c. 2006 Religion News Service
Bishop Assails Removal of Catholic Nuns From Leprosy Hospital in India
(RNS) Christian leaders in India are protesting a decision by the pro-Hindu state government of Gujarat to terminate a contract with Catholic nuns who had run a leprosy hospital for more than 50 years.
“There is absolutely no reason why they should not have renewed this contract save for the fact that we are Christians,” said Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Macwan of Ahmedabad, where the hospital is located.
The Evangelical Fellowship of India also expressed shock at the government’s decision to end the contract on the grounds that the nuns were preaching Christianity to the hospital’s patients _ a charge the nuns have strongly denied.
“It is clear that `conversion’ is merely being used as a ploy to carry out the government’s agenda to hamper the Christian community’s service in public space,” the EFI said in a statement.
The EFI said that, instead of recognizing the nuns’ “tireless service,” the government “has used the state machinery to disrupt and stop their work, with total disregard of the consequences for the leprosy patients.”
The government order to remove the five sisters of the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate was made in March, with a five-year contract expiring at the end of the month. The nuns were running the institution on behalf of the Catholic diocese.
Nuns of the mission first took up the administration of the hospital, which had earlier been managed by the state government itself, in October 1949. Gujarat was then part of Bombay state, which was later split into the two states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The hospital, located on a 25-acre plot of government land, had some 40 in-patients and treated hundreds of outpatients.
The state government had been renewing the contract with the missionaries routinely until 2001, when a new government led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power.
Gujarat’s health minister, Ashok Bhatt, told journalists the state government had plans to expand the hospital’s services, and the termination of the contract with the nuns had nothing to do with any ideology.
_ Achal Narayanan
Canadian Jews Told Anglican Church Won’t Pull Investments From Israel
TORONTO (RNS) The head of Canada’s Anglican Church is trying to reassure the country’s Jewish community that his church has no plans to disinvest from companies that do business with Israel.
Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, primate of the church, told an annual interfaith gathering April 5 at Canada’s largest synagogue that no plan for disinvestment has come before the Anglican Church of Canada, “nor is such a proposal on the agenda for consideration.”
Hutchison also clarified reports that the worldwide Anglican Communion has voted to disinvest in Israel.
“May I say right away, on the authority of the archbishop of Canterbury himself, the reports are not correct,” he said.
In early 2005, Canada’s Anglican Church told the Canadian Jewish Congress that it had “no intention at this time” of exploring divestment in Israel.
The congress welcomed the announcement, but expressed concern that the phrase “at this time” meant the issue would be on the church’s agenda one day soon.
Last fall, the Council of General Synod, the church’s governing body in between triennial General Synods, passed a resolution urging its eco-justice committee to request that an ecumenical justice group research the activities of companies “believed to be contributing to ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine.”
The resolution also issued a call to “explore a range of socially responsible investment strategies, including corporate engagement and positive investment or divestment.”
Hutchison said there have been calls for divestment from various groups following a call made by the Palestinian Anglican bishop in Jerusalem to disinvest from Caterpillar Inc., which sells bulldozers to Israel.
Earlier this year, the Church of England’s General Synod adopted a resolution to heed the call “for morally responsible investment in the Palestinian occupied territories, and in particular, to disinvest from companies profiting from (Israel’s) illegal occupation.”
Hutchison said that while the English church’s decision will not “be pleasing to some of you, it is a long way from a decision to disinvest either from Caterpillar, or the State of Israel.”
He added that criticism of Israel is likely to happen from time to time since the Anglican Communion “is not a monolithic institution” but a “family of 38 independent churches in communion with each other.”
_ Ron Csillag
Jewish Group Wants Anti-Semitic Books Banned From German Book Fair
(RNS) The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center is asking that seven anti-Semitic books be banned from a prestigious book fair in Frankfurt, Germany.
A new version of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” an atlas that replaces Israel with Palestine and several books that attribute the Sept. 11 terror attacks to American Jews need to be banned from this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the Jewish human rights organization said in a letter.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center released the list in anticipation of the Oct. 9-14 fair. According to Spiegel Online, last year’s fair ended in scandal after organizers realized that some stalls were selling anti-Semitic books.
To avoid a repeat, book fair president Juergen Boos asked the Simon Wiesenthal Center to help him identify anti-Semitic books. The books listed by the center are:
_ “The Protocols of the Sages of Zion,” which attributes the Sept. 11 attacks to Jews and calls for their extermination.
_ “Mein Kampf,” an updated version with a focus on a passage urging the deaths of Jews.
_ “The Beginning of the End of the Nation of the Children of Israel.”
_ “The Partition Plan for the Arab Nation: Who After Iraq?,” which also blames American Jews for the Sept. 11 attacks.
_ “The Messiah Expected in the Iraq War,” which outlines American and Jewish offenses to the Islamic Prophet Muhammed and plans for a war against Muslims.
_ “Geographical Atlas of the Islamic World,” which displaces Israel with Palestine.
_ “The World Map,” which also replaces Israel with Palestine.
The Wiesenthal Center is one of the world’s largest Jewish human rights organizations, with more than 400,000 member families in the United States alone. Shimon Samuels, the center’s director for international affairs, argued that the books had no place at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which has a 500-year history.
“Indeed, to permit the display of such texts in Frankfurt would violate German law and European Union conventions,” said Samuels, noting that the center will stay on the lookout for other books that should be banned from the fair.
_ Niels Sorrells
Historic New Orleans Church Reopened, Given 18 Months to Reach Goals
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes has reopened historic St. Augustine parish for 18 months after protesters occupied it for more than two weeks.
The Saturday (April 8) agreement, which all sides praised as a “win/win,” ends the most contentious public dispute in recent memory within the local Catholic community.
Under the agreement, a handful of protesters on Saturday left the St. Augustine rectory they had occupied for 20 days.
In addition, Hughes on Saturday morning formally reconsecrated St. Augustine in a ritual the archdiocese said was required after angry parishioners and their supporters disrupted the Rev. Michael Jacques’ attempt to celebrate Mass there on March 26.
Before the reversal, Jacques’ nearby St. Peter Claver Parish was to have been enlarged to include St. Augustine. Jacques was named to replace the Rev. Jerome LeDoux, St. Augustine’s popular pastor of 15 years.
The reconsecration made the 164-year-old church available for worship at the outset of the holiest week of the year for Christians. Hughes said the significance of the Easter season, in which renewal springs out of defeat, weighed heavily in his search for a resolution.
“In the liturgical season we’re in, we’re called to reach out in mutual respect and forgiveness in light of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection,” Hughes said. He said he viewed the resolution of the conflict as a message appropriate to the season of rebirth.
“What a way to start Holy Week,” said Sandra Gordon, a leader of St. Augustine’s parishioners and their supporters, in a separate interview. “We’ve been carrying our cross these last weeks. But I always knew our church was going to be resurrected.”
Hughes and the parishioners said they set 12 goals the parish must meet over the next 18 months.
They require, among other things, that the parish grow from 300 to 400 families, institute religious education for the parish’s Catholic children, launch formal ministries to the sick and bereaved, and submit a balanced budget by Oct. 1.
The parish will close if the goals are not met, Hughes said.
Orissa Arend, a social worker and St. Augustine supporter, praised the skills of negotiators in reaching what she called an honest resolution.
Referring to both the archdiocese and St. Augustine’s parishioners, she said: “We’re all going to work together at this, and this is going to work.
“This is not just the postponement of disaster. This is going to work.”
_ Bruce Nolan
`South Park’ Cartoon Series Addresses Depictions of Prophet Muhammad
(RNS) Comedy Central’s cartoon series “South Park,” no stranger to attacking religion with its edgy humor, appears to have a new issue in its sights _ depictions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
Part one of a two-part episode that aired last Wednesday (April 5) threatened to show an image of the prophet, whose unflattering portrayal in Danish editorial cartoons set off violent protests in the Middle East earlier this year.
The April 5 episode was about another animated series, Fox’s “Family Guy,” and the mayhem that took place when “Family Guy” announced plans to show an image of Muhammad. Protests erupted, terrorists threatened to attack the United States, and Americans literally began burying their heads in sand to avoid the controversy.
The episode weighed in on both sides of the issue, with Kyle Broflovski, the show’s 8-year-old voice of reason, arguing that Muhammad should be shown as an exercise in free speech rights. Kyle’s nemesis, Eric Cartman, the child who is typically the show’s most offensive character, said that the depiction wouldn’t be worth it if it led to lost lives.
Muhammad was not portrayed, but part two of “South Park” airs Wednesday (April 12), with suspense building over whether “South Park” will show “Family Guy” depicting the prophet.
Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that “South Park,” just like the Danish newspapers, has the right to depict Muhammad, but that doesn’t mean it should.
“The portrayal of the prophet, any portrayal of the prophet, would be offensive to Muslim sensitivities,” Ahmed said.
Islam forbids any image of Muhammad, even if they are flattering.
Religion is often a prime target of the show, which in seasons past has depicted a priest having sex in a confessional booth and a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeding.
The show made headlines recently when Isaac Hayes quit because of its “intolerance and bigotry” toward religion after the show satirized the actor’s own religion, Scientology.
Bobby Amirshahi, director of corporate communications with Comedy Central, wouldn’t comment on the Muhammad issue in particular.
“This show is often about society and it’s a satire,” Amirshahi said, “and (the show’s creators) build from current events and the world around us for our story lines, and that’s where they leave it at.”
_ Piet Levy
Quote of the Day: Paige Blair, rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in York Harbor, Maine
(RNS) “I don’t think the church gets everything right. We are only human. I go because if I didn’t, people would ask me why. After all, I am the priest of this parish.”
_ Paige Blair, rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in York Harbor, Maine, speaking in a new 30-second television spot designed to encourage women in their 20s and 30s to visit the church. It is scheduled to air nationally beginning April 30, according to Episcopal News Service.
MO/PH END RNS
