c. 1997 Religion News Service
Famous St. Petersburg Orthodox church re-opened, mostly as museum
(RNS) One of the most famous Orthodox churches in St. Petersburg, Russia _ the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood _ has been reopened to the public after long and extensive renovation.
But the church, owned by the Russian government, will serve primarily as a museum, although religious services will be held there occasionally. Worship has not been held in the church for 60 years.
The ornate cathedral was built at the end of the 19th century as a memorial of national repentance for the murder of Czar Alexander II, who was killed at the spot where the church stands by a bomb thrown by an anarchist group.
It became a museum in the 1920s, during the communist crack-down on religion. During World War II, during the Nazi siege of the city, it was used as a morgue.
Ecumenical News International said the main event to celebrate the church’s restoration will be a religious service on Nov. 7, the 80th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.
ENI also said that officials at the Aug. 19 re-opening of the church said there were no plans to transfer ownership of the cathedral from the government to the Orthodox Church.
Vatican rejects Jewish group’s request to see World War II files
(RNS) The Vatican has rejected a Jewish group’s request that it be allowed to see the Roman Catholic Church’s World War II archives to reveal”the full truth”about the Holy See’s activities during the Holocaust.
The request by B’nai B’rith International was turned down in a letter sent by Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, the Vatican’s apostolic pro-nuncio, or representative, to the United States. Cacciavillan cited the Vatican rule that keeps all its archives sealed for a 75-year period.”The archives of the Holy See are open for consultation for the period ending with 1922; for subsequent years no exception has been allowed, not even to cardinals,”Cacciavillan said in his Aug. 18 letter. He also noted that 13 volumes of edited excerpts from the World War II archives have already been published.
Jewish groups have alleged that the Vatican should have done more to help stop the killing of Jews and others by Nazis during the Holocaust. The church argues it did all it could.
In May, B’nai B’rith president Tommy P. Baer wrote to Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano asking the church to open the World War II archives to Jewish scrutiny.”Governments are now realizing that they owe survivors of that conflict a full accounting of their country’s record during World War II,”Baer said.”It is now our fervent hope that, in the spirit of the times and out of respect and reverence for the many millions _ Jews and non-Jews _ who suffered under the Nazis, the Vatican will take this important step.” In a statement released Monday (Aug. 25), Baer said the Vatican’s rejection”can only pour more fuel on the fires of suspicion”concerning”the role of the church and church leaders during the period of the Holocaust.”
Most American Jews live in three metro areas
(RNS) Nearly half of the American Jewish population of about 5.9 million lives in three metropolitan areas _ New York-northern New Jersey, Los Angeles-Orange-Riverside counties, and Miami-Ft. Lauderdale _ according to the newly published 1997 American Jewish Yearbook.
About one-third of the Jewish population _ 32.9 percent _ lives in the New York-northern New Jersey region, which also includes Long Island, N.Y. Ten percent live in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties in California, and 6.5 percent reside in Florida’s Miami-Ft. Lauderdale metropolitan area.
The yearbook, published annually by the American Jewish Committee, also noted the continued migration of American Jews from the northeastern to the southern states.
A decade ago, 18.4 percent of the American Jewish population lived in the south. Today, the figure is 21.4 percent, with the increase coming”mainly at the expense of the northeast, whose Jewish population declined in the period from 53.2 percent to 47.6 percent,”according to a news release.
In line with this population shift, metropolitan Atlanta reported the largest numerical gain in Jewish residents during 1996. The Georgia city gained more than 7,000 Jews, increasing its total to an estimated 77,300.
The yearbook said Jews account for about 2.2 percent of the total U.S. population. The 5.9-million figure is the same reported by the yearbook in 1996, and is an aggregate of local surveys. A 1990 national survey of the American Jewish community by the Council of Jewish Federations placed the population at about 5.5 million.
New York’s Cardinal O’Connor will lead 300 to Cuba for pope visit
(RNS) Cardinal John O’Connor, head of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New York, will lead a delegation of 300 New York pilgrims to Cuba in January when Pope John Paul II visits the island nation.”We have the approvals from both Havana and Washington,”said Mario Paredes, director of the archdiocese’s Northeast Pastoral Center for Hispanics.
He said the group will bring humanitarian aid, mainly food and medicine, to the economically-beleaguered country headed by Fidel Castro.
The two day-trip _ billed as a pilgrimage _ is expected to draw nearly 2,000 Catholics from the United States, including as many 1,200 pilgrims from the Miami area and about 300 from Boston, the Associated Press reported Thursday (Aug. 29).
John Paul is scheduled to visit Cuba from Jan 21-25. O’Connor’s delegation will attend events on Jan. 24-25.
But the visit by U.S. Catholics to the Castro-controlled country is not without opposition.”We are in total disagreement with him (O’Connor) traveling to Cuba,”said Arnaldo Monzon, New Jersey director of the Cuban American National Foundation, an anti-Castro organizations.”Americans, the church in particular, should not travel to a country where people are imprisoned and persecuted,”Monzon said.
Update: Honduran archbishop turns down job running country’s police
(RNS) Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga has turned down a proposal that he serve as head of a five-member board overseeing the transition of the Honduran police force from military to civilian control.
On Aug. 19, the Honduran Congress elected Rodriguez, head of the archdiocese of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, to head the Intervention Commission, making him in effect the head of the police force.
The 6000-member police force has been part of the military for the last 33 years.
Pierre Drouin, vicar general of the archdiocese, told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, that Rodriguez could not take the job because canon law prohibited clergy from holding political office.
Rodriguez, 55, is also president of the Latin American Episcopal Conference, the continent’s bishops’ organization.
Quote of the day: The Rev. Aaron Tolen, Presbyterian Church in Cameroon.
(RNS) At the recently ended World Alliance of Reformed Churches General Council meeting in Debrecen, Hungary, one of Africa’s best known pastors, the Rev. Aaron Tolen of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, said churches have played a role in making Africa the troubled continent it is today:”Even salvation announced in Jesus Christ has been used to alienate and exclude Africans. Is it necessary to alienate oneself from one’s own culture in order to be saved in Christ? Cultural prostitution through religious and ideological invasions make up one of the most harmful injustices ever inflicted upon Africa.”
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