c. 2006 Religion News Service
Pope’s First Trip Outside Europe Will Be to Muslim Country
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Amid a week of heightened tension between the West and the Muslim world, the Vatican announced Thursday (Feb. 9) that Pope Benedict XVI’s first trip outside Europe will be to predominantly Muslim Turkey.
In a statement, papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Benedict had accepted an invitation from Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to visit the country Nov. 28-30.
Word of Benedict’s visit came a day after the pope expressed hope that the murder of an Italian priest in Turkey would lead to greater interfaith dialogue.
The Vatican on Thursday released a letter the priest wrote to Benedict weeks before his murder, asking the pontiff to visit his parish in Trabzon, Turkey.
“Your visit, however brief, would be a consolation and encouragement,” the Rev. Andrea Santoro wrote in the letter dated Jan. 31.
Navarro-Valls did not provide any further details of the trip. But Benedict is expected to visit the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the Greek Orthodox leader who is based in modern-day Istanbul.
Bartholomew, whose full religious authority is not recognized by Turkey, angered Turkish authorities by inviting Benedict to Istanbul in November 2005. The Turkish government effectively blocked the visit by inviting Benedict to visit in 2006.
Turkey has come under sharp criticism in Italy for its perceived failure to guarantee the rights of Christian minorities living there.
The anger has lately been fueled by reports that the 16-year-old killer yelled “Allah is great!” after shooting the priest and cited the publication of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as his motive.
Although violence over the cartoon controversy has brought calls from Italian officials for the Holy See to harden its stance toward Islam, Vatican officials have continued to express support for offended Muslims.
In an interview published Thursday in La Repubblica of Rome, Vatican Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, called the cartoons “a sign of arrogance from rich and developed countries that lack respect for the culture of others.”
Benedict will be making his first trip outside Europe with his visit to Turkey, where he is considered unpopular for views he expressed as a cardinal.
In an interview in 2004, the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger criticized Turkish hopes to join the European Union, asserting that the country’s Muslim history put it in “permanent contrast to Europe.”
_ Stacy Meichtry
Muslims Accuse Newspaper of Hypocrisy in Rejecting Cartoons of Christ
(RNS) Muslim-American leaders are arguing that a Danish newspaper’s decision to not run cartoons lampooning Christ proves that the newspaper is disingenuous in claiming that freedom of speech motivated it to publish cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad.
Rather, these leaders say, the Jyllands-Posten cartoons are the product of a growing Islamophobic climate in Europe.
“Clearly, this is a case of double standards,” said Asma Afsaruddin, an Islamic studies professor at the University of Notre Dame.
“They talk about the freedom to offend, but when they had the opportunity to offend a lot of people in Denmark of the Christian faith, they chose not too, quite rightly,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C. “It adds to the perception that this was an intentional insult and not an expression of freedom of speech.”
The Guardian newspaper in London reported Monday (Feb. 6) that in April 2003, Danish illustrator Christoffer Zieler submitted a series of unsolicited cartoons dealing with the resurrection of Christ to Jyllands-Posten.
Zieler received an e-mail back from the paper’s Sunday editor, Jens Kaiser, which said: “I don’t think Jyllands-Posten’s readers will enjoy the drawings. As a matter of fact, I think that they will provoke an outcry. Therefore, I will not use them.”
Zieler told The Guardian he felt Jyllands-Posten rated the feelings of its Christian readers higher than those of its Muslim readers. Kaiser responded that the case was “ridiculous to bring forward now. It has nothing to do with the Muhammad cartoons.”
Danish journalist Jytte Klauson, in a piece in Salon.com Wednesday (Feb. 8), also asserted that free speech was not the newspaper’s motive. “It has long been evident to me that religious toleration and reverence for human rights have been sorely lacking in Denmark. … Free speech is not really the mission of the paper at the center of the maelstrom, nor of the present Danish government,” he wrote.
With the Jesus cartoons, “they realized there was not merely an issue of freedom of speech, but that as a responsible member of the community, they have an obligation to respect people’s religious sensibilities,” Afsaruddin said.
_ Omar Sacirbey
`Thrill Motive’ Could Be Behind Burning of Ala. Baptist Churches
BOLIGEE, Ala. (RNS) Arsonists who have burned nine Alabama churches in the past week could be setting the fires for thrills and may be planning more, federal and state officials say.
“We could have a thrill motive,” said Jim Cavanaugh, regional director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Gov. Bob Riley visited west Alabama Wednesday (Feb. 8) to see the latest churches set afire. He said he has committed more state resources to the investigation and is making aid available to the damaged and destroyed houses of worship.
Riley said after visiting the churches in Pickens, Sumter and Greene counties, he is convinced the arsons are linked and are the work of people from the area. “I think this is local people, doing it for whatever reason.”
He visited the churches with state and federal officials, including Alabama Public Safety Director Mike Coppage, state Insurance Commissioner Walter Bell and FBI and ATF agents.
State Sen. Bobby Singleton, a Democrat who represents the area, joined Riley on the tour. Singleton said he knows the area and also believes those responsible for the fires must be familiar with these isolated, rural roads.
The four churches burned early Tuesday were in a rural stretch south of Aliceville and just west of Boligee. One of the churches, Galilee Baptist in Panola, is on a one-lane road a few miles off a county road and is difficult to find.
“I think all of these are connected because of the pattern I see they are going on these highways. If this is a thrill-seeker, this is likely to happen again,” Singleton said.
Cavanaugh said investigators are reviewing more than 200 leads. He said 100 ATF investigators are working the case, along with FBI agents and 20 Alabama troopers.
_ Brett J. Blackledge
Church of England Apologizes for Role in Slave Trade Two Centuries Ago
LONDON (RNS) Two centuries after profiting from the venture, the Church of England has apologized for its role in the global slave trade, which included running a Caribbean island sugar plantation and branding the blacks who worked it.
The Church’s general synod voted 238-0 Wednesday (Feb. 8) to acknowledge its involvement in human trafficking and to apologize to the descendants of its victims 199 years after Britain’s Slave Trade Act of 1807 outlawed the practice.
“We were at the heart of it,” the Rev. Simon Bessant of Blackburn, England, told the synod during debate on the motion. “We were directly responsible for what happened. … We can say we owned slaves, we branded slaves.
“That is why I believe we must actually recognize our history and offer an apology.”
Bessant cited one case in which the Church of England’s missionary arm, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Foreign Parts, owned and operated the Codrington Plantation in Barbados and used a red-hot iron to brand its slaves with the word “society” on their chests.
In another case, the synod was told, the bishop of Exeter and three business colleagues were paid nearly 13,000 pounds ($23,000) in compensation for the loss of 665 slaves after Barbados emancipated them in 1833.
“The profits from the slave trade were part of the bedrock of our country’s industrial development,” Bishop of Southwark Thomas Butler said in a speech before the synod vote.
“Many people and institutions in every part of the country were complicit in the transatlantic slave trade,” the bishop added, “and I have to say that this includes the Church of England.”
The motion that the synod passed, with the backing of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, specifically acknowledged the “dehumanizing and shameful” consequences of the slave trade.
_ Al Webb/London
Cardinal Says Pope John Paul II Contemplated Early Retirement
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The late Pope John Paul II considered resigning in his final years of life but decided against the move, fearing his withdrawal could put pressure on future popes, according to a Vatican cardinal.
In a new memoir, titled “In the Vicinity of Jericho: Memories of the Years with St. Josemaria and John Paul II,” Cardinal Julian Herranz recalls how John Paul’s struggle with Parkinson’s disease and other ailments rendered him incapable of running the church and stirred speculation he might retire.
On Dec. 17, 2004, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope’s personal secretary, approached Herranz to discuss whether the pope should resign for health reasons.
Dziwisz is quoted as saying John Paul “was afraid of creating a dangerous precedent for his successors” who might be “exposed to maneuvers and subtle pressure from those who might want to depose them.”
Fewer than a dozen popes are believed to have resigned in the history of Roman Catholicism. The most famous case of papal abdication came on Dec. 13, 1294, when Celestine V resigned under pressure after five months in office. He was kept in confinement until his death two years later.
Herranz, an Opus Dei member who heads the Vatican’s Council for Legislative Texts, writes that he was consulted for his experience in canon law.
Although bishops and cardinals are required to retire at 75, Herranz concluded that the provision “should not” apply to John Paul, because the mission of a pope was “very different” and came directly from Christ.
Herranz quotes Dziwisz as saying that John Paul was “personally very detached from the office (and) lives abandoned to the will of God. He places himself in the hands of Divine Providence.”
Herranz described John Paul’s decision to seek advice as a sign of “obedience and prudence.”
_ Stacy Meichtry
CeCe Winans Collects More Grammy Hardware
(RNS) Gospel singer CeCe Winans added two more trophies to her collection Wednesday (Feb. 8) at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards.
The Detriot-born artist earned awards for best contemporary soul gospel album for “Purified,” her seventh solo album, and best gospel performance for the album’s first single, “Pray.”
Gladys Knight and the Saints Unified Voices choir earned best gospel choir or chorus album for “One Voice.”
Other gospel category winners were:
_ Best Gospel Song: “Be Blessed” by Yolanda Adams, James Harris III, Terry Lewis & James Q. Wright
_ Best Rock Gospel Album: “Until My Heart Caves In” by Audio Adrenaline
_ Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album: “Lifesong” by Casting Crowns
_ Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album: “Rock of Ages … Hymns & Faith” by Amy Grant
_ Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album: “Psalms Hymns & Spiritual Songs” by Donnie McClurkin
The show featured several performances by gospel artists, including the Hezekiah Walker & Love Fellowship Choir, who sang with Mariah Carey; Robert Randolph, who lent his guitar prowess to Aerosmith in a tribute to one of the godfathers of funk, Sly Stone; and Yolanda Adams, who sang during the show’s finale in a tribute to New Orleans.
Irish rock band U2 swept up five Grammys at the show, which was aired by CBS from Los Angeles’ Staples Center. U2 lead singer Bono, an international advocate for the poor, spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington Feb. 2.
_ Enette Ngoei
Quote of the Day: Alabama Gas Station Operator Dale Lanier
(RNS) “I just wanted to bring a little hope, a little inspiration. I wanted to lead people to the church; whatever I can do in my little corner of the world.”
_ Dale Lanier, operator of a filling station in Snead, Ala., explaining why he offers customers free drinks if they can recite a particular Bible verse. He was quoted by The Washington Post.
MO/PH END RNS
