3.5 million Kenyans may starve

LONDON (CNS) — Catholic aid agencies in Britain and the United States say as many as 3.5 million Kenyans face a severe food emergency because of several seasons of drought. The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, an agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said millions of Kenyans could starve to death unless emergency food supplies are delivered soon. Dominic Stolarow, a CAFOD humanitarian officer who has been visiting the worst-affected areas in the northeastern part of the country, said Kenya is also facing its most severe drought since 1971. "Cattle die first in times of drought as they can only go for up to three days without water," he said March 7.

Stolen religious art

LIMA, Peru (CNS) — In an airy workshop on a top floor of Lima’s Museum of the Nation, art restoration experts touch up plump cherubs on a 450-year-old bas-relief altarpiece. The workshop is the next to last stop on an odyssey that has seen the masterpiece smuggled out of a tiny chapel in the southern highlands of Peru and into the United States, where it was seized from an art dealer in Santa Fe, N.M. Once some minor damage is repaired, the 12-foot-high altarpiece will be displayed briefly at the museum before being returned to the chapel in Challapampa, in the prelature of Juli in the southern highlands known as the Altiplano. The Challapampa case is part of a thriving international trade in stolen art works, particularly colonial religious art from the Andean countries of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Few pieces are ever recovered.

Pray during life’s dark moments

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — During life’s dark moments, caused by either physical suffering or mental or emotional anguish, Jesus teaches the faithful to pray to God, said the preacher of the papal household. When Jesus was in the Garden of Olives in Gethsemane, his soul was tormented by the prospect of his imminent death, said Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa. Jesus sat and prayed to God and implored him to "remove this cup from me; yet not my will but thine be done," the preacher said in a Lenten reflection offered March 17 to Pope Benedict XVI and senior Vatican officials. "Human life is sprinkled with many brief nights of Gethsemane" which might be caused by experiencing a health scare, a misunderstanding, others’ indifference, fear of the consequences of one’s mistakes, or even a loss of faith in God, he said. "Jesus teaches us that the first thing to do in these cases is to turn to God with prayer," said the Capuchin. But, he asked, what if one has already prayed to God without success? "Keep on praying ... with greater intensity," he said.

Vatican-Israeli relations

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Italian Archbishop Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo is a veteran diplomat who was instrumental in helping establish diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Israel. He also has served as apostolic nuncio in numerous countries that were often hotbeds of political or social unrest. As a sign of appreciation for his lifelong diplomatic service to the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI will elevate him to cardinal March 24. At age 80, he will be one of three new cardinals too old to vote in a conclave. Currently serving as archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the Turin-born cardinal-designate was the Vatican’s first nuncio to Israel when diplomatic relations were established in 1994.

Talks between gangs, government

GUATEMALA CITY (CNS) — Honduran Auxiliary Bishop Romulo Emiliani Sanchez of San Pedro Sula said he is prepared to mediate pending negotiations between the Honduran government and youth gang leaders. "The gang members want me to mediate, and I’m completely willing to do that," Bishop Emiliani told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview. Bishop Emiliani said it was a "good sign" that Gen. Alvaro Romero, the Honduran security minister, proposed the dialogue with the gangs. The bishop said the new government of President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who took office in late January, has taken a "more humanistic" approach to the gang problem in Honduras than its predecessor. The previous administration of President Ricardo Maduro attempted to resolve the country’s gang problem by making it a crime to belong to a gang and arresting thousands of youths for sporting gang tattoos. Bishop Emiliani said he did not think this approach was effective.

A female voice

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) — To mark International Women’s Day March 8, the Colombian bishops launched a special appeal to end slavelike working conditions for women and guarantee them equal opportunities and equal pay for equal responsibilities. And the official appeal in the newsletter of the Colombian bishops was written by a woman, Luz Medina Garavito. For the past six months, she has managed the bishops’ press office and given it a female touch. "I feel honored by the confidence and the friendship the bishops showed me," said Medina.

Forgiveness urged after incident

JERUSALEM (CNS) — The "custos" of the Holy Land said Christians must forgive the family that set off firecrackers inside the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel. "Nothing can justify what they did ... they are unfortunate individuals ... but what we need (is) to look forward, and we as Christians have to forgive," Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa said in a brief news conference. "This hurts us, but we are not holding a grudge. As religious Christians we must deliver a message of peace." Father Pizzaballa, who is in charge of Christian sites in the Holy Land, spoke and issued a statement March 6 after a brief meeting with Haim and Violet Habibi and their 20-year-old daughter, Odelia, who were remanded into police custody March 3 while charges were brought against them.

Pope blesses Ukrainian Church

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI prayed that Mary and the communist-era martyrs of the Ukrainian Catholic Church would strengthen Ukrainians in their faith and their commitment to Christian unity. The pope sent a letter to Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Kiev-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, who was leading commemorations of the 1946 "pseudo-synod" manipulated by the Soviet authorities to unite the Eastern-rite Catholic Church with the Russian Orthodox Church. The text of the pope’s letter was released March 16 at the Vatican. Soviet authorities had arrested all the Ukrainian Catholic bishops before the synod began. "Despite unspeakable trials and suffering, divine providence did not permit the disappearance of a community that for centuries was considered a legitimate and vivacious part of the identity of the Ukrainian people," the pope said.

‘A way to stand up for poor’

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (CNS) — College student Buddy Bell will have to serve a three-month sentence for trespassing at an Army-run school in Georgia and pay a $500 fine but he does not regret the action he took during the 16th annual demonstration last fall against the former School of the Americas. The school, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, is on the grounds of Fort Benning, near Columbus, Ga. "I try to tell the world that this (WHINSEC) is such a waste of human life. ... We pay soldiers to keep populations oppressed. ... It goes to class and issues of poverty," said Bell, a 23-year-old education major at Vincentian-run DePaul University in Chicago, and music director for St. Joseph Parish in Addison, in the Joliet Diocese. He made the comments in a telephone interview with the Catholic Explorer, Joliet diocesan newspaper. Background information on the institute’s Web site says the goals of the facility "explicitly include strengthening democracy, instilling a respect for the rule of law and honoring human rights."

Theft brings hate crime charge

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (CNS) — Three New Jersey teenagers face hate crime charges in connection with the theft of a baby Jesus figurine from St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in the Metuchen Diocese and damage to the parish’s cemetery. A Middlesex County grand jury returned an indictment charging Christopher Olson, 18, of South Amboy; Nicholas Hess, also 18, of Matawan; and Michael Payne, 19, of Old Bridge, with bias intimidation and conspiracy to commit bias intimidation, prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced Feb. 16. The suspects also were charged with criminal mischief and two counts of theft and conspiracy to commit criminal mischief. Olson also was charged with receiving stolen property. Hess and Payne face a total of 40 years in prison and $370,000 in fines if convicted on all charges. Olson faces 45 years in prison and $385,000 in fines. Two 15-year-olds from Old Bridge also faced charges of bias intimidation, theft, criminal mischief, harassment, desecration of venerated objects and tampering with a witness. Their names were not made public because they are minors.

Lutheran-Catholic effort

DUBUQUE, Iowa (CNS) — Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Dubuque has been invited by the Evangelical Lutheran Church to collaborate in building self-sufficiency among people with low incomes through a social ministry known as Barnabas Uplift. "This is the best service programming to come out of Iowa in decades," said Jim Yeast, director of Catholic Charities. "The mission is to assist local, faith-based, and community-based organizations to help build individual, family and community self-sufficiency," he told The Witness, Dubuque’s archdiocesan newspaper. "We target working families whose income fluctuates between 100 and 200 percent of poverty — between $19,350 and $38,700 a year for a family of four." The program is designed to empower people by reducing or eliminating the causes of poverty by providing access to economic opportunities that meet basic human needs.

Nashville native ordained bishop

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CNS) — In his first greeting to the people of the Diocese of Nashville, Bishop David R. Choby quoted a line in the novel "The Diary of a Country Priest." In the novel, as a priest lies dying of cancer, he tells his friend, "Everything is grace." "Everything is grace has been revealed to me in your love for me," Bishop Choby said at the end of the Mass for his episcopal ordination and installation as the 11th bishop of Nashville Feb. 27. "I am a blessed man. I am a fortunate bishop to have such a wonderful people to shepherd," said Bishop Choby, 59, a native of Nashville and only the second priest of the diocese appointed as its bishop in the diocese’s 169-year history.

Lawyer turns teacher

CHICAGO (CNS) — Russ Fee traded the courtroom for the classroom and he couldn’t be happier. Fee, a former civil rights and employment attorney, gave up 27 years of practicing law to work with young people. Today he’s a third-grade teacher at St. Bruno School in Chicago. "I feel better about what happens in a single day in the classroom than I ever did during my years in law," Fee said. "The children are enthusiastic, unafraid even with all the problems that occur in their lives." The decision to change careers was not a quick one, but Fee said he knew in his heart that the practice of law no longer gave him a sense of accomplishment. "There were several reasons for my about-face," he told The Catholic New World, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese. "I was involved in the adversarial system and became disillusioned with what I had accomplished as a lawyer. I wasn’t achieving what I had intended. I was racing through life instead of strolling."

First Lady in India

NEW DELHI (CNS) — Amid tight security, U.S. first lady Laura Bush visited a Missionaries of Charity home for handicapped children in the Indian capital. "The first lady was extremely pleased with her visit," Peter Watkins, spokesman for Laura Bush, told Catholic News Service March 2. Watkins said that after visiting the sick children at Jeevan Jyothi (Flame of Life), the first lady told the nuns she was impressed by "how you have changed the lives of these children." He quoted her as saying, "I thank you for loving these children."