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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:
Amid the predictable worldwide cries of protest that greeted Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's statement that the Church's sex-abuse problem is linked to homosexuality, the Vatican has issued a clarificationof that statement by the Secretary of State.

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office pointed out that the Church does not "make general statements of a specifically physiological or medical character," and Cardinal Bertone did not intend to speak on the relationship between homosexual orientation and pedophile offenses.

However, Father Lombardi continued, in a statistical examination of reports on clerical abuse, prosecutors have found that only 10% of the cases involved true pedophilia (abuse of small children), while 90% were cases of the abuse of adolescents. He added that 60% of all cases involved same-sex victims. He continued that the data refers to the problem of abuse by priests and not to statistics regarding the general population.

That 60% figure falls significantly short of the statistics for the United States, where a thorough analysis in the John Jay report showed that more than 80% of the reported instances of abuse by American Catholic priests involved post-pubescent teenage boys.

I’ll be back with more after this.
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Story 2:
Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, has returned home after being hospitalized briefly on April 13. The Irish prelate was admitted to the hospital on Monday when he fell ill during a Confirmation ceremony. After tests he was released, with doctor's orders to rest at his residence.

Cardinal Brady, who is 70 years old, has been under pressure to resign because of the abuse scandal in Ireland. He has conceded that he is considering that possibility, and will address it by Pentecost Sunday.

Story 3:
The bishop whose skepticism about the Holocaust prompted an international furor last year will not be present in a German court to answer criminal charges on Friday, his lawyer has announced. Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St. Pius the Tenth could face a fine of up to $16,500 for engaging in alleged Holocaust denial. His attorney, Matthias Lossman, said that he would provide the court with an explanation for Bishop Williamson's absence.

Story 4:
A Mexican cardinal has underlined the determination of Church leaders to fight against drug traffickers. Cardinal Francisco Berlanga of Monterrey said that, while civil officials have the primary duty to combat the drug trade, the Church cannot escape our responsibility . He explained that the role of the Church is to stress the dignity of the human person, thereby countering the appeal of illegal drugs and organized crime. The cardinal's statement comes at a time when competing drug cartels have engaged in a series of violent assaults on their rivals, leaving more than 80 people dead.

Story 5:
Nearly a year after the University of Notre Dame awarded an honorary degree to President Barack Obama, the university has adopted an institutional pro-life statement. The university stated that it would direct its contributions to both persons and organizations so that they are not used to support research or activities that conflict with Catholic teachings. Should a question arise, Notre Dame will require written assurance that it can direct the use of its funds in ways that respect Catholic teachings. If ensuring appropriate use proves impossible, the University will withhold all contributions.

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 6:
Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman has signed a bill into law that will require a physician to conduct a risk evaluation before performing an abortion on a woman to determine physical, psychological and other forms of risks for the mother. The bill was passed on April 12 by a 40 to 9 vote, and requires abortion providers to evaluate the risk factors for patients at least one hour before the abortion.. Doctors are required to discuss the risks with the patient based on research from peer-reviewed journals. Violations entitle the patient to a civil legal action. Pro-life advocates praised the bill.

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

Newscast for 8, 9, and 10PM 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.

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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….
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Lead:
Pope Benedict XVI's private secretary says it is not helpful for the Holy Father to comment each case of sexual abuse as it is the bishops' responsibility to deal with them.

Msgr. Georg Gänswein, the Pope’s private secretary, has reminded a German newspaper that bishops have the responsibility of dealing with clerical abuse in their dioceses.

No one has condemned abuse as strongly as the Holy Father and the Catholic Church, related Msgr. Gänswein, referring to the Pope’s recent letter to Irish Catholics on the abuse scandal. Msgr. Gänswein added that it was neither meaningful nor helpful for the Pope to comment on each individual abuse case and it is overlooked that various bishops and bishops’ conferences carry much of the responsibility.

During an interview in which he looked back on Pope Benedict’s five years in office, Msgr. Gänswein expressed disappointment that the Pontiff’s decision to lift the excommunications of four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X was widely misinterpreted.

Msgr. Gänswein added that unshakeable faith, humble firmness, disarming mildness are three important characteristics of the Pope.

I’ll be back with more after this.
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Story 2:
The Vatican's second-highest authority says the sex scandals haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy among priests.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, made the comments during a news conference Monday in Chile, where one of the church's highest-profile pedophile cases involves a priest having sex with young girls. Predictably, the comments drew angry reaction from Chile’s homosexual rights activists.

Story 3:
A special commission assembled to study the reported Marian apparitions at Medjugorje met late in March, the Vatican has disclosed. The meeting took place in Rome shortly after the original Vatican announcement that a panel "made up of cardinals, bishops, specialists and experts" would be asked to assess the authenticity of the Medjugorje phenomena. The April 13 Vatican announcement of the commission's meeting did not provide any details about the discussions, and in fact said the commission would proceed "with the utmost reserve." The statement did, however, name all of the members of the commission.

Story 4:
Bishop Tomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, has asked that a local Catholic hospital be dropped from membership in the Catholic Health Association (CHA) because of the CHA's public endorsement of President Obama's health-care reform bill.
In a letter to Sister Carol Keehan, the president of CHA, Bishop Tobin demanded that St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island be removed from the group's membership roster. The hospital was not paying membership dues because of financial difficulties. But the bishop said that even an non-paying membership "is now embarrassing" to the Providence diocese.

Story 5:
John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter writes that many informed sources expect the appointment of a "commissioner" to supervise the activities of the Legion of Christ. After the conclusion of an apostolic visitation, the Legionaries are awaiting a Vatican decision about the future of the order. A "commissioner," Allen observes, "would, amount to a compromise between total suppression of the Legionaries and a papal 'certificate of good conduct,' as some of its Vatican backers had initially hoped."

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 6:
Saturday morning saw the first visitors enter the Cathedral of Turin, taking advantage of a rare opportunity to view the ancient relic at its first exposition in close to a decade. The Holy Father welcomed the exposition as "an extraordinary call back towards the mystery of the suffering of Christ." The first public exposition of the Shroud since 2000 offers a "path of faith and prayer" for the more than 1.5 million pilgrims and visitors that will see it, according to the Cardinal Archbishop of Turin, Severino Poletto.

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

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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….
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Lead:
Father Robert Barnhill from the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska recently returned from two months of active duty as chaplain during this past Advent and Christmas season to military troops stationed overseas. As Lieutenant Colonel Barnhill in the United States Air National Guard, he serves deployed military troops as often as he is able.

He has been a chaplain for the Air National Guard of Nebraska since 1995, when he asked Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln to allow him to become a military chaplain in addition to his regular duties as a diocesan priest.

At the time Father Barnhill became a military chaplain, he was director of the Diocesan Family Life Office. For the last seven years that he has been a parish priest, his brother priests step in to substitute for him when he is deployed. His deployments have been fairly short durations – 45 to 60 days at a time – limiting the hardship on his parishes.

Those who recognize him as a Catholic priest or got to know him personally would address him as “Father,” but most of the others would simply address him as “sir” in keeping with his rank as a military officer.

While on assignment, Father Barnhill has helped tend to some of the most difficult parts of military service, but He encourages all faithful Catholics to remember service men and women in their prayers.

I’ll be back with more after this.
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Story 2:
During the Chrism Mass last week in the Lima Cathedral, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani said the best response to the attacks on Pope Benedict XVI and the Church by the media is prayer. During the Mass, in which over 200 priests renewed their priestly promises, the cardinal lamented the media attacks on the Holy Father. He added that the Pope has been quote “mistreated by enemies of the Church, with unusual disrespect for the truth and an incredible display of cynicism. It is evident that attempting to harm the Church is what is behind this attack.” unqoute

Story 3:
Self-described Catholic groups who endorsed the health care bill despite objections “severely damaged” the common good and diluted the pro-life witness of the U.S. bishops and the Catholic faithful, asserted Bishop Samuel J. Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota in a recent statement. Bishop Aquila said it was “truly tragic” that some “so-called ‘Catholic’ groups” came out in support of the legislation. These groups, Bishop Aquila stressed, acted “in direct contradiction to the bishops” who are the “guardians” of authentic Christian teaching.

Story 4:
Pope Benedict XVI presided this Saturday evening the Easter Vigil at the Vatican Basilica, and during the homily he highlighted the human desire for longevity and even eternity, noting that in the Risen Christ, “this cure for death, this true medicine of immortality, does exist.”

Story 5:
Responding to an anti-Catholic column penned by Eugene Joseph Dionne and an editorial cartoon portraying the Holy Father as deaf to abuse claims, Portland Archbishop John Vlazny has canceled his subscription to The Oregonian newspaper and asked Catholic pastoral ministers to do the same.

Archbishop Vlazny decried a March 31 editorial in the newspaper, a piece by syndicated Washington Post columnist Eugene Joseph (E.J.) Dionne and a cartoon by The Oregonian's Jack Ohman depicting Pope Benedict XVI responding, “say what?” to demands that he “do something about pedophile priests.”

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 6:
A mentally disturbed man attacked Bishop Felix Genn of Münster during Easter Sunday Mass. Running towards the altar with a broomstick in hand, the man knocked over the Easter candle before turning on the bishop, who defended himself with a censer. After altar servers and others wrestled the man to the ground and police arrived, Genn continued with the Mass without further incident. Police said the attacker, who had previously been in treatment, was taken to a psychiatric hospital for observation.

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

Newscast for 8, 9, and 10PM tonight.
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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:
In the wake of the incessant media blitz detailing the recent disclosure of clerical abuse in Europe and attempts to link clerical deviant behavior with the Holy Father, The Catholic League has accepted NBC’s apology for a section headline on their MSNBC website which said plainly stated that Pope Benedict XVI molested children.

On the website of MSNBC under the article, “Losing Their Religion? Catholicism in Turmoil,” the related content subsection linked to an article title supposedly stating that the Pope actively participated in such crimes.

According to the Catholic League, this article said nothing about the Pope but discussed a homosexual German priest who had sexual relations with males in the 1980s.

On Tuesday Catholic League president Bill Donohue charged that the headline painted Pope Benedict as a child molester and called for an apology.

Later that day NBC apologized for the article.

In response, Donohue said: quote

“NBC says the attributed quote was erroneous and they have corrected the error. An apology was also extended. The apology is accepted. We hope that whoever was responsible for this outrageous post is questioned about it and that appropriate measures are taken. We look forward to hearing the outcome.”

Unquote.

I’ll be back with more after this.
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Story 2:
At the conclusion of Wednesday's general audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict personally met with a group of survivors from the January 12 earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti. A group of 11 mothers and 13 children were in attendance to find hope for the reconstruction of Haiti. All of the survivors lost relatives, homes and jobs in the earthquake and a representative from the Red Cross who accompanied the group, described the effort to shelter the Haitians as an "initiative of solidarity in which all of the inhabitants of the town and the volunteers of the Red Cross are protagonists.

Story 3:
Noted Italian exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, commented this week that the recent defamatory reporting on Pope Benedict XVI, especially by the New York Times, was “prompted by the devil.” Speaking to News Mediaset in Italy, the 85-year-old exorcist noted that the devil is behind the recent attacks on Pope Benedict XVI regarding some pedophilia cases. The exorcist went on to note that Satan targets holy men especially qquote “and so we should not be surprised if priests too … fall into temptation. They also live in the world and can fall like men of the world.” unquote

Story 4:
The coordinator of the Cuban Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Paya, sent a letter to former Polish president Lech Walesa, explaining that the culture of fear is seeking to stifle the Cuban people to prevent them from claiming their rights. Cubans want reform, Paya said, and that means rights for all, full freedom and national reconciliation. He also said quote “We fight peacefully for these changes, and because of their struggle for these changes, many of our Cuban brethren are still in prison in inhumane conditions” unquote

Story 5:
An editorial in the Irish Catholic newspaper takes singer Sinead O'Connor to task for her illogical and vicious public attacks on Pope Benedict. O'Connor, the editorial notes, seems intent on ignoring facts and silencing defenders of the Pontiff by stating "This is how freedom movements turn into reigns of terror, when one tyranny is replaced by another and we are back where we started."

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 6:
As the Church prepares to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ, Benedict XVI is encouraging those who suffer illnesses to find their daily support in the cross of Christ. In his traditional greetings at the end of his general audience, the Pope focused on the coming holy days. The Holy Father invited the sick to extract from the cross of Christ the daily support to overcome the moments of trial and distress and for married people to make their homes a place where the Pascal Mystery comes to fruition

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

Newscast for 8, 9, and 10PM 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.

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(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:
In the wake of the incessant media blitz detailing the recent disclosure of clerical abuse in Europe, the Italian Bishops’ Conference has released a statement encouraging Church officials to cooperate with secular authorities and police in investigating such cases. The statement also expressed strong support for Pope Benedict and called for a careful selection of candidates for the priesthood to ensure full maturity at all levels.

The bishops refuted allegations made by victims’ associations and media reports that the bishops had opposed cooperation with police and investigators, and insisted that they “support those authorities through faithful cooperation.” The bishops' statement said that they agree that a “rigorous and transparent application of canonical procedural and criminal rules are the main path to search for the truth.”

The Italian bishops’ statement comes in wake of some demands that the Church re-evaluate the priestly celibacy requirement. They affirmed the existing discipline saying quote “The value of celibacy, which is in no way an impediment or impairment of sexuality, represents, particularly in these days, an alternative and humanly enriching way to live one's humanity,”

The Italian prelates also reaffirmed their support for the victims of abuse and their families, wounded and offended by people in the Church itself.

I’ll be back with more after this.
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Story 2:
Italy's Il Foglio newspaper noted over the weekend that in the nearly five years of Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate, he has been criticized repeatedly, often being accused of turning back time to the period before the Second Vatican Council. The Vatican journalist Paolo Rodari underscores that despite the attacks, the Pope's teachings remain, because "you cannot run away from his words." This style, Rodari continues, typifies Benedict XVI's pontificate and is evident in the "illuminated thought" of his recent pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland. He states quote: "Words are the way with which the Pope guides and addresses the Church, aware that the diffusion of authentic Christian thought is the true 'sword' brought into the world." unquote

Story 3:
The bishops of Nicaragua released a message last week reminding Nicaraguans of God's love for all human beings and encouraging them to continue defending life. The message, addressed to all Nicaraguan Catholics, was released on the Day of the Unborn, and the Solemnity of the Annunciation. The bishops also urged Catholics to participate in Holy Week celebrations in order to deepen their faith and prepare to celebrate Easter with joy.

Story 4:
The Diocese of Portland, Maine has cut the funding for a homeless aid group who lied to about their support for same-sex "marriage." Sue Bernard, spokeswoman for the diocese, told CNA on Monday that “it's a shame that the funding had to be moved,” given the group's dishonesty. Officials from both the Diocese of Portland told the non-profit homeless agency, Preble Street, that it had violated its grant agreement by supporting Maine's “No on 1” campaign last November which opposed legislation that would overturn the legalization of same-sex “marriage.”

Story 5:
The Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and the Latin Catholic Archbishop of Moscow have reacted to the Moscow Metro bombings with bewilderment and pain. Catholic Mass attendees missed the attacks by “a matter of minutes.” Several dozen people were killed and more than 100 injured in the attacks, reportedly carried out by two female suicide bombers. Chechen rebels are suspected.

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 6:
Albert Gubay, an 82-year-old English billionaire has pledged all but $15 million of his $1.1 billion fortune to charity, fulfilling a promise made to God while he was still poor. When he got out of the Royal Navy after WWII with the clothes on his back and roughly $120, he prayed, “Make me a millionaire and you can have half of my money,” reports the BBC. The Welsh-born Gubay went on to found a supermarket chain, which he later sold for $28 million. Gubay, a practicing Catholic, currently resides on the Isle of Man in the United Kingdom.

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