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Call to conversion not about making people feel bad, says pope
VATICAN CITY — The Lenten call to conversion is not an attempt to make people feel bad about themselves, but to promote their true good, which is eternal life, Pope Benedict XVI said.
Celebrating Mass March 7 at the Rome parish of St. John of the Cross and reciting the Angelus at the Vatican afterward, the pope focused on the day’s Gospel story in which Jesus tells his followers they must convert or they will perish. At the parish, which was founded in 1989, the pope said Lent is “an invitation to the conversion of our lives and to doing appropriate acts of penitence.”
The crowd Jesus was addressing in the day’s Gospel story thought that people who met a sudden and violent death were sinners, while the fact that members of Jesus’ audience were still alive meant they had nothing to worry about, the pope said. But Jesus warned them that by not recognizing their own sins and not setting out on the path to conversion, they would not be saved, he said.
“During Lent, each one of us is called by God to make a change, thinking and living according to the Gospel, correcting things in our way of praying, acting, working and relating to others,” he said. (CNS)
 
St. Louis seminary exceeds goal in first capital campaign
ST. LOUIS — The first capital campaign in the history of St. Louis’ Kenrick-Glennon Seminary exceeded its goal by 21.7 percent, with $60.8 million in pledges. The goal had been set at $50 million to provide repairs, updates and physical improvements to a building that dates to 1931, while increasing its endowment.
St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, in a letter in the Feb. 26 issue of the St. Louis Review, archdiocesan newspaper, said donations to the “Faith for the Future” campaign are an expression of hope, especially during challenging economic times. The pledges are “a powerful statement of our hope in God’s providence,” he noted.
Archbishop Carlson also told the Review that the response to the campaign “shows the people’s belief that we have to form good priests for the future so we can be a eucharistic people.”
Frank Cognata, chief development officer of the archdiocese, said the seminary has formed more than 2,700 priests in the past, and the funds will help prepare even more in the future. He said it was especially noteworthy that the campaign was conducted in a down economy and that participation met expectations. More than 2,000 volunteers helped make the campaign possible, with many of them making personal visits to potential donors. (CNS)
 
Religious attacks by media must be rejected, say officials
VATICAN CITY — Anti-religious commentary distributed by media outlets can create tensions and incite violence and therefore must be rejected, said Vatican and Muslim representatives.
Attacking religion in the mass media especially via satellite television channels must be opposed considering “the dangerous effect” that these broadcasts can have on social cohesion and on peace between religious communities, said a statement issued after the annual meeting of officials from the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and from al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. The Vatican released a copy of the statement to journalists March 2.
The Feb. 23-24 meeting in Cairo focused on the role religions can play in either causing or preventing religious violence. The al-Azhar meeting was chaired by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the pontifical council, and by Sheik Mohammed Abd al-Aziz Wasil, president of al-Azhar’s permanent committee for dialogue with the monotheistic religions.
The meeting’s final statement said greater attention must be paid to the fact that manipulating religion or religious beliefs for political or other interests can lead to violence. (CNS)
 

Prayer vigil at Planned Parenthood protests abortion pill

Written by Diane Schlindwein
Sunday, 31 January 2010
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Catherine Casey, Carol Muller and Father James O’Shea were three of about 100 participants who stood vigil outside Planned Parenthood on Jan. 22. They were praying against the introduction of the abortion pill RU-486 to Springfield.On Jan. 22, approximately 100 individuals took part in an all-day prayer vigil outside of Planned Parenthood in Springfield. The vigil, organized by two Springfield women and supported by Springfield Right to Life and the diocesan Office for Social Concerns, was a peaceful protest to Planned Parenthood bringing RU-486, the abortion pill, to the capital city.

Friends Mary Ellen Hollahan and Amy Bonansinga, both parishioners at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Springfield, heard about the distribution of the abortion pill and decided not only to pray for the discontinuation of its use, but to ask others to join them. A member of Right to Life provided them with some direction and the Social Concerns office became involved, too.

“I think Amy and I were kind of naïve about how to go about this,” said Hollahan. “At first we were just going to hand out some fliers. Thanks be to God, Right to Life and the people at the diocese were there to help us (as co-sponsors.).”

Because Hollahan has four children and Bonansinga has six children, the two mothers knew that someone would have to mind the youngsters while they and other young women spent the day at the vigil. They organized a babysitting co-op, with mothers either watching the children at Bonansinga’s home or spending some time at the vigil.

“I know there are a lot of people who aren’t happy about Planned Parenthood distributing RU-486. Overall, the day went very well. Nothing confrontational happened and we got a lot of people honking horns in support of us,” Hollahan said. “The positive reactions far outweighed the negative.”

Hollahan said that although people were asked to sign up for half-hour shifts, a number of people were there for much longer. “We had people who came out and spent hours there praying — and it was cold so I know they were getting chilly. Sometimes we had 5 to 10 people gathered at a time and sometimes it was closer to 20.

“We had people of all ages there. We had some eighth-graders from Blessed Sacrament who didn’t go to Washington, D.C., and we had some retired people. There was a group from Catholic Charities and we had people from the Marian Center who were covering shifts for each other so they could take turns praying,” Hollahan said.

“We also had a group from Calvary Church and at least one woman who was a Methodist who came here from Thayer. I know there were people who were in Washington who would have come if they had been in Springfield.”

Hollahan said she believes there will be other organized vigils but invites individuals to keep praying for life. “Our motivation is always to pray,” she said. “We all have the right to go down there and pray at any time.”

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Diane Schlindwein

Diane Schlindwein

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Diocese of Springfield in Illinois