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Benin's Cardinal Bernardin Gantin represents a "tree of iron" as Dean of the College of Cardinals     Our fourty-fifth red hat we feature, in alphabetical order is 77 year-old Cardinal Bernardin Gantin current Dean of the College of Cardinals and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He is considered by many the "cornerstone" of the new, positive African influence on the Church. He was elevated to the cardinalate on June 27, 1977 during the last Consistory held by Pope Paul VI. For more on Cardinal Gantin, click on COLLEGE OF CARDINALS COLLECTION

TODAY'S HEADLINES: Three more join ranks of sainthood during canonization by Pope at St. Peter's on Sunday Camps being formed by Catholic bishops regarding War in Kosovo - Brits for it, Spanish against it. Papal itinerary set for ambitious two-week return to Pope's Polish roots in June Burundi bishops unite against Rwanda's president in show of force in protest of archbishop's arrest These headlines and more are featured in today's NEWS & VIEWS below.

Message to the Americas:
Take responsibility for your actions and your fellow man's as well - be your brother's keeper
    Following up a year after the Bishops of North, Central and South America, along with the Caribbean contingent, met for the month-long Synod of the Americas in Rome at the end of 1997, Pope John Paul II officially closed the Synod with his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America at Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Mexico City in January 1999. Because of its significance for all Americans, we bring you this important document in several installments over the next few months. For those wanting to read the entire encyclical or check footnotes, go to Ecclesia in America For the eighth installment on Chapter Two: Encountering Jesus Christ in America Today - The burden of external debt , click on THE VICAR OF CHRIST SPEAKS.

RENEW 2000 dangles the lure of being legitimate while beneath the surface the hook is connected to the Call To Action line. The result: hook, line and sinker!
    In his column today, Pat Ludwa expands on his piece from last week regarding the heretical Call To Action group by proving that the recent addition of RENEW 2000 is merely a front for the former. But in being the "front" they are trying to legitimize something that still remains the stinking carcass of a dead fish in this radical group's efforts to pollute the waters of Holy Mother Church. For Pat's column Bait and hook: RENEW 2000, click on VIEW FROM THE PEW

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We must take care not to be too full of ourselves?
    They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the words of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen have been known to launch a thousand images in one's mind, one of the ways this late luminary did so much to evangelize the faith. Because of the urgency of the times and because few there are today who possess the wisdom, simplicity and insight than the late Archbishop who touched millions, we are bringing you daily gems from his writings. The good bishop makes it so simple that we have dubbed this daily series: "SIMPLY SHEEN".

"Nothing so stands in the way of our progress towards God as egotism, and the egotist is always full of self-deceit, of "sacred" faults he will not renounce, nor even admit he has. That is why the egotist in all of us requires a pitiless searching-out of every hidden nook and corner of our mind."

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Events in Church History     On this date in 1054 Pope Saint Leo IX died. As the 152nd successor of Peter, he took the bitter but necessary step of excommunicating the Eastern Patriarch Michel Cerularius which began the Eastern Schism still in effect today. For other pertinent events throughout the centuries that are memorable in Church history today, click on MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES

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"Do not grumble, or judge, for God alone sees the heart. The trials increase for all. Therefore, pray! Pray! Pray!"     Those words from the Blessed Mother were imparted to the Hidden Flower of the Immaculate Heart in Message #483 five years ago on the Third Sunday of Easter on April 17, 1994 as Our Lady beseeches us to toe the line and pray especially for her beloved Pope John Paul II. In her follow-up Message #484 on April 21, 1994 Mary asks us to not allow satan to be able to divide and conquer for that is what causes her such sorrow. She again asks for our prayers and our faith in the battle with the evil one. For Messages #483 and #484 from Jesus, click on "I SOLEMNLY TELL YOU..."

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WORLDWIDE
NEWS & VIEWS
with a Catholic slant provided by
Catholic World News Service

and Noticias Eclesiales Church News

HEADLINES:
Holy Father canonizes three saints from the nineteenth century
    The Holy Father elevated three more to sainthood yesterday when he canonized three religious founders, two Italian and one French, all from the nineteenth century. Two bridged the 19th and 20th centuries: Saint Giovanni Calabria, an Italian priest from Verona who founded the Congregations for the Poor Servants of Divine Mercy and died at the age of 81 in 1954, and Saint Agostina Livia Petrantoni, founder of the Sisters of Charity who was martyred by an angry patient in 1913 at the age of 49. The other was Saint Marcelino Champagnat, a French brother who founded the Marist Brothers in the aftermath of the French Revolution. For more, click on New Saints.

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Britain's Bishops back bombing barrage while Spanish Bishops call for prayer as petition for peace
           While the United States cardinals and a majority of bishops spoke out strongly against the bombing, their British counterparts approved the NATO bombing as necessary. We doubt the Holy Father would agree with that; he would be more in line with what the Spanish Bishops' Conference call for: Prayers. For more, click on The Balkans.

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Pope's Poland Pilgrimage set, will entail one of longest of his Pontificate
    The Vatican released the extensive itinerary for Pope John Paul II's return in two months to his beloved homeland of Poland. It will be his eighth visit back since he became Pope in 1978, all but two during June, and it will be his longest extended stay there, covering nearly two full weeks which will entail twenty different cities from June 5 to June 17. It will be a nostalgic journey for the 81 year-old Polish Pontiff who will not only visit the graves of his parents, but beatify over one hundred Nazi martyrs and canonize Blessed Sister Cunegonde Kinga after celebrating the millennial Mass for the Archdiocese of Krakow. For more, click on Polish pilgrimage .

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Burundi Bishops balk at bowing to Rwanda's president after arrest of Gikongoro's Archbishop last week
    In a show of solidarity and certain protest to the arrest of their fellow bishop Archbishop Augustine Misago of Gikongoro, the Bishops of Burundi refused to meet with Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu the man who arrested Archbishop Misago on false claims of mutiny five years ago. Bizimungu is in Burundi for the week and the Burundian government had hoped there would be a meeting of the minds between the Catholic hiearchy and civic leaders. Not while Misago remains imprisoned. For more, click on Protest in Burundi

For more headlines and articles, we suggest Catholic World News site at the CWN home page and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales Both CWN and NE are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provides this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.

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Daily Dose of curious contents of the Church:
College of
Cardinals      Today's featured cardinal Cardinal Bernardin Gantin has been the Dean of the College of Cardinals since June 5, 1993. Selection, rank, roles and preogatives for this august body are regulated by Canons 349 through 359 in the Code of Canon Law. This venerable group had its origins at the turn of the first century when Pope Saint Evaristus founded the first seven diaconates entrusted to senior priests. It would be constituted in its current form and categories of membership during the twelfth century, specifically during the papacy of Pope Alexander III in 1179 when he decreed that the selection of cardinals would be reserved exclusively for the Pope to choose. In 1586, Pope Sixtus V set the maximum number of cardinals at seventy. In 1918 Pope Benedict XV established that cardinals must be priests and Pope John XXIII in 1962 decreed that all cardinals be bishops. Presently there are 117 eligible cardinals out of 158 today. As we detailed in past issues, since 1971 the age limit has been 80. Once they reach that age, they can no longer take part in papal elections or hold office or membership in curial departments. They do, however, retain all membership privileges of the College of Cardinals. There are three categories of cardinals, cardinal bishops, comprisinging 6 titular bishops of suburban Rome, cardinal priests made up of bishops outside of Rome, and cardinal deacons who serve in the Curia. For more we recommend New Advent Catholic Supersite on the Sacred Conclave. (source: 1999 Catholic Almanac, Our Sunday Visitor).

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