c. 2005 Religion News Service Washington Cardinal Calls Schiavo Case a `Form of Euthanasia’ WASHINGTON (RNS) Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington said Monday (March 21) that the court-ordered removal of a feeding tube from a brain-damaged Florida woman is a “form of euthanasia” which the Catholic Church condemns as “gravely wrong.” McCarrick, the archbishop of Washington and the church’s unofficial liaison to the federal government, applauded the Congress and President Bush for an emergency law that will allow federal courts to review the case of Terri Schiavo after her feeding tube was removed on Friday (March 18). His remarks were among the strongest to date from Catholic Church officials, who have joined a nationwide fight to keep the brain-damaged Schiavo alive with the assistance of a feeding tube. McCarrick echoed last year’s warning from Pope John Paul II that patients in a permanent “vegetative state” still deserve proper care, including food and water. “But deliberately to remove them in order to hasten a patient’s death would be a form of euthanasia, which we believe is gravely wrong,” McCarrick told reporters. McCarrick conceded that life-giving treatment may be halted, and no longer “morally obligatory,” if it becomes “useless or unduly burdensome,” but he suggested that Schiavo’s treatments did not meet those criteria. If Schiavo were near death because of disease or injury, Catholic teaching would allow the tubes to be removed. But because Schiavo is otherwise healthy, church leaders say it is wrong to remove the feeding tube and cause her death by starvation. “It is now more clear than ever that this is the time to focus on human life, from its very beginning, in every stage and in every situation,” McCarrick said at a press conference opposing the death penalty. On Monday, the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, criticized the removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube. “Who can judge the dignity and sacredness of the life of a human being, made in the image and likeness of God? Who can decide to pull the plug as if we were talking about a broken or out of order household appliance?” the paper said. _ Kevin Eckstrom Report: Anti-Semitic Acts Nearly Double in France, Reach Record High PARIS (RNS) The number of racist and anti-Semitic acts committed in France nearly doubled in a year, a human rights group reported Monday (March 21). The government-affiliated National Consultative Human Rights Commission found some 1,565 attacks and slurs with a racist or anti-Semitic intent were reported in France in 2004 _ a record high. By contrast, only 833 such acts were recorded the previous year, according to the commission, which used French Interior Ministry statistics. Moreover, the attacks are becoming increasingly violent, the report said. Anti-Semitic attacks injured 36 people in 2004, compared to only 22 people the year before. Many of the attacks against France’s 600,000 Jews are blamed on disenfranchised French Muslim youths. But more than a third of France’s racist acts targeted members of the 6-million-strong Muslim community, and were largely perpetrated by far-right groups, the commission said. Muslims living in Corsica were particularly vulnerable _ indeed the number of acts against them jumped by a staggering 251 percent in 2004, compared to the previous year. Anti-Semitism and racism is rising across Europe, experts say. But the trend is perhaps most worrisome in France, home to Europe’s largest communities of Muslims and Jews. “We see that this wave, which at the beginning could appear as episodical, seems to have become a permanent structural feature of France _ and even of Europe,” said Roger Cukierman, head of CRIF, the representative council of Jewish institutions in France. The trend is leading to a situation in which “anti-Semitism and racism are becoming opinions, and not crimes,” Cukierman said, in a telephone interview. Anti-Semitism has been rising in France since 2000 _ mirroring the spike in Israeli-Palestinian clashes during that period. But the report noted that many of the recent incidents appeared to be less and less connected to the situation in the Middle East. In an interview Monday on France Info radio, French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin announced the government would continue its aggressive crackdown against racist acts. French Jewish leaders and anti-discrimination groups have praised the center-right government for its zero-tolerance policy on anti-Semitism and other forms of racism. But Cukierman suggested community leaders and municipal governments needed to do more. _ Elizabeth Bryant Pope, Still Recovering, Warns University Students on Perils of Music VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II warned university students Monday (March 21) to avoid music that does not “correspond to the truth of God’s design.” Calling music a language of art, John Paul said, in a statement read by an aide, “Art at times can be a vehicle for a conception of man, of love and of happiness that does not correspond to the truth of God’s design. It is necessary, therefore, to make a healthy judgment.” It was the second straight day that the ailing 84-year-old pope avoided any attempt to speak. Following the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, he gave a silent blessing from his study window, gesturing with an olive branch and his hand. But Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, told reporters earlier that John Paul was convalescing well from two hospitalizations and surgery last month for severe breathing problems and was capable of speaking clearly. On leaving the hospital March 13, the pope spoke one sentence to well-wishers, “Dear brothers and sisters, thank you for your visit.” “Above all, the doctors are optimistic, and that is a fine thing, a good sign,” the cardinal said Saturday at a Mass in Campobasso south of Rome. “Talking directly with the pope you understand him well.” John Paul did not appear in person or by video hookup from his private apartments at an audience Monday for students attending an annual gathering sponsored by the Opus Dei Prelature. His brief message was read to the 10,000 students in the Paul VI Audience Hall by Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, deputy secretary of state, who has acted as the pope’s voice with increasing frequency since his illness. _ Peggy Polk Apology Demanded After Catholic Bishop Refuses Funeral for Gay Man (RNS) Gay Catholic groups are demanding an apology from the bishop of San Diego after he refused to allow a church funeral for the owner of a gay dance club. Bishop Robert Brom said John McCusker, 31, could not be buried from a Catholic church because McCusker owned two gay bars where a pornographic video had been filmed. The San Diego Diocese said McCusker’s funeral was banned “in order to avoid public scandal” and because “of his business activities which were contrary to sacred Scripture and the moral teaching of the church.” McCusker died March 13 of apparent congestive heart failure. His standing-room-only funeral was held Friday (March 18) at an Episcopal church instead. “It is not the place of Bishop Robert Brom to publicly sit in judgment about either this young man’s family, or the young man himself,” said a statement from the Rainbow Sash movement. “Sound pastoral practices have been thrown out the window in the name of faithfulness.” Dignity USA, a gay Catholic group, accused Brom of abusing the powers of his office. “Funerals are for the repose of the soul of the departed, as well as for the comfort of those who are left behind,” said Jeffrey Montoya, a member of the Dignity board. “In this case, many are experiencing additional pain by this sad turn of events.” It is not the first time the church has refused burial rites to “manifest sinners.” Mobster John Gotti was refused a church funeral by New York Catholic leaders in 2002, as was mobster Paul Castellano, in 1985. Jimmy Akin, director of apologetics for the San Diego-based Catholic Answers, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the church “has a responsibility not to appear to put its blessing on objectively wrong public behavior and thus mislead the public about the moral character of that behavior.” _ Kevin Eckstrom UPDATE: Censured Seminary Leader to Leave Seminary Three Months Early

(RNS) A New Jersey seminary president who was reprimanded by school trustees for officiating at his daughter’s same-sex wedding last June will be replaced on March 28, three months before his contract expires, school officials have announced.

Trustees at The New Brunswick Theological Seminary, a Reformed Church in America institution that trains mainline Protestant clergy from numerous denominations, had previously said the Rev. Norman Kansfield would finish his term on June 30.

A trustee at the New Brunswick, N.J.. seminary, the Rev. Larry Williams, declined to characterize the latest move, made in early March, as a firing, saying it was unrelated to Kansfield’s role at the wedding.

The move was designed to help the Rev. Edwin Mulder, selected as interim president, better prepare for the role while the school is in full session rather than during the lightened summer schedule, Williams said.

“It has to do mostly with what seems like the best thing for the seminary for the next (academic) season,” Williams said.

Last June, Kansfield wrote trustees a letter about 10 days before his daughter Ann’s wedding to another woman. Kansfield said he would preside at the wedding, and that he was not asking trustees’ permission. The wedding occurred in Massachusetts shortly after that state began allowing same-sex marriages.

The Reformed Church in America, one of the more conservative denominations in the National Council of Churches, opposes gay marriage.

In January, trustees decided not to renew Kansfield’s contract beyond June, despite earlier talk of a possible extension. His role at his daughter’s wedding was one reason among several for that decision, Williams said, adding that the school also wanted to hire a younger president who would be able to see it through the next decade.

_ Jeff Diamant

Quote of the Day: Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Fla.

(RNS) “From the cross Jesus cried out, and his cry is echoed today by all those held captive to a world of pain and sin. As Terri (Schiavo) shares in his passion, she will share in his resurrection. Like Jesus did, Terri Schiavo cries out, though with muted voice: `I thirst!”’

_ Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Fla., writing in the Orlando Sentinel about the plight of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed by court order on March 18.

MO/JL END RNS