c. 2004 Religion News Service
Cardinal Says Abortion and Social Justice Are Not `Competing Causes’
WASHINGTON (RNS) Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who has overseen the Catholic Church’s relationship with dissenting politicians, says opposition to abortion and support of social justice cannot be “competing causes” in the church’s political life.
McCarrick, chairman of a task force on the church’s relationship with politicians, spoke two weeks after an election in which conservative and progressive Catholics competed to highlight opposition to abortion and the church’s extensive teaching on social concerns as paramount.
“The treatment of `the least of these’ beginning with unborn children and including all those who suffer in our nation and our world are at the heart of our mission in public life,” McCarrick said in a written report given to bishops Wednesday (Nov. 17) at their annual meeting here.
President Bush, a Methodist, narrowly won the Catholic vote in his successful bid for a second term, but having a liberal Catholic heading the Democratic ticket sparked a fierce political debate about how Catholic values should play out in the public square.
McCarrick, seeking a middle ground, said the church’s social teaching must not be pigeon-holed as either liberal or conservative, and should never be partisan.
“I look around the room and see bishops who have been unfairly attacked as partisan, others who have been called cowards,” McCarrick said. “Some have been accused of being `single issue,’ indifferent to the poor or unconcerned about war. Others have been called unconcerned about the destruction of unborn human life but preoccupied by war. That is not who we are.”
McCarrick, who often serves as an informal church liaison to the nation’s capital, said the work of his committee will continue well beyond the election. The bishops’ doctrine committee will take up the issue of when _ or if _ bishops should deny Communion to any Catholic who dissents from church teaching.
“We do not believe our commitment to human life and dignity and our pursuit of justice and peace are competing causes,” said McCarrick, noting that the bishops “do not believe all issues have equal moral claims.”
Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., the bishops’ new president, said the church will not abandon political questions just because the election is over. “That’s going to be an ongoing discussion and a pastoral situation that we bishops need to continue to address,” he said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Graham, 86, Preaches Every Sermon As If It’s His Last, Son Says
(RNS) In Pasadena, Calif., for yet another evangelistic crusade, 86-year-old Billy Graham says he feels his age but isn’t about to stop preaching the Gospel.
Graham’s son Franklin, who now runs the day-to-day operations of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said his father now preaches every sermon as if it might be his last.
The famous evangelist began a four-day crusade Thursday at the Rose Bowl and is scheduled to hold another crusade in June in New York.
Graham’s health has been poor in the past year. He suffers from Parkinson’s disease and spent almost the entire year in bed after breaking his hip and pelvis in two separate incidents. He uses a walker to get from place to place, and will preach this week from a specially designed podium that allows him to sit down if necessary.
When asked how he’s feeling, Graham laughs and says: “I’m 86, and that’s all I need to say. I’m 86.”
Graham said his health problems and aging do not make him reflect on his life or death. He said he already thought about his mortality when he committed his life to Jesus Christ in 1934, when he was 16.
“I’m ready to go. I’m happy to go. I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
Graham said that although he misses his wife, Ruth Bell Graham, who was unable to make the trip to Pasadena due to health reasons, he feels God called him to come to California one more time.
In his 55 years of ministry, Graham has preached in person to more than 210 million people. He has led hundreds of thousands of people to commit their lives to Christ. It’s estimated that more than 300,000 people will attend the four days of events at the Rose Bowl.
_ Marshall Allen
African Church Leader Warns Ivory Coast Violence Could Spread
(RNS) The Rev. Mvume Dandala, general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, has warned that the violence in the Ivory Coast could spread to other parts of Africa.
Dandala made his comments as the United Nations Security Council on Monday (Nov. 15) imposed an immediate arms embargo on the African nation’s government in the wake of its violent confrontation with France, the country’s former colonial ruler.
Dandala urged African and other world leaders to continue efforts to secure peace, especially in Liberia and Sierre Leone, conflict-ridden neighbors of Ivory Coast.
“This is a commitment that other African countries and the international community should seize and hold on to very firmly,” he said in a Monday statement.
The violence broke out Nov. 6 when the government ended an 18-month cease-fire and launched airstrikes on rebels in the northern part of the country. Nine French peacekeepers were killed in the attack.
In retaliation, France destroyed much of the Ivory Coast air force, triggering protests and anti-Western violence.
France then began airlifting 5,000 Westerners from the country _ one of the largest such airlifts in post-independence Africa. The airlifts were completed and suspended on Monday, according to news reports.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said some 10,000 African nationals have fled to other countries to avoid the violence.
“The attack on the rebels was ill-timed,” the Rev. Arnold Temple, the All Africa Conference’s executive secretary for ecumenical relations, told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news service. “But it came out of the government’s frustration” in attempts to reach an accord with the northern rebels.
The U.N. resolution also said further sanctions, including a travel ban and an asset freeze, could be imposed if the peace process with the rebels isn’t resumed within a month.
Separately, the United Nations’ special adviser on genocide has warned that anti-Western “hate speech” directed at Westerners is worsening and could lead heighten the violence.
“The current crisis has deepened sentiments of xenophobia and could exacerbate already worrisome and widespread violations of human rights, which in the recent past have included extra-judicial killings, torture, arbitrary detention, disappearance and sexual violence,” Juan E. Mendez, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s special adviser on genocide, said in a statement Monday.
He suggested possibly increasing the number of international peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, adding that Ivorian authorities had the responsibility to end public expressions of racial or religious hatred and that if they failed to do so, incidents could be referred to the International Criminal Court.
_ David E. Anderson
Pope to Actor: `You Are Crazy to Make a Film About Me’
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Introduced to the Polish actor who will play him in a made-for-television film about his life before he was elected to lead the world’s 1 billion Catholics, Pope John Paul II appeared surprised.
“You are crazy to make a film about me. But what have I ever done?” he asked.
The actor, Piotr Adamczyk, told the Italian television guide Sorrisi e Canzoni (Smiles and Songs) he was left momentarily speechless and felt as though he were 6 years old again, seeing John Paul on his first trip back to Poland as pope in 1979.
“I laughed and I only managed to say to him: `I am very happy. I am truly happy,”’ Adamczyk recalled.
Adamczyk will star in the $13 million film “Karol Wojtyla: Story of a Man Who Became Pope,” which will be shown on Italian television in the spring. The Italian production is directed by Giacomo Battiato and co-stars Raoul Bova, Ennio Fantastichini and Violante Placido.
Adamczyk, 31, had his brief encounter with the 84-year-old John Paul, himself an actor and playwright in his youth, after a general audience. He said that faced with the pope in person, “for the first time in my life I forgot my lines.”
_ Peggy Polk
Quote of the Day: Asim Ghafoor of the Friends of Charities Association
(RNS) “Mrs. Hassan answered the call of the Iraqi people and has given selflessly for over three decades. To kidnap her and use her as a political pawn is not only the worst possible crime but also a grave violation of Islamic principles.”
_ Asim Ghafoor, attorney for the Friends of Charities Association, a network of Muslim charities, reacting to the apparent murder of Margaret Hassan, president of CARE International in Iraq, who was abducted Oct. 19.
MO/PH END RNS
