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     For events throughout the centuries that are memorable in Church history today, click on TIME CAPSULES: MILLENNIUM MILESTONES

THIS DAY IN CHURCH HISTORY

Historical Events in Church Annals for September 2:

1070 A.D.


Death of Saint William of Roskilde, Bishop of Denmark whose close friendship with the Danish King Sveyn Estridsen enabled him to convert many to the faith.

1192 A.D.


The Third Crusade is officially brought to a close through a peace treaty signed by the Saracen's Saladin and King Richard the Lionhearted of England.

1893 A.D.


Pope Leo XIII issues his 46th encyclical Constanti Hungarorum geared to the Church in Hungary.

Pope would be welcome in Romania Orthodox Patriarch asserts

      Despite a property dispute stemming from the Communist occupation of Romania and the fued between Romanian Orthodox and a minority of Eastern-rite Catholics of Romanian descent, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church has extended the olive branch a year after the Romanian government first invited the Holy Father to visit Romania. Patriarch Teoctist made this first known at the 12th ecumenical meeting that took place in his country, consulting with various Roman Catholic cardinals before making the announcement. It would be John Paul II first visit to Romania as Supreme Pontiff of the Western Church. For more, click on Romanian invite

      BUCHAREST (CWNews.com) - The Romanian Orthodox Patriarch told an international ecumenical meeting on Tuesday that a visit by Pope John Paul II to the former Communist country would be welcomed.

      Patriarch Teoctist told the state news agency Rompres that he had discussed the possibility of a visit by the Pontiff with several cardinals attending the 12th International Meeting of Peoples and Religion. "The Romanian Orthodox church wants this visit as it is beneficial," the patriarch said. "It must be productive because the Romanian Orthodox Church is linked to the people." He added that a date for the visit was not yet being discussed.

      The Holy Father was officially invited to visit Romanian last July by the Romanian government, while the Orthodox Church initially remained cool to the idea. The country's minority Eastern-rite Catholics have clashed with the majority Orthodox over the return of churches and property seized by the former Communist government and handed over to the Orthodox. Leaders of the Orthodox Church had previously said that no visit should take place while the property dispute remained unsettled.

President of Poland tries to assuage Jewish concerns over cross controversy at Auschwitz

     The Catholic Bishops of Poland have asked Catholic zealots to remove the 150-plus crosses they have planted and now the President of Poland is trying to assure Jewish authorities in Jerusalem that all will be solved soon and the site returned to its original status with the temporary crosses removed but not the one erected in honor of the Pope's visit. Jewish interests have been against the papal cross, claiming it detracts from the memory of the Jews who died at Auschwitz which also prompted grassroots Catholic groups to respond to that claim by placing all the temporary crosses in the same spot in a statement that Jews do not have monopoly on the suffering at this Nazi death camp, citing Saint Maximilian Kolbe and Blessed Edith Stein as just two of the thousands who died for their faith there. For more, click on Auschwitz crosses

      JERUSALEM (CWNews.com) - Poland's president assured Jewish groups in a letter made public on Monday that the controversy over crosses recently planted near the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz would be soon resolved.

      President Aleksander Kwasniewski said in the letter to Avner Shalev, director of the Yad Veshem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, that the area where more than 150 crosses had been planted by grassroots Catholic groups would be returned to its original condition. Shalev said he understood this to mean that the 26-foot cross originally planted on the site in 1988 to memorialize a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1979 would remain.

      Jewish groups protested the cross planting, saying their presence was an offense to the memory of more than 1 million Jews killed at the camp. But Catholics said they also had the right to honor the Catholic Poles also killed at the site. Poland's bishop had already entered the debate by calling for the removal of all the crosses, except for the original 26-foot cross.

Brazil is in big trouble as a myriad of problems are brought to light

     Down Rio way there is trouble in Brazil as three separate stories attest to in which a Brazilian congressman was exposed for sterilizing women to garner votes and the latest rage is a blasphemy on the beach with the image of Christ on the buttocks of mens skimpy swim suits. Catholic bishops abhor both and have taken legal measures to stop the sale of the swimsuits while seeking further investigation into tubal ligations being performed throughout the country. In addition, a group of Italian priests have asked the government to put a stop to any development in the depleted rain forests as a special preservation project leading to Jubilee 2000 in respect for God's creations. For more, click on Brazil.

      BRASILIA (CWNews.com) - A political scandal ignited in Brazil on Monday after the O Globo newspaper said that a member of the Brazilian Congress sterilized all the women of a native village in exchange for their votes.

      Brazilian authorities are currently investigating Roland Labigne, a doctor and congressman accused by a pro-native organization of the massive sterilization of all the women in a Pataxo tribe, making concrete one of his political campaign offerings. In 1994, Labigne promised native women "a method to avoid pregnancies" in exchange for their votes. The National Foundation for the Natives (FUNAI) denounced Labigne because he allegedly did not tell the Pataxo women that tubal ligations were irreversible. "This is a crime in itself, but particularly so if we take into account that the Pataxo are near extinction," FUNAI said.

      FUNAI investigations will probe the theory of some Pataxo, who claim that Labigne was sponsored by a group of 240 local landowners that want the land the Pataxo control. Labigne became a congressman in 1994, and will finish his term next October. Even while he faces another judicial investigation by the Health Ministry because of other charges involving malpractice in his clinics, he insisted he did nothing against the law.

      In a related story, Brazilian Catholics this week protested the introduction of a new line of swimsuits that feature an image of Christ on the backside of men's swimming trunks.

      Designer David Azulay said the image of Christ's head crowned with thorns on the suits is a homage to the two sides of Rio -- its image as a beach resort as well as its Catholic foundations. But Catholics in the city did not see the juxtaposition as appropriate. "An image of Jesus Christ should be put in a better place. This is way out of line, grotesque and in bad taste," Friar Antonio Santana Rego of the Santo Antonio monastery told one newspaper.

      Some media reports said the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro was investigating legal measures to block the sale of the swimsuits which begins this week with an initial run of 5,000.

      Meanwhile at the Vatican, Italian missionaries working in Brazil have written an open letter to the world's governments and international organizations, calling for the preservation of the Amazon rain forest-- "the world's largest forest"-- as a special project for the Jubilee Year 2000.

      The Italian daily Avvenire today reported that the missionaries were calling for a five-year moratorium on exploitation of the rain forest. They referred to the current use of that forest as "pillage."

      The missionaries have called for "the strictest laws" to protect both flora and fauna in the Amazon region, as well as increased regulation of the existing industries there. The region, they said, should be held "sacrosanct."

      Pope John Paul II has, in the past, issued public calls for respect for the way of life of the Indian tribes living in the rain forest, whose prospects have been endangered by fires during the past year.

Saint of the Gutters to be honored Saturday at the Vatican in honor of the one year anniversary of her death

     The Vatican announced that a special Mass and tribute will be held at St. Peter's on Saturday evening commemorating the one-year anniversary of Mother Teresa's death. The ceremonies will be broadcast live on satellite and on the Vatican's website at www.vatican.va. For more, click on Mother Teresa.

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- On Saturday, September 5, the Vatican will honor the memory of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, on the anniversary of her death.

      Cardinal Pio Laghi, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, will outline plans for memorial in a press conference to be held on Thursday, September 3. The Saturday-evening service is already scheduled to be broadcast on Italian television, and relayed around the world by the Vatican's Telepace satellite service.

For more headlines and articles, we suggest you go to the Catholic World News site. CWN is not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provides this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.

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September 2, 1998 volume 9, no. 172   DAILY CATHOLIC