CHICAGO --- Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago announced June 3 that he has asked Father Michael Pfleger, who mocked Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton in an address May 25 at a Chicago church, to step down from his post as pastor of Chicago's St. Sabina Church "for a couple of weeks" and named a temporary administrator for the parish. (The announcement came shortly before The Tidings' printing deadline.) On June 1, in a "unity service" at St. Sabina, Father Pfleger said his remarks the week before at Trinity United Church of Christ were about racism, not politics. "All my life, I have had to deal with the reality of racism," the St. Sabina pastor said in a statement to the media before his homily. "I have committed myself to tearing down the walls that divide us wherever they stand." He said the days following the dissemination of the YouTube clip in which he mocked Sen. Clinton were "the most painful days of my life, even more so than the death of Jarvis, my foster son." Jarvis was gunned down in gang crossfire not far from St. Sabina in 1998. Addressing the congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, the church to which Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama belonged for nearly 20 years, Father Pfleger said May 25 that Clinton saw Obama as "a black man stealing my show" when he entered the race for the Democratic nomination.

Shroud of Turin to be displayed to public in 2010
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- The Shroud of Turin, revered by many as the burial cloth of Christ, will be displayed to the public for the first time in a decade in 2010. Pope Benedict XVI announced during a June 2 audience with pilgrims from Turin that he had approved the shroud's removal from its protective casket for display to the public in the spring of 2010. He told the 7,000 pilgrims gathered in the Vatican's Paul VI hall, "If the Lord grants me life and health, I, too, hope to come" see the shroud displayed. According to tradition, the 14-foot by 4-foot linen cloth is the burial shroud of Jesus. The shroud has a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion and death. The church has never officially ruled on the shroud's authenticity, saying judgments about its age and origin belonged to scientific investigation. Scientists have debated its authenticity for decades, and studies have led to conflicting results.

Blair says faith has positive role to play in interdependent world
NEW YORK (CNS) --- If religious faith is an instrument of peaceful coexistence rather than a countervailing force, it will play a profoundly positive role in the interdependent world of the 21st century, Tony Blair said as he announced the launch of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation May 30. "Faith motivates, galvanizes, organizes and integrates millions upon millions of people. ... It enriches, it informs, it provides a common basis of values and belief for people to get along together," he said. Blair, prime minister of Great Britain from 1997 to 2007, was received into the Catholic Church in December 2007. He is currently the special envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the Quartet, a group comprised of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia. Blair said the foundation will work with people of the world's six leading faiths: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Judaism. He said it will show faith in action, produce greater understanding between faiths through encounters, and help people of "one faith to be comfortable with those of another because they know what they truly believe, not what they thought they might believe."

Retired Cleveland bishop testifies at trial of former diocesan CFO
CLEVELAND (CNS) --- 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 through an anonymous letter, according to published reports. "My reaction was disbelief and secondly shock," Bishop Pilla testified during the three hours he was on the witness stand at Smith's U.S. District Court trial, as reported by The Plain Dealer daily newspaper in Cleveland. "That was not the person I knew. Why was I shocked? We had a close relationship. I trusted him, for good reason," said the bishop, who retired in 2006 after 25 years as head of the Cleveland Diocese. Smith, 51, has been charged with making false personal income tax returns, money laundering, mail fraud and conspiracy.

Pope urges countries to combat causes of hunger, malnutrition
ROME (CNS) --- Pope Benedict XVI urged the international community to combat the causes of hunger, saying starvation and malnutrition were unacceptable in a world that can produce plenty to eat. Any further increase in global food production will help alleviate hunger "only if it is accompanied by the effective distribution" of the food, which needs to be "primarily channeled to satisfy essential needs," Pope Benedict said in a message to the World Food Security Summit in Rome. "The great challenge today is to globalize not only economic and commercial interests, but also the expectations of solidarity," he wrote. The Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, read the pope's message during the June 3 opening ceremony of the three-day summit. Numerous heads of state and nongovernmental organizations attended the high-level summit, dedicated to addressing the current world food crisis, the challenges of climate change and the development of biofuels.

Colombian bishop: Guerrilla leaders' deaths unlikely to bring change
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) --- The recent death of the founder of Colombia's largest guerrilla group and the killing of several other guerrilla leaders probably will not have an immediate effect on efforts to free hostages or end Colombia's civil war, said Bishop Fabian Marulanda Lopez, secretary-general of the Colombian bishops' conference. Bishop Marulanda, retired head of the Colombian Diocese of Florencia, said there was hope that the change in leadership would prompt the guerrilla group to loosen its conditions for exchanging its captives --- who include civilians, police and soldiers --- for imprisoned guerrillas. However, he said he did not think the guerrillas' actions were predictable. "Everything (analysts) say is pure speculation," he said. Guerrilla leader Pedro Marin reportedly died March 26 of unknown causes, although the news did not become public until late May. Marin, 77, held legendary status as the founder of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which began four decades ago by defending landless peasants but has become notorious for kidnapping and drug trafficking. The United States and European Union consider the FARC a terrorist group.

Opting out of politics not option for Catholics, says church official
TORONTO (CNS) --- Opting out of politics is not an option for Catholics, despite the messy, partisan fray, said a U.S. bishops' official. Participation in the political process is a moral obligation and faithful citizenship is a virtue, said Joan Rosenhauer, associate director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "Both opposing evil and doing good are essential," she said. Even though the church itself is never partisan, individual Catholics can and should register with political parties and stay involved --- not only during elections, she said during a May 30 panel at the Catholic Media Convention, an international gathering of journalists and communications professionals. She stressed the importance of a conscience well-formed by Catholic social teaching, referring to the U.S. bishops' 2007 document, "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility."

Aquino attends healing Mass, thanks Filipinos for their prayers
QUEZON CITY, Philippines (CNS) --- Accompanied by a grandson, former Philippine President Corazon Aquino took small steps into a Jesuit university church where hundreds of people gathered to attend a Mass for her health. The May 30 healing Mass at Ateneo de Manila University's Church of the Gesu in Quezon City, northeast of Manila, was the third time Aquino joined a public gathering since March 24, when her children announced she had colon cancer, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. Bishop Luis Tagle of Imus and Jesuit Father Catalino Arevalo, Aquino's spiritual adviser, concelebrated the latest of five Masses that friends and family have offered for Aquino's healing and full recovery. As with the other Masses, they prayed to Our Lady of Fatima before the final blessing for "peace and strength" for Aquino, whom Father Arevalo describes as a Marian devotee. When the 75-year-old Aquino addressed former and current government officials, civic leaders, priests, religious and students after Communion, she asked in a soft voice, "Who can give up when so many people are praying for you?"