July 19, 2013

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SISTERS:

YOUTH:

VOCATIONS:

Young nuns envision smaller, but bright, future

Archdiocese names associate director of youth ministry

Pope offers how-to guide to future priests, nuns

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES

www.catholic-sf.org

$1.00 | VOL. 15 NO. 21

JULY 19, 2013

Vatican updates laws; Pope Francis expands reach of Vatican court CINDY WOODEN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has approved a major updating of the criminal laws of Vatican City State, including in areas dealing with child abuse and terrorism financing, and has ruled that any Vatican employee can be tried by the Vatican court for violating those laws. The laws were adopted by the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and were made applicable to all Vatican employees around the world – for example, Vatican ambassadors serving abroad – in a document signed by Pope Francis July 11. The amendments to the Vatican’s criminal code and code for criminal procedures go into effect Sept. 1 and bring Vatican law into detailed compliance with several international treaties the Vatican has signed over the past 30 years as well as with developments in international law. The changes include the abolition of life SEE LAWS, PAGE 20

UN asks Vatican to account for all sex abuse allegations CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

GENEVA – A United Nations’ committee concerned with children’s rights is requesting that the Vatican provide complete details about every accusation it has ever received of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, published July 1 “a list of issues” it found lacking in the Vatican’s latest report on its compliance with the international obligations it accepted when it ratified the convention. The Vatican is being asked to provide: “detailed information on all cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers and nuns”; how it has responded to victims and perpetrators of SEE UN, PAGE 20

(CNS PHOTO/DADO RUVIC, REUTERS)

A Bosnian woman cries over the grave of a relative at the site where hundreds of newly identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre were to be buried July 11. Eighteen years later, a Catholic Relief Services program is helping Bosnians still traumatized by the war.

Bosnian war victims find solace in building peace JAMES MARTONE CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina – In July 1995, the Bosnian city of Cepa fell to invading Serbian troops and Amir Omer Spahic, then 21, fled along with the city’s other Muslim men. They hid in forests and fields by day and ran under cover of darkness at night until their pursuers ultimately captured them, five days later. “They singled out one man and accused him of being an officer. They shot him on the spot and threw him over the mountain. They beat my head severely and took us to camps,” Spahic recalled in an interview with the Catholic News Service, 18 years later. “We’d heard that at Srebrenica they had already killed so many (Muslims), so we were panicked. They threatened to put wires through our heads and kill us (and) they forced us to make the sign of the cross before letting (us) go to the bathroom,” he said. Spahic said he and about 800 Muslims were kept for six months in two separate camps made up of small wooden huts “with 30 people per room (and) concrete floors.” Their captors, he said, routinely “put our hands behind our heads and beat us (and) called us ‘Turks.’”

Such scars of war, he told CNS, have left him “shocked, traumatized” and unable to sleep or hold a regular job since, but he said he finally found some solace in speaking publicly about his ordeal. “It helps a lot, I am not going to the doctor as much as before and I am helping others now,” said Spahic, who presently receives counseling for trauma and training in public speaking through a peacebuilding project that has given a voice to victims of the 1992-95 war in BosniaHerzegovina. “I speak to schools and universities, especially to the younger generation, in order that this war isn’t repeated. I like it when children are listening to us,” Spahic said in an interview earlier this summer from the Sarajevo offices of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ international relief and development agency. Under the CRS project, “Choosing Peace Together,” former war prisoners like Spahic are provided spaces where they can meet to share their different pasts. For those among them interested in addressing a wider audience, the project schedules public meetings with mostly young audiences who have

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SEE BOSNIA, PAGE 20

INDEX On the Street . . . . . . . . .4 National . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . .24


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