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The Southern Cross, Page 2 House votes to give Congressional Medal to Father Hesburgh Washington (CNS) H oly Cross Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame and one of the most honored men in recent U.S. history, might soon get another honor from the U.S. Con gress. The House of Representatives voted October 12 to award the Con gressional Gold Medal to the 82- year-old Father Hesburgh, who has held 15 presidential appointments and received more than 130 honorary degrees. Father Theodore Hesburgh On bishops’ agenda: EDUCATION NORMS, AGE, CHARITY, JUBILEE Washington (CNS) W hen the U.S. Catholic bishops meet in Washington November 15-18, they plan to vote on Catholic higher education norms, pastoral messages on charity and on the bless ings of age, and a message for the jubilee year. They also plan to vote on a pastoral plan for adult faith for mation and a series of proposals to restructure the National Conference of Catholic Bishops-U.S. Catholic Conference and revise its statutes. The agenda calls for them to dis cuss—without voting on—a draft document on church art and architec- H ture, a draft basic plan for the ongo ing formation of priests and a project report on ecclesial lay ministry. African-American GROUP RALLIES FOR LIFE Washington (CNS) A three-day march organized by African-American Protestants and Catholics took about 100 black pro-lifers from New Jersey to the nation’s capital to declare abortion “the greatest deception leveled on African-Americans.” The October 8- 11 march began in Newark, NJ, made stops at Lawnside, NJ, Philadelphia, Wilmington, DE, Catonsville, MD, and ended at the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Rev. Clenard Howard Childress, a Baptist pastor from Montclair, NJ, and an organizer of the march, said “abortion on African-Americans is nothing more than black genocide.” Scottish church defends help for PREGNANT 12-YEAR-OLD Manchester, England (CNS) T he Catholic Church in Scotland defended its financial help for a pregnant 12-year-old following criti cism that the church was bribing the girl not to have an abortion. The girl, who cannot be named for legal rea sons and lives in the north of England, has been helped by a fund set up by Cardinal Thomas Winning of Glasgow, Scotland, to help women who would otherwise be considering abortion. Josephine Quintavalle of the Pro-Life Alliance said the church program offered “real choice.” Bishop comments on BIRTH OF 6 BILLIONTH HUMAN Washington (CNS) T he birth of a child designated the world’s 6 billionth person is being used to push an aggressive population-control agenda, a bishop said. Coadjutor Bishop James T. McHugh of Rockville Centre, NY, a longtime population expert for the Vatican, commented on the birth of Adnan Mevic in Sarajevo, Bosnia- Thursday, October 21, 1999 Herzegovina. Bom at 12:02 a.m. October 12, Adnan was designated the world’s 6 billionth person by United Nations’ demographics experts. In a column syndicated by the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Pro- Life Activities, Bishop McHugh said that as the 6-billion day approached, “the population controllers have already pushed the panic buttons, claiming that population growth is the cause of poverty, disease, famine, stifled development and a host of other ills.” Court rejects cases on SCHOOL VOUCHERS, SPECIAL DISTRICT Washington (CNS) T he Supreme Court has declined to review a Maine law that pays for mral students to attend private schools as long as they are not church-affiliated. A week after letting Arizona’s program of tax breaks for contributions to religious schools continue, the court on October 12 let stand a Maine Supreme Court mling that supporters of vouchers for parochial schools hoped to have reversed. It also refused to intervene in a Pennsylvania case in which the state Supreme Court said a sales tax exemption for religious publications was unconstitutional. U.S. cardinal: Bishops MUST CORRECT ERRORS Vatican City (CNS) B ishops have a serious responsi bility to courageously proclaim the truth and correct errors, even if it causes suffering, a U.S. cardinal told the Synod of Bishops for Europe. “Among the grave problems of today are widespread ignorance and confu sion,” Cardinal William W. Baum, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, said in a written submission to the synod, released by the Vatican October 13. Errors even in funda mental church teachings “are not found only in theological faculties but today at all levels: exegesis of the sacred Scripture, priestly formation, preaching, catechesis, popular reli gious publications,” Cardinal Baum said. Father Ritter dies; Covenant House head RESIGNED AMID SCANDAL New York (CNS) F ather Bruce Ritter, a former Franciscan and the founder of Covenant House who resigned in 1990 amid sexual and financial scan dal, died October 7 at age 72. Father Ritter had suffered from Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes. An October 12 Associated Press story said that Benjamin Meyers, a funeral director, reported the priest’s death and said a memorial Mass for him was celebrated October 9 at a farmhouse in Decatur, N.Y., where the priest lived after his resignation. Best-selling author Morris West dead at 83 Washington (CNS) M orris L. West, the best-selling author whose novels foresaw the election of an East European pope (The Shoes of the Fisherman) and a papal assassination attempt (The Clowns of God), died October 9 at his home in Sydney, Australia. He was 83. A lifelong Catholic, West told Catholic News Service in a 1996 interview that since heart surgery in the early 1990s he was “a man who lives necessarily in the shadow of eternity.” Springfield, Illinois, bishop resigns; Saint Louis priest is SUCCESSOR Washington (CNS) P ope John Paul II has accepted the resignation of Bishop Daniel L. Ryan of Springfield, Illinois, and named Monsignor George Lucas, rec tor of the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in Saint Louis, to succeed him. Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apos tolic nuncio to the United States, announced the changes October 19 in Washington. Bishop Ryan, who turned 69 on September 28, has served as head of the Illinois diocese since January 1984. (USPS 505 680) Publisher: Most Rev. J. Kevin Boland, D.D. 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