholic point of view, Europe is simply too big to fail.

Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in part because many cardinals believed that addressing the European crisis is the most important challenge facing Catholicism, and the new pope's choice of the name Benedict, with reference to the founder of European monasticism, was a way of signaling where his interests reside.

But the church's approach to Europe in the 21st century will be different, focused on fostering Catholic sub-cultures and addressing the deep currents of intellectual history, rather than presuming a shared core of basic values which can lead to strategic partnerships. It will be different, but it certainly will not be dull.

Vatican document does not diminish other faiths, states doctrine congregation chief

By Dan Morris-Young
7/19/2007
Catholic San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Catholic San Francisco) - The recent Vatican document emphasizing that only the Catholic Church possesses the “fullness” of the means for salvation was created primarily as an instructional tool for Catholics and should not be read as a diminishing of other faith communities, according to the churchman who signed it.

On the contrary, said Cardinal William J. Levada, who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) which issued the document July 10, the narrative itself points out that “outside the Catholic Church elements of holiness and truth do exist and that the Holy Spirit is working in those other communities and churches as well.”

During a July 17 interview while visiting the San Francisco Bay Area, Cardinal Levada commented on his congregation’s work, Pope Benedict XVI’s recent instruction on the Tridentine Latin Mass, themes of the young papacy, and challenges facing the universal Church today.

The cardinal was quick to describe as “purely coincidental” the fact that his congregation’s document on the nature of the Church was made public only three days after the pope’s announcement of his decision to allow broader use of the Tridentine liturgical rite.

Many commentaries have linked the two. “”Many have tried to see it as some kind of one-two punch,” Cardinal Levada laughed, “but the truth is that it is simply a coincidence that they were published in such proximity.”

In restoring easier access “to the principal way of worship in the Church for more than 400 years,” the pontiff “expressed a great generosity” toward persons intensely devoted to the Tridentine Latin Mass, the cardinal said.

The papal directive “was not primarily aimed at the United States,” he said, adding that he feels it will have more impact in France, Germany and Switzerland and little effect in Latin America or Italy.

Turning to the doctrinal congregation’s recent commentary, “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church,” the cardinal said it grew out of extensive conversation and collaboration with theological consultants to the CDF and others, as well as a broad review of published materials.

The document addresses five questions about the nature of the Church “and all five are a commentary on Vatican II documents,” the cardinal said, adding, “It has the advantage of collecting all that has happened since Vatican II up to the present time” and explaining how Church articulation of its own nature as well as its views of other Christian communities have developed.

He said he has been “somewhat surprised” at the amount of “ecumenical commentary” the document has generated. “It is primarily a document addressed to Catholics as believers and teachers and is intended to clarify the teachings of the Second Vatican Council,” he said, “especially the teaching on the nature of the Church.”

That teaching, he said, has been skewed by those who argue “that the Church of Christ can subsist in churches outside the Catholic Church, but that is not the case.”

Response to the CDF statement “has shown how much that is misunderstood,” he said. “Even many Catholics are fuzzy on it.”

“That is not to say that we deny that the Holy Spirit who guides the Church is also working with his gifts of grace and truth in those other communities and churches,” he said.

Recalling the heady days of the 1962-65 Vatican Council, Cardinal Levada said there was “a certain novelty” created by the council’s exhortations for Catholics “to see the Holy Spirit at work” in Christian denominations outside the Catholic Church, especially in view of what had been “almost a stance of hostility and opposition” to the non-Catholic religious world for some time.

“It was quite a striking insight to see recognized in official Catholic teaching that outside the Catholic Church there are elements of holiness and truth” in other congregations, he said.

Reaction to the document on the Church’s nature in the United States where many religious persuasions exists side by side clearly reflects the nation’s “egalitarian approach to society and therefore to churches,” he said, “where for you to say that your church is the one true church of Christ, and that another’s is not quite, is considered not to be the American way.”

“Being an American,” he continued, “I am sympathetic to that. We get along by saying, ‘You have your ideas and I have mine, and while we might not agree we can explain ourselves, and we can be friends even if we are not in agreement on every thing.’”

“Underlying a typical American idea of what a church is,” he said, “is the idea that we are the ones who make the Church, we create the Church. There is the slogan, ‘We are the Church.’ And, of course, there is the sense of the Church being made up of all the baptized. But we do not make the Church. God makes the Church. We receive the Church as a gift. And we receive the elements of grace and holiness and truth from God as a gift. They are part of God’s revelation.”

While “anyone in this country can hang up a shingle and say, ‘This is the Church of God on Post Street,’ for example,” he said, “the Catholic view is that the Church is not our creation. It’s a gift from God. And we have to accept that gift. We have to accept the elements of that gift. Take the Eucharist, for example. Not optional. Apostolic succession is not optional.”

“We don’t decide what it means to be a disciple of Jesus,” he said. “Jesus first laid down what his disciples should be and how they should follow him.”

He said the CDF document could be “very helpful to Catholics in the United States who are culturally conditioned” to accepting self-organized groups of worshippers as “churches”.

“It seems to me that the ecumenical vision of some is: ‘Well, we are all searching for one great united church that is still yet to be found.’ Catholic teaching is: Christ’s Church has never disappeared. It has been fragmented, wounded, broken apart but it has not disappeared,” he said, then added, “It is not that Catholics should be proud of being members of this Church. It is not because we are good that we receive the gift of Church. It’s God’s gift. And it is a gift that we very willingly hope to be able to share one day with everybody.”

In its emphasis on Vatican II teaching, the CDF document was in step with what Cardinal Levada said is one of the clear themes of Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy -underlining that the Council represents a continuity of Church life, not a point of discontinuity.

At the time of Vatican II, there was a temptation and a tendency to place Church practices and teachings in pre-conciliar and post-conciliar “baskets,” he said. “I know I did it. There was a kind of ‘throw this out, here’s the new stuff’. I think many of us regret that. ”

Describing Pope Benedict as “a very God-centered man,” Cardinal Levada said the pope “wants us to see the beauty of God’s handiwork. I think his encyclical letter ‘Deus Caritas Est,’ God is Love, is a great example of that.”

Cardinal Levada said the pontiff “wants us to understand that God is not remote. That is the whole point of the Incarnation of Christ.”

The doctrinal congregation head praised Pope Benedict’s preaching and teaching skills. “On Sundays St. Peter’s Square is almost full of people just to hear him talk for about five minutes… and then pray the Angelus. He is extraordinary, and we are learning a lot about him.”

Interestingly, Cardinal Levada said, “I am quite confident that he never expected to be pope. And so he is learning how to be pope. But he is a quick study and of course had so much experience at the side of John Paul II. I think you can say he represents a great gift of God to us at this time.”

Challenges facing the universal Church include “the disconnect between faith and reason in the modern world” cited by the pope in his address in Regensburg, Germany last November, Cardinal Levada said. He said the pope “rightly identified as a very significant challenge” a growing view that modern civilization “makes religion no longer necessary, or some would say, even possible.”

Another challenge, he said, is to infuse “into the body politic” an active “love of neighbor and the service we are called to give each other” by Christ to address global issues of war, starvation and disease. The pope, he said, “often returns to this theme” and exhorts Christians “to use our human ingenuity and creativity to overcome these evils.”

Fr. Bossi thanks the Pope
and everyone who prayed for him
during his ordeal


There is great joy in the whole Catholic world, starting with the Pope, for the release of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi after 39 days in captivity, having been abducted on June 9 not far from the parish church he served in Payao, province of Zamboanga, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

He was released yesterday just a few kilometers from where he had been kidnapped. Father Bossi had lost weight but expressed his resolve to resume his missionary life as soon as possible.

Tiziani Campisi of Vatican Radio spoke to Fr. Bossi by telephone in Manila, where the priest will spend a few days of rest and recovery, with Fr. Gianni Sandalo, who heads the missionaries of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in the Philippines.

Fr. Bossi: I am quite well. I have lost some weight, but otherwise, everything's fine.

What can you tell us about your experience?
I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It was very hard. On the other hand, I am starting to realize that it can teach me many lessons. I will have time, in the next few months, to reflect properly on all that happened.

Where there movements when you felt discouraged?
No, I thank God I was never discouraged. I thought of two other colleagues - Fr. Benedetto, and Fr. Giuseppe Pierantoni - who had also been captured and later released. So I set my heart at rest by telling myself, "I, too, will be released one of these days."

I never lost that sense of calm, and for this, I truly thank the Lord because he kept me calm in the face of everything.

Was there any dialog with your abductors?
Everyday, they talked of this or that. They prayed. I prayed. One of their questions was, "Are we praying to the same God?" And I also asked that to myself, "Are we praying to the same God, when you are praying with a weapon in your right arm and a kidnapped person on your left?" It's questions like these that I need to reflect upon further, in trying to make sense of what happened.

Did they explain why they abducted you?
They said they wanted money to be able to buy more weapons, and they kidnapped me because, since I am a foreigner, they believed the Philippine government would have done anything to gain my release.

Were you told of all the initiatives of prayer and solidarity for your sake, including the Pope's?
I can only say thank you with all my heart for the prayers of the Pope and to Fr. Gianni, who has been telling me all about what has taken place since I was kidnapped. My joy can only keep growing as I hear these things.

I must thank everyone who has prayed for me. The experience gave me a lot of time to think about my whole life, all the persons I ever met, all my friends, the living as well as those who have gone before - and that alone was a beautiful experience.

Fr. Bossi, as a missionary, how has this epxerience changed your way of looking at your mission?
I think it has made me understand how far we still are from recognizing each other as brothers. I hope and trust that the day will come when we can all say together as children of God that God is our Father and that therefore we are all truly brothers and sisters.


Meanwhile, correspondent Stefano Leszczynski spoke by telephone to Fr. Giambattista Zanchi, superior-general of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, who first made this statement:

Fr. Zanchi: I thank the Lord because he has naswered the orayers of so many Christians as weell as non-Christians. During all this time, we had moments of great concern because it was not possible to check what was being said about the kidnapping. Once we were told that they saw Fr. Bossi being beaten and then taken away. There were so many jackals, so many people claiming to know where he was who said they would talk for a fee. It was not at all easy to deal with all this.

Many missionaries have undergone traumatic experiences like this. Does it affect their missionary spirit at all or do they go on doing what they have to do, in general?
In all similar cases - and we have had quite a number in different countries, even in wartime situations - everyone of them has said they want to stay where they were, even when they are asked to leave because of evident risk.

This is part of the missionary vocation. Wherever we go, we are in the hands of the Lord. We only try to do what is good for all - and I think even the Muslims who lived in Payao (Fr. Bossi's parish) understood this. Like every missionary, he was genuinely in the service of the people, simply to show that God only wants what is good for everyone.

Radio Vaticana, 20 luglio 2007

====================================================================

During Fr. Bossi's captivity, PIME went out of its way to deny every statement made that stated or implied his abductors were Muslim - in the absence of direct evidence, and also, to prevent aggravating any local hostilities.

However, Fr. Bossi's statements clearly indicate his captors were Muslim militants - though not necessarily terrorists. The Muslim separatist movement in the Philippines has now splintered into diffrent factions, since it started in the 1960s as the Muslim National Liberation Front (MNLF) which was openly financed by Libya and supported by the League of Islamic Nations.

Libya stopped its financing after an agreement with the Marcos government which led to the establishment of regional autonomy for the Muslims of Mindanao, the Philippines' second-largest island, where the majority of the country's Muslims live. (They make up less than 10 percent of the Philippine population, even in Mindanao itself, where Islam gained a foothold in the 12th-13th centuries because of Mindanao's proximity to Indonesia, site of two major Muslim empires at the time). The head of the MNLF became the first governor of the autonomous region.

The post-autonomy separatist movements, which have sprung up in the past 20 years, have a decidedly Islamist ideology - definitely unfounded insofar as asking for a separate state when they are so clearly in the minority. It would be analogous to the Christians of Iraq demanding to have a separate state, which clearly they don't demand.

Freedom of religion has never been a problem in the Philippines, even during the 350 years of Spanish rule. Filipino Muslims during all those centuries lived peacefully and peaceably in their own communities, one of the reasons being they were never a significant number, to begin with.

The Philippines is still at least 90% Christian and 80% Catholic.

Here is a translation of a report in PETRUS today:

By Ilona Malysz


Why is this priest
virulently anti-Semitic?


WARSAW - Severe canonical punishment will be announced shortly for Fr. Tadeusz Rydzyk, the Redemptorist priest who founded the extremely rightist radio station Radio Maryja.

This was announced a news conference in Cracow by Fr. Joseph Tobin, superior-general of the Redemptorists in Poland.

The possible sanctions, Tobin said, do not exclude exiling the priest from Poland so that he can no longer direct the radio station's operations.

He has been accused of using the radio to pursue an anti-Semitic campaign and to promote an excessively reactionary viewpoint, as well as repeated insubordination to his Redemptorist superiors who have requested him to desist from his objectionable activities.

Lately, Rydzyk lost the backing of the President of Poland, who used to be one of his allies, because of Rydzyk's repeated accusations against the Jewish community, calling them a 'lobby', among other things.

The Jews promptly responded by calling Rydzyk 'a Goebbels in priestly wear'. [Joseph Goebbels was Hitler's propaganda minister.]

Lately, it was also learned that in the past, Rydzyk had edited a neo-Nazi newspaper called Nasz Dziennik.

NB: The dispatch does not state who is imposing the canonical punishment on Rydzyk, nor the meaning of 'Nasz Dziennik'.

====================================================================

Here's a related item from PETRUS:


Stop that priest!
By Bruno Volpe


VATICAN CITY - 700 Polish intellectuals have written an open letter against Fr. Tadeusz Rydzyk, the director of Poland's Radio Maryja, which has become openly anti-Semitic.

The Polish station has nothing to do with Italy's very popular Catholic station Radio Maria.

Rydzyk has earned popular ire and warnings from his Redemptorist superiors because of his station's increasingly vitriolic attacks against Jews. The various Catholic websites in Poland have all denounced Rydzyk's anti-Semitism, especially now it has been revealed that he also founded a newspaper that is anti-Semitic.

Now, the political, cultural and Catholic communities of Poland have united against Rydzyk.

We can only join this opposition against someone like Rydzyk who is as dangerous - if not more - for the Church than the pedophile priests of Los Angeles.

STOP HIM NOW!

====================================================================

Here's what CWN reported:

Krakow, Jul. 20, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Several hundred prominent Polish figures have joined in a public call for disciplinary action against the priest who heads the controversial Radio Maryja.

Former Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and former foreign minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski led a group of over 700 people who signed an open letter released through the Center for Culture and Dialogue in Krakow, complaining that public statements by Father Tadeusz Rydzyk have "revealed his contempt" for Jews and his intolerance toward political opponents.

Describing the priest's public statements as "contemptible," and saying that his influence has become steadily more divisive, the signatories asked Church leaders to take action to curtail the public influence of the Redemptorist priest.

Earlier this week Father Joseph Tobin, the superior general of the Redemptorist order, said that he has investigated reports about Father Rydzyk's public statements, and said that a statement about the controversial priest will be released shortly.

[Obviously, the CWN story was written before Tobin's news conference reported by PETRUS above.]

Jesus Lands in the Congo –
After a Two-month Delay

That's how long it can take for news about the Church to travel from Rome to part of central Africa.
The testimony of Fr. Raphaël Dila of the diocese of Mbujimayi.
A serious communication problem, for the Vatican agenda.

by Sandro Magister



ROMA, July 19, 2007 - In the middle of Africa is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And at the center of Congo, in the Eastern Kasai province, is the diocese of Mbujimayi.

Raphaël Dila Ciendela, 44, a priest of the diocese of Mbujimayi, found out only at the beginning of June thatPpope Benedict XVI had published - almost two months earlier, on April 16 - the book entitled JESUS OF NAZARETH.

"I learned about it by chance, while talking with a priest friend, the rector of a seminary in my diocese, who had received the volume from a confrere who had just returned from Europe."

Soon after it was Fr. Raphaël's turn to take a trip to Europe. That was when he had the chance to see with his own eyes, for the first time, a copy of the volume.

"It was June 21, and I had just arrived in Italy. I saw the book by chance at the home of a friend of mine in Pisa. I finally bought the French edition for myself in Bordeaux, on July 11, the feast of Saint Benedict."

The case of Fr. Raphaël is a glaring example of how uncertain communications are between the Church of Rome and the Churches of some areas of the world.

The example is all the more revealing in that Fr. Raphaël does not live in some far-flung village in the equatorial jungle, where the Catholic religion may have just barely arrived.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, eight times as big as Italy and with a population of about 55 million, is the African country with the largest number of Catholics, at 30 million.

In the diocese of Mbujimayi there are more than 2 million Catholics, more than half the population. Fr. Raphaël has a post of great responsibility there: he is the diocesan administrator of the public schools, which in Congo include both the privately managed and state-run institutions, from the elementary to the middle schools.

Ordained a priest in 1989, he taught in the seminary, worked as a pastor, and presided over the diocesan commission for the family. He was then sent to Rome to continue his studies.

He obtained his theology doctorate in 2005 at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, with a brilliant dissertation published in a book entitled Mariage et virginité. Contribution à la compréhension du 'Bien conjugal' de Saint Augustin à la lumière du magistère contemporain [Marriage and virginity: contributions to understanding the ‘Conjugal good’ from Saint Augustine to the insight of the modern magisterium]. He also obtained a maser’s degree in philosophy from the state university Tor Vergata” in Rome.

During these studies he served in the parishes of Aggius and Aglientu, in Sardinia, where he was warmly welcomed by the people.

Apart from Tshiluba - the language of his region - he speaks fluent French, the official language in Congo, and Italian. He also knows English and German.

He has gathered a personal library that is small in size but rich in important works and authors. But for a year his books have remained boxed up in Italy, waiting for a 'window' of relative peace in Congo that would permit them to be sent to Mbujimayi.

In Italy, he was an assiduous reader of www.chiesa, and subscribed to the Newsletter.

But since he has returned to Congo, it has again become much more difficult for him to keep up to date on the life of the Church around the world.

There are very few telephone land lines in the diocese of Mbujimayi. There are internet points in the cities, but here, too, the connections are very unreliable.

Fr. Raphaël recounts:

"Above all, the electrical current comes and goes. When it is there, the signal for internet access is often lacking. In the rare moments when everything is working, lines form at the internet points. You wait patiently in line, and when it's your turn it can happen that the current again goes out, or the signal drops. It's the same story if you return the following day."

And cell phones?

"This is the device that connects us to the world. But they can be used only in certain zones. Where there is no service you need the expensive satellite telephone, but very few can afford this."

The newspapers?

"They practically do not exist. Even in the capital, Kinshasa, with 7 million inhabitants, it is impossible to find a kiosk."

The television?

"There are small local stations in Mbujimayi. But their programs are extremely modest, and outside of the city there is no electricity for receiving them. The major Western television networks, the only ones that could provide information, require a satellite dish, which is extremely expensive."

The radio stations?

"At least these reach almost everywhere. The radios are battery-operated, and many local FM stations are available. For information, the preferred sources are foreign networks like the Voice of America, the BBC, Radio France Internationale, Deutsche Welle. Vatican Radio can also be received in Congo, on shortwave."
[And the good priest never heard of the book even from Vatican Radio?]

Are there Catholic radio stations?

"Some of the dioceses have them. The diocese of Mbujimayi also has a radio station, which rebroadcasts some of Vatican Radio's programming and gives information on the life of the Church, in both French and Tshiluba."

And books?

"There is just one bookstore in Mbujimayi, owned by Catholic missionaries. The books are in French. But there is a saying among us that goes: 'If you want to hide something from a Congolese, stick it in a book. He’ll never open it.' The saying has an underpinning of truth, in part because books are terribly expensive compared to the miserable salaries here. So even those who want to read can't afford it."

End of story. In the Vatican, the secretariat of state, the pontifical commission for social communications, and the other officials in charge of media matters should place at the top of their agenda this very problem: how to bring news and documents from Rome quickly to the diocese of Mbujimayi and to all the other regions of the Church that find themselves in a similar situation, not only in Africa.

And all the more so in that these segments of the Catholic population are not the rear guard of the Church. They are often the youngest and most lively components, with the most fervent faith, the strongest missionary impulse. They are its future.

=====================================================================

Come on, Mr. Magister. Stop just complaining online, for God's sake! You've used the strongest language possible in several columns now over the past two years - and nothing has happened. Use your clout and get on the phone to Fr. Lombardi or Georg Gaenswein! At least, get some assurance that someone in the Vatican is paying attention, and they're attending to the problem!


P.S. On his blog today, Magister tells of yet another prelate from Africa - this one a cardinal from Ghana - who only learned about JON when he was in Venice recently for a conference. Magister writes (translated):

---

...Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson learned about the existence of the book on June 20, casually, while he was taking part in a meeting in Venice of the scientific committee for the dialogue-with-Islam-oriented magazine Oasis of the Patriarchate of Venice.

Turkson is Archbishop of Cape Coast in Ghana: a city and a country with a majority Christian population, a place much better linked to the rest of the world than other African countries. And in the capital, Accra, you're more likely to find a newsboy selling Time or Newsweek on the streets than you can find a public toilet.

---

I must say, though, beyond the inefficiency of the Vatican communications services, these two incidents also reflect a strange negligence on the part of both priest and cardinal about trying to keep informed! If they failed to hear about JON - which was announced in November 2006 with great resulting to-do, and whose publication this spring was even more universally publicized, then what else might they not have heard about? Assuming they never read any international newspaper or magazine, they could not possibly have missed hearing about JON if they at least listen to Vatican Radio!

By Mike Ceaser
July 20, 2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) A right-wing paramilitary leader's declaration that an assassinated Colombian archbishop secretly helped lead the outlawed paramilitary organization has triggered objections from church and political leaders.

Diego Fernando Murillo, a feared paramilitary leader known as "Don Berna," testified in court July 17 that another paramilitary leader had told him the late Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cancino of Cali was one of six secret leaders of the paramilitaries blamed for many of the worst massacres committed during Colombia's four-decade civil war.

Murillo said that Carlos Castano, who was for years the right-wing organization's most powerful leader, ordered a search for the archbishop's killers. One man was convicted for killing the archbishop in 2002, but who ordered it is still a mystery. Castano was later killed by rival paramilitary leaders.

Retired Bishop Fabian Marulanda Lopez of Florencia, secretary-general of the Colombian bishops' conference, called the idea that Archbishop Duarte had belonged to the paramilitaries impossible.

Bishop Marulanda said he'd "always understood that (Archbishop Duarte) had a strong opposition to all of the outlaw groups."

Archbishop Duarte harshly criticized Colombia's outlaw organizations during one of his final sermons before his assassination, according to news reports.

Archbishop Duarte had participated in secret meetings intended to resolve the nation's long civil war between Castano and government officials, in which two leftist guerrilla armies are pitted against the government and its paramilitary allies.

In 1997, Archbishop Duarte hosted in his residence a meeting between Castano, Minister of the Interior Horacio Serpa and others. Father Jorge Cadavid, who also attended the meeting, told Caracol Radio that Archbishop Duarte harshly criticized Castano.

Serpa said that the archbishop hosted the meetings as "a service which (Archbishop) Duarte, a highly responsible person who was in no way associated with any criminal group," provided to the country.

Serpa added that he mentioned the meetings publicly, and only a few days later Archbishop Duarte was killed.

Murillo and other paramilitary leaders have given up their arms as part of a controversial peace deal with the government. They are now in court to confess their crimes in order to obtain reduced prison terms.

But many human rights advocates and other observers call the paramilitary demobilization a charade, and say that the death-squad leaders have hidden most of their crimes and have tried to falsely implicate others with their testimony.


SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...

By Fady Noun
July 20, 2007
National Catholic Register (www.ncregister.com/)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (National Catholic Register) - Blind fanaticism is reaching unprecedented heights in this capital city, and for the Christians who live here and throughout Iraq it is turning into a nightmare.

Persecution against Christians is being unleashed in many cities and neighborhoods where Christians and Muslims coexisted peacefully, if somewhat coldly, some years ago. In fact, the patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, Archbishop Emmanuel III Delly, called it "open persecution, as in the early centuries of the church."

In Baghdad, especially in the neighborhood where Christians have their main church buildings, the structures are being bombed, desecrated and looted, crosses torn down or broken and hosts trampled.

Priests and deacons are being abducted, often ransomed, and sometimes killed.

Families are being thrown out of their homes without notice or forced to abjure Christianity and embrace Islam.

Businesses are being robbed, men abducted and killed - or released in exchange for a huge ransom that leaves families without any resource.

There are also threats and intimidation designed to have young Christian women married off to Muslims, and extortion occurs in the form of forcing payment of the jizya (Islamic tax for non-Muslims).

Four Chaldean Christians in Kirkuk kidnapped July 4 were released a week later through the mediation of the Chaldean Church and the sheiks of Kirkuk, according to AsiaNews.

Outside Iraq, the refugee population is growing, especially among Christians.

"We fled Iraq, my wife and I, two months ago," said Nouri, who entered Lebanon illegally and insists on keeping his family name anonymous. Living in a small room in a Beirut suburb, the 50-year-old is still in shock.

He lived in a cottage in Kut, south of Baghdad, and ran a liquor shop. After the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 his shop was burned down.

Holding on, Nouri decided to sell liquor from his house. But one day, two grenades were thrown at the house at an hour when the whole family was gathered. Nobody was hurt, and Nouri stayed in the neighborhood.

Then one night masked men broke into the house and abducted his brother. Using his cell phone, they asked for a $40,000 ransom. Nouri sold some property and paid the ransom. But, mercilessly, the abductors managed to extort another $30,000 from his father.

At last Nouri decided to quit, leaving behind his father and mother who still hope they will see their abducted son alive.

Pope Benedict

The Christians of Iraq are experiencing an "authentic martyrdom" and must be supported materially and spiritually by the entire church, Pope Benedict XVI said June 21 in a speech to representatives of the Catholic communities in the Middle East and to Catholic aid agencies that assist them.

"Peace, so long implored and awaited, unfortunately is still largely being offended," the holy father said, speaking just weeks after the June 3 murder of Chaldean Father Raghid Ganni, along with three sub-deacons.

Those murders made the news, but similar stories do not.

"A Syrian Orthodox priest was 'returned' in pieces to his family, head and limbs cut off, because the payment of the ransom had been delayed," said Bishop Michael Kassarji, head of the Chaldean Diocese of Beirut, Lebanon.

Behind every story of a priest released, there is an untold story of a ransom paid, said an ecclesiastical source who wishes to remain anonymous.

For Bishop Gergis Kass, of the Syrian Orthodox Church, the ransom went up to $200,000. Some of the abducted men have even been sold to other abductors.

Efforts to bring reason to the situation, by negotiating with authoritative Sunni and Shiite religious figures, have been in vain, said Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni, an assistant to Archbishop Delly. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Parliament have been solicited, to no avail, he added.

As a matter of fact, the archbishop asked al-Maliki to launch the new security plan in Baghdad in the Christian neighborhoods first, "where terror walks the streets." But the government and allied forces had a different agenda.

"We even planned to negotiate with the gangs and groups that control the neighborhoods, but we were deterred from doing so," said Bishop Warduni. "We were told they are not Iraqis, rivals to each other and impossible to reason with."

He also deplores the "absence of courage" of many a priest who has fled the terror, abandoning his flock, thus triggering new waves of departures among a population already reduced in number, disarrayed and frightened. Only three Chaldean priests are left in Baghdad, from the original 25 that were there.

Smuggling refugees

The hard times are not due solely to hard-line Islamists, though. Chaldean Bishop Michel Kassarji of Beirut has just returned from Iraq, where he attended a synod of his church. He recounts how Archbishop Delly protested against the unauthorized occupation by the U.S. Army of the Seminary of the Chaldean Church. Requests to the armed forces to leave the building were in vain.

The issue here is not only a decision taken without consultation by the U.S. Army and an aggression against a cultural property, but also a behavior that endangers the Christians by letting Muslim groups conclude that the Chaldean Church is siding with the enemy by giving over the buildings, said Bishop Kassarji.

"We had to wear helmets to come in and carry the boxes out," recounted Bishop Warduni, who added he "took the risk, more than once, to go to the green zone" to talk with civil and military authorities about the problem. The American military command, he said, pointed out that if they leave after what had happened, they would not be held responsible for the looting that could follow.

To this day, around two-thirds of the 2 million Christians of Iraq have fled their homes. Some found refuge in the northern province of Kurdistan where life conditions are precarious, but where at least they are distant from "Islamic" blackmail, threats and terror.

The finance minister of Kurdistan, Sarkis Agajan, an Assyrian Christian, is earnestly trying to relocate and help refugees coming from Baghdad and southern Iraq. Whether one admits it or not, a massive shift in population, a "religious cleansing" is taking place, which will profoundly change Iraq’s demographics and ultimately its identity.

"It's nothing less than a human tsunami," said Bishop Kassarji, who lives just outside Beirut.

Aliens in flight

At a rate of two or three families a week, Chaldean Catholics are sneaking into Lebanon illegally, fueling a profitable underground business. "They are discreetly dropped around five in the morning, in front of our building," said Bishop Kassarji.

Iraqi Christians have already flooded Jordan and Syria. Around 9,000 have illegally entered Lebanon since 2003. These are generally poor and desperate and do not wish to return home at all. They hope for United Nations help in getting into the United States, Canada or Scandinavia, but in the meantime, they do small jobs in Lebanon. They are threatened by abuse, though, and risk three months of prison if they are caught without papers.

To get an Iraqi released, Bishop Kassarji's contacts include the Lebanese president, ministers, security officers and church figures as well as influential and wealthy figures close to the Iraqi government. He also has to take great care to check whether some criminal fleeing Iraq may be lurking behind an apparently meek refugee.

He also struggles to house, feed and clothe these families and provide medical assistance, schooling and legal aid.

Ultimately, in Lebanon, Iraqi refugees are victims of a "no-see" policy that keeps their problems hidden and managed through under-the-table interventions and contacts, since open acknowledgement would have political as well as legal consequences that the government cannot face.

Some Lebanese Christians have advocated giving these refugees Lebanese nationality, since their numbers are so limited. Contacts have even been made with the Sant'Egidio Community in Rome to buy a piece of land for settlement purposes. But things are not that simple, not in Lebanon at least, an Arab exception where the question of the balance between Christians and Muslims is sensitive.

Any way you look at it, the problem is complex. Sitting at his office in East Beirut, where the telephone is almost constantly ringing, Habib Efrem, president of the Syriac Orthodox League, an association aimed at promoting the legal rights of his community, doesn’t hide his alarm.

In a country like Iraq, where Christians numbered around 2 million a few years ago, there are only 600,000 left.

At the beginning of the 20th century, he said, there were around 1.5 million Christians in Aleppo, Syria. They are now 100,000.

He is afraid the same process is eroding the Christian presence in the whole Middle East, the cradle of Christianity.



Fady Noun, based in Beirut, Lebanon, is a correspondent for National Catholic Register.

SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=2477...