Darkness Yields to Vigil's Light

SPOKESMAN REVIEW, April 4—"Unlike past years, John Paul's homily for the [Holy Saturday] Easter Vigil was strictly religious, making no mention of the war over Kosovo,” preferring to “stress divine love as the hope of the world,” reported the Spokane, WA, newspaper.

“The only hint of the Balkan bloodshed was symbolic, in the selection of faithful from many nations for baptism in the ceremony — this year, including one from Albania, as well as Cape Verde, China, France, Morocco and Hungary,” continued the paper.

The Pope also scrapped a prepared Good Friday text that referred to Kosovo, although he did deplore the triumph of “the culture of death.”

Norms for Colleges Deemed Not Necessary

COMMONWEAL, April 9 — The magazine has urged the U.S. bishops not to approve proposed juridical norms for Catholic colleges and universities when they meet in November.

The juridcal norms are called for under Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, which outlines standards necessary for a college to be truly Catholic.

The Catholic journal of religion, public affairs and culture made its plea in a special six-article supplement, “Keeping Colleges Catholic.” Commonweal said the juridical norms before the bishops “would irredeemably alter the character and mission of U.S. Catholic higher education, both for those schools who accept the canonical requirements and for those who demur.”