Catholic Church

In what many are calling South Pasadena's own holy war, the city's Cultural Heritage Commission has taken the first step toward blocking a Catholic church's campus expansion by recommending its neighborhood be declared a historic district. Commissioners late Thursday sided with Ramona Avenue residents, who contend that what they call a historic neighborhood is threaten by the expansion plan of Holy Family Catholic Church.

A man in his 20s faces the congregation at Mission Eben-Ezer Pentecostal Church and delivers startling news. "I just want to stay out of jail from now on and take care of my family," he says. Immediately, an army of people rises from chairs and mobilizes around him, placing hands on his shoulders and above his head in prayer.

American Catholics want their next pope to open the doors of the Catholic Church to married and female priests and permit laypeople to help elect their own bishops, according to a new survey commissioned by dissident Catholic priest Andrew Greeley. The survey, conducted by the Gallup Poll organization and released Thursday by Greeley and sociologist Michael Hout, also found that American Catholics want the next pope to choose representative laypeople as advisors and to give more authority to U.

Pope John Paul II issued an updated code Friday for electing popes, introducing modern comforts for cardinals and reaffirming rules against electronic bugging and cellular phones to safeguard the conclave's secrecy. In his new apostolic constitution "Universi Dominici Gregis" (The Shepherd of the Lord's Whole Flock), the pope reaffirmed that cardinals 80 and older cannot enter a conclave to elect a pope. He also kept the upper limit for the number of cardinal-electors to 120.

Roman Catholic clergy, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, placed ashes on the foreheads of the penitent as part of Ash Wednesday observances followed in Christian churches throughout the world this week. The day marked the beginning of 40 days of Lent--a season of penitence, prayer, self-examination and fasting. The sign of the cross was made with ashes on the foreheads of believers as a reminder that they are mortal.

Having lost a divorce vote in Ireland, the Roman Catholic Church is making its next stand in Chile. The South American nation does not ban divorce per se, but has no law permitting a legal end to marriage. Some legislators want to change that, and church leaders promise a hard fight to keep things the way they are.

Alarmed at recent immigration raids, Roman Catholic priests representing 20 Eastside parishes called on the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on Tuesday to cease such operations in the Los Angeles area.

Contradicting Vatican doctrine against artificial birth control, the French Bishops Conference said this week that the use of condoms is necessary to prevent AIDS from spreading. Pope John Paul II has insisted that abstinence outside marriage and fidelity within marriage are the only legitimate weapons against the sexual transmission of AIDS. The Vatican had no immediate comment on what apparently is the first time a bishops' conference has contradicted the pope's teachings on the subject.

The "parental rights" movement in the United States has gained an unintended boost from the Roman Catholic Church. In a new book on human sexuality, the church advises parents to become more involved in their children's education, to the extent of keeping them out of school if they are unhappy with sex education programs.

Two national Catholic newspapers published in Encino moved this week to Connecticut offices owned by the Legionaries of Christ, a rapidly growing but little-known priestly order that was involved in the sale of the weeklies last year. But the new owners of the National Catholic Register and Twin Circle have declined to spell out the relationship between the publications and the tight-knit religious order that some term "mysterious" in its dealings with outsiders.