Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 2
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Thursday, April 22, 7999
Canadian church leaders
ask prime minister for
end to air strikes
Ottawa (CNS)
hurch leaders in Canada used
their first meeting with a Canadi
an prime minister in 16 years to call
for a moratorium on the NATO bomb
ing campaign in Kosovo. The closed
meeting with Prime Minister Jean
Chretien and Foreign Affairs Minister
Lloyd Ax worthy April 15 lasted more
than an hour and came two days after
the leaders, representing the Canadian
Council of Churches, sent a letter to
the prime minister appealing for
renewed diplomatic efforts for a nego
tiated solution to the Kosovo conflict.
U.S. Cardinal sees ‘new
breach’ between rich,
poor in housing crisis
Boston (CNS)
tating that Boston’s housing
crunch has created “a new breach
between the rich and the poor,” Cardi
nal Bernard F. Law of Boston called
for fresh ideas for making affordable
housing a reality. At its invitation,
Cardinal Law addressed the executive
forum of the Greater Boston Chamber
of Commerce April 14 on the current
crisis in affordable housing. “Cutbacks
in housing funds and skyrocketing
rents have brought about a new breach
between the rich and the poor,” he
said, “a breach we must heal.”.
Vatican official opposes
suggestions by ‘Dialogue
for Austria’
Vatican City (CNS)
he Vatican’s leading doctrinal
authority has opposed many of
the recommendations from a recent
discussion between Catholics in Aus
tria and church officials. The views of
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, came to light when a confi
dential letter he wrote to the Austrian
bishops’ conference was leaked to the
Vienna-based news magazine Profit,
which published it in late March.
Independent commission
finds Hindu groups
attacked Christians
New Delhi (CNS)
n independent commission that
probed recent attacks on Chris
tians in western India found that right-
wing Hindu groups were responsible
and even planned some of the vio
lence years ago. The National
Alliance of Women, a voluntary group
that set up the commission, released
its report on “Violence in Gujarat”
April 8 in New Delhi, reported UCA
News, an Asian church news agency
based in Thailand.
Australian bishops
endorse joint document
Perth (CNS)
ustralia’s bishops endorsed a doc
ument signed by representatives
of Australian bishops and Vatican
officials that spoke of a “crisis of
faith” in the Catholic Church. The
bishops said it was time for Catholics
in Australia to engage in “prayer,
reflection, discernment, responsibility
and action to which the pope calls
us.” At their April 5-15 meeting in
Sydney, the bishops also released a
pastoral letter accepting Pope John
Paul II’s “personal” directive that use
of the Third Rite of Reconciliation, or
general absolution, in Australia be
kept strictly “within the conditions
laid down by church law.”
Vatican says Rwandan
bishop’s arrest for geno
cide hurts church
Vatican City (CNS)
Rwandan bishop’s arrest on sus
picion of genocide has hurt the
Catholic Church and disturbed Rwan
da’s diplomatic ties with the Holy
See, the Vatican said. “The arrest of a
bishop is an act of extreme gravity
which injures not only the church in
Rwanda, but the entire Catholic
Church,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin
Navarro-Vails said in a statement
April 15, the day after Bishop
Augustin Misago of Gikongoro was
taken into “preventative detention” in
the Rwandan capital of Kigali and
held for trial. The 56-year-old bishop
was said to have participated in the
1994 Rwandan genocide of more than
500,000 members of the country’s
Tutsi minority and moderates from the
Hutu majority.
Church leaders welcome
decision to permit
Pinochet’s extradition
London (CNS)
atholic officials in England wel
comed a British court decision
that a former Chilean dictator
detained in London can be extradited
to Spain, but Chilean bishops said
Gen. Augusto Pinochet should be
tried in Chile. Meanwhile, British
Home Secretary Jack Straw said April
15 that extradition proceedings should
move ahead for Pinochet, wanted in
Spain on charges of torture and mur
der of thousands, including dozens of
Spaniards, during his 1973-1990 dic
tatorship in Chile.
Vietnamese bishop named
following Vatican
diplomatic mission
Vatican City (CNS)
n the wake of a Vatican diplomatic
mission to Vietnam, Pope John Paul
II named a Vietnamese bishop with
the government’s assent. The diplo
mat who led the mission said the
announcement was a sign of progress
in relations with the Southeast Asian
country. On April 15 the Vatican
announced the retirement of 77-year-
old Bishop Andre Nguyen Van Nam
of My Tho and the nomination of
Msgr. Paul Bui Van Doc, the vicar
general of the Da Lat Diocese, as
head of the My Tho Diocese.
Pope to beatify popular
confessor and mystic
Padre Pio
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II will beatify Padre
Pio da Pietrelcina May 2, advanc
ing the sainthood cause of a Capuchin
friar known to millions worldwide for
his holiness as a confessor and his
mystical experience of the faith. One
of the most popular church figures of
the 20th century, Padre Pio was con
troversial in the eyes of the Vatican,
which investigated his activities, tem
porarily suspended him from most of
his priestly ministries and kept him
under a watchful eye in the 1930s and
‘40s. In recent years, church authori
ties have reviewed the accusations,
which involved alleged corruption and
immorality, and found no evidence of
wrongdoing. On the contrary, they
said, these trials only highlighted
Padre Pio’s deep obedience to the
church.
Beatification cause for
two Fatima children
clears hurdle
Vatican City (CNS)
he beatification process for two of
the three Portuguese shepherd
children who saw the Blessed Virgin
Mary at Fatima has cleared a major
hurdle, said a priest involved in the
process. The children, Francisco and
Jacinta Marto, were with their cousin
Lucia dos Santos — a Carmelite nun
still living — when Mary appeared to
them six times between May 13,
1917, and October 13, 1917. Both
died of influenza. Francisco was 10
years old when he died in 1919, and
Jacinta was 9 when she died in 1920.
Armed men raid house of
human rights director
Guatemala City (CNS)
rmed men raided the house of the
director of the archdiocesan
human rights office, 10 days before
the first anniversary of the murder of
Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi
Conedera of Guatemala City. Ronalth
Ochaeta Argueta, director of the
human rights office, told reporters that
he was not home when the men
entered his residence April 16, tied up
the housekeeper and searched the
premises. Ochaeta said the intruders
threatened his 4-year-old son and the
housekeeper with a pistol. After
searching through his personal effects,
the gang left in the house a box con
taining a rock and a piece of concrete,
similar to the material used last year
to club Bishop Gerardi to death.
(USPS 505 680)
Publisher:
Most Rev. J. Kevin Boland, D.D.
Director of Communications:
Mrs. Barbara D. King
Editor:
Rev. Douglas K. Clark, S.T.L.
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