c. 1999 Religion News Service

Coalition sending booklet promoting gay tolerance to superintendents

(RNS) A coalition of medical, educational, mental health and religious organizations plans to send a booklet urging gay tolerance to American public school superintendents.

The Just the Facts Coalition announced it would mail the 12-page booklet Tuesday (Nov. 23) to the heads of all 14,700 public school districts in the country. The booklet states that there is”no support among health and mental health professional organizations”for the idea that homosexuality is mentally unhealthy or abnormal.

The coalition includes the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Education Association, the American Psychological Association and the Interfaith Alliance Foundation.

The coalition said the publication”provides information that will help school administrators and educators to create safe and healthy environments in which all students can achieve to the best of their ability.” The booklet,”Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth,”also voices concern about potential harm to gay students posed by”reparative therapy”and other measures that aim to change sexual orientation, The New York Times reported.”I think this is a history-changing moment,”said Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a New York group focused on ending anti-gay bias in the schools.”The entire mainstream education and mental health establishment has said it isn’t lesbian, gay and bisexual students who need to change, it is the conditions in our schools that need to change.” Conservative groups criticized the distribution of the booklet.”If they’re going to talk about `the facts,’ here’s a fact: All the major religions of the world consider homosexuality wrong,”said Janet Parshall, chief spokeswoman for the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.

John Paulk, a homosexuality and gender analyst for religious broadcaster James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, said the booklet is based on politics, not science.”They’re saying they want to present factual information on homosexuality, but we believe that they’re presenting propaganda,”he said.

His Colorado Springs, Colo.-based evangelical Christian organization has held Love Won Out conferences that endorse reparative therapy. Conference participants also are taught how to combat what they view as pro-gay messages children receive in schools.

Deanna Duby of the National Education Association, a schoolteachers’ union, said the coalition was formed in response to those conferences.

The booklet advises:”Because of the religious nature of `transformational ministry,’ endorsement or promotion of such ministry by officials or employees of a public school district in a school-related context could raise constitutional problems.”

Catholic, Jewish scholars named to study Vatican World War II archives

(RNS) The Vatican and an international committee of Jewish leaders said Tuesday (Nov. 23) that six Catholic and Jewish scholars have been chosen to study Vatican archive documents in an attempt to resolve the controversy over whether Pope Pius XII could have done more to avert the Holocaust.

Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews, and Seymour D. Reich, chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC), made the announcement.

The Vatican said the scholars will prepare a joint report on their”findings and conclusions”on one of the most contentious issues in Catholic-Jewish relations. It gave no indication of when the report would be issued.

The Catholic scholars are Eva Fleischner, professor emeritus of Montclair (N.J.) State University; the Rev. Gerald P. Fogarty, a Jesuit and a University of Virginia religious studies professor; and the Rev. F. John Morley, a Holocaust scholar at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

The Jewish scholars are Michael R. Marrus, history professor and dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto; Bernard Suchecky, research director at the Free University of Brussels; and Robert S. Wistrich, Jewish studies professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

An announcement said that Cassidy and Reich”expressed the hope that any questions and differences that may exist can be resolved through this joint review approach,”which they called”unusual if not unprecedented.” The appointment of the scholars was suggested by Cassidy and accepted by Reich at a meeting in Rome Oct. 18. It comes at a time when the proposed beatification of Pius XII and the publication of the highly critical book”Hitler’s Pope”by John Cornwell have focused renewed attention on the pope’s wartime record.”The joint team of scholars will study the 11 volumes of Vatican archival material published between 1965 and 1981 that relate to the church’s role during World War II,”the Vatican said.”The scholarly team is also expected to raise relevant issues that its members feel have not been satisfactorily resolved by the documentation already available,”the Vatican said.”They may also draw on the knowledge and assistance of other specialists, including colleagues and associates.” A cautious Reich called the study”a useful first step in resolving the Vatican’s role during the Holocaust and advancing the Catholic-Jewish relationship.”

Lutheran critics of full communion form organization

(RNS) Lutheran critics of a proposal for full communion with the Episcopal Church have created their own organization. Meanwhile, two Lutheran congregations also have registered their dissent from the ecumenical decision.

The 408 people who met Nov. 15-16 in St. Paul, Minn., elected the Rev. Roger C. Eigenfeld, of Mahtomedi, Minn., to lead their group.

The meeting, titled”Word Alone National Gathering I,”was the culmination of a series of 45 regional gatherings held throughout the fall across the country.

In August, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to approve the proposal,”Called to Common Mission,”with the Episcopal Church. It passed by a vote of 716-317, 27 votes more than the required two-thirds.

The proposal would lead to a range of cooperative ministries between the two denominations.

Opponents often cite the ELCA’s adoption of the historic episcopate _ a succession of bishops considered a sign of unity back to the earliest days of the Christian church _ as the reason for their opposition. They argue that the historic episcopate, brought to the relationship by the Episcopal Church, creates a new hierarchy in the church. Currently bishops are authorized to ordain but may delegate the task to an ordained pastor. Under the proposal, bishops must preside at all future ELCA ordinations.”Every church has a genetic code, a kind of DNA that determines its official teaching,”said the Rev. Meg H. Madson of Plymouth, Minn., who opened the conference.”Now that the ELCA has adopted Episcopal DNA, the certainty and freedom of the Gospel has been undermined.” Eigenfeld, 59, said there are currently no plans to create another denomination, reported the ELCA News Service.”I wouldn’t even want to talk about another denomination, because I think that’s incredibly premature and totally unnecessary at this point,”said Eigenfeld, of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi.

He hopes there can be a meeting of ELCA leaders and opponents of the proposal to seek a”mutual remedy.” In a separate but related matter, one Lutheran congregation voted to leave the ELCA and another refused to change its liturgies or governing documents to include the historic episcopate.

St. Paul Lutheran Church in Napoleon, Ohio, has voted to leave the denomination, but a second vote to confirm or withdraw the action is expected in early 2000. The church cited the proposal as one of its reasons for departing.

St. Luke Lutheran Church in Bay Shore, N.Y., adopted a resolution”rejecting the document `Called to Common Mission’ in its entirety”and declared itself”a non-CCM congregation.” Pope hails ecumenical conference in Moscow as step toward Christian unity

(RNS) Pope John Paul II, who is seeking to mend relations with a sometimes hostile Russian Orthodox Church, hailed an ecumenical conference that opened in Moscow Tuesday (Nov. 23) as a significant step toward Christian unity.

Representatives of the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches traditionally present in the countries that made up the former Soviet Union are attending the three-day meeting to discuss”Christianity on the Threshold of the Third Millennium.” In a letter dated Nov. 18 and released by the Vatican Tuesday, the pope said he was”greatly encouraged”by the meeting, which he said brings together representatives of churches that, through baptism,”already share a real, though yet imperfect, communion.””The rediscovery of this brotherhood in the Lord will make it possible for Christians to deepen their relations, intensify their cooperation and strive toward that perfect unity in the faith which is expressed in full and visible ecclesial communion,”he said.

Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and two aides traveled to Moscow to attend the conference, which follows similar meetings in Moscow in 1994 and Minsk in 1996. The Vatican said they also will hold separate talks with Russian Orthodox officials.

The Polish-born pope has given high priority to improving Catholic-Orthodox relations, traveling this year to two predominantly Orthodox countries, Romania and the Republic of Georgia.

But disputes over the return of church property confiscated by communists in Ukraine and Orthodox charges that Catholics are trying to proselytize among the Orthodox have strained relations between Rome and Moscow.

Orthodox Patriarch Alexii II of Moscow earlier this month ruled out a papal trip to Moscow now because”the unresolved problems remain, bloodying relations between the churches.”

Russian court backs religious registration law

(RNS) In its first review of a controversial law on religion, Russia’s Constitutional Court refused to strike down a clause that requires religious groups seeking registration to prove they have existed for more than 15 years.

However, the court did ease the requirement for larger groups and those that were registered before the new law took effect in 1997. Tuesday’s (Nov. 23) ruling was in response to a challenge to the controversial 1997 legislation brought by Jehovah’s Witnesses and Pentecostal congregations.”In principle, the discriminatory nature of the statute remains intact,”said Alexei Nazarychev, a spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who claim 10,000 members in Moscow alone.”We need to see how this decision is implemented before we decide what to do further.” After filing their challenge in the Constitutional Court, the Jehovah’s Witnesses were subsequently granted registration on a national level, thus solving their problem.

In practice, the ruling will help those minority faiths in Russia that are large and politically well connected. Small groupings with a handful of parishes, or those that operated underground 15 or more years ago during the Soviet era, may still be denied registration under Russia’s religion law.

The Jesuits, for example, have been active in Russia for at least 200 years _ sometimes underground _ but were recently denied registration as a religious organization.

Registration is required to publish religious literature, hire employees or rent property. The deadline for registration is the end of this year. An estimated 10,000 religious communities have yet to register and there is a proposal before Russia’s parliament to extend the deadline.

In commenting on the decision, the Constitutional Court’s Judge Valery Zorkin defended the need for legislation to protect citizens against what he called dangerous religious movements. At the same time, he told reporters, Russia must maintain its commitment to religious freedom as spelled out in various international treaties to which it is a party.

The Rev. Charles Wright named new House chaplain

(RNS) The Rev. Charles Wright has been selected by the leadership of the House of Representatives as the new House chaplain, succeeding the Rev. James D. Ford, who is retiring.

Wright is a minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA) who has served pastorates in Maryland, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Washington.”I look forward to serving the members and their families with a caring, sensitive heart and to help them bear the loneliness of leadership; to be aware of the needs and to encourage those in staff and other support positions; and to build bridges of understanding and friendship among members,”he said in a statement.

Wright is expected to be formally approved by the full House in January, said Ted Van Der Meid, counsel and director for floor operations in House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s office.

Ford, a Lutheran, became the House chaplain in 1979 after serving 18 years as chaplain at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He received the title”chaplain emeritus”on Nov. 10.

The chaplain oversees the opening of each legislative session with prayer and performs other duties such as providing counseling, leading prayer groups and officiating at weddings.

Museum director pulls exhibit featuring Jesus figure with condom

(RNS) The new director of the Detroit Institute of Arts has suspended an exhibit that featured a Jesus figure wearing a condom.

The exhibit featured other controversial items, including a piece of art whose title contains a racial slur and a vial of urine from Andres Serrano’s highly publicized photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine.”I felt strongly I could not defend a couple of the pieces,”said Graham Beal, who became director in October.”A couple of the pieces were surprises.” The exhibit,”Art Until Now,”opened Nov. 17 but Beal did not see it until the next day. He suspended it on Nov. 19.

The decision follows a recent dispute over the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s display of a painting of the Virgin Mary that is accented with elephant dung. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani criticized the exhibit, calling it”sick stuff,”but federal courts have prevented him from cutting off museum funding.

In his previous position as director of the Los Angeles County Art Museum, Beal refused three times to exhibit the show now appearing in Brooklyn.

Jeff Bourgeau, an artist who coordinated the Detroit exhibit, said such shock art is meant to make people think.”Part of the power of the work is to evoke discussion,”he said.”They’re trying to avoid controversy. They wouldn’t reason with me.” Museum official Jim Boyle said the exhibit is postponed while Beal reviews it and holds discussions with the artists about it.

ACLU sues Salt Lake City over property sale to Mormon Church

(RNS) The American Civil Liberties Union has sued Salt Lake City over its sale of Main Street property to the Mormon Church that could lead to the banning of public demonstrations at the location.

In April, the city sold a block of Main Street to the church for $8.2 million. The former public property ran through the center of historic Temple Square, an area that includes the Salt Lake Temple and other Mormon buildings.

Terms of the sale state that the church must permit 24-hour public access to the square but can ban almost any other activity _ including smoking, begging, sunbathing, inappropriate dress, partying and lewd or vulgar behavior. But civil libertarians are most alarmed that the church is allowed to prohibit assembling, picketing and demonstrating, USA Today reported.

The church also can bar outside music and speakers but is allowed to broadcast its own church messages and Mormon Tabernacle Choir.”It’s an important case in terms of whose city this is, whose voice is going to be heard and respected,”said ACLU attorney Stephen Clark.”Is it just a way to further entrench the dominant church and the most powerful corporation in the city?” The suit, filed Nov. 16, claims the city has violated the First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly of the public and the constitutional principle against favoring any religion.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon Church is officially named, is not a defendant in the suit, but could be brought in later. The ACLU is joined in the suit by the city’s Unitarian church, the Utah chapter of the National Organization of Women and a group called Utahns for Fairness.

The Mormon Church plans to fight for its right to regulate the block in the way it wishes.”The church has property rights here, and it will strongly defend those rights,”said Von Keetch, an attorney representing the church.

Vatican news agency defends Rwandan priest accused of genocide

(RNS) A Vatican news agency has come to the defense of a Rwandan priest, now working in an Italian parish, who has been accused by a human rights organization of taking part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Fides, which reports on missionary activities for the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, responded to an article about the case in the Sunday Times of London. The news agency charged that the mass media has been manipulated into mounting a witch hunt against Rwandan priests.”This is not the first time and perhaps will not be the last that a Rwandan priest has been splashed on the pages of newspapers with the accusation of being responsible for the genocide of 1994,”Fides said.”The mass media’s witch hunt of Rwandan priests starts again,”it said.”Orchestrated?” The priest in question, the Rev. Arhanase Serumba, 36, a Hutu, was accused by the London-based human rights group Africa Rights of standing by as bulldozers demolished his church in which 2,000 Tutsis had taken refuge. A Rwandan court trying two fellow priests, the Revs. Jean Francois Kayiranga and Edoyuard Nkurikiye, in the case last year sentenced them to death for crimes against humanity.”I am a humane person,”Reuters quoted Serumba as saying in an interview. Asked whether he had committed the atrocity, he replied,”Never,”the news agency said.

The Sunday Times reported that Serumba had been in Italy for two years with the blessing of the Catholic Church. He is attached to a church in Florence.

Fides noted that the Sunday report (Nov. 21) appeared two days before Bishop Augustin Misago was scheduled to testify at his trial in Rwanda on charges of complicity in the genocide that saw Hutu extremists kill some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The Vatican news agency, which earlier printed Misago’s defense, has alleged that the government of Rwanda is mounting a campaign to discredit the Catholic Church in order to diminish its influence in the country.

Quote of the Day: Brother Wayne Teasdale

(RNS)”To be spiritual means essentially to take responsibility for our inner journey, while using all the resources from all the traditions available to us.” _ Catholic Brother Wayne Teasdale, writing in his book”The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions”(New World Library).

IR END RNS