Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 2
Thursday, June 15, 2000
Italy orders release of papal
ASSAILANT, EXTRADITION TO TURKEY
Rome (CNS)
M ehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who shot and seri
ously wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981,
was ordered released from an Italian prison and ex
tradited to Turkey, where he will serve a sentence
for the 1979 killing of a journalist, Italian authorities
said. Italian President Carlo Ciampi signed a
clemency order for Agca June 13. At the same time,
Italian justice ministry officials signed the decree for
his extradition to Turkey. “For me, this is truly a
dream. I can’t believe it. I say thank you to the Holy
Father, thank you to the Vatican, thank you to the
president of the republic,” Agca said through his
lawyer, Marina Magistrelli.
Florida ban on partial-birth
ABORTION TEMPORARILY BLOCKED
Tallahassee, FL (CNS)
S upporters of Florida’s ban on partial-birth abor
tions remained hopeful June 5 that the law
would be held constitutional, despite a federal
judge’s temporary restraining order against it. U.S.
District Judge Joan A. Lenard’s June 2 ruling came
eight days after Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had signed
the partial-birth abortion ban into law. Elizabeth
Hirst, a spokeswoman for Bush, said the governor
was strongly opposed to partial-birth abortions and
“feels the law will ultimately be upheld.”
Former Treasury Secretary
Simon, prominent Catholic,
dies at 72
Santa Barbara, CA (CNS)
F ormer U.S. Secretary of the Treasury William E.
Simon, a prominent investment banker, philan
thropist and activist in Catholic causes, died June 3
at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara. He was 72. He
died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, a
chronic lung disease. His funeral was celebrated
June 8 at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
Simon, who proudly described himself as “an out
spoken conservative,” was widely regarded as a
leading spokesman for free enterprise and limited
government. In the 1980s he was one of the most
prominent critics of the U.S. bishops’ 1986 pastoral
letter, “Economic Justice for All.”
Record gift of $20 million goes
to Catholic women’s college
Saint Paul, MN (CNS)
T he Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet, who
founded the College of Saint Catherine nearly a
century ago, presented the college with an unre-
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stricted gift of $20 million June 2. Believed to be
the largest unrestricted contribution ever made to a
Catholic women’s college, the $20 million is intend
ed to support the college’s vision “to be the world’s
pre-eminent Catholic college educating women to
lead and influence.” The United States and Canada
have 74 women’s colleges, according to the Wo
men’s College Coalition in Washington; there are
150 in the world.
Bishops discussing challenges of
FEWER PRIESTS
Washington (CNS)
W hen the U.S. Catholic bishops meet June 15-
17, they will discuss how to serve more
Catholics with fewer priests but with more deacons
and lay ministers. “This will be a vital conversation”
said Bishop Richard C. Hanifen of Colorado
Springs, Colo., chairman of the bishops’ Committee
on Priestly Life and Ministry. A two-year “Study of
the Impact of Fewer Priests on Pastoral Ministry,”
conducted for the committee by the Washington-
based Center for Applied Research in the
Apostolate, is to be released at the meeting, which
will be held in Milwaukee’s Midwest Express
Center.
Suburban Washington pastor’s
VIOLENT DEATH SHOCKS FAITHFUL
Germantown, MD (CNS)
T he violent death of a suburban Washington pas
tor has shocked and saddened the Catholic faith
ful in the Archdiocese of Washington. Monsignor
Thomas Wells, 56, pastor of Mother Seton Parish in
the Washington suburb of Germantown, was found
slain in his sleeping quarters of the parish rectory
June 8 when he did not show up as expected for the
8:00 a.m. Mass. Initial reports indicated he was
beaten, and later unconfirmed reports said the priest
also had been stabbed. Police did not immediately
disclose a cause of death or release the results of an
autopsy, but they said robbery was a motive. No
suspects had been identified by police in the week
end following the murder.
When witness does not appear,
JUDGE FREES BISHOP’S MURDER
SUSPECT
Manila, Philippines (CNS)
T he judge in the murder case of Bishop Benjamin
de Jesus of Jolo freed a suspect who had been
jailed for nearly two years after the prosecution
failed to produce a witness by the court’s deadline.
The trial ended June 1, leaving the Oblate congrega
tion with a stronger suspicion that “powerful local
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politicians” were behind their confrere’s murder in
the southern Philippines, a priest at the trial told
UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in
Thailand. Judge Teresa Soriaso of a Manila
Regional Trial Court ordered the “provisional dis
missal” of the case “without prejudice” when no
witness appeared at the hearing at a Manila court
room.
Russian president meets pope,
DOES NOT EXTEND INVITATION
Vatican City (CNS)
O n his first official visit to Western Europe,
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with
Pope John Paul II at the Vatican about the ongoing
need to bring Western and Eastern Europe closer
together. However, during the June 5 meeting Putin
did not invite the pope to visit Russia, underlining
the continuing distance between the Catholic
Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. Putin
told reporters June 6 that he could not “impose” a
papal visit on the Russian Orthodox Church and “a
visit of the pope which did not include a meeting
with the patriarch would make no sense.”
Vatican clears U.S. Catholic
HIGHER EDUCATION NORMS
Washington (CNS)
T he National Conference of Catholic Bishops
announced June 7 that the Vatican has approved
the U.S. bishops’ particular norms for Catholic col
leges and universities. They will take effect May 3,
2001, one year from the date of the Vatican decree
of “recognition” or approval. Bishop Joseph A.
Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, NCCB president,
said the purpose of the U.S. norms “is, above all, to
strengthen our Catholic colleges and universities,
especially by helping them to maintain their
Catholic identity.”
Partners buy Nebraska abortion
CLINIC TO SHUT IT DOWN
Bellevue, NE (CNS)
D r. Leroy Carhart, the abortion doctor whose '
challenge of Nebraska’s ban on partial-birth
abortion is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, is
losing his clinic in Bellevue. The abortion clinic
operates out of leased space in a building recently
purchased by a state senator and his business part
ners. The new owners, exercising an option in
Carhart’s lease, have ordered the doctor to move out
in six months. State Sen. Paul Hartnett, Bill Rotert
and Ken Wessling bought the building for $325,000.
It is across the street from the grade school at Saint
Mary Parish, where Hartnett and Wessling are mem
bers.
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