c. 2003 Religion News Service
Proportions of Catholics, Jews Increasing in South, West
(RNS) In the last four decades, the percentages of self-described Catholics and Jews in the various regions of the United States have changed significantly while the percentages of Protestants have remained stable, the Gallup Organization reports.
The percentage of Catholics living in the South more than doubled from 1966 to 2002, from 9 percent to 20 percent. The percentage of Jews living in that region rose from 3 percent to 22 percent in that same time period.
Many Jews and Catholics seem to have migrated from the East to the South and West. In 1966, 84 percent of U.S. Jews lived in the East, but that figure dropped to 50 percent in 2002.
While the percentage of Protestants living in the West was the same in 1966 as in 2002 _ 17 percent _ the percentage of Jews and Catholics climbed sharply. Jews increased from 7 percent to 19 percent while Catholics rose from 13 percent to 22 percent.
Researchers also found in their comparison of survey data that the self-reported populations of Catholics and Jews nationwide have remained relatively the same since 1966. In 2002, 24 percent of people surveyed said they were Catholic while 2 percent said they were Jewish.
But the portion of Americans who identified themselves as Protestants dropped from 67 percent to 49 percent in that time period. The number of people saying “none” when asked about their religious preference rose from 2 percent in 1966 to 10 percent in 2002. More of those surveyed in 2002 also were more specific about what kind of Protestant they were or cited other faith affiliations.
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Following material is suitable for graphic treatment:
Geographic Mobility by Denomination, 1966 and 2002
East
Protestants
1966: 19 percent; 2002: 18 percent
Catholics
1966: 48 percent; 2002: 33 percent
Jews
1966: 84 percent; 2002: 50 percent
Midwest
Protestants
1966: 30 percent; 2002: 25 percent
Catholics
1966: 30 percent; 2002: 25 percent
Jews
1966: 6 percent; 2002: 8 percent
South
Protestants
1966: 34 percent; 2002: 39 percent
Catholics
1966: 9 percent; 2002: 20 percent
Jews
1966: 3 percent; 2002: 22 percent
West
Protestants
1966: 17 percent; 2002: 17 percent
Catholics
1966: 13 percent; 2002: 22 percent
Jews
1966: 7 percent; 2002: 19 percent
Percentage of Religious Denominations in the United States
(Based on surveys in which people identified their religious preference)
Protestants
1966: 67 percent; 2002: 49 percent
Catholics
1966: 25 percent; 2002: 24 percent
Jews
1966: 3 percent; 2002: 2 percent
None
1966: 2 percent; 2002: 10 percent
Source: The Gallup Organization
_ Adelle M. Banks
Greek Orthodox Are Granted Controversial New Charter
(RNS) A new charter that governs Greek Orthodox churches in the United States has been granted by the church’s worldwide leaders in Istanbul.
The charter does not include major changes for the U.S. church, but does allow more input from lay members. Most major decisions will continue to be made by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, the center of world Orthodoxy.
The charter, the first major revision in 25 years, was drafted by a joint U.S.-Istanbul panel and reviewed by clergy and lay members last summer in Los Angeles.
Lay members, led by the independent group Orthodox Christian Laity, had wanted to elect their own bishops for the U.S. church. Those appointments will remain in Istanbul, although a list of candidates will be published and made available for comment.
The eight regional U.S. bishops will now be elevated to the rank of Metropolitan, a process that began five years ago and was made uniform in the new charter. A metropolitan is a higher administrative rank than bishop.
In addition, the archbishop who heads the U.S. church will need at least five years of experience in America or “have proven, direct, substantive and broad knowledge” of the U.S. church. Lay leaders worried that Istanbul would force archbishops on America who had no experience here.
The Rev. Nektarios Morrow, the church’s director of communications, said the new charter “strengthens even more the existing bond” between the U.S. church and Istanbul. Morrow also said the charter “provides the foundation for even greater relationships and synergy between clergy and laity.”
Lay activists, however, remain unconvinced. George Matsoukas, executive director of Orthodox Christian Laity, said amendments passed by last year’s Clergy-Laity Congress _ calling for the election of new bishops by American bishops _ were ignored in Istanbul.
“It’s as if nobody met there, and they are the conscience of the church,” Matsoukas said.
Morrow said the changes and suggestions made in Los Angeles were “recommendations” and it fell to Istanbul to make any final decisions.
Matsoukas said church leaders in Istanbul, especially Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, have little regard for American concerns. He added that his group believes the charter still needs approval by the biennial Congress meeting, and insisted that the church remains governed by the old 1977 charter.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Ultra-Nationalists Protest Russian Jews
MOSCOW (RNS) About 50 demonstrators from an ultra-nationalist party picketed Sunday (Jan. 26) outside the office of the World Congress of Russian-Speaking Jewry, saying their party had been unfairly targeted by Jewish groups.
“This is a protest against the pressure they are putting on (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to have us banned,” said Stanislav Terekhov, co-chairman of the National Great Power Party, as he stood in front of placards denouncing Jews, Jewish businessmen and Zionism.
The fledgling World Congress, along with other Russian and American Jewish groups, objected strongly when Terekhov’s party was officially approved by Russia’s Justice Ministry last year. The Jewish groups claim the Great Power Party clearly violates new federal laws banning political extremism.
“They speak out in favor of expelling Jews from the country. They are calling for violence. This is obviously extremism,” said Alexander Brod, a local monitor with the Washington-based Union of Councils for Jews in the former Soviet Union, as he quietly observed the protest under a light snowfall.
Terekhov, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Russian Army, acknowledged that individual party members might be anti-Semitic but said they were careful to separate their personal views from the party’s platform.
“We are not fools,” he said. “We are not conducting a pogrom here. We are not throwing eggs or bottles.”
Terekhov claimed the Great Power Party has 20,000 members and branches in about two-thirds of Russia’s provinces. By urging the government to ban his party, Jewish groups have succeeded in slowing down the registration in the provinces that is needed to take part in December’s parliamentary elections, Terekhov said. The party currently holds no seats in Russia’s parliament.
Although Russia is home to no more than 500,000 Jews, anti-Semitism is a staple of life in the country of 148 million people. Vandalism to synagogues in Russia occurs about once a month. Anti-Semitic arsons, bombings and beatings are less common.
Brod said the Great Power Party is tolerated by the Russian government because the party serves the function of directing voters’ anger at the economic situation toward Jews and away from policy-makers and elected officials.
_ Frank Brown
Update: Vatican Upholds Excommunication of Seven Ordained Women
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Monday (Jan. 27) upheld the excommunication of seven women, one of them an American, ordained priests by a bishop who has broken with the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the congregation, said there was no higher body to which the women could appeal against their excommunication because it was issued by a Vatican department acting in the name of Pope John Paul II.
Ratzinger said some of the women have aggravated their offense by attempting to function as priests, “gathering around them members of the faithful, in open and divisive disobedience to the Roman pontiff and diocesan bishops.”
“In view of the gravity of this contumacy, the penalty imposed is not only just, but also necessary, in order to protect true doctrine, to safeguard the communion and unity of the church and to guide the consciences of the faithful,” he said.
The Vatican teaches that Jesus established the tradition of a male priesthood by choosing only men as his apostles. In his 1994 Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (Priestly Ordination), John Paul said, “The church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women, and this judgment is to be definitely held by all the church’s faithful.”
Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, Adelinde Roitinger, Gisela Forster, Iris Muller, Ida Raming, Pia Brunner and Dagmar Braun Celeste, a former first lady of Ohio, were ordained June 29, 2002, in a ceremony on the Danube River conducted by Argentine Bishop Romulo Antonio Braschi.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church’s highest authority on doctrinal issues of faith and morals, warned the women on July 10 they would be excommunicated unless they acknowledged their ordinations were not valid.
On Aug. 5, the congregation issued a decree excommunicating the women and noting that Braschi had already been excommunicated as “a schismatic.” A former Catholic, he broke with the church to found the 13,000-member Catholic Apostolic Charismatic Church of Jesus King.
The women wrote to the congregation on Aug. 14 to ask that the excommunications be revoked and again on Sept. 27, citing provisions of the church’s Code of Canon Law on “recourse against administrative decrees,” the congregation said. Thirteen cardinals and two bishops reviewed the request on Dec. 4 and 18.
“In the course of these meetings the members arrived at the collegial decision to confirm the Decree of Excommunication,” the congregation said.
Stressing the “particular gravity” of the women’s offenses, the congregation said they had “made themselves accomplices in schism” by associating with Braschi and had “formally and obstinately” rejected church doctrine on the male priesthood.
“The denial of this doctrine is rightly considered the denial of a truth that pertains to the Catholic faith and therefore deserves a just penalty,” it said.
Celeste is the former wife of Richard Celeste, who served as governor of Ohio from 1983 to 1991. The other women are Germans and Austrians.
_ Peggy Polk
Scottish, Irish Churches Criticize Possible War With Iraq
LONDON (RNS) Profound concern at the prospect of war with Iraq has been expressed by both the (Anglican) Church of Ireland and the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland.
In a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the convener of the Scottish denomination’s Church and Nation committee, the Rev. Alan D. McDonald, said that throughout Scotland “horror” is being expressed by church members at the prospect of war.
Saying his committee is convinced war is not inevitable, McDonald said: “It seems inconceivable to us that you would acquiesce in the immense loss of life that current plans, if carried out, would entail. The sanctity of human life, the integrity of the creation, and the responsibility we bear for future generations must all make us recoil from the terror of modern warfare.”
Stressing the “central and pivotal” role of the United Nations Security Council in preserving the peace of the world, the committee asked Blair whether it will be the “sole prerogative of the U.N. to interpret that (weapons inspectors’) report and to decide what action, if any, ought to arise therefrom?”
They also asked Blair whether the United Nations will be “treated with all due respect, with member nations of the Security Council allowed to come to their own conclusions _ free from threats, manipulation or economic inducement?”
Speaking on behalf of the Church of Ireland’s Church in Society committee, its chairman, Bishop Michael Jackson of Clogher, said it is convinced there is a need, as a matter of “human and theological urgency,” to revise the criteria for a just war.
The committee had identified three main issues: targeting unprotected civilian areas; military technology that not only devastated target areas but also caused long-term genetic damage to individuals and communities by the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons; and the “shame” of war itself in destroying our environment.
“The Church of Ireland is concerned about what constitutes a just war and what practical humanitarian help can be given in the event of war, with all its terrible consequences in terms of human suffering,” said the bishop.
The committee urged that “every diplomatic step taken to avert armed conflict.”
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Mime artist Marcel Marceau
(RNS) “Mime is the soul in silence.”
_ Legendary mime artist Marcel Marceau, quoted in a recent edition of Fuller Focus, a publication of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.
DEA END RNS
