c. 2008 Religion News Service
Cardinal: John Paul II survived stabbing in 1982
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The late Pope John Paul II was stabbed by a priest in Portugal in 1982, almost one year to the day after the shooting attempt on his life in St. Peter’s Square, according to a new film.
The revelation appears in the film “Testimony,” which premiered Thursday evening (Oct. 16) in Rome, to an audience that included Pope Benedict XVI.
The stabbing occurred May 12, 1982, in Fatima, Portugal, when John Paul was attacked by an ultra-traditionalist Spanish priest, Juan Maria Fernandez Krohn, who opposed the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
John Paul was in Fatima on a pilgrimage to thank the Madonna of the famous shrine there for sparing his life after Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot him on May 13, 1981.
Until the appearance of the new film, which is based on a memoir by the late pontiff’s longtime secretary Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, it was believed that John Paul had escaped from the second attack unscathed.
“Today, I can say what up to now we have kept secret,” Dziwisz said in the film. “That priest wounded the Holy Father.”
Dziwisz said the attack left John Paul bloodied but able to continue with his normal activities.
According to a report by the Associated Press, Benedict pronounced himself “deeply moved” by the film, which he said “shows the humanity, the steadfast courage and finally John Paul’s suffering, faced until the end with the strength of a mountaineer and the patience of a humble servant of the Gospels.”
_ Francis X. Rocca
Episcopal priest sanctioned for professing to be a Muslim
(RNS) A Seattle Episcopal priest who claims to be both Christian and Muslim has been restricted from public ministry and will be defrocked unless she “reclaims” Christianity by next April, the Episcopal Church announced.
The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding has “abandoned” the Episcopal Church by formally joining a faith “not in communion” with the national church, according to a church committee.
Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, where Redding was ordained in 1984, affirmed the committee’s Sept. 30 decision. Redding will be automatically defrocked if she does not recant her Muslim faith by March 31, 2009, according to the Episcopal Church.
Wolf said she has been in dialogue with Redding since 2007 and is convinced the Seattle scholar did not make a “superficial decision” when she became a Muslim two years ago.
“However, I believe that Islam and Christianity have enough differences to make it impossible to adhere to them both with integrity,” Wolf said. “The church wants to be diverse and inclusive, but we’re decidedly Christian. We’re Christ-followers.”
Muslims do not believe Jesus was the son of God, nor that salvation can be attained through him.
Redding, who teaches at a Jesuit seminary in Seattle, according to Episcopal News Service, told ENS that “I do not believe the canons were written with this situation in mind. … My situation gives the church an opportunity to re-examine what it means to be in communion.”
_ Daniel Burke
Archbishop upset over `Religulous’ filming in N.J. church
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) A Roman Catholic priest has angered Newark Archbishop John J. Myers by letting comedian Bill Maher film part of his controversial movie “Religulous” inside his church.
James Goodness, a spokesman for the archbishop, said the Very Rev. Charles Grandstrand, 66, of Our Lady of Mercy in Park Ridge, apparently allowed Maher to film at the parish despite having been specifically told archdiocesan policy forbids any commercial filming on its property.
The archdiocese learned about two weeks ago that the movie, which derides organized religion across the board, included scenes filmed at Our Lady of Mercy.
In the scenes filmed at the church, Maher, a 52-year-old native of nearby River Vale, interviews his mother, Julie, and his sister, Kathy, about the family’s attendance there when he was a child.
Julie Maher, who died after the filming but before the movie opened Oct. 3, was Jewish, and talked about her late husband’s devotion to Catholicism.
Those scenes are not among the most inflammatory parts of the film, which targets religious beliefs, including literal interpretation of Scripture. Maher, for example, ridicules the doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus and the biblical account of the talking snake in the Garden of Eden. He challenges believers _ evangelical truck drivers, U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and a host of clergy _ about the supernatural elements of religious doctrine.
And while Catholics are less of a direct target in the film than evangelical Protestants, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has a movie-reviewing division, rated the movie “O” for offensive.
Grandstrand heads one of 26 administrative groups of archdiocesan churches. He was in Florida for a funeral this week and unavailable for comment. Goodness said the archdiocese would deal with any type of discipline of the priest in private, if it comes to that.
A spokesperson for HBO, which airs Maher’s weekly show, “Real Time,” said Maher would be unavailable to comment.
Goodness said the filmmakers misrepresented themselves when they first approached the church. The filmmakers claimed Maher wanted to present his mother with a gift on camera “because the church was such a big part of her life,” Goodness said, adding that they never said that the title of the film would combine the words “religion” and “ridiculous.”
_ Jeff Diamant
Judge: Can’t serve God with a lawsuit: His address is unlisted
(RNS) A judge has dismissed a Nebraska legislator’s lawsuit against God, saying the Almighty could not be served notice of the litigation.
“Given that this court finds that there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant, this action will be dismissed with prejudice,” wrote Douglas County District Court Judge Marlon Polk of Omaha, Neb., on Tuesday (Oct. 14).
State Sen. Ernie Chambers filed suit in 2007 to seek a permanent injunction against God, the Associated Press reported. He accused God of causing “widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants.”
Chambers has said he filed the suit to demonstrate that everyone _ rich or poor _ should have access to the court system.
The law school graduate who never took the bar exam questioned the judge’s ruling, the AP reported. “Since God knows everything, God has notice of this lawsuit,” Chambers said.
Chambers has 30 days to determine if he will appeal.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Latino Protestants swinging Democratic, survey shows
WASHINGTON (RNS) Latino Protestant voters appear to be swinging away from the Republican Party, a new poll shows, and immigration is a key factor.
The survey of 500 Latino Protestant registered voters found that 50.4 percent favored Democrat Barack Obama, while 33.6 percent favored Republican John McCain. Ten percent were undecided.
Those figures compare dramatically to post-election surveys that found President Bush won 63 percent of Latino Protestants in 2004 and 32 percent in 2000.
“This is a clear indication that the vote is indeed swinging dramatically from 2004 to 2008 but we’ll see on Election Day how things actually turn out,” said Katie Paris, a spokeswoman for Faith in Public Life, one of the co-sponsors of the poll.
Eighty percent of the Latino Protestants polled were self-identified “born-again” Christians and/or attended a congregation affiliated with an evangelical denomination.
The immigration issue factored significantly in the findings, ranking close to abortion as a priority issue for this segment of voters. While 75 percent said abortion was “extremely” or “very” important in determining their vote, 71 percent felt that way about immigration reform. A smaller percentage, 56 percent, said gay marriage was extremely or very important.
“The lack of immigration reform may very well determine the outcome of the election,” said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, a poll co-sponsor.
“Immigration is a profoundly religious issue for Hispanic evangelicals. We will vote our faith and we will vote our values.”
The poll also found that 83 percent of Latino Protestants said a candidate’s position on immigration is key in determining their vote this year. Three out of four respondents said their religious beliefs are important in influencing their views on immigration.
The poll of 500 Latino Protestant registered voters also was sponsored by the Jesse Miranda Center for Hispanic Leadership at Vanguard University, America’s Voice Education Fund and Gaston Espinosa, associate professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College. It was conducted by SDR Consulting in Atlanta and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Evangelical artist Ed Knippers
(RNS) “Some Christians tend to be orthodox in their theology but emotionally they are gnostics. They do not like that physical stuff. But we have an incarnational religion and you have to get past that. In art, we can come to grips with our physicality and human possibilities in our body. That’s all we have here.”
_ Washington-based evangelical artist Ed Knippers, quoted in The Washington Times about how his nude depictions of Mary Magdalene, Samson and Delilah have not always been welcomed in conservative circles.
KRE/PH END RNS
