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WEDNESDAY March 20, 2000 vol. 11, no. 63 SECTION TWOSee why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!"
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On this day 118 years ago in 1882, the Catholic fraternal organization the Knights of Columbus received its charter. It was founded by Father Michael J. McGivney, priest of St. Mary's Church in New Haven, Connecticut who saw the need for providing for widows and families and promoting Catholicity among Catholic men. Today the organization boasts a membership of nearly 1.6 million men comprising nearly 11,000 councils of First, Second and Third Degree Knights, not to mention the higher Fourth Degree and its Assemblies plus their proteges - the Squires and their Circles. Last year the Knights showed their leadership clout in cooperating with the Bishops in all aspects of parish life, evangelization and the pro-life movement and contributed over a record one hundred million dollars in charitable donations as well as logging well over 50 million hours in volunteer services. On December 18, 1997 the canonization process was introduced for Fr. McGivney. For other time capsule events that happened in Church history on this date, see MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES
1058 A.D.
Death of Pope Stephen IX, 154th successor of Peter. Born in Lorraine, this first Belgian Pontiff was elected on August 2, 1057. Known for raising the moral standards of the clergy and laity, his pontificate lasted less than a year. He surrounded himself with learned and renowned counsellors who assisted him in all political matters and forbade matrimony between blood relations.
1134 A.D.
Death of English-born Saint Stephen Harding, abbott and reformer of the Cistercians. He is also remembered as tutor of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
1139 A.D.
Pope Innocent II greets returning Knights of the Templar from the Holy Lands during the crusades and declares they are an official independent unit within Holy Mother Church. Over the years this privilege would be abused and the Templars would be condemned.
1882 A.D.
The Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus founded by Father Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Connecticutt to fulfill the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, especially for widows and poor families, receives its charter.
Historical Events in Church Annals for March 29:
327 A.D.
Martyrdom of Saint Jonas and companion martyrs
NOTE: We respectfully recognize and accept the final authority regarding apparitions, locutions and prophecies presently being reported around the world rests with the Holy See of Rome and the Magisterium of Holy Mother Church to whose judjment we humbly and obediently submit.
"Dear children! Pray and make good use of this time, because this is a time of grace. I am with you and I intercede for each one of you before God, for your heart to open to God and to God's love. Little children, pray without ceasing, until prayer becomes a joy for you. Thank you for having responded to my call."
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While the secular media, so intent on pointing out the frailities of His Holiness, will never acknowledge it, Pope John Paul II resumed his regular schedule at the Vatican as early as Monday morning. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters that the Pontiff shows no signs of fatigue despite such a demanding itinerary last week. Other journalists still continue to examine the impact of the Papal visit, while Rabbi David Rosen has made it known that the Pope's pilgrimage "opened a door to a rich garden inside" for all Jews to enter and grow from spiritually. continued inside
VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Although the Vatican has been relatively quiet
this week, after the intense activity surrounding a papal trip to the Holy
Land, Italian journalists have been busy appraising the impact of the Pope's
pilgrimage.
Pope John Paul II himself has plunged back into his regular work schedule at
the Vatican. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters on March
28 that the Pontiff has shown no signs of fatigue, despite the heavy schedule
of the trip. On Monday, March 26-- his first day back in the Vatican-- the
Pontiff met with the Secretariat of State, and held a private audience with
8,000 Italian pilgrims. He then began work preparing for his regular
Wednesday public audience, at which-- following his usual practice-- he will
give a public accounting of his trip to the Holy Land. Navarro-Valls also said
that the Pope is "very satisfied" with the results of his voyage.
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the head of the Vatican committee coordinating
the Jubilee, said that the Pope's pilgrimage was "the summit of 20 years of
this pontificate." Cardinal Etchegaray, who accompanied the Pope throughout
the trip, said that he was struck by the "energy and spiritual power of the
Pope" during the trip. As for the long-term impact of the Pope's visit, the
French-born cardinal suggested that John Paul had "touched the religious
heart of the Jews," and helped to overcome "an often false image" of
Catholicism among the Jewish people.
Rabbi David Rosen, the director of the Anti-Defamation League, confirmed
that suggestion when he told reporters: "The Pope's visit opened a door, and
there are many Jews who have discovered a rich garden inside, of which
they had been unaware." The rabbi told the Italian daily Avvenire that while
the Pope voiced his sorrow over the mistreatment of Jews by Christians, his
dramatic visit also helped "to inform the Jews, to educate them, to make
them remember the many forward steps that the Catholic Church has taken
on behalf of Jews and against anti-Semitism, particularly over the past 35
years" since Vatican II.
For reasons yet unknown, a 30 year-old Canadian soldier assigned to the UN forces in Kosovo arrived in Rome for a bit of rest and relaxation and did anything but that. Rather he proceeded to climb the Column of the Immaculate Conception near the Spanish Steps. In his efforts Robert F. Keenan broke a bas-relief angel at the top of the column where the Holy Father places a wreath of roses every December 8th on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The assaulter also took a marker to the faces of many of the visages on the column. continued inside.
ROME (CWNews.com) - A Canadian soldier was arrested in Rome
on Sunday after he damaged the Column of the Immaculate
Conception while trying to climb it.
Robert Francis Keenan, 30, allegedly broke a bas-relief
angel on the 19th century column near the Spanish Steps.
The Pope places a wreath of roses at the column every
December 8 on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Keenan is serving with NATO forces in Kosovo, but arrived
in Rome on Sunday on a 15-day pass.
In the Holy Father's native land, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski vetoed a new law that would have established strict guidelines and punishements for anyone who distributed pornographic material. The law which laid down specific conditions under which porn would be defined, would, according to the communist Kwasniewski, have impugned "freedom of speech." Now the parliament will have to retry to accrue enough votes to override a veto and pass the toughest law in all of Europe continued inside.
WARSAW (CWNews.com) - Polish President Aleksander
Kwasniewski on Monday vetoed a new law that would have set
up new, tougher anti-pornography measures, saying it would
have unfairly curbed personal freedoms.
"The president vetoed the bill because its enforcement
would institute censorship and limit an individual's
freedom to make ethical and artistic choices," Barbara
Labuda, a presidential adviser on social issues, said.
"Pornography is difficult to define and therefore its ban
is hard to enforce. It is possible, however, to protect
children and those who do not wish to see pornography,
which is what the existing law does," she said.
The law would have banned the production and distribution
of all pornographic materials, the strongest law of its
kind in Europe. The measure would have set up punishments
of up to five years for dissemination of hard pornography,
defined as the depiction of sex involving children,
animals, or violence, and two-year terms for milder forms
of pornography.
The bill's supporters do not have the two-thirds majority
to overturn the veto. Recent opinion polls found voters
were evenly divided on the ban.
Blasphemous art seems to have won the day not only in Poland but also New York where the govenrment has reached a settlement with the Brooklyn Museum which displayed a picture of the Blessed Mother covered in elephant dung and surrounded by pornographic figures and which Cardinal John J. O'Connor roundly condemned. Lawsuits have been set aside, and the Court has ordered New York to spend 5.8 million dollars for the museum's renovation. Virtue, today, is often sacrificed in order that vice can cut to the quick. continued inside.
NEW YORK (CWNews.com) - The City of New York agreed to a
settlement with a Brooklyn museum on Monday, in terms the
museum said were a victory for its position.
The city filed a lawsuit six months ago after the Brooklyn
Museum of Art opened an exhibit that included a portrait of
the Virgin Mary smeared with elephant dung and surrounded by
pornographic images. The suit attempted to evict the museum
from the city-owned site for violating terms of the
long-term lease. The city also froze and annual $7.2
million operating subsidy.
After the museum filed its own lawsuit in federal court, US
District Judge Nina Gershon declared the sanctions
unconstitutional late last year in a preliminary order
restoring funding. The city appealed the decision.
The settlement agreement requires both sides to drop their
lawsuits and commits the city to spend an additional $5.8
million over the next two years for a museum renovation
project. The city is also barred from retaliating or
punishing the museum.
The Virgin Mary painting, part of a British exhibit
entitled "Sensation," started a furor with critics,
including Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, calling the display
blasphemous and anti-Catholic. First Lady Hillary Clinton,
running for US Senate in New York, expressed her support
for the exhibit.
In this Jubilee, Quantum Advertising has been hired by the largest diocese in Ireland, Tuam. This same ad firm recently developed an internet campaign fostering vocations in New York and will now build an internet site for Tuam, which covers the whole west of Ireland, as the diocese seeks vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Currently, there are only three students studying for the priesthood when once Ireland was a fertile cornucopia of vocations, many of which helped evangelize the United States with the Faith. continued inside.
TUAM, Ireland (CWNews.com) - The biggest diocese in Ireland
has launched an Internet campaign to win vocations.
The Archdiocese of Tuam has hired international advertising
group Quantum Advertising to launch its soccer-theme web
site at www.towardsthegoal.com.
Quantum also ran a campaign for the Archdiocese of New York.
The Archdiocese of Tuam -- which covers the whole of the
west of Ireland -- has just three men training for the
priesthood at the moment. Diocesan secretary Father Brendan
Kilcoyne said that, just a few years ago, there were 28 men
training in the diocesan seminary. Father Kilcoyne said the
collapse in numbers "may well become a crisis.
In a message on the web site from Archbishop Michael Neary,
he calls the vocation of the priesthood a "risky affair" and
an "adventure," comparing priests to sailors and
mountaineers.
"This is a site for risk-takers, impossible-goal-scorers,
gamblers, if you like," he writes. "We are Catholic
Priests, followers of Jesus Christ. ... If you're already
an active Catholic and you don't feel you're making enough
trouble yet, maybe you should be leading operations,
directing the break-out? We need leaders. That's what a
priest does, in various ways: he leads. Out. 'Towards The
Goal.'"
While Ireland tries to regroup, vocations are teeming in Kenya and Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Prefect for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, consecrated three new bishops for Kenya, two native bishops and the third a missionary last week in Nairobi, Kenya where out of four million, one million are Catholic and the Faith is thriving with seminaries overflowing. continued inside.
ROME, 28 (NE) Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Prefect of the Congregation
for the Evangelization of Peoples, consecrated on March 18 and
20 three new Bishops in Nairobi and Lodwar, Kenya, two of them
born in this country and the other a missionary. "This is
certainly a motive of joy for the Church in Kenya, indeed for
the universal Church," Cardinal Tomko said in his homily on
March 18 in Nairobi, as Fides informed in its last issue.
The Vatican Cardinal recalled as well the important duties and
responsibilities of Bishops, stressing the active life of the
Church in Kenya. The Church in Nairobi, a city with 1 million
Catholics from a total population of 4 million, is very active
in pastoral and social activities and is one of the few dioceses
in Africa which can rely on a sizeable number of clergy,
religious and committed lay Catholics.
Among current challenges, Cardinal Tomko highlighted as a major
priority pastoral formation in the faith for all ages. It is
also necessary, he further emphasized, that the diocesan
community grows "in missionary spirit because, while in Nairobi
there are many pastoral workers, elsewhere in Kenya and in the
rest of Africa there are dioceses and peoples in urgent need of
apostolic personnel."
The Cardinal Prefect ended his homily recalling that the
fundamental vocation of a Bishop is to "love his flock and to
spread love, reconciliation, harmony, forgiveness and
solidarity. The Bishop is a man of God who lives for others!"
Politicians in New Hampshire don't seem to know what they're doing. Having recently passed a ban on partial-birth abortion, one Representative said he was tricked into voting for the bill. Oh! What a mess we weave. The question is do our legislators in any state or in Washington have a mind that can think on their own, to take control of their own conscience before God? Or is it the pro-aboart lobbyists whose dead consciences are being foisted off on non-thinking lawmakers? One wonders just how low we've sunk when babies are killed seemingly on a whim. continued inside.
CONCORD (CWNews.com) - The New Hampshire House of
Representatives may reconsider its vote against a ban on
partial-birth abortions after one legislator said he was
tricked into voting against it.
Rep. Peter Leonard, D-Manchester, who said he is pro-life,
said he had initially voted for the bill banning the
procedure, but was misled by some colleagues into believing
he had voted against it. Leonard said he then mistakenly
changed his vote to stop the ban.
In addition, Rep. Roland Turgeon, another Manchester
Democrat, said he also mistakenly voted against the ban.
Supporters noted that more than three dozen House members
did not vote on the ban, leading them believe that a
re-vote will result in passing the measure.
On the same days as the original vote, the House also
rejected a bill which would have required the notification
of a parent or guardian, if an underage girl wants an
abortion.
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