c. 2008 Religion News Service

Protestants object to rosaries in Anglican cathedral

LONDON (RNS) The dean of the Anglican St. Patrick’s cathedral in Dublin says his church will continue selling rosary beads despite opposition from Protestants in neighboring Northern Ireland who claim it should not peddle “things that are Roman Catholic.”

The Very Rev. Robert MacCarthy told the Belfast Telegraph newspaper that the cathedral has been selling rosary beads for 37 years and the business is now worth more than $100,000 a year.

Wallace Thompson, secretary of the Northern Ireland-based Evangelical Protestant Society, insists that “in a Protestant church, I don’t think they should be selling things that are Roman Catholic.”

A Protestant church such as St. Patrick’s, he said, “should stock Protestant literature, not things like that.”

The Evangelical Protestant Society, which claims around 3,000 supporters, is one of the most hard-line anti-Catholic organizations operating in Northern Ireland _ a province where religious fervor and politics have often proved a turbulent mix.

MacCarthy said his cathedral gets “about two letters a year” objecting to its sale of rosary beads, and those are “usually from Northern Ireland,” which has a predominantly Protestant population.

The dean also said St. Patrick’s gets about 320,000 visitors a year, and that “if a large number of those want to use rosaries as visual aids in their prayers, we’re delighted.”

Thompson, who raised his objection to the beads after a recent visit to the Dublin cathedral, is also a member of the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest political party in the province, and is an adviser to the Northern Ireland Executive, which governs it.

_ Al Webb

Jesuit leader downplays reports of tensions with Vatican

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The newly elected leader of the Jesuits, the Catholic Church’s largest religious order, dismissed speculation about tensions with the Vatican, likening their relationship to a strong though sometimes turbulent marriage.

The Rev. Adolfo Nicolas, superior general of the Society of Jesus, made the remarks Friday (Jan. 25) at a press briefing in the order’s headquarters in Rome. It was his first press conference since his election Jan. 19 as the 30th leader in the Jesuits’ 468-year history.

Nicolas remarked on the quantity of news coverage that had greeted his election, and characterized some stories as “not so helpful.” He complained in particular about reports of a supposed “antithesis” between the Jesuits and the Holy See, which he dismissed as an “artificial impression created from outside.”

“The Society of Jesus has always been, from the beginning, and continues to be in communion with the Holy Father, and we are happy to be so,” Nicolas said. “Sometimes we have difficulties, but this is normal. If you are married, you know what I am talking about.”

Jesuits take a unique vow of obedience to the pontiff, which over the centuries has earned them the nickname of the “pope’s light cavalry.” But in recent years, the Vatican has censured several Jesuit theologians for deviations from orthodoxy on such matters as the uniqueness of the Catholic Church and the compatibility of Christianity with the teachings of Karl Marx.

Earlier this month, at the opening of the Jesuit meeting that elected Nicolas, the Vatican cardinal in charge of religious orders delivered a homily that expressed “sorrow and anxiety” over the unwillingness of “some members of religious families” to “think with the church” and obey the hierarchy.

Then Pope Benedict XVI himself, in a letter to Nicolas’ retiring predecessor, asked the Jesuits to reaffirm their “total adhesion to Catholic doctrine, in particular on those neuralgic points which today are strongly attacked by secular culture,” including “the relationship between Christ and religions, some aspects of the theology of liberation,” divorce and homosexuality.

_ Francis X. Rocca

Quote of the Day: Dave Lewis, Presbyterian pastor in Shawnee, Okla.

(RNS) “What do I do? Do I go up to them and say, `Can I see your documents before I give you free spaghetti?’ It negates Matthew 25, where Jesus says, `What you do for the least of these, you do for me.”’

_ Dave Lewis, a Presbyterian Church (USA) pastor in Shawnee, Okla., about the state’s new immigration law, which makes it a felony to knowingly shelter or transport illegal immigrants. He was quoted by the Presbyterian Outlook.

KRE/PH END RNS