c. 1997 Religion News Service

Bernardin’s memoir alleges fellow priest behind abuse charge

(RNS) Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, in a posthumously published memoir, alleges that a priest who had been a longtime critic urged Steven Cook to falsely name the cardinal in allegations of sexual abuse.

Although Bernardin’s book did not identify the critic, the Rev. Charles Fiore, who has been an outspoken critic of the late archbishop of Chicago, acknowledged Thursday (Jan. 30) he had spoken with Cook before the charges were made public. But Fiore denied he had urged Cook to name Bernardin.

In 1993, Cook filed suit accusing Bernardin and a seminary teacher of sexually molesting him when he was a seminarian. However, Cook later recanted his charges against Bernardin, and the two reconciled during a 1994 meeting.

In his book,”The Gift of Peace, Personal Reflections”(Loyola Press), Bernardin wrote that Cook told him during the reconciliation meeting that another priest had suggested including Bernardin in the allegations.”Although Steven was pursuing a case only against his seminary teacher, his priest-adviser began mentioning me, Cardinal Bernardin, suggesting that, if I were included in the case, Steven would surely get back what he wanted from the church,”Bernardin wrote.”This `spiritual guide’ pushed my name, urging Steven to name me along with the other priest in the legal action,”he wrote.

Bernardin did not identify the priest-adviser, but referred to him as a critic who had also encouraged Cook’s mother to cooperate with the plan.

Fiore, of Lodi, Wis., told the Associated Press that Cook had contacted him two days prior to filing the lawsuit because of Fiore’s previous work with people who had been abused by priests.”I categorically deny that I had anything to do with his filing the lawsuit naming Bernardin,”Fiore said. “Do I believe Cardinal Bernardin was guilty? Yes,”Fiore added.

Ordained woman in Kentucky church, counseling center sparks controversy

(RNS) The presence of an ordained woman as both a member of a Kentucky church and an employee at a Baptist counseling agency has sparked controversy in two local associations of Southern Baptist churches.

On Nov. 4, 1996, Little Bethel Baptist Association in Madisonville, Ky., voted to sever ties with Cornerstone Counseling because Angie Flack works there as a part-time counselor. The counseling center, a ministry of Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children, had been based in the association office but moved to a new location because of the dispute.

More recently, another western Kentucky association, Muhlenberg Baptist Association, attempted to take action against the church where Flack’s husband, David, became pastor last spring, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent Baptist news service.

Angie Flack was ordained in 1993 by Florence Baptist Church in Forest City, N.C. She holds no office in Drakesboro Baptist Church, where her husband is pastor, and does not consider herself to be a pastor. But James Shutt, a Central City, Ky., pastor, has charged that her presence in the Muhlenberg association could”open the door to other problems,”such as encouraging women to be ordained as ministers.

On Jan. 21, a credentials committee recommended that the Muhlenberg association take no action against Drakesboro Baptist Church. But the association’s executive board rejected the recommendation and permitted a vote on whether to oust the church from the association. The vote fell seven short of the required two-thirds majority.

The dispute has prompted some member congregations to question whether they should remain in the Muhlenberg association or leave in protest.

Two of the largest churches in the association opposed the effort to expel the church and have scheduled votes for February about whether to stay in the group.

Shutt, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Central City, Ky., said his church has voted to no longer recognize the Drakesboro congregation as being of”like faith and order.”Thus, the Calvary Baptist Church will no longer receive or grant transfers of membership from or to the Drakesboro church.

At a fall meeting of the Muhlenberg association’s executive board, David Flack read a statement from his wife, who was not permitted to speak at the meeting. Only men may serve on the board and visitors are not permitted to speak.”God has led me into the ministry of pastoral counseling to help people whose hearts are hurting,”Angie Flack said in the statement.”This is what I do. This is what I will continue to do until God tells me to do otherwise.”

Update: Reform rabbis protest at Israel’s Interior Ministry

(RNS) In a dramatic protest inside Israel’s Interior Ministry, eight Reform rabbis from the United States and Israel chained themselves Thursday (Jan. 30) to benches in a show of opposition against Orthodox moves to deny the legitimacy of non-Orthodox conversions.

The rabbis staged their protest on the ground floor waiting hall of the Interior Ministry in Jerusalem for about an hour. Some held placards with the message:”Israel, don’t write off 4 million Jews.” The rabbis specifically highlighted their concerns about legislation proposed by Orthodox political parties that would deny non-Orthodox rabbis in Israel the right to perform conversions to Judaism. The bill would also disqualify conversions of Israeli citizens performed abroad by Reform and Conservative rabbis.

Orthodox leaders in Israel see themselves as guardians of the tradition and reject Reform and Conservative Judaism as inauthentic. Non-Orthodox groups in recent years have gained legitimacy in Israel through the courts. The proposed legislation is an attempt by Orthodox leaders to negate some of those gains.

On Sunday (Jan. 26), a delegation of about 50 American Reform rabbis met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged him to reject the legislation.

In an interview, delegation member Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America, said the issue _ commonly referred to as the”Who is a Jew?”debate _ will hurt American Jewish support for Israel.

Hirsch, who is based in New York, said the bill is connected to the rising political clout of the Orthodox parties which he said want to”shove their narrow militant religious agenda down Israel’s throat.”

Thousands of lost Rwandan children reunited with families

(RNS) Three-quarters of the more than 10,000 Rwandan Hutu children lost during a mass refugee exodus from Zaire and Tanzania have now been reunited with their families, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced Thursday (Jan. 30).

Most of the children were separated from their families in December, when 500,000 Rwandan Hutus in Tanzania were expelled by soldiers and some 600,000 refugees began returning to Rwanda from camps in east Zaire.

In its efforts to reunite refugee families, the ICRC has been using a computer tracing program, as well as radio broadcasts, Polaroid photos of children and parents, and ICRC-delivered messages, the Associated Press reported.

Overall, the ICRC has registered the names of more than 80,000 children who have been lost since ethnic fighting between Hutus and Tutsis began in 1994.

Quote of the Day: Essayist and critic Stanley Crouch

(RNS) In a recent lecture at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, essayist and critic Stanley Crouch spoke on the complexity of America’s diversity:”If we learn to look closely enough at each other, we will see far beyond the barriers of race, class, religion, and sex. We will recognize that the human heart pumping its blood to a syncopated beat, a jazz timing that is the double consciousness created by sadness moving at a dance pulsation, becomes the occasion to blow the blues away _ not forever, but just long enough to build up the sober but celebratory strength necessary to face those blues when they make their inevitable return.”

MJP END RNS