c. 2008 Religion News Service
WCC says Kobia’s degree came from defunct school
(RNS) The World Council of Churches (WCC) and its general secretary, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, said the Louisiana-based institution that granted Kobia a doctorate in 2004 lost it accreditation to grant degrees while Kobia was enrolled as a student.
The institution, Fairfax University, apparently has neither an operational phone number nor a Web site, according to Ecumenical News International (ENI), a Geneva-based news agency with ties to the WCC.
The news about the accreditation was first reported Tuesday (Feb. 12) by the German Protestant news agency epd, and came as a “shock,” Kobia told reporters during the WCC’s central committee meeting in Geneva.
Kobia, a Methodist from Kenya whose first term as general secretary is about to expire, was awarded a degree in 2004 following work pursued through Fairfax University from 2000 to 2003, the WCC said.
“I followed a program of studies with them in good faith, and the information I had at that time was that this school was accredited, so it really came as a shock to me,” Kobia, 60, said Thursday (Feb. 14), quoted by ENI.
The WCC has removed any reference to the Fairfax degree from Kobia’s curriculum vitae and biography on the WCC Web site.
The Rev. Walter Altmann, the moderator of the WCC’s central committee, was told in December that Fairfax had lost its accreditation and the news “came as a shock and disappointment to both the moderator and the general secretary,” said Mark Beach, a WCC spokesman.
Kobia was appointed to head the worldwide ecumenical body in 2003, and is believed to be the only candidate for an additional term.
ENI reported that in June 2000, the Louisiana Board of Regents, a state educational regulatory body, said that Fairfax would have to “discontinue admissions into all doctoral programs immediately. Students currently enrolled in these programs will be allowed to complete their program.”
Two months later, regents were told that Fairfax University had withdrawn its application for continued state accreditation, which halted “operations immediately in Louisiana as an academic degree-granting institution,” the regulatory board said, according to ENI.
_ Chris Herlinger
Pope waives waiting period for Fatima witness
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Acting with unusual speed, Pope Benedict XVI has started the process that could lead to sainthood for the last of the shepherd children said to have seen the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917.
Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, who died in 2005 at age 97, and her two younger cousins became celebrated throughout the Catholic world for reporting that they had seen, and heard prophecies from, the Virgin Mary.
At a Mass Wednesday (Feb. 13) marking the third anniversary of Sister Lucia’s death, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, announced that the pope had waived the usual five-year waiting period between a death and the start of the process toward beatification.
To qualify for beatification, a candidate must have been a martyr or have a miracle attributed to his or her intercession. If Sister Lucia is beatified, a second miracle will be required to make her a saint.
Pope Benedict XVI waived the five-year waiting period in the case of Pope John Paul II less than two months after his predecessor’s death in 2005; John Paul did the same for Mother Teresa of Calcutta, 18 months after her death in 1997. She was beatified in 2003.
John Paul credited the Madonna of Fatima with saving his life after he was shot in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981 _ the 64th anniversary of the first apparition reported by the three Portuguese children. In 2000, he beatified Sister Lucia’s cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto.
In 2002, the Vatican disclosed the “Third Secret of Fatima,” which doctrinal authorities said foretold the failed attempt to assassinate John Paul.
Sister Lucia, reporting the first two messages in 1941, said the Virgin Mary showed the children the torments of the damned in hell.
In what was taken as a warning of the impending Russian Revolution, the Virgin also said that unless Russia was consecrated to Mary’s immaculate heart, there would be “wars and persecutions of the church.”
The Shrine of Fatima built on the site of the visions is one of Catholicism’s most visited sanctuaries, drawing up to 5 million pilgrims every year.
_ Francis X. Rocca
Rabbis upset over Good Friday prayers
(RNS) Conservative rabbis expressed their “dismay” this week over a traditional Good Friday prayer that calls for the conversion of Jews that Pope Benedict XVI revised but left largely intact.
In a last-minute resolution added to the agenda of the Rabbinical Assembly’s annual convention in Washington, the Conservative rabbis voted unanimously Tuesday (Feb. 12) to label the pope’s action a setback in years of improved Jewish-Catholic relations.
The Good Friday prayer _ used only in the Latin Mass that was revived by the pope last summer _ now includes a plea for God to “enlighten” the hearts of Jews, “that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ as the savior of all men.”
In response, the 1,600-member Rabbinical Assembly’s resolution states that it is “dismayed and deeply disturbed” by the revision and will “seek clarifaction from the Vatican of the meaning and status of the new text for the Latin liturgy.”
At the same time, the head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture downplayed tensions with Jewish groups, saying the Good Friday prayer is more an “expression of affection” for Christianity’s roots in the Jewish faith.
“It is not … a missionary strategy of conversion” Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi wrote in a front-page article in Friday’s (Feb. 15) edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper. “… One wishes a reality that one holds precious and salvific for the persons whom one regards as near, dear and significant.”
Jewish groups are particularly concerned the prayer may hamper 40 years of improved Catholic-Jewish relations, ever since the church acknowledged an existing Jewish covenant with God and largely dropped calls for Jewish conversions.
“Our relationship with the church is really very good,” said Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly. “So it is rather disappointing to find there is a theological issue that comes back in to play at this particular time when so much progress has been made, and although various church authorities are saying, well, it is just a minor matter, it really raises certain theological issues again.”
_ Rachel Pomerance and Francis X. Rocca
Billy Graham recovering from surgical procedure
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham has “rested well” after undergoing an elective procedure on Wednesday (Feb. 13) to relieve pressure in his brain.
Graham, 89, underwent the procedure at Mission Hospitals in Asheville, N.C., near his home in Montreat.
“He rested well overnight and … has been up walking this morning,” said A. Larry Ross, Graham’s spokesman, on Thursday.
The evangelist has hydrocephalus, or a buildup of fluid on the brain that can cause symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. In recent days, he had experienced more of those symptoms. Doctors determined that a valve for a shunt implanted in 2000 needed to be replaced to continue regulation of the pressure on Graham’s brain.
“He was bright and alert and conscious immediately after surgery and called me by name,” said neurosurgeon Ralph C. Loomis in a statement after the 28-minute procedure.
Graham, who was in fair condition Thursday after the “minimally invasive procedure,” received a call from President Bush wishing him well, Ross said.
He said Graham, who is considering a new book project, is expected to remain in the hospital for several days.
_ Adelle M. Banks
IRS probes Huckabee endorsement by Calif. pastor
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Internal Revenue Service is questioning a Southern Baptist pastor in California who endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, his lawyer said.
Pastor Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park received a Feb. 5 letter expressing concerns about an Aug. 11 press release issued on his church’s letterhead about the endorsement. The IRS letter notes that churches are prohibited from participating in political campaigns by supporting or opposing candidates.
Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, is representing Drake and said the endorsement was a personal one. Drake, a former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, later issued a second statement clarifying that his was a personal endorsement.
“This is not a church endorsement,” Stanley said.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which sought the IRS inquiry on Aug. 14, welcomed the agency’s action.
“This is a clear signal to clergy that the IRS is serious about enforcing federal tax law,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based watchdog group.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard
(RNS) “With this drawing I wanted to show how fanatical Islamists or terrorists use religion as a kind of spiritual weapon. Naturally, I never imagined these kinds of reactions.”
_ Kurt Westergaard, the artist who sparked Muslim anger in 2006 with a cartoon that depicted the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. At least 17 Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoon after three men were recently arrested in a plot to kill Westergaard. He was quoted by Agence France-Presse.
KRE DS END RNS
