c. 2005 Religion News Service
Pope Unveils Digest of Church Teaching That He Prepared as a Cardinal
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday presented the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics with an authoritative digest of church teaching that he himself prepared before he was elected Roman Catholic pontiff.
Benedict called the 205-page “Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church” a “gift that God makes to the church” in its third millennium. He said it is intended to awaken a “renewed interest and fervor” in the Catholic faith.
The book, which contains 598 questions and answers two to six lines long, deals with the basic teachings of the faith _ how it is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed _ which is known as the catechism. It is illustrated with sacred art and concludes with prayers and doctrinal formulas.
Pope John Paul II in 2003 named Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as president of a special commission formed to distill the revised, 800-page “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” issued in 1992, into a handbook of basic teaching.
It was the job of Ratzinger, as prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to produce a “brief synthesis containing all and only the essential and fundamental elements of Catholic faith and morals, formulated in a simple manner, accessible to all, clear and concise,” he said.
Benedict formally presented the Italian version of the so-called compendium at a prayer service in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. Regional and national conferences of Catholic bishops throughout the world will translate the book into their own languages.
The compendium breaks no new ground but reiterates established church teaching on such issues as the need to defend human life from conception to natural death, the criteria for a “just war,” government obligations to the family, traditional sexual identity and the special nature of Sunday.
Benedict called it a “fundamental instrument of education in the faith.”
_ Peggy Polk
U.S. Christian Leaders Urge G-8 Summit to Address Global Poverty
(RNS) A delegation of Christian leaders from the United States has flown to London to urge leaders of wealthy nations attending July’s G-8 Summit to do more to defeat global poverty.
“It is not time for pilot projects and symbolic gestures, it is time for real substance,” said Jim Wallis, executive director of Sojourners, a progressive Christian group that has helped organize a London conference of religious leaders dedicated to fighting poverty. “What is lacking is the moral and political will.”
In London on Wednesday (June 29), 14 religious leaders from the United States will meet with British religious leaders, including Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury. The focus will be the G-8 Summit of world leaders, to be held July 4-6 in Gleneagles, Scotland.
The U.S. religious delegation met with White House officials Monday (June 27) and held a news conference in Washington before departing for London on Tuesday. Wallis said the group is seeking an additional $2 billion for African poverty relief in the 2006 federal budget.
Richard Stearns, president of World Vision United States, said Monday that the global epidemic of hunger and poverty is underreported in the news media while more sensational stories, like the recent disappearance of Natalie Halloway in Aruba, saturate TV news.
“On the same week Natalie Halloway disappeared, 29,000 other children disappeared. They died, more specifically,” Stearns said. “They died because the world looked the other way. The news media did not make this their number one priority _ it’s not news if it happens every day.”
“What we have lacked is a sense of moral outrage,” he said.
While religious leaders say they’re optimistic that their message will be heard, several acknowledged the potential difficulty of rallying politicians to increase foreign aid.
“Neither party has shown the kind of leadership we need,” Wallis said.
David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, urged President Bush to deliver on previous foreign aid programs increasing U.S. funds to fight poverty.
“We ask that he recommit himself to fight in Congress,” Beckmann said. “We want him to first say that he’s going to get his majority party in Congress to deliver on the promises he’s already made.”
_ Hugh S. Moore
Coptic Christian Group Targets `Islamization’ of Public Schools
(RNS) Concerned about “a clear attempt to engrave Islam in the minds of our children,” a Christian group is expanding distribution of a guidebook originally intended for Californians.
Since its first press run in December 2004, Coptic Christians of California has upon request distributed 5,000 copies of its 28-page booklet, “The Islamization of American Schools.” The booklet focuses on the situation in California, where a seventh-grade world history curriculum examines Islamic civilization, among others of the Middle Ages.
But readers in other states are increasingly ordering the booklet as well, according to author Abdullah Al-Araby. The booklet, which Muslims denounce as misleading, is now made available on the group’s Web site.
The Coptic Christian group alleges that children learn by emulating Islamic practices, such as kneeling to pray, donning traditional Islamic dress, receiving a Muslim name or chanting in Arabic. Such school practices amount to “indoctrination,” says Al-Araby, who says he writes under that pen name because he fears reprisal from angry Muslims.
“It seems a good idea to teach culture, but they have crossed a line” into promoting a religion, Al-Araby says. “It’s a one-sided version of Islam as a religion of peace … We have to make sure they give true history of Islam, not a polished or refined version.”
The California Copts’ tension with Muslims traces to Egypt, where Copts claim to have lived for generations under Muslim rule. In California, Coptic Christians drew headlines in 2003 when they rallied about 200 protesters outside Royal Oak Intermediate School in Covina. There they denounced one teacher’s alleged policy of awarding extra credit to students who fasted during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Muslims object to the guidebook.
It uses “lies” and “bigotry … to incite anger and hate against Muslims,” said Sabiha Kahn, spokeswoman for the Southern California Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“It’s laughable that they’re even suggesting that somehow Muslims are trying to indoctrinate students unknowingly,” Kahn says. “It’s really a big joke. I’m sure Americans are smart enough to read through their lies.”
The Coptic group said it is prepared to give away 5,000 copies through its Web site, islamreview.com to those willing to pay for shipping.
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
To Promote Ecology, Ministers `Bless’ Bicycles with Drips of WD-40 Oil
VANCOUVER, B.C. (RNS) Canadian Christian clergy promoted an ecologically responsible lifestyle by conducting a blessing-of-bicycles ritual in which WD-40 oil was dripped on bicycle chains and sunscreen on bicyclists’ noses.
Although the Friday (June 24) ceremony was light-hearted, the Anglican and Lutheran clergy who led it had a serious purpose _ to ask people to consider how the type of transportation they choose affects the environment.
“As Christians, we are called to be stewards of creation,” Paige Dampier, an Anglican organizer, said.
“Our personal actions _ like whether we drive, pedal, or take public transportation _ are linked to environmental justice.”
About 50 people stood with their bicycles on the steps of Christ Church (Anglican) Cathedral in downtown Vancouver to take part in the unusual ceremony.
Wearing helmets and rain gear, they rang their bells to celebrate the attempt to sanctify and promote cycling as an alternative form of transportation in Vancouver, which is already one of the more bicycle-friendly major cities in North America.
The Rev. Paul Borthistle, a priest in the Vancouver-area Anglican diocese, said: “The bicycle is symbolic of an ecologically responsible lifestyle, so when we’re blessing the bicycle, we’re acknowledging that cyclists have made a conscious choice to live in an ecologically responsible way.”
The ceremony included a moment of silence for cyclists who had been injured or killed.
The bike-blessing ritual coincided with the city of Vancouver officially designating June as Bike Month.
_ Douglas Todd
Quote of the Day: John W. Styll, of the Gospel Music Association
(RNS) “The gospel music community joins the rest of the music industry in thanking the Supreme Court for its thoughtful, and we believe, correct decision. … Today, gospel music artists and everyone making its livelihood in our industry rests easier, knowing that we can continue to create uplifting and edifying music knowing the highest court in our land has declared, `Thou shalt not steal.”’
_ John W. Styll, president of the Gospel Music Association, in a statement regarding the Monday (June 27) Supreme Court ruling in support of copyright protection.
MO/JL END RNS
