By Catholic News Service
Puerto Rico debt crisis faces crucial date; church opts for jubilee
AGUADILLA, Puerto Rico — As Puerto Rico’s government marches on toward a critical financial deadline regarding its $72 billion “unpayable” debt, the local Catholic Church, too, has been increasingly feeling the fiscal crunch all the way down to the pews, and there are hopes for a jubilee as espoused in Scripture. Even this city’s central parish, located in one of the island’s few financially sound municipalities, is struggling. “I’m not an economist,” Father Delroy Thomas Scott, pastor, told Catholic News Service. “But we hear of how many people have left for the U.S. … so naturally, there are fewer coming to the Eucharist” and donating to the parish. He also spoke of families’ harsh economic situation, despite the local boom: “Despite our town’s boasting about progress, salary increases to municipal employees, etc., there are still many families in precarious situations.” Father Scott echoes other pastors, all of whom expressed concern over the economic questions facing the island. Others, such as Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan, have shown diverse opinions about the effects of the crisis. His recent column in Time magazine was tinged with pastoral, political and solidarity overtones.
Cardinal Levada arrested in Hawaii on drunk-driving charge
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (CNS) — Cardinal William J. Levada was arrested in Kailua-Kona, on the island of Hawaii, for driving under the influence of alcohol. The arrest was made at about midnight Aug. 19. Cardinal Levada, 79, was released after posting $500 bond. He is due to appear in court Sept. 24. Cardinal Levada, the former archbishop of San Francisco and of Portland, Oregon, and the retired prefect for the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in a statement issued Aug. 24 by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, “I regret my error in judgment. I intend to continue fully cooperating with the authorities.” The news was first reported by the Hawaii Tribune Herald daily newspaper, which said he was vacationing with priest friends in Hawaii at the time of the incident. Cardinal Levada, in retirement, lives in Menlo Park, California, near San Francisco. “‘Punishment’ is not a factor” in Cardinal Levada’s case, San Francisco archdiocesan spokesman Michael Brown said in an email to the Huffington Post.
Back-to-school homework for students includes preparing to meet pope
NEW YORK (CNS) — Being called to the principal’s office during the school year can cause angst even among the most mischievous students. But for those who typically demonstrate their best behavior, being summoned during the summer may be more daunting. Fortunately for 24 well-behaved youngsters from four Catholic elementary schools in Harlem, such a phone call from the principal proved to be more pleasing than a splash in the pool. The pupils learned they will represent their schools when Pope Francis visits Our Lady Queen of Angels School in East Harlem late in the afternoon on Sept. 25. Timothy McNiff, archdiocesan superintendent of schools, outlined details of the papal visit to the school during an Aug. 20 news conference along with the principals and two students from each of the four participating schools. “This school represents so many of our schools in that it’s a doorway out of poverty to so many recent immigrants,” McNiff said.
Receiving pallium, Archbishop Cupich asks faithful to minister with him
CHICAGO (CNS) — When Archbishop Blase J. Cupich of Chicago received the pallium on his shoulders Aug. 23, he did so in a demonstration of unity that he said extended from the people in the pews to the bishops who joined him in the sanctuary to Pope Francis. He was invested with the pallium by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States, after receiving it from Pope Francis in the Vatican on June 29. Archbishop Vigano spoke before placing the pallium on Archbishop Cupich’s shoulders, telling the congregation, “It is first and foremost a symbol of the unity of your archbishop with the Holy Father, and of the unity of your archbishop with his brother bishops,” Archbishop Vigano said. The pallium is a strip of white wool, about two inches wide, with six black crosses. The ends, which hang down about a foot in the front and back, are black and look like the hooves of a lamb carried on the archbishop’s shoulders. Three of the crosses have gold pins through them, reminiscent of the nails of Christ’s crucifixion. Overall, it serves as a reminder of the role of the archbishop as shepherd to his people. In his homily, Archbishop Cupich reflected on the readings of the day, especially the Gospel, in which Peter speaks for the apostles and says they will stand by Jesus because they are convinced he is the “holy one of God.”
Pope Francis to see ‘Homeless Jesus’ during U.S. visit
WASHINGTON — When Pope Francis approaches the Catholic Charities building in downtown Washington during his U.S. visit in September, he will encounter a “homeless person” covered in a blanket laying on a park bench. The scene actually is a sculpture. And it’s not a work of art depicting any homeless person; it’s the bronze image of “Homeless Jesus.” “I hope Pope Francis blesses our ‘Homeless Jesus’ when he’s here,” said Roland Woody, a Washington resident who was homeless until earlier this year. “It’s kind of a symbol of hope for the homeless in D.C. If the pope blesses it, it will be even more special.” If the pope does bless the 7-foot-long statue, it will be the second one of its kind that he’ll have done that for. Pope Francis blessed a smaller version of the “Homeless Jesus” sculpture during a late November, 2013, general audience at the Vatican in front of thousands of pilgrims.
Ten years after Katrina, Mississippi resident is back where he belongs
BILOXI, Miss. (CNS) — After evacuating for Hurricane Katrina, Malcolm Ware couldn’t wait to get back to his apartment at the Santa Maria del Mar Retirement Community and the shrimp awaiting him in his deep freeze. “Somebody had given me five pounds of shrimp, which I had put in the deep freeze the night before we left,” he said. “I thought, ‘Boy, I hope the power doesn’t go off because, when I get back, I can eat my shrimp.'” Unfortunately, the power went off, never to come on again and he never got the chance to enjoy his shrimp feast. But Ware, who is 82, survived Katrina and after nearly a decade away from his beloved Mississippi Gulf Coast, was able to return Biloxi and a new and, much improved Santa Maria, one of seven retirement communities sponsored by the Biloxi Diocese. He said two days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Franciscan Sister Rebecca Rutkowski, director of Catholic Social and Community Services, came to the retirement home to warn residents that they needed to evacuate. “But then she came back later in the day and told us to disregard everything she had said earlier because the hurricane was going over toward New Orleans,” he said. “Well, by late that evening, she came back again and called another meeting and told us to disregard everything that she’d said earlier because the hurricane was coming this way and we were going to have to leave. If we didn’t leave, she said, we would be arrested and taken to a shelter.”
Catholic agencies use clown, puppets to help Gaza kids overcome trauma
JERUSALEM (CNS) — Catholic aid agencies having been using various counseling techniques, even a live clown and puppets, to help the Gaza Strip’s children overcome the trauma of lost loved ones and homes in the year since the cease-fire ended the conflict. But they warn that only a political solution can hope to remedy the increasingly desperate situation there. “Almost everything we do as an international nongovernmental organization — and most peers would say the same — is like putting a Band-Aid on a pretty serious injury,” said Matthew McGarry, Catholic Relief Services’ country representative for Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza. McGarry and other aid officials told Catholic News Service that the long-festering conflict between Israel and Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, has created a man-made humanitarian and psychosocial crisis that politics alone must solve. “It’s cumulative. Children as young as 7 have lived through three wars in the past 7 years — that’s your lifetime,” McGarry told CNS of the psychological toll Gaza’s multiple wars have taken on its youngest residents. The U.N. estimates that at least 370,000 children in Gaza need psychosocial support following last summer’s war, which cost the lives of more than 2,250 Palestinians, 65 percent of whom were civilians. Sixty-six Israeli soldiers were killed, along with six civilians, it said, before the Aug. 26, 2014, cease-fire was reached.
Katrina evacuees found shelter, relief in Baton Rouge Diocese
BATON ROUGE, La. (CNS) — Ten years later the memories still linger for Carol Spruell, as if they happened yesterday but perhaps were a lifetime ago. She remembers the chaos, despair, uncertainty and the cries for help from so many and workweeks that had no end in the days and months following Hurricane Katrina. She also remembers the lines, droves of desperate people who had lost everything in Katrina’s floodwater, who were seeking any modicum of relief, whether it was articles of clothing, a bus ticket to a relative’s house outside of the area or assistance in finding a place to live. “I remember pulling into the parking lot at 7 or 7:30 in the morning, and there would already be a line of people down the driveway,” said Spruell, communications director for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Baton Rouge. “There were probably 300 people before we even got close to opening our doors. That was with very little publicity; strictly word of mouth about what we were doing. We knew if we did a lot of publicity about what we were doing, what kind of assistance we were giving, we would get mobbed,” she said. The routine varied little. Each morning, the number of caseworkers available for that day and how many evacuees they would be able to assist were determined. The staff would go down the line and count to that number, giving each person a ticket. Those not fortunate enough to receive a coveted ticket were told to return the following day. “It was tough,” she said. ‘”Just the physical toll was one thing. We worked really long days, 12-hour days, seven days a week. We had our families to take care of. That life still had to continue.”
Court grants visitation rights to father of Pakistani woman on death row
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNS) — A Pakistani court has directed the Punjab provincial government and police to give the father of death row convict Asia Bibi prison visitation rights, a family lawyer said. The directive came Aug. 25, two days after Soran Masih filed a petition in the Lahore High Court demanding access to his daughter, reporting ucanews.com. Masih said authorities had repeatedly blocked him from the prison following Bibi’s conviction for blasphemy in 2012. “Judge Muhammad Anwar ul Haq issued directives to the jail superintendent of Multan and the Home Department to let Soran Masih and his family members see Asia Bibi,” Sardar Mushtaq Gill, Masih’s lawyer, told ucanews.com Aug. 25. “We are thankful to the high court for a swift action on our petition,” Gill said.