c. 1997 Religion News Service

ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles has given a strong endorsement to the late Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin’s Common Ground project, telling 10,000 Catholics they must work to end divisions.”One of his (Bernardin) concerns and one that I share deeply, is the polarization within the church, this striking out one against another,”Mahony said during a celebration of the Mass at the Religious Education Congress held last weekend (Feb. 15-16).

Mahony criticized what he called”using letters to the editor, certain kinds of publications, radio talk shows, (and) all kinds of vehicles”as means”to attack other people, even within our own church community.””You and I are given the collective responsibility of eliminating these kinds of divisions,”he said, stirring sustained applause among those gathered for the closing of the congress.”We are called to help mend those fences and to bring people together (and to) a greater, deeper sense of listening to one another, of that broad sense of understanding.” Mahony said that”if there’s going to be a common ground in the body of Christ, a sense of unity, then we must take initiatives _ personally, as parish communities and as archdiocesan family.” The congress, sponsored by the archdiocese, annually brings together upwards of 20,000 Catholic educators and others from across the country and other nations for two days of workshops and seminars that cover a host of topics from the prosaic to the controversial, from Catholic missionaries in 17th-century Asia to anti-gang ministries and homosexuality.

It is considered the largest annual, non-papal-visit gathering of Catholics in the country.

Like Bernardin’s Common Ground project, which aims to bring together for dialogue different sides on a number of controversial issues confronting the church, the Los Angeles congress has been sharply criticized by conservatives for including those whose views are not totally aligned with orthodoxy.

In a statement issued before the congress, Mahony assured critics that all speakers come”fully approved”by the diocesan bishop where he or she lives and is engaged in pastoral ministry.”Some theological and liturgical issues within the church are topics of continuing discussion and debate, and our adult Catholics, well grounded in the normative teachings of the church, possess the intellectual fortitude and the spiritual discernment to grapple with many of the complex discussions taking place within the church _ as they have for many centuries,”Mahony said.

Hundreds turned out for workshops on church teachings on homosexuality, including one by the Rev. Peter Liuzzi, a Carmelite who is director of the archdiocesan ministry for Catholic lesbians and gays.”He (Liuzzi) spent a good 20 minutes just on the grounding of the teaching before he even actually mentioned homosexuality,”said Sister Mary Leanne Hubbard, who teaches at an all-girls high school in West Los Angeles.”And then when he did start talking about homosexuality, he was talking about real people with real struggles,”she said.”I think it makes a difference.” One of the most popular workshops featured the Rev. Walter Burghardt, a Jesuit priest considered one of the world’s best preachers. In his workshop on biblical justice, attended by some 1,000 people, Burghardt said human treatment of the environment does not constitute a God-centered respect for the Earth.”Brown bears and bighorn sheep, elk and kingsnakes, ducks and spiders and butterflies, nothing is sacred _ almost as if someone had let a serial killer into Noah’s ark,”he said.”Scripture scholars insist we dare not interpret the Genesis command, `Subdue and have dominion,’ to mean that God has given us unrestricted power to do with the Earth whatever we will,”he added.”Reverential care for God’s creation rather than exploitation is the mandate given humanity in this section of Genesis.”

MJP END FINNIGAN