c. 1997 Religion News Service

U.S. ambassador to Ireland, a Catholic, takes Protestant communion

(RNS) U.S. Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, the American envoy to Ireland and a Roman Catholic, took Holy Communion Sunday (Dec. 21) in Dublin’s oldest Anglican _ Protestant _ cathedral, ignoring strictures from the country’s Roman Catholic hierarchy.”Religion, after all, is about bringing people together,”Smith told the Irish Times, a Dublin newspaper on Monday (Dec. 22).”We all have our own way of going to God.” Smith, appointed to the Irish post in 1993 by President Clinton, is the sister of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and a member of one of the most prominent Catholic families in the United States.

Her action came on the heels of the decision by Mary McAleese _ Ireland’s new president and also a Catholic _ to take communion Dec. 7 in the 11th-century Anglican Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin.

Like Smith, McAleese, Ireland’s first president to come from predominantly Protestant Northern Ireland, said she wanted to promote Christian unity, the Associated Press reported.

On the same Sunday that Smith participated in the Protestant Eucharist service, the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland criticized McAleese for her gesture. Dublin Archbishop Desmond Connell said Catholics who participate in Protestant communion services were practicing”sham”religion.

The Anglican Church in Ireland, however, defended the practice of offering communion to Catholics and a church official said the interchurch dispute left him”deeply saddened.” While the nature of Holy Communion was a church-dividing issue at the time of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, in recent years, officially appointed theologians from the Roman Catholic Church and several Protestant denominations, including the Anglican Communion, have come to a consensus that both churches are in basic agreement about the rite.

Bosnian Muslims, Christians issue call for freedom of belief

(RNS) A Muslim-Christian gathering in Bosnia has appealed for religious freedom and the protection of the right to worship for all minorities in the in the faith-riven nation.

The appeal, issued Dec. 14, came at the end of a three-day meeting held in the central Bosnian town of Zenica. The meeting brought together 35 Muslim, Roman Catholic, Serbian Orthodox, Protestant and agnostic participants.

John Taylor, the Conference of European Churches special consultant for the former Yugoslavia, said the appeal was”a challenge to the increasingly separatist approach”religio-ethnic communities in the multi-faith Bosnia were taking in regions controlled by Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox majorities.”The reality is that strong separatist and nationalist forces are trying to divide people,”Taylor said.

The appeal called for religious freedom for all of Bosnia’s religious communities and for protecting the right to worship, reported Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency. Churches and mosques have been particular targets of extremist violence in the country.”People in all religious communities are articulating liberal and tolerant principles but there are also people in each religious community _ and political party _ expressing narrowly nationalistic viewpoints,”Taylor said.

Austrian Roman Catholic bishop calls Vatican harsh, rigid

(RNS) A liberal Roman Catholic bishop in Austria, in a letter written just a week before his mandatory retirement, has criticized the Vatican for being hash and rigid.

The letter by Bishop Reinhold Stecher, head of the Austrian Diocese of Innsbruck, said the Vatican”has lost the image of mercy and adopted one of … harsh rule. With this image, the church will not make a mark in the third millennium, and pompous millennium celebrations with many nice words will not change any of that.” Catholics in Austria have long chafed at Vatican rules and have been one of the major supporters of the We Are Church movement demanding church renewal, including an end to mandatory celibacy for priests, the ordination of women and a larger role for laity in church decision-making.

Stecher’s letter was originally intended only for a few bishops in the traditionally Catholic Austria. But the letter was leaked to the news media, drawing sharp responses from conservatives in the Austrian hierarchy.

Bishop Kurt Krenn, whom the Associated Press identified as one of the most conservative of Austria’s hierarchy, called the letter”indecent.” There was no public Vatican response.

But an Austrian news magazine reported that Innsbruck’s new prelate, Bishop Alois Kothgasser, was admonished in private by the Vatican for supporting Stecher.

In the letter, Stecher questioned the Vatican’s insistence on priestly celibacy and the restriction on lay participation in church life, including the barring of laity from giving homilies in worship services.

Muslim officials of Pakistan throw Christmas party for Christians

(RNS) The Muslim government of Pakistan threw a first-ever Christmas party for Christians Monday (Dec. 22).

Government officials decorated a tree with lights and tinsel and passed out presents for the first time since Pakistan was created as a Muslim homeland 50 years ago.

A tent on the lawn of the Punjab governor’s mansion was draped with a huge red banner wishing a merry Christmas to Christians, the Associated Press reported.”Let there be no doubt there is no room for discriminatory practices or prejudiced attitudes in Pakistan,”said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the devout Muslim leader of the conservative Pakistan Muslim League.”Anyone who spreads hatred in the name of religion is not a true Pakistani.” His speech, which included references to equal opportunity for everyone, was cheered by a crowd of about 2,000, most of whom were poor Christians.

After the speech, they shared a meal with the prime minister and received a $70 Christmas gift, pricey in Pakistan where the per capita income is $480.

There are about 4.5 million Christians in mostly Muslim Pakistan, just 3 percent of the country’s 140 million people. Other minorities represent about 2 percent.

German transport minister encourages autobahn church attendance

(RNS) German Transport Minister Matthias Wissmann encouraged his country’s motorists who will be traveling this Christmas to stop for spiritual fuel as well as gasoline.”During the stressful and hectic Christmas holiday season, the (country’s 12) autobahn churches are an ideal place to relax and reflect,”said Wissmann.”You can fill your tank at the petrol stations, but why not fill your soul at the churches?” The autobahn churches, the first of which opened in 1958, resemble expressway rest stops. Five offer Roman Catholic services, four are specifically Protestant and the remaining three conduct ecumenical services, Reuters reported.”There is no doubt that those who visit the autobahn churches continue on their journey calmer,”Wissmann said.

Many of Germany’s autobahns have no speed limit, so traffic often travels in excess of 100 mph.

Quote of the day: Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council

(RNS)”You know what drives me nuts. On TV stations, it almost always is `Happy Holidays.’ Why not not say `Happy Hanukkah’ and `Merry Christmas’? That covers 99 percent of Americans. There seems to be a resistance to saying the word `Christmas.'” _ Gary Bauer, president of the faith-based Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy group, quoted in USA Today Tuesday (Dec. 22).

MJP END RNS