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Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Week of October 18, 1999

Canadian and Foreign News Highlights

Vatican experts OK some biotechnology:

Vatican experts have voiced a "prudent yes" to genetic engineering of plants and animals. However, the experts restated Church objections to human cloning and other biotechnologies that modify the human genetic code. Members of the Pontifical Academy for Life presented two volumes of documents Oct. 12 on ethics and genetic technology, the result of more than two years of discussion and study. "We are increasingly encouraged that the advantages of genetic engineering of plants and animals are greater than the risks. The risks should be carefully followed through openness, analysis and controls, but without a sense of alarm," said Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the pontifical academy.

Plenty of priests, but nowhere to go:

It's the fastest growing religious community in Canada and has more priests than the Ottawa Archdiocese can absorb but few Canadian dioceses with a shortage of priests are asking the Companions of the Cross for help. In July, the community, founded in 1984 by Ottawa priest Father Bob Bedard, sent four priests and a seminarian to manage the Catholic Charismatic Centre and a parish church in Houston, Texas, and another two to Toronto to operate a parish. Both assignments were the results of invitations by local bishops. But there have been no requests for Companions of the Cross to come into Western Canadian dioceses and only one from the Maritimes, said Bedard.

Web sites abound in wild tales about impending doom:

If you have Internet access, try entering the search term "end times" on your browser. Shebang! You now have access to at least 22,855 Web sites eager to enlighten you about what the upcoming turn of the millennium is all about. Hey, the truth is out there - or is it? Actually, it isn't, according to several prominent Catholic scholars who have studied the phenomenon commonly referred to as millennialism. Benedictine Father Joseph Jensen, of The Catholic University of America, said neither the Catholic Church nor any mainline Protestant churches espouse millennial beliefs based on a literal interpretation of Revelation.

Cardinal seeks world meeting:

Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan said the Catholic Church may need to bring together all the world's bishops "to loosen doctrinal and disciplinary knots" causing problems in the Church. Addressing the Synod of Bishops for Europe Oct. 7, Martini did not use the word "council" to describe the meetings he envisioned, but said a synod with only a representative number of bishops and no real authority was not enough. In an interview Oct. 8 with Catholic News Service, Martini said the shortage of priests and its detrimental effect on the Church's sacramental life is one problem that should be studied by such a meeting.

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