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WEDNESDAY February 9, 2000 vol. 11, no. 28 SECTION THREESee why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!"
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The Holy See is finalizing preparations for the three day Jubilee for the Sick focusing on the World Day of Prayer for the Sick on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes Friday. It will be highlighted by an outdoor Mass in St. Peter's where the Holy Father will administer the Sacrament of Sick to 200 selected persons and will follow the next day with Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum. All events will be telecast to various major Marian shrines throughout the world including Lourdes, Guadalupe, Czestochowa and the Immaculate Conception Basilica in Washington D.C. to name a few. continued inside
VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- A Jubilee day for the sick will be held on
February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Organizers in Rome are expecting 20,000 participants for the occasion, with
many of them coming to the Vatican in wheelchairs or even on stretchers.
The observance is being coordinated by the Pontifical Council for Health Care.
The Jubilee for the sick should emphasize "the fundamental importance of
illness and personal suffering," says Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragan, the
president of the Pontifical Council. He explains: "The sufferings of the world,
united with those of Christ, are a positive and primary source of the pardon
and indulgence which come with this Holy Year."
If the weather permits, Pope John Paul II will celebrate Mass in St. Peter's
Square on February 11, and 200 people will receive the Sacrament of the
Sick during the ceremony. The service will point to a special moment during
which Christians everywhere are asked to pray for the sick, Archbishop
Lozano Barragan said. In the afternoon there will be a candlelight procession
ending with a display of lights over St. Peter's basilica.
On the following day-- Saturday, February 12-- the pilgrims who have
gathered in Rome for the Jubilee may attend the Way of the Cross at the
Roman Coliseum. They may also visit the different basilicas of the Eternal
City, entering through the Holy Doors to obtain the special indulgence
granted for the Holy Year. In the evening, they will gather at the Vatican, in
the Paul VI auditorium, for a festive evening of song, prayer, and testimony
on the theme "Joy and Hope." The evening's program will be broadcast to
crowds at a series of Marian pilgrimage sites: Lourdes in France; Czestochowa
in Poland; Yamassoukro in Ivory Coast; Gaudalupe in Mexico; Sidney,
Australia; and the Immaculate Conception shrine in Washington, DC.
Prior to the Jubilee for the sick, the Vatican is offering two days of
conferences on the meaning of personal suffering. The conferences-- also
held in the Paul VI auditorium-- have brought together doctors, nurses,
pharmacists, and other health-care workers to reflect on the moral
implications of their pain born by the people for whom they care.
A breakthrough has just been achieved in the Holy See's on-going relations with Arab nations when the Holy Father appointed Archbishop Paolo Giglio as Papal Delegate to the Arab League, a league of 22 Arab countires founded in 1945 representing all the Muslim nations of the mideast and Northern Africa. Archbishop Giglio is the Apostolic Nuncio to Egypt and since the League's headquarters are in Egypt it is a natural. It also will be beneficial with the Holy Father visiting Egypt soon.
continued inside.
VATICAN CITY, FEB 8 (ZENIT).- John Paul II has named Archbishop Paolo
Giglio, current Apostolic Nuncio in Egypt, delegate of the Holy See to
the Arab League.
The Arab League is a political-economic-military alliance founded in
Cairo in 1945, with the objective of promoting mutual cooperation,
forming common political consensus, and strengthening the role of the
Arab world in international relations. It has twenty-two member states:
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Libya, Sudan,
Morocco, Tunis, Kuwait, Algeria, Qatar, Bahrein, Oman, United Arab
Emirates, Mauritania, Somalia, Djibouti, and Comores, as well as the
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
The principal organ of the League is its Council, whose decisions are
binding only for member States voting in favor of a particular measure.
With headquarters in Cairo, it comprises three other organizations: the
Common Defense Council, the Permanent Military Commission, and the
Economic Council.
In 1978, when Egypt drew closer to Israel (conceived by the League
members to be the principal declared enemy), a crisis ensued. The North
African country was expelled, and the central administration was
transferred to Tunis. This separation lasted until 1987, when Arab
leaders decided to reestablish diplomatic relations with Egypt: it was
definitively readmitted in 1989, and once again is home to the League's
headquarters.
During the nineties the League became one of the principal forces to
urge peace negotiations in the Middle East, thus strengthening its role
as representative of the Arab world to national and international
organisms. Its defense of the sovereignty of Kuwait when attacked by
Iraq -- triggering the Gulf War -- and its support of the international
coalition commanded by the United States were also decisive.
The nomination of the first delegate of the Holy See, who will sit among
the representatives of the 22 Arab countries united in the League, is an
important event in the history of relations between the Church of Rome
and the Arabian world with its more than 300 million inhabitants, on the
eve of the Pope's apostolic visit to Egypt.
ZE00020804
Before you invest in that hottest stock you just heard about, heed what the Holy See says about not getting in over your head and investing only what you can afford to lose. Though it's a gamble, it's best to view the stock market as a wise, long-term investment and not a get-rich-quick opportunity. These words come from the Pope's banker himself. continued inside.
ROME, FEB 8 (ZENIT). Only the money that one can afford to lose should
be invested in the stock market. This is the advice that the Pope's
banker, Angelo Caloia, President of the Vatican Institute for the Works
of Religion, commonly (but mistakenly) known as the Vatican Bank, gave
in an interview to the Italian Catholic magazine "Famiglia Cristiana"
[Christian Family].
Sooner or later, warned Caloia, the day will come when stock market
abuses will come back to haunt us. He criticizes "hyperliberal
economists" that are always promising "fat returns".
Among the tips he offered to families was a recipe, "eternal and
immutable", that "no one should offer more if there is a greater risk at
stake; when one wants to make too much, the possibility of loosing that
capital also exists".
Nevertheless, Caloia explains that his statement is not a condemnation
of the stock market, and not even a lack of faith in it. "What frightens
me is an environment where it is very often forgotten that true progress
is born from inquiry, tenacity, entrepreneurial sacrifice, and not from
the exchange of collector cards."
"We must be attentive so as not to run after fashions, the primacy of
technology", he warns. "It is necessary to alert people about the
dangers of the stock market, where there is an unacceptable separation
between a company's market value and its real worth."
Currently the "Vatican Bank" handles some 40 thousand bank accounts in
various world currencies. International experts guide the economic
patrimony of dioceses, missions, and religious congregations spread
throughout the world. About 70% of the investment is made in Europe and
the rest is spread throughout the world.
Securities are the main investment, although there is also investment in
stocks. In any case, medium and long term investments are made in
organizations that have a tie to the real economy. Speculation is
completely excluded. Recently the Institute has obtained good results by
anticipating the growth of interest rates.
Angelo Caloia says that the Institute's job is to "increase" the
resources the Church has in order to better serve "those who suffer the
limits in the advance of religion in the world, with simplicity and a
with a spirit of service, without bureaucratic sluggishness and without
money games."
ZE00020805
This time it wasn't the drops of blood seaping from the famous weeping statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Civitavecchia outside of Rome, but the blood boiling up in Bishop Girolamo Grillo's veins who was incensed by a scathing article in the London Times that called the famous weeping statue a hoax, concocting ways people were tricked. Having seen firsthand the events and seen the fruits, the Bishop of Civitavecchia refuted those false claims. He asserted that you do not have to believe it, but berated the Times for trying to defame it.
ROME, FEB 8 (ZENIT).- The Bishop of the Italian city of Civitavecchia,
where a few years ago a statue of the Blessed Virgin shed tears of
blood, an as yet unexplained phenomenon, took issue with a recent
article in "The Times" of London. The article was an explanation of the
various tricks that could be used to produce such a phenomenon. It also
provided a map of reported sitings of such events, including
Civitavecchia.
"I find it difficult to talk about fraud when there were 60 witnesses,
among whom I find myself," stated Bishop Girolamo Grillo. "For me it is
enough to see what has happened to the little church that shelters the
statue: it has become a place of prayer, of conversion for many, many
people from all over the world. Everyone is free to believe or not."
ZE00020809
All the weeks of campaigning against repealing Section 28 by Scotland's Cardinal Thomas Winning paid off yesterday when the House of Lords voted to maintain Section 28 which prohibits promoting the gay agenda in schools. It was a bitterly fought battle with Winning being called many names but as the days counted down more realized the wisdom of his words and the governing body within Britain's House of Lords narrowly passed the measure to retain Section 28 much to the chagrin of Tony Blair's liberal Local Government. continued inside.
LONDON (CWNews.com) - Britain's House of Lords last night
voted to retain Section 28, the so-called "anti-gay" law
which forbids the promotion of homosexuality in schools.
The Tony Blair's government will be unable to overturn the
decision as the move began in the House of Lords. Instead,
they have announced plans to hold fresh talks with Church
leaders as a removal of the Section was part of the Labour
Party's election manifesto.
Local Government Minister Hilary Armstrong told the BBC
that the government was "very disappointed" at the Lords'
decision but she added: "The government remains committed
to the repeal of Section 28, which has caused confusion in
schools and local councils, and has been a barrier to
building a supportive and tolerant society."
During the six-hour debate, Baroness Young, who led the
campaign to keep the legislation, said: "The center of this
debate is children, children in schools, children who in my
opinion ought not to be treated as if they were adults and
in a position to make an informed choice about alternative
lifestyles, about which they cannot possibly have the
experience to judge."
Lord Alli, the homosexual Labour peer, compared the "hate"
engendered by Section 28 with last year's nail bomb attacks
in black and Asian areas of London and a homosexual pub in
Soho. "This is indeed a debate about morality. For me it is
about the morality of hate. I believe that that hate exists
because we teach our children to hate," he said.
A spokesman for the Keep the Clause campaign in Scotland,
which was instigated by Cardinal Thomas Winning, said: "Let
this be a warning to those who would put the moral education
of our children at risk."
But there was dissent from Catholic peer Lord St John of
Fawsley who criticized the stand taken by Cardinal Winning.
"Cardinal Winning has spoken out in an unappetizing way,
which I as a Catholic do not agree with," he said.
The debate is likely to be reignited on Thursday when the
House of Commons begins the debate on lowering the age of
consent for homosexual sex from 18 to 16.
If the Vatican was not aware of the sensitivities of various religious and political leaders in the mideast, they are now when one of Israel's leading rabbis is pulling rank, insisting the Pope come to him instead of meeting at a place both sides might agree to such as the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem but that's not good enough for the chief rabbi who is sounding more like the Russian Orthodox Patriarch in trying not to officially recognize the Vicar of Christ. The Vatican is making alternative plans to accommodate sensitive wishes. continued inside.
JERUSALEM (CWNews.com) - Israel's leading Ashkenazi rabbi
said on Monday that if Pope John Paul II wants to meet with
him during a visit to the Holy Land next month, the pontiff
will have to come to him.
Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau rejected plans to have him and
the chief Sephardic rabbi meet the Holy Father at the
Western Wall at the Temple Mount as demeaning and said the
Pope should come to one of their offices in Jerusalem. "He
will come to meet us in a place convenient for him for
reasons of health and for reasons of security," Lau told
Israel's Channel Two TV.
The plans had apparently been brought to Lau's attention by
Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron, who represents Sephardic
Jews of Middle Eastern descent. Ashkenazi Jews are of
European descent.
An official of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land said
the program is not yet finalized, and the Holy See will
take into account the sensitivities of the Jewish and
Muslim leaders whom the Pope is to meet during his
pilgrimage March 20-26.
No word yet from Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law, but before you gather Rosaries to send to prisoners as so many Catholics do, think about sending multicolored beads to Massachusetts State Prison for they are being confiscated by authorities because they are considered gang symbols. Maybe someone told the guards just what the Rosary is: the most powerful weapon we can use to fight satan, and maybe someone else told them they were members of Mary's army. Now that's a gang we can be proud of! continued inside.
BOSTON (CWNews.com) - Inmates in Massachusetts' state
prisons are not allowed to have rosaries because prison
officials say they are used as gang symbols, prompting one
inmate to file suit saying his First Amendment rights have
been violated.
Peter Kane said corrections officers confiscated his rosary
in July 1997 after a surprise inspection of his cell. On
Tuesday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear
arguments in his lawsuit. In an affidavit, Peter Pepe Jr.,
superintendent of the prison in Shirley, said gangs were
becoming "a major source of disruption to the safety,
security, and internal order of Massachusetts prisons."
Rosaries were among the items put on a list of restricted
items. Department spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said Kane can
have rosary beads -- as long as they are only one color.
His were black and white.
A lower court said the inmates' rights "may be curtailed in
order to achieve legitimate correctional goals or to
maintain prison security." Kane's attorney, John Reinstein
of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the message
officials are sending is: "If you want to pray, pray our
way."
The Indiana House of Representatives passed a measure that allows the Ten Commandments to be displayed in government buildings as long as no historical explanation is posted with it. When it comes to the tablets given to Moses no historical explanation is necessary and it bodes well for the Hoosier state. continued inside.
INDIANAPOLIS (CWNews.com) - Indiana's House of
Representatives on Monday passed a bill to allow the Ten
Commandments to be posted on government property if
displayed without historical documents.
The bill, passed 92-7, was sent to the Senate which has
already approved a similar measure. Gov. Frank O'Bannon has
said he will pass one of the bills if it is constitutional.
O'Bannon has said he would sign such a bill if it was
constitutional. Under the bill, the commandments could be
posted in schools, courthouses or other government property
if displayed with other documents of historical significance
that have formed and influenced the US legal system.
The public posting of the decalogue has become
controversial in recent years as anti-religious activists
challenge the constitutionality of the practice. Supporters
of the 10 Commandments say a rash of violence and other
evidence of a decline in morality can be traced to a lack
of moral foundation provided by the religious documents.
In 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled putting the
commandments in schools violates First Amendment
protections against a government's promoting religion. But
new lawsuits are pending, including appeals of a federal
judge's ruling to let the city of Elkhart keep a
commandments monument on its City Hall lawn.
