c. 1998 Religion News Service

Vietnamese government, church officials hail Catholic festival

(RNS) Vietnam’s Communist Party daily newspaper said Monday (Aug. 17) a major Roman Catholic festival held last week was a success and provided believers a good opportunity for worship.”The festival left a good impression for worshippers and pilgrims,”the newspaper Nhan Dan (People) said.”There was careful preparation by the Hue diocese, attention from local authorities and hospitality from local people.” The festival, held Aug. 13-15, marked the 200th anniversary of a reported apparition of the Virgin Mary at the beginning of an 88-year period of oppression of believers by the Vietnamese Emperor.

Vietnam has a Roman Catholic community of about 8 million, one of the largest in Asia outside of the Philippines. Prior to the festival, the government had expressed some concern about the event, fearing the concentration of so many people in one place. The festival drew about 100,000 people, according to news reports from Hanoi.

Relations between the church and the government have been spotty in the past but have eased in recent years.

Church officials also hailed the festival, saying it showed an outpouring of faith.”We have felt the full faithfulness of all Vietnamese Catholics,”said the Rev. Giuse Duong Duc Toai.”It’s beyond my wildest expectations,”he told Reuters.

Adventist relief organization refutes newspaper article

(RNS) The Adventist Development and Relief Agency, the humanitarian aid organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has rebutted an article in the Los Angeles Times that raised questions about its oversight and financial management.”ADRA rejects the article by the LA Times as neither a factual account nor a legitimate criticism of its operation,”the organization announced in a statement issued after the article appeared Friday (Aug. 14).”The LA Times reporters chose to present information in a way that misleads and encourages damaging conclusions.” The newspaper reported that U.S. government audits of the federally-funded efforts of the relief group found”inadequate or nonexistent”documentation for the spending of millions of U.S. dollars.

But ADRA, in its statement, said an array of private and government funders continue to give money for the agency’s international humanitarian efforts.”ADRA maintains high standards of accountability to all of its donors,”the statement reads.”It is ADRA’s policy to conduct regular audits for purposes of monitoring and ensuring financial compliance.” The statement cited the most recent review of ADRA’s audit reports by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which found ADRA’s programs met the financial requirements of USAID.

ADRA said it stood by the statement made by Mario Ochoa, executive vice president of ADRA to Times editor Michael Parks last October:”To the best of our knowledge, there are no outstanding issues of any significance between ADRA and any of the international development finance agencies which provide funding for ADRA’s programs. To the extent that there may have been any such issues in the past, they have been fully addressed by ADRA to the satisfaction of the agencies involved.”

Pakistan returns 10 nationalized schools to Presbyterians

(RNS) The government of Pakistan has announced it will return to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) the management of 10 schools taken from the denomination in 1972 when Muslim-dominated Pakistan nationalized education.

Church officials in the United States said Friday (Aug. 14) the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan is celebrating the coming return of the schools but that it is a celebration tempered by the reality that both the buildings and quality of education have deteriorated because of 26 years of underfunding and neglect.

Pakistani church leaders and American missionaries have tried for many years to regain possession of the schools but the movement gained real momentum in 1987, when the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that the land and buildings belonged to the church, though the government was allowed to continue to manage the schools, reported Presbyterian News Service, the news agency of the PCUSA.

Dave Stoner, who negotiated the return, said the negotiations involved more than property rights.”The issue was also one of justice for the Pakistan Christian community, which feels that its very identity is related to the history and witness of these institutions which, for a quarter century, had been taken over by the Islamic government,”Stoner said.

Preliminary estimates indicated it will take $2 million to restore the schools and to hire the necessary Christian teachers.

Update: Poles back `pope’s cross’ at Auschwitz

(RNS) More than 70 percent of Poles want to keep a large cross associated with a visit Pope John Paul II made to Auschwitz standing outside the Nazi German death camp.

But almost half those polled _ 48 percent _ said they did not support the campaign launched by radical Roman Catholic groups to erect more crosses at the site _ a campaign that has angered Jewish groups in Poland and abroad. The Polish Roman Catholic Church is reportedly divided on the issue.

Reuters reported the poll findings, by the Demoskop polling agency, on Monday (Aug. 17). The report did not include a margin of error.

Jewish groups, who regard the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex in southern Poland as a virtually sacred site, want all the crosses removed. More than 1 million people _ 90 percent of them Jews _ were killed at Auschwitz.

Calls for the removal of the crosses have come from around the world, including the government of Israel, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and half a dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

But many Christian Poles insist they have a right to commemorate their countrymen killed at the camp.

At present, 21 large crosses and 110 smaller ones are scattered across a field surrounding the 26-foot high”papal cross”erected in 1988 when John Paul visited the site and celebrated a Mass outside the red brick walls of the death camp.

Suspended Episcopal priest in Denver returned to pulpit

(RNS) The Rev. Sandra Wilson, pastor of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Denver has been returned to her pulpit following a four-month suspension following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Wilson, 45, was accused by three women of sexual and ethical misconduct in April although the exact nature of the charges were never made public.

The priest’s suspension was lifted Aug. 8 and she returned to the pulpit of her church Sunday, Aug. 9. She received a standing ovation and the congregation celebrated with a party afterward, said Wilson’s attorney, Peggy Toal.

At the time of the suspension, the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado said Wilson was accused”of violating the boundaries between a person in a position of trust and parishioners.”The charges were investigated by a special committee but Toal said Bishop Jerry Winterrowd (cq) decided against forwarding any report from the investigating panel to the diocesan Standing Committee, the body charged with ministerial matters.”The case is closed,”Toal said.”It was an internal church process and everything is confidential.” Diocesan officials would only say that the”temporary inhibition (from functioning as a priest) has been lifted at bishop’s discretion”and would not say whether the allegations were withdrawn or whether Wilson had been exonerated of the accusations.

Quote of the day: The Rev. J. Philip Wogaman, President Clinton’s pastor

(RNS)”I’m afraid there are people who, when they see a political enemy having problems, they rejoice in that. All of us need to be very cautious about how we make such judgments, not knowing what the facts are.” _ The Rev. J. Philip Wogaman, pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., the church President Clinton most often attends, on CNN’s”Both Sides with Jesse Jackson.”

DEA END RNS