Rome to Name First Puerto Rican Blessed

ASSOCIATED PRESS , April 12 –– A delegation of about 2,000 pilgrims will travel from Puerto Rico to Rome in late April to witness the first beatification of a Puerto Rican, the news service reported.

Bishop Ruben Gonzalez Medina will preside at a ceremony in the eastern city of Caguas on April 24 to bless the travelers going in honor of Carlos Manuel Rodríguez.

Rodríguez, who was born in Caguas in 1918 and died of cancer in 1963, is cited for interceding to cure a woman's lung cancer in 1981. The Church later recognized the cure as miraculous.

Rodríguez's cousin, Margarita Garcia Santiago, recalls that he was dedicated to God since early childhood.

"One day when he was only 2 or 3 years old –– no older than that –– his mother found him lying on the floor with his arms in the form of a cross, asking ‘Father God, take me with you to heaven,’” she told the news service.

Garcia Santiago plans to travel to Rome with Rodríguez's sister, Carmelite Sister Haydee.

"Puerto Rico has to realize that no matter what sort of atmosphere we live in,” Sister Haydee said, “if we follow the plan of God, there is no need to be burned by the evils of society.”

South Korean Christians Look North

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE , APRIL 12 –– As North Korea cautiously begins to open its formerly locked borders, Christian groups from the South are making contact with underground Christians in the Communist north, the weekly reported.

Overtures by South Korean Christians to their co-religionists in the north are both furtive and open, the Herald Tribune said. Some smuggle tiny Bibles into the country and have set up secret way stations in China to assist and enlist the growing number of desperate Koreans who cross the border for food. Other Christian groups openly send food and other supplies to North Korea in backpacks and bags.

Despite North Korea's official policy of religious tolerance and expanded activities of the government-sanctioned churches, proselytism is still seen as a threat to the regime and can bring a death sentence. The State Department's Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 1999 said that “genuine religious freedom does not exist” in North Korea.

Shared Easter Brings Rare Note of Unity

MOSCOW TIMES , April 16 –– Some Russians saw special significance in the joint celebration of Easter this year by Russian Orthodox and Western Christians, the daily reported. It was the first time in 11 years that the two traditions have marked the holiday on the same date.

This year's Easter is the first of the new millennium. The fact that it coincided this year with Catholic observance of the holiday caused some to press for a resolution of conflicts between the two Churches.

"Joint Easter celebrations this special year are a good sign, and yet another reminder that Christians should find a way to work together,” Metropolitan Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church told the Interfax news agency.

President Vladimir Putin added to the spirit of reconciliation on Easter with holiday greetings to the nation's Catholics, in addition to those to Orthodox believers. “With all my heart I congratulate Russia's Catholics on Easter,” the president said in his greetings. He added: “I believe that Easter celebrations will prove beneficial to the development of an interconfessional dialogue, attainment of mutual understanding and tolerance among people.”