c. 2008 Religion News Service
Obama’s church defends outspoken pastor
(RNS) Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and the national United Church of Christ are strongly defending Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose fiery sermons have sparked controversy.
Preaching before a packed house on Palm Sunday (March 16), the church’s incoming pastor, the Rev. Otis Moss III, said Wright’s 36 years of ministry have been reduced to a “15- or 30-second sound bite” by the media.
“Nearly three weeks before the 40th commemoration of the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Moss, Wright’s “character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe.”
A longtime fixture on Chicago’s South Side, Wright built Trinity from a congregation of 87 to 8,000, the largest in the United Church of Christ. Trinity’s health care, prison and educational ministries have helped thousands, the church says.
Obama recently distanced himself from his “former pastor” after sermons in which Wright speaks disparagingly of the United States and Sen. Hillary Clinton were widely broadcast in the media.
On Friday, Obama said he had not heard Wright make such “appalling remarks” at Trinity or in private conversation, and said he “vehemently” condemns them. Obama was married at Trinity and has been a member for more than two decades. He said he intends to stay at the church.
UCC President the Rev. John Thomas said “it has saddened me to see news stories reporting such a caricature of a congregation that has been such a blessing.”
Moss said Wright’s sermons must be understood within the “crucible of slavery and the legacy of prophetic African-American preachers since slavery.”
_ Daniel Burke
Knights of Columbus founder inches closer to sainthood
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday (March 15) authorized a decree recognizing the “heroic virtue” of the founder of the Knights of Columbus, bringing the Connecticut-born priest one step closer to sainthood.
The Rev. Michael J. McGivney (1852-1890) founded the Knights in 1882 as a mutual aid society for Catholic men. Still headquartered in New Haven, Conn., it now claims more than 1.7 million members worldwide.
In 2006, according to the organization’s statistics, the Knights made more than $143 million in charitable donations and performed more than 66 million hours of volunteer work for charitable causes.
The Knights were long known as the “Catholic Masons” because their secret ceremonies and elaborate ranking system recall those of Freemasonry, the international fraternal organization from which Catholics were long excluded. Catholics are still forbidden by their church to become Masons.
According to the Vatican decree, McGivney will now be known as a “Venerable Servant of God.”
If a miracle is attributed to his intercession, he could eventually receive the distinction “blessed.” A second miracle, occurring after beatification, would then be required for him to become a saint.
McGivney would be the first American-born priest to be canonized as a saint. So far, the Vatican has canonized only two natural-born U.S. citizens: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Katherine Mary Drexel.
_ Francis X. Rocca
Lutheran treasurer accused of theft
HARRISBURG, Pa. (RNS) Since 1991, leaders of Pennsylvania’s Lower Susquehanna Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America had assumed that millions in endowment money was going to missionary work overseas and to pastors in need of financial assistance.
Barry R. Herr, the synod’s treasurer for 28 years, was responsible for making sure it did.
Instead, Herr funneled more than $1 million into a bogus bank account, transferred it to his personal account and used it to buy classic cars, police and church officials said.
Herr, 61, has been charged with one count of theft, accused of stealing more than $1 million from the 261-congregation synod over 16 years. The Lancaster man was also charged with 36 counts of criminal use of a communication facility, involving electronic transfers of funds.
He was arraigned and released on his own recognizance, police said.
“This is an extremely sad time and a very sad event,” Bishop B. Penrose Hoover said during a news conference with police and church leaders.
A phone message left for Herr was not immediately returned. It was not known if he had obtained a lawyer.
Church officials became suspicious of Herr about a year ago, when an internal audit showed he used church funds to pay for gas and insurance for his personal vehicle, said the Rev. Thomas McKee, synod secretary. Shortly after, Herr was put on administrative leave.
In July, the Synod Council voted unanimously to fire Herr, saying it had lost confidence in his competence and judgment, McKee said. A private accounting firm was hired to audit the endowment funds.
The audit revealed that three checks payable to the ELCA endowment distribution totaling $325,000 were never received, McKee said. A police investigation later found that Herr had opened an account in 1985 and had been depositing and withdrawing endowment money from the account. The account was closed in October.
Further investigation revealed Herr had taken more than $1 million from the church since 1991, police said. Authorities believe Herr used the money to buy classic cars dating from the late 1960s to the 1990s.
_ Matthew Kemeny and Mary Warner
Quote of the Day: New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson
(RNS) “In my most difficult moments it feels as if, instead of leaving the 99 sheep in search of the one, my chief pastor and shepherd, the archbishop of Canterbury, has cut me out of the herd.”
_ New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, about being uninvited to the Lambeth Conference, a once-a-decade meeting in England of all Anglican bishops.
KRE/PH END RNS
