Page 1823 – Archdiocese of Baltimore

UPDATED SAO PAULO, Brazil – Arriving in Brazil on his first papal trip to Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI said he wanted to help reinforce Christian values and counter new threats to the poor, the abandoned and the unborn. “I am well aware that the soul of this people, as of all Latin America, safeguards values that are radically Christian, which will never be eradicated,” the pope said May 9. The pope addressed several hundred civil and church dignitaries at an airport welcoming ceremony outside Sao Paulo, where his plane touched down after a 12-hour flight from Rome. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva greeted the pope warmly as he descended from the aircraft. In their brief remarks at the airport, the pontiff and the Brazilian president highlighted the importance of family, the challenges facing young people, and the Catholic Church’s contribution to social programs in Latin America’s most Catholic and most populous country. Da Silva told the pope that the country needs spiritual and moral leadership “to face the challenges of this new millennium.”

Pope wants to help reinforce Christian values, counter threats

SAO PAULO, Brazil – Arriving in Brazil on his first papal trip to Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI said he wanted to help reinforce Christian values and counter new threats to the poor, the abandoned and the unborn. “I am well aware that the soul of this people, as of all Latin America, safeguards values that are radically Christian, which will never be eradicated,” the pope said May 9. The pope addressed several hundred civil and church dignitaries at an airport welcoming ceremony outside Sao Paulo, where his plane touched down after a 12-hour flight from Rome. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva greeted the pope warmly as he descended from the aircraft.

Church leaders call for prayers for new government

DUBLIN, Ireland – Christian leaders in Northern Ireland have encouraged citizens to pray for the success of the region’s fledgling Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government. Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh issued a statement with the heads of the Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist churches, calling May 8 a “historic day” when enemies joined together to form the power-sharing government. The new government returns home rule to Northern Ireland after a five-year suspension. “We recognize that much work still remains if all people in Northern Ireland are to share the future together,” they said. “We are especially aware of those for whom the pain of the past is a constant living reality.”

Bioethicist calls suicide bill ‘implicitly anti-Catholic’

SAN FRANCISCO – Calling proposed California physician-assisted suicide legislation “strongly and implicitly anti-Catholic” and accusing its advocates of “trying to bend the Catholic Church’s moral teaching to the will of the culture of death agenda,” an international expert on bioethics urged listeners at a May 7 lecture to do everything in their power to help defeat the controversial bill. Titled the California Compassionate Choices Act, Assembly Bill 374 would allow physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to people diagnosed with a terminal illness, given less than six months to live and declared mentally competent.

You, me and Wii

More than a handful of people gathered around the television set at Oak Crest Village Retirement Community May 1, waiting for their chance to play the new Nintendo Wii, which was recently donated to the Parkville retirement community. The small crowd laughed and applauded as a man attempted to play golf on the new system. The Nintendo Wii, which uses a wireless controller to translate players’ motions onto the screen, is designed to make gaming accessible to people of all ages and abilities, said Jane Powell, public relations director for Oak Crest. A large plasma T.V. is being installed in a designated room so the residents can play whenever they would like. The large screen will also aid those with poor eyesight.

WWII Marine Veteran plans to help honor fallen

As a U.S. Marine who served during World War II, St. Casimir, Canton, parishioner Emil Kozlowski found that serving with valor means supporting fellow brothers in arms despite ones personal feelings of the conflict itself. It’s a notion he will keep with him during the Memorial Day Mass, breakfast and reflection ceremony as he and his fellow Catholic War Veterans raise the flag at their parish and pay tribute to the men and women who have died during military service.

Bridesmaid bingo to benefit day shelter

Women in frilly bridesmaids’ dresses, a wedding cake and a traditional bouquet toss are just some of the trappings of a wedding – minus a bride or groom – that will mark the fourth-annual Bridesmaid’s BINGO, a May 23 wedding-themed fundraiser for Catholic Charities’ My Sister’s Place.

Embryonic stem-cell research doesn’t help

The article “New, Natural Breast Reconstruction Following Mastectomy” (Editor’s note: The article to which the author is referring is an advertisement on page nine of the CR, April 26) reporting on the shift from using muscle tissue to using fat tissue and the benefits of the switch, was closely followed by an Internet report that surgeons in Japan and Europe are using fat tissue and autologous stem cells.

Five Sailors set to play college lacrosse

After playing in their final league game of the season, five Mount de Sales Academy, Catonsville, senior lacrosse players were honored at the Sailors’ first senior signing, April 30 in The Regina Keenan Knott Alumnae Hall on the campus of Mount de Sales. Family, friends, administrators and coaches gathered that evening to recognize the bright future of these players but also took a look back at the players’ accomplishments over the last four years.

Cardinal Rigali praises President Bush

WASHINGTON – The head of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities welcomed President George W. Bush’s May 3 promise to “veto any legislation that weakens current federal policies and laws on abortion.” Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia also expressed gratitude in a May 4 statement for pledges by 155 members of the House of Representatives and 34 senators to uphold any such vetoes. “These pledges help ensure that through the rest of this administration and this Congress Americans need not fear that the federal government will pursue new ways to force them to be involved in government-funded abortions, coercive population programs abroad or the destruction of embryonic human beings,” the cardinal said.

Writer travels around globe to tombs of apostles

ROME – As a Peace Corps volunteer, Tom Bissell was hiking through a village in Kyrgyzstan one day, and an old Russian woman offered to take him to see the tomb of St. Matthew. “I remember thinking: ‘The tomb of Matthew? I thought he was buried in Jerusalem or Italy or somewhere like that,’“ Bissell recalled in an interview with Catholic News Service. But Kyrgyzstan, he soon learned, also had a claim on the apostle’s final resting place. The woman led Bissell to the ruins of a monastery next to Lake Issyk Kul, where according to local legend the saint’s relics were transported by Armenian monks in the fifth century. It was a small marker in the remote reaches of Central Asia.

Father John A. Delclos dies at 67