c. 2003 Religion News Service

Orthodox Jewish Leader Declares Support for Bush Against Iraq

(RNS) The top executive of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America has voiced strong support for the policies of the Bush administration concerning Iraq.

“President Bush speaks with great clarity, not only in moral terms, but in religious terms as well in distinguishing between good and evil and seeing Saddam Hussein as `evil personified,”’ said Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, at an observance of a “National Day of Prayer” on Thursday (Feb. 20).

Weinreb said leaders of his organization “pray for a peaceful solution” but would stand by Bush “100 percent” if he determined that military action was necessary.

The special time of prayer was called by the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America in light of a possible war with Iraq and heightened levels of security. Weinreb joined staffers at his New York offices to mark the special day, which was observed across the country at synagogues affiliated with the Orthodox Union.

Weinreb also used the occasion to express solidarity with Israelis who have suffered from terrorism and to declare that the Orthodox Union believes that killing in God’s name desecrates the name of God.

“We believe in God as fervently as the most fervent Muslim, but we do not believe that God wants us to kill other people, but on the contrary to do everything we can to preserve life and all its wonderful values,” he said. “We protest against those who in the name of religion murder others.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Vatican Says War Against Iraq Would Be a `Crime Against Peace’

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Speaking after a weekend in which Pope John Paul II discussed the Iraq crisis with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and called a worldwide fast for peace, a high Vatican official said Monday (Feb. 24) that war without United Nations approval would be “a crime against peace.”

Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the pope’s foreign minister, said the Vatican believes that every action in the Iraq crisis “must be undertaken and decided in the context of the United Nations.”

“No rule of international law authorizes states to have recourse to force unilaterally to change a regime or a state’s form of government only because it possesses weapons of mass destruction,” the French prelate said in the Vatican’s most explicit condemnation so far of Bush administration policy.

“A war of aggression would constitute a crime against peace, and an intervention of legitimate defense presupposes the existence of a previous armed action,” he told a conference on peace organized by a Catholic medical institute.

John Paul has been waging an all-out peace offensive in recent weeks. He sent Cardinal Roger Etchegaray to Baghdad to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and has met with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and, on Saturday (Feb. 22), with Blair, Washington’s strongest ally.

The Vatican has said that even with Security Council approval, the church would not consider a preventive war against Iraq to be just.

“Never, never, never will the future of humanity be assured by terrorism and by the logic of war,” the 82-year-old pontiff told thousands of pilgrims who gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday for the midday Angelus prayer.

The pope asked the world’s 1 billion Catholics to pray and fast for peace on Ash Wednesday (March 5), the start of the penitential season of Lent. Fasting, he said, is an “expression of penitence for the hate and the violence that pollute human relations.”

At his 30-minute meeting with Blair, John Paul urged Washington and London to “make every effort to avoid new divisions in the world” in their efforts to defuse the Iraq crisis, a Vatican statement said.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope reiterated the need for all interested parties to “collaborate with the United Nations organization and use the resources offered by international law to ward off the tragedy of a war that many still think inevitable.”

Blair’s spokesman said in a statement, “We acknowledge the pope’s concern and we share the desire to avoid war but, ultimately, the decision will be a decision for Saddam.”

_ Peggy Polk

Christian Rock Band Third Day Among Gospel Grammy Winners

(RNS) Third Day, a Christian rock band, won its first Grammy on Sunday (Feb. 23), joining five other artists in taking home honors in the gospel music categories.

“What an amazing honor it is to win a Grammy,” said band member Mac Powell in a backstage interview with reporters. “I know it sounds cliched, but we’ve always believed it is a great honor just to be nominated. And it is _ especially to be in the same category with artists who are great friends and remarkable musicians. But right now it sure feels better than losing! We are really going to enjoy this.”

Third Day won in the Best Rock Gospel Album category for its “Come Together” album.

Other winners in the gospel categories at the New York ceremony were:

Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album: “The Eleventh Hour” by Jars of Clay

Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album: “We Called Him Mr. Gospel Music: The James Blackwood Tribute Album” by the Jordanaires, Larry Ford and the Light Crust Doughboys

Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album: “Higher Ground” by the Blind Boys of Alabama

Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album: “Sidebars” by Eartha

Best Gospel Choir or Chorus Album: “Be Glad” by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, directed by Carol Cymbala.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Supreme Court Sidesteps Battle Over Kosher Laws

WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday (Feb. 24) to wade into arguments about what constitutes kosher food in 20 states.

The high court dismissed without comment an appeal by Jewish groups to review a lower court ruling that found New York’s kosher laws improperly involve government in an essentially religious decision.

A New York appeals court ruled last year that the state had no business deciding which foods are kosher and which are not. Two Long Island butchers challenged the law, saying it was unfair to use Orthodox Jewish standards to determine whether food was kosher, according to the Associated Press.

The law, first approved in 1915, was designed to prevent fraud in kosher labeling. Supporters of the law said 19 other state kosher laws were at stake in their ruling.

The butchers’ lawyer, Robert Jay Dinerstein, said using the Orthodox standards _ and not other, more liberal Jewish standards _ showed state favoritism. Dinerstein compared the state preference to giving priority to Catholic views on Christianity.

“If another denomination of Christianity offered its members Communion, they could only use a Eucharist and wine approved by the Roman Catholic Church; otherwise, the Communion was illegitimate and perpetrated a fraud,” he wrote in briefs submitted to the court.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said the case was much ado about nothing. “There is no religious dispute that a product containing pork is not kosher, just as there is no religious dispute that meat is not kosher if it is cooked with milk, no effort has been made to draw out and drain its blood, or it has been mixed with other undisputedly non-kosher meat,” he said in a brief submitted to the court.

Canadian Muslims Sing Islamic Version of `O Canada’

VICTORIA, B.C. (RNS) For the first time, “O Canada” was sung in English and Arabic, the language of the Islam holy book, the Quran, in the rotunda of the British Columbia Legislature.

More than 200 B.C. Muslims gathered in the legislative building for the rousing versions of the Canadian national anthem as they celebrated Eid-Ul-Adha, the second most important festival on the Muslim calendar. It marked the end of hajj, the period of Muslims’ annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

Semi Gazi lead the haunting Arabic rendition of “O Canada.” The English words had recently been translated into Arabic by University of British Columbia professor emeritus Hannah Kassis, who specializes in Muslim studies.

The anthem singing was part of a campaign by Muslim Canadians born in Iraq, East Africa, India, Pakistan, Fiji, Bosnia, Iran and elsewhere to challenge stereotypes about their faith and illustrate there are about 100,000 Muslims living in the province.

“Today, unfortunately, many view Muslims as fundamentalists and terrorists. It is a total misunderstanding of the faith,” said Sikander Khan, a leader of the British Columbia Muslim Association.

_ Douglas Todd

Sacraments Performed by `Invisible’ Priest Still Valid, Church Says

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (RNS) Although the Rev. Bernard Casper was improperly practicing as a priest for at least three decades, any sacraments administered by him would still be considered valid, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester said.

“They would be valid because he is technically still a priest, but they would also be illicit. … (That) strictly means the sacrament has been carried outside the parameters of the law of the Roman Catholic Church,” said Michael Tedesco, a diocesan spokesman.

Casper celebrated Mass at St. Mary’s Church in Auburn for about 30 years until he was ordered to stop last fall amid allegations he had sexually abused two Albany boys in the 1970s.

He never had the “faculties,” or permission, to celebrate Mass at the Auburn church from the governing Rochester Diocese, Tedesco said.

A priest without “faculties” can “remain a priest in title but can’t publicly carry out his ministry,” he said.

Casper, 74, of Buffalo, was never employed by the Auburn church or the diocese, Tedesco said. Casper referred all questions to his lawyer, Gerald Whelan, of Buffalo, who declined to comment.

It is not known whether Casper administered any sacraments while at St. Mary’s. Priests, however, routinely celebrate the sacraments in daily church life, such as consecrating the Eucharist during Mass, hearing confessions and performing baptisms.

The Rochester Diocese told Casper to stop celebrating Mass about the time that twin brothers Mark and Paul Zimmerman filed an abuse claim against him with the Albany Diocese last September. The brothers allege that Casper sexually abused them in the 1970s when they were adolescents.

Mark Zimmerman, 44, said he and his brother met Casper while he was a priest and they were altar boys at St. Patrick’s Church in Albany. Their mother, who was active at the church, had befriended him.

The Albany Diocese never employed Casper and has no record of him working at St. Patrick’s, said Ken Goldfarb, a diocesan spokesman. “That doesn’t mean he was or wasn’t there,” Goldfarb said.

Zimmerman said Casper celebrated his mother’s funeral Mass at St. Patrick’s Church in 1976.

He said he cannot fathom how the Albany and Rochester dioceses could claim to be unaware that Casper was practicing as a priest in their jurisdictions.

“It is still unacceptable to me that he could serve the Catholic Church for over 30 years and nobody knew about it. … He’s the invisible man,” Zimmerman said.

Casper was ordained in Pueblo, Colo., in 1955. In 1963, Casper disappeared after taking an indefinite medical leave of absence, said Paul Willumsted, the lawyer for the Pueblo Diocese. “He basically never came back. He abandoned his vocation. Basically, he was on his own, just AWOL,” Willumsted said.

_ Scott Rapp

Quote of the Day: Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick

(RNS) “I cannot allow three state senators and eight members of the (Maryland) House of Delegates … to force our priests to violate the sacramental seal of Confession. If there is a gauntlet involved in this process, then I throw it down now.”

_ Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, protesting a proposed Maryland law that would force priests to reveal information about sexual abuse learned in Confession. McCarrick’s archdiocese includes five Maryland counties. He said he would order his priests to ignore the law if it is passed.

KRE END RNS