c. 2008 Religion News Service

N.Y. teachers vote to strike during pope’s visit

NEW YORK (RNS) Teachers from 10 New York Catholic high schools voted Tuesday (April 1) night to strike while Pope Benedict XVI visits New York later this month.

The Lay Faculty Association, a union representing about 420 teachers in schools from Poughkeepsie to Staten Island, wants the Archdiocese of New York to agree to a new three-year contract with improved pay, pension plan and health benefits.

The teachers have been working without a contract since Aug. 31. Negotiations between the union and the archdiocese reached a stalemate in December.

The teachers do not hold Pope Benedict responsible for the dispute, but striking during his visit will draw wider attention to the problem and pressure the archdiocese to make a deal, said Henry Kielkucki, union business manager.

“This is not against him,” he said. “It’s so people know what’s going on. It will continue even after he leaves, if we still don’t have a settlement.”

Archdiocese officials said the most recent contract presented to the teachers is “very generous,” and strongly criticized the decision to strike.

“If the teacher’s union does seek to use the occasion of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI … as an occasion of protest and as an occasion of division, I think that’s an insult to Pope Benedict and an insult to the Catholic faithful of the Archdiocese of New York,” said Joseph Zwilling, the spokesman for the New York archdiocese.

Pope Benedict plans to visit New York April 18-20, after spending a three days in Washington. The strike will begin at some point during the week of April 14, Kielkucki said.

More than 300 teachers participated in a sickout on Jan. 10, which did not achieve the union’s desired result of a better offer from the archdiocese, he said.

The union’s previous strike, in 2001, lasted 17 days.

_ Nicole Neroulias

Pope marks three years since John Paul’s death

VATICAN CITY (RNS) In an emotional homily that evoked his predecessor’s agonizing last days, Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to Pope John Paul II on the third anniversary of his death, portraying the late pontiff as a model of Christian love and sacrifice.

“His death was the seal on an existence entirely given to Christ,” Benedict said during a special memorial Mass on Wednesday (April 2) in St. Peter’s Square.

Benedict recalled John Paul’s practice of quoting the words “Be not afraid!” from the Gospel of Matthew, which he said had “become a kind of motto” for the late pope.

“He always spoke (the words) with inflexible firmness, first brandishing his pastoral staff with the cross at the top, and then, as his physical energies diminished, almost clinging to it,” Benedict said.

Benedict also recalled the period before and after John Paul’s death in 2005, when St. Peter’s was “truly the heart of the world,” as millions of pilgrims from around the world came to keep vigil and mourn.

“Let us ask him to continue to intercede from heaven for each one of us, and in a special way for me,” Benedict said at the end of his homily, using words that are apt to encourage hopes for a speedy canonization for John Paul.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the postulator (or official advocate) for the cause of John Paul’s sainthood, told Vatican Radio on Monday (March 31) that he had submitted a “semifinal” report approximately 2,000 pages long, documenting the late pontiff’s virtues.

Following a review by another official, the Rev. Daniel Ols, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints will consider whether to declare John Paul “venerable,” after which he would be eligible for beatification, the rank just below sainthood.

To qualify for beatification, a candidate must have been a martyr or have a miracle attributed to his or her intercession. A second miracle occurring after beatification would be required for canonization.

_ Francis X. Rocca

Ted Turner joins religious groups to fight malaria

(RNS) Media mogul Ted Turner has partnered with Lutherans and Methodists to launch a $200 million dollar campaign to fight malaria in Africa, telling the United Nations General Assembly “you’ve got to have faith to build a better world” and that he regrets past negative remarks against religion.

In the 1980s, Turner called Christianity “a religion for losers” and in 2001, the CNN founder asked employees who had ashes smudged on their foreheads for Ash Wednesday if they were “Jesus freaks,” saying they should work for Fox.

Turner, who said he has become more tolerant in recent years, is now urging businesses and nongovernmental organizations to work together with philanthropic leaders and faith communities to address global challenges.

Turner’s United Nations Foundation launched the project to fight malaria on Tuesday (April 1) with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the United Methodist Church.

“Religion is one of the bright spots as far as I’m concerned, even though there are some areas, like everything else, where they’ve gone over the top a little, in my opinion,” Turner told The Associated Press. “But I’m sure God, wherever he is, wants to see us get along with one another and love one another.”

The new project aims to stop the estimated 1 million deaths caused by malaria every year, with a special emphasis on how poverty contributes to the spread of the disease.

The money will be used for prevention, treatment and improving health care in at-risk areas for the disease through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, according to Turner’s United Nations Foundation.

The United Methodist Church will raise $100 million. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod will raise between $75 million and $100 million.

“This will be the largest campaign of its type ever for Lutherans,” the Rev. John Nunes, president and chief executive of Lutheran World Relief, told The Associated Press. The money will be raised over several years, according to Bishop Janice Huie, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided an additional $10 million grant to help promote the campaign in churches. Together, the Lutheran and Methodist groups have more than 15 million members in the U.S.

_ Brittani Hamm

Quote of the Day: Author Amy Sullivan

(RNS) “I was deathly shy as a child, but what I have learned is, I need to go into Democrat circles, call myself an evangelical, and put up with the questions that come with it to get beyond the caricature of evangelicals and explain who we really are.”

_ Amy Sullivan, author of “The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats Are Closing the God Gap,” in an interview with ChristianityToday.com, speaking about how she and others are to blame for the conventional wisdom that it is impossible to be a Democrat and an evangelical.

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