c. 1996 Religion News Service
Violence mars Nobel prize-winning bishop’s homecoming
(RNS) At least one person was killed and two others were seriously injured in attacks in East Timor by crowds gathered Tuesday (Dec. 24) for the return home of Nobel Peace laureate Bishop Carlos Belo.
The crowds had gathered at a cathedral and at the international airport in the East Timor capital of Dili to welcome the Roman Catholic prelate home from Norway, where he received this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, and the Vatican, where he met with Pope John Paul II.
The Reuter news service reported that rumors had circulated for days in Dili that there would be an attack on Belo, a vocal critic of the Indonesian government’s policy toward East Timor, a Catholic enclave in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
In 1975, Indonesia gained control of East Timor and separatists have fought the Jakarta government ever since. The dead and injured Tuesday were apparently set upon by the crowds who became suspicious of them.
Reuters reported that the dead man was attacked by youths at the cathedral after he was discovered carrying a pistol and walkie-talkie. Two men were seriously injured at the airport after the crowd there reportedly spotted a rifle, pistol and grenades in their car.
East Timor police said the incidents were under investigation.
Belo and fellow East Timor activist Jose Ramos Horta shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for their”sustained and self-sacrificing contributions”to the people of East Timor, according to the Nobel committee. Belo, 48, is the first Catholic prelate ever to be awarded the prestigious peace prize.
On Monday, the pope called for a negotiated solution to the East Timor problem.
Ecumenical Patriarch to pay first pastoral visit to U.S.
(RNS) Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of about 300 million Orthodox Christians, is scheduled to pay his first pastoral visit to the United States in the fall of 1997.
Archbishop Spyridon, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, announced that Bartholomew will visit the country from Oct. 20 to Nov. 9. His trip will include stops in New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and other cities.”Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will bring the message of Orthodoxy _ which is one of Christian mission, church unity and peace _ to the citizens of the United States,”Spyridon said in a statement.
Bartholomew, who is based in Turkey, has broadened the scope of the Orthodox Church in the five years he has been ecumenical patriarch. He has fostered relations with Roman Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans and other groups through visits and dialogues. He has strengthened contacts with Orthodox national churches in Eastern Europe. He also has been outspoken in his concern for the environment.
Plans for new cathedral unveiled in Los Angeles
(RNS) A new 2,000-seat Roman Catholic cathedral will be built in Los Angeles to replace that city’s 120-year-old, earthquake-damaged St. Vibiana’s Cathedral.
The $60-million cathedral is scheduled to open by September 2000. Construction will begin in June.
The cathedral will serve as headquarters for the Los Angeles archdiocese and will include living space and offices for church officials.
Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony, who unveiled plans for the new cathedral on Monday (Dec. 23), had wanted to build a new structure on the downtown site of St. Vibiana’s. However, that plan was blocked by historical preservationists who objected to the planned destruction of St. Vibiana’s.
The new cathedral will be built on a 5.8-acre site adjacent to the Hollywood Freeway, not far from St. Vibiana’s, whose fate is still undetermined.
Caribbean Anglicans ordain four women as priests
(RNS) For the first time in the 330-year history of the Anglican Church in the Caribbean, four women have been ordained as priests in Jamaica.
The four were part of a”movement to a new frontier”for the West Indian province of the Anglican Church, said the Rev. Howard Spence, who delivered the main sermon at the ceremony in Spanish Town, near Kingston, on Sunday (Dec. 22), the Reuter news agency reported.
The women _ Judith Daniel, Vivette Jennings, Patricia Johnson and Sybil Morris _ made history two years ago when they became the first women to be ordained as deacons.
Final approval for women’s ordination in the Caribbean churches was given last year after discussions began in the 1970s.
But the issue is still controversial. Several male priests in the Anglican Church in Britain, with which the West Indian province is affiliated, left their positions when the women were ordained deacons.
Women’s ordination also remains a major doctrinal difference in reunification talks between the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.
Vatican shores up opposition to women priests, abortion
(RNS) The Vatican ban on women priests and its opposition to homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment should be considered infallible doctrine even though the pope has not declared them so, according to a top Vatican theologian.
Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, writing in the Friday (Dec. 20) edition of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, cited three documents by Pope John Paul II that should be considered”infallibly put forth”because they drew from the church’s”deposit of faith”from Scripture and tradition.
The three documents cited by Bertone were John Paul’s encyclical on morality,”Veritatis Splendor”(the Splendor of Truth), which declared that certain acts such as contraception and homosexuality are always evil regardless of the context or rationale; the 1994 papal letter to bishops reaffirming a male-only priesthood and declaring discussion of the subject closed; and the 1995 encyclical”Evangelium Vitae”(the Gospel of Life), which denounced abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment.
Bertone said the teaching in the three documents”should be held as definitive and irrevocable.” Popes have invoked infallibility on only two occasion: in 1854 with the declaration that Mary was conceived without original sin and in 1950 declaring that Mary was assumed bodily into heaven.
Composer adds blessing to”Merry Little Christmas” (RNS) Composer Hugh Martin wants you to”Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”with an extra blessing.
Martin has changed the lyrics to the Christmas classic he wrote for”Meet Me in St. Louis,”the 1943 move starring Judy Garland.
Instead of”Have yourself a merry little Christmas,”the chorus now reads”Have yourself a blessed little Christmas,”the Associated Press reported.”My faith means everything to me now,”Martin said Friday (Dec. 20).”I wasn’t even a Christian when I wrote it.” Martin is now an 82-year-old Seventh-day Adventist living in Encinitas, Calif. He started thinking about changing the words to his tune in 1974 after he had a spiritual rebirth.”Have Yourself a Blessed Little Christmas”will be published in time for the next holiday season.
In 1990, Martin’s original tune was placed on the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ list of Most Performed ASCAP Standards.
Although Martin has updated his Christmas tune, he’s not thrilled when others wish to do so. He recently refused to grant permission to a Nashville artist who wanted to sing:”Have yourself a Willie Nelson Christmas. Let your hair grow long.”
Quote of the day: Poet Allan Ginsburg
(RNS) Poet Allan Ginsburg was asked by the Buddhist magazine Tricycle to respond to the question,”How much money is enough?”He replied:”You can be too thin but never too rich, if your inclination is to give it away, `transforming waste to treasure,’ using dollars to relieve the mass of suffering in all the real dream worlds you can imagine.”
MJP END RNS
