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The Southern Cross, Page 2
Headline Hopseoteln
Thursday, December 23, 1999
Pope apologizes for
Church’s treatment of
15th-century priest
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II offered an apol
ogy for the Catholic Church’s
treatment of 15th-century Czech
priest and theologian John Hus, who
was burned at the stake as a heretic.
“Today, on the eve of the great
jubilee, I feel the need to express
deep regret for the cruel death inflict
ed on John Hus and for the conse
quent wound of conflict and division
which was thus imposed on the
minds and hearts of the Bohemian
people,” he said. The pope’s words
came in a December 17 speech to
participants of an international John
Hus conference, sponsored by the
Vatican’s jubilee committee and the
Czech bishops’ conference.
Pope plans overnight
trip to Jordan as part
of Holy Land visit *
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II plans an
overnight visit to Jordan as part of
his Holy Land trip next March, church
sources said. Tentative plans call for
the pope to celebrate Mass at the
Jordan River where Christ was bap
tized, pray on Mount Nebo where
Moses saw the promised land, and
meet with Jordanian church and civil
authorities, the sources said. A Vatican
advance team met with Jordanian offi
cials December 14-15 to discuss
details of the papal itinerary. The pope
would make the visit March 20-21 as
the first leg of a trip that would also
take him to Jerusalem and holy places
in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Vatican officials
DOWNPLAY REPORT OF
SlNO-VATICAN RELATIONS
Vatican City (CNS)
atican officials have again
downplayed a recurrent report
from Asia that the Holy See and
China are about to establish diplo
matic relations. The officials said
December 15 that while there has
been a somewhat positive tone to
recent contacts with the Chinese, it
was unclear where the difficult dia
logue would lead. “Perhaps in a
month we can say more,” said one
source. Vatican spokesman Joaquin
Navarro-Valls said December 15 that
there had been no new developments
regarding China over the previous
two months, except for recent papal
messages to Catholics in China and
in Macau, which returns to Chinese
rule December 20.
Cuban bishops say
PARENTAL RIGHTS SHOULD
DECIDE BOY’S CASE
Havana (CNS)
he Cuban Catholic bishops say
the custody battle over a 6-year-
old Cuban boy should be resolved in
favor of parental rights. The boy,
Elian Gonzalez, has been living with
relatives in Florida since he survived
an attempt to reach the United States
by boat. He was found November 25,
clinging to an inner tube off the
Florida coast. His mother and stepfa
ther drowned after an accident aboard
the boat on which they left Cuba.
The boy’s father, who remained in
Cuba and said the child’s mother kid
napped him, was seeking custody. A
December 8 statement issued by the
Cuban bishops’ conference said the
case should be resolved according to
the universally accepted recognition
that minor children belong with their
parents. “We regret that emotional or
political involvements are obstructing
the prompt solution of this conflict, a
solution provided for by the very
basic norms of rights,” they said.
Married former
Lutheran minister
ORDAINED A CATHOLIC
PRIEST
Chanhassen, Minn (CNS)
s Lawrence Blake lay face down
in front of the altar, his arms
cradled under his forehead, he lis
tened as more than 1,000 voices sang
the Litany of Saints. His mind lin
gered on his namesake, Saint Law
rence, and then on Saint Maximilian
Kolbe, the 20th-century Polish priest
who sacrificed his life in a Nazi
death camp so a married prisoner
could live to support his family.
Moments later, the 48-year-old fami
ly man and former Lutheran minister
was ordained a priest—the first mar
ried Catholic priest in the Archdio
cese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
and in Minnesota. Archbishop Harry
J. Flynn presided at the ordination
Mass December 11 at Saint Hubert in
Chanhassen, where Father Blake is
business administrator. It is also his
family’s parish.
Italian court rules
HANDICAPPED GIRL NEED
NOT HAVE ABORTION
Vatican City (CNS)
n Italian court ruled that a preg
nant 13-year-old mentally handi
capped girl need not have an abor
tion, reversing an earlier recommen
dation by a court-appointed guardian.
Father Oreste Benzi, a local priest
who supported the Sicilian girl’s wish
to have the child, called the
December 16 decision “a hymn to
life.” Bishop Giuseppe Malandrino of
Noto, Italy, and several Italian politi
cians had asked the court to re-exam
ine the case following a court-
appointed guardian’s decision that
“Laura” undergo an abortion. Ignazio
Ruffino, who is also the family’s doc
tor, recommended December 11 that
the girl have an abortion, despite the
girl’s willingness to have the baby.
Ruffino said pregnancy would “seri
ously compromise her psychic condi
tion.”
Archbishop calls for
RE-EXAMINATION OF
College of Cardinals
Vatican City (CNS)
R etired Archbishop John R. Quinn
of San Francisco, in a new
response to Pope John Paul II’s call
for an ecumenical exploration of
papal primacy, called for a re-exami
nation of the role of the College of
Cardinals, which he said presents a
stumbling block to Christian unity.
The archbishop, author of a new
book on reform of the papacy, also
said future ecumenical councils of
the world’s bishops should include
other Christian leaders, especially
Orthodox, as full members. Arch
bishop Quinn made his remarks in an
interview with the Italian magazine,
Jesus, produced by the Paulist
Fathers. Catholic News Service
obtained an advance copy of the arti
cle, which was to appear in the
January issue.
Hawaii Catholic
Conference hails same-
sex MARRIAGE DECISION
Honolulu (CNS)
he Hawaii Catholic Conference
hailed as “a victory for families” a
decision by the state’s Supreme Court
which upheld the state’s marriage
laws prohibiting same-sex unions.
The laws define marriage as taking
place between only one man and one
woman. Hawaii voters in 1998
approved a referendum by a 69-31
percent margin that would give the
state Legislature the power “to reserve
marriage to opposite-sex couples.”
Diocese forgives
PORTION OF SOME PARISH
DEBT FOR JUBILEE
Lafayette, LA (CNS)
ishop Edward O’Donnell of
Lafayette has announced that the
diocese will forgive a portion of 15
parishes’ debt in keeping with Pope
John Paul II’s recommendations for
the year 2000. The diocese will pay
the parishes’ liability and property
insurance premiums, according to a
letter from Bishop O’Donnell to pas
tors and administrators and published
in the December issue of the Acadiana
Catholic, Lafayette’s monthly diocesan
newspaper. “The extent of the forgive
ness is not huge,” the bishop said, “15
parishes are involved, all with less
than $59,000 annual income with little
or no savings on deposit.” The amount
forgiven and assumed by the diocese is
$52,670.
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