Newscast at 8 & 9PM tonight.
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--
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News, of the hour, on the hour, from Catholic Information Radio.
I’m Bryan Douglas in Philadelphia, and at this hour….
(Theme Out)

Lead:
Benedict XVI will meet again with Irish bishops as that country continues to recover from revelations about the physical and emotional abuse of minors by members of the clergy.

Vatican Press Office director Father Federico Lombardi, confirmed today that the Pope has called Irish prelates to the Vatican for a mid-February meeting.

Sean Cardinal Brady, president of the Irish episcopal conference and archbishop of Armagh, and Archbishop Deermid Martin of Dublin already met with the Holy Father on Dec. 11. They discussed the Murphy Commission Report, which detailed the extent of abuse cases in the Dublin Archdiocese from 1975 to 2004.

That report was published in November and it followed the Ryan report, which was released last May which detailed widespread child abuse in Catholic schools throughout the country.

As a result of the Murphy report, a number of Irish prelates offered their resignations to the Holy Father, which were promptly accepted.

After the December meeting, the Vatican reported that the Holy Father plans to write a pastoral letter to the Irish in which he will clearly indicate the initiatives that are to be taken in response to the situation and prevent their recurrence.

I’ll be back with more after this.

(insert PSAs)

Story 2:
Catholic and Jewish leaders are underlining the need for the ethical guidance of religion to direct scientific progress in responsible ways that respect human persons. This was affirmed in an English-language statement released today by the Vatican, during a bilateral meeting of Catholic and Jewish leaders.

A delegation of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, led by Cardinal horhey May-a, met in Rome with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel's delegation for Relations with the Catholic Church, led by Chief Rabbi She-ar Cohen.

This 9th meeting of the commission is taking place in Rome, and began Sunday in conjunction with Benedict's historic visit to the Synagogue of Rome.

Story 3:
A Mexican nun operating a medical center in Port-au-Prince Haiti said plenty of aid is arriving in the capital, but it is failing to reach many of those who were injured and left homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake. Meanwhile, church authorities in the Dominican Republic said Haitians were streaming across the border for medical treatment.

Mexican Sister Bertha Lopez, mother superior and founder of Missionaries of the Risen Christ, said in a report distributed by Caritas, "The airport is full of tents (and supplies) from every country, but the aid hasn't arrived."

The report underscored the urgency of the situation in Haiti, where a magnitude 7 earthquake has claimed an estimated 200,000 lives, flattened many buildings in and around Port-au-Prince and left much of the federal government and national institutions in shambles and unable to respond. The report also underscored the difficulty of delivering desperately needed assistance in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country because infrastructure was badly damaged and corpses littered the streets.

As the pace of the response has accelerated, relief agencies have had to take extra security measures after reports of looting in some Port-au-Prince neighborhoods. CRS was sending in its security expert from Africa and was working with U.N. peacekeepers to protect convoys as supplies were taken across the border from the neighboring Dominican Republic, as refugees are streaming in the opposite direction.

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 5:
U.S. Rabbi Jacob Neusner, a professor at Bard College in N.Y., told L’Oservatore Romano that Pope Benedict has finished the second volume of his book on Jesus. The rabbi says the pope related this to him during their 20-minute meeting yesterday.

The fact that the pope would tell a U.S. rabbi that the manuscript is finished isn’t quite as odd as it would appear. In the pope’s first volume, “Jesus of Nazareth,” there were more quotes from Rabbi Neusner than from anyone but the Gospel writers and St. Paul himself.
The pope said the rabbi’s “profound respect for the Christian faith and his faithfulness to Judaism led him to seek a dialogue with Jesus.”

The rabbi was in Rome to speak at a Jan. 18 event sponsored by the Church to mark its annual day of Catholic-Jewish dialogue. He was able to attend Pope Benedict’s visit Sunday evening to Rome’s synagogue and then met privately with the pope yesterday morning.

(roll theme and establish)
And that’s top news of the hour.
I’m Bryan Douglas, CIR NEWS, for Catholic Information Radio.

Newscast at 8 & 9PM tonight.
Click on link in the top box under Catholic Information Network at the right to listen. This will open up a new window with an embedded player.

--
(Roll Theme)
News, of the hour, on the hour, from Catholic Information Radio.
I’m Bryan Douglas in Philadelphia, and at this hour….
(Theme Out)

Lead:
According to one of the figures behind the 1994 establishment of diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and the Vatican, Israel's behavior toward the Vatican over the past 15 years has been "outrageous," Rabbi David Rosen said the press last week. Rabbi Rosen continued quote "Any [other] country would have threatened to withdraw its ambassador long ago over Israel's failure to honor agreements," unquote in an interview the Haretz newspaper in Jerusalem.

Rosen attended a meeting scheduled in Rome today between Pope Benedict and a delegation from Israel's Chief Rabbinate, which is taking place at a time of crisis in the Vatican's relations with Israel and with Jewish leaders.

Rosen, the former chief rabbi of Ireland who is the international director of interreligious affairs of the American Jewish Committee, said the Vatican agreed to diplomatic relations with Israel after Jerusalem pledged to recognize the legal status of Catholic institutions in Israel and exempt Vatican property in Israel from taxes. The process was to take two years, he said.

Fifteen years later, the state has not ratified an agreement recognizing the church's legal status Rosen said. He indicated the Vatican would like its internal hierarchy recognized by Israeli law, which at present treats each individual Catholic church as a separate nonprofit organization.

Last month Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon discussed the legal issues in Rome with Vatican officials. He later said the talks "broke down" and that there was a "crisis" in relations.

I’ll be back with more after this. (insert PSAs)

Story 2:
Pope Benedict on January 18 named Bishop André Léonard , a member of the International Theological Commission, as Archbishop of Malines-Brussels. Succeeding the influential Cardinal Godfried Danneels, Archbishop Léonard is known for his forthright defense of Catholic moral teaching and his support for Pope Benedict’s motu proprio on the extraordinary form of the Mass.

As expected, Deputy Prime Minister Laurette Onkelinx condemned the appointment, citing the new Archbishop’s firm stance against modern society’s acceptance of deviant lifestyle choices and the culture of death. The nation of 7.8 million is 73% Catholic. It has 3,900 parishes, 6,500 priests, and 201 seminarians. The ratio of seminarians to Catholics makes Belgium one of the world's most "vocation-poor" nations.

Story 3:
In the thousands of pages that make up the health care legislation in either the House- and Senate-passed versions, the word "abortion" only comes up a few dozen times. But as congressional leaders work to hammer out an agreement behind closed doors on health care reform, the U.S. bishops' lobbying efforts are aimed towards warning agains an insistence on expanding abortion that could sink the reform movement that the bishops have lobbied for decades. This month, through a series of bulletin inserts and pulpit announcements, the bishops are attempting to Catholics nationwide to tell their senators and representatives that the final health reform bill must not "advance a pro-abortion agenda" and must be "accessible and affordable for all," including immigrants. The USCCB, however, doesn’t acknowledge that the majority of the Catholic in all polls oppose the takeover of health insurance by the government or seem to realize the divergence in opinion in any of their statements.

Story 4:
Haitian Archbishop Joseph Miot was known as a humble man who was close to the poor in the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince. Archbishop Miot, 63, was among tens of thousands of Haitians who died in the Jan. 12 earthquake. Because there was no electricity in the city after the quake, church officials took Archbishop Miot's body to the coastal city of St. Marc, and the Archbishop was buried immediately, which is not the normal Haitian tradition.

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 5:
A new brochure distributed by the Christophers addresses abortion not as a religious issue but as one of human rights. The Christopher News Note -- titled "Abortion: Stand Up for Life!" -- says euphemisms have masked abortion's reality, but says "it is truly life itself that is at issue when a child is waiting to be born." Public opinion on the issue, which once showed a majority in favor of keeping abortion legal, has now changed so that most voice support for a pro-life position, the brochure says

Story 6:
A week after a devastating earthquake flattened the Haitian capital, relief agencies worked Tuesday to reach the estimated millions of survivors in need of water, food and shelter.
A handful of U.S. helicopters landed Tuesday on the grounds of the ruined presidential palace in the capital, sparking the curiosity of dozens of Haitians; some of whom have welcomed the arrival of U.S. troops. But one man said military force was not needed -- more relief supplies were. Such frustration appeared to mount Monday, as hundreds of Haitians broke into a damaged store in downtown Port-au-Prince, stripping it clean and then moving on to another store a half-block away.

(roll theme and establish)
And that’s top news of the hour.
I’m Bryan Douglas, CIR NEWS, for Catholic Information Radio.

Newscast at 8 & 9PM tonight.
Click on link in the top box under Catholic Information Network at the right to listen. This will open up a new window with an embedded player.

-
(Roll Theme)
News, of the hour, on the hour, from Catholic Information Radio.
I’m Bryan Douglas in Philadelphia, and at this hour….
(Theme Out)

Lead:
Reporting on the situation in Haiti’s capital, Archbishop Bernardito Owza, apostolic nuncio to Haiti, told the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples that the island nation is in great distress, With no water reserves and gas stations closed. There is no electricity and the people are in need of everything.

Archbishop Owza reported that Archbishop Joseph Miot of Port-au-Prince died when he was thrown from a balcony in his residence during the quake. Archbishop Miot, 63, was ordained a priest in 1975, appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Port-au-Prince in 1997, and became Archbishop in 2008. The nuncio said that the vicar general and chancellor of the archdiocese were also buried under the rubble.

The nation of 9 million is 80% Catholic and the Church in Haiti has ten dioceses, 338 parishes, 791 priests, 1,851 sisters, and 421 seminarians.

As a reminder, Cardinal Francis George, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Timothy Dolan, board chairman of Catholic Relief Services, have asked US priests to take up a second collection in parishes this weekend to respond to immediate emergency needs for such necessities as water, food, shelter and medical care, as well as provide for the long term need to rebuild after the widespread destruction already reported, as well as respond to the pastoral and direct reconstruction needs of the Church in Haiti.

I’ll be back with more after this.
(insert PSAs)

Story 2:
In a January 15 meeting with members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Benedict XVI said that the congregation-- which he had headed for years-- serves the "ministry of unity" in the universal Church by ensuring a commitment to doctrinal fidelity. The Petrine ministry is devoted to the unity of the faithful, he said, and this congregation helps the Pontiff to preserve that unity by ensuring the accurate presentation of the Gospel truths that have been handed down through the ages. The accuracy of the message, the Pope added, is essential to the success of the Church's evangelizing activity.

Story 3:
A tenth church has been vandalized in Malaysia following a court decision that permitted a Catholic publication to use the word “Allah” to refer to God. In all, eight churches have been firebombed, and two have been splashed with paint.

The offices of the legal firm representing the paper were also ransacked last night. A spokesman said staff arrived at work this morning to find several locks and the steel doors to the 2nd and 3rd floor offices cut, drawers ransacked, and papers strewn on the floor.
He also said his partner's laptop was missing. A mobile phone service provider's shop and tuition centre on the first floor were not broken into, he indicated.

In a widening of the intolerant behavior, stones were also thrown at a Sikh temple-- apparently because Sikhs also refer to God as “Allah.”

The nation of 27.7 million is 60% Muslim, and 3% Catholic.

Story 4:
A defense of the more accurate and eloquent liturgical Mass translations approved by the US bishops has been published in an unlikely venue: the Jesuit-published America magazine. Father Peter Stravinskas writes the new translation of the Roman Missal is quote “a vast improvement over the uninspiring, banal, and all-too-often theologically problematic texts we have been using for nearly 40 years. The New Testament speaks of chairos, an especially fortuitous moment. We are approaching a liturgical chairos for English-speaking Catholics, which we should embrace with gusto.” Unquote. The new translation was approved in November of last year.

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 5:
Zilda Arns, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee this year was killed Tuesday in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti.

The 75-year-old Brazilian pediatrician and aid worker was killed while walking the streets of Port-au-Prince alongside two soldiers. She was in Haiti studying the implementation of her program -- which is one of the world’s most successful at reducing infant mortality -- on the island.

Story 6:
Delegates from the Commission for Dialogue Between Jews and Catholics will hold their ninth meeting next week, turning their attention to the theme of the environment.

The delegates will begin their meeting Sunday, attending the celebrations with Benedict XVI's visit to the Synagogue of Rome and represent the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.

Delegates will consider Catholic and Jewish teaching on creation and the environment and the challenges of human intervention in the natural order.

(roll theme and establish)
And that’s top news of the hour.
I’m Bryan Douglas, CIR NEWS, for Catholic Information Radio.

Live newscast at 8PM, rebroadcast 9PM and 8&9AM following morning.
http://www.catholicradionetwork.us/player.htm

(Roll Theme)
News, of the hour, on the hour, from Catholic Information Radio.
I’m Bryan Douglas in Philadelphia, and at this hour….
(Theme Out)

Lead:
This morning, Pope Benedict XVI met and personally forgave the woman who tugged him to the ground in St Peter's on Christmas Eve, the Vatican said. Swiss-Italian Susanna Maiolo, 25, met with the pope immediately after Wednesday's general audience, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

The woman, who left a psychiatric hospital near Rome on Saturday, told the pope "how sorry she was" for the incident, Father Lombardi said. The pope, for his part "expressed his forgiveness and his cordial interest and best wishes for her health. Lombardi said the pope and Maiolo met privately although she had been accompanied to the audience by family members. A Vatican probe into the incident will "go forward until its completion," Lombardi added noting that Vatican justice was "generally benevolent".

The Pope had already sent an aide to meet with the mentally unstable Maiolo during her two-week stay in a psychiatric ward at the Subiaco hospital east of Rome.

Maiolo jumped a barrier as the pope and his entourage was coming in to say midnight mass on December 24, tugging at the pontiff's robes and bringing him to the floor. She had tried to reach the pope on the same occasion in 2008 but was quietly tackled by security guards, on both occasions wearing the same red sweat shirt.

Security around the pope has been tightened in the wake of the incident but Benedict happily approached the faithful to bless them and caress children at last week's Epiphany Mass. 87 year old French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray was knocked down at the same time as the Holy Father and suffered a broken hip in the incident. He is expected to be discharged shortly from a Rome hospital.

I’ll be back with more after this. (insert PSAs)

Story 2:
Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981, has promised that he will answer questions about the assassination attempt after his scheduled release from a Turkish prison next week.

Agca’s credibility in answering those questions might be open to question. In his characteristically emotional and disconnected statement, he condemned terrorism and called for the establishment of “a new American empire” to bring about world peace and democracy. Last year Agca said that he wants to return to St. Peter’s Square, the scene of the assassination attempt, to be baptized there.

Story 3:
Political and religious leaders in Malaysia are joining in public pleas for calm after an outburst of violent rioting following a court ruling that allowed the country’s Catholic newspaper to use the word “Allah.” Mahmood Adam, the home minister, condemned the incidents, which he attributed to extremists who seek to undermine the nation’s ethnic and religious harmony. The country’s Catholic bishops said they would meet with government leaders, and cooperate with their efforts to restore a peaceful environment. Government officials said that they had arrested one suspect, and were actively investigating 10 incidents involving violence against Christian targets.

Story 4:
Newly installed Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee has warned a Wisconsin legislative panel that a proposal to extend the statute of limitations for child-abuse lawsuits could push local dioceses into bankruptcy. Noting the good works done by Catholic agencies that would be endangered by new lawsuits, the archbishop warned against targeting the Church which also provides services that the State would then have to assume responsibility for.

Archbishop Listecki was angrily challenged by one lawmaker, state senator Glenn Grothman, who questioned the status of Milwaukee’s former Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who attended the installation of the new archbishop last week. Noting that Weakland himself resigned in disgrace after being charged with abuse, the senator expressed his surprise that the former Archbishop was included in the ceremonies. Archbishop Listecki replied that Weakland is retired, and holds no position in the archdiocese.

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 5:
Pope Benedict XVI has issued an urgent appeal for help for the people of Haiti at the conclusion of his regular weekly public audience today. He called attention to the tragic situation created by a major earthquake that has caused a serious loss of human life, large numbers of homeless and missing people, and vast material damage. Promising his prayers for the victims and their families, the Pope added an appeal to the generosity of all people so that these victims may not lack the effective support of the international community. He said that Catholic charities would respond as quickly and generously as possible.

Haiti’s capital, Port au Prince, was devastated by the earthquake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale. Thousands of people are feared dead, hundreds of buildings destroyed, and as many as 3 million people in need of emergency relief. Haiti is the most impoverished country in the Western hemisphere, and the slum outside Port au Prince, Citi Soleil, is home to tens of thousands of people already living in dire poverty.

Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot of the capital was reportedly among those killed in the earthquake.

(roll theme and establish)
And that’s top news of the hour.
I’m Bryan Douglas, CIR NEWS, for Catholic Information Radio.

(Roll Theme)
News, of the hour, on the hour, from Catholic Information Radio.
I’m Bryan Douglas in Philadelphia, and at this hour….
(Theme Out)

Lead:
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is launching a massive eleventh-hour effort to keep abortion funding in all forms out of the socialized health care legislation that will emerge from a House-Senate conference committee. The bishops have sent bulletin inserts and pulpit announcements to every parish in the nation stating quote “Given the upcoming final votes, the U.S. bishops have asked that the attached USCCB Nationwide Bulletin Insert be printed or hand-stuffed in every parish bulletin and distributed in pews or at church entrances as soon as possible. Unquote ”

According to the bulletin the bishops note that neither the House nor the Senate bill has adequate conscience protection for health care providers, plans, or employers. They are asking parishioners to encourage politicians to maintain provisions against abortion funding and in favor of conscience protection, affordability, and immigrants’ access to health care or oppose the final bill.

Because of the divergence between the Senate and House versions of the bill, this massive forced take-over of one sixth of our economy by the government is being widely debated, with opposition to the bill being short circuited by parliamentary maneuvering and exclusion of the opposition from serious consideration in the resolution committee in the Congress.

Additional side issues, including the apparently racist remarks by the senate majority leader have added a number of temporary roadblocks to settling the issue and moving the conference agenda forward.

I’ll be back with more after this.
(insert PSAs)

Story 2:
Braving the snow and defying a government ban, thousands of Catholics attended the funeral of 86-year-old Coadjutor Bishop Leo Yao Leeang of Wanzee, who had spent nearly three decades in detention because of his fidelity to the Roman Pontiff. The government, which forbade Catholics from outside Bishop Yao’s local county from attending the funeral, has also banned references to him as a “bishop,” instead demanding Catholics to refer to him as a “clandestine shepherd.”

Story 3:
Lamenting the recent attacks against churches and other Christian buildings, the bishops of Malaysia have noted that meetings with civil authorities and dialogue with Muslim leaders are ongoing and will continue in the coming days. The bishops are asking Christians to act in harmony and seek the necessary cooperation of the government and the high religious authorities in order to restore a peaceful environment to Malaysian society.

They have also called upon their members to do everything possible to keep calm, not retaliate, and pray to avoid a dangerous escalation of the violence, regardless of the provocation. They also noted that groups of moderate Muslims have taken turns guarding churches to avoid further acts of violence in a show of toleration, according to the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Story 4:
Calling the defense of marriage “one of the premier social justice issues of our time,” Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage, praised the state senators of New Jersey and New York for rejecting bills that would have legalized homosexual marriage.

Archbishop Kurtz said quote, “The recent decisions in Maine, New York and New Jersey are signs of hope and sources of encouragement. Preserving marriage between one man and one woman is a matter of justice; indeed it is one of the premier social justice issues of our time. It does not deny but rather supports basic human rights-- especially the rights of children.” unquote

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 5:
Brazilian bishops are offering strong criticism of President Luiz da Silva’s new National Program for Human Rights. While most media coverage has centered on the creation of a truth commission to investigate crimes committed under the former military dictatorship which ended in 1985, the program also decriminalizes abortion and allows for homosexual civil unions.

Story 6:
Monsignor Guido Marini, Benedict XVI’s master of ceremonies, this week strongly underlined the Pope’s recommendation that when Mass is celebrated facing westwards, the priest should place a crucifix at the centre of the altar. This was to make clear that the celebrant was not “facing the people”, but facing Christ. The reason for this proposal, according to Marini, is to place the Crucifix on the centre of the altar, in order that, during the celebration of the liturgy, all may concretely face and look upon Lord, in such a way as to orient also their prayer and hearts.

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And that’s top news at the top of the hour.
I’m Bryan Douglas, CIR NEWS, for Catholic Information Radio.