Wheeling alumnus revokes gift to protest firing

Dec 8, 2009

A high-profile Wheeling Jesuit University alumnus claims the West Virginia school is losing millions of dollars because of its decision to fire Jesuit Fr. Julio Giulietti in August. In a letter to the university’s leadership, the alumnus said the local bishop, who has no official role at the college, masterminded the “lynching.” The bishop again denied any involvement, though he did confirm that he opposed a real estate deal between the university under Giulietti and a local religious order.

Pres. Obama to chair UN disarmament session

Sep 20, 2009

NEW YORK
President Barack Obama will be the first U.S. President to chair a United Nations Security Council meeting when he presides over the special session on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament Sept. 24. But Pax Christi USA executive director Dave Robinson is holding out hope that the meeting will be remembered for more than the parliamentary novelty.

“President Obama has the opportunity to become the first real post-Cold War president,” Robinson says. “He has the opportunity to begin ridding the world of these immoral weapons.”

According to a Reuters report from Sept. 11, the Obama administration has circulated a resolution to Security Council member countries that calls for “a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control,” of all nations that signed the Non Proliferation Treaty of 1970 “and calls on all other states to join in this endeavor,” according to text obtained by the news agency.

'Urgency' theme of global Catholic climate delegation

Sep 18, 2009

NEW YORK

When President Barack Obama addresses the United Nations Summit on Climate Change on Sept. 22, an environmental delegation led by Catholic bishops from Europe, Africa and Latin America will not be listening for his soaring rhetoric or refreshing good will. They want to hear numbers.

“We want to hear him say the United States is committed to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2020,” says Bernd Nilles, secretary general of CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies that coordinated the delegation along with Caritas Internationalis. “And an 80 percent decrease by 2050, which he has already stated as his goal. But a 40 percent reduction in the near term would protect human lives. We in the developed world have an obligation to do that.”

Turmoil at the top at Jesuit university

People
Sep 1, 2009

Jesuit Fr. Julio Giulietti is accepting his controversial dismissal as president of Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, but one former board member is calling for an investigation into whether the local bishop was behind the ouster. Other board members are protesting that the university’s bylaws were flouted during the process.