St. John Bosco's Evan Longoria named A.L. Rookie of the Year
BELLFLOWER --- Evan Longoria - a member of the class of 2003 at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, where he lettered in baseball all four years - was named American League Rookie of the Year Nov. 10 by unanimous vote of the Baseball Writers of America.

The A.L. champion Tampa Bay Rays' third baseman led all American League rookies in home runs (27) and RBIs (85) while batting .272, despite missing five weeks after he broke his right wrist Aug. 7.

"Confident at the plate and splendid on defense, he was a big reason for the Rays' stunning surge to the World Series after 10 straight losing seasons," according to the Associated Press.

In receiving all 28 first-place votes, Longoria, 23, became the American League's first unanimous rookie winner since another St. John Bosco product, current L.A. Dodger Nomar Garciaparra (class of '91), claimed that honor in 1997 with the Boston Red Sox.

Longoria started the season at triple-A Durham, making his Rays regular-season debut on April 12. The Downey native, who attended Rio Hondo Community College and Cal State Long Beach State, was voted into the final spot on the A.L. all-star team and signed a six-year, $17.5-million contract after just 20 at-bats into his first big-league season.

Pope's encyclical said to give charities encouragement, guidance
BALTIMORE (CNS) --- Domestic and international charitable organizations have found encouragement and helpful guidance in Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" ("God Is Love"), said the heads of Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Relief Services at a Nov. 9 workshop for bishops in Baltimore. One of the themes of the nearly 3-year-old encyclical emphasizes the role of charity as an outward expression of love. Cardinal Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Vatican agency that promotes and coordinates the church's charitable work, summarized the key connections between the 16,000-word encyclical and charity during the workshop preceding the annual fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services, said the encyclical has become a sort of strategic vision for the U.S. bishops' overseas relief and development agency. "It has given us a new spirit," he said. Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, a national network of diocesan social service agencies, said the encyclical was "an incredible gift" and also "a significant challenge."

German-born pope says he still feels pain of Kristallnacht
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- German-born Pope Benedict XVI said he still feels "pain for what happened" in his homeland in 1938 when Nazi mobs went on the rampage against Jews, an event that became known as Kristallnacht. The pope was 11 years old when, on the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, "the Nazi fury against the Jews was unleashed in Germany," he said. Marking the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht --- German for Night of the Broken Glass -- the pope asked Catholics to pray for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and he condemned all forms of anti-Semitism. Pope Benedict spoke about the anniversary during his midday Angelus address Nov. 9 at the Vatican. During Kristallnacht throughout Germany "stores, offices, homes and synagogues were attacked and numerous people were killed, initiating the systematic and violent persecution of German Jews that concluded with the Shoah," or Holocaust, the pope said. "I still feel pain for what happened in that tragic circumstance whose memory must serve to ensure that similar horrors are never repeated again and that we commit ourselves, at every level, to fighting anti-Semitism and discrimination, especially by educating the younger generations in respect and mutual acceptance," the pope said.

Pope welcomes improved relations between Taiwan, mainland China
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Pope Benedict XVI said the Vatican welcomes the steps Taiwan and mainland China have taken to improve relations, saying dialogue is key to promoting peace and stability in the world. Welcoming Larry Yu-Yuan Wang as Taiwan's new ambassador to the Vatican Nov. 8, Pope Benedict also congratulated Ma Ying-jeou on being the first Catholic elected president of Taiwan. He took office in May. The new ambassador told the pope that after 50 years of strained relations with mainland China, Ma's government has begun a dialogue with the Beijing government; the first tangible result was the resumption of direct flights across the Taiwan Strait in July. "I firmly believe that the reconciliation of relations with mainland China will bring a more stable and peaceful environment, not only for Asia, but also for the world as a whole," Wang told the pope. Pope Benedict agreed, saying dialogue is "the key to the resolution of the conflicts that threaten the stability of our world."

Franciscan: Brawl at Holy Sepulcher shows confusion over agreements
JERUSALEM (CNS) --- The brawl that erupted Nov. 9 between Armenian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox clergymen at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher never should have happened and is the result of people not knowing what is in the Status Quo agreements, said a Franciscan official. The 19th-century agreements include many oral traditions or customary law, but often each Christian community has its own codes, and clashes and contradictions occur, said U.S. Franciscan Father Athanasius Macora, who monitors the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. "People don't know the Status Quo. Because there is no shared code ... there are problems," he said, noting that the Status Quo committee meets weekly to discuss areas of disagreement. "I hope we can all reconcile and get back to work." The Status Quo agreements regulate the jurisdiction of and access to key Christian sites in Jerusalem for Catholic, Orthodox and other Christian communities. Among those sites is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where tradition holds that Jesus was buried.

Father Greeley hospitalized after suffering skull fracture in fall
CHICAGO (CNS) --- Father Andrew Greeley, a Chicago archdiocesan priest who is a well-known sociologist and novelist, was in critical but stable condition Nov. 10 after being hospitalized for a skull fracture. The Chicago Sun-Times daily newspaper reported that the priest, who is 80, fell to the ground after getting out of a cab Nov. 7. The paper said his jacket got stuck in the door of the cab and as the cab began to leave he fell. Father Greeley hit his head, suffering a skull fracture. He was taken to the emergency room at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, where physicians implanted a monitor in his skull "to gauge pressure on his brain," the paper reported. Roberta Wilk, the priest's assistant at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, told Catholic News Service Nov. 10 his vital signs were good and that two or three hours after he was admitted to the hospital his condition was upgraded from critical to critical but stable.

Armed men kidnap two nuns who work with Somali refugees in Kenya
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Two Italian nuns, both in their 60s, were kidnapped Nov. 10 in northeastern Kenya near the border with Somalia, the Vatican newspaper reported. L'Osservatore Romano identified the nuns as Sister Caterina Giraudo, 67, and Sister Maria Teresa Oliviero, 61, both from Cuneo, Italy, where their religious order, the Contemplative Missionary Movement of Father Charles de Foucauld, is based. The newspaper said the women had been working for years with Somali refugees in Kenya. Members of the Kenya Red Cross Society told authorities the nuns were taken by a group of armed men, who also stole three vehicles. Father Pino Isoardi, head of the Contemplative Missionary Movement, told Vatican Radio that the nuns, like all the members of the group, "share their lives with the poor. We don't have any big structures. We welcome into our homes the sick, the aged, people who are starving." As of midafternoon Nov. 10, the kidnappers had not been in contact with the congregation, he said.