Camden Reconfiguration Reduces 124 Parishes to 66

CAMDEN, N.J. – Bishop Joseph A. Galante of Camden announced a reconfiguration plan that will reduce the number of parishes in the diocese from the current 124 to 66 over the next two years.

Citing the need to bring new vitality to parish life, Bishop Galante said parishes in the six southern counties of New Jersey would be reconfigured into 38 merged parishes; three parish clusters, involving a total of six parishes; and 22 stand-alone parishes.

“I recognize that these changes will require sacrifice,” he said in a video message posted to the diocesan website, www.camdendiocese.org.

“The giving up of the familiar and the comfortable is never easy for any one of us. ... My prayer is that all of us will have the patience and courage that is necessary to bring about this renewal and new life in our church.”

Bishop Galante said the reconfiguration came in response to population changes, a decline in religious practice, fewer priests available for ministry, and the need to advance key pastoral priorities identified by Catholics at more than 140 “Speak Up” sessions held in 2005 and 2006.

Conscience at Issue as Pharmacist Loses Appeal

MADISON, Wis. – Although a Wisconsin judge upheld the official reprimand of a Catholic pharmacist who refused to dispense a contraceptive drug to a college student or transfer the prescription to another pharmacy, debate on the issue of conscience rights was continuing in the state.

Third District Court Judge Michael Hoover rejected pharmacist Neil Noesen’s appeal of sanctions imposed on him by the Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board in 2005.

However, an official of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference said the judge nevertheless acknowledged that conscience rights under the state constitution are even broader than those granted by the U.S. Constitution.

Kim Wadas, the Catholic conference’s associate director for education and health care, said Hoover’s affirmation of conscience rights was a step in the right direction.

“We were excited to see some of that language, which continued to recognize that pharmacists have a right of conscience,” Wadas told The Catholic Times, newspaper of the La Crosse Diocese.

“This is something we advocate for on behalf of health professionals, especially Catholic health professionals.”

After Murder of Priest, Pope Urges Peace in Iraq

VATICAN CITY – In the wake of the murder of a Syrian Orthodox priest in Iraq, Pope Benedict XVI urged Iraqis to embrace peace in their efforts to build “a just and tolerant society.”

The pope sent his condolences in a telegram upon hearing of the “tragic death” of Syrian Orthodox Father Yousef Adel Abudi.

The telegram, written on behalf of the pope by the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was sent to Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Severius Jamil Hawa of Baghdad, Iraq.

The 40-year-old Iraqi priest was killed in Baghdad after gunmen fired on the car in which he was traveling.

Father Abudi was the head of a high school attended by Muslims and Christians.

The Rome-based missionary news agency AsiaNews said the priest ignored threats and demands that he give up his post.

Pope: Grandparents Are Precious for Families

VATICAN CITY– Grandparents are a precious resource for families, the Church and society, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“So-called new models of the family and rampant relativism” have weakened the core values of traditional families, and such societal ills need an urgent response, the pope said.

In order to overcome the crises and threats today’s families are facing, people could start by turning to “the presence and witness of their grandparents” whose visions and values have more solid foundations, he said.

Mexican Bishops Deny Donations from Drug Lords

MEXICO CITY – Several Mexican bishops denied that the Catholic Church accepts donations from drug lords after the president of the Mexican bishops’ conference said drug traffickers have been “very generous” to the Church.

Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City said the Church condemns drug trafficking as a social evil and that it never accepts drug money.

“The money that comes from narcotics trafficking is ill-gotten and therefore can’t be cleaned through charity projects,” he said.

Revised Prayer Supports Vatican II Teaching on Jews

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI’s revised prayer for the Jews for use in the Tridentine-rite Good Friday liturgy does not indicate any form of stepping back from the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the Vatican said.

“The Holy See wishes to reassure that the new formulation of the prayer, which modifies certain expressions of the 1962 Missal, in no way intends to indicate a change in the Catholic Church’s regard for the Jews, which has evolved from the basis of the Second Vatican Council,” said a statement from the Vatican press office.

In early February, the Vatican published Pope Benedict’s revision of the Good Friday prayer, which is used only in the liturgy celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal, or Tridentine rite.

The rite is no longer widely used by Catholics but may be used by some Church communities under recently revised norms.

The new prayer removed language referring to the “blindness” of the Jews, but it prays that Jews will recognize Jesus, the savior, and that “all Israel may be saved.”

The April 4 statement said some members of the Jewish community felt the new prayer was “not in harmony with the official declarations and statements of the Holy See regarding the Jewish people and their faith which have marked the progress of friendly relations between the Jews and the Catholic Church over the last 40 years.”

In particular, some Jews, as well as some Catholics, felt the prayer contained an explicit call to attempt to convert Jews to Christianity.