c. 2003 Religion News Service

Boston Archdiocese to Sell Residence to Pay Abuse Settlement

BOSTON (RNS) In a surprise bid to remedy both the financial and symbolic tolls of last year’s sexual abuse crisis, the Archdiocese of Boston announced Wednesday (Dec. 3) plans to sell the opulent house that has been the residence of its archbishops.

The Italian-style mansion, which last year became a symbol to some of Cardinal Bernard Law’s aloofness toward ordinary Catholics, and an adjacent 28 rolling acres are expected to command tens of millions in Boston’s high-priced real estate market. Proceeds from the sale will reportedly enable the church to pay whatever remains uncovered by insurance in an $85 million settlement with 540 victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Archbishop Sean O’Malley’s plan won immediate applause from the area’s largest organization of lay Catholics, Voice of the Faithful.

“Lay Catholics are the ones who will be moved by this,” said Luise Dittrich, spokesperson for Voice of the Faithful. “This is a huge symbol of humility and a recognition that, at least in Boston, the archdiocese is not going to conduct itself imperially.”

In the height of the scandal, which began in Boston and engulfed dioceses across the nation, Law came under fire for living in a mansion while failing to heed ordinary parishioners’ concerns to remove predatory priests. O’Malley, a Capuchin Friar who lives by vows to serve the poor, has made the residence sale possible by choosing to reside instead in an apartment near the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in a working class neighborhood of Boston’s South End.

By selling the residence’s nine acres plus an additional 19 adjacent acres at St. John’s Seminary, the archdiocese intends to honor a pledge not to use recent donations to settle claims with plaintiffs.

“The archbishop wanted to make it very clear that the settlement would not be funded by the use of any present parish assets,” or by donations to special fund-raising campaigns, said archdiocese spokesman Christopher Coyne.

_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Albany Priests Petition for Discussion on Celibacy

(RNS) Eighty-six Catholic priests in Albany, N.Y., have joined calls from priests in a half-dozen other dioceses for a discussion on optional celibacy.

“We urge that from now on celibacy be optional, not mandatory, for candidates for the diocesan Roman Catholic priesthood,” said the Albany priests, who represent about one-fifth of the diocese’s clergy.

The priests said they wrote the letter out of “pastoral concern” that a priest shortage had denied parishioners’ access to the sacraments. “In order for this to happen, the Roman Catholic Church needs to call more candidates for the ministerial priesthood.”

The petition was sent to Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who has received similar letters from priests in Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, Southern Illinois, New Ulm, Minn., Pittsburgh and Boston.

The National Federation of Priests Councils, representing about half of all U.S. priests, has also called for a discussion. Gregory has said Pope John Paul II has made it clear that celibacy is not optional.

The Rev. Dominic Ingemie, chair of the diocese’s priestly life committee, told the diocesan newspaper The Evangelist that opponents of optional celibacy are “not quite in touch with reality. All we’re asking is to discuss this.”

Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard, who did not sign the letter but received a copy, signaled he may be in support of such a discussion.

“Certainly, a change in this long-standing tradition should not be undertaken lightly,” he said, according to the Albany Times Union. “But such a study might serve to both deepen our understanding and appreciation of the gift of celibacy and whether, for pastoral reasons, an exception to mandatory celibacy may be warranted.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Judge Says Indian Medicine Man Enjoys Confidentiality Rights

(RNS) A federal judge in Colorado ruled Wednesday (Dec. 3) that an American Indian medicine man enjoys the same confidentiality rights as other clergy.

District Court Judge Marcia Krieger, however, said the protection does not extend to a murder case because the defendant was not seeking spiritual counseling, and the medicine man told others about the defendant’s confession.

The case involves Apache medicine man Robert Cervantes, who was told by Carlos Herrera that he murdered his former lover, Brenda Chavez, in 2001, according to the Associated Press. Herrera’s defense attorney said the FBI used information from the shaman to elicit a confession from Herrera.

“Carlos Herrera confidentially told me about the murder of Brenda Chavez on Feb. 9, 2001, and these statements were related to me as a medicine man. I was unaware that I could assert a confidential privilege,” Cervantes wrote in a court filing.

In her decision, Krieger said there was no evidence that Herrera approached the shaman for religious purposes, so the admission could not be ruled a confession protected by confidentiality.

The Boulder, Colo.-based Native American Rights Fund told the Associated Press that shaman have been granted the same prison visitation rights as other clergy, but this was the first time a judge had recognized the right to clergy confidentiality.

Voucher Opponents Cheer Judge’s Barring of Colorado Voucher Law

(RNS) Voucher opponents cheered a state judge’s declaration Wednesday (Dec. 3) that Colorado’s school voucher law is unconstitutional.

Denver District Judge Joseph Meyer issued an injunction barring the voucher law from being implemented, saying it removed local school boards’ control over education, the Associated Press reported. It was the first law enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that voucher programs were acceptable.

“I see no way to interpret the voucher program statute in a way that does not run afoul of the principle of local control,” the judge wrote. “The goals of the voucher program are laudable. However, even great ideas must be implemented within the framework of the Colorado Constitution.”

The law mandated that publicly funded vouchers be offered to low-income children to help offset tuition charged by private schools.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the groups that brought suit against the law, lauded the ruling.

“Local school boards should not be placed under a state-issued mandate to fund religious or other private schools,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn in a statement.

“State lawmakers and pro-voucher lobbying groups were so bent on ramming a statewide voucher system into law that they overlooked the legitimate interests of local school officials.”

Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way Foundation, agreed.

“The Colorado Constitution makes it clear that local school boards must have control over the educational programs that they help fund,” Neas said in a statement. “The Colorado voucher law didn’t hold private schools accountable under Colorado or federal laws.”

Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar said he will ask Meyer to lift the injunction during an appeal, the AP reported.

Gov. Bill Owens criticized the ruling, saying, “Children from low-income families should not be facing a dead end if they are in a school that is below par.”

Chip Mellor, president of Institute For Justice, sided with Owens.

“We believe this program is too important to the children who desperately need the educational opportunities this program will provide,” said Mellor, whose conservative public interest law firm backed the state in defending the voucher plans.

Iraq-Based Church Breaks Deadlock Over Election of New Patriarch

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Bishops of the Baghdad-based Chaldean Catholic Church have broken a politically inspired deadlock of almost four months with the surprise election of a Rome-educated prelate as their new patriarch, the Vatican announced. Pope John Paul II urged them to build “a stable and free society” in Iraq.

The bishops on Wednesday (Dec. 3) chose Archbishop Emmanuel Delly, 76, to succeed Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid, who died July 7 after a long illness at the age of 81. He will be known as Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans.

Addressing the bishops at a Vatican audience late Wednesday, the pope called on them to seek unity within their church and to work with all believers to restore peace to Iraq.

“Harmony is all the more necessary if we look at your land, today more than ever in need of true peace and tranquillity in order,” the pope said. “Work to unite the forces of all believers in a respectful dialogue that favors at every level the building of a stable and free society.”

The 22 Chaldean bishops met in a synod Aug. 19 in Baghdad to try to decide on a successor to Bidawid but adjourned at the start of September without agreement. Vatican sources said they were divided over policy following the war that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Intervening in the dispute, the pope brought the bishops to the Vatican for meetings in early November and again this week. Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, presided over the extraordinary synod.

Because of his age the new patriarch was seen as a transitional leader chosen to break the deadlock between the two main candidates, Bishops Shlimon Warduni, patriarchal vicar of Baghdad, and Louis Sako of Kirkuk.

Warduni was strongly opposed to the U.S.-led attack on Iraq while Sako has cooperated with the occupying authorities and serves as vice president of the provisional provincial Council of Mosul. Critics had accused Bidawid of condoning the Saddam regime.

The new patriarch was slightly wounded by glass shards when a U.S. bomb landed near the seat of the Patriarchate in Baghdad on March 22 at the start of the war.

“I am well,” he was quoted as saying, “but there are so many ruins, so many cries from the people, the babies. Those who have so hard a heart should at least have a more paternal heart.”

Delly, born in Telkaif near Mosul, spent some 14 years in Rome. He studied theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University and canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University and helped to revise the Code of Canon Law for Eastern Churches.

The Chaldean Catholic Church was established in 1552 by bishops who broke away from the Assyrian Church of the East to seek union with Rome. It won formal recognition from Pope Pius VIII in 1830.

The church, which uses an Eastern rite similar to that of Orthodox churches, has some 1.5 million members in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Canada and the United States, including 65,000 in Michigan.

Quote of the Day: Guatemalan AIDS Specialist Eduardo Arathoon

(RNS) “We feel like we are playing God. But without universal access to medicine, you always discriminate.”

_ Guatemalan AIDS specialist Eduardo Arathoon, speaking about how some clinics in his country have to hold lotteries to determine which AIDS patients would get medicine. He was quoted by The Washington Post.

DEA END RNS