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
Volunteers From Coast to Coast Assist Flooded Baptist Church
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Hundreds of volunteers swarmed over a wrecked church deep in New Orleans’ flood zone Saturday (Dec. 3), hoping to start its healing and that of the desolate neighborhood beyond with a furious outpouring of free labor.
By some counts, nearly 1,000 crisply organized volunteers from LaPlace, La., to Los Angeles laid gloved, healing hands on Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, which drowned under nine feet of water from Hurricane Katrina. They went after the church’s ruined sanctuary and first floor with crowbars and power tools.
In a ritual familiar to thousands of New Orleans homeowners, they tossed furniture and carpet, muscled kitchen equipment out the door and gutted walls to the studs.
Donated heavy equipment bulldozed the rubble into growing piles curbside.
The workers were assembled by PRC Compassion, a network of evangelical churches and nonprofits based in Baton Rouge that sprang into existence after Katrina to funnel aid into the storm zone.
PRC Compassion’s roots are thickest in Louisiana, which is covered with independent Christian churches. But aid has flowed to the agency from groups far afield, including Focus on the Family, the potent evangelical educational and political organization in Colorado Springs, Colo. Help has also come from the St. Louis-based Living in the Word Ministry of evangelist Joyce Meyer, said Gene Mills, one of the founders of PRC Compassion.
Born spontaneously in response to sheer need, PRC Compassion is driven by relationships _ by pastors networking rapidly with other pastors, then hurrying help to target areas, said Mills.
Its congregations are both black and white. On Saturday, they reached out to help the Rev. Fred Luter, a popular minister who turned around a dying church in the mid-1980s and who works easily across racial and denominational lines.
Now revitalized into a powerhouse congregation, Luter’s predominately African-American church had begun to stabilize and reclaim its neighborhood. Before Katrina, nearly 7,000 people worshipped there every weekend, Luter said.
PRC Compassion’s strategy recognized that Luter’s was a key church to target. Helping Luter now would permit his church to help others later, said Mills.
“He wants to be here. Once he gets back on line, he’s going to be a machine. He’ll turn around all kinds of lives,” Mills said.
_ Bruce Nolan
Wisconsin School Suspends Ban on RA-Led Bible Study in Dorms
(RNS) The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has suspended its ban on resident assistants leading Bible studies in their dorms, a university spokesman said.
But the students who challenged the ban vowed to continue their legal fight until a final decision is made and they are assured that “the constitutional rights of students will be respected.”
The school reviewed the policy after a resident assistant, Lance Steiger, challenged the ban. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based group that battles political correctness at universities, and Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis. and a UW-Eau Claire alumnus, took up Steiger’s cause and asked the school to allow resident assistants to conduct Bible studies.
UW-Eau Claire spokesman Mike Rindo said resident assistants had been prohibited from leading Bible studies in their dorms because they are essentially state employees _ receiving free room and board and a $625-per-semester stipend _ and therefore forbidden to host religious, political or sales activities in their workplace.
Steiger filed suit in federal court Nov. 30, charging the university violated his freedoms of speech and association, according to a statement from the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group based in Scottsdale, Ariz.
University officials said they suspended the ban without knowing of the lawsuit. Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson said Wednesday (Nov. 30) that the policy against organizing religious and political activities was communicated inconsistently to resident assistants during training.
School officials said Kevin Reilly, president of the University of Wisconsin System, has formed a committee of campus student life experts to conduct a system-wide review by Jan. 9.
“Our lawsuit will proceed until it’s clear that the constitutional rights of students will be respected. It shouldn’t take a committee to decide whether to respect the First Amendment rights of students,” said Kevin Theriot, an ADF attorney, in a statement.
Jonathan Smylie, a resident assistant in Governors Hall at UW-Eau Claire, said: “The school seems to think that residents in the dorms will not want to approach an RA who is a Christian for fear of being judged. This is ridiculous. They are asking me to be something I’m not.”
_ Kathleen Murphy
Catholic Belief in Limbo Is in, Well, Limbo
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Roman Catholic belief in limbo _ the afterlife reserved for babies who die before baptism _ is hanging by a thread as the Vatican prepares to update its policy on the unbaptized.
Catholics devised limbo in the Middle Ages as an alternative to hell for babies who are excluded from heaven because they have not been cleansed of original sin through baptism.
But American Archbishop William Levada, the Vatican’s top theologian, reported Thursday (Dec. 1) that a Vatican commission is expected to issue a document addressing the fate of unbaptized children, expressing concern that the current belief has become outdated.
“In today’s season of cultural relativism and religious pluralism, the number of non-baptized babies is increasing considerably,” Levada told an annual session of the International Theological Commission that was attended by Pope Benedict XVI.
“In this situation, the paths to reach the way of salvation appear ever more complex and problematic,” he said.
Critics of limbo say the church cannot pass judgment on people living in regions with no access to Catholic mission and conversion.
In the Divine Comedy, Dante passes limbo en route to hell and writes: “Great grief seized on my own heart when this I heard, because some people of much worthiness I knew, who in limbo were suspended.”
Catholic theologians hold that souls in limbo feel eternal happiness, but are not in the presence of God.
“The church is aware that salvation is uniquely achievable in Christ by means of the Spirit,” said Levada. “But it cannot renounce reflecting on, in its role as mother and teacher, the destiny of all the men created in God’s image, and in a particular way, on the weakest and those who are not yet in possession of the use of reason and of freedom,” he said in reference to infants.
Addressing the commission, Benedict recalled that the fate of unbaptized babies was important to John Paul II, who last year encouraged the group to craft a message declaring that Catholics hoped heaven was open to unbaptized babies.
In an interview with Vatican Radio, the Rev. Luis Ladaria, secretary-general of the commission, said Catholic teaching on limbo was “in crisis” and does not represent a “binding Catholic doctrine.”
_ Stacy Meichtry
Religious Leaders Press Bush, Rice on Foreign Aid
WASHINGTON (RNS) Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have urged President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to increase U.S. aid to developing nations and remove agricultural subsidies that they say hurt poor countries.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington met with Bush in the Oval Office on Thursday (Dec. 1) to support a U.S. move to cut “trade-distorting” farm subsidies at an upcoming World Trade Organization conference in Hong Kong.
McCarrick and others say the subsidies bloat global markets and prevent developing countries from equal competition, which in turn keeps those countries mired in the cycle of poverty.
At a follow-up meeting at the State Department, McCarrick and 12 other religious leaders asked Rice for a $5 billion increase in poverty-focused development aid, and urged the White House to convince Republicans on Capitol Hill to fully fund foreign development programs. They also asked that $2 billion in overseas food aid be protected from potential budget cuts.
“The average European cow gets more (government) subsidies than the average person in Africa makes in income,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, an ecumenical anti-hunger agency that convened the talks.
The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, cited an “emerging powerful convergence” among all faith groups against poverty, and said, “God looks on the condition of those in poverty to evaluate the quality of our faith.”
“My colleagues will quote from (the Gospel of) Luke and I’ll quote from Isaiah, but we’ll all come to the same conclusion,” said Eric Schockman, president of MAZON, a Jewish anti-hunger agency.
Beckmann said Rice shared concern about foreign development funding, but said it would be “tough” to get more money from Congress. Regardless, the religious coalition urged Rice and Bush to “be bold” in increasing the amount of overseas U.S. aid.
Other leaders included the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA); Sayyid Syeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America; Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; and Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Christian Colleges Remember Children on World AIDS Day
(RNS) Students at Christian colleges put a human face on World AIDS Day Thursday (Dec. 1) by carrying small photos of children orphaned by the disease.
The “Lives Are at Stake” campaign was held on about 30 Christian campuses across the country. Students asked classmates to carry the children’s photos as they walked through campus, or to wear the photos around their necks.
The Christian relief organization World Vision mobilized the campaign, which began in 2003.
Large numbers _ like the 14 million children orphaned and vulnerable due to AIDS _ are hard to connect with, said student leader Elliot Johnson. But he said the 700 individual photos he ordered for Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minn., helped personalize the crisis.
“When you really understand and get your head around the enormity of the issue, it’s really hard to ignore it,” said Johnson, 20.
Seventy students out of Northwestern’s 1,700 also wore orange T-shirts that said “orphan” to simulate the 20 percent of children in sub-Saharan Africa who have lost their parents to AIDS.
Students directed participants to World Vision’s Web site, where they can contribute to advocacy and fundraising efforts. They also hope classmates will take photos back to their dorm rooms and pray for those children all year.
“We’re big on prayer,” said Johnson.
The son of missionaries, Johnson started Northwestern’s AIDS advocacy program in September.
“I’m just your typical college student,” he said, but after a training session his “heart was just broken” at the pervasiveness of AIDS. He wanted to raise awareness, including the fact that so many women and children are infected.
“It’s not just the people who are doing bad things, like the church likes to think,” he said.
Steve Haas, a spokesman for Seattle-based World Vision, said Christian churches have long shunned discussion of AIDS due to stigma. But when it comes to college advocacy, he said, “there’s nothing on secular campuses like what’s happening on Christian campuses.”
Students have parlayed their campus activism into awareness campaigns in their churches, volunteer work in AIDS hospices and international relief work, Haas said.
_ Nicole LaRosa
Pastor Punched During Service Gets Encouragement
(RNS) An Oklahoma pastor punched in the face during a worship service says he has been touched by an outpouring of sympathy and encouragement.
The national media coverage “has been one of the most amazing things we’ve ever seen in our lives,” said the Rev. Billy Joe Daugherty of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Okla.
One person who saw the Nov. 20 incident replayed on television was Oral Roberts, founder of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, now retired in California. Roberts penned a three-page letter of encouragement to Daugherty, which Daugherty read in church the next Sunday. Roberts wrote that he was reminded of a 1947 incident in which someone shot at him during a service, resulting in publicity that turned an unknown Tulsa evangelist into a national figure.
Daugherty was punched in the face minutes after finishing a sermon about the Apostle Paul and Silas being beaten and thrown into jail.
A man later identified as Steven Wayne Rogers came forward during the church’s altar call, motioned to Daugherty to approach, and then hit him, opening a cut over his left eye that required two stitches to close.
As security guards escorted Rogers out, Daugherty, his face smeared with blood, continued the service, publicly forgiving and praying for Rogers, whom he did not know.
The incident was videotaped by church cameramen, and was picked up by numerous national television news outlets.
Rogers was taken to the Tulsa jail, where Daugherty visited him.
Jail officials said that he was transported Nov. 23 to the Oklahoma Forensic Center at Vinita, a state mental institution. A spokeswoman at the institution said that due to confidentiality laws, she was unable to confirm or deny that Rogers was a patient there.
Rogers also was identified as the man who hit Oral Roberts’ son Richard Roberts, now ORU president, 15 years ago during a rehearsal for the “Richard Roberts Live” television show.
Daugherty said Monday that the incident had opened the door to talk about forgiveness.
“Everyone’s been hit by something,” he said, mentioning family breakup, job loss and sickness.
“The bigger issue, to me, is that God wants the world to know that when Jesus suffered far greater (than us), he chose to forgive.”
_ Bill Sherman
Quote of the Week: 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.
END RNS
