c. 2003 Religion News Service

Priests in Five Dioceses to Ask for Discussion on Celibacy

(RNS) Catholic priests in at least five dioceses will likely follow the lead of priests in Milwaukee and ask church leaders to open a discussion on mandatory celibacy, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Local priests groups in New York, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh and southern Illinois said they will circulate letters to their bishops asking them to consider allowing married priests to help ease the clergy shortage across the country.

“I would expect strong support,” said the Rev. Larry Dowling, a member of the Association of Chicago Priests. “There is a need for dialogue with the bishops and this is a way to push that.”

The five dioceses include some of the nation’s largest, as well as the Diocese of Belleville, Ill., whose bishop, Wilton Gregory, is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Last week (Aug. 19), more than 160 Milwaukee priests mailed a letter to Gregory that said “the Catholic Church needs more candidates for the priesthood, so that the church’s sacramental life might continue to flourish.”

Neither Gregory nor Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan has commented on the petitions.

The Rev. Robert Bullock of Sharon, Mass., told the Journal Sentinel that the 200-member Boston Priests’ Forum will likely circulate a letter at a Sept. 5 board meeting. Bullock, president of the forum, was one of the lead organizers of a priests’ letter that prompted Cardinal Bernard Law to resign from the Boston archdiocese last December.

“This is a crisis that is in the structures and the governance of the church and those issues have to be addressed,” Bullock said. “The shortage of priests is part of the systemic problem.”

Other priests groups that told the newspaper they will likely follow Milwaukee include the New York-based Voice of the Ordained, the Association of Pittsburgh Priests and the Southern Illinois Association of Priests.

The Catholic Church has required clergy to be celibate since the 12th century, although some Eastern Rite priests can be married. Since 1980, married Episcopal and Lutheran priests who convert to Catholicism can also serve as clergy.

Pope John Paul II has said celibacy is not optional, although a national lay review board will consider how celibacy contributed to the recent sexual abuse crisis as part of a report that is not expected for several years.

Pope Recalls Election of John Paul I 25 Years Ago

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II on Wednesday (Aug. 27) recalled the election and brief reign of John Paul I 25 years ago and urged the world to heed his warning against godless progress that leads only to violence.

Earlier Wednesday, the Vatican sent a telegram to Bombay saying the pope was “deeply saddened” by the bombings that claimed more than 50 lives in the Indian city on Monday (Aug. 25).

The 82-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff devoted his weekly general audience to the anniversary of his immediate predecessor, who reigned for only 33 days. Elected pope on Aug. 26, 1978, John Paul I died of a heart attack on Sept. 28, 1978.

“He once said, `Progress with men who love themselves, believing themselves brothers and sons of God the only Father, can be a marvelous thing. Progress with men who do not recognize in God the only Father becomes a continual peril,”’ the pope said.

“How much truth there is in these words, useful also for the men of our time,” John Paul II said. “May humanity accept such a wise warning and extinguish the numerous hotbeds of hate and violence present in so many parts of the Earth to build in harmony a more just and fair world.”

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, said in a telegram to Cardinal Ivan Dias, archbishop of Bombay, that the pope “appeals to all men and women of goodwill to renounce the ways of violence, which have caused so much unnecessary suffering, and allow peace to triumph over the forces of hatred and mistrust.”

John Paul returned from his country residence in the hill town of Castelgandolfo south of Rome for the first time this summer to hold his weekly audience at the Vatican.

Meeting with pilgrims in the courtyard of the Castelgandolfo residence on previous Wednesdays, the pope appeared to be suffering from the unusually hot and humid weather. Vatican technicians installed air conditioning units to cool the Paul VI Audience Hall.

Recalling John Paul I, the former patriarch of Venice who has been accepted as a candidate for sainthood, the pope said that “his smiling face, his trusting and open expression won the hearts of Romans and of the faithful throughout the entire world.”

“Humility and optimism were the characteristics of his existence,” John Paul said. “Thanks to these gifts, he left in the course of his fleeting passage among us a message of hope that finds a welcome in so many hearts.”

_ Peggy Polk

Update: Indian Christians, Muslims Deplore Bombay Bombing

(RNS) Indian Christians and Muslims spoke out against the twin car bombings that killed at least 50 people and wounded 150 in India’s financial capital Monday (Aug. 25).

About 200 Muslims marched in Bombay, also known as Mumbai, on Tuesday, carrying national flags and banners that denounced the blasts as “an act of cowardice,” not a show of strength.

“This is a march in sympathy for all the people who lost their lives,” Mohammed Nausof the Sandusky (Ohio) Register, and editor of had Kureshi, general secretary of the Muslim Council of India’s local chapter, said as he led the procession, The Associated Press reported. “The blasts were against humanity.”

At the end of the procession, Muslims offered prayers at Zaveri Bazaar, the site of one of the bombs that tore through a jewelry market. The other exploded at the Gateway of India, a popular tourist site.

Indian churches were also quick to condemn the attacks, for which no organization has claimed responsibility.

The National Council of Churches in India, a coalition of 29 Protestant and Orthodox churches, said in a statement that it deplored “this ghastly act of terrorism.”

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India urged India’s government to find a lasting solution to sectarian strife between India’s religious communities.

“It is not enough to condemn such occurrences of hatred and enmity but it is important for people and governments to find causes and address them squarely in order to find lasting solutions,” the Catholic Bishops’ Conference said in its statement.

Chaggan Bhujpal, deputy chief minister for the Maharashtra state, of which Bombay is the capital, told journalists the government suspected the bombings were linked to anti-Muslim riots that took place in neighboring Gujarat state in 2002. Nearly 1,000 Muslims were killed in the riots.

Thousands of Hindus, meanwhile, staged a silent protest in Bombay Wednesday to pay respect to both Hindu and Muslim victims.

_ Alexandra Alter

Church Wants Mother Teresa Beatification to Be National Event

NEW DELHI, India (RNS) India’s Roman Catholic bishops have sought the federal government’s help to make beatification of Mother Teresa a national celebration.

A delegation of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Aug. 22 and gave him a nine-point proposal to observe the event in India.

They want the Hindu nationalist-led government to send an official interfaith delegation to the Vatican for the beatification ceremony.

The beatification ceremony of Mother Teresa is scheduled for Oct. 19.

The day also marks the 25th year of Pope John II’s pontificate.

Other proposals include government assistance for a live telecast of the event and installation of the nun’s picture in the federal parliament hall along with pictures of national leaders.

A national museum for the nun and a national award for social service commemorating her name were also proposed.

“We would not like this rare moment of her beatification to go unnoticed,” said a memorandum the bishops submitted along with the proposal.

The beatification of Mother Teresa “is an important event for all Christians in India,” as she “belonged to our country and brought laurels for the nation,” it said.

Mother Teresa came to Calcutta in 1929 as a Sisters of Loretto nun. The poverty she saw along the streets led her to leave the congregation and begin the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.

“It indeed is a big event for us in India and we want the government to do all possible to help to make it a national event,” said Father Babu Joseph, spokesperson for the bishops’ conference and a member of the delegation that met with government officials.

Joseph said Vajpayee gave them “a very patient hearing” in the 20-minute meeting and he expected a positive response from the government.

He also said all 148 Indian Catholic dioceses are planning their own programs to mark the event, including blood donation campaigns and projects to feed the poor.

A statement from the archdiocese of New Delhi on Aug. 23 said its people would observe the event with a symposium on interreligious issues.

_ Christopher Joseph

Sunni Clerics Call Iraq’s Government `God’s Enemies’

(RNS) Senior clerics at al-Azhar in Cairo, Egypt, the world’s foremost Sunni Islamic intellectual center, have issued a religious edict denouncing Iraq’s U.S.- appointed government as a servant of “God’s enemies.”

“The governing council in Iraq is devoid of religious and secular legitimacy because it is established in opposition to the principle of consultation and because it was imposed on the Iraqis by force of occupation to be loyal to the enemies of God,” said the edict, quoted by an opposition newspaper on Wednesday (Aug. 27), Reuters reported.

The ruling, or fatwa, also said Muslim and Arab states should not maintain diplomatic relations with the Iraqi council, some of whose leaders recently met senior Arab officials in Egypt and other countries.

Although Sunni Muslims are not bound to follow edicts issued by al-Azhar, which represent the views of the clerics, many view such statements as moral guidelines.

But Mohammed Sayed Tantwani, the state-appointed grand sheikh of al-Azhar mosque and university, said the committee that issued the edict had no authority to make such judgments.

“The Fatwa Committee is not authorized to issue judgments about another country,” he told Reuters. “We will summon the Fatwa Committee to see who said this and bring them to account.”

The Iraqi Governing Council has not received Arab backing, but a group of Arab foreign ministers called it a step toward an elected government during an Arab League meeting in August.

Quote of the Day: Contemporary Christian Musician Michael W. Smith

(RNS) “I’m always reluctant to say: `OK, we’re going to have a worship service.’ … `We’re going to worship now.’ Worship is a lifestyle; it’s not just music. It’s how you treat God at the grocery store, around your lawyer, your doctor.”

_ Contemporary Christian musician Michael W. Smith, a pop artist who has released best-selling praise and worship albums, in an interview with Ministries Today magazine. He was quoted by Charisma New Service.

DEA END RNS