Ticket Distribution Plan Set For Papal Mass in Capital

WASHINGTON – Close to 14,000 people out of the 45,000 expected to be in attendance at Pope Benedict XVI’s April 17 Mass in Washington will hail from outside the Archdiocese of Washington.

Of the 14,000 tickets to be distributed, the neighboring Diocese of Arlington, Va., will get 6,000 and the neighboring Archdiocese of Baltimore will receive 2,500.

Nearly 120 U.S. dioceses that had requested tickets were sent letters by the Archdiocese of Washington on how many tickets they will receive, according to an announcement by the archdiocese.

Once the plan on how many tickets will be given to each parish in the Washington Archdiocese is determined, parishes will then decide how tickets will be distributed within the parish.

The Mass will take place at Nationals Park, the new stadium for the Washington Nationals baseball team.

It will be the first nonbaseball event at the new stadium.

Photo of Chinese President Greeting Liu Seems Strange

HONG KONG – Observers of the Catholic Church in China said a recently published photo of Chinese President Hu Jintao shaking hands with the vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association is strange.

A priest in northern China, who requested anonymity, said that Chinese communists always have seen religion as “a closed area and a controversial subject,” regardless of whether conservatives or liberals in the government were gaining ground.

He described the photo as “unusual.”

The photo first appeared on the front page of the Jan. 2 issue of the official Chinese-language People’s Daily. The caption explained that Hu was greeting people from various sectors but did not name Anthony Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Beijing-based patriotic association.

The patriotic association acts as a liaison between registered Catholics and the Chinese government.

Cuban Exiles Not Optimistic About Change in Leadership

MIAMI – Pardon the yawn, but that is how Cubans in Florida reacted to the news of Fidel Castro’s resignation as president of Cuba.

“It’s a different dog with the same fleas,” said Msgr. Pedro Luis Perez, pastor of San Lazaro parish in Hialeah.

Castro’s resignation was posted on the website of Granma, Cuba’s official newspaper, at dawn Feb. 19. On Feb. 24, Cuba’s national assembly elected Fidel’s younger brother, 76-year-old Raul, as president.

Raul Castro had been running the country since his brother ceded power to him 19 months ago, after announcing he would be undergoing intestinal surgery.

“I would have been surprised if they had told me that Fidel Castro had gone on an Ignatian retreat, seven days without speaking,” added Msgr. Perez, who was among a group of priests – including Miami’s retired Auxiliary Bishop Agustin A.

Roman – who were expelled from the island in 1961. “That would be surprising.”

The change at the top “doesn’t make any difference to me and even less to the people of Cuba,” agreed Rosario Bergouignan, a notary in the Miami Archdiocese’s metropolitan tribunal, who visited Cuba in January on a humanitarian mission.

Father Fernando Heria, pastor of St. Brendan parish in Miami’s Westchester neighborhood, said, “Cuba’s political climate will always affect the church,” and the recent transfer of power is bound to have a “ripple effect on the working relations” between the government and the Church.

But Father Heria, who left Cuba as a teenager but returned for the papal visit and other religious events since 1998, said he believes that a “transition” in the Cuban government began many years ago.

“It has been a slow ‘brewing’ process, but it is there nonetheless,” Father Heria said.

Mo. Bishops Say Exhibit Degrades Bodies on Display

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Two Catholic prelates said they regard the exhibit “Bodies Revealed” that opened Feb. 29 in Kansas City as “an unfortunate exploitation of that which is ‘real’ to teach something that could be accomplished by use of models.”

“As such it represents a kind of ‘human taxidermy’ that degrades the actual people who, through their bodies, once lived, loved, prayed and died,” said Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas and Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

“For these reasons, we do not believe that this exhibit is an appropriate destination for field trips by our Catholic schools,” they added.

The exhibit features an array of human bodies in various poses, all preserved through a process of polymer preservation.

Various preserved organs are also in the exhibit, which will be at Kansas City’s Union Station through Sept. 1.

Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions is the organizer of the Kansas City show; it also produces a show titled “Bodies: The Exhibition,” which just opened at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Both shows, say their promoter, are aimed at educating people about the human body and how to take better care of their health.

Archbishop Says St. Padre Pio’s Body Can Be Shown

SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy – Almost 40 years after his death, the body of St. Padre Pio shows uneven signs of decay, but can be treated in a way that will make it possible to place the body on display for the veneration of the faithful, the local archbishop said.

Archbishop Domenico D’Ambrosio, papal delegate for the saint’s shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo, presided over the exhumation of the body in a service that began at 10 p.m. March 2 and ended more than two hours later.

In a statement released March 3, the archbishop said the exhumation and subsequent procedures would guarantee the “prolonged preservation of the body of our saint to allow generations to come the possibility of venerating and safeguarding his relics.”

The statement said the body of the saint, who died Sept. 26, 1968, was in “fair condition.”