c. 1999 Religion News Service

Pope’s visit to Romania will exclude mostly Catholic Transylvania

(RNS) When Pope John Paul II makes his historic trip to Romania in May, he will visit Bucharest but not the region of Transylvania where most of the country’s Latin Rite Catholics live.

Details of the pope’s trip, his first to a predominantly Orthodox country, were disclosed late Monday (March 15) in Bucharest following talks between representatives of the Vatican, the Romanian Orthodox Church and the government and presidency of Romania.

Vatican sources said John Paul had hoped to travel to Transylvania during his visit to Romania May 7-9 but gave way to Orthodox opposition in order to become the first Roman Catholic pontiff to set foot in a predominantly Orthodox country since the schism of 1054 divided the eastern and western churches.

Most of Romania’s 1.5 million Latin Rite Catholics, who are in communion with Rome, are of Hungarian origin and live in Transylvania.

Opposition by the Romanian Orthodox Church, which has some 20 million members, stirred controversy in Bucharest. Latin Rite bishops protested and a number of Orthodox members of parliament joined with Catholics in collecting signatures on a petition calling for the pope to visit the region north of the capital.

The protesters said that to forbid the visit”would be an inadmissible offense against the pope and an argument for those who consider Romania a barbarous country.” Orthodox sources said a papal visit to Transylvania was excluded only because of the 78-year-old pontiff’s”weak condition of health.” The pope’s program, reported on Radio Romania by Orthodox Bishop Nifon Mihaita, includes meetings with Patriarch Teoctist, President Emil Costantinescu and Latin Rite bishops, a visit to the Catholic cemetery at Belu and a mass in the Bucharest Cathedral.

On May 9, a Sunday, the pope and the patriarch will make an ecumenical gesture. The pope will attend an Orthodox worship service that the patriarch will preside at in the morning, and the patriarch will be present at a Roman

Catholic Mass which the pope will celebrate in the afternoon.

The Polish-born John Paul has made efforts to mend the breach between the churches of the East and West one of the priorities of his papacy. But the collapse of communism in the East further strained relations with disputes over the ownership of property confiscated by the communists and Orthodox charges that Catholics were making use of new freedom to proselytize.

A joint committee set up last year to resolve the status of some 2,000 churches in Romania reportedly has made some progress toward settlement.

The invitation to the pope to visit Bucharest marked a step forward in Catholic-Orthodox relations, but hopes that it might lead to a papal trip to Moscow were dashed recently when the Russian patriarchy expressed”doubts”and”perplexity”about such a visit.

John Paul, who has made 85 trips outside Italy in his 20 years as pope, also is scheduled to visit Poland in June and Slovenia on Sept. 19.

Norwegian bishop sparks revolt with appointment of lesbian cleric

(RNS) The only woman bishop in Norway’s state Lutheran church has sparked a revolt in her diocese with the appointment of an openly lesbian clergywoman to a post in her diocese.

At least 27 of the 120 clergy in Bishop Rosamarie Kohn’s jurisdiction said Monday (March 15) they could no longer accept her spiritual guidance because of her decision to allow the Rev. Siri Sunde to return to work at a parish in the diocese.

Sunde was barred from the pulpit in June 1997 for marrying her partner. Although such gay and lesbian marriages are legal under Norwegian civil law, it violates church rules that bar openly gay and lesbian people from ordained jobs.

Kohn’s reappointment of Sunde to her job in the diocese was prompted in part because the Church of Norway is a state church and clergy are government employees and thus protected by strict laws barring discrimination against any group, including gays, the Associated Press reported.

While the rebelling clergy will remain under Kohn’s jurisdiction, they said they will no longer seek guidance or spiritual counseling from the bishop or invite her to preach in their churches.

Group urges support for hate crimes legislation

(RNS) Equal Partners in Faith, a national religious organization which promotes equality for gays and lesbians, has called on religious groups to support the proposed Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

The proposed legislation, introduced in Congress on March 11, would add gender, disability and sexual orientation to existing categories of hate crimes and would make it easier for federal law enforcement agencies to be involved in prosecution of reported hate crimes.”Hate, bigotry and violence are corrosive elements that erode the very fabric upon which this country was established _ freedom, inclusion and pursuit of happiness,”said the Rev. Steven Baines, a Southern Baptist minister and official with EPF.”People of faith, clergy and laity alike, must end the deafening silence which fosters and promotes the deplorable hate crimes that all of the world has witnessed in recent months,”Baines added.

EPF said it would mount a grassroots lobbying campaign to put pressure on Congress to pass the legislation.

Although the bill has wide support in the religious and civil rights communities, some religious leaders also have announced their opposition.

Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, for example, has called the effort to expand and broaden hate crime laws”at the heart of the erosion of the constitutional right to free exercise”of religion.

Land contends the proposed legislation could undermine pastors’ right to”preach what we believe and say what we believe in the public square.”

English Catholic bishops welcome _ with reservations _ family policy

(RNS) The Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales have welcomed the emphasis on supporting families in the Labor government’s family policy statement while expressing reservations about some aspects of the proposals.”There is much to applaud in this document, although there are certain aspects about which we have reservations,”said Bishop Peter Smith of East Anglia, chairman of the conference’s department for Christian responsibility and citizenship.

The bishops’ position was outlined in a response made public Tuesday (March 16) to the government’s policy statement published last November.”We welcome the intention of government to offer greater support for marriage and family life,”the bishops said in their statement.”But we want to say at the outset _ and it is a point that we will repeat _ that we do not seek policies which, while supporting marriage, prejudice or diminish the well-being of any family, and especially families with children.” In particular, the bishops called on the government to more pointedly recognize the role played by financial hardship in family breakdown.”The stress created by the endless struggle to make ends meet, and often to cope with debt, places severe strains on family relationships,”they said.”Not all poor families break up, but the incidence of relationship breakdown among families undergoing serious financial difficulties is high.”For any policy aimed to promote stable families, tackling family poverty is an essential element, not an optional extra,”the bishops said.

They noted that according to the most reliable statistics available, just over one-third of Britain’s children could be classified as poor, and one-fifth”very poor,”living in households with incomes two-fifths or less of the national average income.”These appalling numbers call for early action,”the bishops said.

The bishops also questioned the proposed policy’s section on pre-nuptial agreements as a means of strengthening families, calling it”highly ambiguous.””While they (agreements) might have some degree of usefulness in the case of ultimate marital breakdown, their role in supporting the initial commitment is not entirely clear and might even undermine that commitment,”they said.

Smith, for example, said support for such agreements”seems to imply an expectation of marriage breakdown,”adding that they”undermine the notion of total commitment to marriage. They would also appear to favor the financially stronger party.”

Quote of the day: Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey

(RNS)”It is not for us to erect great barriers around the cross. Let Christ out and show his love through generosity and kindness and God will take care of the results.” _ Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey warning against erecting theological hurdles to church membership, in a speech at Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham, Ala., on March 14.

DEA END RNS