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FRI-SAT-SUN April 7-9, 2000 vol. 11, no. 70 SECTION THREESee why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!"
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WORLDWIDE NEWS & VIEWS with a Catholic slant continued:
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Nearly two years since the murder of Bishop Conedera Juan Gerardi was brutally murdered, the trial moves at a snail's pace. The prosecutor investigating the Bishop's murder, Leopoldo Zeissig, said the investigation is following "a tortuous path," after the lawyer of two accused soldiers requested a face-to-face confrontation with their accuser, a witness for the prosecution. The cover-up of the military continues even though it is obvious to all what a charade it has become as innocent scapegoats are offered up instead. continued inside.
GUATEMALA CITY (CWNews.com) - The prosecutor investigating
the murder of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi Conedera, Leopoldo
Zeissig, said the investigation is following "a tortuous
path," after the lawyer of two accused soldiers requested a
face-to-face confrontation with their accuser, a witness for
the prosecution.
Ruben Chanax Sontay, a homeless man who is Zeissig's key
witness, has said he saw Colonel Byron Miguel Lima Oliva
and his father -- a retired military officer -- Byron
Disrael Lima Estrada, leaving the crime scene minutes after
Bishop Gerardi was murdered in his home.
The lawyer for the two present and former members of an
elite military unit have argued that Chanax Sontay "has
changed his version too many times," and accused the
prosecutor's witness of "trying to damage the defendant."
The lawyer demanded a meeting between the two soldiers and
Chanax Sontay before the trial formally starts. Zeissig,
for his part, has recognized the soldiers' right to request
the meeting, but said the process will only delay the
beginning of the trial.
"Too many variables are affecting the process," said
Zeissig, referring to the fact that all the accused insist
on their innocence while accusing, in their turn, the
others. Last week, Father Mario Orantes, who also claims
his innocence, was included in the murder accusation by the
presiding judge.
"The prosecution is committed to the solving of this case,
but it seem that this tortuous process will get worse
before it gets better," Zeissig said.
Bishop Gerardi was murdered in the garage of his home in
April 1998, two days after releasing a human rights report
that blamed the military and its paramilitary allies for
most of the deaths in the country's 36-year civil war.
Human rights groups and Catholic leaders have criticized
the investigators for focusing on various homeless men,
Father Orantes, and the bishop's housekeeper as suspects,
rather than anyone connected to the military.
An Islamic rebel group in the
southern Philippines said today it is prepared to release
15 of 33 Catholic schoolchildren it kidnapped several weeks
ago. The Abu Sayyaf guerillas made the promise hours after
another group freed the wife and infant daughter of the
rebel group's leader. continued inside.
MANILA (CWNews.com) - An Islamic rebel group in the
southern Philippines said today it is prepared to release
15 of 33 Catholic schoolchildren it kidnapped several weeks
ago.
The Abu Sayyaf guerillas made the promise hours after
another group freed the wife and infant daughter of the
rebel group's leader. Khadafy Janjanali's wife and daughter
were kidnapped in retaliation for the abduction of the
children, their teachers, and a priest. More than 70 people
were originally kidnapped from two high schools on Basilan
island on March 20.
They released an initial batch of 20 on the same day and 21
more in succeeding days. Four days after the kidnapping,
local vigilantes headed by the bodyguard of the Basilan
provincial governor seized 11 Abu Sayyaf supporters,
including Janjanali's wife and daughter, to pressure the
rebels into releasing their hostages.
Abu Sayyaf had initially demanded that all negotiations be
mediated by the Vatican, but Catholic leaders convinced
them to talk to local Catholic representatives. Several
Islamic groups are fighting to form an independent homeland
in the southern Philippines.
Pro-life members of
Minnesota's Legislature have blocked the placement of a
bust of the late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in
the state Capitol because he wrote the 1973 Roe vs. Wade
decision legalizing abortion.The privately-financed bust of the native Minnesotan would
have been placed outside the Supreme Court chambers in the
Capitol. continued inside.
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CWNews.com) - Pro-life members of
Minnesota's Legislature have blocked the placement of a
bust of the late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in
the state Capitol because he wrote the 1973 Roe v. Wade
decision legalizing abortion.
The privately-financed bust of the native Minnesotan would
have been placed outside the Supreme Court chambers in the
Capitol. But now the St. Paul City Council has unanimously
voted to offer to display the bust in City Hall.
"(Blackmun) should be honored, end of discussion," said
City Council member Kathy Lantry, who proposed the
resolution. "It's 'local boy made good.' If the state is
going to have partisan politics, we should step in."
A final effort to put the statue in the Capitol may still
pass because the state Senate included authorization in a
broad bill.
By the end of this year, Catholic
Consultation Centers will no longer issue certificates to pregnant women
in difficulties. Bishop Karl Lehmann of Mainz, president of the German
Episcopal Conference, made that point clear in communicating this decision, which was already
announced at the end of last year, in response to an express Papal
request. continued inside.
BERLIN, APR 6 (ZENIT.org).- By the end of this year, Catholic
Consultation Centers will no longer issue certificates to pregnant women
in difficulties. Bishop Karl Lehmann of Mainz, president of the German
Episcopal Conference, has communicated this decision, which was already
announced at the end of last year, in response to an express Papal
request.
Until reunification of East and West Germany, abortion was illegal in
West Germany but legal in the East. A compromise law was made to support
the clause of the West German Constitution affirming the right to life
and the practice in the formerly communist East. Women in difficulty
wanting an abortion were required to visit consultation centers, which
would explain alternatives to abortion and issue a certificate of
counseling. While abortion remains technically illegal, it is not
punished if the woman has a certificate of counseling.
The Catholic Church had opened many consultation centers in keeping with
the system described, but questions arose about whether it was morally
licit to issue a certificate that for all practical purposes, had become
a "ticket" to abort. The German Episcopate requested the Holy Father's
advice. After various suggestions of issuing certificates that stated
"Not valid for abortion," John Paul II responded by saying that the
Bishops should avoid any action that would cloud the Church's
unconditional position in favor of life, including the controversial
certificates.
Between now and the end of the year, "the Episcopal Conference will
present a concrete proposal to continue helping women in difficulty, but
without issuing the certificate," Bishop Lehmann said. The German
bishops have resolved their differences on this issue and are fully
united and in agreement on the need to start on a clean slate, with no
further involvement with the certificates.
The departure from the system of certification will vary from diocese to
diocese. The dioceses of Bavaria will leave the system in December, as
will the diocese of Speyer; Dresden is scheduled to leave it on June 1,
2001. The Catholic consultation centers in Paderborn discontinued the
certificates at the beginning of this year, and the diocese of Fulda has
not granted them for years.
This unanimous decision by the German Bishops must now resolve another
problem: without the certificate, the conditions foreseen in the law for
public recognition of the consultation centers, including public
funding, will no longer exist. Speyer was the first to experience this.
Based on the Bishop's decision to stop issuing certificates, regional
authorities have withdrawn public funds from the consultation center.
It is also unknown how the centers will get into contact with women in
difficulties. In the previous system, 80% of the women who came had been
referred to Catholic consultation centers by the gynecologists of the
Social Security system. According to Bishop Lehmann, "now we must find
new ways. It would certainly be a sign of insufficiency if we could only
get in contact with pregnant women in crisis through the public health
system."
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