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The Southern Cross, Page 2
Catholic, Muslim leaders
URGE UNITY
Washington (CNS)
atholic and Muslim leaders, at a large interreli
gious gathering November 12 in Washington,
said unity is more important than peoples’ differ
ences. At least 3,000 Catholics and African-Ameri
can Muslims attended the final session of the
“Faith Communities Together” weekend at the
Washington Convention Center. “May our love
continue to bring all people together in unity, as it
has us Christians and you Muslims today,” said
Chiara Lubich, founder of the worldwide Catholic
Focolare movement, a co-sponsor of the gathering.
“Today we are not ‘us’ and ‘you’; we are ‘we’.”
“Creation is one continuous whole, one creation
with one God and Lord,” said Imam Warith Deen
Mohammed, leader of the Muslim American
Society, the gathering’s other co-sponsor.
Pope tells scientists ethical
GUIDELINES ARE NO ‘IMPOSITION’
Vatican City (CNS)
eeting with eminent world scientists, Pope
John Paul II said that the ethical guidelines
governing science, far from being an “imposition,”
spring naturally from science itself as a human
activity. Rather than reducing science’s human
aspects to ethical rules, a need for objectivity or
interdisciplinary cooperation, scientists should see
their work as an activity which not only makes
them more human, but also puts them at humani
ty’s service, he said. The pope made his remarks in
a speech November 13 to some 85 members and
invited experts of the Pontifical Academy of
Sciences. Among the members of the academy are
more than a dozen Nobel Prize winners.
Catholic leaders hail assisted
SUICIDE DEFEAT IN MAINE
Washington (CNS)
ocal and national Catholic officials hailed the
repudiation of physician-assisted suicide by
Maine’s voters November 7. Gail Quinn, executive
director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-
Life Activities, called the vote “an encouraging
sign for efforts to respect the life and dignity of
vulnerable people.” Father Michael D. Place, presi
dent of the Catholic Health Association, said,
“This vote marks another victory for human digni
ty and the integrity of the physician-patient rela
tionship.” Marc R. Mutty, public affairs director of
the Diocese of Portland, Maine, called the cam
paign to defeat the proposal “a very hard-fought
battle” that took “a tremendous educational effort.”
Headline Hopscotch
French bishops strongly condemn
PEDOPHILIA BY PRIESTS
Lourdes, France (CNS)
he French bishops condemned pedophilia, say
ing priests who sexually exploit minors repre
sent a “double betrayal.” “Not only does an adult
impose his urges on a minor, but these aggressions
contradict the Gospel that he announces,” the bish
ops said in a declaration released November 9 dur
ing their November 4-10 plenary assembly in
Lourdes. Calling their responsibility “clear and
delicate,” the bishops said they “cannot and do not
want to remain passive, much less cover up crimi
nal acts.”
Cardinal: Pope hopes to meet
Russian Orthodox patriarch
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II’s plan to visit predominantly
Orthodox Ukraine in June does not indicate the
pope has given up hopes of meeting the Russian
Orthodox patriarch, a top Vatican official said.
“The Holy Father remains open and very ready for
a meeting with the patriarch should the situation
arise,” Cardinal Edward I. Cassidy, president of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity,
told Catholic News Service. Although the
Orthodox community in Ukraine has split into
three separate groups, the largest is under the juris
diction of Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow.
Sisters of Mercy sue TV station
AFTER PROGRAM ALLEGES ABUSE
Dublin, Ireland (CNS)
he Sisters of Mercy are taking legal action
against an Irish television station after a pro
gram alleged members of the order assisted in ritu
al sexual assault on a child in their care during the
1960s. The nuns are suing TV3 in the High Court
under the 1988 Radio and Television Act on the
grounds that the program’s producers failed in
their statutory duties to be fair and objective. “The
program essentially consists of one person making
outrageous claims against members of the congre
gation, some living, some dead,” said the order’s
provincial, Sister Helena O’Donoghue.
Pius XII defender decries commis
sion’s report on Vatican’s role
Rome (CNS)
vocal defender of Pope Pius XII criticized a
Catholic-Jewish commission’s report about
the Vatican’s role during World War II, saying it
posed “leading and loaded questions” while over
looking obvious answers. Jesuit Father Peter
Thursday, November 16, 2000
Gumpel, the relator for Pope Pius XII’s sainthood
cause, said the commission’s request for wider
access to Vatican archives was a pointless exercise
stemming from “patent ignorance” of already pub
lished materials. He spoke in an interview
November 8. The “preliminary report” prepared by
three Catholic and three Jewish scholars was based
on a study of 11 volumes of published Vatican
documents.
Christian leaders in Jerusalem
CALL FOR END TO VIOLENCE
Jerusalem (CNS)
he heads of the 13 Christian churches of
Jerusalem called for an end to the current cycle
of Israeli-Palestinian violence. In a statement
released in English November 10, they said that
they looked with “extreme pain and sadness” on all
the deaths and injuries the violence has incurred.
“The church believes that it is the right as much as
the duty of an occupied people to struggle against
injustice in order to gain their freedom, although it
also believes that nonviolent means of struggle
remains stronger and far more efficient,” said the
Christian leaders.
Armenian Orthodox leader
PRAISES POPE’S RETURN OF RELIC
Vatican City (CNS)
R eceiving a relic of his church’s patron saint
from Pope John Paul II, the patriarch of the
Armenian Oriental Orthodox Church said the
return of the relic is a symbol of ecumenical
progress. “In restoring this relic to the Armenians,
the Catholic Church bears witness to the brother
hood between our two ancient churches,” said
Catholicos Karekin II of Etchmiadzin, head of the
Armenian Apostolic Church. Pope John Paul told
Catholicos Karekin during a November 9 evening
meeting, “Let our prayer together be that the com
munion which we are experiencing today will open
new ways to peace and reconciliation between us.”
Pope names Puerto Rican
AUXILIARY TO HEAD DIOCESE
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II has named Auxiliary Bishop
Ricardo Surinach Carreras of Ponce, Puerto
Rico, to be the new head of the diocese. The nomi
nation was announced at the Vatican November 10,
along with news of the pope’s acceptance of the
resignation of Ponce Bishop Juan Torres Oliver,
who reached the retirement age of 75 in October.
Bishop Surinach, 72, was bom in Mayaguez,
Puerto Rico, and attended the seminary in Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic.
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