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01/06/02
Update Chinese block bishop’s funeral The 83-year-old, secretly ordained bishop of Beijing died Christmas Eve in a Chinese hospital after a long illness, and Chinese police were attempting to keep people away from his funeral, the Vatican’s Fides news agency reported. Bishop Matthias Pei Xiangde died Dec. 24 in a hospital in Zhangjiakou in Hebei province, Fides reported Dec. 28. The bishop had been under house arrest since April and police surveillance continued after he had been hospitalized for severe kidney problems. “Although seriously ill and in need of constant treatment, the bishop continued his pastoral ministry in Beijing and in Hebei, promoting communion with the universal church,” Fides said.
Baby’s stem cell story a success As the debate about embryonic stem-cell research rages on, Anne Rugari wants the world to know about the miraculous research that saved her baby’s life without ending the lives of other babies. Thanks to stem cells obtained from the umbilical cords of newborns, little Gina Rugari was thriving as she celebrated her second birthday Dec. 23. Gina was born with a disease known as Krabbe leukodystrophy, a rare, degenerative enzyme disorder of the central and peripheral nervous system. Children who inherit the disease lack an important enzyme that is a component of the white matter of the brain, called myelin. Eventually, the baby dies before age 2.
War fears rise The archbishop of Delhi has urged the Indian government to consider all options before going to war with Pakistan as tensions rose between the neighboring countries. Archbishop Vincent M. Concessao, speaking at an interreligious prayer service in Sacred Heart Cathedral in Delhi, said the poor suffer the brunt of war. “War is in nobody’s interest and there are no victors but only losers in a war. It is humanity that loses out and it is the poorest people who get the brunt of it,” the archbishop said. “Only love can overcome hatred. Violence breeds more violence.”
Mother Angelica suffers a stroke Mother Angelica, 78-year-old founder of Eternal Word Television Network in Birmingham, Ala., was operated on Christmas Eve to remove a blood clot from her brain after suffering a stroke. It was her second stroke in less than four months. An EWTN press release Dec. 27 said she came through the surgery well but remained in intensive care. The release said she suffered the stroke Dec. 24 at her monastery in Hanceville, Ala., and was taken to a hospital in Birmingham.
Reaction mixed to saint plans Authors of well-known books on saints had mixed reactions to the news Dec. 20 that the Vatican had cleared the way for the canonization of Blessed Juan Diego, Blessed Padre Pio and Blessed Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer. Paul Burns, managing editor of the 12-volume hardcover “Butler’s Lives of the Saints” series published in 1999, expressed greater happiness with the naming of Blessed Juan Diego, calling it “an action from the center of the universal church, which in recent years hasn’t always affirmed local churches.” Burns said he did not think that either Padre Pio or Blessed Josemaria “will ever figure much in the canon of saints.” Father Richard McBrien, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame and author of the recent “Lives of the Saints,” was more critical of the impending canonization of Blessed Josemaria. “To me it’s appalling–and I use the word deliberately–that Escriva is being canonized before Pope John XXIII,” he said.
Some Catholics oppose war More than 60 U.S. Catholic leaders have called for an end to the U.S. military war on terrorism, calling it “immoral” despite the justice of the cause. “The bombing and the war against Afghanistan must stop and no new theater of military action should open,” the leaders said in a 2,500-word statement released Dec. 19. Using classical norms of just war, they judged that the warfare undertaken since early October has violated principles of last resort, noncombatant immunity, proportionality and probability of success. “In our judgment over two months of daily bombings with all of their attendant human and material costs, including tremendous military expenditures that rob from the poor, are not proportionate to our legitimate right to seek out and bring before an international court of justice those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks,” they said. Most of the statement’s signers were members of religious orders or leaders of Catholic missionary, peace and justice organizations.
Vatican OKs U.S. media norms New U.S. church norms for lay preaching and for expounding Catholic teaching on radio or television will take effect Jan. 15 after they were approved by the Vatican. Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, promulgated the new norms with decrees sent to the U.S. bishops in mid-December. The decrees, dated Dec. 13, gave Jan. 15 as the effective date. The nation’s Latin bishops adopted the norms Nov. 14, during their fall general meeting in Washington, as complementary legislation to the Code of Canon Law, the general law for the Latin Church worldwide. —Staff and Catholic News Service
The 33-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture has been traveling to sites in the archdiocese for two years. A final determination of its future has not yet been announced.
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