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Orange County, Calif., Aug 12, 2016 / 09:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Major celebrations are set to mark the 40th anniversary of California’s Diocese of Orange, one of the largest dioceses in the U.S.

“We have been incredibly blessed by God as a community of faith over the past 40 years,” Bishop Kevin Vann said Aug. 1. “Our diocese has humbly fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and offered Christ’s Mercy to all who suffer in our parishes, Catholic hospitals and clinics, ministries of education, and our missions of charity throughout the county.”

The Christ Cathedral Campus in Garden Grove will host the Sunday, Sept. 18 celebrations. The events will help celebrate the history of each of the diocese’s parish communities and honor the diversity of the Church.

The day begins at 7:30 a.m. with a 5k run and a “fun run” in the neighborhood of Christ Cathedral. At 9:30 a.m. Mass will be celebrated for over 5,000 people. At 11 a.m., carnival games, rides and other activities will open, including sledding on real snow. There will food vendors and a beer garden opening at 11:30 and running through 9 p.m.

A music festival will begin at 3:30 p.m. Performers include Matt Maher, Colton Dixon, Phil Wickham, Andy Mineo, Jordan Feliz, and Jackie Francois.

The campus cultural center will host an all-day photo exhibit, while the Freed Theater will host a speakers’ series from 12-3 p.m.

Bishop Vann said the celebration will honor the work of the diocese and celebrate the people who have made the ministries possible. It will be a time to “rededicate ourselves to the work of Christ for the many decades to come.”

Pope Paul VI established the diocese in 1976. It began with 44 parishes and over 300,000 Catholics.

The diocese is now home to over 1.3 million Catholics, who make up nearly 40 percent of the population. They are served by 62 parishes and centers and 41 schools.

“In Orange County like anywhere, life and the church will change. Faith remains a deeply personal experience, yet all Catholics celebrate that faith together,” Bishop Vann added. “The Catholic Church has served as a steady unifying spiritual force over the last two centuries in Southern California and will continue to care for a diverse community.”

“The diocese remains strong and spiritually rich,” he said. “We invite the community to join us at Christ Cathedral to celebrate this journey and look to a future full of hope and grace.”

Sponsors of the celebration include Saint Joseph Health and Farmers & Merchants Bank.

 

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Baltimore, Md., Aug 12, 2016 / 03:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After the Justice Department issued a scathing rebuke of Baltimore’s policing abuses, local Catholic leaders maintained it must be a “starting point” for racial reconciliation.

“We all need to stay involved. We need to make sure that this isn’t the end, [that] we don’t see this as 'as far as we go'. This is just a new starting point with another tool,” Ray Kelly, president of the Central West Baltimore community advocacy group No Boundaries Coalition, told CNA.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department released the findings of its investigation into the Baltimore Police Department, which the agency said was ordered in May 2015 after repeated allegations of possible police misconduct from Baltimore’s citizens and civic leaders.

What the agency found was a “pattern of civil rights violations” by the department.

“BPD makes stops, searches and arrests without the required justification; uses enforcement strategies that unlawfully subject African Americans to disproportionate rates of stops, searches and arrests; uses excessive force; and retaliates against individuals for their constitutionally-protected expression,” the report stated. It also told of “an inadequate response to reports of sexual assault” by the department.

The information was compiled from discussions with civic leaders, community leaders, citizens, and police officers, as well as ride-alongs with officers, police documents, and internal police data.

“Community members living in the City’s wealthier and largely white neighborhoods told us that officers tend to be respectful and responsive to their needs, while many individuals living in the City’s largely African-American communities informed us that officers tend to be disrespectful and do not respond promptly to their calls for service,” the report stated.

“Members of these largely African-American communities often felt they were subjected to unjustified stops, searches, and arrests, as well as excessive force.”

Catholic Charities of Baltimore condemned the abuses detailed in the report. Executive director William J. McCarthy called the report “sobering and distressing” and added that it “should be a cause of great concern for all of us.”

“It is clear from the report that nothing short of a wholesale change in the culture within the BCPD will result in the kind of reform that is necessary to ensure the fair and equitable treatment of every citizen,” he added, noting that the police commissioner has started to implement some “long overdue reforms” which “is an encouraging start.”

Kelly explained to CNA that abuses by the police are nothing new, despite a continued push for reform by community leaders.

The “police tactics are crafted to control our communities, and we’ve been saying that for years,” he reflected, pointing to a double standard in how low-income and minority communities are policed versus more affluent communities.

For instance, in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Sandtown-Winchester there were once four homicides in the span of a few days, he said, but when community leaders had a “meeting with Baltimore’s chief of patrols, and we brought that to light, and we kind of got brushed to the side.”

However, after three robberies at a subway station in a more affluent neighborhood, the police made it their “first priority” to respond with an extra presence there, he said. “This was the same district commander. The only difference was the first meeting was in Sandtown-Winchester and the second meeting was in Bolton Hill.”

“Those robberies carried more weight with our police department than the lives of four black men,” Kelly said. “The property of three white people took priority, and that’s the way the police department is structured.”

Policies are “geared to target minorities and these minority neighborhoods, and because you’re a minority, you’re black, you’re brown, you’re a suspect. There’s suspicion about what you’re doing there and what you’re up to.”

This leads to distrust of the police in which citizens “assume the worst,” he added.

“They question why a young black man runs when the police car pulls up; but you get slapped around enough times or you spend a couple of nights in Central Booking with no charge, and you know why people run,” he said.

Community leaders have been speaking up “that there are racist practices,” he said, “and we’ve gotten pushback for years saying that that’s not the case, and one bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch.”

“And the DOJ report kind of validates what we’ve been saying for years and kind of brings in the concept that the whole barrel is rotten. So if you’ve got a rotten barrel, you could have 100 good apples. They’ll be rotten soon enough.”

Yet the Church has been doing more to further race relations in Baltimore, especially in the last year, he explained.

“I’m happy to see that the Church is getting more involved in this actual racial part of the conversation, and not just doing what we can for the community but now stepping up and actually doing things with the community.”

Instead of just sending materials to needy neighborhoods, the Church is now “part of the planning and the structuring” of events there.

The No Boundaries Coalition partnered with Pax Christi USA for an “annual public witness,” for instance. The start of racial justice circles has led to “conversations about privilege and race relations outside the police department,” Kelly said, and even talks of “how can people in the Church use their white privilege to assist lower-income communities in their fight for equality and racial justice.”

“We want to put that message out there that the Catholic Church is still the refuge for those in need,” he said.

The DOJ report is no “silver bullet,” he insisted, but rather “another tool for another opportunity to actually change the policies and address these systemic issues.”

“So it’s more from a Church and a Catholic perspective,” he said, “this is our voices actually being heard, and its validation. And that could be the first step towards change.”

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LOURDES, France (CNS) -- French police and military officials have launched a special security operation for the country's national pilgrimage to Lourdes, following the killing of a Catholic parish priest in a spate of terrorist attacks.

Up to 30,000 Catholics are expected to join the national pilgrimage, led by Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon. The pilgrimage will include services and processions at 22 churches and chapels over the 128-acre site and culminate in Aug. 15 Masses for the feast of the Assumption.

Mathias Terrier, information director of the Diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes, said Catholic representatives had agreed to the new arrangements in cooperation with local authorities and security services. He said the "discreet but effective" measures could remain in place indefinitely at the Marian shrine.

"It's our duty and responsibility to take account of the complicated current context by ensuring pilgrims are well received," he said in a televised statement. "We have the experience and capacity to manage the necessary logistics.

"We've been very much affected, collectively, by what's happened," he said. "This is a time when great numbers of people arrive from around the world -- and security is clearly essential if we're to welcome them calmly.

"This is a place of serenity, peace and prayer -- and it will remain so, whatever happens," he added.

Lourdes, close to the Pyrenees mountains, attracts around 5 million visitors annually and has been a place of pilgrimage since 1858, when 14-year-old St. Bernadette Soubirous experienced the first of 18 visions of the Virgin Mary.

More than 7,000 miracles have been claimed at the shrine, which is famed as a place of healing. Sixty-eight cures have been confirmed as scientifically inexplicable by its International Medical Committee.

Beatrice Lagarde, an official of the prefecture of Hautes-Pyrenees, said there were no plans to cancel the national pilgrimage and that changes had been kept to a minimum.

In a website statement, the Lourdes shrine said available access routes had been restricted from 12 to three and advised pilgrims to arrive early for the weekend events.

The increased security follows a July 14 truck attack on Bastille Day celebrations in Nice and the July 26 murder of Father Jacques Hamel, 85, in a church in northern France.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn

By Carol Zimmermann

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the presidential election campaign, both major-party candidates have talked about the rising costs of college and the debt that graduates face because of student loans.

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has spoken out against federal student loans saying he doesn't believe the government should make a profit from them, but he has not revealed his plans to lower college costs or reduce student debt and his campaign website has nothing on the topic of college education.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, has been much more vocal about college affordability. Earlier in the campaign she disagreed with her rival Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, saying his plan to provide a free public college education to every American just didn't "add up."

But when she became the party's nominee, she modified her initial plan and is now proposing to offer free tuition at in-state public colleges and universities for students from families who earn up to $125,000 a year.

That announcement gave some Catholic college leaders pause.

"There are consequences" to Clinton's proposal, said Mary Pat Seurkamp, special assistant to the president at the Washington-based Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

Seurkamp, former president of Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore, said such a policy could ultimately lead to some private colleges closing. She also wondered if public universities would be able to take in a wave of new students -- and at what cost to those institutions.

A key factor she said the Clinton proposal didn't consider is that Catholic colleges serve a diverse body of students economically and racially and also serve a higher number of lower-income students in more efficient ways than public universities because these students have lower default rates on their loans and tend to graduate in a faster amount of time.

"The focus on access and affordability is central to our schools," she told Catholic News Service Aug. 10, noting that 82 percent of students in Catholic colleges and universities receive some sort of institutional aid.

Seurkamp also pointed out that if government leaders are seriously thinking about how to educate the largest percentage of our society, they should first take a closer look at the federal aid policy which might be "a better way than the free-tuition model."

Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University, said the "free-college" idea -- she always puts it in quotes when writing about it -- gives further fuel to the myth that public colleges serve the poor and private schools serve the wealthy.

"That is not true," she told CNS Aug. 11, pointing out that Catholic colleges serve a larger lower-income population that many public universities, noting that more than 75 percent of Catholic colleges and universities have 25 percent or more students with Pell grants -- federal scholarships based on family need -- and a quarter of Catholic colleges have more than 50 percent of students on Pell grants.

"You would be hard pressed to find a public university doing that," she said.

Her own school, Trinity, where she has been president for 28 years, has more Pell grant recipients -- 81 percent of last year's freshman class -- and a more diverse population -- 90 percent African-American, Latina and recent immigrants -- than many public universities in the Washington region.

She said although Trinity's median family income is $25,000 they would be "left out of the Clinton plan while significantly wealthier students would get free college."

McGuire said the Clinton proposal would not help lower-income students and could jeopardize them by pushing them away from Catholic institutions where they do well.

That notion echoes the education section of "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," the U.S. bishops' document on political responsibility that provides guidance to Catholics on election decisions.

Although the section seems more geared to elementary and secondary education its message on education access and choice rings true for colleges too. The document says: "All persons have a right to receive a quality education. Young people, including those who are poor and those with disabilities, need to have the opportunity to develop intellectually, morally, spiritually, and physically, allowing them to become good citizens who make socially and morally responsible decisions. This requires parental choice in education."

A key point in federal financial aid, McGuire added, is that students choose where they want to go to college.

"The Clinton proposal," she said, "treats all higher education as if it is all the same, as if there is nothing of value in different institutions. That's not true. Students need to find the best fit."

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Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim.

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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The same day a federal Department of Justice report cataloging systemic abuses by Baltimore's police was issued, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore called that report "sobering and distressing."

"The report is an affirmation of those in our community who have long criticized the policing strategies and practices of the (police) department," the archbishop said Aug. 10 in a statement, "and a repudiation of those whose actions have undermined both public trust as well as the inherent dignity of those they have sworn to serve and protect."

In Baltimore, the police's "pattern of making unconstitutional stops, searches and arrests arises from its longstanding reliance on 'zero tolerance' street enforcement, which encourages officers to make large numbers of stops, searches and arrests for minor, highly discretionary offenses," the report said.

"These practices led to repeated violations of the constitutional and statutory rights, further eroding the community's trust in the police," it added.

The Justice Department reviewed five-and-a-half years of police records before making its determinations.

The report also revealed racial bias on the part of Baltimore police.

In a city that is 63 percent black, African-Americans made up 95 percent of those stopped at least 10 times without arrests or citations -- one man in his 50s was stopped 30 times -- and 91 percent of those arrested whose only charge was "failure to obey" or "trespassing."

"I encourage people to read the report, reflect on the findings and consider the role that each of us should play in bringing about much needed change," Archbishop Lori said.

The investigation was prompted by the April 2015 death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray from spinal injuries he sustained riding in the back of a police van after being arrested for possession of what officers said was an illegal switchblade. They suspected Gray was watching out for a drug transaction.

Although Gray's death was ruled a homicide by the city's medical examiner's office and six Baltimore police were charged in connection with Gray's death, one mistrial and a series of acquittals led prosecutors to forgo the trials of the remaining officers.

Protest marches in Baltimore turned violent before and after Gray's funeral, with dozens of police injured and even more protestors arrested. The city of Baltimore paid $6.4 million to Gray's family to avoid a lawsuit.

Fourteen U.S. cities are currently operating under consent decrees with the Justice Department to reform their police practices. Baltimore has not entered into a consent decree, but is expected to do so, although a few elected officials have wondered how to pay for the reforms.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had asked the Justice Department to conduct its investigation after the rioting that followed Gray's death. In response to the report she said the findings "are challenging to hear," but are a crucial step in reforming the department.

Archbishop Lori said, "it is clear from the report that nothing short of a change in the culture within the (police) department will result in the kind of reform that is necessary to ensure the fair and equitable treatment of every citizen of Baltimore."

He added, "While this report rightly warrants a collective call for change, we cannot ignore the good and just service of the vast majority of policemen and women who put their lives on the line every day as they carry out their duties with respect for their office and those they serve."

Archbishop Lori said, "I pray the reaction to this report will not obscure their selfless service and will inspire others to follow them and to join efforts to address this resounding call for urgent change."

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