c. 2000 Religion News Service
Pope Ties Eucharist to Acts of Charity
(RNS) Pope John Paul II told some 35,000 pilgrims attending his general audience Wednesday (Nov. 8) that the “profound significance of the Eucharist” is closely linked to acts of charity and communion.
Although John Paul did not spell out the kinds of charity he expects from Roman Catholics, he has often spoken of the need to help the weak and poor and to give special consideration to immigrants.
The Vatican will hold an international symposium this weekend (Nov. 10-12) on “The Dignity of the Migrant: The Message of Mother Cabrini.”
The Italian-born nun, who spent most of her life working among Italian immigrants in the United States, in 1946 became the first American citizen elevated to sainthood.
John Paul devoted his customary teaching at the weekly audience to the Eucharist, the sacrament of the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus, which the Bible says Jesus instituted at his Last Supper with his disciples before his crucifixion and resurrection.
“The Eucharist is the sacrament which both symbolizes and brings about the unity of the church,” the pope said. “When Christians celebrate and receive the Eucharist, they are joined to Christ in a profound union.
“However,” he said, “the profound significance of the Eucharist is repudiated when it is celebrated without taking into account the needs of charity and of communion.”
Quoting from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, the pope said that “those who participate unworthily, without making (the Eucharist) blossom into fraternal charity, `eat and drink their own condemnation.”’
Mennonite Pastors Warned on Homosexuality, Military Service
(RNS) Mennonite pastors in a regional church conference have been told they may face disciplinary action if they preach against church doctrines on homosexuality and the military.
Calling homosexuality a practice “rebuked by Scripture as sin” and military service “incompatible with church membership,” the Faith and Life Commission of the Mennonite Church’s Virginia Conference said pastors must uphold these teachings, according to the Mennonite Weekly Review, a church newspaper.
Mennonites are a small, conservative church with about 125,000 members in the United States with historic ties to the Amish and other Anabaptist faiths. Mennonites consider themselves a “peace church” that shuns military service.
The military issue has been a challenge for churches in Virginia especially, where the Marines and U.S. Navy have several bases and thousands of personnel. The church “expects that candidates for membership in our congregations will move toward freedom from military service,” the letter said.
The homosexuality issue has also been a struggle for Mennonites, with progressive factions wanting to soften the church’s statements against homosexuality before the two largest Mennonite branches merge next summer as the Mennonite Church USA.
Some saw the Virginia letter as an attempt to draw a line in the sand over these issues before the proposed merger, and some denominational leaders said it was inappropriate for the church to issue a top-down directive.
“Denominational leadership has tried to mute the dialogue on the biblical and theological questions at issue,” C. Norman Kraus, a retired professor and missionary, told the newspaper. “They are maintaining that there is a fixed Mennonite position on homosexual practice, that it’s not up for discussion.”
Leaders in the Virginia Conference said there is room to disagree on some issues, but church pastors are expected to adhere to church rules and regulations.
“We are not insisting that there be `full assent of will and intellect’ on these issues,” the letter said. “However, we are asking credentialed persons to avoid teaching, preaching or pastoral counseling that advocates against them.”
Slain Nuns’ Kin Will Press for Retrial
(RNS) Relatives of four U.S. missionaries murdered 20 years ago in El Salvador are demanding a retrial of two former Salvadoran military generals cleared last week of responsibility for the slayings.
Relatives of Roman Catholic nuns Dorothy Kazel, Ita Ford and Maura Clarke and lay worker Jean Donovan say they reject the Nov. 3 decision by a West Palm Beach, Fla., federal court jury that former Salvadoran National Guard leader Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, 62, and former Salvadoran Defense Minister Jose Guillermo Garcia, 67, bore no “command responsibility” for the Dec. 2, 1980 slayings.
Five National Guard soldiers, three of whom have since been released, were convicted in El Salvador of the murders, which occurred during the nation’s 12-year civil war that ended in 1992, Reuters news agency reported. The women were suspected of sympathizing with forces opposed to the government.
But families of the victims say blame also lies with the two Salvadoran military leaders, who retired to Florida in 1989 and became U.S. residents.
The families filed their lawsuit against the two men under a U.S. law that permits legal action against anyone who bears “command responsibility” for the criminal activity of subordinates.
The families’ lawyer said jurors may have been confused about command responsibility, noting they repeatedly questioned presiding Judge Daniel Hurley about the issue.
“We are looking at confusion regarding command responsibility, that the jury had difficulty understanding the legal concept, as a basis for awarding a new trial,” said Bob Kerrigan, who worked pro bono for the families.
Pope Makes Fourth Appeal for End to Hostilities in the Holy Land
(RNS) Making his fourth appeal in little over a month for an end to hostilities in the Holy Land, Pope John Paul II has urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume negotiations “on an equal footing,” the Vatican said Wednesday (Nov. 8).
The Roman Catholic pontiff called on all Christians, on Jewish and Muslim leaders and on the international community to do everything possible to bring more than five weeks of violent clashes to an end and encourage dialogue.
“The brutal passage from negotiation to confrontation represents without doubt a setback for peace, but no one should become fatalistic,” John Paul said in a letter to Archbishop Michel Sabbah, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, and his fellow Catholic bishops in the Holy Land. The letter, dated Nov. 6, was made public by the Vatican Wednesday.
“The Israeli and Palestinian peoples are called by their geography and history to live together,” he said. “They can do this in a peaceful and lasting way only if fundamental rights are assured to each of them. The Israeli people as well as the Palestinian people have the right to live in their homes in dignity and security.
“Only the return to the negotiating table on a equal footing in the respect for international rights will open a future of brotherhood and peace to those who live in this blessed land,” John Paul said.
The pope, who made a long-anticipated Holy Year pilgrimage to the Holy Land last March, issued earlier appeals for a return to dialogue on Oct. 2, 11 and 29. Archbishop Renato Martino, the Vatican’s permanent observer at the United Nations, reiterated the pope’s appeals in a speech to the world body on Tuesday (Nov. 7).
“The trials that the populations of the Holy Land are undergoing in these days are a source of great suffering to me, and I would like to express to everyone without exception all my acute solidarity,” John Paul told the bishops in his new message.
Study: United Methodists Little Known Beyond Name Recognition
(RNS) The United Methodist Church, with its flaming cross logo, is one of the most recognizable Protestant denominations, but a new survey says most people have only a “soft” impression about who United Methodists are.
The study, conducted for the 8.4 million-member church by California pollster George Barna, is the first stage in a $20 million “Igniting Ministries” campaign to raise awareness of the church with nonchurch members.
Barna’s study of 432 people between the ages of 25 and 54 found most respondents liked what the church had to offer, but few had thought to look seriously at the United Methodist Church.
Most respondents “have a `soft’ impression or no impression of the United Methodist Church, beyond name awareness,” according to Barna’s research.
Given a list of possible attributes _ such as thoughtful, caring, accepting, inclusive, open-minded and relevant _ most respondents said they would like to find a church that embodied such characteristics. A sizable number of respondents _ 40 percent _ identified themselves as “seekers,” and slightly more than half did not regularly attend a church.
Thirty-one percent would be more likely to attend a church that ministers to families and children, and 25 percent would be more likely to attend a church that addressed real-life issues.
Although respondents were looking for such a church, the survey found that most people did not think or know that the United Methodist Church embodied such values.
Nearly seven in 10 respondents had strong interest in a church that was accepting and inclusive, an ironic twist for the United Methodist Church as it is fundamentally split over the question of homosexuality and how much to welcome gays and lesbians into the life of the church.
The Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston, a church staffer in charge of the Igniting Ministries campaign, said the survey shows the need for increased advertising.
“Folk drive by our churches all the time and do not know what it is,” he said.
Bishop Named President of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Ohio
(RNS) The bishop of the Montana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been elected as the third president of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio.
The Rev. Mark R. Ramseth is scheduled to change positions in early 2001, the denomination announced. He will succeed the Rev. Dennis A. Anderson, who plans to retire Nov. 30.
Ramseth began serving as bishop in 1992 and has overseen more than 50,000 Lutherans in 152 congregations of the Great Falls-based Montana Synod.
Trinity is one of eight seminaries affiliated with the ELCA.
Quote of the day: Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(RNS) “Political candidates should take note that the American people reject the use of religious and ethnic stereotyping as a campaign.”
_ Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, commenting Nov. 8 on the defeat of Republican candidates in New York and Georgia who sought to link their political opponents to Middle East extremists.
DEA END RNS
