c. 2005 Religion News Service
Ailing Pope Will Give Traditional Easter Blessing
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Ailing Pope John Paul II will give his traditional Easter blessing to Rome and the world, the Vatican said Tuesday (March 8). It left open the possibility that he also will preside over a torch-lit Way of the Cross procession at the ancient Colosseum on Good Friday.
This will be the first time in his more than 26 years as pontiff that the 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff, who is presently hospitalized, has not led Holy Week and Easter celebrations. The Vatican said that six cardinals, including the American-born James Francis Stafford, will stand in for John Paul at Holy Week celebrations, starting with Palm Sunday on March 20 and culminating with Easter on March 27.
But following the Easter morning Mass in St. Peter’s Square, “the Holy Father will impart the `urbi et orbi’ blessing” to the city of Rome and the world, the Vatican said.
The schedule did not name a prelate to preside in the pope’s place over the 14 Stations of the Cross, recalling Christ’s trial, crucifixion and burial, at Rome’s Colosseum on the night of Good Friday. This could indicate that John Paul did not want to rule out his own presence.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Monday it was hoped that John Paul would be discharged by Holy Week from the Rome hospital where he is convalescing from surgery on his windpipe. He said the pope would decide how to participate in the ceremonies once he had returned to the Vatican.
On doctors’ advice, John Paul has not spoken in public since Feb. 24 when a tube was inserted into his trachea to ease severe breathing problems. It was the second time in a month that he had been admitted to Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic hospital with a breathing crisis caused by influenza.
In past years, the pope has delivered an Easter Sunday message surveying the state of the world, given his blessing and offered Easter greetings in some 60 languages to a global television audience.
If John Paul is unable to speak, the Easter blessing could follow the pattern of the Sunday prayers of the last two weeks with an aide reading the pope’s message and greetings, and John Paul giving a silent blessing.
_ Peggy Polk
Rally Planned to Try to Keep Brain-Damaged Woman Alive
(RNS) A dozen organizations concerned about the livelihood of a brain-damaged woman plan to rally in Florida Sunday (March 13) on her behalf.
The rally on the grounds of the state Capitol in Tallahassee will take place five days before a court order is set to go into effect that would remove the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo.
“This is both a life and death struggle for Terri Schiavo and a watershed fight for all disabled people,” said Gary Cass, executive director of the Center for Reclaiming America, an outreach of the Rev. D. James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“No just society can allow such cruel and inhumane treatment to take place _ especially on such a flimsy and ill-founded legal foundation.”
Other organizations involved in the event include the Christian Law Association, Christian Coalition, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Liberty Counsel and the National Right to Life Committee.
Rally organizers expect participants to hold some 1,000 long-stemmed roses bearing a note that reads “No food or water” before they are delivered the next day to Florida lawmakers. The note aims to symbolize the circumstance Schiavo will face if legislators don’t intervene.
In a separate but related development, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, welcomed the introduction of legislation on Capitol Hill that would clarify due process rights for incapacitated persons.
“The disabled deserve due process,” Perkins said in a statement about legislation introduced Tuesday (March 8). “In the United States we don’t execute people without due process, and we shouldn’t execute the incapacitated by starvation.”
Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., made a similar argument in a statement about his introduction of the House version of the Incapacitated Person’s Legal Protection Act.
“When a court is making a life or death decision for a disabled person who has been charged with no crime, shouldn’t they be afforded independent counsel to speak on their behalf?” he asked.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Says Moose Organization Unbiblical
(RNS) The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has announced that it continues to object to the practices of the Loyal Order of Moose, saying the fraternal organization compromises aspects of the Christian faith.
The St. Louis-based denomination released Friday (March 4) a new evaluation of the lodge by its Commission on Theology and Church Relations. It acknowledges that the fraternal organization “is engaged in many commendable humanitarian efforts” but questions the religious content of the organization’s activities.
“Regrettably, however, the rituals and ceremonies of the lodge continue to require and assume acceptance of religious truths that conflict with our Synod’s understanding of what is taught in the Holy Scriptures, and they do so in ways that compromise the Christian’s confession of the biblical gospel,” the six-page statement reads.
It notes that there are references to a Supreme Being in enrollment ceremonies when a new member is admitted to the organization and that Psalm 23 is read at a tribute service when someone dies.
“Nowhere does the ritual _ in spite of numerous religious references _ mention Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world,” the evaluation states.
Kurt Wehrmeister, director of publications for Moose International, said the Lutheran denomination has correctly noted the lack of references to Jesus.
“There is not a reference nor, in our view, would it be appropriate for there to be one, simply because we have members of the Jewish faith and we have members … of other faiths as well,” he said. “That would be unfair … for any leader of this organization to incorporate that into the ceremonies of this organization simply because that would not be allowing others the same freedom, if you will, to worship in their own way.”
Wehrmeister recalled that a former executive and the Protestant chaplain of the organization visited Missouri Synod officials about 15 years ago to discuss their differences and concluded they should “respectfully agree to disagree.”
The Moose organization includes about 1.4 million members in the United States, Canada and Britain, including about 950,000 men in the Loyal Order of Moose and 450,000 women in the Women of the Moose.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Israeli Airline Policy May Mean Seat Shortage During Passover
JERUSALEM (RNS) Thousands of people wishing to come to Israel for the Passover holiday, which begins April 23, may be unable to do so due to a lack of airline seats and exorbitant prices, according to Israel’s Ministry of Tourism.
The country’s tourist offices abroad have received “thousands” of complaints about the dearth of flights and high prices, the ministry said in a March 1 statement. Passover is traditionally considered a peak season in Israel, when hotels are almost fully booked with local and foreign Jews.
A ministry spokesman said in an interview that the “capacity crunch” stems from a long-standing Ministry of Transport policy that has permitted El Al _ until recently government-owned _ to dominate the Israeli market by alloting fewer flights to other airlines.
“The government’s policy continues to protect El Al, despite its recent privatization, which has limited competition between the airlines. This has created a major tourism crisis. It is time to implement an `Open Skies policy,” the spokesman said.
Tourism Ministry Director General Eli Cohen concurred that “planes from the U.S. are full during Passover, and the price of an El Al flight starts at $1,200.”
Abraham Hirchson, Israel’s minister of tourism, met last week with airline company heads in a bid to increase capacity on flights to Israel. The minister said that if the matter is not resolved with the airlines, he will “seek a solution at the government level.”
An El Al spokeswoman said in an interview that “like every year, El Al is the only company to add more flights in order to supply the demand of flight seats from the United States during Passover season.”
El Al has added 7,400 more seats this year compared to last year on flights from North America, she said. “Should there not be enough seats,” she said, “El Al will act in order to meet the demand.”
_ Michele Chabin
Editor Who Oversaw Off-color Jokes About Pope Quits Newspaper Job
(RNS) The editor of a New York newspaper that ran “The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope” quit his job Monday (March 7), according to Editor & Publisher.
Jeff Koyen told Gawker.com that he quit as editor of the New York Press rather than face an unpaid two-week suspension in which he was told to “think about what this paper should be.”
“The problem is, New York Press already is the paper it should be,” Koyen said in a statement posted on Gawker.com. “We are iconoclastic, occasionally obnoxious, but always intelligent.”
Last week the weekly paper was criticized by New York political and religious leaders for running the off-color jokes about Pope John Paul II’s declining health. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called the piece by writer Matt Taibbi “the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in 30 years of public life.”
The newspaper’s publisher, Chris Rohland, told Editor & Publisher that Koyen was suspended for printing a different article, a parody of the New York Post, that had been nixed. Rohland said the act amounted to “insubordination.” The publisher said he did not want to give his competition at the New York Post any free publicity.
In his parting shots, Koyen said his bosses could not withstand the criticism generated by the pope article. He called his publisher a “spineless alt-weekly weenie” and said owner David Unger is “similarly spineless.”
The pope article, which included items such as “No. 46: Beetles eating pope’s dead brains,” was approved by Rohland prior to publication.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Correction: This digest item corrects a typographical error in a digest item transmitted Monday (Selective Service official Dick Flahavan sted Flahavin)
Peace Churches Concerned About `Back Door’ Draft Among Poor, Minorities
(RNS) A coalition of historic “peace churches” says they were told that the Pentagon does not plan to reinstate a military draft, but they remain concerned about a “back door draft” that targets the poor and minorities.
Leaders of a dozen Mennonite, Quaker and Brethren churches that shun military service held a two-day meeting (March 4-5) outside Chicago to plan for “alternative service” programs for conscientious objectors should a draft be reinstated.
The meeting was prompted by an unannounced visit last October by a draft official to a Church of the Brethren facility in Maryland. Several churches were concerned the impromptu visit signaled that a draft may be imminent.
After the meeting, the churches said they will draw up plans to allow conscientious objectors to serve in two-year domestic service projects in lieu of military service. They also promised to urge members to “reject violence in all its forms.”
“We are called to a clear allegiance to Christ above all allegiances, and a recognition that it is only through Christ that we can show love to our enemies,” said a joint statement by the Church of the Brethren, U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, the Mennonite Church USA and the Conservative Mennonite Conference.
During the meeting, Selective Service official Dick Flahavan said “the administration’s position on the draft is quite simple: there isn’t going to be any,” according to a news release.
Despite those assurances, church leaders said they are concerned about “intensified, high-pressure military recruitments … where poverty and racism exclude our brothers and sisters from the opportunities that give life meaning and hope.”
The churches said they hope to provide alternatives to military service, as well as ways to shelter “undocumented church members” who may not want to serve in the military.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League
“To have available, year-in and year-out, this perverse, hateful, inaccurate version of the Passion which is totally out of sync with Christian thought and today’s theology is troubling.”
_ Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, reacting to Mel Gibson’s plans to re-release “The Passion of the Christ” this year and every year at Easter. He made his comments during an interview with Religion News Service.
MO/PH RNS END