VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The English seminarian who sang the Gospel at Pope John Paul II’s funeral said he was unfazed by the experience and looks forward to "bringing beauty to the liturgy" as a parish priest. "I wasn’t auditioned — I just got a phone call out of the blue, asking if I was prepared to sing," explained Paul Moss, a 28-year-old student in his final year at Rome’s English College, which trains priests for England and Wales. "I obviously knew it would be a large event. But I wasn’t really nervous at all — just relaxed, prayerful and contemplative," he said.

NEW DELHI (CNS) — Pope John Paul II was sympathetic to the Tibetan struggle for freedom but could not express this officially, said the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism. "The pope was very sympathetic to the Tibetan problem. Of course, as the head of an institution trying to establish good relations with China and (someone) seriously concerned about the status of millions of Christians in China, he could not express this publicly or officially," the Dalai Lama said in his statement of condolence after the pope died April 2. The April 3 statement was issued from the northern Indian township of Dharamsala, where the Tibetan government-in-exile has been based since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The next pope will have to help the church stay dedicated to addressing the spiritual needs of the world’s migrants, said Japanese Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao. "The successor of John Paul II, in my opinion, should continue to put emphasis on the pastoral-missionary dimension of migration as a form of new evangelization, as a contribution of the church that goes beyond mere humanitarian assistance," he told Catholic News Service April 6. While the church should continue to offer important practical and material assistance to those on the move for work or study, there should be increased attention paid to "the spiritual and social well-being of those involved," said the cardinal, who served as president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers under Pope John Paul II. "There should be proper attention to those challenges in mobility that threaten both the spiritual and social well-being" of people on the move, he said.

PATNA, India (CNS) — The vicar general of the Patna Archdiocese was hospitalized April 11 after being stabbed, reportedly by a youth who resented the priest’s opposition to his criminal activities. Father Mathew Uzhuthal, 72, was stabbed in the neck and chest, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Father Gyan Prakash, secretary to Archbishop Benedict Osta of Patna, said doctors treating Father Uzhuthal said the priest was out of danger, but could not move his legs because the stabbing ruptured nerves in his neck. Meanwhile, local police searched for the alleged assailant, a local Catholic youth with the same name as the archbishop’s secretary. Father Prakash said the suspect has an extensive criminal history and recently was released on bail after spending four years in jail in a murder case.

NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) — The Catholic charismatic movement is growing by leaps and bounds in Latin America as a church counterweight to competition from Pentecostal churches in the once solidly Catholic region, said an expert on charismatic Christianity. "The charismatic renewal has developed into the largest and most animated Catholic lay movement in Latin America," said R. Andrew Chesnut, associate history professor at the University of Houston, during a panel discussion on Latin American Catholicism. Several other panel speakers said aggressive Pentecostal evangelization has contributed to the demise of a Catholic monopoly on Latin American religious life and is causing the church to realign its priorities in the face of religious pluralism.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Retired Greek Orthodox Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America, 93, who died April 10 of a pulmonary ailment in Stamford, Conn., was a pioneer in Orthodox-Catholic relations and a world-recognized ecumenical leader. His successor, Archbishop Demetrios, held a trisagion, or Orthodox service for the dead, the following morning at the Chapel of St. Paul in New York at the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America. He declared nine days of mourning and announced that the funeral would be held April 14. "Archbishop Iakovos was a believer in the uniting and healing power of the love of God," Archbishop Demetrios wrote in a statement. "Throughout his ministry he brought together people of faith. ... He was an ecumenical leader, a friend of presidents and a tremendous contributor to the global witness of our Orthodox faith."

HONG KONG (CNS) — Underground Catholic communities in some places in China have been under surveillance since news broke of Pope John Paul II’s declining health and subsequent death April 2. Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding was allowed to celebrate Mass privately inside the church where he resides. Two deacons accompanied him, but no one has been allowed to meet the bishop, the source said. "One or two police cars are parked in front of Bishop Jia’s church. Public security officials are barring outsiders from entering the village," the source said. However, he added, Bishop Jia was able to advise Catholics not to gather for a large memorial Mass but to hold the liturgy in smaller groups for the sake of security.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Polish bishops urged their citizens to channel their love for Pope John Paul II into "concrete acts" of charity. "John Paul II taught us how to live, follow Christ and love the church. In his last days and hours, he accepted his illness and suffering, and taught us a wonderful lesson in passing through death to life," the Polish bishops’ conference main council said in a statement published April 13 by Poland’s Catholic information agency, KAI. The statement said Poles should make a "living memorial" to Pope John Paul by supporting charitable foundations working to help the poor.

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) — The fund-raisers arranged by the Home and School Association at St. Andrew’s in Newtown, Pa., may sound commonplace — a Monte Carlo night, a Christmas bazaar, a basket auction. But they seem a lot less commonplace when one hears about the thousands of dollars each event has raised. The Monte Carlo night brought in $35,000, the bazaar $27,000 and the auction $45,000. But that is just the beginning for the Home and School Association at the parish school, which has 950 students in the elementary grades and 150 in preschool. St. Andrew’s principal, Nancy Matteo, accepted an award honoring the association as one of the National Catholic Educational Association’s eight distinguished home and school associations for 2005.

NEW BERLIN, Wis. (CNS) — It’s said of veterans, "All gave some and some gave all." Even though Al Stigler returned from Vietnam to talk about his sacrifice, there’s no doubt he belongs in the "some gave all" category. His short stint in Vietnam cost him his marriage, health, career and dreams for the future. He survived a sniper’s bullet that took his right eye, a tiny piece of his brain and left him partially paralyzed. He overcame the paralysis when a doctor at a military hospital told him he would not, and returned to his New Berlin home. And rather than feeling sorry for himself, Stigler decided to give to others and has continued to do so over the past 35 years. He volunteers at his parish, Holy Apostles, and in the community.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The struggle over intellectual property, and who has a right to use it and own it, has long simmered in American society. It made headlines again March 29 when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of MGM vs. Grokster, which pits the movie studio against the makers of peer-to-peer file sharing software that allows its users to download everything from music to movies on their personal computers for free. Intellectual property is an issue the Catholic Church in the United States continues to monitor, according to Katherine Grincewich, an attorney in the U.S. bishops’ Office of General Counsel. The church is on both sides of the intellectual property issue, she explained. "The bishops own some copyrights and earn income from them," Grincewich said, "but at the same time there are Catholic universities who need a fair use (of copyrighted material), and it’s getting harder and harder" to secure fair-use rights.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (CNS) — Church officials in the Sioux City Diocese said they were deeply offended when they found out that on eBay, an Internet auction site, an unidentified person from Iowa sold what was described as a host consecrated by Pope John Paul II during a Mass in Rome in 1998. "The holy Eucharist is central to our faith," Msgr. Roger J. Augustine, diocesan administrator of Sioux City, said in an April 12 statement. "Our Catholic doctrine teaches us that the Eucharist is the true presence of Jesus Christ and is to be consumed and not put on display as you would a souvenir. The host was sold for a reported $2,000.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) — When Brother Paul O’Donnell stood at the lectern of Holy Name of Jesus Church in Gulfport, Fla., to read the prayers of the faithful at a Mass for Terri Schindler Schiavo April 5, it marked the last step in a long journey to fight for her life. But for the Franciscan Brother of Peace, the work of advocating for disabled people has only just begun. "This experience has made me see very clearly that we in our country still have a profound prejudice against the severely disabled" and convinced him "to be their advocate, that no matter what a person’s mental or physical capability may be, they are still a child of God and their lives need to be defended," he said.

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) — The country’s only Catholic vocational high school is in the Philadelphia Archdiocese and it has a reputation for excellence. Mercy Vocational High School was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1950 at the request of the archdiocese, according to Mercy Sister Rosemary Herron, principal. She said local church leaders wanted to serve those teens who would not be accepted into traditional diocesan high schools and knew the Sisters of Mercy could meet the challenge. The order’s foundress, Mother Catherine McAuley, provided the model for vocational schools in Ireland when she took in young, poor women from the country and educated them; she taught them domestic skills that later qualified them to work in the homes of wealthy families.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CNS) — Bishop William K. Weigand of Sacramento and Dan Haverty, the El Dorado Hills parishioner who donated two-thirds of his liver to the bishop, are recuperating from successful liver transplant surgery performed April 1 at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. The bishop was moved out of the intensive care unit to a room on the post-transplant floor the evening of April 2. Both Bishop Weigand and Haverty were in fair condition as of April 7 and following the usual postoperative course, said Lynette Magnino, director of communications for the Sacramento Diocese. "There were no surprises in the surgery and no complications," she said.

ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) — This is the third year Father Dennis Kleinmann, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Alexandria, Va., has taken eighth-graders on a pilgrimage to Italy after their confirmation. This year, they ended up being part of a historic crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray for an ailing pontiff. They were also there when he died. Father Kleinmann, 11 youths and 10 parents left for Italy on Easter. They traveled to Naples, Capri and Pompeii before arriving in Rome March 30. When they heard Pope John Paul II’s health was declining, they went to the Vatican the night of April 1 to pray with other pilgrims who packed St. Peter’s Square. The priest told the Arlington Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Arlington Diocese, that the experience was "very eerie and very moving" because although the square was full of people, he said, there was almost total silence. After an April 2 day-trip, the group returned to St. Peter’s Square for a prayer service for youths. At the service, at about 10 p.m., the death of the pope was announced.