c. 1998 Religion News Service

Judge dismisses Orthodox lawsuit against Yale University

(RNS) A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Yale University by four Orthodox Jewish students who said the school’s housing policy violated their religious requirements of chastity and modesty.

But U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello in Hartford, Conn., ruled Yale’s policy did not interfere with the students’ rights to practice their religion nor does it violate federal housing or antitrust laws, the Associated Press reported.

At issue is Yale’s requirement that freshmen and sophomores live on campus unless they are married or over age 21. Freshmen live in dorms where the sexes are divided by floors; sophomores live in single-sex suites with men and women sharing floors and sometimes sharing the same bathrooms.

Citing their religious convictions, the four students sought a court order to exempt them from the housing requirement and to get Yale to refund dorm fees they had paid while actually living of campus. They also wanted Yale’s policy ruled illegal and sought unspecified damages and attorney’s fees.

But in issuing his ruling July 31, which was made public Friday (Aug. 7) when the students announced their intention to appeal, Covello said,”The plaintiffs could have opted to attend a different college or university if they were not satisfied with Yale’s housing policy.” Originally, five students sued the university but one was excused from the residency requirement when she announced plans to marry.

Update: Nearly 8,000 attend anniversary Mass for paralyzed girl

(RNS) About 8,000 people attended a Roman Catholic worship service in Worcester, Mass., Sunday (Aug. 9) honoring a 14-year-old girl who nearly died 11 years ago and who has reputedly been connected to miracles.

The girl, Audrey Santo, attended the four-hour anniversary Mass at the Holy Cross College stadium, laying in a bed in a bullet-proof, air-conditioned house that was built by the same man who designed the popemobile that Pope John Paul II uses during public events. She has akinetic mutism, a rare disorder that has paralyzed her and limited her physical activity to moving her eyes and occasionally wiggling a finger.

The thousands assembled in the stadium recited the rosary, celebrated Mass and filed by Santo’s shelter to look at her through a window, the Associated Press reported. She was attended by a nurse throughout the service.

Santo became popular after reports spread that blood dripped from communion wafers at her bedside, nearby religious statues wept and scourging marks similar to those of Jesus appeared on her hands, feet and side.

Since the reports of miracles followed Audrey’s near-drowning in 1987, people have come from around the world to pray near her, some hoping for a cure for their own sicknesses.

Although dozens take part in a weekly service in a makeshift chapel in the Santos’ Worcester home, the anniversary Mass held at a church last year drew more than 5,000. This year, Audrey’s parents decided to rent the stadium, which holds 23,000.

ELCA missionary murdered in Nigeria

(RNS) A missionary with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was murdered Friday (Aug. 7) in an apparent robbery-related attack outside Jos, Nigeria.

The Rev. Robert E. Wandersee, 46, was killed when the car he was driving was showered with bullets. Two lay evangelists with the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, who were passengers in the car at the time of the attack, have not been located, the ELCA News reported.

Wandersee, secretary of the Joint Christian Ministry for West Africa, an ecumenical agency working among the Fulani people in seven countries, began serving in Jos in 1992.”Bob Wandersee brought creativity, sincerity, and humor to his life and work in West Africa,”said the Rev. Daniel W. Olson of the ELCA’s Division for Global Mission.”He was greatly loved and appreciated by African colleagues for his humble spirit and dedication to proclaiming the gospel …” Before going to Nigeria, Wandersee served for six years in Madagascar. Before that, he worked at Camp Koinonia in Highland Lake, N.Y. He was ordained in 1980 and graduated from Northwestern Seminary (now Luther Seminary) in St. Paul, Minn.

Update: More crosses placed at Auschwitz

(RNS) Defying Jewish calls for the removal of dozens of crosses just outside the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, militant Roman Catholics erected five new ones at the disputed site over the weekend.

The new crosses were put up despite protests last week from the Israeli government and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

The site has been a center of dispute since 1988, when a 26-foot cross was erected to commemorate Pope John Paul II’s 1979 papal Mass there. A group of Catholic conservatives, inspired by a Catholic radio station and led by a former Solidarity activist and author of allegedly anti-Semitic pamphlets, has vowed to erect 152 crosses _ one for each of the 152 Poles executed at the site by the Nazis, the Associated Press reported Sunday (Aug. 9). More than 1 million Jews were executed at Auschwitz.

While the Polish government has criticized what it calls the”initiatives of a few irresponsible persons,”it has also said it lacks the authority to remove the crosses because the property is privately owned and the placement of religious symbols is up to the Roman Catholic Church.

Church leaders are expected to meet Aug. 26 in an effort to find a solution.

Leader of Satmar Hasidic community dies

(RNS) Rabbi Leibish Lefkowitz, a leader of the Satmar Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel, N.Y., died Aug 1. He was 78.

Lefkowitz, who was never ordained but given the title rabbi as a mark of respect in the ultra-Orthodox Satmar community, died from pneumonia after suffering a stroke seven months ago, the Associated Press reported.

A key aide to the movement’s founder, Lefkowitz help found Kiryas Joel, the 12,000-member village north of New York City that has been embroiled for years in a church-state fight to establish a distinct school district so the community can control the special education needs of its students and qualify for state aid.

Lefkowitz was Kiryas Joel’s first mayor.

Quote of the Day: Phyllis Ten Elshof, editor of Your Church magazine

(RNS)”A church that I know sweated out summers because it felt a higher call to invest in missions rather than air conditioning. Now it’s confronted with the expense of replacing warped hymnals and a mildewed sanctuary. Plus installing air conditioning, of course.” _ Phyllis Ten Elshof, editor of Your Church magazine, writing in the September/October issue about the need for congregations to find a balance between sacrificial outreach and extravagance.

DEA END RNS