tagged w/ Roman Catholics
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Marquette, Michigan – During the first two weeks of May 2009, over 12,000 trees have been planted the interfaith Upper Peninsula EarthKeeper Team across a 400 miles area of northern Michigan and in Minocqua, Wisconsin thanks to volunteers at over 100 churches and temples.
The trees were planted near homes, camps, churchyards, schools, parks and many other places by thousands of volunteers from ten faith traditions.
Children of all ages helped make the project a success and underscored why its important to protect the environment - it's their future at stake.
The EarthKeepers handed out over 12,000 red pine and white spruce seedlings at over 100 churches and temples across northern Michigan.
This video details some of the planting, distribution and preparation for the 209 EarthKeeper Tree Project that started on Earth Day 2009 with the planting of a three-foot white spruce at Presque Isle Park along Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan. Bishops and other EarthKeeper faith leaders blessed the tree as it was planted on a wooded hillside one day after a snowstorm.
In previous projects, the EarthKeeper Initiative has removed nearly 400 tons of hazardous waste from the environment - most of which was recycled - and involves the congregations of over 150 churches/temples from ten faith traditions in 50 communities, American Indian tribes, college students and other youth.
The EarthKeepers were founded in 1994 by Rev. Jon Magnuson, executive director of the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette and Carl Lindquist, executive director of the Superior Watershed Partnership.
In 2004, the bishops and other faith leaders signed the original EarthKeeper Covenant - pledging to actively protect the environment and reach out to Native Americans. The religious communities include Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i, Jewish, Zen Buddhist and the Quakers.
The group teams with Native American tribes including the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC). Another major partner is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that sent representatives to the collections
From 2005-2007, the group of adults and youth held an annual EarthKeeper Clean Sweep each Earth Day during which over 20,000 northern Michigan residents turned in household hazardous waste at 20 free collections sites across a 400-mile area involving all corners of the pristine Upper Peninsula.
With a message of encouragement from their faith leaders, enthusiastic congregations turned out during three-hour collections:
In 2005, over 45 tons of pesticides, herbicides, lead-based paint, batteries and many other hazardous substances from northern Michigan homes was turned in by residents during the first clean sweep. Partners included landfills and local governments.
In 2006, over 320 tons of electronic waste was collected including computers, keyboards, hard drives, other computer related components, televisions and cell phones. Nine semi-trucks transported the vast majority of the electronics to a recycler in the Lower Peninsula.
In 2007, over one ton of pharmaceuticals was turned in including more than $500,000 in dangerous narcotics. Pharmacists and law enforcement agencies were among the clean sweep partners and staffed each of the collection sites as required by federal law. The drugs were properly disposed in high-tech EPA-approved incinerators.
In 2006, the faith leaders and the head of the KBIC tribe gathered for a news conference with college students to announce the creation of the Northern Michigan University EarthKeeper Student team. It was the first time these bishops and other faith leaders had been in the same room and many met for the first time.
http://www.upearthkeepers.org
http://www.superiorwatersheds.org
http://www.cedartreeinstitute.orgMarquette, Michigan – During the first two weeks of May 2009, over 12,000 trees... more
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A secret document which sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church is examined by Panorama. Crimen Sollicitationis was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope.
It instructs bishops on how to deal with allegations of child abuse against priests and has been seen by few outsiders. Critics say the document has been used to evade prosecution for sex crimes. It instructs them how to deal with priests who solicit sex from the confessional. It also deals with "any obscene external act ... with youths of either sex."
It imposes an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witnesses. Breaking that oath means excommunication from the Catholic Church. Reporting for Panorama, Colm O'Gorman finds seven priests with child abuse allegations made against them living in and around the Vatican City. One of the priests, Father Joseph Henn, has been indicted on 13 molestation charges brought by a grand jury in the United States. During filming for Sex Crimes and the Vatican, Colm finds Father Henn is fighting extradition orders from inside the headquarters of this religious order in the Vatican.
The Vatican has not compelled him to return to America to face the charges against him. After filming, Father Henn lost his fight against extradition but fled the headquarters and is believed to be hiding in Italy while there is an international warrant for his arrest. Colm O'Gorman was raped by a Catholic priest in the diocese of Ferns in County Wexford in Ireland when he was 14 years old.
Father Fortune was charged with 66 counts of sexual, indecent assault and another serious sexual offence relating to eight boys but he committed suicide on the eve of his trial. Colm started an investigation with the BBC in March 2002 which led to the resignation of Dr Brendan Comiskey, the bishop leading the Ferns Diocese. Colm then pushed for a government inquiry which led to the Ferns Report. It was published in October 2005 and found: "A culture of secrecy and fear of scandal that led bishops to place the interests of the Catholic Church ahead of the safety of children."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/5389684.stm«A secret document which sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse scandals... more
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Pope Benedict XVI urged ailing pilgrims to accept death "at the hour chosen by God," reasserting the Vatican's opposition to euthanasia on Monday at an open-air Mass for the sick in Lourdes.
Pope Benedict XVI urged ailing pilgrims to accept death "at the hour chosen by... more
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A group of people claiming to be the heirs of the legendary Knights Templar are suing Pope Benedict XVI, seeking more than $150 billion for assets seized by the Catholic Church seven centuries ago.
A group of people claiming to be the heirs of the legendary Knights Templar are suing... more
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Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday a "spiritual desert" was spreading throughout the world and he challenged young people to shed the greed and cynicism of their time to create a new age of hope for humankind.
Speaking at a Mass before some 350,000 Roman Catholic pilgrims and a likely television audience of millions more, Benedict wrapped up the church's six-day World Youth Day festival. He urged the young people in his more than 1 billion-strong flock to be agents of change because "the world needs renewal."
"In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair," the pontiff said.
The appeal came as Benedict finished a visit to Australia that touched on the themes that have defined his three-year-old papacy, including the struggle to rejuvenate a crisis-battered Church, reaching out to other faiths and raising global warming as an important issue.
The 81-year-old pope said it was up to a new generation of Christians to build a world in "which God's gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished — not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed."
They must embrace the power of God "to let it break through the curse of our indifference, our spiritual weariness, our blind conformity to the spirit of this age," he said.
The aim was "a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deadens our souls and poisons our relationships," he said.
The Mass came a day after the pope made a forceful apology for the sexual abuse of children by Australia's Roman Catholic clergy, keeping up efforts begun in the United States to publicly atone for what he called evil acts by priests.
The Mass was delivered at a horse racetrack filled with pilgrims who had camped out overnight.
Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said 350,000 attended Sunday's Mass. Australian organizers surmised a global television audience of up to 500 million during big World Youth Day events.
The pope flew over the scene early Sunday in a helicopter — dubbed "the holy-copter" by bleary-eyed pilgrims below — to see the assemblage swarmed all over the track in a jumble of sleeping bags, backpacks and other personal items.Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday a "spiritual desert" was spreading throughout... more
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Pope Benedict XVI has told Australians he is deeply sorry for the sexual abuse of children by some Catholic priests.
Speaking at a gathering of bishops in Sydney, the Pope spoke of the "shame we have all felt" and called for abusers to face justice.
A campaign group criticised the speech, saying the Pope should have met some victims to apologise in person.
The Pope was speaking as thousands of Catholic pilgrims began gathering for a candlelit prayer vigil in Sydney.
The pontiff will lead the vigil at the city's Royal Randwick Racecourse.
The Pope is in Australia to mark World Youth Day, which is drawing Catholics from around the world to the country.
Mixed response
Speaking earlier at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, he said: "I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured.Pope Benedict XVI has told Australians he is deeply sorry for the sexual abuse of... more
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Pope Benedict XVI has attacked popular culture and consumerism in a formal address to tens of thousands of young Roman Catholics.
The pontiff also warned that natural resources were being squandered, in the speech in Sydney, Australia.
The pope is visiting the city for World Youth Day, a six-day gathering of young Catholics from across the globe.
Security is tight for the visit - during which he is also expected to apologise for sexual abuse by priests.
Earlier Pope Benedict met top leaders and praised the Australian government for apologising to the country's indigenous people for past injustices.
He called the apology a "courageous decision" that had offered hope to other disadvantaged people around the world.
'False idols'
The Pope travelled by boat across Sydney Harbour to the site of his address in the suburb of Barangaroo.
"Our world has grown weary of greed, exploitation and division, of the tedium of false idols and piecemeal responses, and the pain of false promises," he told the crowd.
There were numerous signs something was amiss in modern society, the pontiff said.
He highlighted drug and alcohol abuse as examples of modern woes, and hit out at television and the internet for promoting sex and violence as entertainment.
"I ask myself, could anyone standing face to face with people who actually do suffer violence and sexual exploitation explain that these tragedies, portrayed in virtual form, are considered merely entertainment?" he said.
The 81-year-old pontiff also called for greater protection of the environment for future generations.
He spoke of "scars which mark the surface of our earth - erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption".
Abuse row
Later today the Pope will travel by car through the streets of Sydney.
It is the headlines that arouse anger rather than amusement that are impossible to ignore
The BBC's Nick Bryant
He will stay in Australia until Sunday, when he is to preside over an open-air Mass at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse before hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
During the course of the visit - his ninth outside Italy - he is also expected to apologise for decades of sexual abuse of children by priests.
Rows over alleged cover-ups of abuse overshadowed the run-up to his visit.
Speaking to local radio early on Thursday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that abuse by the clergy had caused enormous damage to victims and their families, and called on the Church to respond to each individual case Pope Benedict XVI has attacked popular culture and consumerism in a formal address... more
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