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THE ANCHOR -DiOcese of Fall River - Fri., February 7, .2003
"CathoUc,groups hail elements of Bush's State of ,the Union address By MARK PAmSON . CATHOUC NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON - Catholic reaction to President Bush's State of the Union address showed support for Bush's requests to Congress to pass' a faith-based fmld~· ing initiative as well as bans .on partial~birthabortion and cloning, However, they remained silent on the subject of the potential fOf war with Iraq, which dominated the1atter part of Bush's address.. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights applauded Bush's comments' urging Congress to pass his faith-based initiative. The move stalled in the Senate late last year. After Congress adjourned, Bush issued some executive orders that imple~ mented part of his plan to have religious-based groups get a more equal footing in qualifying for federal funds. "We know from the work of Harvard economist Richard Freeman that there is an inverse relationship between churchgoing and deviancy," said a statement from Catholic League president William Donohue. "When his study was replicated many years later by Byron Johrison and David B. Larson, they fOulld that urban black youth were less likely to commit to drugs and delinquency if they were churchgoers. The National Right to Life Committee cheered Bush's request of Congress to ban partialbirth abortion and cloning. Bush said during his speech, "Because no human life should be started or ended as the object of an experiment, I ask you to set a high standard for humanity and pass a law against all human cloning." The NRLC, said this was "a clear call" for passage of bills in the House and Senate which· would ban all human cloning, including the cloning of embryos for research purposes. "In urging Congress to 'end the practice of partial-birth abortion,' the president was pressing
for congressional approval of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act," the NRLC statement said. Father Michael Place,Catholic Health Association president and CEO, voiced the hope that the White House and Congress could come to an agreement on expand~ ing health care and making it more affordable; . ' "With nearly one in six of the population uninsured, and mil'lions more underinsured, it is time to tum the health care rhetoric into action because there is no single issue moreimportantto the strength of our nation and no single issue so in need of reform," Father Place said. "Adequate funding of Medicare and Medicaid and of health care coverage expansion should be a priority of the 108th Congress before enacting tax cuts," another part of Bush's State of the Union address, according to Father Place. Bush had proposed an initiative in which seniors could obtain prescription drug coverage, but it was not clear whether, as charged by health-care advocacy group Families USA, they could do so only through a private plan forcing their 'exit from Medicare.. Bishop Paul S. Loverde of Arlington, Va., praised Bush for his proposal to provide $15 billion in funding for projects that will help to end the AIDS epidemic in Africa and around the world. "The president rightly reminded us as a nation of our responsibilities around the world to share the blessing God has bestowed upon us," the bishop said. "His call to more seriously apply ourselves to helping oUT brothers and sisters around the globe dying from the AIDS epidemic, and his call to end the barbaric partial-birth abortion procedure and to pass legislation banning every form of human cloning, reveal his commitment to the dignity' of the human person from conception through every stage of life to natural death."
INDIAN CHILDREN holding red roses pray near a memorial to Indian-born aerospace engineer Kalpana Chawla in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta. (CNS photo from Reuters)
CatholiCs grieve, pray for astronauts .killed in sp~ce shuttle catastroph~ ~
Pilot William C. McCool, 41, was a practicing Catholic. By MARK PAmSON CATHOUC NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON - Catholics grieved and prayed over the fate of the seven astronauts who perished February 1 when the space shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere over Texas following a 16-day mission. The pope was informed of the tragedy shortly after the news agencies reported it on February 1. Aides said he received the news with "extreme sadness" and prayed for all those touched by the disaster. '~t this time of difficult trial, I am spiritually close to the relatives, and I assure them of my prayers," he said. The pilot, Navy Cmdr. Wtlliam C. McCool. 41, was a Catholic. It was McCool's first space mission. His pastor, Carmelite Father JJ. McCarthy of St Bemadette Parish in the Houston subwb of Oear Lake City, Texas, said McCool left behind a wife and three children. "We're here to serve them," he said Father McCarthy said St Bernadette is one of three Ca~olic parishes with a large contingent of NASA workers and their families. He said he detected "shock. grief, an outpouring of grief' the weekend of the accident 'The long~timers, they had the Challenger some years ago (in 1986). They see it as round two," the priest said. 'They're just stunned." He told Catholic News Service that Masses in the 3,500-household parish were full over the weekend, but that ''what seemed to be different to me was ,in the way . people were coming to Mass. They were seeking an outpouring of faith and hope." The parish held a prayer service Monday. Jesuit FatherJohn P. Schlegel, president ofCreighton University in Omaha, Neb., noted in a statement that Columbia's payload commander, Air Force Lt Col. Michael Anderson, 43, received a master's degree in physics from Creighton in 1990. He called Anderson, who had planned to visit the campus in April, "a man of faith" who ''lived in the pursuit of new knowledge. He was a true 21st-century pioneer." Before Columbia's January 16 launch,Anderson sent an E-mail rp.essage to Jesuit Father Thomas McShane, a Creighton physics professor, asking that the priest keep him in his prayers during the mission. In addition to McCool andAnderson, the others killed in the Columbia disaster were Dan Ramon, 48, the firSt Israeli astronaut to gointo space; Kalpana Chawla, 41, an Indian-~erican; David M. Brown, 46; Laurel Blair Salton Clark, 41; and Rick D. Husband, 45. A STATUE of an angel graces a makeshift At Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles, Mass began Sunday with 70 seconds ofsilence while memorial outside NASA's Johnson Space the church bells tolled seven times, once for each astro- Center in Houston. (CNS photo from Reuters) "/~t"I'~
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naut lost on the shuttle. According to an announcement by the Archdiocese ofDetroit, CardinalAdamJ. Maida called "on the priests and the {lC(:lple ofthe archdiOcese to remember in prayer those whose lives have been impacted by the space .shuttle Columbia disaster - the crew members, their families and the support teams. May God hold them all' in the palm of his hand" The Associated Press reported that a Catholic ser,vice Sunday for U.S. troops stationed in Bagram, Afghanistan, included prayers for the shuttle crew. It included the hymn ''On Eagles' Wmgs" at communion, and the hymn '1'11 Ay Away" at the conclusion. Sen. Sam Brownback. R-Kan., said in a statement that as chairman ofthe Senate Space, Science and Technology Subcommittee, he was prepared to help with NASA's investigation of the accident 'The inspiration these astronauts gave to children, educators, and hopeful citizens around the world will not be forgotten," added Brownback. a Catholic. ''They will forever remain in our memories. May God bless them and their families." Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ., another Catholic in Congress, said '1t is now incumbent upon NASA scientists to do everything that is humanly possible to fully investigate this catastrophe and determine what went wrong. The work: of manned space flight must continue."
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