c. 2005 Religion News Service
John Paul II’s Personal Secretary Refuses to Burn Historic Papal Papers
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Archbishop Stanislao Dziwisz, Pope John Paul II’s long-serving personal secretary, has disregarded a request by the late pontiff that his correspondence be burned, raising the prospect that John Paul’s personal writings may eventually become public.
Dziwisz told Polish radio that the detailed papal correspondence should be left for posterity. The letters, he said, might be useful in the late pope’s beatification process.
Dziwisz explained that although John Paul left instructions in his will that his private correspondence be destroyed, it did not deserve to disappear, constituting “a major heritage, an enormous treasure, made up of brilliant texts of great variety.”
“Nothing has been burned,” Dziwisz said. “Nothing is fit for burning, everything should be preserved and kept for history, for the future generations, every single sentence.”
Dziwisz was appointed archbishop of Krakow, John Paul’s former archdiocese, Friday (June 3) by Pope Benedict XVI after serving as John Paul’s secretary for some 40 years. John Paul II died April 2 after a long battle against Parkinson’s disease and other ailments ended his 26-year pontificate.
Dziwisz also revealed that he had kept a personal diary from the first days of John Paul’s election to St. Peter’s throne in 1978. He said it contained no opinions on public figures and that he was prepared to make it available to “serious historians.”
Dziwisz told the Polish news agency PAP that he does not expect Benedict will make many foreign trips outside the Vatican but that the new pope has expressed his intention of visiting Krakow and Warsaw as a sign of respect to his predecessor’s homeland.
In a March 1979 entry to his testament, John Paul said he left no material property and asked that Dziwisz burn all his personal notes.
Last month, Benedict announced he was lifting a five-year waiting period to start the process to beatify John Paul, putting him on the path to sainthood.
_ John Phillips
Anglicans to Consider Israeli Divestment This Month
LONDON (RNS) Leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion are scheduled to consider a proposal to follow the Presbyterian Church (USA) in divesting from companies doing business with Israelis who “support the occupation of Palestinian lands.”
The Anglican Consultative Council, a policy steering committee for the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, will consider the proposal when it meets in Nottingham, England, June 19-28.
It is not clear, however, what impact such a policy would have on the Communion’s 38 autonomous provinces, which include the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada.
The divestment plan could also meet resistance within the Church of England, where the Church Commissioners, who are responsible for administering the church’s inherited wealth, have historically shown an independent streak.
A Saturday (May 28) article in the Times of London, which a Church of England official described as accurate, said the Consultative Council will consider a divestment report from a church committee on June 22.
Last September, following a week-long visit to the Middle East, the committee issued a statement sharply critical of Israeli occupation, and several church leaders indicated they supported economic pressure against Israel, including divestment.
However, The Times also noted that in April, the Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group rejected calls to pull investments from Caterpillar Inc. on grounds that Caterpillar bulldozers are used to destroy Palestinian homes.
Jewish groups say divestment is unfair because it does not apply equal pressure against Palestinian terrorists.
In the United States, the United Church of Christ will consider a divestment proposal when it meets in Atlanta July 1-5.
Also at the Anglican Consultative Council meeting, U.S. and Canadian church representatives will defend the Americans’ approval of an openly gay bishop and the Canadians’ approval of same-sex unions.
_ Robert Nowell
Orthodox Jews Put Spotlight on Sudan
LOS ANGELES (RNS) Orthodox Jews in California are joining Reform and Conservative Jews in creating awareness about the ongoing violence in Sudan’s Darfur region.
“The least we can do is feel some of their pain,” said Alyssa Birnbaum, 17, one of more than a dozen students from the Orthodox-run Shalhevet High School who joined 180 people at a May 26 Mincha service and Darfur lecture at the B’nai David-Judea Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue.
Darfur appears to be emerging as an issue for Orthodox synagogues.
More Jews talking about Darfur will push the Orthodox community “outside of our own parochial issues,” said Rabbi Elazar Muskin of the Young Israel of Century City, an Orthodox synagogue.
Human rights experts estimate that 300,000 Darfur villagers have been killed since 2003 by Arab Janjaweed militia supported by the Sudanese government.
Several hundred Southern California Jews attended synagogue services after a May 26 all-day fast to create Darfur awareness. B’nai David Judea’s Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky said his synagogue hosted a Darfur break-the-fast service because “We are taking on the cause of the people in Darfur as if it were our own crisis.”
Rabbi Zoe Klein of the Reform synagogue Temple Isaiah in West Los Angeles went to the Mincha service at B’nai David Judea. Though she is a Reform rabbi, Klein wore a traditional long skirt, sat in the Orthodox women’s section and during the service read a spiritual text while preaching from the women’s side of the bimah. Klein said in an interview that her Jewish day school students also are embracing the Darfur cause.
“Our class that’s the most motivated is the one studying the Holocaust,” she said. “So the whole concept of `never again’ gives them the opportunity to mean what they say by reaching out to another community experiencing genocide.”
In Los Angeles’ upscale Bel-Air neighborhood, the Reform-run Stephen S. Wise Temple hosted a break-the-fast service and evening talk by John Prendergast, President Clinton’s National Security Council African affairs director who is now involved with the International Crisis Group’s efforts helping Darfur refugees who fled to Chad.
Unlike Rwanda’s swift-moving 1994 genocide, Prendergast said, in Darfur “there’s still time to act.”
_ David Finnigan
Gospel Singers Hit the Reality TV Airwaves This Fall
(RNS) Gospel singers _ both established and aspiring _ will be the focus of reality TV shows this fall.
Grammy Award-winning artist Amy Grant will host NBC’s “Three Wishes,” which aims to fulfill the dreams of deserving people.
The show will feature an “unsung hero” and reunite estranged family members. It will air on Fridays from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time.
Grant’s most recent record, “Rock of AgesâÂ?¦Hymns & Faith,” her 20th, debuted at No. 1 on the Christian sales chart. Grant was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003, and has sold more than 25 million records internationally.
In another program, gospel singers will compete in hopes of making their own dreams become reality. “Gospel Dream 2005”, a weekly singing competition airs Oct. 5, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on the Gospel Music Channel.
Singers from across the United States from various backgrounds of gospel styles, including soul, rock, blues hip-hop and traditional gospel songs, will perform, the Gospel Music Channel announced in a news release.
A different version of the show aired on BET in 2003 and 2004.
The show “works well with the current scheme of American Idol,” the hit reality show on FOX, said Alvin Williams, director of music industry development for the Gospel Music Channel.
Contestants will be judged by popular gospel performers and radio personalities.
The show will culminate in a 90-minute finale that airs Nov. 30.
Auditions will be held in Detroit, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis and Dallas/Fort Forth, beginning in July.
_ Heather Horiuchi
French Churches Suffer Defeat in Rejection of EU Constitution
PARIS (RNS) The rejection by French voters of the European constitution has been a blow not only to France’s center-right government, but also to the country’s Christian churches.
France’s Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches had endorsed the referendum in a joint statement this spring.
After the Sunday (May 29) vote, the Protestant Federation of France issued a statement expressing regret that the French public voiced their fears and hopes at the ballot box and not beforehand in debates.
“In Europe, and particularly in France, the social crisis is grave. The government policies, like the European policies, jointly carry responsibility,” wrote Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the Protestant Federation, in the statement.
He argued that the “democratic advances” proposed by the new European charter surpassed those that Europe has today under the governing Nice treaty.
A founding EU member, France became the first country in the bloc to vote down the constitution, with nearly 55 percent rejecting it in a referendum. That was seen by many observers as a sanction vote against the unpopular French government, rather than the EU as a whole.
In theory, all 25 members of the European Union need to approve the charter by referendum or parliamentary vote for it to go into effect. A single “no” vote theoretically scuttles the charter.
After the setback in France, and a Wednesday (June 1) rejection by Dutch voters, European leaders are scrambling to save the constitution.
In his communique, de Clermont expressed fears that French concerns about Europe could get mixed up with sentiments of nationalism, protectionism or xenophobia, “which are incompatible with the message of the churches.”
He urged Protestant churches to send a message to their congregations that Europe should be about hope “that is not built on the fears of a different other, but on a realistic sharing and the will to go forward together.”
_ Elizabeth Bryant
Al-Qaida Manual Instructs Detainees to Claim Torture
(RNS) A training manual discovered by British authorities in Manchester, England, instructs al-Qaida members, if they are captured, to claim that they have been tortured by guards and interrogators.
In the wake of an allegation, later proved false, that a Quran, the Muslim holy book, was flushed down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay prison, as well as other allegations of religious and physical abuse, U.S. leaders are pointing to the document as proof that detainees are fabricating some incidents of torture in order to incite anger against the United States.
“We know that members of al-Qaida are trained to mislead and to provide false reports. We know that’s one of their tactics that they use,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan at a May 26 press briefing when asked about the Quran allegations.
The al-Qaida manual, which was first discovered and used as evidence in 2001 in the federal trial of suspects who orchestrated bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, contains specific instructions on what members should do if they are captured by an enemy force.
“At the beginning of the trial, … the brothers must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by State Security (investigators) before the judge,” the manual says.
In addition, the manual instructs members to name specific guards in the alleged torture.
It reads, “The brother has to do his best to know the names of the state security officers who participated in his torture and mention their names to the judge. (These names may be obtained from brothers who had to deal with those officers in previous cases.)”
In another section of the manual, one of the stated goals of al-Qaida’s “military organization” is “spreading rumors and writing statements that instigate people against the enemy.”
U.S. officials have stated that all credible allegations of prisoner abuse will be investigated.
“We take credible claims seriously,” said Lt. Col. John Skinner, a Pentagon spokesman.
But Skinner said the Defense Department is aware of the manual and its instructions.
“So many of them (detainees) do seem to be adhering to this theme of making false claims,” Skinner said.
Skinner couldn’t say whether al-Qaida members are instructed to allege specific religious abuse, such as the desecration of the Quran.
Amnesty International recently called Guantanamo Bay “the gulag of our time” and called for the prison to be shut down because of human rights abuses.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Polls Show More People Claim Evangelical Label Than Hold the Beliefs
(RNS) Four in 10 Americans identify themselves as evangelical or born-again Christians, but a significantly smaller percentage of Americans actually subscribe to “core evangelical doctrine,” the Gallup Organization has found.
In a mid-April poll, 42 percent of respondents said they consider themselves to be born-again or evangelical. But in a similar poll taken in early May, only 22 percent agreed with all three beliefs that Gallup said “most evangelical leaders would say are core evangelical doctrine.”
The questions were about evangelism, the authority of the Bible and a turning point in one’s life that related to Christian commitment.
The poll found:
_ 52 percent said they had encouraged someone to believe in Jesus Christ.
_ 32 percent said they believe the “Bible is the actual word of God.”
_ 48 percent said they “have been born again or had a born-again experience.”
The percentage of Americans who say they have had a born-again experience increased the most over the last few decades. In 1976, just 35 percent said they had had such an experience.
The new polls, each of about 1,000 U.S. adults, were conducted April 18-21 and May 2-5. Both had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Christian Music Co. Teams With Disney for Access to Christian Retail
(RNS) A top Christian music distributor and Walt Disney Records are collaborating to provide Christian vendors access to Disney’s family-friendly audio products, the companies announced in a joint statement Thursday (June 2).
The deal gives EMI CMG Distribution the sole rights to distribute Disney audio products to retailers affiliated with CBA, formerly the Christian Booksellers Association.
CBA vendors will have access to Disney products dating back 70 years.
“Disney continues to be the most recognized and sought-after brand in family entertainment,” Rich Peluso, EMI CMG Distribution president, said in a statement.
Audio products from the highly anticipated “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” a Walt Disney Pictures film based on C.S. Lewis’ series, will be available in November.
Additional audio merchandise, such as items from the “Baby Einstein” series, Winnie the Pooh, and read-along products “Noah’s Ark” and “David & Goliath,” will be on hand this fall.
“EMI CMG holds an impressive track record in the marketing and distribution of children’s products to Christian retail and shares our goal of offering consumers quality choices in family-friendly entertainment,” said Robert Marick, senior vice president and general manager of Walt Disney Records.
_ Heather Horiuchi
Methodists in Alabama Repent for Past Support of Segregation
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Alabama United Methodists made a symbolic gesture Monday (June 6) to demonstrate their repentance for past support of segregation in their state.
Bishop William Willimon, spiritual leader of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, led a walk to the steps of one of the denomination’s former landmark churches Monday for a service to repent of racial injustice and to pledge to be more inclusive.
Carrying a wooden staff, Willimon stood on the front steps of the former McCoy United Methodist Church, which closed in 1993. Hundreds of delegates to the annual meeting of United Methodists in north Alabama joined him in a walk to the church across the street from the college campus where they met.
In Birmingham in recent decades, dozens of predominantly white United Methodist churches have closed as neighborhoods surrounding them became predominantly black. The former McCoy campus now houses an older adult day care program and adult education programs.
Outside the former church, the Methodists recited a prayer of confession that included harsh self-analysis for a denomination that has seen decades of steady decline.
“We hereby repent of our sins as a church. Forgive our self-centered, defensive, cowardly ways,” the group recited aloud. “Forgive our willingness to close churches and our unwillingness to risk new churches.”
_ Greg Garrison
Muslim Group Says More Than 10,000 Free Qurans Distributed
(RNS) Thousands of Americans are lining up to read for themselves the book whose reported defilement last month touched off deadly anti-American protests in the Muslim world: the Holy Quran.
More than 10,000 individuals have requested a free Quran from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based civil rights and advocacy group. CAIR launched its “Explore the Quran” campaign May 17 in response to a news report, later retracted, that said interrogators of Muslim detainees had flushed a Quran down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“We’re trying to get Qurans into the hands of the American public because we believe that’s the best way to educate people about what Islam really stands for,” says CAIR spokesman and campaign coordinator Ibrahim Hooper. “Through our polling and our studies throughout the years, we’ve found that prejudice against Islam goes up when you have lack of information.”
CAIR had for years harbored hopes of being able to distribute free Qurans, Hooper says. Now that the holy book and its significance for Muslims have become front-page news, CAIR is urging potential donors to seize the opportunity to “give the gift of faith to your neighbor.”
Despite Newsweek magazine’s retraction of its Quran story, international protests have continued. Thousands marched last week (June 3) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Tanzania, for instance, in anti-American marches that cited how the Quran had been desecrated. The same day, the Pentagon confirmed five incidents of Quran mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay.
Meanwhile, CAIR has aimed to use the ongoing controversy as a teaching moment on the Quran’s sacred significance for Muslims. Recipients of the book receive a letter urging them to consider how Muslims show respect for the book. They never bring it into a bathroom, for instance, and always hold it with both hands “as one would a valuable piece of art.”
To order a Quran, call (800) 78-ISLAM or visit http://www.explorethequran.org.
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Quote of the Week: Muslim Feminist Asra Nomani
(RNS) “I refuse to sit in the back, that’s so demeaning. The mosques are set up like a men’s club. … I just want them to consider women as human beings. Not to throw us into corners. I want the Muslim world to fast-forward into the 21st century and not segregate us into women’s ghettos.”
_ Muslim feminist Asra Nomani of Morgantown, W.Va., who has been campaigning for the right of Muslim women to pray beside men at mosques. She was quoted by The Washington Post.
MO/PH END RNS
