c. 2003 Religion News Service
Report: Teens in Religiously Active Families Have Stronger Family Ties
(RNS) Teens who are members of religiously involved families are likely to have stronger family relationships than teens in families that are not religiously active, a new report shows.
The findings come from a report by the National Study of Youth and Religion, a four-year research project based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“All three dimensions of family and parental religious involvement analyzed here (family religious activity, parental religious service attendance and parental prayer) tend to be associated significantly with positive family relationship characteristics,” reads the executive summary of the report.
The findings in “Family Religious Involvement and the Quality of Family Relationships for Early Adolescents” were released May 7.
Looking specifically at youth ages 12 to 14, the report found that those in families heavily involved in religious activities are more likely to have strong relationships with their parents and participate in family activities and less likely to run away from home.
Eleven percent of youth fit into this category, where religious activity such as attending church, praying or reading Scriptures together takes place five or more days a week. In comparison, 36 percent of youth are part of families that do not engage in religious activities.
The findings are based on analysis of data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth that involved almost 9,000 students.
The project that produced the study is funded by Lilly Endowment and will conclude in August 2005.
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Following suitable for graphic:
Percentage of youth who have fun with family at least five days a week (play a game, go to sporting event, go swimming, etc.):
Religiously active families: 44 percent
Families not religiously active: 13 percent
Percentage of youth who have not run away from home
Religiously active families: 95 percent
Families not religiously active: 90 percent
Source: National Study of Youth and Religion
_ Adelle M. Banks
Vatican Adds `Kamikaze,’ `Football’ and `Macaroni’ to Its Latin Lexicon
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has brought its Latin Lexicon up to date by finding Latin translations for “kamikaze,” “football,” “macaroni” and other words Julius Caesar never needed.
The decision of the Second Vatican Council to replace the Latin Mass with the vernacular four decades ago did not affect Latin’s status within the Vatican walls. Italian is the working language, but Latin remains the language of record.
The Vatican publishing house has issued a new edition of the Italian-Latin dictionary, which first came out half a century ago to help with the translation of documents from Italian into Latin. It is also a useful aid for conversation between prelates whose only common language is Latin.
“Kamikaze” appears as “voluntarius sui interreptor,” “football” as “pediludium” and “goalkeeper” as “januarius.” Macaroni is “pasta tubularia,” and espresso coffee “portio cafearia coram expressa.” A disease such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a “contagio” or “ontagionis” in the genitive.
Another new entry is “immunitas,” to be used when discussing the issue of political immunity, but the Lexicon notes that this was a word that Caesar did use in writing about the Druids in his “Gallic Wars.”
The Lexicon also retains its translation of the Italian word “papabile,” which is often heard around the Vatican to describe a cardinal considered to be a possible candidate to become pope. In Latin it becomes “Summi Pontificatu dignus.”
_ Peggy Polk
N.H. Catholics Say Bishop’s Response Is Not Good Enough
(RNS) Members of a lay Catholic reform group in New Hampshire have told their bishop that they take little comfort in his claim that he never meant to put children at risk from abusive priests.
In a terse exchange of letters, 17 leaders of Voice of the Faithful have told Bishop John McCormack of Manchester that they will not withdraw their call for the embattled bishop and his deputy, Francis Christian, to resign.
“How can we take full comfort that, though you and Bishop Christian did not consciously intend to harm anyone, incalculable and repeated harm followed?” the group wrote to McCormack on Tuesday (May 13).
The reform group, which was started a year ago after the sex abuse scandal erupted in Boston, on April 6 called for the two bishops to resign because of their “pervasive pattern of behavior to conceal and cover up their evil actions.”
McCormack, a former deputy to Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, has come under fire for his handling of sexually abusive priests. Last December, he signed an agreement with state prosecutors that avoided criminal charges but acknowledged “failures in our system that contributed to the endangerment of children.”
In an April 14 response just being made public, McCormack said he would not resign because it would not “constructively contribute to the healing of survivors or the members of the Christian faithful.”
“I do not concur with your observation that my moral authority as bishop has eroded, nor do I agree that the Church of Manchester is in a state of spiritual distress,” McCormack said.
The lay reformers countered that “widespread discontent” has resulted in a 20 percent drop in donations, and cited a recent poll that 22 percent of Catholics are not attending Mass as frequently because of the scandal.
“We do propose, however, that there will be a significant sigh of relief if you and Bishop Christian, as emblematic figures in the sexual abuse crisis, no longer remain as constant reminders of your part in this terrible scandal,” the letter said.
In a related development, some 700 people in the Archdiocese of Louisville, Ky., have signed a petition calling for the resignation of Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The signers represent a tiny minority of the archdiocese’s 200,000 Catholics. Kelly has been harshly criticized for not removing abusive priests; some 250 alleged abuse victims are currently suing the archdiocese.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Labor Department Teams With World Vision to Combat Child Soldiers
WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Department of Labor is teaming with a global Christian aid agency to combat the plight of child soldiers.
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao unveiled a $13 million initiative to offer education and rehabilitation for former child soldiers. Chao presented the plan at a May 7-8 Washington conference co-sponsored with World Vision.
“The plight of child soldiers offends the world’s sense of decency and the code of conduct of civilized nations,” Chao said.
An estimated 300,000 children are currently fighting in more than 34 conflicts around the world, according to World Vision. In the past 10 years, the agency estimates that 2 million children have been killed in armed conflicts, 6 million have been disabled and 20 million have been left homeless.
Children are often recruited or abducted against their wills to fight, serve as spies or guards, lay or clear land mines, or work in prostitution rings. Some children are as young as 7 or 8, while most are between 10 and 15 years old. Advocates say the children are left with devastating physical and mental trauma.
“The atrocities these children have seen _ and many have been forced to commit _ are nothing short of appalling,” said Bruce Wilkinson, World Vision’s vice president for international programs.
The $13 million program, which will help a variety of agencies, will spend $7 million to help former child soldiers in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Colombia. An additional $3 million will go toward education for former child soldiers in northern Uganda, and $3 million for former child soldiers in Afghanistan.
Last December, the United States ratified the United Nations-sponsored Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict that sets a minimum age of 18 for direct participation in conflict.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Michigan Rabbi Named Humanist of the Year
(RNS) The founder of the Society for Humanistic Judaism has been named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association.
Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, founder and president of the society, was honored May 9 during the association’s annual conference in Washington.
Wine has been a leader of the Birmingham Temple in Farmington Hills, Mich., for more than four decades.
On the day he accepted his award, Wine called for humanists to practice their philosophy in their everyday lives.
“People are not their mouths or their intentions, but their behavior,” he said. “If we don’t have the behavior, then all the language doesn’t matter.”
Previous honorees include feminist Betty Friedan and authors Kurt Vonnegut and Alice Walker.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Former Missionary Hostage Gracia Burnham
(RNS) “Do I wish Martin were here? Of course I do. But the truth is, he’s better off than we are. Why would he want to come back here? To pay the bills? To take out the trash?”
_ Former missionary hostage Gracia Burnham, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times about life after being held for more than a year by Muslim militants in the Philippines. Burnham, whose husband, Martin, was killed during a rescue raid, has just written a book about her experiences.
DEA END RNS
