News Briefs: Cleanup begins at Lourdes shrine after flooding

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Flooding at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes Oct. 20 temporarily closed much of the popular French pilgrimage site and led to the evacuation of several hundred pilgrims. The shrine church was partially open Oct. 21, but the pools where the sick bathe in hopes of spiritual and physical healing were to remain closed indefinitely, said Bishop Nicolas Brouwet of Tarbes and Lourdes. The Lourdes grotto, where Mary is reported to have appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, was to reopen the evening of Oct. 23 after a major cleanup of mud left behind by the waters of the flooding Gave River. Shrine officials had reported up to four feet of water in the grotto. Pope Benedict XVI publicly expressed his concern about the flooding Oct. 21 during the recitation of the Angelus after canonizing seven new saints and celebrating Mass in St. Peter's Square. "We turn to the one who is queen of all the saints, the Virgin Mary, with a thought for Lourdes, struck by the serious flooding of the Gave, which has flooded even the Grotto of the Apparitions," the pope said.



Archbishop Wenski says lawsuit needed to see HHS mandate overturned
MIAMI (CNS) — The Obama administration "has not shown any inclination to rescind" its requirement that most religious employers cover contraceptives for their workers, so "we need to get this mandate overturned" by the courts, said Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski. He made the comments at an afternoon news conference Oct. 19 to announce the Miami Archdiocese has joined the 50 or so other Catholic dioceses, universities and entities throughout the U.S. that have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services contraceptive mandate. Under the mandate, all employers, including most Catholic and other religious employers, must provide coverage in their health care plans for contraceptives, including some that can cause abortions, and for sterilizations, over any moral objections they have. "We feel it is a violation" of the First Amendment, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and HHS's rule-making authority, the archbishop said. The lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of the Archdiocese of Miami, Catholic Health Services and Catholic Hospice. It was filed by the archdiocese's legal representatives, J. Patrick Fitzgerald and Associates, along with the Jones Day law firm, which is providing its services pro bono. Jones Day is representing many other Catholic entities in similar lawsuits. Archbishop Wenski pointed out that Vice President Joe Biden spoke "untruthfully" during the vice presidential debate Oct. 11 when he said there is no problem between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration on the health care issue. Biden stated that "no religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, ... has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide." The mandate, however, has a narrow religious exemption that would protect only those Catholic institutions that seek to inculcate Catholic values and primarily employ and serve Catholics.

Essayists say church teachings have given them 'true freedom' as women
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Helen Alvare, former U.S. bishops' pro-life spokeswoman, is the co-author and editor of a new book, "Breaking Through, Catholic Women Speak for Themselves," the idea for which came about, she said, from pages of notes she's been jotting down for the past 15 years. However, the concept officially took off when the recently coined and politically charged phrase, "war on women" entered into the American lexicon, used by some to characterize opposition to a federal mandate requiring most religious employers to provide free coverage of contraceptives for employees. "It forced me to make a response," said Alvare, who with several of her co-contributors recently talked about the book at the Catholic Information Center in downtown Washington. "This is a book that tries to be the intersection of faith and reason." The recent claims about "war on women" fail to acknowledge Catholic women who value religious liberty, said Alvare, who is a law professor at George Mason University Law School. Along with her co-authors and 36,000 women, Alvare signed an open letter she and fellow book contributor Kim Daniels wrote to the Obama administration, saying religious freedom must be preserved not only for private worship, but also for public expression. In her remarks Oct. 5 and in a similar presentation at the National Press Club Oct. 16, Alvare said the book, "Breaking Through, Catholic Women Speak for Themselves," grew out of a women's movement, Women Speak for Themselves, established to defend religious freedom and to put forth a more thoughtful and complete vision of women's freedom.

Pope gives Ratzinger Theology Prize to American, French scholars
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI bestowed the 2012 Ratzinger Prize for Theology on an American expert on the early church fathers and a French scholar of religious philosophy. U.S. Jesuit Father Brian E. Daley and Remi Brague received the award from the pope at a ceremony in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace Oct. 20. Pope Benedict noted that the two men have studied in fields "decisive for the church in our times": ecumenism and relations with other religions. The scholars are "exemplary for the transmission of knowledge that unites science and wisdom, scientific rigor and passion for man, so that man might discover the 'art of living,'" the pope said. Father Daley, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, has written extensively about the development of Christian doctrine in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The pope commended his work for demonstrating the unity of Christianity, with favorable consequences for relations between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Brague, an authority on medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy, is a professor of Arabic and religious philosophy at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. Father Daly told Catholic News Service in an Oct. 22 email that he was "totally surprised" that he received the Ratzinger Prize. "I have always thought of myself as a pretty obscure academic and never expected this kind of publicity," he said. "But I'm delighted for the sake of the Society of Jesus, and also for Notre Dame. It's a great recognition for what all of us are really trying to do — serve the Catholic Church by helping people become more aware of our tradition of reflective faith."

As South Sudan progresses, church leaders 'talk hard' about problems
JUBA, South Sudan (CNS) — More than a year after national independence, relations between church and state in South Sudan are experiencing growing pains. "I am happy with the government and with (President Salva Kiir). He's a Catholic and he prays in our church when he's at home," Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro of Juba told Catholic News Service. "But it doesn't seem as if the government is as willing to listen to the church as before." During the decades-long independence struggle against the Sudanese government in Khartoum, Catholic and other Christian leaders collaborated extensively with the political movement that became today's government in Juba. And while church leaders report that relations with government leaders remain positive, their patience with the government's response to corruption and other troubles is wearing thin. "The government's time is running out to work with the church. Until now, whatever weaknesses there were, we played the game of understanding. It was a new situation, and we understood that we were beginning, not from zero, but from under the ground," the archbishop said. "Now there's a moment when we have to talk hard, and it may cause a problem. We're not talking about people being against the government or trying to overthrow the government. We want the government and the people to be together," the archbishop said. Archbishop Lukudu and Episcopal Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul issued a pastoral appeal Oct. 10, celebrating negotiations between the governments in Juba and Khartoum that led to a Sept. 27 agreement about oil and borders. South Sudan's oil was 98 percent of its economy, yet earlier this year it shut down production because of a lack of agreement over using Sudan's pipelines to transport it. The two church leaders also said they were heartened by the advances that have accompanied independence for the South.

Three Congolese Assumptionists kidnapped in eastern Congo
ROME (CNS) — Three priests kidnapped Oct. 19 in eastern Congo have not been heard from, said a member of their Assumptionist order. Assumptionist Father Bernard LeLeannec, the congregation's secretary-general, said the three were at taken at gunpoint from their home at Our Lady of the Poor Parish in the village of Mbau, in embattled North Kivu province. Father LeLeannec received his information from a fourth Assumptionist, who avoided being taken by refusing to leave his room when someone knocked at the door. The escaped priest, identified only as Joseph, said two of his confreres were relaxing in the living room and one was on the balcony doing wash around 9 p.m., when the kidnapping occurred. The statement from the Assumptionists said that, shortly after the kidnapping, witnesses saw members of the rebel Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces traveling in the direction of where their base is known to be. For months, government soldiers have been stationed in Goma, capital of North Kivu province, where Mbau is located. The soldiers are battling the rebel group M23, which defected from the Congolese military. The violence had led more than 100,000 people to flee their homes since April.