c. 2008 Religion News Service

Vatican tells bishops not to share parish information with Mormons

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Seeking to stop Mormons from posthumously baptizing Catholic ancestors, the Vatican has instructed bishops around the world not to share parish registers with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy issued the directive in a letter to national bishops’ conferences in early April, according to Catholic News Service. The letter referred to “grave reservations” expressed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Catholic Church’s highest doctrinal body.

The Rev. James Massa, an official of the U.S. bishops’ conference, told CNS that the Vatican had acted to prevent the use of church records for the “proxy baptisms” of deceased Catholics by Mormons, which the letter calls a “detrimental practice.”

Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, believe that by performing such baptisms they can offer their ancestors the chance to become Mormons after death.

Massa acknowledged that the Vatican’s action might complicate dialogue between the Catholics and Mormons, but said the “purpose of interreligious dialogue is not only to identify agreements, but also to identify differences.”

Relations between the two churches took a step forward in April, during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the U.S., when Mormon representatives took part for the first time in a prayer service led by a pope.

An LDS church spokesman declined to comment on the Vatican’s letter, saying that church officials had not yet seen the document.

_ Francis X. Rocca

Bartholomew, Dalai Lama, Richard Cizik make `Time 100′

(RNS) Religious leaders Bartholomew I, the Dalai Lama and the Rev. Richard Cizik are named in this year’s “Time 100” list of influential people.

Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, were included among “leaders and revolutionaries” in the May 12 issue of Time magazine.

“To me, the most mystical thing about him is also the most ordinary: The Dalai Lama is happy,” wrote author Deepak Chopra in the magazine. “He’s happy in the midst of chaos and turmoil.”

Bartholomew I, the subject of a profile by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, is noted for his attention to the environment.

“In a way that is profoundly loyal to the traditions of worship and reflection in the Eastern Orthodox Church, he has insisted that ecological questions are essentially spiritual ones,” writes Williams of the patriarch.

In further attention to environmental activism, Cizik, the leader of the governmental affairs office of the National Association of Evangelicals, was named with Eric Chivian, director of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment, among “scientists and thinkers.”

Pope Benedict XVI didn’t make this year’s list but the Vatican didn’t object.

“I’m very happy that the pope isn’t on the list, because they have used criteria that have absolutely nothing to do with the evaluation of the pope’s religious and moral authority,” said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, papal spokesman.

Other religious leaders contributed to the list by writing profiles of those named in the “Time 100.” Dallas megachurch pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes profiled movie mogul Tyler Perry and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu profiled performer Peter Gabriel.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Poll: One-third of voters say Wright has reduced their Obama support

(RNS) One-third of likely voters say they are less inclined to vote for presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama because of his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, according to a new poll.

The same percentage of likely voters told pollsters they were less apt to vote for Obama’s opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., because of her association with husband, former president Bill Clinton.

The USA Today/Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans were “very” or “somewhat” closely following the media coverage of controversial statements by Wright, who was Obama’s pastor for almost 20 years.

Of those following the controversy, 42 percent said they think Obama disagrees with Wright’s more controversial statements. Thirty-three percent of all Americans thought the same.

More than 60 percent of those following the controversy said Obama has handled the matter “very well” or “well,” and more than half said the Illinois senator’s relationship with his pastor is not meaningful and should not be discussed.

Splices of sermons taken from Wright’s nearly 36 years in ministry, in which he vehemently denounces the U.S. government, have circulated over the Internet and on television. In recent media appearances, Wright has explained his controversial remarks but not disavowed them.

Clinton holds a seven percentage point lead over Obama among Democrats, the poll found.

The USA Today/Gallup poll was conducted May 1-3. The sample size for the Wright questions was 855 adults; the margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points. The sample size for the poll of Democrats was 516 adults; the margin of error was plus or minus 5 points.

_ Daniel Burke

Quote of the Day: Jarrett Schaef, of tornado-blown Greensburg, Kan.

(RNS) “Although people definitely won’t consider it a blessing when the tornado hit, there are many blessings that will come out of it.”

_ Jarrett Schaef, senior class president of Greensburg High School, which was leveled by a tornado last year that wiped out most of the town. He was quoted by The Washington Post (May 5).

DSB DS END RNS