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Southern Cross, Page 2
Headline Hopscotch Thursday, December 11, 2008
Harrison and Payton Burnett visit with Santa Claus (Mark Corrigan, Sr.) at the annual children’s
Christmas party hosted by Knights of Columbus Council 631, Savannah.
Head of Russian Orthodox Church
DIES AT AGE 79
Vatican City (CNS)
he head of the Russian Orthodox Church,
Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, died Decem
ber 5 at his home outside the Russian capital. He
was 79. Although the cause of his death was not
immediately made public, he had suffered from
a heart condition and had been ill for some time.
Patriarch Alexy led the world’s largest Orthodox
church since 1990. As primate of the Russian
Orthodox Church, the patriarch was the spiritual
leader of more than 110 million church members
in Russia, the former Soviet republics and the
diaspora. He led the church through the difficult
transition from the end of Soviet repression to
an era of religious freedom and sought to revital
ize traditional religious values in a society that
was still grappling with the aftereffects of totali
tarianism and the impact of newfound freedoms.
Pope Benedict XVI praised the patriarch’s
efforts “for the rebirth of the church after the
severe ideological oppression which led to the
martyrdom of so many witnesses to the
Christian faith.”
Catholic Charities USA gets high
MARKS FOR NATIONWIDE SERVICE
Alexandria, VA (CNS)
atholic Charities USA is the country’s top
provider of social services, according to
Charity Navigator’s Holiday Giving Guide 2008.
The Alexandria-based agency also finished sec
ond overall in The NonProfit Times Top 100 list
of the country’s largest charities and 11th in the
most recent Philanthropy 400 ranking by The
Chronicle of Philanthropy. Father Larry Snyder,
Catholic Charities USA president, welcomed the
recognition. “These rankings are invigorating.
They speak to the hard work and professionalism
of Catholic Charities agencies’ staff and volun
teers around the country,” he said in a statement.
“It’s my sincere hope that this encourages others
to join us in our efforts to help those affected by
the economic downturn, especially during the
holiday season.” Charity Navigator, considered
the country’s most utilized evaluator of charities,
annually ranks nonprofit agencies in 34 cate
gories ranging from the environment to youth
development. Charity Navigator’s ranking list can
be found online at: www.charitynavigator.org/in-
dex.cfrn?bay“contcnt.view&cpid-521.
Vatican makes clear its opposition
TO U.N. HOMOSEXUALITY
DECLARATION
Vatican City (CNS)
he Vatican has made clear its opposition to
the United Nations endorsing a universal dec
laration to decriminalize homosexuality. Arch
bishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s apostolic
nuncio to the United Nations, and Vatican
spokesman Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said
unjust forms of discrimination against homosexu
als must be avoided. However, the Vatican does
not approve of a formal declaration with political
weight that might be used to put pressure on or
discriminate against countries that do not recog
nize same-sex marriage, they said. A draft decla
ration, drawn up by France and endorsed by the
European Union, was to be presented to the U.N.
General Assembly December 10. It condemns
discrimination based on sexual orientation and
gender identity. Archbishop Migliore told the
French news agency I.Media December 1 that
adding these “new categories (to be) protected
from discrimination” would create in turn “new
and inflexible (forms of) discrimination.”
Vatican signs, ratifies convention
BANNING CLUSTER BOMBS
Vatican City (CNS)
he Vatican has signed and ratified a new
treaty to end the production and use of cluster
bombs, and appealed to the international commu
nity to ban “this inhumane type of weapon.”
Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Vatican secre
tary for relations with states, was one of more
than 100 diplomats who signed the Convention
on Cluster Munitions in Oslo, Norway, December
3. In a speech during the signing ceremony, the
archbishop said the Vatican chose to sign and rat
ify the convention the same day in order to send
“a strong political signal” to the rest of the world.
The Vatican made the archbishop's remarks pub
lic December 4. The United States and other
major countries that produce cluster weapons—
including Russia, China, Israel, India and
Pakistan—have not signed it. The United States
has expressed concern that a ban would restrict
what it sees as the legitimate use of such weapons
and has said that cluster bombs were essential to
U.S. military operations.
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