c. 2004 Religion News Service
Catholic Bishops Submit Testimony to Democratic, GOP Platform Committees
WASHINGTON (RNS) As the Republicans and Democrats begin to draw up their party platforms for this summer’s national conventions, the nation’s Catholic bishops urged them to “focus on moral principles” instead of “the latest polls.”
“The central question should not be `Are you better off than you were four years ago,”’ the bishops wrote, echoing the campaign trope of recently deceased former president Ronald Reagan. “It should be `How can “we” _ all of us, especially the weak and vulnerable _ be better off in the years ahead?”’
The bishops’ platform testimony, “Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Responsibility,” outlines the Catholic Church’s stance on a range of public policy issues, and is part of the bishops’ quadrennial political responsibility statement.
The church’s teachings,“can inform the choices of all people who share our commitment to justice and peace in our nation and the world. We ask that you review the statement … and take these ideas into consideration as you carry out your work,” wrote Monsignor William P. Fay, general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
With controversial topics like gay marriage, stem cell research and the war in Iraq standing at the forefront of political debates, the bishops insisted that Catholics not forget their obligations as citizens to take part in the public life of the nation.
“In the Catholic tradition, responsibility is a virtue,” the June 16 letter to the two political parties said. “Participation in the political process is a moral obligation. All believers are called to faithful citizenship, to become informed, active, and responsible participants in the political process.”
_ Daniel Burke
UCC Leader Urges Wooing Dissident and Disillusioned Catholics
SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. (RNS) Calling disillusioned Roman Catholics “our best aftermarket,” the national advertising coordinator for the United Church of Christ has urged Massachusetts congregations to make a point of welcoming “former Catholics who are hurting.”
Ron Buford, coordinator of this year’s $4 million campaign to increase UCC membership, made his comments in a June 12 keynote speech to about 600 delegates to the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC. The UCC, with Congregational churches in town centers across the state, is the largest Protestant denomination in Massachusetts.
During his one-hour address, Buford told a packed auditorium at Mount Holyoke College that “Catholics are willing to come back to church.” However, he said, they may want to “return” to a new denomination with “less dogma,” “more respect for free thinking” and “more available pastors.”
“It’s a match,” Buford said. “We have these things to offer in abundance.”
Buford’s comments come as shock waves from the clergy sex abuse scandal continue to rock the state where the scandal first broke in January 2002. Last month, Archbishop Sean O’Malley announced that 65 parishes in eastern Massachusetts would have to close later this year. Declining memberships and donations, exacerbated by the scandal, were to blame.
Not everyone at Saturday’s meeting, however, felt comfortable with the opportunity as presented. Teri Motley, saying her Nahant congregation prays regularly for the Catholic church in town, approached the microphone to address what she termed “the issue of sheep stealing.”
“Just because the Catholic Church hierarchy is abusing its people doesn’t mean we should come in and steal them away,” Motley said. “I think there are a lot of lost sheep out there who don’t believe in anything. We should be going after them.”
Buford responded: “We don’t need to go out and recruit (disillusioned Catholics). But we do need to recognize the differences (between churches) and welcome those who want what we have.” His own congregation in Cleveland, he said, has increased the frequency of communion services especially to feed “former Catholics who are hurting” and who “have not had communion in a long time.”
Later, Nancy Taylor, Massachusetts Conference General Minister and President, spoke to the “sheep stealing” issue.
“There has been concern expressed about sheep stealing in our ad,” Taylor said, referring to an upcoming UCC ad that suggests other churches might be unwelcoming to certain people. However, she said, officials at the National Council of Churches have seen the ad and expressed no reservations about it.
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
NCC, Others Launch Campaign to Make Poverty Election Year Issue
(RNS) A coalition of religious and secular community activists launched an election-year campaign on Tuesday (June 15) to register impoverished Americans to vote.
Co-organized by the National Council of Churches USA and the Center for Community Change, the multi-city campaign is called “Let Justice Roll” after the biblical quotation from the prophet Amos, who said “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an overflowing stream.”
“Historically, our country has made progress against poverty only when low-income people have articulated what must be done, and only when people of faith have lifted their voices in solidarity with the poor to demand justice,” said Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change.
Among the stops on the coalition’s 15-city campaign are Boston and New York, where events are planned to coincide with the national conventions.
“We will ask them `What will you do to end poverty?’ and we’ll expect an answer,” said the Rev. Paul Sherry, the poverty mobilization coordinator for the NCC.
“Whether we are on the `right’ or the `left,’ we are going to make the case at the conventions that if America is so beautiful, as we sing about, it will make real the promises of a good life for all of us,” added the Rev. James Forbes, the senior minister at the Riverside Church in New York City.
The Rev. Robert W. Edgar, general secretary of the NCC said that nearly 35 million Americans, including more than 12 million children, live below the official poverty thresholds.
“With the large tax cuts and the massive increase in defense expenditures, few resources are left to address these important needs,” he said. “We as a nation pride ourselves on our values and moral commitment, and we as a people of faith believe that we ought to care for the poor.”
Edgar, a former six-term Democratic member of Congress, said that the coalition is not interested in partisan politics, only in getting people registered to vote.
“Believe me, if we get enough people registered to vote, both the Republicans and the Democrats will listen to them,” Edgar said.
_ Daniel Burke
English Muslim Schoolgirl Loses Jilbab Case
LONDON (RNS) A 15-year-old Muslim schoolgirl has lost her fight in the courts to be allowed to go to school wearing an all-enveloping garment, the jilbab, which is ankle-length and leaves only the face and hands exposed.
Shabina Begum has been excluded from Denbigh High School, Luton, since September 2002 over her insistence on wearing the jilbab. The school, nearly 80 percent of whose 1,000 pupils are Muslim, allows Muslim girls to wear trousers, skirts, or the shalwar kameez (traditional Indian Muslim garb consisting of a tunic and trousers).
Originally Shabina wore a shalwar kameez, but her deepening interest in her religion led her to conclude that the jilbab was the correct dress for “a mature Islamic woman in public.”
The court rejected her plea that she was being denied her right to education and to manifest her religious beliefs.
Judge Sir Hugh Bennett said it seemed to him “unrealistic and artificial” to say the young woman’s right to an education had been denied in this case.
“Although it appears that there is a body of opinion within the Muslim faith that only the jilbab meets the requirements of its dress code, there is also a body of opinion that the shalwar kameez does as well,” he said. “In my judgment, the adoption of the shalwar kameez by the defendant (Denbigh High School) as school uniform for Muslim (and other faiths) female pupils was, and continues to be, a reasoned, balanced, proportionate policy.”
Meanwhile, an international Association for the Protection of Hijab, the headscarf worn by many Muslim women, has been launched in London in response to legal bans on wearing the hijab in France and parts of Germany. Denbigh High School allows its female Muslim pupils to wear the hijab.
_ Robert Nowell
White House Downplays Reports that Bush Wants U.S. Bishops `With Me’
WASHINGTON (RNS) The White House is downplaying a report that President Bush appealed to Vatican officials to encourage U.S. bishops to take a more active role in promoting their shared social agenda.
A report in the independent weekly National Catholic Reporter said Bush sought the bishops’ help in pushing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.
Bush reportedly made the request during a meeting with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of state to the Vatican, on June 4. White House spokesman Scott McClellan has confirmed the session took place, but he refused to elaborate on it.
The president’s trip to Rome came as his presumptive Democratic rival _ Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the first Roman Catholic nominee from a major party since John F. Kennedy in 1960 _ has faced questions from some corners on his differences with Rome, most notably over abortion.
In its report, the National Catholic Reporter quoted Bush as telling Sodano and other Vatican officials “not all American bishops are with me” on certain social issues and asking for the Vatican’s help in encouraging them to be more outspoken. Sodano did not respond, the report said.
The Rev. Richard McBrien, a Catholic priest and professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, said that if Bush did seek political help from Rome, “it’s a cynical move that is improper on its face.”
The White House denied any political motives behind the trip to the Vatican. Briefing reporters accompanying the president, a senior administration official said, “the Holy Father is not a political figure. And the president would never seek to make him into one.
“I mean, this is just an opportunity to be with one of the world’s great leaders,” the official said.
Still, McBrien said in an interview conducted via e-mail, it is unlikely that greater activism on the part of U.S. bishops would have much impact on the Catholic electorate. “Catholics generally oppose the interference of church leaders in political campaigns,” he said.
A poll published this week by Time Magazine bears that out. Some 70 percent of Catholics said the church should not be trying to influence voters, 69 percent said the church should not be trying to influence politicians, and 73 percent said Kerry should not be denied Communion because of his stand on abortion.
Deal Hudson, a Bush adviser and editor of Crisis Magazine, said Catholics are more likely to be influenced by what is said during weekly Mass than comments issued by bishops. He said he had not talked to Bush about his meetings in Rome, but would not be surprised if the president talked politics with Vatican officials.
“I suppose what he would have said was that we have a common shared agenda, and it would be helpful if bishops strongly promoted these issues,” Hudson said. He said it is unlikely Rome would cooperate.
“I don’t think it’s in the cards at all. The Vatican is not going to instruct American bishops to single out John Kerry by name and then explain to them where Kerry’s Catholicism is inaccurate or mistaken,” he said.
_ J. Scott Orr
Quote of the Day: Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.
(RNS) “I cannot think of a more decent and Christian thing to do. … When people are being stoned in the public square, we ought to come to their rescue.”
_ Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., arguing for expanding hate crimes legislation to include crimes based on sexual orientation, gender and disabilities. The Senate passed the measure, 65-33, on Tuesday (June 15). He was quoted by The Washington Post.
DEA/JL END RNS
