c. 2003 Religion News Service
Update: Bush Declares `Marriage Protection Week’
WASHINGTON (RNS) President Bush has proclaimed Oct. 12-18 as Marriage Protection Week, an observance that also is being promoted by conservative Christian groups.
“Marriage is a sacred institution, and its protection is essential to the continued strength of our society,” Bush said in the proclamation released Friday (Oct. 3). “Marriage Protection Week provides an opportunity to focus our efforts on preserving the sanctity of marriage and on building strong and healthy marriages in America.”
Defining marriage as “a union between a man and a woman,” Bush said his administration seeks to support the institution by aiding couples in creating successful marriages and being good parents.
His proclamation came the day after leaders of groups supporting the observance held a Washington news conference to promote it.
Groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition, the American Family Association and Family Research Council hope the week will encourage voters to support legislation favoring traditional marriages, including the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment.
Opponents to the legislative possibilities are urging a different approach.
“The move to support a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage is morally wrong,” said Sylvia Rhue, director of the Washington-based Equal Partners in Faith, a liberal-leaning network of religious leaders who are supportive of gay rights.
“Marriage is a civil right. … This amendment will only serve to codify second-class citizenship for gay men and lesbians permanently.”
Bush did not address the amendment issue in the proclamation.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Pope Proclaims Three Missionaries Saints
VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II has proclaimed three 19th century missionaries saints in the 50th canonization ceremony of his pontificate, and appealed to the international community to help Africa overcome its “difficulties and problems” and build a future of hope.
The 83-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff, who has appeared increasingly frail in recently weeks, seemed stronger Sunday (Oct. 5) and spoke in a clear voice as he presided for more than two hours over the canonizations and Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
“A land rich in human and spiritual resources, Africa continues to be marked by so many difficulties and problems,” the pope said. “May the international community actively help it to build a future of hope.”
With the canonizations of Daniele Comboni, Arnold Janssen and Josef Freionademetz, John Paul has created 476 new saints in his almost 25 years as pope, more than all his predecessors put together. The Vatican said he also beatified 1,314 candidates for sainthood.
The pope made his appeal for Africa in connection with Comboni, an Italian who was the first Catholic bishop in Central Africa and is considered one of the greatest missionaries in the history of the Catholic Church. He founded the Comboni Missionaries and the Comboni Missionary Sisters, known as Verona fathers and sisters.
The orders have been active in Sudan throughout the country’s 20-year civil war that has pitted Muslims against the Christian minority. Peace talks recently have raised hopes of an end to hostilities.
John Paul on Sept. 28 announced that he was naming Archbishop Gabriel Zubeir Wako, 62, of Khartoum as Sudan’s first cardinal. The pope told Comboni missionaries at a Vatican audience on Monday (Oct. 6) that he hoped that the project of founding a Catholic university in Sudan could now be completed.
Janssen, a German, founded the Society of the Divine Word and the Congregations of Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit and Sister-Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration. More than 6,000 Divine Word missionaries are presently active in 63 countries, some 3,800 missionary sisters and 400 cloistered nuns.
Freinademetz, born in the South Tyrol region of the Austro-Hungarian empire now part of Italy, was an early disciple of Janssen. He spent most of his adult life working in a Divine Word mission in South Shantung, a Chinese province where only 158 of the population of 12 million were Christian.
The priest dedicated himself to educating Chinese priests, missionaries and laity and to preaching Christianity within the Chinese culture. John Paul described him as “an exemplary model of evangelical inculturation.”
_ Peggy Polk
Canadian Police Probe Threats Against Catholic Leader, Credit Union
VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ Police are investigating separate threats made against British Columbia’s top Catholic leader and Canada’s largest credit union, which have been locked in a high-profile dispute over homosexuality.
Police said they are following up complaints that Vancouver Archbishop Adam Exner was threatened by an angry crowd of protesters outside his window late at night Sept. 29.
Although police do not necessarily believe Exner’s life is in danger, Vancouver police spokeswoman Anne Drennan said Tuesday (Sept. 30) officers are taking the situation seriously and advising him on ways to keep safe during public events.
“We won’t be commenting on any advice we’ve received from the police,” said Paul Schratz, spokesman for the archbishop, spiritual leader of 340,000 Roman Catholics in Greater Vancouver.
“Obviously this is a sensitive and delicate matter. The archbishop’s personal safety is involved. It’s been a very difficult week,” said Schratz, refusing to give any more details.
The public has expressed strongly opposing views since it was reported Sept. 24 that Exner decided to sever ties with VanCity Credit Union because it supports the gay and lesbian community.
“There’s a lot of emotion out there. We’ve had a lot of criticism and a lot of support,” said Schratz, adding the archdiocese has received more than 100 calls and e-mails, including one linking Exner to Nazism.
Meanwhile, Drennan said Vancouver police are also investigating the possibility that seven bomb threats made late last week against VanCity Credit Union were related to the conflict with the Catholic church.
“The bomb threats started after the big story came out, so we certainly have to look at it carefully,” Drennan said.
So far, Drennan said, police have no suspects, although they know the phone booth from which the threats were made. She said the male caller never said why he was allegedly planting bombs at VanCity, which he claimed were due to go off in five minutes.
Although the first bomb threat was made to the Fraser Street branch on Sept. 11, Drennan said the following seven all came in last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
That has forced police to look for a possible connection to Exner’s decision to cut VanCity’s junior banking in-school program, which he had quietly passed on to parents and school officials weeks earlier.
Asked about the VanCity bomb threats, Schratz said, “Anyone who’d do something like that is obviously unstable and irrational.”
_ Douglas Todd
Update: Valparaiso University Officials Repent for Interfaith Service
(RNS) Top officials of Valparaiso University have “expressed sincere repentance” to Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod members for permitting an interfaith service marking the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to take place on their campus.
The service was the subject of a formal complaint because it included prayers by Muslim and Jewish leaders.
The Rev. Alan Harre, university president, and the Rev. Joseph Cunningham, pastor of the campus chapel, received letters Sept. 22 that clarified the resolution of the dispute by the synod’s Praesidium, the Associated Press reported.
“The defendants expressed sincere repentance for the wrong that they did in authorizing and conducting the service,” read the letter signed by Paul Maier, president of the Praesidium, which is composed of the president and the five vice presidents of the denomination.
Clergy from eight states filed a complaint about the service and the former president of the Indiana district cleared the university leaders of any wrongdoing earlier this year. The Praesidium ordered a further investigation.
David Strand, a spokesman for the St. Louis-based denomination said the conflict shows “the synod takes its doctrine and its clear public proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ very seriously.”
He added: “At the same time, it shows that the synod, like other Christian church bodies, is trying to discern its proper role in an increasingly pluralistic society while staying true to its doctrines and practices.”
Reggie Syrcle, spokesman for the university in Valparaiso, Ind., said the conflict probably will influence future interfaith relations on the campus, which has ties to the denomination but is not financially supported by it.
“It probably will help inform the way we go about doing things,” he said.
In a similar controversy, the Rev. David Benke was suspended from his job as president of the church’s Atlantic District after taking part in an interfaith memorial event in 2001 after the attacks. The denomination announced in May that Benke’s suspension had been lifted after a dispute panel determined he had not rejected church practices.
Cathedral Sex Stunt Results in Hefty Fine for Radio Station
(RNS) Two former radio “shock jocks” were fined $357,500 on Thursday (Oct. 2) for broadcasting the sexual exploits of a couple inside New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
The Federal Communications Commission levied the fine against Infinity Broadcasting, which owns WNEW-FM, home to the now-defunct “Opie and Anthony Show.” The fine is the second-highest in the FCC’s history _ in 1995, Infinity was fined $1.7 million for shows by Howard Stern.
Hosts Greg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia were fired in August 2002 after they broadcast a detailed description of Brian Florence and Loretta Lynn Harper having sex inside the landmark church. Florence, 38, died of a heart attack on Sept. 25.
“The program material included repeated graphic and explicit sexual descriptions designed to shock, pander and titillate listeners,” the agency said in a statement.
The Aug. 15 program was part of the ongoing “Sex for Sam” contest in which couples competed for points by having sex in public places, including Rockefeller Center, a zoo and the FAO Schwarz toy store.
Prior to Florence’s death, he and Harper were expected to be fined and avoid jail time. A third party, radio producer Paul Mercurio, who relayed details from the cathedral, pled guilty to disorderly conduct and was ordered to perform community service.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
British Evangelical Anglicans voice Solidarity with U.S. Episcopalians
LONDON (RNS) Church of England evangelicals gathered in Blackpool, England, for the National Evangelical Anglican Congress in late September have sent a message of support to the conservative Episcopalians in the United States.
The U.S. conservatives are due to meet in Dallas beginning Oct. 7 to map out a strategy to counter the denomination’s approval of the election of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson is gay.
“We know of the attacks that you have had to withstand in recent months and years,” said the English evangelicals in their letter of support. “These attacks on so many areas of our shared biblical faith have been severe and stressful for many of you, and we weep with you.”
The English evangelicals also said they were praying that their American counterparts would stand firm against any recognition of gay clergy or approval of same-sex union ceremonies.
In the letter, the evangelicals said they were also praying for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who has called a meeting of the top leaders of the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion for later this month.
“We pray that God will bring great wisdom to their (the leaders) deliberations and that they will affirm and uphold the orthodox and biblical faith that we have received through God’s providence across the ages,” said the letter.
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Amish Carpenter Elam Zook
(RNS) “Our bishops are broad-minded, if the need arises. We do need to feed our families.”
_ Amish carpenter Elam Zook of Gordonville, Pa., who helped Amish farmers secure tractors and other equipment to help them deal with crops battered by Tropical Storm Isabel that are too much for the horse-drawn wagons they traditionally use. He was quoted by the Associated Press.
DEA END RNS
