New York Archdiocese says pope to address U.N. next spring
NEW YORK (CNS) --- The Archdiocese of New York said it was delighted that Pope Benedict XVI "will be addressing the United Nations here in New York this coming spring." A statement issued July 16 by Joseph Zwilling, New York archdiocesan communications director, was apparently the first official indication that such a visit would take place in the spring. Earlier reports only had the pope possibly coming sometime next year. Zwilling told Catholic News Service July 16 that unnamed sources said the pope would be visiting in the spring instead of late September, when the new session of the U.N. General Assembly opens, because of next year's presidential elections. The mid-July news reports on the possible papal trip to New York were triggered by comments by the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi. He told reporters in Lorenzago di Cadore, Italy, where the pope was vacationing in July, that in addition to the planned papal trip to Australia next summer for World Youth Day, the Vatican also is looking at other possible trips next year, including a U.N. visit.

Black Catholic congress closes with reports on challenges, responses
BUFFALO, N.Y. (CNS) --- The 10th National Black Catholic Congress came to a close July 15, after more than 2,000 black Catholics spent four days praying, celebrating and learning more about the eight principles that pose challenges to African-American communities and how those challenges relate to the seven sacraments. "Take what you have learned in the workshops and share it with the people back at home. Communicate that back home, and allow the Lord to use you," said Father Raymond Harris, a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, at the congress's final session on "Foundations for the Future." During the session, representatives from each of the congress's eight leadership commissions told participants what the commissions had been doing about the organization's eight core principles: Africa, Catholic education, HIV/AIDS, parish life, social justice, racism, spirituality, and youths and young adults. Commissioners have researched and published a book, titled "Sustaining Catholic Education in and for the Black Community," as a resource for dioceses, individuals and organizations who are trying to develop successful strategies for sustaining Catholic education in their communities.

To follow Jesus is to put him first in 'word, deed,' archabbot says
INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) --- A Benedictine archabbot told a national gathering of pastoral musicians that "for every Christian, the heartfelt desire to follow Jesus Christ means that he is to have first place in whatever we do, in word or in deed." Though everyone knows this to be true, Archabbot Justin DuVall noted, the little voice in the dark corner of the heart continues to whisper, "What's in it for me?" "It's only natural to wonder what we will get for what we've given up," said Archabbot DuVall, of St. Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, in a homily July 11. "Peter wondered the same thing when he put his question to Jesus, and Jesus had an answer for Peter: 'A hundred times more --- and eternal life to boot.' The promise of something better: That's what a disciple gets." The archabbot delivered the homily at a Mass celebrated on the feast day of St. Benedict during the National Association of Pastoral Musicians national convention in Indianapolis. More than 3,000 people attended the July 9-13 convention.

Composer Bernadette Farrell recovers from breast cancer
GREENWICH, England (CNS) ---- One of the Catholic Church's best-known liturgical musical composers, Bernadette Farrell, has been successfully recovering from a yearlong fight with breast cancer. Farrell, 50, composer of more than 80 popular compositions, including "Christ Be Our Light," "Unless a Grain of Wheat" and "God Beyond All Names," recently received negative results from a series of tests designed to determine if the cancer was still in her body. She will continue follow-up treatments for at least another five years with regular checkups. "She's coping pretty well with the side effects of the medication on which she remains and is hoping to be back at work full time in the autumn," said her husband, Owen Alstott, 60, former publisher of Oregon Catholic Press, now known as OCP. The couple, parents of 10-year-old Joanna, live in historic Greenwich. Farrell was diagnosed with cancer last summer. She underwent surgery and chemotherapy treatments.

Liturgy center creates online resource on church art, architecture
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- The Georgetown Center for Liturgy has launched a new online interactive resource to explore the relationship among art, architecture, liturgy and spirituality in the Catholic tradition. Jesuit Father Lawrence Madden, director of the center, said the EnVisionChurch Web site, www.envisionchurch.org, is meant for everyone, but will be especially useful as a forum for pastoral leaders involved in building or renovating places of worship, commissioning artwork or planning liturgical ministries. According to an announcement on the site, EnVisionChurch will periodically spotlight artists and architects who have created noteworthy sacred spaces. Articles regarding new developments in church design and new resources for the improvement of liturgical celebration will be posted along with a directory of sacred space design professionals. Plans are under way to create a digital library of more than 10,000 images of artwork and sacred space.

In Cuba, CELAM drafts plan to implement conclusions from Aparecida
HAVANA (CNS) ---- The Latin American bishops' council has drafted a more than 100-point plan to implement conclusions in the final document of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, said the council's newly elected president. Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, Brazil, president of the council, known by its Spanish acronym as CELAM, said the church in Latin American must continue to respond to the "scandalous gap" between rich and poor in the region, attract lapsed Catholics back to the church and engage in pastoral work based on the conclusions of the conference held in Aparecida in May. Some 70 delegates, including five cardinals, represented their bishops' conferences at the July 10-13 meeting at San Juan Maria Vianney house in Havana. Such meetings are held every two years, while general conferences, such as the one in Brazil, are held less frequently. During the assembly, the bishops officially released the final version of the conclusions of the Aparecida conference. The document, which was approved by Pope Benedict XVI, calls for the church to be "in a permanent state of mission" and evangelization.

Head of National Religious Retirement Office dies at age 65
BALTIMORE (CNS) ---- Precious Blood Sister Andree Fries, 65, director of the National Religious Retirement Office in Washington, died early July 14 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore from complications following knee surgery four weeks earlier. A memorial Mass for Sister Fries was scheduled for July 18 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. A funeral Mass was set for July 21 at the motherhouse of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood in O'Fallon, Mo., followed by burial in the cemetery at the motherhouse. Sister Fries had been director of the National Religious Retirement Office since 2000, and for two years prior to that had been the office's project director for retirement services. The office is responsible for the annual Retirement Fund for Religious collection, conducted in most U.S. parishes in early December. The collection is held to offset a combined $7 billion unfunded retirement liability for elderly nuns, brothers and priests in religious orders.

Vatican spokesman: Pope concelebrates daily Mass using current missal
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Pope Benedict XVI concelebrates his daily morning Mass in Italian using the current edition of the Roman Missal, the Vatican spokesman said. Claims that the pope celebrates his private Mass using the Tridentine rite are incorrect, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi told Catholic News Service July 17. The Tridentine Mass is the Latin-language liturgy that predates the Second Vatican Council; it was last revised in the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal. Less than 10 days after Pope Benedict July 7 issued his letter and norms providing greater opportunity for the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, news reports claimed Pope Benedict already had been celebrating the old rite privately. "The confusion probably was caused by our footage of the pope celebrating facing the altar, which is due to the fact that the altar is against the wall" in the private chapel of the Apostolic Palace, Father Lombardi said. The fact that the pope's two private secretaries concelebrate the Mass with him each morning "obviously means he is using the new Missal," since the Tridentine Mass strictly limits concelebration, Father Lombardi added.