News Briefs

Media call CTA
CTA's groundwork in cultivating major news outlets seems to be bearing fruit. When the Vatican released Ad Tuendam Fidem June 30, the secular media looked to CTA for comment. Even before the CTA press release was ready the next day, religion reporters from the Los Angeles Times and USA Today were calling CTA board President Linda Pieczynski for comment.

Three weeks later, ABC Network News made CTA its first call in trying to understand the Vatican's curb on episcopal conferences. Anticipating media interest the day before, CTA had already arranged for three theology, church governance and canon law experts around the country to talk to the media who called.

Banning landmines
Thanks to lobbying by the U.S. Catholic Conference and a wide coalition including CTA (CTA News, April), President Clinton in late May pledged to sign the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines -- but only by 2006, provided the U.S. can identify alternative weapons. Bobby Muller of Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, who will address the topic at the Oct. 30-Nov. 1 CTA Conference, reports that Pentagon research already has workable alternatives to landmines. Clinton should be commended for his pledge, but told that eight years is too long to wait.

Contact person for the Catholic Campaign to Ban Landmines is Sr. Janice Ryan, 202 541-3149. landmines@nccbuscc.org

Food stamp victory
Legislation signed in June will restore food stamp eligibility in November for about 250,000 of the nearly one million legal immigrants who lost this benefit in the 1996 welfare reform act. CTAers helped in the lobbying (CTA News, April) with the U.S. Catholic Conference, Catholic Charities USA, and Bread for the World. To help finish the job, contact Dan Misleh, USCC, 2202 541-3190 or dmisleh@nccbuscc.org

1998 elections
With mid-term Congressional elections in November. NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby, has a popular education kit on Voter Education. It covers informed voting, taking a stand on issues, and sorting through the candidates. Contact NETWORK 202 547-5556. network@networklobby.org
NETWORK is also offering a day-long workshop Friday, Oct. 30 at the CTA National Conference on "Planting Seeds of Change through Legislative Advocacy." It is for justice leaders who want a solid introduction to legislative advocacy as Christian ministry, from the parish level on up.

Third World Debt
USCC and the Vatican are collaborating on an important conference Oct. 22-23 on the ethical implications of the external debt of impoverished nations. A select 50 experts will meet at Seton Hall University. They will deal with some of the trickier ethical issues, evaluate the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and try to push the debate in a different direction. Meanwhile, there are bills in Congress to allocate more money for debt reduction.
Contact Barbara Kohnen at USCC, 202 541-3153. bkohnen@nccbuscc.org

Remembering Bernard HŠring
CTA mourns the death at age 85 of German Redemptorist Fr. Bernard HŠring, the foremost Catholic moral theologian of the 20th century and a leader in church reform before, during and after Vatican II. Fr. Charles Curran, a HŠring pupil and close friend, wrote a stirring tribute in the NCR July 17. He recounted how HŠring transformed moral theology in terms of love rather than law, was a principal author of Vatican II's Church in the Modern World, boldly opposed Paul VI's Humanae Vitae and John Paul II's Veritatis Splendor, and suffered years of persecution by Vatican doctrinal authorities. Through it all, his spirituality was suffused with hope in the redeeming love of God. With Curran we hold Bernard HŠring as "a sign of hope for all who struggle for conversion in our lives and in our church."

Wedding Bells
CTA congratulates Kevin Horan-Bussey and his wife Pam, pictured here in front of the Northside Chicago parish church where they were married June 13. Kevin is CTA's Business Manager.