c. 1996 Religion News Service

Researcher finds changed attitudes on Roman Catholic priesthood

(RNS)-Support for a married clergy and women priests has grown among Roman Catholic parishioners over the past three years, while support for the teaching authority of the pope has declined, according to the Rev. Thomas P. Sweetser, co-director of the Parish Evaluation Project.

Writing in the Feb. 17 issue of America magazine, the Jesuit journal, Sweetser said 61 percent of Roman Catholic parishioners favor allowing priests to marry and still do their ministry, up 13 percent since 1992.

The same trend is apparent in reaction to women priests, he wrote. In 1992, just 29 percent of those surveyed favored allowing women to be ordained. In 1995, the figure was 42 percent.”Rome’s call for a halt to the discussion of this issue seems to have fanned the flame for change ever more,”he wrote of ordaining women.

As for the teaching authority of the pope, Sweetser said that in 1992, 30 percent agreed with the statement that”Catholics should follow the teachings of the pope and not take it upon themselves to decide differently.”In 1995, the figure dropped to 25 percent.

Sweetser’s survey was based on a sample of 3,000 parishioners across the country and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent.

The Parish Evaluation Project, a consulting agency based in Des Plaines, Ill., is affiliated with the U.S. Catholic Conference. It provides resources and training for parishes in transition. It has been tracking Catholic parishioners’ attitudes on a variety of issues for 23 years.

Cambodian monk, Russian soldiers’ mothers are among Nobel peace nominees

(RNS)-Maha Ghosananda, the Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism and sometimes called the”Gandhi of Cambodia,”has been nominated by the American Friends Service Committee for a Nobel Peace Prize.”As a deeply committed Buddhist, Maha Ghosananda embodies the spirit of nonviolence and compassion, and has spent most of his life in untiring, dedicated effort to nurture peacefulness by example, word and by deed,”Kara Newell, executive director of the Quaker-based aid and relief agency said in her nominating letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Ghosananda was born in Cambodia in 1924 and became a monk at age 14. After the expulsion of the Khmer Rouge from Cambodia in 1979, Ghosananda took an active role in building peace in Cambodia by sponsoring training programs for human rights advocacy and nonviolent conflict resolution.

Any past recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize can make a nomination, but such a nomination does not ensure the candidate will even be considered by the secretive Nobel committee nor that its choice will come from among those nominated. The committee announces its winner in mid-October.

The AFSC is entitled to make a nomination because it was awarded the prize in 1947 for its humanitarian aid and reconciliation program in post-war Europe.

The International Peace Bureau (IPB), which won the Nobel prize in 1910, said last week it has nominated the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia (CSMR) for the 1996 Peace Prize.”This group has been consistent, imaginative and courageous in their opposition to the slaughter in the brutal war in Chechnya,”the Geneva-based IPB said in a statement.

The CSMR, founded in 1989, has collected statements from mothers opposed to the war, organized demonstrations and meetings, and lobbied the government. It has also brought women to Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, to demand the return of their sons, to bury soldiers, to share their sorrow with Chechen mothers and to negotiate the release of Russian soldiers being held by Chechen forces, the IPB said.

Last week, Nobel Institute director Geir Lundestad told NTB, the Norwegian news agency, that a total 108 nominations had been received. Of those, 84 were individuals and 24 were groups or organizations.

The 1995 peace laureates were anti-nuclear activist Joseph Rotblat and his Pugwash organization.

Sin book named Christianity Today’s 1996″Book of the Year” (RNS)-“Not the Way It’s Supposed To Be: A Breviary of Sin,”Cornelius Plantinga Jr.’s call for frankly pinning the label sin on the scandals, fraud, corruption and violence that beset contemporary America, has been named 1996 Book of the Year by Christianity Today magazine.

Plantinga’s book, published by Eerdmans, argues that Americans aren’t willing to use the word sin when describing wrongdoing. Plantinga is a professor of systematic theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Mich.”Evangelicals and Catholics Together: Toward a Common Mission”(Word Books), edited by Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus, came in second. The book is a collection of essays examining the possibility of Roman Catholics and evangelicals cooperating on such issues as abortion despite theological differences.

Rounding out the top five were: Alistair McGrath’s”Evangelicalism and the Future of Christianity”(Word); Phillip Johnson’s”Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law, and Education”(InterVarsity); and Ben Witherington’s”The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth”(InterVarsity).

Supreme Court allows Ten Commandments statue to stay in park

(RNS)-The Supreme Court, without comment, Tuesday (Feb. 20) allowed Colorado to keep a monument engraved with the Ten Commandments in a public park near the state Capitol.

The High Court turned down an appeal by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Madison, Wis., church-state separation group, and its Colorado chapter, that argued the monument violates the separation of church and state.

In addition to the Ten Commandments, the three-foot by four-foot statue also includes the phrase”I Am the Lord thy God,”two Stars of David, an American flag and a bald eagle.”The Supreme Court today exercised judicial wisdom with this decision,”said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal group founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.

Sekulow said the ruling is”in tune with the consensus of people of faith who are tired of being marginalized in an increasingly secular society.” But Barry Lynn, of the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticized the High Court’s action.”If the Ten Commandments doesn’t send a religious message, what does?”he asked.”Such religious pronouncements belong at houses of worship, not the seat of government.”

Quote of the Day:

The Rev. Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, in a statement issued in Geneva, Switzerland, marking the 450th anniversary of the Feb. 18, 1546, death of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, spoke of Luther’s relevance to the ongoing efforts to unify all Christian denominations:”Luther’s decisive Reformation insight was the rediscovery of the gospel as a salvific and liberating force through which God rights our life. … In learning to understand faith as the human response to the good news of the gospel, Luther also developed a new view of the church and its unity.”Of course, we always have this treasure of the gospel only in `earthen vessels,’ that is in the multi-voiced texture of human responses. It therefore remains a never-ending task to seek the `unity in the spirit through the bond of peace.’ But Luther’s rediscovery of the gospel has given this search a clear direction. Therein lies his abiding ecumenical significance.”

MJP END