Archbishop Edmond Farhat, apostolic nuncio to Austria, looks at a special edition Austrian stamp released in Vienna April 12 for the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI's 80th birthday. The pope, who turned 80 on April 16, appears to be in good health.

Bishops Saddened by Shooting at Virginia Tech

BLACKSBURG, Va. – The April 16 shooting spree at Virginia Tech that left at least 32 people dead is “tremendously sad,” said Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo of Richmond.

In a phone interview just hours after the shootings, Teresa Volante, Catholic campus minister at Virginia Tech, said she had sent out an electronic notice that the Newman Center chapel was open for anyone who wanted to stop in and pray.

But she said the center, located just off the campus, was rather quiet at that time since the dormitories on campus were still locked down and the off-campus students had been instructed to stay away.

“I’m here for students to talk to,” she said.

Later in the afternoon Debbie McClintock, a volunteer who came in to help, said that a prayer service was scheduled for 7 p.m. at the center.

She said people at the center were calm and were focused on helping anyone who came in.

At St. Mary’s parish, the only Catholic parish in Blacksburg, the receptionist said the pastor, Father James Arsenault, had spent more than three hours at the hospital with those who were wounded before heading over to the university to help there.

She said the church would be open all afternoon, with the Blessed Sacrament exposed for adoration, followed by a special Mass in the evening.

Catholic Educators Ask Less Hassle on Federal Services

WASHINGTON – Representatives of Catholic schools from Washington, New Orleans, Chicago and Bridgeport, Conn., urged the Bush administration to follow up on the president’s stated support for parochial education by making it easier for them to participate in various federal programs.

In a private April 13 meeting with a dozen representatives of schools, dioceses and independent Catholic education programs, President George W. Bush heard repeated voices of appreciation for opening up access to some federal education programs to religious schools.

However, that thanks was tempered with the polite but oft-repeated complaint that getting government funds for their participation in those programs is often difficult and slow.

The 45-minute session in the Roosevelt Room at the White House was informal and conversational, with the educators explaining the challenges of reopening hurricane-flooded New Orleans schools; of starting the corporate-supported Cristo Rey network of Jesuit schools for low-income children; and of getting reimbursement from local public school districts for offering Supplemental Educational Services at Catholic schools in the Bridgeport Diocese.

After ‘Strong Signal,’ Nuncio Attends Holocaust Ceremony

JERUSALEM – In a reversal of an earlier decision, the papal nuncio to Israel attended a Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial ceremony after receiving a personal letter from the memorial’s chairman.

Archbishop Antonio Franco said he decided to attend the ceremony April 15, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, after receiving assurances from Chairman Avner Shalev regarding the memorial’s willingness to review any new documentation regarding Pope Pius XII’s actions during the Holocaust.

Archbishop Franco said his earlier announcement that he would not attend the ceremony was meant to be a “strong signal” of the need to “reconsider the way Pius XII is presented at Yad Vashem.”

He said the depiction of the World War II-era pope in a photo caption at the museum was offensive to his sensibilities and those of Catholics worldwide.
Archbishop Franco said his intention had not been to dissociate himself from the commemoration or to “make a polemic statement” but to “reach an aim of consideration” of how the pope is presented.

“I have no further reason not to go,” the nuncio said before the ceremony.

Bishops Lament Funds for Human Embryo Research

WASHINGTON – An official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops criticized the U.S. Senate’s “fixation on destructive research” after the Senate passed a bill that would provide federal funding for stem-cell research involving the destruction of human embryos.

“Many members of Congress remain dazzled by irresponsibly hyped promises of ‘miracle cures’ from the destruction of human embryos, although experts in the field increasingly admit that treatments from this avenue may be decades away,” said Richard M. Doerflinger, deputy director of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

The Senate approved S. 5, a bill permitting destruction of human embryos in federally funded stem-cell research, by a 63-34 margin. Should it become law, “millions of taxpayers would be forced to promote attacks on innocent human life in the name of scientific progress,” he said.

Since President George W. Bush has promised to veto the legislation, however, and its backers do not have enough votes for an override in the House or the Senate, “we expect that this terrible burden will not be placed on the American people now,” Doerflinger said.

Vatican Nuncio Says Africa Needs Educated Women

UNITED NATIONS – The best and cheapest way to prepare Africa for a better future is to educate all its youths, especially girls and young women, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Vatican nuncio to the United Nations.

Addressing the 40th session of the U.N. Commission on Population and Development, the archbishop said that according to projections, by 2050 a large portion of Europe’s population will be dependent elderly but “Africa is set to have the lowest dependency ratio in the world.”

“This projection should hand that continent an unprecedented advantage in economic terms, as a young and numerous workforce should be available to it until at least 2050, while the demographic dividend in most other regions will have run out,” he said.

He said it is important “to assure that Africa will not miss this window of opportunity for economic development,” and in the view of the Vatican’s U.N. delegation, “the most decisive investment to be made here is in education.”

Since many of the people who will make up Africa’s workforce in the coming decades “are already born and are already of school age,” Archbishop Migliore urged immediate efforts to achieve primary education for all African children by the year 2015.

He said that according to an estimate by the U.N. Secretariat, meeting that goal “would cost $9 billion estimated in 1998 dollar value.”
“By any estimate, this can hardly be considered a high price to pay for such a prize,” he said.

Pontifical University in Peru Caught in Control Dispute

LIMA, Peru – The Pontifical Catholic University of Peru has been caught up in a legal dispute over who controls it.

The university, widely accepted as the leading academic institution in Lima, has built a reputation of liberalism and activism for human rights.
It is built on property bequeathed by Jose de la Riva Aguero, a historian and intellectual who died in 1944.

The head of the Lima Archdiocese, currently Cardinal Juan Cipriani Thorne, has the honorary title of university chancellor, and the Peruvian bishops’ conference designates five members of the university’s governing assembly.

However, Riva left several different wills with different instructions about how his legacy was to be controlled.

The current dispute was triggered by the university’s sale of land in February to a Catholic high school that had rented the sold plot for about 20 years.

Walter Munoz Cho, administrative board representative from the Archdiocese of Lima, sent letters to the university rector objecting to the sale and demanding the right to audit the university’s finances.

University officials saw Munoz’s demands as an effort to control the university, and they went to court to block his efforts.

Venezuelan Cardinal Asks TV Station Remain Open

CARACAS, Venezuela – Caracas Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino has asked Venezuelan officials to reverse their decision to shut down a television station critical of the government.

The cardinal said in late March that the “very delicate” issue should be viewed in the context of Venezuelans’ right to “freedom of expression and the right to information.”

Government officials have decided not to renew the operational license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, when it expires May 28.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accuses the 54-year-old station of having backed a 2002 coup that toppled him from power for 48 hours.

Opponents of Chavez, who was first elected in 1998 and was re-elected in a landslide last year, say that much of the nation’s private media has been intimidated into muting its criticism of government policies.

A political newspaper recently was fined for allegedly violating the privacy of the president’s daughter when it mentioned her in a satirical commentary.

Nearly 3.4 Million Attended Pope’s Second Year Events

VATICAN CITY – In the second year of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, almost 3.4 million people participated in his weekly general audiences, group audiences, liturgies and the recitation of the Angelus on Sundays and holy days.

The Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, headed by U.S. Archbishop James M. Harvey, published the data April 14 in anticipation of the April 19 anniversary of the pope’s election.

It said that from late April 2006 through early April 2007, more than one million people attended the pope’s Wednesday general audiences, while more than 350,000 people joined special groups granted a papal audience.

More than half a million people participated in papal liturgies at the Vatican and in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, the prefecture said.

And 1.46 million people joined the pope for the Sunday recitation of the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square or in the courtyard of the papal summer villa at Castel Gandolfo.

Anglican Archbishop to Discuss Same-Sex Issues

TORONTO – To avoid what he called the very real possibility of schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion over blessing same-sex unions and ordaining openly gay men, Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, England, will meet with U.S. Episcopal bishops in September.

Speaking in French since Canada is bilingual, Archbishop Williams, spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, told reporters in Toronto, “Schism is a possibility” over questions of sexual morality.

He added in English, “It is possible people will come to the point where people feel it’s irreconcilable differences.”