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March 22, 2005 |
In a Vatican press release to Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano, Pope John Paul II announced: "Following the favorable opinion, already expressed in writing by cardinals from all over the world, and by archbishops and bishops resident in Rome, I intend to set the date of Sunday October 23, 2005, for the canonization of the following five blesseds:
A box story on Alberto Hurtado can be found at www.companymagazine.org/v222/beautifulmission.htm [Source: Electronic Maryland Province News]
Human rights organizations are expressing concern about recent threats and attacks against journalists, human rights workers, and government opponents in Ecuador; the targets include a Jesuit-run foundation that operates housing and social outreach projects, as well as Jesuit services for refugees and migrants in Ecuador.
Retired Archbishop Alberto Luna Tobar led a March 15 demonstration calling for respect for democracy in the country, which an estimated 20,000 people attended.
"The government has been incapable of opening up channels for dialogue with its opponents," said Pablo de la Vega, coordinator of the Segundo Montes Human Rights Center in Quito, the nation's capital. The center, founded in 1991 by graduates of Jesuit schools, takes its name from one of the Jesuit priests murdered in El Salvador in 1989.
On February 2, a score of government agents raided and shut down the Jesuit-run Mariana de Jesus Foundation in Quito and blocked its bank accounts, claiming the foundation, established in 1939, was not operating legally. A court ruled in the foundation's favor, but the Ministry of Social Welfare appealed.
On February 17, the foundation's director, Francisco Pena, was assaulted at gunpoint, and on March 2 the office received a telephoned bomb threat.
"We condemn the escalation of intolerance and political violence," de la Vega said. "The government needs to condemn the violence and show results from its investigations of these cases." [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
Fr Walter H Halloran SJ died at age 83 on March 1 in Wauwatosa, Wis; he was the last surviving Jesuit involved in a 1949 exorcism case in St Louis that led to William Peter Blatty's 1971 best-selling book, The Exorcist, and the hit 1973 movie of the same name.
Fr Halloran, who was ordained to the priesthood in 1954, was a Jesuit scholastic at Saint Louis University at the time he was assigned to hold down a 14-year-old boy known by the pseudonym "Douglas Deen," while Jesuit Fr William Bowdern performed the exorcism with the assistance of Jesuit Fr William Van Roo.
In a 1988 interview with the St Louis Post-Dispatch daily newspaper, Fr Halloran said he observed streaks and arrows and words like "hell" that would rise on the boy's skin. "The little boy would go into a seizure and get quite violent," Fr Halloran recalled. "So Fr Bowdern asked me to hold him. Yes, he did break my nose."
The exorcism was performed with the approval of Cardinal Lawrence Ritter of St Louis. Fr Halloran would not presume that the boy's actions were caused by demonic possession. "I've withheld judgment," he said. [CNS. Do not repost electronically]
The Curia General Secretariat has compiled the statistics of the Society of Jesus for 2004. As of January 1, 2005, the number of Jesuits was 19,850 (13,966 priests; 3,051 scholastics; 1,921 brothers; and 909 novices). That is a decrease of 320 as compared with the previous year.
During the past year, 512 entered, 414 died, and 418 left the Society. The average age of the Jesuits at the beginning of this year was 53.18; 59.83 for priests, 62.37 for brothers, and 24.84 for scholastics.
Among the assistancies, South Asia continued to have the largest membership (4,003 or 20.2 percent of all Jesuits), followed by the United States (3,217 or 16.7 percent). The Central Europe Assistancy is at the other end: 773 Jesuits or 3.9 percent. The number of Jesuits in all the European Assistancies is 6,639 (33.4 percent). [Source: www.jesuits-europe.org ]
In March, the Canisius College woman's basketball team won their first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship in program history and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, their first as a Division I program.
On February 23, Fordham University presented Archbishop Desmond Tutu with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Archbishop Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. He served as chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was convened to expose and rectify acts of injustice and to guide the country's transition to democracy.
Sr Helen Prejean CSJ, author of the best-selling book Dead Man Walking, will visit Regis University on March 31. She will be involved in a variety of events for students, faculty, staff, and alumni, culminating with a presentation titled "Catholics and the Death Penalty." She will also receive an honorary degree from Regis.
An anonymous donation of Rembrandt's etching St Jerome Kneeling in Prayer will soon go on display in Wheeling Jesuit University's library. Art historians consider Rembrandt's etching, which dates to 1635, to be the finest body of work ever done in the medium. St Jerome was a fourth-century church scholar and biblical commentator whose greatest work was the translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin.
Georgetown University, Boston College, Marquette University, Santa Clara University, Gonzaga University, and Seattle University were among the institutions that made the Peace Corps' "Top 25" list of American colleges and universities with the highest number of alumni currently serving in the corps. For the second year in a row, Georgetown had more Peace Corps volunteers than any other private university in the country, with 67 Georgetown alumni joining in 2004.
With the upcoming closings of a number of Catholic schools in Detroit and its suburbs, which the Archdiocese of Detroit announced in March, University of Detroit Jesuit High and Academy and Loyola High School will be the only Catholic high schools left in Detroit. Both of the schools are all-boys. "We are committed to the city of Detroit and Catholic education," commented Fr Karl Kiser, University of Detroit High's president. [Sources: Canisius College, AJCU, Regis University, Detroit Free Press]
"Provoke" is a new radio program sponsored by St Ignatius Church and Radio Mass of Baltimore. Its mission is to engage the audience in reflection on important contemporary issues from a religious and ethical perspective as an illustration of how Catholic social principles can be lived out in every day life. You can listen to the program at www.provokeradio.com/
In April 2005, the American Teilhard Association, in collaboration with the French and British Teilhard Associations and other partnering institutions, begins a year-long commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (18811955) in New York City. For details on the celebrations visit the following link: www.orgs.bucknell.edu/teilhard/events.htm
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