c. 2003 Religion News Service
Canadians Split on Forced Papal Retirement
MONTREAL (RNS) A new poll suggests Canadians are divided on a mandatory retirement age for popes.
Nearly half _ 48 percent _ of the 1,502 Canadians surveyed for the Leger Marketing poll said they did not think “a maximum age should be imposed on papal functions,” while 41 percent said there should be an age limit. Another 11 percent refused to answer or said they did not know.
The division was even sharper among the poll’s 690 Roman Catholic respondents. Forty-seven percent agreed with a maximum age, while the same percentage disagreed.
Of the 1,502 people surveyed, 690 were Roman Catholic, 294 were Protestant, 231 were described as “other” and 214 were atheist. Another 73 people refused to answer the question.
In response to another poll question, 50 percent of respondents said they did not believe Pope John Paul II was still capable of fulfilling his functions, while 40 percent said the pontiff was still capable.
Ministry to Homeless Shut Down
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) A controversial minister who has made national headlines for his outreach to east Vancouver’s homeless has been asked to temporarily step down from his position, reports CanadianChristianity.com.
Grace Memorial United Church pastor George Feenstra rankled some of his church’s neighbours by opening the building’s back porch to street people. Last month, Feenstra was asked by a United Church Presbytery review committee to surrender his keys to the church.
He told CC.com that he had been ordered to “break off all contact with the congregation.” He will be allowed to remain in the church manse with his wife, and will continue to draw a salary until the committee decides his fate.
Jon Jessiman of the Vancouver South Presbytery said the church was under constant surveillance by police and neighbors because of drug sales, and that “the presence of dangerous weapons and commercial prostitution made the ministry in its present form unsafe.”
Feenstra said he was dismayed that the United Church “has chosen to act contrary to the hopes of the poor and against the faithful public witness of one of its own congregations.”
Station Pulls U.S. Preacher’s Shows on Islam
TORONTO (RNS) An American evangelist’s television series on Islam in America was canceled by a Canadian station after the first program because Muslims complained his tone and demeanor amounted to incitement of hatred.
San Antonio-based pastor John Hagee’s “tone in his comparison of what Christians believe according to the Bible and what Muslims believe according to the Quran” violated the code of ethics of Toronto station CTS, said program manager Rob Sheppard in a letter of apology to a Muslim group.
Sheppard told WorldNetDaily he believes Hagee’s primary intent was not to preach from his religious convictions but to incite hatred.
“It was a tonal thing,” he said. “You could see what he was trying to do by his tone and body language.”
It wasn’t so much his exact words, Sheppard said, but Hagee’s inference that Muslims cannot be loyal Americans.
CTS (Crossroads Television Systems) pulled the final two of three programs in the series, titled “Islam in America,” scheduled to run in August on “John Hagee Today,” which continues in its regular time slot, albeit under closer scrutiny, according to Sheppard.
The program manager said his station’s actions _ a letter of apology to Muslims and a warning to Hagee’s group _ was prompted by up to 100 letters of complaint from viewers.
Compromise Reached on Tobacco Ban
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (RNS) Some aboriginal inmates in Winnipeg are upset with the smoking ban in provincial jails, saying they can’t practice their religion because their tobacco has been confiscated, reports Canadian Press.
Across most of Manitoba, the transition to smoke-free jails went smoothly.
But provincial corrections official Paul Peterson said a few Winnipeg Remand Center inmates caused a fuss when they were told they had to hand over their spiritual tobacco.
Many native groups in North America consider tobacco to be one of four sacred plants used in religious ceremonies.
Peterson said when inmates refused to turn over their tobacco, an elder was sent in to settle the incident. He said threats were uttered and segregations ordered.
After consultation with the elders assigned to the provincial jails, officials decided that spiritual tobacco will be held by the elders for the inmates who want to use it.
School Board OKs Christmas Celebrations
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (RNS) Halifax regional school board members voted 10-3 late last month to keep Christmas in school holiday celebrations.
Board member Mike Flemming made a “common sense” motion to remind schools that it’s all right to include Jesus and Christmas carols in their celebrations.
Flemming said he wanted to ensure that while all cultures’ reasons for the season are celebrated, traditional Christmas symbols don’t get lost in the shuffle.
“This motion doesn’t dictate to schools at all,” he said. “It says it is appropriate to call them Christmas concerts if you want to call them Christmas concerts and it is appropriate to sing Christmas carols if you want to sing Christmas carols. But I certainly would encourage the celebration of all cultures.”
But some of Flemming’s colleagues weren’t so jolly. Board member Jeff Campbell tried to scuttle the motion because he was worried it violated the board’s human rights policy.
“If it offends one person, then this board is in violation of its own policy,” he said.
The board ruled the motion does not violate its policy on equality.
Still, Campbell said the motion wasn’t necessary because schools already include Christmas in their seasonal concerts.
Canada Hopes to Host Eucharistic Congress
CAP-DE-LA-MADELEINE, Quebec (RNS) Plans to host the 49th International Eucharistic Congress in Canada in 2008 _ which could include a papal visit _ gained momentum when the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops agreed to provide pastoral and financial support for the event.
Meeting here at their annual plenary assembly last month, the bishops renewed their support for the congress, held every four years in a different country.
Last March, the Pontifical Committee for Eucharistic Congresses agreed to recommend that Quebec City host the 2008 gathering. Pope John Paul is expected to announce the location of the next congress at the closing of the 2004 meeting in Mexico City.
The bishops say the congress could cost $8 million. But unlike World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002, which resulted in a $38 million deficit, the bishops say individual dioceses in Canada will not be asked to commit to cover cost overruns. Instead, a national campaign will be held to raise funds for the eucharistic congress and “voluntary” contributions sought at the diocesan level.
Sisters Pick Canadian Leader
OAKVILLE, Ontario (RNS) The Community of the Sisters of the Church, an international Anglican women’s order based in England, recently installed a repatriated Canadian as its sister provincial for the order in Canada, reports the Anglican Journal.
Sister Marguerite May, who in recent years has worked as a librarian in the public school system in England, was elected last spring to head the Canadian community of eight women after the retirement of her predecessor.
Sister Marguerite was installed in a ceremony in September in the Toronto suburb of Oakville.
She joined the community in 1977, went to England as a novice in 1980 and professed her vows in 1985.
The Community of the Sisters of the Church has about 95 nuns in Canada, England, Australia and the Solomon Islands. More than half of them live in the Solomon Island in the South Pacific.
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