CNS BRIEFS (09.15.2009): Pro-life leaders deplore murder of Michigan activist
OWOSSO, Mich. (CNS) -- Pro-life leaders condemned the Sept. 11 murder of a Michigan man who was protesting against abortion outside a public high school in Owosso, 10 miles west of Flint. The suspect, arrested by police, said he targeted the man for his activism. The dead man, James Pouillon, 63, a General Motors retiree, was shot about 7 a.m. while protesting outside Owosso High School in the city as students were gathering for classes. A 33-year-old Owosso Township long-haul truck driver, Harlan James "Hal" Drake, was arrested later that morning. Police said Drake, once in custody, confessed to having killed a second man. The body of James Fuoss, 61, was found on the property of the gravel business he owned an hour after the Pouillon murder. Prosecutors in Shiawassee County said Drake had singled out Pouillon because of the visible style of his regular protests outside the school. It was not immediately disclosed why Drake killed Fuoss.
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Catholic group launches Web site to promote peace in Africa
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Catholic Task Force on Africa has launched a new Web site, www.yesafricamatters.org, to spread the word on conditions in Africa prior to the Oct. 4-25 Synod of Bishops for Africa at the Vatican. The theme of the synod is "The Church in Africa in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace." In March, during a visit to Yaounde, Cameroon, Pope Benedict XVI released the synod's working document, which called for a united effort among Catholics to help end the rampant injustices fueling conflicts on the continent and to usher in an era of peace. The new Web site provides background on the connections between the Catholic Church in the United States and Africa. It lists many of the partnerships and twinning relationships as well as the missionary communities from the United States in Africa. The site also contains a section specifically on the synod with resources and links to universities and other advocacy groups that can help readers better understand Africa's current challenges. The task force is a Washington-based group of advocates.
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Sexually exploited women find refuge in Anchorage outreach ministry
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNS) -- Commercial sexual exploitation remains a significant problem in Alaska's largest city and Mary Magdalene Home Alaska seeks to help women escape their situation and embark on a life built on self-sufficiency and making right choices. In a city without many options for women trapped in prostitution, the home, an ecumenical Christian, nonprofit organization, provides a network of care that includes counseling, assistance with employment and stable housing, and treatment for drug and alcohol abuse for women who are victims of sex trafficking. The home serves 50 to 60 women at any one time, said director Nancy Cole. Clients range in age from 18 to late 50s. The effort to change the women's lives begins after their release from prison with voluntary group meetings with volunteer case workers. The women are counseled about their way of thinking, taught what "what freedom means" and shown how to make good choices. "As Christians, we believe that people can and do change," Cole said.
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WORLD
Pope ordains bishops, emphasizes spirit of service to church
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Ordaining five new bishops Sept. 12, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged a spirit of service and warned against careerism in the church. "We know how life in society and not infrequently even in the church suffers because many of those called to a position of responsibility work for themselves and not for the community," the pope said at a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. He said the church is not something that belongs to its highest officials. "The church is not our church, but (the Lord's) church, the church of God," he said. "We do not bind men to ourselves; we do not seek power, prestige or admiration for ourselves. We lead people to Jesus Christ and thus toward the living God." The pope said being faithful to the ordained ministry should be an experience of self-sacrifice and that Christ asks prudence and goodness from his ministers. The essential virtue of any priest is to be imprinted by the truth of Christ, which requires an open mentality and a setting aside of prejudices, he said.
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Pope to visit Malta in spring of 2010
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit Malta next April to commemorate the 1,950th anniversary of St. Paul's shipwreck on the Mediterranean island. The bishops of Malta announced the papal visit Sept. 12, and Vatican Radio confirmed it the following day. A Vatican trip planner was to travel to Malta in October to lay the groundwork for the visit. The trip will give the pope a chance to highlight once again the figure of St. Paul, who according to tradition shipwrecked on Malta in the year A.D.60 while on his way to Rome to stand trial. Scriptures recount that the inhabitants showed "extraordinary hospitality" to St. Paul, who healed sick people on the island. The visit also will spotlight a chronic problem in modern Malta, the arrival of thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa, who often wash up Malta on their way to other European countries. What to do with the arrivals has become a hot political issue on the island. By welcoming St. Paul, Archbishop Paul Cremona of Malta said, the Maltese demonstrated a "strong sense of openness toward someone who is 'different,' the foreigner."
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True faith in God also requires loving, serving others, pope says.
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- Being a true believer in God requires living a life of love and concrete service toward others, said Pope Benedict XVI during his Sunday Angelus address Sept. 13 at the papal summer residence. It is not enough to believe Jesus is God, he said; a true Christian must also follow in Christ's footsteps and take up his cross out of love. "Jesus did not come to teach us philosophy, but to show us a way, rather, the way that leads to life," the pope said. The road to life is love, he added, and by loving others with a pure and generous heart people demonstrate they truly have encountered and know God. "Instead, if someone says he has faith, but he doesn't love his brothers, then he is not a true believer. God does not live in him," he said.
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Drug production is driven by market, not ethics, says Vatican official
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A top Vatican official lamented that producing urgently needed medicines is no longer driven by traditional medical ethics, but by money. The lack of basic, life-saving medicines also means the world risks "a humanitarian and global health care disaster," said Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry. In too many parts of the world, urgently needed pharmaceuticals are lacking, he said during a gathering of the International Congress of Catholic Pharmacists in Poznan, Poland. Vatican Radio reported his remarks Sept. 13. "Often, for economic reasons, common diseases in developing countries are neglected because, even though they afflict and kill millions of people, they do not constitute a lucrative enough market," Archbishop Zimowski said. He made an urgent appeal that the poorest people in the world may have access to needed medicines. The archbishop also highlighted the problem of counterfeit or fake drugs, antibiotics and vaccines, explaining that fake or diluted drugs can result in prolonged illness or death or can lead to the development of drug-resistant bacteria.
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PEOPLE
Second volume of 'Jesus of Nazareth' expected next spring
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI's second volume on the life of Jesus is likely to be completed sometime next spring, a Vatican spokesman said. The book is expected to cover Christ's childhood, passion, death and resurrection. The first volume, the best-selling "Jesus of Nazareth," was published in 2007. The spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, told Catholic News Service Sept. 13 that next spring was a "realistic" target date for completion. He added that readying the manuscript for publication and translating it into other languages could add to the timeline, however. The pope has been working on the volume over the last two years, especially during his summer vacations. When he broke his right wrist at the start of his vacation in July, he was said to have been particularly disappointed because it meant he couldn't write for several weeks.
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Saint's daughter hopes to follow her mother's example of loving life
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Laura Molla, daughter of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, believes her mother was convinced her unborn child had the same right to live as her other children when she decided to forego surgery to removed a large ovarian tumor discovered during pregnancy. "She did not choose death" but "at that moment she chose the life of her child," Laura Molla, 50, told Catholic News Service prior to her presentation at the Sept. 11-12 eucharistic congress at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington sponsored by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious. Often called the "pro-life saint," St. Gianna was canonized in 2004 by Pope John Paul II. The Italian saint died of an infection a week after giving birth, leaving behind not only her newborn daughter, but her husband, Pietro, and three other children including Laura, then nearly three. Molla said her mother was convinced of her call to the vocation of marriage and "lived that until the end" -- a commitment that Molla hopes will be an example to others. "She teaches us to truly discern" what our vocation should be, she said, and then to "live that vocation to the fullest."
