c. 2005 Religion News Service
Catholics Pray to Late Archbishop Fulton Sheen to Save Schiavo’s Life
(RNS) Supporters of the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen say his heavenly intervention in the case of a brain-damaged woman in Florida could be the miracle needed to move him one step closer to sainthood.
A grass-roots effort is under way to encourage prayers to Sheen, who died in 1979 and was best known for his popular television and radio shows in the 1950s, including “A Life Worth Living.”
Supporters say his divine intervention on behalf of Terri Schiavo could both save her life and speed up the process to make him the first male American-born saint (following St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Katharine Drexel). On Friday (March 18), Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed while Republicans in Congress mounted a dramatic, last-ditch legal effort to use the subpoena power of Congress to save her life.
The Sheen effort is led by the New York-based Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, with support by Priests for Life, the Archbishop Sheen Foundation, the Ascension Press publishing house and others.
“If it be according to your will, glorify your servant Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen by granting the favor I now request through his powerful intercession,” says a prayer posted on the Web site dedicated to Sheen’s cause for sainthood.
“Lord, grant that Terri Schiavo’s life be spared and grant her a healing that the world may know the value of every life.”
Schiavo has become a cause celeb among conservatives, garnering the support of Florida’s Catholic bishops, pro-life groups and some Vatican officials.
In 2000, the Vatican declared Sheen a “Servant of God” and opened the process for his possible canonization. In 2002, his native Diocese of Peoria, Ill., filed paperwork at the Vatican supporting his cause.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Pope Tells Priests to Sacrifice Freedom for Obedience to Bishops
VATICAN CITY (RNS) – Pope John Paul II told Catholic priests in a message for Holy Week issued Friday (March 18) that they must be prepared to obey their bishops even at the cost of sacrificing “a certain legitimate freedom.”
The pope addressed the world’s more than 450,000 priests in his annual Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday, the day on which the Catholic Church commemorates Jesus’ institution of the ministerial priesthood and the Eucharist at the Last Supper.
The Vatican, in keeping with custom, issued the letter in advance of Holy Thursday, which falls on March 24 this year.
The 84-year-old pontiff prepared the letter during his convalescence in Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital after surgery for severe breathing problems caused by influenza. He signed it on March 13 before leaving the hospital.
John Paul, who has proclaimed October 2004 to October 2005 the Church’s Year of the Eucharist, linked his message to the belief that the bread and wine of the Eucharist become the substance of Jesus’ body, blood, soul and divinity.
“My thoughts turn to you, dear priests, as I spend this time recuperating in hospital, a patient alongside other patients, uniting in the Eucharist my own sufferings with those of Christ,” the pope said.
When a priest celebrates the Eucharist he must try “to offer himself as a gift, placing himself at the disposal of the community and at the service of anyone in need,” he said.
John Paul said the “promise of obedience,” which priests make at their ordination and renew each Holy Thursday, is “illuminated by this relationship with Eucharist.”
_ Peggy Polk
Dell Reinstates 31 Muslim Employees Who Want to Pray at Work
(RNS) Thirty-one Muslim contract employees at a Dell Inc. plant in Nashville, Tenn., have been reinstated a month after they left work alleging that the company discriminated against them because of their need to pray at work.
The company, together with advocacy groups, announced Thursday (March 17) that a settlement between the workers and the world’s largest computer systems company had been reached. The settlement includes back pay for the employees and full reinstatement of their jobs, as well as provisions for religious accommodation.
Muslims are religiously required to pray five times a day, a practice that American Muslim workers must carry into the workplace with them.
But on Feb. 4, the group of Muslim assembly line workers says, they were told by their manager that if they wanted to continue to work at the plant, they would not be able to pray during work hours.
In protest, the group left their jobs. A Dell spokesman said they never were fired, but left “voluntarily as a result of a miscommunication about Dell’s religious accommodation practices.” Before the settlement, some employees had already returned to work, the company said.
In addition to reinstating the workers, the settlement provides that employees be granted paid time away from their work areas to pray, “as long as those requests are reasonable,” said a statement released by Dell, the contract employer Spherion Corp. and the Nashville Metro Human Rights Commission, which helped mediate the dispute.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based advocacy group, helped to broker the settlement.
“This settlement can be used as a model by other production facilities that employ large numbers of Muslim workers,” said Arsalan Iftikhar, the council’s legal director, who participated in the negotiations.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Ideological Rivals Agree on Bill to Protect Religious Freedom in Workplace
WASHINGTON (RNS) In a show of unity between rivals, Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., have joined with religious leaders to sponsor the Workplace Religious Freedom Act.
Some civil liberties groups strongly oppose the bill, claiming it would allow proselytizing at work, or permit pharmacists to deny emergency contraceptives to rape victims.
Wearing green ties for St. Patrick’s Day, Santorum and Kerry announced the reintroduction of the bill in the Senate Thursday (March 17). Joining them were several religious leaders, including James Standish of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
“No American should have to face the choice between practicing their faith or working at their job, it’s that simple,” said Kerry.
For example, he said, “It is wrong for a Catholic to lose their job because they don’t want to work on Christmas Day, and they could work out an arrangement in the workplace that is not disruptive.”
The legislation would prevent businesses from firing employees for their religious observances and allow “reasonable accommodations” for people of faith.
“We want to make sure that when people go to the workplace, it is a workplace that’s respectful of their traditions and of their beliefs,” Santorum said. “This is not one that elevates religion above all other rights.”
The Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote a letter to senators urging them to oppose the bill as drafted, saying it will not prevent abuse.
“No employee should gain a right … to discriminate against or harass other employees or third parties at American job sites, even if the employee wanting the accommodation is motivated by sincerely held religious beliefs,” Lynn said.
The American Civil Liberties Union often defends people whose religious rights have been violated, but opposes the bill as written, saying the measure would promote religious liberty at the expense of other freedoms, according to Christopher Anders, the organization’s legislative counsel.
“There are good reasons for the bill, such as helping schedule time off or wearing religious garb to work,” Anders said. “At the same time, we oppose having one person’s religious beliefs result in significant harm to other people’s civil rights and other people’s right to health care.”
Supporters say such concerns are unwarranted, and point to New York state’s similar law.
“I have the utmost respect for the ACLU, but on this issue they are simply wrong,” said Eliot Spitzer, the attorney general of New York.
A part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 already addresses the issue, and prohibits religious discrimination unless a business incurs an “undue hardship.”
Proponents of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act say the federal courts have whittled away at the 1964 law, leading to numerous suits by employees who claim their religious rights were violated in the workplace.
Similar legislation will be introduced in the House by Reps. Mark Souder, R-Ind., Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., Bobby Jindal, R-La., and Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.
_ Andrea James
ELCA Remains Torn Over Non-Celibate Gay Ministers
(RNS) Three advisory bodies for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America say they cannot allow churches to escape discipline if they violate church policy by ordaining actively gay clergy.
After a three-year study, a church task force on homosexuality proposed in January that the church maintain its policy against non-celibate gay clergy and keep intact a 1993 policy that prohibits the blessing of same-sex unions.
But the panel also recommended no discipline for churches who feel “conscience-bound” to break either rule.
The ELCA Conference of Bishops took up the issue at its March 3-7 meetings in Dallas and said it could not come to a definitive “yes” or “no” vote on the task force’s recommendation.
Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson told the bishops that allowing churches to abstain from discipline is “confusing” and “seems to lack integrity,” according to a church news release.
The 5.2 million-member church will officially decide whether to adopt the task force’s recommendations at the 2005 Churchwide Assembly in Orlando, Fla., in August.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Deportation Process Begins for Leader of Ohio’s Largest Mosque
CLEVELAND (RNS) A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of Fawaz Damra, a decision that will prompt federal prosecutors to begin deportation proceedings against the imam of Ohio’s largest mosque.
The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied all of Damra’s claims in a 17-page opinion released late Tuesday (March 15). Damra, 43, of Strongsville, Ohio, was convicted in June of lying on his immigration form and during an interview in 1993.
He failed to mention his work with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which opposes Israel’s existence, and the Alkifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where the imam knew other radicals. He came to the Islamic Center of Greater Cleveland in 1991.
U.S. District Judge James Gwin sentenced him to two months in prison and four months in home detention. He also stripped Damra’s citizenship but told prosecutors they could not begin deportation proceedings until after the appellate ruling.
Once in federal immigration court, it could be two or three years before the Palestinian-born Damra is forced from the country.
U.S. Attorney Gregory White said his office will wait for formal word from the appellate court, then push to have Damra deported.
“We’re going to move with all dispatch to make this happen,” White said. Damra’s immigration attorney, David Leopold, said he had not seen the ruling and could not comment. Damra’s attorneys said their client was never a member of the Islamic Jihad. They said prosecutors’ use of “affiliation” was ambiguous. His attorneys also said he never persecuted anyone.
Citing videotapes played at the trial in which Damra preached about the need to give money to kill Jews, the unanimous three-judge panel disagreed.
“There was a need for secrecy regarding support for the groups that Damra was involved with,” the court said. “These groups did not have dues-paying members or keep membership lists. … It is clear that Damra engaged in fund-raising activity for a terrorist organization.”
_ John Caniglia
Quote of the Day: Veteran Vatican Observer Orazio Petrosillo
(RNS) “I think we are entering a period where the pope is seen more than heard, and where his presence is felt more than he is seen. But to whatever extent he is seen or heard, there is little doubt that it will be with the help of modern technology.”
_ Orazio Petrosillo, a veteran Vatican observer who has written two books on the Roman Catholic Church. He was quoted by USA Today.
MO/RB END RNS
