Cardinal George Pell addressed recently ordained bishops in Rome last September.

The Tablet reported that the text of what he said has been released in a book of all the talks given to the bishops.

The Prefect of the Holy See's Secretariat for the Economy told the new bishops that spending in their dioceses must be kept under control.

Cardinal Pell said a bishop must act as a custodian of diocesan assets and firmly stated that he must "not sell land".

The cardinal stated: "This patrimony should be preserved and handed on to the bishop's successor."

"It belongs to the future and should not be spent on one generation."

When selling diocesan land, canon law provisions around stable patrimony and alienation of land must be followed by a bishop.

Cardinal Pell added that the leader of a diocese must understand financial basics and show an interest in the issues.

If he doesn't, Cardinal Pell explained, it "would give encouragement to thieves".

He continued: "One does not have to be an expert, but he must be able to see the holes in a ladder."

The cardinal said that "dishonesty is not unknown" in the Church.

He cited his first parish assignment as an assistant priest as an example without going into further details.

Cardinal Pell urged bishops to operate strict financial controls and employ a business manager to ensure guidelines are adhered to.

This manager should be more than an accountant, but "an entrepreneur" who understand finances, land matters and canon law.

Financial reporting is also cited as critically important along with strong internal controls to ensure cash is spent properly.

These measures will ensure that a diocese does not rack up an annual loss, something which the cardinal said should be "very rare".

Sources

• The Tablet
• CHAUSA
• Fr Achacoso blog
• Image: Yahoo News

The Methodist Church is the second biggest land owner in Fiji.

"We want people to utilise the land and make a living for themselves, especially farmers," says the Church's newly-elected president Reverend Tevita Nawadra.

He said the next land development the church would be focusing on was the housing development in Davuilevu where the church had vacant pieces of land it had agreed to be used for housing.

Source

• The Fiji Times
• Image: lh5.googleusercontent.com

The head of the US bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, Bishop Richard Pates, called on President Obama to show leadership by signing up to the 1997 Ottawa Convention.

The bishop did this in a February 12 letter to National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

"Our views are grounded in Church teaching that calls for a ban on landmines on moral grounds since they are indiscriminate weapons that kill and maim innocent civilians during and long after hostilities end," Bishop Pates explained.

His letter calls on the US to ratify the Convention on the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and Their Destruction, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty or the Ottawa Convention.

Currently, 161 countries have signed the convention, including member states of the European Union, Canada, Australia, all of the nations in South America, and most countries in Africa.

The international accord calls for signatory countries to cease the development and production of anti-personnel land mines, destroy its stockpile of land mines within four years, and clear its mined areas within a decade of signing the treaty.

A small number of mines may be retained for the sake of training purposes.

More than 3000 people each year are either killed or maimed by land mines or cluster munitions.

The Vatican is also party to the Ottawa Convention, which it signed in 1997 and ratified soon after.

The US bishops have repeatedly called on the US government to take a similar step.

Sources

• CNA/EWTN
• Vatican Radio
• Catholic News Service
• Image: Politico

The apostolic vicar, Bishop Camillo Ballin, said the move is being made because Bahrain is more central and "easily accessible for meetings and conferences of Church officials".

Bahrain's easier visa regime has been suggested as a factor in the vicariate's decision, which has come after several threats to the religious freedom of Christians in the region.

A Kuwaiti member of Parliament, Osama Al-Munawer, said he would submit a bill calling for the removal of all churches in Kuwait. After facing criticism, he later said that existing churches should remain, but he advocated a ban on the construction of any new non-Islamic places of worship.

In March, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah, reportedly said it is "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region" in accord with an ancient rule that only Islam may be practised there.

Shi'ite clerics in Iran are criticising Bahrain's Sunni monarch, King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, for granting the Catholic Church 9000 square metres to build a new church, complaining that he destroyed dozens of Shi'ite mosques during the unrest that erupted there early last year.

In Bahrain the head of the Salafist Asalah party, Abdel Halim Murad, said the building of churches in Islamic lands was "haram" (forbidden) and that the sound of church bells could not be allowed to drown out the call to prayer in the Arabian peninsula, the cradle of Islam.

The vicariate tends to the spiritual needs of around two million Catholics in the Arab Gulf states, the vast majority of them expatriates from the Philippines, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Bahrain already has one Catholic church, built in 1939 and serving about 80,000 Catholics, and shares another place of worship with the Anglican community.

The apostolic nunciature in Kuwait will remain.

Source:

Catholic News Agency

CNSNews.com

Image: Arabian Gazette

Church spokesman, Father Penitito Mauga, said that the Church wants to pool its vast tracts of land in the town area and lease it to businesses at a higher rate.

"We have very few sources of income but have a lot of assets. The church is undergoing several expensive development projects that require lots of money. The Mulivai Cathedral for example." he said

Father Penitito said tenants have been given the option of buying land or take up a relocation package of a free quarter-acre at Moamoa and $30,000 cash.

In May the church said the move was the realisation of plans to expand the business locations in Apia. The Director of Lands with the Catholic Church, Fuimaono Foutanu Eti O. Lino was reported by the Samoa Observer as saying, "It's not our initiation. It's the Government's initiation to allow businesses to develop for the betterment of the country."

Many of the Church leases at Saleufi and Fugalei have been vacated with families having already relocated to Moamoa.

Savali News also reports that The Church has also has agreed to allocate over 1,500 acres of Church land up at Malololelei and Lepiu for a national reserve.

"Over a thousand acres in the water catchment area will be given to government, but tied to certain conditions including compensation. Another 500 acres and more - which is identified as crucial watershed areas including gullies and waterways - will be held in a Trusteeship between government and the Church" said Fr Penitito

Source

• Savali
• Samoa Observer
• Image Savali