World Day of Sick statement

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Out of his great love for all creatures, God sent his son to heal and to save, Pope Benedict XVI said. "Christ is the hand of God extended to humanity so it could escape the quicksand of sickness and death, standing on its feet on the solid rock of divine love," the pope said Feb. 12. Pope Benedict used the main part of his midday Angelus address to remind people that the church celebrated World Day of the Sick Feb. 11 and to ask for continued prayers for those who are suffering. He asked Mary to watch over all the sick, but especially those who also "suffer from solitude, poverty and marginalization."

Government law opposed

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (CNS) — A Czech government official has criticized his own government over a restrictive religious law and pledged to seek amendments to remove government control over church activities. The "Law on Confessional Freedom and the Role of Churches" passed Nov. 22 and was signed by President Vaclav Klaus Dec. 6. Culture Minister Vitezslav Jandak told Czech TV Feb. 5 that he does not think the law is needed and is concerned that it "will merely inflame church-state relations." "I don’t identify with it," he said, "and won’t try to defend it." He made his comments prior to talks with Christian Democrat legislators Feb. 8, when he agreed to introduce proposed changes to the law before June parliamentary elections. In a report the same day, the Czech news agency CTK said Jandak also pledged to request parliamentary ratification of a concordat with the Vatican, regulating church rights in the post-communist country.

Pope mourns death of priest

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI asked that the murder of an Italian missionary priest in Turkey intensify dialogue between religions and foster peace among peoples. The pope called the missionary a "silent and courageous servant of the Gospel" and asked that "the sacrifice of his life contribute to the cause of dialogue between religions and peace among peoples." The pope had just received a letter, dated Jan. 31, from the murdered priest, who had written "a moving testimony of love and fidelity to Christ and his church." In the letter, the priest expressed his and his parishioners’ desire that the pope visit their small church during his November trip to Turkey.

The miseries of the misplaced

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) — Every day, more than 800 Colombians leave behind their houses, jobs, belongings, friends, family and culture. They flee their homes seeking protection from death threats, massacres, mass arrests, economic blockades and other violence generated by the country’s 40-year-old civil conflict. Half of them own at least a small plot of land. The majority have not finished grade school. Many of them are mothers raising their children alone. Half of them are younger than 15 years of age. Colombia’s internally displaced people numbered 2.9 million between 1995 and 2005, according to a 10-year analysis prepared by the Colombian bishops’ conference, Caritas Colombia and the local Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement, known by its Spanish acronym, CODHES. Government figures put the 10-year displacement figures at 1.8 million.

Olympic edition of ‘St. Mark’

TURIN, Italy (CNS) — While official sponsors of the Winter Olympics handed out bagfuls of freebies, churches distributed a special Olympic edition of St. Mark’s Gospel. About 50,000 free copies of the pocket-sized paperback were distributed in Turin as part of a joint initiative promoted by the local Catholic, Waldensian and Orthodox churches. The Bible Society in Italy published the seven-language volume after the Italian bishops’ conference promoted the idea.

Upset over high speed rails

TURIN, Italy (CNS) — The mountain town of Susa, some 40 miles outside Turin, was once so peaceful and serene that Benedictine monks built an abbey there. But lately, the hills have been alive with the sounds of protesters rather than immersed in the sounds of silence. Protesters, angered over plans to build a high-speed rail through the region, even disrupted some Olympic events. Olympic organizers rerouted the Olympic torch relay so that it did not go through the Susa valley. Security also was beefed up during the opening ceremonies over fears that anti-globalization activists would join smaller local protests. While local residents have been up in arms over the TAV rail line that would connect Turin and Lyon, France, Catholic officials have been trying to quell the storm. Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin and Bishop Alfonso Badini Confalonieri of Susa have launched regular appeals to all sides in the dispute, urging them to find a solution through dialogue.

Faith, science have God as source

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The truths of faith cannot be in conflict with the truths of science because God is the source of faith and creator of the world, Pope Benedict XVI said. The pope met Feb. 10 with 98 officials, members and consultants of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office he led for more than 20 years before being elected pope. When "the truth of faith is placed at the center of Christian existence with simplicity and decisiveness, people’s lives are energized by a love that knows neither breaks nor boundaries," Pope Benedict said. Love for the truth, he said, pushes the human intellect to explore new horizons.

Catholic school becomes Muslim

GLASGOW, Scotland (CNS) — St. Albert’s Primary School in Pollokshields, a south Glasgow suburb, is a Catholic school where the day starts with the Lord’s Prayer and once a month Mass is celebrated — and three-quarters of its students are Muslim. At 3 p.m., when the school doors burst open and children swarm out, most are met by mothers swathed in black, their heads, and even their faces, veiled. In January, the Campaign for Muslim Schools — a coalition of Glasgow mosques and Islamic organizations — called for the school to switch religions, sparking controversy. While England has five state-funded Muslim schools and the government plans to bring another 100 private schools into the state sector, Scotland has no Muslim schools, either state-funded or private. The Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Catholic Education Service, established by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said there is no prospect of St. Albert’s ceasing to be a Catholic school.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The co-founder and executive director of Cafe Reconcile, a New Orleans restaurant that trains and employs at-risk teens and young adults, won the Catholic Campaign for Human Development’s 2006 Sister Margaret Cafferty Development of People Award. However, Craig Cuccia was unable to reach Washington Feb. 12 to accept the award because of flight delays caused by a weekend snowstorm. Cuccia’s sister and brother, Jewell Falcon and Louis Cuccia, who had arrived before the storm, accepted the award on his behalf on the opening night of the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington. Cafe Reconcile in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans was established in 1997 as a candy shop to provide on-the-job training and life skills to students in local hospitality schools and other residents.

Laws ‘unfair’ to some refugees

WASHINGTON (CNS) — A spokeswoman for the Catholic Church’s refugee resettlement programs called on the U.S. government to change how some anti-terrorism laws are applied because they are keeping refugees from Myanmar from being admitted. Myanmar was called Burma until the ruling military came to power and officially renamed it in 1989. Many people outside Myanmar, including some officials in the U.S. government, persist in calling the country Burma. At a Feb. 7 hearing of the House International Relations Committee’s subcommittees on human rights and on Asia, Anastasia Brown, director of refugee programs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said after 20 years of civil war and instability in the Southeast Asian country, the international community must find a permanent resettlement solution for the 1.5 million Burmese who remain uprooted from their homes. That number includes about 800,000 people who are displaced from their homes but remain in the country. About 700,000 people are in surrounding countries, with more than 450,000 of them in Thailand.

Meningitis outbreak

LAFAYETTE, La. (CNS) — After an outbreak of meningitis at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette Bishop Michael Jarrell issued a mandate to all Catholic parishes in the diocese asking them to refrain from distributing Communion from the cup "until further notice." The bishop in a statement Feb. 15 said he issued the order "upon recommendation of expert medical advice given in light of the number of cases of bacterial meningitis." Since mid-January, there have been two fatalities among the five cases of meningitis or meningitis-related infections that have been reported. Four of those with the bacterial infection were current or former students of the University of Louisiana. The fifth case, reported Feb. 13, involved someone not connected with the university. Diocesan spokesman Tom Sommers told The Times-Picayune daily newspaper that none of the meningitis patients are thought to have received Communion from the cup recently and said the bishop’s mandate was "just a preventative measure."

NEW ORLEANS (CNS) — The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a pastoral plan Feb. 9 that calls for the closing of seven parishes and delays the reopening of 23 others until there are enough parishioners in an area to warrant the resumption of pastoral ministry. It also calls for establishing six centralized elementary schools, which before the storm had served primarily as individual parish elementary schools. The archdiocese, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is facing unknown projections regarding its future Catholic population and hundreds of its properties suffered extensive damage. New Orleans Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes projected that the archdiocese, which before Katrina was home to nearly a half-million Catholics in 142 parishes, might see its Catholic population return in the next two years to only 60 percent to 65 percent of its August 2005 levels, which would mean a Catholic population of about 295,000. The pastoral plan, which will take effect March 15, establishes a framework for pastoral ministry in the seven deaneries that sustained the greatest damage from the Aug. 29 storm. (See the photo at left.)

A towering presence

LIGUORI, Mo. (CNS) — Blood poisoning may have knocked Redemptorist Father Norman Muckerman off his feet, but don’t expect to find him down for the count. Doctors amputated his left leg above the knee this past fall. Though the ordeal has taken its toll, he maintains a towering presence. The priest is well-known in the St. Louis Archdiocese and beyond for his pastoral and missionary work and 12-year stint as the editor of Liguorian, a Redemptorist national monthly publication. He is a former president of the Catholic Press Association. Father Muckerman, who physically is a big man, admittedly hasn’t yet gotten used to sitting in a wheelchair. But the St. Louis native keeps rolling along as best he can. He penned his latest article for Liguorian magazine in November and is hard at work on his next piece. In his room at St. Clement Health Care Center in Liguori, Father Muckerman talked recently with the St. Louis Review, archdiocesan newspaper, about his life as a priest. "I’ve had a wonderful ride," said the 88-year-old. "It’s been a wonderful life. I’m grateful to God for what he gave me."

‘Be faithful to the vision’

WASHINGTON (CNS) — An evangelical Presbyterian minister told hundreds of Catholics in Washington Feb. 13 to "be faithful to the vision" of helping the nation’s poor. There is not that much difference between the U.S. bishops’ 2003 "Faithful Citizenship" statement and his own organization’s "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility," issued one year later, said the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for government affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals. In the section "We seek justice and compassion for the poor and vulnerable," "For the Health of the Nation" says, "God measures societies by how they treat people at the bottom," Rev. Cizik noted. "Too few politicians are concerned with the breadth and depth of evangelical theology on these issues," Rev. Cizik said. "But we’re going to educate them," he added to applause from his audience at the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering, co-sponsored by five agencies of the U.S. bishops’ conference and 12 national Catholic organizations.