c. 1999 Religion News Service
Eds: Check RNS StoryPix from the week of July 19 for photos of Falun Gong protest at the Chinese embassy in Washington to accompany first item of Digest.
Update: China’s crackdown on Falun Gong sect continues
(RNS) China’s crackdown on a popular meditation sect intensified over the weekend following the government’s recent ban on the movement it considers a threat to the communist-controlled government.
Chinese security forces on Friday (July 23) arrested 200 people in Tiananmen Square protesting their government’s prohibition last week of Falun Gong, a movement that combines elements of Buddhism and Taoism with physical exercises believed to harness cosmic forces.
The official ban came Thursday (July 22) after three days of widespread protests over the arrests of several Falun Gong leaders.
The movement’s founder responded with bewilderment to the crackdown from his self-imposed exile in New York City.”I really can’t understand what the Chinese government is doing,”Li Hongzhi told The New York Times.”I think the crackdown is going to do damage to the state, do damage to human rights and attract the attention of international public opinion.” Since declaring the group illegal, the Chinese government has unleashed a barrage of efforts to quash the movement, which claims 100 million members worldwide. Over the weekend, more than 1,000 Falun Gong followers were rounded up by police and the state-run media intensified its criticism, calling the sect a”dangerous cult.” Chinese police have seized Falun Gong books and videos through raids of publishing houses and private homes. Followers of the outlawed sect say many people have been held and forced to read Communist party material and pledge to abandon Falun Gong.
The government fervor over a movement of mostly middle-aged and retired women and others who meet in city parks for meditation and exercises has drawn international criticism.
In Singapore Sunday (July 25), U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan about the Falun Gong crackdown.”I did mention the fact that obviously there are sects in other countries that may create problems, but that the right of assembly and right for a peaceful expression of views is very important,”Albright told reporters.
The human rights group Freedom House also protested the ban. In a statement, the Washington-based group called it”the latest incident in a clear pattern of government-sponsored religious repression.”
Update: Resigned Catholic bishop admits to sexual relationship
(RNS) Roman Catholic Bishop Patrick Ziemann of Santa Rosa, Calif., who resigned last week amid charges he blackmailed another priest for sex, admitted Friday (July 23) to a sexual relationship with the priest but denied blackmail and other criminal charges.
Through his lawyer, the bishop said at one time the men had a”personal, consensual relationship.”Ziemann denied the Rev. Jorge Salas’ accusations that he demanded sex in exchange for silence about Salas’ admitted theft of $1,200 from a church fund.”Those charges of sexual battery, defamation and other violations are not true,”said Joseph Piasta, Ziemann’s lawyer.”However, the bishop did regretfully have a personal, consensual relationship with Father Salas that was inappropriate for both of them as priests.” One day prior to issuing that statement, Ziemann stepped down from his position as spiritual leader of the 140,000-member Diocese of Santa Rosa, located north of San Francisco. Ziemann, 57, held the post for seven years.
He resigned after Salas went public with a lawsuit charging the bishop with sexual abuse in 1997 and 1998. In the lawsuit, Salas said the two men had sexual encounters in the bishop’s residence, the diocesan residence and hotel rooms. Salas also said he contracted a venereal disease from the bishop, reported The New York Times.
The lawyer for the bishop said those charges were”motivated solely out of greed”and pledged to fight them vigorously.”Bishop Ziemann is a very holy man,”Piasta said.”But he is not without human frailty like the rest of us.”
Catholic nun banned from gay ministry calls decision”unfair” (RNS) The Roman Catholic nun permanently banned from ministry to gays and lesbians by the Vatican called the church’s recent decision”unfair”Saturday (July 24) and indicated she may not adhere to the controversial ruling.
In her first public statement since being summoned to Rome to receive the church’s official denunciation of her life’s work, Sister Jeannine Gramick told about the dilemma she now faces because of the church ruling.
Gramick said the Vatican ruling has pitted her loyalty to the church against her divine calling to ministry to gays and lesbians.”I am now faced with a decision of whether or not to accept the outcome of a process that I believe was fundamentally unfair,”wrote Gramick.”I still feel called by God to lesbian and gay ministry. I also feel called to serve the people of God as a loyal member of the School Sister of Notre Dame in the Catholic Church.” Gramick announced a monthlong hiatus from all her church responsibilities in order to”discern where God is calling me in the future.” The Rev. Robert Nugent, who for years worked alongside Gramick and was also called to Rome to receive the same ministerial prohibition, released a statement soon after returning indicating his intent to accept the Vatican ruling.
Since 1977, when Nugent and Gramick founded New Ways Ministry in Washington, D.C., the two have been devoted to ministry with gays and lesbians. In recent years, the two have traveled to churches across the country teaching about gay and lesbian issues.
Gramick and Nugent are known as the most prominent figures on gay and lesbian issues within the Catholic Church. By ending their life’s work, the Vatican has drawn criticism on several fronts.
The national Catholic peace movement known as Pax Christi USA has asked the U.S. Catholic Bishops to appeal the Vatican ban. The author of a recent column in The Tablet, an influential British Catholic newspaper, questioned whether the recent Vatican action signaled a move back to a pastoral approach”that is harsh and judgmental.” Bomb found in Russian synagogue latest in anti-Semitic attacks
(RNS) An attempted bombing of a central Moscow synagogue on Sunday (July 25) has been classified as terrorism and will be investigated by Russia’s main security agency, news reports said Monday.
A bomb was discovered and safely disarmed shortly before more than 100 people were expected to attend a ceremony at a Lubavitch synagogue near Moscow’s central Pushkin Square.
The attempted bombing is the latest in a long series of anti-Semitic attacks in Russia that have drawn the attention of Jewish groups worldwide.
The National Conference on Soviet Jewry in Washington called on Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin to speak out strongly against the attacks on the eve of his visit to the United States.”Following such a blatantly anti-Semitic attack, an official government denunciation is critical to deterring further violence and incitement, particularly as Russia prepares to enter a high-stakes election cycle,”said a NCSJ statement.
The Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, also in Washington, commended Vice President Al Gore for promising to raise the issue of anti-Semitism when he meets with Stepashin this week.
Yosef Abramowitz, president of the union, also pledged to raise the profile of the issue and called for decisive action by international leaders.”We will use our international e-mail network of activists to flood the electronic mailboxes and fax machines of Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin demanding a strong response to anti-Semitic violence and provocations,”pledged Abramowitz on Monday.
In a letter to the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation made public Monday, Russian Ambassador Yuri Ushakov said his country is dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism. Ushakov also promised a”serious”investigation into the recent stabbing of a prominent Jewish leader in a Moscow synagogue.”Russia has made an unequivocal choice in favor of democracy and pluralistic society in which there should be no place for nationalism, anti-Semitism or any forms of xenophobia,”wrote the Russian ambassador.
Pope praises King Hassan as a man of dialogue and peace
(RNS) Pope John Paul II has praised King Hassan II of Morocco _ the first Arab head of state to invite a Roman Catholic pontiff to visit his country _ as a man who worked to encourage dialogue among believers and peace in the Middle East.
In a telegram sent Saturday (July 24) to Mohammad VI, Hassan’s son and successor, John Paul said the king, who died of a heart attack Friday,”guided the destiny of his country with the will to lead it with dignity on the road to spiritual and material progress.” The pope said Hassan’s invitation to him to visit Morocco and the king’s views on Jerusalem showed him to be”a man who desired to develop dialogue among believers and to establish peace among nations, above all in the Middle East.” John Paul made a historic visit to Casablanca on Aug. 19, 1985, meeting with the king and addressing thousands of young Moroccans in a sports stadium. He received Hassan in an audience at the Vatican in November 1991.
The pope said he prayed for Hassan and for the continued”edification of his realm in concord and in solidarity.”
Quote of the day: Baptist ethicist Robert Parham
(RNS)”It appears to me that apology is the perfect tool in our therapeutic culture for religious bodies to speak to the moral failures of their spiritual ancestors.” _ Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics in Nashville, Tenn. He was quoted in The New York Times about the trend in the 1990s of religious groups apologizing for members’ past actions.
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