Sister Rose Pacatte to discuss 'Da Vinci Code'
on KCAA radio show
LOS ANGELES --- Daughter of St. Paul Sister Rose Pacatte will discuss the newly-released movie "The Da Vinci Code" and the likewise controversial book "The End of Faith" on "Barry Gordon From Left Field," to be broadcast May 21, 3-3:30 p.m. on KCAA radio (AM 1050). The show is heard in the Inland Empire and webcast throughout the Internet on http://www.kcaaradio.com. Sister Pacatte, director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City, is an author and columnist whose reviews and Film Essays appear regularly in The Tidings. Her review of "The Da Vinci Code" will appear in the May 26 issue.

Parents allowed to remove children
from sex abuse training programs
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- New regulations issued May 15 by the U.S. bishops allow parents to remove their children from diocesan-sponsored training programs in child sex abuse prevention. The programs are part of the bishops' policies to prevent child sex abuse. But parents in some dioceses have objected to such programs, saying the training constitutes sex education, which they feel is the primary responsibility of the parents. Dioceses and Eastern-rite eparchies are required to provide the training --- known as safe environment programs --- to children attending church-run schools and those who participate in church programs. Such training is also required for clergy, religious, lay employees, parents and volunteers who come in contact with children. Under the new regulations adopted by the U.S. bishops' Administrative Committee, dioceses and eparchies are still required to provide the safe environment programs. If parents choose not to have their children participate, they are to be offered training materials and asked to sign a form attesting to their decision not to have their children participate. If parents do not sign the form, a church administrator is to file a form noting the opt-out decision. The decision was announced May 15 and posted on the USCCB Web site as part of new regulations for future annual compliance audits. The audits are a way of checking to see if dioceses and eparchies are implementing the sex abuse prevention policies contained in the bishops' "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People."

Boston novena seeks to promote
healing in wake of abuse crisis
BOSTON (CNS) --- Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley is inviting Boston Catholics to join him in a novena and "pilgrimage of repentance and hope" that will take him to parishes throughout the Boston Archdiocese that have experienced "an especially painful history" of sexual abuse of minors by clergy. The novena to the Holy Spirit is designed to promote healing and renewal of the archdiocese in the wake of the clergy abuse crisis, which burgeoned into a national scandal following a January 2002 expose in Boston of decades of clergy sexual abuse of minors. "Publicly acknowledging the church's faults and failures is an important element of asking forgiveness of those who have been harmed by the church," said Cardinal O'Malley in a statement announcing the parish visits. "The sexual abuse crisis has caused intense suffering for survivors and their families and has been a source of shame and sorrow for our entire church community," he added. "Our hope is that these services will bring together survivors, their families and friends, as well as clergy, parishioners and members of the broader community."

Science that tampers with human life threatens humanity,
pope warns
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Medical and scientific progress becomes a threat to humanity when people think they can fill in for God and tamper with creation, specifically human life, Pope Benedict XVI said. The human embryo "must always originate from an act of love" between a man and a woman and "already be treated as a person," he said in a May 13 address to members of the Pontifical Council for the Family. Scientific and technological advancement in the field of bioethics "becomes a threat when man loses sense of his limits and, basically, claims to supersede God the creator," Pope Benedict said. Council members met May 11-13 at the Vatican to discuss the achievements, challenges, and current and future projects of the department founded 25 years ago by Pope John Paul II. Two major themes under discussion at the council's plenary assembly were the sanctity of life and marriage.

House of Lords blocks assisted-suicide bill
opposed by church leaders
LONDON (CNS) --- A bill opposed by British church leaders to legalize assisted suicide was blocked in the House of Lords, and its supporters accused church leaders of causing its defeat. One legislator who supported the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill accused Catholic officials of leading a "very unpleasant campaign" against the legislation and causing its defeat. After a seven-hour debate in the House of Lords May 12, members voted 148-100 to delay the second reading of the bill. The vote wrecked any prospect that the bill could become law in the current parliamentary session. The outcome was seen as a victory for the Catholic Church in England and Wales, which in March began one of the largest campaigns in its modern history to prevent the bill from becoming law. Opening the debate, Lord Joffe, sponsor of the bill, urged politicians to recognize that the heavy mailbags they had received in response to the bill were the fruit of an unrepresentative lobby led by the Catholic Church.