NEWS

HAMILTON, ONT. - Some 650 people paid tribute to 13 priests and religious who have a combined 650 years of consecrated service to the Church as the Serra Club of Hamilton held its annual Celebration of Priesthood and Religious Life Dinner May 1.

The 13 each marked 50 years since beginning their religious lives and have pursued greatly varied paths in ministry over that time. Three School Sisters of Notre Dame who were honoured, for example, are currently serving in Ghana, South Sudan and Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., while one priest has acted as a high school teacher and principal, and another as an advisor to the Retrouvaille marriage encounter ministry.

OTTAWA - Archbishop William Aquin Carew, who served in the Holy See’s Secretariat of State under Pope Paul VI and represented the Church in posts around the world until his retirement in 1997, died May 8 in St. John’s, Nfld. He was 89.

A St. John’s native, he was ordained in 1947. He pursued further studies at the Vatican’s college for diplomats in Rome, the Pontificia Academia Ecclesiastica.

His extensive diplomatic career began when he was assigned to serve at the Holy See’s Secretariat of State from 1953 to 1969. In 1969, he was named apostolic nuncio to Rwanda and Burundi, before Pope Paul VI sent him on a special mission to Bangladesh in 1972 as an extraordinary envoy.

His next assignment took him to the Middle East. Archbishop Carew’s last assignment took him to Japan as apostolic pro-nuncio from 1983-97.

As famine grips West Africa the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace is calling for donations so it can help its partners in the region distribute emergency food supplies and organize communities to prevent further deaths.

“This crisis has the potential to spiral into a major humanitarian catastrophe if we don’t act now,” said Development and Peace executive director Michael Casey.

OTTAWA - Fr. Bob Bedard, founder of the Companions of the Cross, was entombed in Ottawa’s Hope Cemetery May 6 in a mausoleum one admirer expects will become a pilgrimage site.

As the sun was setting, about 200 people gathered on the grass as Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast celebrated the Eucharist on the altar of Bedard’s mausoleum. The entombment’s date, the first Friday in May, also marked the anniversary of the order’s founding 27 years ago.

“Fr. Bob let the Holy Spirit energize his faith, and he was then able to proclaim the joy of our Risen Lord Jesus, as the apostles did in today’s first reading,” said Prendergast in his homily. “A breath of renewal became present in his life and ministry.

TORONTO - There’s only one union in Ontario demanding layoffs, willing to accept a wage freeze and hoping to be declared obsolete. The brand-new Freedom 90 Union of Food Bank and Emergency Meal Program Volunteers launched its demands at a downtown Toronto church May 7.

The Freedom 90 group of middle-aged and elderly veteran volunteers of Ontario’s food banks are asking Ontario’s government to “make Ontario’s food banks obsolete — before we volunteers reach the age of 90.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - North Carolina voters headed to the polls May 8 to decide whether to define traditional marriage in the state constitution -- an issue on which the state's two Catholic bishops have been vocal in urging people in their dioceses to support.

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Raleigh and Bishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte have spent months educating the faithful about church teaching on marriage and encouraging people to vote for the constitutional amendment, ever since the measure was placed on the ballot by the Republican-led state legislature last fall.

MEXICO CITY - The Vatican has accepted the resignation of Bishop Onesimo Cepeda Silva of Ecatepec.

Bishop Cepeda, who submitted his resignation when he turned 75, in accordance with canon law, counted billionaires among his best friends and became one of the most polemic people in Mexican public life for his perceived relationships with the political elite.

He transitioned from an early career in banking to being bishop of Ecatepec, a sprawling suburb on the northeastern fringes of Mexico City housing the armies of maids, gardeners and construction workers who commute long distances to work in the nearby capital.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York's Catholic bishops have called for state lawmakers to approve a "modest" increase in the state's minimum wage.

New York's current minimum wage is $7.25. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have higher minimum wages. A bill sponsored by Sheldon Silver, a Democrat who is speaker of the state Assembly, the legislature's lower chamber, has sponsored a bill to raise the minimum wage to $8.50. The Republican-controlled state Senate has stated its opposition to a hike in the minimum wage.

TORONTO - As Chinese and U.S. diplomats sought a resolution to the diplomatic crisis surrounding Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, many Chinese-Americans turned their attention to the nature of Chen's dissent.

Without challenging any fundamental tenet of China's constitution or its 1949 revolution, Chen has focused attention to the country's forced abortion and sterilization practices, leading to a crackdown by the government on his movement and prohibitions on contact with foreigners and the media.

VATICAN CITY - Laws and government policies should not make economic inequality worse; rather they should help people live more decent lives, Pope Benedict XVI told diplomats.

"The quality of human relationships and the sharing of resources are the foundation of society, allowing everyone to have a role and to live in dignity in accordance with their aspirations," he said.

The Pope spoke May 4 to five new ambassadors to the Vatican, who were presenting their letters of credential. The new ambassadors from Ireland, Ethiopia, Armenia, Malaysia and Fiji will not be residing in Rome.