c. 2004 Religion News Service

Priests in Nine Dioceses Form Celibacy-Petition Group

(RNS) A petition drive that started last summer with 163 Catholic priests in Milwaukee asking for a discussion on celibacy has resulted in a new group of about 1,000 priests who want the church to consider married clergy.

According to The New York Times, organizers of Priests’ Forum for Eucharist met in the Bronx April 20-21. They claim to represent about 1,000 priests from at least nine dioceses.

Together, the new group represents about 2 percent of the country’s 45,000 Catholic priests.

The priests say limiting the priesthood to celibate men hampers the ability of rank-and-file Catholics to have access to the Eucharist, which only a priest can celebrate.

“Priests’ Forum for Eucharist sees that the church law of mandatory celibacy is endangering the identity of the Catholic faithful as a people of the Eucharist,” an organizer said, according to The Times. “They believe that making celibacy an option for those who wish to become priests or by ordaining those who are already married is an obvious and welcome way” to replenish the thinning ranks of priests.

When the Milwaukee priests submitted their petition last summer to Archbishop Timothy Dolan _ who heads a priestly life committee for American bishops _ Dolan said celibacy was a “gift” that was not up for discussion.

Similar petitions followed from priests in nearly a dozen dioceses. The new network includes members from the Archdiocese of New York, Brooklyn, Rockville Centre, N.Y. (Long Island), Albany, Milwaukee, Chicago, Belleville, Ill., and Pittsburgh.

Organizers hope to have a “large-scale” meeting on celibacy in the spring of 2005. They said they support optional celibacy for the country’s 30,000 diocesan priests, but not for the 15,000 men who live in religious orders.

Religious Employers Decry Louisiana Bill for Birth Control Coverage

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) A bill that would require employers to include birth control in their health benefits is setting up a classic confrontation in Baton Rouge between groups lobbying for what they say is a health-care basic and religious employers that claim providing artificial birth control would be sinful.

“We believe this is a matter of basic health care,” said Julie Redman, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta.

Women who are able to control their reproductive lives can protect their health, their employability and their ability to support their families, supporters said.

And there’s the matter of equity.

“Women pay 68 percent more than men for out-of-pocket health-care costs,” and most of that goes for contraception, said Redman, citing Planned Parenthood figures.

But the Catholic Church and some evangelical groups oppose the bill.

The church, which says it employs 9,000 people in metropolitan New Orleans _ three-quarters of them women _ said the bill disrespects its right to live by its teachings, one of which is that artificial birth control is intrinsically wrong.

“We’ll be mandated to provide that which we believe to be in violation of our own moral teaching,” said the Rev. William Maestri, spokesman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

“This ought to be troubling to all religious organizations. … It’s a serious challenge to religious freedom, and not just for Catholics. If they can do it to Catholics today, they can do it to others tomorrow,” he said.

Evangelicals such as Southern Baptists are discomfited for a slightly different reason. They note that some birth control techniques work by making the uterus inhospitable to a newly fertilized egg.

For those who believe that human life begins at the moment of conception, that amounts to abortion, said Gene Mills, executive director of the Louisiana Family Forum, an advocacy group that supports families through biblical principles.

Mills’ group is watching the bill with some concern, although its first legislative priorities this year lie with gay marriage and anti-cloning legislation, he said.

_ Bruce Nolan

Lutheran Church Raises Construction Funds on eBay

(RNS) A Lutheran church in Wauconda, Ill., has found a 21st century way to raise money for a new sanctuary _ hawking members’ trinkets and tchotchkes on eBay.

The 1,500-member congregation has raised an average of about $400 a month by selling parishioners’ collector plates, books on tape and old postcards through the online auction site.

“I look at things in stores and wonder where all this stuff is going to end up,” Penny Claiborne, who coordinates the bids for the church, told The Lutheran magazine. “Wouldn’t it make God happy if we reused more things? Doesn’t that convey a thankfulness for what God gives us?”

The church’s new sanctuary will help ease overcrowding in a facility designed to hold 240 people that now attracts more than 500. Parishioners have raised $1.5 million for construction, with another $1.7 million to go.

“Our mission at Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church is to share Jesus’ love with each other, and those around us,” the church’s eBay profile says. “Through worship and music, Bible study, fellowship, care of the homeless and homebound, and missions around the world, our church is helping further the Kingdom of God on earth.”

Claiborne said whatever doesn’t sell will be donated to Goodwill, but so far everything offered by church members has found a buyer. Sports magazines from the 1950s went for $30 to $40 each, she said, and old postcards have been sold for between 25 cents and $31.

Claiborne said buyers have responded generously to the church, especially fellow Lutherans. Eventually, she hopes to include a small devotional with every order.

“God’s love needs to go into unconventional areas like eBay,” she told the magazine. “We’ve got to go out among real people, lonely people. But you can’t just sling the Baby Jesus around and throw God in people’s faces. You gotta be there with people.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Cincinnati Minister Wins Appeal of Same-Sex Marriage Case

(RNS) A Cincinnati minister has won a reversal of a 2003 Presbyterian church-court conviction for performing same-sex marriage ceremonies at a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Covenant made the 6-4 ruling Friday (April 30) about the case of the Rev. Stephen A. Van Kuiken, Presbyterian News Service reported.

The commission found that the record in the minister’s case “does not support a finding of guilt by proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” It ruled that the lower, presbytery court was mistaken when it interpreted a provision of the denomination’s Book of Order as an absolute prohibition of same-sex marriage ceremonies.

“At issue is the existing tension in the Book of Order between the spirit and the letter of the law,” the majority wrote. “The spirit of a wide, gracious welcome of all people, encouraged by the Book of Order, is in tension with the specified limitations on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Presbyterians, preventing their full and complete participation in the life of the church. This tension reflects the church’s current place in history and its ongoing struggle with the issues of human sexuality.”

The dissenters in the decision called the majority opinion “an improper and unjustified attempt to rewrite the clear and unambiguous meaning” of the Book of Order provision.

Van Kuiken is now part of a nondenominational faith community in Cincinnati, known as the Gathering, that includes former members of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, where he performed the ceremonies that were questioned.

The minister, a married heterosexual, ended his pastoral relationship with the Presbyterian congregation last year.

“I am very grateful for the courage the commission has shown in reaching this landmark decision,” Van Kuiken said, the Associated Press reported.

“A new era has dawned in the Presbyterian Church.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Swiss Guard Commander Says `No’ to the Recruitment of Women

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The commander of the Vatican Swiss Guard has ruled out the recruitment of women for the elite force that has watched over the safety of the pope for the last 498 years.

“No, there will never be a woman recruit among the Swiss Guards, or at least not under my command,” Col. Elmar Maeder declared.

Maeder held a news conference Tuesday (May 4) to talk about the swearing-in of 33 new recruits on Thursday and plans for celebrations in 2006 of the 500th anniversary of the guard’s establishment.

Asked why the Swiss Guard remained entirely male although Switzerland’s army has had women members for several years, Maeder cited the Vatican’s all-male “ecclesial environment” as well as the expensive renovations to the barracks that would be needed to house women.

“It would be difficult to insert a mixed service in this environment. I don’t exclude that one day this could change, but not from one day to another and, anyway, not under my command,” he said.

“More important,” Maeder said, “many problems would be created. Few of the recruits are older than 25, and at that age women and men in the same barracks create problems.”

Citing the example of U.S. Navy vessels, Maeder said, “By law, 40 percent of the crew are women, but an American colleague told me if he had his way there wouldn’t be any.”

“It is not so much the women who create problems, but it is the jealously of the men. Some go crazy and that would create a disciplinary problem for me that I don’t want.” he said.

The Swiss Guard, established by Pope Julius II in 1506, recruits unmarried Swiss Catholics under the age of 30 to serve two-year hitches at a salary of 1,200 euros ($1,440) a month. Last year the corps swore in its first non-Caucasian member _ Dhani Badhmann, a native of India adopted by a Swiss family at age 5.

The 110 recruits, who wear Renaissance uniforms and carry halberds on formal occasions, serve as the pope’s personal guard and control access to the Vatican city-state and the Apostolic Palace, the papal residence.

New recruits are sworn in each year on May 6 at a ceremony commemorating the deaths of 147 Swiss Guards, who fell defending Pope Clement VII during the sack of Rome by Emperor Charles V in 1527.

Ceremonies to mark the founding of the force will include a march from Bellinzona in the Swiss canton of Ticino to Rome in the footsteps of the first 150 mercenaries recruited by Julius II.

_ Peggy Polk

Quote of the Day: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan

(RNS) “I don’t even think that the word `evil’ is a regular part of my vocabulary. There is something about the word, when we apply it to another human being _ and more especially to a group of human beings _ that makes me uncomfortable. It is too absolute. It seems to cut off any possibility of redemption, of dialogue, or even coexistence. It is the moral equivalent of declaring war.”

_ United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, addressing a conference of the Trinity Institute in New York on “Naming Evil: An Interfaith Dialogue.”

DEA/PH END RNS