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FRI-SAT-SUN March 31 - April 2, 2000 vol. 11, no. 65 SECTION THREESee why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!"
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The Holy See released the Annual Letter to Priests yesterday in anticipation for Holy Thursday. Normally signed on that day, this year the Holy Father appropriately desided to sign it on March 23 in the Upper Room of the Cenacle. In this letter the Pope reflects on the Last Supper and the institution of the Blessed Sacrament and encourages all priests to "celebrate the Holy Eucharist with fervor."
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VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- In his annual letter to all of the world's Catholic
priests, issued on Holy Thursday, Pope John Paul II will focus on his visit to
the Cenacle in Jerusalem: the site of the Last Supper.
The Pope's letter, made public on March 30, was actually signed on March
23, in Jerusalem, when John Paul celebrated Mass in the Cenacle chapel.
In his letter, the Holy Father relates how as he prays in the chapel, "Jesus is
present in my spirit, just as he was present to the apostles who were seated
at the table with him." The Pope concentrates especially on the figure of St.
Peter, his predecessor, and writes about the awe that St. Peter must have felt
as Jesus instituted the Eucharist.
"Nearly two thousands years have passed since that moment," the Pope
observes. "How many priests have repeated the gesture!" He writes of the
"exemplary disciples: saints, martyrs" among those priests, and emphasizes
that there are many such saints and martyrs within the Church today. "At
the Cenacle, I thank the Lord for their courage," he says.
The Pope acknowledges that the history of the priesthood has been stained
by the sins of the frail men who minister to the Church. And he adds that
even at the Last Supper, while it was Judas who betrayed Jesus, Peter too
would deny the Lord, and thus give the world an indication of human
weakness. "Surely, as he chose men like the Twelve, Christ had no illusions,"
the Pope writes. Rather, he chose to make himself present through frail
human instruments.
"Let us always celebrate the Holy Eucharist with fervor," the Pope urges his
fellow priests. "Let us stay, often and at length, in adoration before the
Eucharistic Christ?" He observes that the priest's witness, and in particular
his reverence for the Eucharist, will inspire the people.
The Pope's letter to priests also emphasizes the importance of the
International Eucharistic Congress, scheduled to take place in Rome on June
18-25, as "a central event of the great Jubilee."
Colombia's Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect for the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy has conveyed to reporters that vocations to the priesthood are up and the crisis over vocations has ended. He cited statistics gathered from around the world which verifies his findings. While on the increase, the numbers are still not as large as one would hope since an overabundance in Africa and Bangledesh balances the shortage in the United States where some parishes don't have the full sacramental package because of a lack of priests. continued inside.
VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- The worldwide crisis of clerical vocations has
ended, according to the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy.
Speaking to journalists on March 30, as he briefed the press on the Pope's
annual Holy Thursday letter to priests, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos also
reported that there are now 109,828 seminarians preparing for the
priesthood around the world-- a slight increase over the 108,517 in 1997,
and an enormous increase from the 60,142 in 1975.
The cardinal also observed that today's seminarians are somewhat older
than their counterparts of a generation ago. Many have completed
undergraduate education, and quite a few have gained some experience in
professional life, before entering the seminary.
There were 404,626 priests serving the Catholic Church in 1999. Cardinal
Castrillon Hoyos noted that some priests have returned to their ministry
after having abandoned the priesthood. And the number of defections from
priestly life is falling; the cardinal pointed out that in 1975 there were 3,314
men who left the priesthood; in 997 there were 1,006.
The cardinal also mentioned that on May 18-- the Pope's 80th birthday-- the
Vatican will observe the Jubilee for Priests. That celebration will be
preceded by a three-day period of preparation, during which visiting priests
are encouraged to visit the four major basilicas of Rome, and follow the Way
of the Cross on May 16 in the Circus Maximus.
Nearly two years since the murder of Bishop Conedera Juan Gerardi was brutally murdered, Guatamalan officials are still no closer to solving the case. They're trying to pin the evil deed on the Auxiliary Bishop's friend Father Mario Orantes who has been ill for the last year and recently returned from medical treatment in the U.S. In an interview Father Orantes once again reitterated his innocence and is being held up as a scapegoat by government authorities.
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GUATEMALA CITY (CWNews.com) - A Guatemalan priest charged
with the murder of a bishop in 1998 denied that he had
anything to do with it on Wednesday.
Father Mario Orantes spoke to reporters from his hospital
bed for the first time since returning from the US to face
charges on February 9. He had been in the US seeking
treatment for chronic medical problems brought on by his
first incarceration on the charges of murdering Auxiliary
Bishop Juan Jose Conedera Gerardi in April, 1998.
Bishop Gerardi was bludgeoned to death in his garage two
days after releasing a report that blamed the majority of
death's in the country's 36-year civil war on the military
and its supporters. Human rights groups and Catholics
blamed the murder on the military, and faulted
investigators for focusing immediately on Father Orantes
and the housekeeper.
"I didn't see anything, I didn't hear anything, I didn't do
anything," Father Orantes said. "All I did was find my
brother, Bishop Gerardi, murdered." He spent seven months
in jail after being arrested after the murder, but was
released and allowed to travel to seek treatment for a
nervous system problem. He was ordered to return after the
current judge in the case re-examined the evidence in the
case.
Father Orantes was charged with murder again on March 10
along with his former housekeeper and members of an elite
military unit. "After all this time here I still do not
know the reasons I have again been charged. If the evidence
was so important you would think I would have heard about it
by now," he said.
Two previous prosecutors and two judges in the case have
stepped down during the investigation, some of them citing
threats against them and their families by unidentified
parties.
In a scenario right out of the worst Hollywood horror story, a satanic cult in Argentina is making headlines as police investigate the brutal death of a 50-year old father slashed by his two daughters. The details of the deed leave no doubt as to its satanic nature and have awakened the minds and hearts of many Argentinians to the great danger the devil poses. continued inside.
BUENOS AIRES (CWNews.com) - The brutal murder of a
50-year-old father at the hand of his two young daughters
as part of a satanic rite has shocked Argentine society and
raised concern about the proliferation of satanic and other
cults in Buenos Aires.
The mutilated body of Juan Carlos Vazquez was found on
Monday surrounded by his two daughters, Silvina, 21 and
Gabriela 29, who stabbed their father 100 times and ate
part of his face.
Yesterday, the police revealed the first details of the
strange crime, announcing that the three of them belonged
to a cult known as the "Alchemy Center for Transmutation."
According to the police, apparently the father and
daughters engaged in a ritual that ended with the murder of
Juan Carlos Vazquez.
Juan Carlos' body was found not only with 100 knife wounds,
but also marked with cuts forming a strange figure.
The killing took place in the living room, after the
furniture was moved to one side. In the place were found
cups with strange liquids and a book of "alchemy rites."
When the police entered the home, the two daughters were
screaming in a state of shock, one invoking Satan, the
other one saying that Satan had finally left her father's
body.
"We can't know yet what happened exactly, because both
women are temporarily under tranquilizers at a psychiatric
institution," a police source revealed to the Clarin
newspaper.
According to Jose Maria Baamonde, a psychologist from
Fundacion Spes, a Catholic institution dedicated to
studying the growing number of sects and cults, the cult to
which the Vazquez' belonged "is the type of organization
that is becoming tremendously popular by combining some
elements of Gnosticism and strange formulas and rites which
they claim have been inherited from the ancient Alchemists."
Baamonde explained that, despite the sect's self-portrayal
as an institution devoted to self-knowledge and
self-discipline, "some of their rites explicitly invoke the
presence and power of the Devil."
In Damboa, Nigeria violence erupted between Christian and Muslims over the construction of a church. This violence is a continuation of earlier episodes when the Islamic law of "Sharira," which imposes the Islam religion on all, was passed some weeks ago. To escape this many citizens have fleed to the southern capital city. From the recent violence it would appear the worship of God is a matter for "destruction" rather than "construction" and causes many to harken back to the futility of the Crusades. continued inside.
ABUJA, Nigeria (CWNews.com) - Thousands of people fled
their homes in northern Nigeria this week after fighting
broke out between Christians and Muslims enraged at the
construction of a church. About 20 people were killed.
Groups of Muslim youths in the primarily Muslim town of
Damboa attacked the church on Monday with Christian youths
fighting back to defend the building. By Tuesday, the
fighting had spread throughout the town leaving 20 dead.
Anti-riot police restored order on Wednesday, but residents
continued to flee to the state capital to the south.
Christian-Muslim tensions have been at a boiling point in
Nigeria after rioting broke out earlier this month over the
imposition of Muslim sharia law in the country's northern
states.
While the Holy Father sincerely asked for prayers for the hostage situation in Mindanao after his Wednesday Audience, the Filipino President has shunned the Pope, stating arrogantly that the Pontiff should concentrate on other hot spots around the world and take attention away from his own country. Apparently he thinks he is greater than God and can solve everything on his own. Meanwhile he has done nothing to gain the release of the Catholic students held hostage by Muslim rebels. continued inside.
MANILA (CWNews.com) - Philippines President Joseph Estrada
told Pope John Paul II on Thursday that the Holy Father
should concentrate his prayers on other parts of the world
that need them more, in reaction to the Pope's prayers for
a strife-torn southern region of the country.
During his Wednesday general audience, the Holy Father
prayed for the Mindanao region where 50 Catholic students,
teachers, and a priest are being held hostage by Muslim
separatist rebels who have demanded Vatican mediation in
the conflict. "I pray for all the residents of that region
and, in particular, for politicians and the military. I
pray that God may enlighten them and move them to do
everything possible to end the violence by seeking peaceful
solutions to existing problems," he said.
Asked for his reaction to the prayer, Estrada said: "He
should not be praying for peace in Mindanao but he should
be praying for peace in the world. It is not only in
Mindanao where there is trouble. There is also trouble in
Kosovo and Pakistan." He added: "Hopefully, if he would
concentrate, maybe our problem with the (rebels) will be
over."
Despite the progress the Pope made with Jewish leaders in Israel last week, their counterparts in America have regressed with the news that after thousands of years of upholding the Law of the Ten Commandments, they have caved and the Jewish Liberal Reform Movement, represented by a major group of rabbis, have sanctioned same-sex unions. The wording of the resolution was so muddied as to leave everyone in the muck...which is exactly where same-sex unions belong! continued inside.
WASHINGTON, DC (CWNews.com) - A major rabbi group
representing the liberal Reform movement of Judaism
officially sanctioned clergy to perform same-sex unions on
Wednesday.
The 500 members of the Central Conference of American
Rabbis (CCAR) voted in a voice vote to back a resolution
that would allow any rabbi to preside at a same-sex union
ceremony through "appropriate Jewish ritual," but would
also support any rabbi that refused to participate. "These
are people who are subjected to signals, subtle and not so
subtle, that they are abnormal, sinful, less than whole,"
Rabbi Paul Menitoff, executive vice president of the CCAR,
told the Washington Post newspaper. "Can you imagine the
impact on them to finally hear a confirming message after
so many negative messages from all those religious groups?"
Many Reform rabbis in the US already perform same-sex
unions at their synagogues, and the decision is not
expected to have force wide-ranging changes. The CCAR had
already approved the ordination of openly homosexual rabbis
in 1990.
The resolution approved on Wednesday stressed that the
unions are not marriages and that it does not explicitly
encourage rabbis to perform them.
Meanwhile in Britain the world moves closer to a "one world order" and plummets in morals yet Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair is calling members of the House of Commons homophobes because they refuse to approve the gay agenda and keep Section 28 in place for the sake of protecting children in the schools. Blair wants to remove the protective measure by repealing the initiative and plunging the entire British Isles into the cesspool of immorality. And to think Blair's wife is Catholic...or at least in name she is! continued inside.
LONDON (CWNews.com) - Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday
claimed that attempts to stop him from repealing Section 28
-- the law which forbids the promotion of homosexuality in
schools -- was dominated by a "mischievous propaganda
campaign" motivated by anti-gay prejudice.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Blair said, "This
campaign is based on people who don't want to come out and
say they are prejudiced against gay people, so they hide
behind the issue of child protection."
"No child is going to be forced to take part in gay sex
lessons in school," he continued. "These lessons would
continue to be the prerogative of teachers, parents, and
(school officials)," the prime minister said.
Britain's private schools -- which are not bound under
Section 28 -- were also warned yesterday that they could be
sued under new human rights legislation, which comes into
force in October, if they banned homosexual relationships
between pupils over 16 or forced pupils to attend church.
In a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research,
Home Secretary Jack Straw said that private schools,
hospitals, nursing homes, and charities could all be taken
to court if they do not do more to prepare for the upcoming
Act, which incorporates the European Convention on Human
Rights into British law.
Straw said, "The Act will not only affect individuals, it
will affect any organization dealing with the public."
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