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The Southern Cross, Page 2
President Bush, cardinals
OPEN CULTURAL CENTER
Washington (CNS)
S even cardinals and President Bush presided
over the March 22 ceremony and ribbon-cut-
ting that marked the grand opening of the Pope
John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington. Detroit
Cardinal Adam J. Maida, president of the center
dedicated to the Catholic faith, told the audience of
about 1,200 guests in a huge tent on the grounds of
the center that the pope insisted it be located in
Washington instead of any of several other suggest
ed sites, including Warsaw or Krakow in Poland.
“He sees Washington, D.C., as the crossroads of
the world,” Cardinal Maida said. “The center’s
location here will allow it to impact and shape the
many events that transpire here.”
Vatican announces papal visit to
Greece, Syria and Malta
Vatican City (CNS)
C ontinuing a series of biblical pilgrimages, Pope
John Paul II will travel to Greece, Syria and
Malta to visit sites where Saint Paul preached near
ly 2,000 years ago. The May 4-9 visit was official
ly announced at the Vatican March 26 after months
of diplomatic and ecumenical moves by top church
officials. It will be the first time a modem pope has
visited Greece or Syria. Saint Paul converted to
Christianity in Syria, stopped in Athens, Greece,
during his second missionary journey and was
shipwrecked in Malta on his way to Rome later in
life. Writing in 1999 about his hopes for Holy Year
pilgrimages, the pope said he wanted to retrace the
steps of Saint Paul, to recall for Christians the zeal
of one of the church's most effective early mission
aries.
Catholic-Lutheran shared
Eucharist “not yet possible”
Vatican City (CNS)
D espite a major ecumenical agreement in 1999
between Catholics and Lutherans, a shared
Eucharist is not yet possible because of remaining
doctrinal differences, an article in the Vatican
newspaper said. The article said that at this stage of
the ecumenical dialogue with Lutherans, eucharis-
tic sharing would constitute a “repudiation of truths
of the faith” for Catholics. “The doctrinal contrast
in very important areas of the profession of faith,
the liturgy, and the apostolic constitution of the
church does not allow a common celebration of the
Eucharist,” it said. The article was published by the
newspaper L ’Osservatore Romano March 25.
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Jewish leaders donate Holocaust
MENORAH TO BALTIMORE SEMINARY
Baltimore (CNS)
H oping to strengthen the bonds of understanding
and mutual respect between Jews and Catho
lics, prominent Jewish leaders have donated a meno-
rah to Saint Mary’s Seminary and University in Bal
timore, commemorating millions of lives lost in the
Holocaust. A replica of similar menorahs given two
years ago to Pope John Paul II and the North Ameri
can College in Rome, the Yom Hashoah Menorah
was presented to Cardinal William H. Keeler of Bal
timore, chancellor of Saint Mary’s, during a March
5 ceremony at the seminary. Gunther Lawrence,
executive director of the New York-based Inter
religious Information Center, developed the idea for
the project and worked with Israeli sculptor Aharon
Bezalel of Jerusalem to design the artwork.
Talks opened with Archbishop
Lefebvre followers, says Vatican
Vatican City (CNS)
A Vatican spokesman confirmed that, at Pope
John Paul II’s request, formal talks have been
opened with a group of followers of the late Arch
bishop Marcel Lefebvre. The contacts between the
Vatican and the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X are
still going on, the spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-
Valls, said March 22. He gave no further details of
the talks, which began last year. The society’s bish
ops were excommunicated in 1988 with Arch
bishop Lefebvre, a self-styled traditionalist who
rejected the Second Vatican Council’s reforms in
liturgy, ecumenism and other areas of church life.
Missionaries: reports of abuse
PAINT INCOMPLETE PICTURE
Rome (CNS)
R eports of sexual abuse of nuns by priests are
serious, but they do not paint a complete pic
ture of the church in Africa and elsewhere, said
senior members of religious orders, missionaries
and a Vatican official. The dimensions and geo
graphical extent of the sexual abuse are still largely
unknown, they said, and are complicated by some
times overlapping issues of cultural practice and
simple failure to live celibacy vows. The Vatican
acknowledged the problem March 20 and said it
was working with bishops and the two main world
wide associations of men and women religious to
address the issue. Highlighting the sensitivity of
the issue, at least half a dozen prominent mission
ary authorities in Rome declined Catholic News
Service requests for comment.
Thursday, March 29, 2001
Pope John’s face found well
PRESERVED 38 YEARS AFTER DEATH
Vatican City (CNS)
C hurch officials who opened the casket of Pope
John XXIII found his face well preserved
nearly 38 years after his death, but the Vatican
downplayed talk of a miracle. The discovery was
made in mid-January, when Vatican officials and
technicians exhumed Blessed John’s body in a “re
cognition” ceremony, in anticipation of its transfer
al from the grotto to the main level of Saint Peter’s
Basilica. A detailed report on the procedure, drawn
up by the officials present, was published by a Ve
netian newspaper March 24. The exhumation took
several hours, since workmen had to open a marble
casing and three successive caskets: one of oak,
one of lead and one of cypress, in which the body
was closed.
Women meet with bishops
Chicago
A three-day meeting called by U. S. Bishops’
Committee on Women in Society and in the
Church March 13-15 discussed increased collabo
ration and future prospects for interaction between
women and the clergy. Among the representatives
were 150 women holding leadership positions in U.
S. dioceses. Workshops and general sessions offe
red recommendations for consideration by the bish
ops and their national committees. Among ideas to
improve the collaboration of bishops and priests
with women and to make church employment more
attractive to women were: better diocesan materni
ty leave policies to back up the Church’s strong
pro-life position; regional gatherings of women and
bishops, similar to the national consultation but on
a smaller scale; establishment of formal systems of
women mentoring younger women; orientation
programs for new clergy and new diocesan staff;
internships for seminarians in diocesan offices, es
pecially those headed by women; increased recruit
ment and mentoring of women in “underrepresent
ed groups”; job performance evaluations for
priests, including pastors; greater attention in
priestly formation to psycho-spiritual issues that
might prevent a seminarian from dealing with
women as collaborators after ordination; explo
ration of alternative means of compensating
employees, when money is not available, such as
offering free or reduced tuition to Catholic schools
for the children of employees; and better training
of priests for their role as Chief Executive Officers
of parishes. Pat Signs, Director of Stewardship and
Development, attended the meeting for the Diocese
of Savannah.
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