c. 2003 Religion News Service
Vatican Frowns on Altar Girls and Applause at the Mass
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A document under preparation at the Vatican takes a stern view of decorum at the Mass, frowning on altar girls, ecumenical concelebrations, applause and dancing in the aisles and urging the faithful to report violations.
Excerpts from the draft document will appear in the October issue of the Italian monthly Jesus, published by the Pauline Fathers.
The magazine said the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith and for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments are preparing the document at the request of Pope John Paul II and plan to issue their final version late this year or in early 2004.
The draft already has been circulated to the world’s bishops, and Italian press reports said the initial reaction has been largely negative so that revisions may be necessary. The pope’s approval also is required.
In its present form, the document lists 37 liturgical “abuses” and says that when they occur “every Catholic priest or deacon and faithful lay man or woman” has the right and duty to denounce them to their pastor, bishop or directly to the Holy See.
The draft does not rule out altar girls, but says they should not be recruited “without a just pastoral cause; nor should priests ever feel obligated to call girls to this office.”
The Vatican in 1994 gave bishops the power to allow altar girls in their dioceses, but the move was controversial. Opponents argue that serving at the altar is an important way for boys to discover a vocation for the priesthood, which is closed to women.
The document discourages the presence of ministers of other Christian faiths at the altar, and it bans expressions such as “community celebrant” or “assembly celebrant,” “eucharistic hospitality” or “concelebration,” which it says can send the wrong signal in ecumenical circles.
The draft also takes a stern view of the distribution of wine as well as the wafer during Communion. This was surprising because it was the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments that in March 2002 announced the lifting of the ban on wine first imposed by the Council of Trent almost 600 years ago.
The document says that Catholics should receive the wafer on their tongue from the hand of a priest rather than in their outstretched hands as Protestants normally do or by taking it directly from the chalice in a form of “self-service” communion.
Applause during the Mass and “dances inside the sacred building” are to be discouraged, it says. But this clearly does not apply to papal Masses at which applause for John Paul is frequent, or to celebrations, especially on papal trips to Africa, Asia and Latin America, at which dancing and ethnic music are often part of the offertory.
Jesus said the team of prelates working on the document is led by Monsignor Joseph Di Noia, an American Dominican in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
_ Peggy Polk
Suit Filed to Stop Same-Sex Rights Law in California
(RNS) A conservative Christian legal group has filed suit on behalf of a California state senator, seeking to strike down a law recently signed by Gov. Gray Davis that gives same-sex partners some of the same rights as married couples.
The Alliance Defense Fund, in court documents naming State Sen. William J. “Pete” Knight, R-Palmdale, as the principal plaintiff, argued that the domestic partner legislation signed into law by Davis on Sept. 18 unconstitutionally invalidates aspects of a 2000 measure that defined marriage as strictly heterosexual.
The suit was filed Monday (Sept. 22) in the Superior Court in California’s Sacramento County. It names Davis and Secretary of State Kevin Shelley among the defendants.
Attorneys arguing against the new law say that 61 percent of California voters in 2000 approved Proposition 22, which declared that “(o)nly marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
The domestic partner legislation signed by Davis gives registered domestic partners “the same rights, protections and benefits … as are granted to and imposed upon spouses.”
Lawyers opposing the legislation say it violates the state constitution because it changes Proposition 22 without voters’ approval.
“California voters have spoken and they don’t want marriage hijacked by Governor Davis or anyone else,” said Vincent McCarthy, director of the Center for Marriage Law, another legal group defending Knight and the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund.
A representative of the governor could not be reached immediately for comment.
When he signed the legislation, Davis said: “I believe in my heart that all Californians are God’s children. All Californians should be treated with respect, dignity and equality under the law.”
The law gives domestic partners the right to child custody and visitation, employee benefits, transfer and title of property and the ability to make decisions on death and burial issues.
In a statement issued the day the legislation was signed, the governor’s office said “an independent analysis by the Legislative Counsel shows that (the legislation) does not nullify or amend Proposition 22.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Muslim Courier Awarded $2 Million in Religious Discrimination Suit
(RNS) A Muslim courier was awarded $2 million from a Los Angeles jury after he was fired for missing three workdays when his third child was born.
Mehmood Darjee, 38, sued Laboratory Corp. of America, alleging religious discrimination and violation of California’s Family Rights Act, the Los Angeles Times reported.
His lawyer, Carol L. Gillam, said the verdict, issued the week of Sept. 8, should send a message to “workers, particularly in the immigrant community … that our justice system still works to protect them, despite the otherwise significant loss of liberty many are experiencing in these post-Sept. 11 times.”
The jury awarded Darjee $2 million in punitive damages along with $150,000 for lost wages, benefits and emotional distress.
The newspaper could not immediately reach lawyer David J. Fleming, who represented Laboratory Corp.
Darjee, who immigrated from Pakistan in 1993, was fired in March 2001 on the day after his son’s birth for disobeying a company policy requiring two hours’ notice for absences.
He testified that he was unable to call in to work on the first day of his absence because his wife was rushed to the emergency room. His son was born the next day, but his supervisor refused to approve the day off, even after Darjee reminded the boss that he already had scheduled a holiday for that day _ the Feast of Eid, a holy day.
Gillam said the firing was due to discrimination.
“They were doing things to Muslims that they weren’t doing to anyone else,” she said.
Survey: Irish Youth Believe in God, Spurn Church
LONDON (RNS) More than four-fifths of young people in Ireland believe in God but fewer than half go to church, according to a survey commissioned by the Irish Times.
The survey covered a sample of 1,000 young people representative of the 640,000 youngsters ages 15 to 24 living in the Republic of Ireland.
The survey found that 86 percent believed in God while 14 percent did not, but the older they were the marginally less likely they were to believe in God, with the proportion dropping to 81 percent among those ages 23 and 24.
However, despite the high number professing to believe in God, only 44 percent went to church, while 55 percent did not. One percent refused to answer.
Age, again, was a factor, with the younger of those surveyed reporting higher percentages of church attendance. Attendance dropped from 59 percent among those ages 15 to 17 to 38 percent of those ages 20 to 24. Thirty-six percent of the 15-17 churchgoers said they went because their parents made them rather than going because they wanted to, but among churchgoers ages 23 and 24, 90 percent went because they wanted to.
Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of the sample (63 percent of males and 60 percent of females) _ including a quarter of those ages 15-17 _ claimed to have had sex; 85 percent of those ages 23 and 24 stated they had had sex.
_ Robert Nowell
Charismatic Minister Kenneth Hagin Dead at 86
(RNS) The Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin, a charismatic minister and faith healer who founded Oklahoma-based Kenneth Hagin Ministries, died Friday (Sept. 19).
Hagin, 86, had been in a hospital cardiac intensive care unit after collapsing at home Sept. 14.
Hagin believed he was miraculously healed at the age of 17 and from that time on led a healing ministry and delivered messages as a preacher and teacher.
“He wrote in his Bible, `The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it!”’ said his son, the Rev. Kenneth Hagin Jr., pastor of Rhema Bible Church and executive vice president of Kenneth Hagin Ministries.
“Brother Hagin was not a man who merely practiced what he preached. He preached what he lived.”
Hagin’s ministries included Faith Library Publications, which has more than 65 million books in print; Rhema Praise, a weekly television program; and Word of Faith, a monthly magazine; as well as crusades, a Bible correspondence school and a prayer and healing center.
In 1974, Hagin founded Rhema Bible Training Center USA. There are now similar centers in 13 other countries.
The McKinney, Texas, native established his ministries on a campus of more than 100 acres in Broken Arrow, Okla., near Tulsa.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Baptist World Alliance President Billy Kim
(RNS) “Jesus’ prayer for unity does not mean that we all should be the same, though many Christians mistakenly assume that. Too many think other believers should be just like themselves … read the same book, promote the same style, educate their children in the same way, have the same likes and dislikes.”
_ Baptist World Alliance President Billy Kim, addressing members of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, with whom he hopes his organization can maintain relations. Kim, who spoke Monday (Sept. 22), was quoted by Baptist Press.
DEA END RNS
