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The Southern Cross, Page 2
Cardinal regrets writing on
BEHALF OF RELEASED DRUG DEALER
Los Angeles (CNS)
L os Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said he
“made a serious mistake” in 1996 when he
wrote a letter in support of a convicted Los
Angeles cocaine dealer who was released from
prison January 20 by President Clinton. Carlos
Vignali, serving 15 years in federal prison for
bankrolling purchases of hundreds of pounds of
cocaine, was among 140 people who received pres
idential clemency on Clinton’s final day in office.
The Los Angeles Times reported February 12 that
Cardinal Mahony and several prominent city and
state political leaders had written letters to the
White House on Vignali’s behalf. In a statement
after the appearance of the Times story, the cardi
nal said, “I made a serious mistake in writing to the
president and I broke my decades-long practice of
never sending a letter on behalf of any person
whom I did not know personally.”
American loses $1 million in
Rome burglary during consistory
Rome (CNS)
T hieves took more than $ 1 million worth of jew
elry, cash and travelers checks from the Rome
hotel suite of a prominent Catholic philanthropist
and art patron from New York City. Florence
D’Urso, 67, and her daughter, Lisa, 37, were in
Rome attending the February 21 consistory creat
ing 44 new cardinals, including New York’s
Cardinal Edward M. Egan. The evening of the con
sistory, D’Urso returned to the Regina Baglioni, a
luxury hotel across the street from the U.S.
Embassy, to discover that her room safe was miss
ing, according to ANSA, an Italian news agency.
D’Urso told Italian police investigators that the
safe contained about $1 million worth of jewelry,
about $15,000 in U.S. and Italian currency, $800
dollars in travelers checks and various credit cards,
a police spokesman told Catholic News Service
February 23.
Liechtenstein’s prince to get
Vatican’s Path to Peace Award
New York (CNS)
P rince Hans Adam II, sovereign of the small
principality of Liechtenstein since the death of
his father in 1989, will receive this year’s Path to
Peace Award, the Vatican nuncio to the United
Nations announced in New York. The prince has
“made untiring efforts for the promotion of peace
at all levels of society” and “devoted much of his
energy to the study and promotion of the peaceful
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self-determination of peoples,” Archbishop Renato
R. Martino said February 22. Those efforts led to
establishment of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-
Determination at Princeton University in Decem
ber, he said. The award is given annually by the
Path to Peace Foundation, an agency founded by
Archbishop Martino to carry out projects related to
the work of the Vatican Mission to the United
Nations.
Arizona doctor convicted of
manslaughter in abortion death
Phoenix (CNS)
D r. John Biskind, an abortion practitioner at the
now-closed A-Z Women’s Center in Phoenix,
was convicted of manslaughter February 20 in the
death of a woman who bled to death following an
abortion there in April 1998. In addition, Carol
Stuart-Schadoff, former administrator of the abor
tion facility, was found guilty of negligent homi
cide in the death of LouAnne Herron, a 33-year-old
mother of two who died from a punctured uterus
just hours after Biskind performed a late-term
abortion. Biskind, whose license to practice medi
cine in Arizona was suspended after he delivered a
nearly full-term baby while attempting an abortion
in June 1998, and Stuart-Schadoff had both been
charged with manslaughter.
Spanish bishops deny charge of
BEING SOFT ON TERRORISM
Madrid (CNS)
S panish bishops defended themselves against
government accusations of leniency toward ter
rorism and the Basque separatist group ETA. Poli
ticians from Spain’s ruling Popular Party and the
opposition Socialist Party denounced the church in
late February, accusing the bishops’ conference of
taking an ambiguous and half-hearted stance
against terrorism after the bishops refused to sign
an anti-terrorist pact drawn up in December. In a
February 20 statement, the bishops said that while
they had not been asked formally to sign the pact,
they had decided they would be unable to sub
scribe to what was, essentially, a political docu
ment. They claimed to have taken a consistently
firm line against ETA’s terror campaign, which has
left 24 dead since the end of the cease-fire in
December 1999.
Gates Foundation gives $1.36 mil
lion to Yakima Catholic schools
Yakima, WA (CNS)
T he Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given
$1.36 million to the Diocese of Yakima
Catholic School District to support the district’s
Thursday, March 1, 2001
ongoing efforts to help all students achieve. The
diocese’s seven elementary schools and one high
school serve more than 2,000 students from
throughout central Washington. Cathy Colver,
diocesan superintendent of schools, said the grant
“will provide the schools with the professional
assistance, staff development and equipment need
ed to weave the use of technology into every
aspect of their students’ learning experience.” The
Seattle-based foundation, funded by the founder of
Microsoft and his wife, has made grants to 11
Washington state school districts.
Cardinals to hold ‘extraordi
nary’ MEETING ON CHURCH’S FUTURE
Vatican City (CNS)
O nly days after creating 44 new cardinals, Pope
John Paul II has convened a meeting in May
of the entire College of Cardinals for a wide-rang
ing discussion on the church in the third millenni
um. The encounter, called an “extraordinary con
sistory,” will cover issues raised in the pope’s post
jubilee document, Novo Millennio Ineunte (“At the
Beginning of the New Millennium”), which out
lined the church’s path in the 21st century, the
Vatican announced February 26. The meeting, the
sixth consultative session of the College of Car
dinals during Pope John Paul’s pontificate, will
take place May 21-24. Honduran Cardinal Oscar
Rodriguez Maradiaga said the encounter would no
doubt touch upon internal church issues and broad
er social justice questions.
U.S. AMBASSADOR TO VATICAN HAS
FAREWELL MEETING WITH POPE
Vatican City (CNS)
C orinne “Lindy” Boggs, the U.S. ambassador to
the Vatican since late 1997, had a farewell
meeting with Pope John Paul II February 24 at the
Vatican. Neither Boggs, appointed by former
President Bill Clinton, nor the Vatican provided
details about the meeting; it is customary for
departing ambassadors to meet the pope before
leaving Rome. Boggs, who will celebrate her 85th
birthday March 16, was scheduled to return to the
United States March 1.
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The Southern Cross
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