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Issue Date:  March 19, 2004

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Fr. Alberto Ricardo da Silva, rector of the major seminary in Dili, East Timor, was named bishop of Dili March 6. Bishop Carlos Belo was apostolic administrator of Dili from 1988 until November 2002 when he resigned for health reasons. Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for working toward a peaceful solution to the territory’s brutal occupation under Indonesia.

Sr. Sara Butler (pictured), a Missionary Servant of the Most Blessed Trinity, and Barbara Hallensleben, a German laywoman, became March 6 the first women named to the Vatican’s International Theological Commission. Butler teaches dogmatic theology at the New York archdiocese’s St. Joseph’s Seminary. Hallensleben teaches dogmatic theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Both women have been involved in ecumenism, Butler as a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Com-mission and Hallensleben as an expert on Catholic-Orthodox issues. Butler was an early proponent of the women’s ordination, but said she changed positions in the late 1970s after an “intellectual conversion” while researching the topic.

Mary Ann Glendon, a professor of law at Harvard University, has been named president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The March 9 appointment marks the first time a woman has been named president of one of the 10 pontifical academies, all of which involve groups of scholars who conduct and encourage research on topics of concern to the Catholic church.

Mercy Sr. Petra Chavez, founder and CEO of Caminos/Pathways Learning Center in San Francisco, received the 2004 Sr. Margaret Cafferty Development of People Award for her efforts to empower low-income immigrant women through access to computer training. The award, presented annually by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, is named in memory of the late Presentation Sister who served as director of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and was a member of the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development committee. The award honors an individual whose life exemplifies a commitment to the development of people and the elimination of poverty.

Photos by CNS

National Catholic Reporter, March 19, 2004

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