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The Southern Cross, Page 2
House approves gold medal
FOR POPE
Washington (CNS)
he House on May 23 voted 416-1 to award the
Congressional Gold Medal to Pope John Paul II.
In statements on the House floor supporting the bill,
several members of Congress cited the pope’s battle
against communism, his worldwide travels and ecu
menical outreach. “He is truly a world leader and an
unparalleled champion of those who cannot speak
for themselves: the poor, the unborn, those con
demned to death and those whose basic rights as
children of God are trampled upon by oppressive
regimes,” said Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J.
Sister Gramick refuses silence,
RISKS EXPULSION FROM ORDER
Washington (CNS)
ister Jeannine Gramick has taken the first step
toward dismissal from the School Sisters of
Notre Dame by refusing a formal command from
her superior general not to speak or write at all
about homosexuality or the Vatican order banning
her from all homosexual ministry. Calling her
refusal “a matter of conscience,” the 58-year-old
Baltimore nun said in a statement released May 26
that silencing her on those matters would make her
give up her “human right to self-defense.” “I
choose not to collaborate in my own oppression,”
she said. Sister Rosemary Howarth, her superior
general in Rome, gave the silencing order in
response to Vatican demands.
Pope: “moral accountability”
NEEDED IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II called for “moral accountabil
ity” in international affairs based on clear con
cepts of good and evil. Addressing the new ambas
sador from Greece to the Holy See May 26, the
pope praised efforts to establish an international
court of justice for crimes against humanity. He
said this was an expression of a growing desire to
establish globally accepted moral standards. “Yet
ironically, the call for an objective standard of
moral accountability is in many cases accompanied
by the spread of a relativistic approach to truth,
which effectively denies any objective criterion of
good and evil,” he said.
Brazilian cardinal says libera
tion THEOLOGY ALIVE, GROWING
Warsaw, Poland (CNS)
Brazilian cardinal said liberation theology is
“alive and growing in strength” in parts of the
Latin American church. Cardinal Paulo Evaristo
Ams, retired archbishop of Sao Paulo, added that
“liberation theology and the life of church commu
nities rest on the word of Jesus, which provides
inspiration for overcoming hardships and suffer
ings through nonviolent action.” “We can’t say lib
eration theology has ended, even if it has faced
afflictions, as well as a certain phase of stagna
tion,” he added. In a May interview with Poland’s
Gazeta Wyborcza daily, the 79-year-old cardinal
said liberation theology “taught humanity to take
history in its hands” and was growing again among
Latin America’s basic Christian communities.
Rwandan bishop, in letter to
POPE, PROTESTS INNOCENCE
Vatican City (CNS)
Rwandan Catholic bishop facing the death
penalty told Pope John Paul II the govern
ment’s request that he be executed is “totally
unjust.” Writing on the stationery of the Rwandan
ministry of national security’s Kigali prison,
Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro, 57,
thanked the pope for his May 10 offer of prayers
and moral support. Pope John Paul sent Bishop
Misago the telegram the day after prosecutors
called for the death penalty in his trial on charges
that he was an accomplice in genocide. A verdict
is expected June 15.
Anti-Catholicism continues
“despite progress”
Baltimore (CNS)
espite “a tremendous amount of progress” in
recent years, the Catholic Church continues to
be defamed and disparaged in American society,
the president of the Catholic League for Religious
and Civil Rights said May 24. William Donohue,
who has headed the New York-based Catholic
league for the past seven years, was the speaker at
the opening banquet for the Catholic Press
Association’s annual convention in Baltimore. He
criticized the “lame submissive mentality” among
many Catholic lay people who consider the prob
lem of anti-Catholicism to be something handled
by the bishops and not an issue for the laity.
Cardinal calls for “moral revo
lution” AGAINST DEATH PENALTY
Washington (CNS)
lthough public skepticism about the death
penalty is growing, it will take a “moral revo
lution” that supports justice without vengeance to
change things, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M.
Mahony told a National Press Club audience.
“Simple solutions rarely address difficult prob-
Thursday, June 1, 2000
lems,” Cardinal Mahony said at the club’s May 25
newsmaker luncheon. What is needed instead is a
moral revolution that shows respect for all human
life, “especially the unborn and the poor, the crime
victims and even the violent offender,” he said.
Religious faith offers science
MEANING, POPE SAYS
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II urged scientists to be open to
the contribution of religious faith in providing
ethical principles for research and technology as
well as to give science an overall meaning. Faith
“is able to integrate and assimilate every research,
for all research, through a deeper understanding of
created reality in all its specificity, gives man the
possibility of discovering the Creator,” he said.
The pope made his remarks May 25 to 2,500 par
ticipants of the Jubilee for Men and Women from
the World of Learning, which drew theologians,
philosophers, and physical and social scientists—
predominantly Christians—from around the world.
Former Australian Labor Party
SENATOR ORDAINED TO PRIESTHOOD
Hobart, Australia (CNS)
ith his ordination to the priesthood, a former
top Australian official has a new role to
speak in the name of Christ and about the things of
God, said the archbishop who ordained him.
Archbishop Adrian Doyle of Hobart ordained
Michael Tate, a law professor, former Australian
Labor Party senator, justice minister and Australian
ambassador, before almost 1,000 people packed
into Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Hobart May 19.
Guests included retired Archbishop Eric D’Arcy of
Hobart, some 70 priests from around the world,
and family and friends including many national
and state dignitaries from political, legal and
church circles.
Former Pennsylvania Gov.
Robert P. Casey dies at age 68
Scranton, PA (CNS)
ormer Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey,
whose outspokenness against abortion cost him
the chance to speak at the 1992 Democratic
National Convention, died May 30 at Mercy
Hospital in Scranton from what was described as
an infection. He was 68. He had his name attached
to a lawsuit that became a 1992 Supreme Court
abortion case, Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. The
suit challenged the constitutionality of 1989's
Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act, most of which
was upheld by the high court.
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