WARSAW, Poland (CNS) --- Pope Benedict XVI has accepted an invitation to visit the Czech Republic in September, said Czech state and Catholic Church officials. "Official preparations are under way and the Vatican will confirm the dates and itinerary once these are complete," said Jiri Gracka, the Czech bishops' conference spokesman. "It's too soon to say whether this pilgrimage will provide the opportunity for a religious revival here. But it will certainly encourage interest in the church, especially among young people." Gracka told Catholic News Service in a Jan. 27 telephone interview that the main emphasis of the pope's visit will be pastoral. In a Jan. 22 statement, the office of President Vaclav Klaus said the pope had sent a "personal letter" confirming his intention to visit the Czech Republic in late September. The pope was expected to travel to Prague Sept. 28, then to the country's Catholic region of Moravia and to Stara Boleslav, where St. Wenceslas was martyred Sept. 28, 935.

Senate urged to include unborn, immigrants in children's health plan
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- Expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program should cover pregnant mothers and their unborn children, as well as legal immigrants who have not yet been in the country for five years, the head of the U.S. bishops' domestic policy committee told senators. Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., chairman of the bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, also said in a letter to senators that SCHIP plans at the state and federal levels must not "promote or fund abortion or ignore parental rights to secure needed health care for their children in ways that do not violate their moral or religious convictions." The bishop wrote to members of the Senate Jan. 14, the day the House of Representatives passed SCHIP legislation that includes legal immigrant children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants. The letter was made public just before the Senate began consideration of the legislation Jan. 26.

Pro-life march in San Francisco draws record 32,000 participants
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) --- The fifth annual Walk for Life West Coast drew an estimated 32,000 people Jan. 24 for a rally and three-mile march along San Francisco's Embarcadero. March organizer and co-founder Eva Muntean called this year's Walk for Life a "huge success." The procession stretched more than a mile, and it took an hour for marchers to cross the finish line. "The message was heard loud and clear," Muntean said, adding that "the numbers were huge," despite it being cool and overcast. The march, which marked the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Jan. 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, has drawn more people each year. The first march, in 2005, had 7,000 participants. In the same period, counterprotests have dwindled, starting strong with a rally that drew 3,000 supporters of legal abortion in 2005 and shrinking to just a few hundred such demonstrators last year and this year.

New network launched to mobilize Catholics against death penalty
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CNS) --- The Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty, launched Jan. 25 in Harrisburg, is not just another initiative of the bishops but instead represents lay Catholics at the grass-roots level "taking up the challenge" put forth in bishops' documents, statements and actions over the past three decades. That's how John Carr, executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, described the network at a news conference at the close of a training conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in Harrisburg. The network, which will operate independently from the USCCB, will be designed particularly to reach out to young people and Hispanic Catholics on the issue of capital punishment. It was begun with seed money from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, whose best-known member is death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean. Sister Helen, the author of "Dead Man Walking" who speaks frequently at college campuses, said she has seen "how hungry" students are "to participate in substantive exchanges on important issues."

San Francisco Archdiocese challenges city on tax assessment
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- The Archdiocese of San Francisco is challenging a decision by the city's tax assessor to collect millions of dollars in taxes for properties transferred from one church entity to another even though no money was involved. The decision in December by San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting to collect between $3 million and $15 million is a step the archdiocese claimed is unprecedented in California history. The exact amount, which still was being determined, would be the second largest transfer tax in city history. The archdiocese claims Ting is wrong in assessing the tax and has filed an appeal. "(Ting) has determined that an internal reorganization of church property, without consideration, within the family of corporations of the Archdiocese of San Francisco constitutes a 'sale' and is subject to a property-transfer tax," the archdiocese said in a Jan. 12 statement. "The law is overwhelmingly in favor of the archdiocese in holding that church property 'transfers' of this nature are exempt from transfer taxes," the archdiocese said. The property transfers involved 232 properties within the city and county of San Francisco, according to Katie Muehlenkamp, a Ting aide.

Holocaust denial by traditionalist bishop is unacceptable, says Vatican
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Remarks made by a traditionalist bishop who denied that millions of Jews were murdered during World War II are unacceptable, "foolish," and in no way reflect the position of the Catholic Church, said the Vatican's top ecumenist and major dialogue partner with the Jews. "Such gibberish is unacceptable," said German Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica Jan. 26. British-born Bishop Richard Williamson of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X has claimed that the Holocaust was exaggerated and that no Jews died in Nazi gas chambers. He repeated his position in a Swedish television interview recorded last November but aired Jan. 21 --- on the same day Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication against Bishop Williamson and three other bishops who had been ordained against papal orders in 1988 by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The Vatican made the decree public Jan. 24. The Vatican released a statement Jan. 27 from the head of the Swiss-based society, Bishop Bernard Fellay, who apologized for the damage caused by Bishop Williamson's remarks and said they in no way reflect the society's positions.

Pope lifts excommunications of Lefebvrite bishops
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunication of four bishops ordained against papal orders in 1988 by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The move was considered a major concession to the archbishop's traditionalist followers. The Vatican said the decree removing the excommunication, signed Jan. 21 and made public three days later, marked an important step toward full communion with the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1970. It said some questions remain unresolved with the society, including its future status and that of its priests, and that these issues would be the subject of further talks. "The Holy Father was motivated in this decision by the hope that complete reconciliation and full communion may be reached as soon as possible," a Vatican statement said. The head of the Swiss-based society, Bishop Bernard Fellay, had requested the removal of the excommunication in a letter Dec. 15. Bishop Fellay wrote that he and the three other bishops illicitly ordained in 1988 were determined to remain Catholic and accepted the teachings of Pope Benedict "with filial spirit."

Vatican official: Fathers should look to Jesus' relationship with God
MANILA, Philippines (CNS) --- The president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum expressed concern that weakened masculinity around the world is preventing people from grasping Jesus' teaching about his Father. "Today, the self-understanding of manhood and especially fatherhood is in crisis," said Cardinal Paul Cordes during a Jan. 23 presentation at the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas in Manila. The Asian church news agency UCA News reported that the German cardinal, who heads the council responsible for coordinating charitable efforts, spoke after officials of the pontifical university conferred on him an honorary doctorate in sacred theology. Cardinal Cordes cited reports and surveys documenting "weakened male identity." One of the reports said that 24 million children in the United States live in a home without a father. Cardinal Cordes said that figure was 10 million in the 1960s, according to UCA News.

Rabbi Klenicki, Christian-Jewish relations expert, dies at 78
MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CNS) --- Rabbi Leon Klenicki, a longtime Jewish voice on Catholic-Jewish relations, died Jan. 25 at his home in Monroe Township. He was 78 years old. No cause of death was immediately reported. "The two of us were united (in) a fraternal bond that is deep and abiding," said Cardinal William H. Keeler, retired archbishop of Baltimore, who is the U.S. bishops' moderator of Catholic-Jewish affairs. He made the comments in a Jan. 26 letter to Rabbi Klenicki's widow, Myra. A copy of the letter was made available to Catholic News Service Jan. 27. "Leon was a pioneer in the promotion of a vision of Catholic-Jewish relations that drew inspiration from the Second Vatican Council and the vital streams of contemporary Jewish thought," Cardinal Keeler added. "One can only look back on Leon's career with gratitude to God for the paths that he opened up for so many religious leaders committed to reversing centuries of estrangement between their own faith community and other traditions," he said. Rabbi Klenicki had spent 28 years working on interfaith matters for the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.

New York priest-theologian who advised seminarians, bishops dies
YONKERS, N.Y. (CNS) --- Msgr. William B. Smith, a longtime professor of moral theology at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., died Jan. 24 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers, where he had been hospitalized for about 10 days for an undisclosed illness. Msgr. Smith, 69, taught for more than 30 years at St. Joseph's, where he advised generations of seminarians as well as bishops. He even corresponded on theological matters with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before the cardinal became Pope Benedict XVI. Msgr. Smith was regularly quoted in news stories dealing with the moral implications of reproductive technology, contraceptives and abortion and on the issue of when to end life support. A funeral Mass was to be celebrated Jan. 28 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Scarsdale, where Msgr. Smith assisted on weekends. The New York native grew up in Yonkers and was ordained for the Archdiocese of New York in 1966. He worked at a parish and a White Plains Catholic high school before pursuing a doctorate in moral theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington.