c. 2008 Religion News Service

Cardinal urges prayer as `atonement’ for clergy abuse

VATICAN CITY (RNS) A senior Vatican official is recommending adoration of the Eucharist as way to atone for sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests.

Cardinal Claudio Hummes, who as head of the Congregation for the Clergy oversees some 400,000 priests around the world, said the Vatican was encouraging adoration of the Eucharist by clergy, religious and laity.

The practice would serve to offer “atonement for the faults of priests and in particular for the victims of the grave situations of moral and sexual conduct by a very small part of the clergy,” Hummes said.

“We ask all to adore the Eucharist in order to make amends before God for the evil that has been done and to restore the dignity of the victims.”

The Brazilian cardinal made his remarks in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

Hummes wrote to bishops last month announcing a campaign to promote “perpetual Eucharistic adoration for the reparation of faults and sanctification of priests,” but his letter did not specifically mention sex abuse.

The Vatican’s campaign proposes that parish churches set aside “specific places for continuous Eucharistic adoration,” a traditional form of Catholic devotion that has become less frequent in recent years, and whose revival has been encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI.

In the United States, where more than 13,000 persons have accused more than 5,400 priests of sex abuse in a scandal that has cost the Catholic church more than $2.3 billion, an advocate for abuse victims reacted coolly to the cardinal’s statement.

“Prayer is good but action is better,” said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “Symbolism doesn’t protect children.”

_ Francis X. Rocca

Bishop under fire for Muslim `no-go’ area comments

LONDON (RNS) One of Britain’s top Anglican bishops has infuriated Muslim leaders by claiming that Islamic extremism has turned parts of the nation into “no-go” areas for non-Muslims.

Writing in London’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper (Jan. 6), the Pakistani-born bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, also warned of growing efforts to “impose an Islamic character” in some communities, including broadcasting the five-times-a-day call to prayer from mosques.

Islamic leaders have reacted angrily, including Ibrahim Mogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain’s inter-faith relations committee, who denounced the bishop’s remarks as “simple scaremongering.”

Nazir-Ali warned of what he described as “a worldwide resurgence of the ideology of Islamic extremism,” saying “one of the results of this has been to further alienate the young from the nation … and also to turn already separate communities into `no-go’ areas where adherence to this ideology has become a mark of acceptability.”

The bishop also attacked what he saw as the British government’s weak response to the problems of immigration of “people of other faiths to these shores.” He blamed the “novel philosophy of multiculturalism” for the deepening divides in society.

Mogra told journalists that “it’s irresponsible for a man of (the bishop’s) position to make these comments.”

The bishop “should accept that Britain is a multicultural society in which we are free to follow our religion at the same time as being extremely proud to be British,” Mogra said. He insisted that Muslims “wouldn’t allow `no-go’ areas to happen.”

The Muslim Council of Britain said the use of loudspeakers on mosques to spread the call to prayer _ which has triggered its own fury in the university city of Oxford _ is no different from the ringing of church bells in the Christian call to worship.

_ Al Webb

Baba Virsa Singh ji dies at 73

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (RNS) A religious community in upstate New York is mourning the death of its founder, Baba Virsa Singh ji, who died Dec. 24 at his home in New Delhi. He was 73.

Known to his followers as Babaji, he was the leader and founder of the Gobind Sadan spiritual farm movement in India and Palermo, N.Y.

Shortly after the terrorist attacks in 2001, four teens misread the Gobind Sadan sign as “Go Bin Laden” and burned the Palermo temple.

Immediately after the fire, Babaji told temple members not to be vengeful. “He said we should forgive them, and we did,” said Gurbachan Singh, chairman of the Gobind Sadan temple.

Babaji started the New York farm during a visit to Central New York in 1986. “It is a special place. He selected it after a vision,” said Singh.

A memorial service will be held at the Palermo farm Saturday (Jan. 12).

“To him, this was a very special place,” said Singh, who met Babaji 30 years ago and lived with and studied under him for several months. Babaji last visited the Palermo farm in 1999.

“He was very spiritual. He always talked about religion and spirituality. He loved God and respected all religions,” Singh said.

Gobind Sadan, or “God’s House Without Walls,” is an interfaith, farm-based community that welcomes people of all religions. Gobind Sadan farms are staffed by volunteers and their profits are used to help the poor and those in need of help.

Rooted in Sikh teachings, the movement includes people from all faiths and those with no faith, who come to celebrate the major holidays of world religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam.

Sikhism has 25 million followers worldwide, including 200,000 in the United States.

Babaji taught the universal messages of all religious prophets, Singh said. “Religion is meant to be practical, not theoretical,” Babaji said in his teachings.

No one will succeed Babaji as leader of the Gobind Sadan movement, Singh said.

_ John Doherty

Quote of the Day: Creflo Dollar, Atlanta-area pastor

(RNS) “No, you don’t need more than one home. But, you know, people in our society today have always had a problem with excess. And we don’t have any problems with movie stars having more than one home. We don’t have any problems with sports people having more than one home. But, boy, if you get a man of God that has more than one home, then he’s got to be doing something wrong.”

_ Creflo Dollar, pastor of Atlanta-area World Changers Church International and leader of Creflo Dollar Ministries of College Park, Ga., whose finances are under investigation by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. He made these comments on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on Friday (Jan. 4).

KRE/LF END RNS

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