c. 2000 Religion News Service
Pizza Magnate Urges Rosary Prayer for Unborn on Jan. 1
(RNS) The founder of Domino’s Pizza is urging Catholics to pray the Rosary on Jan. 1 to give thanks for the “hope” that President-elect George W. Bush brings to the anti-abortion cause.
Tom Monaghan, who is now chairman of the new Ave Maria University and Ave Maria School of Law, said even Catholics who voted for Vice President Al Gore can find a sense of “unity” in praying against abortion.
“Whatever reasons people may have had for their political choices, we are all brothers and sisters in the faith,” he said. “Now that the election is passed, we can unite once more behind the cause of life.”
Monaghan said he chose Jan. 1 because that is the day when Catholics celebrate the Feast of Mary, Mother of God. He said the Virgin Mary has shown herself in the election, with the final U.S. Supreme Court ruling coming on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and two earlier rulings on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
“Some may think this is just coincidence, but I firmly believe it’s Our Lady’s powerful intercession on behalf of the unborn,” Monaghan said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Anglican Bishops Urging Church-Goers to Bend the Knee
(RNS) Anglican church leaders are hoping to bring worshippers to their knees _ literally.
A campaign organized by the Rt. Rev. Stephen Pedley, the bishop of Lancaster, aims to encourage worshippers to kneel more during church services.
“Over the past few years I have noticed the death of kneeling,” wrote Pedley in a recent diocesan newsletter, according to the London Daily Telegraph. “People crouch, they stand, they sit, in extremis they appear to lie down: but hardly anyone kneels.”
The kneeling habits of Muslims, Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians could serve as a model for Anglicans, said the Rt. Rev. Geoffrey Rowell, the bishop of Basingstoke.
Kneeling “is a gesture of adoration,” he said, and when worshippers abandon the practice “something very important has been lost from our body language.”
“We are bodies as well as souls, and how we actually use our bodies signals things,” said Rowell, adding “The psalmist says `Let us come in and kneel before the Lord who made us.’ That’s the primary thing.”
But one Roman Catholic Church spokesman warned against overemphasizing the significance of kneeling.
“As a practice, kneeling is much less common in Catholic services,” said Monsignor Kieron Conry. “People reflect more on why they do things. Many find that they can be equally reverential standing or even sitting, rather than kneeling because they have always knelt. To tell people to kneel is carping.”
China Sentences Meditation Group Members to Prison
(RNS) Four members of the Zhong Gong meditation group found guilty of subversion have been sentenced to prison terms as long as four years, a human rights watchdog group announced on Friday (Dec. 29).
Arrested in October of last year, Wang Wanping, Qin Zhaoyang, Zhai Xuehai and Dong Jialan were sentenced last month in eastern China for criticizing the government’s decision to outlaw Zhong Gong and the similar Falun Gong spiritual group, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported.
The Nanjing court gave Wang a four-year prison term. Qin, Zhai and Dong received prison sentences of three-and-a-half years, three years, and two years, respectively.
Zhong Gong _ which has about 10 million followers in China and practices traditional Chinese meditation and breathing exercises _ was banned in China earlier this year. In July of 1999 officials banned Falun Gong, which combines slow-motion exercises with Buddhist and Taoist principles that practitioners say promote good health.
The two groups have been denounced by the government as “evil cults” and a threat to the public. Thousands of practitioners in both movements have been arrested or detained.
_ Shelvia Dancy
Scottish Bishops Denounce Plans for `Morning After’ Pill
LONDON (RNS) The Scottish Roman Catholic bishops have sharply criticized the British government’s decision to make the “morning after” pill available as an over-the-counter drug for all women over the age of 16.
At present, the pill, which costs about $30, is available only by prescription from a doctor but on Dec. 10, the government said that as of Jan. 1, druggists will be able to sell the pill without a prescription.
In a statement issued Dec. 27, the bishops expressed their “great concern” over the reports that Scotland has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Europe.
But the bishops said they questioned whether the government’s response _ making the “morning after” pill more widely available _ is misconstrued as a solution.
“If the `solution’ risks damaging human life, contributing to the breakdown in family life, and violating consciences, then we have to ask whether it is indeed a `solution’ at all,” they said.
Arguing that the pill could be a form of early abortion, the bishops said the Catholic church considered the prescription, supply and consumption of potentially abortifacient drugs to be gravely wrong.
“We call on doctors, pharmacists, parents and teenagers to reflect on the reality of what is being proposed and exercise their conscientious right of objection,” they said.
The bishops said they will draft a more fuller and formal pastoral letter on the subject in the coming year.
The bishops also said the government, in an attempt to cut teenage pregnancy rates, might inadvertently push up rates of teenage sexual experimentation, sexually transmitted disease, and early chemically induced abortion.
“By offering over-the-counter potentially abortifacient drugs to 16-year-olds, parental rights are being undermined, and family bonds weakened,” they said.
“If our teenagers feel that they are so unimportant that we can leave this aspect of their health care to a 10-minute chat in a busy pharmacy, with a pharmacist who cannot carry out any physical examination, consult medical records, nor discuss the issue with family members, we risk sending out a regrettable and dangerous message to a highly vulnerable group,” the statement added.
_ Robert Nowell
Vatican Agrees to Switch to the Euro in 2002
VATICAN CITY (RNS) – The Vatican signed a monetary convention with Italy on Friday (Dec. 29) allowing the small city-state to join European Union (EU) countries in switching its currency to the euro.
“The convention establishes the right of Vatican City to use the euro as its own official currency,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. “For the introduction of banknotes and coins in euro, the Vatican city-state agrees to follow the same calendar foreseen by the Republic of Italy.”
The spokesman said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, and Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini signed the convention in a ceremony at the Farnesina, Italy’s Foreign Ministry.
The Vatican’s present currency is tied to the Italian lira. It is issued in the same denominations and is interchangeable with Italian bills and coins.
Italy is among 11 of the 15 EU countries that have agreed to give up their national currencies and make the euro their legal tender on July 1, 2002.
Joining in the single currency along with Italy will be Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Greece did not meet the criteria for inclusion, and Denmark, Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom chose to remain outside.
_ Peggy Polk
Interfaith Director for ADL Retiring After 27 Years
(RNS) The Anti-Defamation League’s liaison to the interfaith community will retire Jan. 31 after 27 years of building relations between Jews and Christians and Muslims.
Rabbi Leon Klenicki, 70, is stepping down to spend more time with his family and to work on teaching and writing projects. Klenicki will continue as a consultant to the ADL on interfaith matters.
“I have dreamt for a long time to get together once or twice a week with (my grandson) Eli, teaching him our tradition and religious obligations,” the Argentinian-born Klenicki wrote in a memo. “I also want to grow in prayer and study. God, indeed, has given me this beautiful opportunity.”
Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s executive director, said he will miss Klenicki’s strong reputation among Christian churches. Klenicki will continue to teach at Immaculate Conception Seminary on Long Island.
“Most importantly, Leon has had a profound impact on the way Judaism is presented in Christian educational institutions in the United States and around the world,” Foxman said in a statement.
Klenicki arrived at the ADL in 1973 as director of director of Jewish-Catholic relations and in 1984 was promoted to lead interfaith relations. He has been a strong voice for ecumenical dialogue, but did not shy away from criticizing stereotypes or misconceptions about Judaism.
When televangelist Jerry Falwell said in early 1999 that the Antichrist was probably a Jew, Klenicki castigated Falwell for setting back dialogue between the two faiths. And earlier this year when the Vatican issued a controversial document on salvation that said only the Roman Catholic Church held the “fullness of salvation,” Klenicki called it a “step backwards in the dialogue relationship.”
A Reform rabbi, Klenicki was born and educated in Buenos Aires and won a scholarship to attend seminary at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He published a prayerbook in Spanish and Hebrew in Argentina, as well as a Spanish language Haggadah for Passover.
Klenicki is the author of several books and contributed to several other joint projects, including a liturgy for remembering the Holocaust with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and “Pope John Paul II on Jews and Judaism, 1979-1986.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the day: Dutch New Age faith healer Jomanda
(RNS) “People tell me I am filling a gap left open by the churches. It’s true in part. People need a place where they can accept and be comfortable with themselves.”
_ Jomanda, a Dutch New Age faith healer, whose television show includes phantoms using invisible surgical equipment to perform surgery. She was quoted Dec. 29 by the Associated Press.
DEA END RNS
