Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 2
Poll finds more opposition on
STEM CELLS AMONG ACTIVE
Catholics
Washington (CNS)
atholics who attend Mass weekly were more
likely than the general population to follow the
debate over embryonic stem-cell research very or
somewhat closely and more likely to oppose such
research, according to a recent CNN/USA
Today/Gallup poll. The nationwide poll conducted
in July and made public in August found that 57
percent of adult Americans who are “practicing
Catholics” opposed government funding for
embryonic stem-cell research, compared to 39 per
cent of all Americans and 30 percent of “nonprac
ticing Catholics.” The survey was made public
shortly before President Bush announced Aug. 9
that he would permit federal funding of embryonic
stem-cell research only from the approximately 60
stem-cell lines already in existence.
Judge upholds Arizona parental
CONSENT LAW
Phoenix (CNS)
A federal judge has upheld an Arizona law
requiring minors to obtain parental or judicial
consent before having an abortion. In an August 9
ruling, U.S. District Judge Raner Collins said the
1999 law is constitutional. The law requires written
permission from a minor’s parent or guardian, or a
Superior Court judge, before she can obtain an
abortion. Consent is not required in a medical
emergency or if the pregnancy is the result of rape.
“This is great news for protecting the health of
minor girls who are best served by the wisdom and
concern of a parent,” said Cathi Herrod, an attor
ney with the Center for Arizona Policy, and the pri
mary author of the legislation.
Parishes in China begin match
making SERVICE FOR YOUNG
Catholics
Jinan, China (CNS)
ome parishes in eastern China have begun a
matchmaking service to ensure that every
young Catholic is able to find a spouse of the same
faith. The nine parishes in Jinan Diocese, in
China’s Shandong province, recently started the
matchmaking service because young people face
difficulty in finding Catholic partners, reported
UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in
Thailand. Father Zhang Xianwang, parish priest of
Hongjialou Church, said that the parish has a small
Catholic population without many marriages dur
ing the year. Many Catholic parents want their chil
dren to marry Catholics to preserve their faith tra
dition, Father Zhang said. Young people also think
that having a Catholic spouse can help ensure a
happier marriage, he said.
Church leaders support
Massachusetts child abuse
REPORTING BILL
Boston (CNS)
he Massachusetts Catholic Conference said it
supported legislation that requires priests and
other religious leaders to report certain cases of
child abuse. “We are definitely supporting the bill,”
said Gerry D’Avolio, executive director of the con
ference, public policy arm of the Archdiocese of
Boston and Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and
Worcester. The legislation, which was recommend
ed by the state Legislature’s Human Services and
Elderly Affairs Health Committee, broadens inclu
sion of professions such as medical workers and
schoolteachers to priests, rabbis and ordained or
licensed ministers. The bill also includes language
encompassing other religious and lay people in
leadership positions.
Vatican says cardinal has not
COMMENTED ON CLONING PLANS
Vatican City (CNS)
ardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Con
gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has
made no statement about an Italian doctor’s plans
to clone human beings, his office said. The doctor,
Severino Antinori, announced in early August that
he planned to use cloning to produce 200 babies
for infertile couples. Monsignor Charles Brown, an
official at the doctrinal congregation, said August 9
he had phoned Cardinal Ratzinger, who has been
on vacation since late July, and asked him about
Correction
I n the August 2 issue of The Southern Cross,
Bacon County was not listed in the correct
deanery. It will be transferred from the Valdosta-
Brunswick Deanery to the Statesboro Deanery.
Thursday, August 16, 2001
comments attributed to him by the media. “The
story that Cardinal Ratzinger said anything about
Dr. Antinori or said the doctor was trying to emu
late Hitler or this idea that 'copying children is
Nazi madness’—all of this is completely without
any foundation in reality,” Monsignor Brown said.
Average ordination age increases
BY EIGHT, STUDY SAYS
Washington (CNS)
he average ordination age of U.S. Catholic
priests has increased since the 1930s and ’40s
by eight years, said the Center for Applied Re
search in the Apostolate. The summer issue of The
CARA Report, released in August, said 26 was the
average ordination age before the 1950s. It rose to
27 in the ’50s, 28 in the ’60s, 29 in the ’70s, 32 in
the ’80s, and 34 in the 1990s and 2000. The report
was based on a nationwide telephone survey in
March of 1,234 diocesan and religious priests. It
said the vast majority of priests expressed strong
happiness in their ministry and satisfaction with
their life as a priest. When asked if they would
choose the priesthood again if they had a chance to
do it all over, nine out of 10 said they “strongly
agree” that they would.
Vatican says Archbishop Milingo
to reconcile; wife threatens fast
Vatican City (CNS)
he Vatican said Zambian Archbishop Emmanu
el Milingo, who married in a ceremony per
formed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon three
months ago, has decided to reconcile with the
Catholic Church. “After the lamentable events of
which he was a protagonist, he has decided to
spend a period of reflection and prayer in view of
his full reconciliation,” Passionist Father Ciro
Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman, said August 11.
Within hours of the announcement, officials of
Rev. Moon’s movement launched what they
described on their Web site as a “life-and-death
war with a formidable, powerful enemy,” saying
the archbishop was being held “captive” by the
Vatican. Maria Sung, the archbishop’s 43-year-old
Korean wife, threatened to fast to death unless
Catholic Church officials permitted her to see him.
She said she might be pregnant with the archbish
op’s child, and she made a media-swamped visit to
Saint Peter's Basilica August 13 to pray for her
husband’s return.
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The Southern Cross
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