c. 2004 Religion News Service
Vatican Reports Deficit for Third Straight Year
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Hard hit by the continuing worldwide economic slump and a weak American dollar, the Vatican finished 2003 in the red for the third straight year, Vatican officials reported Thursday (July 8).
But the deficit of 9,569,456 euros, or $7.7 million, was 29 percent lower than the previous year’s deficit of 13,506,722 euros, or $10.8 million.
Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, told a news conference that the Vatican continued to feel the effects of “a phase of crisis” provoked by “events such as the attack on the twin towers, the last series of terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian persisting conflict.”
Sebastiani declined to comment on the payments to victims of sexually abusive priests that have drained the coffers of many U.S. dioceses and caused the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., to declare bankruptcy Tuesday.
The prelate said, however, that U.S. Catholics remained the largest contributors to the Vatican. “There was not a drop,” he said. “The United States is always in first place for offerings.”
Because the Vatican’s congregations, councils, tribunals, Synod of Bishops and other offices that make up the central administration of the Catholic Church do not produce revenue, the church looks to donations from dioceses and individual Catholics for funding.
“The volume of donations that came to the Holy See in 2003 showed in its various components a decrease, due also to the increased value of the euro in relation to the U.S. dollar and to other currencies,” Sebastiani said. He said overall donations fell from 85.4 million euros to 79.6 million euros, the currency in which the Vatican operates.
“A great part of our revenues are in dollars. When the dollar was much higher, our budget closed in the black,” the cardinal said.
The Vatican also suffered from low returns on its investments, which fell by 4.7 million euros to 11.6 million euros in 2003, Sebastiani said. But he said fluctuations in the rates of exchange were down from 45 million euros in 2002 to 32.8 million in 2003, and income from real estate rose from 19.1 million euros in 2002 to 22.4 million euros in 2003.
A cost-cutting campaign held institutional expenses in 2003 to 99.4 million euros, compared to 106 million euros the previous year, the cardinal said. The cost of the Vatican’s 2,674-member work force _ made up of 1,099 clerics and 1,575 lay people _ fell by more than 1 million euros.
_ Peggy Polk
Unity Launches `Office of Prayer Research’ Linking Science, Faith
(RNS) Unity, an interdenominational organization known for its emphasis on prayer, has announced a new Office of Prayer Research that will be a resource to foster scientific research on the effects of prayer.
The initiative was unveiled Thursday (July 8) during the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona, Spain, by Unity President Tom Zender.
“Throughout history, when science and religion have come together, there has typically been more clash than collaboration,” he said in a statement. “The Office of Prayer Research will give men and women of science and spirit a place to go and shake hands and pursue possibilities together. Together we will work toward a common goal _ learning more about the power of prayer.”
The announcement was welcomed by popular spiritual author Deepak Chopra, a speaker at the Parliament.
“Even though prayer has existed in every spiritual tradition, only recently has science begun to validate that prayer `works,’ which in the field of medicine means that patients who are prayed over recover faster and have fewer complications from serious illness,” he said in a statement. “But science is at a loss over why prayer works, and it will remain at a loss until we revise our most basic theories of what we call reality.”
The Office of Prayer Research will be directed by Bob Barth, who also is Unity’s vice president and spiritual director. It will offer a clearinghouse of data on a Web site, http://www.officeofprayerresearch.org, and will be housed at Unity’s headquarters in Unity Village, Mo., outside Kansas City.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Bikinis With Images of Hindu Deities Cause Furor in India
(RNS) India’s right-wing Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) unleashed a wave of protests in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat against lingerie emblazoned with Hindu deities.
The undergarments that bear images of three major Hindu deities _ Lord Vishnu, Lord Ram and Lord Krishna _ were originally designed by Italian designer Roberto Cavalli this year.
The lingerie also sparked protests from Hindu groups in the United Kingdom and the United States earlier this year for displaying cultural icons in bad taste.
The lingerie is being sold openly on the streets in the communally sensitive town of Godhra where riots erupted in 2002 that eventually spread to the whole of Gujarat, killing nearly 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
“We had such cases of undergarments bearing the images of Hindu gods being sold in foreign countries. Back then Hindu groups had protested against this. And promptly the sale was stopped, but now they are trying to sell them off in India,” VHP activist Rakesh Thakery told reporters. “They are trying to make this reach every house.”
Babubhai Patel, another activist, said: “We can’t tolerate this nonsense. Such images of gods and goddesses on undergarments is derogatory. This is an attack on our culture.”
The deities have also been spotted on products like toilet seat covers, boxes of tissues, shoes, sandals and finger puppets.
Last month Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court banned the import of bathing suits with images of Buddha after a monk saw bikinis bearing the symbol in an advertisement. Officials in predominantly Buddhist Thailand had also earlier criticized swimwear and sports shoes bearing Buddha’s image.
_ Joshua Newton
AME Church Forbids Clergy From Performing Same-Sex Ceremonies
(RNS) The African Methodist Episcopal Church has added disciplinary measures to its church law that declare that ministers cannot perform same-sex marriage ceremonies.
“No minister, whether itinerant or local, shall perform any marriage ceremony or permit to be held in any of our churches the marriage of persons of the same sex,” reads the new law adopted at the quadrennial General Conference that concluded Wednesday (July 7).
The legislation goes on to say that ministers charged with violating this rule will be referred to a judiciary committee and will be removed from the ministry if convicted.
Mike McKinney, a spokesman for the denomination, said the rule codifies a stance long held within the 2.5 million-member denomination. “It’s always been a position of the AME Church,” he said. “Now it’s an official law … of the AME Church.”
During the meeting, delegates elected eight new bishops, including two women and three Africans. The first AME woman bishop was elected in 2000.
The denomination faced criticism from one of its own ministers who dropped out of the race for bishop to express his dissatisfaction with it.
“As I began to move through the episcopal election process, I rediscovered the demonically dark side of African Methodism,” said the Rev. Frank M. Reid III, a Baltimore pastor, in a 24-page pamphlet titled “Up From Slavery” that sold out during the meeting.
“I discovered a religious bureaucracy that was selfish, bloated, self-serving and had little concern for the development of the local church, pastor and laypersons.” The Baltimore Sun carried a link to the booklet on its Web site.
McKinney said the bishops of the church are determining how to respond to Reid, who is pastor of Bethel AME Church in Baltimore. “The bishops of the church were surprised that Frank’s comments were so critical,” he said.
The new bishops were assigned to the following locations:
_ Bishop David R. Daniels, from Liberia, to the 14th Episcopal District, which includes Sierra Leone.
_ Bishop Samuel L. Green Sr., from Orlando, Fla., to the 15th Episcopal District, which includes South Africa.
_ Bishop Carolyn Tyler Guidry, from Los Angeles, to the 16th Episcopal District, which includes the Caribbean.
_ Bishop Paul J.M. Kawimbe, from Zambia, to the 17th Episcopal District, which includes Zambia.
_ Bishop Sarah Frances Davis, from San Antonio, to the 18th Episcopal District, which includes Botswana.
_ Bishop James L. Davis, from Atlanta, to the 19th Episcopal District, which includes southern Africa.
_ Bishop Wilfred Messiah, from South Africa, to the new 20th Episcopal District, which includes Tanzania.
_ Bishop Earl McCloud Jr., from Atlanta, is the denomination’s new ecumenical officer.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Greg Markey, radio station manager in Portland, Ore.
(RNS) “I don’t know anybody who’s unsympathetic to the victims. People want justice. We all want justice. Whether that justice involves huge financial settlements that bankrupts the church and benefits the lawyers, that’s another question.”
_ Greg Markey, manager of KBVM-FM, a lay-owned Catholic radio station in Portland, Ore., responding to the Archdiocese of Portland filing for bankruptcy. He was quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
KRE/PH END RNS
