c. 1997 Religion News Service

University group censures St. Meinrad’s over academic freedom

(RNS) The St. Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Ind., has been censured by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) over the school’s firing of a teacher who signed a letter supporting the ordination of women to the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Seminary officials, however, paid little attention to this latest development in the 2-year-old episode.

The AAUP, an advocacy group for college and university professors, voted June 15 at its annual meeting in Oakland, Calif., to censure the southern Indiana school for violating the academic freedom of Sister Carmel McEnroy by firing her. The dismissal ended McEnroy’s 14-year career at the school.

She was fired after publicly dissenting from church teaching that forbids the ordination of women by signing an open letter to Pope John Paul II.

McEnroy contends she was acting as a private citizen in signing the letter and says she was denied a fair hearing to try to save her job.

St. Meinard officials said that by signing the letter she had violated canon law.

After the AAUP censure, the Benedictine monks who run St. Meinrad’s insisted again that McEnroy’s firing is a church matter and not an academic issue.

The AAUP called the St. Meinard case”particularly egregious”because the school violated its own commitment to academic freedom. The AAUP says the school’s faculty handbook contains a statement allowing professors to express their opinions as private citizens and ensuring due process on actions taken against them.

Since leaving St. Meinard’s, McEnroy has finished writing a book,”Guests in Their Own House _ The Women of Vatican II,”and teaches part time at Lexington Theological Seminary, a Kentucky school affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

The censure of St. Meinard raises the AAUP list to 53 schools where administrations are alleged to have violated standards of academic freedom, including freedom of speech.

Knights of Columbus set records in giving time, money

(RNS) The Knights of Columbus, the Roman Catholic fraternal organization, set new records in 1996 in hours volunteered and financial contributions given to the church, the organization announced Tuesday (June 24).

The Knights gave more than 48 million volunteer hours and nearly $106 million in charitable contributions, according to its annual Survey of Fraternal Activity.

Of the record financial giving, nearly $87 million of the 1996 sum was raised by local and state units for use within their own jurisdictions.

Besides the record volunteer hours given to church, community and youth activities, the Knights gave more than 7 million additional hours to fraternal service. The survey showed members made more than 5 million visits to the sick and bereaved. There were also more than 300,000 blood donors in 1996.

Commenting on the survey results, Virgil C. Dechant, head of the Knights, said the record achievement”… places a value on volunteerism that inspires many others to get involved.” The Knights of Columbus has nearly 1.6 million members in the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico and several other Caribbean and Pacific Rim countries.

Operation Rescue’s Terry says he will run for Congress

(RNS) Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, who took his militant anti-abortion message from the streets to talk radio, announced Monday (June 23) he will seek a seat in Congress for a somewhat different message.

Terry, a 38-year-old Republican, launched a 1998 bid for New York’s 26th congressional seat now held by Democrat Maurice Hinchey. Terry said he would focus his candidacy on freeing Americans from oppressive federal taxation.

Terry, whose radio talk show is syndicated in 55 cities, said he wants to abolish the federal income tax, eliminate property taxes, and make Social Security personal, private and voluntary, the Associated Press reported.

The one-time car salesman entered the anti-abortion movement in the late 1980s. Relying on human blockades, mass demonstrations and other forms of civil disobedience, Terry built Operation Rescue into a national force before parting ways with the group several years ago.

In 1992, he spent five months in prison for contempt after one of his followers defied a court order and presented then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton with what was purported to be an aborted fetus at the Democratic National Convention.

Abortion is likely to be an issue in Terry’s campaign. Hinchey supports legal abortion.

Update: Agreement bars same-sex weddings at Emory chapels, churches

(RNS) A compromise has been reached in the United Methodist Church controversy involving the use of facilities at two denominational schools in Georgia for same-sex weddings.

In the future, United Methodist pastors and chaplains _ rather than school presidents and administrators _ who serve the churches and chapels at Emory University and its affiliated Oxford College will have the authority to determine what sort of religious ceremonies take place there, the United Methodist News Service reported.

The agreement was hammered out June 19 in Atlanta by the Emory University Board of Trustees after the denomination’s North Georgia Annual (regional) Conference called on Emory President William M. Chace to reverse his decision that would have allowed same-sex weddings at chapels on the campuses of Emory and Oxford.

Although not spelled out specifically, the agreement will, in effect, prohibit same-sex ceremonies from taking place in the churches and chapels since United Methodist clergy are bound to uphold Methodist rules barring”ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions”by the denomination’s clergy and in its clergy.

NYC mayor: Mother Teresa gets anything she wants

(RNS) New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, scourge of United Nations’ diplomats who violate the city’s parking regulations, has met his match.

On Monday (June 23) he indicated to Mother Teresa and her nuns that they can pretty much park where ever they want to, the Associated Press reported.

While on an extended visit to New York, Mother Teresa, the 86-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, told the mayor she needed more parking spaces for her nuns.”I would give Mother Teresa anything she wanted,”said the mayor with the tough-guy attitude.”She wants parking spaces, she gets parking spaces.” Continued the mayor, who once considered becoming a priest,”I think she knows how to charm millions and millions of people, including the mayor. You have to keep reflecting on the fact that you are meeting with a saint.”

Quote of the day: Patriarch Alexii II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church

(RNS) On Monday (June 23), the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, overwhelmingly approved a bill placing sharp restrictions on many religious groups while preserving the special role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the country’s life, the Associated Press reported. Patriarch Alexii, head of the Russian Orthodox body, said the law was necessary to prevent such incidents as the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide:”We do not want … mass suicide on religious grounds, as in the United States last spring.”

MJP END RNS