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Cardinal Cassidy asserts Trent had it right when it comes to the Declaration of Justification

    Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Vatican representative who signed the Joint Declaration on Justification with the World Lutheran Federation on October 30 at Augsburg in Germany, reiterated strongly that nothing has changed since the Council of Trent for the Council Fathers got it right the first time and if one follows the conciliar documents they will realize the Church has never waivered on this. The problems arise when one is emphasized over the other or taken out of context. For more, click on Trent had it right

    VALENCIA, SPAIN, DEC 16 (ZENIT).- On October 31, Australian Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, signed the Joint Catholic-Lutheran Declaration on Justification. However, this new-found agreement is not so new, according to statements made December 5 in Valencia: "There is nothing in this agreement tat is not in the Council of Trent or the Catholic tradition."

    In statements to the Archdiocese of Valencia's agency AVAN, the Cardinal emphasized that the documnet makes no judgment of the past, but that it affirms that that which Catholics and Lutherans hold today is the same as regards the doctrine of justification of salvation through faith.

    Cardinal Cassidy presided over the placing of the cornerstone of a future ecumenical temple in Oliva, Valencia. Our work, he said, "is based on the dialogue of truth." From this vantage point, "what happened in Luther's time is that some put the accent on good works, not so much in doctrine as in devotional practice, while others emphasized the divine aspect, justification which comes from the Lord."

    These different positions, "are not contradictory, but two ways of expressing the same truth, because the axis was then and is now found in the faith itself," according to Cardinal Cassidy, who believes that "the problem arises when one or another element is stressed, and one is removed from what is true."

    The Joint Declaration on Justification was signed on October 31 in the German city of Augsburg by Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy and Lutheran Bishop Christian Krause, president of the World Lutheran Federation. ZE99121505

Congregation for Causes of Saints will publish list of all saints past, present and future since just after the Council of Trent

    Archbishop Jose Saraiva Martins of Portugal, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will officially publish its findings dating back to when Pope Sixtus V first began the curial office back in 1588. Not only will it go back four hundred years, but it will also detail the status of present candidates for beatification and canonization including the Popes of this century and others under consideration for sainthood. The book will be a 780-page tome. It will be the first since 1880 but this one will be available for the public to peruse. The one thing it will not include are the announcements expected by Pope John Paul II on Monday when he announces the status of those who will be beatified and canonized in the Jubilee Year 2000. For more, click on Causes of Saints book.

    VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints is prepared to release a 730-page book, summarizing all of the causes for beatification and canonization which have come before the Congregation since it was established by Pope Sixtus V in 1588.

    The new volume will be presented by Archbishop Jose Saraiva Martins, the Portuguese-born prefect of the Congregation. It will include both the causes which have reached completion and those which are still under study.

    The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has produced similar volumes, on an irregular basis, since 1880. The last such book was published in 1988.

    The publication will not include the latest decrees, approved by the Congregation in October, which will remain secret until December 20, when they are read in the presence of Pope John Paul II.

Hip! Hip! Hooray! Porn on way out of Poland!

    If only more countries, especially the U.S., would follow the example of Poland where the lower house of Parliament, akin to the American House of Representatives, voted to outlaw all hard-core pornography. The measure had been strongly supported by the Chucrch in Poland and the Solidarity Block. It's now up to the upper house which is our equivalent of the Senate and then must avoid a veto by Poland's communist president. Sound familiar? For more, click on No more porn in Poland!.

    WARSAW (CWNews.com) - Poland's lower house of Parliament on Thursday passed a new bill that outlaws hard-core pornography, a measure supported by the conservative Solidarity bloc (AWS) and the Catholic Church.

    "We are pleased and satisfied. Today's decision by parliament is a Christmas present for families," said deputy Antonii Szymanski from the AWS. The availability of pornography in Poland and the whole of Eastern Europe exploded after the 1989 fall of Communism. "We are against pornography because it turns human beings into objects. Tightening regulations against pornography is a move in the right direction, but we must wait and see whether the law will be obeyed," said bishops' spokesman Artur Shultz.

    While the upper house is expected to pass the bill without opposition, ex-Communist president Aleksander Kwasniewski has not indicated whether he will sign the law.

Our Lady's not safe in the Galveston-Houston Diocese as thefts of her statues increase

    Either someone hates Catholics and is harassing them in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston by stealing statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary of every size or they are collectors of Our Lady's statues. Either way, it has police puzzled and Church officials concerned. With the Christmas season more statues are on display and the thief has taken them right off lawns, in front of churches and even in cemetaries, including heavy cement statues. For more, click on No silent nights in Galveston-Houston.

    GALVESTON, Texas (CWNews.com) - Police in southern Texas are baffled at the theft of several statues of the Virgin Mary from in front of homes and churches and at cemeteries in and near Galveston.

    Police said statues have been disappearing since late summer. "I have no earthly idea why this is happening," police Sgt. David Millican said. "I stopped trying to figure that out." While some have theorized that a gang of kids is engaged in a lengthy prank, others believe the actions are an anti-Catholic campaign.

    "It is deeply troubling," Father Frank Rossi, chancellor of the diocese of Galveston-Houston, said. "We can only assume there is some negative intention." Rubie Huvar regards the theft of her 80-pound Mary from a nativity scene an anti-Catholic hate crime. "I feel like they've invaded my religion," she said. "They came into my yard and took the thing that shows I'm a Catholic. I could see once, somebody being silly, but this has happened time after time."

    Owners of the statues have begun taking the statues off their property and storing them indoors until the crime wave is solved.

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December 17-19, 1999 volume 10, no. 240  DAILY CATHOLIC