c. 2008 Religion News Service

Pope urges Jesuits to commit to orthodoxy

VATICAN CITY (RNS) For the second time in two months, Pope Benedict XVI urged leaders of the Catholic Church’s largest religious order to affirm their commitment to orthodoxy in several controversial areas, including religious pluralism and human sexuality.

Benedict made his remarks on Thursday (February 21) at a meeting with delegates to the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits.

The pope asked the Jesuits for their “renewed commitment to promote and defend Catholic doctrine,” as a response to the “powerful negative forces” of contemporary life, including “subjectivism, relativism, hedonism (and) practical materialism.”

Citing a letter he wrote last month to the order’s retiring leader, he repeated his appeal for assent to church teaching on “the relationship between Christ and religions, some aspects of the theology of liberation,” divorce and homosexuality.

In recent years, the Vatican has censured several Jesuit theologians for deviations from orthodoxy on such matters as the uniqueness of the Catholic Church as a means of salvation and the compatibility of Christianity with the teachings of Karl Marx.

While he praised the Jesuits for their extensive assistance to the needy, particularly refugees, Benedict also enjoined them to “rediscover the fullest sense” of their order’s unique vow of obedience to the pontiff. That vow, the pope said “does not imply only the readiness to be sent on mission to distant lands, but also … to `love and serve’ the Vicar of Christ of Earth.”

The pope’s remarks are the latest evidence of tension between the order and the Holy See. At a Mass to open the Jesuit congregation last month, the Vatican official in charge of religious orders voiced “sorrow and anxiety” over the unwillingness of “some members of religious families” to “think with the church” and obey the hierarchy.

_ Francis X. Rocca

National Football League OKs big-screen church Super Bowl events

(RNS) The National Football League will now allow churches to air live showings of the Super Bowl on a screen of any size, reversing a previous ban on widescreen televisions.

Members of Congress, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and church leaders had objected to the NFL’s rule that churches could not hold Super Bowl parties featuring TV screens larger than 55 inches, even though sports bars routinely do.

“For future Super Bowls, the league will not object to live showings _ regardless of screen size _ of the Super Bowl by a religious organization when such showings are free and on premises used by the religious organization on a routine and customary basis,” wrote NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in a Feb. 19 (Tuesday) letter to Hatch.

Hatch had written to Goddell on Feb. 13, asking a series of questions about the policy and saying he wanted to ensure that “all Americans” could watch the game with “loved ones and neighbors.”

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the change was made to clarify confusion about the matter.

“We were not going after churches, not investigating churches and we have never sued a church,” he said Thursday. “What we’re doing now is simply eliminating the question and confusion about copyright law.”

Hatch was pleased with the NFL’s decision.

“I am grateful that this accommodation was made to allow the NFL to protect its copyrighted material, while respecting the interests of churches,” the senator said. “Many families want to enjoy the Super Bowl in a group atmosphere _ but obviously aren’t going to take their kids to a sports bar.”

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., introduced legislation Feb. 4 that would allow churches to show the Super Bowl on widescreen televisions.

Goodell told Hatch the league believes legislation is not necessary and will begin its policy with the Super Bowl next Feb. 1.

McCarthy denied that the league was pressured to make the policy change.

“It was responding to the confusion over the last couple of years but Sen. Hatch … did play into the overall shift,” he said.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Oxford researchers get $4 million to study origins of belief in God

(RNS) Researchers at Oxford University have been given nearly $4 million to investigate the origins of belief in God.

The three-year project titled Empirical Expansion in Cognitive Science of Religion and Theology is designed to determine if belief in a deity is instinctive or learned. It will be funded by the Pennsylvania-based John Templeton Foundation.

Justin Barrett of Oxford University’s Center for Anthropology and Mind, and Roger Trigg of Oxford’s Ian Ramsey Center for Science and Religion, will lead the investigation.

“We don’t presume (that) this scientific research of what the causes of belief are necessarily undermines the beliefs,” Barrett said. “On the flip side, just because something is natural doesn’t mean it’s true.”

Barrett said developmental psychology has determined that faith in God is a universal human impulse, found in all cultures and grasped from a young age. Researchers will use a variety of methods to try to determine if faith in a deity is inherent to cultures worldwide and throughout human history.

Both religious “believers” and “non-believers” will make up the research team, said Barrett.

“I’m certainly not smug enough to think that in three years’ time we’ll have all the answers, but we’re building on things we know, and fully optimistic we’ll make progress,” Barrett said.

_ Brittani Hamm

Church-state group challenges Michigan city’s efforts to “serve God”

HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (RNS) A Wisconsin organization that champions separation of church and state is urging a Michigan city to remove from its Web site a reference to city officials striving “to serve God.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a 12,000-member organization based in Madison, Wis., sent a letter to Mayor Don VanDoeselaar of Hudsonville, asking the city to remove the reference to God from its mission statement.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, foundation co-president, said the group sent the letter after it received a complaint from a Hudsonville resident.

“The (letter) was on their behalf,” said Gaylor, who declined to identify the individual.

Gaylor said people who contact the nonprofit group with complaints often are reluctant to challenge what they perceive to be improper mixing of church and state, fearing reprisal from others.

She wrote VanDoeselaar that it “is not the business of a city in our secular republic to `strive to serve God.”’

“A city should have no religious beliefs,” Gaylor said in the letter. “That neutrality is the only way to ensure religious liberty for all citizens, which by definition includes the freedom to disbelieve and the freedom to dissent.”

Gaylor considers the contact “educational” and said it “should not take litigation or the threat of litigation” to draw a distinction between government functions and religious practices.

The issue is prompting Hudsonville to talk to its lawyers, said VanDoeselaar, who has been mayor since 2003.

“We won’t respond to anything until we consult with our legal counsel,” VanDoeselaar said.

He said he was unaware of other complaints about the mission statement, which was approved in 1995.

_ Keith Essenburg

Quote of the Day: Ye Xiaowen, Chinese religious affairs official

(RNS) “China and the Vatican are walking toward each other. The distance between the two sides is getting shorter and shorter, but there is a river between the two sides.”

_ Ye Xiaowen, director-general of China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs.

DSB/RB END RNS