c. 2005 Religion News Service
Editors who receive Reuters photo feed: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a Reuters photo of the tomb to accompany this first story.
Mourners Pray at Pope’s Tomb, Buy `Vacant See’ Stamps
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Mourners began lining up before dawn Wednesday (April 13) for the chance to pray for a few brief minutes at the tomb of Pope John Paul II, who is buried in the grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica near what are believed to be the remains of the apostle St. Peter.
The line began forming at about 5 a.m., two hours before the doors leading to the grottoes reopened to the public for the first time since John Paul’s funeral Friday (April 8). At midday, Vatican police officers reported a 30-minute wait.
Thousands more waited even longer outside the Vatican Post Offices to buy “sede vacante (vacant see)” stamps. Because the stamps are issued only between the death of a pope and the election of his successor and in limited numbers, they immediately become collectors’ items.
The crowds were large but only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands who waited for up to 18 hours last week to see the pope lying in state in the basilica. Vatican officials, in a revised estimate, said that some 3 million pilgrims _ a number almost equal to the population of Rome _ descended on the city between John Paul’s death April 2 and his funeral.
The grottoes where the pope is buried fill a space between the ancient basilica built by the Emperor Constantine after he converted to Christianity in the early fourth century and Michelangelo’s Renaissance basilica. They house the remains of popes, saints, Catholic royalty and early Christian martyrs.
John Paul’s neighbors include St. Peter, the first pope; his immediate predecessors, John Paul I and Paul VI; and two Catholic queens, Christina of Sweden, who died in 1689, and Carlotta of Cyprus, who died in 1487.
John Paul II was buried in a simple coffin of reddish cypress, which was then encased in layers of zinc and walnut and, as he had requested, lowered into the bare earth and covered with a slab of white Carrara marble. Etched into the marble in gold are a cross, his name in Latin and the dates of his papacy.
At the foot of the tomb a votive candle flickers, and at its head stands a large plant with long, pointed leaves and lily-like white flowers called a Spathiphyllum wallisii but better and more aptly known as a prayer plant. A relief of the Madonna and Child hangs on the far wall.
_ Peggy Polk
Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a photo of Fitzgerald to accompany the following story.
Vatican Official Downplays Role of Islam as Major Issue for Next Pope
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A high-ranking Vatican official said that contrary to conventional wisdom, the next pope will not likely be preoccupied by the church’s relationship with Islam and Muslims around the world.
Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said the “question of Islam” will eventually need to be dealt with, but will not likely be No. 1 on the next pope’s agenda.
“I can’t imagine the person who is elected pope is going to go to sleep … and wake up the next morning and say, `What am I going to do about Islam?”’ Fitzgerald told reporters at a conference at the Pontifical North American College on Monday (April 11). “I don’t think it’s going to be the first issue.”
Several church observers, including papal biographer George Weigel, have said whoever is elected pope must confront the growth of Islam in Africa and Europe as a top priority. Indeed, one of the frequently mentioned contenders to be elected pope is Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, the former prefect of Fitzgerald’s agency.
The election of the next pope will begin Monday (April 18) when 115 cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel for the first of what is expected to be several rounds of balloting.
Fitzgerald said the new pope will face the larger issue of how the Catholic Church relates to other faiths and cultures in a pluralistic world. He said the next pope will also need to confront the growth of fundamentalist, militant Islam on the global stage.
“Fundamentalist Islam is as much a problem for Muslims as it is for us,” he said. “It’s a question that they must face as well.”
The next pope will face life in the shadow of John Paul II, who made interfaith understanding a top priority, with overtures to Jews and less concrete measures toward Muslims. Another top official, the Rev. Augustine DiNoia, said Tuesday that interfaith relations almost certainly will top the next pope’s agenda.
“I don’t think you have to have a Ph.D. to figure that one out,” said DiNoia, an American who serves as undersecretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the enforcer of church teaching.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Religious Freedom Group to Sponsor `Day of Truth’ About Homosexuality
(RNS) A religious freedom group plans to respond to Wednesday’s (April 13) “Day of Silence” supporting gay and lesbian students with a Thursday “Day of Truth” offering an opposing perspective on homosexuality.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., religious freedom organization sponsoring the Day of Truth, is encouraging students to wear T-shirts and pass out cards declaring they are “speaking the truth to break the silence,” the fund said in a statement on its Web site.
Finn Laursen, executive director of the Christian Educators Association International, based in Pasadena, Calif., threw his weight behind the Day of Truth initiative in a statement April 5.
“If special interest groups continue to push the homosexual agenda on impressionable youth, we must be sure the whole truth is told,” Laursen said.
Laursen also spoke against the Day of Silence sponsored by the New York-based Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
He urged students and teachers to ignore their classmates participating in the Day of Silence, while telling administrators to punish students who “go beyond silence to insubordination,” he said.
“I would remind Christian students to treat all students kindly, with the love of Christ,” he said.
Riley Snorton, spokesperson for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, said an estimated 450,000 students in public and private schools participated in the Day of Silence on Wednesday (April 13).
The Day of Silence has been held annually since 1996, initiated and organized by the students in each school, said Snorton, to draw attention to the safety of gays and lesbians in schools. Bullying, harassment and violence affect all students, Snorton said.
“These are students that are looking to make their schools a better place,” Snorton said.
“People who do not support the Day of Silence often misunderstand the basic purpose of the day. Their response is based on mischaracterizations.”
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Religious Groups Oppose Asylum Restrictions That Bill Would Create
(RNS) A coalition of Christian and Jewish groups is opposing proposed legislation it says would turn away victims of religious persecution seeking safety in the U.S.
The coalition of 21 faith-based organizations released a report Tuesday (April 12) on the REAL ID Act and urged the Senate not to attach it to an emergency supplemental spending bill being debated in Congress.
The REAL ID Act passed in the House Feb. 10, attached to a spending bill. Supporters say it provides stronger safeguards against terrorists who would falsely apply for asylum.
The legislation would require immigrants seeking asylum to back up their testimony with documents and prove the main motivation of their tormentors. The bill also gives immigration officers and judges more power in reviewing asylum cases.
Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research of the Washington-based Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the changes would hurt those genuinely needing the safe haven of the United States to flee from persecution.
The bill’s restrictions “will only deny protection to people who have nowhere else to turn, who believe that the United States is a haven of peace for the oppressed, downtrodden and persecuted people of the world,” Duke said.
The Rev. Getaneh M. Getaneh, head of the McLean, Va.-based Watch and Pray International Ministries, also spoke against the changes to the asylum process.
After being imprisoned and tortured as a Christian by Ethiopia’s military regime in the 1970s, he said, he was granted asylum in the U.S. in 1998 after a four-year battle with the immigration system.
“In Ethiopia still there is persecution and still (U.S. officials) are not granting them asylum,” Getaneh said of other evangelical Christians in some areas of Ethiopia.
Other organizations endorsing the interfaith statement against the REAL ID Act were the New York-based American Jewish Committee, the Washington-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the Midland, Texas-based Midland Association of Churches.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Bill Burkert, Priest at Murderer’s Funeral
(RNS) “We’re here to remember a man who was tortured in his own mind and heart and who, although he caused the death of two good people, is still at God’s mercy.”
_ The Rev. Bill Burkert, the Catholic priest who conducted the Milwaukee graveside service Tuesday (April 12) for Bart Ross, 57, who shot himself to death after leaving a suicide note in which he confessed to the Feb. 28 fatal shootings of the husband and mother of a Chicago district judge. Burkert was quoted by The Associated Press.
MO/PH END RNS
