Angered by a judge’s order to remove the giant Mount Soledad cross in San Diego, a California state lawmaker is introducing a bill to protect symbols of American heritage that have a religious aspect.
The Defense of Veterans Memorials Act would be the first state legislation of its kind, mirroring the federal Public Expression of Religion Act, introduced in the House last year, which would remove from judges the authority to award attorney fees, or damages to groups such as the ACLU.
QUINTUPLETS WITH PRIEST AFTER FIRST COMMUNION – Quintuplets, from left, Elijah, Nicholas, Carter, Taylor and Miranda Jansen of Omaha, Neb., are shown May 1 with their pastor, Father Donald Shane, of St. Robert Bellarmine Church. Nebraska’s first quintuplets were among the hundreds of second-graders to receive first Communion this spring in the Archdiocese of Omaha. (CNS/The Catholic Voice)
SAN DIEGO – After a 17-year legal battle between the city and a self-described atheist, a judge has ordered San Diego officials to remove a giant cross from a hilltop park or start paying $5,000 a day in fines.
Defying the order is something cash-strapped San Diego can ill afford. Its pension fund is more than $1 billion in debt, the federal government is investigating, and there’s been talk of bankruptcy.
Still, Mayor Jerry Sanders said he would ask the city attorney to appeal.
U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. on Wednesday gave the city 90 days to comply with a 1991 injunction forbidding the cross on public property.
"It is now time, and perhaps long overdue," the judge wrote.
The 29-foot-high cross was dedicated as a memorial to Korean War veterans in 1954 on a hilltop that towers over seaside La Jolla.
Philip Paulson, an atheist and Vietnam veteran, has been challenging its placement on city-owned parkland since 1989. He declined comment on the ruling Wednesday, but his attorney, James McElroy, said he hoped city officials would finally back down.
Deep inside the Vatican, a white-haired nun dressed in a brown habit opens the door to a room full of computers. The whirring machines hold some of the mysteries of the Holy See, including photographs of the Vatican Secret Archives and of ancient illustrated manuscripts. No, this isn’t a movie trailer for The Da Vinci Code. Our guide is Sister Judith Zoebelein, the editorial director of the Internet Office of the Holy See. She’s showing off a small but potent Vatican data center, which bristles with servers and other high-tech gear.
It’s no secret that the Vatican has a fantastic Web site. It brims with fine art and practical information about the Catholic Church. The site, www.vatican.va, which comes in six languages, was even nominated for a prestigious Webby Award a few years back. But little is known about the woman who is behind it. Sister Judith, a 57-year-old American, grew up in a middle-class household in the Hamptons on the eastern tip of Long Island. She and a handful of colleagues were Internet pioneers when, in 1995, they launched the Vatican Web site. Since then, she has greatly expanded the site, including images of art from the Vatican Museums, a powerful search engine, and videos of restoration projects.
Now Sister Judith is creating a second Vatican Web site, set for launch in the fall, that is aimed at bringing together the faithful so they can interact. Think of it as MySpace.com (NWS ) for Catholics. There will be personal news updates, e-learning programs, and areas set aside for families, young people, and parishes. Collaboration is key, and that should differentiate the site from others in its genre. "People will be able to find each other and work together online, and then go back and use what they have learned or done in their own communities," says Sister Judith.
MySpace for Catholics is an unfortunate phrase considering all the stories recently of perverts and sexual abusers hanging out at MySpace looking for victims. That aside I wonder if at the Vatican they call the position Web Servant instead of Web Master? It will be interesting to see what Sister Judith comes up with. Though of course I have poked fun at the Vatican’s website before.
Odd to think that some young people have better insight into faith than their parents do.
Think that’s too generalized? There are plenty of specifics to back it up. Let’s skip across the ocean first.
The Sunday Times reported last week that baby boomer parents in Great Britain are seeing more and more of their children converting to a faith, especially Christianity and Islam.
And some parents aren’t happy about it.
A British mother, who’s agnostic, conceded that her twentysomething son was "quite aimless" before he joined an evangelical church.
Today, she applauds his sense of purpose, but says, "It also makes me sad because none of the rest of the family shares his beliefs, and it excludes us from a massive part of his life."
Myfanwy Franks, an author quoted in the Times, has interviewed British converts to Islam (15,000 have claimed the faith in the past few years) and Christianity and sees a sociological angle to their decisions.
"More and more, it seems that becoming highly religious is the ultimate form of rebellion, because secularity is really our society’s main religion now," he said.
"A lot of people utterly despise religion, don’t they? To convert to Islam or Christianity is really the punk rock of the modern age."
…But is this generation of young people different from others? Will faith become an anchor for them throughout their lives or a line adrift?
"Faith rises and falls like the tides of an invisible sea," the Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor once said.
VALLEY CENTER – Christmas has long passed, but the memory of the 2005 holiday will be in Joshua Nona’s mind for many years to come.
The 9-year-old and his family spent Christmas in Europe, which to the Nonas was a thrill in itself. But the highlight for young Joshua was attending Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican and receiving a blessing from the pope.
“He was in seventh heaven,” said Joshua’s father, Ashor Nona.
Joshua has wanted to be a priest since he was 7.
“I want to be pope someday,” he said. “If I can’t be pope, then I want to at least be a cardinal.”
CASTRIES, St Lucia (AP) – A man with a knife attacked the eastern Caribbean’s Roman Catholic archbishop outside the cathedral in the St Lucian capital, slashing his clerical collar but not causing any injury, police and church officials said.
Archbishop Kelvin Felix was speaking with a parishioner outside the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception after Mass on Wednesday evening when the man grabbed him from behind and began slashing at his throat.
Felix, 73, pushed away the assailant, who ran from the cathedral and was arrested shortly after the attack. Police did not identify the man, who had not yet been charged.
[Via Epiphany]
Bishop Richard Lennon has been appointed as the new bishop in Cleveland to replace Bishop Antony Pilla. Dom says this is good news and American Papist has a round up of links.
In a bittersweet story on a girl with cancer who got to meet the Pope.
A member of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Joliet, Ceballos explained that she had found hope through prayer amid the trials of enduring chemotherapy and the challenging recovery process after undergoing surgery to remove the growths within her left knee. “During these hard times my faith grew stronger and stronger. I had a wish to visit the pope and receive his blessing,” added the fifth grader at St. Joseph School in Joliet during an interview with the Catholic Explorer March 24 at her school.
“She’s a tough kid,” said Terence Ziesmer, principal at St. Joseph School. Describing the student as “brave” and “hard-working,” the Catholic school administrator praised the youngster for her religious beliefs and convictions. “I’m so impressed that she choose to go to Rome,” he added during a telephone conversation with the Explorer.
Talking about her bout with cancer and her once-in-a-lifetime experience at the Vatican as her friends and fellow students participated in classes nearby, Ceballos reflected upon making the nearly 10-hour intercontinental trek to see the leader of the Catholic Church. The child of faith said, “I wanted his blessing to get better.”
Describing the fateful day that she actually came face-to-face with Pope Benedict, the youngster said, “From a distance I could see the popemobile approaching.” The bilingual youngster admitted that she was especially delighted when the pope uttered parts of his message in Spanish and English.
After his public address, Pope Benedict blessed all the congregants, she said. He then invited the sick and immobilized in attendance at the audience, including Ceballos, to come forward and receive special individual blessings. “I was filled with emotion and happiness. My wish had finally come true,” she said, recalling the moment.
Ceballos expressed her appreciation to the staff of the Joliet-based Wish Upon A Star Foundation for making the idea of visiting the pope into a reality for her. “This was the best vacation that I have ever taken,” added the grateful child.
Don West, executive director of Wish Upon A Star Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to fulfilling the dreams of seriously ill children from Will County, mentioned that the Joliet child’s request to see the pope in person is the first of its kind since the doors of the organization were opened nearly 30 years ago. “Disney World is the No. 1 trip,” he said. Funded through private and public donations, the foundation typically arranges the trips and covers financial expenses for the child and his or her family. Packages often include curbside limousine service to and from the airport, airfare, car rental, lodging and food. Money for souvenirs and mementos is also provided. The Ceballos family’s trip cost approximately $7,500, he said.
Families with children who suffer from serious health conditions are typically “strapped from medical bills,” West said. Because of the organization’s mission “they can go on these trips without having to worry,” he added.
When asked why she chose a trip to Rome and a chance to see the pope, Ceballos said anyone could attend a concert or professional sports event, share a few moments with a celebrity or a professional athlete. “But, there is only one pope. Seeing him was a dream come true,” said the faithful child. Reflecting upon being only a few feet away from the leader of the Catholic Church, she said, “I was so excited and happy. I never thought I would ever be there. I still can’t believe I was there.”
Interesting article on young people and religious vocations includes the following.
..Peter Stamm has been interested in joining the clergy since third grade, when he became an altar boy at Our Lady of Victory, a church near his subdivision of Spring Valley in Northwest Washington.
"I don’t know why I wanted to do it. I just remember being deeply attracted to the role the priest had," said Stamm, 18, who is studying philosophy at Boston College.
By ninth grade, the call was too loud to ignore, drowning out the intensifying sex abuse scandals that prompted his classmates at the parochial St. Anselm’s School to be unkind.
"People made their voices very well known that I was a pedophile, a homosexual, like in the halls and stuff," he said with no inflection. "Luckily, I was at a good place in my prayer life. I accepted all the persecution I got and prayed for people doing it."
Home during his spring break this month, Stamm talked excitedly in his family’s elegantly appointed living room about his upcoming weekend with a group of friars in Emmitsburg, in Frederick County, who own nothing and beg for food.
"I think when people see this radical lifestyle they are drawn to it. It’s very liberating to not be attached to the unnecessary," he said.
Stamm considered going right into the seminary after high school. But he decided he should live for a while in a more secular, diverse environment — to see whether he was sure he wanted to become a priest and to have a broader experience so he could "serve people better" if he did take that step later. He says it is likely he will enter the seminary after college.