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The Southern Cross, Page 2
Irish nun killed, 13 injured in
ATTACK AT ST. LUCIA CATHEDRAL
Washington (CNS)
A ttackers killed an Irish nun and set worship
pers and the presiding priest ablaze at the
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in
Castries, St. Lucia. The December 31 attack came
at Communion during a 6 a.m. Mass. Monsignor
Patrick Anthony, information officer for the
Archdiocese of Castries, said in a telephone inter
view January 2 that the attackers poured gasoline
on worshippers and set them ablaze with torches
placed on top of wooden staffs they were carrying.
Police said worshippers seized one of the suspects,
20-year-old Kim John, and held him until police
came, and the next day the other suspect, 34-year-
old Francis Phillip, was captured in the suburb of
Pave.
Austin Bishop McCarthy resigns;
COADJUTOR TO HEAD DIOCESE
Washington (CNS)
P ope John Paul II has accepted the resignation
of Bishop John E. McCarthy of Austin, Texas.
His coadjutor, Bishop Gregory M. Aymond, auto
matically becomes head of the Austin Diocese.
Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio to
the United States, announced the resignation
January 2 in Washington. Bishop McCarthy, 70,
has headed the Austin Diocese since 1985. Bishop
Aymond, 51, a native of New Orleans and a former
auxiliary bishop there, has been coadjutor bishop
of Austin since last June. Bishop Aymond said that
during Bishop McCarthy’s 15-year tenure, “The
church in central Texas has grown enormously, ...
not only in terms of new parishes and buildings,
but also with a strong, positive spirit of spirituality
and evangelization, and in relationships with other
denominations and religions.”
Priest killed in Philippines by
suspected Muslim rebels
Rome (CNS)
S uspected Muslim rebels shot and killed a priest
on the southern Philippine island of Jolo. News
agencies reported that Oblate Father Benjamin
Inocencio, the 42-year-old chancellor of the
Apostolic Vicariate of Jolo, was gunned down
December 28 near Jolo town’s Our Lady of Mount
Carmel Cathedral. The Oblate headquarters in
Rome confirmed Father Inocencio’s murder. UCA
News, an Asian church news agency based in
Thailand, reported that one sniper shot Father
Inocencio as he was sitting in a jeep, en route to
buy Christmas gifts for a December 29 apostolic
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vicariate staff party. Other news agencies said
more than one gunman was involved. Three people
were injured in the attack, including Father
Inocencio’s driver.
Russian Orthodox patriarch
URGES RESOLUTION OF TENSIONS
Washington (CNS)
R ussian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II, reiterat
ing his objections to a visit to Russia by Pope
John Paul II, said Catholic-Orthodox tensions
should be resolved so the churches can work
together to benefit humanity. “Between the two
churches there are still seripus problems that have
arisen for reasons that are not at all the fault of
Orthodox Christians,” the patriarch told the Russi
an news agency Interfax. In his late-December
interview, picked up by other news services, the
patriarch said Eastern-rite Catholics are threatening
the existence of Orthodox communities in Western
Ukraine and that throughout the former Soviet
Union Catholics use “the guise of social work” to
try to win converts from the Orthodox Church.
Vatican signs accord to adopt
EURO AS OFFICIAL CURRENCY
Vatican City (CNS)
T he Vatican signed an agreement with Italy
enabling the microstate to adopt the euro, the
joint European currency, as its official currency
and to mint its own euro coins. Archbishop Jean-
Louis Tauran, the Vatican’s secretary for relations
with states, signed the monetary accord with Italy’s
foreign minister December 29. “This is an act con
firming the Vatican’s decision to promote, also
through monetary union, a Europe of solidarity,”
Archbishop Tauran said. Under the accord, Italy
will mint a limited number of euros on the Vati
can’s behalf, as it has done in the past for Vatican
lira coins.
Congressional leaders, chaplain
TO PRESENT POPE WITH GOLD MEDAL
Rome (CNS)
M ore than a dozen members of the U.S.
Congress and the chaplain of the House of
Representatives will present Pope John Paul II
with the Congressional Gold Medal January 8 at
the Vatican. The delegation will be led by Rep.
Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., speaker of the House, and
by Sen. Sam D. Brownback, R-Kan., Senate spon
sor of the bill. It will include Republicans and
Democrats, according to the U.S. Embassy to the
Holy See. Father Daniel P. Coughlin, the first
Catholic appointed House chaplain, was scheduled
to join the delegation flying to Italy aboard a U.S.
Thursday, January 4, 2001
military aircraft. The House of Representatives
approved the awarding of the medal to the pope in
May, and the Senate followed suit in early July.
President Bill Clinton signed the measure July 27.
New York archbishop unharmed
AFTER ATTEMPTED HANDCUFFING
New York (CNS)
A rchbishop Edward M. Egan of New York was
unharmed after a man with a history of mental
problems tried to handcuff the archbishop during
the distribution of Communion at the 10:15 a.m.
Mass on New Year’s Day. Timothy Byrne, 38, of
Hoboken, N.J., was wrestled to the floor of Saint
Patrick’s Cathedral after the handcuff attempt by
two cathedral ushers who are also New York City
police officers, police said, and shackled with his
own cuffs. Byrne was charged with attempted
unlawful imprisonment, fourth-degree criminal
possession of a weapon, disrupting a religious
service, harassment and resisting arrest, and
arraigned January 2.
Bishops given report on dialogue
WITH SCIENTISTS ON CLONING
Washington (CNS)
I n a dialogue on cloning, bishops and scientists
found significant areas of common ground
despite major differences in their approach to the
issues, said a committee report sent to the U.S.
Catholic bishops in December. It said dialogue par
ticipants agreed that “the cloning of animals and of
human genes and somatic cells—except from
embryos—for research purposes is morally neu
tral.” They differed on the cloning of human
embryos for research. “Nearly all the scientist par
ticipants support such work,” the report said, while
the bishops held that “because the embryo is a
human being, research that harms or destroys it is
impermissible.”
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