WASHINGTON D.C. -At a time when priesthood ranks in the United States have been
shrinking — down 26 percent from 57,317 in 1985 to 42,528 in 2005 — the number of Asian- Americans in seminary schools is growing, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, or CARA, at Georgetown University. And while exact numbers by ethnicity are not available, church officials say Vietnamese and Filipinos make up the largest segment of the Asian seminarian population. Indeed, from Australia to Canada, where their numbers are in abundance, Vietnamese priests have been dubbed ‘’the new Irish.’’’’If you ask any father or mother what they want their child to be,’’ Luong said, ‘’if they’re Catholic, they will say a priest.

Min’sota helps mail order brides

ST PAUL, Minnesota - A state Senate committee has unanimously approved a bill that would put criminal background checks and marital histories of prospective spouses in the hands of mail-order brides, in their own languages, before they commit. Some brides end up in battered women’s shelters in Minnesota after finding themselves in abusive relationships, advocates said. “This is a growing problem,” Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, told the Senate Commerce Committee, which passed her bill on a voice vote. The state is home to more than 100 mailorder brides from the former Soviet Union, the Philippines and other impoverished countries, said Ilean Her, executive director of the Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans. International marriage brokers help link them with
American men through Web sites, catalogs and pen pal services. Washington state, Hawaii, Missouri and Texas have laws regulating international marriage brokers, and Congress recently passed a law modeled on the Washington statute, said Leslie Wolfe, president of the Center for Women Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), in its national executive board meeting here recently, reaffirmed the organization’s position in opposition to HR 4437 and in favor comprehensive immigration reform which includes a path to legalization for the undocumented, a repeal of employer sanctions, and family re-unification. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has set a March 27 deadline for starting floor debates and told the committee that if it cannot deliver a bill by March 27, he will present a measure for a vote. Like the immigration legislation passed by the House in December, Frist’s bill concentrates on enforcement measures. HR 4437 includes extreme measures such as criminalizing undocumented workers and anyone who provides assistance to them, including churches, non-profits, and union hiring halls.

FORT PIERCE, Florida - Filipino American Doctor Asuncion Luyao has been convicted of manslaughter for recklessly doling out painkillers, causing at least one death. The former New York doctor will spend the rest of her life in jail when sentenced on April 21. Luyao, 64, whose license has been suspended since 2002 when arrested on trafficking charges, thought she could make more money as a drug dealer than a physician, the prosecution said. She was charged with six counts of trafficking of oxycodone and six counts of manslaughter.