1. BUTLER CHURCH
OF THE NAZARENE
Chrisann Green will present
special music at the 9:45 a.m.
Sunday service at the Butler
Church of the Nazarene, 4410
Oakdale Road and Route 68.
The annual meeting will follow.
The Followers’ Life Class will
begin at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.
The seniors will have lunch at
the church Wednesday and then
see “Beauty and the Beast” at
Portersville Christian School.
Men’s golfing has started on
Mondays. Call 724-482-4116 for
information.
CHRIST COMMUNITY U.M.
Christ Community United
Methodist Church, 205 N. Duffy
Road, will host a potluck dinner
at 6 p.m. Sunday in Oz Hall, fol-
lowed by a puzzling event at
6:45 p.m.
Covenant Food Cupboard
items are spaghetti, sauce and
pet food.
The church council will meet at
7:30 p.m. today.
Sign up in the narthex to help
at the May 8 spaghetti dinner.
The volunteer choir will sing at
the 9 a.m. Sunday worship serv-
ice at the VA Medical Center
Sunday. Meet at 8:30 a.m. at the
center’s auditorium.
CHRIST’S OUTREACH
The children of Christ’s Out-
reach Church, 120 Walker Ave.,
will participate in the district finals
Saturday at Mt. Chestnut.
The COC Praise Team will pro-
vide music for the 10:30 a.m.
Sunday service.
COMMUNITY LIFE CHURCH
Community Life Church holds
service at McQuistion Elementary
School.
The April food donation items
for St. Vincent De Paul’s food
bank are pasta and sauce.
Payment to attend Acquire the
Fire is due Sunday.
Return all directory update
sheets to the Info Hub by May 9.
This Sunday, we will observe
Communion, have a building fund
offering and do Laundromat min-
istry after teardown.
FIRST BAPTIST OF BUTLER
First Baptist Christian School, a
ministry of First Baptist Church of
Butler, 221 W. New Castle St.,
will have a spring elementary
program and a performance by
the high school orchestra at 6
p.m. today.
FBCS will have an open house
at 7 p.m. Tuesday for parents to
visit the school.
The teens will attend the spring
youth retreat Friday and Saturday
at Slippery Rock Baptist Camp.
Men and boys from FBC are
invited to a prayer breakfast from
8 to 10 a.m. Saturday at the
Baptist Youth Center.
The church will conduct a nurs-
ing home service at Sunnyview
from 2 to 3 p.m. Monday.
FIRST ENGLISH LUTHERAN
First English Lutheran Church,
241 N. Main St., will hold holy
communion services at 8:30 and
11 a.m. Sunday.
A congregational meeting will
follow each service to approve
constitutional changes.
GRACE @ CALVARY
LUTHERAN
Grace @ Calvary Lutheran
Church, 123 E. Diamond St., will
hold the treasure hunters sale
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and
from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Lunch will be served Friday.
Pac Min will meet at 7 p.m.
Tuesday at the church.
The monthly soup and sand-
wich luncheon will be from 11
a.m. to 1 p.m. April 29.
GRACEWAY
Edith McCandless, Joyce
Moore and Andre Parker will pro-
vide special music for GraceWay
Community Church’s 10 a.m.
Sunday worship service.
GraceWay adult Bible study
was moved to 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
April 29.
GraceWay meets at Center
Township Elementary School.
HILL U.P.
Usher and greeter recognition
will be held Sunday at Hill Unit-
ed Presbyterian Church, 501
Second St. A reception will follow
the 10:30 a.m. worship service.
The SNYAGO youth group will
meet at 6:45 p.m. Sunday.
The senior night out dinner will
be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Monday in the fellowship hall.
MERIDIAN U.P.
The church quilting group will
meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Merid-
ian United Presbyterian Church,
4150 Highland Ave.
Worship committee will meet at
9:30 a.m. Friday.
NN
RELIGIOUS RRELIGIOUS ROUNDUPOUNDUP
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict
XVI promised Wednesday that the
Catholic Church would take action to
confront the clerical sex abuse scan-
dal, making his first public comments
on the crisis days after meeting with
victims.
During his weekly public audience
in St. Peter’s Square, Benedict
recounted his tearful weekend
encounter in Malta with eight men
who say they were abused as chil-
dren by priests in a church-run
orphanage.
“I shared with them their suffering,
and emotionally prayed with them,
assuring them of church action,”
Benedict said.
At the time of the private meeting
Sunday, the Vatican issued a state-
ment saying Benedict had told the
men that the church would do every-
thing in its power to bring justice to
abusive priests and would implement
“effective measures” to protect chil-
dren.
Wednesday, the public heard the
words from the pope himself.
Neither Benedict nor the Vatican
has elaborated on what action or
measures are being considered. Vari-
ous national bishops conferences
have over the years implemented
norms for handling cases of priests
who sexually abuse children, none
more stringent than the zero-toler-
ance policy adopted by the United
States.
The U.S. norms, which are being
held up as a model for others, bar
credibly accused priests from any
public church work while claims
against them are under investigation.
Diocesan review boards, comprised
mostly of lay people, help bishops
oversee cases. Clergy found guilty are
permanently barred from public min-
istry and, in some cases, ousted from
the priesthood.
Victims advocates have demanded
the Vatican take stronger action and
remove the bishops who shielded
known abusers, shuffling them
around from diocese to diocese
rather than reporting them to police.
On Wednesday, two church officials
in Dublin told The Associated Press
that the pope had accepted the resig-
nation of Bishop James Moriarty, who
admitted in December that he hadn’t
challenged the Dublin archdioceses’
past practice of concealing child
abuse complaints from police.
A formal announcement is expect-
ed from the Vatican on Thursday, the
church officials told the AP, speaking
on condition of anonymity.
The Vatican also is expected to
accept the December resignation
offers of two auxiliary Dublin bish-
ops, Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field, in
coming weeks.
Pope promises action against clerical sex abuse
Butler group
gathers weekly
to meditate
By KRISTEN NUSS
Eagle News Intern
Most people lead such busy lives it is dif-
ficult to imagine spending an hour doing
nothing except sitting in silence, but that is
exactly what the members of the Flower
Dance meditation group do each week.
From 6 to 7 p.m. Mondays, Celia Puz
opens her East Brady Street home to any-
one who wants to sit in quiet meditation,
specifically Samatha meditation.
Samatha meditation, also known as calm
abiding meditation, is a type of Buddhist
meditation in which practitioners strive to
sustain their attention for long periods.
Though Puz and other members of the
group are practicing Buddhists, the sitting
hours are nondenominational. One member,
Debra Brunken, describes them as “positive
people with good hearts and good minds.”
Puz said the meditations have an overall
positive impact.
“It’s a ripple effect,” Puz said. “If you do
this often enough it branches into other
aspects of your life.”
She describes the meetings as a very
casual, very unstructured experience. Every-
one comes into the room, sits on cushions in
subdued lighting and meditates for an hour.
The group environment is not necessarily
a social one, but the Flower Dance group
believes it enhances the experience.
“The energy of a group is really support-
ive and beneficial, especially for new peo-
ple,” Puz said.
Susan Hetz has participated in the group
since it began four years ago and feels simi-
larly about meditating in a group environ-
ment.
“It’s almost like anything else — building
a habit, exploring a new path — very nice
to be with other people doing the same
thing,” she said.
Both she and Puz believe there is a
strength in numbers that leads to more ben-
eficial results.
For Hetz, those results include creativity
and liberation.
“I find I’m more in touch with myself and
creativity. Creative solutions and ideas float
up as a result of silent meditation.”
Brunken agrees group meditation is help-
ful and can change one’s meditative experi-
ence and provide motivation and consisten-
cy.
“It’s easy to forget to take the time to sit
and center yourself, to think about the
moment rather than about the next thing,”
she said.
Meditation is believed to provide skills
for managing the stress of everyday life.
Brunken said those who regularly practice
meditation will be less likely to be negative-
ly affected by stressful situations as they
learn to embrace the sense of calmness
experienced through meditation.
On average, about five or six people show
up each week to participate; however, the
group welcomes interested community mem-
bers and provides instruction to first time
participants.
“Meditation, in this form, is not difficult,
but most people need a little guidance to
get started. The silence can be intimidat-
ing,” Puz said.
The group also provides several articles
to help new participants learn more about
meditation and its benefits. Puz recom-
mends anyone with an interest in medita-
tion speak with someone who meditates or
read a book about meditation to explore the
art and get started.
Calm
Embrace
Hand bell camp
offered for youths
Hill United Presbyterian
Church, 501 Second St., is
taking registrations for the
Power Chord Academy
hand bell camp, set for
July 14 to 16.
The camp is for youths
entering grades first
through eighth. Partici-
pants will learn to ring
hand bells and chimes.
Cost is $15. For more
information, call 724-287-
5427.
Summer concert
series announced
ALLEGHENY TWP —
The Scrubgrass Stone
Church will host a summer
concert series beginning
Sunday.
The events, which begin
at 7 p.m., include:
■■ Sunday — One in Spir-
it with Don Clark, Loretta
Ann and guest performers
■■ June 26 — Ron Ros-
man, a former member of
Tommy James and the
Shondells
■■ July 10 — Sound Wit-
ness
The church is on Scrub-
grass Stone Church Road
off Route 38 three miles
south of Interstate 80.
For more information,
call 724-867-0836.
FFOCUSOCUSThursday, April 22, 2010 BUTLER EAGLE - PAGE 11
OFFERINOFFERINGSGS
Tom Rozic and
Celia Puz medi-
tate April 12 dur-
ing the weekly
Flower Dance
gathering at
Puz’s East Brady
Street home.
Puz, a practicing
Buddhist, opens
her home from 6
to 7 p.m. each
Monday for a
nondenomina-
tional meditation
session. While
not a social
event, those who
attend say group
meditation can
help improve
motivation and
consistency.
JUSTIN GUIDO/
BUTLER EAGLE
WHAT: Flower Dance meditation group
WHEN: 6 to 7 p.m. Mondays
INFO: Call 724-282-1093 or go to
www.chojung.org
‘I‘It’s a ripple
effect. If you do
this often enough
it branches into
other aspects of
your life.’
CELIA PUZ
IF YIF YOU’RE GOINOU’RE GOINGG
■■ See Pope on Page 12
■■ See Meditate on Page 12
■■ See Roundup on Page 12
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
VATICAN CITY — Long
before entering Vatican life,
Pope Benedict XVI won
renown as a theologian and a
German university professor,
penning more than 40 books
and winning a devoted fol-
lowing of students who
respected his prodigious
memory and brilliant mind.
One thing absent from his
resume? Significant time as
a parish priest.
Joseph Ratzinger, the
future pope, only worked 15
months tending to a flock in
the 59 years since taking his
vows, instead closing himself
in the ivory tower of acade-
mia — a background that
may help account for his
troubled handling of the sex
abuse crisis engulfing the
church.
For one, it adds to the
impression of an out-of-touch
pontiff who simply doesn’t
grasp the enormity of the
fury around the world over
mounting evidence of sex
abuse by priests, and inac-
tion on the part of the Vati-
can and Benedict himself.
Benedict’s very legacy will
be shaped by whether this
aging pontiff, who recently
turned 83, can embrace a
new openness and express
remorse in straightforward
language free of the stilted
defensiveness of many Vati-
can pronouncements to date.
“Pope Ratzinger, more
lucid than many of his
defenders, must keep from
being suffocated by Professor
Ratzinger,” Marco Politi, a
veteran Vatican reporter,
wrote in a column last week
in the daily Il Fatto.
But in his native Germany,
the prominent Der Spiegel
magazine has already
declared his papacy a fail-
ure, speaking in its most
recent issue of “the tragedy
of a man who had set out to
write books and, only near
the end of his life, was sum-
moned to assume the Her-
culean office at the Vatican.”
Even the pope’s staunchest
admirers say he’s not the
best manager.
Some of Benedict’s critics,
however, say the pope’s real
problems lie mainly with a
practice of surrounding him-
self with unqualified advis-
ers.
Pope’s ivory tower
past adds to
his detachment