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Headlm,® Hopseotelh The Vatican and Poland have jointly issued stamps commemorating the 80th birthday of Pope John Paul II. Two of the three stamps are seen here. The Polish-bom pope celebrates his birthday May 18. The Southern Cross, Page 2 Well-wishers to post BIRTHDAY GREETINGS TO POPE ONLINE Vatican City (CNS) irthday well-wishers for Pope John Paul II won’t have to gar ner tickets to a private papal audience to extend their congratulations: They can post them online. A Web-based initiative, expected to be up and run ning by the pope’s 80th birthday May 18, will allow Internet surfers to send their greetings via a special link, “Happy Birthday Pope John Paul II,” available on popular portals like Yahoo! and msn.com. Vatican offi cials said the link would be active for a minimum of a week but could be extended further, depending on how many people sign their names to the virtual birthday card. Vatican gives prior approval to Chinese bishop’s ordination Vatican City (CNS) he Vatican gave prior approval to the ordination of a Chinese bish op and requested for the first time that all the ordaining bishops be in communion with Rome, said the Vatican’s missionary news service, Fides. Bishop Zhao Fengchang, 66, was ordained bishop of Yanggu and apostolic administrator of Linqing, both ecclesial territories in China’s eastern Shandong province. The May 7 ordination Mass, attended by some 1,500 Catholics and several govern ment officials, began with a public announcement that the Vatican had explicitly approved the ceremony. French bishops express COMMUNION WITH BlSHOP Gaillot Vatican City (CNS) n a sign of reconciliation with his fellow French bishops, controver sial Bishop Jacques Gaillot expressed his thanks for an invitation to partici pate in an ecumenical meeting. In a May 10 letter to Archbishop Louis- Marie Bille of Lyons, president of the French bishops’ conference, Bishop Gaillot said his colleagues’ expres sion of brotherhood “touches me deeply and will bring joy to many.” Archbishop Bille’s letter of May 5, released by the French bishops’ con ference May 10, said the May 13 meeting in Lyons “could be an occa sion to express the communion that we have felt for so long” and to heal the five-year-old wound caused by Bishop Gaillot’s ouster from his dio cese. The Vatican removed Bishop Gaillot from his post in Evreux in January 1995 after he publicly chal lenged church teaching on several issues. Vatican’s U.N. nuncio APPLAUDS STATEMENT ON KlSSLING GROUP United Nations, NY (CNS) he Vatican’s U.N. nuncio said May 11 that a new statement from the U.S. bishops denouncing Catholics for a Free Choice for a campaign against the Vatican’s U.N. permanent observer status will be useful in reminding leaders at the world body that the organization is not Catholic. The organization has consultative status as a nongovern mental organization at the United Nations, and its president, Frances Kissling, has been an active lobbyist at U.N. meetings. In a telephone interview, Archbishop Renato R. Martino commented on a May 10 statement issued by Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, as president of the bishops’ conference, that said the group’s campaign against the Vatican’s U.N. status is reminiscent of “other episodes of anti-Catholic bigotry.” Archbishop Martino said the group’s campaign has not affected church relations with the world body and that not one of the U.N.’s 180 member nations has indicated any support for it. Gunman who shot pope SAYS HE WAS INSTRUMENT IN DIVINE PLAN Rome (CNS) fter the Vatican said the third secret of Fatima foretold the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II, the Turkish gun man in that attack proclaimed himself an “unwitting instrument” in a divine plan. Mehmet Ali Agca, who is serv ing a life sentence in an Italian prison for shooting and seriously wounding the pope in 1981, said through his lawyer May 14 that he felt relieved from the weight of responsibility by the disclosure of the secret. “I was an unwitting instrument in a mysterious Thursday, May 18, 2000 design: Now I know this with cer tainty,” Agca was quoted as saying by his lawyer, Marina Magistrelli. Agca said he would further explain his thoughts in a letter to the pope on the occasion of the pontiff’s 80th birthday May 18. Cardinal: priests needed TO PREVENT “SACRAMEN TAL STARVATION” Manchester, England (CNS) atholics will be starved of the sacraments without an influx of new priests, Belgium’s most senior Catholic churchman warned. Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Mechelen- Brussels said the vocation crisis would wipe out the church’s sacra mental traditions in Western coun tries. The 66-year-old cardinal pre dicted that Catholics would become like Protestants, forced to rely more on the Bible and less on the seven sacraments of the church. The cardi nal’s comments came during an inter view with the British Catholic week ly Catholic Times at Saint Philip’s University Church, Salford, England. Donations, prayers URGED FOR VICTIMS OF New Mexico fire Albuquerque, NM (CNS) rchbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe authorized a special collection to be taken up in parishes May 13-14 to aid residents who lost their homes and possessions when an intense fire surged through Los Alamos. The town, which is where the atomic bomb was built and is the site of Los Alamos National Laboratory, is 70 miles north of Albuquerque in the 61,000-square- mile Archdiocese of Santa Fe. The fire was started as a controlled bum May 4 to clear out bmsh in nearby Bandelier National Monument but dry, windy conditions caused it to quickly grow out of control. By May 12, it had raged through 28,000 acres and in Los Alamos destroyed 280 homes and forced 25,000 people to evacuate. 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 I *=^s=i =-» » J Name | Address i I S I I I Phone ( ) I | Parish | I — — J 1 Our Lexim Journey The St hern Cross (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: /^P\ Mrs. Barbara D. King Send Change of Address to circulation office: |(cp a )l Chalker Publishing Editor: Southern Cross Subscription Department *ess k* R ev . 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. 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