c. 2000 Religion News Service
Hastert Commended for Ending Chaplain Controversy
(RNS) A day after House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., appointed the first Catholic priest as House chaplain, observers from a variety of circles were commending his defusing of a controversy that simmered for four months.
Hastert announced the appointment of the Rev. Daniel Coughlin, vicar for priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago, on the House floor Thursday (March 23) and then swore him in.
The Rev. Charles Wright, a minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), had been Hastert’s original choice over the Rev. Tim O’Brien, a Catholic priest. Wright wrote Hastert Wednesday to “regrettably” withdraw his name from consideration, citing the partisan fight over the post.
The controversy grew after a bipartisan selection committee gave the names of three finalists _ Wright, O’Brien and the Rev. Robert Dvorak, a leader of the Evangelical Covenant Church _ to Hastert, Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo. Hastert chose Wright, while Gephardt and many Democrats wanted O’Brien.
Coughlin, 65, will earn $138,000 in the post. He begins work Monday and will be up for re-election at the beginning of the next session of Congress in January. John Feehery, Hastert’s spokesman, said he expects Coughlin _ who learned of Hastert’s plans to appoint him on the same day he became chaplain _ to remain in the post “until he doesn’t want it anymore.”
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which had issued more than a dozen statements questioning why Wright was chosen over O’Brien, was among those welcoming the decision Friday.
“We raised many questions about the treatment of Father Timothy O’Brien in the selection process and were dismayed by the way the Republicans handled this matter,” said Catholic League President William Donohue. “But we have no interest in fighting this fight any longer and we commend House Speaker Dennis Hastert for bringing this chapter to an end.”
Prison Fellowship Chairman Chuck Colson, a former Nixon aide who has been active in building relations between evangelical Protestants and Catholics, also issued a statement congratulating Hastert.
“Considering the intense and emotional rhetoric from detractors, the speaker’s decision reflects well on the House and its leaders, and helps to defuse attempts from many quarters to divide the nation on the basis of religion,” Colson wrote.
Al Menendez, associate director of Americans for Religious Liberty, told Religion News Service his organization is “delighted” that the House has broken a long tradition of solely having Protestants in the post, but still questions the need for a chaplain to serve members of Congress.
“The whole process needs to be examined at some time in our national history,” said Menendez, whose organization supports the separation of church and state. “ARL still believes that there’s no constitutional requirement for there to be a paid House or Senate chaplaincy, but there is a constitutional requirement that the position should be chosen without reference to religious bias.”
Hastert defended the position in his statement on the House floor, saying the chaplain’s prayers offered each day that Congress is in session are “a peaceful refuge” from partisan battles. “I think to lose the Office of the Chaplain would be a grave mistake,” Hastert said.
Jewish Leader Lashes out at Jews Critical of Pope
(RNS) The leader of the country’s Reform Jewish synagogues chastised other Jewish leaders for not fully accepting the pope’s apology for past sins of the Catholic Church and its silence during the Holocaust.
Speaking Thursday, the same day that Pope John Paul II visited Israel’s memorial to the Holocaust, Rabbi Eric Yoffie addressed a Catholic college in Worcester, Mass., and praised the pontiff for his “vigorous and daring” efforts to promote a Catholic-Jewish dialogue.
Yoffie, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which represents 900 synagogues and 1.25 million members, said that when Catholic leaders apologize for the sins of the past _ as the pope did in his sweeping mea culpa March 12 _ Jews need to accept those overtures.
“When my friend apologizes to me for a sin that he has committed, the appropriate response is for me to thank him, to welcome his repentance and to express my desire to continue our discussion,” Yoffie said in an address at Assumption College. “It is surely inappropriate to greet a heartfelt act of contrition with a pointed reminder of every act of wrongdoing that I think may have been left off the list.”
Yoffie did not single out Jewish groups by name, but a wide spectrum of Jewish groups have weighed in on the pope’s apology and pilgrimage to Israel. The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Concerns issued a statement praising the pope’s apology, but said, “Many of us had hoped that John Paul II would use this opportunity to deal more explicitly with the silence of the Church during the Holocaust.”
The pope has stopped short of saying the Vatican should have said more during the Holocaust. Many Jewish groups are angered over the campaign to canonize Pope Pius XII, who led the Church during World War II. The American Jewish Congress said Pius and the Church were “morally and cruelly delinquent” for not speaking out more forcefully against Hitler’s Holocaust.
Yoffie fired back, saying Catholics are justified to be “offended” by outside attempts to demonize the wartime pope. Still, Yoffie said, “I simply cannot understand the failure of the pope to speak out.”
Yoffie said Jews need to realize that the Holocaust, while immensely important, should not be all-consuming.
“The Holocaust cannot be the sole item on the Catholic-Jewish agenda,” Yoffie said. “As important as it is, it cannot become an obsession that crowds out all those other subjects that so urgently require our collective attention.”
Religious Groups Urge End to Iraqi Sanctions
(RNS) In a letter sent to the U.N. Security Council, six human rights and religious groups urged the group to “take swift and decisive action to halt and reverse the long-standing humanitarian emergency in Iraq” during its meeting to debate a report about the effect of sanctions against Baghdad.
“The U.S. should stop pretending that the sanctions have nothing to do with the dire public health crisis confronting millions of Iraqis,” said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.
During its meeting, which began Friday (March 24), the Security Council was to discuss a report released earlier this month by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that examined the oil-for-food program, which allows Iraq to sell limited quantities of oil in exchange for basic supplies such as medicine and food for civilians.
In his report, Annan concluded the program was hampered by “the very large number of applications placed on hold, in particular those concerning electricity, water and sanitation, transport and telecommunications, which impact all sectors,” according to the French press.
The Security Council’s sanctions committee should also better identify reasons why $1.5 billion in contracts are on hold, Annan suggested in the report, and allow holds to be more easily removed.
In their letter to the Security Council, Human Rights Watch, the Mennonite Central Committee, the Global Policy Forum, the Peace Action Education Fund, Save the Children/UK and the Quaker United Nations Office also criticized the practice of placing applications on hold.
“The (International Committee of the Red Cross) has stressed repeatedly that the increase in disease epidemics and the deteriorating health situation in Iraq are related directly to the disrepair of public services such as water, sanitation and electricity, a situation that is sustained by inadequate finances and the large number of items placed on hold,” the letter stated.
The letter also demanded the council hold “open and informed” debates that recognize “the link between the sanctions’ design and the humanitarian emergency,” and further recommended that the council seek input “from independent, technical experts from U.N. agencies and other humanitarian organizations on practical ways of improving the humanitarian situation.”
Southern Baptist Leader Calls Catholicism a `False Church’
(RNS) The president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on Wednesday (March 22) called the Roman Catholic Church “a false church” that “teaches a false gospel,” further igniting a controversy surrounding charges of anti-Catholic bias that have dominated headlines in recent weeks.
Appearing on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” R. Albert Mohler Jr. was speaking on Pope John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Israel and his recent apologies for the past sins of the Catholic Church. While stopping short of calling the Catholic Church a “cult,” Mohler said the Catholic hierarchy is unbiblical.
“As an evangelical, I believe that the Roman church is a false church and it teaches a false gospel,” Mohler said. “And indeed, I believe that the pope himself holds a false and unbiblical office.”
The Southern Baptists are the largest Protestant body in the United States, with 15.7 million members. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest religious body in the country, with 62 million members.
Mohler was asked if he shared the views of Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist college in Greenville, S.C., that found itself in the center of a firestorm of controversy after Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush appeared there last month.
The university believes Catholics and the pope are agents of the anti-Christ. When Bush failed to speak out against the school’s theology, he was dogged by several weeks of criticism until he apologized to New York Cardinal John O’Connor for failing to criticize the school. Bush called it a “missed opportunity causing needless offense, which I deeply regret.”
Mohler also criticized the pope’s efforts to create a dialogue with Jews and Muslims. Judaism, Islam and Christianity all share the belief in one God and share historical roots with the biblical patriarch Abraham.
“(The pope) has actually embraced all monotheists, both Jews and the followers of Islam, as long as they’re sincere within the penumbra of the Gospel, within the canopy of the gospel,” Mohler said. “And that is just unbiblical, and by the way, not very pleasing to either Jews or to Muslims either.”
The Rev. William Byron, a Catholic priest and director of the Jesuit community at Georgetown University, also appeared on the show. He said he disagreed with Mohler’s comments but did not want to discuss it further.
“Yes, I’m offended, but not to the point of wanting to get into an argument about it,” Byron said.
Report: China Waging Campaign Against Spiritual Movements
(RNS) Months before expanding the crackdown to include the popular Falun Gong spiritual movement, Chinese authorities arrested 21,000 people as part of a two-year “anti-superstition” campaign, according to an Amnesty International report released Thursday (March 23).
“The crackdown is politically motivated, and the vast majority of its victims are ordinary people who merely exercised peacefully their fundamental rights to freedom of belief, association and expression,” the report said.
Authorities have targeted a number of spiritual groups that, like the Falun Gong, are offshoots of popular traditional breathing and meditation exercises known as qi gong, the London-based group reported. The Falun Gong movement was banned last July because the Chinese government considered it a public menace.
Amnesty International is asking Chinese officials to stop human rights violations they claim take place as part of the government’s campaign to combat “heretical organizations.”
China’s State Council offered no response to Amnesty’s report, the Associated Press reported.
China’s human rights record came under more scrutiny Thursday (March 23) at the general conference of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which began Monday (March 20) in Geneva. In an appearance before the commission, U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright pushed for support of a U.S.-sponsored resolution that she said expresses “concern about widespread denials of political, cultural, labor and religious freedom in China.”
Three senior Chinese delegates walked out before Albright’s address and returned after she finished speaking.
“A country like the United States, which has such a poor human rights record, has no right to judge other countries’ human rights situations,” said Chinese Ambassador Qiao Zonghuai.
Philippine President Halts Executions to Mark Jubilee
(RNS) Philippine President Joseph Estrada agreed Friday (March 24) to a request by Roman Catholic bishops to impose a one-year moratorium on executions in the nation in honor of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, according to the Associated Press.
“In view of the request of the (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines) through Bishop (Teodoro) Bacani, I am inclined and I already agreed on a moratorium because of the Jubilee year,” said Estrada, the French press reported. He said the moratorium will remain in effect until January 2001, at which time it will undergo review.
Presidential Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora, leader of a death penalty review committee, said that under the new moratorium at least 18 inmates could have their death sentences commuted to life in prison because officials could not carry out the executions within the next six months as required by law.
According to Philippine law, executions must occur between 12 and 18 months after the Supreme Court declares a death sentence final.
“The one-year moratorium on executions is a victory for the anti-death penalty movement and a vindication of their ceaseless efforts to stop senseless killing, especially when it is the government that spills blood,” Jose Manuel Dioko, national chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group, told the French press.
Estrada’s decision was met with criticism by some.
“The most painful thing here is how the religious people can think of celebrating when a lot of people are suffering and becoming victims of crime,” Carina Agarao, a spokeswoman for Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, told the French Press.
Seven men have been executed by lethal injection in the Philippines since the death penalty was restored in 1994.
Judge: Denomination Can Keep Megachurch Property
(RNS) A Maryland judge has issued a ruling settling a dispute over contested property between the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and a prominent megachurch that broke away from the denomination.
At issue were property, buildings and cash that the Rev. John A. Cherry and his supporters hoped to retain after leaving the denomination last July to form a new church, From the Heart Ministries. Most of the 24,000 members of Full Gospel AME Zion Church left when Cherry started the new ministry.
In August, the new church sued in an attempt to control $40 million in assets, including cash, two buildings, a national television ministry, a private jet and at least 120 acres in Prince George’s County, Md. The denomination countersued in November, charging that Cherry was trying to swindle the 1.3 million-member national church body.
“The court determines that property that was acquired by the local church (Cherry’s church) was in the name of the denomination,” Prince George’s County Circuit Judge E. Allen Shepherd said, announcing his verdict Thursday (March 23) in a courtroom packed with about 100 people. “The court determined that there was a trust clause provision” between Cherry’s church and the AME Zion Church.
The hearing was expected to be a procedural one, but the judge’s ruling was a summary judgment responding to the denomination’s motion to dismiss the case, The Washington Times reported.
“I’m just grateful,” said the Rev. Milton A. Williams, bishop of the Mid-Atlantic II Episcopal District of the AME Zion Church. “God heard our prayer.”
Since the fall, several dozen Full Gospel congregants, former members of Cherry’s church, have met in a hotel in Clinton, Md., for Sunday worship services. Cherry’s group has continued to hold services at the congregation’s Clinton and Temple Hills, Md., facilities.
Jack Lipson, one of Cherry’s attorneys, argued that the pastor’s new church should not have to return the property.
“This isn’t a transfer of property case,” he said. “We left the church, and we took with us our own property.”
Lawyers for both sides were negotiating Thursday about how a property transfer could occur, but Williams remained cautious after the verdict.
“The battle is not over,” he said. “We keep praying that God will direct us.”
Cherry began the church in a storefront in 1981 and became frustrated with the national denominational structure and its leaders as his congregation grew.
Quote of the day: Singer Cat Stevens
(RNS) “Maybe if faith and its morality are once again taught to our children right from the start, they can lead more fulfilling lives and we can prevent such tragic incidents as the recent fatal shooting of a 6-year-old by a classmate in the United States.”
_ Singer Cat Stevens, now known by his Islamic name Yusef Islam, announcing the release of a children’s album, “A Is for Allah.” He was quoted March 21 by Reuters.
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