c. 2005 Religion News Service
Theologians Try to Slow John Paul II’s Candidacy for Sainthood
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Theologians critical of John Paul II are urging Catholics to speak out against the late pope’s bid for sainthood and pressing church officials to include a critical review of his policies in their evaluations of his candidacy.
The appeal, which was reported in several Italian newspapers on Tuesday (Nov. 6), was the first public attempt to halt a fast-moving campaign that was jump-started by chants of “Sainthood now!” at John Paul’s funeral in April and fast-tracked by Pope Benedict XVI in May.
Entitled “A Call for Clarification” and signed by 11 theologians, the statement cited John Paul’s handling of the sex abuse scandal, his crackdown on liberation theology in Latin America and his opposition to birth control as part of a seven-point objection to his proposed sainthood.
The statement praised “positive aspects” of John Paul’s papacy in addition to “virtuous aspects” of his personal life. But it also called on Catholics to formally express “facts which according to their consciences and convictions should be an obstacle to beatification,” the last formal step before sainthood.
Eleven theologians including the Rev. Jose Maria Castillo, a prominent dissident, signed the appeal. It cited as its first objection the “repression and alienation” of theologians “through the authoritarian interventions of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” formerly headed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI.
The group also criticized John Paul for upholding celibacy requirements, which they said ignored ongoing sexual relations among clergy and led to the “devastating curse of abuse of minors by clerics.”
In an apparent reference to the Vatican’s continued opposition to ordaining women, the appeal accused John Paul of not engaging “serious debate on the condition of women in the Church.”
The group also accused John Paul of showing “weakness” to Latin American dictators and backing the “ecclesial and factual isolation” of Bishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was gunned down for openly criticizing the right-wing Salvadoran dictatorship.
According to the Vatican, John Paul will be evaluated for sainthood on the merit of his personal virtues, not his policies as pope.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Gay Groups Complain After Ford Pulls Advertising
(RNS) Angry gay rights groups are demanding a meeting with the Ford Motor Company after the automaker, facing a possible conservative-led boycott, decided to pull advertising from gay publications.
The American Family Association called off a threatened boycott against Ford on Nov. 30, six months after Ford dealers asked for time to address the conservative group’s complaints.
“While we still have a few differences with Ford, we feel that our concerns are being addressed in good faith and will continue to be addressed in the future,” AFA Chairman Donald Wildmon said.
Earlier this year, Wildmon’s Tupelo, Miss.-based group accused Ford of “extensive promotion of homosexuality.” Ford, along with General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, offers domestic partner benefits to gay employees, and has contributed to gay causes.
Ford officials told the Detroit Free Press that shrinking marketing budgets, not the possible boycott, led the Jaguar and Land Rover divisions to pull ads from gay magazines. Ford’s Volvo brand, however, will continue to target the gay market.
“We reserve the right to advertise our brands and products wherever we think it makes business sense,” said a company memo to an employee group, the Gay Lesbian Or Bisexual Employees, according to the Free Press. “This is something we spoke very candidly about with the AFA.”
A coalition of 18 gay rights groups, meanwhile, blasted Ford for apparently agreeing to the demands of the “extremist” AFA.
“If there is an agreement with AFA, we expect Ford to disavow it,” said the statement, released by the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. “We expect Ford to publicly reaffirm its historic support for our community.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Supporters Link Supreme Court Nominee to Defense of Religious Christmas
(RNS) Conservative backers of Judge Samuel Alito’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court have rolled out new advertisements that present Alito as a defender of religious Christmas displays.
The twin adds, by the Committee for Justice and a Catholic group, Fidelis, point to Alito’s ruling as a federal appeals judge that allowed a nativity and menorrah display at City Hall in Jersey City, N.J.
“Judge Alito ruled against the ACLU’s attempt to scrub away our religious heritage,” says the Fidelis Internet ad, unveiled on Monday (Dec. 5), against background music featuring “The First Noel.” “Judge Alito used common sense and applied the law, the kind of common sense that every American needs on the Supreme Court.”
The Committee for Justice radio ad, airing in Colorado, West Virginia and Wisconsin, says, “Freedom of religious expression is everyone’s right _ and not just during this special season, but all year long.”
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative law firm founded by broadcaster Pat Robertson, told The New York Times that his office is e-mailing 850,000 supporters a Christmas-themed push for Alito.
Joe Cella, president of the Michigan-based Fidelis, said the Alito fight is a proxy for the annual holiday skirmishes over how much space religion _ or religious expression _ should be granted in the public arena.
“We will provide a vigorous defense of Judge Alito, who is being brought into the war on religious freedom by liberal groups who are out of touch with American values on religion,” Cella said.
The Rev. Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the Alito holiday ads “pandering.”
“If they think that hitching Samuel Alito to Santa’s sleigh is going to eliminate serious issues about his regard for the Constitution, I think they are mistaken,” Lynn told The New York Times.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Religious Groups Plead for Release of Aid Workers in Iraq
(RNS) Christian and Muslim groups are pleading for the release of four aid workers kidnapped in Iraq.
A Canadian Muslim organization is sending one of its members to Iraq to negotiate their release and the New York-based National Council of Churches has launched an interfaith open letter to the captors begging for the hostages’ release.
Canadian Islamic Congress volunteer Ehab Lotayef, a Canadian of Egyptian origin, is leaving for Iraq, the group said in a statement.
“I feel it is my and our responsibility to do what we can to help in the release of those who have dedicated their lives to justice and freedom,” Lotayef, an electrical engineer from Montreal, said in the statement.
Jim Loney, 41, of Toronto, and Harmeet Sooden, 32, formerly of Montreal, along with Briton Norman Kember, 74, and Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Va. _ all members of Christian Peacemaker Team _ were grabbed off a west Baghdad street at gunpoint on Nov. 27.
Kidnappers have threatened to kill the four men unless Iraqi detainees are freed from American and Iraqi jails by Thursday.
The vice president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, Wahida Valiante, said it is the “moral responsibility” of all Muslims to help secure the release of the hostages, “who risked their own welfare in order to bring comfort to oppressed and occupied people … . We pray for his safe return and for the quick release and return of the four CPT hostages.”
The hostages “have practiced and demonstrated a deep respect for Islam and for the right of Iraqis, and all Arab and Muslim peoples, to pursue just self-determination,” the congress said in an earlier statement.
Faithful America, an online community hosted by the NCC, has collected nearly 7,000 signatures to a letter that it sent to the Al Jazeera television network.
“We hold morally responsible for the lives of these Christian Peacemakers both those in Iraq who have taken them, and those who have brought about the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and Americans by pursuing this war,” said the letter, signed by NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar and other religious leaders.
In a joint statement, the Canadian Arab Federation and the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations expressed their “outrage” at the kidnappings.
_ Ron Csillag and Kevin Eckstrom
Bodhi Day Commemorates Enlightment of the Buddha
(RNS) Thursday (Dec. 8) is Bodhi Day, a time to recall the Buddha’s enlightenment, an event scholars say occurred in the sixth century B.C.
That was when the teacher previously known as Siddhartha Gautama emerged a changed man from 49 days of deep meditation under a leafy tree in Bodh Gaya, India, according to Buddhist texts.
Buddhists refer to his experience as an awakening to the realization that all time, all experience, all of the cosmos can exist in a single moment, a single place for all to see _ if only people would abandon everyday concerns.
“Sometimes it means taking time to devote to meditational practice, however much you think you have to do,” said Susan Rakow. She and her husband, Larry, host a Zen Buddhist group in their Cleveland Heights, Ohio, home. She studies the religion at a center in Rochester, N.Y.
Not only do many 21st century Americans _ Buddhists included _ conduct busy lives during most of the year, but things get more intense during December, a month of holidays and activities _ social, religious and commercial.
Some Buddhists call Bodhi Day a celebration. But they don’t mean it in the same sense others talk about Christmas parties or New Year’s Eve bacchanals.
Many meditate in groups. The feedback, the presence of others, especially a teacher, leads them to that awareness of now instead of tuning them to the static of obligations they feel, the fear and loathing they might harbor about friends, families, workplace and status.
Buddhist scholar John Strong said Bodhi Day encapsulates the world’s sixth most popular religion (with some 350 million adherents, about a million in North America, according to independent estimates).
“It memorializes the event that changes the Buddha from being an ordinary person to being enlightened,” he said. Strong is a professor and chairman of the philosophy and religion department of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
The meditation many Buddhists undergo in the week leading to Bodhi Day, Strong said, aims for “achieving enlightenment at the same time as Buddha.”
_ Frank Bentayou
Quote of the Day: Baby Jesus snatcher Virginia Voiers
(RNS) “It was a lark; it wasn’t any serious stealing. My granddaughter commented that no one had taken the baby Jesus this year and said, `Grandma?’ I said, `Oh, what the heck?”’
_ Virginia Voiers, a 70-year-old grandmother from Eureka Springs, Ark., who was caught stealing the baby Jesus from the city nativity scene. Voiers was charged with misdemeanor theft and was quoted in The Washington Times.
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