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CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has demanded that Pope Benedict XVI apologize for saying that Europeans did not impose Catholicism on native Americans. “As chief of state, I implore His Holiness to offer apologies to the peoples of our America,” President Chavez said in a mid-May broadcast over Venezuelan radio and television. “How can (the pope) go and say that they came – when they came with rifles to evangelize – that they came with no kind of imposition?” During his speech inaugurating the May 13-31 Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, Pope Benedict said Catholic missionaries’ early evangelization was not “the imposition of a foreign culture” on the region’s indigenous peoples, but led to “a synthesis between their cultures and the Christian faith.”

LONDON – A surgeon who testified about the miraculous healing of a baby at a British hospital said he remains mystified by the child’s recovery, the miracle that cleared the way for the canonization of Malta’s first saint. Dr. Anil Dhawan, professor of pediatric hepatology at King’s College Hospital, London, told Catholic News Service May 22 there was “no scientific explanation” for the full recovery of the Maltese boy who had undergone “devastating” liver failure. The Catholic Church has concluded that the baby was cured through the intercession of Father George Preca, a 20th-century priest who will be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI June 3. Dhawan, 45, gave evidence to a church tribunal set up in Malta to decide if the healing was a sign from God that Blessed Preca is a saint. “The child was diagnosed with fulminant liver failure,” he said. “There was a 90 percent-plus chance that he wasn’t going to survive without a liver transplant. But he survived. Furthermore, he improved on his own.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Smith has called Amnesty International’s new position on abortion “outrageous” and said it creates a “major credibility gap” for the widely respected human rights organization. In a telephone interview with Catholic News Service May 18, the New Jersey Republican said Amnesty’s new position makes it “just another pro-abortion organization.” Amnesty’s claim that it takes no position on whether abortion should be legalized, when it calls for complete decriminalization of abortion, is “totally contradictory.” “When you decriminalize, you legalize. … If there is no sanction, there is no law,” said the Catholic congressman, one of the leading foes of abortion in Congress and also one of Congress’ leading human rights advocates.

APARECIDA, Brazil – Saying “it’s five minutes to midnight” for the Amazon, a bishop from Brazil made an impassioned plea for all the countries of the world to join forces to stop the destruction of the rain forest. German-born Bishop Erwin Krautler of Xingu, in northern Para state, said during a press conference May 19 that when he arrived in the area 42 years ago, “the Amazon was more or less intact and now it is threatened with destruction.” Clearing and burning the rain forest to plant soy and sugar cane “will be a fatal blow for the Amazon,” he said. “If things continue as they are, in another 30 years the Amazon will not exist anymore.”

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI made an urgent appeal for an end to the “tragic violence” escalating in the Gaza Strip. After praying the noonday “Regina Coeli” with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square May 20, the pope called on both Palestinian and Israeli leaders to renew efforts for dialogue and to curb the violence. He said the mid-May rocket attacks by Palestinian militants against nearby Israeli towns and subsequent air raids launched by Israel against Palestinians were “provoking a bloody deterioration of the situation and causing dismay.”

Catonsville resident Jeanne Marie Hannon doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty if it means slowly watching the plants at Catholic Charities’ Gallagher Services in Timonium transform into colorful flowers or luscious vegetables. Cultivating plant life for the summer is an annual tradition for the St. Agnes, Catonsville, parishioner and client of the residential and day program for people with developmental disabilities, and she was proud to contribute to Gallagher Services’ two-day annual flower sale during the second weekend in May.

Whether relaxing by the pool or stuck inside on a rainy day, reading is always a great summer activity. The Enoch Pratt Free Library is offering several programs dedicated to books this summer. Avid readers can sign up for the Summer Reading Club at all Pratt library locations June 9. The theme for the program, which ends in August, is a “reading road trip” to show young people they can use their imaginations to go places without leaving Baltimore, said Roswell Encina, director of communications for the Enoch Pratt Free Library. explained Mr. Encina. Avid readers can also join in the running to read the most books in Baltimore during the summer. “This encourages more kids to read during the summertime,” said Mr. Encina, adding that hundreds of youths participate each year.

The aroma of sizzling steak on a grill may permeate through Maryland neighborhoods mostly in warmer months, but it’s a scent Parkville residents – who live near Bob Delisle’s home – smell all year. The avid outdoor chef and St. Matthew, Northwood, parishioner doesn’t need to dust off his two grills in the late spring because he cooks on them even when snow blankets his back lawn. Dinner served on the family’s dining room table gets its start from the backyard grill at least three evenings each week, and it’s not only the meat prepared outside. “I can easily make the whole meal on the grill,” said the 50-year-old married father of three. “Typically, I put a bunch of vegetables in a tin foil packet with some butter, salt, pepper and other seasonings, and it all steams up nicely while the meat cooks.”