c. 2005 Religion News Service
Pope Benedict XVI Pledges Better Catholic-Jewish Relations
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI pledged at a cordial meeting with Jewish leaders Thursday (June 9) that the Catholic Church will remember the Holocaust as it seeks to improve relations with Jews.
The German-born pontiff spoke at a private audience with a 25-member delegation from the International Jewish Committee on Inter-Religious Consultations.
Rabbi David Rosen, international director for inter-religious affairs of the American Jewish Committee, said the fact that Benedict gave the first interfaith audience of his papacy to the group testified to his desire to continue “very special relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people.”
“On a personal level, the degree of warmth and affection that the pope showed to us at the meeting was truly remarkable,” Rosen told reporters. He also remarked on the informality with which Benedict personally greeted each representative.
Addressing the delegation members as “distinguished guests, dear friends,” the pope said the church is “firmly committed” to implementing the “decisive teaching” of the Declaration Nostra Aetate issued by the Second Vatican Council in 1965.
That teaching, he noted, “called for greater mutual understanding and esteem between Christians and Jews and deplored all manifestations of hatred, persecution and anti-Semitism.”
Popes Paul VI and John Paul II took “significant steps toward improving relations with the Jewish people,” the pope said. “It is my intention to continue on this path.”
Benedict called remembrance of the “complex and often painful” past a “moral imperative.” He said this “must include a continued reflection on the profound historical, moral and theological questions presented by the experiences of the Shoah,” or Holocaust, the World War II killing of an estimated 6 million Jews by the Nazis.
_ Peggy Polk
Democrats Distance Themselves From `White, Christian Party’ Comment
WASHINGTON (RNS) Some Democrats are distancing themselves from a comment made by their party chair, Howard Dean, that the GOP is “pretty much a white, Christian party.”
“It was divisive and wrong and I hope he apologizes for it,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., told the Washington Times.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson called Dean’s comments “ill-advised” and Dick Harpootlian, former South Carolina Democratic chairman, told the Associated Press, “That’s not the way you distinguish someone’s politics. It forces us to distance ourselves from him.”
In response to a question regarding a study showing that women and minorities were dissatisfied with the GOP, Dean, a former Vermont governor and presidential hopeful, told a conference of California journalists Monday (June 6) that the study made sense given the demographics of the Republican faithful.
“You know, the Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They’re a pretty monolithic party. Pretty much, they all behave the same, and they all look the same. … It’s pretty much a white Christian party,” said Dean, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., sent a letter to Dean on Wednesday (June 8) admonishing him.
“In recent days, your delusional outbursts have forced senior members of your own party to distance themselves from your comments,” Sensenbrenner wrote. “While I agree with your acknowledgment that you’re `not very dignified,’ I sincerely hope you refrain from further personal attacks.”
Ken Mehlman, chair of the Republican National Committee, pointed out that, as a Jew, he didn’t fit the description given by Dean.
“A lot of folks who attended my bar mitzvah would be surprised,” Mehlman quipped, according to the AP.
_ Shawna Gamache
Canadian Church Wants Moratorium on Genetically Modified Foods
TORONTO (RNS) The United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, has called for an “immediate” moratorium on the approval of new genetically modified foods.
The church wants a “more rigorous and independent system of approving, regulating, monitoring and labeling GM foods.”
In a letter sent this week to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, the church outlined the genetically modified food policy approved recently by its General Council executive.
The recommendations include the mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods; guaranteeing the right of farmers to save, reuse and exchange seeds; and guaranteeing that Canada’s trade and food aid policies do not promote _ directly or indirectly _ the adoption of GM foods in countries that have not explicitly chosen to do so.
“Our concern with genetically modified foods is not what we know about their safety, but rather what we don’t know,” says Mark Hathaway, the United Church of Canada’s program officer for biotechnology and food security.
In 2001, Canada’s parliament defeated a bill that would have required mandatory labeling of genetically altered foods.
Ottawa’s policy is that such foods are just as safe as conventional foods. Food must be labeled in Canada if it is pasteurized, irradiated or contains possible allergens such as peanuts.
About 60 percent of Canada’s processed foods contain some genetic modifications.
The United Church, which represents some 3 million Canadians, says some aspects of GM technology “should simply be prohibited” because they pose “significant” health and ecological risks.
It cites the use of GM food crops to produce drugs and hormones that could harm humans or animals if consumed unintentionally.
The church says a moratorium should remain in place until a new independent agency and regulatory regime for GM foods have been implemented, and all GM foods that are currently approved for consumption have been retested.
_ Ron Csillag
Tulsa Zoo to Add Exhibit Depicting Biblical Account of Creation
(RNS) Faced with a citizen’s complaint about a 5-foot elephant statue depicting Ganesha, the Hindu god of success, the Tulsa Zoo (Okla.) plans to add an exhibit including the biblical account of creation.
Ross Weller, administration manager for the Tulsa Park and Recreation Department, said in an interview Thursday (June 9) the new exhibit will feature the Bible story as well as “the predominant creation stories from other cultures.”
Asked what those other cultural representations would be, Weller chuckled and said, “It’s going to take some research on the zoo staff’s part to try and discover.”
The controversy erupted after Tulsa resident and Christian activist Dan Hicks told the Park and Recreation Board, which oversees the zoo, that the 10-year-old elephant exhibit was religious, not educational.
After 21/2 hours of discussion that drew comments from 27 speakers, the board voted 3-1 this week (June 7) to approve the new creation exhibit.
“I think this decision by the Park and Recreation Board is a victory for the citizens of Tulsa, because the majority view of creation is now going to be represented at the Tulsa Zoo,” Hicks told The Daily Oklahoman. “To present both sides of the story, that’s education. We certainly hope the Tulsa Zoo is interested in education.”
Hicks first complained about a zoo exhibit showing a time line of world history through scientific theory, Weller said. The new creation exhibit will be put next to that display, he said.
Another concern for critics was a large marble globe at the zoo entrance, which they said evoked American Indian religion with the message “The earth is our mother, the sky is our father.”
But the Washington-based American Humanist Association said the new biblical exhibit will violate the First Amendment ban on government promotion of religion.
“There is no comparison between what this deliberate religious display conveys to impressionable children and existing cultural religious references at the zoo,” the association’s executive director, Tony Hileman, said in a statement issued Wednesday (June 8).
_ Bobby Ross Jr.
Retired Catholic Archbishop of Miami Dead at Age 87
(RNS) Retired Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy of Miami, an influential immigration rights advocate, died Tuesday night (June 7) at his Miami-Dade County home in Florida. He was 87.
McCarthy strongly opposed restrictive immigration policies. After visiting with detained Haitians, McCarthy sent a telegram to President Reagan protesting the indefinite holding of refugees who claimed political asylum, the Archdiocese of Miami said in a statement.
McCarthy hosted a Miami summit with Pope John Paul II and Reagan in September 1987, The Miami Herald reported.
McCarthy’s influence in politics included his opposition to the death penalty, casino gambling and health clinics’ distribution of contraceptives and abortion referrals to teenagers.
McCarthy saw Miami through difficult times, including the 1980 Miami riot, Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the news of a national sexual molestation scandal among Catholic priests.
“He was a man who was bigger than his office. … How rare for gentleness to become powerful,” the Rev. David Russell, retired pastor of St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Kendall, The Miami Herald reported.
The Cincinnati native served the Archdiocese of Miami from 1976 to 1994. Ordained in 1943, McCarthy became auxiliary bishop of Cincinnati in 1965 and was appointed Phoenix’s first bishop in 1969.
_ Heather Horiuchi
Quote of the Day: Taj Khan of Lodi, Calif.
(RNS) “We really don’t know what is going on. We will work with the FBI to roust out any rascals. We are shocked. … We have never preached violence, never preached against the U.S.”
_ Taj Khan, a leader of the Muslim community in Lodi, Calif., where a Muslim ice cream truck driver and his son have been charged with lying to the FBI about the son’s training at a Pakistani terrorist camp. He was quoted in USA Today.
MO/PH END RNS
