NEWS

BERLIN - The president of the German bishops' conference said he expects Pope Benedict XVI to "wake up" his fellow Germans to the reality of God, the place of religious values in society and the need for a patient search for Christian unity.

"He's going to wake us up. He doesn't want us to get distracted by the question of the financial crisis and financial problems in Germany ... but what is worth living for," Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, president of the bishops' conference, told reporters on the eve of the pope's Sept. 22-25 visit.

"The pope knows about the situation in Germany. He knows that Christian belief -- in the Protestant as well as the Catholic Church -- has weakened. The number of the faithful has decreased, and participation in religious services has declined. We have learned that people are not really interested in religion anymore," he said.

OTTAWA - The Ottawa archdiocese has asked police to investigate the finances of a parish that had been led by a charismatic priest who admitted last spring to a gambling addiction.

In a Sept. 18 letter distributed to parishioners at Blessed Sacrament parish in Ottawa’s Glebe neighbourhood,  Ottawa Vicar General Msgr. Kevin Beach said an independent audit of church finances found “questionable practices that require further investigation.”

Beach had no further comment on the matter, but a spokeswoman for the archdiocese said he will answer questions after the 11 a.m. Mass Sept. 25 at Blessed Sacrament.

OTTAWA - An alliance of Cambodian advocacy groups has asked Canada to urge the Royal Government of Cambodia to rescind a proposed law that would severely restrict the work of non-governement organizations in that country.

A representative of the civil society groups engaged in democracy building, land reform and human rights in Cambodia came to Ottawa Sept. 14 to appeal for help in preventing a law that will require Cambodian NGOs to register with the state, allowing the government to restrict or shut down NGOs without an appeals process.

“The law is not passed yet but we have already seen how it will work,” said Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of Cambodia’s NGO Forum, an umbrella group representing 87 NGOs, various civil society groups and about 200 additional members.

TORONTO - It was a triumph of the cross at Neil McNeil Catholic High School.

A seven-by-five-foot cross that was built and designed by two of the east-end school’s students and teachers has been chosen to travel to each of the Toronto Catholic District School Board’s 201 schools over the next two years.

The cross is part of the board’s celebration of “The Year of Witness,” the third year of the board’s pastoral plan focusing on “Word, Witness and Worship.”

WASHINGTON - Fr. Frank Pavone, one of the most visible opponents of abortion in the United States in his role as national director of Priests for Life, has been suspended from active ministry outside the diocese of Amarillo, Texas, over financial questions about his pro-life organization.

The suspension was made public in a letter from Amarillo Bishop Patrick Zurek to his fellow bishops across the country.

“My decision is the result of deep concerns regarding his stewardship of the finances of the Priests for Life (PFL) organization,” Zurek wrote. “The PFL has become a business that is quite lucrative which provides Fr. Pavone with financial independence from all legitimate ecclesiastical oversight.”

TORONTO - A court ruling that a surrogate mother can be legally removed from a birth certificate so two men in a same-sex relationship can be registered as the parents of an adopted baby is redefining the definition of motherhood in a "troubling" way and ignores the child's best interests, says the Catholic Civil Rights League.

At the request of a same-sex male couple, a Saskatchewan judge ruled in mid-September that the name of a surrogate mother who gave birth to a baby girl in 2009 be stricken from the baby's birth certificate. Instead of naming a mother, the birth certificate will name two men as the child's parents.

“One aspect of these cases that often gets overlooked is the interest of the child," said CCRL Executive Director Joanne McGarry. "What entitlements will this baby girl have as a teenager or as an adult to have access to medical or other records of the anonymous biological mother, or the surrogate mother?”

TORONTO - Fr. Richard Veltri of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society was a good friend who loved to laugh and a compassionate pastor who knew how to listen.

In recent years Fr. Veltri had struggled with a number of ailments. He died Sept. 12 at the age of 77.

As a man who spoke his mind freely and forcefully, Fr. Veltri was never unnoticed in the Scarboro Missions community, said Scarboro Mission priest Fr. Roger Brennan.

"He was a character, one of those people who adds a certain flavour to the community — a little something different," he said.

ACCRA, Ghana - The church must strengthen its role in observing and monitoring elections in African countries where electoral violence prevails, said church representatives from 20 African nations.

Noting that 12 African countries are scheduled to hold elections before the end of 2011 and 14 others in 2012, participants in a mid-September conference organized by Catholic Relief Services and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar said that "poor governance is often the source of intimidation, violence or conflicts in Africa during and after elections."

"More often than not," elections in Africa have been manipulated "to satisfy selfish or partisan interests to the detriment of the common good," participants said in statement signed by Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra. Other signers included chairs of their national bishops' justice and peace commissions: Bishop Paul Bemile of Wa, Ghana; Bishop Alexio Churu Muchabaiwa of Mutare, Zimbabwe; and Bishop Gbaya Boniface Ziri of Abengourou, Ivory Coast.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said his Sept. 22-25 trip to Germany would focus on restoring God's place in individual and social life -- as creator, spiritual guide and force for good.

The pope made the remarks in a videotaped message broadcast Sept. 17 by the German state television network. A transcript was made public by the Vatican.

Saying he was very much looking forward to his third visit to his homeland as pope, he previewed some of the main events, including his address to the German Parliament, Mass in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, visits to the Catholic enclave of Eichsfeld and a youth vigil with young people in Freiburg.

GENEVA - Scientifically, and not just morally, the best way to prevent maternal deaths is to improve the medical care offered to pregnant women, not divert needed resources into promoting contraception and abortion, a Vatican official said.

The international community "has made insufficient progress in preventing about 350,000 deaths that occur annually during pregnancy and childbirth," said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican observer to U.N. agencies in Geneva.

The archbishop took part in a Sept. 15 U.N. Human Rights Council discussion on "adopting a human rights-based approach" to reducing maternal mortality.