c. 1997 Religion News Service

Report: Chinese detain underground Catholic church leader

(RNS) After 17 months in hiding, Roman Catholic Bishop Su Zhimin, a prominent leader of the underground church movement in China, has been detained by the government, a U.S.-based Catholic organization has reported.

According to a spokesman for the Cardinal Kung Foundation in Stanford, Conn., the bishop was taken into custody on Wednesday (October 8) in Baoding, a town about 80 miles south of Beijing.

The Cardinal Kung Foundation is an advocacy group for religious freedom in China and supports the underground Catholic movement that swears allegiance to Rome and refuses to register with the government.

Su Zhimin’s disappearance comes at a sensitive time in Chinese politics as President Jiang Zemin prepares to visit the United States later in October. Zemin will likely face members of Congress here who have raised critical concerns about religious freedom in China, The New York Times reported.

The bishop, who is 65, has spent decades in jail and extended periods in hiding to avoid arrest. His most recent prior arrest was in May 1996 when government officials cracked down and destroyed a shrine to the Madonna near Baoding visited by more than 10,000 underground Catholics, according to a foundation report.

Following an arrest in 1994, Su Zhimin met with Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J. The bishop was then jailed again for meeting with the congressman.

The Chinese government says religious freedom exists in the country but in practice worship takes place and religious groups meet only with the approval of government monitoring agencies. Some Catholic groups that operate do so under the authority of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, a government-approved religious organization.

International religious observers say the number of underground Catholics in China has been burgeoning in recent years and ranges from 8 to 10 million people. The Chinese government puts the number of Catholics in officially sanctioned churches at 4 million.

Abortion foes say they will fight Clinton veto

(RNS) Opponents of legal abortion say President Clinton’s veto on Friday (Oct. 10) of a bill outlawing a controversial late-term abortion procedure will only intensify their efforts to ban the procedure.”By his veto … President Clinton has ignored an overwhelming consensus of legislators, religious leaders, medical professionals and the American people: The violent killing of children in the very process of being born disgraces our nation,”said Helen Alvare, a spokeswoman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

Clinton’s Friday veto of the bill was the second time he has struck down the legislation. Last year, Congress was unable to muster the votes to override the veto.

The procedure, known by abortion foes as partial-birth abortion, has been at the top of the anti-abortion movement’s legislative agenda for the past three years.

Alvare, however, insisted Clinton’s veto”by no means resolved this debate.””It will only ensure a renewed grassroots effort by Catholics and other people of good will to win the congressional support needed to override his veto,”she said.”We will not rest until everything possible has been done to end this horror of partial-birth abortion.” James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, also criticized Clinton’s veto, saying the president”has blood of innocent babies on his hands.” Dobson said Clinton will go down in history”not only as the abortion president but the infanticide president.” But Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, hailed Clinton’s veto. She accused abortion foes of playing politics with the issue, noting they refused to amend the bill to address concerns raised by Clinton.”Abortion opponents are not interested in enacting constitutional legislation,”she said.”They want a political weapon to attack the brave lawmakers who voted to protect women’s health despite anticipated political retribution.”

Gay-oriented denomination adopts new mission statement

(RNS) The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, the nation’s largest gay-oriented denomination, has adopted new vision and mission statements explicitly linking spirituality and sexuality.

The new statements, announced publicly in the United States on Monday (Oct. 13) in Los Angeles, were first presented at the church’s meeting in Sydney, Australia, in July.”With the adoption of this new mission statement, UFMCC became the first Christian denomination in history to proclaim the `integration of spirituality and sexuality’ as part of its intrinsic mission,”said the Rev. Troy D. Perry, moderator of the denomination.”This new document calls us to impact the universal Christian church with our message of hope and affirmation for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons,”he said.

Perry also said the new mission statement calls for a doubling of membership over the next decade and to plant”spiritual outposts”in different countries and cultures.”And it re-emphasizes our commitment to the positive integration of sexuality and spirituality,”he said.

UFMCC, made of more than 300 local congregations in 16 countries, was founded in 1968 by Perry.”There is a great spiritual hunger within the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities, a hunger that is all the more compelling because it is too often compounded with rejection by faith communities,”said the Rev. Elder Don Eastman, the second vice-moderator for the UFMCC.”UFMCC’s new core statements renew our commitment to provide the message of positive and affirming Christianity to those who have been disenfranchised from full participation in the Church. In this regard, the new statements offer spiritual hope to the greater gay and lesbian community,”he said.

Australian gallery closes exhibit of Serrano works after attack

(RNS) An Australian art gallery Monday (Oct. 13) shut down an exhibit that included the controversial work of artist Andres Serrano _ who has angered Christians _ after assailants attacked and destroyed one of the works with a hammer.

The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne closed the display after Serrano’s photograph,”Piss Christ,”which shows a crucifix in a container of urine, was attacked and damaged Sunday in the second assault in as many days on the work.”I denounce any and all acts of terrorism and violent dissent and most of all I denounce the cowardice of those unable to fight for and defend the principles of their democracy,”Serrano said.”The damage that was done to Piss Christ is nothing compared to the blow that the National Gallery has dealt to the arts and to freedom of expression in Australia. Ideas, even provocative ones, are not dangerous, but the suppression of … ideas is,”he said.

The photo has angered many Christians, including the Roman Catholic Church in Australia, which labeled the art work blasphemous. Last week the church unsuccessfully sought an injunction to stop the exhibit, Reuters reported.

Serrano says the photograph represents the suffering of Christ on the cross.

Woman says next year’s message from Virgin Mary will be last

(RNS) The Virgin Mary is about to stop talking to Nancy Fowler _ or so says Fowler.

Fowler, who claims she receives messages for the public from the Virgin Mary _ the mother of Jesus _ said Monday (Oct. 13) next year’s message would be her last.”I understand from our lady (Mary) that next year will be the last of her public messages,”Fowler told more than 30,000 people who came to her Conyers, Ga., farm Monday.”My life will continue but the public messages will come to an end,”she said.

Fowler said she’s been receiving messages from the Virgin Mary since 1990.

She’s held annual gatherings to share the messages ever since. In her public speeches she tells the audience to pray and mend their ways.”Our lady is calling all of us to walk with faith,”she said.

Fowler’s addresses attract people as far as Mexico, the Associated Press reported.

Robertson’s Regent University eyes D.C. campus

(RNS) Regent University, founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, says it plans to launch a Washington, D.C., campus in the spring as part of its Robertson School of Government.

University officials say they want to further the institution’s mission of training leaders”to support the advances of the pro-family movement.”Expanding the school, located in Virginia Beach, Va., will also fulfill Robertson’s vision of growing what he calls the”nation’s only Christian graduate school of government that has a conservative perspective.” Robertson, who founded the Christian Coalition political advocacy group, has summoned Ralph Reed, the organization’s former president, to headline a key fund-raising dinner Oct. 28, for the new campus.

Tables for the gala are going for $250 to $1,000 per person. The invitation supporters received not only urged them to be generous, but tells them that”your commitment today can affect the direction of our nation well into the next century,”the Washington Post reported.

Reed left the Christian Coalition earlier this year to form his own political consulting company.

Clyde Wilcox, a Georgetown University professor and an expert on the religious right, criticized the school’s narrowly focused agenda. Graduate education, Wilcox says, should be concerned with the expansion of ideas and research.

Walter Murray, a Democrat and 1995 graduate of the Robertson School of Government, told the Post that while”they’re committed to turning out students who have conservative moral values,”there is a diversity of viewpoints among its faculty and students.

Matthew Freeman, senior vice president of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, said he was alarmed by the announcement because it will give the Christian Coalition a base to carry out studies”that carry a plain political purpose but have a patina of academic credentials.”

Quote of the day: Dr. Bernard Glorion of the French Medical Association

(RNS)”Some of my colleagues … had to participate in a tragic and shameful operation of discrimination and exclusion concerning Jewish doctors. Some did so because they were required to, while others chose this intolerable course of action for ideological reasons. History demands that we acknowledge the basic values of our profession were violated.” Dr. Bernard Glorion, leader of the French Medical Association at an Oct. 10 news conference in which the FMA issued an apology for its treatment of Jewish doctors during the Nazi occupation.

DEA END RNS