c. 2003 Religion News Service
Scalia: Laws Permit Public Expression of Religion
(RNS) Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a speech Sunday (Jan. 12), defended Virginia and U.S. laws he says permit the expression of religion in public places.
Scalia spoke briefly at a ceremony in Fredericksburg, Va., commemorating the day Thomas Jefferson, George Mason and other Colonial leaders gathered to draft what became the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.
Scalia said law and the constitutional amendment guaranteeing religious freedom were not meant to “exclude God from the public forums and from political life,” The Washington Post reported.
The Virginia statue ended up serving as a model for the Constitution’s First Amendment.
Scalia criticized recent court decisions that have forbidden expression of faith in public events and cited the federal appeals court ruling last summer that the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violated the separation of church and state.
Scalia defended public expressions of religious faith such as coins marked “In God We Trust,” military and congressional chaplains, and nondenominational prayers before high school graduations. He said those expressions and people reflect American traditions of religious freedom and neutrality among religious faiths.
“Government will not favor Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews,” he said in the 10-minute speech. “But the tradition was never that the government had to be neutral between religiousness and nonreligiousness.”
New Vatican Envoy Seeks to Repair Breach With Russian Orthodox Church
MOSCOW (RNS) The Vatican’s new diplomatic envoy to Russia stepped off the flight from Rome on Saturday night (Jan. 11) and immediately reached out to ease tensions with the dominant Russian Orthodox Church.
In a short statement delivered in Russian, Archbishop Antonio Mennini expressed Pope John Paul II’s “feelings of respect, esteem and true gratitude for the great spiritual and cultural traditions” of the 80 million-member Russian Orthodox Church.
For nearly a year, leaders of the politically powerful Russian Orthodox Church have pointedly criticized the Roman Catholic Church for “spiritual aggression” on what the Orthodox consider their ecclesiastical territory.
Relations between Rome and the world’s largest Orthodox church turned sour after the Vatican in February created four new dioceses in Russia. As Orthodox prelates fumed, the Russian government expelled four foreign Catholic priests and a bishop. In December, a leaked government report identified the Roman Catholic Church as the top religious threat to Russia’s national security.
Despite such a hostile atmosphere, the head of the Russian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, said he is hopeful about the new Vatican diplomat’s prospects for helping to turn the situation around.
Mennini does not have the full diplomatic rank of ambassador to Russia. Instead, he is a “representative of the Holy See,” the title carried by each of his three predecessors since diplomatic relations were re-established in 1990, following a 187-year break.
In recent weeks, Catholic leaders here say they have seen a hint of a warming with the Russian Orthodox Church, after the church’s head, Patriarch Alexy II, sent the pope official Christmas greetings reading, “Let us renew our brotherly fellowship and praise the Lord, who came to this earth for us to find and save us.”
Kondrusiewicz, who heads the Moscow archdiocese, said in the context of the current chill, the patriarch’s words acquired an added significance.
“We need to see how it goes further. I hope it gets better,” he said in a brief interview at the airport.
_ Frank Brown
Kirk Franklin Honored With Most Stellar Gospel Music Awards
(RNS) Gospel artist Kirk Franklin was the big winner at the 18th Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards, walking away with five awards at the Atlanta ceremony Saturday (Jan. 11).
Franklin was named artist of the year for his “The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin” album and won song of the year for one of its tracks, “Hosanna.” He also won CD of the year, producer of the year and music video of the year for his work on the same album. Franklin won in all the categories for which he was nominated.
Gospel music veteran Andrae Crouch was presented with the James Cleveland Award for his innovation and achievements in traditional gospel music. Gospel singer Yolanda Adams was honored with the Stellar Awards Hall of Fame Award.
Other multiple award winners included Donald Lawrence & the Tri-City Singers and newcomer Smokie Norful, with three honors each. Adams, Ted & Sheri, Dorinda Clark-Cole, the Canton Spirituals and Richard Smallwood with Vision each won two awards.
Norful was named male vocalist of the year, and Clark-Cole was honored as female vocalist of the year.
The annual ceremony, which pays tribute to African-American artists’ contributions to Christian music, will air in national syndication from Jan. 18 through Feb. 16.
Other winners include:
Group/Duo: Ted & Sheri, “The Healing Starts Right There”
New Artist: Smokie Norful, “I Need You Now”
Choir: Donald Lawrence & the Tri-City Singers, “Go Get Your Life Back”
Contemporary Group/Duo: Ted & Sheri, “The Healing Starts Right There”
Traditional Group/Duo: The Canton Spirituals, “Walking by Faith”
Contemporary CD: “Go Get Your Life Back” by Donald Lawrence & the Tri-City Singers
Traditional CD: “Persuaded _ Live in D.C.” by Richard Smallwood with Vision
Urban/Inspirational CD: “Believe” by Yolanda Adams
_ Adelle M. Banks
Voice of Faithful Expresses Concern About Destroyed Abuse Records
BOSTON (RNS) Describing themselves as “deeply troubled” by the possibility of destroyed records in sexual abuse cases, a group of New Hampshire lay Catholics is demanding that the personnel files of deceased priests be preserved.
According to a 2002 agreement with New Hampshire Attorney General Philip McLaughlin, the Diocese of Manchester may shred such documents after an accused priest dies. But as alleged victims continue to come forward, supporters are concerned that shredded documents could prevent closure and leave oversight concerns unaddressed.
“We urge you to publicly pledge that the diocese will not destroy any more records associated with sexual abuse allegations against any priest,” said a Jan. 9 open letter from New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful to Bishop John B. McCormack. “These records are a crucial archive of how the diocese has handled allegations in the past, how it is doing today, and how it will handle them in the future.”
Demands for a moratorium on document shredding come on the heels of an abuse case that apparently led to a priest’s suicide. Authorities last month found the body of the Rev. Richard T. Lower, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in New London, on a hiking trail two days after he was accused of having abused a boy in 1973. According to last month’s agreement with civil authorities, Lower’s file could legally be destroyed without an investigation.
The Diocese of Manchester will be developing a policy this year for how to manage the files of deceased priests, said spokesperson Patrick McGee. Files of anyone accused of abuse will not be destroyed, McGee said, but he declined to say what to expect in cases where allegations might surface in the future.
“We can’t predict yet what the policy will be,” McGee said, “but we are developing a formal records retention program.”
What to do with the records of accused priests who have died remains a thorny issue for dioceses nationwide as they grapple with fallout from an ongoing clergy sexual abuse crisis.
In New Hampshire, Voice of the Faithful estimates 43 percent of pending abuse cases involve a deceased priest. Signs of prior destruction of documents have also brought urgency to the call.
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Historian Urges Queen to Return Relics
LONDON (RNS) An amateur historian is asking Queen Elizabeth II to return a collection of body parts of saints, including a tooth from St. Paul, that he claims were stolen from a cathedral more than four centuries ago.
In a letter to the monarch, Paul Cantrell insisted the relics were seized from Lincoln Cathedral, in northeast England, on orders of King Henry VIII and taken to the Tower of London.
The 60-year-old head of a residents association in Lincoln and history sleuth said that in addition to one of St. Paul’s teeth, the relics include the head of St. Hugh, Lincoln’s first saint; a finger from the hand of St. Catherine; and a bone from St. Stephen.
If the queen is unwilling _ or unable _ to return the items to Lincoln, she should make a donation to the cathedral, he said. Buckingham Palace, the monarch’s home in London, said they would consider the request and get back to him.
“It is quite a serious thing,” Cantrell told journalists. “We want these treasures back. I am doing this on behalf of the residents, as these are things they could show to their children and grandchildren.”
In his letter to the queen, Cantrell said Lincoln Cathedral “has been held in some esteem by most heads of the royal family since the time of the Norman Conquest” in the 11th century.
In suggesting that a donation in lieu of the relics might be in order, Cantrell told the queen that had the artifacts been left where they were, they could have generated millions of pounds in income for Lincoln Cathedral. Most visitors today have to pay an entrance fee equal to $5.60.
_ Al Webb
Women in Church Leadership Debated in South Africa
POTCHEFSTROOM, South Africa (RNS) As the Reformed Church of South Africa convenes its regular triennial synod meeting this week, at the fore is a debate on the role of women in the church _ an issue that threatens to split the denomination.
The 150-year-old denomination has historically barred women from leadership roles as deacons, elders and pastors. Women, however, are admitted to the church’s seminary, which is affiliated with the state university, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, and participate in all phases of its six-year program alongside their male colleagues, but are not ordained.
The issue of women in office has been debated within the denomination since the 1930s. A 1988 synod resolution on women in church offices said all men are the head of all women and “it is evident from Scripture that female members did not stand in the church offices out of recognition of the headship which God gave to the man.”
Current debate centers on what Scripture says about church government and its practical application in today’s world, said Callie Opperman, a Reformed minister and chairman of the synod’s Commission on Women.
“It is clear that women (in early Christian practice) played a role as either deacons or as a part of the church that looked after other widows,” Opperman said.
The eight-person commission, which is to report to the synod on Tuesday (Jan. 14) for a vote, is also examining scriptural guidelines regarding the relationship between man and woman in marriage and the role of the woman in worship services.
Opperman pointed out that in the denomination’s missionary congregations among African tribes, often the men remain outside the church and unconverted. “Does this mean that the church does not have women in the offices of deacon and elder? No, that is impossible,” he said.
The denomination, which has close ties with the Christian Reformed Church of North America, has about 75,000 members and 300 congregations throughout the country.
_ Robin Gallaher Branch
Quote of the Day: Rabbi Karyn Kedar of Chicago
(RNS) “If we wish to be a moral and humane society, we cannot continue to bear the burden of guilt associated with the execution of the innocent. When the stakes are this high _ with human life hanging in the balance _ we cannot afford a flawed justice system.”
_ Rabbi Karyn Kedar, director of the Great Lakes Council-Chicago Federation of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, commenting on Illinois Gov. George Ryan’s decision to empty death row because of a flawed death penalty system.
DEA END RNS
