WASHINGTON (CNS) --- The union representing more than 10,000 nurses at California's largest not-for-profit hospital system has reached a settlement with hospital officials that both sides say sets a national standard to guard against the spread of the H1N1 flu and future pandemics. Announced Nov. 2, the agreement between the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee and Catholic Healthcare West calls for creating a systemwide emergency task force that includes both nurses and hospital representatives to respond to a declaration of a pandemic emergency. "What it means to me is that nurses can play an active role within the hospital so that we can get the safety equipment we need," said Richard Sandness, a registered nurse at Mercy Hospital of Folsom and a member of the union's bargaining committee. "Our goal was to have a single standard and go for the highest standard," he told Catholic News Service. A Catholic Healthcare West official said the 32 hospitals in the system in California and Nevada have been following federal and state standards for the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu.

Evolution issue 'stirs emotions all over country,' says biologist
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) --- Prominent Catholic cell biologist Kenneth Miller called for insistence on rigorous science and a clear distinction between science and a scientist's personal opinions as he helped open a Darwin conference Nov. 1 at the University of Notre Dame. Miller, a leading advocate for the compatibility of evolutionary science and religious faith and a leading opponent of nonscientific attacks on evolution in American education, said the battle for science continues despite a long string of court, legislative and election victories. "Evolution is an issue that divides Americans," he said, showing a map that indicated local anti-evolution activity in almost every state. "We have to come out of the classroom, out of the laboratory. If we do, the American people will choose science every time," he said. His talk, "Darwin, God and Design: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul," was the first public lecture at the three-day conference on "Darwin in the 21st Century: Nature, Humanity and God."

Vatican says Anglican document delay not due to married priests issue
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- The Vatican has denied that the delay in publishing the apostolic constitution on Anglicans seeking admission to the Catholic Church has been caused by an internal Vatican debate over admitting married priests. The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said Oct. 31 that Pope Benedict XVI's document detailing the new plan was expected to be released during the first week in November. On Oct. 20, the Vatican announced that "personal ordinariates" --- similar to dioceses --- would be established to oversee the pastoral care of those who want to bring elements of their Anglican identity into the Catholic Church with them. At that time, the Vatican said the apostolic constitution establishing the new arrangement was being briefly delayed by translation and technical reasons. Subsequent Italian press reports, however, blamed the delay on problems regarding the celibacy issue, in particular whether married Anglicans could be trained as seminarians. In announcing the plan, Vatican officials made it clear that Anglican priests who are married may be ordained Catholic priests, but that married Anglican bishops would not be allowed to function as Catholic bishops. They also indicated that married Anglican seminarians would be allowed to be ordained. The Vatican clarification confirmed that married former Anglican ministers would be admitted to priestly ministry, as an exception from canon law on a case-by-case basis.

Coup-weary Honduran capital ready for break in political impasse
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNS) --- If it weren't for the fact that everyone is talking about it, it would be hard to notice that this country has had a major political upset to deal with for the last four months. Around the city, everyone ---- taxi drivers, shopkeepers, wealthy business owners, street vendors --- has an opinion about the political situation. But after months of stalemate and economic hits like the near-disappearance of tourists, business travelers and many aid workers, the overwhelming sentiment among residents of Tegus, as it is called here, seems to be weariness with the situation. An agreement announced Oct. 30 to allow ousted President Manuel Zelaya to return to office could spell the end of the standoff between him and acting President Roberto Micheletti, but the sense in the capital a week earlier was that the public was just plain tired of the dispute and ready to move on to the Nov. 29 presidential election that will take both men out of the presidency. The June 28 coup booted Zelaya not just from the office he had held since 2006, but from the country where his family is among the wealthy elites who have held political and economic power for generations. Zelaya managed to sneak back into Honduras in September and remained holed up in the Brazilian Embassy, along with more than 100 other people, including reporters and photojournalists, all intent on being on the scene when the situation changes.

Bishop says heading border diocese 'a powerful learning experience'
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- Being the bishop of a border diocese has proven "a powerful learning experience," said Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz. Although, during his time in Chicago as a priest and auxiliary bishop, he had awareness of and contact with immigrant populations, being on the border has given Bishop Kicanas the opportunity to see "the struggle of migrants to realize their dreams, to be aware of their fears, their aspirations," he said. Bishop Kicanas, vice president of the U.S. bishops, made his remarks in an interview with Catholic News Service prior to his address at a Jesuit Refugee Service-sponsored conference, "Crisis at Our Borders: The Human Reality Behind the Immigration Debate," held Oct. 29 at Georgetown University in Washington. "A migrant is a person possessed by a dream --- just like us," Bishop Kicanas said at the conference, co-hosted by the Institute for the Study of International Migration, Woodstock Theological Center and the university's Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service. "Migration is a problem that calls for international solutions," Bishop Kicanas added, noting that migration is an issue with "every country in the world," because of war, torture, weather, refugees and the economy.

Churches working to ensure everyone is counted in 2010 US census
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- Churches have a crucial role to play in ensuring that everyone is counted on Census Day 2010, April 1. That's the message Alejandro Aguilera-Titus and Beverly Carroll of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat on Cultural Diversity in the Church are delivering as key point people in the USCCB's partnership effort with the U.S. Census Bureau. The numbers gathered in the 2010 census will determine representation in Congress and the allocation of more than $400 billion in annual federal funding for local schools, roads, parks and other services. "Historically we know there are three major communities that are difficult to count --- the new immigrant, those who are isolated due to little knowledge of English and the low-income," said Aguilera-Titus, assistant director for Hispanic affairs in the cultural diversity secretariat, in an interview with Catholic News Service Oct. 27. But with 19,000 parishes and thousands more social service agencies, health care facilities and educational institutions around the country, the Catholic Church is in a unique position to reach many of those people and to convince them that it's important to be counted, said Carroll, assistant director for African-American affairs, in the same interview.

Kennedy says he'll meet with Providence bishop on health care reform
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (CNS) --- Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., has accepted an invitation from Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence to engage in a discussion about the issue of health care reform. The bishop issued the invitation following the legislator's sharp criticism about the U.S. Catholic bishops' role in the debate. According to an Associated Press story, no date has been set yet for the meeting. Bishop Tobin told Kennedy in an Oct. 27 letter that, as Congress "nears agreement on a final bill, I believe it is important that you are provided with specific facts about the Catholic Church's position on this critical issue." The bishop sent his letter in response to Kennedy's Oct. 22 interview with Cybercast News Service in which the congressman said the bishops were fanning "the flames of dissent and discord" by insisting that health reform not include abortion funding. "I can't understand for the life of me how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of our time, where the very dignity of the human person is being respected by the fact that we're caring and giving health care" to the millions of people who are currently uninsured, Kennedy said in the CNSNews.com interview.

Catholic officials laud agreement to end Honduran crisis
MEXICO CITY (CNS) --- Catholic officials in Honduras lauded a political agreement that aimed to end the four-month political crisis sparked by a June coup that unseated President Manuel Zelaya. "This is a big step forward for the country," said Father German Calix, president of Caritas Honduras, the church's charitable aid agency. "It relieves much of the political pressure that we had been experiencing." His comments were echoed by Father Efrain Romero, director of Caritas in the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Copan, where many church leaders had been outspoken in their opposition to the coup. The agreement "was long overdue, but we're now able to have a dialogue on how to emerge from this political crisis," he said. Both men spoke to Catholic News Service by telephone Oct. 30 after political parties reached the agreement that seemed to promise to end the four-month crisis that had produced allegations of human rights violations and repression and had battered the national economy. It restores Zelaya to office, pending a vote in Congress and a nonbinding opinion from the Supreme Court. The agreement also establishes a power-sharing government, transfers control of the military to the top electoral tribunal and allows for the full recognition of elections scheduled for Nov. 29 that will select a new president. It discards any amnesties for political crimes and forbids the possible convening of a convention to rewrite the Honduran Constitution.

Pakistan's security situation means high costs for Catholic schools
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (CNS) --- Catholic education administrators in Pakistan's Punjab province say their schools face huge additional security costs as the security situation in the country deteriorates. Under provincial government guidelines in the wake of recent terror attacks, schools must provide eight-foot boundary walls, surveillance cameras, metal detectors and scanners, a barbed wire perimeter, and at least two armed guards, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. "The government is providing security arrangements for its own schools. The private and church-run schools have to bear these additional expenses," Dominican Sister Parveen Rahmat, principal of Sacred Heart Cathedral High School in Lahore, told UCA News. Police are reviewing security measures in educational institutions in Punjab province and shutting down any school or college that does not meet the guidelines. "We are trying to meet the requirements but this is not our work," Sister Rahmat said. The government ordered all educational institutions nationwide to close in the wake of suicide bombings at the International Islamic University in the capital Islamabad Oct. 20. Three female students were among six people killed in the blasts.

Catholic blogosphere: Council looks at promoting charity, truth online
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Communications technology keeps changing, but the need to deliver a message with truth and charity is never obsolete, said Italian Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli. As president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop Celli presided over a four-day meeting of cardinals, bishops and Catholic media professionals to discuss --- mainly in small groups --- new pastoral guidelines for church communications. A recurring theme during the meeting Oct. 26-29 was what constitutes Catholic communications and what, if anything, can be done about those who use the word Catholic to describe themselves while using all sorts of nasty adjectives to describe anyone who doesn't agree with them. Archbishop Celli said he didn't think a Catholic bloggers' "code of conduct" would accomplish much, especially when what is really needed is a reflection on what it means to communicate. Upright, ethical communication is a natural result of a sincere desire to share the truth about God, about faith and about the dignity of the human person, he said. The archbishop said that what Pope Benedict XVI has said about solidarity and development aid goes for communications as well: "Charity needs truth and truth needs charity."

German cardinal stresses Catholic role in toppling Berlin Wall
COLOGNE, Germany (CNS) --- A German cardinal said various commemorations of the collapse of the Berlin Wall ignore contributions by the Catholic Church. "It is simply untrue, as many critics maintain, that the church was introverted --- just the opposite," said Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne, who served as bishop of Berlin 1980-88. "Throughout these years, Christians formed a living protest against this inhuman system," said the cardinal. "Yet in the many declarations, speeches, interviews and books appearing for the 20th anniversary, the church's role is being evaluated and covered only very superficially, even by Catholics." On Nov. 9 Germans will commemorate the 1989 fall of the wall, which divided West Germany from the communist-ruled East Germany for 28 years. The anniversary will include a "Festival of Freedom" in Berlin, during which 1,000 giant foam dominos will be toppled along the route of the wall. In an Oct. 26 article in the Die Welt daily, Cardinal Meisner said that under communist rule the Berlin Diocese never adjusted its boundaries, and church officials refused to participate in state ceremonies. Berlin became an archdiocese in 1994.