Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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 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 Name. Address I Phone ( ). ■ Parish I J (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: Mrs. Barbara D. King Editor: Rev. Douglas K. Clark, S.T.L. Editorial and Business Office: Catholic Pastoral Center 601 E. Liberty Street Savannah, GA 31401-5196 (912) 238-2320 FAX: (912) 238-2339 E-mail: DCIark5735@aol.com or Southerncross@ix.netcom.com Internet Home Page: http://www.dioceseofsavannah.org POSTMASTER: Send Change of Address to circulation office: Chalker Publishing Southern Cross Subscription Department R O. Box 948 Waynesboro, GA 30830 Subscription Price: $ 15 per year Periodicals Postage Paid at Waynesboro, GA 30830 Published weekly except the second and last weeks in June, July and August and the last week in December. At 601 E. 6 th Street Waynesboro, GA 30830