Pope Francis makes phone call to Israel, Palestine presidents
by Elise Harris
Vatican City, Jul 18, 2014 / 08:04 am (CNA/EWTN News) - In wake of the rising death toll in Gaza due to increased tensions between Israel and Palestine, Pope Francis made a personal call to both presidents in order to ask for peace.
“Following last Sunday’s heartfelt appeal for continued prayer for peace in the Holy Land, this morning the Holy Father Francis personally telephoned President Shimon Peres and President Mahmoud Abbas,” a July 18 statement from the Vatican read.
During the calls, the Roman Pontiff voiced “his very serious concerns regarding the current situation of conflict involving in particular the Gaza Strip which, in a climate of growing hostility, hatred and suffering for the two populations, is claiming many victims and giving rise to a serious humanitarian emergency.”
Tensions between Israel and Palestine have steadily increased in recent weeks following the murder of three Israeli teenagers, whose bodies were discovered June 30. The day of their funeral, the body of a Palestinian teenager was found, whose death was seen as a retaliation killing.
Diocese mourns life of Sister Cecelia Bush, CSJ
Author, former college president, editor of the Catholic Advance, dies at 99
Sister Cecilia Bush, C.S.J., a president of St. Mary of the Plains College in Dodge City, an editor for The Catholic Advance, and an author, died July 15, 2012, in Marian Hall at the Wichita Center. She was 99.
The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at All Saints Catholic Church in Wichita July 21. The Most Rev. Michael O. Jackels, bishop of Wichita, presided. He was assisted at the altar by Father H. Jay Setter, pastor of All Saints, and Msgr. Robert Hemberger, chaplain for the Sisters of St. Joseph.
The concelebrants representing Dodge City were Bishop Emeritus Ronald M. Gilmore, Father Robert Schremmer, V.G., and Father John J. Maes. Burial followed at Mt. St. Mary Cemetery.
Mary Winifred Bush was born on Sept. 30, 1912, on a farm near Bertrand, Mo., the sixth child born to Mary Martha (Brown) and Donald J. Bush.
The family moved to Kansas City where she was taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph at St. Thomas School. After three years at Bishop Ward High School, she entered the Congregation of St. Joseph on March 19, 1929, and received the religious name Sister Mary Cecilia. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from Marymount College in Salina; a Masters from Creighton; a Doctorate from Fordham; and did post-doctorate studies at the University of London.
Church in Mexico helps collect weapons for disarmament program
Mexico City, Mexico, Jul 19, 2014 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - For the third year in a row, the Archdiocese of Mexico City is hosting a voluntary disarmament program as part of a campaign to reduce violence in the Mexican capital.
Rosa Icela Rodriguez of Mexico City’s Secretariat for Social Development said the program would not be possible without the assistance of local officials, the Defense ministry and the Church.
“We are very happy because society has responded positively to this call,” she said.
The program is based at Mexico City’s Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Bishops welcome conscience provisions in House Appropriations bill
WASHINGTON— The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor/HHS “took a first, urgently needed step toward upholding rights of conscience and religious freedom in our health care system,” by including two key provisions in its appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2013, according to the chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Catholics across country take part in Fortnight for Freedom
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops asked Catholics to dedicate 14 days to the preservation of religious freedom through prayer, education and public action, they listened.
Catholics in dioceses across the United States participated in Masses, devotions, holy hours, educational presentations and rallies during the June 21 to July 4 campaign to support the nation’s “first and most cherished freedom” and draw attention to actions Catholic and other religious leaders say are weakening religious liberty, including the federal contraceptive mandate.
The U.S. bishops’ campaign began on the vigil of the feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More with Mass June 21 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore celebrated by Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Freedom.
Amid violence, priest opts to stay with parishioners in Gaza
Gaza City, Jul 20, 2014 / 04:03 pm (CNA) - Argentinean priest Father Jorge Hernandez, pastor of Holy Family Parish in the Gaza strip, stayed with his parishioners despite three missile strikes near his parish earlier this week.
“Crime is on the rise. Little children are getting sick from fear, stress, shockwaves and the continuous noise,” he said in an online statement. “Parents are doing everything possible to distract them so that this crude violence does not overwhelm them.”
Since July 7 Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip have fired more than 1,300 rockets on Israel, and the Israelis have responded with nearly 2,000 airstrikes. The recent escalation in violence between Israel and Hamas followed the June kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens and the July 2 killing of a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem.
At Newman University service camp in Wichita
Dodge diocese students experience faith, fellowship and fun
Sixteen high school students from the Catholic Diocese of Dodge City attended the 4th annual Summer Service Camp hosted by Newman University in June. The week-long camp gives students an opportunity to serve others while growing in faith and experiencing fellowship.
The campers were provided lodging on the Newman campus at the New Hall student residence, which also served as headquarters for the duration of the camp. Father Ted Stoecklein of Spearville served as the chaplain for the Dodge City diocese group.
The camp was launched four years ago to help serve as a connection between Newman University and the Diocese of Dodge City. According to Father Michael Linnebur, the service camp’s spiritual adviser and chaplain at Newman University, “The camp gives young people from the western rural areas of Kansas a chance to serve in the city of Wichita.”
Pope laments exodus of last Christians from Mosul
by Elise Harris
Vatican City, Jul 21, 2014 / 05:55 am (CNA/EWTN News) - In his weekly Sunday Angelus address Pope Francis mourned the fleeing of the last Christians from the Iraqi city of Mosul, who were told by ISIS forces last week to either convert, pay the Jizya tax or leave.
“They are persecuted; our brothers are persecuted, they are driven out, they have to leave their houses without having the possibility of taking anything with them,” Pope Francis voiced in his July 20 Angelus address.
“I want to express my closeness and my constant prayer to these families and these people,” he continued. “Dear brothers and sisters who are so persecuted, I know how much you suffer, I know that you are stripped of everything. I am with you in the faith of the one who has conquered evil!”
Archbishop Coakley calls slated black mass offensive, horrendous
By Carl Bunderson
Oklahoma City, Okla., Jul 16, 2014 / 05:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - Archbishop of Oklahoma City Paul Coakley called a black mass scheduled to take place in the city's civic center an “obviously horrendous” act meant to offend much of the state's community.
“There are common standards of decency that civic-minded people uphold that are necessary for constructive public discourse, and this violates all of those standards,” he told CNA July 16. “This is a mockery of one faith, a hostile act toward a significant faith community, the Catholic community.”
It would be “truly offensive to a significant segment of their population, that is the Catholic, and the Christian community at large,” the archbishop added.
“Oklahoma is a very church-minded community; there are not many Catholics here, but a great majority are Christian, and this is really an affront to all Christian believers, and I think the more people are recognizing that, the more they're willing to speak up.”
Pastoral Ministry Formation classes to
include a closer look at the ‘Hunger Games’
The Pastoral Ministry Formation program of the Diocese of Dodge City, in cooperation with the Diocese of Salina and through Newman University and Interactive Television, will begin its 2012, fall semester with, “Sacramental Theology,” presented by Salina priest, Father Frank Coady.
Also presented, beginning in October, is “The Hunger Games and the Good News”, presented by Father Robert Schremmer, Vicar General for the Diocese of Dodge City. The class will explore the themes that have resonated so deeply with Hunger Games readers by examining their similarity to the good news found in Jesus’ message about living in the ways of God’s Kingdom. As Shauna Niequist says “Hunger Games” presents a set of mirrors that we as Christians must confront, even though they come to us from the unlikeliest of places: a story we’ve all read “for fun.”
The class will be presented on Wednesdays from 6 – 9 p.m., Oct. 24, and Nov. 7, 14, and 28.