April 6, 2001

The Catholic News & Herald 1

April 6, 2001

April 6, 2001 Volume 10 t Number 30

S e r v i n g C a t h o l i c s in Western North Carolina in the Diocese of Charlotte

Inside Church must appreciate diversity, speaker says

... Page 5

Catholic bookshop celebrates 20 years

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Local News Sisters host vocation day for women

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Nicaraguan finds home in Charlotte Diocese

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Every Week Entertainment ...Pages 10-11

Editorials & Columns ...Pages 12-13

“‘Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.’”

— Matthew 28: 5-6

JESUS — THE GIFT OF THE FATHER’S LOVE Holy Week invites us into intimacy with Jesus as we relive the events that brought us new life through His suffering, death and Resurrection. As His disciples, Jesus has asked that we witness our love for Him by sharing that love with our neighbors, even the least among us. Allow me to share with you the story of how one man experienced the new life granted him through faith in Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

He loved Charlotte and was, in turn, loved by those whom he served in priestly ministry. There are countless stories that describe how he brought God’s mercy and love to the needy in our midst. He literally walked the streets of Charlotte searching for homeless people and inviting them to the security and comfort within a shelter.

He used to distribute food to hungry men and women who lived under bridges and in alleys. Through his example and encouragement, food programs and shelters have won strong support within the Charlotte community. Like Mother Teresa, he ministered to those ill or dying with AIDS. He also labored to bring Catholic homosexuals back to the Church. While he received criticism from those who would restrict God’s love, he received many expressions of gratitude from mothers and fathers for his compassionate ministry to their gay and lesbian children. Father Gene McCreesh, SJ has left St. Peter Church in Charlotte and is now receiving hospice care in Baltimore, Maryland. During these final days of his life, Father Gene continues to remind us that ALL IS GRACE WHEN MADE ONE WITH JESUS. Holy Week is a time for the enrichment of the soul as we walk with Jesus through His suffering and death to the glory of His Resurrection. We are invited on Holy Thursday to celebrate the sacrament of His love in the gift of His Sacred Body and Blood. Good Friday bids us to contemplate “the wondrous love” (to again quote Mother Teresa) of Jesus taking upon Himself the sins of the world, the innocent dying for the guilty. The beauty of the Easter Vigil and the Masses that follow ring with the joy of Jesus’ triumph over sin and death. Easter calls us to “die to the life of sin and rise to life in Jesus.” God grant us the grace to spend these days in a spirit of faith that will deepen our love for Him and help us to follow Him with an undivided heart.

Most Reverend William G. Curlin

2 The Catholic News & Herald Protesters seek less radiation from Vatican Radio antennae VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Several hundred protesters gathered at Vatican Radio’s office near St. Peter’s Square April 1 to demand that the broadcaster lower the levels of its transmission radiation, which they say endangers the health of nearby residents. The protesters, many with children in tow, wore T-shirts proclaiming, “No to (radio) waves, Yes to life,” while their representatives discussed the citizens’ concerns during an inconclusive half-hour meeting with the Vatican Radio’s directors. The demonstration was the latest in a monthslong dispute over the radiation levels emitted from the radio’s cluster of antennae in Rome’s outskirts.

Youths need to hear Gospel’s demanding invitation, pope says VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Preparing for a meeting with youths from Canada and Rome, Pope John Paul II said young people today need to hear the Gospel’s demanding invitation to deny oneself and “take up the cross.” Speaking at a Sunday blessing April 1, the pope said Lent was a good time to reflect on Christ’s call for self-sacrifice, which should be “the Christian’s style.” “Jesus does not propose mortification as an end in itself. In reality, to deny oneself and take up the cross means assuming completely one’s responsibility before God and other people,” he said. The pope said that as the church asks young people to orient their lives toward Christ, it should not make it sound easy.

Franciscans develop new Web site for inactive Catholics CINCINNATI (CNS) — Combining the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi with 21stcentury technology, Franciscan friars in Cincinnati unveiled a new Web site March 21 dedicated to inviting and assisting inactive Catholics to return to the church.

Named www.OnceCatholic.org, the site is sponsored by the Franciscans of the St. John the Baptist province, based in Cincinnati, and St. Anthony Messenger Press. The goal of the new Web site is to “offer people a welcoming place to stop in on their quest for spirituality, with the hope of reconnecting them with a local Catholic parish,” said Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, a member of the project’s development team.

Priests for Life launching $12 million

CNS photo from Reuters

Inmate makes cross at notorious Brazil prison An inmate with an amputated leg makes a cross to pass time at the Carandiru prison in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in late March. Brazilian officials have promised to shut down the notorious prison, one of Latin America’s largest, within a year and move inmates to several smaller modern penitentiaries. The Carandiru complex, built to hold 3,250 inmates, houses more than twice that many.

Conference focuses on moral, ethical issues of capital punishment WASHINGTON (CNS) — The tide is turning on U.S. support for the death penalty, said speakers at a two-day conference on the subject at The Catholic University of America in Washington. But that turn has less to do with people changing their minds about the morality of execution as crime policy than it does with public understanding that the way the United States handles capital punishment is deeply flawed, they said. The conference on the morality of the death penalty brought together lawyers, ethicists, philosophers, sociologists and clergy. It was sponsored by the university’s Columbus School of Law and its Interdisciplinary Program in Law and Religion, and the School of Religious Studies.

Episcopal

April 6, 2001 Volume 10 • Number 30

Publisher: Most Reverend William G. Curlin Editor: Joann S. Keane Associate Editor: Jimmy Rostar Staff Writer: Alesha M. Price Graphic Designer: Tim Faragher Advertising Representative: Cindi Feerick Secretary: Jane Glodowski 1123 South Church St., Charlotte, NC 28203 Mail: P.O. Box 37267, Charlotte, NC 28237 Phone: (704) 370-3333 FAX: (704) 370-3382 E-mail: catholicnews@charlottediocese.org The Catholic News & Herald, USPC 007-393, is published by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, 1123 South Church St., Charlotte, NC 28203, 44 times a year, weekly except for Christmas week and Easter week and every two weeks during June, July and August for $15 per year for enrollees in parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte and $18 per year for all other subscribers. Second-class postage paid at Charlotte NC and other cities. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to The Catholic News & Herald, P.O. Box 37267, Charlotte, NC 28237.

April 6, 2001

The World in

c a l e n-

Bishop William G. Curlin will take part in the following events: April 12 — 7:30 p.m.

Mass of the Lord’s Supper St. Patrick, Charlotte April 13 — 7:30 p.m.

Good Friday Mass St. Patrick, Charlotte April 14 — 8 p.m.

Easter Vigil Mass St. Patrick, Charlotte April 15 — 11 a.m.

Easter Mass St. Patrick, Charlotte April 18 — 7 p.m.

Confirmation St. Francis of Assisi, Mocksville

media campaign WASHINGTON (CNS) — Priests for Life, with a budget of $4 million last year, plans to spend three times that amount through the end of 2002 on a media campaign reaching out to women who have had or are considering an abortion. Billboards with the slogan “The Doors of the Church Are Open” are already going up in the New York, Los Angeles and Chicago metropolitan areas, with San Francisco and Washington to follow. They will be augmented by bus and train advertisements, as well as a series of four television commercials to be aired first in those areas, and then in other cities. Father Frank Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life, said the billboards were being concentrated in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles because “those

Diocesan

plan -

cafeteria. Father Matthew Leonard from St. Gabriel Church is the celebrant for this month’s Mass. For information, contact Josie Backus at (704) 527-4676.

HENDERSONVILLE — The St. Francis of the Hills Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order meets today from 3-5 p.m. at Immaculate Conception Church, 208 7th Ave. West, in the office wing. Visitors and inquirers are welcome, so for more information, call Pat Cowan at (828) 884-4246.

23 CHARLOTTE — Because of Holy Week, the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 1 Mecklenburg County-St. Brigid, an Irish-Catholic social and charitable inter-parish group, meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at St. Gabriel Church, 3016 Providence Rd. Anyone interested in her Irish-Catholic roots, call Jeanmarie Schuler at (704) 554-0720.

CHARLOTTE — There is a support

three areas are, sadly, abortion capitals in our country.”

European bishops urge overhaul of EU agriculture policies VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While expressing concern for the plight of European farmers after disastrous outbreaks of disease among livestock, bishops called for an overhaul of the agriculture policies of the European Union. “The current agriculture policy is not economically, socially or ecologically sustainable,” said German Bishop Josef Homeyer of Hildesheim, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community. The EU’s price guarantee policy has led to serious overproduction, harming the land and flooding the international market with exports, Bishop Homeyer said March 30 at a Vatican press conference. Representatives from bishops’ conferences in the 15 countries which make up the European Union met March 29-30 at the Vatican. Bishops from Poland, Malta and Switzerland — non-EU nations — joined them for discussions, as did the top officers of the larger Council of European Episcopal Conferences.

Greek Orthodox leader urges pope to address Catholic ‘intransigence’ ATHENS, Greece (CNS) — The head of Greece’s Orthodox Church appealed for Pope John Paul II to take “further steps” toward recognizing Catholic Church “intransigence” before his planned May visit to the country. Greek Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens praised Pope John Paul for regretting past “church errors,” but said others also must be addressed. Meanwhile, a priest who is a Catholic cathedral administrator said most Catholic clergy believe the pilgrimage should be postponed because of current church-state disputes.

Archbishop Christodoulos said in a March 23 statement: “For the first time in the Vatican’s age-old intransigence, this pope has shown serious signs of apologizing. But this is barely the first step. There are many further ones which need to be taken.”

group meeting for caregivers of family and friends suffering from Alzheimer’s/dementia today and every fourth Monday from 10-11:15 a.m. in room E of the ministry center at St. Gabriel Church, 3016 Providence Rd. Activities for the memory-impaired are also being provided. For more information about the support group or the Adult Day Respite Program for the memory-impaired, which meets every Monday and Wednesday, call Suzanne Bach at (704) 376-4135.

MORGANTON — Catholic Social Services and St. Charles Borromeo Church, 714 West Union St., are offering parish ministry classes for those who are ministering or would like to minister to the sick and elderly homebound. The classes; covering ministry, sick and elderly issues and administering the Eucharist to those in homes and hospitals; are being held at the church hall beginning today and continuing on the next two Mondays, April 30 and May 7. Participants will receive certificates and must bring their experience and willingness. Call Meg Smith at (828) 438-0774.

Please submit notices of events for the Diocesan Planner at least 10 days prior to

April 6, 2001

The World in

Scientists, others debate human cloning on Capitol Hill WASHINGTON (CNS) — Researchers who intend to clone human beings clashed with genetics experts who oppose it in a seven-hour congressional hearing March 28. The Bush administration and members of the House subcommittee that convened the hearing indicated a strong desire to create a federal law banning human cloning — a move thwarted three years ago by an inability to reach consensus on specifics of such a law. Human reproductive cloning should not be attempted because “it is simply too dangerous technically and raises far too many ethical and social questions,” said lead-off witness Dr. Thomas Okarma, president of the biopharmaceutical company Geron. He expressed opposition on behalf of Biotechnology Industry Organization, a group of more than 950 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state centers and related organizations throughout the United States and 33 other nations.

Church leaders call for ‘urgent conclusion’ to Mideast conflict VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant church leaders in the Holy Land issued a joint appeal for an “urgent conclusion” to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A return to peace negotiations is the only way to ensure the well-being of all the region’s peoples, they said. Their statement was published March 28 by Fides, the Vatican’s missionary news service. “The violence which has intensified over these past months will only end when both parties in the conflict make a determined effort to respect each other’s rights while affirming the dignity of every human life,” said the Christian leaders. They also appealed for more international humanitarian aid to those caught up in conflict zones, saying that “many are desperate for food, clothing, shelter and the like.”

Nuns in eastern India seek police protection after death threats LALGARH, India (CNS) — Nuns in an eastern Indian village sought police protection after Hindu militants threatened to kill them if they did not let Hindus worship

under a tree on the convent grounds. Some 100 militants armed with bamboo sticks blocked five Holy Cross nuns and eight other women from entering the grounds in mid-March after the women attended Mass outside, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. The convent is in Lalgarh, a village in Bihar state’s West Champaran district, some 600 miles east of New Delhi. Sister Pushpa, superior of the convent, said the Hindus demanded land around a peepul tree on the convent’s 40-acre property because they consider the tree holy and want to build a temple near it.

National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly debuts BOSTON (CNS) — The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly has debuted as a new publication of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston. John M. Haas, president of the center, said the new journal is “written for those who respect the great moral tradition of the church and who desire to see its time-honored principles applied to pressing contemporary issues that trouble the conscience of the nation.”

The quarterly will present an in-depth analysis of the range of bioethical issues as a complement to Ethics & Medics, the center’s monthly commentary for more than 25 years.

Pope urges lay people to pray Liturgy of the Hours VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope John Paul II called for greater promotion among Christian lay people of the Liturgy of the Hours, traditional daily prayers structured around the Psalms. He said the Psalter was the “ideal source” of Christian prayer, to which the church should turn to deepen its “art of prayer” in the third millennium. Speaking to pilgrims March 28 at the weekly general audience, the pope said he was beginning a series of talks on the Psalter “to encourage and to help everyone pray with the same words used by Jesus, (which have been) present for millennia in the prayer of Israel and of the church.”

Social, economic conditions worsening in Macedonia, says priest WARSAW, Poland (CNS) — A Macedonian priest warned of worsen-

CHARLOTTE — The fund-raising committee of Our Lady of Assumption Church is hosting a golf tournament at Larkhaven Golf Club, 4801 Camp Stewart Rd. today, and golfers and sponsors are needed to participate in the event. Proceeds will benefit the church debt reduction fund. For more information and entry forms, contact Vince Coscia at (704) 536-4287 or (704) 907-3163 or e-mail vacoscia@ AOL.com.

22 CHARLOTTE — St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., is celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday today at 3 p.m. with traditional solemn Benediction and recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The sacrament of reconciliation is available at 2 p.m. For more information, call (704) 543-7677.

CHARLOTTE — Because of Holy Week, the charismatic Mass is being held at St. Patrick Cathedral, 1621 Dilworth Rd. East, this afternoon at 4 p.m. with prayer teams at 3 p.m. and a potluck dinner at 5 p.m. in the school

April 8 CHARLOTTE — The diocesan choir rehearsals for the Chrism Mass continue today from 4-5:30 p.m. at St. Patrick Cathedral, 1521 Dilworth Rd. East. The Chrism Mass, being celebrated by Bishop Curlin, is being held on April 10 at 11 a.m., also at the cathedral. For further information, call Dr. Larry Stratemeyer at (704) 3342283, Ext. 22.

CHARLOTTE — The Raiders Association from Our Lady of Assumption School is hosting a “Family Day of Golf ” today at noon at the Larkhaven Golf Club. The day includes celebrity guest host Ethan Horton, snacks, lunch, drinks and an afternoon of golfing for kids of all ages. A professional golf clinic, clubs and prizes are being provided for the young participants, and the adults can compete to win prizes. For information, call Diana Kennedy at (704) 548-0568.

CHARLOTTE — Churches in the Charlotte area are hosting ultreyas

The Catholic News & Herald 3

April 6, 2001

Dear Friends in Christ: At Easter, we ask your generous support and response to the second collection which will be taken in all churches of our Diocese to help meet the needs of our Seminary and Priests’ Continuing Education programs.

We presently have 20 men in various seminaries and we await the time when they will be able to begin their service, as priests, in the Diocese of Charlotte.

Also, the Diocese sponsors workshops and other programs to help keep our priests abreast of developments in theology and pastoral practices, thereby enabling them to better serve the faithful.

Today, the cost of education continues to rise, and only through your kindness and generosity are we able to meet the escalating expenses. Please be assured of our gratitude and appreciation for your generous response to the Seminary & Priests Continuing Education Collection, to be taken the weekend of April 14-15.

Wishing you the blessings of this holy Lenten Season, I am Sincerely yours in Christ,

Very Reverend Mauricio W. West Vicar General and Chancellor

ing social and economic conditions in his country, following the mid-March launch of an ethnic Albanian rebellion. However, he added that the Catholic Church enjoyed “good relations” with other religious communities and was ready to act as a mediator.

“Our church is already serving as a bridge,” said Father Antun Siramotic, director of Macedonia’s Caritas organization, the local followed by a school of leaders on the following dates and times: St. Vincent de Paul Church, 6828 Old Reid Rd., from 7-8 p.m. tonight for adults only with shared snacks; St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 1400 Suther Rd., from 1-2:30 p.m. on April 12 with childcare and a family potluck and St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Pkwy., from 1:30-3:00 p.m. on April 22 with childcare and a family potluck. For more information, call Dan Hines at (704) 544-6665 or Aliceann Coon at (704) 540-8696.

MAGGIE VALLEY — Living Waters Catholic Reflection Center, 103 Living Waters Lane, is hosting a Holy Week retreat today through April 15. All are welcome to join the Augustinian Friars and the parish family of St. Margaret Church to celebrate liturgies throughout the week and share in the celebration of the sacred Triduum.

For more information, call (828) 9263833 or e-mail lwcrc@main.nc.us.

10 SWANNANOA — At St. Margaret Mary Church, 102 Andrew Place,

church’s charitable agency. “We are helping the poor and marginalized from all social groups, and we have no conflict with Orthodox and Muslims. Thanks to this closeness to each side, we are well positioned to foster unity,” he said.

during Holy Week, the schedule is as follows: Today - 6 p.m. Seder meal with covered dish; April 12 - 7 p.m. Mass and washing of the feet followed by Eucharistic adoration from 8 p.m. until midnight; April 13 - children’s Stations of the Cross at noon, Mass at 3 p.m. with veneration of the cross and a 7 p.m. presentation of the “Heart of the Cross”; April 14 - 10 a.m. blessing of the food and Easter Vigil at 8 p.m. and April 15 - 8:30 and 11 a.m. Masses. For details, call (828) 686-8833.

21 BLAIRSVILLE, Ga. — A Life in the Spirit seminar is taking place on eight Saturdays beginning this morning from 9:30-11:30 a.m. and ending on June 9. St. Francis of Assisi Church, Hwy. 76/515, halfway between Blairsville and Young Harris, is hosting this seminar geared toward helping people prepare for a deeper walk with the Lord and a further indwelling of his Holy Spirit.

For details about this free seminar extended to all Charlotte diocesan parishioners, call Jerry or Madeline Rousseau at (706) 781-6292 or Rev. Mr. Larry Casey at (706) 781-6636.

4 The Catholic News & Herald

Around the Di-

Soup’s on at Shelby parish; faith-sharing on

By JIMMY ROSTAR erybody just sits on the edge of their Associate Editor seats, waiting for what Father is going SHELBY — On Wednesday eve- to say next.” nings during Lent, St. Mary Parish Mary Frye, a parishioner and the resembled a buzzing cafeteria at dinner communication commission chairperhour as much as it did a center of faith. Pa- son at the parish, was taken by stories rishioners from the Shelby area gathered of the Jews’ faithfulness. “Had Christ at the church to share meals and stories not come, I would have been Jewish be— soup and substance, if you will. cause they relate everything to God,” For the second consecutive year, she said, adding, “When Christ came, the Catholic parish in Shelby hosted a he took the Jewish customs and made Lenten program of sharing simple soup them relevant for Christian living for meals and discussing faith issues. Each the whole world, not just one selected Wednesday, about 125 parishioners from people.”

St. Mary and Christ the King Church Father Houseknecht said he was in nearby Kings Mountain gathered for overwhelmed by the interest and numspiritual and dietary bers of the parishsustenance. ioners who have at“We’re building on the basic Father Eric tended. He added that Houseknecht, pastor, tenets of Jesus and of all family the program has truly facilitated the ses- life; that is, we’re returning to been a family affair. sions. Every week he some of the family values of “The most exdiscussed aspects of gathering together and breaking citing part of it for Jewish tradition and me is it incorporates culture in the life of bread, sharing a meal and and includes all memtalking about our day — only in Jesus. bers of the families, “I’d basically try this case, we’re talking about from the very young to get people in the our faith,” Father Houseknecht to the old,” he said. mindset of how imp- said. “We’re trying to have a “We’re doing interortant God is in the generational catechetotal life of the Jew- family night, and we’re making sis here.” ish person, and that that an important night here.”

The parishioners this is what cradled are so enthusiastic the humanity of Jeabout the soup and sus Christ,” said Father Houseknecht. substance program that they are plan“It’s from these roots and traditions ning on expanding it to year-round that you begin to make sense of some potluck dinners and discussion sesof our traditions and celebrations.” sions. Father Houseknecht said such a The group took a historical, cul- program brings a Catholic faith comtural and theological journey into the munity together on a night traditionJewish tradition, focusing on who God ally associated with church gatherings, is from the Jewish perspective; the especially in the South.

Jewish concept of creation; the impor“We’re building on the basic tenets tance of Moses; David and the proph- of Jesus and of all family life; that is, ets; the development of the Scriptures we’re returning to some of the famand the rituals, celebrations and cer- ily values of gathering together and emonies that define Jewish faith life. breaking bread, sharing a meal and The program concluded April talking about our day — only in this 4 with a discussion of the Passover case, we’re talking about our faith,” Seder, a meal-and-prayer service Jews Father Houseknecht said. “We’re trycelebrate in their homes on the night ing to have a family night, and we’re before the first day of Passover. making that an important night here.”

Marisa Alvarez, a parishioner and the administrative assistant at St. Contact Associate Editor Jimmy RoMary, said discussing Jewish tradition star by calling (704) 370-3334 or e-mail was an opportunity to appreciate her jtrostar@charlottediocese.org own faith more.

“I learned a lot,” said Alvarez. “Ev-

April 6, 2001

Caritas Sierra Leone provides help to former female soldiers

By Alpha Jalloh FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (CNS) — Caritas, the Catholic development agency of Sierra Leone, provides assistance to former female soldiers to help them become more self-reliant, said a program official.

“They are mostly in their teens,” said Sunkari Kamara, Caritas’ child welfare program manager.

The young women not only need help to acquire vocational training, but assistance to start small-scale businesses on their own, Kamara said.

Kamara said the female soldiers are traumatized after their disarmament.

“They are restless and sometimes plunged into a pensive mood. They lack concentration in what they do and are hottempered,” she said.

Counseling services are provided for the women to help them overcome their trauma, she said.

“We provide recreational facilities to help them forget the events they have taken part in,” she said.

Many of the young women are reported to have been gang-raped while at the war front. They also took part in arson, killing, torturing and amputating villagers in the interior of the country.

“We are not surprised if they feel traumatized,” Kamara said.

The Caritas official said with the continued deployment of U.N. troops in areas formerly controlled by the Revolutionary United Front rebels, more rebels are turning

up in demobilization centers.

“We expect to get more girls in the coming months,” she added.

She said young women who receive vocational training will get financial assistance to purchase equipment to start their own business.

“We want to prevent them from resorting to prostitution or adopting anti-social lifestyles after their training,” she said.

Kamara said the girls have now learned hairdressing, tailoring, dyeing and catering. Since most of the girls do not know the whereabouts of their parents, she added, with training they will be able to make a living on their own.

As more female soldiers are disarmed and demobilized, Caritas is finding it difficult to accommodate all of them in Lungi Town, across the river from Freetown, the coastal capital city of Sierra Leone.

Kamara expressed appreciation for the community’s cooperation in taking care of teen women.

“We have asked the community to continue fostering them. We give financial assistance to those adopting school-going girls,” she said.

Kamara said she believes that under foster care, the girls will be able to overcome their stress.

“The community has been very receptive,” she said. “There have been no threats on the girls like in other parts of the country, where residents are hostile to former rebels.”

April 6, 2001

Around the Di-

The Catholic News & Herald 5

Church leaders must appreciate diversity, challenge assumptions,

By JIMMY ROSTAR Associate Editor CHARLOTTE — Appreciating cultural, ethnic and social diversity in the church is important for those who lead, an expert on diversity and leadership told a group of people who serve in ministry.

Terry Aiken, who for six years has been a diversity and leadership consultant, was the keynote speaker at “Leadership Training for Lay Ministers,” a program sponsored by the Diocese of Charlotte’s Education Vicariate March 23-24 at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte.

The program was designed primarily for lay people involved in educational ministry in the church to understand ways of maximizing their leadership potential.

Aiken said to lead effectively, people must challenge their cultural, ethnic and social assumptions about others and work toward the understanding that diversity and human relations are intertwined.

Because of the way the human mind processes information, he said, it fights against challenging the assumptions people make. That internal struggle can often yield negative effects, including a lack of embracing people for who they are instead of how they look, for instance, or assuming what their needs are instead of asking them directly.

“We do that every day with people,” he said. “That’s the frightening thing,

because we make those assumptions, and we walk away without ever even making the attempt to challenge the assumptions.”

Aiken, a juvenile court counselor for the state’s Office of Juvenile Justice and youth minister at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in High Point, said people transfer ways of thinking to the next generation — a cycle that in some instances is unhealthy.

“Children today listen to parents more,” Aiken said. “Contrary to what we may believe, children observe parents and adults more than we realize.

“If you’re going to lead by example, then you can assume that everything you believe in life (will be passed on) to children, who are going to be adults with the same type of behavior.”

To challenge the assumptions of oneself and others, real leaders must make an effort to live the “practicewhat-you-preach” mentality, Aiken said.

“If you’re going to challenge assumptions, don’t challenge assumptions every other day,” he said.

“Challenge assumptions daily, and it becomes part of who you are.”

Challenging one’s assumptions was key to the discussions of the participants throughout the weekend.

One of three tracks offered, “Evangelization and Inculturation”

Photo by Jimmy Rostar

Mercy Sister Mary Timothy Warren, director of the diocesan lay ministry program, shares a laugh with Terry Aiken following his keynote address to lay ministers March 23. included workshops on challenges in ministry, how the church exists to evangelize all people and how the church welcomes everyone.

During this track, members of the local Catholic Hispanic community offered their insights on how multiculturalism offers unique ministry opportunities for parishes across the Diocese of Charlotte.

In the track “Leadership: Communication and Collaboration,” participants discussed effective ways of dialoguing, collaborating and motivating with compassion.

“Providing Human Services in the Parish and Doing Faith Justice,” the third track, focused on the role the church plays in offering human services in the parish and the community, and offered ways leaders can work for justice.

Leaders in business, the community and the Diocese of Charlotte composed the leadership team, who presented to the group and facilitated discussions. The Diocese of Charlotte launched the leadership program last

fall with a series of workshops that identified leadership skills. Organizers geared this latest round of workshops to assist lay ministers in applying skills to their particular ministries.

Plans to extend the program into the mountains and Triad are ongoing.

“In all of the groups, participants were encouraged as leaders to go beyond their boundaries and listen to the needs of the people they serve,” said Colleen McDermott, diocesan director of campus and young adult ministries, who co-planned the program. “That was an important topic, because we as leaders should not always assume what the needs of people are. We should ask them — and walk with them in answering those needs.”

Contact Associate Editor Jimmy Rostar by calling (704) 370-3334 or e-mail jtrostar@charlottediocese.org

6 The Catholic News & Herald Two honored for helping poor parents choose nonpublic schools NEW YORK (CNS) — Two philanthropists who have initiated scholarship programs to give poor parents an opportunity to choose parochial or other nonpublic schools for their children were honored March 30 by the William E. Simon Foundation. The William E. Simon Prize in Philanthropic Leadership was given to John T. Walton, son of the Wal-Mart founders, and the William E. Simon Prize in Social Entrepreneurship went to Peter M. Flanigan, an economist who served in the Nixon administration and now advises the investment firm, UBS Warburg LLC. Each received $250,000 from the foundation, based in Morristown, N.J., for use in aiding charities of their choice. Fund officials said this year’s awards were the first in what is expected to be an annual presentation.

Archbishop, magazine caution against rapid Lefebvre reconciliation ROME (CNS) — Following news reports suggesting an imminent Vatican reconciliation with a group of followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, an influential French cardinal and an Italian Catholic magazine said the Vatican should proceed slowly and cautiously. Cardinal Pierre Eyt of Bordeaux said the unresolved “doctrinal, liturgical, sacramental (and) institutional” differences with the Priestly Society of St. Pius X appeared too great to overcome “without profound study and sufficient delay.”

In a similar vein, the editors of Jesus, an Italian monthly magazine published by the Pauline Fathers, said they were troubled by reports suggesting that a formal reconciliation might be reached

by Easter, April 15. Vatican sources have said that while contacts with the society have continued, it is too early to speak of concrete moves toward reconciliation.

Vatican in battle against proabortion groups, says diplomat MANAGUA, Nicaragua (CNS) — The Vatican is in a worldwide battle against pro-abortion groups that want “to impose their death-

April 6, 2001

People in the

CNS photo by Reuters

Greek nun listens to speech A Greek nun, surrounded by Orthodox priests, listens to a speech delivered during a demonstration last year. Some members of the Orthodox Church have expressed opposition to the pope’s upcoming visit to Greece May 4-5 and have predicted massive protests. dealing agenda” on the international community, said the Vatican’s top diplomat to the United Nations. Archbishop Renato R. Martino criticized the United States and other countries where abortions abound because, he said, civil law is considered neutral rather than protective regarding unborn human life. The archbishop, the Vatican’s representative at U.N. headquarters in New York, gave the homily at a March 25 Mass in Managua to celebrate the Nicaraguan government’s naming of the date as the national “Day of the Unborn.” The Mass at the Denis Martinez sports stadium was attended by more than 20,000 people, including top government and civic leaders.

Four bishops sign ecumenical covenant in Massachusetts SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) — In a colorful ceremony mixing acknowledgment of theological agreement with expressions of personal

ties, four Lutheran, Episcopalian and Catholic bishops in western and central Massachusetts signed a historic, three-faith ecumenical covenant March 25. More than 400 persons nearly filled Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Springfield for the signing of a three-year covenant between the Catholic Dioceses of Springfield and Worcester, the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts and the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “This is not just something formal that is taking place in an institutional setting.

This also comes from our relationships, in which we are bound together in our service to Jesus Christ,” said Episcopal Bishop Gordon Scruton, whose diocese is made up of the five Massachusetts counties in the Springfield and Worcester Catholic dioceses.

Woman named first lay chancellor in Washington Archdiocese WASHINGTON (CNS) — Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington has named Jane Golden Belford, a local attorney, as the new chancellor for the Archdiocese of Washington.

Belford, who was to begin her duties in mid-April, becomes the first layperson — and the first woman — to hold that post in the history of the archdiocese, which was founded in 1939. As chancellor, she will serve as a member of the cardinal’s senior staff, as a corporate member of all archdiocesan corporations and as founding chairwoman of a newly created Archdiocesan Women’s Commission.

April 6, 2001

By Alesha M. Price Staff Writer CHARLOTTE — Nestled in a shopping center off of Monroe Road lies a store where people have found a plethora of Catholic-themed and -inspired literature, gifts and other Christian and religious items for a variety of occasions. For two decades, the Carolina Catholic Bookshoppe has been a fixture in the lives of Catholics and non-Catholics in the Western half of the state and has helped to nourish people’s spiritual and social needs in and around the diocese.

“This is a place that provides symbols and books that pertain to the basis of our faith and helps us to grow in our faith,” said Julie Byrne, a customer and member of St. Gabriel Church.

The shop celebrated its anniversary with a special sale and customer appreciation event with gifts, prizes and refreshments in March. Through the vision of Genita Raeker and with Hal Weidner’s continuation of Raeker’s original idea to supply Charlotte and surrounding cities and towns with a store that specialized in Catholic items, the store has grown as the diocese has grown.

“She (Raeker) felt there was a need, and this is the only store like this one in Charlotte with a couple of others in the diocese,” said Judy Gritzmacher, store manager for the past 12 years. “‘Bookshoppe’ is sometimes misleading because we sell any kind of religious goods from rosaries to jewelry to statues and other items like medals, cards and books.”

The store contains a conglomeration of articles with a wall adorned with crucifixes of different shapes and sizes, displays with children’s and adult religious books, Christian music

The Catholic News & Herald 7

From the

Catholic bookshop completes 20th chapter in

Photos by Alesha M. Price

Pictured from left to right, Ann Nickerson, assistant manager, and Judy Gritzmacher, manager, discuss one of their store’s items. The Carolina Catholic Bookshoppe celebrated 20 years in business this past March.

CD’s, cards for holidays and sacraments, bookmarks, candles and a host of other items. The most requested and sold items are rosaries, statues and Bibles. With the Lenten and Easter seasons in full swing in the Church, the store stays busy during this time of the year.

And, springtime Communions and Confirmations send many parents, grandparents and godparents to the store for the right gift for their young Catholics.

“We call the churches to get their dates for sacraments, so we know when people will be looking for things,” said Ann Nickerson, assistant manager for

seven-and-a-half years and an Our Lady of Assumption parishioner. “First Communion and Confirmation are big times for us and the churches, and we have a reciprocal relationship with the churches.”

Catholics are not the only ones who patronize the store. The store workers have encountered many people of various faiths who come in looking for items not found anywhere else. They believe the store’s atmosphere, the items they sell and the feelings and ideas those items foster are part of the reason why they attract their varied customer base and why people seem to return.

“The clientele runs the whole gamut. You see the whole Catholic Church here, every aspect of it and every belief, along with quite a few non-Catholics,” said Gritzmacher.

“Many people seem grateful that we are here, and people will come back and say that a certain book has helped them or someone they gave it to. They see us as a resource and comment on how peaceful it is here. That is an af-

firmation for us.”

Many times, they play soothing music in the background. The store’s quiet is only usually broken by the ring of the telephone, a customer asking a question or a child playing with the toys in the middle section of the store, but the women allow people to browse freely without much disturbance.

“People find it is a ‘safe place’ to talk and provides an opportunity for fellowship. People come from work or during their lunch hours because it is quiet here,” said Gritzmacher.

Not only is the store beneficial to the customers, but it also helps its workers in various ways.

“It is important to note that this is a ministry, not necessarily a business, which helps as far as serving people,” said Nickerson. “I enjoy the community of working with like-minded people. I also get things from some of the customers that speak to me, touch me in a spiritual way. Sometimes people say things that you need to hear at that point in time. It allows us to strengthen our faith and to keep in touch with spirituality.”

Gritzmacher agreed, “This has strengthened my spiritual life and has given me food for thought. The ministerial aspects of the job first intrigued me, and it (the job) has given me an opportunity to do more things as far as ministry is concerned. It has allowed me to use some of my gifts and talents and has given me an understanding of the Church.”

Contact Staff Writer Alesha M. Price by calling (704) 370-3354 or e-mail amprice@charlottediocese.org.

The Carolina Catholic Bookshoppe is located at 4410-F Monroe Road in Charlotte.

8 The Catholic News & Herald WASHINGTON (CNS) — The issue of the death penalty took center stage in late March on multiple fronts: in the U.S. Supreme Court, in France where an anti-abortion activist suspected of killing a U.S. abortion doctor was apprehended, in the state of Massachusetts, and at a Washington conference of lawyers, ethicists, philosophers and clergy.

The Supreme Court heard one case and agreed to take another case that raised different questions about the constitutionality of executing people with diminished mental capacities.

The court heard oral arguments March 27 in the case of a Texas death-row inmate whose lawyers say he has the mind of a 7-yearold. Jurors at his trial did not have the chance to adequately consider his mental capacity, his lawyers argued.

The same day, the court agreed to hear a case this fall that raises the question of whether the Constitution’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment” should prevent executing people who are mentally handicapped.

A week earlier, the court had ruled in a South Carolina case that jurors have the right to know that they have the option of sentencing someone to life imprisonment without possibility of parole as an alternative to the death sentence. That 7-2 ruling returns the sentencing of Wesley Shafer Jr. to the state courts.

The U.S. death penalty also became an issue in France, where James Kopp was arrested March 29 for the 1998 murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian, who performed abortions at a New York clinic.

French law prohibits extraditing suspects to countries where convictions could carry the death penalty.

France outlawed capital punishment

In the

Death penalty draws global, national and state in 1981.

In Massachusetts, nurse Kristen Gilbert faced the possibility of becoming the first person in that state sentenced to death since 1975.

U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor March 26 sentenced the convicted killer of four patients at a veteran’s hospital to life in prison without possibility of parole. A jury had been unable to come to agreement about her sentence.

Massachusetts voters have consistently rejected reinstating capital punishment, but Gilbert was tried under federal laws that do carry the death sentence, because the murders occurred on federal property.

Springfield Bishop Thomas L. Dupre had been asked by the defense to testify about the effects on the community of requiring residents of a state without the death penalty to serve on a federal jury and consider a capital sentence. But Posner ruled against him testifying, saying he thought it inappropriate to let the trial become a debate about the death penalty.

In Washington, a two-day conference on moral and ethical issues of the death penalty at The Catholic University of America included a range of speakers, such as a federal judge who said “a Catholic judge does have a serious problem if he has to rule over a case with the death penalty.”

Judge John T. Noonan Jr., of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals., said that despite a long-standing tradition of capital punishment and justification for it, there are arguments for abolishing the practice. He noted the abolition of the death penalty by European countries, and recently opposition of the death penalty

by U.S. Catholic bishops and Pope John Paul II. “John Paul II tells us the purpose of punishment is to restore order, but he does not equate that with the old law of an ‘eye for an eye,”’ Noonan said.

At the same session, Cardinal Avery Dulles, a Fordham University theologian, traced Catholic arguments justifying the death penalty up to the 1960s.

“Catholic churchmen have often protested against the excessive use of the death penalty, but they have agreed that for very serious crimes the state had the right, even the obligation, to impose capital punishment,” he explained.

Cardinal Dulles said the strongest argument against the death penalty shows it to be as a useless or counterproductive form of punishment.

“In our nation today the death penalty fails to manifest the justice of God because the state is no longer seen as having divine authority,” he said.

Conference keynote speaker Lawrence C. Marshall, legal director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions and law professor at Northwestern University’s law school, said that entirely aside from moral and ethical issues, there is growing evidence that capital punishment is a failed experiment.

Marshall said the way the death penalty is currently applied has many of the same problems that led the Supreme Court to overturn capital punishment nationwide in 1972 in Furman vs. Georgia. In that case, the court said capital punish-

April 6, 2001

ment constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth and 14th Amendments to the Constitution.

Part of that opinion defined “unusual” as “if it discriminates against him by reason of his race, religion, wealth, social position, or class, or if it is imposed under a procedure that gives room for the play of such prejudices.”

New death-penalty statutes passed after the Furman ruling were supposed to eliminate those problems, Marshall said, but it has not worked out that way.

Just as the court found in Furman, race and poverty are still the most dominant factors in determining who faces execution for crimes, Marshall said, even among those prosecuted under federal statutes, which “are supposed to be the champagne of death penalty laws.”

What the United States needs is a specific, objective framework for determining whether capital punishment is appropriate, similar to the just war theory for deciding the moral validity of armed conflict, said the Rev. Lloyd Steffen, a professor of religion studies at Lehigh University and a United Church of Christ minister.

He suggested a nine-part framework as a starting point. Among its elements were: whether the cause of the action is just; whether the motivation is justice, not vengeance; fairness of the process; whether the use is justifiable as a last resort; and proportionality.

In another session, Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, who teaches medicine and medical ethics at Georgetown University, said medical cooperation in the death penalty is wrong and should be avoided by all doctors, nurses and other health care professionals.

“I consider it a moral obligation for doctors, nurses and other health professionals to refuse to participate, no matter what the legality may be, no matter

April 6, 2001

Around the Dio-

The Catholic News & Herald 9

Hispanics seek answers at vocation day for women

By JIMMY ROSTAR Associate Editor LENOIR — Concerned about the need for awareness in the Hispanic community regarding vocations, Franciscan Sisters Andrea Inkrott and Linda Scheckelhoff organized a vocation day for Hispanic women March 24 at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Lenoir.

Sparked by the curiosity of four Hispanic women who had expressed interest in the religious life, the sisters who work in Hispanic ministry and those four women planned day of prayer, song and a questionand-answer session with a panel of women religious.

Fifty-five women responded to the call to come and see what religious life is all about, said Sister Andrea, who coordinates Hispanic ministry in the Hickory Vicariate.

The women came with questions and concerns. Many had never known any religious sisters personally or had any idea what their lives were like. Questions arose over how to recognize a calling to a vocation. Many asked about educational opportunities and responsibilities in religious communities. Questions about immigration laws and documentation were asked.

A panel of religious sisters representing six communities answered those questions and others, shared stories from their own lives and missions and attempted to raise awareness of what a call to religious life truly is.

Sister Andrea said the vocation day reminded her that to work in ministry — especially multicultural ministry — is to appreciate a truly universal worldview, one that includes room for people of all cultures and backgrounds.

“We were all impressed by the openness and the spirituality of the young women who were there,” she said of the panel’s impressions of the day. “This was not a frivolous day; they were there seriously, they were taking part and they were sharing.”

“There is a great need in the church for religious workers,” she added. “And God has given us a chance to show what heaven is going to be like. In heaven, there is not going to be a section for the Austrians, and a section for the Chinese, and a section

for people from the U.S. We’re all going to be together, and to me, if we can work together now as a community and as a diocese, then we can show to the world what heaven is like.”

Mercy Sister Mary Timothy Warren, vicar for women religious in the Diocese of Charlotte, was impressed by the eagerness the women brought to the meeting. “They were so respectful, welcoming and receptive to us,” she said. “It was a very significant day for all of us.”

For information on vocations to the religious life for women, call Mercy Sister Mary Timothy Warren, (704) 370-3213.

Courtesy photo

Hispanic women from a number of vicariates in the Diocese of Charlotte gathered March 17 in Lenoir for a vocation day. A panel of religious women representing six communities were present to answer questions and share stories of religious life.

1 0 The Catholic News & Herald Book Review

Catholics can come home again, says new book

Reviewed by Sister Adaire Lassonde, SSND Catholic News Service The topic is always touchy: It’s grandma’s funeral, and a number of the relatives are at the funeral Mass. Many of them will not be receiving Communion. One is divorced and remarried without an annulment, one or another stopped going to church as soon as they entered college. Another had a bad Catholic-school experience

CATHOLICS CAN COME HOME AGAIN: A GUIDE FOR THE JOURNEY OF RECONCILIATION WITH INACTIVE CATHOLICS, by Carrie Kemp. Paulist Press (New York/Mahwah, N.J., 2001).

236 pp. $17.95 and can’t reconcile it with how the church should behave. Some others never could understand the sacrament of confession and felt shamed every time they took part in it.

These are the folks who grew up Catholic, loved their faith, but weren’t able to stay connected for reasons that are very personal and painful. We have named them alienated Catholics, inactive Catholics or, worse, fallen-away Catholics.

Some of them end up in the six-week “Catholics Coming Home” series led by author Carrie Kemp for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

In “Catholics Can Come Home Again: A Guide for the Journey of Reconciliation With Inactive Catholics,” Kemp, a pastoral minister, provides a how-to for setting up a parish ministry for returning Catholics.

Sample checklists and handouts are worth the price of the book alone. But the book also is useful to the friends and family of

April 6, 2001

Read-

seekers as well as the seekers themselves.

It projects a respectful, gentle and genuine approach to helping inactive Catholics who are “seeking an honest relationship with God and are exploring the church’s role in that relationship.”

Readers will wonder how certain hot topics will be explored with seekers. Everyone knows that these are the issues you avoid at gatherings of certain friends — and especially relatives. Kemp’s love for the church and her pastoral spirit are evident: Each subject is addressed with respect, giving the seeker’s perspective, the church’s teaching and a pastoral perspective. Even practicing Catholics reading the book may be led to explore their own questions and issues with the church.

Parishes are advised to look at what they are bringing Catholics home to. A whole chapter is devoted to making parishes more welcoming in the areas of liturgies, education, staff and lay ministry.

Although “evangelization” is not the most comfortable word with Catholics, Kemp unabashedly encourages evangelization in the parish. She calls it “the ongoing response to the presence of God in our lives, not preaching our truth to others, but an effort to help others discover the good news of God’s power within themselves.”

Anyone who has past hurts from the church and attempts to return is certainly looking for reconciliation. Much care and respect are due them just for the effort. Parishes that take this evangelization challenge have a wonderful blueprint for action in Carrie Kemp’s book.

Word to Life

April 8, Palm (Passion) Sunday Cycle C Readings: Procession: Luke 19:28-40 1) Isaiah 50:4-7 Psalm 22:8-9,17-18a, 19-20, 23-24 2) Philippians 2:6-11 3) Gospel: Luke 22:14-23:56

By Jean Denton Catholic News Service Recently I watched a TV film clip of the day in 1957 when nine black high school students walked the gauntlet of screaming, angry white students, parents and local officials to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. They must have been terrified, these children who made their way to the front door of a school where they would be new students — and unwanted at that.

Although physically protected by National Guardsmen, these students were not accompanied by parents or friends. But with their “eyes on the prize,” as one senator would describe the scene 40 years later, they bravely forged ahead, buffeted by insults and threats, in order to force justice into an unjust system.

As one who grew up in the deep South during that time, I can say with certainty that the shouted words were truly insulting, the threats were real, the atmosphere was permeated with unbridled hatred. These very young people, knowing their purpose was much greater than any personal need for

safety and security, endured, much like the Suffering Servant in today’s reading from Isaiah.

Although they faced a hostile crowd, as disciples of God’s justice those students also exemplified the truth foretold in the Gospel account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.

The Pharisees said, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples,” and he answered, “If they were to keep silent, I tell you the very stones would cry out.”

In other words, he is the Lord, and what God wills shall be done.

Jesus would suffer and die, but God willed that his Son would be raised to reconcile the world to God. No act of human will could prevent this. People would suffer — and die — but God willed that schools in the American South would be integrated. People would suffer and die, but God willed that apartheid would be abolished in South Africa.

People would suffer and die, but God willed that that the church in El Salvador would not capitulate to political oppression.

The list goes on.

Unborn people would die, but ...

Palm Sunday tells the story of God’s unalterable truth. Work for justice. And trust, because it will be accomplished.

Weekly Scripture Readings for the week of April 8 - 14, 2001 Palm Sunday, Luke 19:28-40, Isaiah 50:4-7, Philippians 2:6-11, Luke 22:1423:56; Monday, Isaiah 42:1-7, John 12:1-11; Tuesday, Isaiah 49:1-6, John 13:21-33, 36-38; Wednesday, Isaiah 50:4-9, Matthew 26:14-25; Holy Thursday, Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:1-15; Good Friday (Fast and Abstinence), Isaiah 52:13-53:12, Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9, John 18:1-19:42; Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil), Exodus 14:15-15:1, Romans 6:3-11, Luke 24:1-12 Readings for the week of April 15 - 21, 2001 Easter Sunday, Acts 10:34, 37-43, 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, John 20:1-9; Monday, Acts 2:14, 22-23, Matthew 28:8-15; Tuesday, Acts 2:36-41, John 20:11-18; Wednesday, Acts 3:1-10, Luke 24:13-35; Thursday, Acts 3:11-26, Luke 24:35-48; Friday, Acts 4:1-12, John 21:1-14; Saturday, Acts 4:13-21, Mark 16:9-15

April 6, 2001

Video reviews

By Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are home videocassette reviews from the U.S. Catholic Conference Office for Film and Broadcasting. Each videocassette is available on VHS format. Theatrical movies on video have a U.S. Catholic Conference classification and Motion Picture Association of America rating. All reviews indicate the appropriate age group for the video audience.

“Charlie’s Angels” (2000) High-energy blend of comedy and action fuels this TV series-based tale of three brainy, brawny and beautiful investigators (Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu) whose cagey clients (Sam Rockwell and Kelly Lynch) pose a threat to their elusive boss Charlie (voice of John Forsyth).

Video director McG’s glossy feature-length debut is a fast-paced escapist fantasy about girls who just want to have fun while kickboxing their way out of assorted outlandish dangers. Frequent stylized violence, an implied sexual encounter, a few coarse expressions and minimal profanity. The U.S. Catholic Conference classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. (Columbia TriStar) “Dancer in the Dark” (2000) Extravagant musical melodrama about a Czech immigrant (Bjork) going blind who is sentenced to death after her savings for her son’s operation to prevent hereditary blindness is stolen by her landlord (David Morse) who is killed in a struggle over the money. Writer-director Lars von Trier’s flamboyant tearjerker uses vertigo-inducing camera movements and fantasy musical sequences to tell its bizarre tale that is often emotionally gripping but whose brutal conclusion strains credibility.

Brief but intense violence. The U.S. Catholic Conference classification is A-III — adults.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. (New Line) “The Legend of Bagger Vance” (2000) Mythic tale of a mysterious caddie (Will Smith) who helps a dispirited World War I veteran (Matt Damon) regain his confidence to play golf in a championship tournament run by the vet’s Southern belle ex-girlfriend (Charlize Theron). As directed

by Robert Redford, the underdog tale’s classy visuals and an appealing cast produce

Entertaina soothing, fantasy-like tale of one man’s rediscovered integrity thanks to a mystical ally. Brief sexual situations, a suicide and minimal profanity. The U.S. Catholic Conference classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

(DreamWorks) “Lucky Numbers” (2000) Nasty comedy in which two greedy TV station employees (John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow) rig a lottery drawing to win millions but have trouble collecting after their accomplices (Tim Roth and Michael Rapaport) resort to blackmail and murder to avoid exposure. The self-obsessed characters and mean-spirited tone make director Nora Ephron’s comedy decidedly unappealing. A sexual encounter, brief violence, recreational drug use, much rough language and intermittent profanity. The U.S. Catholic Conference classification is A-IV — adults, with reservations. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. (Paramount) “The Million Dollar Hotel” (2001) A by-the-books FBI agent (Mel Gibson) investigates a possible homicide at a seedy Los Angeles hotel where most of the residents (including Jeremy Davies and Milla Jovovich) are mentally unstable indigents. Director Wim Wenders wanders in his attempts to inject humor and humanity into his characters, resulting in a bittersweet but unfocused film. Fleeting violence, some sexual innuendo, occasional profanity and recurring rough language.

The U.S. Catholic Conference classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. (Universal) “102 Dalmatians” (2000) Strained sequel in which a reformed Cruella De Vil (Glenn Close) buys a failing dog orphanage to prove she’s put her nasty fur-obsessed ways behind her, but her transformation is short-lived when she teams up with a rascally furrier (Gerard Depardieu) to create a sensational Dalmatian-spotted coat. As directed by Kevin Lima, outrageous costumes, darling dogs and a few witty moments infuse the film with some fun, but the recycled plot fails to capture the imagination. Mild cartoonlike menace. The U.S. Catholic Conference classification is A-I — general patronage.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is G — general audiences. (Disney) “Red Planet” (2000)

The Catholic News & Herald 11

CNS photo from 20th Century Fox

Scene from movie ‘Someone Like You’ Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman star in a scene from the movie “Someone Like You.” The U.S. Catholic Conference classification is A-III -- adults.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Tepid sci-fi drama set in the year 2050 in which a team of astronauts (including Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss and Benjamin Bratt) is sent to Mars to set up an alternate place for humans to live since Earth is an environmental mess, but their crash landing leaves them without a viable means of escape. Director Antony Hoffman’s predictable plot is mixed with mumbo-jumbo scientific chatter and gimmicky special effects which add up to a dull, tediously paced film. Some sci-fi violence, brief nudity, an instance of rough language and minimal crass language. The U.S. Catholic Conference classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. (Warner Home Video) “Remember the Titans” (2000) Uplifting drama set in 1971 about the desegregation of two powerhouse high school football teams that learn to overcome racism and go on to victory under the leadership of their African-American coach

(Denzel Washington). Aside from occasionally faltering with emotional manipulation, director Boaz Yakin’s heartwarming, fact-based saga shows the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, fear and societal prejudices. Racism theme and fleeting crass language. The U.S. Catholic Conference classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. (Disney)

1 2 The Catholic News & Herald

The Pope Speaks

POPE JOHN PAUL II

Pope urges lay people to pray LiturgyB JOHN of NORTON the Hours y

April 6, 2001

Editorials & Col-

Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope John Paul II called for greater promotion among Christian lay people of the Liturgy of the Hours, traditional daily prayers structured around the Psalms.

He said the Psalter was the “ideal source” of Christian prayer, to which the church should turn to deepen its “art of prayer” in the third millennium.

Speaking to pilgrims March 28 at the weekly general audience, the pope said he was beginning a series of talks on the Psalter “to encourage and to help everyone pray with the same words used

by Jesus, (which have been) present for millennia in the prayer of Israel and of the church.”

He said it was encouraging that many lay people in the wake of the Second Vatican Council had begun to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, a practice once restricted to priests and religious.

Since the first centuries, Christians turned to the Psalms as “the prayer of the people of God,” and early church theologians understood the texts as speaking ultimately of Christ, he said.

In the intervening centuries, the Psalter was sometimes put aside in favor of other prayers, but was kept alive by monastic communities, he said.

One monk, at the turn of the second millennium, went so far as to assert that the Psalms are the “only way” to experience a truly profound prayer, said the pope.

“With this affirmation, which at first sight seems excessive, he in reality remained anchored in the best traditions of the first Christian centuries, when the Psalter became the book par excellence of church prayer,” he said.

The pope said the communal recitation of the Psalms throughout the centuries also served to remind Christians that it is impossible to pray to God “without an authentic communion of life with the brothers and sisters who inhabit the earth.”

Praying the Liturgy of the Hours in no way excludes other “freer expressions” that characterize personal prayer, said the pope. In fact, those expressions can even enrich liturgical prayer, for example, with hymns.

General church law in the Latin rite requires ordained ministers — bishops, priests and deacons — to pray the Liturgy of the Hours daily.

Some religious orders and lay institutes require their members to observe this prayer.

Church norms encourage all Catholics to make especially the primary hours of morning and evening prayer part of their prayer life.

Advice on Internet Strangers There has been a fair amount of bad press about the Internet recently. A large population of creepy people — adults, mostly — are hanging around in the teen-oriented chat rooms and Web sites looking to “hook up” with teens, or even younger kids, for sexual relationships or worse.

These sick and dangerous people use the Internet to make contact with kids they could otherwise never meet.

Some of those kids, tragically, end up being their victims.

Young people sit in their bedrooms, zapping about the Internet, and somehow adult predators are able to lure some of them out of their homes and into unsupervised situations.

How do they do it? They lie.

Face it, if you saw these people, you’d never even talk to them.

Predators on the Web are almost always men. Most pick female targets, but a fair number prefer boy victims.

They work by establishing a relationship, developing a false sense of trust and then luring the target to meet them someplace away from home.

If a middle-aged man calls himself “Sally13,” and his profile says he’s a 13-year-old girl at St. Brigid’s, how can anybody find out that it isn’t true? They can’t.

Hanging around in the chats, creeps pick up information about potential targets: where they go to school, what they look like and most important, special interests, particular hobbies or favorite activities.

The person telling you he is a 14-year-old girl may indeed be a 53-year-old man with very sick interests. If you tell him where you go to school, and especially if you tell him who your teachers are, he may soon be watching you at noon break.

A bit of emotional black magic can happen on the Internet. Strangers can feel like the closest friends you ever had.

People you never met can seem to know you better than the people who go to school with you.

That’s because on the Internet it’s easy to tell your secrets. After all, this is a stranger, someone you’ll never have to deal with face to face. But once you have told somebody your personal problems and concerns, you feel a sense of intimacy, of shared experience and trust.

The Bottom Line Antoinette Bosco CNS Columnist

transformed me, my family and a community of friends with her extraordinary life force and amazing grace.”

Easter means new life — and that’s what the child Barbara gave to the world in her legacy of having touched so many lives with joy. Even her physician, Dr. Kallana Manjunath, marveled at how this child accepted her diagnosis from a place of utter faith in God’s will and with remarkable courage. Those who knew her affirmed she had an awe of life, was excited about God’s gifts, from butterflies to dandelions to sunsets. She showed us “a glimpse of God.” While Sister Mary Ann is still “haunted” knowing that 8.2 million children worldwide are orphaned by AIDS-afflicted mothers, her work in human services for youth takes on a special sacredness because of Barbara.

Barbara’s funeral was held in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, my parish, the church I practically lived in until I was married and moved away. Bishop Hubbard presided, saying, “Barbara’s is truly a fantastic love story — a triumph of the human spirit and the conquest of goodness over the forces of ignorance, fear, sickness, suffering and even death.”

Indeed, this is an Easter story that I pass on with joy!

Coming of Age Christopher Carstens CNS Columnist It’s all an illusion. You are not talking with another human being. You are typing notes. In an ordinary human relationship, body language, facial expressions and tone of voice communicate much more than the simple words a person says. But on the Internet you don’t even know whether the other person wept or laughed as you told your deepest secrets.

There are four simple rules of thumb for dealing with strangers on the Internet.

—First, unless you already know the person in real life, assume that everybody you deal with is really a 45-year-old man with a potbelly pretending to be somebody he is not.

—Second, never give anybody on the Internet your address, phone number or other information that would allow someone to identify and locate you. Some of the people who have access to that information may want to come find you.

Don’t give them the chance.

—Third, if you are relating to somebody on the Internet and think you need to hide this from your parents, you’re on dangerous ground. Internet creeps thrive on secrecy.

They want you to keep them hidden from your parents.

—Finally, never leave your home to meet somebody you know only from the Internet. Never. Seriously, you might not make it back home.

Unusual Mother, Remarkable Child — An Easter Story When I learned the inspiring account of an unusual mother, holding the hand of her AIDS-afflicted child, traveling a Lenten journey to the cross and beyond, I knew I was immersed once more in the Easter love story.

A few years ago I saw an article in Readers’ Digest by a reporter I knew from my hometown, Paul Grondahl of the Times Union in Albany, N.Y. He told the story of Mercy Sister Mary Ann LoGuidice and her adoption of Barbara, a young child who was HIV-positive and whose mother was dying of AIDS. Sister Mary Ann was executive director of Community Maternity Services, an agency in Albany helping pregnant teens, children with AIDS and others.

With the blessing of Albany’s Bishop Howard J. Hubbard and her religious community, Sister Mary Ann became Barbara’s mother, caring for her nearly five years until her death from AIDS at age 8 in 1993.

The story was deeply moving, so honest about the excruciating pain and the faith struggle this nun-mother endured at the loss of her beloved child. I related.

Recently I sought out Paul Grondahl to talk to him about an astounding series he had written on high-tech prisons. I asked him about Sister Mary Ann. He told me they now had collaborated on a book and that the story was being considered for a television movie. I got their book, “That Place Called Home” (Servant Publications), and truly couldn’t put it down.

At first I thought I was reading my own story. Her father, like mine, was an immigrant from southern Italy, a butcher who owned a grocery store in Albany and never sent anyone hungry away; she went to Blessed Sacrament School, the first Catholic school I attended, and to my college, the College of St. Rose.

Her big Italian family spanned 23 years, like mine, and was devoted to children. I related so strongly to her and really understood why, nurtured in love herself by family and Christ, she had become Barbara’s mommy and given this beautiful child the home she yearned for.

Sister Mary Ann explained that Barbara “drifted into my world like an autumn leaf carried on the wind and

April 6, 2001

Editorials & Col-

Light One Candle Msgr. Jim Lisante Guest Columnist

Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. (Talmud, Shabbat 3id) Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.

(Sunnah) Christianity: In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:12) Building a better world on a foundation of respect, understanding and tolerance will never be easy, but it will always be possible. No matter how many differences we have, we have more in common.

We are beloved children of God, created to love Him, ourselves and others.

And The Golden Rule, more timeless and enduring than the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan, will continue to be the measure of humanity at its best.

Msgr. Jim Lisante is the director of the Christophers

conscious of a serious sin, receives the sacrament of marriage or the Eucharist, for example, receives the sacrament validly, even though unlawfully and sinfully.

Certainly you are aware that if a person receives Communion while conscious of an unforgiven mortal sin, that person receives the sacrament validly. He or she truly receives the eucharistic body of Christ the same as anyone else. The fact that the reception is sinful does not make it any less a sacrament.

Somewhat the same is true in marriage. Christian persons who celebrate the sacrament of marriage in a state of serious sin — whether that sin involves embezzlement, malicious and destructive gossip, gross abuse of others, immoral sexual behavior or any other seriously wrong action — receive the sacrament of marriage.

Again, as with the Eucharist, the effect of the graces of the sacrament are inhibited by the spiritual condition of those who receive it. But they are married nevertheless.

They will not need to be, indeed cannot be, “remarried” after whatever mortal sin they are aware of is forgiven.

I must note that, even in response to questions like yours, I am reluctant to speak of the sacraments so mechanically. The invitations and gifts of God which we call sacramental grace are living realities which reach back as a person prepares for a sacrament and extend into the future.

It is common Catholic belief that the graces of marriages (and penance, another obvious example) are already at work in a couple as their love develops and as they prepare to commit themselves to the covenant and communion that is marriage.

To repeat what I said previously, none of the above diminishes the responsibility of a cohabiting couple, and the priest or other parish minister working with them, to deal in every way possible with the spiritual, emotional, sacramental and marital implications of their lifestyle before marriage.

Build Up, Don’t Tear Down Recently, two ancient statues known as the Great Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan were destroyed.

These imposing figures, over a hundred feet tall and hewn from the rock of a mountain 1500 years ago, were not ruined by natural disaster, but rather by deliberate demolition.

The area is controlled by the fundamentalist Taliban which believes that idols are forbidden by their faith. An outcry against the destruction of these religious and cultural artifacts has come from other nations and people of many faiths, including Islam, but the Taliban minister of information and culture was in no mood to compromise. The remaining parts of the Great Buddhas would come down, he said, adding, “It is easier to destroy than to build.”

It always is.

Tearing down is always easier than building up.

Constructive action, however large or small, requires time, thought and positive action. At best, it also means respecting others, not just those who are near and dear or who are like us, but those who are not.

You build up your community and your world when you show tolerance and understanding for people with whom you don’t necessarily agree and who are not like you at all. You “build up” when you treat others the way you wish to be treated.

We have a name for that, of course: The Golden Rule - “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” That rule has an honored place among the world’s great spiritual traditions. Here is what various faiths believe: Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. (Udana-Varga 5:18) Confucianism: Is there one maxim which ought to be acted upon throughout one’s whole life? Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.

(Analects 15:23) Hinduism: This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you. (Mahabharata 5:1517)

Question Corner FATHER JOHN DIETZEN CNS Columnist

Q. In your answer to a question concerning cohabiting couples being married in the church, you left out the fact that the sacrament of matrimony can be validly received only when both parties are in the state of grace.

The probability that cohabitation involves sexual relations means the sacrament of penance is necessary before the marriage. Perhaps it was your intention that the above information would be part of the pre-marriage preparation you spoke of; if so, it was lost in your response.

A. My mail gives constant evidence that many Catholics still have two confusions about the marriage of couples who have been living together.

One mistake, which I addressed at length in the column to which you refer, is that cohabiting couples are impeded by church law from entering a Catholic marriage.

While many elements in their lives need to be addressed and dealt with before they marry, living together does not in itself prohibit their marriage in the church.

The Catholic Church has limited and specific impediments to marriage: lack of age, impotence, perpetual vows of chastity, a previous marriage and so on. Cohabitation is not one of these impediments.

Second, I’m surprised at the number who have written to me, many with extensive Catholic education, who believe that the marriage of a couple living together is not a valid marriage. That is not true and never has been.

Catholic teaching is that an individual who, while

The Catholic News & Herald 13

Family Reflections Andrew & Terri Lyke Guest Columnists Disconnectedness in communities Last week a horrible tragedy occurred just a couple of blocks away from our home. A fire in an apartment building left several families homeless and a 4-year-old dead. Shocked by the horror that befell the families, we are also more acutely aware of the lack of community ties in our area.

Local TV news covered the incident. As we watched the news reporters interview immediate neighbors, we couldn’t help but notice that we saw no familiar faces. The people affected by this tragedy were only a couple of blocks away. Yet, they are as disconnected to us as people living in another state.

Many family members, friends and co-workers asked us about the tragedy as though we would have more of an inside scoop on the current media event. All we could report was what we saw from a distance, no insights on the victims, nothing to say about the poor little boy who lost his life.

Ours is a middle-class suburban community that is situated in Chicago’s Southland. Our home is in a subdivision, not a neighborhood, where good neighbors are those who mind their own business and keep up their lawns and properties. There are no expectations of relationship simply because we are neighbors.

About half of the population is African American. The Southland is considered one of the most significant cross sections of African American affluence in the U.S. We are a generation of families that enjoy the benefits of education and resulting employment opportunities — doors opened by the Civil Rights Movement of 1960s.

As children of the Movement and its direct beneficiaries, we have committed ourselves to raising our children with access to what we had not in our youth. Mostly we have succeeded in this effort. Our children certainly live more comfortably than we did, and they go to better schools. However, there is something that our affluence cannot offer them that we had in abundance in our youth-community.

As followers of Christ, we are called to more than creature comfort. Actually, such comforts are not even part of the kingdom’s landscape. We are communal people whose faith tells us that death is not the worst thing to happen to us. When loved ones die, our greatest comfort is in the care of faithful people who surround and encourage us to live on.

Today we noticed a memorial at the foot of a tree in front of the burnt apartment building. There was a teddy bear, flowers, ribbons, notes and religious symbols. We wonder if they are all from loved ones and immediate neighbors. Or is it possible that community can rise from the ashes of death and suffering? Perhaps in the wake of such a horrible tragedy, there is a glimmer of hope, an opportunity to reach out and offer a word of sympathy.

We pray for the victims of this tragedy and particularly for the family of young Xavier Sanner whose life was cut short. Though we don’t know them, they are our neighbors and part of our community.

Andrew and Terri Lyke are coordinators of Marriage Ministry for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

1 4 The Catholic News & Herald

In brief . . .

Ecumenical youth choir shares gift of song CHARLOTTE — The New Vibrations, a traveling ecumenical youth choir, will perform two concerts on April 29 at 2:30 p.m. at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Pkwy., and at 7:30 p.m. at St. Luke Church, 13700 Lawyers Rd. The New Vibrations choir is made up of 43 teens from churches of various denominations including St. Matthew, St. Luke and St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Churches. Live musical performances and choreography are accompanying a mixture of contemporary and traditional Christian music for attendants of all ages. A

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April 6, 2001

Around the Diolove offering is being taken during the event, and for further details about this free event, open to the public, call Jan Cosentino at (704) 846-1302.

Memorial Mass CHARLOTTE — All families who have suffered a loss are invited to attend the monthly memorial Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral, 1621 Dilworth Rd. East, on April 25 at 7:30 p.m. Call the church office at (704) 334-2283 with the name(s) of loved ones so they may be remembered during the Mass.

Young adult Day of Reflection BELMONT — The Office of Campus and Young Adult Ministry of the Diocese of Charlotte invite everyone to attend “A Day of Reflection: Being Catholic in the Carolinas” on April 21 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Chi Rho

bachelor’s degree in a relevant field although a master’s degree is preferred. Must have music performance skill (e.g. piano, voice); choral directing; cantor training; knowledge of Catholic rites and rituals. Available no later than November 1, 2000. Salary commensurate with education and experience. Benefits package included. Send resume to: DOMM Search Committee, Holy Infant Catholic Church, 5000 Southpark Dr., Durham, NC 27713. Fax 919/544-1799. References required at time of application for consideration for this position.

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PRAYERS AND INTENTIONS

April 6, 2001

Around the Dio-

The Catholic News & Herald 15

Church leaders gather for annual ecumenical

Upcoming papal trips pose major ecumenical test

By FATHER GEORGE KLOSTER Special to The Catholic News & Herald HICKORY — “The role of the church is not to reflect the values and attitudes of society, but it should be the voice of prophetic justice modeling for society an atmosphere of acceptance and welcome for all people.”

Led by Rev. Dr. Juan P. Gray, pastor of St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem and chair of the committee on religion and race for the WNC Conference of the United Methodist Church, participants at the annual Bishops’ Ecumenical Dialogue examined many of the divisions which cause tensions within Christian denominations and hinder the work of the church in its ministry.

The Bishops’ Ecumenical Dialogue is sponsored by the bishops of the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina, the N.C. Lutheran Synod of the Evangelical Church in America and the WNC Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Race was the central focus of much of the discussion, but others “isms” such as classism, sexism, national origin and gender orientation were highlighted as issues which divide the Body of Christ.

In his call for a blended society, Gray said the church must be a place of “open hearts, open minds and open doors.” Citing former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Bill Bradley, who says, “race is a factor in every part of our lives in America,” Gray said that “racial reconcili-

By John Thavis Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — At the age of 80 and with most of his traveling days behind him, Pope John Paul II is set to embark on a bold series of trips that could have lasting ecumenical consequences for the church.

Visiting Greece, Syria, Ukraine and Armenia over the next six months, the pope will travel to countries where no modern pontiff has been and where Catholics are a small minority.

His route appears to many observers as an ecumenical obstacle course, taking him deep into the historic territory of Orthodox Christianity, where the centuries-old divisions with Catholicism are still very much alive.

“It’s going to be a real test for him, an ecumenical test,” said U.S. Jesuit Father John Long, who worked on Christian unity issues for many years at the Vatican.

For decades, these countries were considered off-limits for papal travel, in part because of ecumenical tensions. But this time around the pope and his aides have knocked harder on the doors, perhaps aware that the pope’s traveling time is not limitless. As a result, he will arrive in Greece and Ukraine without a clear invitation from the major Orthodox Churches.

For some experts, that has raised questions about the lasting legacy of these visits.

“I want to put a positive spin on it, but I can’t really convince myself. I’m afraid there could be some real difficulties that develop out of this,” Father Long said.

In Greece, where the pope will travel May 4-5 to commemorate St. Paul’s evangelization in Athens nearly 2,000 years ago, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece voted not to formally oppose the visit, stressing that it was a personal pilgrimage by the pope.

But some Orthodox clergy and faithful in Greece remain alarmed all the same. One conservative union of Orthodox priests described the pontiff as an “arch-heretic” and “the two-horned grotesque monster of Rome” and predicted massive protests during the visit.

The depth of such hostility is surprising to most Western Christians. Father Long said it reflects not only age-old animosities dating to the Catholic-Orthodox schism of 1054, but more recent misgivings about the “Westernizing” of Greece, too.

Some 97 percent of Greeks belong to the Orthodox Church, but as the country takes a more active role in the European Union, its society is becoming more secular.

ation has been absent because it is seen as peripheral and marginal in our churches.

It has not been a priority.”

Quoting Harvard scholar and African American author Cornell West that “communication is the best tool to build the bridge” among people of various races, Gray said that too often churches reach out to those people “who look like themselves”; that is, churches tend to evangelize among their own race, class, etc., and often feel uncomfortable with people of different cultures and color.

In order to move to the future, Gray said several steps are necessary: 1. Implement a definite action plan in support of reconciliation with repentance for past failures as an essential component in a process moving from symbolism to service to substance.

2. Create avenues of communication about the advantages of diversity.

“Dismantling stereotypes through honest, frank and sincere discussions is a key element in the process,” he said.

At the close of the conference, Gray said, “The church of God is a global church whose purpose is to make disciples for God and not for the church itself. Racism can and does go both ways, but it is the role of the church to bring people together.”

Father George Kloster, ecumenical officer for the Diocese of Charlotte, is pastor at St. William Church in Murphy and Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Hayesville.

And despite the pope’s own strong criticism of the secularization of Europe, in Greece he is viewed by many as a representative of the “decadent” West.

In Ukraine, the situation is complicated by the local split in the Orthodox community. Two smaller Orthodox churches are supporting the papal visit, but the majority Ukrainian Orthodox Church — which is linked to Moscow — has bitterly opposed the visit. Its officials have also warned of protests and demonstrations when the pope visits the cities of Kiev and Lviv in late June.

The prospect of creating new barriers with the Russian Orthodox Church is something ecumenists do not relish. Some believe the pope’s advisers, weary of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II’s rebuffs of papal overtures, have adopted a “take it or leave it” attitude toward the Moscow church when it comes to papal travels.

The papal visit to Armenia, planned for September, will be easier. The Armenian Apostolic Church is one of six independent Oriental Orthodox Churches that split with Catholicism in the fifth century over a council’s explanation of the human and divine nature of Christ.

In 1996, the pope and the late Armenian Catholicos Karekin signed an agreement that officially ended their disagreement over Christ’s identity. But when the catholicos returned to Armenia, he faced deep opposition among his own faithful, and some conservative elements in his church viewed it as a betrayal.

Those sentiments have died down, and all signs are that the pope will be welcomed warmly by the current Armenian patriarch, Karekin II, when the two lead celebrations to mark 1,700 years of Christianity in the Caucasus nation.

Syria, where the pope will spend three days on his St. Paul pilgrimage in May, is an ecumenical oasis on his itinerary. The two main Orthodox communities in Syria have not only invited the pope but are on the planning committee for the visit, Armenian Catholic Bishop Boutros Marayati of Aleppo, Syria, said in a telephone interview.

“Here the Orthodox are in an Arab country, and there’s a very different mentality than in Greece or Russia. All the Christians here feel united because we are witnessing Christianity as a minority in a Muslim majority. Our relations with the Orthodox are excellent,” he said.

1 6 The Catholic News & Herald

Vatican releases Pope’s Holy Week schedule

By CINDY WOODEN Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Here is the pope’s schedule as released by the Vatican: — Mass April 8 in St. Peter’s Square for Palm Sunday and the local celebration of World Youth Day. Young people from Canada, hosts of the next international youth gathering, will accept the World Youth Day cross from Rome youths.

— Celebration of the chrism Mass April 12 in the morning in St. Peter’s Basilica.

— Mass of the Lord’s Supper in the evening April 12 at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. During the Mass, the pope will wash the feet of 12 priests.

— Early in the evening Good Friday, April 13, the pope will preside over the liturgy of the Lord’s Passion in St. Peter’s Basilica. At 9:15 p.m., he will lead the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum.

— Celebration of the Easter vigil April 14 in St. Peter’s Basilica with the lighting of the fire and the Easter candle at 8 p.m.

— Easter morning Mass April 15 in St. Peter’s Square followed by the papal blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world).

Living the

Nicaragua native finds God and home in Charlotte

By Alesha M. Price Staff Writer LINCOLNTON — Rev. Mr. Carlos Medina found God on the highway while driving from Miami to Charlotte. It was not as if God had not been a large part of his life, but the realization of God’s presence throughout his life almost blindsided him. While at a rest stop, his life’s journey passed through his mind, and his spirituality took on another form.

He had been living in Miami with his wife and four children, trying to rebuild his life after emmigrating from Nicaragua to the United States due to his country’s surging political and social upheaval. He became dissatisfied with his way of life in Florida, and, at the advice of a teacher, decided to move to North Carolina. On the way to his new home, Rev. Mr. Medina had a revelation.

“I experienced a conversion, a real turning point in my life. I realized the hand of God was upon me at all times during my life,” said Rev. Mr. Medina. “I had not recognized this fact and came to my senses, realizing why I was here. I had been unfair and unjust in my heart, and I wanted to do something in return.”

This realization eventually caused Rev. Mr. Medina to become a permanent deacon.

However, his road to the diaconate had begun to be paved years before in a country that has

The next day (John) saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’ ... Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.” — John 1: 29-30, 34

Photo by Joann S. Keane

April 6, 2001

died. It looked like an eternity, like it was never going to stop.” As a government worker, Rev. Mr. Medina was ordered help rebuild not only their home but the homes and businesses of the other citizens, while his wife and children went to live with family.

As the earth shook, so did the country’s government. The political structure, then a dictatorship, began to be called into question and along with that inquiry came the scrutiny of its workers. “Corruption stared running known constant unrest and strife. rampant, and we, the government workers Rev. Mr. Medina was born in Managua, began to look bad.”

Nicaragua, the capital of a country located in In 1979, Marxist revolutionaries, Central America. Bordered by Honduras to known as the Sandinistas, overthrew the North and Costa Rica to the South, Nicathe dictatorship, and in the 1980s, rebragua is the largest nation in Central America. els known as the Contras began a civil Young Medina grew up in a poor neighborwar. In 1978, Mrs. Medina, pregnant hood in a small family. “It was not as hard as at the time and their three children, people claimed it to be. We were a poor family, fled to Miami to stay with her sister, but my father and while Rev. Mr. mother were hardMedina remained working people.” behind. “I decided His parents’ it would be best separation and evenfor them to leave. tual divorce sent I didn’t intend him to the church to leave myself, for strength and but things got guidance. “The worse.” separation of my It was only parents was terrible meant to be a visand hard for me to it to his wife and bear. They divorced family in Miami. when I was 11, and I Rev. Mr. Mediwent back and forth na was going to between my father’s return to their and mother’s houses. country after enDuring that time of suring that his insecurity, I came family was safe. to the Church for However, Mrs. prayers and comMedina had other fort.” ideas.

Because there “It was such was no concrete ema bad experience phasis on faith in for me, coming Rev. Mr. Carlos Medina his childhood home, here with three Rev. Mr. Medina children and discovered Catholipregnant. I felt cism and developed his own spiritual relationalone, and I needed Carlos with me. I ship. “My parents didn’t teach me what my told him I wanted to go back to Nicafaith was about. I learned it on my own and ragua with him if he wasn’t going to liked what I learned. I raised myself Catholic.” stay,” remembered Mrs. Medina.

The schoolyard served as a meeting place So, without any of their belongings for him and his future wife, Martha, and the or most of their clothing, the family began two were married when Rev. Mr. Medina living in the United States. They applied was 19 and Martha was 16. He said that the for political asylum and visas because the marriage served as a way of his trying to settle government had been overthrown, and down his life, and the couple’s love blossomed Rev. Mr. Medina began working odd jobs as they grew. to support his family.

“I look back and think sometimes, it After arriving in Charlotte, they was crazy to get married so young, but became involved with Hispanic ministry through everything, God has been a part and began helping with the Hispanic of our lives,” said Mrs. Medina. “ThirtyMass when it was being held at St. Patone years is a long time, but this is only rick Cathedral. Through training with one time. Our love and the love of God Eucharistic, pastoral and lay ministries have carried us through our lives.” and making his Cursillo in Spanish, Rev. Rev. Mr. Medina added, “We only Mr. Medina was introduced to the idea of knew each other about 6 to 8 months the permanent diaconate through a conbefore we got married. We grew in love versation with Archbishop John F. Donowith each other. We had difficulties, but ghue of Atlanta, then bishop of Charlotte. we overcame them. Those differences Rev. Mr. Medina was ordained in 1995 have made us love each other more.” and now serves at St. Dorothy Church in Rev. Mr. Medina worked for the Lincolnton. He has his own Charlotte-based government in the public school system painting company and says he is doing what as a clerical office assistant and assistant he likes, helping and serving people. “The perteacher while attending college and manent diaconate has opened a better way for earned the equivalent of an associate’s deme to look at my wife and family. I see myself gree in executive assisting. He later began as a different person, and it is actually exciting attending the university for a degree in for me to go from Charlotte to Lincolnton,” business administration. said the grandfather of two. “I preach to people One night in 1972, the Medina family about the hardships I experienced and how to woke to rumbling and shaking. A devastating overcome situations through the help of God.” earthquake annihilated the city including their home. “All of downtown was destroyed. It was Contact Staff Writer Alesha M. the worst thing ever; more than 10,000 people Price by calling (704) 370-3354 or e-mail amprice@charlottediocese.org.