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Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Week of November 22, 1999

Canadian and Foreign News Highlights

End Iraq embargo - U.S. bishops:

It's long past time to end the U.S.-backed economic embargo against Iraq and stop ongoing U.S. air strikes, said a statement from the president of the U.S. Catholic bishops. "After more than nine years of unparalleled and unmerited suffering, it is long past time to end the economic embargo against Iraq," said the statement issued Nov. 15 by Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston. In a voice vote that day, the bishops at their annual meeting overwhelmingly supported the statement. Efforts like the oil-for-food program are insufficient to counter the effects of an embargo put in place at the end of the Gulf War by the United Nations with U.S. backing.

Ont. urged to fund schools of all faiths:

The United Nations committee on human rights has turned an unwelcome spotlight on Ontario's Catholic schools with two recent decisions, one of which challenges their exclusive access to government funding compared to other faiths. The committee ruled that the exclusive funding of Catholic schools, but not those of other religions, was a violation of the rights of Toronto Jewish father Arieh Waldman. However, Regis O'Connor, president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association, said the association, "has long supported funding of schools of other faiths.

Jesuit ready to defend Pius XII:

At the Vatican, where media criticism seldom merits acknowledgment let alone a response, Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel's defence of Pope Pius XII is striking. Fifteen years of study have convinced Gumpel that Pope Pius was a holy man who heroically exercised the virtues of faith, charity, humility and prudence. He is willing to have reasonable discussions with people he feels are being reasonable, but he believes many of Pope Pius' critics are not. His harshest criticism to date has been directed at John Cornwell's book Hitler's Pope. "I consider this equivalent to a moral lynching and a character assassination," the Jesuit said.