LOS ANGELES --- As donations for Haitian earthquake relief efforts continued to mount through the efforts of parishes and schools, archdiocesan officials said that the need will continue for some time, and urged Catholics to be generous.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the official international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic Church, is coordinating the U.S. Catholic response. Donations may be made via phone, 1-877-HELP-CRS; online, www.crs.org; or write a check to Catholic Relief Services, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090 (memo portion of check: Haiti Earthquake).

In one weekend, more than $20,000 was raised by members of St. Christopher Church in West Covina, in conjunction with the American Wheelchair Mission and Knights of Columbus Father Maguire Council 3851, to buy wheelchairs for the victims of the 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti Jan. 12. The proceeds of the drive are enough to buy about 135 wheelchairs.

Chris Lewis, president of the American Wheelchair Mission and a member of the KofC, spoke to parishioners during each Mass on the weekend of Jan. 23-24 explaining how wheelchairs can be delivered to Haiti, through an existing relationship with a relief agency in the Dominican Republic, at a total cost of $150 each. Many people required limb amputations as a result of injuries caused by collapsing buildings; some amputations were required to simply rescue them from the rubble.

Demand for tickets to rally, Mass shows youths on 'fire for pro-life'
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- Droves of pro-life youths from across the country lined up outside the Verizon Center to get inside the annual Youth Rally and Mass for Life sponsored by the Archdiocese of Washington Jan. 22, forming a crowd of 17,400 people. This year the event at the Washington sports arena was more in demand than ever --- about 10,000 tickets to the event were snapped up in just 45 minutes when they were made available through online ticketing in mid-November, said Christa Lopiccolo, executive director of the archdiocesan Department of Life Issues. "The youth are on fire for pro-life," she said at the time. Fifteen alternate gathering sites near the Verizon Center were set up to accommodate 8,000 more pilgrims, she said. Youths brought banners and signs, but most of all their faith and enthusiasm to the Verizon Center. Hundreds of seminarians and religious also joined the throng. Prior to the Mass, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, read a message to the participants from Pope Benedict XVI, who said their "generosity, idealism and concern inspire youth to raise their voices in defense of the unborn." He urged them to embrace "a culture of life grounded in the unchanging truth of who we are as God's children" and to "rise to this urgent moral challenge and witness to the sacredness of God's gift of life."

Leaked dialogue text looks at East-West differences over role of pope
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- A draft document being studied by an international Catholic-Orthodox commission has highlighted historical common ground on the thorny issue of the role of the pope. The text noted that in the first 1,000 years of Christianity, although believers in the East and West had different understandings of the role of the bishop of Rome, that diversity did not destroy the unity of the church. "Distinct divergences of understanding and interpretation did not prevent East and West from remaining in communion," it said. Their unity was based on shared theological principles that were viewed as more important, such as continuity in the faith handed on from the apostles, the interdependence of primacy and conciliarity, and an understanding of authority as a service of love, it said. The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity said Jan. 26 that it was disappointed the text was published on an Italian blog site Jan. 25. It said members of the international Catholic-Orthodox dialogue commission had agreed the text would not be published until it had been fully and completely examined by the commission. "As yet, there is no agreed document and, hence, the text published has no authority or official status," the pontifical council said. It said the draft was basically "a list of themes to be studied and examined in greater depth, and has been only minimally discussed by the said commission." Dated Oct. 3, 2008, the draft is part of the Catholic-Orthodox commission's ongoing discussion about the role of the pope and the understanding of primacy in the church --- one of the key differences dividing the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

British archaeologist: Find shows Turin shroud not from Jesus' time
JERUSALEM (CNS) --- Results from studies on the remains of a first-century shroud discovered on the edge of the Old City of Jerusalem prove that the famous Shroud of Turin could not have originated from Jerusalem of Jesus' time, said a prominent archaeologist. The first-century shroud was discovered in a tomb in the Hinnom Valley in 2000, but the results of tests run on the shroud and other artifacts found with it were only completed in December 2009. "This is the first shroud from Jesus' time found in Jerusalem and the first shroud found in a type of burial cave similar to that which Jesus would have been buried in and (because of this) it is the first shroud which can be compared to the Turin shroud," said British-born archaeologist Shimon Gibson, basing his conclusion on the full study results, which are scheduled to be published in a scholarly volume within the next year. There are two clear differences between the current shroud fragments and the Shroud of Turin, Gibson, head of the department of archaeology at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem and recently appointed to the Center for Heritage Conservation in Texas A&M University's School of Architecture, told Catholic News Service. While the Shroud of Turin is formed from one full piece of cloth, studies on the fragments of the shroud discovered in Jerusalem show that two burial cloths were used for the burial --- one made of linen, used to wrap the head, and another made of wool, which wrapped the body --- in keeping with Jewish tradition of the time, Gibson said. In addition, Gibson said, unlike the complex twill weave of the Shroud of Turin that, according to archaeological finds, was unknown in this area during Jesus' time, the discovered shroud fragments have a simple two-way weave.

Pope John Paul practiced self-mortification, postulator confirms
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Pope John Paul II always took penitence seriously, spending entire nights lying with his arms outstretched on the bare floor, fasting before ordaining priests or bishops and flagellating himself, said the promoter of his sainthood cause. Msgr. Slawomir Oder, postulator of the late pope's cause, said Pope John Paul used self-mortification "both to affirm the primacy of God and as an instrument for perfecting himself." The monsignor spoke to reporters Jan. 26 at the launch of his book, "Why He's a Saint: The Real John Paul II According to the Postulator of His Beatification Cause." Earlier in the day, two Italian news Web sites reported that an October date had been set for Pope John Paul's beatification, but Msgr. Oder said nothing could be confirmed until physicians, theologians and cardinals at the Congregation for Saints' Causes accept a miracle credited to the late pope's intercession and Pope Benedict formally signs a decree recognizing it. Msgr. Oder's book, published only in Italian, is based largely on what he said he learned from the documents collected for the beatification process and, particularly, from the sworn testimony of the 114 people who personally knew Pope John Paul and testified before the Rome diocesan tribunal investigating his fame of holiness.

Pope praises rapid, generous response to victims of quake in Haiti
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Pope Benedict XVI praised the rapid and generous response from the international community toward the people of Haiti and the bravery of all those who engaged in on-the-ground rescue efforts. The pope's comments came in two telegrams sent Jan. 16 in the wake of the magnitude 7 earthquake that hit the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, Jan. 12, leaving at least 100,000 dead and an estimated 3 million people injured or homeless. The Vatican published the telegrams Jan. 25. In a telegram addressed to Archbishop Louis Kebreau of Cap-Haitien, president of the Haitian bishops' conference, the pope praised "the extremely rapid mobilization of the international community" and the church in response to the crisis. The telegram also included the pope's condolences and "deep sadness" for the death of Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot of Port-au-Prince, who died when the impact of the quake hurled him from a balcony. In a telegram to Haitian President Rene Preval, Pope Benedict assured all those struck by "this frightening catastrophe" of his prayers. He expressed his hopes that the generosity being shown toward Haiti would continue and would reach and offer relief to those in need.

Vatican to donate profits from commemorative stamp to Haiti
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- The Vatican will donate to the people of Haiti profits from the sale of a stamp commemorating the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace in Mentorella, Italy. The initiative, promoted by the Vatican stamp and coin office and the office governing Vatican City State, could reap about 150,000 euros ($211,480) for those affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake, the Vatican said in a press release Jan. 26. The money earmarked for Haiti will come from a surcharge of .20 euro for each 65-cent stamp commemorating the 1,500th anniversary of the Italian Marian shrine.