Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 2
Clinton signs measure
honoring Cardinal
O’Connor
Washington (CNS)
N ew York Cardinal John J.
O’Connor has served the church
and the nation with “constancy and
commitment,” President Clinton said
March 5 as he signed legislation
awarding the Congressional Gold
Medal to the cardinal. The medal is
the highest civilian honor awarded by
Congress. The president called the
cardinal “an inspiration for millions,”
noting his early days as a parish
priest in his native Philadelphia, his
service as a military chaplain in
Korea and Vietnam, and his 16 years
as head of the New York
Archdiocese. The Senate passed a
resolution by unanimous consent
March 1 to honor the ailing cardinal.
Lawmakers pushed the legislation
forward in light of his health. The
House voted February 15 to grant the
medal to the cardinal “in recognition
of his accomplishments as a priest, a
chaplain and a humanitarian.” In a
statement issued March 2, the cardi
nal said he was “humbled and hon
ored to have been voted” to receive
the medal.
Michigan community
GRIEVES DEATH OF YOUNG
STER IN SCHOOL SHOOTING
Flint, MI (CNS)
A nother U.S. community is griev
ing the death of student in a
school shooting, this time at an ele
mentary school in Mount Morris
Township, a struggling, working-
class section of Flint. A 6-year-old
boy fatally shot his 6-year-old
schoolmate, Kayla Rolland, in their
first-grade classroom Feb. 29 at Theo
J. Buell Elementary School. Bishop
Carl F. Mengeling of Lansing, whose
diocese includes Flint, said he and
the rest of the Catholic community
were “deeply saddened by the tragic
death of an innocent little girl.” In a
March 2 statement, he said, “With
loving compassion we offer our
prayerful support to her grieving par-
To Subscribe
Send this in to your parish,
together with your check for $15,
made out to the parish.
For more information call
The Southern Cross
(912) 238-2320
ents and family who know the heart
breaking loss of a dear child.” The
bishop also said that his “heart goes
out to the other victim, the little boy,
to his family, to the Buell Elementary
School community and the people of
Mount Morris.”
Scouts court case
TOUCHES ON RIGHTS OF
RELIGIOUS GROUPS
Washington (CNS)
T he New Jersey Supreme Court’s
ruling that a homosexual Boy
Scout leader was improperly fired
threatens the right of social, political
and religious groups to define their
own missions, argues a brief by the
U.S. Catholic Conference and the
New Jersey Catholic Conference. “It
defies common sense to force a group
to retain a leader who has publicly
stated he wants to change the group
because he believes its views are
wrong,” said the amicus curiae or
ffiend-of-the-court brief filed in an up
coming U.S. Supreme Court case, Boy
Scouts of America vs. James Dale.
Pope says Holy Land
REMINDS PEOPLE OF SPIRI
TUAL REALITIES
Vatican City (CNS)
M odem men and women are
increasingly fascinated by the
Holy Land because it is a tangible
reminder of the spiritual realities they
often overlook, Pope John Paul II
said. Meeting March 2 with an esti
mated 3,000 Knights and Ladies of
the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, the
pope asked for prayers during his
March 20-26 pilgrimage to the Holy
Land. Pope John Paul thanked the
organization for its “generous spiritual
and charitable commitment on behalf
of the holy places and of the Latin
Patriarchate of Jerusalem.” He said
the knights’ financial support of the
Catholic Church in the Middle East
and of the sites connected to the life
of Jesus has done much to give people
continuing access to “the precious pat
rimony of historic testimony which is
preserved in the Holy Land.”
Cardinal Keeler
DEFENDS VATICAN-
PALESTINIAN ACCORD
Baltimore (CNS)
A ddressing a national Jewish
meeting, Cardinal William H.
Keeler of Baltimore defended the
recent Vatican accord with the
Palestinian Authority and called it a
historic “breakthrough” for religious
freedom in an Arab country. The car
dinal’s vigorous defense of the pact
against Jewish criticisms came amid
growing world attention to Catholic-
Jewish relations as Pope John Paul II
prepared to visit the Holy Land in
late March. “The PLO in the
(accord’s) preamble has finally
acknowledged in an instrument rec
ognized as binding under the interna
tional law the application of the prin
ciple of full religious liberty and free
dom of conscience to its own society,
the first Arab country to do so,”
Cardinal Keeler said.
Document explores
THEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF
CHURCH SEEKING PARDON
Vatican City (CNS)
A new document said the church
should ask forgiveness for the
past sins of its members and institu
tions—including Christians’ treatment
of Jews—but insisted that the holiness
of the church itself can never be called
into question. The church “is not afraid
Thursday, March 9, 2000
of the truth that emerges from history,
and it is ready to recognize errors
where they are demonstrated, especial
ly when they concern the respect owed
to individuals or communities,” the
document said. The lengthy document,
titled “Memory and Reconciliation:
The Church and the Faults of the
Past,” was prepared by the
International Theological Commission,
headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,
prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith.
Cardinal Ratzinger:
Vatican II focused on
holiness
Vatican City (CNS)
T he Second Vatican Council’s
descriptions of the church were
not explanations of how power
should be exercised, but about how
the church was to be holy, said
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. “The
church exists so that it becomes the
dwelling place of God in the world,”
the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal
congregation said February 27 at an
international meeting reviewing how
well the council’s teachings have
been implemented. When discussing
the structure of the Catholic Church
and relationships between its institu
tions and among its members, holi
ness must be the exclusive concern,
not “the rights of precedence or the
occupation of the best places,” the
cardinal said.
Lenten Norms
The following Lenten norms have been set down
by the bishops for American Catholics.
•F The current discipline of the church for Lent mandates that all who
have reached their fourteenth birthday are bound by the law of absti
nence (no meat) on Ash Wednesday, on all Fridays of Lent and on
Good Friday. This year, Bishop Boland has dispensed from the law of
abstinence in the Diocese of Savannah for Friday, March 17, Saint
Patrick's Day.
•F Those between the ages of eighteen and fifty-nine are also bound
by the law of fasting on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday. To fast is
to limit oneself to one full meal a day. Two other meatless meals, suffi
cient to maintain strength, may be taken according to each one's
needs, but together these should not equal another full meal. Between
meals, only liquids may be taken.
Name_
Address
Phone (_
Parish
(USPS 505 680)
Deadline: All material for publication on
Publisher:
Thursday must be received at the latest by noon
Most Rev. J. Kevin Boland, D.D.
on the previous Friday.
Director of Communications:
POSTMASTER:
Mrs. Barbara D. King
Send Change of Address to circulation office:
l(cpa)i
Chalker Publishing
Edifor:
Southern Cross Subscription Department
* fss Rev. Douglas K. Clark, S.T.L.
R O. Box 948
Waynesboro, GA 30830
Editorial and Business Office:
Subscription Price: $15 per year
Catholic Pastoral Center
Periodicals Postage Paid
601 E. Liberty Street
at Waynesboro, GA 30830
Savannah, GA 31401 -5196
Published weekly except the second and last ~
(912) 238-2320 FAX: (912) 238-2339
weeks in June, July and August and the last week’
E-mail: DCIark5735@aol.com
in December. «
or Southerncross@ix.netcom.com
At 601 E. 6 th Street
Internet Home Page:
Waynesboro, GA 30830 4
http://www.dioceseofsavannah.org