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The Southern Cross, Page 2 Pope names new Texas bishop, ACCEPTS RESIGNATIONS Washington (CNS) P ope John Paul II has named Auxiliary Bishop Alvaro Corrado del Rio of Washington, who is also apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Ca- guas, Puerto Rico, to head the Diocese of Tyler, Texas. Bishop Corrado succeeds Bishop Edmond Carmody, who was appointed to Corpus Christi last February. The pope also accepted the resigna tion of Bishop John G. Chedid, 77, of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, a Maronite diocese, and named as his successor Chorbishop Robert J. Sha- heen, pastor of Saint Raymond Church in Saint Louis. The pope also accepted the resignation of Byzantine-Ruthenian Bishop George M. Kuzma of Van Nuys, California, 75. No successor was na med. The changes were announced December 5 in Washington by Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio to the United States. Arrival of RU-486 brings RENEWED WARNINGS OF DANGERS Washington (CNS) A s the abortion pill RU-486 began arriving at U.S. abortion clinics around the country, pro life advocates renewed their warnings about the dangers involved in using the pill. “RU-486 has the potential to be this generation’s thalidomide or DES,” said Laura Echevarria, spokeswoman for the National Right to Life Committee. “American women need to know just how dangerous this drug can be.” The sleep-inducing drug thalidomide caused birth defects when taken by pregnant women in the 1950s and ’60s, and DES exposure in pregnancy has been linked to higher frequencies of cancer and infertility among the children bom of those pregnancies. Vatican plans document on AIDS MINISTRY Vatican City (CNS) A s the United Nations released fresh AIDS sta tistics showing an unexpected worldwide increase in HIV infections, the Vatican announced plans to publish a document giving Catholics moral and practical guidelines for AIDS ministry. The document will provide Catholics who serve people with HIV/AIDS with “specific principles for how to deal with diverse problems that present themselves,” Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the project, told Catholic News Service December 4. No date had been set to publish the document, but “by the end of next year, we could have something more substantial,” he told CNS. To Subscribe Send this in to your parish, together with your check for $15, made out to the parish. French bishops condemn prostitu tion AMID CALLS FOR LEGALIZATION Paris (CNS) F rench bishops condemned prostitution as a form of human slavery and repeated their opposition to its legalization. In a December 4 statement, the social affairs commission of the French bishops’ conference criticized distinctions between free and forced prostitution. “Cracking down on sexual exploitation only in cases of vio lence or constraint presents a grave danger,” wrote the group. “This distinction implies the legal estab lishment of a border between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ prostitution.” Eighty-mile Indiana march oppos es IMPENDING FEDERAL EXECUTION Indianapolis (CNS) W ith the first federal execution since 1963 looming and scheduled for their state, Karen Burkhart of Plainfield and about 100 other people took their objections to capital punishment to the streets—80 miles of streets to be exact. In a five- day march, Burkhart, a member of Saint Susanna Parish and coordinator of the Indiana Death Penal ty Abolition, led marchers from the federal court house in Indianapolis to the federal prison in Terre Haute, where Juan Raul Garza is scheduled for execution on December 12. “We wanted to do something that would convince President Clinton to take a historic step for human rights,” Burkhart told The Criterion, newspaper of the Indianapolis Archdiocese. “We want the president to stop the execution of Juan Raul Garza ... and to declare a moratorium on federal executions.” Priest’s visit to Vietnam with Clinton brings echoes of broth er’s loss Washington (CNS) A lthough Spiritan Father William R. Headley only had 39 hours’ notice that he was to accompany President Clinton to Vietnam in mid- November, he knew he had to make one special phone call. The deputy executive director of Catholic Relief Services called his younger broth er, Thomas J. Headley of Honey Brook, Pa., a for mer Marine who is 100 percent disabled because of injuries he received fighting in Vietnam. “My brother’s experiences and his ongoing handicap have motivated me toward this work,” said Father Headley in a November 30 telephone interview from his Baltimore office. The priest’s expertise is in peace-building. Father Headley was a last- minute replacement for Bishop John H. Ricard of Thursday, December 07, 2000 Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, CRS president, who had to withdraw to attend the funeral of his friend and fellow Josephite, Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, who died November 12. Survey shows Irish becoming like Americans in matters of faith Dublin, Ireland (CNS) T he Irish are becoming more like the Americans in their attitudes to matters of faith, God and church, according to a new survey into religious attitudes and behavior in Ireland. The survey, con ducted for the Dominican publication Doctrine & Life and published in late November, also shows that confidence in church leadership has fallen dra matically, though confidence in parish priests and parish curates remains high. Coauthor Father Andrew Greeley, a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, said: “While this decline of approval for the religious organization in the 1990s has occurred in most European countries, it is par ticularly precipitous in Ireland. Indeed, Russians have more confidence in their religious leaders than do the Irish. Pope says Catholics, Orthodox MUST PERSEVERE ALONG UNITY PATH Vatican City (CNS) C atholics and Orthodox must persevere along the sometime arduous path to unity, Pope John Paul II told the ecumenical Orthodox patriarch. Holy Year 2000, the pope said in a message to Pat riarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, has provid ed an opportunity for both churches to offer a “common witness of our faith.” The message, released at the Vatican November 30, was deliv ered to the patriarch’s headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey, by a Vatican delegation. Vatican says pope to visit Ukraine June 21-24 Vatican City (CNS) T he Vatican has announced the dates of Pope John Paul II’s upcoming trip to Ukraine. In a November 30 statement, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope would visit Ukraine June 21-24. Navarro-Valls had confirmed the trip November 6. While the official schedule has not been released, the trip likely will include stops in the cities of Kiev and Lviv and a rest in the Carpathian Mountains. Advertising in The Southern Cross is easy and pays off. Call 912-238-2320. 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