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July 2009

July 2009

Archbishop O'Brien calls for world to eliminate nuclear stockpiles

Thursday, July 30, 2009
By Kevin Clarke
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Drawing from the church's long-held teaching on the morality of war, a member of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace called upon attendees at a nuclear deterrence symposium to work to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Archbishop Edwin F.
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Catholics outraged that Bible defaced as part of Glasgow art exhibit

Thursday, July 30, 2009
By Kevin Clarke
GLASGOW, Scotland -- Catholics furious with the Glasgow City Council for funding an art exhibition that encouraged people to deface the Bible have called for the removal of the offending work. The exhibit at the Gallery of Modern Art by artist Jane Clarke, a minister at the Metropolitan Community Church in Glasgow, was modified July 28 to prevent the public from writing obscenities on the Bible. Clarke's original work sparked complaints and protests.
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Indian priest found murdered along remote road in Karnataka state

Thursday, July 30, 2009
By Kevin Clarke
MANGALORE, India (CNS) -- A Catholic priest was found murdered July 30 in a remote area near Mangalore in southern India. The naked body of Father James Mukalel, 39, was discovered on a roadside in the morning by passers-by, reported the Asian church new agency UCA News. The priest worked in the Belthangady Diocese, a Syro-Malabar diocese, which has its headquarters near Mangalore in Karnataka state.
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Vietnamese Catholics protest clergy beatings, arrests of marchers

Wednesday, July 29, 2009
By Kevin Clarke
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Thousands of Catholics marched on Vietnamese streets July 26 to protest the beating of two Catholic priests and the detainment of seven Catholics after a violent police raid at a disputed church site. In a series of coordinated marches throughout the Vinh Diocese, about 500,000 people gathered to demand the release of the seven marchers who were arrested July 20 at the site of Tam Toa, a parish destroyed by U.S. bombers during the Vietnam War, and to call for an end of police attacks on Catholics, according to news reports.
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Vietnamese Catholics protest clergy beatings, arrests of marchers

Wednesday, July 29, 2009
By Kevin Clarke
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Thousands of Catholics marched on Vietnamese streets July 26 to protest the beating of two Catholic priests and the detainment of seven Catholics after a violent police raid at a disputed church site. In a series of coordinated marches throughout the Vinh Diocese, about 500,000 people gathered to demand the release of the seven marchers who were arrested July 20 at the site of Tam Toa, a parish destroyed by U.S. bombers during the Vietnam War, and to call for an end of police attacks on Catholics, according to news reports.
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Indian Catholics welcome prison sentences in anti-Christian violence

Wednesday, July 29, 2009
By Kevin Clarke
NEW DELHI, India (CNS) -- Catholic leaders welcomed the prison sentences a court has given to five people convicted of taking part in the August 2008 anti-Christian violence in India's Orissa state. "It is a good development. It will go a long way in meting out justice to our people," Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar told the Asian church news agency UCA News July 28, a day after the court announced its decision. The prelate heads the Catholic Church in the eastern state.
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Anglican leader's concern for unity reflects Vatican concerns

Wednesday, July 29, 2009
By Kevin Clarke
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican concerns about how some recent decisions of the U.S. Episcopal Church will impact the search for full Anglican-Roman Catholic unity are echoed in a reflection by Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion. Writing July 27 about the Episcopal Church's recent general convention, Archbishop Williams repeatedly referred to the need to keep in mind the ecumenical implications of local church decisions in addition to their impact on the unity of the Anglican Communion as a whole.
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Interfaith discussion on health reform gives timeliness top priority

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By Kevin Clarke
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Rev. Drew Nettinga opened a prayer breakfast July 28 at the U.S. Capitol with a reminder to Congress that he and other people of faith will be vigilant and persistent on the issue of health care reform. "Congress may be taking a recess, but we have work to do," Rev. Nettinga said, referring to the break members of Congress traditionally take in August. President Barack Obama has pushed for the House and Senate to pass health care reform before the recess begins Aug.
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Catholic official to help Chicago cemetery recover from scandal

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By Kevin Clarke
CHICAGO (CNS) -- The director of the Chicago Archdiocese's Catholic Cemeteries division has been asked to restore order to an Illinois cemetery where employees were charged in early July with unearthing corpses and reselling empty plots for profit. Roman Szabelski was appointed by the Circuit Court of Cook County at the request of the sheriff's department to oversee the process of digitizing burial records and putting finances in order at the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip.
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Vatican laicizes ex-spiritual director to Medjugorje visionaries

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By Kevin Clarke
LONDON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has laicized a Franciscan priest who served as the spiritual adviser to the Marian visionaries in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The pontiff, in a document issued "motu proprio" (on his own initiative), returned Father Tomislav Vlasic to the lay state and dispensed him from his religious vows as a member of the Order of Friars Minor. Vlasic was confined to a Franciscan monastery in L'Aquila, Italy, in February 2008 after he refused to cooperate in a Vatican investigation of his activities for suspected heresy and schism.
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