SAN ANTONIO --- Following the Los Angeles Lakers' 4-1 NBA finals win over the Orlando Magic, Cardinal Roger Mahony presented a Lakers' "champions" shirt to Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, at the U.S. Bishops' spring meeting in San Antonio June 17.

The two had made a friendly wager before the series, with Cardinal Mahony promising one case of assorted wines from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels if Orlando won, while Bishop Wenski offered three Key lime pies (Florida's official state pie), four pounds of fresh shrimp and a bottle of oxygen for a Lakers' victory.

New report says 12 million trapped in some form of human trafficking
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- Efforts to combat global human trafficking suffered setbacks last year, in part because a bad global economy left more people vulnerable to traffickers, a new report says. The U.S. Department of State released its 2009 Trafficking in Persons report June 16. The annual report documents the efforts of foreign governments to eliminate the most severe forms of human trafficking. The U.S. government defines severe human trafficking as the use of force, coercion or fraud to obtain labor or induce a commercial sex act. Kristyn Williams, interim associate director of the anti-trafficking services program for the U.S. bishop's Migration and Refugee Services, suggested the trafficking report could be "an effective tool" in the prevention of human trafficking worldwide. According to the report, an estimated 12.3 million people are currently trapped in some form of modern-day slavery. The report cited the international economic crisis as a driving factor in the rise of human trafficking. Rising unemployment rates and falling incomes have left desperate workers vulnerable to manipulation by human traffickers, particularly in underdeveloped countries.

Dispensing condoms in schools trivializes sexuality, says papal vicar
ROME (CNS) --- Distributing condoms to teens in high schools in the Italian province of Rome trivializes sexuality and neglects the need to teach responsibility and respect, said the papal vicar for Rome. Cardinal Agostino Vallini, who governs the diocese in the name of the pope, criticized plans for public high schools to install machines that dispense prophylactics. "We deplore that this initiative could be defined as 'a courageous act'" by government officials, he said in a statement released June 19. Officials governing the province of Rome approved a motion June 18 to launch a sexual education campaign in public high schools in an effort promote the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. In addition to the new sexual educational program, schools would be allowed to install machines that dispense condoms. Cardinal Vallini said the move to distribute condoms would "trivialize once more the issues of emotional affection, sexuality and the education of young people."

Vatican official: Relations with Muslims better, but problems remain
VENICE, Italy (CNS) --- Relations with Muslims have improved significantly in recent years, but problems remain on issues like conversion and freedom of worship, the Vatican's top interreligious dialogue official said. Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said one of the biggest challenges was to make sure that the greater openness shown by Muslim leaders --- the "elites" involved in dialogue --- filters down to the average Muslim in the street. So far, that does not seem to have happened, the cardinal told a conference in Venice June 22. Cardinal Tauran recounted an episode in Jordan that occurred a week before Pope Benedict XVI arrived to a warm official welcome from government and Islamic officials. A Christian woman fell on a street in Amman and asked passers-by for help; two Muslim women on the scene walked away, saying they could not assist an infidel, he said. "I don't think that's the reaction of a good Muslim. But this is the reality on the street. On one hand we have the elites, on the other the masses," Cardinal Tauran said.

Minnesota priest injured in Iraq while serving as Army chaplain dies
ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) --- Father H. Timothy Vakoc, a Minnesota priest who was reportedly the first Army chaplain to be gravely injured in the Iraq War, died June 20. He was 49. He died at a nursing home in the suburb of New Hope. No cause of death was released. According to journal updates by his family on the CaringBridge Web site at www.caringbridge.org/mn/timvakoc, Father Vakoc "was surrounded by family and friends who prayed him into heaven." His funeral Mass was to be celebrated June 26 at St. Paul Cathedral in St. Paul. Father Vakoc, ordained in 1992 as a priest of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese, served in two parishes before joining the Army full time in 1996. The priest held the rank of major. In May 2004, Father Vakoc's Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb while he was returning to his barracks after saying Mass for soldiers on the 12th anniversary of his ordination. He suffered severe head injuries, including the loss of his left eye and brain damage.

Pope Pius XII promoter says Jewish pressure an obstacle to sainthood
ROME (CNS) --- A top proponent of the beatification of Pope Pius XII said Pope Benedict XVI has not moved the cause forward because Jewish groups have warned it would permanently damage Catholic-Jewish relations. Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel said Pope Benedict has not given the green light to proceed with the controversial beatification, a major step toward sainthood, because he was concerned about the warnings by the World Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups. After Father Gumpel spoke, the Vatican swiftly issued a statement saying that the pope alone is in a position to determine the progress of the cause and that any interference was "unjustified and inopportune." Speaking at a Vatican bookstore in Rome June 19, Father Gumpel said Pope Benedict has not signed the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Pope Pius XII because representatives of several Jewish groups have told him "loud and clear" that "if you do the least thing in favor of the cause of Pius XII, relations between the Catholic Church and the Jews are definitively and permanently compromised." Pope Pius has been criticized by many Jews and some historians who say he did not speak out forcefully enough against Nazi Germany and the deportation and extermination of millions of European Jews in World War II.

Pope appeals for Africa as world's hungry reach 1 billion mark
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- In a letter to the president of Germany, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his concern at the plight of struggling African countries during the current global economic crisis. The pope's letter was released as new statistics showed that a record 1 billion people --- about one in every six --- were suffering from chronic hunger in the wake of the economic crisis. The rate is much higher in Africa, where about one in four people suffers from chronic hunger. The pope's May 4 letter to German President Horst Kohler, published in the Vatican newspaper June 20, said Africa's future depends on an attitude of sharing and fairness that resists the "law of the strongest" and the pursuit of selfish interests. "In this context the support of the international community is needed, notwithstanding --- and in fact precisely because of --- the current financial and economic crisis that is particularly affecting Africa and the poorest countries," the pope said. The pope was responding to a letter from Kohler that preceded the German pontiff's March visit to the African countries of Cameroon and Angola.

Cardinal says Catholics humbled by Anglicans' decision to join church
HOUSTON (CNS) --- Catholics are humbled by the stories of former Anglicans who were faced with a decision and stepped out in faith to join the Catholic Church, said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston. "The Catholic Church understands and appreciates the sacrifices made by former Anglican clergy and laity who have made the journey as individuals or as communities to full communion with the Catholic Church," he said June 12. "Truly, Rome is home and a place of abiding in our pilgrimage to the father," noted the cardinal in a keynote address at the 2009 Anglican Use Conference in Houston. The June 11-13 gathering explored the pastoral provision that the Vatican approved in 1980 allowing retention of some elements of Anglican identity in liturgy when a number of Episcopalians from the same congregation or the same area enter full Catholic communion. That provision was included when the Vatican granted permission for special U.S. procedures to admit into the Catholic priesthood former Episcopal priests who have become Catholic. Joe Blake, president of the Anglican Use Society, reported that about 120 Episcopal and Anglican priests have become Catholic priests since 1980. Most are married and working in Latin-rite parishes.