ADDENDA - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, May 7, 1999 by Matt Kantz

MORE THAN 73,000 teenagers gathered in Pontiac, Mich., at a two-day evangelical Christian conference that encouraged them to commit to "honorable standards." Tens of thousands of those attending affirmed a "Teenage Bill of Rights" that speaks of living honorably, telling the truth and refusing premarital sex, drugs and alcohol. The Garden Valley, Texas-based Teen Mania Ministries sponsored the gathering April 23 and 24.

BARBARA J. HANRAHAN, director of the Ohio State University Press, has been appointed director of the University of Notre Dame Press effective Sept. 1. Hanrahan succeeds the retiring James R. Langford, who directed the world's largest Catholic university press for 25 years.

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU will remain on the faculty of Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., for academic year 1999-2000 and will continue teaching courses at the Candler School of Theology as the William R. Cannon Visiting Distinguished Professor of Theology. "We have been deeply moved by Archbishop Tutu's witness and enriched by his presence with us in the Emory community," Candler Dean Kevin LaGree said.

CARDINAL JOHN O'CONNOR conducted a service April 23 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York for Joe DiMaggio, the New York Yankees baseball player who died March 8. "One of the last rounds of applause Joe DiMaggio received in life was in this cathedral," the cardinal said, recalling an occasion when he recognized the player at a cathedral service.

ST. XAVIER UNIVERSITY in Chicago will host a special conference for 250 student leaders from Illinois high schools Oct. 17 to focus on conflict resolution in the wake of the tragic-events in Littleton, Colo. The conference, titled "From Conflict to Common Ground," will take place at St. Xavier's main campus in Chicago.

THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS of the Renewal, an association established in the South Bronx in 1987, has received Vatican approval for permanent establishment as a diocesan religious congregation. In an announcement the friars said Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New York had sponsored the community since its beginning and would officially establish it at a Mass May 28 at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

THE MEETING of the international Catholic-Orthodox dialogue commission, scheduled for June in Baltimore, has been postponed for a full year because of the war in Yugoslavia. The June 6-15 meeting was postponed "because of the hostilities which are continuing in Europe and which make it difficult for everyone to participate," said a joint Catholic-Orthodox statement.

THE VATICAN will set up its own secret service security department to counter threats from terrorist groups and cults during millennium celebrations in Rome. The new department, the Security Committee, was formed based on information the Vatican has received about possible threats.

POLAND'S SENATE has amended a law to allow a 26-foot tall cross used in a papal Mass to remain near the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. However, the lawmakers said some 200 smaller crosses planted at the site during the past year will be removed. The Senate voted 58-7 April 22 to amend the law. Poland's lower legislative body, the Sejm, now must give its approval to the change.

ASIA has almost the same number of seminarians as Europe or Latin America even though it has far fewer Catholics, according to the latest Vatican-published Statistical Yearbook of the Church. The recently published 1997 yearbook shows that in 1997 Asia had 25,169 seminarians, religious and diocesan combined; Europe had 28,641 while Mexico and Central and South America together had 27,630, Africa had 18,156, North America 5,413 and Oceania 861 priestly candidates, according to the yearbook.

THE MIDDLE EAST peace process and a possible papal visit to the region were among topics Pope John Paul II discussed with Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon April 26 at the Vatican. Sharon renewed his government's invitation to Pope John Paul to visit Israel during the year 2000, said a Vatican statement.