China Attacks Late Cardinal Kung

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, March 14 — Chinese officials gave one last jab at Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-mei, the symbol of Chinese Catholics’ allegiance to the Pope, who died March 12, accusing him of having been “manipulated by hostile foreign forces,” the French news service reported.

“There's nothing unusual about his death, it is the law of nature and we are opposed to anyone using it for ulterior motives,” a spokeswoman of China's religious affairs office said.

Spokeswoman Zhao Lei said Cardinal Kung was handed a life sentence in 1955 for “counter-revolutionary treason” but was allowed to leave China in 1985 for medical treatment.

At Cardinal Kung's March 18 funeral Mass in Stamford, Conn., papal envoy Cardinal Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, expressed Pope John Paul II's gratitude for Cardinal Kung's lifelong fidelity to the universal Church.

Graham Makes Plea for Sudan

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, March 15 — Sounding a cry frequently heard from the Vatican, Franklin Graham of Samaritan's Purse criticized Western nations for not responding to the ongoing genocide being carried out by Sudan's Islamic regime against Christians and animists.

In an op-ed piece for the Journal, the son of evangelist Billy Graham wrote, “The suffering in southern Sudan is the most appalling I have seen in 25 years as an international relief worker.” Added Graham, “I've seen the heart-wrenching suffering of Kosovar Albanians.

Sadly, the brutality in Sudan — where the U.S. has taken no action — has devastated and ended thousands more lives than the conflicts in the Balkans.

“Sudanese government troops routinely attack civilian and humanitarian targets, have prevented relief flights from carrying food and medical aid to famine-stricken areas, and abduct women and children, selling them to slave traders.

“When several thousand Europeans are killed and tens of thousands displaced the world calls it genocide. But when 1.9 million black Africans are killed and millions more are displaced, tortured and even sold into slavery, the world remains strangely silent. Western governments not only fail to take punitive action, they continue to trade openly with the government of Sudan.

“ ... I call on my fellow Americans everywhere, and particularly my fellow clergymen, to unite on this moral cause and ask our president to lead the international community to save the Christians in southern Sudan from butchery and slavery.”

Arsonists Take Aim at Priests in N. Ireland

THE UNIVERSE, March 12 — Arsonists are believed to be behind the burning of four cars owned by priests in Northern Ireland, the British weekly reported. Father Joseph Quinn, one of the priests who had to be evacuated from his house when the blaze started, told the Universe: “It is highly probable Loyalists were responsible for this fire. I would be surprised if it was anything else. That's certainly the belief.”

As the fire tore through the garage, a fully-armed rocket launcher was discovered abandoned in a garden across town, the paper reported. No one was injured in the blaze.