c. 2000 Religion News Service
Catholics Outraged Over Secret Confessions Broadcast on Radio
(RNS) Outraged Catholics are calling for a criminal investigation of a Boston hard-rock radio station that recently aired what it claimed were taped recordings from a local church confessional.
Rush-hour listeners to WAAF-FM (107.3) on Oct. 27 heard voices allegedly from the absolutely confidential sacrament of confession, in which parishioners share their sins with a priest and ask forgiveness. Recordings of a child abuser, an adulteress and an addicted gambler crossed the airwaves before a series of angry calls prompted station management to pull shock jocks Tom Birdsley and Rocko off the air.
The independent Catholic Action League of Massachusetts has called on state Attorney General Thomas Reilly to investigate whether the station violated Catholic rights to religion and privacy.
“Violating the sanctity of the sacrament would impair Catholics in the free exercise of religion,” said League Executive Director C.J. Doyle. And if the recordings turn out to be authentic, he said, then the station also broke a Massachusetts law prohibiting eavesdropping.
WAAF Program Director David Douglas told the Boston Herald the tapes were not real but “fabricated” and “theater of the mind.” The Herald also reported that the disc jockeys have been saying privately that the tapes were real.
The Archdiocese of Boston called the episode “blatantly horrible.”
“A stunt like this could have a damaging effect so people are afraid to receive the sacrament” of confession, said archdiocese spokesman John Walsh. “It’s a real disservice … part of (WAAF’s) publicity machine.”
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office is reviewing the request for an investigation, saying it will collect more facts before deciding what to do.
Christian School President Survives Singapore Airlines Crash
(RNS) Among the survivors of the blazing crash of Singapore Airlines Flight SQ006 in Taiwan last week was David Ralph, founder, president and CEO of a Christian school near Los Angeles and professor of marketing at Pepperdine University, which is affiliated with Churches of Christ.
Bound for Los Angeles, the Boeing 747-400 aircraft was carrying 159 passengers and 20 crew members. Singapore Airlines listed 24 Americans among the 81 confirmed or presumed dead in the crash at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport.
Ralph received severe burns to his hands and arms and minor burns to his chest, back and legs, according to Stacy Schmidt, Ralph’s daughter. Schmidt is principal of Antelope Valley Christian School in Lancaster, Calif., the school founded by her father in 1988.
After emergency surgery at Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital in Taipei, Ralph was treated in a special intensive-care burn unit, according to Nancy Magnusson, Pepperdine vice president and interim provost.
Traveling with Ralph was a 26-year-old assistant, Christina Reed, who was also critically injured. Ralph and Reed were on a recruiting trip for the school, whose programs extend from preschool through the 12th grade.
Both victims were transported last Friday (Nov. 3) to the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital in Sherman Oaks, Calif. The Burn Center reported Monday afternoon that Ralph and Reed are stable in fair condition.
Currently associate professor of marketing in Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, Ralph formerly served as dean and department chair. He has served as president of Antelope Valley Christian School since its inception.
Vatican Defers to Scientists on Genetically Modified Foods
(RNS) A Vatican official urged caution on genetically modified food Tuesday (Nov. 7) but said it is up to scientists, not the church, to decide whether the procedure is a blessing or a curse for mankind.
“It must be the scientists to say if trans-genetic food violates nature or if, instead, this food will help mankind,” said Archbishop Fernando Charrier, president of the Vatican’s Committee for the Jubilee of the Agricultural World. “In this case the church defers to the judgment of scientists.”
Charrier spoke in reply to questions following a Vatican news conference to announce plans for the Holy Year celebrations Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 11 and 12) in which the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations will take part.
His comments came one day after the Pontifical Academy for Life issued a declaration on another controversial issue arising from biotechnology _ stem cell research.
The panel of Vatican experts said the production and therapeutic use of stem cells taken from embryos created for the purpose violate Roman Catholic teaching on respect for life from the moment of conception, but it welcomed similar research conducted with adult stem cells.
In urging caution on genetically modified food, Charrier made an apparent reference to the drug Thalidomide. Believed to be a safe drug to control nausea during pregnancy, the drug was later found to produce serious birth defects.
“We today are aware that some medicines taken by women during pregnancy have had serious consequences,” the prelate said. “I believe that a great deal of prudence is needed in tampering with nature. And it is obvious that the question (of genetically modified food) requires caution by everyone.”
Vatican Appeals for an End to Conflict Between Israelis and Palestinians
(RNS) The Vatican appealed Tuesday (Nov. 7) for an end to the 5-week-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and urged dialogue as “the only way to true peace.”
In a brief statement, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue also reiterated the Vatican’s opposition to any “exclusive claim” to Jerusalem and said Jews, Christians and Muslims alike must have free access to its holy places.
“In the last weeks, the situation in Israel and the territories under the Palestinian Authority has deteriorated seriously. Tension has mounted, and conflict has resulted in a large number of victims,” the council said. “We wish to express our solidarity with all who have lost members of their families and with all those who continue to suffer.”
The statement did not refer directly to the round of separate talks President Clinton has called in Washington this week, but it appealed “to the Jewish and Palestinian people to forgo violence and to take up once again that dialogue which is the only way to true peace.”
The last round of U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace talks broke down mainly over the issue of Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its eternal and undivided capital. The Palestine National Authority seeks to establish its capital in Arab East Jerusalem.
“We reaffirm the importance of the holy city of Jerusalem for Jews,Christians and Muslims,” the Vatican body said.
“There can be no exclusive claim to the city,” it said. “Jerusalem belongs moreover to the spiritual patrimony of humanity. There must be free access to its holy places for all and especially for Jews, Christians and Muslims.”
The council called on religious leaders to recognize their responsibility to provide “education for peace” in the volatile region and urged “a constant striving to establish justice for all.”
“Moreover,” it said, “hatred and a spirit of revenge are never to be encouraged. On the contrary, a spirit of pardon and the willingness to bring about reconciliation are the only way forward to true peace for all.”
Pope Urges Dialogue, Denounces Demagogy in Address to Political Leaders
(RNS) Pope John Paul II urged dialogue and denounced demagogy Sunday (Nov. 5) in an address to some 2,000 leaders who came to Rome from 92 countries throughout the world for Roman Catholic Holy Year celebrations.
The pontiff told the government leaders, members of parliament, politicians and public administrators among 40,000 pilgrims attending Mass in a sun-drenched St. Peter’s Square that they were living in a “situation of profound change which has seen the emergency of a new dimension of politics.”
But, he said, “Dialogue remains the irreplaceable instrument for every constructive confrontation, both within states and in international relations.”
Speaking two days before the U.S. presidential elections, John Paul said leaders must live their “involvement in politics as a service to others,” acting with competence and a commitment to “unswerving morality in the selfless and accountable exercise of power.”
“There is no justification for a pragmatism which, even with regard to essential and fundamental values of social life, would reduce politics to the mere balancing of interests or, worse yet, to a matter of demagogy or of winning votes,” he said.
“If legislation cannot and must not be coextensive with the whole of the moral law, neither can it run counter to the moral law.”
The pope held up St. Thomas More as an example “for all who are called to serve humanity and society in the civic and political sphere.” John Paul last week (Oct. 31) proclaimed the 16th century saint beheaded by King Henry VIII of England for his loyalty to the papacy as the patron saint of politicians.
“As a statesman, he always placed himself at the service of the person,especially the weak and the poor,” the pope said. “Honor and wealth held no sway over him, guided as he was by an outstanding sense of fairness. Above all, he never compromised his conscience, even to the point of making the supreme sacrifice so as not to disregard its voice.
“Invoke him, follow him, imitate him,” John Paul told the leaders. “His intercession will not fail _ even in the most difficult of situations _ to bring you strength, goodnaturedness, patience and perseverance.”
More clashed with Henry VIII over the English sovereign’s plan to divorce Catherine of Aragon and the ensuring Act of Supremacy, which the king issued in 1534 to sever the English church from Vatican authority.
He also is remembered for his visionary book “Utopia,” in which he imagined an ideal country built on principles of democracy and religious tolerance.
Update: Conjoined Twin Dies After Surgery
(RNS) Twenty hours of surgery to separate 3-month-old conjoined twins at a British hospital failed to save the life of the weaker child.
The child, identified only as Mary, died early Tuesday (Nov. 7) at St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, England, hospital officials said. Her sister Jodie remains in critical but stable condition.
The two were born at St. Mary’s on Aug. 8, and were joined at the lower abdomen, the Associated Press reported. Though doctors said only Jodie could survive on her own and that both girls would die unless they were separated, the twins’ Roman Catholic parents objected to the surgery on religious grounds.
A British court sided with doctors in September.
“The sad fact is that Mary lives on borrowed time, all of it borrowed from her sister,” Lord Justice Alan Ward wrote in the court’s decision. “She is incapable of independent existence. She is designated for death.”
The parents, who are from the Maltese island of Gozo in the Mediterranean, decided not to contest the court’s decision.
The anti-abortion group Pro-Life Alliance wanted to argue on Mary’s behalf before England’s House of Lords, but on Friday (Nov. 3) judges rejected their appeal.
Muslim Woman Allowed to Wear Headdress at Florida Job
(RNS) A Washington, D.C.-based Islamic advocacy group has helped a Florida woman gain the right to wear the Islamic headdress for women while at work.
Fatimah Herman, a Muslim worker with National Maintenance Inc. in Crestview, Fla., was sent home in early September and told she violated company dress policy by refusing to remove her headscarf while at work, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
After Herman contacted the council for help, the organization sent a letter to the company on her behalf explaining, among other things, the significance of the headscarf to Muslims.
Herman was then allowed to return to work and was given back pay for several days of missed work, the council reported.
“They did discriminate, but it was due to lack of knowledge about the religion and how the law applied to accommodating different religions,” said Joshua Salaam, a civil rights coordinator for the council.
Quote of the Day: Evangelist Jerry Falwell
(RNS) “He’s a perfect candidate for deacon or Sunday school teacher, maybe even driver of the church van.”
_ Evangelist Jerry Falwell supporting Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s campaign for president of the United States. Falwell was referring to recent revelations that Bush pleaded guilty in 1976 to driving while drunk in Maine. He was quoted by Associated Press.
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