Thousands March for Immigration Reform

DETROIT – Undocumented immigrants “need better treatment and deserve it,” said Manuel Gonzalez, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen, waiting for the start of a May 1 march and rally in support of immigration reform in Detroit.

“Let us treat immigrants the same as everybody else in this country,” said Gonzalez, a member of Most Holy Redeemer parish in Detroit, who attended the Detroit rally with his three-year-old son, Angel.

Gonzalez was among about 3,000 people – overwhelmingly Hispanic and mostly young, with many pushing baby strollers – who took part in the 2.5-mile march.

The Detroit rally was one of dozens of immigration rallies held across the country the same day.

Muslims Attend Course on Diplomacy at the Vatican

VATICAN CITY – A group of diplomats from predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe will meet with top Vatican officials during an intensive three-week course on the Catholic Church.

The aim of the May 7-27 course is to help Muslim governments understand how the Vatican works, especially in diplomacy, and to familiarize participants with the Church and its network of social and humanitarian services.

The course, titled “The Catholic Church and International Politics of the Holy See,” was organized by two Rome-based Catholic organizations: the Gregorian University Foundation, which promotes pontifical universities, and the Jacques Maritain International Institute, a think tank.

French Ruling on Mock Wedding Favors Church

OXFORD, England – A French Church official welcomed a Paris superior court ruling that a gay rights group pay symbolic damages to the Church after the group staged a lesbian mock wedding in Notre Dame Cathedral.

The “provocative action” had “hurt many people, believers or not, from all denominations both in and outside France,” said Michel-Francois Szczepka, spokesman for the cathedral.

The court ruled April 27 that the cathedral’s rector, Msgr. Patrick Jacquin, would be awarded his requested symbolic compensation of 1 euro (US$1.30) as well as 2,000 euros (US$2,718) in court costs.

At least 20 members of the gay rights group Act Up-Paris staged the spoof marriage between two women in the 12th-century Gothic cathedral.

Msgr. Jacquin received first aid after being kicked and punched when he tried to stop the event, which was led by a man dressed as a priest.

Vatican Paper Says Comic’s Criticism Was ‘Terrorism’

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano described as “terrorism” an Italian comedian’s criticism of Catholic Church teaching.

“It is terrorism to launch attacks against the church,” the newspaper said May 2, the day after one of the performers at Rome’s annual May Day concert criticized the Church in comments broadcast on state-run television.

“It is vile and terroristic to throw stones against the pope,” the newspaper said.

The comic, Andrea Rivera, criticized Pope Benedict XVI’s position on the theory of evolution and a decision by the Diocese of Rome not to allow a Catholic funeral for a man with muscular dystrophy who publicly campaigned for assisted suicide.

Eugene Fisher Is Honored For Catholic-Jewish Work

WASHINGTON – The Anti-Defamation League and a variety of Catholic and Jewish leaders honored Eugene J. Fisher as he approached retirement after 30 years as one of the world’s leading advocates of better Catholic-Jewish relations.

Since 1977 Fisher has been associate director for Catholic-Jewish relations at the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In awarding him the ADL’s Dr. Joseph L. Lichten Award in Catholic-Jewish relations April 29, ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman called Fisher a “central figure” in implementing changed Catholic understandings of and relations with Jews following the Second Vatican Council.

“Gene was an important part of Pope John Paul II’s program to revolutionize Catholic-Jewish relations,” Foxman said.

He added that it was Fisher who drafted Pope John Paul’s famous 1987 speech to American Jewish leaders in Miami, in which the pope “pledged to join the Jewish people in the cry ‘never again’ regarding the Holocaust.”

Fisher is retiring from his post at the secretariat at the end of June.

Mexican Priest Is Shot and Killed After Several Threats

AGUASCALIENTES, Mexico – A Mexican priest who had received threats for weeks was killed after being shot three times at close range outside a private home.

Father Humberto Macias Rosales, 52, pastor of Our Lady of the Light parish in Aguascalientes, was killed around 10 p.m. May 2.

The state attorney general’s office said the priest was shot as he climbed into the passenger side of a vehicle. He died a short time later in a nearby hospital. A motive for the shooting was not immediately known.

The attorney general’s office ruled out links to organized crime, which has flared this year in Aguascalientes, the capital of a small state of the same name.

The lone witness estimated the assailant was 25 to 30 years of age.

Father Macias had been attacked on at least two previous occasions.