c. 1999 Religion News Service
Cardinal Hume buried in London
(UNDATED) (RNS) Roman Catholic Cardinal Basil Hume, head of the church in England and Wales, was buried Friday (June 25) following a funeral Mass in which he was praised as an ecumenical pilgrim in overcoming religious divisions.
The two-hour funeral was broadcast live by BBC television and radio _ the first time it has been done for the funeral of a Catholic prelate _ and Queen Elizabeth was represented by the Duchess of Kent, herself a Roman Catholic convert.
Among the congregation of 2,000 in Westminster Cathedral were Prime Minister Tony Blair and other political leaders as well Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. Also present in the sanctuary were Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, his predecessor, the Rev. Robert Runcie, and Bishop Mark Santer of Birmingham, Anglican co-chairman of the Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission.
Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, was chief celebrant for the Mass.
Cassidy, noting the presence of the non-Catholic religious leaders, said it was”a mark of the love and affection in which Cardinal Hume was held by his fellow Christians.”He quoted Pope John Paul II’s tribute to Hume’s”sensitive and unflinching ecumenical commitment.” British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was forbidden by Jewish law from attending the Requiem Mass itself, but a room was set aside in Archbishop’s House for him and other Jewish leaders to watch it on television.
Sacks, who described Hume as”a true friend of the Jewish people”and”a towering figure in the moral landscape of Britain”paid his respects at the cardinal’s lying in state on Wednesday.
About 30,000 are estimated to have filed past the cardinal’s coffin.”In quite an extraordinary way it seems that everyone thought of him as a personal friend,”Bishop John Crowley said in his homily. He had been the cardinal’s secretary.”Without ever seeking it, he became a reassuring light for perhaps millions of people in this country and beyond,”Crowley said.
Among the sackfuls of letters engulfing Archbishop’s House after it was announced Hume had terminal cancer, Crowley said, were a considerable number beginning,”I am not a member of your church,”or”I am not a believer.””Each letter bore its own witness to a man of God who had touched people’s hearts in a remarkable way,”Crowley said.
He said the cardinal was also someone whose own heart had been broken open to share in God’s own compassion for others, especially those in pain.”His support for those driven to the margins of life was unremitting,”he said.
Religious freedom panel urges Clinton to raise Copt issue with Mubarak
(RNS) The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged President Clinton to raise the issue of”the difficult plight”of Egyptian Copts during his upcoming meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
At the same time, the Coptic leader in Cairo warned against”the interference of foreign countries”in Egypt’s internal affairs. Pope Shenouda, as he has done previously, also denied the existence of state-directed discrimination against Copts in Egypt.
Copts living outside Egypt say the discrimination is widespread and includes government restrictions on building churches, the subsidizing of anti-Copt media and the keeping of Copts out of senior government and military positions. Cairo denies the charges.
Mubarak is due to arrive in Washington Saturday (June 26) for a five-day visit, during which time he will meet with Clinton. The 10-member commission is charged with advising the White House and Congress on violations of religious freedom abroad.”The Coptic community is, according to reliable reporting by human rights groups, finding it increasingly difficult to practice its faith freely,”the commission said in a letter to Clinton released Thursday (June 24).”If the situation of Coptic Christians is raised with him at the highest levels of the U.S. Government, President Mubarak will understand how strongly millions of Americans care about these reported human rights violations and about the future of the largest Christian community in the Middle East.” About 10 percent of Egypt’s 61 million people are Copts, members of a church that was dominant in Egypt prior to Islam’s seventh-century arrival there. Coptic groups, particularly in the United States, have long maintained that the Mubarak government discriminates against Copts and other Christians to placate militant Muslims.
The Egyptian embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
Supreme Court rejects appeal on renting school for worship
(RNS) The Supreme Court chose not to require a public school in New York state to rent its building to a congregation for Sunday worship services.
Without comment, the court on Thursday (June 24) rejected an appeal in which attorneys for the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Far Rockaway, N.Y., argued the school unlawfully discriminates against religion by permitting its building to be used after hours for non-religious purposes but not for worship.
In June 1994, the congregation tried to rent an auditorium and other space at an elementary school when it needed more room for its growing membership.
But school officials refused to rent space to the church, citing its policy and a state law that bans religious worship services in public schools.
The American Legion and other community groups have been permitted to rent space after hours at the school.
In the appeal, the church’s attorneys said the policy was”blatant anti-religious discrimination”and added that the Constitution requires government to be neutral, rather than hostile, toward religion.
But lawyers for the school district argued that adopting the church’s argument would mean that a school that opened its doors to any public discussion would have to allow worship services.
Full Gospel Tabernacle sued in federal court and a judge there ruled against the church. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling. In 1998, the appeals court decided that a Bronx public school did not have to rent its building for worship services.
Pope shelves plan to visit Armenia, sends envoy instead
(RNS) – Twice forced to cancel a scheduled visit to Armenia, Pope John Paul II has decided to send an envoy instead with a personal message to ailing Armenian Orthodox Patriarch Karekin I, the Vatican said Friday (June 25).
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, will visit Yerevan, the Armenian capital, July 1-3 as the pope’s envoy.”On Friday, July 2, Cardinal Cassidy will meet with His Holiness Karekin I, supreme patriarch and Catholicos of all the Armenians, and will give him a personal message from the Holy Father John Paul II,”Navarro-Valls said.
Karekin, 67, who reportedly suffers from throat cancer, had a tumor removed from his larynx at a hospital in the United States late last year.
The Roman Catholic pontiff originally scheduled a visit to Armenia July 2-4, but the Vatican announced June 11 while the pope was in Poland that the trip had been postponed”because of the deterioration in the patriarch’s health.” Three days later, Navarro-Valls made the surprise announcement the pope would spend an extra night in Poland and fly on to Armenia on June 18 to meet with Karekin and Armenian President Robert Kocharyn, returning to Rome the same night.
The spokesman described the trip as an”ecumenical pilgrimage”and an opportunity for the pope”to express his spiritual closeness to Karekin I in this moment of suffering.”But the plan was short-lived.
The 79-year-old John Paul suffered a mild fever, which forced him to cancel his engagements for June 15. The next day, his spokesman said he had abandoned the trip to Armenia and would return to Rome as previously scheduled.”The pope hopes to be able to make this visit to the Catholicos of all the Armenians soon,”Navarro-Valls said.
The Vatican later denied reports that the pope would visit Armenia before his scheduled vacation in the mountains of Val d’Aosta in northern Italy July 7-20.”No decision has been taken,”Navarro-Valls said.
The pope attaches great importance to the dialogue under way between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches to end the schism of 1054.
In a letter to Cassidy earlier this month, he urged”renewed and ardent vigor”in efforts to settle disputes over the return of church property seized by communist regimes and to overcome fears by the Orthodox that Catholics are seeking converts among the Orthodox.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexii II has blocked John Paul’s hope of visiting Moscow in or before the year 2000, but the pontiff made a historic trip to Romania May 7-9, the first by a pope to a predominantly Orthodox country.
The trip to Orthodox Armenia would have been the first by a pope to the Caucases and taken John Paul to a land that was introduced to Christianity in the era of the apostles. Christianity has been Armenia’s state religion since the year 301.
Quote of the Day: Buddhist abbot Kai Ti of Myanmar
(RNS)”Nobody comes to look at the Buddhas. Nobody ever asks about Buddhism. They just want to see the cats.” _ Buddhist abbot Kai Ti at the Phe Chaung monastery in Inlay Lake, Myanmar, (Burma) speaking about how tourists are attracted to the sanctuary because monks there have trained cats to jump through hoops. He was quoted by the Associated Press.
DEA END RNS
