c. 2000 Religion News Service
Christian Scientists Plan to Build $50 Million Boston Library
(RNS) The Christian Science Church announced plans Monday (June 5) for a 75,000-square-foot, $50 million library dedicated to its founder, Mary Baker Eddy.
The church said the library will be built on the campus of its Boston headquarters and $25 million will be spent on construction, with an additional $25 million to be spent on exhibits, publications, programs and operations. The museum is scheduled to open in 2002.
In addition, the church plans to open a satellite branch in 2003 in Seneca Falls, N.Y., the site of the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Eddy was inducted into the hall of fame in 1995.
Virginia S. Harris, chair of the church’s board of directors, said the library will be built to accommodate an increased interest in spirituality and women’s issues.
“With the heightened interest in women and spirituality, we realized the need for greater availability of Mrs. Eddy’s ideas and life,” Harris said. “The library will be a reservoir for scholars and a springboard for society to tap these ideas from within their original disciplines.”
Part of the museum’s collection will include previously unpublished works by Eddy, a 19th century religious leader who founded the church in 1879 on the belief that illness could be cured through prayer and biblical study.
The library will contain Eddy’s writings about mind/body medicine, journalism, poetry, sermons and life in 19th century America. The church has 2,200 congregations in the United States but does not keep membership statistics.
World Jewish Congress Criticizes Holocaust Restitution Progress
(RNS) The World Jewish Congress criticized a meeting Monday (June 5) between Dutch financial institutions and the Dutch Jewish community to settle restitution claims from relatives of Holocaust victims, saying too little progress was made and issuing a call for a 30-day deadline to resolve the matter.
“The meeting today we characterized as not sufficient,” Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, told Reuters news agency. “The people that the banks sent were not at a sufficiently high level to come to an agreement.”
Last week the Jewish Congress asked a monitoring committee of state finance officials _ led by New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi _ to refrain from imposing the 30-day deadline until after Monday’s meeting.
During the meeting, all sides agreed that the modern-day equivalent of $5.15 million was stolen from Dutch Jews during the Nazi era, according to the London Financial Times, but delayed until June 15 discussions to determine whether to adjust that sum for inflation.
Steinberg said the Jewish Congress plans to go ahead with imposing the 30-day deadline, which stipulates that Dutch institutions will be barred from operating within the United States if no agreement is reached within 30 days.
“At the suggestion of the Dutch community, we will request the Hevesi committee to go ahead and send out its letter asking for a response within 30 days,” he said.
Steinberg also said Jewish Congress researchers will review Dutch assets located in the United States.
Later this week, the Jewish Congress will decide whether to lobby officials in Connecticut to reject attempts by the Dutch financial services group ING to acquire the international and financial divisions of Connnecticut-based Aetna, the nation’s largest health insurer. The Jewish Congress wants state officials to review ING’s record of honoring the life insurance policies of Holocaust victims.
Former Seminary President Removed From Ordained Office for Year
(RNS) The Rev. Donald L. McCullough, the former president of San Francisco Theological Seminary, has been temporarily removed from ordained office following a sex scandal.
McCullough, 51, resigned from the San Anselmo, Calif., seminary amid the scandal and was convicted May 5 of two counts of sexual abuse by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the San Francisco Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Those abuse counts stem from two simultaneous extramarital affairs during the time that he was pastor of Solana Beach Presbyterian Church near San Diego and between his election as seminary president in May 1994 and his inauguration later that year, Presbyterian News Service reported.
One of the women was a staff member at the church and the other is his current wife. McCullough remarried late in 1999. He and his first wife divorced in December 1998.
The temporary removal from ordained office is the second most severe degree of censure that McCullough could have received. His ordination could have been permanently removed.
McCullough, who sought leniency from the presbytery court, will be eligible for reinstatement in a year if the court decides he has successfully finished a program of church-supervised therapy, restitution and rehabilitation.
The former seminary president asked the court to punish him with a “rebuke,” which is the mildest form of censure he could have received.
Supreme Court Ruling Hailed by Conservative Groups
(RNS) Organizations known for their support of traditional family values are hailing the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding parental rights.
In a 6-3 decision, the high court said Monday (June 5) that a Washington state law violated the right of parents to raise their families free from governmental interference by aiding grandparents and others in winning visitation rights.
“This case represented the constitutionally protected rights of parents who must be able to rear their children without state interference,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, in a statement. “And, while third parties often do have a profound impact on a child’s life, it is clear that the building block of the family is still the parents.”
Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based evangelical organization, also welcomed the decision.
“We are pleased that the court has chosen to affirm the constitutionally protected right of parents to raise their children,” said Tom Minnery, vice president for public policy at Focus on the Family. “This decision clarifies and re-establishes parents as the authority in their child’s life with a God-given duty and right to oversee their care and custody.”
Jordan Lorence, an attorney who works with Alliance Defense Fund, a group that partners with Focus on the Family to defend parental and religious rights, also hailed the ruling.
“Parents now have greater rights and protection from intrusion by government and the courts, and that is good news for families,” he said in a statement.
The case stemmed from a suit by Jenifer and Gary Troxel of Mount Vernon, Wash., who wanted to continue to see two of their grandchildren after their son committed suicide. The children’s mother limited their visits.
“I just want to see them period,” said Gary Troxel after the decision was announced, the Associated Press reported. “I don’t see why we can’t.”
Tommie Granville, the mother of the two granddaughters, never married the Troxels’ son, Brad, and later married Gary Wynn, who adopted the children.
She told The New York Times: “I’m relieved we finally won. It’s a victory for every parent in the country. But I’m just not sure what we’ll do as far as their request for visits.”
Putin: Orthodox Church, Weakened Under Communism, Fears Papal Visit
(RNS) Soviet President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday (June 6) the Russian Orthodox Church, weakened by 70 years of communist rule, is resisting a papal visit to Moscow because it fears Roman Catholic competition.
Putin, in Italy on his first trip abroad since his inauguration May 7, talked to editors of Italian news agencies about his audience with Pope John Paul II Monday (June 5).
Responding to questions about why he did not follow the example of former Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin and invite the pope to visit Moscow, he said that he was not responsible for his predecessors’ actions and indicated he was waiting for an improvement in Catholic-Orthodox relations.
“Relations (with the Vatican) are good, and we want to reinforce them by not committing errors and without chasing down blind alleys. I do not impose diktat (dictates),” the Russian leader said.
A papal visit “without a meeting with Patriarch Alexii II would not serve,” Putin said. He said he intended “to proceed with caution and not do damage by trying to do good.”
In Moscow, a spokesman for the Orthodox Patriarchate told the Russian news agency Interfax Tuesday that Putin had taken “a wise and balanced approach.” The spokesman said the Russian president had shown that he understands that “this problem cannot be faced by detaching it from relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church and, in general, from the problem of relations in Russia between state and church.”
Putin said he believes the patriarch is reluctant to meet with the spiritual leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics because the church is “weak” and fears Catholic competition. The Russian Orthodox Church presently has an estimated 80 million members, including about half of the population of the Russian Federation.
“It is weakened by 70 years of a communist regime,” said Putin, a former KGB officer. “For 70 years it was the only form of opposition allowed. It suffered. It is weakened, and it fears the competition.”
Putin, who met for 40 minutes with John Paul in what was described by the Vatican as a “cordial and relaxed” atmosphere, said, “The talks were very satisfactory.”
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls reported after the audience that Putin and the pope reviewed their respective roles in “the process of integration” of Eastern and Western Europe and discussed disarmament and the international situation but did not bring up the question of a papal visit to Moscow.
But Navarro-Valls said the previous invitations are still “very active,” and the process of “dialogue between the Orthodox Patriarchate and the Catholic Church is going on.”
Because it would be both a pastoral and a state visit, protocol requires an invitation from the Russian Orthodox Church as well as the government and leaders of the small Roman Catholic Church in Russia. Orthodox leaders have said repeatedly that a papal visit would not be opportune until relations improved.
The Orthodox and Catholic churches were split by a schism in 1054, and relations have been further strained since the collapse of communism by disputes over the return of church property that the communists transferred from Catholic to Orthodox control and Orthodox charges of Catholic poaching for converts.
But the Orthodox Church ended a boycott of Catholic observances by sending low-level representatives to the Vatican’s ecumenical services for Holy Year, and on Sunday (June 4), Interfax quoted the patriarch as saying that he “did not exclude for the future the possibility of meeting with the pope” once differences had been worked out.
“Such a meeting shouldn’t happen just before the television cameras,” the patriarch said. “It’s necessary that it be well-prepared for and bring about concrete results.”
Japanese Cult Member Sentenced to Life in Prison
(RNS) A key member of the Japanese doomsday cult that unleashed a deadly 1995 gas attack in the Tokyo subway system was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday (June 6).
Yoshihiro Inoue, 30, was the chief intelligence officer in the Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth) cult that launched the gas attack that killed 12 people and sickened thousands of others during the morning rush-hour commute.
Inoue confessed and was found guilty of 10 charges, including murder. Inoue was a close associate of Shoko Asahara, the cult’s leader, who is currently on trial for masterminding the gas attack.
A Tokyo district court judge spared Inoue the death penalty because he did not actually release the nerve gas or directly participate in the subway attack, according to the Reuters news agency. Prosecutors said they would appeal.
Inoue was one of the longest-serving members of the cult, joining when he was 16. He also was convicted for taking part in two 1994 murders of former cult members and the 1995 kidnapping and killing of another cult member.
His defense attorney, Hiroshi Kamiyama, said he would continue the legal fight.
“We’re happy Inoue’s life was spared by this court, but we’re not relaxing since it looks like the battle isn’t over yet,” Kamiyama told the Associated Press.
Quote of the Day: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
(RNS) “When girls are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are too small, and when honor killings continue to be tolerated, our work is far from done.”
_ First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking out against the oppression of women around the world, at a United Nations conference on Monday (June 5) on the status of women five years after the landmark Beijing Women’s Conference.
KRE END RNS
