The CATHOLIC DIOCESE of DODGE CITY
Serving the People of Southwest Kansas
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The World/Nation in Brief |
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World News ‘End access’ to morning-after pill MEXICO CITY (CNS) — Fifteen Mexican bishops asked the nation’s Supreme Court to order the federal Health Ministry to withdraw the morning-after pill from its basic health care package. The ministry recently added the pill to its basic care package at state hospitals after deciding that the pill does not cause abortion. But in a petition to the court the bishops argue the pills do induce abortion, which is illegal in Mexico. Most of the bishops who signed the petition are from Mexico’s western states. Among those who signed were Guadalajara Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez and retired Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia of San Cristobal de las Casas. The petition, which also was signed by five state and federal lawmakers from the conservative National Action Party, asks the court to side "in favor of life, of the weak and the unprotected," according to the Guadalajara archdiocesan newspaper El Semanario, which announced the bishops’ petition in its Aug. 7 edition. ‘Don’t pursue lynch mob’ JERUSALEM (CNS) — Although the lynching of a Jewish extremist should be condemned, Israel should not pursue the perpetrators, said Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem. Patriarch Sabbah told the Ha’aretz newspaper Aug. 12 that an investigation into the lynching of Eden Natan-Zada, an Israeli soldier absent without leave, could lead to further bloodshed on both sides. It was "unnecessary to perpetuate negative feelings in a way that could cause even greater harm, not only to all of Israeli society, but even to the law," the patriarch said. Natan-Zada used his army-issued rifle to open fire on an Arab bus in the northern village of Shfaram Aug. 4. Four people, including two Melkite Catholics, were killed in the attack. A videotape later showed the mob beating to death a handcuffed and subdued Natan-Zada. Decent life linked to peace BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) — Linking possibilities for peace to a decent life for all Colombians, the nation’s bishops launched a campaign to promote Colombia’s 18th annual Peace Week. "It is extremely urgent to work for a decent life for all Colombians, and that is the condition for peace to be possible among us," Msgr. Hector Fabio Henao, director of Caritas Colombia, told reporters during the campaign’s launch Aug. 10. A decent life includes issues of labor, health, democratic participation, respect for freedom and human rights, and an end to hunger, Msgr. Henao said. "The disastrous hunger in our country must be in the center of reflection for this Peace Week," Msgr. Henao said, noting that 6 million Colombians live in conditions of extreme poverty and that many children are seriously undernourished. Too many visitors MUNICH, Germany (CNS) — The owner of the house where Pope Benedict XVI first lived has put it on the market, with bidding to close Aug. 22. "The decision for the sale came about because the current owner, Claudia Dandl, could no longer cope with the streams of visitors since Joseph Ratzinger became pope," said Karin Friedlmaier, owner of the real estate agency conducting the sale. The town council of Marktl am Inn, the Bavarian town where the house is located, voted that the house should become a museum and a place of Christian fellowship. Catholic doctor wants Gaza land JERUSALEM (CNS) — The sight of Israeli settlers beginning to leave the Gaza Strip gave Dr. Atallah Tarazi hope. Tarazi, a parishioner at Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza, said he hopes to be able to return to his 10 acres of farmland in the northern Gaza Strip. At the beginning of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, the Israeli army confiscated the land because it said people were shooting at soldiers, an accusation Tarazi denied. "Then (the Israelis) destroyed it in front of my eyes and I could do nothing," Tarazi said in a telephone interview. "Now I have this big hope in Jesus Christ, this joy and happiness of looking at this day, thinking of how we can (make the land) produce again. We hope to return to our land. Every time I think of that day, I am happy." The farm was his escape from the tensions of surgical work at Shifra Hospital in Gaza, Tarazi said, and he worked for 25 years to cultivate orange, lemon and tangerine groves and greenhouses that blossomed with carnations. The farm used to produce $25,000 per year in revenue, he said. The average Palestinian annual salary is about $1,400 per year, according to Peace Now in Israel, an advocacy group. Two priests killed in Columbia BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) — Two Colombian priests were killed when their car was ambushed and attacked by gunfire. Two construction workers in the same car also were killed in the Aug. 15 crash in Norte de Santander province, in northwestern Colombia. The priests were Fathers Vicente Rozo Bayona, 50, and Ramon Emilio Mora, 65. Col. Jose Henao Castano, police spokesman, said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the nation’s largest rebel group, was probably responsible for the attack, since one of the group’s fronts is active in the area. No suspects had been arrested by midday Aug. 17, and motives for the attack remain unclear, he said. Church officials were reluctant to blame the rebels because "nobody has claimed responsibility," said retired Bishop Fabian Marulanda Lopez of Florencia, secretary-general of the Colombian bishops’ conference. "It could have been the FARC or other groups, such as paramilitaries." Nun leads protest against filming of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ in England LINCOLN, England (CNS) — A Catholic nun led a protest against the filming of "The Da Vinci Code" at a cathedral in Lincoln, saying the movie based on the best-seller is "an offense against God." Sister Mary Michael, dressed in a brown habit with a blue veil, knelt in prayer in front of the heavy wooden doors of Lincoln Cathedral for 12 hours Aug. 15, the first of two days of filming in the city. The cathedral, built by the Catholic Church in the 12th century but taken over by the Church of England during the Reformation, is serving as a double in the film for London’s Westminster Abbey. The 61-year-old nun, a former Discalced Carmelite who now belongs to Our Lady’s Community of Peace and Mercy in Lincoln, also led a small group of protesters who greeted star Tom Hanks when he arrived at the medieval Gothic church. Hanks waved briefly to fans before quickly walking into the cathedral with British co-star Sir Ian McKellen and Ron Howard, the director.
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National News CRS feeding the hungry in Niger WASHINGTON (CNS) — After the first delivery of emergency food aid was made in her province in drought-stricken Niger, a mother told a Catholic Relief Services worker, "We’re going to eat until we can’t eat anymore." "She had been eating nothing but leaves and weeds for months," said G. Jefferson Price III, a communications consultant for CRS. "Her family was probably on the brink of starvation." In a telephone interview with Catholic News Service, Price said that while there was a festive atmosphere in the Kawa Fako village in the Dogondoutchi province, where the Aug. 11 food distribution took place, there were clear signs of chronic malnutrition and suffering. Price said he saw children with distended stomachs and red tints in their hair, two of the telltale signs of malnourishment. "The people were is desperate straits," he said. "There was a lot of listlessness among the people, especially the children." Appeal for interreligious dialogue SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (CNS) — Interreligious dialogue is important in overcoming "a new unprecedented era of violence and militant polarization," Sulpician Father Ronald Witherup told more than 150 leaders of U.S. religious communities gathered in Arizona. "Religious leaders like ourselves should be at the forefront of trying to overcome these divisions and promoting peaceful and just resolutions to the problems faced by our world today," he said. Father Witherup gave one of the main speeches at the Aug. 3-6 annual meeting of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men in Scottsdale. "Ignorance is at the root of a lot of violence today," and dialogue is needed to overcome the situation and lessen tensions, said Father Witherup, outgoing CMSM president. "Dialogue is not so much about the encounters of different faiths. It concerns rather the encounters of people of different faiths," he said. Speaking out about AIDS CHICAGO (CNS) — Silence can be deadly, but it also has the power to transform hearts and minds. That was the message of "Transforming Silence," the National Catholic AIDS Ministry Network’s national conference held July 21-25 at Loyola University Chicago’s lakeshore campus. "Women make up half the people with AIDS, and there is silence," said Adrienne Curry, the Archdiocese of Chicago’s director for Catholic Relief Services. She gave the opening talk that set the theme of the conference. "More people died from AIDS today than died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and there is silence. Fifteen million children under 18 have been orphaned by AIDS, and there is silence," she said. This deafening silence, she indicated, shows the lack of awareness and concern that members of the AIDS ministry network must battle as they work to support people affected by HIV/AIDS. In her talk, Curry detailed how the pandemic threatens to overtake the Black Death of the Middle Ages as the most devastating disease in the world’s history. Doctor speaks out for unborn PITTSBURGH (CNS) — When he testified at a public hearing looking into the impact of stem-cell research in Pennsylvania, Dr. Ralph Capone of Greensburg said he was speaking on behalf of "the most vulnerable constituency in our society — the unborn child." "I am here to defend human embryonic life, life that begins as a one-celled entity called a zygote, which develops into an embryo, a fetus and ultimately an infant, toddler, teen and adult," said Capone, who has practiced internal medicine for 23 years and is a former hospital medical director. The Aug. 3 hearing at the University of Pittsburgh was sponsored by the state House Democratic Policy Committee. A stem cell is essentially a cell of the body that can regenerate as the same type of cell or differentiate into other cell types. Stem cells can be used to replace or heal damaged tissues or cells in the body. The two broad classes of stem cells are embryonic type and adult type. The embryonic types come from human embryos that are destroyed to harvest them and are comprised of embryonic stem cells (cells of the body) and embryonic germ cells (reproductive cells). Bishops ask for pressure on Iraq WASHINGTON (CNS) — The United States must encourage Iraqi leaders to constitutionally guarantee religious freedom to minority religions, said the head of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Policy. Constitutional guarantees should include the legal right to own property and form institutions for educational and charitable purposes, said Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla. He said the leaders should avoid the establishment of Islam as the state religion and as the sole source of legislation. The bishop made the comments in separate, but identical, letters to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley, national security adviser to President George W. Bush. The letters were dated Aug. 8 and subsequently posted on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Web site. Protestor’s son remembered SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CNS) — Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, who was killed in April 2004 in an ambush in Sadr City, Iraq, was "a very dedicated young person, very willing to help people," recalled Father Benedict DeLeon, a pastor in the Sacramento Diocese. Whether he was helping as an altar server, a youth ministry leader or an extraordinary minister of holy Communion at his home parish, St. Mary Church in Vacaville, the young man was always "unselfish and generous, always willing to give a thousand percent," the priest told the Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Sacramento Diocese. The priest made the comments as the dead soldier’s mother, Cindy Sheehan, remained camped out along a road near President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. She was protesting the U.S. war in Iraq and demanding that Bush talk to her. Now pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Oroville, Father DeLeon was pastor of St. Mary Church from 1996 to 2001. He remembered Cindy and Patrick Sheehan and their four children being "regulars" at the Sunday night youth Mass. At that time, Cindy Sheehan was the parish’s youth minister.
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