ASUNCION, Paraguay (CNS) --- Retired Bishop Fernando Lugo was elected president of Paraguay April 20, ending the six-decade rule of the Colorado Party. Bishop Lugo took an early lead in the pre-election polls, despite official disapproval from the Vatican and, initially, from the Paraguayan bishops' conference. As support for Bishop Lugo remained high in the largely Catholic country, the conference refrained from further comment. Bishop Lugo won slightly more than 40 percent of the vote, edging out Colorado Party candidate Blanca Ovelar, who was jockeying to become the country's first female president, and retired Gen. Lino Oviedo, former head of the armed forces, who was convicted, then acquitted of a 1996 coup attempt. In Paraguay, unlike other Latin American countries, there is only one round of balloting, and the candidate with the simple majority is the winner. The bishop will take office Aug. 15 for a five-year term.
Colombian Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, Vatican family expert, dies at 72
ROME (CNS) --- Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, died April 19 at Rome's Pius XI clinic, where he had been hospitalized since early April with a respiratory infection. He was 72. Pope Benedict XVI called the cardinal a "tireless pastor" who generously served the church and "the Gospel of life." The pope, who was in the United States at the time of the cardinal's death, expressed his condolences in a telegram addressed to the cardinal's brother, Anibal Lopez Trujillo. The Vatican released a copy of the telegram April 21. The pope said the cardinal gave "clear testimony of his deep love for the church and his dedication to the noble cause of the promotion of marriage and the Christian family." A funeral Mass was to be held at the Vatican April 23 with the pope presiding. The Colombian-born cardinal, who served as archbishop of Medellin from 1979 to 1991, had been president of the family council at the Vatican for nearly 18 years.
Roadside bomb kills Sri Lankan priest known as human rights activist
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNS) --- A Jaffna diocesan priest active in promoting human rights was killed April 20 by a roadside bomb on the way back to his church after celebrating Mass in a parish substation. Father Mariampillai Xavier Karunaratnam was driving the car and reportedly died instantly of head wounds in the explosion on a road about 50 miles south of Jaffna, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. The jungle area, known as the Vanni, is under the control of the rebel group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. An unnamed layperson traveling with Father Karunaratnam was critically injured and was taken to a hospital. A church official at the bishop's house in Jaffna said the Tamil priest was killed while returning for lunch at Our Lady of Good Health Parish in Vavunikulam, a farming village. He had celebrated Mass at the church in Mankulam, about 7 miles away. The priest's body was taken to nearby St. Theresa's Church in Kilinochchi; thousands flocked to pay their respects. His funeral and burial in Vavunikulam were to be April 22. Both government forces and the Tamil rebels have denied responsibility for the priest's death. |