Reputed Conyers Visionary Objects to Company

THE GEORGIA BULLETIN, March 12—Atlanta's archdiocesan newspaper reports that reputed visionary Nancy Fowler has publicly dissociated herself from Our Loving Mother's Children, the nonprofit group that owns the 90-acre pilgrimage site next to Fowler's home in Conyers, Ga., and publishes material based on the messages Fowler claims to have received from Mary and Jesus.

Fowler objected to the aggressive fund raising tactics of Our Loving Mother's Children, and complained about the group's decision to publish a book of the messages from Conyers without her final approval, said the report.

Robert Hughes of Our Loving Mother's Children told the newspaper that he would not publish the book without Fowler's approval, and that fund raising — to pay for broadcasts of the Rosary — is not new.

Lent Is Not About Changing God

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL, March 13—Frances Vogel Montaño said that, growing up Catholic, she thought of sacrifice and penance “as a way of changing God's mind about me.” “Now I realize sacrifice, prayer and penance [are] about changing me, about disposing myself to receive God's gifts.”

Montaño's insights were included in a roundup on how Christian churches in New Mexico are observing Lent. The portions on Catholicism recalled Lents past in perhaps too dark a vein, but accurately reflect the current understanding that penance and “giving things up” should be accompanied by positive steps such as additional prayer and acts of charity. Montaño, for example, said she tries to eat more simply, read the scriptures and pray more often during Lent.

Former DIGNITY Priest to Lead New Ministry

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS,, March 15—The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is creating a ministry for homosexuals and their families, according to the AP.

“The Church wants to support the homosexual person but not homosexual activity,” Archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco said. “There is a need for pastoral care of homosexual persons. The archdiocese wants to meet that need, and not cede territory to ministries that don't support the teaching of the Church.”

Father Michael Leshney, chaplain to a Cincinnati chapter of DIGNITY in the 1980s, will be spiritual director for the new ministry.

The AP report concludes with citations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which holds that homosexual activity is “contrary to the natural law” and “objectively disordered,” but that homosexuals should be “accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity.”

DiMaggio a Man of Prayer, Says Priest

THE SUN SENTINEL, March 13—Even when he could not speak, baseball great Joe DiMaggio showed himself to be “a man who was used to praying,” wrote Msgr. Franklyn M. Casale in the Fort Lauderdale newspaper.

Msgr. Casale, president of St. Thomas University in Miami, described what he called DiMaggio's “last Mass,” at DiMaggio's bedside at his home in Hollywood, Fla., a few days before he died March 8. “Joe couldn't talk that Sunday but his lips silently formed every response to the Mass,” Msgr. Casale told the paper.