c. 2005 Religion News Service

Catholics Urged to Limit Local Customs at Mass

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Bishops and Vatican officials advising Pope Benedict XVI at a worldwide assembly urged Catholics on Thursday (Oct. 13) to limit the use of local customs at Mass.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, who heads the Vatican’s department on sacraments,told a press conference that inculturation, or the practice of adapting sections of the Mass to local custom, was often subject to exaggeration.

“Some think: `You Africans are always dancing, so let’s dance,” said Arinze, who is originally from Nigeria. “We don’t want a Mass that is half devotional and half recreational.”

The Relatio Post Desceptationem, a review of the bishops’ assembly, called a synod, was released Thursday. It noted concern among the bishops that the Mass has undergone “misunderstandings and abuses” since the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

“Nevertheless,” he wrote, “these episodes can’t obscure the value of the reform.”

Prior to the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Mass was celebrated primarily in Latin. Priests faced East, with their backs to the congregation, when they consecrated the Eucharist.

Asked if the synod had expressed any support for expanding the use of the pre-Vatican II Mass, known as the Tridentine Mass, Arinze said: “It’s not a priority at the synod, because it hasn’t come up. What comes up is the fact that many people don’t come to Mass and those who come don’t understand it.”

Some synod participants have argued that loosening the liturgical norms of Mass will make it more accessible to an increasingly global church.

“Solemnity and sacredness can be expressed not only in plain chant and the organ, but also the gong, the xylophone, and the tam-tam,” Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, said on Monday (Oct. 10).

Joining Arinze at the press conference was Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara, Mexico, who gave his cautious support to adapting parts of the Mass.

“Having the flavor of the local people is good as long as it leads to interiorization and not amusement.”

Under the late John Paul II, folk music and dance were regularly featured at high-profile papal Masses, such as World Youth Day.

_ Stacy Meichtry

Episcopal Church Will be Asked to Apologize in 2006 for Slavery

(RNS) The Episcopal Church will be asked to apologize next year for its “complicity” in slavery, and could be asked whether economic “benefits” _ what many call reparations _ should be shared with black Episcopalians.

A resolution approved Monday (Oct. 10) by the church’s Executive Council would ask the church’s General Convention to express “profound regret” for its support of slavery, which was partially rationalized using Scripture.

The resolution calls on the church to “apologize for its complicity in and the injury done by the institution of slavery and its aftermath” and urge the church to mark a “Day of Repentance and Reconciliation.”

Many of the country’s founders were prominent Episcopalians and slave owners, including George Washington.

Some churches have already apologized for their role in condoning slavery. In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention issued a mea culpa that also bemoaned its opposition to the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Slavery and the Civil War split many churches into northern and southern branches, including Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians, while the Episcopal Church managed to stay intact.

John Vanderstar, a member of the council, said “it seemed time to quit cutting bait and start fishing” after several church statements that opposed racism but never addressed slavery directly, according to Episcopal News Service.

A similar resolution would investigate whether the church profited from slavery and explore ways the church could “share those benefits” with black members.

Those benefits “would essentially be reparations, although some do not want to use that word,” the Rev. Kwasi Thornell said. The church’s presiding bishop, Frank Griswold, said the move could be “costly … in terms of our immediate resources.”

The Rev. Jan Nunley, a church spokeswoman, said it is unclear what those “benefits” would look like. However, she said some people question whether wealthy 19th century parishioners contributed “tainted money” to the church that had been gained through the slave trade.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Religious and Pro-Business Conservatives to Battle in Alabama Primary

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (RNS) With the “Ten Commandments judge” as a candidate, the Republican gubernatorial primary in Alabama is pitting the religious right against pro-business conservatives.

“This comes down to a classic battle between voters who are concerned with social issues and voters who are most concerned with economic-development issues,” said David Lanoue, chairman of the department of political science at the University of Alabama. “We’re talking about conservatives in both cases.”

The primary, scheduled for June 2006, features Gov. Bob Riley against ousted Chief Justice Roy Moore.

Analysts say it could boil down to just how angry Alabama Republicans still are with Riley for proposing a record tax increase, which voters rejected three years ago.

Another factor will be if voters believe _ and if they’re bothered by the idea _ that Moore, with his history of defying a federal court over government displays of religion, will spark negative publicity for Alabama, a state that’s struggled with its national image.

Moore as a circuit judge rose to national fame for putting a Ten Commandments plaque on the wall of his Etowah County courtroom.

He parlayed that fame, and little money, to defeat a better-funded candidate backed by business groups to win the Republican primary for chief justice of Alabama.

Moore was removed from that office in 2003 when he refused to obey a federal court order to remove a 5,200-pound Ten Commandments monument he put in the lobby of the state judicial building.

In announcing his run for governor, Moore listed the “acknowledgment of God” in a platform that also included term limits for legislators and measures against illegal aliens.

_ Kim Chandler

Ramadan _ and Islamic Literature _ Arrive in French Supermarkets

PARIS (RNS) Along with peas, pretzels and deck chairs, shoppers in French supermarkets can snap up another item this Ramadan season: The Quran.

Some 150 hypermarkets like Carrefour _ the French answer to Wal-Mart _ are selling the Muslim holy book as part of a “Ramadan box” of Islamic literature, published by the Paris-based Editions Albouraq.

“We felt that during the month of Ramadan, people were interested in spiritual books along with practical ones about Islam,” said Albouraq’s 33-year-old French-Lebanese head Mansour Mansour, referring to the Muslim month of fasting. “And I think that selling books on Islam via large-scale distributors helps the integration of the Muslim community in France.”

Albouraq first began promoting its Ramadan box to Paris-area supermarkets two years ago. The initial results were promising, and last year the Muslim publishing house extended its scope to other regions of France. Today, nearly half a dozen large-scale chains are selling the box of literature, which contains 24 different Islamic books.

Besides two editions of the Quran, the stores sell books on Islamic history, the prophet Muhammad, cooking and practical tomes on the Muslim faith. A sample title: “How to Pray, 400 Questions/Answers to Understand Islam.”

Like many of Albouraq’s publications, most of the books are written in French.

Indeed, making Islam accessible to France’s 5 million-strong Muslim community _ the largest in Europe _ has been the main mission of the family-owned publishing house, Mansour says.

“The large majority of second-generation Muslims here don’t speak Arabic, only French,” Mansour says. “And we opened in the early 1990s when this generation wanted access to Islam in a language they understood. So did French who had converted to Islam.”

_ Elizabeth Bryant

Quotes of the Day

Patrick Mahoney, Director of Christian Defense Coalition

(RNS) “Do not patronize us by assuming that we will immediately support Ms. Miers as a Supreme Court justice because we hear she is an evangelical Christian.”

_ The Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the conservative Christian Defense Coalition, criticizing President Bush for asking conservatives to support Miers’ nomination because she is an evangelical Christian.

The Rev. Barry Lynn, Director of Church-State Watchdog Group

(RNS) “We’re picking a Supreme Court justice here, not a Sunday School teacher. President Bush and his allies should be talking about Miers’ knowledge of the Constitution, not the Bible.”

_ The Rev. Barry Lynn, director of the liberal Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticizing President Bush for using the evangelical faith of Harriet Miers to push her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

MO/JL RNS END