c. 2005 Religion News Service

On Anniversary, New York Defender of the Poor Called `Future Saint’

NEW YORK (RNS) On the 25th anniversary of Dorothy Day’s death, the former New York Catholic and defender of the poor was called a 21st-century saint worthy of canonization.

On Sunday (Nov. 27), Cardinal Edward Egan celebrated a Mass in observance of the 25th anniversary of Day’s death. It was held at Our Lady Help of Christians Church _ where Day was baptized _ and was the final event of several organized by the parish to help publicize the story of Day’s life.

“This morning we are here in a very particular way to celebrate the passing to the Lord of a future saint of Staten Island,” Egan said, referring to the New York borough.

The cardinal spoke of her early life, when she had an abortion and later a child out of wedlock, as demonstrative of the redemptive power of the gospel. And he described her unwavering commitment to the poor and to those at society’s margins.

“She was dedicated to those who were hurting the most … she saw, in them, Jesus Christ in need,” Egan said.

Day is the co-founder of Catholic Worker, an organization that works on behalf of the poor and is grounded in a belief in the God-given human dignity of every person. She was motivated to convert to Catholicism in 1927, and was later baptized at Our Lady Help of Christians.

Shortly before he died, Cardinal John O’Connor sought permission from the Vatican to begin the lengthy process needed to have someone canonized, and he asked Monsignor Gregory Mustaciuolo to lead the effort as postulator of her cause.

With the Vatican’s go-ahead, the monsignor and others working with him must gather all of Day’s writings, as well as things written about her, and gather testimony from people who knew her. The information will be forwarded to Rome, where the cause will be turned over to the Congregation for the Canonization of Saints.

_ Leslie Palma-Simoncek

Clergy Abuse Victims Ask Pope to Apologize on Behalf of Church

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Two victims of sex abuse by a former priest brought a letter to the Vatican on Monday (Nov. 28), requesting that Pope Benedict XVI apologize for clergy abuse in the Catholic Church and fire officials who keep the abuse hidden from public view.

Victims Ann Jyono and Nancy Sloan arrived at the Vatican gates to deliver their letter to Benedict, asking him to order U.S. bishops to disclose files documenting abuse cases.

Both were molested by the defrocked priest Oliver O’Grady, who has acknowledged abusing at least 25 minors while ministering as a parish priest in California.

“Until they acknowledge us and help us to weed out the bad people in the church … how can I heal?” Jyono told the Associated Press. “I want my faith back but I need their help.”

Jyono and Sloan were accompanied by the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest and lawyer, who delivered their letter past the Vatican gates.

Victims allege that bishops have long conspired to cover up the sex scandal by shifting abusive priests from one parish to another.

Cardinal Bernard Law resigned from the Boston archdiocese in 2002 under pressure following the release of court records showing that he had permitted priests guilty of child sex abuse to change parishes without informing the public.

Since then, thousands of cases of clergy abuse have surfaced in cities across the U.S., prompting calls for greater transparency and crippling the finances of major dioceses.

Archbishop William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees the cases of clergy abuse around the world, is expected to give testimony early next year in the bankruptcy trial of the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore.

_ Stacy Meichtry

Islamic Leader in Cleveland Arrested for Deportation Case

(RNS) Imam Fawaz Damra, a controversial Islamic leader from Cleveland, has been arrested outside his home and taken to Detroit for the start of his deportation case.

The Friday (Nov. 25) arrest came one week after federal lawyers acknowledged they were concerned that Damra might avoid deportation because of immigration-law loopholes.

Damra’s fundraising activities on behalf of terrorist groups make him a national security threat who can be deported, said Brian Moskowitz, the special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs office in Detroit.

“He actively espoused and sought funding for the killing of Jews and innocent people,” said Moskowitz, who is overseeing the deportation case. “This trumps the others because of the national security grounds.”

Damra was convicted last year of lying on his citizenship application more than a decade ago. He spent two months in prison after prosecutors proved he raised money for Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups.

The case shocked many throughout Greater Cleveland, who viewed Damra as an example of moderate, mainstream Islam.

Federal prosecutors said after the conviction they intended to deport Damra, who was born in the West Bank and came to the United States in the mid-1980s.

After a year of little public activity on the case, several of the lawyers involved acknowledged they were concerned that Damra could escape deportation because he had committed only one crime _ lying on his citizenship application _ since coming to the United States.

Damra claims he will be tortured if sent to the West Bank, Gaza or Jordan. International law forbids deporting someone if there’s a likelihood they will be tortured.

_ Mike Tobin and Robert L. Smith

Texas Baptists Elect First Black President

(RNS) The Rev. Charles Wade, executive director of the 2.5-million-member Baptist General Convention of Texas, says he wants the convention to reflect the diversity of Texas.

For the second straight year, the convention took a major step toward that goal.

Representatives from 5,700 congregations gathered at the convention’s annual meeting Nov. 14 elected the organization’s first black president, the Rev. Michael Bell, 54, senior pastor of Greater St. Stephen First Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

Bell succeeds the convention’s first Hispanic president, the Rev. Albert Reyes, the top administrator at The Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio.

Bell defeated Rick Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church in Brownwood, by a vote of 1,278-310.

Also, the Texas Baptist group plans to increase minority representation on its executive board from 15 percent to 30 percent, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

_ Bobby Ross Jr.

University Asks for Legal Review of Bible Study Ban

(RNS) The University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire has asked the state attorney general to review the legality of its ban on resident assistants leading Bible studies in their dorms, a university spokesman said.

Last July, a school administrator sent a letter to Lance Steiger, a resident assistant, informing him that students might fear they’d be “judged or pushed in a direction that does not work for them” because Steiger conducted Bible studies in his dorm.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based group that battles “political correctness” at universities, took up Steiger’s cause and asked the school to allow resident assistants to conduct Bible studies. FIRE issued a statement calling the policy an “assault on basic civil liberties.”

UW-Eau Claire spokesman Mike Rindo said resident assistants are essentially state employees and are forbidden to host religious and political activities or “sales parties” in their workplace, the dorms.

Resident assistants receive free room and board plus a $625-per-semester stipend in exchange for counseling students and explaining community standards. They are permitted to organize and lead religious activities outside the residence halls where they live, Rindo said.

“All of this is under review, and we’re seeking advice from legal counsel,” Rindo said in a telephone interview.

By spring, the school expects to clarify its policies, which have been verbal directives until now, and may put them in writing, Rindo said. It is uncertain whether the attorney general will respond to the school’s request for a legal review, Rindo said.

_ Kathleen Murphy

Congregations Worried About Spiking Energy Costs

(RNS) The soaring cost of keeping the sanctuary warm this winter has congregations fretting.

“People are very worried,” said consultant Andrew Rudin, who’s been advising houses of worship on energy conservation for 30 years. “We’ve never had so much business.”

Rudin, of Philadelphia’s Interfaith Coalition on Energy, consults congregations in Philadelphia and beyond on energy costs.

“Budgets are always a sensitive matter” for congregations, Dernbach said. “Every dollar you don’t spend on energy is a dollar you can spend on doing good for someone.”

The Energy Department predicts higher natural gas and oil prices will make winter heating bills 30 percent to 50 percent higher than last year for most households.

The problem is complicated for churches, mosques and synagogues _ often in old buildings, largely empty much of the week, with high ceilings, broad expanses of stained glass, little or no insulation and aged boilers in the basement.

Rudin, who once wrote an article titled “Blessed Are They Who Turn Things Off,” said those buildings can do surprisingly well on energy use _ if people are smart about using them.

“It’s not the organ; it’s the organist,” he said. “It’s the switch and the thermostat.”

_ Mary Warner

Quote of the Day: Fired Catholic Teacher Michelle McCusker

(RNS) “I don’t understand how a religion that prides itself on being forgiving and on valuing life could terminate me because I’m pregnant and am choosing to have this baby. I held the Catholic religion to a higher standard.”

_ Michelle McCusker, a Catholic-school teacher who was fired after telling her employers that she was pregnant and did not plan to marry the father of the child. The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the Diocese of Brooklyn, on behalf of McCusker, who was quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

MO/JL END RNS