From Catholic News Service

Cardinal: For remarried, annulment required

ROME (CNS) -- While the Catholic Church seeks better ways to reach out to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, the fact that they may not receive Communion "is not disputed or disputable," said Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo. "They are in an objective situation that goes against the will of God and does not permit them to receive Communion," said the cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family. In an Oct. 27 interview with the Rome newspaper La Repubblica, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said that while the Oct. 2-23 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist recognized the "painful and dramatic situations" of Catholics barred from the Eucharist "no modification of this doctrine is possible." The church's teaching that the marriage bond is unbreakable is based on the words of Christ, and the church has no authority to overturn that teaching, the cardinal said.

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Hopes for better relations with Russia, Orthodox

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, told reporters in Moscow that he hoped for improved relations between the Vatican and the Russian government and between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. The archbishop, in Moscow Oct. 26-30 for meetings with government and religious leaders, gave interviews to the Catholic newspaper Svet Evangelja and to the news agency Blagovest-Info. Italian texts of the interviews were distributed Oct. 27 by the Vatican press office. The archbishop said his talks with government officials would focus mainly on ways the Catholic Church and Russia could cooperate in promoting peace around the world, particularly in the Middle East, and in the battle against poverty, hunger and threats to human dignity.

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Religious rioting in Egypt makes some Catholics fearful

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Though the recent outbreak of Muslim-Christian violence in Alexandria, Egypt, is largely against the Coptic Orthodox community, some Catholics in the city are also fearful, said a Catholic priest in Alexandria. "There is no problem with the Catholic Church," said Father Antonio Ghattas, parish priest of the Coptic Catholic St. Michael Church and director of St. Michael School and Mercy School. "The problem is with the Orthodox Church, but the fear is for all people, not only Catholics, also Muslims. We also have Muslim pupils in our school." Father Ghattas said "vagabonds" began destroying property Oct. 21 and attacking Coptic, Protestant and Catholic churches, although his own church and schools went undamaged. "Now things are calm," Father Ghattas said. The priest spoke in Italian, Arabic and English during a telephone interview from Alexandria Oct. 26. The violence, in which at least four people were killed and 90 injured, followed a week of protests over a play, performed two years ago at St. George Coptic Orthodox Church, that was recently distributed on a DVD recording. Titled "I Was Blind but Now I Can See," it tells the fictional story of a young Christian who converts to Islam for money, then returns to Christianity when Muslims threaten him with violence.

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Relief workers in Pakistan inspired by quake victims, volunteers

NEW DELHI, India (CNS) -- Church officials coordinating relief work for victims of the earthquake in Pakistan said they were inspired by the commitment of Pakistanis to the massive effort. "This is the month of Ramadan. Most of them are fasting and do not drink even water. Yet, they are carrying heavy things and climbing mountains" to distribute relief materials, said Jack Norman, Catholic Relief Services' country representative in predominantly Muslim Pakistan. In an Oct. 25 telephone interview from his office in Islamabad, Norman said that many of the CRS volunteers at the relief distribution centers in the quake-affected areas are themselves victims who lost their families, friends and property in the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed more than 77,000 people in Pakistan. "Yet they have shown (an) overwhelming sense of dedication along with our staff and local partners. This is a testimony to their dedication," Norman said. CRS is the U.S. bishops' international aid agency.

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Archbishop says Catholic TV should not compete with networks

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholic television stations and production companies need to find a way to complement and not compete with the religious programming of general television stations, said Archbishop John P. Foley. "We do not want to do harm to those broadcasters who have helped religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular over so many years," said the U.S. archbishop, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The archbishop spoke Oct. 25 at a meeting to plan the World Congress of Catholic TV, scheduled for next October in Madrid, Spain. While Archbishop Foley's office convoked the congress, he invited representatives of official and private Catholic TV stations and of Signis, the World Catholic Association for Communication and an affiliation of media professionals, to assist in planning the gathering.

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