Israeli Visa Denials Dampen Relations With Vatican

HAARETZ, March 30 — Israel's refusal to grant visas to more than 130 Catholic delegates is straining relations with the Vatican, a Franciscan spokesman in Israel said March 29.

Dr. David Jaeger said for the first time since Israel was established, Catholic clergy had been unable to renew their visas to stay in the country, the newspaper reported.

The problem began two years ago, when Eli Yishai of Shas was interior minister, Jaeger said, and Shas' worldview included fears the Jewish state was weakening. Now, however, with a new interior minis-try, the problem still exists.

“It is insufferable,” Jaeger said. “It's getting worse all the time and has international implications since the Church in the Holy Land represents Catholics all over the world.”

Foreign ministry officials agree there is “needless red tape” in granting visa requests, the paper said, and a committee appointed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is looking into the problem.

Tough Cases to Go to Doctrine of Faith Congregation

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 28 — Putting into effect a change in the way it deals with clergy sex-abuse cases and other crimes against Church law, the Vatican has begun delegating cases that normally would have gone to the Pope to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the congregation, in a March 16 letter advised the changes were going into effect. Pope John Paul II had called for a shift in the 2001 document “Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela (Protection of the Holiness),” which outlines how serious crimes against Church law should be handled.

Msgr. Charles Scicluna, a prosecutor in the congregation, said the Holy Father decided to refer such cases to the congregation because it has more experience in dealing with them.

The crimes include the sexual abuse of minors, the wire service reported, crimes concerning the Eucharist — such as the sacrilegious use of the host — and crimes concerning the confessional.

Keep Sundays for God, Not Sports, Pope Says

THE AUSTRALIAN, March 29 — Pope John Paul II warned Australian bishops in Rome for their ad limina visit that “the pernicious ideology of secularism has found fertile ground” in their country.

Rather than play sports on Sundays, the Holy Father said, Australians should attend Mass.

“When Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes subordinate to a secular concept of ‘weekend’ dominated by such things as entertainment and sport, people stay locked within a horizon so narrow that they no longer see the heavens,” John Paul said.

Only 15% of Australian Catholics attend Mass each week, the newspaper noted, and during the past five years there has been a 13% drop in attendance.

One mother of three, however, agreed with the Pope.

“As a country we're sports-obsessed,” she said. “Sunday should be a family day — Mass and then a baked dinner afterward. Like it was in the 1950s.”