c. 2005 Religion News Service

Ailing Pope Watches Holy Thursday Masses on Television

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Unable to preside over the Vatican’s Holy Thursday (March 24) Masses himself, an ailing Pope John Paul II watched them on television and sent written messages saying he was “spiritually” present.

The 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff, who was hospitalized twice last month and underwent surgery to ease severe breathing problems, obeyed doctors’ orders and remained in his private quarters in the Apostolic Palace.

The pope now breathes through a tube that surgeons inserted in his throat on Feb. 24. News reports said the pope’s Parkinson’s disease makes it difficult for him to swallow, forcing him to eat small, mainly liquid meals supplemented when necessary by a drip.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in an interview on Italian television that the pope’s illness has “never posed a problem for governing the Church.”

“The pope works in absolute lucidity,” Ratzinger said. “His mind is alive and there is a discernment that is possibly even stronger, the capacity to select the essential and to govern, suffering, with few but essential decisions.”

This was the first time in his reign of more than 26 years that the pope has not led Holy Week services, but John Paul said that he joined “ideally” in the two Masses celebrated Thursday (March 24) in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“From my apartment, through television, I am spiritually among you,” he said in a message to thousands of priests, bishops, archbishops and cardinals, who concelebrated the Chrism Mass on Thursday morning.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, presided in the pope’s name over the Mass at which the oils that will be used for liturgical anointings during the year were blessed and priests renewed the vows they made at their ordination.

“With you I give thanks to God for the gift and mystery of our priesthood,” John Paul said. “Together with you and the entire family of believers, I pray that we will never lack numerous and holy priests in the Church.”

Later Thursday, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, took the pope’s place at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and washed the feet of 12 priests, a traditional part of the service.

_ Peggy Polk

Methodist Official Calls for More Gun Control After School Shooting

(RNS) A United Methodist missions executive is renewing his denomination’s call for greater gun control after 10 people were killed in a shooting incident in Red Lake, Minn., on Monday (March 21).

The Rev. R. Randy Day, general secretary of the Methodists’ General Board of Global Ministries, urged fellow Methodists _ including President Bush _ and other Christians to join political and educational efforts to reduce gun violence.

“I … call upon President George W. Bush to step forward to lead a massive American campaign to control guns and end gun violence,” Day said in a statement. “Let him resist the powerful gun lobby in favor of programs of tightened sales restrictions and of `gun amnesty,’ or surrender, in return for tax credits. The time for righteous action for gun control is now!”

Day’s statement came after 16-year-old Jeff Weise allegedly shot and killed nine people, including students at Red Lake High School and his grandfather and a companion at his grandfather’s house. Weise apparently then turned the gun on himself.

“There are too many incidents like the one on March 21 to blame them solely on distraught individuals,” said Day in a statement. “The government and the electorate are greatly responsible for the failure to control guns, while schools, the media and perhaps even churches bear guilt for not speaking out forcefully enough against the glorification of guns and gun violence in entertainment and video games.”

Other religious leaders have responded to the incident with offers of prayers and counseling. Staffers of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota and Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota have offered support services, news services reported.

CharismaNow, an e-newsletter related to Charisma magazine, reported that Bruce Porter, a Littleton, Colo., pastor who ministered to survivors of the Columbine High School killings in 1999, planned to distribute his book, “The Martyr’s Torch: The Story of the Columbine Massacre,” in rural Minnesota.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Gospel Singer Amy Grant Heads to Reality TV

(RNS) Gospel music veteran Amy Grant plans to enter the realm of reality television by starring in a new NBC show called “Three Wishes.”

Grant, a five-time Grammy winner, will host the show that aims to make dreams come true for people ranging from an unsung hero to a family facing a life-threatening medical crisis, NBC said in a March 17 announcement. It will air as a special but also is considered a “backdoor pilot,” the network said.

“When I heard about this show, I was extremely moved by NBC and the production company’s concept to provide incredibly positive changes in the lives of different people,” Grant said in a statement.

“I’m so glad my name was thrown into the pot and I look forward to working with NBC Universal Television Studio and executive producer Andrew Glassman.”

Glassman is known for his production work on the first four seasons of NBC’s “Average Joe.”

“There’s an incredible diversity to the people we are going to meet and the heartwarming stories we are going to tell along the way,” Glassman said in a statement. “While our team is there to help, ultimately this show will be about people helping people make their wishes and dreams come true.”

Grant, who is scheduled to release her 20th album May 3, has been inducted into the Gospel Music Association’s hall of fame in Nashville, Tenn. She was the first contemporary Christian artist to have a gold album, a recording with sales of more than 500,000. Later albums had sales that far exceeded those numbers, with her “Heart in Motion” reaching quintuple platinum status, or more than 5 million sales.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Religious Leaders to Push Action on Hunger

WASHINGTON (RNS) More than 30 top Jewish, evangelical, Catholic, Buddhist and mainline Protestant leaders will push Congress and the White House this summer to end hunger in the United States.

Sponsored by Bread for the World, Call to Renewal and America’s Second Harvest, the first-ever Interfaith Convocation on Hunger will feature a joint prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral on June 6.

The convocation will be one of the broadest efforts among U.S. faith leaders to tackle hunger, and highlights one of the few issues that has been able to garner widespread support across the ideological spectrum.

“We are called as people of differing faiths to stand together in solidarity and commitment to change the national political will around eradicating hunger,” said the Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “As people of faith we must act and act now.”

The cathedral service will be the focal point of meetings held June 4-7. The main speaker at the convocation will be Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, the Anglican archbishop of South Africa.

Scheduled participants include Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington; leaders of Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism; member communions of the National Council of Churches; Quakers; the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; the Buddhist Vihara of Washington; and the Salvation Army, among others.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Quote of the Day: Georgetown University student Janessa Landeck

(RNS) “The living wages issue is a moral issue, and it’s a Catholic university. And in Holy Week, people are thinking about sacrifice.”

_ Janessa Landeck, a member of the student Living Wage Coalition at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., on why students are on a hunger strike to pressure the school to pay a “living wage” to service workers. She was quoted by The Washington Post.

KRE/PH END RNS