The Americas

SAN FRANCISCO—Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger met 30 bishops from North America and Oceania to discuss dogma and sexual ethics at a conference here last week.
The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith led a delegation to a conference on "subjectivity, christology and the Church", which included discussions on feminism, homosexuality and the teaching authority of the Church. The conference follows high profile conflicts between the Vatican and the US Church. The Holy See recently intervened to force the US Bishops' Conference to rewrite a document on the profession of faith for use in Catholic high schools.
gation has held occasional meetings with diocesan bishops. In May 1996, a similar meeting was held in Guadalajara with Latin American bishops to discuss Liberation Theology and the New Age movement.—(Kathpress)
NEW YORK—The UN General Assembly is considering a moratorium on the death penalty, which could come into effect in the autumn, as countries, most notably the Philippines, are opting to reintroduce or step up the use of capital punishment.—(Zen it) WASHINGTON—Police are continuing their enquiries into the mass vandalism of 400 monuments at the oldest and largest Catholic cemetery in the diocese. Over 100,000 people are buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, many dating back to the US Civil War.—(CNS) PHILADELPHIA—Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua urged the American people to recognise the importance of truth following the recent presidential impeachment hearings. He said that he hoped the people would be left with "a new respect for moral truth", adding, "Truth is unequivocal, unchanging and absolute." The Cardinal did not comment on the actual substance of the hearings but said that he would "pray that our representatives in Washington would exercise good judgement."—(CNS) CARACAS—The new president of Venezuela announced that he was pro-life and a radical supporter of Catholic Social Teaching, when he took office last week.
President Hugo Chavez extensively quoted the Gospel, freedom fighter Simon Bolivar and Pope John Paul II, during his swearing-in ceremony. He promised Archbishop Velasco that in Venezuela life would be protected from the moment of conception.
Although he is divorced and remarried, and therefore cannot receive communion, President Chavez, a retired colonel who foiled a military coup in 1990, asked Archbishop Ignacio Velasco of Caracas to celebrate a Te Deum before the ceremony.—(Aid to the Church in Need) SAN SALVADOR—The Church in El Salvador has expressed fears about a new wave of death squads who murder street children and gang members.
Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle of San Salvador said he was gravely worried by reports that several recent killings bear the hallmarks of the clandestine death squads who operated during the country's twelve-year civil war. The Archbishop said it was a "grave offence to take justice into one's own hands" and that the recent murders represented "the absolute negation of morality".
Police have discovered numerous bodies of delinquents in the capital city and a youth gang in the suburb of Villa Mariona has received a threat from a suspected death squad.—(aci)