SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CNS) --- Officials at Loretto High School in Sacramento fired a drama teacher in mid-October after they were presented with evidence that she had recently been volunteering as an escort at a local Planned Parenthood clinic. Marie Bain, who since August had taught at the all-girls high school operated by the Loretto Sisters, was dismissed after a parent complained to school officials, presenting photos of Bain earlier this year escorting clients into the clinic in Sacramento. After school officials consulted the diocese's schools department and Sacramento Bishop William K. Weigand regarding the complaint, the bishop sent a letter to Loretto Sister Helen Timothy, president of the high school. The letter clarified Catholic doctrine on abortion and restated the long-standing diocesan policy that people who participate in abortion-related activities are disqualified from teaching in Catholic schools. Bain is not Catholic.

Legalization of assisted suicide eroding medical care,
says doctor

PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) --- The legalization of assisted suicide is eroding medical advances and decent treatment, said one leader of a coalition of doctors who find the practice troubling. Dr. Kenneth Stevens, a veteran professor of radiation oncology at Oregon Health Sciences University and vice president of Physicians for Compassionate Care, criticized Oregon's assisted-suicide law because he said it is devaluing human life and reversing the healing role of physicians. He and other Oregon doctors who oppose their state's law say allowing the use of legal lethal prescriptions tends to result in fewer efforts on the part of doctors to find a solution to patients' distress. "Once a patient has the means to take (his or her) own life, there can be decreased incentive to care for the patient's symptoms and needs," Stevens said during a recent panel discussion at the University of Oregon. He cited testimony from the Netherlands, where one doctor was at a loss to address a gastrointestinal obstruction because the patient had wanted euthanasia and then changed his mind.

Podcasting could be important pastoral tool,
says Jesuit magazine

ROME (CNS) --- Podcasting, already a popular innovation at Vatican Radio, offers an important new way for pastors to reach contemporary Christians through their digital jukeboxes, an influential Jesuit magazine said. The church should not pass up the opportunity to make liturgies and prayers available via podcast, as well as downloadable sermons by "podpreachers," said the magazine, La Civilta Cattolica, in its Nov. 5 issue. Podcasting allows individuals to download audio or video files from the Internet to their iPod or other digital device, for listening or viewing at a later time. Users can subscribe to podcasts and have episodes delivered automatically to their computer and digital player. The popularity of podcasting has generated a subcategory called "Godcasting," which refers to efforts by churches, preachers and religious media to tap into the digital communications boom.

Polish church sets up tribunal to gather testimony
about pope's life

KRAKOW, Poland (CNS) --- In the Krakow cathedral where the future Pope John Paul II celebrated his first Mass as a priest, a special tribunal was established to gather testimony about the pope's life and holiness. Although the Diocese of Rome is handling Pope John Paul's sainthood cause, a secondary tribunal was set up in Poland to interview Polish witnesses and review the things he wrote as a student, priest, auxiliary bishop and archbishop of Krakow before being elected pope in 1978. Krakow Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's longtime secretary, presided over an evening prayer service Nov. 4 as the Polish tribunal members took their oaths of office.

Pope says text on divine revelation
one of mainstays of Vatican II

VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Pope Benedict XVI praised the Second Vatican Council's document on divine revelation, a text he helped draft, as being "one of the supporting columns" of the council's entire work. The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, "Dei Verbum," was approved by the council Nov. 18, 1965. "This document dealt with revelation and its transmission, with the inspiration and interpretation of sacred Scripture and with its fundamental importance in the life of the church," the pope said Nov. 6 during his midday Angelus address.