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Case looking at preserve
for North Maui coastWAILUKU » U.S. Rep. Ed Case has introduced a proposal that directs the National Park Service to determine if it can preserve a North Maui coastal area.
Case (D, Rural Oahu, Neighbor Islands) said he wants to see if the area between Paia and Spreckelsville might be preserved through the park system as a national seashore, historic park and recreation area.
If the North Maui Coastal Preservation Act of 2004 is approved, the National Park Service would assess whether some 130 acres in the Baldwin Park area meet the criteria to qualify as a site of national significance.
Case said people on Maui have expressed a desire to preserve the scenic area and if the park service finds the area merits inclusion in the system, he will introduce legislation to establish a heritage park named after the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink.
Bishop discusses Kerry
RICHMOND, Va. » Former Honolulu Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo said Friday he would not refuse communion to any parishioner who votes for a pro-choice political candidate, but he stressed that abortion rights supporters do not believe in an essential part of church teaching.Asked whether he would offer communion to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who supports abortion rights, DiLorenzo, the next bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond, said he would have to meet Kerry first.
"For me, personally, to handle something as delicate as this, I should at least talk to him privately first," he said at a meeting with reporters. "I don't have a clue as to who John Kerry actually is."
DiLorenzo, 61, will be installed today as the 12th bishop of the Richmond diocese, which encompasses 143 parishes stretching from the mountain towns of western Virginia to bustling Hampton Roads.
DiLorenzo previously served for 10 years as bishop of the Honolulu diocese.
He replaces retiring Bishop Walter Sullivan, who led the diocese for 29 years. Sullivan was outspoken against war and the death penalty and established what was the Catholic Church's first official outreach program for gays and lesbians in 1977.
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