Catholic News 2

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By Carol Zimmermann

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When President Barack Obama signed the sweeping bipartisan legislation Every Student Succeeds Act Dec. 10, he described it as a "Christmas miracle."

"This is an early Christmas present. After more than 10 years, members of Congress from both parties have come together to revise our national education law," he said.

The other part of the miracle might be that the legislation -- which aims to do away with excessive school testing and give states and local governments more control of schools by freeing them from federal mandates -- also provides something for Catholic school students.

The measure, overwhelmingly approved by the House and Senate, also was endorsed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Catholic Education, the National Catholic Educational Association and the Council for American Private Education.

Archbishop George J. Lucas of Omaha, Nebraska, committee chairman, said the act demonstrates "broad bipartisan agreement on restoring equitable treatment of private schools and ensuring that all children are afforded the education services, benefits and opportunities they deserve, regardless of the type of school they attend."

The act reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the 1965 federal law that provides funds to local and state education agencies for elementary and secondary education programs. That law was updated and enacted in 2002 as the No Child Left Behind Act.

No Child Left Behind has been up for reauthorization since 2007. Previous attempts to renew it have been tangled up in ongoing debates about the federal government's role in public education.

The previous law was often criticized for its emphasis on testing. With the new law, students will still be required to take annual state tests in reading and math, but there will be reduced pressure on schools to perform well. In addition, teacher evaluations will no longer be tied to students' performance on the tests.

A statement from the NCEA pointed out that during the past few years, it has been involved, along with representatives of the U.S. bishops and the Council for American Private Education, in discussions with congressional lawmakers about inequities in the No Child Left Behind Law "regarding participation of students and teachers in religious and private schools."

It said that since 2001, "the benefits available to those in private schools have diminished significantly due to funding formulas in the last reauthorization and their interpretations in U.S. Department of Education regulations and policy."

The new law "corrects those inequities and improves the protection of services for private school children," particularly with Title I funding, according to the December newsletter of the Council for American Private Education.

Title I, which was part of the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act, provides financial assistance to school districts and schools with high numbers or percentages of children from low-income families.

The new law has specific language about the availability and division of equitable funds for services based on input from public and private school personnel.

NCEA said the new allocation of funding restores "the equity that has long been part" of the Elementary and Secondary Act's "tradition of providing benefits to our students and teachers."

The group, which represents the nation's Catholic schools, said it will provide dioceses and schools with information in the upcoming months about how to obtain benefits from the new law.

One aspect of the new education law that is not inducing cheers and might even be drawing quiet sighs from Catholic school officials, is its failure to include school choice funding.

This omission is clear in the law's wording of "no Title I portability." This means federal funds for disadvantaged students will not be able to follow students to the public school of his or her choice.

This wording should come as no surprise for those on both sides of the issue as it was wrestled with while the bill was fine-tuned in recent months. Obama had threatened to veto the bill if it included the ability to move Title I funds because he said it would unfairly redirect federal money from high-poverty to low-poverty districts.

Some House Republicans also wanted Title I aid to be extended to private schools, which is not included in the new law.

Another aspect of the law that is likely to catch some attention is its treatment of Common Core State Standards -- a state-led initiative of expectations for students to master in each grade level that has been tied into federal education grants.

The new law changes that, saying federal agencies are prohibited from incentivizing, requiring or conditioning the acceptance of federal funds based on their adoption of Common Core standards or any other set of specific academic standards. The law also notes that states can withdraw from the Common Core program with no financial penalty.

This will likely please some, and not be enough for others.

And the law's accolades for being an improvement over the previous education law is not enough to applaud it some say.

A Dec. 10 Los Angeles Times editorial said the new law should not just be better than it was but provide a blueprint for improving education."The federal government spends billions of dollars on low-income schools in an effort to level the playing field and improve social mobility through public education. It has a right and a responsibility to ensure that it's getting its money's worth for the billions of dollars it invests in low-income schools," it says.

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 WASHINGTON- The United States has a moral obligation to protect unaccompanied children and families from persecution in Central America, said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, October 21. Bishop Seitz is an advisor to the USCCB Committee on Migration and a member of the board of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).

The humanitarian outflow, driven by organized crime in the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, continues, with nearly 40,000 unaccompanied children and an equal number of mothers with children having arrived in the United States in Fiscal Year 2015.

"If we do not respond justly and humanely to this challenge in our own backyard, then we will relinquish our moral leadership and moral influence globally," Bishop Seitz said.

Bishop Seitz pointed to the human consequences of U.S. policies which are designed to deter migration from the region, including U.S. support for Mexican interdiction efforts which are intercepting children and families in Mexico and sending them back to danger, in violation of international law.

Bishop Seitz recommended an end to these interdictions and the introduction of a regional system which would screen children and families for asylum in Mexico and other parts of the region. He also called for Congress to approve and increase a $1 billion aid package proposed by the Administration.

"If we export enforcement," Bishop Seitz said, "we also must export protection."

Bishop Seitz recalled the words of Pope Francis before Congress in September, when he invoked the golden rule in guiding our nation's actions toward those seeking safety in our land.

Quoting the Holy Father, Bishop Seitz repeated to the committee, "'The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us.'"

"Mr. Chairman, I pray that time, and history, will conclude that we honored this rule in meeting this humanitarian challenge," Bishop Seitz concluded.

Bishop Seitz' testimony can be found at http://www.usccb.org//about/migration-policy/congressional-testimony/upload/seitz-ongoing-migration.pdf

Keywords: Bishop Mark J. Seitz, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Congress, Senate, Committee on Migration, migration, unaccompanied children, violence, Pope Francis
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(Vatican Radio) The new Vatican document on the Catholic Church’s changed relationship with the Jewish world will only be effective if it is shared “on the streets, in the pulpits, in the pews of our churches and synagogues”.

That’s the view of Dr Edward Kessler, founding director of the interfaith Woolf Institute in Cambridge and one of the two Jewish speakers at a press conference presenting the new Vatican document on Thursday.

The document, entitled ‘The Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable’, marks the 50th anniversary of the ground-breaking Vatican II declaration ‘Nostra Aetate’ and was drawn up by the Vatican Commission for the Religious Relations with the Jews. Kessler and Rabbi David Rosen, international director of Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, gave their perspective on the presentations by Cardinal Kurt Koch and Fr Norbert Hofmann of the Vatican Commission.

Kessler talked with Philippa Hitchen about the significance of the new document and the thorny theological questions that it opens up for discussion by Catholics and Jews together…..

Listen: 

Dr Kessler says the new Vatican document "does break new ground" by taking on issues that have traditionally divided Christians and Jews. He notes that among the interesting theological questions the document explores are issues of God’s covenant with the Jewish people, the meaning of salvation, the universality of Christ, and the understanding of the Word of God in Catholic and Jewish scriptures.

He says the presence of Rabbi Rosen and himself in the Vatican press office to present the document represents “a genuine openness” to further explore these issues together. He says the document will not just end up “on dusty library shelves in the Vatican or Cambridge University” but will be followed up by a meeting at Woolf Institute next year to “take it forward and ask the difficult questions that lie at the heart of the Jewish-Catholic encounter”.

Commenting on why it has taken half a century for the changes, called for by Nostra Aetate, to bring concrete results, Dr Kessler says it was only during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, that events such as recognition of the State of Israel and the papal visits to Israel and to Auschwitz convinced Jews that “things had really changed”. There is still much work to be done, he admits, adding that this document must be implemented joint “intellectual, educational and practical” actions “on the streets, in the pulpits, in the pews of our churches and synagogues”.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis issued a legal decree on Friday, regarding the implementation of the recent reforms to the Church’s marriage law, specifically as far as the role of the Church’s highest appellate court – the Sacred Roman Rota – is concerned. The decree, called a rescript, has six main points, most dealing with technical matters of legal procedure within the Rotal system itself, and with the relationship of the Rota – which is the Church’s highest ordinary appellate court – to other courts in the Church’s legal system.

Click below to hear our report

In an explanatory note published in the edition of L’Osservatore Romano released Friday afternoon, the Dean of the Roman Rota, Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto explained that the first part of the two-part rescript has the purpose of stressing that the reforms already enacted are now in force and must be followed and obeyed. “Because every law of epochal importance, such as the laws reforming the marital nullity process, meets understandable resistance,” explained Msgr. Pinto, “the Pope desired  to emphasize, as did John Paul II for the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law of 1983, that the law is now promulgated and requires compliance.”

“The second part of the rescript,” continued Msgr. Pinto, “specifically relates to the Roman Rota as Apostolic Tribunal, which has always distinguished itself for the sapientia in its judicial decisions.” As an example of this distinction, and of Pope Francis’ ongoing confidence in it, Msgr. Pinto cited the return to the ancient formula of “generic doubt” in cases before the Rota for adjudication. Msgr. Pinto also specified that lower courts are still obliged to adjudicate specific questions, which, if found present, could give grounds for finding a marriage null.

The rescript itself in its preamble affirms its desire to serve the supreme law, which is the salvation of souls, and that all the Church’s legal structures serve therefore as vehicles of reconciliation and renewal for the faithful who have recourse to them.

Below, please find Vatican Radio’s translation of the full text of the rescript, made from the Italian text distributed by the Press Office of the Holy See

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The entry into force - in happy coincidence with the opening of the Jubilee of Mercy – of the Apostolic Letters motu proprio, Mitis iudex Dominus Iesus and Mitis et Misericors Iesus on August 15, 2015, given for the purpose of actuating justice and mercy regarding the truth of the bond of those who have experienced matrimonial failure, poses, among other things, the need to harmonize the renewed procedure for cases trying claims of marital nullity with the rules proper to the Roman Rota, pending the reform of these last.

The recently concluded Synod of Bishops expressed a strong exhortation to the Church, that the Church reach out toward “her most fragile children, marked by love wounded and lost (Relatio finalis, n. 55), to whom it is necessary to give back confidence and hope.

The laws now taking effect want to show precisely the closeness of the Church to wounded families, desiring that the multitude of those who live the drama of marital failure be reached by the healing work of Christ through ecclesiastical structures, in the hope that they might discover themselves new missionaries of God's mercy toward other brothers and sisters, for the good of the institution of the family.

Recognizing the Roman Rota, in addition to its proper munus as ordinary appellate tribunal of the Apostolic See, as having also the munus of safeguarding the unity of law (Art. 126 § 1 PB) and that of aiding in the ongoing formation of pastoral workers in the Tribunals of the local Churches, the following is established:

I.

The laws reforming the aforementioned marriage nullity process abrogate or derogate every law or norm to the contrary hitherto applicable: general, particular, or special, even if approved in specific form (e.g. The MP Qua cura, given by my Predecessor Pius XI in times very much different from the present).

II.

1. In marriage nullity cases before the Roman Rota, the dubbium is fixed according to the ancient  formula: An constet de matrimonii nullitate, in casu.
2. There can be no appeal against decisions of the Rota with respect to invalidity of judgments or decrees.
3. No recourse is allowed before the Roman Rota to the Nova Causae Propositio (N.C.P.), after one of the parties has contracted a new canonical marriage, unless the injustice of the decision is manifestly established.
4. The Dean of the Roman Rota has the power to dispense for grave reason from the Rotal Norms in procedural matters.
5. As urged by the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches, competence in iurium cases connected to marital nullity cases submitted to the judgment of the Roman Rota on appeal, is restored to territorial tribunals.
6. The Roman Rota shall judge cases according to the gratuity of the Gospel, that is, with ex officio legal aid, salvo the moral obligation for the wealthy faithful to make an oblatio iustitiae in favor of the causes of the poor.

May the faithful, especially the wounded and unhappy, look to the new Jerusalem that is the Church, as the “Peace of justice and glory of godliness, (Bar 5: 4)” and may it be granted to them, finding the open arms of the Body of Christ, to intone the Psalm of the exiles (126:1-2): “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.”

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Two Catholics were seriously injured by unidentified attackers in the Bangladeshi capital on Thursday, in what is seen as continuing targeting of Christians by Islamist radicals in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation.  Rajesh D 'Cruze, a banker, and his brother Ranjan D' Cruze, working in a private company are currently being treated in Dhaka Medical College Hospital, after more than five men, savagely attacked them with guns and knives in Arjotpara neighbourhood. "This year there have been numerous incidents of violence against Christians,” Nirmal Rozario, general secretary of the Bangladesh Christian Association (BCA), told AsiaNews.  “We want a just punishment for those who committed this crime. We also urge the government to ensure justice and security for all,” he added.  The dynamics of the attack closely resemble the attempt on the life of Italian Fr. Piero Parolari, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), who was brutally attacked by unidentified criminals in Dinajpur last month.

In recent weeks, more than 30 Christian clergy members and aid workers in Bangladesh have received death threats. At least three pastors have escaped attempts on their lives.

In another incident on Thursday, 3 members of a Catholic family were seriously injured after being attacked in their home in Dhaka's Mohakhali district by three men armed with guns and knives.  The attackers stabbed and shot brothers Ranjan Lawrence D'Cruze and Rajesh Alexander D'Cruze, an their sister Bipasha D'Cruze was stabbed.  Both brothers were reported to be in critical condition at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.  Police suspect robbery was the motive behind the attack, but family members, as well as Christian leaders claim the attack were sectarian and pointed to recent attacks on religious minorities across Bangladesh.

Also on Thursday, three men attacked a Hindu temple in Dinajpur with bombs and guns, leaving 2 wounded and 7 less seriously.  Humayun Kabir, deputy inspector general of police for the northern region, told Reuters that the assailants attacked when one hundred people were gathered in the temple.  A similar attack on Dec. 5 on a Hindu religious gathering in the same area  injured at least six people, three of them critically.

Leaders of Bangladesh Jamiatul Ulama (BJU), a national body of Islamic scholars, have said local extremist groups and the Islamic State group, which have claimed responsibility for death threats and violent attacks on minorities, are indulging in activities antithetical to the teachings of Islam.  “Those who are resorting to terrorism and targeting Shi’ites and Church leaders in Bangladesh are un-Islamic. ... By launching terrorist attacks in the name of Islam, IS is also jeopardizing the lives of Muslims in pluralistic societies across the world,” said a statement by leaders of Bangladesh Jamiatul Ulama (BJU), a national body of Islamic scholars. “By sending death threats or attempting to kill the church leaders, they are aiming to kill their brothers and committing un-Islamic acts," BJU chaiman, Maulana Fariduddin Masoud, told VOA.  "All those who are indulging in such activities are not just the enemy of Islam, but are also enemies of Muslims,” Masoud added.  

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