c. 2004 Religion News Service
New Catholic Priests Are Slightly Older, More International
WASHINGTON (RNS) The 2004 class of new Catholic priests is older and increasingly foreign-born, according to statistics released Friday (Aug. 6) by Catholic bishops.
The average age of new priests inched up slightly to 37, up from 36.8 last year and 34.8 in 1998, when data on new priests were first collected. Seventy-one percent of new priests are younger than 35, while 3 percent are over 60.
Nearly one-third of new priests _ 31 percent _ are foreign-born, which is up from 28 percent last year and 24 percent in 1998. The four main countries that supply foreign priests are Vietnam, Mexico, the Philippines and Poland.
Dean Hoge, a sociologist at Catholic University who compiled the figures, also noted that the portion of new priests with post-graduate education reached 28 percent, up from 13 percent six years ago. “This is a notable change in only six years,” he said.
There were 472 men ordained to the priesthood this year, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a research center associated with Georgetown University.
Hoge’s survey profiled 336 new priests based on responses provided by 126 dioceses and 32 religious orders. Sixty-eight dioceses and 27 orders did not respond to the annual survey.
Most new priests are white, but 12 percent are Hispanic and 12 percent are Asian or Pacific Islander. The portion of new Asian-born priests has grown steadily in recent years _ up from 7 percent just three years ago. One percent of new priests are African-American.
The Archdiocese of Chicago continues to lead the nation with the largest ordination class of 14 men, along with Newark, N.J. The Archdiocese of New York ordained 13 new priests.
Hoge said Newark represents the international trend among new priests. Eleven of the 14 men were foreign-born _ three Poles, two Africans and one each from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Singapore.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Suit Filed in `Church Van’ Rollover Deaths
(RNS) The estates of five young people killed in a single-vehicle “church van” rollover accident last year have sued Ford Motor Co. and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, claiming Ford was negligent in manufacturing its Econoline E-350 15-passenger van, and Enterprise knew the vans are dangerous.
The young people were on their way to a religious retreat.
Calling the 2002 Econoline E-350 “a death trap waiting to happen,” plaintiff’s attorney Brian Panish said inexperienced drivers and full loads increase chances such vans _ often called “church vans” because of their popularity with religious groups _ will roll over.
Ford has made changes to its 2006 model vans designed to provide more stability when sensors detect unusual side-to-side movement, but the company said in a statement, “We remain confident that this is a very safe vehicle.”
Earlier this year, Ford reached a confidential settlement with the families of three young American missionaries who died in an Econoline 350 rollover crash near Monterrey, Mexico in June 2002.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in 2002 that the center of gravity of 15-passenger vehicles rises when the van carries more than 10 passengers, and rollovers are more likely.
Because of this finding, the NTSB recommended in July 2003 that Ford strengthen the roofs of its 15-passenger vans and provide more safety belts. The NTSB also called for training Econoline drivers to better maneuver in emergency situations.
The current suit, filed in Almeda Superior Court in California, stems from an accident in Yermo, Calif., nearly halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Early on the morning of March 29, 2003, a van carrying 14 young adults to a religious retreat rolled over on Interstate 15, killing five passengers.
The group had gathered at St. Antonius Coptic Church in northern California the previous day and set out on the 400-mile trek south, crashing onto the median only 20 minutes away from their destination.
The van’s driver, Peter Demian, had been awake for 19 straight hours at the time of the accident, according to the California Highway Patrol. No charges were filed against Demian, and he has not been sued.
_ Jonah D. King
Bankruptcy Judge Allows Victims to Challenge Church on Assets
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) A federal bankruptcy judge ruled Wednesday (Aug. 4) that plaintiffs suing the Archdiocese of Portland in sexual abuse cases may try to prove that the church’s assets include $500 million in real estate, cash and investments.
The Roman Catholic archdiocese, which filed for bankruptcy protection on July 6, contends it is merely the trustee for the property, nearly all of which it says really belongs to its 124 parishes in Western Oregon.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris gave the plaintiffs until Aug. 18 to file a legal action seeking a ruling on the property’s actual owner. If the judge rules that the property belongs to the archdiocese rather than the parishes, the property will become available to pay claims to abuse victims who have so far asked for $307 million.
That figure is sure to rise by millions. An additional 41 abuse cases against the archdiocese have not yet sought specific dollar amounts, according to filings by the archdiocese. Moreover, an additional 20 lawsuits are waiting to be filed, according to testimony in the Bankruptcy Court hearing.
The number of unknown future lawsuits _ and how to pay claims _ is one of the key issues in the bankruptcy case.
Thomas Stilley, an attorney for the archdiocese, had sought the judge’s approval to negotiate settlements for lawsuits first, before tackling the issue of the archdiocese’s property ownership. The size of the settlements, he told Perris, might be small enough for the archdiocese to pay out of its own assets and proceeds from insurance policies. That might eliminate the need for litigation over property ownership, he said.
Perris said the ownership question needed to be decided first.
Stilley estimated that legal appeals on the ownership issue would be expensive and could take as long as 10 years to resolve. Albert Kennedy, an attorney for the plaintiffs’ committee, countered that the issue could be wrapped up in less than a year.
“Our hope is to bring this to a fair conclusion as soon as reasonably possible,” Kennedy said after the hearing.
_ Steve Woodward
`Abortion’ Hot Line Ordered Closed
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Although Causeway Center for Women calls itself an abortion referral service in the Yellow Pages, a federal judge ruled Wednesday (Aug. 4) it was nothing but a guise to stop women from seeking the procedure and ordered the phone line shut down.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval also ordered the phone line’s operator, William Graham, 53, of Metairie, La., to stop misrepresenting the service, and barred him from using the name Causeway Center for Women, which he said is similar to a long-established abortion provider, Causeway Medical Clinic.
Duval acted in response to a lawsuit filed in June on behalf of four women who claim that Graham caused them to delay getting an abortion until it was more risky and costly, or carry their pregnancies to term, by repeatedly telling them their abortion appointments had to be rescheduled. The suit was also filed on behalf of Causeway Medical Clinic.
One of the women who joined in the suit became pregnant during a rape, said one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Suzanne Novak of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the suit.
Another, a single mother, sought an abortion to ensure she would not have a second child with hemophilia but was forced by delays into having the child, Novak said. There is no evidence, Novak argued, that Causeway Center for Women exists: “There is just a man with a phone number and a position,” she said.
Graham said it was BellSouth, not he, who chose the heading under which to list his service.
Initially, he said, the phone company said his operation had to be listed under “abortion alternatives.” But after he objected on grounds that he is serving women who want to get abortions, he said, the company moved the listing to abortion referrals.
Graham defended his operation, which he says is offered free of charge.
“We say we can schedule you with a private OB-GYN who can best assure your health and welfare” rather than clinics that charge higher fees and have a history of injuring women, he said.
Graham also denied that he gives medical advice. “I tell them the doctor will make that determination,” he said. Duval pressed Graham on whether he had ever made a “bona fide appointment” for a woman to get an abortion.
“I’m going to say `no,”’ Graham responded. “The reason I can’t provide that is this is a very confidential procedure. These doctors I would refer to, unless they are here, I wouldn’t mention them.”
“Once we do get a woman to a physician, I wouldn’t want to get involved any further,” Graham said, insisting there is no way for him to know if an abortion is performed.
Interviewed outside the courtroom after Duval issued his order, Graham was asked if he opposes abortion: “I will not say I am anti-abortion,” he said. “My opinion is not really relevant. Abortions are legal. Malpractice is not.”
_ Susan Finch
CAFOD Raises $3.6 Million for Darfur Aid
LONDON (RNS) Over the past 12 weeks CAFOD, the English and Welsh Catholic bishops’ aid agency, has raised $3.6 million in response to its emergency appeal for the Sudanese region of Darfur, the group said Friday (Aug. 6).
It has also been involved with other aid agencies, including Christian Aid, in the joint appeal of the Disasters Emergency Committee, which over three weeks has raised $27 million toward providing aid in Darfur.
Meanwhile, the joint Caritas (Catholic) and Action by Churches Together (Protestant) team at work in Nyala reports that conditions in Darfur are deteriorating rapidly.
The onset of the rains has made access to remote areas increasingly difficult: a journey of only 60 miles to set up emergency health centers in two villages took over a day, with vehicles regularly getting bogged down in mud. As the rainy season reaches its full strength over the next few weeks, the situation can only get worse.
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Iraqi Assyrian Christian Leader Emmanuel Khoshaba
(RNS) “Iraq is in a new stage of its history. We have free speech, and places in the national assembly. Chaldeans and Assyrians are some of Iraq’s most ancient people. It will be terrible if they leave before we can taste the fruits of Iraq’s democracy.”
_ Emmanuel Khoshaba, spokesman for the Assyrian Democratic Movement, the political party of Iraq’s Assyrian Christians, bemoaning the exodus of Iraqi Christians to Syria because of ongoing violence. He was quoted by The New York Times.
DEA/PH END RNS
