National Catholic Reporter articles from March 1994

National Catholic Reporter back issues from March 1994:

Turn obedience around and it's act of freedom. (obedience to church and state is necessary for society to function)

Mar 04, 1994; ... Your kids have begun to raise questions about why you're in charge and they aren't. Tease them with a Lenten exercise. Tell them to check out this really neat conversation between Yahweh and Moses in Deuteronomy (18:15-20): Moses tells Yahweh the people feel overwhelmed by the fire and ...

San Francisco parish revolt gets personal; staff, parishioners refuse to throw in towel. (protest against closing of eight parishes on June 30, 1994)

Mar 04, 1994; ... SAN FRANCISCO - Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco, in an effort to curtail protests against his plans to close eight parishes on June 30, has transferred and silenced dissident clergy and reprimanded women religious who have supported parishioners appealing the closures. ...

Flynn named coadjutor for St. Paul-Minneapolis. (Harry J. Flynn)

Mar 04, 1994; ... ST. PAUL, Minn. - Bishop Harry J. Flynn of Lafayette, La., was named coadjutor archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis Feb. 22 with the right to succeed Archbishop John Roach. Roach, 72, said Flynn was very high on my list" of five names he submitted to the Holy See with his request ...

Christians want right books in libraries; conservative activists' primary focus is gays.

Mar 04, 1994; ... FAIRFAX, Va. - Have Christian right activists switched from trying to get books out of public libraries to trying to get books in? Yes, at least in Fairfax County, Va., where the 22-branch county library recently announced it was purchasing 102 copies of 11 titles "that offer ...

Christian right sees Clinton as top target; conflict ranges from military to health care. (Bill Clinton, gays in the military) (Cover Story)

Mar 04, 1994; ... Conflict ranges from military to health care President Clinton, who was battling conservative Christians on gay even before he was sworn in, has two new Christian right fights on his hands. In one, he is supporting gay and lesbian activists fighting anti-gay ballot ...

Theologians still face control by bishops; orthodoxy locks horns with academic freedom. (changes in higher education delayed, control to local bishops)

Mar 04, 1994; ... Efforts by U.S. bishops and Catholic educators to meet the Vatican's demands for changes in Catholic higher education - including giving local bishops the power to appoint college theologians - have been delayed by opposition and the weather. But college and university ...

Surreptitious Latin Mass is another sign of the times.

Mar 04, 1994; ... WILMINGTON, N.C. - The sounds of clinking teacups and the laughter of the lunchtime crowd filter under the door of St. Anthony's Chapel. But inside, the priest continues the solemn whispering of the traditional Latin Mass. The graying altar boys hold the priest's silver chalice. The mute ...

U.S. eyes Mexico's discontent; talks get underway in 'Cathedral of Peace.' (peasant uprising in Chiapas)

Mar 04, 1994; ... CUERNAVACA, Mexico - Amid signs that the Mexican government is losing control in Chiapas and that discontent is spreading to other parts of the country, the Clinton administration is demonstrating growing concern over the uneasiness threatening its southern neighbor. In the wake ...

Vatican says automatic excommunication for using 'morning-after pill.'

Mar 04, 1994 ... Women who purposely stop a pregnancy by using a "morning-after pill" incur automatic excommunication, said a Feb. 23 article in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. Like abortion, pills that prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine wall "destroy a human ...

In Kenya, violence torments refugees; bandits rape, assault Somalis, U.N. repots.

Mar 04, 1994; ... Bandits rape, assault Somalis, U.N. reports DADAAB, Kenya - More than 210,000 Somali refugees are camped on the inhospitable plains of northeast Kenya, where they have become the target of incessant attacks from bandits and militias. In a camp clinic recently, a woman ...

Canadian bishops' social affairs head forced out. (Tony Clarke)

Mar 04, 1994; ... OTTAWA - Pressure from conservative bishops has forced the resignation of Tony Clarke, codirector of the Social Affairs Office of the Canadian Conference of Catholics Bishops (CCCB). The basic problem has been the very political - and public - positions he has taken as president ...

Pressing for justice along the border; Borderlinks activists work with the poor at U.S.-Mexico line.

Mar 04, 1994; ... Borderlinks activists work with the poor at U.S.-Mexico line TUCSON, Ariz. - Rick Ufford-Chase used to have to beg church activists to visit the U.S.-Mexico border. The church delegations were more likely to be attracted to the higher-profile issues farther south in ...

Abbe Pierre's 40-year fight for homeless; laissez-faire France honors one who cares.

Mar 04, 1994; ... Laissez-faire France honors one who cares BEAUMES DE VENISE, France - The most popular person in this highly secularized country right now seems to be a bearded 81-year-old Capuchin priest who still wears a beret and goes around in a cassock and cape. TV, radio and ...

Indians are us? Culture and genocide in native North America. (R

Mar 04, 1994; ... On Oct. 12, 1991, Ward Churchill, Russell Means, Glenn T. Morris and Cahuilla Red Elk, along with 300 other protesters, halted a Columbus Day parade for 45 minutes. They ignored police directives until they were arrested. It is with the brief defending their actions that Churchill begins ...

Comfort, help of angels may hover close at hand. (angels and spirituality) (Column)

Mar 04, 1994; ... In case you haven't noticed, angels are "in" these days. In a big way. This past Christmas, they made the cover of Time magazine and were the main topic of Newsweek's religion section. Go into a large bookstore and you'll find, as I did recently, a shelf full of titles on ...

French Cardinal Marty found room for everyone. (Francois Marty) (Obituary)

Mar 04, 1994; ... Cardinal Francois Marty, archbishop of Paris in 1968-81, was killed Feb. 16 when his car, trapped between the barriers of a crossing, was sideswiped by a passenger train. He was 89 and had been living in retirement in the Dominican house at Villefranche-de-Rouergue, his home town. ...

Philosopher Copleston combined wit, learning. (Frederick Copleston) (Obituary)

Mar 04, 1994; ... Jesuit Fr. Frederick Copleston, who was 86 when he died on Feb. 3, laughed good-naturedly when I told him that one of my philosophy students referred to his paperback on Thomism as Flash Fred and his Favorite Friar. Anything but flashy, Copleston was much attracted by the ...

Christian right's set of strategies may obscure a more sinister goal. (more about politics than morals) (Editorial)

Mar 04, 1994 ... The Christian right is about politics, about biblical inerrancy and about beleaguered people seeking certainty in an uncertain world. Banning books at libraries, coercing libraries to buy books and trumpeting an anti-gay agenda at every opportunity (see stories pages 5-7) are a mix of all ...

Chiapas accords place focus on Mexico City. (Editorial)

Mar 11, 1994; ... Two months after the New Year's uprising, the Mexican government and the Chiapas insurgents reached a tentative agreement last week. After the accords were signed, Manuel Camacho Solis, the Mexican government's negotiator, hugged Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, the intermediary, in the ...

Vexing virtues: tolerance - hard to be humble when one is always right. (Lent) (Column)

Mar 11, 1994; ... It was the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and thousands of folks would converge on Washington to demonstrate their convictions on the abortion issue. Like prophets and apostles of old, they would come ready to confront authority, put their convictions on the line, risk penalties, stand up for ...

Bernardin sex abuse charges dropped; questions linger. (Cardinal Joseph Bernardin)

Mar 11, 1994; ... Questions linger about how suit originated, ties among plaintiff's attorneys and media With a sense of relief that was written on his smile and the conviction of a battle won that was evident in his parting statement, Caum Joseph Bernardin of Chicago declared to a roomful of ...

Bernardin ordeal ends with 'Deo gratias.' (Cardinal Joseph Bernardin sex abuse allegations withdrawn) (Interview)

Mar 11, 1994 ... Deo gratias, thanks to God! I spent the last half-hour before this press conference in prayer, thanking God for bringing this case to such a successful conclusion. There's only one thing that still troubles me. I am concerned about the almost instantaneous judgment ...

In Chicago, Catholics react with relief, lingering anger. (Cardinal Joseph Bernardin sex abuse allegations withdrawn) (Interview)

Mar 11, 1994; ... CHICAGO - News of Cardinal Bernardin's vindication after 108 days of waiting and speculation was at the top of all the news broadcasts and on the front pages of the print media here last week. There had been rumors for nearly three weeks that the case against him was coming ...

Bishop rules out post-rape pills in Peoria: fear of abortion cited. (Peoria, Illinois Bishop John Myers)

Mar 11, 1994; ... Fear of abortion cited, while its critics claim rule punishes victims A Catholic hospital in Illinois is currently revising its protocol for treating rape victims, following a directive from Peoria Bishop John Myers banning the use of "morning after" pills. Myers ...

Report lists clergy discontents. (National Federation of Priests' Councils survey)

Mar 11, 1994; ... WASHINGTON - More than half of all U.S. priests believe that resigned priests - whether they are married or not - should be invited to reapply for permission to function again. While 52 percent of priests polled in a National Federation of Priests'councils survey would readmit ...

Another Gateley talk cancelled but Milwaukee invitation holds. (Edwina Gateley)

Mar 11, 1994; ... A fourth speaking engagement for lay minister Edwina Gateley has been canceled because of her participation in a Call to Action eucharistic liturgy last October in Chicago. Her invitation to talk April 27 at the midwest Pastoral Administrators meeting in Marathon, Wis., was rescinded. ...

Lebanon bombing won't deter papal trip. (Jounieh, Lebanon Catholic Church bombing)

Mar 11, 1994 ... News of the bombing of the church of Our Lady of Deliverance at Jounieh, Lebanon, a seaport north of Beirut, was brought to Pope John Paul II only minutes before he moved to his window for the noonday Angelus Feb. 27. It was the first Sunday in Lent. While Western or Latin ...

Peruvians want top brass punished for murders. (1992 La Cantuta University murder of ten)

Mar 11, 1994; ... LIMA, Peru - Nearly 2,000,people gathered Feb. 25 in the Plaza of San Martin for one of the largest human rights protests against the government of President Alberto Fujimori. They turned out to demonstrate their discontent over the 1992 disappearance and murder of nine students ...

Chiapas smolders, Mexico waits; nuncio accused of fingering priests and nuns. (papal nuncio Archbishop Girolamo Prigone)(includes related article on mysterious Zapatista leader Subcommandante Marcos)

Mar 11, 1994; ... CUERNAVACA, MEXICO - "Peace hangs by a thread,' said the Mexican Bishops' Commission on Reconciliation and Peace on Feb. 25th during its third visit to Chiapas since the Jan. 1 indigenous uprising. "It is not enough that there be formal accords, however firm. There must be a change of ...

CTU women 'quietly push forth a vision.' (Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, Illinois) (Cover Story)

Mar 11, 1994; ... Mary Huffman of St. Louis matriculated at Catholic Theological Union at Chicago (CTU) in 1991. She is in her third year of a four-year program that will award her a master's degree in divinity. She will complete 36 quarter hours common to all master of divinity candidates and 72 quarter ...

Fr. Joseph Fichter, sociologist and lover of causes, dead at 85. (Obituary)

Mar 11, 1994; ... Jesuit Fr. Joseph H. Fichter, vanguard sociologist, died Feb. 23 after a bout of lung cancer, at the Ignatius Residence, a retirement home for Jesuit brothers and priests in New Orleans. He was 85. "One-Man Research" best describes him. That title, chosen by Fichter for his 1973 ...

Carroll Stuhlmueller, biblical scholar, dies. (Obituary)

Mar 11, 1994 ... Fr. Carroll Stuhlmueller, an internationally famed biblical scholar, died Feb. 21 in Chicago after suffering a massive stroke. He was 70 years old. Stuhlmueller was a professor of Old Testament studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, the largest Catholic graduate ...

Slumping C of E blames Catholicism for its woes. (Church of England) (Column)

Mar 11, 1994; ... Reporting the Church of England has suddenly become a hazardlous occupation. In the post-ecumenical era, one is as likely to be hit by flying writs as damaged by polemical abuse. In The Church of England Newspaper and then in the London Times, Tim Bradshaw, an Anglican priest, ...

Hope is a paradox amid Mexico's poor mountains. (Column)

Mar 11, 1994; ... In January, on a trip to the interior of Mexico, I was invited to an evening of reflection with members of the underground church. The circle included an anthropologist, an architect, a psychologist, a veteran leader of comunidades de base, several members of a workers' rights group and ...

Jobs first, then let's talk welfare reform. (Editorial)

Mar 11, 1994 ... The heartbeat of welfare-and potential welfare reform-could be heard recently at two Washington gatherings. The first, at a March 1 National Press Club conference where a combined Republican-Democrat poll on welfare issues was released; the second, at the Feb. 26-March 2 annual Catholic ...

Hebron massacre poses old, awkward questions. (Editorial)

Mar 11, 1994 ... The first recorded fact in Jewish history is Abraham's purchase of a field with a cave tomb for his beloved wife Sarah from a Hittite landlord called Ephron. It cost him 400 shekels and much haggling. Abraham's son Isaac and Isaac's wife, Rebecca, and later Jacob and Leah were also buried ...

To Easter, traveling with the least of them all. (accepting Jesus' requirements for entering heaven) (Column)

Mar 18, 1994; ... Funny. They weren't even sincere; just trying to trick him when they asked "What is the greatest law?" Yet Jesus, who could have overwhelmed them with chapter and verse, gave them the perfect truth: "Love God with all you've got, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's the Law and the ...

Mysterious Mary quilt yields its message. (unknown quilt-maker is found)

Mar 18, 1994; ... MINNEAPOLIS - Fr. Michael O'Connell's "Mary quilt", is unwieldy with its 5-foot-high figure of the pregnant Virgin, whose stomach, right arm and breasts protrude from the quilt. Designed as a wall hanging, the quilt incorporates shiny and dull fabrics, strips of leather, human ...

Trenton's Reiss bans McBrien; Pax Christi assembly forced to relocate to Presbyterian church. (Trenton, New Jersey, Bishop John Reiss, theologian Friar Richard McBrien, New Jersey Pax Christi)

Mar 18, 1994; ... TENAFLY, N.J. - Bishop John Reiss, besieged by opponents of Notre Dame University theologian Fr. Richard McBrien, banned the priest from speaking March 5 at a Catholic church in New Jersey. Four days before he was to deliver the keynote speech during the annual assembly of New ...

Lawyer in Bernardin case: 'I was troubled.' (attorney Andrew Lipton troubled by weak sexual abuse case against Cardinal Joseph Bernardin)

Mar 18, 1994; ... One of the attorneys who helped bring a sex-abuse suit against Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in November said last week he would have asked that he be dropped from the case if the court had not accepted dismissal of the charges. Attorney Andrew Lipton of Cincinnati who ...

Bernardin gives thanks and appeals for healing. (Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's sex abuse case dropped)

Mar 18, 1994; ... My first reaction to the dismissal of the charges against me was that of gratitude - to God for giving me the strength and grace to endure the ordeal and to the thousands of people in the archdiocese and elsewhere who supported me and prayed for a swift and complete vindication. ...

How Iran-contra diminished us. (the crimes committed during the Iran-contra affair as reported in Lawrence W. Walsh's 'Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran-contra Matters')

Mar 18, 1994; ... Maybe it's because everything happened around the same time: The Tailhook 140 grabbers and gropers got off. Lorena Bobbitt got off. The Menendez brothers killed their parents, and, with a defense Elizabeth Hardwick termed "a usual squalor spreading its scrofulous blight over the American ...

Ukranian Catholics. (developments among the Ukranian Catholics)

Mar 18, 1994; ... A Polish pope is not always an advantage in dealing with Slavs. This is particularly true in western Ukraine, which with its capital, L'viv, belonged to Poland in the interwar years. In this region there are two equally authentic Catholic churches, distinguished locally as "Latin" and ...

Things that fail to explain amazing grace; lives whose stories walk the line between meaning and mystery.

Mar 18, 1994; ... Lives whose stories walk the line between meaning and mystery There is the suspicion among even the most hardheaded people I know that their experiences cannot always be explained by genetics or coincidence or their own wills. These are people who never saw spooks in the night ...

Olympics give not only sport but greed bad name. (Olympics' new schedule reflects commercialism) (Column)

Mar 18, 1994; ... The big television events of the past few weeks were all nonfiction. There was the usual apocalypse of blizzards, earthquakes and Middle Eastern massacres. Then there was the first great spy scandal of the post-Cold War era. And don't forget the Grammy Awards. But mostly there were the ...

Her 'literacy' campaign targets media violence. (Sister Elizabeth Thoman campaigns against television violence) (Column)

Mar 18, 1994; ... Excitement. Friends arriving for dinner. The greetings, the settling in. Suddenly, as 5-year-old Meg struggles out of coat, hat and gloves, her shrill cry cuts through the social din. I|ve never forgotten Meg's cry. It was Nov. 16, 1989. Prime-time television had just flashed a ...

Crime is but a symptom of a deeper problem. (Column)

Mar 18, 1994; ... The reemergence of crime as a national concern late last year was both good news and depressing. It's good news because crime is what Americans worry about when they don't have something more catastrophically menacing to worry about. When they are out of a job or seeing signs ...

Couple smuggles tapes about Peru prison break. (Darwin Flakoll and Claribel Alegria)

Mar 18, 1994; ... Claribel Alegria and Darwin Flakoll, wife and husband, went incognito to Peru and taped 75 hours of interviews with leftist guerrillas about how they dug a 300-meter tunnel over a period of three years, leading to a celebrated 1990 escape from Peru's maximum security prison, Canto Grande. ...

Monsanto says 'trust me,' makes Bossie a cash cow. (Monsanto's addition of bovine somatotopin to its milk) (Column)

Mar 18, 1994; ... On the hallway bulletin board outside the principal's office at Belvedere Elementary School, a sign has been posted by some educators who care more about children than corporate profits: "The milk served in Fairfax County public schools is supplied by Shenandoah's Pride (dairy). It does ...

A red, white and blue plan for a national service program. (President Bill Clinton's National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993) (Column)

Mar 18, 1994; ... President Clinton's National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 recalls the Peace Corps and its domestic counterpart, Volunteers in Service to America, which endure as reminders of John Kennedy's New Frontier challenge to Americans to ask what they might do for their country. ...

Ultraright cleric with mean chip on shoulder. (Father Charles Fiore's case against Cardinal Joseph Bernardin)

Mar 18, 1994 ... The media spotlight that shined so brightly on some of the events and people involved in the case against Cardinal Joseph Bernardin largely skipped over one of the behind-the-scenes players - a renegade Dominican who publicly celebrated the bogus charges of sex abuse. In other ...

Even lost fish show captialism is by its very nature unbridled. (fish industry's unwillingness to limit its catch)

Mar 18, 1994 ... In a lesson about the shortcomings of free-market capitalism that ought to speak with the clarity of a thunderstorm over the Atlantic, the U.S. fishing industry, we learned last week, has nearly depleted its stocks and is in a state of virtual suicide. Since fish provide more ...

If christianity is joyful, why are we so somber?

Mar 25, 1994 ... In the old seminary days, laughter was crucial to our survival, yet it always seemed "naughty." Many are the spiritual directors who hinted that a little more piety, a deeper spirituality, would have lifted us above the need for "frivolity." Ironically, that mentality often made the merely ...

Seder honors birds of a feather vanishing forever. (Passover Seder; includes related article on why birds are becoming extinct)

Mar 25, 1994; ... WASHINGTON -- Holy Week. The Passover Seder. Genesis:"| ... and let the birds fly above the earth within the vault of heaven.' And it was so." But not for much longer. The birds of the Bible -- and a thousand more species of birds besides -- are threatened with ...

Archdiocese is sued for illegal dismissals; women win $1.2 million for age discrimination.

Mar 25, 1994; ... ST. PAUL, Minn. -- An age discrimination lawsuit that may be without precedent against the Catholic church in the United States brought nine women awards totaling $1.2 million in damages March 16. Ramsey County Judge Joanna Smith awarded the damages in the women's case against ...

A grim future of violence, poverty, neglect. U.S. youth need help from government, churches, CDF says. (Children's Defense Fund)

Mar 25, 1994; ... CINCINNATI -- In Fort Worth, Texas, a 10-year-old boy was hit by a stray bullet during a fight among Crips and Bloods gang members. In Boston's Roxbury, a 17-year-old died after being shot in the head while bicycling on a Sunday afternoon. In North Carolina, teenagers ...

Salvadoran ARENA: subverting by phone; first 'free' elections echo Romero's murder. (Archbishop Oscar Romero)

Mar 25, 1994; ... SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- In the months just before the 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the archdiocesan radio station was twice bombed off the air. Both bombings followed Sunday homilies, broadcast live, in which Romero strongly criticized the government. ...

Cardinal taken in escape plot, later freed. (Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider)

Mar 25, 1994; ... Nine prisoners from the Brazilian crime ring Comando Vermelho took hostage Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider and used him and 11 other human rights and church leaders as a shield March 15 to break out of the Paulo Saraste Jail. Lorscheider, 69, archbishop of Fortaleza, and the other ...

Malone asks diocesan workers to sign sex abuse affidavits. (Bishop James W. Malone)

Mar 25, 1994 ... YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Bishop James W. Malone of Youngstown has directed all diocesan employees and regular volunteers to sign affidavits certifying that they have never been involved in any kind of child abuse. The new policy, which took effect March 10, affects some 1,600 ...

Anglican women priests pose new wrinkles for dialogue.

Mar 25, 1994; ... OXFORD, England -- Ordination of its first women priests March 12 was a memorable event for the Church of England and perhaps for Christians everywhere. Thirty-two women, ages 29 to 69, were ordained priest by Bristol Bishop Barry Rogerson in his cathedral. In the next four ...

Can African church be itself? Rome synod may hold answer. (Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops)

Mar 25, 1994; ... NAIROBI, Kenya -- In the coming weeks about 250 delegates, mostly bishops and cardinals, will make their ways from Africa to Rome for the four-week Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, an assembly that has fueled both hope and frustration. At this late stage, ...

Colombia investigates bishops said to aid leftist guerrillas.

Mar 25, 1994; ... BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's most powerful judicial official, Attorney General Gustavo de Greiff, has announced that he is investigating three Colombian bishops for allegedly aiding left-wing guerrilla insurgents. De Greiff's announcement has caused a major confrontation ...

New scripture document 'thinking in centuries.' (Pontifical Biblical Commission's "The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church")

Mar 25, 1994; ... OXFORD, England -- "The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church," prepared by Rome's Pontifical Biblical Commission, recently out in translation (Origins, Jan. 6), is the most important statement on this topic since Vatican II declared that "scripture is the soul of theology." ...

World is charged with grandeur of God; a spirituality of place to cultivate the souls of the places we live.

Mar 25, 1994; ... A spirituality of place to cultivate the souls of the places we live ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A world that replicates Disney World in Paris and Toys R Us in Tokyo is a world of aggressive uniformity. Its symbols might be the rusty Coke signs that have flapped for decades in the thin ...

Growing number of laypeople have, are spiritual directors.

Mar 25, 1994; ... ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Spiritual direction: It's not just for nuns and priests anymore and probably never was limited to monks and mystics. The surprise today is that many laypeople have spiritual directors and many laypeople are spiritual directors. "People are coming to spiritual ...