Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 2
Church leaders express
CONDOLENCES FOR PLANE CRASH
Washington (CNS)
U .S. church leaders and Pope John Paul
II have expressed sorrow for the No
vember 12 airplane crash in Queens and
offered condolences to the families of the
victims. “Our hearts ache for the loved
ones left behind of those travelers who
boarded the flight headed for Santo Do
mingo and for the families of the residents
of Belle Harbor who died so suddenly,'”
said Bishop Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn.
Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York
said that “with heavy hearts we have
learned of another tragedy here in our
beloved city.” At the Vatican, the pope
expressed condolences to the victims and
to the entire United States.
Bishop praises decision on
DRUG LAWS AND SUICIDE
Washington (CNS)
T he president of the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops has praised Attorney
General John Ashcroft’s decision to give
permission for federal agents to enforce
drug laws against doctors who use med
ication to help patients commit suicide.
Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-
Houston said the directive “not only ends
the federal government’s involvement in
assisted suicide, but also promotes im
proved pain management for patients near
the end of life.” In a letter to the Drug
Enforcement Administration released
November 6, Ashcroft reversed a June
1998 order by former Attorney General
Janet Reno that prohibited agents from
enforcing federal drug control laws against
doctors who prescribe lethal doses under
Oregon’s assisted suicide law.
Internet as tool of
EVANGELIZATION TO BE
Communications Day theme
Vatican City (CNS)
P ope John Paul II has chosen the
Internet as a tool of evangelization as
the theme of World Communications Day
2002. “Internet: A New Forum for
Proclaiming the Gospel” will be the offi
cial theme of a papal message written for
the annual event, which will be celebrated
in most dioceses next May. “The theme
chosen by the Holy Father touches one of
the key means of communication devel
oped in recent years and one which is of
particular interest to young people,”
Archbishop John P. Foley, president of the
Pontifical Council for Social Commu
nications, said in a statement published in
the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore
Romano, November 6. The communica
Thursday, November 15, 2001
tions council has been preparing two doc
uments on the Internet; both expected to
be discussed at the council’s plenary meet
ing in late February.
ARCHBISHOP LAMENTS FIRST
EXECUTION IN 41 YEARS
Albuquerque, N.M. (CNS)
I n reaction to New Mexico’s first execu
tion in 41 years November 6, Santa Fe’s
Catholic archbishop said he lamented the
use of violence to deal with violence. “I
stand with my brother bishops in saying
violence is not a solution; it is the clearest
sign of our failures,” Archbishop Michael
J. Sheehan said in a statement released the
next day from Sante Fe archdiocesan
headquarters in Albuquerque. Terry Clark,
45, was killed by lethal injection after last-
minute appeals on his behalf were reject
ed. He had been convicted of the 1986
murder of 9-year-old Dena Lynn Gore and
did not oppose his own execution. “Last
evening, Terry Clark was executed in our
state penitentiary,” the archbishop said.
“Do we now have closure? Have we
slipped further down the ‘slippery slope’?”
Nebraska bishops urge court
TO REJECT SAME-SEX COUPLE’S
ADOPTION PLAN
Lincoln NE (CNS)
N ebraska’s Catholic bishops encouraged
the state Supreme Court to reject an
adoption petition involving a lesbian couple
on the grounds that it would give legal
recognition to the women’s relationship. In
an “amicus” or friend-of-the-court brief, the
Nebraska Catholic Conference argued that
a de-facto marriage relationship would be
created by allowing the lesbian partner of
the child’s mother to legally adopt the boy,
who is identified only as Luke. The Lin
coln-based Catholic conference represents
the states’ bishops in public policy matters.
The state Supreme Court heard oral argu
ments in the case in early October. In the
case, Luke’s biological mother is seeking to
have her companion formally adopt the 3-
year-old, to share legal custody in the same
way a stepparent would. According to court
records, the action would make the boy
entitled to health, Social Security and other
benefits from his adoptive mother.
Catholic-Polish National
Catholic dialogue held again
Washington (CNS)
S cholars and officials of the Roman
Catholic Church and Polish National
Catholic Church held their fall dialogue
session October 24-25 in Scranton, Pa.
They set in motion a project to update
“Journeying Together in Christ,” a 1990
report on the Polish National Catholic-
Roman Catholic dialogue from 1984-89.
The updated volume is to include material
on the two churches’ progress toward full
communion in the 12 years since the first
report. At the beginning of the meeting
Bishop James C. Timlin of Scranton,
Roman Catholic co-chairman, led the mem
bers in prayer for Father John F. Hotchkin,
a leading Catholic ecumenist who died
unexpectedly last June. Father Hotchkin
was a founding member of the dialogue
and a regular participant from 1984 to
1995.
U.S. CHURCH LEADERS CALL FOR
PROTECTION OF PAKISTAN’S
Christians
Washington. (CNS)
I n separate letters to President George W.
Bush and Pakistan’s U.S. ambassador, the
president of the U.S. bishops’ conference
and the head of the bishops’ International
Policy Committee called for increased pro
tection of Pakistan’s Christian community.
Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-
Houston, president of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops, urged Bush to pres
sure Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
to ensure the safety of the country’s
Christian community following the October
28 massacre at a Catholic church. The bish
op noted that there were widespread threats
against Pakistani Christians prior to the
U.S.-led air strikes against Taliban forces in
Afghanistan. Gunmen attacked a Catholic
church in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, October
28, killing 15 members of the Church of
Pakistan and a Muslim policeman.
Pope awards Prize
to U.S. WOMAN
Vatican City (CNS)
P ope John Paul II awarded the 2001
Pontifical Academies’ Prize to Pia de
Solenni, a 29-year-old U.S. woman who
recently earned her doctorate in Rome. The
pope presented the prize, which comes with
a research grant worth just under $30,000,
to de Solenni November 8 during the annu
al joint session of the pontifical academies.
Pope John Paul told the assembly he was
awarding the prize to “Pia Francesca de
Solenni for her work in Thomistic theolo
gy,” specifically for her doctoral disserta
tion, which looked at various feminist theo
ries in light of the anthropology and theolo
gy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. She said her
work underlines the equality of men and
women, the fact that both are made in the
image and likeness of God and that their
basic vocation has a strong intellectual
component, that of knowing God.
The
Southern
Cross
(USPS 505 680)
Publisher:
Most Rev. J. Kevin
Boland, D.D.
Director of
Communications:
Barbara D. King
Editor:
Rev. Douglas K. Clark,
S.T.L.
Assistant to Editor:
Anne E. Smith
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