c. 2008 Religion News Service

Obama `deeply disappointed’ in priest’s remarks at his church

(RNS) Sen. Barack Obama said he was “deeply disappointed” by remarks made by a Catholic priest speaking at his Chicago church on Sunday (May 25), who said Sen. Hillary Clinton felt she was “entitled” to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

“I really believe that she just always thought this is mine,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of the predominantly black St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago, who later apologized for his words.

“I’m Bill’s wife. I’m white and this is mine. I just got to get up and step into the plate and then out of nowhere came, hey, I’m Barack Obama and she said, `Oh damn, where did you come from? I’m white. I’m entitled. There’s a black man stealing my show.”’

Many in the congregation stood and applauded Pfleger, a white priest who has spoken at the church in the past and was called a “prophetic, powerful pulpiteer” when introduced by Trinity’s new pastor, the Rev. Otis Moss III.

Pfleger mocked the tears Clinton, D-N.Y., shed during the run-up to the New Hampshire primary. Wiping his eyes with a handkerchief, he added: “She wasn’t the only one crying. There was a whole lot of white people crying. I’m sorry, I don’t want to get you in any more trouble.”

Obama, D-Ill., issued a statement expressing his disapproval of Pfleger, whose remarks have been posted on the Internet.

“As I have traveled this country, I’ve been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that unites us. That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger’s divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn’t reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause.”

About a month ago, Obama declared that the controversial words of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the recently retired pastor of Trinity, were “destructive” and contradict “everything that I’m about and who I am.”

The Rev. James Martin, associate editor of the Jesuit weekly, America, called Pfleger’s words “deeply offensive” and “uncharitable” in an online column.

“Seeing a Catholic priest belittle another human being, and publicly impugn her motives, from a pulpit was shocking to many people,” Martin wrote. “It seemed fundamentally wrong. And it is, for contempt has no place in Christian discourse.”

Pfleger issued an apology on Thursday for the remarks.

“I regret the words I chose on Sunday,” he said. “These words are inconsistent with Sen. Obama’s life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Sen. Clinton or anyone else who saw them.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Vatican reaffirms excommunication for women priests

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican on Friday (May 30) reaffirmed its longstanding policy that women who seek to become priests, and the bishops who attempt to ordain them, will face excommunication.

The decree was published in the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, and was signed by the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William Levada.

Excommunication bars Catholics from receiving the sacraments or participating in acts of public worship. The decree said it was absolute, universal and of immediate effect.

Church law already states that only a baptized male can become a priest, in part because Jesus chose only men as his apostles.

But the Vatican had never been as explicit in condemning the ordination of women. The decree is meant to safeguard “the nature and validity of the sacrament of the Holy Orders.”

Opponents of the church’s position believe that Christ never argued explicitly against the ordination of women, and that by choosing only male apostles he was conforming to the customs of his time.

The controversy over women priesthood intensified over the last couple of years after the formation of the group Roman Catholic Womenpriests in 2002. While attempts to ordain women remain rare, last March St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke excommunicated three people for participating in a woman’s ordination service.

_ Bernd Bergmann

Groups pool resources to help rebuild Gulf Coast

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) A diverse group of faith-based organizations has raised $4.5 million for two disaster relief funds that will aid affordable-housing projects, help rebuild small businesses and develop community centers on the Gulf Coast.

The Isaiah Fund LLC, a project of Catholic, Jewish, Mennonite and Baptist institutions, is believed to be the first national interfaith fund for long-term domestic disaster recovery.

The groups, which have been active in volunteer efforts after Hurricane Katrina, say they recognize that some of the hardest rebuilding work still lies ahead. Providing long-term, low-cost, flexible capital is one of the best ways they can continue to help.

“We looked at the tremendous needs that exist throughout the region,” said Jeffrey Dekro, senior vice president of Jewish Funds for Justice in Philadelphia, which will manage the funds.

The partners in the fund said they realized that if they pooled their resources, they could create a more ambitious and high-profile program than going it alone. They named the fund for a biblical passage that says, “You will restore the age-old foundations and be called repairer of the breach, restorer of the streets in which to dwell.”

The two funds, one for loans and one for grants, will initially focus on low-income communities on the Gulf Coast, but the founders hope the Isaiah Funds will become a blueprint to create other funds to support recovery from future disasters.

The goal is to grow the program to $10 million for loans and $1 million for grants by the end of 2009 with the help of other foundations and faith-based institutions. The money will be disbursed through local financial institutions.

The first loan, of $500,000, will be awarded to Gulf Coast Housing Partnership, which has finished about 600 units of affordable housing since the storm and is working on an additional 500 units.

“We in the faith community are not interested simply in the rebuilding of New Orleans, because much of what was need not be recovered,” said Episcopal Bishop Charles Jenkins III. “I still think that New Orleans is America’s opportunity. If it can be done here, it can be done anywhere. This is the least likely place.”

_ Rebecca Mowbray

Quote of the Day: Iraqi Sunni leader Mohammed Amin Abdel-Hadi

(RNS) “We demand the Americans leave us alone and stop creating religious controversies. First, they shot the Quran, and now they come to proselytize inside Fallujah.”

_ Mohammed Amin Abdel-Hadi, leader of the Sunni Endowment in Fallujah, Iraq, who accused U.S. troops of acting like Christian missionaries. The Washington Post reported that a Marine was suspended Thursday (May 29) for distributing coins to Sunni Muslims that quoted John 3:16.

KRE/LF END RNS