c. 1999 Religion News Service

Two beloved Catholics headed for sainthood

(RNS) Two of the Catholic Church’s most beloved figures of the 20th century _ Pope John XXIII and Mother Teresa _ could be proclaimed saints early in the 21st century.

The proceedings in the cause of John XXIII, who died in 1963, are so far advanced that Vatican officials expect him to be beatified on Sept. 3, 2000, as part of Holy Year celebrations. Beatification is the penultimate step before sainthood.

Mother Teresa’s cause opened Monday (July 26) in Calcutta, India, the city where she founded the Sisters of Charity missionary order to work among the poor and destitute. She died in September 1997 at the age of 87.

Pope John Paul II on March 1 cleared the way for Mother Teresa’s proceedings to begin by waiving the five-year waiting period normally required after a candidate’s death. He took similar action in the cause of John XXIII, allowing it to start in 1967, four years after his death.

Archbishop Henry D’Souza of Calcutta opened the diocesan-level proceedings for Mother Teresa, hearing testimony on the life and work of the Albanian-born nun awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Her order now has 15,000 nuns working at 443 centers in 95 countries throughout the world.

D’Souza has said he hopes Mother Teresa can be declared a saint in the year 2000.

Following the hearings in Calcutta, expected to last three or four months, similar proceedings will be held in Rome and New York to collect further evidence of Mother Teresa’s”heroic virtues.” The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints then will examine the material gathered on Mother Teresa’s life to decide whether she is worthy of being venerated. For beatification, a medical panel must determine that a cure attributed to her intervention is an authentic miracle with no scientific explanation.

To become a saint, a candidate must be credited with a second miracle that happened after beatification.

In John XXIII’s cause, the Vatican medical panel voted unanimously on April 23 to authenticate one of 15 miracles attributed to him _ the healing in May 1966 of Sister Caterina Capitani, 24, of southern Italy, who was believed to be dying of”a hemorrhaging gastric perforation with external fistulization and acute peritonitis.” Last co-defendant in Lyons case gets probation

(RNS) A Tampa, Fla., judge on Monday (July 26) sentenced the last co-defendant in the federal case against the Rev. Henry J. Lyons to 18 months of probation.

Brenda Harris also was sentenced to 75 hours of community service and a $3,000 fine. The former planner for the National Baptist Convention, USA, and Lyons’ onetime mistress pleaded guilty in April to failing to inform police that a crime was being committed. Charges of money laundering and bank fraud were dropped as part of a deal with prosecutors.”I’m so sorry that I allowed myself to become involved with a married man. I am so sorry that I broke the law,”said Harris in comments reported by the Associated Press.”And I am sorry that I let down a God I love.” Outside the courtroom, Harris thanked God for guidance.”I was able, through God’s help, to see where I was wrong,”she said.”I hope that my life, from this point forward, will help other people not do what I did, not walk the way I walked.” In February, Lyons was convicted of state racketeering and theft charges and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison. The former head of the predominantly black denomination was charged with swindling $4 million from companies associated with the convention. He also was found guilty of pocketing $250,000 from a fund to rebuild burned black churches.

Last month he was sentenced by a federal judge to four years and three months in prison on tax evasion and bank fraud charges, a term he will serve concurrently with the state sentence.

Republic, Mo., seeks profits from banned Christian symbol

(RNS) Officials in a southern Missouri city hope the Christian fish symbol that landed them in controversy will now snag some much-needed funds.

A federal judge declared the fish symbol on the city seal unconstitutional early this month (July), giving city officials in Republic 30 days to replace signs, flags and even stationery bearing the fish image. The town’s Board of Aldermen met Monday (July 26) to discuss a sale _ hoping the abundance of lapel pins, buttons, patches, business cards, clocks and T-shirts might defray the $15,000 to $20,000 the effort is expected to cost.”We’ll most likely have an auction,”City Administrator Dean P. Thompson told The Washington Times.”We don’t know what form that will take, whether local or on the Internet. We’ve had a lot of nationwide attention, so if an Internet auction could be arranged, that would be a good option, especially if tied in to a local auction.” Town officials have received numerous calls from collectors across the country wondering how to obtain business cards, flags and other items the town accumulated in nine years of using the seal.”Every piece of property the city owns has the logo on it,”said Thompson. That includes cover sheets on library documents and city vehicles.

Christians have used the fish, or ichthus, since Roman times. The current Republic city seal was adopted in 1990 after a public competition. Marilyn Schexsnayder, the town resident who designed the seal, said she thought the fish represented all religions.

Hate crimes against Hispanics, their houses of worship on rise

(RNS) Hate crimes directed against Hispanics and their houses of worship are rising, according to a report released Monday (July 26) by a prominent Hispanic advocacy group.

The National Council of La Raza report documented cases of church burnings, alleged abuses by law enforcement and violence toward Hispanics.

NCLR President Raul Yzaguirre released the report,”The Mainstreaming of Hate,”at a Houston news conference during the group’s annual meeting.”At issue is a simple question,”said Yzaguirre.”Do Hispanic Americans have the right to drive the streets, attend places of worship, and otherwise live their lives free from hate, violence, harassment and law enforcement abuse? For the countless Latinos, this report suggests that these rights are very much in question in America today.” The report found that hate crimes against Latinos are rising. It also identified an”emerging pattern of hate-related activity in Hispanic places of worship.” The study noted that”24 Hispanic places of worship throughout the country are on the list of church arson sites to be investigated”by authorities.

The report gave the La Luz del Mundo Church, in Walhalla, S.C., as an example. After a 1995 fire, a 14-year-old white boy admitted to torching the structure, saying he”dislikes Mexicans.” The National Church Arson Task Force, the National Coalition for Burned Churches and the NCLR are currently looking into confirmed church arsons that may be hate-related, according to the report.

Officials said abuses by law enforcement officers are the most serious threat currently facing Hispanics. The report highlighted cases of racial profiling, civil rights abuses and discrimination at the hands of police and Immigration and Naturalization Service officers.

NCLR officials also stressed a need for better federal statistics and called for more media attention to racism and intolerance.

Quote of the day: Researcher George Barna

(RNS)”We still hold the Bible in high regard, but in terms of actually spending time reading it, studying it and applying it _ that is a thing of the past,”said George Barna, president of Barna Research Group in Ventura, Calif. He was quoted in the Los Angeles Times.

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