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Vatican Swiss Guard consider opening to women

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican's Swiss Guard swore in 32 new recruits Wednesday amid suggestions from their new commander that women might one day join their ranks.

Col. Daniel Anrig said Tuesday he was open to the idea of women serving in the elite, 500-year-old papal security force, reversing the long-held position of his predecessors.

"Personally, I could imagine it for one job or another, surely," Anrig told private Mediaset television. "One could think about it."

He acknowledged there might be logistical problems, since the Vatican barracks housing the Swiss Guard are already crowded. "Sure, there could be problems, but every problem can be resolved," he said.

The housing crunch has long been cited by previous commanders as the reason why women couldn't join.

Anrig, a former Swiss police commander with a degree in civilian and church law, was tapped by Pope Benedict XVI to head the Swiss Guard last August.

The 110-strong force provides ceremonial guard duty, assists at Vatican functions as well as helps to protect the pope. The guards are ubiquitous around the Vatican, in their trademark blue-and-gold uniforms, halberds and crimson-plumed helmets.

Two Cleveland Catholic parishes get shutdown reprieves

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Two of 52 Roman Catholic parishes ordered closed by Cleveland's bishop have won a reversal and will stay open.

The reprieves were announced at St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Colman churches in Cleveland. The diocese said Bishop Richard Lennon's review of appeals is now complete, so the remaining parishes on the shutdown list will be closed or merged over the next year because of declining congregations, finances and priests.

The two spared parishes challenged their closure orders and said they had stable finances and provided important social services in low-income neighborhoods of Cleveland.

The eight-county diocese has 224 parishes serving about 766,000 Catholics.

Boston Archdiocese report says finances improving; warns on retirement fund

BRAINTREE, Mass. (AP) -- The finances of Boston's Roman Catholic Archdiocese are slowly improving from the clergy abuse crisis, but a priest pension fund could run out of money in two years unless changes are made.

That's according to the archdiocese's annual report for fiscal 2008. Funds for disabled and retired priests are short $114 million.

The church said it hopes to balance its budget by the 2010 fiscal year. It reports a $4 million administrative deficit for fiscal 2008. Contributions to parishes rose 4 percent.

It expects a continuing decline in church school enrollments, and a need to hire more lay people to balance a shortage of priests and religious workers.

The archdiocese began its reports four years ago as it emerged from the abuse crisis, including an $85 million settlement with more than 550 victims.

Hawaii church ignored warning about human remains

HONOLULU (AP) -- Kawaiahao Church was cautioned more than four years ago that construction on its $17.5 million multipurpose center could unearth human remains.

An April 2005 report written by a church consultant, Cultural Surveys Hawaii Inc., urged Kawaiahao officials to conduct a subsurface archaeological study to determine the presence of bones and artifacts.

The church did not agree and began construction on the 30,000-square-foot center. But work was halted in March after workers unearthed 69 remains, mostly intact coffins.

That discovery is one of the largest on Oahu, exceeding those found at Wal-Mart's Keeaumoku location and the Ward Village Shops in Kakaako, whose building plans were delayed for months.

Dawn Chang, a cultural consultant for the church, said the 2005 study isn't applicable today because it contemplated a large underground parking lot. However, the project has since been scaled back significantly and includes no parking lot, she said.

The church anticipated unearthing remains but not in such great numbers, she added.

"I don't think anybody today is going to say we didn't expect to find bones," Chang said. "We just didn't expect to find this many."

The 58-page Cultural Surveys report documents century-old burials on the Kawaiahao Church property, including many in the area of the new multipurpose center. It included a 1912 and 1920 land survey for the church that showed the boundaries of all burial plots.

Economy, dwindling interest prompts Baptist seminary to merge music school

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is folding its decades-old music school into another school because of the sluggish economy and waning popularity with students.

The seminary's School of Church Music and Worship has trained thousands of choir directors, organists and other church worship leaders for 65 years. But it will no longer be a freestanding school.

Seminary President Albert Mohler said the recession forced a faster merger of the school after the seminary laid off 35 non-faculty workers earlier this year.

But Mohler said the trend of churches moving to guitars and praise choruses has eroded the school's entrants over several years.

The music school's enrollment of 167 students is down from a peak 20 years ago of 539.

"What we've been looking at is a major sea change in music in the larger culture, music in our churches and the role of our seminary in meeting those needs," Mohler said.

The school is moving into the new School of Church Ministries, so it can be combined with the School of Leadership and Church Ministry, which has taught future education ministers, youth leaders and other specialized ministries.

Pa. bishop criticizes college over Casey speech

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) -- The Roman Catholic bishop of an eastern Pennsylvania diocese has criticized a local Catholic college's decision to have U.S. Sen. Bob Casey speak at its graduation ceremony later this month.

Bishop Joseph Martino of the Scranton diocese called the choice of Casey, D-Pa., to speak at the May 17 commencement at King's College in Wilkes-Barre "an affront to all who value the sanctity of life."

Martino said in a statement that Casey's vote to confirm Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services despite her support for legalized abortion showed that Casey was "a reliable vote for President Barack Obama's aggressive pro-abortion agenda." He said Casey lacked "the moral stature" to address graduates.

Casey opposes abortion and has said he favors overturning the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling guaranteeing legalized abortion. Martino acknowledged that the college invited him long before he voted to confirm Sebelius and against reversing Obama's decision to end a ban on the use of federal funds for groups overseas that provide abortions or abortion information.