c. 2005 Religion News Service Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a photo of Archbishop Iakovos to accompany this story. High Vatican Official Says John Paul II Could Be Beatified by October VATICAN CITY (RNS) With the approval of his successor, Pope John Paul II could be proclaimed blessed, the step before sainthood, as early as October, a high Vatican official said Monday (April 11). Such speed would be unprecedented in modern times. John Paul, who created a record 483 saints and 1,339 blesseds in his 26-year reign, put Mother Teresa on the fast track to sainthood, but her beatification came six years after she died. John Paul died April 2. Archbishop Edward Nowak, secretary and now acting head of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, told the newspaper Corriere della Sera that six months should be enough time to collect “adequate documentation” on the pope’s holiness and miracles expected to be attributed to his intervention. “Next October, the Synod of Bishops meets in Rome and that, for example, could be the right occasion for such a proclamation,” Nowak said. Nowak told the newspaper that the prolonged applause, banners and shouts of “santo subito (saint immediately)” at John Paul’s funeral on Friday were sufficient popular support to trigger the process leading to sainthood. “I wasn’t expecting it, but I find it fantastic,” he said. “It recalls the acclamations of saints in the early church. Today the rules are different, but the substance is always the same. It is not the church that canonizes, neither yesterday nor today, but the people, who recognize and attest to the holiness of a person. The first initiative is always popular.” Until Pope Sextus V centralized and reformed the process for canonization in 1588, saints were created by the acclamation of their followers. Today the process can take decades, even centuries, to complete and involves proof that two miracles occurred after prayers to the candidate, the first miracle after the candidate’s death and the second after beatification. In the case of Mother Teresa, John Paul waived the five-year waiting period between the death of a candidate and the beginning of the process. She died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003 during celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the pope’s election. _ Peggy Polk Iakovos, Greek Orthodox Church Leader, Dead at 93 (RNS) Archbishop Iakovos, who served as the spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox Christians in the Americas for 37 years, died Sunday (April 10) after a brief illness. Iakovos suffered from a pulmonary ailment and died at Stamford Hospital in Stamford, Conn. He was 93. As the leader of Greek Orthodox Christians in North and South America from 1959 to 1996, Iakovos was known most for his efforts to help Greek Orthodox find their place in America and to relate to people of a variety of faiths. “He started all these dialogues with Catholics, Jews,” said Nikki Stephanopoulos, spokeswoman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, in an interview. “That was his heart and soul, really.” The archbishop, a native of Imvros, Turkey, served nine years as president of the World Council of Churches. “Ecumenism,” he once said, “is the hope for international understanding, for humanitarian allegiance, for true peace based on justice and dignity, and for God’s continued presence and involvement in modern history.” Iakovos, who became a U.S. citizen in 1950, met nine presidents and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom _ the nation’s highest civilian honor _ from President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, said in a statement that he was privileged to know Iakovos for more than five decades. “He has been a superb archbishop who offered to the church an intense, continuous, multifaceted and creative pastoral activity,” said Demetrios. Iakovos was ordained to the priesthood in 1940 and enthroned as archbishop in 1959. Shortly after his enthronement, he met with Pope John XXIII, marking the first time a Greek Orthodox archbishop had met with a Roman Catholic prelate in 350 years. He also met with Pope John Paul II more than once. The Greek Orthodox leader was known for reaching across racial as well as religious lines. He made the cover of Life magazine when he joined the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a civil rights march in Selma, Ala., in 1965 and cheered the passage of civil rights legislation. Iakovos led about 1.9 million members of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, which included residents of North America, Canada and Central America. Shortly after his retirement, the archdiocese was divided into three archdioceses. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America now has about 1.5 million members. Iakovos’ funeral is scheduled for Thursday and his body will be interred on the grounds of the Holy Cross Chapel at Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Mass. _ Adelle M. Banks Update: Falwell Out of the Hospital
(RNS) The Rev. Jerry Falwell was released from the hospital Wednesday (April 6) after a stay of more than a week to recover from respiratory arrest.
“He’s received a very positive bill of health right now,” said Ron Godwin, president of Jerry Falwell Ministries, in an interview.
“He’s been feeling well enough to go home for the last several days, but they kept him there in order to run tests.”
The founder of the conservative Moral Majority entered Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia on March 28. He had been on a ventilator but greatly improved during his hospital stay, his second in less than two months.
Falwell, 71, the chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, spent 13 days in the hospital with pneumonia in late February and early March.
Godwin said Falwell is expected to speak at a Friday convocation at the university and is “likely” to preach Sunday at his Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg.
“He did not have a recurrence of pneumonia so he rebounded much more strongly and quickly this time,” Godwin said.
“He’s feeling very well right now, and he’s ready to get back to his normal routine.”
But Godwin said there will be some changes.
“He’ll be doing some travel but not as much as perhaps in the past,” he predicted.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Russian Chief Rabbi Says Reform Judaism Not `Religion’
(RNS) An article by Rabbi Berel Lazar, a top Russian rabbi and the leading Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi in the former Soviet Union, has sparked controversy because of its dim view of Reform Judaism.
Lazar, writing in the February issue of the Orthodox magazine “L’Chayim,” said that Reform Judaism, which is a theologically progressive branch of Judaism, does not qualify under the definition of “religion.”
Reform Judaism “personifies an approach … which is opposite to the approach of the Torah,” he wrote. “Reform Judaism can’t be labeled as religion if we take religion seriously!”
The Lubavitch organization, or Chabad, is known for its outreach to Jews of all levels of observance, urging them to adhere more strictly to the teachings of the Torah. But tensions have simmered recently in Russia between Orthodox and Reform Jews. The World Union for Progressive Judaism, an international Reform organization, says that it represents the largest body of affiliated Jews in the world, and it plans to hold a major meeting in Russia this summer.
U.S. Reform leaders expressed disappointment with Lazar’s comments.
“Rabbi Lazar cannot request American Jewish support for his work and profess to speak in the name of all Russian Jews while simultaneously proclaiming that Reform Judaism is not Judaism and Reform rabbis are not rabbis,” said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, who is the president of the Union for Reform Judaism.
Chabad declined comment on the controversy. But Boruch Gorin, the editor of the magazine, released a statement saying that Lazar’s comments were not meant to be divisive.
Lazar “is motivated by a powerful love for every single Jew, regardless of level of observance,” Gorin said.
At the same time, though, Gorin emphasized that there are genuine differences in philosophy and theology between Orthodox and Reform Jews.
“If intra-Jewish harmony is important _ and it must be if we are to set foundations for the Jewish future _ Jewish religious and communal leaders need to do all they can to respect the standards that have preserved us as a unified community since Sinai,” Gorin said.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Christian Organizations Mourn Murdered Bible Translators in Guyana
(RNS) As they prepared for a Friday (April 8) memorial service, two Christian organizations are grieving the loss of a missionary couple in southwestern Guyana.
Richard and Charlene Hicks _ killed March 30 _ had been translating Bibles into the Wapishana language of a Guyanese indigenous people under the auspices of the Dallas-based Summer Institute of Linguistics and the Orlando, Fla.-based Wycliffe Bible Translators. Both are Christian organizations that study and document world languages with the goal of spreading the Gospel.
Local police believe the motive was robbery for the murders and the burning of the Hicks home in a region of Guyana near the Brazilian border, the language organizations said in separate statements Tuesday (April 5).
Bob Creson, president of Wycliffe, said in a statement that his organization shares the sadness of the couple’s families and colleagues.
“Yet we rejoice, knowing that the Hickses are now safely with the God they served, and we put our faith in the word they were faithfully translating in partnership with the Wapishana people,” Creson said.
The future of the Wapishana New Testament Scripture translation the Hickses had worked on since 1994 is yet to be determined, Wycliffe Bible Translators said in their statement. While much of the Hickses’ work was destroyed when their house was burned, copies of much of the translation survived, the organization said.
Guyanese police are pursuing suspects, one a ranch hand who worked with the Hickses, they told The Associated Press on Monday (April 4). They will be aided by the FBI in the investigation, the police chief said.
The Hickses were both raised in missionary families, Richard in South Africa and Charlene in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas.
Many Wapishana people and residents of the town of Lethem, near the Hickses’ farm, will likely attend Friday’s service, according to the Wycliffe statement.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Conservative Christians Hail 18th State Amendment Banning Gay Marriage
(RNS) Seeing a trend, conservative Christian groups are hailing a vote by Kansans in favor of a constitutional amendment that affirms heterosexual marriage.
With the vote Tuesday (April 5), Kansas has become the 18th state to pass an amendment that bans gay marriage, with about 70 percent of voters approving it.
“The (Kansas) voters’ voices were loud and their message unmistakable,” said Kevin Theriot, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based legal group. “As voters all across the country have shown, and have affirmed once more in Kansas, Americans want to preserve and protect our most cherished institution.”
Tom Minnery, vice president of government and public policy for Focus on the Family Action, agreed.
“The citizens of Kansas have helped ensure the sanctity of marriage in their state,” he said in a statement from the Colorado Springs, Colo., organization.
The Alliance for Marriage, a Washington-based organization that has advocated for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as an institution involving a man and a woman, said the Kansas vote will help that cause.
“It is a prelude to the real battle,” said Matt Daniels, the alliance’s president, in a statement.
Not all religious groups were happy with the Kansas vote.
“There will be negative and profound `unintended consequences’ to the Kansas constitutional vote,” said Sylvia Rhue, director of Equal Partners in Faith, a liberal-leaning network of religious leaders, in a statement.
“Real families will be harmed in real life ways. EPF condemns this action of injustice by an overwhelming majority of Kansas voters.”
In New England, however, there’s another trend, as a bill in Connecticut cleared another hurdle Wednesday that, if passed and signed into law, would recognize gay civil unions. Vermont has already approved civil unions and Massachusetts has approved of gay marriage, both following lawsuits.
The state Senate in Connecticut approved the bill 27-9. It would make that state the first to recognize civil unions without court intervention.
_ Adelle M. Banks
`End of Poverty’ Author Tells U.N. Audience He’s Not Writing Fiction
NEW YORK (RNS) Striking a theme that is earning him increasing recognition in the world of global economics and ethics, a prominent adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday (April 8) that extreme world poverty can be ended within two decades.
“Poverty is not a condition of fate,” Jeffrey D. Sachs said at an event at the United Nations commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Chardin was a French Jesuit priest whose theology many credit for helping lay the foundation for much current thought on religion, the environment and creation.
“These challenges are solvable by practical means and good ethics,” said Sachs, who is director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and is advisor to Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, a series of eight global objectives that include halving extreme poverty by 2015. The goals have been championed by a wide spectrum of religious groups.
Speaking on global ethics and sustainable development and echoing themes developed in his recently published book, “The End of Poverty,” Sachs said extreme poverty _ a condition that is experienced by about 1 billion people _ can be overcome with small but concrete measures taken by rich nations.
The transfer of 0.7 percent of gross national product (GNP) _ or 70 cents of every $100 of income _ by wealthy nations would allow 1 billion persons “to escape from the poverty trap,” Sachs said.
“This is what stands between life and death for millions,” he said, noting that $3 billion could eliminate malaria, an utterly treatable disease that nonetheless kills 3 million persons, most of them children, every year.
The Friday event was one of several being held in New York at the United Nations and the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine to commemorate Teilhard’s death, which occurred April 10, 1955, in New York City.
In a related address at the U.N. event, Mary Evelyn Tucker, a professor of religion at Bucknell University and the vice president of the American Teilhard Association, said that Teilhard’s unitary vision of the “spirit of the earth” is helping move humanity “from viewing ourselves as isolated individuals and competing nations (to) realizing our collective presence as a species on the planet.”
_ Chris Herlinger
Evangelicals and Jews Team Up to Expose North Korean Abuses
(RNS) Evangelicals and Reform Jews are teaming up to release video footage of recent public executions in North Korea, one of numerous human rights abuses the groups say are occurring there.
Christian and Jewish leaders and religious freedom advocates gathered Thursday (April 7) to watch the video recording at a conference hosted by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who says the footage will be sent to each member of Congress.
The footage _ obtained by Japanese television networks _ shows three executions March 1 and 2 of North Koreans charged by police with illegal border crossing.
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Washington-based Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said religious and human rights organizations were coming together to urge the U.S. government to make ending human rights abuses such as public executions, forced labor and torture a top priority.
“As Jews, we know well the plight of refugees,” Saperstein said.
The Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the Washington-based National Association of Evangelicals, also said calling for an end to human rights abuses in North Korea is a religious matter.
“As evangelicals, we have committed ourselves not to commit the sin of silence,” Cizik said, “and not to commit the sin of omission, the failure to act.”
The religious leaders and human rights advocates called on the U.S. government to pressure China to end its support of North Korea.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the U.S. should use economic sanctions or a relocation or boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing to lean on China to change its stance.
“When China eats watermelon, North Korea spits seeds,” Land said, expounding on the importance of China’s role in North Korea.
Others speaking at the conference included Suzanne Scholte, vice chairman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, based in Fairfax, Va., and Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, a Washington-based religious freedom organization, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Police Prevent Riot at the Temple Mount
JERUSALEM (RNS) Thousands of Israeli police managed to stave off an all-out riot at the Temple Mount on Sunday (April 10) by preventing Jewish extremists from holding a demonstration atop the mount, which Muslims call Haram al-Sharif.
Despite fears that thousands of Jewish ultra-nationalists would storm the mount, only about 100 arrived at the site, which is adjacent to the Western Wall. By the end of the day, police had arrested 31 Jews and eight Palestinians for violent behavior.
Although the mount _ which Muslim authorities closed to non-Muslims at the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000 _ is now officially open to people of all faiths, the police feared that the presence of thousands of ultra-nationalist Jews would provoke violent demonstrations by Muslims.
The mount, the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, has been the scene of numerous violent clashes between Jews and Muslims over the years. The four-year-old uprising is called the “Al Aqsa Intifada” because it was here that the sparks of Palestinian discontent with the Israeli occupation first caught the imagination of the Palestinian public.
Palestinians blame the September 2000 visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, then the leader of the opposition Likud Party, to the mount for starting the uprising.
While many Jews concur that Sharon’s visit was an unnecessary provocation, others believe it was justified, stating that Jews have as much of a right to pray atop the mount as Muslims. Between 1948 and 1967, Jordan, which controlled East Jerusalem, did not allow Jews to pray at the mount or the Western Wall.
_ Michele Chabin
Quote of the Week: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
(RNS) “I think the outpouring of affection and appreciation for John Paul II is a reflection of the yearning that people have to be connected, to believe, to have some greater purpose and meaning in their lives.”
_ Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaking at the annual Religious Freedom dinner Thursday (April 7) in Washington. She was quoted by The Washington Times.
