c. 1997 Religion News Service

Pope to visit Sarajevo, possibly Lebanon

(RNS) The Vatican announced Wednesday (Jan. 22) that Pope John Paul II would realize his dream of praying in Sarajevo, possibly this spring, and said it is preparing the groundwork for a separate papal pilgrimage to Lebanon, which would mark the pope’s first visit to the Middle East.

Both visits could have dramatic political consequences for the Roman Catholic Church, which is seeking to regain its influence in the two regions that have been riven by war and religious enmity.

Catholic Church officials in Sarajevo said the papal visit for a “service of peace” is scheduled for April 12-13. No date was set for the Lebanon trip. A Vatican statement said a pastoral pilgrimage to Lebanon is “under consideration,” a phrase typically used when plans are in the works.

The Vatican routinely announces the dates of papal trips about one month before the visit.

In 1994, the pope was forced to cancel trips to Bosnia and Lebanon. A September visit to Sarajevo was scuttled when Serb forces said they would not guarantee his safety. The pope went ahead with an overnight visit to Zagreb. Last year he made a separate trip to Slovenia.

A terrorist attack on a Roman Catholic church in Lebanon forced the cancelation of a trip there in May 1994.

The pope’s troubles in Bosnia are not so much with the Muslim population as with Orthodox Christians, most of whom are Serbs and blame Rome for siding with Catholic-dominated Croatia during the war.

In 1992, the rump Yugoslav federation severed ties with the Vatican, citing the church’s bias in support of Croatia.

The pope, however, firmly laid the blame of the fighting with the Serbs, and it was not until February 1996 that relations were restored.

Since then, the pope has sought reconciliation with Orthodox Christians, even going so far as to use proceeds from his book, “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” for rebuilding efforts in Bosnian Serb-dominated areas.

Lebanon would offer a dramatic backdrop for the pope, who has sought for years to visit the country in an attempt to improve frayed relations between Christians and Muslims.

It would also give the pope a platform to continue trying to influence the Middle East peace process and possibly be a forerunner to other trips in the region. The pope has said he hopes to visit the holy sites of Damascus, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Church World Service calls for additional aid to North Korea

(RNS) Church World Service, the humanitarian relief arm of the National Council of Churches, has issued an appeal for $500,000 in donations to send aid to North Korea, where the United Nations says the food shortage will worsen considerably this year.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report obtained by the Reuter news agency Wednesday (Jan. 22) that two successive years of flooding in key agricultural areas coupled with North Korea’s inability to import food production materials have left the nation with far less food than it requires.

The net output of milled rice and corn available for 1996 and 1997 amounted to 2.84 million tons, short of the nation’s food requirements by 2 million tons, according to the FAO report.

In 1995 and 1996, Church World Service collected about $411,000 for North Korea, spending it on food, antibiotics, blankets, hospital supplies and rehydration tablets.

A 10-member NCC delegation headed by United Methodist Bishop Melvin G. Talbert arrived in North Korea on Tuesday (Jan. 21) to oversee the distribution of 670 tons of rice that Church World Service recently sent to the communist nation.

Church World Service is serving as the implementing agency for an international Christian relief effort to aid North Korea coordinated by Action of Churches Together (ACT). Church World Service said in a statement that North Korea’s 1997 food supply is expected to last only seven months, “so international aid is necessary.”

Scottish churches plan major gathering for Year of Faith

(RNS) Scotland’s mainstream churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, have launched a “Year of Faith” to honor two saints St. Columba and St. Ninian who played special roles in Scottish history.

The observance is scheduled to climax in November with a Scottish Christian Gathering in Glasgow that will bring together representatives of all the major churches in Scotland, including the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

But organizers said the gathering will not be the proposed ecumenical assembly called for in 1995 by Roman Catholic Cardinal Thomas Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow. And Winning has warned that church members should not expect too much of the gathering.

Bishop John McIndoe of the Church of Scotland, speaking Thursday (Jan. 16) at the kick-off of the Year of Faith in Dunblane, Scotland, said he would be “greatly disappointed” if the churches do not, over the coming year, make some progress toward intercommunion, the practice of taking Holy Communion at a church outside one’s denomination.

Winning, however, said it is “unfair” to ask Roman Catholics for intercommunion at this time. “I have no authority to say, `Yes, let it happen,”’ he said. “It’s a pain we all feel. I feel it particularly when I invite people from other churches to our celebrations: they can’t go to Communion.”

As in the United States, intercommunion between Protestants and Catholics is widely but unofficially practiced at the grassroots level.

Anglican Bishop Richard Holloway said it was his hope the Year of Faith would allow Christians to shed some of the burdens of past disputes that have blocked such practices as intercommunion.

“I hope and pray Christians in the third millennium will somehow start afresh, that God may give us a clean sheet on which to write a new story, a new song,” Holloway said. “It would be wonderful if we dropped all that (past) crap.”

The Year of Faith celebrates the 1,400th anniversary of the death of St. Columba, who carried Christianity into Scotland’s western Highlands, and the 1,600th anniversary of St. Ninian’s first mission in Galloway, Scotland.

First Byzantine-era cross containing wood found in Jerusalem

(RNS) Israeli archaeologists digging in Jerusalem have found a Byzantine-era cross, the first to be found containing wood parts that date to the fifth and sixth centuries.

However, reports that the find contained wood from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified were discounted by Israel’s Antiquities Authority, the Reuter news agency reported Wednesday (Jan. 22).

Officials said the newly found artifact, which is smaller than a hand, was found in the ruins of what was most likely a pilgrim’s inn situated just outside the Jaffa Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City. The area is currently the site of the Mamilla neighborhood construction project.

Rony Reich, a director of excavation for the antiquities authority, said many such crosses have been found during the Mamilla project but that this was the first one to have wood inlaid into a bronze form. All crosses previously were made of bronze or stone.

Vatican reiterates opposition to liberal drug laws

(RNS) The Vatican Tuesday (Jan. 21) criticized politicians who favor the legalization of marijuana or other street drugs.

Distinguishing between so-called hard drugs, such as heroin, and soft drugs, such as marijuana, is a “blind alley” and creates the impression that legalization implies moral acceptance, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council said.

“The behavior which leads to drug addiction has no possibility of being corrected if the products that reinforce such behavior itself are freely placed on the market,” the council said.

Pope John Paul II has long opposed any liberalization of drug laws. In reporting the council’s statement, the Associated Press said the remarks may have come in reaction to a suggestion made last fall by Italian politician Massimo D’Alema that soft drugs should be decriminalized.

Third euthanasia death reported in Australia

(RNS) A 69-year-old man suffering from terminal stomach cancer has become the third person to commit suicide under the Northern Territory of Australia’s controversial euthanasia law.

The man, whose identity was not divulged in accordance with his wish, died Monday (Jan. 20.) in Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory. Dr. Philip Nitchke, who also was present at the two previous legal suicides, assisted on the latest suicide as well, according to the Associated Press.

Death was achieved by the activation of computerized equipment that pumped lethal drugs into the man’s bloodstream.

Australia’s national parliament is considering legislation to overturn the Northern Territory law, passed in 1995 and the only one of it’s kind in Australia. Church groups have taken a lead role in opposing the legalization of euthanasia in the Northern Territory.

Quote of the day: Evangelist Billy Graham

(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham appeared on CNN’s “Larry King Live” Tuesday (Jan. 21). Asked by King if God had ever let him down, Graham immediately replied “never,” but said he has let God down many times:

“There were thousands of things that I’ve done wrong. … For example, I should be studying my Bible more. I should be praying more. I should be more loving to people and there are many people that I’ve passed by that I could have helped that I didn’t help. Maybe a smile I should have given someone on the street who looked down and out or put my arms around somebody and say `God loves you.”’

MJP END RNS

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