Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 2
Thursday, November 29, 2001
Pope says new saints served
Christ through lives of
service
Vatican City (CNS)
ope John Paul II created four new
saints, saying that through their lives
they recognized Christ as the universal
king who reigns with love and service.
During Mass November 25, the feast of
Christ the King, the pope canonized an
Italian bishop and three European nuns.
The new saints are Saint Leonie Frances
de Sales Aviat, founder of the Oblate
Sisters of Saint Francis de Sales; Saint
Paula Montal Fomes, founder of the
Sisters of Pious Schools; Saint Maria
Crescentia Hoss, who was a popular spir
itual adviser; Saint Giuseppe Marello,
founder of the Oblates of Saint Joseph
and bishop of the Diocese of Acqui in the
late 1800s.
Bush asked to honor New
York fire chaplain with
Medal of Freedom
New York (CNS)
en. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., has
asked President Bush to award the
Presidential Medal of Freedom posthu
mously to Franciscan Father Mychal F.
Judge, the New York Fire Department
chaplain who died at the World Trade
Center September 11. Schumer announced
his action November 18 at Engine Com
pany 1, the firehouse directly across the
street from Saint Francis of Assisi Church,
where Father Judge lived. He said New
York’s other senator, Hillary Rodham
Clinton, was joining him in the request.
“On that tragic day in September, Father
Judge died as he lived—serving others,”
Schumer and Clinton said in a letter to
Bush. “When the firefighters entered the
building, Father Judge was at their side,
where he remained offering comfort and
absolution until the end.”
Jesuit says Christian
response starts with under
standing terrorists
Washington (CNS)
he truly Christian response to the ter
rorist attacks on the United States
would be first to seriously try to understand
the motivations of the people responsible
and then try to hold them accountable
through the United Nations and the World
Court, according to peace activist Jesuit
Father Daniel Berrigan. Speaking Novem
ber 19 at Georgetown University, Father
Berrigan said every war in the history of
mankind has presented itself as just, God-
approved or noble, just as supporters justify
r
the current U.S. military action against
Afghanistan. But Jesus, who time and again
counseled his followers against violence,
even in response to violence done to them,
would encourage another way of reacting to
the attacks, he said. ‘To work one’s way
through that justification and sense of
nationalism is the Christian task,” Father
Berrigan said.
Two Americans named to
Pontifical Biblical
Commission
Chicago (CNS)
ope John Paul II has named two Ame
rican Scripture scholars to the Pon
tifical Biblical Commission. They are
Passionist Father Donald Senior, president
of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago,
and Hungarian-born Abbot Denis M. Far-
kasfalvy, head of the Cistercian Abbey of
Our Lady of Dallas in Irving, Texas. The
two were among 12 scholars from around
the world appointed October 18 to five-
year terms on the commission, a consulta
tive body that works under the jurisdiction
of the Vatican Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith.
Pope: Church cannot lower
STANDARDS DUE TO VOCATION
SHORTAGE
Vatican City (CNS)
aced with low numbers of priests and
religious, the church cannot lower
standards but should instead give greater
attention to the selection and formation of
candidates, Pope John Paul II said. To
overcome the current shortage, Catholic
communities must make the promotion of
vocations a central pastoral issue, the pope
said in his annual message for the World
Day of Prayer for Vocations, scheduled for
April 21. While all the church’s members
are called to holiness, vocations to the
priesthood or the religious life are still
“precious and necessary gifts,” he said.
Those who dedicate their lives to Christ in
chastity, poverty and obedience are fol
lowing “privileged paths” toward spiritual
fullness, the pope said. “The small number
of candidates to the priesthood and conse
crated life reported in some situations
today must not lead us to expect less and
settle for a mediocre formation and spiri
tuality,” he said.
U.S. Cardinal Baum retires
AS HEAD OF VATICAN OFFICE
Vatican City (CNS)
.S. Cardinal William W. Baum, for
mer archbishop of Washington and a
Vatican official since 1980, has retired as
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head of the Vatican office that deals with
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nounced that Pope John Paul II had ac
cepted the resignation of Cardinal Baum
November 22, the day after the cardinal
turned 75. The cardinal has suffered from
eye problems for many years. As head of
the Apostolic Penitentiary since 1990,
Cardinal Baum administered a special
court that can absolve individuals from
sins or from censures reserved to the Holy
See. It is an ancient office in the church
that deals primarily with the internal prob
lems of conscience and procedural matters
concerning indulgences. Cardinal Baum’s
title was “major penitentiary,” which he
once explained really means confessor
with special faculties. To replace Cardinal
Baum the pope named Italian Bishop
Luigi De Magistris, 75, who had been No.
2 at the Apostolic Penitentiary since 1996,
and named him an archbishop.
Pope calls for missionary
ACTIVITY, APOLOGIZES FOR
wrongs in Oceania
Vatican City (CNS)
P ope John Paul II called for a new wave
of missionary activity in Oceania
based on clear proclamation of the
Gospel’s healing message and better
explanation of church teachings on human
life, the family and social justice. The
pope, in a final document on the Synod for
Oceania, said the church must reach out to
many groups in the region, including those
whom the church may have hurt in the
past, such as indigenous populations mis
treated by missionaries. He also voiced a
strong church apology to the victims of
sexual abuse by priests, which has been a
particular problem in Australia, the largest
country in Oceania. The pope signed the
123-page apostolic exhortation, Ecclesia
in Oceania, during a Vatican ceremony
November 22.
Immaculate Conception: a
Holy Day on Saturday
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Con
ception of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
observed on December 8, falls on a
Saturday this year. As it is the patronal
feast of the United States, the obligation to
attend Mass on the solemnity is not sus
pended when it falls on Saturday. As the
celebration of the Second Sunday of
Advent takes precedence, evening Masses
on December 8 must be for Sunday.
Attendance at one Mass will not satisfy
the two obligations to attend Mass for the
Solemnity and for the Sunday.
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