BRIEFS: USA & WORLD

USA

Bill orders release of data

WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives approved an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill for fiscal year 2009 that would require public disclosure of information about who attends and teaches at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly called the School of the Americas, at the U.S. Army’s Fort Benning, Ga. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Passage of the bill was hailed as a victory for SOA Watch, whose mission is to close the school. Some of the school’s graduates became notorious for suppressing groups of poor and indigenous people and killing civilians and church workers in Latin America in the 1970s and ’80s. SOA Watch was founded by Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois.

The amendment requires the public release of name, rank, country of origin, courses and dates of attendance of the training school’s graduates and instructors. The vote was 220 for and 189 against.

CNS/Eastern Oklahoma Catholic/David Crenshaw: Immigrant saint gets new home Parishioners walk with a statue of St. Toribio Romo during a procession to Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Tulsa, Okla., May 21. Bishop Edward J. Slattery of Tulsa attended services establishing the shrine at the church. St. Toribio is the patron saint of immigrants. Seven months ago, a new law went into effect in oklahoma making it a felony to aid or assist an illegal immigrant. Reflecting on the implications of that law led parishioner Simone Navarro to contemplate a shrine for St. Toribio Romo "where immigrants could pray in peace." Fr. Toribio Romo Gonzalez was martyred by Mexican federal troops in 1928 during the Cristero Wars, an uprising against Mexico's anti-Catholic government. It is said St. Toribio appears to many Mexican immigrants in the Sonoran Dessert -- which covers large parts of Arizona and California and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California -- and assists them as they make their way north seeking work in the United States.

Bail fund for undocumented

BOSTON -- Robert Hildreth, a multimillionaire who built his fortune trading in Latin American bonds, wants to create a national fund that would help post bail for undocumented workers seized by immigration authorities.

Hildreth began posting bail out of his own pocket after seeing what he considered to be “un-American” images on TV of shackled workers being deported. After doing this a few times in different states, Hildreth decided his program should go national.

His idea is to create a nonprofit bond fund that would match 50 percent of bail funds in most cases, and provide 100 percent bail only in extreme cases. Advocates say this is crucial for workers who are coerced into signing deportation orders before talking to a lawyer or having their day in court.

Ohio fraud case advances

CLEVELAND -- The retired bishop of Cleveland testified May 30 that he was unaware of any secret payments to the diocese’s former top legal and financial officer, who is accused of orchestrating an elaborate kickback scheme that netted him nearly $785,000.

Bishop Anthony M. Pilla said that Joseph Smith, who stepped down as the Cleveland diocese’s legal and financial secretary in February 2004, was one of his closest friends and advisers, and that he was stunned to learn of the alleged illegal payments.

Smith, 51, is accused of steering $17.5 million in diocesan accounting and computer business to associate Anton Zgoznik, who allegedly funneled money to businesses Smith ran from his home.

After leaving Cleveland, Smith began work as the chief financial officer in the Columbus, Ohio, diocese. He resigned that position after he was indicted in August 2006.

Gay marriage not decided yet

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A California constitutional amendment to limit marriage to “a man and a woman” has been approved for the Nov. 4 general election, just weeks after the state Supreme Court permitted same-sex marriages.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen June 2 certified that supporters had submitted some 1.1 million signatures, more than the 694,000 needed to place the measure on the November ballot.

California officials unveiled new marriage licenses May 28 that replace the traditional “bride” and “groom” applicants with “Party A” and “Party B.” New York Gov. David Patterson said his state will soon recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, including those sanctioned in California, Massachusetts and Canada.

WORLD

Excommunications upheld

VATICAN CITY-- The Vatican’s doctrinal congregation has backed St. Louis Archbishop Raymond L. Burke’s excommunication of members of a parish board of directors and the priest they hired, but the excommunicated Catholics vowed June 2 to appeal that decision.

In a separate action, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has decreed formally that a woman who attempts to be ordained a Catholic priest and the person attempting to ordain her are excommunicated latae sententiae, or automatically.

The brief “General Decree Regarding the Delict of Attempted Sacred Ordination of a Woman” was published on the front page of the May 30 edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. It said it “comes into force immediately.”

In a letter sent to Burke May 15, the doctrinal congregation said the six-member St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish lay board of directors is schismatic.

The doctrinal congregation said it would ask Pope Benedict XVI to laicize the pastor of St. Stanislaus, Fr. Marek B. Bozek, unless he is reconciled with the bishop of his home diocese, Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo., within 30 days.

National Catholic Reporter uses the following news services: AsiaNews, Catholic News Service, Latinamerica Press, New America Media, Religion News Service, and UCA News.

National Catholic Reporter June 13, 2008