c. 2005 Religion News Service
Cardinal Says Ailing Pope Should Not Be `Counted Out’ Just Yet
(RNS) A leading American cardinal says Pope John Paul II should not be “counted out” despite his visibly declining health that forced him to miss Easter services for the first time in his 26-year papacy.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., said the pope has a strong will that will serve him well as he battles Parkinson’s disease and ongoing breathing problems that led doctors to insert a tube in his throat last month.
“I think, you know, how many times we’ve crossed the Holy Father off, how many times we’ve counted him out and he’s come back,” McCarrick told ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday (March 27). “He’s come back strong, he’s come back powerfully. His mind is an extraordinary mind. He’s a brilliant, brilliant man.”
John Paul, 84, was unable to preside at any Holy Week activities, but appeared for about 12 minutes at his apartment window on Easter Sunday to bless the crowds below. When he tried to speak, his voice was barely a whisper and he instead made the sign of the cross with his hands.
The Easter Mass was celebrated for 50,000 pilgrims instead by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state.
On Monday, the pope did not appear at his window as previously planned, despite chants and applause from the crowds in St. Peter’s Square. It was the first time the pope had missed the holiday that marks the end of Holy Week since he was elected pope in 1978.
McCarrick, 74, is one of 11 American prelates in the College of Cardinals who will have a vote in the election of the next pope after John Paul’s death. He refused to say what characteristics the next pope should have.
“There are 118 people in the world who cannot speculate on these things and you’re talking to one of them,” McCarrick told Stephanopoulos, referring to the College of Cardinals.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
`Catholics for Kerry’ Is Reborn as `Catholics for Faithful Citizenship’
WASHINGTON (RNS) A grass-roots Catholic group that supported former presidential candidate John Kerry says it now seeks to hold both Democrats and Republicans accountable to the Catholic Church’s social policy teaching.
Catholics for Faithful Citizenship emerged during last year’s presidential campaign as Catholics for Kerry ’04. Its president, Eric McFadden, said the group now counts 5,000 members nationwide.
McFadden said he hopes to apply pressure on both parties, but signaled in a recent letter to supporters that he aims to keep a special focus on President Bush and the GOP, whom he accused of pandering to Catholic voters.
“We are committed to spreading the word of the bishops’ public policy positions to clarify for Catholics how the Bush administration is betraying not only our faith, but those Catholics who supported him in the last election,” he said in an e-mail sent March 19.
Among McFadden’s top issues are health care, environmental protection, care for the poor, opposition to the death penalty and aid to Catholic schools. Like Kerry, he disagrees with the bishops’ opposition to abortion rights.
Bush won the Catholic vote, 52 percent to 47 percent, against Kerry, the first Catholic nominee in 44 years. Kerry clashed with several bishops throughout the campaign over his support for abortion rights.
McFadden accused Bush and conservatives of highlighting abortion as paramount while ignoring other church teaching against the death penalty and the Iraq war. He said neither the church nor politicians should focus on abortion while neglecting other issues.
“It’s a tough issue for Catholics,” McFadden, 42, said in an interview. “There’s a lot of Catholics who are pro-choice, there’s a lot who are pro-life. But to be pro-life is a seamless garment. To be pro-life is to not simply be against abortion.”
Ultimately, McFadden said he hopes to recruit members in every Catholic parish and establish a Catholic caucus in state Democratic parties. The Columbus, Ohio-based group has not yet incorporated as a tax-exempt nonprofit.
Ono Ekeh, a former employee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops who was fired for his work on a Catholics-for-Kerry Web site last year, is “loosely affiliated” with his group, McFadden said.
Recently, McFadden endorsed Bob Casey Jr., an anti-abortion Democrat, in his likely bid against Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., a staunch conservative Catholic. McFadden said Santorum, like Bush, highlights abortion but ignores other aspects of church teaching.
“That was a no-brainer,” McFadden said. “You look at everything else (Casey) stands for and he’s about the most perfect Catholic candidate you can get.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Religious Leaders Protest Gay Pride Parade Planned for Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (RNS) A group of Jewish and Christian leaders from Israel and the United States has launched a petition campaign to prevent a gay pride parade from taking place in Jerusalem this summer.
The International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride Parade is held every five years. The parade is slated to take place in downtown Jerusalem on Aug. 28. It was held in Rome in 2000.
The petition, which aims to gather 1 million signatures, is the brainchild of the Rev. Leo Giovinetti, senior pastor of Mission Valley Christian Fellowship in San Diego. The cause has also been taken up by the Rabbinical Alliance of America, which has 700 member rabbis, and several Orthodox Jewish Israeli parliamentarians.
During a March 16 Jerusalem press conference, Giovinetti asserted that “I have not come here because I have a hate for homosexuals.” He did, however, categorize homosexuality as “something historically believed to be a sin.”
Giovinetti said that the parade’s organizers have chosen Jerusalem as its host city “simply to make a point. It’s provocative. I’ve come because I’m being asked to forsake my religious views in the holiest of cities.”
Israeli Knesset member Benny Elon, who is Orthodox, said holding the parade here would be “a big mistake” because it would offend people of all faiths.
“This is the holy of holies,” Elon said of Jerusalem, which is sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims. “I think we have to remember Jerusalem’s uniqueness as a holy city and not be ashamed of it. The Bible gave us the moral justification for being here.”
Rabbi Yehuda Levin, director of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, also did not mince words.
“This parade constitutes a 10-day homosexual pornographic festival,” Levin said while photos of scantily dressed participants in the Rome parade were circulated to the assembled journalists.
Parade organizers said the religious protests won’t stop them.
“No one has a monopoly on the interpretation of the word of God _ and Jerusalem is the essential place to make a global statement for peace, democracy, pluralism and pride,” Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the Jerusalem Open House, told the newspaper Ha’aretz. “The first World Pride in 2000 was strongly opposed by the Vatican, and yet it not only took place in Rome, but also made an even stronger statement about God’s love for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation.”
_ Michele Chabin
Faith-Based Coalition Presses Drug Companies to Address Pediatric AIDS
(RNS) A coalition of faith-based organizations is urging pharmaceutical companies to acknowledge their moral responsibilities and make pediatric AIDS drugs more accessible.
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a New York City-based coalition of 275 religious institutional investors, is urging its members to file shareholder resolutions asking for more AIDS medications for children. The coalition wants resolutions to be voted on during upcoming annual shareholders’ meetings of companies that produce and distribute AIDS drugs.
“We are asking companies to focus on pediatric AIDS and fulfill their moral obligation,” said Dan Rosan, program officer of the coalition’s health care initiative.
“We were hearing from faith-based workers in the field it (pediatric AIDS) is becoming a problem.”
One of the coalition’s investors, the Washington-based U.S. Jesuit Conference, is the primary filer of a petition with Abbott Laboratories and Bristol-Myers Squibb, both drug companies. The conference, representing Jesuit priests, has workers in Africa and India working to fight AIDS.
A consultant to the conference, Sister Doris Gormley, said she hopes the petitions will prompt the companies to devote more money to researching pediatric AIDS drugs.
Many children suffering from AIDS in places like Africa and India do not have medications targeting children, and are dependent on crushing adult AIDS pills for treatment, according to Gormley.
“The reforms we seek are measured, appropriate responses to today’s global health care crisis,” said Gormley.
Rosan said ICCR is unsure exactly how many of its members are investors in pharmaceutical companies, or how much money the coalition as a whole has invested in the industry.
“I haven’t checked, but I would be shocked if they weren’t (invested in pharmaceutical companies),” Rosan said.
In addition to this initiative, ICCR has filed resolutions to drug companies requesting public disclosure of all political contributions made using corporate funds.
The resolutions are directed to Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Co., Merck, Pfizer and Wyeth.
The shareholders of the companies will vote during their annual meetings, which are scheduled throughout April and May.
_ Yogita Patel
Quote of the Day: Catholic pilgrim Cristiana Cojazzi
(RNS) “Even though he (the pope) couldn’t speak, it was a message that I heard inside me. It was not disappointing. It was as if the message was heard inside my heart.”
_ Cristiana Cojazzi, a pilgrim who attended Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, on the inability of the ailing Pope John Paul II to speak and bless the crowds. She was quoted by The New York Times.
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