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The Southern Cross, Page 2
Former Aquinas
TEACHER SENTENCED
Augusta
F ormer Aquinas High School
teacher Vanessa Velez-Cruz
pleaded guilty in Richmond County
Superior Court and was sentenced to
30 years in prison for systematically
stealing $227,774 from students and
their parents, friends, businesses and
charitable organizations from 1993
through 1999. Ms. Velez-Cruz
defrauded the students and parents by
creating the false impression that she
was depositing monthly installment
payments for overseas trips into two
business accounts. Twenty-eight
Aquinas students were stranded in
Europe when their accommodations
and return flight were canceled after
Ms. Velez-Cruz’s checks to a travel
agent bounced. No school funds
were involved.
Colorado priest named
COADJUTOR BISHOP IN
Wyoming
Washington (CNS)
P ope John Paul II has named
Father David L. Ricken, a priest
of the Diocese of Pueblo, Colorado,
and an official of the Vatican's
Congregation for the Clergy since
1996, as coadjutor bishop to Bishop
Joseph H. Hart of Cheyenne,
Wyoming. Archbishop Gabriel
Montalvo, apostolic nuncio to the
United States, announced the
appointment December 14 in
Washington. As coadjutor, Bishop-
designate Ricken, 47, will automati
cally become head of the Cheyenne
Diocese upon Bishop Hart’s death or
retirement.
Thousands pay tribute
TO FALLEN FIREFIGHTERS
Worcester, MA (CNS)
T he people of the City of Worcester
and of Worcester County gathered
by the thousands December 9 to pay
tribute to six firefighters who laid
down their lives in a fire at an aban
doned warehouse building December
3. People, in respectful silence, lined
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the route of a procession of an estimat
ed 20,000 firefighters from Worcester,
from cities and towns in Worcester
County, from fire departments from
across Massachusetts and New
England and from departments
throughout the United States, Canada
and as far away as Ireland and
Australia. They were joined by
President Clinton, Vice President A1
Gore and Massachusetts Senators
Edward M. Kennedy and John F.
Kerry.
John XXIII expected to
BE DECLARED VENERABLE,
BEATIFIED
Vatican City (CNS)
P ope John Paul II is expected to
declare Pope John XXIII venera
ble in late December and beatify him
next September. Famiglia Cristiana,
Italy’s top-selling weekly magazine,
devoted the cover of its December 12
issue to Pope John and said his beati
fication would take place September
3. Pope John Paul’s calendar for the
Holy Year 2000 includes a beatifica
tion ceremony September 3 in Saint
Peter’s Square, although the person
or people to be beatified were not
named. Pope John headed the
Catholic Church from 1958 to 1963
and convoked the Second Vatican
Council. Officials involved in saint
hood and beatification processes told
Catholic News Service the September
beatification of Pope John was likely.
Jesuit finds HUD job a
NEW PLACE TO SERVE
Washington (CNS)
J esuit Father Joe Hacala’s Roman
collar probably stands out a bit in
the federal government office build
ing where he works. And it may
strike some people as odd when they
call the Department of Housing and
Urban Development about a project
proposal and wind up working with a
Catholic priest. But to hear HUD
Secretary Andrew Cuomo talk,
HUD’s Center for Community and
Interfaith Partnerships, which Father
Hacala was hired to open and run,
creates exactly the right kind of inter
action between government and faith
groups. The center has made it possi
ble for nonprofit groups, particularly
religiously based organizations to
“have an institutional seat at the
table” in community development,
Cuomo said November 30.
Pope lauds restored
Sistine Chapel frescoes
AS ‘VISUAL HYMN’
Vatican City (CNS)
B lessing a restoration job financed
largely by American benefactors,
Pope John Paul II viewed resplendent
frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and
said they constituted a “visual hymn”
to God. On December 11 Vatican
officials unveiled the final phase of a
20-year cleaning project in the
chapel, which began with Michel
angelo’s famed ceiling paintings and
ended with a series of 15th-century
frescoes on the side walls. The 12
side wall frescoes, by artists includ
ing Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino
and Domenico Ghirlandaio, feature
scenes from the lives of Moses and
Christ, including Moses’ crossing of
the Red Sea and Christ’s handing the
keys of the kingdom to Saint Peter.
Tom Jones, Lionel
Richie to perform at
Vatican concert
Vatican City (CNS)
I nternationally acclaimed singers
Tom Jones and Lionel Richie will
take the stage at the Vatican’s annual
Christmas concert December 18,
organizers said. Proceeds from the
concert, the seventh of its kind, will
go to construct 50 new churches in
the periphery of the Diocese of
Rome. Pope John Paul II is expected
to meet with the musicians, but he is
not scheduled to attend the concert.
Children’s Bill of
Rights advocated
New York (CNS)
S ister Mary Rose McGeady used
the annual candlelight vigil of
Covenant House, the shelter program
for homeless and runaway youth, to
launch a “Children’s Bill of Rights”
Thursday, December 16, 1999
December 7. “We believe every child
has the right to be put in touch with
the God who loves him or her,” says
the first of 10 “basic and inalienable”
rights in the list. Sister McGeady, a
Daughter of Charity who has been
president of Covenant House since
1990, said after the vigil that being
put “in touch with God” would
include being taught the kind of
behavior expected from a child in
God’s covenant.
Court: Jesuits may be
LIABLE IN CASE
San Francisco (CNS)
A California court has been
ordered to reconsider a former
seminarian’s lawsuit claiming he was
sexually harassed while studying at
Jesuit institutions. In a December 1
ruling, a three-judge panel of the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unani
mously said the U.S. District Court
of Northern California erred in dis
missing John Bollard’s lawsuit
against the California, Oregon and
Maryland provinces of the Jesuits.
The district court had said civil
courts lack jurisdiction in discrimina
tion suits involving ministers and the
churches that employ them. “That
rationale does not apply here,” the
9th Circuit said, “for the Jesuits most
certainly do not claim that allowing
harassment to continue unrectified is
a method of choosing their clergy.”
Team will push for
more Vatican papers
Vatican City (CNS)
H istorians commissioned to
review Vatican documents relat
ing to the Holocaust indicated
December 7 their primary thrust
would be pushing for the opening of
all Vatican archives that might con
tain pertinent documents. “The search
for truth, wherever it may lead, can
be best promoted in an environment
in which there is full access to
archival documentation and other his
torical evidence,” said the team of
Catholic and Jewish historians in a
joint statement read at a press confer
ence. The team held its first meeting
in New York December 6-7.
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The Southern Cross
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(USPS 505 680)
Publisher:
Most Rev. J. Kevin Boland, D.D.
Director of Communications:
Mrs. Barbara D. King
C P a )f
Editor:
^ Rev Douglas K. Clark, S.T.L.
Editorial and Business Office:
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(912) 238-2320
FAX: (912) 238-2339
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