c. 2004 Religion News Service
Pope Decries Lost Sense of Sin, Will Travel to Marian Shrine
(UNDATED) Calling a pilgrimage to the site where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared “a special gift of providence,” Pope John Paul II said Wednesday he will pray there for modern mankind, which has “lost the sense of sin.”
Addressing some 3,500 people attending his weekly general audience in the courtyard of his summer residence at Castelgandolfo, south of Rome, John Paul said that he was traveling to Lourdes, in France, on Saturday (Aug. 14). There he will mark the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception, which says that the mother of Jesus was free from original sin from birth.
The pope said that it was four years after Pope Pius X’s 1854 proclamation that St. Bernadette had her vision of the Virgin Mary, who described herself to the young Bernadette as the “Immaculate Conception.” The site where that vision is said to have taken place, the cave of Massabielle at Lourdes, is now considered one of the world’s most important Marian shrines.
“Therefore I consider the possibility of returning to Lourdes to mark this luminous truth of faith a special gift of providence,” the ailing 84-year-old pontiff said. He asked prayers that his pilgrimage be fruitful “for the entire people of God.”
John Paul made his first pilgrimage to the shrine Aug. 14-15, 1983, after recovering from the bullet wounds he suffered in an attempt on his life in 1981. Aug. 15 is the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
The pope said that Mary’s message to Bernadette was that salvation comes from “prayer and penitence.” Man, he said, must “listen to the voice of conscience” where God has placed “the sense of good and of evil.”
“Modern man, unfortunately, shows at times the loss in some way of the sense of sin,” the pope said. “It is necessary to implore for him an interior reawakening that will allow him to rediscover in full the sanctity of the laws of God and the moral commitments derived from it.”
_ Peggy Polk
Nuns Decline Abuse Victims’ Request to Speak at Conference
(RNS) A national group of Catholic nuns has decided not to allow a group of sexual abuse victims to address their Aug. 19-22 national conference in Fort Worth, Texas.
Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) wanted to address members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella group that represents the leaders of nearly 70,000 U.S. Catholic sisters.
“We did not believe that the assembly offered an environment conducive for listening and dialogue,” Sister Constance Phelps, president of the nuns’ group, said in an Aug. 5 statement.
Last month, SNAP members staged a small demonstration outside the sisters’ headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., to deliver a request to speak, in hopes of crafting policies to aid victims and prevent future abuse.
Phelps said she regretted “the vehicle with which they chose to initiate communication” with the nuns. Instead, Phelps said the nuns’ top leaders were willing to meet with SNAP members privately outside their Fort Worth conference.
“Our commitment to meeting with SNAP is sincere, and we hope to have a productive discussion focused on critical issues relevant to supporting survivors and preventing further sexual abuse,” Phelps said.
The nuns’ joint assembly will be held in conjunction with the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the leadership group for male religious orders.
David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director, said about 100 members of his group were abused by nuns, and they feel “especially isolated and ignored” in the two-year sex abuse scandal that has consumed the church.
“It’s terribly, terribly disappointing,” Clohessy said. “We had really hoped that (the nuns) would have learned from the mistakes made by bishops and would have chosen a different course.”
Clohessy said SNAP members would go to Fort Worth anyway and try to deliver messages to the nuns gathered there.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Judge Orders Removal of Bible Displayed Outside Courthouse
(RNS) A district judge has ordered a Texas county to remove a Bible from a monument outside a courthouse, saying it is unconstitutional.
Federal Judge Sim Lake in Houston said the Harris County display at its civil courts building violates the constitutional separation between church and state, the Associated Press reported.
The county should be exercising religious neutrality and “not be seen as endorsing Christianity,” Sim said Tuesday (Aug. 10).
He ordered officials to remove the holy book within 10 days.
“The court concludes that the purpose of the Bible display is to encourage people to read the Bible,” he wrote. “What other purpose could there be for prominently displaying an open Bible in an illuminated case tilted toward passersby in a heavily frequented plaza in front of the main entrance to the courthouse?”
The county argued that the display was created as a private expression of free speech and that the county should not be held responsible for its contents. The Bible was purchased with private donations.
Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said he and the county attorney are reviewing the decision to develop strategies for an appeal.
Lawyer and real estate broker Kay Staley sued the county last August.
“It is just a wonderful day for religious freedom and religious diversity,” she said of the ruling.
President of Rochester, N.Y., Divinity School to Retire
(RNS) The president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y., has announced his plans to retire.
The Rev. G. Thomas Halbrooks, 64, will retire effective July 1, 2005, the American Baptist News Service reported.
Under Halbrooks’ leadership, the school affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA has adopted a five-year strategic plan that aims to move it toward greater financial stability and growth by the year 2009. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported in May that the school’s deficit reached close to $700,000 in the most recent academic year.
In a statement, Halbrooks said the timing of his retirement will permit a new president to be involved in the early aspects of the plan and see it through to completion.
“President Halbrooks has led this institution through one of the most tumultuous periods in our history,” said trustee board chairman Nancy Abrams Gaess in a statement. “We have benefited greatly from his inspirational vision, his outstanding knowledge and skill, and his wise, steadfast and graceful guidance throughout a challenging time.”
Halbrooks previously served as dean of faculty at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (Va.) and as a professor of church history at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Islamic Bank Given Approval in Britain
LONDON (RNS) Britain’s first bank run entirely with Islamic principles is scheduled to open in September.
The Financial Services Authority, a watchdog agency, has given approval (Aug. 9) to the Islamic Bank of Britain, which will open its first branch in London and then expand to other locations in England.
Although mortgages and other banking services complying with Islamic shari’a law have been available for some time from British commercial banks, this will be the first British bank wholly run in accordance with Islamic principles.
The bank promises not to do any business dealing with alcohol, tobacco or pornography, all forbidden by Islam. The bank is designed to conform to the Islamic principle that sees money not as a commodity but as a measure of value to be used to fulfill the needs of society.
The most notable restriction is on receiving or charging interest. While holders of current accounts can be given debit cards, they will not be allowed credit cards on which interest is payable on outstanding balances.
Similarly, while customers cannot be paid interest on the balance in their accounts, neither can they be charged interest if they go into the red, though the bank will levy a management charge.
Mortgages and other loans to buy property are also handled differently. Under an Islamic mortgage, the bank buys the property and leases it to the customer for an agreed term during which the customer pays rent and installments of the purchase price. At the end of the period the bank transfers the property to the customer.
The Islamic Bank of Britain has been enthusiastically welcomed by the Muslim Council of Britain, which called its arrival a watershed.
The chairman of the council’s business and economics committee, Iqbal Asaria, said the bank “comes at the end of a unique partnership between the Muslim community and the regulatory authorities” in Britain. He said “many misconceptions about Islamic banking and finance” had to be overcome.
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: U2 Fan and New Jersey Minister Raewynne Whiteley
(RNS) “I only use pop music two or three times a year in a sermon. I don’t want to artificially stick it in my sermons. Otherwise my parishioners get very bored, especially because they all probably aren’t U2 fans.”
_ Rev. Raewynne Whiteley of Trinity Church in Swedesboro, N.J., one of a group of clergy who have compiled a collection of sermons based on lyrics of the Irish rock group U2. She was quoted by The Washington Times.
MO/PH END RNS
