c. 2006 Religion News Service
Vatican Decries Christian Exodus From Middle East
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Continuing violence in the Middle East has set off a Christian “exodus” from the Holy Land, a top Vatican cardinal declared on Tuesday (March 14).
In a letter to bishops around the world, Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Eastern Churches, said decades of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians have made living conditions in the region untenable for many Christians. He called on Catholics worldwide to increase aid to the region’s dwindling Christian population.
“This distressing situation leads to poverty and unemployment, with serious consequences for families and for the entire population,” Daoud said. “It also increases the disturbing phenomenon of the constant exodus of Christians, especially young couples for whom there is no prospect of a safe and dignified future.”
Daoud’s call follows a recent attack on one of Christianity’s holiest shrines, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, in Israel. On March 3 an Israeli couple and their daughter entered the building and detonated small explosives during a Lenten prayer service.
Though no one was injured, the incident set off rioting around the basilica that injured more than a dozen people and renewed accusations that Israeli authorities have failed to protect the Christian sites.
A delegation of Arab Christians from Israel that visited the Vatican in February reported that less than one in 50 people now living in the area known as the Holy Land are Christians and the number is expected to drop further.
In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Raed Mualem, a member of the delegation to the Vatican and director of Mar Elias University in Ibillin, Israel, said the presence of Christians in the Holy Land has become “inconsequential” in the eyes of the West.
Daoud appeared to address that concern in his letter Tuesday.
“It is a duty of all Catholics throughout the world to accompany the Christian communities of that blessed land with prayer and concrete solidarity,” he said.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Laws Requiring Same-Sex Adoptions Create Dilemma for Catholic Charities
(RNS) A decision to discontinue Roman Catholic adoption services in the Boston area is raising questions elsewhere about the reconcilability of state laws and church teachings on homosexuality.
After a three-month study, Catholic Charities of Boston concluded Friday (March 10) that a Massachusetts antidiscrimination law makes it impossible for the agency to adhere to Catholic teachings that prohibit the placement of children with same-sex couples. Rather than challenge the law in court, the agency opted to end its 103-year-old tradition of facilitating adoptions.
“The world was very different when Charities began this ministry at the threshold of the 20th century,” said Catholic Charities of Boston President J. Bryan Hehir in a statement. “Now we have encountered a dilemma we cannot resolve. In spite of much effort and analysis, Catholic Charities of Boston finds that it cannot reconcile the teaching of the church, which guides our work, and the statutes and regulations of the commonwealth.”
Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of San Francisco received an e-mail from Cardinal William Levada, the top doctrinal watchdog at the Vatican, and the former archbishop of San Francisco. Levada indicated that “Catholic agencies should not place children for adoption in homosexual households,” according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The issue will require scrutiny elsewhere in coming months, according to Carol Peck, director of family services at Catholic Charities U.S.A.
“It’s a complex but very local situation,” Peck said. “Each state law is very different … . We’re certainly watching it.”
Across the country, Catholic Charities saw a 6 percent increase in adoptions to 4,229 in 2004, the most recent data available. Nationwide, about 50,000 children were adopted that year from foster care, according to the federal Health and Human Services Department, which doesn’t track private adoptions.
More than 100 local chapters of Catholic Charities are registered to facilitate adoptions, and all must comply in full with state laws, Peck said. She said Catholic Charities U.S.A. hasn’t analyzed how many states have laws akin to Massachusetts’.
Adoption by same-sex couples is against the law in three states: Utah, Florida and Mississippi. Another 16 states have introduced legislation that would make it illegal.
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Review Requested for Miracle Attributed to Pope John Paul II
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The leading advocate for John Paul II’s sainthood has requested a formal review of the recovery of a French nun from Parkinson’s disease _ the first potential miracle that could advance the late pope’s candidacy.
In an interview Tuesday (Mar. 14), Monsignor Slawomir Oder, a Polish priest with the diocese of Rome, declined to name the nun but said church officials and physicians in France will begin investigating the nun’s recovery in coming weeks.
Though Oder stressed there are “many things to verify” in the case, he said the nun had resumed her work in the maternity ward of a French hospital when he visited her late last year.
“She’s gone back to work. She is a normal joyful person with much love for serving God,” he said.
The nun allegedly recovered from a debilitating case of Parkinson’s disease two months after the death of John Paul, Oder said. During that time, other members of her order prayed for an intercession from John Paul _ who publicly battled the same disease for years.
Though other cases of potential miracles in Europe and South America are being considered, Oder said he found the story of the French nun particularly poignant.
“The (nun’s) mother superior wrote us a simple letter, describing exactly how things happened for this simple, humble woman, without making her into a hero,” Oder said.
John Paul has been on the fast track to sainthood since May when Pope Benedict XVI lifted the five-year waiting period that traditionally must pass before the Vatican reviews a candidate.
John Paul needs one miracle to reach beatification, the last step before sainthood, and a second miracle to reach canonization _ the process by which the Vatican “declares” someone a saint. Inexplicable medical healings are the most common form of modern miracles accepted by the Vatican.
_ Kristine M. Crane
Lexington Bishop Says He Would Respect All Episcopalians If Elected
(RNS) Citing the need to have a moderate-to-liberal bishop who works well with conservatives, the Episcopal bishop of Lexington, Ky., has agreed to be considered as the next presiding bishop of the fractious 2.3-million-member Episcopal Church.
Stacy F. Sauls was not among four candidates named in January by a denominational nominating committee. But in a recent letter to his diocese, Sauls said a group of colleagues had persuaded him to seek the position because the denomination needs a bishop who “believes the actions taken in 2003 were the right things to do and at the same time respects those who disagree.”
V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire became the Anglican Communion’s first openly gay bishop in 2003. His election angered conservatives in the denomination and has pitted the U.S. church against other Anglicans, particularly bishops from Africa and Asia.
If elected, Sauls would succeed Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, who under church rules is only allowed one nine-year term. The church’s new presiding bishop will be elected to a nine-year term June 18 at the denomination’s General Convention meeting in Columbus, Ohio.
The four bishops chosen by a 29-member nominating committee are J. Neil Alexander of Atlanta, Henry Parsley of Birmingham, Ala., Edwin Gulick of Louisville, Ky., and Katharine Jefferts Schori of Las Vegas.
The committee set April 1 as the deadline for additional nominations.
Sauls, 50, is an Atlanta native who practiced law before entering General Theological Seminary in New York City at age 30. He was ordained a priest in Griffin, Ga., in 1989, and was elected the Episcopal bishop of Lexington in 2000. Among his priorities as bishop has been the problem of rural poverty in Appalachian mountain communities.
_ Chris Herlinger
Editors: To obtain a file photo of the Dalai Lama, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject.
Dalai Lama Seeks Visit to China; Wants Tibetan `Autonomy,’ Not Separation
NEW DELHI, India (RNS) The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, has repeated his wish to visit China and also his desire for Tibetan autonomy rather than complete independence.
On the 47th anniversary of the 1959 uprising against China’s takeover of Tibet, the Dalai Lama said in a statement on Friday (March 10) from Dharamsala _ the hilltop town in northern India which is the seat of his government in exile _ that he wanted to go to China to visit Buddhist pilgrimage centers.
“As well as visiting the pilgrim sites, I hope to see for myself the changes and developments in the People’s Republic of China.”
In an ongoing dialogue on the future of Tibet, representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government last met in February for a fifth round of talks. The Dalai Lama said the last round of parleys should have cleared any doubts as to his aspirations for a future Tibet.
“I have stated time and again that I do not wish to seek Tibet’s separation from China, but that I will seek its future within the framework of the Chinese constitution,” the 70-year-old spiritual leader said.
The Dalai Lama’s chief representative, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, said after the February talks that there was a growing understanding between the two sides.
In his latest (March 10) statement, the Dalai Lama said: “I have only one demand _ self-rule and genuine autonomy for all Tibetans, i.e., the Tibetan nationality in its entirety. This demand is in keeping with the provisions of the Chinese constitution, which means it can be met. It is a legitimate, just and reasonable demand that reflects the aspirations of Tibetans, both in and outside Tibet.”
_ Achal Narayanan
Christian Prayer Tent to Open on Mount of Olives March 25
JERUSALEM (RNS) Beginning March 25, Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land will be able to worship at a new prayer tent on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem.
The center will, at least initially, be housed in a large tent that will face the Old City of Jerusalem, where the Temple Mount _ a site holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims _ is situated.
It is being backed by two evangelical Christian organizations with ties to the Philippines: His Care Leadership Network/Israel, a group of Israel-based Filipino pastors; and the Jerusalem East Gate Foundation, an evangelical Christian ministry “that bridges Asia with the Holy Land ministries,” according to Marisa Albert, the organization’s president.
“Christians believe the Messiah will return to the Mount of Olives,” Albert said. “We want to have a place to worship there.”
She said she hopes the tent “will become a permanent center where Christians from different nations can come and worship. It will be open to everyone.” But, she said, “it is too early to discuss whether it will one day become a permanent structure.”
The prayer tent is the latest initiative by evangelical Christians, many of them staunch supporters of Israel, to establish a presence in the Holy Land. Last year several evangelical leaders pledged contributions totaling $50 million to build a Christian heritage center near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.
The Israeli government will donate the valuable Galilee land free of charge.
The fact that the notoriously conservative Jerusalem municipality has given the prayer center a renewable two-month permit underscores the importance with which the Israeli authorities view evangelical Christians, who donate money to needy Israelis and lobby their governments on Israel’s behalf.
_ Michele Chabin
Quotes of the Day: Singer Isaac Hayes and “South Park” Creator Matt Stone (RNS) “There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins.”
_ Soul singer and Scientologist Isaac Hayes, who provided the voice of Chef on “South Park” before announcing Monday (March 13) that he had quit the animated Comedy Central show.
“This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology. … He has no problem and he’s cashed checks with our show making fun of Christians.”
_ “South Park” co-creator Matt Stone, commenting on Hayes’ decision to quit.
Both Hayes and Stone were quoted by the Associated Press.
MO/RB END RNS
