c. 2000 Religion News Service
Canadian Government Mulls Aid to Churches in Sex Abuse Suits
(RNS) Canada’s three largest Christian denominations are welcoming reports that the federal government may help them pay the rocketing costs of more than 6,000 native Indian lawsuits alleging abuse at federally funded, church-run residential schools.
Catholic, United and Anglican church officials said Friday (June 16) they don’t expect a “bail-out” from the federal government. But the churches would like to come to a fair agreement with Ottawa that would help them avoid bankruptcy.
“We really don’t like the word `bailout’ because we’re quite willing to meet our responsibilities,” said United Church of Canada residential school spokesman Brian Thorpe. “But if Ottawa is willing to help us with court costs, we’d be open to that.”
The Christian officials were responding to reports leaked to news media saying the Liberal cabinet is considering helping churches pay a portion of the legal expenses involved in defending against a flood of lawsuits by Indians which typically name both the federal government and the churches as defendants.
The lawsuits, which together claim billions of dollars in damages, allege rampant sexual, physical and cultural abuse occurred at Canada’s 100 now-defunct residential schools, which were attended by an estimated 160,000 young Indians.
The Anglican church has said both its national office and the dioceses of Cariboo in British Columbia and Qu’Appelle in Saskatchewan face almost-certain bankruptcy because of their rising legal costs. Last year alone, said national Anglican General Secretary Jim Boyles, the churches spent $1.5 million in legal costs and those costs are expected to grow much higher.
The church officials pointed to a May survey that found 80 percent of Canadians believe the government should rescue the churches from bankruptcy after they have made a serious attempt to pay victims compensation.
Vatican `Positive But Cautious’ on Papal Visit to North Korea
(RNS) The Vatican’s reaction to an invitation from North Korean President Kim Jong Il to Pope John Paul II to visit the country where Roman Catholics are forced to practice their religion underground is “positive but cautious,” according to church sources.
The Vatican did not comment publicly on the verbal invitation that Yang Il Bae, South Korea’s ambassador to the Holy See, relayed to Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican’s foreign minister, at a meeting in the Vatican on Saturday (June 17).
Fides, the news agency of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said the reaction of Vatican officials was “positive but cautious.”
“The Catholics of Seoul strongly hope that the pope will visit North Korea, but they remember the pastoral problems to be faced before this can happen,” the missionary news agency said. It said the first premise for a visit was “religious freedom to allow the start of pastoral work.”
The Vatican estimated in 1969 that 100,000 of the 22,470,000 North Koreans were Catholics, but the current estimate is down to 4,000 members. It has said the single Catholic Church in the capital of Pyongyang exists only for “show,” and there are no priests or members of religious orders in the country.
The pope visited South Korea in 1984 and 1989, but when South Korean President Kim Dae Jung suggested at a Vatican audience in March that he might one day travel to North Korea, John Paul said, “It would take a miracle.”
The South Korean leader, a Catholic and committed to seeking reconciliation between north and south divided by the 1950-53 Korean War, reportedly urged Kim Jong Il to issue the invitation to the pope during their three-day summit in Pyongyang last week.
The Vatican has been providing humanitarian aid to North Korea since 1996 to help relieve the widespread hunger due to drought, floods and the economic effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In return, North Korea has permitted visits by Vatican delegations. During the last visit in November, the prelates said all travel restrictions were lifted.
Italy became the first G7 country to recognize the Pyongyang government on Jan. 4, and Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini expressed confidence Saturday that a papal visit would happen.
“I believe that the pope is willing to visit both North Korea and China,” Dini said. He said the possibility of both trips is “high.”
In an interview with Italian journalists in Beijing on Monday (June 19),
Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongjj disclosed that there has been “frequent contact” between Beijing and the Vatican but said that in order to establish diplomatic relations the Vatican would have to break relations with Taiwan and recognize the primacy of the state over the church.
“Obviously we insist that religious freedom cannot be used to intervene in the internal affairs of China,” he said. “We are discussing this principle. When these problems have been resolved, the pope will come.”
The government established the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association independent of the Vatican in 1957, but millions of Catholics are believed to belong to an underground church still allied to the pope.
The Chinese prime minister will visit Italy July 5-9, but he said that “at the moment” he does not plan any meetings at the Vatican.
U.S. Catholic Bishops Urge Civility in the Media
(RNS) Arguing the contemporary means of mass communication are as likely to divide people as to bring them together, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops are urging civil discourse in both Catholic and secular media.
“Some in the media seem interested in defending human dignity, while others appear interested in simply demeaning people,” the bishops said in a statement adopted Friday (June 16) during a spring meeting in Milwaukee, Wis.
“In this situation, professional Catholic media and journalism can provide, in their specific field of competence, what the whole church provides: the offer of an alternative to the way of the world.”
But the bishops also said they were fearful “even some in Catholic media may be tempted to follow the example of some of their secular counterparts, as if the corrosive cynicism sometimes found there were an essential part of media professionalism.”
In recent years, some leaders of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops have expressed increasing frustration with the national news media as well as with other forms of media, including movies and plays, which they believe denigrate the church and Catholicism.
The bishops expressed their approval for “robust” and lively debates over issues and beliefs, adding, “While at times such disagreements can be frustrating and hurtful, good can also come from thorough and balanced expositions of different positions, so long as the teaching of the church on the matter being reported is clearly and fairly reported.”
Update: Virginia’s Attorney General Supports Mentioning Prayer
(RNS) Virginia’s attorney general says public school teachers can mention prayer as an option when instructing students on observing a daily minute of silence, a suggestion that differs from recent advice issued by the state Department of Education.
Mark L. Earley said teachers can tell pupils about various uses for the minute, listed in legislation that passed in the General Assembly earlier this year. The law allows students to “meditate, pray or engage in any other silent activity which does not interfere with … other pupils.”
Earley said mentioning prayer is not an encouragement to pray and would not become grounds for a lawsuit.
“There is no reason to fear the word `prayer’ if it is said in the context of other actions such as meditation or any other silent activities,” he told The Washington Post.
Earley’s comments differ from a recommendation issued June 13 by Virginia’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Jo Lynne DeMary.
She advised that school officials should send parents a copy of the new law at the start of the school year and that instructors should introduce the daily minute of silence with these words: “As we begin another day, let us pause for a moment of silence.”
DeMary’s memo to principals and superintendents was written based on advice from the attorney general’s office.
“It is important to caution teachers and administrators not to suggest or imply that students should or should not use that time for prayer,” DeMary said in a memo. “If a student asks, a teacher should advise a student that if the student desires to have a silent prayer, he or she may do so.”
Earley said DeMary’s suggestion is fine but is only one option. He said school officials who are not certain about what they are permitted to say will be safe quoting directly from the statute.
After DeMary issued her guidelines, some conservative legislators who favored the law criticized her suggestion, saying the statute would have little effect if students were not told they can pray. Civil liberties groups that have opposed the law as tantamount to school-sponsored prayer said her guidelines set some appropriate boundaries for what is acceptable.
Ethiopian Lutherans Ordain First Woman Pastor
(RNS) The Rev. Bekure Daba of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus has become the first ordained woman in the 3 million-member denomination.
The May 16 ceremony was attended by senior pastors from the denomination as well as a delegation from Lutheran churches around the world, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Bekure Daba, 39, has served the Ethiopian Church in a variety of women’s ministries since graduating from the denomination’s seminary in Addis Ababa, Lutheran World Information reported Friday (June 16). LWI is the news agency of the Geneva-based Lutheran World Federation.
She hold an advanced degree from Birmingham University and a master’s degree from Chester University, both in England.
Her ordination brings to 750 the number of pastors in the Ethiopian Lutheran denomination, which is said to be one of the fastest growing churches in Africa. It is the LWF’s largest church in Africa.
Christians, the majority of whom are Orthodox, make up about 40 percent of Ethiopia’s population of 70 million. Muslims represent about 43 percent of the population.
Quote of the day: Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
(RNS) “We believe our tradition provides a useful insight into this case. Jewish tradition requires that with human life hanging in the balance, we must be doubly certain before imposing a death sentence. To that effect, stringent procedural safeguards aimed at ensuring the accuracy of eyewitness testimony were imposed. The wisdom that established this level of certainty has stood up for a thousand years, and it is applicable as it was in the earliest days of our faith.”
_ The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in a June 16 letter to Texas Gov. George W. Bush urging him to stay the June 22 execution of Gary Graham for a crime he allegedly committed as a minor. Graham was convicted on the basis of a single eyewitness.
DEA END RNS
