Saturday, January 25, 2014
Despite pope’s wish, notes to be printed
WARSAW, Poland - Pope John Paul II’s secretary “did not have the courage” to burn all of the pontiff’s notes after his death, and is now having some of them published, he said Wednesday.
The book, Very Much in God’s Hands. Personal Notes 1962-2003, comes out Feb. 5 in Poland, where the pope is still a much-loved authority. It contains religious meditations that Karol Wojtyla recorded between July 1962, when he was a bishop in Poland, and March 2003, when he was pope.
In his last will, John Paul commissioned Dziwisz, his personal secretary and closest aide of almost 40 years, to burn his personal notes. Instead, Dziwisz kept them. He said he burned “those letters and notes that required burning,” but said it would have been a crime to burn all the notes that give insight into the pope’s soul.
Catholic kids march in anti-abortion rally
WASHINGTON - Thousands of high school and college students from Catholic schools around the country were in Washington on Wednesday to demonstrate against abortion on the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
March for Life President Jeanne Monahan said many of them traveled hundreds of miles on buses and slept overnight on gym floors to march from the Washington Mall to the Supreme Court on one of the coldest days of the year.
The march followed a Catholic youth rally and Mass celebrated by Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl. The Archdiocese of Washington said it was meant “to encourage the youth participating in the national March for Life in their witness as disciples of Christ and promoters of the Gospel of Life.” - The Associated Press
Baptists told to pay
in sex abuse case
ORLANDO, Fla. - A Florida jury has awarded $12.5 million in damages to a young man who was sexually abused by a Baptist minister when he was a child.
But an attorney for the Florida Baptist Convention said on Tuesday that the organization would appeal the ruling from a jury in Lake County, northwest of Orlando. Attorney Gary Yeldell says the convention is confident that an appellate court will overturn the ruling. He says the minister was an independent pastor and not supervised by the convention.
The jury verdict was returned on Jan. 18.
An attorney for the man, who is remaining anonymous, says the jury understood the “devastating” impact of the abuse.
Religious dialogue urged in Syrian talks
UNITED NATIONS - The Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations says interreligious dialogue must be part of the Syrian peace process.
In a U.N. speech, Archbishop Francis Chullikat noted that the millions of refugees displaced by the violence in Syria and other parts of the Mideast include Christians whose roots in the region go back nearly 2,000 years. The Holy See’s permanent U.N. observer lamented what he called “a worrying exodus” of Christians who are being targeted “by fundamentalist and extremist forces.”
Chullikat called for interfaith dialogue to bring about reconciliation and restore Syria’s historic religious pluralism.
Religion, Pages 12 on 01/25/2014