In Brief

Switzerland: Death announcements for dogs

The free daily Zurich paper, Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, have recently started printing death announcements for pet animals, taken prematurely from the affections of their masters. A scathing response to this abhorrent practice, abhorrent but actually popular in the United States, can be found in the work of Catholic novelist Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One (1949). – Not recommended reading for dog adorers or cat idolaters!

Canada: Screening for seminarians adjourned

Cardinal Turcotte, Archbishop of Montreal, declared that he would not, after all, impose an obligatory AIDS test on his seminarians (see DICI n° 89). Homosexual associations had reacted strongly when this project was announced, fearing that AIDS might be stigmatized as a “shameful illness”, and that these tests might create a form of discrimination. – The gays are now reassured, the faithful certainly less so.

Switzerland: Sacrament of Confirmation denied to under-18s

Mgr. Ivo Fürer, Bishop of St. Gallen, is imposing an age limit of 18 years for the sacrament of Confirmation. “The sincerity of the step and the understanding of what it means to receive the sacrament of Confirmation, through preparation at an adult age, allows us to limit the purely human considerations in the action of the Holy Spirit,” he explained.

Despite two petitions launched against this decision, he whom certain faithful call the “Führer” of St. Gallen, is not set to change his position. – Why not go the whole way and delay Baptism until just before Extreme Unction?