c. 2000 Religion News Service
British Bishops Warn on Asylum Debate
(RNS) Roman Catholics of England and Wales were reminded of the essentially critical role of the Church in society at a Mass in Westminster Cathedral this afternoon (Thursday) to mark the 150th anniversary of the restoration of the hierarchy in England by Pius IX in 1850.
Attending the celebration as papal legate was Cardinal Godfried Danneels, archbishop of Malines-Brussels.
Recalling the way in which 19th century English Catholicism had developed as a subculture within a society still marked by hostility to what it saw as “papal aggression,”Dom Aidan Bellenger of the monastery of Downside said in his homily: “In our complex society the church is called not so much to be a subculture as a counterculture, always avoiding the siren voices of establishment and respectability.”
The church, he added, has an obligation to present its moral and social teachings in the public arena but must always avoid being seduced by political flattery. “A lively church is always a prophetic church,” the Benedictine monk said.
“We have the opportunity, through the increasing richness and diversity of communication, to confront the modern world with the eternal truths of Christianity.”
But in a world of political correctness and “spin” it is sometimes difficult to be noticed, he said, “especially if we go beyond single-issue Catholicism to the whole teaching of the church. … difficult, but not impossible.”
An example of what Dom Aidan had in mind was the statement issued at the end of its Low Week meeting by the bishops’ conference of England and Wales on the way in which the debate about refugees “is being conducted in a way that is damaging to community relations.”
Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue, auxiliary of Westminster, chairman of the bishops’ committee for migrants, told a news conference Thursday it was “regrettable” that many politicians and newspapers could not speak about the question of those seeking asylum without using “emotive language” such as “bogus” as a qualification of “asylum-seeker” or “a flood” of refugees threatening to overwhelm Britain.
The bishops said they viewed with particular anxiety the prospect that as asylum-seekers were dispersed around Britain they could face increased isolation and become vulnerable to abuse and hostility.
They urged the government and all political parties to play their part in educating the whole community about the conditions from which very many asylum-seekers had fled their native countries such as persecution, ethnic cleansing, and war, as well as the contribution many refugees had made to the spiritual,
economic, and social well-being of the United Kingdom.
The bishops urged “a balanced approach” from all sections of British society, “and particularly from politicians and the media,” to ensure that asylum-seekers were treated with compassion and dignity.
Vatican Urges Buddhists to Accept Jesus as Model for All Humanity
(RNS) The Vatican prelate in charge of inter-faith dialogue called on Buddhists today to join Christians in this Jubilee year in accepting Jesus as a model for all humanity.
“While Buddhists do not share the same belief in Jesus Christ, is it not possible for us to appreciate together the example that Jesus gave us?” Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, asked in a message for Vesakh/Hanamatsuri, the feast celebrating Gautama Buddha’s life.
Arinze said the year 2000, in which Christians are commemorating the 2000th anniversary of Jesus’ birth, is significant not only for Christians but for all the world’s religions.
“At the beginning of a new millennium, this is a fitting time for each individual religious tradition as well as for all religious traditions together to take stock of the past and face the future with renewed vigor,” he said.
The cardinal noted that Buddhism was among the many religions represented at an Interreligious Assembly the council called in Rome last October to prepare for the millennium celebrations.
Arinze said he focused his annual Vesakh message on Jesus this year because “the birth of Jesus Christ is at the origin of the calendar that announces the new millennium.”
Jesus, Arinze said, “taught love of neighbor and showed compassion, particularly for the poor. He called for a spirit of forgiveness and forgave those who were putting him to death. He showed himself to be the redeemer, liberating those who are in the bonds of ignorance and sin.
“Is not Jesus thus a model and a permanent message for humanity?” he asked.
Mexico’s Catholic Church Urges Peaceful Presidential Election
(RNS) Mexico’s Catholic Church, usually strictly silenced by state officials, called on Wednesday (May 3) for a free, peaceful and clean presidential election in a nation known for political fraud and violence.
“We want none of the fraud of the past or the usual post-electoral conflicts,” said the country’s Council of Bishops in a public message about the July 2 election.
The nonpartisan statement was signed by 19 bishops who also called on Catholics to vote. They said abstaining from voting would be a “moral failing,” Reuters reported.
The message’s tone marked a sharp contrast from the censorship of earlier days in the church’s sometimes bloody and often troubled relationship with the state.
About 90 percent of Mexico’s population of some 100 million people is Catholic.
Quote of the Day: Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin, president of Barry University.
(RNS) “I was so naive. I fixed guest rooms thinking the grandmothers might want to stay overnight, see the boy the next day. I had a beautiful table set, Cuban food, thinking the family could sit down and eat together and they might come to some conclusions. That’s how stupid I was.”
_ Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin, president of Barry University in Miami, on the January meeting she hosted for the Cuban grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez. After the meeting, O’Laughlin changed her mind and said the boy should stay in the United States. She was quoted in the April 22 edition of World Magazine.
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