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The Southern Cross, Page 2
Hen dime Hopscotch
Thursday, October 4, 2001
Flags in church? It’s up to
BISHOP OR PASTOR
Washington (CNS)
hat are the Roman Catholic
Church’s rules on flags in church?
None, really, says the U.S. bishops’ Secre
tariat for Liturgy. So it’s up to the local
bishop, who in turn can leave it to the dis
cretion of his pastors. The secretariat sug
gested, however, that any churches dis
playing a flag should place it outside the
sanctuary, possibly in the vestibule, to
gether with a book of prayer requests.
Father James P. Moroney, executive direc
tor of the secretariat, told Catholic News
Service that the secretariat posted informa
tion on flags in church on its Web site
September 25 after receiving about a
dozen inquiries in the wake of the Septem
ber 11 terrorist attacks in New York and
Washington.
Court to review mandatory
CONTRACEPTIVES
IN HEALTH COVERAGE
• Sacramento, CA (CNS)
he California Supreme Court Sep
tember 26 agreed to review an appeals
court decision requiring Catholic Charities
of Sacramento to comply with a state law
requiring employers to include contracep
tion in health plans that cover prescrip
tions. Without comment, the high court’s
six judges voted in private in San Fran
cisco to review the July 2 decision by the
3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacra
mento. Catholic Charities argued in a suit
filed last year that the law should be set
aside because it violates the group’s reli
gious freedom.
Bishop Houck named presi
dent of Extension Society
Washington (CNS)
ishop William R. Houck of Jackson,
Miss., has been named president of the
Catholic Church Extension Society of the
United States. Cardinal Angelo Sodano,
Vatican secretary of state, made the
appointment on the recommendation of
Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George, who
serves ex officio as chancellor of the Exten
sion Society. Bishop Houck succeeds Mon
signor Kenneth Velo, a priest of the Chi
cago Archdiocese who currently serves at
Our Lady of Hope Church in Rosemont,
Illinois. A native of Mobile, Alabama,
Bishop Houck studied at Saint Mary’s
Seminary in Baltimore and at the Catholic
University of America in Washington and
was ordained for the Archdiocese of
Mobile in 1951. He was named an auxil
iary bishop of Jackson in 1979 and became
its bishop in 1984.
After 20-year scrutiny,
Vatican releases new book of
SAINTS
Vatican City (CNS)
aints George and Christopher have sur
vived a 20-year scrutiny, keeping their
traditional feast days in a Vatican list of
saints approved for public devotion. The
martyr Saint Philomena did not make the
cut, though, in the revised “Roman Marty-
rology” released October 2 at a Vatican
press conference. The new martyrology is
a 773-page book listing saints and blesseds
by their feast days and indicating that their
public veneration is approved by the
church, said Archbishop Francesco Pio
Tamburrino, secretary of the Congregation
for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
Mother Angelica suffers
MINOR STROKE
Birmingham, AL (CNS)
other Angelica, founder of Eternal
Word Television Network in Bir
mingham, returned to her “Mother Angelica
Live” TV show September 25 after a three-
week absence due to a stroke. In a posting
on its Web site, EWTN described the stroke
as “minor” and said, “Her doctors firmly
believe that the impact of this stroke is tem
porary and will result in little, if any, lasting
effects.” At the start of her September 25
show the 78-year-old nun, a Poor Clare of
Perpetual Adoration, joked about an eye
patch she was wearing because she could
not close her eye properly—one of several
signs of slight facial paralysis resulting
from the stroke.
Family grieves, churches sur
vey DAMAGE AFTER TORNADO
Washington (CNS)
wo sisters active in their Clarksville,
Maryland, parish were killed Septem
ber 24 when tornadoes ripped through the
Washington metropolitan area. The unusual
twister that killed Colleen Marlatt, 23, and
her sister, Erin, 20, demolished temporary
buildings on the campus of the University
of Maryland at College Park, severely da
maged a shopping center and smashed
trees, windows and roofs at several Catho
lic churches and schools in the Washington
Archdiocese. The Marlatt sisters were both
students at the university near Washington.
When the tornado struck, their Mercury
Sable was picked up and carried over an
eight-story dorm building, then smashed
into a stand of trees 300 yards away. De
scribed as devoted Catholics, both sisters
graduated from Saint Louis School in
Clarksville and from Notre Dame Prepara
tory School in Towson.
Pro-lifers pleased with
Alaska assisted suicide ruling
Anchorage, Alaska (CNS)
ro-life leaders are grateful that Alaska
is the latest state to decide that assisted
suicide is not a constitutional right. The
state Supreme Court ruled September 21
that “the Alaska Constitution’s guarantees
of privacy and liberty do not afford termi
nally ill patients the right to a physician’s
assistance in committing suicide.” Every
one in Alaska should rejoice at the deci
sion, said Robert Flint, executive director
of the Alaska Catholic Conference, public
policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops.
“The judges have realized that society’s
obligation to foster protection and compas
sion for the sick is not prohibited by our
constitution,” he said.
Seminar panel debates anti
terror CAMPAIGN AND JUST WAR
Washington (CNS)
s the United States geared up for a
war against terrorists, a panel of
experts debated just-war issues, such as the
morality of assassinating terrorist leaders.
Noting that reasonable hope of success is a
measure of a war’s justice, several pan
elists asked what will count as success in
this conflict: Homeland security? Dismant
ling Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network?
Eliminating all terrorist groups? The three-
hour seminar in Washington September 24,
sponsored by the Faith & Reason Institute,
featured speakers versed in military intelli
gence and strategy and in Catholic social
teaching. They said a war against terrorists
poses new challenges for moral thought as
well as for the country’s military, diplomat
ic and intelligence capabilities.
Cheyenne’s Bishop Hart
RETIRES, COADJUTOR SUCCEEDS
Washington (CNS)
ope John Paul II has accepted the res
ignation of Bishop Joseph H. Hart of
Cheyenne, Wyoming. His coadjutor since
1999, Bishop David L. Ricken, automati
cally succeeds him. The changes were an
nounced in Washington September 26 by
Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic
nuncio to the United States. Bishop
Ricken, 48, is a former chancellor of the
Diocese of Pueblo, Colorado, and a former
official of the Vatican Congregation for
Clergy. Bishop Hart, who turned 70 Sep
tember 26, has headed the Cheyenne Dio
cese since 1978.
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