NEWS

TORONTO - Fr. Richard Veltri of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society was a good friend who loved to laugh and a compassionate pastor who knew how to listen.

In recent years Fr. Veltri had struggled with a number of ailments. He died Sept. 12 at the age of 77.

As a man who spoke his mind freely and forcefully, Fr. Veltri was never unnoticed in the Scarboro Missions community, said Scarboro Mission priest Fr. Roger Brennan.

"He was a character, one of those people who adds a certain flavour to the community — a little something different," he said.

ACCRA, Ghana - The church must strengthen its role in observing and monitoring elections in African countries where electoral violence prevails, said church representatives from 20 African nations.

Noting that 12 African countries are scheduled to hold elections before the end of 2011 and 14 others in 2012, participants in a mid-September conference organized by Catholic Relief Services and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar said that "poor governance is often the source of intimidation, violence or conflicts in Africa during and after elections."

"More often than not," elections in Africa have been manipulated "to satisfy selfish or partisan interests to the detriment of the common good," participants said in statement signed by Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra. Other signers included chairs of their national bishops' justice and peace commissions: Bishop Paul Bemile of Wa, Ghana; Bishop Alexio Churu Muchabaiwa of Mutare, Zimbabwe; and Bishop Gbaya Boniface Ziri of Abengourou, Ivory Coast.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said his Sept. 22-25 trip to Germany would focus on restoring God's place in individual and social life -- as creator, spiritual guide and force for good.

The pope made the remarks in a videotaped message broadcast Sept. 17 by the German state television network. A transcript was made public by the Vatican.

Saying he was very much looking forward to his third visit to his homeland as pope, he previewed some of the main events, including his address to the German Parliament, Mass in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, visits to the Catholic enclave of Eichsfeld and a youth vigil with young people in Freiburg.

GENEVA - Scientifically, and not just morally, the best way to prevent maternal deaths is to improve the medical care offered to pregnant women, not divert needed resources into promoting contraception and abortion, a Vatican official said.

The international community "has made insufficient progress in preventing about 350,000 deaths that occur annually during pregnancy and childbirth," said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican observer to U.N. agencies in Geneva.

The archbishop took part in a Sept. 15 U.N. Human Rights Council discussion on "adopting a human rights-based approach" to reducing maternal mortality.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict has named Italian Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza to be the new nuncio to the Czech Republic, transferring him from his post as ambassador to Ireland.

The Vatican announced the change Sept. 15; it had been rumored for months.

Archbishop Leanza had been nuncio to Ireland since February 2008 and was temporarily called back to the Vatican in late July after Irish government officials publicly criticized the Vatican and accused it of being unhelpful to Irish bishops who wanted to enact stronger measures to protect children in the midst of the clerical sexual abuse crisis.

TORONTO - As campaign-style signs went up at Toronto's Anglican St. James Cathedral and other churches around Ontario Sept. 15, Ryerson University political science professor Myer Siemiatycki suggested provincial politicians look to the prophet Isaiah for a crucial plank in their platform.

"Loose the bonds of injustice, undo the thongs of the yoke, let the oppressed go free... share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house," reads Isaiah 58:6-7, the traditional reading in Siemiatycki's synagogue for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Oct. 8 this year).

"That's a hell of a political platform," Siemiatycki told a crowd of Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition supporters gathered outside the cathedral to erect signs that read "Let's Vote for a Poverty Free Ontario." Siemiatycki was there on behalf of Toronto's Darchei Noam synagogue, a member of ISARC.

SYDNEY - The primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion said he left the Catholic priesthood years ago after being sexually abused as a seminarian and young priest in the 1960s and 1970s.

Archbishop John Hepworth, leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a breakaway group of Anglicans seeking membership in the Anglican ordinariate established by Pope Benedict XVI, told The Australian newspaper about his ordeal after he said his complaint against the one surviving alleged abuser was not investigated by the archdiocese of Adelaide.

Similar complaints filed against two now-deceased priests in the archdiocese of Melbourne led to a compensation payment to Hepworth, the newspaper reported.

The case became embroiled in controversy after an Australian senator publicly identified the accused living priest, despite privacy and legal concerns raised by Church officials.

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney joined the debate when he said that public confidence in the integrity of the Catholic Church's procedures in handling reports of clergy sex abuse is vital in obtaining justice for victims and all concerned parties.

Hepworth told The Australian that he filed a six-page formal complaint with Church officials in Adelaide in March 2008 and followed it up with several other detailed statements. When he inquired about the status of his case earlier this year, Hepworth said he was told the inquiry was still in a "preliminary stage" because he had not filed a formal complaint.

Hepworth, 67, said the abuse started in 1960, when he was 15 and enrolled at St. Francis Xavier Seminary in Adelaide, and continued for 12 years. He said two priests and a seminarian who went on to become ordained committed the abuse.

Despite his ordeal, Hepworth was ordained a Catholic priest and stayed with the Church until 1972, when he moved to England. He became an Anglican and then a priest in the Anglican Church, rising to his current position in the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion.

Sen. Nick Xenophon fueled the story by naming the sole living priest as Msgr. Ian Dempsey, a parish priest in Brighton in the Adelaide archdiocese. Dempsey has denied the abuse claim.

Xenophon said he revealed the priest's name because the Adelaide archdiocese had refused to place Dempsey under administrative leave pending the outcome of its investigation.

The archdiocese, headed by Archbishop Philip Wilson, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, had asked the senator to refrain from naming the priest in the interest of justice. The archdiocese said in a statement after the priest was identified that it was "surprised and disappointed" by Xenophon's action.

"The fact that the senator has taken this action is a matter of grave concern to us because it has the potential to interfere with the orderly process of what is already a very difficult and complex matter," the statement said.

"In our view it is inappropriate and unfair for these matters to be aired in public whilst our investigation remains on foot and when the priest concerned has categorically denied the allegation."

Dempsey said in his own statement that he was aware of Hepworth's allegation, which he called unsubstantiated.

"I have made it clear in writing to the inquiry that I categorically deny the allegations, which I note are said to relate to events that occurred some 45 years ago and have nothing at all to do with underage people," he said.

In an earlier statement, the Adelaide archdiocese rejected "any suggestions that there has been no investigation, or a delayed investigation, of allegations made by Archbishop Hepworth."

"Contrary to suggestions made by Archbishop Hepworth, the process, which has been under way for some time, was specifically designed to cater (to) Archbishop Hepworth's understandable emotional sensitivity concerning this matter," a spokeswoman said.

In Sydney, Pell said he was "deeply sorry for his (Hepworth's) suffering and appalled at what he has experienced."

"The task now is to ensure that the complaint he has made to the Adelaide archdiocese is carried forward expeditiously according to the Church's Towards Healing protocol and the demands of natural justice. The public needs to be assured that the matter is being handled appropriately," he said.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has given the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X a formal "doctrinal preamble" listing several principles they must agree with in order to move toward full reconciliation with church.

U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave the statement to Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the society, Sept. 14 during a meeting at the Vatican that lasted more than two hours.

Although the Vatican did not give the society a deadline, in order to move toward full reconciliation, leaders are expected to study and sign the preamble "within a few months," said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

MONTREAL - When Montreal Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Dowd came to the microphone after his Sept. 10  ordination, he paused, his smartphone in hand, pressed “Send,” and announced: “I just updated my Twitter account: It’s official. I’m a bishop.”

One day shy of his 41st birthday when Montreal Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte ordained him, Dowd already had established himself as a blogging priest, adept in social media and the new evangelization. His blog and Twitter account now follow his service in the episcopate.

Turcotte also ordained Auxiliary Bishop Christian Lepine, 59.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Several victims of clerical sexual abuse, a U.S.-based organization for survivors and a U.S.-based human rights organization formally asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Pope Benedict XVI and other top Vatican officials on charges they bear a responsibility for the abuse of children by Catholic priests around the world.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and their attorneys from the Centre for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based organization, presented their petition to the court Sept. 13, they announced in a press release.

The Vatican press office declined comment.