Newspaper Page Text
CNS photo by Arturo Mari
Thursday, October 2, 2003
Southern Cross, Page 2 Headline Hopscotch
Pope John Paul II greets Mother Teresa at the Vatican in an undated file photo.
The pope will preside at the ceremony for her beatification October 19 in Saint
Peter’s Square.
Ratzinger aide downplays
REMARKS ON POPE’S HEALTH
Vatican City (CNS)
erman Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has
asked Catholics to pray for Pope John
Paul II, not out of any new sense of alarm
but because the pontiff continues to strug
gle with infirmity, the cardinal’s personal
secretary said. The secretary, Msgr. Georg
Ganswein, downplayed a report by the
German magazine Bunte, which quoted
Cardinal Ratzinger as saying in an inter
view: “(The pope) is in a bad way,” and
“We should pray for the pope.” Cardinal
Ratzinger did not give an interview to
Bunte, Monsignor Ganswein told Catholic
News Service September 30. What hap
pened, he said, was that Cardinal
Ratzinger met September 22 with repre
sentatives of two German beer companies
and was explaining to them why the pope
could not grant them a private audience.
As for the pope’s health, Monsignor
Ganswein said, Cardinal Ratzinger was
“more or less expressing what anyone can
see with their eyes and hear with their
ears, that the pope is not well and speaks
only with difficulty.”
Vatican official at U.N.
URGES TOTAL BAN ON
HUMAN CLONING
United Nations (CNS)
statement delivered at the United
Nations by the Vatican nuncio
September 29 called for a ban on all forms
of human cloning. Speaking to a “working
group” considering a possible convention
against “reproductive cloning of human
beings,” Archbishop Celestino Migliore
said “serious ethical questions” were also
raised by cloning of human embryos for
therapeutic use. He said the Vatican sup
ported the advancement of the biological
sciences and the use of adult stem cells in
medical research if they were obtained in a
way that “does not offend human dignity.”
But cloning for research purposes would
mean “the production of millions of human
embryos with the intention of destroying
them,” he said. Even when not yet im
planted in a womb, an embryo is “a human
individual,” and “destroying this embryo
results in a deliberate suppression of an
innocent human life,” the nuncio said.
FCC’S DEREGULATION ACTIONS
REBUFFED BY CONGRESS
Washington (CNS)
ith the House and the Senate each
having taken a stand against the
Federal Communications Commission’s
June 2 votes on media deregulation, one
question that arises is which action will
ultimately emerge triumphant. The House,
in a 400-21 vote within weeks of the
FCC’s action, banned the commission
from spending any money to implement
one deregulation provision it approved to
increase from 35 percent to 45 percent the
number of American households that can
be reached by TV stations owned by one
company. The Senate voted 55-40
September 15 for a “resolution of disap
proval” that would effectively overturn all
of the FCC’s deregulation votes, which
also permitted newspapers and TV sta
tions, or TV stations and cable systems, in
the same city to have common ownership.
Other commission actions permitted one
company to own two broadcast networks,
and increased caps on ownership of local
radio stations and cable systems.
Katherine Grincewich, who follows media
issues for the U.S. bishops’ Office of
General Counsel, said the issue could be
mired in the House, where Energy and
Commerce Committee chairman Rep.
Billy Tauzin, R-La., said he would not
allow action repealing the FCC decisions
to reach the House floor this year.
However, some House members have said
they will try to attach the resolution of dis
approval to each piece of legislation that
comes through the House to force the
issue. The White House has indicated
President Bush would veto the resolution
of disapproval were it to reach his desk.
Cardinal urges support for
VOUCHERS AS DEBATE BEGINS
Washington (CNS)
s the Senate began debate on a $ 13
million voucher plan for students in
the District of Columbia, Washington
Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick joined
nearly two dozen parents and children, a
senator and the archdiocese’s school
superintendent at a press conference in
support of the program. On Capitol Hill
September 24, surrounded by children and
parents wearing “School Choice” stickers,
Cardinal McCarrick stressed the impor
tance of giving all parents in the District
of Columbia, rich or poor, equal opportu
nity when it comes to choosing the right
schools for their children. “These young
people should have the best education in
the country,” he said. “This is the nation’s
capital. We want parents to have a choice
to say, ‘OK, I can go here, I can go there,
I can go anywhere I want,”’ when choos
ing a school for their child, he said. “We
really believe that the future of this city,
this country, depends on the kids.” He
added that a three-pronged approach to
federal funding for education in the dis
trict was critical to helping the city’s chil
dren. A public school system that is “the
best in the nation,” funding for low-
income families who choose nonpublic
schools and strong charter schools will
help ensure that the children succeed, he
said.
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