c. 1999 Religion News Service

Reform Jewish leaders urge `whatever’ steps necessary to stop Serbs

(RNS) Reform Jewish leaders have urged President Clinton, Congress and NATO”to take whatever steps are necessary, including the introduction of ground troops,”to end”ethnic cleaning”in Kosovo and enable Kosovar Albanian refugees to return home.

The Jewish officials also called for the prosecution of Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic on war crimes charges.

In a resolution approved 139-16, trustees of the Reform Union of American Hebrew Congregations said the plight of Kosovar Albanians”has unavoidable echoes for us, as Jews”_ a reference to the Holocaust.

Absent of U.S.-led NATO intervention, the resolution continued,”the world would once again be turning its back on genocidal behavior. Our tradition teaches us to stand against such genocidal behavior.” The UAHC resolution, made public Monday (May 3), is among the most unequivocal statements in support of the NATO action against Serb-dominated Yugoslavia issued by any religious group during the current Balkan conflict.

Only Muslim groups, in sympathy with the mostly Muslim Kosovar Albanians, have strongly supported NATO’s attacks against the Milosevic government.

Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, have been equally strong in their calls for a swift end to the NATO air campaign against the Serbs, who are also generally Orthodox, even as some have condemned the expulsion of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. Other Christian groups that have voiced opinions on the fighting have also generally condemned the bombing and the expulsions, and have urged a diplomatic solution to the Kosovo crisis.

Last Sunday (May 2), Pope John Paul II said Roman Catholics around the world would mark May as a month of prayers for peace, particularly in Yugoslavia and Africa. Referring to the Balkans, the pope appealed for help for those”forced to abandon their own land amid indescribable atrocities”and a halt to”the bullying of man against man.”

Prying pilgrims prompt sealing of Jesus-era ossuary

(RNS) An ornate stone burial box believed to have once held the bones of the Jerusalem temple high priest who the New Testament says plotted against Jesus has been sealed shut to prevent Christian pilgrims from trying to open it to peek inside.

Officials at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum said Monday (May 3) they took the action to protect the ossuary, which is part of the museum’s current exhibit about early Christianity.

The ossuary, which has floral designs chiseled into its white limestone, was unearthed about five years ago during a building project in Jerusalem. The bones inside were deemed by scholars to be those of Joseph Caiaphas, who is identified in the New Testament as having plotted Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.

The bones were never put on display out of respect for Jewish law concerning respect for the dead. Instead, the bones were reburied in a valley near Jerusalem.

Since put on exhibit, the ossuary, which is about the size of an airline carry-on bag, has attracted groups of Christian pilgrims who stop to pray in front of it. Some have tried to open the box, reported the Associated Press, prompting museum officials to seal it shut.”The lid was broken several times,”said David Mevorah, exhibit curator.”We have had to fortify it with epoxy resin because people coming here, apart from praying sometimes, try to open it and see if the bones or the relics are still there. It is now closed and cannot be opened.”

More crosses put up near Auschwitz

(RNS) Defying the Polish government and Roman Catholic officials yet again, militant Poles have erected new crosses near the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

Kazimierz Switon, who has led the effort, said Tuesday (May 4) that 50 new crosses were being added to the almost 250 already at the site.

Switon and other militant Polish Catholics began their campaign after Jewish groups demeaned the removal of a 26-foot-tall cross at the site. That cross was used in a papal Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II in 1979 at Birkenau, another former Nazi death camp that is near Auschwitz.

Jewish critics said the crosses demeaned the memories of the more than 1 million Jews who died in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Switon and others argued that the crosses should remain to mark the deaths of the 152 Polish Catholics also executed there by the Nazis.

Both the Polish government and Polish bishops have opposed the placing at the site of all but the papal cross.

New Swiss Guards commander announces reforms on anniversary of murders

(RNS) Col. Pius Segmueller, commander of the pope’s elite Swiss Guards, announced Tuesday (May 4) a series of reforms growing out of the killing of his predecessor by a disgruntled junior officer exactly one year ago.

Segmueller, a career officer in the Swiss Army who took command of the 100-man force on Aug. 1, said three new directives on organization, discipline and qualifications and promotions will take effect Thursday (May 6) when 35 new recruits will be sworn in.”The tragic year 1998 has passed. So many scars and open wounds bear mute testimony to May 4, 1998,”Segmueller said.”In spite of this, we look to the future with faith.” Lance Cpl. Cedrich Tornay, 23, shot and killed Col. Alois Estermann, 43, and his Venezuelan-born wife Gladys Meza Romero, 48, in their apartment inside the Vatican walls last May 4 several hours after Estermann was promoted to commander.

The Vatican said in a final report issued in February that Tornay was upset because Estermann had passed him over for a decoration. They said an autopsy disclosed traces of cannabis in his urine and a cyst the size of a pigeon egg in his brain, which may have impaired his judgment.

Many Swiss Guards were expecting more”rapid changes”in regulations and organization, Segmueller said, but this was impossible because”patience, respect and above all sensibility”were needed”so as not to destroy important customs and traditions”of a force that has served the popes for almost 500 years.

Outlining the steps he has taken, Segmueller said a new centralized recruitment and information office has opened in Switzerland, and volunteers will be given professional examinations”with psychological clarifications where necessary.” The final decision on recruitment will remain with the commander but will be based on”objective criteria,”he said. Decisions on organization, discipline and promotions will be spelled out instead of being left to the commander’s discretion.

In addition, Segmueller said he has enlisted the Swiss Army and police to assist in training the guards and opened a home page on the Internet at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/swiss_guard to provide information about the corps.

The corps, drawn from Swiss-born Roman Catholics, was formed in 1506 to protect the Apostolic Palace, residence of the pope. Known as the world’s smallest army, it is made up of four officers, a chaplain, 25 non-commissioned officers and 70 halberdiers.

New recruits are sworn in each year on May 6 to mark the anniversary of the Sack of Rome in 1527 when 147 Swiss Guards died defending Pope Clement VII from the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The pope and 42 guards managed to flee to the fortress of Castel Sant’Angelo on the Tiber River.

Normal duties range from serving as a guard of honor in colorful Renaissance uniforms to directing traffic at the Vatican gates.

But the guards are trained to react swiftly in emergencies. Estermann was the Swiss Guard who leaped to the aid of John Paul II on May 13, 1981, when Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca shot and wounded the pope during an open air audience in St. Peter’s Square. In later years, he accompanied John Paul on 30 papal trips as a security officer.

Polish churches see a major agreement on baptism for millennium

(RNS) Minority Protestant churches in Poland plan to join with the dominant Roman Catholic Church in a statement declaring the mutual recognition of baptism.

The Protestant and Roman Catholic churches are also considering, as part of their observance of the millennium, a joint acknowledgment of”guilt and forgiveness”for the past wrongs done to one another, said Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.”Many people have warmed to these proposals, recalling our common roots in the Holy Spirit,”said Lutheran Bishop Jan Szarek, head of Poland’s Ecumenical Council.

The Lutheran church, with 95,000 members, has already accepted the declaration.

If approved by other minority churches and the Roman Catholic Church, it would mean, among other things, that people switching denominations would not have to be re-baptized.

Szarek said Roman Catholic leaders in Poland are”increasingly open”to other churches and he believes they will endorse the document on baptism as confirming what is already established practice in the church.

Bishop Alfons Nossol, chairman of the Roman Catholic Church’s Council on Ecumenism, said he would”do everything”to ensure the document on baptism was approved by the Polish bishops’ conference when it meets in June.

But he said the statement of mutual guilt and forgiveness was”only an idea”and needed further work.”The validity of baptism has been under discussion for 20 years, and after this final theological effort our bishops are ready to accept it officially,”he said.”Meanwhile, the pope has expressed regret and apologized for the church’s sins and misdeeds, so I think this won’t pose great difficulties either,”he said, referring to apologies the pope made to Protestants during visits to Poland in the mid-1990s.

But Nossol said the”shape and quality of this gesture”needs to be made more precise.

Quote of the day: Tornado survivor Theresa Jones”We heard it coming and _ whoa, whoa, Jesus _ we called on his name, and I felt his arms come around us and save us from that tornado. And I thank God for that.” _ Theresa Jones, a survivor of a tornado Monday (May 3) near Moore, Okla., quoted in the Tuesday (May 4) edition of USA Today.

DEA END RNS