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Thursday, January 11, 2001
Day after end of jubilee,
POPE BAPTIZES 18 BABIES
Vatican City (CNS)
ess than 24 hours after closing Holy Year
2000, Pope John Paul II was back at his busy
regular ministry, baptizing 18 babies during a
lengthy liturgy at the Vatican, greeting pilgrims
from his apartment window and paying an annual
visit to Rome garbage collectors. The pope cele
brated the baptism Mass in the Sistine Chapel
January 7, the day after he formally ended the
jubilee and its demanding series of liturgies, meet
ings and pilgrimages. “What this extraordinary
event passes on to each Christian is the task of
confirming the faith in the ordinary context of
daily life,” the pope said. He poured water over the
heads of each of the babies as their parents brought
them to the altar. Sixteen were Italian, one from
Portugal and one from France.
Chief Justice Rehnquist honored
by Catholic group
Washington (CNS)
hief Justice William Rehnquist was honored
January 7 by the John Carroll Society, a lay
Catholic organization in Washington, for his sup
port of the group’s annual Red Mass devoted to
invoking God’s blessings on the country's lawmak
ers. The chief justice, a Lutheran who frequently
attends the Red Mass, was given the John Carroll
Society Medal, an honor that also has been given
to Supreme Court Associate Justices Antonin
Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas
and former Chief Justice Warren Burger for their
example of faith and leadership. Archbishop
Theodore E. McCarrick, the newly installed arch
bishop of Washington, was in attendance and
praised the chief justice for serving the country
well, “especially this past year, when you’ve been
challenged as few Supreme Court justices have.”
Bishops’ conference to take new
name July 1
Washington (CNS)
s of July 1 the U.S. bishops’ two national con
ferences will be combined, reorganized and
given a new name: the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops. As with many similar names, the
“United States” portion will often be shortened to
“U.S.,” and the entire name will often be abbrevi
ated as USCCB. The name change comes when
new statutes reorganizing the bishops national
structures take effect. The bishops have been
working at the reorganization for nearly a decade
and received word in January that the Vatican has
approved the last necessary element of the reorgan
ization, the new statutes.”
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Document
(Continued from page I)
“This unity is concretely embodied
in the Catholic Church, despite the
human limitations of her members,
and is at work in varying degrees in
all the elements of holiness and truth
to be found in the other churches and
ecclesial communities,” he said.
The document defended the jubi
lee’s running theme of individual and
collective repentance, saying that the
church’s examination of conscience
and admission of historical faults had
humbled Christians and “strength
ened our steps for the journey toward
the future.”
Under the heading, “Stake every
thing on charity,” it closely examined
the link between individual faith and
social justice. The church’s social
teachings are an essential part of
Christian witness, it said, and “we
must reject the temptation to offer a
privatized and individualistic spiritu
ality which ill accords with the
demands of charity.”
The church as a whole has a simi
lar responsibility. Citing Christ’s
injunction to feed the hungry and
clothe the naked, it said, “By these
words, no less than by the orthodoxy
of her doctrine, the church measures
her fidelity as the bride of Christ.”
The document drew a stark picture
of the modem economic reality, say
ing immense possibilities are offered
to a fortunate few while millions are
left in degrading conditions. It called
for a “new creativity in charity,” to
find ways that get close to those who
suffer and ensure that aid is not seen
as a “humiliating handout.”
The pope said he wanted to leave a
concrete sign of the church’s com
mitment, designating excess jubilee
funds for a permanent charity pro
gram. Vatican officials said the
money would finance a new house
for disabled pilgrims in Rome.
The pope said the church should
not apologize for trying to implement
its moral teachings in society. The
defense of human life from concep
tion to natural death is not a case of
“imposing” Catholic teachings on
nonbelievers, but of protecting val
ues rooted in human dignity, he said.
In defending the Christian view of
marriage and the family, he said, the
church “cannot yield to cultural pres
sures, no matter how widespread and
even militant they may be.”
The pope called on local churches
to come up with pastoral plans that
capture the spiritual energy of the
jubilee. He acknowledged, however,
that programs and structures are no
guarantee of reaching people in their
hearts and stimulating holiness.
“Can holiness ever be ‘planned’?”
he asked. Instead, he encouraged
pastors to challenge Christians and
urge them not to settle for ethical
mediocrity and “shallow religiosity.”
He said the number of new saints
declared during the jubilee, including
lay people from various walks of
life, underscored that “the time has
come to repropose wholeheartedly to
everyone this high standard of ordi
nary Christian living.”
The pope asked pastors to lead Ca
tholics back to the sacrament of pe
nance, exhorting them not to “give in
to passing crises.” He said the drama
tic need for new priests in the coming
years should prompt an extensive
global plan of vocational promotion.
In discussing the need for com
munion within the church, he said
more attention should be given to
local councils of priests and parish
members. Although these structures
are not governed by the rules of par
liamentary democracy, pastors
should keep dialogue open with their
faithful, the pope said.
“We need to make our own the
ancient pastoral wisdom which, with
out prejudice to their authority,
encouraged pastors to listen more
widely to the entire people of God,”
he said.
Citing personal Holy Year high
lights, the pope said his pilgrimage
to the Holy Land was “one of the
most beautiful gifts” of the jubilee—
although he regretted that he was
unable to begin it at the birthplace of
Abraham in modem Iraq because of
continuing political and military con
flict there.
He said World Youth Day celebra
tions had left him with unforgettable
images, including that of happy
young people “swarming through the
city” on their way to prayer and
other encounters. He said his meet
ing with prisoners in a Rome jail was
one of the more moving moments of
the jubilee.
Addressing foreign debt, the pope
said he was gratified that recently
some creditor nations had approved a
substantial forgiveness of bilateral
debt of the poorest nations. Those
decisions now need to be implement
ed, and more work needs to be done
on relieving the massive multilateral
debt that poor countries have con
tracted with international lending
organizations, he said.
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