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The Southern Cross, Page 2
In Holy Thursday
LETTER TO PRIESTS, POPE
URGES LOVE OF
Eucharist
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II urged the
world’s priests to grow in their
love and awareness of Christ’s pres
ence in the Eucharist. “Let us redis
cover our priesthood in the light of
the Eucharist,” he said. “Let us help
our communities to rediscover this
treasure,” which is the “heart of the
church’s life.” The pope commented
in his annual letter to priests for Holy
Thursday, commemorating Christ’s
institution of the Eucharist and the
priesthood at the Last Supper. The
pope signed the personal meditation
March 23 while visiting Jerusalem’s
Upper Room, where Christ is thought
to have dined with his disciples the
night before his crucifixion. The let
ter was released during a Vatican
press conference March 30.
Poll shows strong sup
port FOR PARTIAL-BIRTH
ABORTION BAN
Washington (CNS)
s the House of Representatives
prepared to vote on banning par
tial-birth abortions, a new poll
showed that 68 percent of Americans
supported such a ban. Less than 20
percent of the respondents opposed a
ban on the partial-birth abortion pro
cedure, while 13.4 percent said they
didn’t know or declined to answer.
The poll, done by MarketFacts for
the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-
Life Activities and the Knights of
Columbus, involved 1,000 U.S. citi
zens questioned between March 31
and April 2. It had a margin of error
of plus or minus 3.1 percent.
Congress urged to
SUPPORT UNCHANGED
Vatican status at U.N.
New Haven, CT (CNS)
he head of the Knights of Colum
bus has called on Congress to
pass a resolution supporting the con
tinuation of the Vatican’s permanent
observer status at the United Nations.
“Congress should declare its strong
objection to any efforts to expel the
Holy See from the United Nations as
a state participant,” said Virgil C.
Dechant, supreme knight, in a March
29 letter to senators and members of
the House of Representatives.
“Efforts to change the status of the
Holy See are an attempt to silence
the Holy See as a voice for the sanc
tity of human life and human rights
at a time when it is most needed.”
Philip Berrigan gets 30-
MONTH SENTENCE FOR
DAMAGING A-10S
Towson, MD (CNS)
hilip Berrigan, a 76-year-old for
mer Josephite priest and longtime
activist, was sentenced to 30 months
in jail March 23 for malicious des
truction of property in connection
with a protest last December at the
Warfield Air National Guard base in
Middle River, Maryland. Berrigan
and three others, who called them
selves the Plowshares vs. Depleted
Uranium, hammered and poured
blood on two A-10 Warthog aircraft
at the base because the Warthog has a
Gatling gun which fires depleted ura
nium. Each of the four also was con
victed of conspiracy to maliciously
destroy property. Jesuit Father
Stephen Kelly of New York and
Susan Crane of Baltimore were sen
tenced to 27 months in jail, and
Elizabeth Walz, a Catholic Worker
member from Philadelphia, received
an 18-month sentence. Each defen
dant was ordered to pay one-fourth of
the $88,622.11 in damages reportedly
caused to the A-10s.
U.S. CARDINAL NAMED TO
BODY OVERSEEING
Vatican finances
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II named Cardinal
Bernard F. Law of Boston a
member of a high-level consultative
body that oversees Vatican finances
and the Vatican bank. Cardinal Law’s
appointment restores the number of
U.S. prelates in the 15-member coun
cil to two. Cardinal John J. O’Connor
of New York resigned from the con
sultative body when he turned 80 in
January. In another April 1 announce
ment, the pope named the council’s
other U.S. member, Cardinal Roger
M. Mahony of Los Angeles, to be
also a member of the Prefecture of
Economic Affairs of the Holy See,
the body responsible for preparing
the Vatican’s budget.
Supreme Court tackles
PRAYER BEFORE FOOTBALL
GAMES
Washington (CNS)
he Supreme Court, having barred
organized school prayer from
public school classrooms and gradua
tion ceremonies, must now decide if
it will allow student-led prayers over
the public address system before
football games. In oral arguments
before the court March 29, most of
the justices seemed hesitant to allow
this now-suspended policy of a pre
game invocation in a Texas school
district to resume. The court’s ruling
on the case, which is expected by
early July, could have a significant
impact in the ongoing debate over
religion in public schools.
Oakland diocesan ser
vice OFFERS APOLOGY FOR
CLERGY SEX ABUSE
Oakland (CNS)
ain, anger, and healing surged
through an Oakland gathering as
Bishop John S. Cummins and other
leaders of the Oakland Diocese pub
licly apologized to victims of clergy
sexual abuse. More than 130 people,
including survivors, their families
and friends, attended the March 25
service. To the men and women who
were sexually abused by priests when
they were children, teen-agers or
adults, Bishop Cummins said, “For
our lack of facing the truth regarding
abuse by clergy and others, for our
tendency to retreat into denial and
self-protection in the face of such
abuse, for our response of fear and
avoidance rather than of care for the
Thursday, April 6, 2000
survivors of clergy sexual abuse, we
ask pardon and forgiveness.” The ser
vice, nearly a year in the planning,
was held in part as a response to
Pope John Paul II’s call for the
church to reach out during the jubilee
year and ask forgiveness to those it
has harmed.
Muslim-Catholic
DIALOGUE TO PREPARE
DOCUMENT ON MARRIAGE
Washington (CNS)
atholics and Muslims from New
York, New Jersey and Pennsyl
vania have agreed to prepare a joint
document on their views of marriage
and family life. The agreement by the
Mid-Atlantic Dialogue of Muslims
and Catholics, reached at a late
February meeting in New York, was
announced March 28 in Washington.
The text to be prepared will present
information on how each group
views marriage, the requirements of
each tradition for marriage, and vari
ous aspects of family life, especially
the values which Catholics and
Muslims hold in common.
Blocking low-power
FM to “hurt Catholic
PROGRAMMING”
Washington (CNS)
he chairman of the U.S. bishops’
Communications Committee has
urged a House committee to oppose
legislation that would deny licensing
of low-power FM radio to local com
munities, including Catholic institu
tions. “The sense that radio stations
should be responsive to the interests
and needs of the communities of
license has largely been lost since the
deregulation of radio begun in 1984,”
wrote Bishop Robert N. Lynch of
Saint Petersburg, Florida, in a letter
to the House Commerce Committee.
“Programming decisions once made
by station employees who lived in
the local community are more fre
quently being made at the corporate
headquarters of large broadcasting
companies, with little more than the
bottom line guiding those decisions,”
said Bishop Lynch.
i hern hM
C JPOSS yJy
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