Catholic Media Report

Competitive and territorial barriers that once kept Catholic agencies from working too closely together are slowly breaking down in communities across the country in favor of stronger collaboration to better serve clients in need, according to a national organization that promotes the benefits of cooperation among church-based ministries. Cleveland-based Ministering Together has embarked on a new campaign to promote collaboration among Catholic Charities systems, Catholic hospitals, parishes and Catholic social service agencies as well as public entities in serving and advocating for families and sick, homeless, mentally ill and elderly people in need of multiple services.

With only 15 dissenting votes, the Senate passed a $307 billion five-year farm bill that President Bush says he will veto. But with 81 senators supporting it and Wednesday's 318-106 vote for the final version of the bill, Congress has more than the two-thirds majority to override that veto. If the president vetoes the bill, as expected, it would be only the second override of the Bush presidency. Last December, Congress voted to override a presidential veto of a $23 billion water-projects bill. In the Senate, many Republicans said they had to part ways with the president. "I'm disgusted with aspects of this bill, but I had no choice. North Carolina is the third largest agricultural state in the country," said Sen. Richard Burr (R) of North Carolina after the vote.

The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas, according to rank-and-file agency scientists and park managers who oppose the plan. The new regulations, which are likely to be finalized this summer, rewrite a provision of the Clean Air Act that applies to "Class 1 areas," federal lands that currently have the highest level of protection under the law. Opponents predict the changes will worsen visibility at many of the nation's most prized tourist destinations, including Virginia's Shenandoah, Colorado's Mesa Verde and North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt national parks.

The longstanding tensions between the two largest organizations in Burma (Myanmar) – the military and the Buddhist clergy – are finding new outlets as both groups confront the devastating aftermath of cyclone Nargis. The monks have temples sheltering victims in the delta – and have begun to organize funding and supplies for victims, which they hope to deliver via an underground network of sympathetic citizens and exiles worldwide and in Thai border areas such as Mae Sot. But nearly two weeks since the storm struck, the military, unquestionably, has the upper hand, with guns, helicopters, and relief supplies. And now, it is starting to force cyclone victims out of monasteries into tent camps, prompted by concern that the monks could help spur protests.

Word that the Vatican had declared devout Catholics free to believe in aliens traveled at warp speed this week, around the globe and, quite possibly, to points unknown. Earthbound theologians and astrophysicists debated it, online "Jedi Council" forums erupted in geeky chatter, and many who have long dared to believe that life exists beyond our terrestrial confines felt some small measure of vindication. The Catholic Church has never been considered anti-alien. In fact, Catholic priests and scholars have written about the issue of extraterrestrial life since at least the Middle Ages. What made this week's statement significant, several experts say, is that the comments by Rev. Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, were printed in the Vatican's own newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. That gave his words a certain papal heft. It has also made for some lively discussions between liberal and conservative theologians.

Catholics and Muslims united to help Buddhists on Wednesday, as South Florida religious leaders announced a joint collection to benefit cyclone victims in Myanmar. The collection is set to start this weekend at 18 mosques in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, plus the 120 parishes and missions in the Archdiocese of Miami. Their goal is raising funds for Myanmar, a mainly Buddhist nation hit May 3 by Cyclone Nargis. The United Nations expects the death toll to reach 100,000, and nearly 2 million people need emergency aid.

The Rev. John Hagee, the fiery evangelical pastor who endorsed John McCain, issued an apology to Catholics for disparaging remarks he made, including accusing the Roman Catholic Church of supporting Adolf Hitler. The letter received praise from some Catholic leaders but it reintroduced other subjects of Mr. Hagee's inflammatory comments. It also reignited questions about the relationship between Sen. McCain and Mr. Hagee, which has been compared to that of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It was "very big of him to go back and admit he was wrong," said Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United. But it doesn't excuse the divisive remarks made by Mr. Hagee concerning women or comments attributing Hurricane Katrina's wrath on the level of sin in New Orleans, he said.

The potential repeal of a century-old Florida law barring state funding for religiously affiliated organizations is to be put before the voters there this fall, at the end of a lobbying battle that has attracted the attention of President Bush and has engaged a coalition of liberal or secular educational groups. The vote is widely considered the first of numerous state battles over the funding ban. It exists in 36 other states but has been targeted by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington-based law firm, and by activists in the states.

The brief policy statement on embryonic stem-cell research that is to come before the U.S. bishops at their June 12-14 meeting in Orlando, Fla., is designed to set the stage for a later, more pastoral document explaining why the Catholic Church opposes some reproductive technologies. Although the topic of embryonic stem-cell research has been raised in several broader USCCB documents and has been the subject of testimony and many letters to Congress, there has never been a formal statement on the issue from the full body of bishops, said Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the pro-life committee, in an introduction to the draft document.

Hundreds of years ago, there was a tiny religious minority so despised and persecuted that it was forced to build its own educational, social-welfare and political infrastructure just to survive in the city of New York. Improbably enough, this subculture ultimately seized power from the entrenched majority, became the city’s largest Christian group, created institutions that affected everyone in the five boroughs and permanently changed what it meant to be a New Yorker. Yet a museum has never devoted a major exhibition to the history of this transformational group — that is, until Friday, when “Catholics in New York, 1808 to 1946,” opens to the public at the Museum of the City of New York.