c. 2006 Religion News Service
Baby Jesus, Always in Their Hearts, Is Now Back in Their Arms
SAYREVILLE, N.J. (RNS) For the past two decades, Albert and Anne Filosa have set up a Nativity scene in the front yard of their home in Old Bridge.
Albert Filosa was crushed when he arrived home Dec. 28 to discover the life-size plastic baby Jesus was missing. “This is an important holiday to us. That’s why I consider this a bias crime,” he said.
On Tuesday (Jan. 3) the Filosas were one of several families to recover their stolen figurines from Sayreville police. On Monday, police found a total of 27 figurines while investigating the theft of the baby Jesus from St. Stanislaus Kostka Church and the desecration of objects at the church’s cemetery.
The Rev. Kenneth Murphy, pastor at St. Stanislaus, was overjoyed to recover the church’s baby Jesus. “I feel blessed. I feel like I am a dad who got his baby back,” Murphy said.
Police charged Christopher Olson, 18, and Michael Payne, 19, both of Old Bridge, and Nicholas Hess, 18, of Matawan, with stealing 27 Jesus figures. An unidentified 15-year-old boy was also arrested.
Sayreville police Detective Kenneth Kelly said the defendants drove around taking the figures and planned to burn them.
A resident who wrote down the license plate of an unfamiliar car helped police trace the tags to Payne’s truck, which was parked in front of Olson’s home Monday with the Nativity figures inside.
Prosecutors will review the police reports to determine whether the defendants should be charged with a bias crime, officials said. Payne and Olson were released on $25,000 bail, while Hess was still being held at a county jail.
Others also came to police headquarters hoping to recover stolen items that were at the center of their family traditions.
Rose Marie Pedro of Sayreville was getting ready to dismantle her Nativity scene Monday morning and noticed her Jesus was missing from his manger. “I was upset. I didn’t think I would get it back,” Pedro said. “But I got my baby now.”
_ Tom Haydon and Sharon Adarlo
Vatican Tightens Rules for Neocatechumenal Way Movement
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has clamped down on the Neocatechumenal Way, ordering the movement of Catholic communities to regularly attend traditional Sunday Mass and follow church rules for worship and the liturgy.
Acting on a request by Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Vatican office on liturgy, instructed the Neocatechumenal Way to “accept and follow the liturgical books approved by the church without omitting or adding anything,” according to a confidential letter sent to the organization’s founders Dec. 1.
A copy of the letter was leaked to the Italian media in late December.
The Neocatechumenal Way, an international faith-formation program that emerged after the 1960s reforms of the Second Vatican Council, aims to revitalize the Catholic Mass using techniques attributed to the ancient and primitive church.
Catechists bake their own loaves of unleavened bread instead of consuming the mass-produced wafers used by most Catholic churches during Communion.
The bread and wine, which Catholics believe are the body and blood of Christ, are distributed to members while seated around a cloth-covered table positioned in the center of the church.
Arinze’s letter instructed the Neocatechumenal Way to phase out the practice.
“The Neocatechumenal Way will be given a transition period of not more than two years to pass from the common method of receiving holy Communion in its communities … to the manner normal to the entire church for receiving holy Communion,” the letter said.
Critics say the group’s practices create divisions within local parishes. The Neocatechumenal Way statutes, approved by John Paul II in 2002, allow its members to celebrate a separate weekly Mass on Saturday evenings.
Arinze’s letter gave tacit approval to this practice, but instructed the organization’s members to join the entire parish for Sunday Mass at least once a month. “Sunday is the Day of the Lord,” the letter said.
Critics have also said the Neocatechumenal Way diminishes the priest’s homily by allowing commentaries, known as “admonitions,” between Gospel readings.
“As for any admonitions issued before the readings, these must be brief,” Arinze’s letter said. “The homily, because of its nature and importance, is reserved to the priest or deacon.”
_ Stacy Meichtry
Gay Groups Try to Stop Massachusetts Gay Marriage Petition
BOSTON (RNS) Gay leaders in Massachusetts on Tuesday (Jan. 3) asked the state’s highest court to bar a proposed ballot question that seeks to outlaw same-sex marriages.
In a lawsuit, the Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders in Boston said the attorney general was wrong to certify the proposed referendum, and cited the state constitution that prohibits a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment that “relates … to the reversal of a judicial decision.”
The proposed question, which aims to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage, would trump the state Supreme Judicial Court decision in November 2003 that legalized same-sex marriages.
Gary D. Buseck, lawyer for the gay group, called Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly’s certification of the petition drive “a cramped and sort of an artificial construction of the constitution.”
Reilly’s office had said the “reversal of a judicial decision” phrase in the constitution refers to proposals intended to “recall … judicial decisions,” something that is different from amending the state constitution.
When petitioners seek to amend the constitution, they are attempting to change the rules to be applied by a court for future cases, not to say a court decision was wrong and should be ignored, Reilly’s office said.
Evelyn T. Reilly, director of public policy for the Massachusetts Family Institute, said the lawsuit is a “last resort” to block the proposed ballot question. She said she isn’t worried about the lawsuit.
“I don’t think it has any substance,” she said, citing the attorney general’s decision to certify the referendum.
The institute helped lead an effort that collected 123,356 certified signatures of registered voters for the proposed ballot question, far more than the 65,825 required by law.
The question, proposed for November 2008, would change the constitution to say the state would recognize marriages only of one man and one woman. Before it goes to the ballot, the question must be approved by at least 25 percent of the members of the state Legislature this year and then in 2007 or 2008.
The gay group’s lawsuit is expected to be heard by the state Supreme Judicial Court in May or June. The lawsuit asks the court to throw out the question and declare the attorney general erred in certifying the question.
_ Dan Ring
Mormons Vow to Safeguard Missionaries After Va. Shooting
(RNS) Officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have vowed to work to keep their missionaries safe after one missionary was murdered in Chesapeake, Va., and another was injured.
The statement from the Salt Lake City-based church was issued Wednesday (Jan. 4), two days after Elder Morgan W. Young was killed and Elder Joshua D. Heidbrink was seriously injured as they were making door-to-door visits.
“We assure those currently serving missions or who are contemplating missionary service that the church will continue to make every effort to safeguard the health and safety of missionaries throughout the world,” Mormon church officials stated.
The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported that a suspect has been charged in the shootings. James R. Boughton, 19, was arrested late Wednesday in Chesapeake and charged with first-degree murder, malicious wounding and attempted malicious wounding.
Investigators believe Young, 21, and Heidbrink, 19, may have been shot because they were witnesses to a crime, the newspaper said. Young was close to completing his two-year mission and had planned to return home to Bountiful, Utah, in March. Heidbrink, a missionary for two months, was expected to fly home with his parents to recover in Greeley, Colo.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Jews Pray for Sharon After Stroke
JERUSALEM (RNS) Jews around the world prayed for the recovery of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who suffered a massive stroke and brain hemorrhage late Wednesday (Jan. 4) night.
Many Israeli synagogues held special prayer services for the ailing 77-year-old leader, as did rabbis at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Israeli Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar urged Jews to recite psalms on Sharon’s behalf.
“I’m going to say a prayer for Sharon when I get to synagogue,” said Shaul Chaimson, a Hasidic Jew in his 50s, who was on his way to evening services. “I’m also going to pray that the country will have good, steady leadership and peace. Ultimately, everything is in God’s hands.”
Some Holy Land Christians said that they, too, were praying that Sharon would make a recovery and again lead the nation.
“We just put out a worldwide statement asking our constituency to pray for him, and of course for Israel as a nation at this time,” said Malcolm Hedding, executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, an evangelical organization with millions of supporters.
Many Palestinian Christians and Muslims said they could not find it in their hearts to pray for Sharon’s health, because they see him as an oppressor. Although there were no reports of Muslims praying for Sharon’s health, many individual Muslims said they did not want Sharon to suffer.
“I am not praying for him, but I am praying that whoever becomes the Israeli leader after Sharon will be fair and just with the Palestinian people,” said a Muslim taxi driver who gave his name as Sami.
In contrast, some radical Muslims reacted gleefully to the news that Sharon was near death.
“We say it frankly that God is great and is able to exact revenge on this butcher. … We thank God for this gift he presented to us on this new year,” Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Syrian-backed faction Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, told the Associated Press.
_ Michele Chabin
Orthodox Patriarch to Visit New Orleans, Florida
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the successor to the apostle Andrew and the spiritual leader of some 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, will visit New Orleans on Saturday (Jan. 7) to encourage and pray with members of his Greek Orthodox flock struggling to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.
It will be the first time an Orthodox patriarch has visited New Orleans. In recent weeks, members of the Greek Orthodox community have responded with a furious outpouring of labor to restore their flood-damaged Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral.
In a half-day visit Saturday, Bartholomew will tour part of the Lower 9th Ward with New Orleans Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes and lead a short prayer service for 1,000 guests at the cathedral.
Bartholomew will come to New Orleans as part of a five-day U.S. visit to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany in Tarpon Springs, Fla. He will return to Florida on Saturday.
As patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew is “first among equals” among Orthodox patriarchs, those successors of ancient Eastern patriarchs in Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and Jerusalem who split with the pope, then the patriarch of Rome, in the 11th century.
Today the patriarch of Constantinople enjoys honorary primacy among the primates, or heads, of more than a dozen Eastern Orthodox churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church and others.
The Rev. Anthony Stratis, dean of the cathedral, said Katrina’s impact on the city _ including a quarter of the community’s 500 Orthodox families whose homes were destroyed _ only made Bartholomew more determined to visit.
“Especially since Katrina, this has become a pastoral visit. He’ll want to talk to and encourage his flock,” Stratis said.
Bartholomew will be accompanied by Archbishop Demetrios, the leader of the Archdiocese of America, and by Metropolitan Alexios, the regional leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, based in Atlanta.
_ Bruce Nolan
Edgar Calls for Universal Ethics Code After Abramoff Scandal
(RNS) The guilty plea by high-powered lobbyist Jack Abramoff underscores the need for a code of ethics to steer politicians from the “moral pitfalls” of Washington, the head of the National Council of Churches said Wednesday (Jan. 4).
The Rev. Bob Edgar, a former Democratic congressman who was elected in 1974 in the shadow of the Watergate scandal, said Abramoff’s admission in federal court Tuesday (Jan. 3) to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials comes “as no surprise” to people of faith.
“In these treacherous times, the sinful have included politicians, industrialists, judges, attorneys and, yes, even servants of the church,” said Edgar, the general secretary of the umbrella group of 35 mainline Protestant, Orthodox and black churches.
“As dismayed as we are by the behavior of politicians who flocked to Jack Abramoff’s bountiful trough, church persons know we are not qualified to cast the first stone.”
Edgar said the Abramoff scandal shows the need for “a strict and comprehensive set of ethical guidelines” that can be applied across the board at all levels of government.
Edgar urged religious leaders to join him in the call for an ethics code. He singled out James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, to demand reform during Justice Sunday III, a event addressing the selection of justices to the Supreme Court that is scheduled to be nationally televised Sunday (Jan. 8).
“As a Christian and former member of Congress, I am convinced that a universally accepted and enforceable code of ethics _ not just promises and empty words _ is the best assurance that we the people will be honestly served.”
_ Jason Kane
Robertson Remarks Tying Sharon Illness to God’s `Enmity’ Draw Criticism
(RNS) Jewish leaders and critics of the religious right have condemned comments by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson implying that God’s “enmity” had caused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent stroke.
“Sharon was personally a very likable person and I am sad to see him in this condition, but I think we need to look at the Bible and the Book of Joel,” Robertson said on his program Thursday (Jan. 5), the day after Sharon suffered a massive stroke.
“The prophet Joel makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who `divide my land.”’
Of Sharon’s deal with the Palestinians to pull out of Gaza, Robertson said: “He was dividing God’s land, and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU (European Union), the United Nations or the United States of America. God says, `This land belongs to me. You’d better leave it alone.”’
A transcript and video links to Robertson’s comments were distributed by People for the American Way, a liberal activist group and frequent critic of Robertson’s.
“Pat Robertson leaves us speechless with his insensitivity and arrogance,” said Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way.
In a statement, Robertson spokeswoman Angell Watts said the religious broadcaster “is simply reminding his viewers what the Bible has to say about efforts made to divide the land of Israel.”
Watts added that Robertson was upset that Neas’ office would “lift his comments out of context and widely circulate them in an attempt to discredit him.”
Trent Duffy, a deputy White House press secretary, on Friday told reporters onboard Air Force One that Robertson’s remarks were “wholly inappropriate and offensive, and really don’t have a place in this or any other debate.”
A range of Jewish organizations also reacted to Robertson’s comments.
“The suggestion that Mr. Sharon is being punished by God is profoundly offensive to all Jews, regardless of their religious outlook or political persuasion,” said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the New York-based Union for Reform Judaism.
Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America called Robertson’s remarks “deeply troubling” and Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League said they reflected “pure arrogance.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Clergy Union Wins $100,000 Severance Pay for Priest Who Viewed Porn
BORAS, Sweden (RNS) Sweden’s clergy union has secured a 32-month severance package worth about $100,000 for a Lutheran priest who was fired for viewing pornography on church computers.
Mats Johansson Flygg, a union official, said the parish that fired the Church of Sweden priest had insufficient grounds to dismiss him because he did not break any law.
“You can’t sack someone that way. Before you expel someone from their duty as a priest, the person must commit a crime which carries a penalty of not less than two years in prison,” he said.
Flygg said the priest admitted to inadvertently logging onto pornographic sites while researching homosexuality. The cleric’s name was not released because of confidentiality reasons.
After discovering that the priest had viewed pornography on several occasions in the pastor’s office, the Varmlands parish complained to the Karlstad Diocesan Board. A warning was issued by the board but the parish council later dismissed him, saying it was inappropriate for the priest to remain in a position of leadership.
The union stepped in and the parties reached an agreement calling for the retraction of the dismissal and the voluntary resignation of the priest, who served the small parish for about 20 years.
“His severance pay could have been higher because he is just 50 years old. He should have been paid until he reaches 65 but we compromised,” said Flygg, who is also a priest.
The union representative noted that although the priest is still a priest in the church, he cannot serve in the Karlstad Diocese anymore. “I am sure he will try to get new work in another part of the country,” Flygg said.
_ Simon Reeves
Activists Rally Against Deaths of Sudanese Refugees in Egypt
(RNS) U.S. religious and human rights groups are condemning a recent raid by Egyptian police on a camp of Sudanese migrants in Cairo that resulted in at least 20 deaths, although activists say the death toll was far higher.
The Dec. 30 assault was called an “extraordinarily underreported incident” by the Washington-based Institute on Religion and Democracy. The Washington office of Human Rights Watch has called for an independent commission to investigate the matter.
“The high loss of life suggests the police acted with extreme brutality,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division. “A police force acting responsibly would not have allowed such a tragedy to occur.”
The incident occurred at a squatter camp outside the Cairo office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some 2,500 Sudanese migrants had been encamped outside the office since September, protesting poor living conditions and seeking resettlement to a third country.
As many as 5 million Sudanese _ including Muslims, animists and minority Christians _ have fled their war-raved homeland for exile in Egypt.
Police said the deaths were caused by a stampede of protesters, while migrants said the deaths were the result of police brutality. UNHCR officials condemned the action. “There is no justification for such violence and loss of life,” said Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner.
On Thursday (Jan. 5), several dozen protesters demonstrated outside the Egyptian Embassy in Washington. Mohamed Ahmed, a spokesman for the U.S chapter of the Sudanese Marginalized Forces Forum for Peace and Development, urged the Egyptian ambassador to launch an investigation.
“We are very sad and frustrated about the incident in Cairo, particularly the killing of women and children in a very brutal and unlawful way,” Ahmed said during the protest.
Activists also dispute the death toll. Steven Wondu, the U.S. representative of the Sudanese People Liberation Movement, said tallies collected in Egypt put the death toll at more than 250.
U.N. officials say a 2005 peace agreement would allow those refugees to return home, but the IRD’s Faith McDonnell said it was still unsafe because the peace accord had “yet to fully be implemented.”
_ Chris Herlinger and Enette Ngoei
Ohio Imam Accepts Deportation Order to the Middle East
CLEVELAND (RNS) The spiritual leader of Ohio’s largest mosque agreed Thursday (Jan. 5) to a deportation order after he was convicted of lying about his links to Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations.
Fawaz Damra, the imam at the Islamic Center of Cleveland in Parma, Ohio, will be sent to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Egypt or the Palestinian territories. Damra’s first choice, Canada, rejected his request.
Damra, 44, will remain in a Michigan jail until his deportation is resolved, which could take weeks or months, said Matt Albence, deputy special agent for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Friends and supporters expressed regret and sympathy for Damra. “He agreed to be deported just to get away from it, to put it behind him,” said Haider Alawan, a close friend.
“It’s been very trying and hard for his wife and children.”
Federal agents arrested Damra at his home in November, and government attorneys immediately began deportation actions. A jury in federal court in Akron convicted Damra in 2004 of lying about his links to Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994. A judge sentenced him to two months in prison and stripped him of his citizenship.
Alawan said he didn’t believe his friend was a threat to anyone.
“Just because they’re going to deport him doesn’t mean he’s guilty of anything,” Alawan said.
Damra was born in the West Bank and came to the United States in 1988. He and his wife, Nasreen, have three children.
“It’s a decision that will have to be made between him and his wife and the children,” Alawan said. “They’re American, so it’s going to be rough to change.”
_ James F. McCarty
Pope Says Terrorism Could Lead to `Clash of Civilizations’
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI on Monday (Jan. 9) warned that the rise of Islamic terrorism, countered by the use of unchecked military force, was leading the world toward a “clash of civilizations.”
In a foreign policy address to the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, Benedict said the “temptation to use overpowering violence” to deal with religious and ethnic disputes was fueling extremism around the world.
“Those who are committed to truth cannot fail to reject the law of might, which is based on a lie and has so frequently marked human history, nationally and internationally, with tragedy.”
Although the Vatican has been publicly critical of unilateral military action taken by Israel against Palestinian militants and by the United States in Iraq, Benedict on Monday appeared to direct the force of his criticism at faith-inspired terrorist activity.
Noting that the world’s attention “has rightly been drawn to the danger of a clash of civilizations,” Benedict said “the danger is made more acute by organized terrorism, which has already spread over the whole planet.”
“No situation can justify such criminal activity, which covers the perpetrators with infamy,” he said. “It is all the more deplorable when it hides behind religion, thereby bringing the pure truth of God down to the level of the terrorists’ own blindness and moral perversion.”
Amid heightened concern for the health of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Benedict said the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict provided a “paradigmatic illustration” of the cultural standoff, making the region “a nerve point of the world scene.”
“The State of Israel has to be able to exist peacefully in conformity with the norms of international law,” Benedict said. “Equally, the Palestinian people has to be able to develop serenely its own democratic institutions for a free and prosperous future.”
Benedict also emphasized a need for broader religious freedoms in some parts of the world. Although he did not name any countries, the appeal appeared to underline the Vatican’s ongoing push to expand the rights of Christian minorities in predominantly Muslim countries. The Vatican has also offered to re-establish diplomatic relations with China once the country embraces a broader definition of religious freedom.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Texas Governor Supports Teaching of Intelligent Design
(RNS) A letter from Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s office advocates the teaching of intelligent design in public school classrooms, but Perry’s office and the state school board chairwoman say there are no plans to push for curriculum changes.
Kathy Walt, the governor’s press secretary, told The Dallas Morning News that Perry supports the teaching of intelligent design “much as the theory of evolution is now taught” in Texas schools.
Perry’s position came to light because of a letter sent by his office last month to an East Texas constituent who asked the governor whether he backed the teaching of intelligent design, a theory that says the universe and living things are so complex an intelligent agent must be behind them.
The letter from Perry’s office stated that it would be a “disservice to our children to teach them only one theory on the origin of our existence without recognizing other scientific theories worth consideration.”
The letter noted that a Pennsylvania federal judge’s recent ruling prohibiting a school district from requiring the teaching of intelligent design probably would be appealed.
“Once the courts have spoken with finality and clarity, Texas schools will abide by that decision,” the letter said.
But Walt said the governor’s office was merely responding to a constituent’s question and has no plans to seek legislation that would require the teaching of intelligent design in science classes.
“We try to respond to all letters that ask the governor’s positions on issues,” Walt told The Dallas Morning News. “He has always supported providing students with alternative theories as part of the effort to teach critical and analytical thinking skills.”
Tincy Miller, chairwoman of the Texas State Board of Education, noted that board members voted in November 2003 against endorsing only biology textbooks that presented the most qualified characterizations of evolution, with words such as “may” or “could.”
“We had a huge discussion; it was just put to bed,” Miller, R-Dallas, told the American-Statesman. “We teach evolution in Texas.”
_ Bobby Ross Jr.
Editors: To obtain a photo of the interfaith service described below, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.
Lutherans, Methodists Join at Communion Table
CLEVELAND (RNS) They sang together. They prayed together. And then several hundred Lutherans and United Methodists shared a Communion meal together in an historic sign of unity for the two mainline Protestant denominations.
Lutheran Bishop Marcus Miller and United Methodist Bishop John Hopkins stood on either side of the Communion table Sunday (Jan. 8) at First United Methodist Church in Cleveland as members of their flocks approached in silent reverence.
The service celebrated a new national agreement on Eucharistic sharing between the two denominations and the commitment of Lutheran and Methodist leaders here to work together.
“All too often, we’ve described ourselves by what we’re not rather than who we are,” said Miller, representing the 93,000-member Northeastern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in his homily.
“The world that God loves yearns for a body of Christ that is united in Christ.”
Church leaders said the celebration will encourage other congregations to have similar services and to engage in a new dialogue on what it means to share the sacrament.
“If it doesn’t work on the local level, it doesn’t work,” Hopkins, spiritual leader of the 182,000-member East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, said of efforts toward Christian unity.
For some people in the pews, the agreement is long overdue.
“I think it was a splendid idea,” said Clarence Walker, an 80-year-old United Methodist. “I’ve always believed denominations aren’t important. Christ is important.”
Last summer, the Churchwide Assembly of the 4.9 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America overwhelmingly approved a Eucharistic sharing agreement that welcomes 8.3 million United Methodists to receive Communion in their churches. The plan had already received unanimous approval from the United Methodist Council of Bishops.
Members of some churches, such as Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, do not practice general intercommunion. They say unity must be achieved before they can celebrate the sacrament together. Lutheran and United Methodist officials have said that sharing the Eucharist can be a means to achieving greater unity, rather than the end of the process.
_ David Briggs
Editors: To obtain photos of Bishop Pilla, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject.
Cleveland Catholics Celebrate 25th Anniversary of Retiring Bishop
CLEVELAND (RNS) Northeast Ohio celebrated the 25th anniversary of Bishop Anthony M. Pilla’s installation in a joyous service made bittersweet for some with the knowledge he is approaching retirement.
Pilla, 73, is a native son of Cleveland who became president of the national bishops conference and started a national dialogue on the human costs of suburban sprawl.
Amid the smell of incense and the majestic choral singing of the hymn “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow,” a smiling Pilla followed a candlelight procession featuring several cardinals and bishops and about 250 priests into a packed St. John Cathedral Friday (Jan. 6).
In emotional remarks at the end of Mass, Pilla addressed diocesan priests _ “My proudest boast is, I am one of you,” he said _ and thanked “the good people” of the diocese for their support.
He got a standing ovation at the end of the service. Pilla, who has had health problems in recent years, recently revealed he wrote the Vatican, offering to retire.
No retirement date has been set for the bishop, who is awaiting a response from the Vatican.
Silver Jubilee celebrations are scheduled throughout the diocese this year. In his homily Friday, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington said Pilla has found great joy in the people of the diocese. “Today, Cleveland remains one of the great dioceses of our country,” McCarrick said.
_ David Briggs
Authorities to Decide on Church Leader Who Allegedly Sought Sex
TULSA, Okla. (RNS) Authorities say they will decide this week whether to press formal charges against a prominent Southern Baptist leader arrested after allegedly inviting an undercover male police officer to come to his hotel room for sex.
The Rev. Lonnie Latham resigned as pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church on Thursday (Jan. 5), two days after his arrest on a complaint of offering to engage in an act of lewdness.
He has also resigned from the 82-member executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which helps conduct the business of the country’s largest Protestant denomination, with 16 million members.
Oklahoma City police allege Latham invited an undercover male police officer to come to his hotel room for sex. Police said the officer was in the neighborhood investigating complaints that male prostitutes were flagging down cars.
Debra Forshee, with the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office, said that prosecutors would decide this week whether to file charges. A lewdness charge carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Latham, 60, had been an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage and supported the Southern Baptist Convention’s position that Baptist churches should befriend gays and lesbians, and urge them to reject their “sinful and destructive lifestyle.”
Contacted by phone, Latham said he could not discuss the matter, but he prepared a statement that was read Sunday to an overflow crowd at the South Tulsa Baptist Church service.
In it, he said he has been sustained by the cards, calls and e-mails from the congregation.
“I thank you for the love and encouragement you have shown us, not only before this incident, but also afterward,” he said. “We will always love you. Our prayer is for you to continue to be the great ministry you are. Your continued prayers in support of Sandra (his wife) and me will be greatly appreciated.”
The Rev. Anthony Jordan, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, told the congregation Sunday that the church would survive because its “foundation is Jesus Christ” and not a man.
“Lonnie was and is a very close friend,” he said. “Just like you, I have wept. I have grieved, I have felt the brokenness of my own heart.”
He described Latham as a man with a broken heart who has turned to God for forgiveness.
_ Bill Sherman
Settlement Offered on Eruv, an Orthodox Jewish Religious District
(RNS) Under a proposed settlement that could end a five-year legal battle, the Bergen County, N.J., borough of Tenafly has reached an agreement with a group of Orthodox Jews that would allow a symbolic religious district.
The eruv district, a symbolic area bounded by telephone wires and utility poles marked with plastic strips called “lechis,” allows observant Orthodox Jews to do physical tasks otherwise banned on the Sabbath, such as carrying a child or pushing a baby stroller in public.
“The eruv enhances the experience of the Sabbath,” said Mariette Warner, a modern Orthodox Jew who lives outside the eruv boundary. She said she cannot invite many families from her synagogue to her home on the Sabbath because mothers cannot push strollers to her house.
The proposed settlement comes five years after the borough council ordered the Tenafly Eruv Association to take down the plastic strips from utility poles in the public right-of-way, sparking the legal dispute.
A federal appeals court eventually ruled against the borough in a case that weighed constitutional issues of separation of church and state, religious freedom and free speech, and brought national attention to the divided residents of Tenafly, a town of 14,000.
Under the proposed settlement, subject to a borough council vote on Jan. 24, the borough would also pay $325,000 in attorney fees to the Tenafly Eruv Association, said Tenafly Mayor Peter Rustin.
The borough also would not be allowed to pursue related legal action against Verizon or Cablevision, which permitted the Jewish group to use utility poles.
The settlement gives the eruv association the ability to expand to whatever area of town it thinks appropriate, said Robert Sugarman, an attorney who represented the Eruv Association.
Experts say the Tenafly case is unusual, noting that there are eruvs in Washington, D.C., Manhattan and hundreds of other cities across the United States.
“Generally these kinds of arrangements are totally cooperative,” said Nathan Diament of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
_ Ana M. Alaya
Survey: Majorities Support Decision-Making for Terminally Ill
(RNS) An overwhelming majority of white Catholics and Protestants support laws endorsing the right of terminally ill patients to decide whether medical care should keep them alive, a new study by the Pew Research Center has found.
Ninety-one percent of white Catholics and 84 percent of white Protestants support legislation that would allow a patient or his or her closest family member to decide if medical action should be taken to prolong the patient’s life, according to the study released Jan. 5.
The poll results come less than a year after the Terri Schiavo case sparked end-of-life debates across the nation, with many growing angry when government and medical officials attempted to intervene.
Since a similar poll in 1990, the percentage of individuals believing the patient and family should control their own medical destiny jumped by 11 points for white Catholics and 4 percentage points for white Protestants. The survey did not provide breakdowns for other ethnic groups within religions.
The poll also found nearly three in 10 Americans (29 percent) now have a living will, and nearly seven in 10 (69 percent) have spoken to their spouses about their wishes for end-of-life medical care, up from 51 percent in 1990.
The nationwide study was conducted Nov. 9-27, sampling 1,500 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.
_ Jason Kane
Conservative Anglicans Gather in Alabama to Focus on Evangelism
(RNS) Birmingham, Ala., hosts a gathering this week of 800 conservative Anglicans, including African and Asian archbishops who have warned about a possible schism if the U.S. Episcopal Church does not renounce its approval of gay bishops and blessing of same-sex unions.
The Anglican Mission in America, a splinter group that includes many ex-Episcopalians, will have a conference Wednesday (Jan. 11) through Sunday. Organizers say as many as nine Anglican archbishops, or primates, from various countries plan to attend.
The meeting will open with a service led by Archbishop Datuk Yong Ping Chung of Malaysia.
Church growth and mission work are the main topics of seminars, said the Rev. John Richardson, host priest and the rector of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Mountain Brook, Ala.
Richardson said he expects the sexual morality issues to arise “only indirectly” at the conference.
But he said many of those participating are concerned about the direction U.S. Episcopal Church leaders are taking. The Anglican Mission in America “is addressing a crisis in faith and leadership in the Episcopal Church,” Richardson said. “It’s building Christ-centered and mission-minded churches.”
The debate over homosexuality will likely heat up within the Episcopal Church this year with the approach of its General Convention June 13-21, the church’s first governing meeting since an openly gay bishop was approved in 2003. The approval of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire has been heavily criticized by conservative Episcopalians in the United States and by Anglican leaders overseas.
“The controversy remains,” said Bishop John Rucyahana of Rwanda, who played a key role in the founding of the Anglican Mission in America. The mission has used the authority of African bishops to ordain American bishops. They, in turn, oversee conservative Anglicans who have defected from the Episcopal Church.
This week’s Anglican Mission meeting focuses on evangelism, he said. “We are very much interested in Gospel preaching, not church politics,” Rucyahana said. “We need to reach people for Jesus Christ.”
The Episcopal Church, with 2.4 million members, is the U.S. province of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, which traces its roots to the Church of England. A vast number of Anglicans are in Africa, including 17 million in Nigeria.
The Anglican Mission has about 85 member churches.
_ Greg Garrison
Quote of the Week: Mormon Elder M. Russell Ballard
(RNS) “The safest place in the world for 19-21-year-old young men and 21-year-old young women is in the service of the Lord in the mission field, scattered out over the four corners of the Earth.”
_ Elder M. Russell Ballard, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reacting to the recent deaths of three missionaries. One was shot Jan. 2 in Virginia and two died Friday (Jan. 6) in a New Zealand automobile accident.
Quote of the Week: Pastor Herbert H. Lusk II of Philadelphia
(RNS) “Don’t fool with the church, because the church has buried many a critic, and all the critics we have not buried we’re making funeral arrangements for.”
_ Pastor Herbert H. Lusk II of Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia, speaking to those who questioned his Sunday (Jan. 8) hosting of “Justice Sunday III” to draw attention to the nomination process of Supreme Court Justice nominee Samuel Alito. He was quoted by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Quote of the Week: Islamic sorority founder Althia Collins
(RNS) “Partying is allowed in Islam, but it’s how you party. You can have fun with girls and it doesn’t have to include men.”
_ Althia Collins, an Alexandria, Va., businesswoman who has helped create Gamma Gamma Chi, the nation’s first Islamic sorority. She was quoted by The Washington Times.
Quote of the Week: Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma
(RNS) “We are a nation of laws, even laws that we disagree with.”
_ Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, speaking about how House members will continue a new practice of preceding official state business with voluntary prayer in the back of the chamber while a ruling prohibiting legislative prayers promoting Christianity is appealed. He was quoted by the Associated Press.
Quote of the Week: Randy Sharp of the American Family Association
(RNS) “They take our savior Jesus Christ and reflect him as an everyday Joe. How disrespectful. Our savior is to be worshipped and adored and not treated as your buddy riding down the street with you in the passenger seat of the car.”
_ Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the American Family Association, criticizing the portrayal of Jesus in “Book of Daniel,” a new NBC drama about an Episcopal priest who talks with Jesus. The show premieres Friday (Jan. 6) at 9 p.m. EST.
KRE/PH END RNS
