The CATHOLIC DIOCESE of DODGE CITY

The World/Nation in Brief
	World News ‘Violence cannot solve conflicts’ LYON, France (CNS) — Violence cannot solve the world’s conflicts, and it harms people and limits the future of humanity, Pope Benedict XVI said in a message to participants of an interreligious peace meeting. In his written message, the pope urged all people, but especially the young, "to have the courage to more actively dedicate themselves toward peace and dialogue, which are the only things that can allow one to look with hope toward the future of the planet." ‘Reach out to young people’ VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Church must reach out to young Catholics who no longer attend Mass and help them find their way in the world by following Christ, Pope Benedict XVI said in an address to bishops from Mexico. Young people who are no longer a part of Church life after having received the sacraments of initiation "find themselves in a society marked by growing cultural and religious pluralism," he said. "Sometimes alone and confused," young people can also encounter beliefs that a person can "reach fullness through technological, political and economic power," he added. "It is therefore necessary to accompany young people and invite them with enthusiasm" back into the church community." JPII movie VILNIUS, Lithuania (CNS) — In the lobby of the Lithuanian Film Studio stood a group of fully dressed cardinals, some of them complaining in Russian about the prolonged wait. In another area, Mehmet Ali Agca — not the real one — sat in a mock prison cell, where he was about to be filmed meeting with the pope he tried to assassinate. Such scenes could be encountered all around Vilnius for almost a month until Sept. 13, when Five Mile River Films Ltd. finished shooting major scenes of the new TV movie, "Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II," for broadcast on ABC. The filming was to be completed in Rome, and a 90-minute-long movie was scheduled to reach the international market by mid-November. Priest is a presidential candidate PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNS) — Haiti’s Lavalas Family party has announced its choice of presidential candidate: Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a priest who has been jailed without charges since July 21. "The Lavalas Family listens to the people, and we have decided to support the choice of the masses to promote the candidacy of Father Jean-Juste," said party member Louis Gerard Gilles, a former senator. "He is eligible because he is a prisoner of conscience, recognized by Amnesty International, who has never been convicted." Father Jean-Juste has been held in prison since his arrest at the funeral of murdered journalist and poet Jacques Roche. Father Jean-Juste was in Miami at the time of Roche’s death. Chinese bishops named to synod VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In what could be a promising move for Vatican-China relations, Pope Benedict XVI has named four mainland Chinese bishops as members of the October Synod of Bishops. Church sources in Rome said two of the bishops belong to the government-approved Catholic Church in China, while the other two have been members of the underground Church that has rejected official government ties.	National News Vatican delegation tours coast BILOXI, Miss. (CNS) — Archbishop Paul Cordes, the Vatican’s top humanitarian aid official, urged Biloxi Catholics Sept. 12 not to lose hope in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and assured them that with God’s help they would "be able to overcome" the struggles they faced from the devastation. The archbishop, who is president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum," which coordinates charity efforts, was sent to the Gulf Coast region by Pope Benedict XVI as part of a delegation visiting the hurricane-devastated areas of the United States. Clergy wants ‘voice for the poor’ WASHINGTON (CNS) — As News Orleans looks to rebuild, a group of Catholic and Protestant clergy want a seat at the planning table for their poor and working-class African-American parishioners. At a Washington news conference, they proposed a long-term relief plan that builds on the community organizational structure that parishes and congregations already had in place in poor and working-class neighborhoods prior to the destruction by Hurricane Katrina. "We don’t want to just receive things. We want to participate. We want you to include us at the table," Edmundite Father Michael Jacques told Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who was also at the Sept. 12 news conference. Torres baby dies ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) — Susan Anne Catherine Torres, the 5-week-old baby of Jason and Susan Torres, died at 12:01 a.m. Sept. 12 of heart failure following surgery for a perforated intestine at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, according to the hospital’s statement. The child was born Aug. 2 after a three-month struggle to keep her mother alive. Susan Torres suffered brain damage in May from melanoma cancer that had spread to her brain and was kept on life support until the baby could be born. The mother died Aug. 3 after life support was removed. "After the efforts of this summer to bring her into the world, this is obviously a devastating loss," said Justin Torres, the baby’s uncle, in the family’s statement. Picture restores man’s faith DAPHNE, Ala. (CNS) — Donald Thomas, a 73-year-old artist from Biloxi, Miss., lost hundreds of his paintings that had been securely fastened to his wall when the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina filled up the first and second floors of his home. The only thing left on his walls after the waters receded was a plate with an image of Jesus on it hanging on a nail. The sight of that plate, somehow spared from mud that covered everything else remaining in the house, made an impression on Thomas that he will never forget. "I saw it and I said, ‘I’m going to church from now on,’" Thomas told Catholic News Service Sept. 11 just outside a Red Cross shelter in Daphne. "I’m not claiming to be a Holy Roller either," stressed Thomas, who said he was raised Catholic but was not a churchgoer. He said the plate impressed him so much because it was one of the first things he saw after a harrowing night of hanging onto the roof of his house for several hours. "To me, it said that God was with me the whole time."