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The Southern Cross, Page 2
Treat embryos outside womb as
HUMAN, BISHOPS' OFFICIAL URGES
Washington (CNS)
n official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops has urged the Bush administration to
treat human embryos outside the womb as human
subjects when it issues revised regulations on fed
eral funding of medical research. Mark E. Chopko,
USCCB general counsel, called for a clear rule on
embryos in vitro “so that the federal government
will fund no research in which a human embryo is
created for research purposes or is destroyed, dis
carded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or
death greater than that allowed for research on
fetuses in utero.” Chopko made his comments
August 31 in a 10-page letter to the Office of
Human Research Protections of the U.S. Depart
ment of Health and Human Services. He urged
HHS to reverse its fundamental shift of style from
restrictive language in the current HHS regulations
to permissive language in the proposed revision.
The permissive form states what the government
will fund instead of what it won’t.
Vatican calls on U.N. conference
TO AFFIRM RIGHTS OF ALL MIGRANTS
Durban, South Africa (CNS)
he Vatican called on the World Conference
Against Racism to affirm the human rights of
all migrants, regardless of their immigration status.
This affirmation must include broad outlines on
how governments and the international system
should apply these rights, said the Vatican’s state
ment to the conference, delivered September 3 by
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, permanent observer
of the Holy See to U.N. offices in Geneva. Arch
bishop Martin said that, in meetings held to prepare
for the U.N. conference, the Vatican has heavily
focused on migrants and refugees. “Today the
migrant, especially one who comes from a different
cultural background, can easily become the object
of racial discrimination, of intolerance, of exploita
tion and of violence,” Archbishop Martin said.
Muslims, Catholics pack funeral
Mass of Irish missionary
Cagayan de Oro, Philippines (CNS)
ore than 1,000 Muslims and Catholics
packed the funeral Mass of an Irish mission
ary shot dead in the Philippines, an outpouring that
one church official said showed the “fruit of his
work.” Irish Columban Father Rufus Halley
“accomplished in death what we have been toiling
for through the years,” Monsignor Edwin de la
Pena, Marawi’s apostolic administrator, said at the
September 1 funeral Mass. Father Halley, 57,
worked for many years in Malabang, part of
Marawi Prelature in Mindanao, a predominantly
Muslim area. He was shot dead August 28 when he
refused to leave with three kidnappers from the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels, police told
UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in
Thailand.
Dominican youths denied visas to
attend Rochester convention
Rochester, NY (CNS)
youth group from the Dominican Republic
that had hoped to visit the Rochester Diocese
for a diocesan youth convention was denied U.S.
visas, diocesan officials said. The visa applications
were rejected because of concerns by the U.S. con
sulate in Santo Domingo that the youths would not
return to the Dominican Republic after their tourist
visas expired. The youths were unable to provide
information that would compel them to return
home, such as family assets or proof that they were
attending college, said Janice Regan, youth min
istry coordinator of Saint Catherine of Siena Parish
in Ithaca, which tried to arrange for the trip.
Anti-porn coalition calls for
BOYCOTT OF CLOTHING RETAILER
Pittsburgh (CNS)
he Pittsburgh Coalition Against Pornography
has called for a boycott of the Abercrombie &
Fitch label, saying the company is selling more
than just clothes. The group contends that the clot
hing line’s recent catalog promotes group sex, pub
lic nudity, sexual promiscuity and pornography.
Dorn Checkley, director of the Pittsburgh Coalition
Against Pornography, which has 6,000 people on
its mailing list, said the group became involved
when someone contacted them about the spring
catalog. Abercrombie & Fitch’s marketing pitch to
teen-agers is really “one of the most flagrantly
hedonistic lifestyles I’ve ever seen,” Checkley said.
Bishop vows to bring Iraq sanc
tions ISSUE TO FULL BODY OF BISHOPS
New York (CNS)
uxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton of
Detroit said August 29 that he would insist on
getting attention for the issue of Iraq sanctions at
Thursday, September 6, 2001
the general meeting of the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops this November. In an interview in
New York, he said he had submitted a proposed
resolution for consideration as a “varium” under a
special procedure of the bishops’ conference that
allows individual bishops to seek action without
going through the normal committee process. If the
bishops’ Administrative Committee does not agree
to put the resolution on the agenda, he will consid
er bringing supporters to the meeting site for a
protest action outside demanding attention to the
issue, Bishop Gumbleton said. “I’m determined,”
he said.
Austrian cardinal says tensions
DUE TO DIVERSE NATURE OF CHURCH
Warsaw, Poland (CNS)
n ongoing discussion between Austria’s laity
and church officials represents the diversity
among Catholics and not serious tensions among the
hierarchy and laity, an Austrian cardinal said.
“There’s a great diversity of nations, cultures and
even rites in the Catholic Church, and this is appro
priate and even good,” said Vienna Cardinal Chris
toph Schonbom during a late-August visit to Poland.
“Diversity and differentiation are elements of the
order of creation and belong in the church as well,”
the cardinal said. In an interview with Poland’s
Catholic Information Agency, KAI, Cardinal Schon-
bom said the Catholic Church faced “new chal
lenges” all over Europe and should ensure the conti
nent’s “economic and political mechanisms” were
backed by a secure “cultural and religious identity.”
Vatican: “globalization threat
ens society’s most vulnerable”
Vatican City (CNS)
he Vatican warned that globalization and tech
nological advances are threatening to generate
new forms of racism against society’s weakest
members, including immigrants, the poor and the
unborn. It called on governments to be vigilant
against the creation of a “sub-category of human
beings,” which it said would represent a “new and
terrible form of slavery.” The comments came in a
new edition of the document, “The Church and
Racism,” by the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace. First published in 1988, it was revised
ahead of the World Conference Against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance, scheduled for August 31-September 7
in Durban, South Africa.
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