c. 2008 Religion News Service
Bishop apologizes for girl’s abortion
(RNS) The Catholic bishop of Richmond, Va., has publicly apologized after a church-sponsored charity admitted that employees helped a teenage girl in its care receive an abortion.
In a statement published Monday (June 30) in the Catholic Virginian newspaper, Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo called the incident a “monumental tragedy.”
DiLorenzo called on Commonwealth Catholic Charities, the Richmond-based organization that provided foster care for the girl, to explain its actions, which broke sharply with church doctrine and prompted a federal investigation.
“I express my profound apology for the loss of the life of one of the most vulnerable among us, and I apologize for the profound embarrassment this has caused the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, and Catholics throughout the United States,” DiLorenzo said.
The Associated Press reported that the girl a 16-year-old undocumented immigrant from Guatemala; her identity was not released.
DiLorenzo also asked on the agency to more closely examine its policies to avoid such incidents in the future. An agency employee signed a consent form for the abortion, in accordance with a Virginia state law that requires parental consent for abortions for minors. Other staffers arranged transportation and helped the girl obtain contraceptives two months before the procedure, according to statement released by the organization June 19.
“Respect for the life of the unborn is a basic tenet of our Catholic faith and morality,” DiLorenzo said. “I would ask all of you to pray that we correct what needs correcting and strengthen areas that need strengthening so that Catholic Charities might continue their mission of service to those in need.”
According to a statement released by the agency Tuesday, the bishop was notified of the abortion the day before the scheduled procedure. Although DiLorenzo explicitly “forbid” the operation, which the Catholic church calls a mortal sin, the abortion continued as planned.
The agency said the abortion was not paid for by the organization or the diocese. The Associated Press reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began an investigation in June to determine whether federal funds given to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were improperly appropriated for the procedure.
_ Tim Murphy
Gays cry foul as Vitter, Craig sponsor marriage amendment
WASHINGTON (RNS) U.S. Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, have signed on as co-sponsors of a proposed Marriage Protection Act that would amend the constitution to ban same-sex marriages.
Some groups that support gay marriage charged that Vitter, whose number had appeared on the phone list for a Washington prostitution service, and Craig, who was arrested last year for lewd conduct in the men’s bathroom at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, were engaging in hypocrisy.
But Vitter, who has backed legislation against gay marriage since first being elected to the House in 1999, said he will not walk away from his beliefs.
“I strongly oppose attempts by liberal judges to redefine marriage, and so do a very large majority of Louisianans,” Vitter said. “As I’ve said, I am deeply remorseful over having sinned in my past. But I don’t think walking away from my beliefs is the way to make up for that.”
Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, a New York City advocacy group for gay rights, said that it is ironic that the Marriage Protection Act is co-sponsored by two senators who did not honor their own marriages.
“These two senators in some ways are perfect spokespeople for this cause because they are showing the same contempt for the Constitution that they showed for their own marriages,” Wolfson said.
Craig could not be reached for comment.
The bill’s sponsor is Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who introduced the proposed amendment on June 25 after the California Supreme Court overturned a statewide ban on same-sex marriage and allows gay and lesbian couples to wed.
Wicker, a freshman senator, said 19 states have passed laws and 26 states amended their constitutions to “protect traditional marriage.”
“Rather than giving unelected activist judges the opportunity to legislate from the bench, this amendment will reaffirm what most Americans believe _ marriage is between a man and a woman,” Wicker said.
To amend the Constitution, a proposed amendment must be approved by a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate, and then ratified by the state legislatures of three-fourths of the states, which would be 38.
In addition to Vitter and Craig, also co-sponsoring the proposed amendment are Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.; Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Pat Roberts, R-Kan.; Richard Shelby, R-Ala.; and John Thune, R-S.D.
_ Bruce Alpert
Father Damien cleared for sainthood
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The unofficial patron saint of those with HIV/AIDS is on the verge of canonization, after Pope Benedict XVI authorized a decree attributing a second miracle to his intercession, the Vatican announced Thursday (July 3).
The Rev. Damien de Veuster, a Belgian priest known as “Father Damien” who spent more than 15 years caring for lepers on the island of Molokai, Hawaii, died there of leprosy in 1889.
Pope John Paul II declared Damien “Blessed” in 1995, after recognizing as miraculous the cure of a French nun who had prayed to the late priest only a few years after his death. A second miracle, occurring after beatification, was required for his canonization as a saint.
In April, Honolulu Bishop Clarence (Larry) Silva confirmed that theologians advising the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints had recognized as miraculous a Hawaiian woman’s recovery from lung cancer after she prayed for Damien’s intercession. The case was the subject of an article in the Hawaii Medical Journal in 2000.
The miracle was then approved by the congregation and finally by Pope Benedict. Damien’s canonization still requires a papal bull calling for his veneration as a saint.
Statues of Damien, who is also considered the patron saint of Hawaii, stand in both the U.S. Capitol in Washington and the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu.
_ Francis X. Rocca
Report: Religious giving tops $100 billion in 2007
(RNS) Giving to religious charities and congregations passed the $100 billion mark for the first time in 2007, according to a recent report by the Giving USA Foundation.
Giving to religious groups increased 4.7 percent, bringing the total to $102.32 billion. Overall giving to charitable causes reached $306.39 billion in 2007, a 3.9 percent increase from 2006.
The report, released June 23, shows that donations to religious causes accounted for half of all individual charitable giving. Three-quarters of all giving in the U.S. came from individual donations to charity, the report said.
Del Martin, chair of the Giving USA Foundation, said, “And what you can’t forget is that the `little guys,’ the families most affected by the economy, kept on giving despite any worries they might have about their personal situations.”
Charitable giving consistently represents 2.3 percent of the average American’s disposable income year-to-year, a figure that held up in 2007, according to the report.
The report, conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, analyzed eight charity sub-sectors _ Arts/Culture/Humanities, Education, Environment/Animals, Health, Human Services, Public-Society Benefit, International Affairs, and Religion. Each saw individual increases last year, according to inflation-adjusted estimates.
Though not considered public charities, community and private foundations saw a decrease in giving last year, the report noted.
Researchers asked charities in the Public-Society Benefit category if they were worried that giving to political campaigns during the 2008 election year would hurt charitable donations. Groups reported back they are more concerned about the lagging economy and volatile stock market.
Presidential campaigns in 2007 raised $580 million, according to the Federal Election Commission, a mere one-quarter of 1 percent of the $306 billion raised for charity.
_ Ashly McGlone
Christian groups to deliver food to North Korea
(RNS) A partnership that includes several Christian organizations has reached an agreement with North Korea to deliver strictly monitored food aid to counter the communist country’s severe crop shortage.
The five non-governmental organizations forming the partnership _ World Vision, Mercy Corps, Samaritan’s Purse, Global Resource Services and Christian Friends of Korea _ have a decade or more experience working in North Korea.
The food assistance comes after an assessment of areas devastated by flooding last August. Ken Isaacs, vice president of program and government relations at Samaritan’s Purse, said the partnership has been allowed “unprecedented access.”
Sixteen representatives from the five NGOs will be living in North Korea to monitor food distribution.
The aid is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, and is part of a larger agreement expected to reach more than 5 million people.
In late June the White House moved to take North Korea off its list of state sponsors of terrorism after Pyongyang delivered an outline of its nuclear programs.
David Snider, press director for USAID, said the agreement was not linked to the White House move.
“We are involved in humanitarian assistance. The U.S. government makes a clear distinction between humanitarian assistance and security issues, which are handled by the State Department,” Snider said.
_ Ashly McGlone
Birmingham named most generous city in America
(RNS) Birmingham, Ala., ranks as the most generous city in America, according to a study that measured percentage of household income given to charity in 60 metropolitan areas.
Birmingham-area residents give 3.6 percent of their household income to charity, just ahead of several other Southern cities, the study said. Memphis, Tenn., was second at 3.4 percent and Columbia, S.C., was third with 3.2 percent.
The study was done by the Tijeras Foundation in Albuquerque, N.M., a city that incidentally ranked fourth from the bottom, ahead of just San Antonio, Pittsburgh and Tampa, Fla. The foundation supports church organizations, including help with fund raising and financial management skills.
The foundation’s study attempted to establish a benchmark for generosity and identify factors that make some communities more generous than others.
The initiative, called Generous Communities, aims to increase community generosity. In Albuquerque, the Tijeras Foundation has helped more than 600 people attend a six-week stewardship program.
The study found factors that appear to correlate to higher levels of generosity: Generous communities have a higher percentage of evangelical Christians, married couples, entrepreneurs and African-Americans.
In Birmingham, people who deal with charity already knew about the city’s high level of giving.
“It doesn’t come as a surprise to us,” said Drew Langloh, president of United Way of Central Alabama.
_ Greg Garrison
Grassley: Some investigated ministries making changes
WASHINGTON (RNS) Ministries headed by evangelists Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn are both changing the way they operate even as a Senate probe into alleged lavish spending by six prominent ministries continues, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Monday (July 7).
“Both Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn have indicated that they are instituting reforms without waiting for the committee to complete its review,” said Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, in an update on the investigation he began last year.
“Self-reform can be faster and more effective than government regulation.”
Roby Walker, a spokesman for Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Mo., confirmed that changes are being made but could not release details on Tuesday.
Don Price, a spokesman for Benny Hinn Ministries in Grapevine, Texas, also declined to comment in detail but said “reforms and improved governance practices” were being shared with Grassley’s office.
Grassley’s update noted instances of “whistleblower intimidation” where former employees “have received phone calls reminding them of their confidentiality agreements and threatening lawsuits if the agreements are breached.”
Jill Gerber, a spokeswoman for the committee, would not disclose which ministries were involved in such calls, and declined to elaborate on the changes planned at Hinn’s and Meyer’s ministries.
Grassley’s update described the responses from Hinn and Meyer as “in good faith and substantively informative,” but said the others are “incomplete” or “not responsive.”
Broadcaster Kenneth Copeland has reportedly said his Texas-based ministry will not respond even if a subpoena is issued. Grassley’s memo said staffers are “consulting with Senate attorneys about next steps.”
In other cases, staffers continue to contact ministry lawyers and officials in hopes of further cooperation.
“Sen. Grassley still very much wants to avoid subpoenas and hopes that those ministries will agree that subpoenas would be an unnecessary step,” Gerber said.
The other ministries under investigation are: Bishop Eddie Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga.; Creflo Dollar Ministries in College Park, Ga., and Randy and Paula White, who co-pastored Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Catholic bishops reject changes to Mass prayers
WASHINGTON (RNS) The nation’s Catholic bishops have rejected a new translation of Mass prayers, a rare instance of U.S. prelates denying a Vatican-ordered liturgical change.
While ballots are still coming in, it’s clear they won’t add up to the 166 needed to pass the new translation, said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. A two-thirds majority of the USCCB’s Latin rite bishops is required for approval.
Walsh said she could not recall another instance in which the U.S. bishops have rejected a full document of Vatican translations, though they have at times tinkered with individual phrases and words.
At the bishops’ semi-annual meeting in June, several prelates said the newly translated prayers, traditionally spoken by priests at Mass, were stilted and incomprehensible. One called them a “linguistic swamp.”
After an inconclusive vote at the bishops’ meeting in Orlando, Fla., the bishops not present at the gathering were asked to vote by mail.
Known as the “Proper of Seasons,” the prayers are said on Sundays, Holy Days and during liturgical seasons such as Lent, and change from day to day. Examples include the opening prayer, prayers said over the bread and wine, and prayer after Communion.
The late Pope John Paul II ordered the new translations to increase fidelity to the original Latin. Some Vatican liturgists say the church moved too quickly _ and sloppily _ in translating the Mass into local languages after the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.
The rejected translation will come up again, with amendments, at the USCCB’s next meeting in November, Walsh said.
The bishops have already approved one section of new Mass translations, including many prayers spoken by lay Catholics for a generation, despite the objections of a vocal minority.
Ten more sections of the Mass remain to be approved and implementation is likely several years away, according to USCCB officials.
_ Daniel Burke
Retired Methodist clergy offer to bless gay marriages
(RNS) Adding fuel to the growing controversy over gay marriage in California, a group of retired United Methodist clergy has volunteered to perform same-sex marriages, a move that conservatives call a “surrender to popular fashion.“
“These retired clergy are turning their backs on 2,000 years of church beliefs and practice as well as the United Methodist Discipline they agreed to uphold as part of their ordination vows,” Mark Tooley, executive director of United Methodist Action, said in a statement.
At the church’s California-Nevada Conference’s annual meeting last month, 82 retired clergy volunteered to perform same-sex marriages, which became legal in California on June 16. Methodist rules restrict clergy from presiding over such marriages.
“We choose to follow the tradition of our church for full inclusion of the people to whom we minister,” said the Rev. Don Fado, a retired minister from Sacramento, who led the clergy’s efforts.
The retired clergy offered their services as stand-ins for active ministers who could be punished or even defrocked for taking part, Fado said, although he viewed such a scenario as unlikely.
Prior to the meeting, Bishop Beverly J. Shamana had encouraged ministers to be “prayerful and discerning” about participating in such ceremonies, and cautioned ministers that they could face discipline for participating.
UMAction, which opposes same-sex marriage, criticized the clergy’s offer as a betrayal of Methodist values, and said the move reflected a larger problem within the United Methodist Church.
“As failed clergy of dying churches, they are attempting to jump on the latest fad,” Tooley said. “Trying to seem relevant, they instead look silly.“
“I do not call ministering to the marginalized and the people rejected by society as a fad,” Fado said in response. “It is rooted in the ministry of Jesus.”
_ Tim Murphy
Quote of the Week: Clergy sex abuse victim Randy Becker of Colorado
(RNS) “I still have faith in Jesus Christ, but I’ve really totally lost my faith in the Catholic Church.”
_ Randy Becker of Colorado, who alleges he was molested by a Catholic priest, commenting to The New York Times after the Archdiocese of Denver agreed to pay $5.5 million to settle 16 abuse lawsuits.
KRE DS END RNS
