From Catholic News Service

Former papal envoy awarded peace prize

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A former papal envoy and a Muslim leader in the Balkans were awarded a UNESCO peace prize for their efforts in promoting interreligious dialogue and peace. French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray and Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric of Bosnia-Herzegovina received the 2003 Felix Houphouet-Boigny Award in a Sept. 21 ceremony at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Besides serving as head of several Vatican offices, Cardinal Etchegaray served as the pope's special envoy in urgent missions worldwide. He took part in negotiations to end the siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank, in May 2002; he traveled to Iraq in 1986 and 1998, then again in February 2003 in a bid to avert the U.S.-led invasion of the country. He also led diplomatic missions in Iran, Mozambique, Angola, Sudan and Cuba. In an interview Sept. 22 with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Etchegaray said he felt proud because the Houphouet-Boigny Award "is a prestigious prize." Yet despite working to bring peaceful resolutions to many of the world's "hot spots," he said he felt his efforts have been dwarfed by the vastness of the world's problems.

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More efforts needed to end hunger

CRANSTON, R.I. (CNS) -- The leader of one of the nation's largest anti-hunger organizations told interfaith leaders Sept. 15 that charity and social justice advocacy are needed to eliminate global hunger and poverty. The Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World and an ordained Lutheran minister, spoke at a breakfast at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank in Cranston. He urged his audience to heed the message emphasized in two documents issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: "A Place at the Table," published in 2002 and "Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility," released in October 2003 for the 2004 elections. The bishops urge Catholics to become informed, active and responsible participants in the political process while helping meet the temporal needs of those less fortunate through activities such as contributing to food drives and assisting in soup kitchens. "Both documents call on the Catholic community to do yet more to make a place at the table for everyone," Rev. Beckmann said in an interview with The Providence Visitor, the diocesan paper, prior to the breakfast. The anti-hunger activist later called on his listeners to empower their constituencies to "move" government leaders to pass legislation that will benefit the poor.

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Justice is found through redemption by God

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Broken by violence or injustice, humanity can find justice not through revenge, but by trusting in God's saving power, said Pope John Paul II at his weekly general audience. Christ walked toward "the fierce path of his passion without objecting to the injustice and violence, without recrimination and complaint, but by delivering himself and his painful circumstances 'to the one who judges justly,'" he said. The pope's Sept. 22 audience in St. Peter's Square centered on a canticle from the First Letter of Peter, which presents "the suffering face of Christ" and the Christian example in a hostile world. Before a crowd of some 13,000 pilgrims, the pope struggled through the reading of his catechesis, skipping over large portions and gasping for air after almost every word.

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Tolerance, respect key to fighting racism

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Teaching tolerance and respect is key in the fight against racism and discrimination, a top Vatican official told international delegates meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald told the gathering that education "offers a unique opportunity to present -- especially to the young -- certain major values such as the unity of the human race, the equal dignity of all human beings, the solidarity which binds together all the members of the human family." A copy of his Sept. 13 address was published in the Sept. 22 edition of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. Archbishop Fitzgerald, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, represented the Holy See at the Sept. 13-14 International Conference on Tolerance and the Fight Against Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, sponsored by the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe.

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Austrian church reports full numbers in seminaries

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Austria's Catholic Church has reported full admissions to its seminaries, despite fears of a decline after a sex scandal in the Sankt Polten diocesan seminary. "The high level of seminary education in Austria is well regarded by public opinion," said Erich Leitenberger, spokesman for the Austrian bishops' conference. "Sankt Polten was the big exception -- there's no reason to think its problems will affect other seminaries here." In mid-September, 28 new students prepared to begin studies at Austria's diocesan seminaries, bringing to 114 the total training for the priesthood nationwide.

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