Jacksonville's Carla Harris - St. Augustine Catholic

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Catholic community prays for the families of dead miners
CNS photo/Jason Cohn, Reuters
West Virginia priest kept vigil
with miners’ families in tragedy
When Father Andy Kranyc heard
the news of the Jan. 2 explosion at the
Sago Coal Mine in Upshur County,
which trapped 13 coal miners 260 feet
underground, he immediately left to be
there for the families. “When I heard about
it, I just went out there to see if I could
help,” Father Kranyc said.
As the son and grandson of Pennsylvania
coal miners, Father Kranyc knew well the
dangers of the coal mining industry and
wanted to be present for the families as
they waited to hear the fate of their loved
ones. Upon his arrival he learned that three
of the miners were from his community
of Philippi, roughly 25 miles from Sago,
where he is pastor of St. Elizabeth Parish.
Father Kranyc stayed with the families
through the duration of the ordeal, leaving
only for a few hours. He was with them
late in the evening on Jan. 3 in the Sago
Baptist Church when they were told that
12 of the 13 miners were alive. Father
Kranyc said it was difficult to watch the
jubilation of the families dissolve into
overwhelming grief, despair and disbelief
when they learned that all but one of the
miners were found dead.
A man breaks down while speaking to
several hundred people during a Jan. 4
candlelight vigil at the Sago Baptist Church
in Tallmansville, W.Va., for miners who died
in the Jan. 2 Sago Mine explosion.
Questions about homosexuality
already part of U.S. seminary process
Years before the Vatican’s recent
document putting restrictions on
homosexuals entering seminaries, U.S.
seminary candidates were being openly
questioned about their sexual orientation.
Within the past 20 years, such questioning
has become a growing part of efforts to
determine the suitability of candidates who
want to enter a seminary.
Psychological screeners for seminaries
interviewed by Catholic News Service were
quick to note, however, that the aim is
not to single out people because of their
sexual orientation but to determine if a
candidate is psychologically and sexually
mature enough to make a commitment
to the celibate priesthood. They added
that the sexual history is only a part of
the psychological profiling that is done to
judge the candidate.
Catholic-Jewish meeting marks
40 years of changed relations
At a recent meeting in their twiceyearly
consultation, representatives of the
U.S. Catholic bishops and of Reform and
Conservative Judaism commemorated
the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the
Second Vatican Council declaration on
other religions that dramatically changed
Catholic understanding of Jews and
Judaism.
The consultation also discussed current
concerns in Catholic-Jewish relations
and honored Cardinal William H. Keeler
of Baltimore, Catholic co-chairman of
the consultation, who recently marked
the 50th anniversary of his ordination to
the priesthood. The meeting of delegates
from the National Council of Synagogues
and the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and
Interreligious Affairs was held Nov. 2 at
St. Mary’s Seminary and University in
Baltimore.
Pope names new U.S. papal
nuncio
Pope Benedict XVI named a veteran
Vatican diplomat, Italian Archbishop Pietro
CNS photo from Catholic Press Photo
Sambi, to be the new papal nuncio to
the United States. Archbishop Sambi, 67,
has served as the Vatican’s representative
to Israel and Palestine, where he helped
arrange Pope John Paul II’s historic
pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2000. He
replaces Colombian Archbishop Gabriel
Montalvo, who was retiring at age 75 after
serving as nuncio in Washington since
1998.
The Vatican announced the appointment
Dec. 17. Archbishop Sambi is known
in church circles as an energetic and
gregarious man with an ability to bring the
human touch to diplomatic challenges.
He speaks Italian, English, French and
Spanish.
Italian Archbishop Pietro Sambi, named
papal nuncio to the United States by Pope
Benedict XVI Dec. 17.
Philippine priest turns poor into
tech-savvy e-traders
Divine Word Father Benigno Beltran
talks about bandwidth, e-trading and
income streams with the ease of a Silicon
Valley technophile, yet the ever-present
smell of burning garbage betrays his
surroundings. Father Beltran is pastor
of Manila’s Parish of the Risen Christ,
a congregation of scavengers who
live alongside Smokey Mountain, the
Philippine capital’s legendary – and ever
smoldering – garbage dump.
Father Beltran, who has lived among
his parishioners for 27 years, knows
Father Beltran, seen here in July in the
kitchen of his parish house with his laptop, is
pushing young people in the parish to learn
technological skills and engage in e-trading.
their desperate marginalization, so he is
aggressively pushing a high-tech solution
to their poverty. “Globalization is only
antagonistic to those who aren’t prepared
for it,” said Father Beltran, who was born
on the southern Philippine island of
Mindanao.
“If the poor are unprepared, if they’re
still linked to the industrial age when
we’re living in the cybernetic age, then
globalization won’t benefit them. So it’s
the responsibility of the church and civil
society to ready the poor. We shouldn’t
hold back the march of history. Our faith
tells us to move from the garden to the
heavenly city.”
Earthquake survivors carry tin
sheets
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• Catholic Italy • Marian Shrines • Journey of St. Paul • North American Shrines • Eastern Europe • Catholic England • Jordan & Egypt
28 St. Augustine Catholic February 2006 St. Augustine Catholic February 2006 29
CNS photo/Paul Jeffrey
CNS photo/Jason Cohn, Reuters
Kashmirian earthquake survivors carry
tin sheets meant for their shelter in the
devastated village of Pieer Chanasi, east
of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered
Kashmir Jan. 5. Survivors of the Oct. 8
earthquake are facing the harsh reality of
winter, with most survivors living in tents or
crude shelters.
• Holy Land • Ireland • Medjugorje • Mexico • California Mission Trails •