From Catholic News Service

Iowan sells host on eBay

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (CNS) -- Church officials in the Sioux City Diocese said they were deeply offended when they found out that on eBay, an Internet auction site, an unidentified person from Iowa sold what was described as a host consecrated by Pope John Paul II during a Mass in Rome in 1998. "The holy Eucharist is central to our faith," Msgr. Roger J. Augustine, diocesan administrator of Sioux City, said in an April 12 statement. "Our Catholic doctrine teaches us that the Eucharist is the true presence of Jesus Christ and is to be consumed and not put on display as you would a souvenir. The public auction of such a strong symbol of our faith is highly offensive and disrespectful." Diocesan officials learned about the eBay posting April 11. The same day the host was sold for a reported $2,000. Jim Wharton, communications director for the diocese, said the Sioux City Diocese learned that a Catholic from Santa Clara, Calif., purchased the Eucharist so that it would not get into the wrong hands.

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Cardinals listen to first meditation

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As the opening of the conclave drew near, the world's cardinals listened to the former preacher of the Papal household offer a meditation on the problems facing the Catholic Church today. With a news blackout in force, the Vatican offered no details about the talk given April 14 by Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, whom Pope John Paul II appointed as Papal preacher in 1980. The bearded, brown-robed friar not only preached to the Pope each Advent and Lent, but he hosts a Saturday evening reflection on the next day's Gospel for RAI Uno, Italy's main television station. The preacher, who has his own Web site -- www.cantalamessa.org -- sent journalists his regrets that he could not provide them with the text of his April 14 meditation for the cardinals. "It is secret," he said.

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Eastern Catholics remember Pope at Divine Liturgy

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a clear sign of the diversity of the Catholic Church, St. Peter's Basilica was filled with Eastern chant and Aramaic songs at an April 14 Divine Liturgy in memory of Pope John Paul II. Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, presided over the Antiochene liturgy along with Ukrainian Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Lviv and Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, the former Syrian Catholic patriarch who headed the Vatican Congregation for Eastern Churches under the late Pope. The liturgy was the seventh in the series of Masses marking the official nine-day period of mourning for Pope John Paul. After a week of Latin hymns sung to the accompaniment of an organ, the strings and percussion of the Middle East and India filled St. Peter's Basilica with sounds familiar to ears of the millions of Catholics who follow the ancient rites of the Christian East. The Antiochene rite is shared by Maronite, Syrian and Syro-Malankara Catholics.

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Pope John Paul II recalled during West Bank peace run

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) -- Some 75 runners participated in the second annual West Bank peace run, which this year was dedicated to the memory of Pope John Paul II. "We have returned, remembering the words of Pope John Paul II: Do not be afraid," said Msgr. Liberio Andreatta, administrator delegate of the "Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi," a church-sponsored pilgrimage agency, at the send-off ceremony in Nativity Square April 14. "Do not be afraid and open the door for Jesus Christ, and let this door be a door of love, a door of hope, a door of peace." "In this marathon we run on the legs of peace, bringing peace from Bethlehem to Jerusalem," said Msgr. Andreatta, who helped initiate the first peace run last year. He noted that the six-mile run follows the late Pope's call for Catholics to visit the Holy Land. Some 40 Italian athletes accompanied Msgr. Andreatta to the Holy Land for this year's run.

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Indian vicar general stabbed by parish youth

PATNA, India (CNS) -- The vicar general of the Patna Archdiocese was hospitalized April 11 after being stabbed, reportedly by a youth who resented the priest's opposition to his criminal activities. Father Mathew Uzhuthal, 72, was stabbed in the neck and chest, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Father Uzhuthal also serves as parish priest of Assumption of Our Lady Church at Mokameh, about 30 miles east of Patna, the Bihar state capital. Mokameh is regarded as a crime-ridden area in Bihar. Father Gyan Prakash, secretary to Archbishop Benedict Osta of Patna, said doctors treating Father Uzhuthal said the priest was out of danger, but could not move his legs because the stabbing ruptured nerves in his neck.

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