Struggling Catholic schools strategize to draw new students

By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO (Reuters) - For years, headlines about Catholic schools in the United States have told gloomy tales of falling enrollment and multiple closings.

Between 2000 and 2013, 2,090 U.S. Catholic schools closed or consolidated and enrollment fell 24.5 percent, according to the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA). In places like Chicago's Leo Catholic High School for boys, student numbers have plummeted from 1,200 students in the 1950s to 157 this year. In New York, the Catholic Archdiocese plans to close 24 schools.

This decline has implications for public schools throughout the nation, say Catholic school supporters. According to the NCEA, the 2 million U.S. students they serve save the nation approximately $21 billion a year in public school costs.

But while schools are closing in northeastern and Great Lakes cities, they're expanding in places like Indiana, Texas, North Carolina and Florida, which have growing Catholic populations, governments willing to support private school, or both.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, for example, Cardinal Gibbons High School has expanded three times since 1994 and now has two facilities for 1,240 students.

"Enrollment in this area is very, very strong," said diocesan superintendent Michael Fedewa. When he came to Raleigh 19 years ago there were so few Catholics it was considered "missionary territory." The diocese has since opened eight new schools.

Nationally, 32 percent of Catholic schools have waiting lists, showing the mismatch between space and demand.

LOSS OF CHEAP LABOR FORCE

Catholic schools took root in the United States when 19th century church officials, responding to anti-Catholic sentiment in public schools, urged every parish to build its own school. Enrollments peaked in the early 1960s, when there were more than 5.2 million students.

Staffed by religious orders like the Jesuits, the schools gained reputations for discipline and academic rigor. Catholic schools outscore public schools in reading and math significantly, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. For eighth-grade reading, for example, Catholic school scores were 7.2 percent higher, the NAEP found.

Graduates joke about getting smacked by nuns but brag about their education. "In my time as an editor, I could always pick out which reporters went to Catholic school, because they could spell," said Leo President Dan McGrath, a former Chicago Tribune editor.

Reasons for declining enrollment include climbing costs and demographic changes - smaller families and the departure of parents with children from northeastern and Great Lakes cities for the suburbs or for jobs in the south and west, according to Catholic school experts. The clergy sex-abuse scandal hasn't helped either.

The expansion of charter schools, which offer an alternative to traditional public schools and charge no tuition, have also hurt Catholic schools. About one in three students gained by charter schools in New York State came at the expense of Catholic schools, according to a new study by Abraham M. Lackman, scholar in residence at the Graduate School of Education, Fordham University.

Where Catholic schools are growing, it's often because of innovative ideas, voucher systems, and outreach programs for growing numbers of Hispanic immigrant children.

Money is a big problem. The number of religious sisters has declined from nearly 180,000 in 1965 to 54,000 in 2012, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, or CARA. That has meant a large loss of cheap labor. Only 3.2 percent of the professionals at today's Catholic schools are clergy or in religious orders, compared with 90.1 percent in 1950, the NCEA said.

"They're replacing low-paid nuns with medium-paid lay people," said Charles Zech, an economics professor at Villanova University near Philadelphia and a specialist in church finances. Whereas lay teachers receive modest salaries, nuns receive "very small" annual stipends, room and board in the convent, and no pension, Zech explained.

Another issue is that Catholics on average give 1.2 percent of their income to the church, compared with 2.5 percent given by Protestants, Zech said. "At least since the mid-60s, we've seen a pattern of Catholics giving half of Protestants."

Weekly church attendance among Catholics fell from 47 percent in 1974 to 24 percent in 2012, according to the Pew Research Center. The clergy abuse scandal, which cost the U.S. church about $3 billion in settlements, and disagreement over the ban on contraception helped drive some people away, according to a Pew study. Less in the collection plate means less to subsidize school tuition.

Catholic school experts worry that soaring tuition is pricing out the low- and middle-income children the Church is supposed to serve. Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, school superintendent for the Chicago archdiocese, recalled how in the mid-1960s she apologized to her parents because her high school tuition rose to $470 (almost $3,000 in today's dollars).

Now tuition averages $3,673 a year for Catholic grade school and $9,622 for high school. The K-12 cost for private school averages $20,612, according to the National Association of Independent Schools. McCaughey said some families are afraid to even consider Catholic school, though scholarships are available.

School officials hope smart planning can save schools. In New York, the diocese is trying to improve its finances by closing underused schools, creating regional centers of control and bringing in help from lay experts for "our Achilles' heels" - marketing, finance and building management, said Timothy J. McNiff, school superintendent for the New York archdiocese.

Right-sizing has been painful. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor told the New York Times she was "heartbroken" that her old Bronx grade school, Blessed Sacrament, would close. The Philadelphia archdiocese closed 34 schools last year.

The Chicago archdiocese will close five schools this year but has seen signs of a turnaround, with city elementary enrollment up three years in a row. McCaughey said young parents in gentrifying neighborhoods and a seven-day public school strike last fall are helping to boost the numbers.

LOOKING FOR TAX SUBSIDIES AND CHARITY

In Indiana, a voucher program for low- and middle-income students has been a boon for Catholic schools. In the archdiocese of Indianapolis alone, the number of voucher students more than doubled from 2012 to 2013, to 2,328.

"We've had to open up new classrooms," said Gina Fleming, assistant superintendent for schools. "We're finally able to provide a desired Catholic education to families who wanted it all along."

Teachers' unions oppose vouchers because they drain money from public schools, and such a program is unlikely in Democrat-majority states like New York and Illinois. Catholic school officials see more hope in programs that allow individuals and corporations to allocate part of their state taxes toward private-school scholarships. Fourteen such programs exist in 11 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Catholic schools also are pushing for more private charity to help needy students.

"We try to turn nobody away for financial reasons. If they really want to come here, we try to find a way to make it work," said Leo's McGrath, whose desk is piled with letters to potential donors. One selling point: over the last five years, every Leo senior has graduated and gotten into college.

ATTRACTING HISPANICS

Many dioceses have seen an increase in the Catholic population due to Hispanic immigrants. But while Hispanics make up nearly 40 percent of U.S. Catholics, they account for just 14 percent of Catholic school students.

The problem is partly cultural. While U.S. Catholic schools have long taken children of various income levels, the schools are seen by many Latin American immigrants as only for the rich. So schools have to let Hispanic families know they're wanted, and explain that scholarships are available.

"You can't do that by giving them a pamphlet," said Raleigh's Fedewa. "You have to build relationships."

The diocese of Venice, Florida, worked directly with the pastor of a majority-Hispanic parish. He in turn reached out to 10 leading parish families to spread the word about Catholic school.

Bringing in Hispanics means being more culturally aware - from hanging images of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico's famous icon, in the hall to having more chairs outside the office to accommodate extended families, said Kathleen Schwartz, diocesan education director.

The other way to expand Catholic schools is by offering innovative, competitive ideas, said Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill, head of the Roche Center for Catholic Education at Boston College.

She cited St. Jerome grade school in Hyattsville, Maryland, a school that's not in a wealthy area but is attracting parents willing to pay for a classical education that includes Latin and rhetoric.

Another example is Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Washington, D.C., where students work one day a week at a designated job partner. This helps teach real-world skills and pay for tuition.

Above all, according to Lorraine Ozar, director of the Center for Catholic School Effectiveness at Loyola University, schools must be true to their religious function: "to communicate the person of Jesus and the worldview that comes out of Gospel values ... We need that kind of school now even more than we did before."

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Arlene Getz and Prudence Crowther)

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Benedict XVI returns to Vatican for first time

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI came home to the Vatican on Thursday for the first time since he resigned Feb. 28, beginning an unprecedented era for the Catholic Church of having a retired pontiff living alongside a reigning one.

Pope Francis welcomed Benedict outside his new retirement home — a converted monastery on the edge of the Vatican gardens — and the two immediately went into the adjoining chapel to pray together, the Vatican said.

The Vatican said Benedict, 86, was pleased to be back and that he would — as he himself has said — "dedicate himself to the service of the church above all with prayer." Francis, the statement said, welcomed him with "brotherly cordiality."

A photo released by the Vatican showed the two men, arms clasped and both smiling, standing inside the doorway of Benedict's new home as Benedict's secretary looks on.

Unlike the live, door-to-door Vatican-provided television coverage that accompanied Benedict's emotional farewell in February, the Vatican provided no television images of his return Thursday.

The low-key approach followed the remarkable yet somewhat alarming images transmitted on March 23 when Francis went to visit Benedict at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, where Benedict was living. In that footage, Benedict appeared visibly more frail and thinner only three weeks after resigning.

Some Vatican officials questioned whether those images should have been released, given how frail Benedict appeared. Thursday's photo showed no obvious signs of further decline.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, has acknowledged Benedict's post-retirement decline but has insisted the 86-year-old German isn't suffering from any specific ailment and is just old.

"He is a man who is not young: He is old and his strength is slowly ebbing," Lombardi said this week. "However, there is no special illness. He is an old man who is healthy."

Benedict chose to leave the Vatican immediately after his resignation to physically remove himself from the process of electing his successor and from Pope Francis' first weeks as pontiff.

His absence also gave workers time to finish up renovations on the monastery tucked behind St. Peter's Basilica that until last year housed groups of cloistered nuns who were invited for a few years at a time to live inside the Vatican to pray.

In the compact, four-story building, Benedict will live with his personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, and the four consecrated women who look after him, preparing his meals and tending to the household. The building also has a small library, a study and a guest room for when his brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, comes to visit.

"It is certainly small but well-equipped," Lombardi said.

When Benedict announced his intention to resign — the first pontiff to do so in 600 years — questions immediately swirled about the implications of having two popes living alongside one another inside the Vatican.

Benedict fueled those concerns when he chose to be called "emeritus pope" and "Your Holiness" rather than "emeritus bishop of Rome." He also raised eyebrows when he chose to continue wearing the white cassock of the papacy.

Given the political intrigues that plague the Vatican, it wasn't much of a stretch of the imagination to wonder if some cardinals, bishops and monsignors — not to mention ordinary Catholics — might continue making Benedict their point of reference rather than the new pope.

But Benedict made clear on his final day as pope that he was renouncing the job and pledged his "unconditional reverence and obedience" to his then-unknown successor. It was a pledge he repeated in person on March 23 when Francis went to have lunch with him.

It was during that visit that the world saw how weak Benedict had become: Always a man with a purposeful walk, he shuffled tentatively that day, using his cane.

Francis, for his part, seems utterly unfazed by the novel situation. He has frequently invoked Benedict's name and work and has called him on a half-dozen occasions, making clear he has no intention of ignoring the fact that there's another pope still very much alive and now living on the other side of the garden.

Francis' gestures to Benedict during that March 23 visit were also remarkable: He refused to pray on the special papal kneeler in the small chapel of Castel Gandolfo, preferring to join Benedict on a kneeler in the pews, and referring to his predecessor as his "brother."

Now that they're neighbors, they might bump into one another on walks in the Vatican gardens or at the shrine to the Madonna, which is just a stone's throw from Benedict's new home.

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US panel: Afghans need more religious freedom

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Despite significant improvements since the hard-line Taliban ruled Afghanistan, religious freedom remains poor, especially for minorities, and Afghans still can't debate religion or question prevailing Islamic orthodoxies without fear of being punished, a U.S. commission said in a new report on Tuesday.

As the country braces for next year's presidential election and the planned withdrawal of most foreign combat troops by the end of 2014, the panel urges the U.S. government and its allies to work harder to promote religious rights in the war-torn nation.

The environment for exercising religious freedom remains "exceedingly poor" for dissenting members of Afghanistan's Sunni Muslim majority and for minorities, such as Shiite Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its report.

"Individuals who dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy regarding Islamic beliefs and practices are subject to legal actions that violate international standards," according to the commission, which was created in 1998 to review violations of religious freedom internationally and make policy recommendations to the U.S. government.

"The Taliban and other non-state actors continue to target individuals for activity deemed 'un-Islamic,' and the Afghanistan constitution fails explicitly to protect the individual right to freedom of religion or belief."

An Afghan government official disputed the findings.

"The Afghan government is fully committed to ensuring religious freedom for followers of all religions in Afghanistan, something our constitution is very clear about," Janan Mosazai, spokesman for the Afghan foreign ministry, said in an email to The Associated Press. Mosazai said that even though Islam is Afghanistan's official religion, the constitution clearly states that "followers of other faiths shall be free within the bounds of law in the exercise and performance of their religious rituals."

In its 2013 annual report, USCIRF praises that clause of Afghanistan's 2004 constitution, but notes that another part of the charter says these fundamental rights can be superseded by ordinary legislation. This shortcoming is compounded by "a vague, repugnancy clause" that says no law can be contrary to Islam and allows courts to enforce it, the commission says.

In addition, the penal code discriminates against minorities by allowing courts to defer to Shariah, or Islamic law, in cases involving matters such as apostasy and conversion that are not explicitly addressed by the penal code or the constitution, resulting in those charges being punishable by death, the report says.

Because of legal restrictions, "Afghans cannot debate the role and content of religion in law and society, advocate for the rights of women and religious minorities, or question interpretations of Islamic precepts without fear of retribution or being charged with religious "crimes' such as apostasy, blasphemy or insulting Islam," USCIRF says.

Religious freedom is especially repressed in areas heavily controlled by the Taliban, which governs by their own interpretation of Islamic law, the report said.

It cited two cases in 2010-2011 during which Afghans accused of converting to Christianity were prosecuted in the courts for apostasy, but later released. USCIRF also noted that marriage is formally restricted to Muslims and that non-Muslims are allowed to marry as long as they do not publicly express their faith.

"The few Afghan Christians, converts from Islam or their children, long have been forced to conceal their faith and cannot worship openly," the report said. "The situation for Christians worsened in 2010, when authorities arrested 26 Christians. After their release, many fled to India, where they have applied for refugee status due to a fear of religious persecution."

Despite restrictions on religious freedom, Afghanistan has been largely spared the sectarian violence that has roiled Iraq and neighboring Pakistan.

Afghanistan recorded its first major sectarian assault since the fall of the Taliban regime in December 2011 when a suicide bomber slaughtered 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 outside a Shiite shrine in the capital. The Taliban condemned the attack, and suspicion about who was to blame centered on militant groups based in Pakistan, where Sunni attacks on minority Shiites are common.

Some violence in Afghanistan, however, does have religious overtones.

In November 2012, Sunni and Shiite students clashed at Kabul University on a Shiite holy day, and at least one person was killed. That same month, Afghan security personnel and local residents reportedly prevented Sikhs from performing cremation ceremonies for their deceased relatives, the report said.

In an earlier court case not cited by USCIRF, Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, a journalism student, was condemned for blasphemy in 2008, for distributing material found on the Internet questioning women's rights under Islam, and sentenced to death. However, a court later commuted the sentence to 20 years and President Hamid Karzai then pardoned the student.

Mosazai said the state of religious freedom in Afghanistan today must be compared with the suffering and brutality that people of all faiths suffering during the 1990s, first during the civil war, then under the Taliban regime.

He praised USCIRF for a passage in the report saying that since then, "conditions for religious freedom have markedly improved, especially for religious minorities."

USCIRF concludes its report by recommending that the U.S. and its allies "increase and strengthen diplomatic, development and military engagement to promote human rights, especially religious freedom." It also urges the U.S. to raise directly with Karzai "the importance of religious freedom, especially for dissenting Muslims, Muslim minorities and non-Muslim minorities."

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Pope accepts Peres' invitation to Israel

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Israeli President Shimon Peres invited Pope Francis on Tuesday to visit Israel, at his first meeting with the new pontiff who has appealed for peace in the Middle East.

The pope accepted the invitation "with willingness and joy," a Vatican spokesman said, but there was no indication when a trip would be made.

"I am expecting you in Jerusalem, not just me but the whole country of Israel," Peres told the pope in the presence of reporters after 30 minutes of private talks in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, made an appeal for peace between Israelis and Palestinians in his Easter address last month.

A Vatican statement said they discussed prospects for a resumption of negotiations for a solution that would respect "the legitimate aspirations of the two Peoples, thus decisively contributing to the peace and stability of the region".

They also agreed on the need for a political solution to the civil war in neighboring Syria.

Both of Francis's two immediate predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, visited the Holy Land, including Palestinian territories, in 2000 and 2009 respectively.

Peres asked Francis "to pray for all of us" and told the pope that he would pray for him during a trip on Wednesday to the central Italian city of Assisi, where he will visit the tomb of St. Francis, whose name Bergoglio adopted when elected pope.

Francis will travel to Rio de Janeiro in July to preside at the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Youth, a gathering of young people from around the world. He is expected to visit his native Argentina in early 2014.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Ohio archbishop offers support over class shooting

CINCINNATI (AP) — The Roman Catholic archbishop of Cincinnati expressed sadness and offered prayers Tuesday for a wounded student, his family and those in the school community in the aftermath of a classroom suicide attempt.

The student remained hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday as classes resumed at La Salle High School, an all-male Catholic school west of Cincinnati.

"We are all greatly saddened by the shooting," Archbishop Dennis Schnurr said in a statement. "We pray for the young man's recovery, not only from the self-inflicted wound but also from the personal challenges that led him to take this action."

The Cincinnati archdiocese covers 19 counties, including 114 Catholic primary and secondary schools. Schnurr said there are also prayers for family, the other students and the teacher who were in the classroom Monday morning and for the entire La Salle school community.

Green Township police said there were at least 21 other students in the first-period classroom Monday morning when the student attempted suicide with a semi-automatic handgun. They said no other students or staff were threatened.

The student is a junior and an honors student. He made the top honor roll on the most recent academic report and has been active in Boy Scouts. School spokesman Greg Tankersley said he has an extensive record of community service, and has been "highly involved" in school life.

Green Township police said they would review security at the school, but Chief Bart West said school officials reacted according to their safety plan Monday. The school was put in lockdown, and students were later dismissed to parents.

Improving school security has been a high priority around the state in the aftermath of last year's fatal shooting of three students at Chardon High School in northeast Ohio and the December shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Officials say the FBI and U.S. Secret Service have gotten involved in a bomb-threat investigation at Cuyahoga Falls in northeast Ohio, which was closed Monday as a precaution. There was a similar threat there in March.

The boy's family has requested privacy while they focus on efforts to save his life by the University of Cincinnati Medical Center doctors and staff.

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Police: NM church stabbing sparked by 'Mason' fear

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Lawrence Capener was shaking hands with his fellow churchgoers at Sunday Mass, exchanging the traditional peace offerings when people next to him noticed something strange — his hands were quite sweaty and clammy. Then, as the choir began singing a hymn to wrap up Mass, the man bolted from his pew, ran to the choir area and started stabbing the choir leader and others, witnesses said.

Parishioners screamed and ran for cover and others, including the church flutist, tried to subdue him. Police said the assailant thought the choir members were members of a secret society.

The episode caused panic among church members such as 12-year-old Jordan Schalow and his mother, Valerie, who had just heard the pastor at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church read a Gospel message about the importance of loving everyone and had the recent bombing in Boston on their mind.

Jordan had told his mom earlier, "Thank God. I'm in church and nothing bad is going to happen here."

Valerie Schalow said her husband, Gerald, sat next to Capener during services and had noticed him acting nervously. When he shook Capener's hand, she said her husband found them to be very sweaty. "My husband even had to go wash his hands after that," Schalow said.

The random and violent attack by the knife-wielding Capener, 24, sparked confusion and fear in the Albuquerque Westside church as the choir started singing "Take My Hand, Precious Lord."

According to a criminal complaint released Monday, Capener vaulted over pews and lashed out at choir director Adam Alvarez, who had his back toward him.

"I saw what was happening and I yelled at my husband," said Schalow, who ran out of the church with her three children. "The guy had been acting strange during Mass."

The complaint said church flutist Gerald Madrid saw Alvarez being attacked and attempted to "bear hug" Capener to try and stop him. Madrid was then stabbed five times in his back by Capener, authorities said.

"I instinctively just dropped my flute and I rushed the guy," Madrid said. "I never saw a knife, but I just rushed him."

At least two others were injured in the attack, police said.

Capener later told police that he was "99 percent sure Alvarez was a mason" and that he thought Alvarez was involved in a conspiracy.

He told the investigator that Masons are a group involved "in a conspiracy that is far more reaching than I could or would believe."

Capener, whose mother is active in the church, said he stabbed the others who tried to subdue him because he thought they might be Masons, too.

Among those to subdue Capener was off-duty Albuquerque Fire Department Lt. Greg Aragon, who then helped treat patients after the attack, authorities said. He was also stabbed in the attack and was later treated at a hospital and released.

The affidavit said Capener apologized for stabbing the others after he was read his rights and agreed to speak to police.

Masons are a fraternal group involved in charity and other community activities, but many of their rituals and symbols are secret.

Capener was charged on three counts of aggravated battery and ordered held on $250,000 bail.

St. Jude Thaddeus' pastor, the Rev. John Daniel, said Capener's mother was "very active" in the parish and serves as a Eucharistic minister there.

"He was here occasionally but not very often," Daniel said.

Daniel said that Capener had just graduated from a community college and appeared to be doing well after getting a job. "I think he's been struggling for a while, maybe with some (mental) health issues," Daniel said.

Both Alvarez and Madrid remained hospitalized Monday and their families said the men were recovering from wounds that were described as not life-threatening.

Services at the 3,000-member church resumed Monday. Parishioners stopped to leave flowers, notes and candles outside the church and at the church's shrine dedicated to St. Jude, the church's namesake and the Catholic Patron Saint of "lost causes."

In Mass homilies throughout the day, Daniel said he compared St. Catherine of Siena, who worked for peace in 14th century Italy, with the power of forgiveness.

Robynn Madrid, whose husband Gerald Madrid was recovering from the attack, said despite the pain Capener caused, she's already forgiven him. "We're praying for his family," she said.

Spanish choir member Richard Aragon said he, too, is trying to show compassion and forgiveness, even though he had trouble sleeping the night after the stabbing. Aragon was preparing for the upcoming Spanish services when the attack began.

"There's nothing you can do. There's obviously something...he's touched or something," Aragon said. "It already happened. It's too late."

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Pope accepts invite to Israel, urges peace talks

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume talks and make "courageous decisions" to bring peace after his first meeting with Israel's President Shimon Peres on Tuesday and accepted an invitation to visit the Holy Land.

The two discussed the civil war in Syria, tensions in Iran and the scourge of anti-Semitism during half an hour of private talks in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

The pope hoped for "a speedy resumption of negotiations" to reach an agreement that respected the legitimate aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians, the Vatican said.

Peres told the pope he believed "there is a chance" to open negotiations and called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "a genuine partner for peace", an Israeli statement added.

U.S.-sponsored negotiations on the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel stalled in 2010 over a dispute about Israeli settlements in occupied territories.

"I am expecting you in Jerusalem, not just me but the whole country of Israel," Peres told the pope in the presence of reporters after the talks.

The pope accepted the invitation "with willingness and joy", a Vatican spokesman said, but there was no indication when a trip would be made.

A statement from Peres said he and the pope discussed anti-Semitism and quoted the pope as telling Peres: "Anti-Semitism goes against Christianity - as Pope I will not tolerate any expression of anti-Semitism".

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, has focused on building up relations with Jewish leaders and, when he was archbishop, wrote a book with an Argentine rabbi, Abraham Skorka.

The Catholic Church's relations with Jews were revolutionized in 1965 by a Second Vatican Council document that repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus.

Both of Francis's two immediate predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, visited the Holy Land, including the Palestinian territories, in 2000 and 2009 respectively.

Peres asked Francis "to pray for all of us" and told the pope he would pray for him during a trip on Wednesday to the central Italian city of Assisi, where he will visit the tomb of St. Francis, whose name Bergoglio adopted when elected.

(Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Ex-Pope Benedict back at Vatican to live out retirement

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Benedict XVI moved back to the Vatican on Thursday, opening an uncertain era in Catholic Church history where an "emeritus pope" and a ruling pontiff will live as neighbors for the first time.

Benedict, the first pope to abdicate in 600 years, will live out his retirement in a restored convent in the Vatican gardens with a view of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica and just a short walk from the residence of his successor, Francis.

Benedict, 86, arrived by helicopter from Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence south of Rome, where he had been staying since February 28 while the convent was being restored.

Francis, 76, greeted Benedict in front of the convent, the first time they have met since March 23, when Francis visited Benedict at Castel Gandolfo and Benedict renewed a pledge of "unconditional reverence and obedience" to Francis.

A Vatican statement said the two later prayed together in the chapel of the small building, which also includes a library for the former theology professor, quarters for his aides and a guest room for his older brother, Georg, a monsignor.

"He is happy to be back at the Vatican ... where he intends to dedicate himself to the service of the Church, above all with prayer," it said.

Unlike on the day of his abdication and his March 23 meeting with Francis at Castel Gandolfo, Vatican television decided not to distribute images of Benedict's return. It gave no reason.

When the two met in March, Benedict looked exceptionally frail. But the Vatican says he suffers only from normal ailments of old age and has no serious illness.

While the presence of a reigning pope and a former one is a new situation, experts say it would only cause difficulties if Benedict tried to influence Pope Francis's decisions, something he has promised not to do.

Shortly before his resignation, Benedict said he would live out his remaining days "hidden from the world".

Still, some Church scholars say that in the event that Francis undoes some of Benedict's policies while he is still alive, the former pope could become a lightning rod for conservatives and polarize the Church.

CONSERVATIVE REFERENCE POINT

"Benedict almost certainly will be a point of reference for critics of Francis, especially in conservative circles. You can easily imagine them saying, ‘Benedict wouldn't have done it this way,'" said John Allen, author of several books on the Church and correspondent for the National Catholic reporter.

"That criticism will circulate on blogs, in journals, and in the pews, no matter where he's physically located, and Benedict himself won't be a party to it. If anything, being behind Vatican walls will make it more difficult for the opposition to reach him and claim some sort of blessing," Allen said.

Vatican officials have said the men, both of whom wear slightly different white vestments, would likely meet occasionally and perhaps confer on Church matters but that Francis is his own man.

"On a human level, it's hard to imagine that Pope Francis would treat the retired pope as some sort of 'untouchable'. I think they can certainly spend time together and exchange views without causing any crisis in the Church," said John Thavis, author of "The Vatican Diaries".

Benedict's two months away have allowed everyone to get used to the idea that he is no longer on the Vatican stage, said Father John Paul Wauck, professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

"It was a healthy hiatus during which Francis had the freedom to establish himself as the new successor of St. Peter," Wauck said, adding that he would be surprised if Benedict tried to influence Church decisions.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Michael Roddy)

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EU considers action, Pope weighs in, after Bangladesh disaster

By Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) - The European Union is considering trade action against Bangladesh, which has preferential access to EU markets for its garments, to pressure Dhaka to improve safety standards after a building collapse killed more than 400 factory workers.

Pope Francis condemned the conditions of workers who died in the disaster as "slave labor", while in Dhaka several thousand workers rallied to mark Labour Day, some calling for capital punishment for those responsible for the tragedy.

"The owner of the building ... should be hanged to death and compensation should be given to the injured and those who died," said labor leader Moshrefa Mishu. "A healthy and safe atmosphere should be made in the factories."

Duty-free access offered by Western countries and low wages have helped turn Bangladesh's garment exports into a $19 billion a year industry, with 60 percent of clothes going to Europe.

Any action by the EU on Bangladesh's duty-free and quota-free access would require the agreement of all member states and could take more than a year to implement.

"The European Union calls upon the Bangladeshi authorities to act immediately to ensure that factories across the country comply with international labor standards ...," the 27-nation bloc said in a statement issued by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht.

In the United States, prominent Democrats Sander Levin and George Miller wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to facilitate the development of a concrete plan of action to address the range of issues relating to working conditions and worker rights in the garment sector in Bangladesh.

The death toll from the collapse last week of the illegally built Rana Plaza in Dhaka's commercial suburb of Savar rose to 411 on Wednesday, and about 40 unidentified victims were buried. One woman at the cemetery collapsed into tears when she recognized the body of her sister by her dress.

"SHOT ACROSS THE BOWS"

With local anger growing over the country's worst industrial accident, a delegation from the International Labour Organisation met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka to offer support and press for action to prevent any more such incidents.

The EU had already urged Bangladesh to adhere to ILO standards in January after two earlier factory fires, including one last November in which 112 people died.

A European Union official said the latest EU statement, issued late on Tuesday, was "a shot across the bows". "We want to turn up the diplomatic heat on them and get them to sit down and discuss this with us." [ID:nL6N0DI0QH]

About 3.6 million people work in Bangladesh's garment industry, making it the world's second-largest apparel exporter behind China. The industry employs mostly women, some of whom earn as little as $38 a month.

The Bangladeshi prime minister warned factory owners they would have to take care of their workers. "You will have to ensure workers' fair wages, allowances and other rights ... you must look after their workplace safety if you want to do business," she told a discussion forum.

Pope Francis added to pressure for change in his toughest remarks on workers' rights since his election on March 13, an indication he plans to make social justice a plank of his pontificate.

"Living on 38 euros ($50) a month - that was the pay of these people who died. That is called slave labor," Francis said in a private impromptu sermon at his personal morning Mass in his residence, Vatican Radio reported.

There were about 3,000 people inside the complex, which was built on a swamp, when it collapsed. About 2,500 people have been rescued, many injured, but many remain unaccounted for.

"Why are they taking so much time to pull out bodies?" asked a grief-stricken father who, like many others, has been waiting on the streets near the collapsed factory, hoping for information about his son.

Police said DNA samples of the bodies buried on Wednesday had been preserved, so tests could be done if relatives came forward later.

The building's owner Mohammed Sohel Rana and his father, Abdul Khalek, are among eight people arrested so far, and police are seeking a fifth factory boss, Spanish citizen David Mayor, although it was unclear whether he was in Bangladesh at the time of the accident.

EU IS BIGGEST MARKET

The factory collapse was the third deadly incident in six months to raise questions about worker safety and labor conditions in the poor South Asian country, which relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports. Clothes made in five factories inside the Rana Plaza building were produced for retailers in Europe and Canada.

In the year to June 2012, Bangladesh's garment exports to the EU rose to $11.37 billion from $10.52 billion a year earlier, according to Bangladesh's commerce ministry. Germany is the main EU market at $3.4 billion, followed by the UK at $2.13 billion, Spain at $1.71 billion and France at $1.27 billion.

Bangladesh's next biggest garment export market is the United States, which accounts for 23 percent, or $4.53 billion.

"The EU is presently considering appropriate action, including through the Generalised System of Preferences - through which Bangladesh currently receives duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market," Ashton and de Gucht said.

"The sheer scale of this disaster and the alleged criminality around the building's construction is finally becoming clear to the world."

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), an umbrella organization that brings NGOs, unions and brands together to try to improve working conditions, said retailers, major brands and the suppliers who own the factories would have to contribute towards factory inspections.

"Bangladeshi companies who supply to our retailers need to be pricing in operating a decent factory, a safe factory and paying proper wages," ETI director Peter McAllister told Reuters.

"And then the retail world needs to recognize that the real cost of having sustainable businesses are going to be higher," he said, adding that he thought retailers would accept slightly higher prices if all outlets agreed to the changes.

Following a private emergency meeting of Canadian retailers, the Retail Council of Canada said on Tuesday it would develop a new set of guidelines. That meeting brought together retailers including Loblaw, Sears Canada Inc and Wal-Mart Canada, to discuss how to deal with the tragedy.

Loblaw Executive Chairman Galen Weston said the company would take further action "to address the situation" following the collapse of the building, where some of its "Joe Fresh" garments were made, although he did not offer specifics.

Representatives of some 45 companies, including Gap Inc, H&M, J.C. Penney, Nike Inc, Wal-Mart, Britain's Primark, Marks & Spencer and Tesco, and Li & Fung, met officials from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association in Dhaka this week to discuss worker and plant safety.

Primark and Loblaw have promised to compensate the families of garment workers killed while making their clothes.

(Reporting by Susan Taylor, Neha Alawadhi, Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul; Writing by Paul Tait and Michael Perry; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Andrew Hay and Neil Fullick)

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Police: 4 people stabbed at Albuquerque church

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A man jumped over several pews at an Albuquerque Catholic church and stabbed several members in the choir area just as Mass was ending Sunday, Albuquerque police said.

According to authorities, Lawrence Capener, 24, walked up to the choir area at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church and stabbed church-goers just as the choir began singing its final hymn. The man continued his attack until others raced to subdue him, police said.

Four church-goers were injured in the attack but their wounds weren't life-threatening, Albuquerque police spokesman Robert Gibbs aid. Among those stabbed were the church choir director Adam Alvarez, flutist Gerald Madrid and two other parishioners before he was tackled by several other churchgoers, Gibbs said.

All four were being treated at hospitals and listed in stable condition, police said late Sunday.

Three church members also were evaluated by Albuquerque Fire Department on scene and didn't go to the hospital, investigators said.

It was not immediately known what sparked the bizarre attack at the church on the city's Westside. Investigators don't yet know whether Capener had ties to the victims or whether he regularly attended the church, Gibbs said.

Several church members, including an off-duty firefighter and others at the church, held Capener until police arrived.

Madrid told KOB-TV that he tried to stop Capener by placing him in a bear hug but was stabbed in the neck and back.

Police described the stabbing scene as chaotic as parishioners screamed as the attack unfolded.

The choir's pianist, Brenda Baca King, told KRQE-TV that the attacker was looking at the lead soloist. "I just remember seeing him hurdle over the pews, hurdle over people and run (toward) us and I thought, 'Oh my God, this is not good,'" Baca King said.

Capener was interviewed by police and was expected to face felony charges, Gibbs said.

It's not yet known whether Capener has an attorney.

Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan released a statement Sunday afternoon saying he was saddened by the attack.

"This is the first time in my 30 years serving as archbishop in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and as Bishop of Lubbock, that anything like this has occurred," Sheehan said. "I pray for all who have been harmed, their families, the parishioners and that nothing like this will ever happen again," Sheehan said.

The church didn't immediately return calls seeking comment on Sunday afternoon.

___

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Benedict XVI returns to Vatican Thursday

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Retired Pope Benedict XVI is coming home.

The Vatican says the 86-year-old emeritus pontiff will move into his new retirement home in the Vatican gardens Thursday.

Benedict has been living at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, in the hills south of Rome, since he resigned Feb. 28.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Tuesday that Benedict will live on the ground floor of the monastery inside the gardens that has been renovated for his use. A small staff will join him.

Benedict looked remarkably frail on March 23 — the last time he was seen by the public — when Pope Francis traveled to Castel Gandolfo to greet his predecessor. Lombardi has insisted Benedict isn't suffering from any specific medical condition but is just old and tired.

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Catholic church excommunicates Brazil priest for liberal views

By Paulo Prada

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The Catholic Church has excommunicated a Brazilian priest after he defended homosexuality, open marriage and other practices counter to Church teaching in online videos.

In a statement released late on Monday, the priest's diocese said Father Roberto Francisco Daniel, known to local parishioners as Padre Beto, had "in the name of 'freedom of expression' betrayed the promise of fealty to the Church."

The priest "injured the Church with grave statements counter to the dogma of Catholic faith and morality." The actions amount to "heresy and schism," the statement said, the penalty for which is excommunication, or expulsion from the Church.

The rare punishment follows what Daniel's bishop and the priest himself said were repeated rebukes about the videos and other public activities, such as a radio broadcast and local newspaper column, in which he challenged Church doctrine.

The 47-year-old cleric, who studied theology in Germany, is popular in the southeastern city of Bauru, where he has been a priest since 2001. He is known for his rock T-shirts, a silver stud pierced through his right ear and his habit of posing, as on his official Facebook page, with a glass of beer.

On Facebook and Twitter, Daniel posted a brief statement about the excommunication: "I feel honored to belong to the long list of people who have been murdered and burned alive for thinking and searching for knowledge."

SPREAD OF MODERATE VIEWS

Daniel's excommunication, which prompted headlines across Brazil and protests in social media, illustrates the rising influence of more moderate social views in Brazil, Latin America's biggest country, and much of the rest of the region.

Progressive stances on sexuality, birth control, scientific research and other delicate topics for the Church are increasingly common in Latin America, home to 42 percent of the world's Catholics, more than any other region worldwide.

The shifting views are among the many challenges faced by Pope Francis, an Argentine who ascended in March to become the first Latin American pope in history.

The excommunication comes just two months before Francis is scheduled to attend World Youth Day, expected to attract as many as 2 million young Catholics to Rio de Janeiro.

Though Francis is known to be a traditionalist on social issues and Church doctrine, his appointment raised hopes that the first non-European pope in 13 centuries would do more than his predecessors to modernize Catholicism.

But Daniel's beliefs clearly went too far for church leaders.

In one of the recent videos he posted on YouTube.com and his own Website, the priest said a married person who chose to have an affair, heterosexual or otherwise, would not be unfaithful as long as that person's spouse allowed it. "If someone is in an extramarital relationship and that relationship is accepted by the spouse, then faithfulness still exists there," he said.

A "REBEL SON"

In a telephone interview, Daniel said his statements "are personal reflections that should be considered and discussed in the dialogue of the church." The excommunication, he said, is "the sad act of a lukewarm and disengaged church that is out of touch with today's society."

The diocese retained a church expert in canonical law to oversee the excommunication process. The diocese also initiated a separate process at the Vatican through which Daniel will be stripped of clerical authority.

Last Tuesday, Bishop Caetano Ferrari gave Daniel a letter asking him to take the videos offline and publicly retract his statements. In an interview posted on the diocese Web site shortly afterward, Ferrari called Daniel "brilliant," but characterized him as a "rebel son" who "crosses the line."

On Monday, Daniel said he went to the diocese headquarters planning to renounce his clerical duties rather than retract any of his comments. But before he had a chance, the bishop and canonical expert made him face a committee of Church officials.

"It was a trial," Daniel said. "I told them I was not there to be tried, that I had not been indicted."

Shortly afterward, the Church issued the statement announcing his excommunication.

(Editing by Todd Benson and Cynthia Osterman)

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Man stabs 4 people at church in Albuquerque

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Police say a man stabbed four people at a Catholic church in Albuquerque as a Sunday mass was nearing its end.

Police spokesman Robert Gibbs says a man in his 20s jumped over several pews at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church around noon Sunday and walked up to the choir area where he began his attack.

The injuries to the four church-goers weren't life-threatening. All four were being treated at hospitals.

An off-duty police officer and others at the church subdued the attacker and held him down until police arrived.

Some of those who were stabbed were members of the choir.

Gibbs says the attacker is in custody but that police don't yet know his identity, the motive for the stabbings, whether he had any ties to the victims or whether he regularly attended the church.

The stabbings occurred as the choir had just begun its closing hymns.

Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan released a statement saying he was saddened by the attack. "I pray for all who have been harmed, their families, the parishioners and that nothing like this will ever happen again," Sheehan said.

The church didn't immediately return calls seeking comment on Sunday afternoon.

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Gay Catholic school teacher in Ohio fights firing

A gay teacher who said she was fired by an Ohio Catholic school after her mother's published obituary included the name of her partner is fighting to get her job back.

Carla Hale said she was told she was being let go because her relationship is against teachings of the church.

She plans to file a complaint this week with the city of Columbus, which prohibits firings based on sexual orientation, her attorney said Monday. She already filed a grievance that is now in the hands of a union representing teachers in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus.

Some current and former students have rallied behind the physical education teacher, staging a protest outside the diocese headquarters and starting an online petition that has collected about 100,000 supporters.

Hale, 57, said she was fired during Holy Week in March after an anonymous letter sent to school administrators drew attention to the obituary published in The Columbus Dispatch.

A copy of the letter provided by her attorney was signed "a concerned parent."

"My daughter came home and told me that one of the gym teacher's mother had died," the letter said. "She asked me to pray for her. When we looked in the obituaries, I was shocked by what I saw. It had her teacher's name and that of her 'spouse' listed. It was two females!"

Hale, who is Methodist, was informed about two weeks after her mother's death that the school was investigating, but she never had a chance to discuss it with school leaders, said attorney Thomas Tootle.

Hale, who had spent 19 years teaching at Bishop Watterson High School, said the decision to acknowledge her partner was not immoral.

"It's kind of baffling that someone would take an obituary and use it, to me, in such a mean-spirited manner," Hale said at a news conference last week.

The Diocese of Columbus would not comment directly about the firing, but it said school employees can't go against teachings of the church.

"All Catholic school personnel at the outset of their employment agree that they will abide by the rules, regulations and policies of the Catholic Diocese, including respecting the moral values advanced by the teachings of Christ," the diocese said in a statement.

Hale's attorney said he will file a complaint Tuesday with a Columbus community relations board, arguing that the firing violates the city ordinance on employers discriminating based on sexual orientation. Another option is a wrongful termination lawsuit, Tootle said.

He said some courts have allowed religious groups exemptions to similar discrimination laws but he thinks the case is similar to one in Cincinnati, where a teacher challenged her firing by the archdiocese over her use of artificial insemination to become pregnant. A federal judge has allowed that lawsuit to continue.

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Leftist priests: Francis can fix church 'in ruins'

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A new pope from Latin America known for ministering to the poor in his country's slums is raising the hopes of advocates of liberation theology, whose leftist social activism had alarmed previous pontiffs.

Prominent liberation theologian Leonardo Boff said Pope Francis has what it takes to fix a church "in ruins" and shares his movement's commitment to building a church for the world's poor.

"With this pope, a Jesuit and a pope from the Third World, we can breathe happiness," Boff said Saturday at a Buenos Aires book fair. "Pope Francis has both the vigor and tenderness that we need to create a new spiritual world."

The 74-year-old Brazilian theologian was pressured to remain silent by previous popes who tried to draw a hard line between socially active priests and leftist politics. As Argentina's leading cardinal before he became pope, Francis reinforced this line, suggesting in 2010 that reading the Gospel with a Marxist interpretation only gets priests in trouble.

But Boff says the label of a closed-minded conservative simply doesn't fit Francis.

"Pope Francis comes with the perspective that many of us in Latin America share. In our churches we do not just discuss theological theories, like in European churches. Our churches work together to support universal causes, causes like human rights, from the perspective of the poor, the destiny of humanity that is suffering, services for people living on the margins."

The liberation theology movement, which seeks to free lives as well as souls, emerged in the 1960s and quickly spread, especially in Latin America. Priests and church laypeople became deeply involved in human rights and social struggles. Some were caught up in clashes between repressive governments and rebels, sometimes at the cost of their lives.

The movement's martyrs include El Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose increasing criticism of his country's military-run government provoked his assassination as he was saying Mass in 1980. He was killed by thugs connected to the military hierarchy a day after he preached that "no soldier is obliged to obey an order that is contrary to the will of God." His killing presaged a civil war that killed nearly 90,000 over the next 12 years.

The case for beatification of Romero languished under popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI due to their opposition to liberation theology, but he was put back on track to becoming a saint days after Francis became pope.

Scores of other liberation theologians were killed in the 1970s and 1980s. Six Jesuit teachers were slaughtered at their university in El Salvador in 1989. Other priests and lay workers were tortured and vanished in the prisons of Chile and Argentina. Some were shot to death while demanding land rights for the poor in Brazil. A handful went further and picked up arms, or died accompanying rebel columns as chaplains, such as American Jesuit James Carney, who died in Honduras in 1983.

While even John Paul embraced the "preferential option for the poor" at the heart of the movement, most church leaders were unhappy to see intellectuals mixing doses of Marxism and class struggle into their analysis of the Gospel. It was a powerfully attractive mixture for idealistic Latin Americans who were raised in Catholic doctrine, educated by the region's army of Marxist-influenced teachers, and outraged by the hunger, inequality and bloody repression all around them.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, hundreds of Argentine priests were affiliated with a movement that proclaimed Christian teaching "inescapably obliges us to join in the revolutionary process for urgent radical change of existing structures and to reject formally the capitalistic system we see around us ... We shall go forward in search of a Latin American brand of socialism that will hasten the coming of the new man."

John Paul and his chief theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, drove some of the most ardent and experimental liberation theologians out of the priesthood, castigated some of those who remained, and ensured that the bishops and cardinals they promoted took a wary view of leftist social activism.

Yet much of the movement remained, practiced by thousands of grassroots "base communities" working out of local parishes across the hemisphere, nurtured by nuns, priests and a few bishops who put freedom from hunger, poverty and social injustice at the heart of the Church's spiritual mission.

Hundreds of advocates at a conference in Brazil last year declared themselves ready for a comeback.

"At times embers are hidden beneath the ashes," said the meeting's final declaration, which expressed hopes of stirring ablaze "a fire that lights other fires in the church and in society."

Boff and other advocates are thrilled that this new pope spent so much time ministering in the slums, and are inspired by his writings, which see no heresy in social action.

"The option for the poor comes from the first centuries of Christianity. It is the Gospel itself," said then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio during a 2010 deposition in a human rights trial. He said that if he were to repeat "any of the sermons from the first fathers of the church, from the 2nd or 3rd century, about how the poor must be treated, they would say that mine would be Maoist or Trotskyite."

Msgr. Gregorio Rosa Chavez, the auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, said Romero and Francis have the same vision of the church. "When he says 'a church that is poor and for the poor,' that is what Monsignor Romero said so many times," he said.

Rosa Chavez said neither was among the most radical of churchmen.

"There are many theologies of liberation," he said. "The pope represents one of these currents, the most pastoral current, the current that combines action with teaching." He described Francis' version as "theologians on foot, who walk with the people and combine reflection with action," and contrasted them with "theologians of the desk, who are from university classrooms."

John Paul II himself embraced the term "liberation theology," but was also credited with inspiring resistance to the communist regime in his native Poland, and was allergic to socialist pieties.

For 30 years, the Vatican has been seeding Latin America, Africa and Asia with cardinals "who have tended to be, adverse, to put it kindly, to liberation theology," said Stacey Floyd-Thomas, a professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

In Brazil, Sao Paulo Archbishop Odilo Scherer, widely considered a possible pope, told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper last year that liberation theology "lost its reason of being because of its Marxist ideological underpinnings . which are incompatible with Christian theology."

"It had its merits by helping bring back into focus matters like social justice, international justice and the liberation of oppressed peoples. But these were always constant themes in the teachings of the Church," Scherer said.

In 1984, Ratzinger put Boff in Galileo's chair for a Vatican inquisition over his writings, eventually stripping him of his church functions and ordering him to spend a year in "obedient silence." Nearly a decade later, in 1993, the Vatican pressured him again, and he quit the Franciscan order.

Now Boff says Francis has brought a "new spring" to the global church.

"Josef Ratzinger. He was against the cause of the poor, liberation theology," Boff said. "But this is from last century. Now we are under a new pope."

___

Associated Press Writers Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Jenny Barchfield in Rio de Janeiro, Marcos Aleman in San Salvador and John Rice in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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Pope condemns Bangladesh working conditions as "slave labor"

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned the conditions of workers who died in the Bangladesh factory collapse as "slave labor," saying unjust salaries and the unbridled quest for profits were "against God".

His words were his toughest yet on workers' rights since his election on March 13, and another indication that the former archbishop of Buenos Aires was intent on making social justice a major plank of his pontificate.

"Living on 38 euros ($50) a month - that was the pay of these people who died. That is called slave labor," Francis said in a private impromptu sermon at his personal morning Mass in his residence, Vatican Radio reported.

The death toll from the collapse last week of the illegally built Rana Plaza in Dhaka's commercial suburb of Savar rose to 411 on Wednesday and about 40 unidentified victims were buried.

The pope, speaking on May Day, the international labor day, said: "Not paying a just wage, not giving work, only because one is looking at the bottom line, at the budget of the company, seeking only profit - that is against God".

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, said there were many people in the world living in conditions of slave labor.

"Today in the world there is this slavery that is perpetrated with the most beautiful thing that God has given man: the capacity to create, to work, to make his own dignity," he said.

"How many brothers and sisters in the world are in this situation because of these economic, social and political policies?"

In his native Argentina, Francis was often on the side of the poor, the downtrodden and the unemployed, clashing with the government on economic policy and defending the dignity of the weakest members of society.

"Dignity is not bestowed by power, by money, by culture - no! Dignity is bestowed by work. Social, political and economic systems have made a choice that signifies exploiting the individual," he said.

Duty-free access offered by Western countries and low wages have helped turn Bangladesh's garment exports into a $19 billion a year industry, with 60 percent of clothes going to Europe, where the tragedy has raised questions about the human cost of cheap fashion.

Later, at his public general audience in St. Peter's Square, the pope returned to the subject of workers' rights but did not mention the Bangladesh tragedy.

"Work is fundamental to the dignity of a person. I think of how many, and not just young people, are unemployed, many times due to a purely economic conception of society, which seeks selfish profit, beyond the parameters of social justice," he said before tens of thousands of people.

In that address, he called on governments to tackle high unemployment and eliminate slave labor associated with human trafficking.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates almost 21 million people worldwide are victims of slavery or forced labor. Almost half are thought to be trafficked, either across borders or within their own countries.

In Italy and elsewhere in Western Europe, many young women from Africa and Eastern Europe are victims of human trafficking and forced to work as prostitutes in major cities.

($1 = 0.7580 euros)

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; editing by Mike Collett-White)

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Man charged in Albuquerque church stabbings

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The man accused of stabbing four churchgoers during Sunday Mass told police that he was after the choir leader because he thought the man was a member of a secret society.

According to a criminal complaint, Lawrence Capener, 24, said he was going after the choir leader at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church because his "speech was different" and he was "99 percent sure he was a Mason."

He told the investigator that Masons are a group involved "in a conspiracy that is far more reaching than I could or would believe."

Capener said he stabbed the others who tried to subdue him because he thought they might be Masons, too.

The affidavit said Capener apologized for stabbing the others after he was read his rights and agreed to speak to police.

Masons are a fraternal group involved in charity and other community activities, but many of their rituals and symbols are secret.

The attack happened just before noon Sunday as the choir began its final hymn. Police and witnesses said Capener vaulted over pews and stabbed choir leader Adam Alvarez in the back.

Worshippers screamed as the shocking and chaotic scene unfolded Sunday with the attacker continuing the onslaught until he was tackled and held by church members for officers, police said.

In addition to Alvarez, three other parishioners were injured, including flutist Gerald Madrid, police spokesman Robert Gibbs said. All four were treated at hospitals and listed in stable condition.

Three other church members were evaluated by Albuquerque Fire Department on the scene and didn't go to the hospital, investigators said.

Capener was charged late Sunday on three counts of aggravated battery and ordered held on $75,000 bail.

St. Jude Thaddeus' pastor, the Rev. John Daniel, said Capener's mother was "very active" in the parish and serves as a Eucharistic minister there.

"He was here occasionally but not very often," Daniel said.

Daniel said that Capener had just graduated from a community college and appeared to be doing well after getting a job.

An off-duty firefighter and others at the church held Capener down until police arrived.

Madrid told KOB-TV that he tried to stop Capener by wrapping his arms around him but was stabbed in the neck and back.

"I bear-hugged him. We were chest on chest. I was wrapping about to take him down to ground, but I didn't have his arms. I had just my arms around his chest, so his arms were free. So that's when he started stabbing me," he said.

Madrid said he thought the suspect was punching him. It wasn't until other parishioners rushed the man that Madrid realized he had been stabbed five times.

The choir's pianist, Brenda Baca King, told KRQE-TV that the attacker was looking at the lead soloist. "I just remember seeing him hurdle over the pews, hurdle over people and run (toward) us and I thought, 'Oh my God, this is not good,'" Baca King said.

Daniel said he didn't see the attack because he had turned his back away from the congregation in order to return the sacrament in the tabernacle.

Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan released a statement Sunday afternoon saying he was saddened by the attack.

"This is the first time in my 30 years serving as archbishop in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and as bishop of Lubbock, that anything like this has occurred," Sheehan said. "I pray for all who have been harmed, their families, the parishioners and that nothing like this will ever happen again," Sheehan said.

Daniel said Mass schedule has resumed. A 6 p.m. Monday Mass is scheduled at the 3,000 member church, he said.

___

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Should a Sarah Palin adviser speak for America's Catholic bishops?

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the head of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' conference, just hired conservative activist Kim Daniels as his spokeswoman The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced on Monday that it has hired Kim Daniels as spokeswoman for the USCCB president, currently Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York. Daniels, the USCCB announcement explains, is "an attorney whose practice has focused on religious liberty matters," and she "brings to the USCCB her experience as director of Catholic Voices USA, an organization of lay Catholics that works to bring the positive message of the Church across a broad range of issues to the public square."

The bishops left a few things off her résumé, says Grant Gallicho at Commonweal. Notably, the announcement "does not mention two of Daniels's previous employers: Sarah Palin and the Thomas More Law Center," a conservative legal organization at which Daniels fought for the right of pharmacists to refuse to dispense the morning-after pill. She spent nine years, from 2000 to 2009, at the Thomas More Law Center, established in 1998 by its president, Richard Thompson. Thompson and his center increasingly tend to "make news by making provocative comments about Islam."

SEE MORE: Hollywood's utter failure to accurately portray female journalists

The more eyebrow-raising job is Daniels' work as a paid adviser to Palin and her political group, SarahPAC. Daniels signed up to work with Palin after doing some legal work for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, at a time when "the former Alaska governor tried to remodel herself" after McCain's loss, says David Gibson at Religion News Service. Daniels was described as "Palin's personal domestic policy czar," and that association leaves an open question for the bishops about "whether Daniels will deflect controversies or become a lightning rod herself," says Gibson.

Palin has continued to alienate herself from all but her most loyal fans on the movement's right flank, and it is not clear where Daniels' relationship with Palin stands today. [RNS]

Yes, Daniels worked for Palin, says Kathryn Jean Lopez at Patheos, but "I wouldn't read too much into the political significance of this as a bishops' conference matter." As Daniels has explained it, she "felt a call to work with this most prominent pro-life mother who was giving voice to issues close to her heart in the public square."

SEE MORE: Is the government stockpiling ammo to thwart gun owners?

Her heart belongs to her family and the church, and her work with Palin was an outgrowth of that.... One of the key questions the church is confronted with today is: How do we teach and share the Gospel effectively?.... How Catholics in the pews hear and what they hear plays a major role in that. But the media in all its mainstream and social forms is where most people's views of the church is formed. How do we engage there clearly, as Christians, lovingly and responsively? Kim has been devoting her time to just that question as a director of the Catholic Voices USA project. So I really can't think of a better person to be joining Cardinal Dolan and the bishops' conference in that effort to address that question. [Patheos]

What role Daniels will fill remains an open question, however. Her position is a new one, separate from the USCCB's official press office. "Kim Daniels is not in the Communications Department," Sister Mary Ann Walsh, the USCCB's longtime spokeswoman, tells Religion News Service. "As head of the USCCB Office for Media Relations I speak to the media in that capacity." That makes this "new territory for everyone," says RNS's Gibson.

Daniels' hiring also looks like an effort to satisfy Dolan's goal of finding an "attractive, articulate, intelligent" laywoman to help recast the hierarchy's image... because, as he put it, "In the public square, I hate to tell you, the days of fat, balding Irish bishops are over." Yet Daniels, a mother of six, will also have to be credible, which means she would need to have a clear mandate. [RNS]

Whether Daniels has that mandate isn't clear, since not all the bishops are comfortable with one spokeswoman speaking for all of them. Will she be the public face of Dolan's policies, or a rival to Walsh's media shop, or a behind-the-scenes policy shaper? We'll find out. But there's also "a final wrinkle," Gibson says: "Dolan's three-year term as USCCB president ends in November, and a new president may want to use Daniels in a different capacity, or not at all."

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Police: NM man in church stabbing vandalized lodge

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A man charged with stabbing three people at an Albuquerque Catholic church because he thought a choir leader was a Mason vandalized a Masonic lodge hours before his attack, police said.

Lawrence Capener, 24, told police that he tagged the Sandoval No. 76 Masonic Lodge in Rio Rancho with spray paint on Sunday, authorities said. Police later found red and blue spray paint on signs, outside walls and a door. Investigators said he also left the message, "I hope you guess who I am."

Capener is accused of attacking a choir leader at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church at the end of Sunday Mass services. At least two others were stabbed in the attack when they tried to stop Capener.

According to a criminal complaint, Capener vaulted over pews and lashed out at choir director Adam Alvarez, who had his back toward him.

The complaint said church flutist Gerald Madrid saw Alvarez being attacked and attempted to "bear hug" Capener to try to stop him. Madrid was then stabbed five times in his back by Capener, authorities said.

Capener later told police that he was "99 percent sure Alvarez was a mason" and that he thought Alvarez was involved in a conspiracy.

Masons are a fraternal group involved in charity and other community activities, but many of their rituals and symbols are secret.

Police said when Capener was arrested Sunday, he still had spray paint on his hands and believe it was likely from the lodge attack.

He is charged with aggravated battery and is being held on $250,000 bail. No attorney is listed for Capener.

The attack on the Albuquerque Westside church remained a mystery with members of St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church who said they rarely saw Capener attend services but were aware that his mother is active in the church.

"I never see him that much," said Spanish choir member Richard Aragon. "We have a big church, but I just don't know much about him."

St. Jude Thaddeus' pastor, the Rev. John Daniel, said he knew Capener had recently graduated from community college and had gotten a job but may have been struggling with mental health issues.

Mercedes Reynolds, a next-door neighbor to Capener and his mother, told KOB-TV that Capener recently quit a job because he wasn't allowed to wear a hat to block the sun. But he had recently gotten a job at Wal-Mart, Reynolds said.

"I just think he's had a lot of pressure and it was just too much for him," Reynolds said. "I think the public needs to stop and think that it might be one of their children that does that and they wouldn't like the bad publicity and people talking about them."

Santa Fe Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan is scheduled to visit St. Jude on Wednesday to preside over a confirmation Mass. It will be Sheehan's first public visit to the church since the stabbing.

Since the attack, church officials say, Daniel begins each Mass with special prayers of healing for the victims and community. Daniel will continue the special prayers through the weekend, officials said.

___

Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras

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Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Roman Catholic Church

By Mary Wisniewski

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority.

Rosemarie Smead is one of about 150 women around the world who have decided not to wait for the Roman Catholic Church to lift its ban on women priests, but to be ordained and start their own congregations.

In an interview before the ceremony, Smead said she is not worried about being excommunicated from the Church - the fate of other women ordained outside of Vatican law.

"It has no sting for me," said Smead, a petite, gray-haired former Carmelite nun with a ready hug for strangers. "It is a Medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent. I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives."

The ordination of women as priests, along with the issues of married priests and birth control, represents one of the big divides between U.S. Catholics and the Vatican hierarchy. Seventy percent of U.S. Catholics believe that women should be allowed to be priests, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll earlier this year.

The former pope, Benedict XVI, reaffirmed the Catholic Church's ban on women priests and warned that he would not tolerate disobedience by clerics on fundamental teachings. Male priests have been stripped of their holy orders for participating in ordination ceremonies for women.

In a statement last week, Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz called the planned ceremony by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests a "simulated ordination" in opposition to Catholic teaching.

"The simulation of a sacrament carries very serious penal sanctions in Church law, and Catholics should not support or participate in Saturday's event," Kurtz said.

The Catholic Church teaches that it has no authority to allow women to be priests because Jesus Christ chose only men as his apostles. Proponents of a female priesthood said Jesus was acting only according to the customs of his time.

They also note that he chose women, like Mary Magdalene, as disciples, and that the early Church had women priests, deacons and bishops.

The ceremony, held at St. Andrew United Church of Christ in Louisville, was attended by about 200 men and women. Many identified themselves to a Reuters reporter as Catholics, but some declined to give their names or their churches.

'NEW ERA OF INCLUSIVITY'

The modern woman priest movement started in Austria in 2002, when seven women were ordained by the Danube River by an independent Catholic bishop. Other women were later ordained as bishops, who went on to ordain more women priests and deacons.

"As a woman priest, Rosemarie is leading, not leaving the Catholic Church, into a new era of inclusivity," said Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan during her sermon Saturday. "As the Irish writer James Joyce reminded us, the word 'Catholic' means 'Here comes everybody!'"

Smead had to leave the rigorous Carmelite life due to health reasons, and earned a bachelor's degree in theology and a doctorate in counseling psychology. She taught at Indiana University for 26 years, and works as a couples and family therapist.

During the ordination ceremony, Smead wept openly as nearly everyone in the audience came up and laid their hands on her head in blessing. Some whispered, "Thanks for doing this for us."

During the communion service, Smead and other woman priests lifted the plates and cups containing the sacramental bread and wine to bless them.

A woman in the audience murmured, "Girl, lift those plates. I've been waiting a long time for this."

One of those attending the service was Stewart Pawley, 32, of Louisville, who said he was raised Catholic and now only attends on Christmas and Easter. But he said he would attend services with Smead when she starts to offer them in Louisville.

"People like me know it's something the Catholic Church will have to do," said Pawley.

(Editing by Tim Gaynor and Mohammad Zargham)

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How native Americans hid in the Vatican for more than 500 years

More than 500 years after Christopher Columbus set foot on the shores of the New World, what may be the first ever depiction of the native Americans he encountered has been discovered hidden in a Vatican painting.

The discovery was made by restoration experts who were cleaning a large fresco painted by the Renaissance master Pinturicchio. Once they had removed layers of dirt, they noticed a group of tiny figures, almost in the middle of the painting.

The figures are men who seem to be dancing and are naked except for exotic-looking feather head dresses. One appears to have a Mohican-style haircut.

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Pinturicchio created the work, which shows Jesus' Resurrection, in 1494, just a year after Columbus returned from his first journey of discovery across the Atlantic.

The head of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci, believes that the mysterious figures represent some of the native Americans that the Genoese explorer met as he sailed around the Caribbean.

Prof. Paolucci announced the discovery of the long-lost image in the Vatican’s daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, in an article entitled “This is the first image of native Americans as described by Columbus.” He hypothesized that the “nude men, who are decorated with feathers and seem to be dancing,” were inspired by the descriptions of tribesmen that Columbus brought back from his travels.

The Pinturicchio painting, entitled simply Resurrection, has adorned the walls of the Borgia Apartments in the Vatican for centuries.

The apartments were named after the notorious Rodrigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI. He commissioned Pinturicchio and his assistants to paint several frescoes for the apartments, which are part of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.

The tiny dancing figures remained unnoticed for so long because the Borgia Apartments were abandoned after the death of Pope Alexander in 1503. Subsequent popes did not want to be associated with the scandal-ridden family. They were only reopened in 1889 by Pope Leo XIII, and are now used to display a collection of religious art.

Columbus’s voyages across the Atlantic were commissioned by Spain, but Paolucci said the Vatican knew of his discoveries, particularly given that Pope Alexander was Spanish.

“The Borgia Pope was interested in the New World, as were the great chancelleries of Europe. It is hard to believe that the papal court, especially under a Spanish Pope, would have remained in the dark about what Columbus encountered,” Paolucci said in the article.

Pope Alexander soon found himself playing a pivotal role in the New World discoveries – he had to arbitrate between the competing claims of Spain and Portugal.

The pope had himself painted into the lavish fresco – dressed in sumptuous golden robes, he is kneeling down on the left hand side, his hands clasped in prayer.

He is clearly contemplating Jesus' resurrection, but he also appears to be directing his gaze at the tribesmen – ruminating, perhaps, on the enormous implications of Columbus’s historic discovery.

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July sentencing date in attack on Christian group

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Virginia man who pleaded guilty to three charges in a shooting that wounded a security guard inside the Washington headquarters of a conservative Christian lobbying group awaits sentencing in mid-summer.

A judge on Monday scheduled a July 15 sentencing for Floyd Corkins II, who prosecutors say planned a mass shooting at the Family Research Council in August. Prosecutors have recommended a 45-year prison sentence.

Corkins pleaded guilty in February to interstate transportation of a firearm, assault with intent to kill while armed and committing an act of terrorism while armed.

Authorities said the security guard was the only person wounded as he subdued Corkins in the lobby of the conservative group and Corkin fired three shots.

Corkins told authorities he had planned to kill as many people as possible.

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