c. 2005 Religion News Service

John Paul II’s Personal Secretary Refuses to Burn Papal Papers

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Archbishop Stanislao Dziwisz, Pope John Paul II’s long-serving personal secretary, has disregarded a request by the late pontiff that his correspondence be burned, raising the prospect that John Paul’s personal writings may eventually become public.

Dziwisz told Polish radio that the detailed papal correspondence should be left for posterity. The letters, he said, might be useful in the late pope’s beatification process.

Dziwisz explained that although John Paul left instructions in his will that his private correspondence be destroyed, it did not deserve to disappear, constituting “a major heritage, an enormous treasure, made up of brilliant texts of great variety.”

“Nothing has been burned,” Dziwisz said. “Nothing is fit for burning, everything should be preserved and kept for history, for the future generations, every single sentence.”

Dziwisz was appointed archbishop of Krakow, John Paul’s former archdiocese, Friday (June 3) by Pope Benedict XVI after serving as John Paul’s secretary for some 40 years. John Paul II died April 2 after a long battle against Parkinson’s disease and other ailments ended his 26-year pontificate.

Dziwisz also revealed that he had kept a personal diary from the first days of John Paul’s election to St. Peter’s throne in 1978. He said it contained no opinions on public figures and that he was prepared to make it available to “serious historians.”

Dziwisz told the Polish news agency PAP that he does not expect Benedict will make many foreign trips outside the Vatican but that the new pope has expressed his intention of visiting Krakow and Warsaw as a sign of respect to his predecessor’s homeland.

In a March 1979 entry to his testament, John Paul said he left no material property and asked that Dziwisz burn all his personal notes.

Last month, Benedict announced he was lifting a five-year waiting period to start the process to beatify John Paul, putting him on the path to sainthood.

_ John Phillips

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Receives $1.9 Million Grant

(RNS) A faith-based financial services organization has awarded nearly $2 million to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to start new congregations, fund diversity programs and support evangelism.

“We’re very grateful to Thrivent Financial for Lutherans for its generous gift to the ELCA churchwide organization,” said the Rev. Charles S. Miller, ELCA executive for administration and executive assistant to the presiding bishop.

ELCA, an umbrella organization with 10,657 congregations and more than 7 million members, received the $1.9 million grant from the Minneapolis-based Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a nonprofit financial group that provides services like life insurance, annuities and mutual funds.

“We’re very supportive of the Lutheran community and we’re interested in its health and vitality,” said Tim Schwan, vice president of church and community outreach. As a fraternal benefit society, Thrivent is exempt from some federal taxes and uses that money to provide assistance to Lutheran church groups.

In addition to the ELCA grant, Thrivent gave some $1.8 million to the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

“The gift … gives us the opportunity to try some innovative programs in evangelism and leadership development,” Miller said.

He said that although the grant is a small percentage of the organization’s annual revenue of $80 million, such contributions have been a vital part of its ministry for more than 15 years, enabling the churches involved to offer parishioners additional religious programs.

The ELCA will use $1 million of the current grant to start new congregations in the United States and reinvigorate those in decline. Another portion of the grant will go to large events like the Churchwide Assembly and triennial Youth Gathering.

Some of the funds will be used to create programs, Miller said, that “promote diversity as a gift from God.”

_ Helena Andrews

Methodists in Alabama Repent for Past Support of Segregation

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Alabama United Methodists made a symbolic gesture Monday (June 6) to demonstrate their repentance for past support of segregation in their state.

Bishop William Willimon, spiritual leader of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, led a walk to the steps of one of the denomination’s former landmark churches Monday for a service to repent of racial injustice and to pledge to be more inclusive.

Carrying a wooden staff, Willimon stood on the front steps of the former McCoy United Methodist Church, which closed in 1993. Hundreds of delegates to the annual meeting of United Methodists in north Alabama joined him in a walk to the church across the street from the college campus where they met.

In Birmingham in recent decades, dozens of predominantly white United Methodist churches have closed as neighborhoods surrounding them became predominantly black. The former McCoy campus now houses an older adult day care program and adult education programs.

Outside the former church, the Methodists recited a prayer of confession that included harsh self-analysis for a denomination that has seen decades of steady decline.

“We hereby repent of our sins as a church. Forgive our self-centered, defensive, cowardly ways,” the group recited aloud. “Forgive our willingness to close churches and our unwillingness to risk new churches.”

United Methodists are still the second largest denomination in Alabama, after Southern Baptists. But in north Alabama, they have declined from 178,118 at the end of 1983 to 155,683 at the end of 2004, an average loss of more than 1,000 members a year. In 2004, net membership fell 2,179, according to a statistical report issued by the conference.

“I think this is a turning point,” said Willimon, who became bishop for north Alabama United Methodists last year.

“It’s a powerful gesture,” said the Rev. Lawton Higgs, who was the last pastor of McCoy, serving 1984-93.

_ Greg Garrison

Editors: The following is similar to a Monday digest item, with the number of Qurans updated.

Muslim Group Says More Than 10,000 Free Qurans Distributed

(RNS) Thousands of Americans are lining up to read for themselves the book whose reported defilement last month touched off deadly anti-American protests in the Muslim world: the Holy Quran.

More than 10,000 individuals have requested a free Quran from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based civil rights and advocacy group. CAIR launched its “Explore the Quran” campaign May 17 in response to a news report, later retracted, that said interrogators of Muslim detainees had flushed a Quran down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“We’re trying to get Qurans into the hands of the American public because we believe that’s the best way to educate people about what Islam really stands for,” says CAIR spokesman and campaign coordinator Ibrahim Hooper. “Through our polling and our studies throughout the years, we’ve found that prejudice against Islam goes up when you have lack of information.”

CAIR had for years harbored hopes of being able to distribute free Qurans, Hooper says. Now that the holy book and its significance for Muslims have become front-page news, CAIR is urging potential donors to seize the opportunity to “give the gift of faith to your neighbor.”

Despite Newsweek magazine’s retraction of its Quran story, international protests have continued. Thousands marched last week (June 3) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Tanzania, for instance, in anti-American marches that cited how the Quran had been desecrated. The same day, the Pentagon confirmed five incidents of Quran mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay.

Meanwhile, CAIR has aimed to use the ongoing controversy as a teaching moment on the Quran’s sacred significance for Muslims. Recipients of the book receive a letter urging them to consider how Muslims show respect for the book. They never bring it into a bathroom, for instance, and always hold it with both hands “as one would a valuable piece of art.”

To order a Quran, call (800) 78-ISLAM or visit http://www.explorethequran.org.

_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald

New Catholic Church in Britain to Try Solar Energy

LONDON (RNS) In an experiment to create an environment-friendly sanctuary, a Catholic church being built at Walsingham is using alternative energy sources to try to reduce global warming.

On its roof will be photovoltaic cells to use solar energy to generate electricity. The underfloor heating will come from boreholes in the ground.

The church’s architect, Anthony Rossi, told the Eastern Daily Press, “The intention is to use renewable energy to both heat and light the building, because the protection of the environment is growing in importance and we should all make whatever contribution we can.”

Work on the new church began in April and should be completed by June 2006. It will replace the now demolished Church of the Annunciation _ a temporary building dating from 1950.

It will accommodate up to 150 worshippers. The Catholic parish itself numbers about 100, but there is a constant stream of visitors, and the church is next door to a hostel.

The cost of the new Catholic church is expected to be nearly $2.2 million, with a government grant paying about half the cost of the photovoltaic cells. A quarter of the cost of the entire project is covered by an interest-free loan.

_ Robert Nowell

Quote of the Day: Chinese seminary founder Su Xueling

(RNS) “Turn China into an aircraft carrier for spreading the Gospel.”

_ Printed on the back of business cards of Su Xueling, who started and funded a seminary with profits from her company, Gospel Foodstuffs Ltd. According to The Wall Street Journal, the card prompted the Chinese government to shut down both her company and the seminary.

MO/PH END RNS