c. 2005 Religion News Service
Dates, Location Set for Graham’s New York City Crusade
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham’s “last New York City evangelistic crusade” will be held June 24-26 in Flushing Meadows Park, organizers announced Monday (April 18).
Original plans had called for the crusade to be held the week of June 20 at Madison Square Garden, but the location was changed due to the high number of churches expected to participate.
“I am delighted by the decision to move the crusade meetings to Flushing Meadows,” Graham said in a statement. “It is the site of two world’s fairs _ now the whole world is there. I’m told that the surrounding neighborhood is the most international community in the country, with 130 language groups within walking distance of the park.”
Organizers of the crusade said more than 1,000 churches are participating in pre-crusade preparations, prompting their decision to relocate to a large outdoor location.
“After good faith discussions with park officials, it became obvious that Flushing Meadows Park is the best option throughout the city to accommodate the anticipated crowds,” said Art Bailey, crusade director, in a statement.
The Rev. A.R. Bernard, crusade chair, agreed.
“Through this crusade we want to gather as many individuals as possible to hear Mr. Graham’s gospel message of hope and forgiveness, and to direct the local churches to follow up everyone who responds to his invitation to make a commitment to Christ,” Bernard, pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., said in a statement.
Graham held crusades last year in Kansas City, Mo., in October and in Pasadena, Calif., in November.
The New York crusade is expected to involve churches from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Catholic Bishops Name New Director of Abuse Prevention Office
WASHINGTON (RNS) A 29-year veteran of the Illinois State Police has been named the new director of an office designed to protect children in Catholic churches from abusive priests.
Teresa Kettelkamp was named Friday (April 15) as executive director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Since July 2003, she has worked with the bishops to ensure that U.S. dioceses have implemented abuse prevention policies that were adopted in 2002.
Kettelkamp succeeds Kathleen McChesney, the FBI’s former No. 3 official, who left the post in February to take a job as vice president for crisis management with the Walt Disney Company in Burbank, Calif.
“I’ll work tirelessly to continue to give victims a voice, to encourage them to come forward for healing, and to strengthen the protection mechanisms for children which were implemented” by the bishops, Kettelkamp said in a statement.
Kettelkamp has worked with the Boston-based Gavin Group on a series of audits that measured the church’s compliance with abuse reforms. In February, the Gavin Group’s second audit reported that 11,750 victims have made credible allegations against 5,148 clerics between 1950 and 2004.
She was a member of an auditing team that visited 16 dioceses to measure compliance in 2003 and 2004, according to a news release.
Kettelkamp was the first woman to attain the rank of colonel in the Illinois State Police. She oversaw the department’s forensic sciences division, as well as its internal affairs division and agents who investigated cases of missing and sexually exploited children.
“She is very intelligent, she is very professional, she is highly regarded in the state of Illinois by her law enforcement colleagues,” McChesney said in an interview.
Kettelkamp graduated in 1974 from Quincy College in Quincy, Ill., and lives in Springfield, Ill. She is the mother of two college-age children.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Another Catholic Communion Wafer Offered on eBay
(RNS) Less than a week after a Holy Communion wafer supposedly blessed by Pope John Paul II was auctioned on eBay, another wafer hit the online marketplace Sunday (April 17), with a starting bid of 100 British pounds, about $189.
The British seller of the newly listed wafer said in an online posting that she would sell the wafer, supposedly blessed by John Paul at a 1996 Mass, only to a “bona-fide purchaser who can show me proof of his intentions not to use this item for an ulterior purpose.” Bidding is scheduled to end April 27.
A Communion wafer supposedly blessed by John Paul was offered on eBay last week, and reportedly sold for $2,000, prompting outrage from Catholics, who believe a wafer consecrated by a priest becomes the actual body of Christ.
But the Associated Press quoted Monsignor Roger J. Augustine, administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux City, as saying he met with the seller, who has agreed not to follow through with the transaction. Augustine said he received the consecrated wafer, or host, and disposed of it according to the dictates of the Catholic Church.
Representatives for eBay were nor immediately available for comment, but Communion wafers are not on the site’s list of forbidden or prohibited items.
The Rev. Nicholas Gruner _ director of the Fatima Center in Fort Erie, Ontario _ is calling for Catholics to boycott eBay, based in San Jose, Calif.
“eBay is responsible for a public crime against religion,” said Gruner, who in the past has made an issue of what he sees as the improper use of Communion. “Catholics … should not use their services until the company apologizes and promises to never do it again.”
_ Shawna Gamache
Chief Rabbi says Viagra OK for Passover
JERUSALEM (RNS) Israel’s Sephardi chief rabbi has ruled that Viagra, used to treat erectile dysfunction, may be consumed during the Passover holiday, which begins Saturday night (April 23).
The Jerusalem Post reported that Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu issued the ruling in response to a question posed by Rabbi Menahem Burstein, a fertility expert who heads the Puah Institute for Fertility and Medicine.
Until now, most rabbinic authorities have banned the use of Viagra on Passover, on the grounds that its coating contains “hametz,” or leaven. Jews are prohibited from consuming any products made from leaven during the holiday, which celebrates the ancient Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.
Eliahu’s ruling said that men who need Viagra can consume it on Passover if they place the pills into specially made empty capsules made from kosher gelatin, thereby bypassing the pills’ hametz coating.
Religious Jews scrupulously avoid products containing hametz, including such items as shampoos and cosmetics. However, Jewish law permits the use of hametz-bearing medications for life-threatening conditions. Viagra does not meet this criteria.
Israel absorbs the costs of fertility treatments through the birth of the second child. More in-vitro fertilization treatments take place in Israel than in any other country.
The Post stated that “in Israel, a three-pill prescription for Viagra is issued every minute on average.”
_ Michele Chabin
Quote of the Day: Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson
(RNS) “I know, in the end, that I’m going to heaven, and so are you. You and I can do this work no matter how hard it gets, because we know we’re going home.”
_ Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson, speaking to Planned Parenthood’s annual prayer breakfast in Washington on Friday (April 15). He was quoted by The Washington Times.
MO/PH END RNS
