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The Southern Cross, Page 2
Vatican rejects some
CLAIMS OF BEST WAY TO
CELEBRATE MASS
Washington (CNS)
I n a letter to a U.S. bishop, the
Vatican Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Sacraments has
rejected arguments that priests should
give preference to Eucharistic Prayer
I and should stand at the altar with
their back to the people when they
celebrate Mass. The letter, respond
ing to inquiries by Bishop David E.
Foley of Birmingham, Alabama, was
sent to all U.S. bishops and was
made public February 22.
Pope: Vatican II a gift,
NOT A BREAK WITH PAST
Vatican City (CNS)
P eople who believe the Second
Vatican Council marked a break
with the Catholic Church’s past can
not correctly interpret its teaching,
Pope John Paul II said. Although he
had just returned from his pilgrimage
to Egypt, the pope interrupted his rest
to give the closing address at a Febru
ary 25-27 Vatican meeting on the
implementation of the Second Vatican
Council. Pope John Paul rejected the
idea that the Catholic Church needs a
new council to reorganize its structure
and its mission to respond to modem
needs and concerns.
Bush responds to
ACCUSATIONS OF ANTI-
Catholicism
Washington (CNS)
T exas Gov. George Bush told New
York Cardinal John J. O’Connor
in a February 25 letter that he wanted
to assure Catholics his Bob Jones
University appearance does not mean
he “approves of the anti-Catholic and
racially divisive views” associated
with the school. Charges of anti-
Catholicism have followed the GOP
candidate around the country since he
spoke at the evangelical Christian
university in South Carolina in early
February. The school bans interracial
dating as immoral, and its leaders
have called Catholicism a cult and
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likened it to satanism.
In democracies,
Christians must defend
TRUTHS, POPE SAYS
Vatican City (CNS)
C hristians in democratic societies
must defend objective moral
tmths, even those rejected by the
majority, Pope John Paul II said.
Insisting on unpopular moral norms
is not “extremism or fundamental
ism,” but essential to building a
democracy that respects the dignity
and freedom of the human person, he
said. The pope made his remarks
February 24 in a message to partici
pants of the plenary session of the
Pontifical Academy of Social
Sciences.
Vatican distinguishes
BETWEEN “MARTYR”,
“witness of faith”
Vatican City (CNS)
A s Pope John Paul II prepared to
beatify a group of martyrs, a
Vatican official said it was important
to understand the difference between
a martyr and a “witness of the faith.”
Strictly speaking, the term martyr
should be used only for Catholics
who died for their faith and were
beatified or canonized, said Arch
bishop Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect
of the Congregation for Sainthood
Causes. The term “witnesses of the
faith” may be used for Catholics
whose beatification process has not
been completed or for other
Christians who were killed because
of their faith or promotion of
Christian values, the archbishop said.
Congress asked to
CONDEMN MOVES TO OUST
Vatican as U.N. observer
New York (CNS)
rpihe House and Senate are consider-
X ing resolutions that condemn
moves to end the Vatican’s status as a
permanent observer to the United
Nations. The “sense of Congress” res
olution was introduced by two Catho
lic Republicans—Rep. Chris Smith of
New Jersey in the House and Sen.
Robert C. Smith of New Hampshire in
the Senate. The resolution says Con
gress “strongly objects to any effort to
expel the Holy See from the United
Nations as a state participant by
removing its status as a nonmember
state permanent observer.” For about a
year, the group Catholics for a Free
Choice has been leading a campaign
to change the Vatican’s status at the
United Nations to that of a nongovern
mental organization. Nearly 400 orga
nizations, including the International
Planned Parenthood Federation, have
asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan to review the status of the
Holy See as a permanent observer.
Pennsylvania bishops
SUPPORT MORATORIUM ON
DEATH PENALTY
Washington (CNS)
T he bishops of Pennsylvania
“wholeheartedly support a mora
torium on the death penalty,” said
Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony J.
Bevilacqua in testimony before a
state legislative panel in Harrisburg.
The subject of the February 22
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
was Senate Bill 952, which calls for
a two-year suspension of executions
while a special commission studies
whether the death penalty is being
implemented fairly in Pennsylvania.
“Since capital punishment is a final
and irreversible act, it is incumbent
upon the state, in the interest of pro
moting the good of all, to examine
the manner in which the death penal
ty is being applied,” said the cardinal,
chairman of the Pennsylvania
Catholic Conference, public policy
arm of the state’s bishops.
Brief: partial-birth
ABORTION NOT CONSTITU
TIONALLY PROTECTED
Washington (CNS)
T he procedure known as partial-
birth abortion is so different that
it does not warrant the constitutional
protection the court has given abor
tion in general, argues the U.S. Ca
tholic Conference in a brief to the
U.S. Supreme Court. “The killing of
Thursday, March 2, 2000
partly bom children is new to both
law and medicine,” says the USCC in
an amicus curiae, or friend of the
court, brief for an upcoming case
over Nebraska’s law prohibiting par
tial-birth abortion.
New South African
DIRECTORY CLARIFIES
Communion guidelines
Cape Town, RSA (CNS)
T he southern African bishops’
revised ecumenical directory,
which has Vatican approval, “re
moves any possibility of misunder
standing” about eucharistic sharing,
said a South African theologian.
“Nothing substantial has changed” in
the new directory, Brian Gaybba, the
ology professor at Rhodes University
in Grahamstown, said in a February
16 telephone interview. He said he
thought the original version “would
have gone through without a hitch if
it wasn’t for the Clinton incident.”
The parish priest of the Soweto
church where U.S. President Bill
Clinton attended Mass in March 1998
said he was following the directory
when he gave Clinton Communion.
Court frees officer
CHARGED IN BlSHOP
Gerardi’s murder
Guatemala City (CNS)
court has freed one of three
.army officers charged with the
murder of Auxiliary Bishop Juan
Gerardi Conedera of Guatemala City,
due to an apparent lack of evidence.
“Having analyzed the evidence pre
sented by the prosecutors, this court
considered that there does not exist
the proof to warrant maintaining the
order of detention or prosecution”
against Obdulio Villanueva, said
Judge Flor de Maria Garcia February
28. Villanueva, a member of the elite
presidential guard, was arrested
January 22. Garcia mled that the
attorney general’s office had not been
able to prove Villanueva's participa
tion in Bishop Gerardi’s murder the
night of April 26, 1998, since he was
in prison at the time serving a five-
year sentence for murder.
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