c. 1999 Religion News Service
Vatican reverses ruling, allows”sacred”hula dance in Masses
(RNS) In a reversal of a Vatican decision, Hawaiian Masses can once again include hula and other native”sacred gestures,”the bishop of Honolulu has announced.
Roman Catholic Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo traveled to Rome last summer to plead Hawaii’s case after the central elements of Hawaiian culture were banned from local churches when a parishioner complained they were being used for entertainment rather than worship.
With Vatican approval, the bishop issued new guidelines permitting sacred gestures during Mass, the Associated Press reported. They became effective Jan. 3.”Sacred gesture is a way for Pacific Islanders, Asians and those who have embraced the culture to worship as baptized Catholics,”DiLorenzo said in guidelines mailed to the islands’ 66 parishes.”For many, their cultural and religious experience are interwoven.” Diocese spokesman Patrick Downes said DiLorenzo purposefully avoided the word”hula”in his statement because other cultures in the region _ Asian, Tongan, Samoan and Filipino, for example _ use native expressions during Mass. About 730,000 of Hawaii’s 1.2 million residents are Asian or Pacific Islanders.
At least 200,000 people in Hawaii say they have some Hawaiian ancestry. The use of hula, a Native Hawaiian dance, at a Maui church was the source of the controversy.
Hula uses the hands, body and feet to tell a story. Ancient Hawaiians danced for their kings in both secular and religious settings.
The dance now has been used in various kinds of church services by both men and women. Examples include First Communion, weddings and funerals and even DiLorenzo’s installation as bishop in 1994.
The dance may be accompanied by religious chanting and native instruments such as the ipu, a drum made from a gourd, and the nose flute, a flute played by blowing through the nostrils.
The hula performed during liturgies is not the same dance performed by women wearing coconuts, leis and grass skirts at the well-known Kodak Hula Show.
Church hula is performed in the”strictest, most beautiful spiritual sense,”said John K. Lake, who has been a hula teacher for more than 40 years.
The sacred gestures now permitted in the worship setting are defined as movements that symbolize adoration, thanksgiving, praise, penitence and petition.”This form of gesture is considered as a form of praying with one’s whole being,”DiLorenzo said.
Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches to go high-tech
(RNS) The”Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches,”a popular resource prepared annually by the National Council of Churches, will be supplemented by a CD-ROM and Web-based products during the next three years.
A $635,000 redevelopment grant from the Lilly Endowment, an Indianapolis-based foundation, has made the advances possible.
The 67-year-old database on church membership and finances will be computerized and available in forms other than the usual printed volumes. CD-ROM and Web-based products will allow for new electronic data gathering.”We will hitch this venerable wagon of church history to the bright star of new technologies,”said the Rev. Eileen W. Lindner, editor of the yearbook.”The new CD-ROMs will, for the first time, assemble all of the 67 years of church membership and finance data in a single place.” The 1999 edition of the yearbook, which is published by Abingdon Press in Nashville, Tenn., is scheduled to be available Feb. 1.
National Religious Broadcasters honors”Lutheran Hour”host
Eds: TeleVision in the TV station of the year award below is cq.
(RNS) The National Religious Broadcasters will present its highest honor to the host of”The Lutheran Hour”radio program at the group’s annual convention in Nashville, Tenn.
The Rev. Oswald C.J. Hoffmann will be presented with the NRB’s Hall of Fame award for his 33 years of service as the program’s host.
The convention will be held from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2. The NRB represents more than 1,000 evangelical Christian radio and television stations, program producers and other related groups across the globe.
Other awardees are as follows:
NRB President’s Award: Bill and Vonette Bright, founders, Campus Crusade for Christ.
NRB Chairman’s Award: Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
Board of Directors Award: Elizabeth Dole, who recently stepped down as president of the American Red Cross.
TV Station of the Year: Cornerstone TeleVision’s WPCB-TV, Pittsburgh.
TV Program of the Year:”Life in the Word,”Joyce Meyer Ministries, Fenton, Mo.
Radio Station of the Year: WUGN-FM, Midland, Mich.
Radio Program of the Year:”In Touch,”In Touch Ministries, Atlanta
Talk Show of the Year:”Money Matters,”Christian Financial Concepts, Gainesville, Ga.
News Award: KCBI-FM, Dallas
Distinguished Service:”Need Him”Campaign, Dallas
International Ministry: High Adventure Ministries, Simi Valley, Calif.
Individual Achievement in International Broadcasting: Keith Strugnell, Go-Tell Communications, South Africa
Prominent Canadian Catholic accused of stalking
(RNS) One of the most influential Catholics in Canada has been charged with criminally stalking a female employee of the papal embassy in Ottawa.
The accused, Monsignor Vito Rallo, is the second most senior official at the papal nunciatore, which is the office of the Vatican’s envoy in Canada.
Ottawa police quietly filed the stalking charge in November after Josephine Greco, the nunciator’s cultural attache, alleged she was the victim of death threats, abuse and a break-in at her home.
A lawyer for the priest said the accusations are false and are those of a disgruntled employee. Rallo is still posted to the Ottawa mansion that serves as the Vatican embassy in Canada.
Greco, who holds both Italian and American citizenship, was fired by the embassy Sept. 30. The case began when Greco, 59, complained to police in mid-summer.
She is now fighting to extend her expired diplomatic visa so she can remain in Canada.
As a result of Greco’s complaints, police charged Rallo, 45, with engaging in”threatening conduct”in 1997 and 1998.
A spokesperson for Canada’s Foreign Affairs department said the federal government is awaiting word on whether the church plans to claim diplomatic immunity for Rallo.
Prosecutors, however, said that even if diplomatic immunity is waived, they will have to review the case before deciding whether there are sufficient grounds to proceed with a full-blown prosecution.
Archbishop Carlo Curis, the current nuncio in Canada, would not comment on the accusations against Rallo, the number two man at the papal nunciatore.
Roman Catholicism is Canada’s largest religious body, with 13 million adherents, almost half the Canadian population.
Vatican: Christians, Muslims share beliefs
(RNS) The Vatican, in a message marking the Islamic observance of Ramadan, said Friday that Muslims and Christians share common beliefs which can be used as a basis to foster greater understanding.”I write this message conscious of the fact that Christians and Muslims have not always loved and respected one another as God asks,”Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Vatican’s Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said in the message.”Unfortunately,”he added,”this lack of reciprocal love exists not just in history but also in the present.” Arinze cited similar beliefs about the treatment of fellow human beings which could provide a basis for greater understanding, Reuters reported.”Is there not here a vast domain of collaboration which could be developed between Muslims and Christians?”Arinze asked in his statement.
Update: China denies Vatican report on torture of priest
(RNS) Saying the Vatican missionary news agency Fides had ulterior motives, China on Friday (Jan. 8) denied a report that an underground Roman Catholic priest was forced to have sex and join the state-sponsored church.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said Li Qinghu, whom the Vatican news agency Fides identified as a priest, is a 31-year-old farmer. Police arrested Li on Dec. 2 on suspicion of damaging public and private property, Zhu said, the Associated Press reported.
Fides, the news agency of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, reported that Li was taken to a special prison where female agents tried to trick him into having sex.”The allegation by some foreign media that when in custody Li was forced to have sexual intercourse and forced to join the Patriotic Catholic Association was sheer fabrication with ulterior motives,”Zhu said.
China kicked out foreign missionaries in the 1950s and attempted to force Catholics to sever ties with the Vatican but loyalty to the Vatican has never been eliminated although Vatican loyalists were forced underground. Priests and bishops named by the Vatican were often kept secret.
Reports by overseas monitoring groups of arrests of underground Catholics or unregistered Protestants are frequent. Earlier this month, for example, a human rights group reported 140 Christians in the Henan province.
But this week, the China Christian Council _ the government-approved religious body _ denied the report but did acknowledge that five foreign nationals were”detained for having violated Chinese laws regarding alien religious activity in China.” The five _ three from Finland, one from Switzerland and one from Sweden _ signed statements admitting they had violated Chinese laws and were subsequently released, the China Christian Council said.
Quote of the Day: Rev. Don Harp of Atlanta
(RNS)”God intervenes in human nature more than we give Him credit for, and he’d do it more if we acknowledged it.” The Rev. Don Harp, pastor at Peachtree United Methodist Church in Atlanta, quoted in the Friday (Jan. 8) edition of USA Today. He was commenting on his friend Atlanta Falcons football coach Dan Reeves’ survival of emergency quadruple bypass surgery in mid-December.
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