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The Southern Cross, Page 2
Religious leaders urge
MORATORIUM ON FEDERAL
EXECUTIONS
Washington (CNS)
R epresentatives of more than 30
church-based groups joined in a
plea to President Clinton to impose a
moratorium on use of the death penal
ty by the federal government. In a
March 9 letter, religious leaders told
President Clinton that “our nation is
slowly realizing the truth of capital
punishment: the death penalty, as
applied in America today, threatens to
shed innocent blood.” It was signed
by leaders of Baptist, Quaker,
Episcopal, Lutheran, Greek Orthodox,
Jewish, Presbyterian, United Church
of Christ and Methodist organizations,
among others. Columban Father
Michael Dodd, director of the Justice
and Peace Office of the Columban
Fathers was among the signers.
October 1 set for
Katharine Drexel’s
CANONIZATION
Vatican City (CNS)
P ope John Paul II fixed an October
date to canonize Blessed Katha
rine Drexel, the U.S. heiress who
dedicated her life to defending and
educating African Americans and
Native Americans. During a March
10 meeting with cardinals and bish
ops, the pope said he would declare
Blessed Katharine a saint during an
October 1 Mass at Saint Peter’s
Basilica. The meeting, in which the
prelates voted to proceed with the
declaration of sainthood, marked the
last procedural requirement before
the canonization ceremony.
Bill to expand program
for unwanted
newborns advances
Saint Paul, MN (CNS)
S afe Place for Newborns, a program
initiated by a Saint Paul Catholic
group in January to provide a safe
haven for unwanted newborns, moved
closer to statewide acceptance in early
March. The Minnesota Legislature was
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considering a proposal that would
allow any mother across the state to
leave her unharmed newborn, up to 72
hours old, in a hospital emergency
room or with any hospital employee.
The Minnesota Senate passed the leg
islation February 28, and a similar
House bill was in committee.
Cardinal Rung, 98, dies
Vatican City (CNS)
rr^he late Chinese Cardinal Ignatius
1 Kung Pin-mei demonstrated
“heroic fidelity to Christ amid perse
cution and imprisonment,” Pope John
Paul II said. The cardinal, who was
diagnosed with stomach cancer in late
February, died in Stamford,
Connecticut, March 12 at the age of
98. He was the Catholic Church’s old
est cardinal. Cardinal Kung, consid
ered by the Vatican to be the legiti
mate bishop of Shanghai until his
death, had spent more than 30 years in
prison in China for his refusal to
renounce his ties with the Vatican and
with the pope. His death leaves the
College of Cardinals with 152 mem
bers, 104 of whom are under age 80
and therefore eligible to vote in a
papal conclave. With Cardinal Kung’s
death, 92-year-old Bishop Matthias
Duan Yinming of Wanxian is the only
bishop of a Chinese diocese publicly
appointed by the Vatican.
New English edition of
official Catholic
CATECHISM DUE IN APRIL
Vatican City (CNS)
T he U.S. Catholic Conference has
announced publication in April
of the second English edition of the
“Catechism of the Catholic Church.”
To be distributed by the USCC and
Our Sunday Visitor, the book will
carry a list price of $14.95 for soft-
cover and $24.95 for hardcover.
Since the catechism first came out in
English in 1994, more than 2.3 mil
lion copies have been sold. The new
edition is more than 100 pages larger
than the original. It has an expanded
index and is the first version of the
catechism to include a glossary.
Catholic group
CONDEMNS DESECRATION
of Montreal
CATHEDRAL
Ottawa (CNS)
T he desecration of a Montreal
cathedral brought condemnation
from the Catholic Civil Rights League
and left a national newspaper wonder
ing why there had not been more pub
lic outrage. “These acts are those of
terrorists, deliberately planned and
executed on the people and property of
Mary Queen of the World Cathedral,
and those responsible should be
charged to the full extent of the law,”
said Thomas Langan, president of the
civil rights league. A group of vandals
burst into the cathedral March 8, dis
turbing several afternoon worshippers.
Witnesses said the group shouted anti-
Catholic slogans, spray painted
“Neither God Nor Master” on the altar,
littered the church with condoms and
sanitary napkins and tried to overturn
the tabernacle. The demonstration
reportedly was organized by a group
of feminist activists opposed to patri
archy and the Catholic Church’s stance
against abortion. Seven people were
arrested and later released to appear in
court on several charges, but a police
official said hate crime charges would
not be laid against the group. Such
charges apply only to spreading hatred
against specific groups, not for voicing
issues of public concern or for expres
sing their opinions, said the official.
Teen makes mark in
liturgical music
Minneapolis (CNS)
E ighteen-year-old Michael Mahler
could be the next rising star in
the liturgical music world. This win
ter he composed an entire Mass, and
he is about to be the youngest person
to have a song published by GIA
Publications, one of the major liturgi
cal publishers in the country. “He’s
just an amazingly gifted young man
and truly touched by God,” David
Haas told The Catholic Spirit, news
paper of the Saint Paul-Minneapolis
Thursday, March 16, 2000
Archdiocese. Haas is a well-known
church musician and composer who
works part-time at Benilde-Saint
Margaret’s School in Saint Louis
Park, where Mahler is a senior.
Star publisher defends
SERIES ON AIDS
Kansas City, MO (CNS)
T he publisher of The Kansas City
Star has publicly defended the
newspaper’s controversial series on
AIDS in the priesthood and promised
another story showing that the news
paper’s first estimate of the number
of AIDS deaths among Catholic
priests was “understated.” Appearing
on a Kansas City radio program, Star
president and publisher Arthur S.
Brisbane said “the church” was in
denial about the incidence of AIDS
among its priests. Brisbane described
what he considered the “kernel truth”
of the series: “That there’s a problem
with AIDS education among priests.
The church hasn’t really owned up to
it, dealt with it, and that, in my sense,
the overriding reaction here is one of
denial.”
Some media put priests
IN ‘UNFAVORABLE LIGHT,’
ARCHBISHOP SAYS
Albuquerque, NM (CNS)
T he recent Kansas City Star series
on AIDS in the priesthood is part
of a wider effort by some media to
“put the priesthood in an unfavorable
light,” according to Archbishop
Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe.
Writing in the March issue of his
archdiocesan newspaper, The People
of God, Archbishop Sheehan said that
when the media “picks on priests”
and subjects them to more study than
other groups, the primary motivation
is a failure to understand priests’
commitment to celibacy. “The secular
humanist culture has a difficult time
understanding a priestly vocation and
I believe the Evil One is working
hard to tear away at the dignity of
priestly life and ministry,” he said.
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The Southern Cross
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