ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) --- How national debt, trade policy, AIDS, human rights abuses, gang violence, war and migration affect children worldwide provided a lens for a program of education and advocacy March 9-12. Ecumenical Advocacy Days, co-sponsored by dozens of faith-based organizations including 10 Catholic religious orders, brought together about 1,000 participants for two days of background briefings in Arlington before spending another day or two lobbying members of Congress. In two of more than 20 issue briefing sessions March 10, presenters defined the conference's theme "And How Are the Children?" from the perspectives of immigrant families and child soldiers. Xaverian Father Rocco Puopolo, executive director of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, worked for 12 years in Sierra Leone, which is notorious for using children, even preteens, as soldiers. Father Puopolo read excerpts from "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solder" by Ishmael Beah, who was pressed into service in the Sierra Leone army at the age of 13. Father Puopolo himself was shot in the leg, almost accidentally, by a drunken child solder who was among a group of 40 who came to his mission center to loot the property, he explained. The next day the boy, along with about 100 other young soldiers, was killed just outside the priest's community.

Vatican diplomat expresses hope for normalizing relations with China
COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNS) --- Pope Benedict XVI's top diplomat at the United Nations said the Vatican wants to normalize relations with China, which it sees as a major way of advancing religious freedom and fostering unity among Chinese Catholics. Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's U.N. nuncio, expressed hope that a papal letter to Chinese Catholics to be released around Easter will be seen as proof of the Vatican's good will and pave the way for Vatican talks with Chinese officials that could lead to diplomatic relations and resolution of differences over the church's status in the Asian nation. At the same time, he said, the Vatican is hoping that a formula can be found to maintain ties with Taiwan while opening diplomatic relations with China. The Chinese government has required severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan as a prerequisite for establishing diplomatic relations with the Vatican. "We are ready to go back to Beijing without abandoning Taiwan," the archbishop said, without specifying whether future contacts with Taiwan would include diplomatic relations. Archbishop Migliore said the Vatican's main differences with China involve continued recognition of Taiwan, freedom to worship and appointment of bishops.

Texas diocese plans review of parish financial, personnel practices
EL PASO, Texas (CNS) --- El Paso Bishop Armando X. Ochoa said his diocese has begun a periodic review of parish financial and personnel practices. Charles Casiano, director of the diocesan finance office, and Pat Fierro, director of the diocesan human resources department, will be conducting the review, which is expected to cover all the parishes of the diocese in the course of two years. As pastor of the whole diocese, Bishop Ochoa said, he must ensure that parish affairs comply with the true spirit of stewardship and are conducted in accord with the requirements of canon law and also fulfill the obligations imposed by state and federal law. A letter to pastors whose parishes are about to be reviewed said, "The church is making a significant effort at regaining the trust and confidence of people that is essential for our ministry and mission." As examples of that effort, the letter cites the U.S. bishops' 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People," which contains church policies to stem child sex abuse, along with safe environment programs and other measures enacted throughout the country. The letter also notes that "a second area that has come under significant scrutiny is the handling of church finances, and the church is similarly trying to become more transparent and accountable in the handling of parish and diocesan funds."

Church must defend marriage against societal onslaught, speaker says
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- Despite clear evidence that traditional marriage benefits couples, children and society, legal and other challenges against it continue to mount, a law professor said March 11. Helen M. Alvare, an associate professor at the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, spoke about "The Current Showdown on Marriage: What Can and Should the Church Offer?" in the annual Catholic Daughters of the Americas lecture on campus. Alvare said she deliberately chose the word "showdown" because marriage as it has been traditionally understood is being "directly and very boldly challenged today." But her comments did not focus, as she said some might have expected, on efforts to legalize same-sex marriage. Instead she highlighted the gradual erosion of respect and societal support for the institution. She told her audience, which included all but one member of the national board of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, that she hoped "to attract your energy, your commitment to the cause of marriage" by the end of the talk. Among the "fundamental qualities of marriage" --- all under challenge today --- are that it is between a man and a woman and that it is permanent, exclusive and open to child-bearing and child-rearing, Alvare said.

Anti-terrorism bill said to hinder thousands of refugee applicants
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- A coalition of religious groups and refugee advocates is calling on Congress to back off from provisions of the Patriot Act and Real ID Act that they argue have blocked thousands of vulnerable people from being admitted to the United States. The two laws include sections barring anyone who has provided "material support" to "terrorist organizations" from entering the United States. By criminalizing broadly defined "material support," the laws prohibit the admission of people who have, even under coercion, provided any kind of financial, physical and material aid to members of a wide range of organizations involved in armed resistance to any national government. A March 8 statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, notes that asylum, refugee protection and legal immigration status are being denied even to people who have provided assistance to people under threat of death. "No exception is provided for victims who have been forced under extreme duress to provide a meal to warlords, pay ransom to guerrillas to secure their freedom, or offer other coerced forms of support," said the statement. "Ironically, the law defines 'terrorist activity' so broadly as to include the actions of groups who fought alongside U.S. troops in Vietnam and more recently in Iraq." A briefing paper prepared by the USCCB's Migration and Refugee Services said in some situations, people have been excluded from refugee protection for the very reasons they were forced to flee from their homelands, including women and children who have been raped and tortured.

Vatican to take action against liberation theologian, sources say
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- The Vatican was expected to take disciplinary action against Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino, a leading proponent of liberation theology, sources in Rome said. Spanish media reported that the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith would ban Father Sobrino from teaching or publishing books. Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle of San Salvador, where Father Sobrino resides and teaches, was quoted as saying March 11 that the Vatican would announce that Father Sobrino's views were not wholly in line with church doctrine, and that he would be forbidden to teach theology in any Catholic institution until he revised his conclusions. A Jesuit spokesman in Rome, Father Jose M. de Vera, would not confirm those reports, but said the Vatican was expected to issue a declaration on Father Sobrino in mid-March. Father de Vera said the doctrinal review of Father Sobrino's work began several years ago, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- now Pope Benedict XVI -- was prefect of the congregation.

Vatican: Vietnam working on full diplomatic relations with Holy See
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- The government of Vietnam is working on a concrete plan to establish full diplomatic relations with the Vatican, a delegation of Vatican officials was told. Msgr. Pietro Parolin, Vatican undersecretary of state, led the three-member delegation to Vietnam March 5-11 for meetings with officials of the central government, local governments, bishops' conference and the dioceses of Quy Nhon, Kontum and Hai Phong. The Vatican press office release a statement about the visit March 12. While the delegation brought the prayers and blessing of Pope Benedict XVI, Vietnamese Catholics demonstrated their "deep affection, filial attachment and fidelity" to the pope along with their hopes "that the pope himself could one day make a pastoral visit to the country," the Vatican statement said. The delegation's visit to Vietnam came two months after Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met with Pope Benedict at the Vatican. Pope Benedict raised the problem of continued restrictions on Catholic life in the country, but the two leaders also discussed the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations.

Diocesan part of Pope John Paul II's sainthood cause to close April 2
ROME (CNS) --- The diocesan phase of the investigation into the life and holiness of Pope John Paul II will close officially April 2, the second anniversary of the pope's death. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, papal vicar for the Diocese of Rome, announced March 10 the end of the diocesan phase of the process for the late pope's beatification and canonization. The April 2 ceremony will take place in the context of a brief prayer service; Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to celebrate a memorial Mass later that evening in St. Peter's Basilica. The end of the diocesan phase of a sainthood cause means that the cause's promoter has interviewed all of the eyewitnesses he felt needed to be heard and has examined all of the candidate's writings. In addition, a panel of historians has written a report on the candidate's actions and writings in the historical context in which he lived. While the documentation will be handed over to the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes after the April 2 ceremony, the promoter and his assistants still must prepare the official "positio," or position paper, arguing that Pope John Paul heroically lived the Christian virtues. Normally in order for a beatification to take place, a separate report must be prepared and accepted recognizing a miracle attributed to the candidate's intervention.