News Briefs

Bishops Blair, Paprocki criticize errors in coverage on LCWR assessment
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Vatican-ordered doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is not directed at the tens of thousands of women religious whose communities are associated with LCWR but at the actions of the organization itself, according to two bishops who are assisting in the assessment. In separate columns for their diocesan newspapers, Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., criticized mistaken reporting about the intent of the assessment. The two bishops were named in April to assist Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, who was appointed by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to provide "review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work" of LCWR, a Maryland-based umbrella group that claims about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women's communities as members, representing about 80 percent of the country's 57,000 women religious. "It is a great cross sometimes to know firsthand the actual facts of a situation and then have to listen to all the distortions and misrepresentations of the facts that are made in the public domain," said Bishop Blair in a column for the June 8 edition of the Catholic Chronicle. "The biggest distortion of all is the claim that the CDF and the bishops are attacking or criticizing the life and work of our Catholic sisters in the United States," he added. "What the CDF is concerned about ... is the particular organization known as the LCWR."

Meeting with doctrinal office opportunity for dialogue, says LCWR head
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — After meeting with top officials of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the head of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious said she was thankful for the chance to have an open dialogue about a recent Vatican-ordered reform of the organization. Franciscan Sister Pat Farrell, LCWR president, and St. Joseph Sister Janet Mock, executive director, met with U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the doctrinal congregation, and with Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle June 12 to talk about the mandate. "We are grateful for the opportunity for open dialogue, and now we will return to our members to see about the next step" and decide how to proceed in light of discussions with the doctrinal office, Sister Pat told journalists immediately after the meeting. The LCWR will have an assembly in August, she said, and "we have no plan other than to take what came from the meeting today to our members" and decide as a group what the next step should be. "We were able to directly express our concerns to Cardinal Levada and Archbishop Sartain," said Sister Pat said in a statement released by the LCWR headquarters. The Vatican statement about the meeting said the encounter "provided the opportunity for the congregation and the LCWR officers to discuss the issues and concerns raised by the doctrinal assessment." The Vatican said the gathering took place "in an atmosphere of openness and cordiality." According to canon law, the Vatican said, the LCWR "is constituted by and remains under the supreme direction of the Holy See in order to promote common efforts" and cooperation.

Southerners, evangelicals setting a course for immigration reform
ATLANTA (CNS) — Events in Atlanta June 11 and Washington June 12 reflected the latest push from advocates for comprehensive immigration reform, this time focused on making it an election issue. Though legislation is unlikely to move in Congress this election year, participants in the Southeast Summit on Immigration in Atlanta June 11, and in a news conference the next day in Washington for evangelical leaders each focused on changing the political dynamic that makes members of Congress shy away from the issue. Speaking at the summit in Atlanta, Southern business and government leaders talked about how the region has been affected by Alabama and Georgia each passing immigration laws that criminalize actions by undocumented immigrants. Jerry Gonzalez, director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said that state's law, H.B. 87, "is an abomination to who we are as a people." The 2011 law includes standards for employers to check workers' authorization to hold jobs and penalties of up to $250,000 for using a fake ID to get work. Other provisions requiring law enforcement officers to question people about their immigration status and punishing those who offer assistance to undocumented immigrants were struck down by a federal judge and are awaiting appeals. "The 'rule of law' without values of justice or mercy is not the rule of law at all," Gonzalez said in a panel discussion. "We don't need a vigilante state government to fill in for a federal government that's not handling its job." Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski said on the same panel that it's become a sort of a game in politics "to set poor people against each other." Anti-immigrant hostility grew in the United States immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he noted, and fears about the world historically are directed at immigrants.

Vatican says agreement will not recognize Israeli occupation
ROME (CNS) — An eventual agreement between Israel and the Vatican over property taxes and property rights in no way will imply that the Vatican recognizes Israel's claims over East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a top Vatican official said. Vatican and Israeli representatives are continuing their long-running negotiations over the legal and financial status of Catholic Church property in Israel, but the Vatican has excluded from the discussion property located in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, said Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, the Vatican undersecretary for relations with states. Prior to the Vatican-Israeli commission's negotiating session June 12 at the Vatican, news reports from Israel and the Palestinian territories suggested that the Vatican would indirectly recognize Israeli control over the disputed territories by negotiating how Israel would tax church property, including in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which Israel annexed in 1967. Msgr. Balestrero told Vatican Radio June 12 that while some of the church properties facing heavy tax burdens under Israeli law are in the disputed areas, the Vatican-Israeli agreement would concern only property located in the territory internationally recognized as belonging to Israel. He said the confusion was caused by an improper use of a working document, which already had been changed. While the Vatican-Israeli commission said June 12 that "significant progress was made toward the conclusion of an agreement," members said they would meet again in December in Israel.

Vatican communications undergo changes in response to new technology
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Vatican Radio will end its short- and medium-wave broadcasts to Europe and North and South America July 1, and a month later the Vatican press office will close the Vatican Information Service, a multilingual daily summary of papal speeches and appointments. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office and of Vatican Radio, announced the changes June 12, saying they were responses to developments in technology and would save the Vatican money. The changes at Vatican Radio, he said, should save the Vatican "hundreds of thousands" of dollars just in electricity bills each year. But the radio station is not reducing the number of programs or the 40 languages in which the programs are produced. The decision to stop the short- and medium-wave broadcasts reflect the fact that Europe, North and South America are well covered by local radio stations that re-broadcast Vatican Radio programs and a large portion of their populations have access to radio programs via the internet. Short- and medium-wave broadcasts to Africa, parts of the Middle East and Asia will continue, he said, because fewer people have access to the Internet there and most of the stations rebroadcasting Vatican Radio programs are located only in big cities. "Over the course of the 20th century, the international short- and medium-wave transmissions of Vatican Radio were a service of inestimable value in the history of the church — especially in Europe — supporting those populations oppressed by war and totalitarianism," Father Lombardi said.

Bishops: Britain's plans on marriage leave them vulnerable to lawsuits
LONDON (CNS) — Proposals by the British government to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples will make the Catholic Church permanently and indefinitely vulnerable to the risk of legal action, said the bishops of England and Wales. Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark, speaking on behalf of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, warned the government that its assurances that churches would not be compelled to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies were meaningless. The law could be amended at any time, he said, and it might not withstand a challenge in the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that it contravened equality directives if gay people were not allowed to marry in churches in the same way as heterosexuals. "The government's proposed safeguards for the institution of marriage as understood and conducted on religious premises are not proof against subsequent changes to legislation and are at early risk of challenge," said Archbishop Smith, chairman of the bishops' Department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship. "By creating new legislation, the government would move the whole framework of marriage in such a way that issues which could not come before a court today could be contested at any point in the future," he said in a June 11 formal response to the government's public consultation. "No assurances the government could offer about religious freedom for religious bodies would be able to negate the permanent risk they had created," Archbishop Smith added.

Women religious plan bus tour to highlight needs of poor, hungry in U.S.
WASHINGTON (CNS) — A group of women religious planned to begin a nine-state bus tour June 18 to highlight the work their communities do "to meet the needs of people at the economic margins." The theme of the tour is "Nuns on the Bus: Nuns Drive for Faith, Family and Fairness." Network, a Catholic social justice lobby group, is sponsoring the tour, which it said also would draw attention to people who would be affected by proposed cuts in the federal budget. The group was scheduled to start the bus tour in Ames, Iowa, and make stops in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, where the trip is to end July 2. Along the way, participants planned to visit Catholic-sponsored social service agencies that serve people "who will be further harmed by proposed budget cuts, and they will meet with congressional offices to advocate for a fair budget." The House of Representatives March 27 adopted a $3.5 trillion budget resolution that calls for massive spending cuts in nonmilitary programs, such as food stamps. It would turn Medicaid into a block grant program administered by the states, reshape Medicare over the next decade and simplify the tax code by closing loopholes and lowering individual and corporate tax rates. In mid-May, the Senate rejected the House budget plan.