c. 1999 Religion News Service

St. Valentine’s relics to go display in Glasgow

(RNS) Were there two St. Valentines?

What are claimed to be the relics of St. Valentine are to go on display in a new setting in Glasgow, where they have been kept since 1868.

The relics are to be housed in a glass case in the atrium of a new pastoral center attached to the Franciscan church of Blessed John Duns Scotus in the Gorbals, and there will be a special service of dedication on the saint’s feast-day, Feb. 14.

The relics were given to the Franciscans by a wealthy French family which had had them in their possession for generations but which feared the family was dying out and wanted the relics to have a suitable home.

They contacted a Roman Catholic church official with responsibilities for the Holy Land, Father Stephen Potron, who suggested the new friary being built in Glasgow.

The relics were displayed in the friary church of St. Francis until it was vacated in 1993 as a consequence of the rebuilding of Glasgow’s city center, when what had originally been four parishes in a densely populated part of the city were combined into one dedicated to Duns Scotus, the outstanding Scottish Franciscan theologian of the Middle Ages.

St. Valentine was most probably a third century bishop of Terni who was martyred on the Via Flaminia, though there are also records of a Roman priest martyred nearby on the same day who some also believe to be St. Valentine. The generally accepted view, however, is that there was only one St. Valentine.

His feast was dropped from the Roman calendar in the reform period after the Second Vatican Council, and in the contemporary church calendar Feb. 14 is celebrated as the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

But Glasgow is not the only city to claim St Valentine’s bones.

In Dublin, what are also said to be the relics of St. Valentine have been venerated since 1836 in the Carmelite church in Whitefriar Street.

These relics were a gift from Pope Gregory XVI to Father John Spratt, a Carmelite who ministered to the poor in that area of Dublin where he had opened the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 1825. The gift was bestowed when Spratt visited Rome in 1835.

Lauder elected chairman of American Jewish umbrella group

(RNS) Cosmetics company heir Ronald S. Lauder, who has close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been elected to head the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Lauder’s two-year term as the umbrella group’s chairman will begin June 1. The Presidents Conference, as the group is commonly called, speaks for the American Jewish community on Israel and other Middle East issues.

Lauder’s election Wednesday (Feb. 3) came in a show of hands by representatives of 41 of the group’s 55 organizations. There were four abstentions and no negative votes, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. The voting was held at the group’s New York offices.

Well-known as a supporter of Jewish causes, Lauder is currently president of the Jewish National Fund, which raises money for various development projects in Israel. Lauder is also a former U.S. Ambassador to Austria and assistant secretary of defense. He sought the Republican nomination for mayor of New York City in 1989.

Lauder’s ties to Netanyahu, a rightwinger on the Middle East peace process, were cited by liberal American Jewish groups as problematic. But in the end, the members of the Presidents Conference came together to present a united front in support of Lauder, according to reports.

Lauder, 54, will replace Melvin Salberg, a New York lawyer.

Israeli agreement with Vatican could pave the way for papal visit

(RNS) The Vatican has completed an agreement on the juridical status of the Roman Catholic Church in Israel, which church officials say will help pave the way for the trip Pope John Paul II hopes to make to the Holy Land in the year 2000.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement Thursday (Feb. 4) that a Vatican delegation exchanged the documents of ratification of a”Legal Personality Agreement”with Israeli officials Wednesday at a ceremony in Israel.

Navarro-Valls described the new accord as”a development of what was foreseen in the Fundamental Agreement of Dec. 30, 1993,”which set the terms for full diplomatic relations between Israel and the Holy See. He said it gives full”moral and legal”recognition to individuals and institutions belonging to the church.

Although the accord, which has been approved by the Israeli Knesset, does not grant the church immunity from Israeli law, it does provide the church with full autonomy to handle its affairs under the law.

By giving the church legal status, the agreement removed a major obstacle to a papal visit, Vatican sources said. But a far more difficult issue remains unsettled _ the status of Jerusalem, which Israel declared its”united and eternal”capital in 1980.

John Paul has called for international guarantees to protect the city and ensure equal access to its shrines, which are sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The Vatican is also concerned about continued Jewish settlement-building in and around Jerusalem and what it fears are Israeli attempts to change the image of the city and its religious landmarks.

Executions held in Oklahoma and Arizona

(RNS) For the first time in 40 years, an American who committed his crimes at age 16 has been executed. Sean Sellers, now 29, was one of two men executed early Thursday (Feb. 4) in Oklahoma and Arizona.

The executions came a week after Pope John Paul II successfully intervened in the case of a Missouri man who had been scheduled for execution. Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, saying he still supported capital punishment, commuted the death sentence against convicted murder Darrell Mease to life in prison without possibility of parole. Carnahan said he acted out of respect for the pope.

John Paul made no such requests for lifting the death sentences given to Sellers and Darick Gerlaugh, 38, who became the seventh American Indian executed in the United States since restoration of the death penalty in 1976, according to the Associated Press.

Sellers killed a convenience store clerk shortly after turning 16. Six-months later, he killed his mother and stepfather, Wanda and Paul Bellofatto. In addition to Roman Catholic and Jewish leaders, Amnesty International and United Nations High Commissioner Mary Robinson had urged postponement of Sellers’ execution, citing his youth at the time of his crimes.

Gerlaugh was one of three men convicted of kidnapping, robbing and killing a 22-year-old man who gave the trio a ride as they hitchhiked from Chandler, Ariz., to Phoenix. While in prison, Gerlaugh became the first to be allowed to use a traditional Indian sweat lodge for ritual purification.

England’s national soccer coach resigns in reincarnation flap

(RNS) His belief in reincarnation _ or at least the way he expressed it _ has cost the coach and manager of the English national football (soccer) team his job.

On Tuesday (Feb. 2), amid a storm of criticism, the already-controversial Hoddle announced he was leaving.

The dispute over Hoddle’s views began with an interview the coach gave The Times newspaper last week in which he described how his views on religion and life had changed over the past several years and that he now embraced a form of reincarnation.”You have to come back to learn and face some of the things you have done, good and bad,”he said.”There are too many injustices around. You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains.”Some people have not been born like that for a reason,”he added.”The karma is working from another lifetime. I have nothing to hide about that. It is not only people with disabilities. What you sow, you have to reap.” The comments were seen as a slur on people with disabilities and evoked a barrage of criticism reaching to Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said on Monday that if Hoddle had been correctly quoted it would be difficult for him to stay on as England’s manager.”There have been all kinds of disabled people right around the country who will be very angry and concerned about that,”Blair said.”If you were a disabled person listening to this type of thing, you would think, `My goodness, what a dreadful thing to say.'” The Rev. Joel Edwards, director of England’s Evangelical Alliance, also criticized Hoddle, stressing that reincarnation is not a Christian dogma.”We live in a society where confused amalgamations of spirituality are becoming the norm,”he said.”Glenn Hoddle’s statement is indication of the pick-and-mix attitude to religion and deep search for spirituality so prevalent in society.” Hoddle had earlier generated controversy when he introduced faith healer Eileen Drewery, whom he believed had cured a football injury of his, to the English team in the hope her services would improve their performance.

After last year’s World Cup in which England was eliminated by Argentina, Hoddle said he believed Drewery would have made the 20 percent difference if she had accompanied the English team to France.

Hoddle’s departure was welcomed by charities working with the disabled.”His exit is a victory for fair play in football and among people with a learning disability,”said a spokeswoman for Mencap, a charity that works with people with disabilities.

Vatican to meet with U.S., Oceania bishops on feminism, homosexuality

(RNS) Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the powerful cardinal who serves as guardian of Roman Catholic doctrine, will visit the United States next week to discuss the controversial issues of feminism and homosexuality with bishops from North America and Oceania, the Vatican said Thursday (Feb. 4).

Both the U.S. and Oceania churches have expressed some restlessness with the Vatican’s strict views on the two issues.

Ratzinger, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has called the chairmen of the committees on doctrine of the two bishops’ conferences to a Feb. 9-12 meeting in San Francisco.

The Pacific coast city, a logical choice for the meeting in terms of geography, is also a stronghold of the American feminist and gay rights movements.

Among issues to be discussed are”the question of feminism”and”the question of homosexuality,”the Vatican said, while Ratzinger’s major address has the arcane title,”Subjectivity, Christology and Church.” Although Pope John Paul II has repeatedly ruled out any consideration of opening the priesthood to women, the church is coming under increasing pressure to give women more responsible roles.

Church treaching also also condemns homosexual activity as a sin and has criticized attempts by same-sex couples to win church recognition for their unions and legal sanction for adopting children.”The aim of the meeting is first of all to learn more from close up of the reality of the religious situations of North America and Oceania and to reflect on it with the local bishops,”the Vatican said.

The meeting is one of a series that Ratzinger began calling 15 years ago in order to have”direct contact with the local bishops,”the announcement said. Ratzinger met previously with bishops from North America and Oceania at regional synods in the Vatican where the issues were an undercurrent of the discussions.

Quote of the day: Tim Teepell, executive director of the Committee to Restore American Values

(RNS)”We asked a lot of questions … and if (a candidate has) a consistent pattern of being against the things we’re for, I’ll guarantee you they won’t be endorsed. It is a litmus test in the sense that we want to see where their heart is.” _ Tim Teepell, executive director of the Committee to Restore American Values, a coalition of religious and social conservatives, after the group questioned potential Republican presidential candidates on issues ranging from prayer in the schools to abortion and retaining”In God We Trust”on the nation’s currency.

DEA END RNS