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VATICAN CITY – As Pope John Paul II’s sainthood cause rolled forward, two people close to him have offered quite different insider accounts of his life and times. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, the late pope’s personal secretary for 39 years, has produced a conversational memoir called “A Life with Karol.” In anecdotal fashion, it sketches many of their major and minor experiences together. Pope Benedict XVI has meanwhile released “John Paul II: My Beloved Predecessor,” a more analytical look at the philosophical and theological impact of his pontificate. Although the books focus on the same subject, they don’t make for redundant reading. That says something about the breadth of Pope John Paul’s 26-year pontificate.

LORETTO, Pa. – The sainthood cause for the second priest ordained in the United States, a Russian prince who became known as the “apostle of the Alleghenies,” has been initiated by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Bishop Joseph V. Adamec of Altoona-Johnstown held the opening session of the diocesan inquiry for the canonization cause of Servant of God Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin March 11 at the Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel in Loretto.

NEW ORLEANS – More than 500 students from Jesuit colleges, universities and high schools gathered in New Orleans March 9-11 to discuss racism and poverty and engage in spring-break service work. They were among the approximately 2,000 Jesuit-affiliated students who were to descend on New Orleans in a 10-day period to aid in the city’s ongoing recovery efforts. The teach-in, “Rebuilding Our Communities: Facing Racism and Poverty,” featured discussions on institutional racism, economic development and poverty, environmental racism, fair housing and employment.

SAN ANTONIO – The biggest city in the world to be named for St. Anthony of Padua welcomed a relic of the saint to its San Fernando Cathedral for the first time March 3-4. The event marked the close of the jubilee year proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI to mark the 275th anniversary of the cathedral in San Antonio. With a population of 1.2 million, it is the eighth largest U.S. city. Following each Mass during the weekend the faithful were able to venerate the relic, touch the reliquary and receive a holy card.

One may wonder why the sacrament of baptism welcomes an individual into the church as an infant when the other sacraments of initiation, first Communion and confirmation, occur when the person is aware of what is happening. “The Catholic Church believes that the child receives grace at baptism,” said Father Leo E. Patalinghug, associate pastor of St. John, Westminster, “the grace to be initiated into the life of Christ. Why wait for the child to receive this special grace?”

SAN FRANCISCO – “It is a mistake to judge Islam on the basis of terrorists, just as it is (unfair) to judge Christianity from the Crusades,” an Islamic scholar told a San Francisco audience. Mona Siddiqui, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Islam at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, made the comment in response to a question following a highly annotated lecture on divine love and divine law as they relate to human dignity in Islam.

WASHINGTON – Pope Benedict XVI’s post-synodal exhortation on the Eucharist reminds Catholics that “the Eucharist is a mystery to be believed and to be celebrated and to be lived,” said Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl, one of four representatives of the U.S. bishops at the 2005 world Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. “He (the pope) tells us that we need to reflect on the Eucharist in terms of how we experience and live out the Eucharist in our lives,” Archbishop Wuerl told the Catholic Standard, Washington archdiocesan newspaper, March 13. He made the comments shortly after the Vatican released the apostolic exhortation, “Sacramentum Caritatis” (“The Sacrament of Charity”).

Since 2002 the Carmelite Sisters of Baltimore have been inviting young women to a Come and See Weekend at their monastery. During this time women get a taste of what it is like to be a Carmelite and a true understanding of the community. “We are trying to foster contemplative prayer for everyone in the world,” said Sister Colette Ackerman, O.C.D. “It’s important to give them the opportunity to experience religious life firsthand.”

UPDATED WASHINGTON – In a sharply worded letter to his religious superior, Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino said that a Vatican document criticizing his work is an effort “to put an end to the theology of liberation.” Father Sobrino defended his theology and said that there is an a priori attitude among many Vatican officials and Latin American bishops against him and other liberation theologians. The letter was sent to Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, superior general of the Society of Jesus, after Father Kolvenbach had sent Father Sobrino a notification by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith strongly criticizing theological aspects of two of Father Sobrino’s books.