c. 2000 Religion News Service

Holocaust Scholars Ask Greater Access to Archives

(RNS) A six-member team of Jewish and Roman Catholic scholars has produced a report asking the Vatican to answer questions about its response to the Holocaust and urging the Holy See to give the group greater access to Vatican archives from that era.

“The scholars have asked for full access to the archives,” Seymour Reich,chairman of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, told Reuters. “It is not clear that that will be forthcoming, but we are hopeful that … at least the documents regarding those questions which are available in the archives will be provided to the six scholars.”

The committee’s report, released Thursday (Oct. 26), is the culmination of a yearlong scrutiny of 11 volumes of works detailing the Vatican’s actions during World War II.

“A scrutiny of these volumes … does not put to rest significant questions about the role of the Vatican during the Holocaust,” it said. The report questioned the silence of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust and requested access to his journals as well as the Vatican’s internal memos from the era.

“There is evidence that the Holy See was well-informed by mid-1942 of the accelerating mass murder of Jews,” the report concluded. “How thoroughly informed was the Vatican regarding details of the Nazi persecution and extermination? What was the Holy See’s reaction, and what discussions followed reports that flowed in describing evidence of the `Final Solution’?”

The Vatican has maintained Pius refrained from any harsh condemnation of the Nazis because he did not want to incite them to intensify their murder scheme against Jews.

The commission also demanded to know whether the Vatican responded to warning letters from Catholics in Poland that spoke of a crackdown on priests and the deportment of many of them to the Dachau concentration camp.

Presbyterian Pastor Will Not Be Charged for Allowing Woman in Pulpit

(RNS) A pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America will not be disciplined for allowing a woman to speak from the pulpit of his Tennessee church because the woman did not actually preach during the Sunday evening services in 1998.

That was the decision of a special panel appointed to investigate the case of the Rev. John Wood, pastor of Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tenn. Wood’s church is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a small, conservative denomination of about 225,000 members.

The PCA, unlike the larger Presbyterian Church (USA), does not allow women to be ordained and serve as pastors. At its June General Assembly meeting in Tampa, Fla., the church voted to allow women to speak at conferences and seminars but not in church pulpits.

In August 1998, Wood allowed a woman on his staff to speak at two Sunday evening services. A visitor from another church reported Wood to church authorities, and four presbyteries filed a formal complaint because they said Wood’s Tennessee Valley Presbytery failed to take appropriate action.

In the investigative panel’s report, two church elders and a pastor said the woman “likely crossed the line” against women in the pulpit but it did not “require the institution of (a disciplinary) process against John Wood.”

Further, the panel said Wood was not trying to “promote women preaching at (his church) or within the PCA,” nor was he “agitating or promoting a view that women should be ordained.”

The panel said the case should serve as a warning to churches not to “disturb the peace of the church” by allowing women to speak from the pulpit.

Wood told the Associated Press that the role of women in the church is “a very emotional issue.” He said people fear that “if women start speaking in church, it’s a slippery slope and the next thing you know we’ll be ordaining women.”

Presbyterians Issue Response to Controversial Speech on Christianity

(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) has issued the highest-level response to controversial comments made by a Chicago pastor in July that Christianity may not be the only path to salvation.

At a July Presbyterian Peacemaking conference, the Rev. Dick Ficca stirred controversy by suggesting Christianity may not be the only true religion and “God’s ability to work in our lives is not determined by becoming a Christian.”

Several factions within the church have asked church leaders to speak out against Ficca’ remarks, but the church has been largely hesitant to openly reprimand him.

In a letter Wednesday (Oct. 25) to the entire church, the executive committee of the General Assembly Council _ a 93-member elected body that oversees the church between annual meetings _ reiterated Ficca’s right to his opinions but reaffirmed the historic teaching that faith in Jesus Christ is the only path to salvation.

“Biblical faith continues to be the Christian faith, the church’s faith, our faith,” the letter said. It added that “our own faith is unambiguous.”

The letter quoted from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, saying there is “one calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

Pointing to the church’s catechism, the letter said Christians must treat members of other religions with respect and charity, but said, “How God will deal with those who do not know or follow Christ, but who follow another tradition, we cannot finally say.”

While reaffirming Ficca’s “right to his own views,” the letter called for unity in the church and said a central tenet of Presbyterian theology is the role of individual conscience. “There are truths and forms of truth with respect to which men of good characters and principles may differ,” the letter said, quoting from the church’s Book of Order.

Carter Affirms Gay Ordination

(RNS) Former President Jimmy Carter, who recently announced he no longer will associate with the Southern Baptist Convention, has affirmed gay ordination.

Carter made his comments about homosexuality Oct. 20 in a telephone interview with Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. The previous day, he had announced his disassociation with the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, citing its “increasingly rigid” statement of faith.

The former president told Baptist Press he considers homosexuality to be a sin, but he does not oppose the ordination of gays.

“If that person (a homosexual) was demonstrating the essence of Christianity, I would not object to the individual being ordained,” Carter said. “Yes, homosexuality is a sin but so is adultery. When somebody doesn’t give 10 percent of their earnings to the church, it is a sin. All of us are sinners every day. And adultery is a more serious sin than homosexuality.”

Although he is no longer associating with the national denomination, Carter plans to continue his work as a deacon and Sunday school teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga. The church now gives half of its mission contribution to the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Carter said gay ordination is a local church decision. He also said he supports laws forbidding discrimination against gays but does not support legal approval of homosexual marriages.

“Homosexuals have a perfect right to profess to be Christians, accept Christ as savior, and I wouldn’t have a problem if they worshipped side by side with me,” he said.

“Jesus never singled out homosexuals to be condemned. When the Southern Baptist Convention started singling out homosexuals as a special form or degree of sinfulness, I didn’t agree with it. Now that target has shifted to the subjugation of women.”

The Baptist Faith and Message calls for wives to “submit … graciously” to their husbands and says “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

China Detains Another 100 Falun Gong Practitioners

(RNS) At least 100 members of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual group were detained Thursday (Oct. 26) by Chinese police during a protest in Tiananmen Square.

The crackdown on the brief protest was part of increased efforts by Chinese authorities to discourage mass protests expected to be held Oct. 30, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported, according to the Associated Press. That day marks the one-year anniversary of the government’s designation of Falun Gong as an “evil cult.”

Chinese officials banned Falun Gong _ a combination of traditional Chinese meditation exercises and Buddhist and Taoist principles _ in July of last year after deciding the group was a threat to the Communist Party.

Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested since then, and movement leaders have been sentenced to prison terms as long as 18 years. But adherents insist Falun Gong simply promotes good health and mental well-being.

Also on Thursday (Oct. 26), the information center reported two more adherents died while in the custody of Chinese police.

Qi Fengqin, arrested in September for distributing Falun Gong literature, died Oct. 11 from internal injuries sustained when authorities force-fed the 43-year-old government worker to end her week-old hunger strike.

Authorities told the family of another detained Falun Gong follower, Zhong Hengjie, that the businessman committed suicide Oct. 3. But relatives and acquaintances believe he may have been beaten to death.

Houses of Worship to Join Prayer for Tibet This Weekend

(RNS) Thousands of churches, synagogues, mosques and temples are scheduled to pray for the Tibetan people this weekend during the annual Interfaith Call for Universal Religious Freedom and Freedom of Worship in Tibet.

The prayer event, scheduled for Oct. 28 and 29, has grown from about 8,000 participating people last year to more than 70,000 this year, said Brahma Das, executive director of the Interfaith Call.

“Many of these spiritual leaders are intimately drawn to the Interfaith Call … because they want to take a personal stand against the genocide under which the Tibetan people are suffering,” said Brahma Das, who was raised Jewish. “I lost family in the Holocaust in Europe, so the plight of the Tibetan people speaks to me very personally.”

Organizers have written liturgical prayers and ceremonies for use in nine different traditions _ from Catholic and Anglican to Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Zoroastrian. Brahma Das said the Rt. Rev. William Swing, Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of California and leader of the United Religions Initiative, has signed on as a major supporter.

Brother Wayne Teasdale, a Catholic theologian who is a member of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, said religious leaders cannot ignore the plight of the Tibetan people.

“What happens to the Tibetan people has become the test which God has given us,” Teasdale said. “Spiritual leaders failed the test during the Holocaust in Europe. Now God is giving this test about responding to the genocide facing the Tibetan people, and for spiritual leaders, it should be a clear moral absolute.”

The Interfaith Call has received the blessing of the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of the world’s 15 million Tibetan Buddhists who has lived in India since China overtook Tibet in 1949, as well as Archbishop Desmund Tutu; Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas Gandhi; and Dr. Deepak Chopra, author and pop culture guru of alternative medicine.

Quote of the Day: Lutheran World Federation General Secretary Ishmael Noko

(RNS) “The hope for Eucharistic sharing to become a reality sometime in the future must be held high as an outcome of common beliefs and shared participation in God’s justifying grace.”

_ The Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, in a statement marking the first anniversary of the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by Roman Catholic and Lutheran officials, who declared last Oct. 31 that a key doctrine that had divided them was no longer a cause for separation.

DEA END RNS