c. 2005 Religion News Service
Vatican Review of Chastity in U.S. Seminaries to Start Next Month
(RNS) A Vatican review of U.S. Catholic seminaries will begin in September, with a special focus on how the schools prepare priests to “faithfully live chastely” under the shadow of the sexual abuse scandal.
On-site visits will be made to all 229 U.S. seminaries by three- and four-member teams appointed by the Vatican, Catholic News Service reported on Monday (Aug. 22). Most visits will be made this academic year, while smaller schools will be reviewed next year.
In 2004, there were a total of 4,556 seminary students in the U.S., including 1,248 in college-level programs. The last “apostolic visitation” to U.S. seminaries occurred 20 years ago.
Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, who heads the church’s Military Archdiocese, will oversee the visits for the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education. O’Brien is the former rector of the North American College, the main U.S. seminary in Rome.
Archbishop Michael Miller, an American who serves as secretary for the Education Congregation, told reporters in April that the visits are similar to the academic accrediting process in other colleges.
“It’s a time for stock-taking,” Miller said at a seminar for U.S. journalists. “An apostolic visitation is not an investigation. It’s a time to ask what are we doing, and how are doing it.”
The review was proposed three years ago during a meeting of U.S. cardinals and the late Pope John Paul II after the scandal erupted in Boston. The U.S. bishops promised “complete cooperation” with the visits in reforms they adopted in June 2002.
Church officials will pay special attention to how seminarians are prepared to live a celibate life, and how they are schooled in moral theology and church teaching on sexuality.
Gay Catholic groups are worried that the visits may become an inquisition for gay seminarians; Pope Benedict XVI reportedly is considering guidelines on whether the church should ban all gay men _ celibate or otherwise _ from the priesthood.
The visits will encompass seminaries run by dioceses and religious orders (such as the Jesuits or Franciscans); about one-third of U.S. priests are trained by religious orders, according to Catholic News Service.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Robertson Calls for Assassination of Venezuelan President
(RNS) Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said on his television program Monday (Aug. 22) that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be assassinated by U.S. operatives.
Robertson, the 75-year-old founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, criticized Chavez, saying he has “destroyed” Venezuela’s economy and made it a “launching pad” for Muslim extremism.
“We have the ability to take him out and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,” Robertson said on “The 700 Club,” a program on his Virginia Beach, Va.-based network.
“We don’t need another $200-billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator.”
Robertson’s comments drew sharp criticism from groups supporting church-state separation.
“This statement is … nearly an unbelievable example of the kind of religious fanaticism that fuels violence around the world,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
“I think it is time for Robertson to admit that this was a huge mistake and for the White House to repudiate this before it has any spillover effect.”
The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, called Robertson’s statement “appalling to the point of disbelief,” and said he is sure most of Robertson’s viewers have rejected his suggestion.
“It defies logic that a clergyman could so casually dismiss thousands of years of Judeo-Christian law, including the commandment that we are not to kill,” said Edgar, whose ecumenical agency is based in New York.
“It defies logic that this so-called evangelist is using his media power not to win people to faith but to encourage them to support the murder of a foreign leader.”
CBN spokeswoman Angell Watts said Tuesday that Robertson made his comments after running a story on Chavez by CBN News senior reporter Dale Hurd that shows “the kind of president that Chavez is and what he’s saying about America.”
She said Robertson wasn’t planning on elaborating on his remarks.
“He doesn’t have any further comments at this time,” she told RNS. “His statement was what he said yesterday (Monday) on the show.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Adventists Apologize for Nazi Connections During World War II
(RNS) German and Austrian leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church have issued a statement of apology for any support of or role in Nazi activities during World War II.
In their declaration, the church bodies “honestly confess” to a failure “in following our Lord” by not protecting Jews and others during the Holocaust, reported Adventist News Network. It was issued as observances mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
“We deeply regret that the character of National Socialist dictatorship had not been realized in time and distinctly enough, and the ungodly nature of (Nazi) ideology had not clearly been identified,” reads the statement, translated from German.
They added their regret “that in some of our publications … there were found articles glorifying Adolf Hitler and agreeing with the ideology of anti-Semitism in a way that is unbelievable from today’s (perspective).”
According to the statement, German and Austrian Adventist congregations “excluded, separated and left” church members “of Jewish origin to themselves so that they were delivered to imprisonment, exile or death.”
Pastor Gunther Machel, president of the South German area of the Adventist denomination, said the declaration, which he and two other leaders signed, first appeared in May in the “AdventEcho,” a monthly German-language church magazine, but will be published in other German publications.
The other two signatories were Pastor Klaus-Jurgen van Treeck, North German church president, and Herbert Brugger, president of the Adventist Church in Austria.
_ Adelle M. Banks
New Greek Orthodox Patriarch Elected in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (RNS) The Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem elected a new patriarch on Sunday (Aug. 21), three months after an international conclave of church leaders rescinded their recognition of Irineos I, the previous patriarch.
Theophilos III, who held several key posts in the Jerusalem church prior to his appointment as patriarch, was unanimously elected by the 14 permanent members of the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.
The synod has for several months refused to work with Irineos I after learning that the patriarch’s office had leased property in the Old City of Jerusalem to Jewish Israelis believed to be ultra-nationalists.
Irineos, who was elected in 2001, denied the charge and refused to resign, stating that he had never approved such a land deal.
Local members of the Greek Orthodox Church, who are Palestinian, were incensed by the reported leasing of church holdings out of fear that it would weaken Palestinian claims to Jerusalem, which they hope will be the capital of a future independent state.
The local church, one of the largest land owners in the Holy Land, has leased numerous properties throughout Jerusalem and elsewhere for periods of up to 99 years. The Israeli government fears that the church might refuse to renew these leases and instead lease the properties to the Palestinians. Many Israeli homes and institutions, including the Israeli parliament, stand on land leased from the Greek Orthodox Church. Some ultra-nationalist Jews have also quietly purchased properties from Christian Arabs in order to reassert a Jewish presence in parts of the city that once housed Jews but are now solely Arab.
The land deal put the Israeli government in a bind because it claims all of Jerusalem _ including East Jerusalem, where the Old City is located _ as its capital. Israel’s refusal to pressure Irineos to resign strained its relations with the Greek government, which sided with the Jerusalem church and demanded that the patriarch step down from his post.
According to Greek Orthodox Church regulations, any new Jerusalem patriarch must be approved by the governments of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, which are under the patriach’s jurisdiction.
Greece’s Deputy Foreign Minister Panayiotis Skandalakis hailed what he called a “flawless” election, and expressed the hope that it would “put an end to a long period of problems and uncertainty that threatened to undermine the authority of this institution.”
Theophilos, who in the past headed the Greek Orthodox section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is claimed by various Christian denominations, formerly served as the Metropolitan of Tabor in the Galilee. More recently, he was the church’s envoy to Qatar and Moscow.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, refused to be pinned down on whether his government will approve the new patriarch’s appointment, in cancelling Irineos’s authority.
“We’re watching ongoing events inside the church and we have yet to make a final decision as to our position,” Regev told RNS.
Neither Irineos nor Theophilos were available for comment.
_ Michele Chabin
Ave Maria Law School Accredited in Shortest Time Possible
(RNS) Just five years after its founding, Ave Maria School of Law, a Catholic enterprise based in Ann Arbor, Mich., has received full accreditation by the American Bar Association.
Because the ABA requires law schools to be in operation for at least five years before they are eligible for full approval, Ave Maria’s accreditation, achieved Aug. 8, was attained in the shortest amount of time possible.
“We are delighted the ABA has recognized the quality of our legal education and moved so swiftly to grant us full accreditation,” said Bernard Dobranksi, dean and president of the school, in a recent statement.
The ABA’s imprimatur signifies that Ave Maria provides a “sound program of legal education.”
In many states, a person may not sit for the bar examination unless he or she holds a degree from an ABA-approved law school.
Ave Maria “has consistently enrolled highly qualified students, hired quality faculty members and expanded its curriculum and library collection,” said the ABA, in announcing its official approval.
The school has been criticized for inculcating a conservative dogma. Students are required to complete a course in “Moral Foundations of the Law,” in addition to the usual fare of torts and criminal procedure. But school officials maintain that “faith and reason enhance the study of law and lead to the full attainment of truth.”
“When we founded the law school, our goal was to establish a school that combined a high quality, rigorous curriculum component grounded in natural law and the Catholic intellectual tradition,” Dobranski said in a statement.
The Catholic law school was founded by Domino’s Pizza czar Thomas Monaghan as part of his mission to provide “a distinctive legal education that integrates a Catholic world view.”
Since 1998, the Catholic philanthropist has also founded Ave Maria College, in Ypsilanti, Mich.; Ave Maria University, in Naples, Fla.; and Ave Maria College of the Americas, in Nicaragua.
Of the law school, Monaghan said in a statement, “It is personally rewarding for me to see how far we have come in the last five years.”
Since opening its classrooms in 2000, about 200 students have graduated from Ave Maria School of Law. Recently, enrollment has skyrocketed. Enrollment for the class of 2007 is 541 students.
The school puts a premium on public service, and recent graduates have taken jobs with the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Army and Air Force, and numerous federal judges.
_ Daniel Burke
Quote of the Day: Promise Keepers President and CEO Tom Fortson Jr.
(RNS) “The church is not the four walls. The church is like Home Depot. You go there to get what you need to return home and fix what’s in disrepair.”
_ Promise Keepers President and CEO Tom Fortson Jr., speaking in Nashville, Tenn., where his evangelical men’s ministry sponsored an August gathering. He was quoted by the Tennessean of Nashville.
MO/JL END RNS
