c. 2005 Religion News Service Update: Georgia Priest Who Criticized A-bombs Will Lose His Pulpit
(RNS) A Catholic priest who caused a local stir by traveling to Japan to apologize for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is being removed from his church, according to an independent Catholic newspaper.
The Rev. Robert Cushing, associate pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Church in Augusta, Ga., will be transferred from the parish by the end of August by Bishop J. Kevin Boland of Savannah, according to the National Catholic Reporter.
Cushing flew to Japan to mark the 60th anniversaries of the U.S. bombings that ended World War II. He is scheduled to return Friday (Aug. 12).
Cushing called the war “unjust,” prompting a flurry of protest in his parish that played out in the pages of the local newspaper. The Rev. Thomas Payton, the pastor of the church, said Cushing’s remarks on the war were “the straw that broke the camel’s back” in the parish.
In a letter to Cushing, Boland said the priest had abused his position, according to National Catholic Reporter.
“You have a right to your opinions,” Boland said in a letter, “but you do not have the right to use the `pulpit’ in the symbolic sense to push your agenda. I consider that approach as a grave misuse of your ministry as a priest.”
The diocese, in a statement, wished Cushing “safe passage” to Japan but made it clear he was on a personal mission that did not carry the “endorsement” of the church. Boland, citing personnel matters, would not comment on Cushing’s future other than that he “is and remains” associate pastor at his parish for now.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Powerful Archbishop Agrees to Testify on Sex Abuse by Priests
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) Three days after being served with a subpoena before Mass, the Vatican’s most powerful American promised to testify about the Roman Catholic Church’s child sex-abuse policies and practices in Oregon.
William J. Levada, the archbishop of Portland from 1986 to 1995, had been scheduled to give sworn testimony Friday after being served with a subpoena Sunday before his farewell Mass in San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Cathedral.
But Levada _ who will soon become the Catholic Church’s worldwide watchdog of doctrine _ got a five-month extension Wednesday (Aug. 10) by signing a agreement negotiated by his lawyers and Erin K. Olson, a Portland plaintiffs’ attorney.
In the agreement, Levada said he would return to the United States from Rome to be deposed for one day in early January at his lawyer’s California office. He also agreed to be bound by the rulings of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris, who is overseeing the Archdiocese of Portland’s bankruptcy case in Oregon.
Olson originally proposed an agreement that called for Levada to waive any claim to diplomatic immunity he might make after starting his service at the Holy See. But Levada declined to sign the agreement, prompting Olson to send process servers to serve the archbishop with a subpoena Sunday.
The final negotiated agreement eliminated the reference to diplomatic immunity. But Levada agreed to Olson’s request that he make himself subject to federal and state laws of the United States.
“I was not comfortable with his desire to eliminate the diplomatic language,” Olson said. “I needed assurance that he was under U.S. jurisdiction.”
The archbishop reserved his right to challenge the scope of questions that plaintiffs’ lawyers intend to ask him. He also reserved his right not to answer questions that he considers privileged, subject to Perris’ consent.
“That scope issue is an issue to be resolved by the lawyers,” said Maurice Healy, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, where Levada is completing a 10-year term as archbishop on Wednesday (Aug. 17) before taking his new Vatican post.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys in Oregon decided months ago to question Levada to determine whether the Portland archdiocese engaged in a pattern of behavior that protected priests at the expense of children. But when Levada was named in May to the post formerly occupied by Pope Benedict XVI, Olson got Perris’ permission to pursue Levada’s deposition before he left the country.
_ Steve Woodward
Editors: The word “nature” in the 7th graph was italicized in its original text.
Appeals Court Rules `Under God’ in Pledge Is Constitutional
(RNS) A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that the recitation of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance by Virginia schoolchildren is constitutional.
“The Pledge, which is not a religious exercise, … does not amount to an establishment of religion,” wrote Judge Karen J. Williams in the Wednesday (Aug. 10) opinion of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Accordingly, the Recitation Statute, requiring daily, voluntary recitation of the Pledge in the classrooms of Virginia’s public schools, is constitutional.”
Edward Myers, a Loudoun County, Va., man affiliated with the Anabaptist-Mennonite faith, sued the Loudoun County Public Schools in 2002, claiming that the recitation of the pledge violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. He had two children in the district’s schools at the time and said he was concerned that the county was indoctrinating them with a “`God and Country’ religious worldview.”
He appealed when a lower court dismissed the case, saying the law requiring the Pledge recitation did not have a religious purpose.
Williams affirmed the lower court’s decision in her ruling, saying the pledge is a patriotic activity rather than a religious one.
“Undoubtedly the Pledge contains a religious phrase, and it is demeaning to persons of any faith to assert that the words `under God’ contain no religious significance,” she wrote. “The inclusion of those two words, however, does not alter the nature of the Pledge as a patriotic activity.”
Myers’ lawyer, David Remes, said Wednesday that he and his client had not yet decided whether to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Associated Press reported.
“The problem is that young schoolchildren are quite likely to view the Pledge as affirming the existence of God and national subordination to God,” Remes said. “The reference to God is one of the few things in the Pledge that children understand.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Leader of Russia’s Old Believers Dies During Cross-Bearing Procession
MOSCOW (RNS) The head of the Russian Orthodox Old Believers’ Church, Metropolitan Andrian, suffered a heart attack and died Wednesday (Aug. 10) during a traditional 150-mile cross-bearing procession in east-central Russia.
The church’s Council of Bishops on Thursday elected 79-year-old Archbishop Ioann of Yaroslavl and Kostroma to replace Andrian as leader of the church, which represents the largest grouping of Russia’s Old Believers, who split from mainstream Orthodoxy over liturgical reforms in the 17th century.
Experts estimate there are about 2 million Old Believers in Russia and the former Soviet Union, as well as sizable communities abroad, especially in Oregon, Alaska and the Canadian province of Alberta.
Andrian, 54, had previously suffered two heart attacks and had cardiac surgery, the Interfax news agency reported. He collapsed on the banks of the Gryadovitsa River in the Kirov Region while leading the procession, held annually to commemorate the appearance of the icon of St. Nicholas in the 14th century.
Andrian, elected as metropolitan only last year, had been praised as a young and energetic leader who brought a new spirit of openness to the church. His tenure saw the opening of a major exhibition of Old Believer artifacts at Russia’s Historical Museum and the establishment of stronger ties with the Kremlin and the Moscow Patriarchate.
“We share in the grief of the heavy loss … suffered (by) the leadership, clergy and laymen of the Russian Orthodox Old Believers’ Church,” Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II said in a statement Thursday (Aug. 11). “The metropolitan, despite the brevity of his services, worked fruitfully for the development of his flock and the strengthening of spiritual life.”
The schism between the Old Believers and the Russian Orthodox Church centered on Patriarch Nikon’s decision in 1652 to bring Russian rites into line with those of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Old Believers rebelled and stuck with the old rituals, using, for example, two fingers instead of three for making the sign of the cross. They were repressed for centuries in Czarist Russia and the Soviet Union _ prompting thousands to flee abroad _ but have been free to worship in Russia since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991.
_ Michael Mainville
Catholic TV Network Drops New York Priest Accused of Having Affair
(RNS) A worldwide Catholic TV network based in Alabama has decided to drop a show hosted by a priest accused of having a sexual relationship with a married woman.
Monsignor Eugene V. Clark has denied the accusations but resigned Thursday (Aug. 11) as pastor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
He has hosted a program called “Relationships” that has aired on Irondale-based EWTN since 1999.
Clark, 79, has been having an affair with his longtime personal secretary, Laura DeFilippo, 46, according to her husband, Philip DeFilippo. Several New York newspapers have printed accounts of Philip DeFilippo’s accusations in his divorce filing. DeFilippo, in his filings, says he has a videotape provided by a private detective showing the priest and DeFilippo’s wife at a Long Island hotel.
Scott Hults, a spokesman for EWTN, said Clark taped programs for the network in 1999 and 2000 and they have been airing as reruns since then.
Michael P. Warsaw, president of EWTN Global Catholic Network, previously issued a statement saying that the series would continue. But on Thursday he released a statement saying that, after further review of media reports regarding Clark, the program had been put on hiatus.
_ Greg Garrison
Falwell Says He Was Misunderstood, No Longer Using `Vote Christian’ Phrase
(RNS) The Rev. Jerry Falwell said his use of the words “Vote Christian” in a fund-raising letter was misunderstood and he has stopped using the phrase.
“What I was saying was for conservative Christian voters to vote their values, which are pro-life and pro-family,” he told The News & Advance in Lynchburg, Va., where his Thomas Road Baptist Church is located.
His comments followed criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, which called his use of the phrase “divisive and un-American” and urged him to retract it.
“Rev. Falwell’s recent statements are directly at odds with the American ideal and should be rejected,” said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the New York-based Jewish organization, in a Monday (Aug. 8) statement.
“Understanding the danger of combining religion and politics, our founding fathers wisely created a political system based on individual merit and religious inclusiveness.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Conservatives Blast `Arrogant’ Court at Justice Sunday II
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) Conservative religious and political leaders on Sunday (Aug. 14) dismissed charges that they are trying to legislate their religious beliefs, arguing instead God commands them to speak out against a Supreme Court that they say is at odds with most Americans’ morals.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, joined Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and others at Two Rivers Baptist Church to affirm their support for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts at “Justice Sunday II.”
Sunday’s event _ the first “Justice Sunday” was held in Louisville last April _ drew more than 2,000 people and was broadcast across the country to churches and on TV, the radio and the Internet. Organizers at the Family Research Council said the broadcast reached 79 million households in all 50 states.
Speakers also included former Georgia Sen. Zell Miller; Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries; Bill Donohue of the New York-based Catholic League; and Ted Haggard of the National Association of Evangelicals.
From a pulpit in front of a cross flanked by two American flags, speakers lamented Supreme Court decisions such as June’s split ruling on government displays of the Ten Commandments.
Dobson, appearing via video, delivered a scathing depiction of a court system that he said is “unaccountable, unelected and often arrogant.” He said Supreme Court rulings are more influenced by Western European ideas of secularism than by American moral values.
“The American court system is tearing at the very fabric of our nation,” he said.
Justice Sunday II came weeks before the Sept. 6 start of confirmation hearings for Roberts’ seat on the court. Speakers at Justice Sunday II, warning that more change could come as the court takes up issues such as abortion and gay marriage, urged churchgoers to rally friends and fellow parishioners, lobby elected leaders and pray.
Critics, from the National Council of Churches and Interfaith Alliance, denounced the event for blurring the separation of church and state. Organized protests were held Sunday, with some two dozen protesters lined up outside the church with signs denouncing “Hypocrisy Sunday.”
_ Amy Green
Catholic Leader Agrees to Call for Greater Unity with Lutherans
ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS) A leading Roman Catholic bishop said Friday (Aug. 12) that he will take up a Lutheran call for greater unity, as well as an idea for a global summit on how Christian churches can combat fundamentalism.
Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, Calif., told delegates at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s national assembly that it was “very painful” not to be able to share Communion with Lutherans during a worship service here.
“Not only is Communion in our Catholic theology a sign of achieving full communion, but it is also a means of arriving at communion, and we need to explore that,” said Blaire, who chairs the ecumenical affairs committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In 2017, Lutherans will mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation that severed ties with Rome. Blaire said a call from ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson for a joint Lutheran-Catholic statement on the Eucharist to mark the anniversary is “very worthy of consideration.”
Currently, Catholics do not allow Protestants to partake of the sacrament because of differing theologies. However, the two sides have made progress on other issues, such as a joint 1999 statement on the nature of salvation.
Blaire said he would also take up Hanson’s recent call for Anglicans, Orthodox, Lutherans and Catholics to combat fundamentalism that Hanson said had prompted an “identity crisis” in the world’s churches.
“(This) is crucial for the mission of the church and certainly should be at the top of our ecumenical endeavors,” Blaire told delegates, to a round of applause.
The ELCA delegates also heard from the Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, president of the more conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Relations between the two churches have been frosty, but have shown signs of warming in recent years.
“We humbly and respectfully pray that we will be able to come to harmonious conclusions regarding the authority and interpretation of the Word of God, so that the distance between us will not be widened, but will be bridged,” Kieschnick said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Salman Rushdie Calls for `Muslim Reformation’
LONDON (RNS) Salman Rushdie, the Muslim novelist whose 1988 book, “The Satanic Verses,” prompted Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini to call for his death, has urged for a Muslim Reformation that would expose the Quran and Islam to scholarly analysis.
In an article in The Times of London (Aug 11), Rushdie said the “closed communities of some traditional Western Muslims” foster terrorism among alienated young men _ as exemplified in the July 7 London bombings.
“What is needed is a move beyond tradition,” he wrote, “nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadi ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows of the closed communities to let in much needed fresh air.”
Rushdie said a reform movement would require a new educational impetus, with new scholarship that replaces the literalism and narrow dogmatism that plague present day Muslim thinking.
What’s more, Rushdie said it is time for the dawn of Islam to be viewed “as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it.” Viewing the Quran _ the Muslim holy book _ as soley the “infallible, uncreated word of God” makes scholarly analysis “all but impossible,” he said.
“If, however, the Koran were seen as a historical document, then it would be legitimate to re-interpret it to suit the new conditions of successive new ages,” he said.
“Laws made in the seventh century could finally give way to the needs of the twenty-first. The Islamic Reformation has to begin here, with an acceptance that all ideas, even sacred ones, must adapt to altered realities.”
_ Robert Nowell
Orthodox Leader to Visit U.S. Next January
(RNS) The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, will make a pastoral visit to the United States early next year, church officials announced.
Bartholomew, of Istanbul, will celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany in Tarpon Springs, Fla., during his Jan. 4-8 visit. He will also visit the Holy Trinity Cathedral in New Orleans.
The Feast of the Epiphany in the Orthodox Church commemorates Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River. The Tarpon Springs service is one of the country’s largest. After a priest blesses the water, scores of young men dive into the water to recover a cross from the depths.
The Greek Orthodox cathedral outside Tampa is celebrating its 100th anniversary, as well as the 100th anniversary of the local Epiphany rites.
Bartholomew last visited the United States in 2004. As ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew leads the world’s 250 million Orthodox Christians and is considered the first among equals of the Orthodox hierarchs.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Week: Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of Dallas megachurch
(RNS) “As we continue to try to politicize God, or market God, or say that America is Christian, or that God is with one (political) party, or that God is here and not there, it only further points to the fact that we don’t understand how big God is _ and how great God is.”
_ Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of the Potter’s House in Dallas, speaking at a plenary session of the National Association of Black Journalists on Aug. 5. He was quoted by USA Today.
END RNS
