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The Southern Cross, Page 2
Pope names top aide to head
Congregation for Bishops
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II has named one of his top
aides, Italian Archbishop Giovanni Battista Re,
to head the Congregation for Bishops. Archbishop
Re, 66, will preside over one of the most influen
tial Vatican departments, in charge of preparing
bishops’ nominations worldwide. He also becomes
president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin
America. The Vatican announced the appointment
September 16. He replaces Brazilian Cardinal
Lucas Moreira Neves, who submitted his resigna
tion on his 75th birthday. Cardinal Neves reported
ly has had serious health problems related to dia
betes over the last two years. Archbishop Re has
been sostituto or assistant Secretary of State since
1991.
Pope meets with, reassures
Reformed leaders on ecumenism
Vatican City (CNS)
fter an alliance of Protestant churches criti
cized a Vatican document as “ecumenically
insensitive,” Pope John Paul met with alliance rep
resentatives and underscored the Catholic Church’s
commitment to improving ecumenical relations.
“The commitment of the Catholic Church to ecu
menical dialogue is irrevocable,” he told members
of a formal dialogue commission of Catholics and
the World Alliance of Reformed Churches meeting
September 13-19 outside Rome. The World Alli
ance of Reformed Churches said it had considered
canceling that meeting after the Vatican released a
document September 5 reiterating church teaching
that the “church of Christ... continues to exist
fully only in the Catholic Church.”
Unfunded retirement liability
FOR RELIGIOUS DOWN AGAIN
Washington (CNS)
he unfunded retirement liability for the
nation’s female and male religious has dropped
another $700 million, from $7.1 billion to $6.4 bil
lion, according to a biannual survey conducted by
the Arthur Andersen accounting firm. The $6.4 bil
lion figure represents the unfunded retirement lia
bility in 1999. It is down $1.5 billion from the all-
time high of $7.9 billion recorded in the 1996 sur
vey. The survey, dated July 31, was released in
mid-September by the National Religious
Retirement Office, which oversees the annual
Retirement Fund for Religious collection in U.S.
dioceses in December.
MeadMaa® H©jpsc©tdh
Austrian church to support
GOVERNMENT FUND FOR WWII
LABORERS
Warsaw (CNS)
hurch leaders in Austria agreed to support a
government fund for compensating forced
laborers from World War II. However, a
spokesman said donations would be “symbolic
only” and stressed that research was needed to
determine how many foreign workers were used in
Catholic institutions. “The Catholic Church was
one of the most important victims of the German
regime in Austria, but we also share responsibility
for our history,” said Erich Leitenberger, spokes
man for the Vienna Archdiocese. “Our contribution
will be symbolic only since few of the people
involved are still living today, and since our aim is
to show that Austrians are very sad about what
happened,” he said.
Vatican official, in China,
EMPHASIZES CHURCH DEFENSE OF
RIGHTS
Beijing (CNS)
top Vatican official, on his third trip to China,
underlined the Catholic Church’s commitment
to defending human rights and religious freedom.
In an address on the opening day of a September
14-16 Beijing symposium on religions and peace,
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the
Vatican’s jubilee committee, said “fear of the
other” was often at the root of conflicts. Calling
for open acknowledgment of differences as “com
plementary destinies in the service of the common
good,” the cardinal urged interreligious respect to
go beyond “simple tolerance.”
Dutch cardinal laments law
ALLOWING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Vatican City (CNS)
A Dutch cardinal expressed disappointed resig
nation to a new law giving same-sex couples
the right to marriage and adoption of children. “I
am sad,” Cardinal Adrianus Simonis of Utrecht,
Netherlands, president of the Dutch bishops’ con
ference, told Vatican Radio September 13. “It is a
sign of the way our people’s thinking has changed
with regard to certain fundamental points on which
human society is based,” he said. Dutch lawmakers
voted overwhelmingly September 12 to enact leg
islation allowing homosexual couples to convert
their current “registered same-sex partnerships” to
full-fledged marriages, complete with adoption
rights and guidelines for divorce.
Thursday, September 21, 2000
Italian cardinal asks govern
ment to favor Catholic immi
grants
Rome (CNS)
n Italian cardinal, sparking new controversy in
a long-running debate on immigration, called
on the government to favor Catholic immigrants
over those of other religions—particularly
Muslims—in order “to protect the national identi
ty.” “The criteria for admitting immigrants cannot
be only economic,” said Cardinal Giacomo Biffi of
Bologna. “It is necessary that one seriously con
cerns oneself with saving the identity itself of the
nation.” The 72-year-old cardinal’s remarks, con
tained in a pastoral letter September 13, provoked
fierce criticism from the government and drew
praise from opposition parties.
Bishops consult on revising
HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVES
Cincinnati (CNS)
bout 60 bishops, theologians and Catholic
health care leaders had a consultation
September 14 on health care ethics. Archbishop
Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati, chairman of the
bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, said the consulta
tion “focused on the provisional texts for selected
directives and the appendix of the ‘Ethical and
Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care
Services’.” “The purpose of the meeting was to
provide an overview of the substance of the pro
posed revisions and to dialogue about their impli
cations for Catholic health care ministry in the
United States,” he said in a brief written statement.
Charismatic leaders assess
movement’s strengths,
CHALLENGES
Anaheim, CA (CNS)
eaders of the Catholic charismatic renewal are
turning their focus inward to assess the move
ment’s strengths and the challenges it faces. “Have
we settled for less than God wants of us in this
charismatic renewal movement?” asked Sister
Nancy Kellar, a Sister of Charity who spoke during
the annual Southern California Renewal
Communities convention in Anaheim September 1-
3. In a talk titled “The Mission and the Challenges
Facing the Charismatic Renewal in the New
Millennium,” Sister Kellar said the purpose of
charismatic renewal “is not to bring all Catholics
into charismatic renewal, but to bring new life to
Catholicism.”
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