TITLE: Beyond Rhetoric, Action on Welfare Reform Comes Slow DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

AS REPUBLICANS and Democrats begin to organize themselves for the 105th Congress, Catholic organizations are setting priorities for the upcoming 1997-1998 legislative session. And concern about welfare reform tops the agenda.

The U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC), is poised to call for changes to the welfare reform bill which President Clinton signed into law Aug. 22. Such action is expected when the conference's Domestic Social Development Committee meets in Washington in late January, 1997.

The welfare bill, formally titled the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, transferred much authority and funding for welfare programs to the states in the form of block grants. Federal legislation provides a basic framework for how those funds must be administered, but it leaves broad discretion to states and localities to design their own programs.

“The federal government used to provide funding for welfare programs and tell the states who they must serve,” said Patricia King, policy advisor to the Domestic and Social Welfare Committee of the USCC. “Now the federal government has reallocated the funding and has told the states who they are not allowed to serve.”

Three provisions worry Catholic officials in particular. The first is the treatment of legal immigrants, who are prohibited from receiving many welfare benefits under the terms of the bill. The second is the food stamp program. While food stamps were not included in the block grants and remain under federal control, increases in funding for the program have been reduced by approximately $27 billion in five years. Much of this reduction is expected to come at the expense of childless welfare recipients.

“The bill is especially tough on adults age 18 to 50 without dependent children,” said King. “In many cases, they can only receive welfare for three months if they do not find work, and that may not be enough for many people.” By law, states must inform recipients by Nov. 22 if they will face a loss of food stamp benefits. “These people are often the working poor, and food stamps can make the difference for them,” according to King.

On another level, the Church will be working to help welfare recipients find good-paying jobs. “The entire environment has changed with regard to welfare reform,” she said. “The focus clearly is on finding paying jobs for welfare recipients, and we want to help move people into jobs that have a future.”

To stimulate that process, the Church is in the preliminary stages of discussions with many of America's large labor unions. Church officials have been talking with representatives of the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions, including the Transit Workers Union and the Service Employees Union. “They seem to be interested in working with us,” said King.

The impact of the new welfare law will be felt across the country. While many states are currently utilizing federal waivers that allow them to use federal welfare money in new and innovative ways, all states will be forced by the law to design individual state- or locally-based programs.

The Church and other religious organizations will have a greater chance of participating in these new programs because of a little-noticed provision that permits states and local governments to contract for welfare services with nonprofit and religious organizations. The provision, sponsored by Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.), states that “religious organizations are eligible, on the same basis as any other private organization, as contractors to provide assistance or to accept certificates, vouchers, or other forms of disbursements under any program described” in the bill.

“This is a new day in welfare reform,” said Ashcroft in statement. “Now we have the chance to enlist the noble efforts of compassionate organizations—our churches, synagogues, and faith-based treatment centers—to help fight the war on poverty.”

“Basically, this language says that if a mayor of a city wants to contract with the Salvation Army to provide services to the poor, that mayor should be allowed to do it even though the Salvation Army is a religious organization,” said one congressional staffer who participated in crafting the bill.

“This provisions makes it a lot easier for states and cities to work with faith-based organizations,” said King. “Of course, many smaller religious organizations have never dealt with the government before, so we need to try to help them deal with the accountability requirements that will be placed upon them.” She mentioned day care and drug treatment as areas where Church-run programs could have a major impact.

Not everyone, however, believes that Congress should tackle welfare reform again this year. “It may be a little premature,” said Maureen Roselli, executive director of the Catholic Alliance, one of the few Catholic groups to support the welfare reform law. “We just passed a monumental reform, and we have no idea how it will play out in the public square. Let's give it some time to see what works and what does not work, and then fix what needs fixing. Let's not rush into anything without giving the law a chance to work.”

“There will certainly be some hearings this year on the implementation of the bill,” said Scott Brenner, a spokesman for the House Ways and Means Committee. “I would expect that we will be working with the state welfare directors to see how the law is working locally. We have not drawn a line in the sand, and we realize that this will he an ongoing process. But I don't know that we will see substantive legislative action this year. It may take some time to see how the states are doing.”

One thing that will definitely change right away is the focus of Catholic organizations on the welfare issue. As welfare reform moves to the states and localities, less attention will he paid to Washington and more to state capitals and city halls around the country. “There could be a whole refinement of the way the Catholic community deals with public policy,” said King. “It is clear that much of this substantive action on welfare will no longer be in Washington, and we will need to be more active in the states and in the local communities.”

For example, King noted that state Catholic conferences will need to take a leadership role as governors and state legislators fashion new programs; and local dioceses will need to get more involved as the states in turn shift more welfare programs to counties and cities. The state Catholic conference directors will be meeting in Washington this month to discuss state welfare reform programs, among other issues.

“The individual dioceses and even individual parishioners will need to be much more involved,” said King. “The landscape has completely changed, and the Catholic community will need to change [its] approach. All of us will need to find new ways to reach out to help those in need.”

Michael Barbera is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Barbera ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE:Growing U.S. Latino Population Serves Notice to the Church DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

BY ALL ACCOUNTS, the country's growing Latino population will have a far reaching political and religious impact. Republicans, for one, felt the sting of Hispanic voters&spos; rejection. As the numbers swell, Catholic groups are encouraging Hispanics to assert their political rights, as well as to deepen their Catholic identities. In California, the Hispanic vote was galvanized by assaults on affirmative action and immigrants&spos; rights.

“Someday, we will consider being a registered voter as important as being a baptized Catholic,” said Louis Velasquez, acting director for Hispanic ministry at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Since the 1994 vote on Proposition 187, which would have denied a range of social services to illegal immigrants, “citizenship, registering to vote and voting have become very important,” he said.

There are approximately 90,000 baptisms a year in Los Angeles, and more than 3 million Catholic Hispanics live in the See of 4.5 million. Of a total of 200 U.S. dioceses, 140 have offices of Hispanic ministries, according to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB). The growth of parishes with Hispanic ministries has increased 300 percent to 400 percent during the last ten years, said Alejandro Aguilera-Titus, associate director for the NCCB's Secretariat for Hispanic affairs.

Approximately 80-85 percent of Hispanics would identify themselves as Catholics, according to Aguilera-Titus. Ten to 15 percent of these Catholics attend weekly Mass, he said, but a substantially higher number make other regular use of a parish's services or keep traditional Catholic practices at home, usually through family prayers, altars, or images of the Virgin Mary.

In the United States, Catholic identity and life revolve around the parish, said Aguilera-Titus, a Mexico City native. But in Latin America, he said, faith life centers on the family, in part because many parishes have irregular Mass schedules, while people in rural areas often must travel long distances to go to church.

By the year 2050, according to Aguilera-Titus, Hispanics will comprise at least 20 percent of the U.S. population, making them the largest minority group in the country. Hispanics will make up a majority of the Catholic Church in America even earlier. However, there are persistent signs that native-born Americans—or Anglos, as they're called—haven't effectively welcomed Hispanics into the Church.

An editor of a Hispanic Catholic newspaper argues that Hispanics shouldn't be singled out for joining evangelical Protestant sects. “It's not just Hispanics but Anglos as well,” said Araceli Cantero, executive editor of La Voz Catolica, published by the Archdiocese of Miami. She concedes, however, that many immigrants think that “becoming a Protestant is part of getting assimilated into American culture.”

To work with Hispanics—and other Catholics—more effectively, Cantero repeats Pope John Paul II's call for parishes to break into smaller communities to evangelize. And “there shouldn't be so much concern with parish registration and envelopes as [with] developing pastoral programs to help people,” said Cantero, whose publication has a circulation of 44,000.

An Irish-American priest who ministers full-time to Hispanics concurs that most Hispanics are here “to mind their own business.” Father William Ryan, an associate pastor at St. Martin's Church in Gaithersburg, Md., works in the largest parish in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. “One of the challenges is to help them to adapt to the culture in which they're living, while still retaining the best of their culture and the spirituality,” of their homeland, he said. “The drama of passing the culture onto their kids,” remains an important part of each parent's work, the priest added.

Father Ryan, whose parish includes more than 1,200 Hispanics and 500 children in Spanish-language religious education programs, heads a Hispanic Pre-Cana program in the archdiocese as well as a Spanish Catholic center. In 1990, he helped found a pregnancy center for Hispanic women to combat advertisements from abortion clinics on Spanish radio stations. Centro Tepeyac has served close to 400 women with crisis pregnancies so far this year, according to Marina Zelaya, executive director of the center. Many Hispanics are naturally pro-life because they come from family-oriented cultures, “but something seems to hit them when they cross the (U.S.) border. They get brainwashed into thinking that abortion isn't wrong,” or that it doesn't have serious consequences, said Zelaya, a native of El Salvador.

All but three of the 31 women who went through the pregnancy counseling program this year carried their babies to term. Zelaya said that 60 percent of her clientele are unmarried women, between 12- and 21-years-old. The pregnancy center also sponsors support groups dealing with issues like healthcare, immigration and legal assistance.

With Hispanics growing in number, people like Zelaya and Father Ryan need help from native-born Americans, and the bishops are responding to the call. While Father Ryan learned Spanish during a one-year stay in the Dominican Republic, many American-born priests today are learning Spanish in the seminary, according to the NCCB's Aguilera-Titus. Many seminaries have required Spanish classes, and two seminaries— including one in Miami—offer a complete course of studies in Hispanic ministry.

William Murray is based in Rockville, Md.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: William Murray ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Leading Pro-Life Congressman Receives a Rude Awakening DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

HISPANIC VOTERS in California's Orange County recently gave Congressman Robert Dornan (R-Calif.) notice of their increased political clout.

The nine-term legislator—a leading pro-life advocate in Congress— was unseated by Loretta Sanchez, a Hispanic who ran as a Democrat. Dornan, a former Air Force pilot and outspoken critic of President Bill Clinton's morals, strongly appealed to white conservatives and Vietnamese in a district where Hispanics are nearly half the population.

Aleading advocate of defense spending, Dornan lost the election by a few hundred votes. One of the election's ironies is that the congressman helped to ensure that abortions aren't performed in military hospitals overseas and promoted pro-life legislation, but the largely Catholic Hispanic electorate appear to have been responsible for voting the staunch Catholic out of office.

While many Catholics care deeply about pro-life issues—and the bishops and Pope have identified it as the most important moral issue today— many Hispanics appear to put other issues ahead of abortion. Over 70 percent of Hispanics voted to reelect President Clinton on Nov. 5 out of concern for the GOP's threats to cut immigration, eradicate affirmative action and reduce welfare benefits for immigrants, according to exit polls.

By the year 2050, Hispanics will comprise at least 20 percent of the U.S. population, making them the largest minority group in the country.

— Bill Murray

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bill Murray ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In Promise Reapers, Women Follow Men's Lead DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

IN THE PAST five years, the Promise Keepers men's movement has packed football stadiums across the country. Men gather by the tens of thousands, not to cheer for their favorite sports team, but to commit themselves to their faith and service to their families.

The nation is taking notice. Stories in the Saturday Evening Post, U.S. News and World Report and The Economist have reported on the phenomenon of droves of men gathering to sing, pray, counsel one another, and to hear what Newsweek calls the “gospel of guyhood.”

Now it appears to be women's turn. Just as the Promise Keepers pray for strength to be good husbands and fathers, a number of like-minded women's groups—like Promise Reapers and Heritage Keepers—are attracting members.

Inspired by Promise Keeper's movement, the new groups seek to evangelize women in their own right. Organizers argue that, as men come together to reestablish their values and strengthen their relationships with family, Church, and community, it is essential that the same happen for women.

“Women are the other half of the Body of Christ,” says Promise Reapers co-founder Connie Schaedel. “We cannot do one side of the Body without doing the other. We encourage women to pray, to be focused on Scripture and to put the Word into action in their daily lives.”

The idea for a women's ministry stems from Schaedel's own experience with Promise Keepers. At a 1994 rally in Anaheim, Calif., Schaedel was invited to talk about her late husband's spiritual awakening. It was there she recalls, that “God put a burden” in her heart for women, by showing her “what he was doing in the lives of men.” Ayear later, Schaedel, who, living in Georgetown, Texas, and Mary Ann Bridgwater of Houston founded Promise Reapers.

The group copied the Promise Keepers staple of depending on “key men” in a local church to supervise activities. A “key woman,” after receiving approval from her pastor, discerns— through prayer—“what God wants her to do in that particular church,” Schaedel explains. “We don't have a cookie-cutter kind of way to do things.”

On one level, Schaedel sees Promise Reapers as a support group for women trying to adjust to Promise Keepers men's newfound desire to take on more duties at home. There is a danger in simply standing by as men deepen their faith, she says.

“If we don't come alongside, if there isn't a transformation of hearts for women, and if we aren't strengthened as the other half of the Body of Christ,” warns Schaedel, “Satan will have a hay day. Our families will continue to be a mess and the Church will still not be healed or strengthened.”

Schaedel says Promise Reapers is open to any woman interested in spiritual development—regardless of faith, ethnic group, cultural group, or place in life.

There are no participant figures for the women's groups yet, though they are much more modest than the numbers drawn to the men's gatherings. Some 720,000 men—70,000 of them Catholics—attended rallies last year.

Pastor Bob Beckler of the Central Community Church in Wichita, Kan., and his wife, Lori, see their ministry revolving around mentoring in order to pass on “how to be godly women.”

Lori Beckler emphasizes that Heritage Keepers is not so much a “women's movement,” as a “movement of God in the hearts of women.”

“It doesn't matter what your situation is—working, at home, single, married,” she says, “We're just trying to assist women in their walk with the Lord. We're not trying to categorize them in how to do it.”

“We are affirming Promise Keepers and what it has been as a ministry for men,” Beckler says. “But there are so many women out there wanting to be spiritually fed, hungry for spiritual nourishment, too. We're trying to relay to women just how important it is to pass on what God's promise is to the next generation.”

At the most personal level, these women's groups—much like Promise Keepers—strive to change lives. And at the national level, they are hoping to transform society by strengthening men's and women's commitment to family.

“People are really beat up in our society today. We're just drained with worldly demands, and—not intentionally—faith and religion end up taking a back seat. As men step up to the plate to take some of their responsibility, women also want to be nourished. That's why we are here,” says Beckler.

Women's groups in the Catholic Church are not a new phenomenon. The Catholic Daughters of America, the National Council of Catholic Women and their regional spin-offs, such as altar societies or ladies&spos; guilds, have long sought to promote fellowship and social services.

In fact, women have historically influenced the Church in greater numbers than men, supplying approximately 80 percent of the non-ordained service positions in the Catholic Church. But today's growing women's “movements” are shifting the focus from raising funds to raising spirits.

Magnificat, a ministry to Catholic women that originated in New Orleans 15 years ago, is perhaps closest in intent to the most recent wave of ecumenical women-to-women groups. “Magnificat's purpose is to help Catholic women open more and more to the Holy Spirit through a deeper commitment of their lives to Jesus as Lord and to impart the Holy Spirit to one another by their love, service, and sharing the good news of salvation,” explains Mary Ann Silva, coordinator for the Central San Diego, Calif. chapter of Magnificat.

Much like the Evangelical women's groups, Magnificat— and its 40 international chapters—responds to a perceived need among women to experience faith-sharing with other women, as well as to renew their personal faith. “We help women come together in fellowship to see their own dignity, to foster holiness, and to support each other in our Christian walk,” Silva explains. “From the onset, Magnificat wanted to make something accessible to Catholic women in all walks of life and in all levels of spiritual maturity.”

In its desire to encourage Catholic women to daily personal prayer and to “foster a desire to grow in holiness,” Magnificat's explanatory language resembles that of Heritage Keepers or Promise Reapers. Yet Magnificat is distinct in its Catholic identity. Although officially a private association of the Christian faithful, each local chapter operates with permission of its bishop. In its preamble, Magnificat defines its ministry as “dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, an image of the Church, and model for all Christians, especially women.”

Magnificat's name is the verb in the Latin phrase Magnificat anima mea Dominum [“My soul magnifies the Lord” (Lk 1,

46)], which was the response of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth's joyful greeting. The example of Mary and Elizabeth is, in fact, the inspiration for this woman-to-woman ministry.

Magnificat was begun by a group of women involved in Bible studies and prayer groups not specifically Catholic, says Silva. “The idea is to offer something that is really Catholic, that will support the Catholic women to revisit the sacraments, to come together in prayer and support their own faith.”

Unlike the rallies of Promise Keepers, Magnificat's main activity is a two- to three-hour meal gathering four times a year. The meeting offers an opportunity for fellowship, communal praise and worship, a personal testimony given most often by another woman, and a time for intercessory prayer. “It's just their place to be who they are, totally, supported by other women,” Silva notes. “It provides an opportunity for non-threatening intimacy, much like a family holiday when everyone comes together for a meal and afterwards talks and shares their own walks of faith.”

Still, Magnificat shares much with ecumenical groups. Like Heritage Keepers and Promise Reapers, Magnificat hopes to “foster holiness” in women through prayer, fellowship, reading the Scriptures, teaching, witnessing, and serving one another. And if the numbers are any indication of whether women feel a “need” to participate in a woman to woman faith ministry, then the answer is affirmative.

The San Diego chapter of Magnificat, which began five years ago with 65 women, now attracts 350-400 women for every prayer breakfast. In addition, a second chapter has formed in San Diego that averages 250 at each event.

One-year-old Promise Reaper's already has contacts in more than 15 states and Heritage Keepers held its first “rally” this summer in Wichita, where more than 2,100 women gathered to hear speakers and worship in a style very similar to Promise Keepers. The group is planning five conferences in 1997 in different locations throughout the United States.

For more information, write: Magnificat: Marilyn Quirk, 1201 Beverly Garden Dr., Metairie, LA 70002

Promise Reapers: P. O. Box 924887, Houston, TX 77292 Heritage Keepers: Lori and Bob Beckler, 2020 No. Oliver St., Wichita, KA

MarÌa Ruiz Scaperlanda is based in Norman, Okla.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: MarÌa Ruiz Scaperlanda ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pontifical Science Academy Banks on Stellar Cast DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE MEDIA FRENZY that greeted Pope John Paul II's recent statement acknowledging that evolutionary “theories” help account for the biological origins of life has drawn attention to the group of experts that advise him on scientific matters—the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

What's more, the Pope appointed four U.S. scientists, including three Nobel prize winners, to the 60-year-old academy during its biannual plenary session last October.

The academy's new members include Paul Berg, a biochemist involved in DNA research; Joshua Lederberg, a professor of molecular genetics; Joseph Murray, a pioneer in organ transplants; and Vera Rubin, an expert on the movement of galaxies.

These distinguished experts— most of whom have had long track records advising Church bodies on science—join the 70-member academy, commonly viewed as the most influential of Rome's 10 pontifical academies, which directly advise the Pontiff on matters ranging from the arts to archaeology.

Housed in the Vatican gardens and linked to the Vatican Observatory project in Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer residence, the academy traces its origins to the Academia Linceorum (from its emblem, a lynx), founded in 1603 to keep the Pope up to date on the latest scientific research. The modern academy, dating from 1936, chooses its members from among the world's most accomplished mathematicians and experimental scientists. Its purpose: To honor pure science, promote its freedom everywhere and to foster research.

If the four new U.S. members of the academy are any indication, diversity appears to be the academy's hallmark. Of the four, only one is Catholic. But what they do have in common is that all work in scientific fields that are on the “cutting edge” of today's interface between faith and science: DNA research, artificial intelligence, organ and cell transplants, life on other planets, the evolution of the universe.

Dr. Paul Berg, a 70-year-old biochemist at Stanford University, won the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1980 for his fundamental studies of nucleic acids, the building blocks of life. A member of the U.S. Academy of Science and the American Society of Biological Chemistry, he was chairman of the Department at Biochemistry at Stanford Medical School in the early 1970s, and, before that, a professor of microbiology and a scholar in cancer research at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

Berg, who was unable to go to Rome due to health reasons, told the Register that he'd not had prior dealings with the academy, and does not consider himself religious. Nevertheless, he was “pleased and honored to be a member of such an old and revered society [that] addresses fundamental issues in biology and their impact on Church teaching and on human affairs.”

The biochemist traced his involvement with the issue of faith and science to presentations he'd given to Catholic bishops in the early 1990s at the invitation of San Jose Bishop Pierre DuMaine—a longtime advocate of dialogue between religious leaders and scientists. The topic then was evolution. “I was very impressed with how open-minded the bishops were,” Berg said. “I had an expectation that we would be doing battle over evolution. But I was astonished to hear a leading bishop support the &lspuo;big bang’ theory of the origin of the universe.”

Hence, Berg was not surprised at Pope John Paul II's recent statement on evolution. “The statement was enlightened,” Berg said, “and acknowledged what most scientists believe to their core”: namely, that man did not simply appear out of nowhere, but evolved from simpler life forms.

For Berg, the question is whether “totally random events”—the effects of weather, environment and genetic makeup on the development of species—or “whether there's a guiding hand behind the process, an influence that predetermines the path development will take.”

The Pope's evolution statement differentiated between materialistic accounts of evolution, which ruled out divine involvement, and “spiritual theories” of evolution which, while allowing for biological processes, point to God as their author. The papal statement does not endorse evolution as part of official Catholic teaching, but acknowledge its plausibility on the basis of scientific evidence.

“Pure evolution,” said Berg, “[operates on the basis of] random mutations, each one contributing to the ultimate selective advantages.” Berg noted that, for many evolution-ists, “it is the ambient condition—not some indefinable factor—which determines whether particular species will disappear or predominate.”

Asked about the question of “evolutionary leaps,” an issue the Pope raised in his statement, Berg said that people had raised that argument before. “How can certain developments emerge in a stepwise way if there's no guiding hand? It you look at the whole picture, there are versions of organisms that are inefficient, these fall away, and we do move finally in a kind a stepwise process,” the biochemist said.

Nevertheless, the scientist said that the Pope's vision of a growing cooperation between science and religion is significant and important. “Scientists are positive about it,” Berg said. “Obviously, the Church could have gone another way.”

Dr. Vera Rubin, 68, another new appointee to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, probes that “enormity” professionally. A staff member of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institute of Washington in Washington, D.C., she has devoted her career to the study of the motion of stars and galaxies, focusing more recently on movement within galaxies that can offer clues to their history and evolution. “How stars move tell us that most matter in the universe is dark,” Dr. Rubin said in describing her work to the Register. “When we see stars in the sky, we're only seeing five or 10 percent of the matter that there is in the universe.”

Rubin, who is Jewish, got her Ph.D. from Georgetown, a Jesuit-run university in Washington, D.C., and has had a long association with Father George Coyne, head of the Vatican Observatory. In 1986 Rubin taught at the Vatican Observatory's first summer school for graduate students at Castel Gandolfo.

Of the three U.S. appointees interviewed by the Register, she was the only one able to attend the October symposium and be personally inducted into the academy. Dr. Joshua Lederberg, professor emeritus of molecular genetics and informatics at Rockefeller University and a Nobel Prize winner, who was also appointed to the academy, was unavailable for comment at press time.

&lspuo;DIRECT LINKS WITH POPE’

“I feel enormously honored to be appointed,” she said, adding that she especially appreciated the academy's “direct links with the Pope.” The academy's president and four councilors report directly to the Pontiff rather than through a Vatican dicastery. With John Paul still recovering from his recent surgery, the nine new members of the academy were welcomed by a Vatican official on the first morning of the symposium, Rubin said, and given the customary medal and the pontifical academy's chain of office.

Rubin's years of working with Vatican astronomers leads her to de-emphasize the split between science and religion. “I'm not a theologian,” she said, “and I must say honestly that Vatican astronomers&spos; views [on astronomy] are entirely in accord with ours. I'm not aware of any Church positions that contradict modern science.”

“In my own life,” said Rubin, “my science and my religion are separate. I'm Jewish, and so religion to me is a kind of moral code and a kind of history. I try to do my science in a moral way, and, I believe that, ideally, science should be looked upon as something that helps us understand our role in the universe.”

Dr. Joseph Murray, 77, the only Catholic among the four recent appointees to the Academy, a Nobel prize-winning pioneer in organ and cell transplants, sees faith and science more closely intertwined. “Is the Church inimical to science? Growing up as a Catholic and a scientist—I don't see it,” Murray told the Register. “One truth is revealed truth, the other is scientific truth. If you really believe that creation is good, there can be no harm in studying science. The more we learn about creation—the way it emerged—it just adds to the glory of God. Personally. I've never seen a conflict.”

Murray, who is professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, was, like Berg, unable to attend the Rome gathering because of health problems. Long associated with the Vatican Ministry of Health, the surgeon had had few dealings with the Pontifical Academy of Sciences before his recent nomination.

Like most scientists, he welcomed the Pope's statement on evolution. “I know many of my non-Catholic friends welcomed it, some of the agnostic scientists, or atheists, repelled by what they understood as a basic Christian opposition to evolution, were pleased as punch that a person like the Pope would come out in favor of it,” he said. “I think the important thing to realize is how little we know about anything,” Murray related, “how flowers unfold, how butterflies migrate. We have to avoid the arrogance of persons on either side of the [science-religion] divide who feel that they have all the answers. We have to try to use our intellect with humility.”

Murray, who performed the first successful human kidney transplant in 1954 on identical twins, has long been sensitive to the ethical questions that continue to gather around use of organ and cell transplants in the treatment of human disease. “As far as the ethical dangers in organ donations—that was with us from the very beginning in early 50s,” Murray said. “One of the Nobel laureates wrote then that [transplants] might lead to a pernicious market in human organs. Well, it's happened, particularly in those from foreign countries.”

Middlemen can offer $10,000 for kidneys from live donors in poor third world villages, he said. “The buying and selling of organs is intrinsically evil. But my thesis has always been that religion won't stop [the traffic in organs], and the law won't. Only the medical profession itself is in a position to prevent it in the long run, particularly by careful monitoring of the sources [of organs for transplants].”

Murray believes that religious leaders and the medical profession can cooperate effectively in developing ethical solutions for complex medical and moral problems. “Take the 1960s debate on the medical definition of death in terms of brain function,” he said. “We had input from the Catholic Church, from the National Council of Churches, from rabbis on that one. We wanted to be sure that we in the medical world were thinking clearly about it.”

“There are a lot of moral problems that my Jesuit training has helped me with,” Murray added. “In my own conscience, I've never had a conflict between my religious upbringing and my science.

What Murray thinks is essential to the effectiveness of the dialogue between religion and science is humility. “There's no question that a lot of scientists are arrogant,” he said. “But sometimes theologians should keep their mouths shut, too. Bishops are sometimes too quick to give definitive pronouncements on scientific affairs.” Murray cited artificial insemination and the handling of frozen embryos as examples. “I'm a little disappointed that some Church leaders will come down hard on artificial insemination as if we scientists are playing God. We aren't. We're just working with the tools God gave us,” he said.

Said Murray, there's no reason that science and religion have to operate in an adversarial relationship. “Both come from same source, the only source of truth—the Creator.”

Gabriel Meyer is based in Los Angeles.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Nobel-Winning BishopWalks Political, Pastoral Tightrope DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

WHEN BISHOP Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, the apostolic administrator of East Timor, became the first Catholic prelate to win the Nobel Peace Prize this fall, he used the occasion to focus international attention on his troubled flock.

East Timor, a colony of Portugal until 1975, was invaded and annexed by neighboring Indonesia a year later. The fighting and famine that followed the invasion left up to 200,000 dead, according to human rights groups. The population of the island is only 720,000—but 90 percent is Catholic.

The Nobel Prize, awarded jointly to Bishop Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta, an East Timorese activist with ties to the island's guerrilla movement, lends new legitimacy to the resistance to Indonesian rule. The government has dismissed the movement as minute and unrepresentative of the East Timorese. However, at present Australia is the only country in the world to formally recognize the annexation.

The Nobel Peace Prize is “a recognition [of] the people of East Timor, the suffering they have undergone and the sacrifices they have made for peace. I just do my part as a man of the Church to work for peace,” Bishop Belo told the Register last month. “For the Church in East Timor, the award is both a recognition and an encouragement to work for more peace and reconciliation.”

Bishop Belo, 48, a Salesian, said he learned of his award during a thanksgiving Mass for members of his order completing 50 years of missionary work in East Timor. When the vicar general asked Bishop Belo whether to break the news in church, he declined. The prelate has emphatically discouraged any celebrations. “We should be fasting for peace rather than feasting,” he said.

Following the massacre of more than 200 pro-independence demonstrators in Dili in 1991, Bishop Belo was instrumental in prompting the Indonesian government to investigate the killings and apprehend the army officers responsible for the carnage. Bishop Belo said Indonesia's East Timor policy has resulted in “hundreds of villages burnt and houses looted. There were killings of civilians, arbitrary detentions, tortures, violations of the human body and the consequent trauma among the family members and the next generation. … But the greater sacrifice being made by the people are the steps they take toward reconciliation and peace in the name of Christ.”

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in July 1976 and soon claimed it as its 27th province. In the years since, East Timor's Muslim population has undergone rapid growth. More than 75,000 Indonesians have migrated there since the annexation. “The government does not have a formal or explicit policy of encouraging only Muslim settlers in East Timor. However there are indications and signs of Islamization here,” said Bishop Belo. Public schools have Muslim teachers and head masters and some groups offer material enticements for converts to Islam, he added.

On his first visit to East Timor in seven years, shortly after the Nobel announcement, Indonesia's President Raden Suharto and Bishop Belo rode side by side in a helicopter on their way to attend the Oct. 18 inauguration in Dili of a 90-foot-tall statue of Christ the King. But the president made no mention of the award to Bishop Belo.

But the Indonesian bishops&spos; conference welcomed the award as an honor “for the sake of justice and peace.” Bishop Martinus Situmorang, secretary general of Indonesian bishops&spos; conference, told the Register that “as a religious man, [Bishop Belo] has been committed in his efforts to human rights, human dignity and to promote peace and dialogue. He acted for the good of the people and not with vested interests.”

However, Bishop Situmorang, a Capuchin, said the Nobel prize “means little to the Indonesian Church,” saying that its significance is lost on the majority of the population. It will not have much impact on Christian-Muslim relations in a country where more than 160 million of its 191 million people are Muslims, he added.

While acknowledging that the Indonesian government is very “political” on the East Timor question, Bishop Situmorang said the Indonesian Church is “sympathetic and supportive of the aspirations of the Catholics in East Timor in their longing and endeavor to live a peaceful life and enjoy their basic human rights.” The mainland Church regularly aids the East Timor Catholic community, taking in students for the priesthood in the major seminaries, for example.

However, the Indonesian hierarchy concurs with most Indonesians in its reaction to Jose Ramos-Horta being named co-recipient of the peace prize. Critics accuse 51-year-old RamosHorta, head of FRETILIN—a Portuguese acronym for Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor— of approving murders and torture prior to the invasion by Indonesia. An Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman called Ramos-Horta a “political opportunist” and questioned the Nobel Prize Committee's selection criteria, even as he avoided comment on Bishop Belo. “We do not know how a political person like Ramos-Horta can be placed [on a par] with … Bishop Belo. It is surprising that a religious leader and political activist are given the same honor for the same cause,” said Bishop Situmorang.

Bishop Belo has also come under some scrutiny, albeit from other quarters. In some Church circles, he is considered to have “leftist” leanings or is seen at least as over-politicized. In 1988, the bishop was rebuked by the then-nuncio in Jakarta for writing in a pastoral letter: “We are dying as a people and a nation.” Vatican officials are said to support the bishop on the pastoral and doctrinal level, but they keep their distance in the political realm. One of their biggest concerns is Christian-Muslim relations in Indonesia proper. But the Indonesian bishops&spos; conference stands by the prelate. “[Bishop] Belo isn't leftist, nor even too political,” Bishop Situmorang said. “That political connotations are emerging is quite natural and normal. We have to see the whole picture. …”

Bishop Belo said he pushes no political agenda. “I try to practice the social doctrines of the Church,” he said. “As for the opinion that bishops should confine themselves to spiritual matters, that is lacking something. The flock entrusted to us are not just spirits. We work for the human being as a whole, not just spiritually … other aspects have to be given attention. For those in the West, this might be difficult to understand. Here conditions are different. When the people are suffering, is it possible to keep quiet? If you speak of human rights in India, are you a leftist?”

Regarding accusations that RamosHorta supports violent means in the East Timor struggle, Bishop Belo said: “I have not really known him for a long time.” The two have met on a few occasions, most recently at a U.N.-sponsored seminar on East Timor in Austria last year. Bishop Belo pointed out that others “who have been accused of violence in the past like Nelson Mandela and [Yassar] Arafat” have also received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Salesian Father Julian Fox said that the Nobel committee has tried to be “cleverly even-handed.” “To have just given the award to [Bishop] Belo might not have brought the international attention. Ramos-Horta is the free agent and represents the Timorese cause at large. The award is of course to real people, but in this case it also recognizes a cause … and past experience (South Africa, for example) shows that a just cause gains some impetus from such an award.” The Nobel Prize committee said as much in announcing the $1.2 million award in Oslo last month: “By awarding this prize,” it said, “we hope to contribute to a diplomatic solution to the conflict.”

Close to 2,000 members of the youth wing of Indonesia's ruling Golkar party marched in Jakarta Nov. 12 demanding that Bishop Belo be exiled from the country, following publication of an interview in a German magazine in which he reportedly said that Indonesian troops had trampled on East Timor's independence “and treated us like dogs.” Students at the University of East Timor launched a counter-protest march in support of Bishop Belo and to mark the infamous 1991 Dili massacre by Indonesian troops.

Bishop Belo said he plans to use his share of the prize money ($600,000) to strengthen the recently-launched Justice and Peace Commission of Dili, to build a major seminary for the region, and to fund scholarships. Bishop Belo said the task ahead is “to continue promoting justice, peace and reconciliation,” adding that only continued dialogue among the East Timorese, Indonesia and Portugal—under U.N. direction—can bring about a lasting peaceful solution.

Anto Akkara is based in New Delhi, India.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anto Akkara ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Despite Election Loss, Pro-life Position Helped Dole Effort DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

WASHINGTON—Prolife actitivists can take heart that although the abortion issue faded from the foreground in the final months of the presidential campaign, prolife concerns had a significant impact on voting partterns. Post-election polling and exit-polling indicate that Bob Dole's pro-life position helped his bid for the presidency even though he lost the election.

A Wirthlin Worldwide post-election poll conducted nationwide the night of Nov. 5 reflected the positions of 1,030 respondents. The poll asked them to identify the one or two issues which mattered most to them in selecting a candidate. Twelve percent identified abortion as one of those. Of that group, 45 percent voted for Bob Dole, while only 35 percent voted for Bill Clinton.

Among women who identified abortion as one of the two most important voting issues (13 percent of all women), 50 percent voted for Dole while 39 percent voted for Clinton.

According to a Los Angeles Times exit poll of approximately 7,300 voters, voters who chose abortion as one of their top issues (9 percent), 60 percent voted for Bob Dole while only 34 percent voted for Bill Clinton. Also, 11 percent of women cited abortion as a voting issue in the Los Angeles Times poll. Of those, 54 percent voted for Bob Dole and 40 percent voted for Bill Clinton. (news wires)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Grace of Image Restoration DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

JOHN THE BAPTIST announces the theme of Advent: “Reform your lives! The reign of God is at hand” (Mt 3, 2). Gregory the Great explains that John came as a “&lspuo;herald's voice [crying] in the desert,’because he shows to deserted and forlorn Judaea the approaching consolation of her Redeemer.” God became man for our consolation.

In the details of John the Baptist's appearance and manners, Hilary of Poitiers discovers symbolic significance of a different tone. “For the preaching of John no place was more suitable, no clothing more useful, no food more filled.” Camel's hair, leather belt, locusts, and wild honey: “In this clothing and this poor food,” explains still another authority, “John shows us that he sorrows for the sins of the whole human race.” Advent signals a period for sorrow for sin, an interval to take account of our conduct. But unlike the preeminent penitential season of Lent, the Church tempers Advent penance by repeatedly reminding us of the “approaching consolation” of our Redeemer. This good news, which John is the last to foretell, shapes the graces that characterize this season: the grace of image-restoration and the grace of image-perfection.

While the message of John the Baptist is clear enough, the baptism that John administered in the River Jordan raises a theological issue. St. John Chrysostom expresses it well: “For while as yet the sacrifice had not been offered, nor remission of sin sent, nor the Spirit had descended on the water, how,” he asks, “could sin be forgiven?” In other words, since only Jesus himself effectively sends the Holy Spirit, what force does John's ritual baptizing sustain? Listen carefully to the answer John Chrysostom gives: “Since the Jews never perceived their own sins, and this was the cause of all their evils, John came to bring them to a sense of their sins by calling them to repentance.” John the Baptist, the last prophet of Israel, came to convey a true sense of sin's horror, and to urge repentance: “Reform your lives! The reign of God is at hand.” There is no grace of image-restoration without the grace to recognize ourselves as sinners.

Commemorating the Advent season enjoy, we an advantage over those who, as we read in the Gospel account, came out to the Jordan River to meet John the Baptist. Christ's sacrifice now has been offered, the remission of sins actually exists in the Church, and the Holy Spirit confers on the sacraments their full authority. “God the Father of mercies through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself, and sent the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins.” Thus the formula of sacramental absolution.

Does the new covenant in Christ's blood mean that the message of John the Baptist no longer serves for our instruction? By no means! The Church still needs to hear his message, for the members of the Church too easily abide the same spiritual blindness that afflicted the Chosen People.

During Advent, the Church earnestly encourages us to celebrate the sacrament of Penance, which entails a true and honest perception of our sins. “In a certain sense, confession,” Pope John Paul II reminds us, “forces sin out of the secret of the heart and thus out of the area of pure individuality.” And this means that we must entrust ourselves with honesty and courage to the divine mercy that forgives. Only in this way, can we experience in our very persons the fulfillment of that mysterious truth of which St. Paul speaks when he affirms that whereas Christ became the servant of the Jews because of God's faithfulness to the patriarchs, the Gentiles glorify God because of his mercy (see Rom 15, 8-9).

The confession of sins causes many people a certain anxiety, and so not a few Christians search an easier approach to divine forgiveness. For example, some suggest direct appeal to an omnipotent God who can read the human heart without a person having to examine scrupulously his or her conscience, while others favor a generic confession of shortcomings and failures, instead of an honest and complete enumeration of actual sins. But the saints instruct us that “a few acts of confidence and love are worth more than a thousand circumlocutions.” For God provides a much better option than the chance for sinners to hide behind their own pride and excuses. In his only-begotten Son, God gives us the “consolation of a Redeemer.” However frail our priests may be, the sacrament of Order confides to them this ministry of merciful reconciliation; Christ makes the priests of his Church apt instruments for separating in the lives of the faithful the grain of virtue from the chaff of vice.

Of course, God's gracious forbearance towards the sinner never provides an excuse for spiritual sloth. Advent encourages the expectation of salvation, not obstinacy in sin. For this reason, no Christian believer ever outgrows the need for frequent confession. Yet sadly, many Catholics keep the sacrament of penance too long among their good intentions. For Religious and those who themselves exercise the ministry of reconciliation such forestalling entails unique spiritual perils.

Father Cessario is a professor of moral theology at St. John's Seminary, Brighton, Mass.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Romanus Cessario, OP ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Editorial DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

Cleansing

IT WAS MERELY curious at first that Germans got so upset about Scientology and took the movement, which counts the likes of Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its adherents, to court. But, as Richard Cohen noted in The Washington Post, concern about a cult-like organization that puts a premium on raising funds from its members has gone to an extreme. Two of the country's states have now put in force provisions that bar Scientologists from entering the civil service. Scientologists took out a distasteful full-page ad in The New York Times, that, predictably, drew a parallel between the virtual outlawing of their “church” and the Nazis'treatment of the Jews. Despite the obvious hyperbole and hysteria of the message, the German people's dark past grants the allegations a veneer of credibility. Is there something “inherently spooky” about the Germans, as Cohen puts it?

Daniel Goldhagen suggested as much in his study of the role of ordinary Germans in the persecution of the Jews. While historians disagree about the ultimate merits of Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners, the author did clearly demonstrate that the killing of Jews was not perpetrated only by an upper echelon of Nazi officials, but enjoyed the active support and participation of average German men and women who apparently joined in the slaughter with relish. Goldhagen argues that a unique strain of “exterminationist anti-Semitism” is deeply embedded in the German soul and culture, and that the Holocaust, in a sense, was bound to happen there.

However, even as there are troubling signs of the reemergence of the spirit that once gave birth to Nazi terror—Holocaust revisionism; violence against immigrants, trends which, it should be noted, aren't limited to Germany—it would seem wrong to assume that there is something inherently evil in being German. Christians, of course, recognize the potential for evil in all of us. Historical circumstances, including Christian anti-Semitism, and a host of intangibles conspired to allow Hitler's emergence, but men and women in any time and place have free will. Barring extreme cases, indulgence in murderous rage or slipping into complicity of whatever nature is preceded by a moment of choice.

Pope John Paul II held up two Germans last summer who turned the other way, when he beatified two Catholic priests, Bernhard Lichtenberg and Karl Reisner, during a ceremony in Berlin's Olympic Stadium. Upon his arrest in 1941, Lichtenberg, who frequently angered Nazi officials with outspoken criticism of their anti-Jewish policies, was described by an official as “a fanatic who admits to having prayed for Jews publicly.” Lichtenberg died on his way to the Dachau concentration camp, where Father Leisner was ordained and said his one and only Mass. He too had dared to criticize Hitler publicly.

Such heroic testimony—and there are of course others who were willing to risk all in the service of truth—is a saving grace for the German people, past and present; it revitalizes the nation and puts the lie to the notion that there is something inherently evil in the German soul.

It is clear, in addition, that a process of collective acknowledgment of misdeeds and subsequent repentance have been vital for the psychological and political regeneration of the German nation, a pre-condition, one could argue, for being welcomed again in the family of nations. This should be instructive for a country desperate for international respect and acceptance, but as yet unwilling to come to terms with its own dark history—Turkey.

Turks recently marked the 58th anniversary of the death of Attaturk, the founder of modern Turkey. Not untypically, a tribute to the modernizer by scholar Bernard Lewis in The Wall Street Journal—praising the leader's advances with regard to the emancipation of women and the country's gradual move toward democratic rule—failed to mention the Armenian holocaust just before and during World War I in which at least as many as 1.5 million Armenians perished. The West, eager to pull Turkey into its economic and military sphere, turns a blind eye to that stain on its history. Even Israel, anxious not to offend now that its planes are allowed to use Turkish airspace, is publicly silent about the destruction of a people united to Jews in the spirit of suffering.

Turkey only stands to benefit by a soul-cleansing look at its past. Undoubtedly, untold heroes will come to the fore, leaders of the Armenian Orthodox community as well as Muslim clerics who dared to defy official policy. Recognition of their sacrifices and acknowledgment of the wrongs they laid their lives down to correct will make fruitful the modern Turkish experiment and put the lie to another myth of another people destined for evil.

— JK

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Romeo & Juliet in Nightmare Landscape DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

FROM A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and Blade Runner to the Arnold Schwarzenegger epics Total Recall and Terminator, the decay of contemporary culture has been dramatized by movies set in the near future in which a stable social order has degenerated into anarchy and violence. Civilization's basic institutions— religion, education and the state—have lost their legitimacy and authority is based on naked force.

Australian director Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom) boldly sets his William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in this kind of dy-sutopian fantasy-world, skillfully adhering to the genre's conventions with one important differ-ence—the Church has somehow survived. The action takes place in Verona Beach, a brash, exuberant, post-modern metropolis with a strong Hispanic flavor and great extremes of wealth and poverty. It looks like a cross between Miami and Los Angeles except that monumental churches and huge statues of Jesus dot the tawdry landscape. An exaggerated Latino religiosity permeates the atmosphere. Almost every home prominently displays holy pictures surrounded with candles, and even automatic weapons are decorated with pictures of the Virgin Mary.

Civic peace has been shattered as gangster-capitalists, Fulgencio Capulet (Paul Sorvino) and Ted Montague (Brian Dennehy), battle for control of the city and its markets. The Capulets&spos; hit men and enforcers are garbed in ultra-hip black designer wear. Their Montague equivalents flaunt colorful, surfer-type sports clothes, with their names tattooed on the back of their bald skulls. Luhrmann and co-screenwriter Craig Pearce use Shakespeare's original language throughout, with occasional trims to suit the fast-paced style of their cutting-edge adaptation.

Romeo Montague (Leonardo Di Caprio), son of war-lord Ted, is a handsome, brooding would-be poet who still hangs out with his gangbanger kinsmen. His friend, Mercutio (Harold Perrineau) likes to dress up in drag. At considerable risk, the two crash the Fellini-esque costume ball of their deadly rivals, the Capulets. Once inside, Romeo, garbed as a knight in shining armor, meets Juliet Capulet (Claire Danes), Fulgencio's daughter. Costumed in white angel's wings, the young woman's manner is simple and direct. The two teenagers first catch sight of each other on opposite sides of a huge fish tank. Despite the gaudy excess of their surroundings, they respond to each other with the sweetness and innocence of young love. Their hearts are soon intertwined.

Like adolescents everywhere, Romeo and Juliet resent the fact that the world they've inherited from their parents controls their lives, and they quickly scheme to run off and get married. But the obstacles to their happiness seem infinite. Juliet's family has already picked out Time magazine's bachelor of the year, Dave Paris, to be her husband. And the violence between the Capulets and the Montagues seems to have a rhythm all its own. Against his will, Romeo is shamed into a duel with Juliet's malevolent kinsman, Tybalt (John Leguizamo) and kills him. The two lovers cannot remain together.

The person they count on to help them is Father Laurence (Peter Postlewaite), a monk with a large cross tattooed on his back. This trust, in itself, is remarkable. In the real world of today, it's unlikely that two cool teenagers would turn to a celibate cleric for this kind of support. But the filmmaker has made the movie's mannerist brand of Catholicism so much a part of the air his characters breathe, that, in context, it seems believable. Father Laurence is also the only person in Verona Beach who's calm, well-spoken and wise. The lovers&spos; respect for him seems fully justified.

But fate conspires against their carefully developed plans, and the action moves inexorably to its tragic climax. Luhrmann departs from the usual staging of the denouement by having Juliet revive just before Romeo expires. The movie packs an emotional wallop, and teenagers have turned it into a box-office hit. Traditionalists may be dismayed that the story is propelled more by the filmmaker's dazzling visual fireworks than by the verbal poetry of the original. But Luhrmann's approach makes the play accessible to a generation brought up on rock videos and television.

More importantly, the story has been presented with the emotional complexities of the original text still intact. Clearly the young lovers'passion is driven by hormones, rebellion and psychological projection as much as by knowledge of the other person. Yet we root for them because of their sincerity and intensity. The purity of their feelings contrasts favorably with the cynical manipulations of the adults around them.

As they have for centuries, audiences identify with the theme of young lovers taking on the world. And by transplanting the action from Renaissance Italy to a near future where nothing seems to work except violence, the filmmaker has set the play in an environment that resonates with today's teenagers. To them, the principles on which our social order is based seem increasingly fragile.

But the movie holds up one institution that still flourishes despite the surrounding decay—the Church. And although this hasn't created a virtuous society, there's still a clearer sense of right and wrong in Verona Beach than in much of contemporary America. For all its postmodern images, the film does-n't adhere to the kind of moral relativism that seems to have become the norm in our culture. Young people have found this appealing.

John Prizer is based in Los Angeles.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: St. John Damascene: Holy Pictures to the Rescue! DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

ON DEC. 5, the Church celebrates the optional memorial of the great defender of icons, St. John Damascene, who encourages us to keep images at home, in the car and on our person. He once wrote: “[God] deigned to dwell in matter and bring about our salvation through matter.” St. John was the first theologian to systematically distinguish between worship of God and veneration of things associated with him, such as the icon. “I honor material things, not as though they were God, but in as much as they are replete with energy and grace. … Do not despise matter. …

Through matter, my salvation is accomplished.”

Because of Original Sin, humans tend to neglect God and spiritual things. And since we are generally attracted to the delights of the senses, pleasing images, statues, pictures and medals help us stay on course. The more I visit the sick and infirm as well as other homes of American faithful, the more uneasy I become by the absence of the crucifix, images of Mary and other signs of Catholic faith. Only a generation ago these were found everywhere. Worse still, few people today carry rosaries or bother to have their homes blessed.

We need these supplements to devotion. They give us greater fervor and a willingness to bring our faith into daily life's many challenges. Some of the “kitsch” art of the past does not excite contemporary taste, but we need images to remind us of who and what we really are.

Poetry and music help inculturate the faith in all cultures, but the visual arts hold pride of place. Again, as St. John Damascene put it: “The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God.” Certainly in the West bishops should be more concerned with good pictorial and popular sacred art as well as music and poetry. Economic pastorals don't really touch the “heart” of the masses.

Father Cole is a friar of the Western Dominican Province.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Cole ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

Absolute Power

Edward Halpin's letter in the Nov. 3-9 Register contains an error regarding one of history's famous quotations. In his letter on Father Coughlin, Mr. Halpin quotes “Aeron” as the author of the words “power corrupts.” It may reflect my own ignorance but I find no reference to Mr. Aeron. I wondered whether or not that was a typo and that Mr. Halpin was really referring to Lord John Acton, a liberal Catholic in England who was opposed to papal infallibility and expressed it thus: “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

John Vitello

Covina, California

Editor's note: Indeed, it was a typo.

Nonprofit Tax Amendment

The proposed nonprofit tax amendment on the recent Colorado ballot (“Colorado's Nonprofit Tax Plan Would Drain Church,” Nov. 3-9), would have forced churches, charities and non-profit organizations to pay their “fair share” of taxes as a “social duty.”

Three years ago, I wrote in The Tablet (Brooklyn, N.Y.) about the death penalty. My hypothesis at the time was that for 2000 years the Church has condoned the execution of murderers, that the Catechism of the Catholic Church also condones it, and that it takes $60-70,000, depending on the state, to subsidize and support one prisoner for one year in prison for life. Who was going to pay for this?

The answer to that question was silence and mass indifference to the plight of the taxpayer, with the attitude that as long as the bishops were held exempt, the other guy could be burdened with the payments.

We heard again and again the socio-moral pronouncements of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on such issues as allowing and subsidizing illegal immigration etc., and suggesting more socioeconomic giveaways at taxpayers'expense.

Now the bishops, and Protestant clergy of like persuasion, have opened the door to where they will be forced to put their money where their mouth is.

However, this nonprofit tax amendment is a twoway street! Taxation without representation is tyranny, we are told! If churches are not exempt from taxation then they should have the civil right to speak out from the pulpits, without the deterrent of separation of Church and state.

This amendment would also make both Catholics and Protestant bishops more cautious in their pronouncements that would involve taxation.

Joseph Dalton

Downsville, N.Y.

Editor's note: The Colorado tax measure was defeated.

Young Adults Want Substance

In October of last year, I joined the Young Adult Fellowship of Holy Family parish in Glendale, Calif. I met the woman who would become my wife in that group, and last April, I was asked to direct the group (along with one other member). When I assumed the leadership position, our numbers were declining, and the average weekly attendance was about six or seven people. Since then, membership has increased dramatically. We now have about 12 or 13 people who come on a regular basis, others who come semi-regularly, and one or two new people each week. As I write—no joke—the phone just rang from another interested person. Whether you'd call it the action of the Holy Spirit, or the result of our recent aggressive, “high profile” activities in the parish (or both), no one can deny that ours is a very successful—though still modest—young adult fellowship. So I feel justified to offer some comment on the article in your Nov. 16 issue, “At Long Last, Young Adults get Serious Attention.”

Father Charles Hagan seems to hold the view that young adults are “turned off” by solid doctrine, and the answer is to “soft-pedal” the rules and to “hit these people with a series of things they need to get married—birth certificates, workshops. …” With all due respect, I think Father Hagan is wrong. You do not serve young Catholics seeking guidance in their faith by jettisoning the “why” and focusing exclusively on the “how,” especially with regards to sexuality and the sacrament of matrimony. Should a pastor say to every starry-eyed couple who comes through the rectory door, “Yes, come in, here's how you get married…”? Any good pastor will answer that question with “No.” The Bride of Christ should not be made into a “marriage factory” for all who apply, including those couples who have no intention of taking their faith seriously, or they will be seeking annulments or divorces later. It's much better to turn some people off than to deny all of them the true doctrine and solid Church teaching they will need to really follow Christ, persevere in marriage, and uphold their Catholic faith in a culture that subverts it in so many ways.

I will not deny that some people are turned off by sound doctrine; Jesus, too, lost some people with some strong statements. But what the critics usually bypass is the fact that there is a lot of traffic in both directions. Solid doctrine, well presented, attracts most people, especially among young adults; “nice Catholicism” may draw some in the door, but they won't retain their respect for leaders who are anxious to avoid offending anyone. It's those who fear offending young people who are losing their allegiance. (Do you know that the largest number of converts to evangelical Protestant, i.e. “Bible Christian” sects are former Catholics?) Even people I've known who live together before marriage have respect for those who lovingly tell them that what they're doing is wrong. Our Young Adult Fellowship continues to flourish, not because we try to please everyone, but because we present the Catholic faith in all its beauty and integrity.

Larry Carstens

North Hollywood, California

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Higher Education & Love of TruthóPrivate Faith vs Relationships DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

The Cardinal Newman Society for the Preservation of Catholic Higher Education sponsored a national conference Oct. 19 and 20. One of several speakers, Bishop John Dougherty, auxiliary of Scranton, Pa., delivered the following address (excerpted).

When Plato, the man who first institutionalized education in his academy, talked about the nature of education in The Republic, he told a story. The story symbolizes his understanding that all knowledge, even sense knowledge, is obtained in the light of what he called the Idea of the Good. This light was somehow possessed by everyone, and could no more be imposed from the outside than sight could be placed in the eyes of the blind. Therefore education was not a process of giving someone what he did not already have, but an art of conversion, of turning one around and leading him to recognize the source of his knowledge.

Christianity has not changed this understanding of the goal and method of education. It has the gift however, of recognizing that the idea of the Good is not an abstract idea but a Word become flesh that enlightens every man who comes into the world. The thought of The Republic that if there ever were a just man he would be scourged and crucified has been fulfilled. The heart of the Church from which the Catholic University was born is the same heart from which the Church was born, the heart of the crucified Christ. That this heart is the concrete source of truth is illustrated in St. Thomas Aquinas&spos; position that in the cross he beheld “the perfection of the whole law, and the complete art of living well.” It is also expressed in St. Ignatius&spos; requirement in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus that students who came to Jesuit universities should go to Mass every day and their teachers should see to it.

To our ears, which have become accustomed to the individualistic strains of the Enlightenment, the harmony of faith and reason sung by Thomas and Ignatius may sound strange. Yet I suggest that the so-called tension between faith and reason that is responsible for so much of the difficulty in Catholic higher education is due to false individualistic notions of both faith and reason. With regard to reason, individualism is clearly apparent in the 17th century in the philosophy of Descartes, who could doubt the existence of the rest of reality while retaining certainty about himself. This individualism continues in the 18th century in the philosophy of Kant, whose Critique of Pure Reason's refutation of idealism grounds self-consciousness in the awareness of matter and leaves the existence of other selves, including God, to a realm which he calls faith. This faith, however, unlike the faith of Aquinas and Ignatius, was uncertain. What was certain for Kant about the interpersonal realm was the categorical imperative, a rule of the individual mind on the basis of which the existence of other selves might be only hypothetically asserted. The trend toward individualism was reversed by Kant's successors in German philosophy, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, who recognized the foundational principle that self-consciousness was only possible in communion with another self-consciousness. It is unfortunate, however, that it is Kant's ivory tower academy that has captured the imagination of present day academics. Like him they are content not only to reduce religion to the limits of reason but also to reduce reason to some sort of a private language derived from the principles of the individual mind.

Is there a connection between Kant's individualistic notion of knowing and a similar notion of faith? If one follows the Hegelian principle that one's philosophy is a reflection of one's religion, the answer must be yes. Significant in the Protestant reformation that preceded Descartes and Kant was the principle that one's faith in God was primarily a private matter. The interpreter of God's revelation was the individual consciousness, not that of the community. With such a principle the objectivity of religious truth necessarily disappeared; there was no way to discern which of disagreeing minds was correct. The Pope, once regarded as the Vicar of Christ who formed and expressed the consciousness of the Christian community, was now reduced to the role of expressing one opinion among the many of other believers. His opinion was dangerous, however, because with it came the claim that one opinion was more valuable than others. Such intolerance was now anathema, for it was tolerance of diverse opinions rather than truth that now must keep the peace in the community.

The virtue of the academy of reason as well as faith, however, is not tolerance but courage. “I believed, and so I spoke” (Corinth. 4-13). The tension in Catholic higher education is not between faith and reason but between soul and body—an earlier distinction made by Plato in his work in general and especially in his cave analogy. Opinion and the tolerance that regulates the conflict of diverse opinion belongs to the realm of the body, while truth which manifests itself in sharing belongs to the realm of the soul. If you ask the average American Catholic college student why he seeks higher education; to get a good job so that he can have riches and honor for the enhancement of his bodily existence, or to come to know God better so that he may come to know himself and others in the world in loving communication, what do you think his answer will be?…

We are all familiar with the American work ethic, with the temptation to measure one's success as a person by the material fruits of one's labor. Given the theology of private faith, such temptation is inevitable, for if success does not consist in doing the truth in love in community, one must find one's fulfillment in tangible standards. In terms of symbol, the sacramental presence of Jesus in the Eucharist was no longer for many the objective tangible unity of the community. Since humans cannot live by word alone when that word is a private language, the symbol of community, the real presence, became money. The highest goal for the Church then becomes to ensure that everyone has an equal share of material wealth. Should we be surprised that once religious universities became skilled at producing experts in making money, their religious affiliation was no longer necessary?. …

Is there any doubt that Catholic universities in the United States are wealthier and more honored than ever before? Is it any surprise that such institutions truly struggle and have difficulty hearing the word of God as expressed in Ex corde Ecclesiae? This apostolic constitution, reflecting the profound truth found in Plato, embraces the Gospel and announces that the Word was made flesh and dwells among us in the wounded heart of Christ. It is not in grasping the satisfactions and necessities of material existence, therefore, that one fulfills one's being but in emptying oneself in loving communication. This truth, however, does not sell because it is free. It does not sell because we already possess it. It does not sell, because in all of its applications by the Church: sacrifice for the poor, care for the sick, sacredness of life of the unborn, permanent commitment in marriage, and chaste love, it requires great trust and sacrifice. Catholic universities will teach such a necessary principle of good only by making communion with the sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist a central emphasis of their life. …

It is interesting to note that Vatican Council II proposes the same concrete goals for Christian education as the medieval university: humanitas and civilitas from a Christian perspective. “True education,” according to the council, “is directed toward the formation of the human person in view of his final end and the good of that society to which he belongs and duties of which he will as an adult have a share” (Gravissimum Educationis, 1). Forming the human person and promoting the good of society require, of course, a prior understanding of human nature and the common good. The Catholic university, true to its mission, will seek knowledge of these matters especially through the study of the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences. While the university will accurately present the various, significant positions on humanitas and civilitas, it will do so in order to find the truth. In this perspective, then, Catholic education cannot embrace a metaphysical and ethical neutrality in the teaching of theology, philosophy and literature. Such neutrality would prevent the Catholic university from being serious about its mission to seek the truth and the liberty which accompanies it. In other words, the Catholic university shouldn't just present various alternatives in a neutral matter and tell students to make up their own minds, but should show respect for the freedom of its students by seeking to persuade with arguments based on reason and/or revelation.

Today many believe that open-mindedness requires neutrality in the classroom. In fact, true open-mindedness requires a willingness to look at the relevant material and then make a judgment. The early Church decided it was worth taking a serious look at pagan learning. The majority of Church Fathers rejected Tertullian's advice that it was too risky for Christians to relate Athens and Jerusalem. As a result of decisions taken in the early Church and the Middle Ages, Catholic universities in the 20th century became a home for a thorough, open liberal education. …

As mentioned, students themselves come to the university mainly in order to find a good job upon graduation. The acquisition of a university education is a ticket to prosperity and prestige. Given the state of American culture, who can blame young students for having an inadequate view of the university? What does seem blameworthy is the growing failure of the Catholic university to persuade students to temper or abandon their preoccupation with pleasure and wealth. This failure shows a lack of effective love for students, despite all the goodwill that is undoubtedly present.

While the importance of autonomy and freedom in the university is pressed, there seems to be little discussion of what constitutes a good liberal education. Meanwhile, the education of the students suffers. Ex corde Ecclesiae cannot really be implemented without finding a way to persuade students to be serious about obtaining a truly liberal education, that is to say, an education that will have a positive influence on the way they understand and live their lives.

A good liberal education gives students the opportunity to look at life through the eyes of very subtle observers. With the proper guidance this kind of education can lead students to have a love of truth, to believe in reasoning and yielding to the better argument, and to have a good chance of developing a vision of the good with the consequent incentive to step back from pursuing their interests to the detriment of relatives, friends, neighbors and the wider community.

By studying the greatest theologians philosophers, poets, novelists, etc., students will have access to the most significant theories on humanitas and civilitas that underlie debates on the crucial issues of the day. e.g. theories about autonomy, relativism, historical consciousness, virtue, social justice and ethics in general.

In his Confessions, St. Augustine notes how the study of philosophy (his liberal education) helped liberate him from the manichean heresy and prepared him for conversion. And, “Christ freed us for liberty,” writes St. Paul to the Galatians (Gal 5, 1).

Doing this truth, that is, emphasizing and implementing a truly liberal education in our universities and colleges I am suggesting, will, through the liberty attained, prepare for and even require the liberty for which Christ freed us. It is a work uniquely fitted to the Catholic university and college. And if well done, it will serve as a principal return route to that Word which enlightens every man, the Word which became flesh and heart from whence was born both Church and her university.

For more information about the Cardinal Newman Society, call (703) 536-9585 or write: Cardinal Newman Society, 207 Park Ave., Ste. B-2, Falls Church, VA 22046

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bishop John Dougherty ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Reality of Difference and the Mystery of Human Life DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

Archbishop Renato Martino, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, Nov. 19 addressed the General Assembly on Item 110(B): “Human Rights Questions: Religious Intolerance.”

Madam Chairperson,

Last year, during this organization's 50th anniversary session, the General Assembly reaffirmed that freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief was a human right derived from the inherent dignity of the human person and that it is guaranteed to all without discrimination. The General Assembly, while urging states to ensure that their constitutional and legal systems provided for and protected this right, also requested governments to provide effective remedies in cases where the right to freedom of religion or belief was violated, to ensure that its own agents did not discriminate against persons professing other religions or beliefs, to recognize the right of all persons to worship or assemble in connection with a religion or belief, and to establish and maintain places for those purposes.

In recent decades tremendous risks and sufferings have been experienced by peoples around the world in pursuit of their freedom. Among human rights, the right to religious freedom and to respect for one's conscience on its journey towards the truth is increasingly perceived as the foundation of the cumulative rights of the person. This heightened sense of the dignity of the human person and of his or her uniqueness, and of the respect due to the journey of conscience, certainly represents one of the positive achievements of modern culture.

Over the past 50 years the international community has demonstrated its interest in promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental liberties, especially with regard to freedom of conscience and of religion. Beginning with its ground-breaking Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations proclaimed: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” This has been reaffirmed by the Special Rapporteur in his report which is well in line with these provisions.

Fighting Religious Intolerance

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion and Belief, which occupies a place of honor among the great instruments that the United Nations has produced in the field of human rights.

More recently, the international community participated in the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. This important conference called upon governments to take appropriate measures to counter intolerance and related violence based on religion or belief, and urged states to put into practice the provisions of the declaration against religious intolerance.

Particular progress has been made in many countries following the vast political changes that have occurred during the last few years in Central and Eastern Europe. The number of countries holding official ideologically inspired policies of religious persecution or repression has notably diminished. It is to be hoped that such progress will extend soon to all parts of the world. My delegation reminds the international community that it is the special duty of governments to promote and protect the freedom of religion. In doing so, governments must not act in an arbitrary fashion or in an unfair spirit of partisanship. Additionally, my delegation wishes to stress that freedom of religion ought not to be confused with freedom from religion, which is the result of an exaggerated and distorted separation of Church and state.

One of the principal causes of intolerance is the fear of differences. The Holy Father noted this in his address to this organization during its 50th session when he said: “Unhappily, the world has yet to learn how to live with diversity, as recent events in the Balkans and Central Africa have painfully reminded us. The fact of &lspuo;difference’ and the reality of &lspuo;the other’, can sometimes be felt as a burden, or even as a threat. Amplified by historic grievances and exacerbated by the manipulations of the unscrupulous, the fear of &lspuo;difference’ can lead to a denial of the very humanity of &lspuo;the other’: with the result that people fill into a cycle of violence in which no one is spared, not even the children.”

With regard to religious intolerance, my delegation regrets to note that in too many regions, believers arc still subjected to serious discrimination, oftentimes at the hint of officials whose countries&spos; constitutions recognize the right to religious liberty and to freedom of conscience. One such glaring example is that of the recent taping of a prisoner's sacramental confession. This, undoubtedly, is an intrusion of the state into the practice of religion.

Sadly, other contemporary examples of religious intolerance are all too similar to those that are centuries old. Besides torture, expulsion and imprisonment in concentration and “re-education” camps, there exists social discrimination or permanent restriction of personal liberty, which include forcing believers to meet in hiding because their religious community is not legally authorized; religious leaden who are forbidden to publicly exercise their ministry and restrictions against religious instruction of children and adults, just to name a few.

There also exist numerous subtle forms of discrimination based upon religion. For example, while a state may permit its citizens to practice their religion of choice, such a choice may lead to being excluded from jobs, education, housing, or social assistance. Additionally, there exist instances where some governments, professing a particular religion, and whose co-believers enjoy full freedom of worship and religious education both within their boundaries and abroad, have denied similar rights to members of other religions who live in their country.

My delegation wishes to affirm that tolerance does not demand that one shares the other's religious conviction or practices. In fact, it implies that one does not What tolerance does demand is that the other's freedom of religious conviction and practices, provided that the just requirements of public order are observed, be respected and not impeded. Religious intolerance denies others the rights that one claims for oneself.

Furthermore, the answer to the problem of religious intolerance is neither indifference nor secularism: the former encourages man to live as if God did not exist; the latter has contributed to the widespread loss of the transcendent sense of human life, and confusion in the ethical sphere, even about the fundamental values of respect for life and the family.

Tolerance, on the other hand, acknowledges that the search for truth, and specifically for religious truth, is a fundamental right and duty of every person. And, in keeping with the very nature of the human being, this search for truth must enjoy immunity from all forms of coercion. The right to this immunity continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it: they too cannot be coerced. And, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reminds us, this right includes freedom to change one's religion or belief. Thus, in professing or changing one's religion, provided that such choices have been made freely and without any form of coercion, tile fundamental regard for the human dignity of each person demands that one's decisions be respected and that no retaliation or discrimination be invoked or implemented that would violate a person's fundamental human rights.

The avoidance of coercion is also required of religions themselves. “In propagating the faith and introducing religious practices, (one) must always refrain from all forms of behavior that have about them a whiff of coercion, dishonesty or insincere persuasion, especially with people without their own culture or resources. Such behavior must be regarded as abusing one's rights and violating the rights of others.” This principle has been enshrined in the Code of Canon Law, which is the legislative document of the Catholic Church (canon 748 ß 2).

Respecting Differences

Pope John Paul II, during his visit last year to headquarters, offered an important reflection on how differences, rather than leading to intolerance and division, can be a source of enrichment. He said: “… Different cultures are but different ways of facing the question of the meaning of personal existence. And it is precisely here that we find one source of the respect which is due to every culture and every nation: every culture is an effort to ponder the mystery of the world and in particular of the human person. It is a way of giving expression to the transcendent dimension of human life.” He added; “Our respect for the culture of others is therefore rooted in our respect for each community's attempt to answer the question of human life.” And here we can see how important it is to safeguard the fundamental right to freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, as the cornerstones of the structure of human rights and the foundation of every truly free society.

To cut oneself off from the reality of difference—or, worse, to attempt to stamp out that difference—is to cut oneself off from the possibility of sounding the depths of the mystery of human life. The &lspuo;difference’ which some find so threatening can, through respectful dialogue, become the source of a deeper understanding of the mystery of human existence.”

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Archbishop Renato Martino ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Next Sunday at Mass Advent & the Gift of Humility DATE: 12/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 1-7, 1996 ----- BODY:

Dec. 8, 1996

Second Sunday of Advent

Mark 1, 1-18

THE EVANGELIST Mark today declares: “Here begins the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” This announcement signals our entrance into the Good News—the life and saving ministry of Jesus Christ. Advent is the time for us to take up that Good News again and reconsider how central a role the truth of the Gospel must play in forming the actions of our daily life.

The keynote of our initiation into the Gospel is humility. The “straight path” we prepare to “make ready the way of the Lord” clears away all the self-centeredness, pride, ego, and ambition that clutters up our life and obstructs our relishing of the Good News.

In this effort, John the Baptizer remains our model. The Gospel's deliberate detailing of the Baptizer's peculiar diet and dress confronts us with a curious paradox. Despite John's eccentric manner, we are told that “all the Judean countryside and the people of Jerusalem went out to him in great numbers.” Something extraordinarily compelling drew the crowds out into the desert, regardless of John's peculiar ways. They must have been attracted by the integrity and conviction of his holiness, given his bizarre appearance.

John's self-deprecating demeanor accentuates the poignancy of his message. To receive the Lord demands a radical self-knowledge and self-emptying, which begins with the renunciation of personal sin in repentance. It requires a humility that reminds us of our unworthiness and our need to grow in perfection. It calls for a docility that draws us out of the busy distractions of life and into the desert, where we are purified and given a new beginning.

But Advent humility doesn't end with the confession of sins. What a temptation it must have been for John the Baptizer to be enveloped by so many devoted throngs who made him the center of their attention. But John's word and example remind us that Jesus should be the sole focus of our Advent preparations. Just as the Baptizer would not permit the people to fixate on him, neither should we be preoccupied with ourselves.

Rather, the humility that we receive as a principal grace of Advent reassures us of the three Gospel truths that John proclaims to the people. Jesus is the most powerful one. We are to settle for nothing less. His power overwhelms and transforms all the false forces in our life, from which we might otherwise try to draw our strength and values. Jesus alone is the all-worthy One. And yet, even though were are not fit to untie his sandals, the Lord will wash his disciples' feet before laying down his life for them.

Christ imparts his worthiness to us—if we are humble enough to accept it. And Jesus baptizes us in the Holy Spirit. The New Life that comes to us at Christmas in the birth of a Child is only the beginning of the Good News. Its culmination comes when the gift of the Spirit draws us up to share in God's own life.

Father Cameron teaches homiletics at St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Cameron ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Religious Hatred is Factor in Church Burnings DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

PASTOR ALFRED BALDWIN describes his 200-member church community as multicultural, multiethnic and multiracial. And since the June 13th pre-dawn blaze that destroyed their “L” shaped wood-and-brick First Missionary Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., the congregation has also become more ecumenical.

“All denominations have responded beautifully,” Baldwin exclaimed. “From donations to so many offers to use their facilities. We have heard from all denominations, including both of our Catholic Churches here in Enid and others out of state.”

Baldwin pursed his lips and paused to look around at the piles of ash, debris, insulation and twisted metal that are all that remain of his gutted church. “We have seen a great outpouring of love. Satan may have meant it for evil, but God can make something good out of this. Everyone is appalled about this situation.”

As images of torched church buildings across the country dominate television and print media, a national vision of religious unity is beginning to emerge, a vision that transcends race and religious denominations.

Three of the largest representational faith groups in the country, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), the National Council of Churches (NCC), and the American Jewish Committee, formally joined forces to battle the wave of arson attacks. The organizations also sponsored an advertisement in The New York Times declaring that “the burning of a house of worship is an assault to the soul and spirit of the entire human family.”

The Christian Coalition, a political network of 1.7 million members and supporters, held a summit in mid-June for pastors of African American churches. It also established a “Save the Churches Fund” to provide financial help for the churches that are rebuilding, and to supply equipment, such as alarms, motion detectors, floodlights and smoke detectors, for churches that could be or have been fire targets.

Habitat for Humanity International has made a commitment to help the communities that have lost churches through arson. On June 20, eight of America's leading charitable foundations announced that they were contributing $2.7 million in grants to the National Council of Churches’ Burned Churches Fund.

More than 55 percent of the 216 church arson attacks investigated by federal agents since 1990 have occurred in the last 18 months—two thirds of those have taken place in the Southeast. And although the Southeast has many more white churches than black churches, 56 percent of the recent attacks targeted churches with predominantly black congregations.

Since January, 78 percent of all suspicious church fires in the Southeast occurred at black churches, prompting Church and political leaders across the country to publicly condemn what some call an epidemic of racial hatred. “We often think in these situations that it's happening to other people, that it doesn't affect us,” Cleveland, Ohio Bishop Anthony Pilla told the Register.“It could happen to black churches; it could happen to Catholic churches; it could happen to Jewish synagogues; it could happen to Moslem mosques. We're all subject to this.”

According to Bishop Pilla, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the attacks are tragic not only for the black churches but for the entire country. “When one of us is hurt we're all hurt. And it's foolish to think that it doesn't impact us.”

Currently there is little or no evidence pointing to a national conspiracy. Without proof that the high number of church fires are related in some way to a plan or conspiracy, federal investigators are left with the difficult task of trying to piece together answers for separate acts of racial and religious hatred.

“I think it's sacrilegious, scandalous,” said Bishop Curtis Guillory, S.N.D., one of the 13 active African-American Catholic bishops in the country. “When someone burns a church they are burning the soul of the faithful. I think there is not only racial but also religious hatred, and I'm sure some of it is the copycat syndrome.”

Whatever motivates the arsonists, added Bishop Guillory, auxiliary of the Galveston-Houston, Texas diocese and chair of the NCCB Committee on African American Catholics, “it's gone too far.”

“It is clear that racial hostility is the driving force behind a number of these incidents,” said President Clinton in his June 8 radio address to the nation. “We must come together, black and white alike, to smother the fires of hatred that fuel this violence. This must stop.”

An additional $21.5 million in funding was recently announced for what is already the largest federal arson investigation in history. But for the more than 250 FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents investigating the cases, the evidence can be over-whelming—and complex.

Not all attacks on these houses of worship involved racial motives. Investigators acknowledge that the probe—which also includes white churches, synagogues and mosques— has revealed that religious hostility is driving many of the attacks. For example, the night that two black churches in Kossuth, Miss., were destroyed by arson, a third church in the town with a predominantly white congregation escaped a failed arson attempt, apparently because intruders were unable to pry open the rear door of the building.

Most of the recent fires have taken place late at night in poor, isolated, rural areas in the South. They have often involved old churches with historic links to the region's black communities. But on June 20, an arson fire destroyed the sanctuary of a racially mixed church in Portland, Ore., the first such fire in the Northwest.

Still, in relation to the overall count of churches in the country, the number of fires involving black churches is disproportionately high. The fires have captured the attention of civil-rights groups not only because of their number, but because of the role played by black churches in the South as symbols of identity, community and hope. The flames have rekindled memories of church burnings during the civil rights era of the 1960s that were meant to intimidate African-Americans.

“The church in the black community has always been a stronghold,” Bishop Guillory told the Register. “Not only is it a place of worship, but historically it has also been the only place where African Americans could really gather and feel a sense of security and a sense of ownership. The churches have played not only a religious role, but also a very important social, educational, as well as political role in the African American community.”

The recent attacks on black churches have often been accompanied by traditional signs of hatred: a burning cross on the front lawn of a black resident in the Portland suburb of Gresham a week before the church fire; a knotted hang-man's noose at a Shiloh Baptist church in Baton Rouge, La.; the words “Die Nigger Die!” and “White is Right” painted on the back door of a burned-down Knoxville, Tenn., church.

“Accidents” account for only about 7 percent of all the church fires that have been investigated in the last six years. In several cases investigators have tied racist groups—including the Ku Klux Klan, the White Aryan Nation and skinheads— to the incidents. Although many suspects have expressed racist views, agents remain perplexed by the lack of a thread tying the fires together.

The Enid case shows how tough solving the mystery will be. Enid police have arrested and charged a 35-year-old white man in the arson fire at First Missionary Baptist. The man is a former mental patient described as developmentally disabled, making the motive unclear and apparently unrelated to any kind of national conspiracy.

Longtime black civil rights leader Roy Innis of Houston has called for an end to the media and political “hysteria” over the fires. Innis argues that the number of church burnings has been steadily declining in recent years and that the attacks are equally divided among black and white churches.

“That's the real story. And for the American people to think this is some one-sided racial thing where black churches are being burned—and not white churches—is a mistake,” Innis said in a recent interview with Reuters.

Said Bishop Pilla: “We as churches have to begin with our own selves. We have to try to work on attitudes that are the basis of this kind of behavior. Families need to make sure that around their tables and in their family's conversation they don't encourage that kind of bigotry. This is something we should all be concerned about.”

Pastor Baldwin agrees. Thinking over the many lives that joined together to build the 103-year old congregation, he acknowledges the congregation must look forward and not back. “What I feel is hurt. It's devastating to see go up in minutes what took years to build.”

“But we may never know why. As the song says, we accentuate the positive,” Pastor Baldwin said, while looking over the ashen remains of the church sanctuary. “We believe our healing began when we said: ‘ We forgive.’ What these fires have in common is that individuals are filled with a spirit of hate. It is defeatist to say we hate those who did this. We want to help by our example to restore the Spirit of love.”

Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda is based in Norman, Okla.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bishops Preview Elections, Focus on Life Issues DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

CURRENT EVENTS and election-year issues such as church burnings and White House support for partial birth abortions occupied the U.S. bishops during their annual spring meeting late last month in Portland, Ore.

Auxiliary Bishop John Ricard of Baltimore, Md. called this year's rash of church arsons “a particular tragedy” because most facilities were serving poor, and usually uninsured, congregations. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) pledged to commit $50,000 from its reserves to help the congregations.

Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, president of the NCCB, said that election-year accusations of partisan-ship will not deter the bishops from applying Catholic social teachings to public policy issues facing the nation in the months to come. His point was driven home as the bishops issued a unanimous statement urging Congress to override President Clinton's April veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Act.

In an interview with the Register, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, chairman of the NCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, called abortion “the primordial evil of our time,” adding: “I think the partial-birth abortion (PBA) discussion brings that more powerfully home to us.”

He said the NCCB's pro-life office has received requests for 27 million postcards to be sent as PBA protests to Congress and the White House. “My own sense is there is unprecedented resolve on the part of the bishops, but it's broader than that,” Law said. “There is real conviction that we are together on this issue.”

The bishops' “Stand Up For Life” statement denounced President Clinton for supporting “a particularly heinous and violent way of killing an infant during the process of birth.”

“It will be our prayer that the cul-ture of death be transformed by a culture of life, by a civilization of love,” the statement said.

The conference, attended by most of the nation's estimated 250 bishops, also heard more about individual dioceses implementing the NCCB's three-year strategy to increase vocations.

Some bishops reportedly discussed, during a session that was closed to the media, how to advance women's roles in the Church while keeping within its existing laws and policies. Jesuit theologian Father Avery Dulles spoke to the conference on the papal affirmation that the Church is unable to ordain women to the priesthood.

Father Dulles reiterated points from the recent Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith statement, which explores the teaching banning women's ordination as part of the deposit of the faith, founded on the word of God and taught by the Church's ordinary, universal teaching authority.

The bishops also continued working on a totally revised and translated Sacramentary into English. In voting on the Sacramentary, the book of prayers used by priests at Mass, the bishops finished their treatment of segments five and six of the text, which has been divided into seven parts to allow the bishops to deal with it in manageable pieces over several years. Discussion and voting on the Sacramentary took up the largest portion of the June meeting, though it was not characterized by long debates about style and substance of prayer translations as was the case in previous meetings.

Baltimore Bishop Ricard, said that post-Vatican II Mass language has been upbeat, but not as poetic as it could be, nor as musically adaptable, which is a key issue in the Sacramentary revisions. He said language at Mass should be faithful to tradition, but should also “speak to the times. These things are done for their practical use. The reality hasn't changed, but the context has.”

Bishop William Bullock of Madison, Wisc., said he appreciates the Church extending itself to those in the pews, but added that, “we also, I think, have to have integrity in our scholarship of the translation.” The finished product will be the first entirely revised Sacramentary in English in more than 25 years.

The bishops, reflecting the Church's continued defense of immigrants, also delivered a sharp criticism of possible federal legislation that would harm immigrants and refugees.

Though Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz's controversial threat to excommunicate Catholics in his diocese who belonged to groups that defied Church teaching was not a topic on the agenda, the head of the Lincoln, Neb., diocese said he had “received many words of assurances and prayers.”

“I haven't received any negative comments from the other bishops,” he told the Register.

The bishop said the canonical action still affects 16 to 20 “somewhat defiant” people in his diocese. The action created a firestorm of secular media attention, some of which hinted that other American bishops, because of their silence on the matter, did not support Bishop Bruskewitz. Reflecting on his excommunication legislation, he said, “it didn't impress me as a particularly brave act.”

David Finnigan is based in Los Angeles. CNS contributed to this report.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Finnigan ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pro-life Democrats Make Noise, Too, Though not in Public DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

WHILE THE Republicans are going through a high-profile fight over the pro-life abortion language in their party platform, Democrats are having a much quieter debate on their side of the aisle. A group of pro-life Democratic congressmen are having behind-closed door discussions with party leaders about inserting a “conscience clause” in the, what has been an unflinchingly pro-abortion party platform.

On the surface, it would appear that these pro-life Democrats are pushing for language similar to the “declaration of tolerance” that Bob Dole has urged for the GOP platform—language that would recognize that differences of opinion exist within the party on this divisive issue. The biggest difference between the parties may be how the issue has been handled.

The Republicans have conducted their debate on the front pages of the nation's newspapers and on the nightly news, as Dole seeks to formally recognize that there are many pro-abortion rights Republicans who disagree with a platform that has been strongly pro-life since 1976. Democrats, by contrast, have thus far succeeded in keeping this small intra-party discussion out of the national news, as pro-life Democrats have been doing their work quietly and without a great deal of fanfare.

For more than a month, a group of roughly 10 pro-life House Democrats have been discussing the abortion issue with party leaders, including the Democrat congressional leadership and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). At this point, the reaction of party elders bas been positive and the pro-lifers have been pushing ahead.

But their expectations appear to be modest. While they would like the platform to be neutral on abortion, they realize that the best they can hope for is a conscience clause that recognizes that there are many pro-life Democrats who are very loyal to the party. Estimates are that there are approximately 40 pro-life Democrats in the House of Representatives who routinely vote with pro-life Republicans on abortion issues.

Leaders in the effort include pro-life Catholics like Reps. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), William Lipinski (D-Ill.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Harold Volkmer (D-Mo.), and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), as well as Reps. Tony Hall (D-Ohio) and Glenn Poshard (D-Ill.). “I personally would like to see the platform changed,” said Costello in the American Political Network's Abortion Report. “Realistically, it's not going to be changed, so therefore I think at the very least what we would like to see is recognition that the Democratic Party is an all-encompassing, inclusive party.”

The legislators have been working on draft language that would be placed immediately after the pro-abortion language. Congressman Lipinski has been taking the lead on drafting the “conscience clause” language.

The current draft language reads: “We recognize that there are those in our ranks who are opposed to abortion. The Democratic Party therefore recognizes that each individual member has a right to abide by their conscience on this difficult issue and are welcome participants at every level of the party.”

This language was drafted after a group of 10 pro-lifers met with Donald Fowler, co-chairman of the DNC, at the organization's headquarters in Washington, D.C. on June 12. In a statement, the legislators called their meeting “positive and productive.” Fowler told reporters after the meeting that “Democrats have different positions on a lot of issues. We do not require people to march in lockstep.” Fowler was quick to add, however, that he expects no change in the party's strong pro-abortion position.

“We were not asking for any specific steps at this point,” said Rep. Poshard. “We were just saying that we would like this discussion to be open. Mr. Fowler assured us that he would continue to listen.”

The pro-life Democrats are preparing a letter to Fowler in which they would include the conscience clause language. The next step for the group would be a meeting with pro-abortion Gov. Zell Miller (D-Ga.), chairman of the party's platform committee. Miller has not yet set a date for platform committee hearings.

The pro-life group has also met with senior House Democrats, including Minority Leader Richard Gephardt and Minority Whip David Bonior. “Everyone [who] has met with them has been receptive,” said Jeff Goodell, Congressman Lipinski's legislative director. “Mr. Lipinski is very optimistic that this new language will be included.”

Even the White House has been open to the discussion. White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, when asked by the Chicago Tribune about the pro-lifers efforts, said that the President is “willing to discuss something like that,” adding that a “cross-section of views” should be represented at the Democratic convention in Chicago.

The 1992 Democratic Party platform was unabashedly pro-abortion, calling for the right of every woman to choose an abortion “regardless of ability to pay” —implying support for Medicaid funding for abortions for poor women, which is not now permitted under current law. It also encouraged research and education on contraception, while calling for a national abortion rights law, the so-called Freedom of Choice Act(FOCA).

“People may not know anything else about the Democratic Party platform, but they know what it says about abortion,” Congressman Hall told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “It makes it look like we're the party that is for abortion, when a lot of us are pro-life.”

Not all Democrats are completely supportive, however. Pro-abortion activists see no need to tinker with a platform that has their full support. “I see no need for a change in the Democratic abortion plank,” Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion Rights Action League, told the Sacramento Bee. She said she is concerned that a conscience clause might be seen “as a retreat” from the party's longtime support of legalized abortion.

Pro-abortion leader Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) told The Washington Post that she did not see a need for the new language. “I do not think we have been intolerant, so I don't think we need to state the obvious. It sounds really redundant to me.”

On the pro-life side, many leaders wished the group well, but some doubt whether they would have a significant impact. Former Governor Robert Casey (D-Pa.), a leading pro-life governor for two terms, told The Washington Times that the group faced a tough struggle: “What they are doing is a positive development. They are picking up where I left off in 1992. But the odds are very long against any change in the platform because the platform committee is a stacked deck.” Casey was prevented from addressing the 1992 Democratic Convention. He instead took out full-page newspaper ads in papers across the country to make the case for pro-life Democrats.

The pro-lifers have taken some important preliminary steps, but the difficult task of convincing the platform committee remains. One thing that they have not done, however, is to elevate this intra-party debate into a full-blown controversy. No doubt earning the respect of the party's leadership, the small band of pro-life Democrats have done their work quietly, leaving the President to concentrate on his key re-election themes.

“This will never be as big an issue for the Democrats, because Bill Clinton's position on this issue is crystal clear: he is a strongly pro-choice President,” said one congressional staffer. “He will never be as involved in this debate the way Bob Dole has been on the Republican side. Bob Dole has several very prominent [pro-abortion] Republican governors that he has to work with, and they are very outspoken about their … views. The pro-life Democrats, on the other hand, are not making this a big deal. They are not trying to pick a fight within the party.”

Michael Barbera is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michaelbarbera ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Adoption Bill is a Safe Bet for All DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

LOOKING FOR A family value issue nearly everyone agrees upon in this presidential campaign year? Try adoption.

Politicians are stepping over themselves to support a bill in Congress which provides a $5,000 tax credit for adoptive parents and puts an end to enforcing a stipulation that African-American children must be matched with adoptive parents of the same race. It has the support of pro-life Congressmen who see it as a means of discouraging abortion in favor of adoption. And, soon after President Clinton announced his support for the proposal, Hillary Clinton even hinted that the First Family might adopt a child.

Under the proposed law, families with incomes below $75,000 per year would be able to claim the full $5,000 tax credit. Families earning more would have a phased-down benefit which would end at an earned income of $115,000 per year.

“It will increase the pool of people able to afford the cost of adoption,” said Patrick Purtill, director of government relations for the National Center for Adoption, a Washington, D.C., lobbying group that has pushed hard for the measure.

Purtill said the tax break is designed to ease the burdens of private adoptions which can cost up to $20,000. He predicted that the bill, expected to cost the U.S. government $1.7 billion in seven years, will enable more lower- and middle-income parents to adopt. The tax break, he said, should also increase the pool of minority adoptive parents, helping to address another issue raised by the bill.

The proposed law would end the practice of requiring black children to be adopted by black parents. The result of such practices—which grew in the past 20 years after a black social workers’ group called interracial adoption “cultural genocide” —has been a growth in the number of minority children languishing in the foster care system. According to Purtill, nearly half of all children in foster care are black and there are not enough black parents willing or able to adopt them, he said.

The bill now under discussion would encourage black children to be matched with black parents. But in the absence of such a match, non-black parents would be allowed to adopt them.

Retaining some racial consideration in the adoption process alleviated the concerns of Charles Rangel, a black New York City Congressman and a Catholic, who had opposed the bill in its original race-neutral form. “We are reading from the same page,” Rangel told The New York Timesabout himself and conservative supporters of the measure.

Rangel expressed concern that black children in interracial adoptions suffer from a poor sense of racial identity. But Purtill noted that a series of studies in the past 25 years reveal that black children adopted by white families have done well and have been able to develop a racial identity.

James McBride, a mixed-race writer whose The Color of Watermemoir is dedicated to his white Jewish mother, noted in a recent New York Times op-ed piece that “for once, our politicians have got it right. Mixed-race families and inter-racial adoption have long been a fact of life.”

Addressing critics who argue that inter-racial adoption prevents black children from developing a healthy racial identity, McBride wrote, “I'd rather see a black child holding the hand of a white yuppie mom and talking, thinking and acting ‘ white’(whatever that is) than being bounced around foster homes and never knowing real love.”

While most social workers involved with adoptions praise the new legislation, some say it doesn't go far enough in addressing the real problems that make it difficult for children to get adopted.

In fact, the tax credit provisions will do nothing to assist children to get adopted through agencies such as the New York Foundling Hospital, said Andrew Mayernik, director of the adoption department there.

The Foundling, a Sisters of Charity agency, deals exclusively with adoptions of hard-to-place children—many of them handicapped, older or with emotional problems. “We try to recruit families but we have a hard time,” said Mayernik. The agency has worked through groups such as One Church, One Child, an organization run by Chicago priest Father George Clements, who is an adoptive father himself and who has tried to interest African-American Church congregations in adopting hard-to-place minority children. Most of the children cared for by the New York Foundling Hospital are African-American.

According to Mayernik, racial considerations are still a priority with many white adoptive parents. “My experience is that they are asking for white or Hispanic children. I don't find many couples asking for black children,” he said.

Because of the difficulties in adoption, one focus of the Foundling is counseling parents who have lost their children due to abuse and other problems. According to Mayernik, adults—even those with a poor parenting record—can learn to be good parents.

But Sister Josephine Murphy, director of St. Ann's Infant and Maternity Home in Hyattsville, Md., outside Washington, D.C., said such an approach is dangerous to the well-being of children. Sister Murphy, a Daughter of Charity, said that adoption is preferable to “sending abused children back to abusive homes.”

“We have to look at the best interest of the child,” added Sister Murphy, whose agency takes in children from troubled homes from the District of Columbia and its nearby Maryland suburbs. And, she said, that should mean a stronger reliance on adoption because “not all families can be fixed.” Keeping the present adoption system intact will be disastrous, she argued. “We will have to build more jails” if nothing is done.

While the adoption bill has generated a rare presidential-Congressional family values lovefest, it still has a few critics. Some describe its use of tax credits as a fiscal gimmick, a point raised in a recent editorial in The New Republic, which pointed out that such credits will drain the treasury. And some child welfare advocates argue that it will divert attention from the necessity of finding homes for hard-to-place children, particularly the older and handicapped, as well as minorities.

And changes in the law making adoption of Native American children less restrictive have again given rise to accusations of cultural genocide, this time by tribal leaders.

But observers expect something will happen. In an election year, few politicians want to be seen as obstructing the happiness of an orphan and a beaming set of adoptive parents. The president and his Republican congressional foes may well believe the adoption changes are the right thing to do. Besides, few issues offer more fertile material for election-year photo-ops.

Peter Feuerherd is based in New York.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter Feuerherd ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Holy Land Churches Eye Religious Parties with Concern DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

JERUSALEM—As his last official act as religious affairs minister of Israel, Shimon Shetreet, a member of the ousted Labor Party, spent his final day in office paying a farewell visit to all the Christian Churches in Galilee.

The day before, said Uri Mor, director of the Christian Communities Division of the ministry, Shetreet met individually with each Church leader in Jerusalem to take his leave.

Never before has an Israeli religious affairs minister shown such concern for the Christian community here, according to Mor. And, many worry, never will one do so again—at least until its citizenry chooses a government that views Judaism as a great heritage rather than a source of nationalistic zealotry.

According to Father David Jaeger, an expert on Church-state relations in Israel, the formal separation of Church, or Synagogue, and state—which is key for Christians in the Holy Land—appears as far off as ever. Israel's religious parties, which together garnered an unprecedented 23 out of the 120 Knesset seats, are expected to make sure of that.

“The public identification of a person as a Christian or a member of one of the Churches is not something we can be happy about,” said Father Jaeger, a veteran of the negotiations between the Holy See and Israel. “Classifying individual citizens by religion—despite [actual] personal convictions—and subjecting them to different legal requirements is not compatible with human rights,” added the Israeli-born priest, who also serves as judicial vicar in the Diocese of Austin, Texas.

The secretary of Archbishop Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, the Vatican's diplomatic representative in Israel, said it is too soon to tell which direction the new government will take. Much will depend on whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will appoint to head the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Currently, under a coalition compromise, the National Religious Party and Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party of oriental Jews, will each direct the ministry for two years. However, United Torah Judaism, a second ultra-Orthodox political party, is still angling to be part of the arrangement as well.

Still, it is not expected that newly-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government will take a much different approach to dealing with the Churches of the Holy Land. Israel's policy towards the Churches has always cut across partisan lines, said Avraham Benjamin, director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Division of Interreligious Affairs.

Accordingly, the outcome of as-yet uncompleted agreements with the Holy See on the Catholic Church's legal status and fiscal rights in Israel aren't expected to be much changed under a Likud-led government. “The original approach to the Church was decided on by the Likud government and continued by the Labor government,” said Father Jaeger. “In these matters there is no difference between Labor and Likud.”

Under former Prime Minister Peres, contacts with the Christian religions were pushed from the margins into the mainstream, said Rabbi David Rosen, a member of the permanent Israel-Vatican bilateral committee. He suggested that Netanyahu might even give his country's relations with Rome a higher profile, especially if the going gets rough on the political front with the Palestinians. Likewise, according to Mor, Netanyahu's long residence in the United States has given him an understanding of the influence and the status of Churches.

“Yet,” Mor warned , “The personality of the next minister can change the atmosphere and affect the future ability of the [Christian Communities] department to continue to work.”

In a country where ministries are regarded as personal fiefdoms by their political appointees, ministers make policy, set priorities and fund pet projects to an extent unknown in the United States. Shetreet, for example, a secular law professor at Hebrew University, doubled the budget of Mor's division, gave him two new assistants and was planning for a third. Likewise, added Mor, Shetreet paid close attention to the affairs of the various Churches, interceded on their behalf with other ministries and met with Mor regularly—something previous ministers generally neglected to do.

“He understood that it is very important to have good relations with the Christian world,” said Mor. This approach paid off for Shetreet in a personal audience with Pope John Paul II, not to mention a high number of ballots cast for Shetreet by Christian voters. “It was like a revolution,” Mor added. “It was the first time the government started taking care of [Christians] at such a high level.”

That high level of interest is something Shas, the National Religious Party and the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism, the religious parties vying for the religious ministry portfolio, have never demonstrated toward Christian affairs, he said. In the last Likud government then-Religious Minister Zevulan Hammer, who would like the job again, consented to meet with the heads of the various denominations, “but that was all,” said Mor.

And the ultra-Orthodox, who harbor animosity toward Christians because of past persecution and forced conversions, pretend they don't exist. In the past, party activists even went so far as to demonstrate against a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion.

It is likely that the three religious parties will try to block the Knesset's ratification of as yet uncompleted agreements with the Vatican on fiscal and legal issues with the same vigor with which they pushed through a law in the last Parliament banning the import of non-Kosher meat.

“We're not sure this government will pass legislation on the agreement,” said Mor. “They need a majority of the Knesset and we can't tell if they'll get it, although we also were not sure that it would pass in the previous government.”

A key element in the agreement is the formalization of the Churchs’ tax-free status.

In Israel, citizens are categorized by religion and subjected to widely different legal requirements. Each religious hierarchy exerts control over matters such as marriage, divorce and burial. Jews, for example, are not permitted to marry outside the faith or marry someone who is a child of an adulterous union. Likewise, a Catholic cannot legally obtain a divorce in the country.

Israeli officials believe that the Catholic Church is basically satisfied with the situation, which was inherited from the Ottoman empire. But Father Jaeger charged that it marginalizes the country's minorities and disregards personal convictions and beliefs.

“In Israel, as a matter of law and of fact, the Catholic Church enjoys greater freedom of religion than any other religion. The Catholic Church is free from state interference, unlike the Jewish, Moslem and Druse religions which are state departments,” said Father Jaeger. “But forcing two Catholics to be married in Church, despite their personal convictions, is not a situation we can be happy about. It's in the interest of all minorities to achieve a situation where they are not classified according to religion and ethnicity.” But Father Jaeger acknowledged that this is an internal matter of Israel which has not been brought up by the Holy See in negotiations.

For one Christian community, at least, Likud is a sign of stability and security. Recently, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate privately expressed its relief that the Likud Party, with its unequivocal insistence on a united Jerusalem under Israeli rule, won the election. The Greek Orthodox hierarchy, almost all Greek nationals, fears being booted out in favor of an Arab leadership if Palestinians win control of Jerusalem. “It is a very insecure situation for us not knowing who will be in control in the future,” said a Greek Orthodox bishop who did not want to be identified.

“Communities whose leaders are not Palestinian nationals are nervous about who is going to exert control and where in the years ahead, “explained Rabbi Rosen. “An Israeli administration of Jerusalem would serve the interests of local Christians who are not lead by a Palestinian hierarchy.”

The Greek Orthodox bishop added, “At least with Likud we known with whom we are dealing.”

Lisa Pevtzow is based in Jerusalem.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lisapevtzow ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Stolen Balkan Religious Artifacts Reported 'On Sale' in Britain DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

THOUSANDS OF VALUABLE sacred objects stolen from ransacked churches in the former Yugoslavia are being sold illegally in Britain to foreign collectors and art-dealers, according to a London newspaper. The Sunday Times said items on sale, including crosses, icons, candlesticks and furnishings, appeared in a 26-minute film currently being shown secretly to private buyers. The newspaper added that the displayed artworks included 24 paintings, each valued at about $30,000.

The report follows evidence of systematic looting at churches and mosques during five years of fighting in Croatia and Bosnia, especially in areas subjected to “ethnic cleansing.” In a June 21 message to an international meeting of priests at the Portuguese shrine of Fatima, Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo said a total of 610 Catholic churches were now confirmed destroyed in Bosnia, along with properties and possessions in two-thirds of the parishes. At least 1100 of the republic's mosques were also destroyed, with 73 imams killed and a further 32 missing presumed dead, according to a May statement by Sefko Omerbasic, the head of Croatia's Moslem community.

Looting and vandalism at places of worship is reported to have continued even after the November 1995 Dayton Peace Accord. In Serbia, doors and windows at Belgrade's Franciscan monastery and adjoining Saint Anne's Catholic church were damaged by a bomb in April. The incident, which followed earlier attacks on Franciscan monasteries at Bac and Pancevo, took place after a bomb attack on the capital's single surviving mosque, which is currently the only place of worship for Belgrade's 150,000 Moslems.

In Slovenia, the Mladina weekly reported in January that church thefts had “drastically increased” since independence in 1991, with almost half of a total of 77 major art thefts occurring at churches and chapels. The paper added that most stolen statues, chalices and candelabras were believed to have been smuggled to Austria and Italy, often by prior arrangement with local collectors.

In its report, the Sunday Times said the Croatian government said significant robberies had been reported at 250 churches, 300 monuments, 22 libraries and nine archives, with more than 200,000 objects registered as missing. Every Catholic church and chapel was reported ransacked in the Krajina region, which occupies 27 percent of Croatian territory, recaptured in August 1995 after a four-year Serb occupation. (Jonathan Luxmoore)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE:Polish Government Announces Development Plan for Auschwitz DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE POLISH government has announced plans for a $100 million re-development at the former Auschwitz concentration camp after a series of disputes over the site's use for religious and commercial activities.

The three-stage project, announced June 25 by the governor of Poland's Bielsko county, Marek Trombski, is expected to last until the year 2007, and will include a reduction in the UNESCO-declared 500-meter “Protected Zone” around the former German-run camp to include only historic buildings directly connected to it. However, the redrawn zone will then be closed to warehouses, shops and parking lots, while surrounding roads will be diverted away to exclude traffic.

The announcement follows international protests of plans by a Polish-German investment company, Maja, to open a shopping mall opposite the camp's main gate. Authorities in the neighboring Polish town of Oswiecim ordered building work on the $480,000 mall suspended in March. However, Maja chairman Janusz Marszalek refused to accept the ruling and said in early June he planned to resume construction.

Among other reactions, the director of Auschwitz's Interfaith Center for Prayer and Dialogue, Father Piotr Wrona, accused local investors of “surrendering to bad taste and a desire for profit” and said the camp area should be protected in view of its “deep sensitivity to Jews,” who made up at least 90 percent of Auschwitz's estimated 1.5 million Holocaust victims.

A group of U.S. Congressmen, in a March resolution, branded the shopping mall an act of “desecration and trivialization,” warning that it violated Poland's international commitments and could jeopardize the country's entry to NATO.

Speaking June 25, the head of Poland's government office, Leszek Miller, said he believed the shopping mall could still go ahead if it conformed with the new redevelopment project. However, all work within the current “Protected Zone” would be suspended, Miller added, until full details of the project were finalized. A detailed first-stage program, is to be unveiled by Sept. 15. (Jonathan Luxmoore)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: THE POPE'S WEEK DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

FRIDAY

The Pope began his third visit to Germany today at 7 p.m. with his arrival in Paderborn.

Speaking to those who greeted him upon his arrival, Pope John Paul II referred to “the great efforts” which must be made “to secure a peaceful and human future” for Germany, “for the whole continent and the whole world. Such a future in peace and security, freedom and justice can only be achieved if human beings and peoples are aware of their basic common features… All responsible persons in state and society must make every effort to give priority to safeguarding God-given truth about mankind.”

SATURDAY

The Pope celebrated Mass at the Senne airport this morning for the faithful of the archdiocese of Paderborn, and in his homily made an appeal to unity: “Do not let storm and sea plunge you into despondency and resignation! Be united in hope and fortify one another in the common faith!”

“Remember the long history of Christian faith in this country! Do not let this faith grow weaker and more feeble! Have no fear about the future of the Christian faith and the Church!… We know that many external circumstances of private and public life will be changed in the future. This will not leave the Church untouched. But fearfulness and lamentation must never prevail on board the ship of the Church!”

The Holy Father called on bishops and priests to be servants of the unity of the People of God “with your whole heart. Encourage all sisters and brothers to remain true to their calling. Show doubters the way!

After emphasizing that the Christian faith must orient all, he said that without it “Europe will lack a soul.”

“We Christians are called upon to watch over the spirit which will unite and shape the future Europe. This is a great responsibility and challenge which we seriously want and have to face up to beyond our national borders.”

• • •

The Holy Father met this afternoon with representatives of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany and with the Board of the Association of Christian Churches in Paderborn's “Collegium Leoninum.”

The Pope referred to the Protestant Church's document The Condemnations of the Reformation Era. Do They Still Divide?Thanks to this study, he said, “differences have been resolved which previous generations considered irreconcilable. This progress has been possible because methodologically a strict distinction was made between the deposit of faith and the formulation in which it is expressed.”

Regarding the doctrine of justification, the Pope said that “any understanding between Lutherans and Catholics on this important question will inevitably open up the possibility of similar clarifications with non-Lutheran Protestant Churches.”

John Paul II noted that the Churches of the East “have developed good ecumenical relations with the Churches in this country…. I would like to encourage you to maintain and live your traditions in good neighborly relations with others. In this way, understanding for one another will grow, and the consciousness of the common basis of Christian belief in a diversity of historical traditions will also increase.”

“The unity to which we aspire,” he concluded, “must evolve gradually. We must find the courage and imagination to take those steps which are possible today, trusting fully in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which leads us and prepares us for those steps which will be possible tomorrow.”

• • •

Seven hundred people attended an ecumenical service at 5 p.m. today in the Paderborn Cathedral, during which Pope John Paul spoke, stressing the need for all Christians to cooperate in the new evangelization.

Referring to the enormous changes that have taken place in Germany since his last visit in 1987, the Holy Father said that “an unspeakably great amount depends on whether the Gospel is proclaimed and lived out in a manner which is credible…. We now need to work together in order to give shape to the (newly acquired) freedom … both in the East and West.”

The new evangelization is all the more important, he said, because “in the East, the atheist regimes have left mental and spiritual deserts in the hearts of many people, in particular the young, whilst in the West we need to deal with the danger of excessive consumerism which threatens to smother the values of society.”

“Our striving today for a common witness for unity cannot go without also dealing with Martin Luther,” said the Pope. “Today, 450 years after his death, it is possible after the passage of time to better understand the person and work of the German reformer and to do better justice to him.”

“Luther's thinking was characterized by considerable emphasis on the individual, which meant that the awareness of the requirements of society became weaker. Luther's original intention in his call for reform in the Church was a call to repentance and renewal to begin in the life of every individual. There are many reasons why these beginnings nevertheless led to division. One is the failure of the Catholic Church, already lamented in moving words by Pope Hadrian IV, and the intrusion of political and economic interests, as well as Luther's own passion, which drove him far beyond what he originally intended into radical criticism of the Catholic Church, of its way of teaching. We all bear the guilt. That is why we are called upon to repent and must all allow the Lord to cleanse us over and over.”

• • •

At 7 p.m. today, the Holy Father met with the bishops of Germany in the “Collegium Leoninum” of Paderborn and spoke to them, among other issues, of the challenges faced by the newly unified Germany, the role of the Church in building society, the new evangelization and priestly formation.

“Fraternity, reciprocal understanding and collaboration, above all on the ecclesial level, are an essential element for unification,” the Pope began. “As Church, we must be aware in a more intense way of the duty of being the moral conscience of society. As Christians we must become once again ‘ salt of the earth’ and ‘ light of the world’ .” Remaining faithful to Christ and his message is the way “to help those members of the Church who find themselves in a society seeking to relativize or secularize all spheres of life.” In particular, he said, “moral relativism … sooner or later produces a moral crisis of democracy.”

“The Gospel is an inspiring and illuminating force for the life of the people of God…. We must avoid the spread of values capable of attracting the masses, but which can obscure the true nature of the Gospel.”

Of the profound changes that came from the fall of the Iron Curtain, one, John Paul said, was the gift “of re-acquired political and state reunification” which also “represents an important challenge to develop.”

“With the elimination of the barbed wire and the fall of the wall, our attention was drawn to the desolate situation in which the German Democratic Republic (GDR) had left people regarding their longing for and their search in the religious sphere.” Religious suppression, observed the Pope, caused many people to feel alienated from the Church “of their ancestors” and caused “infinitely sad lacerations…. Many of these wounds are not yet healed and still mark the daily lives of many people.”

The Pope pointed in particular to “the great void regarding the knowledge of the faith and the sense of Christian life, and a great disorientation.” According to diverse statistics, more than 70 percent of people in the new‘ Lander’ do not belong to any religious confession. In the GDR, religion and the Church were, in great measure, stigmatized and socially isolated.”

The Church has “the duty to examine and purify herself, as asked by Vatican Council II,” he remarked, but “for not a few members of the Church unfortunately this has been transformed into a demoralizing critique of (her) institutions and a spreading of discontent, favored by a lively subjectivism of the‘ postmodern’ culture. However, no reason for fear exists if we have faith.”

The Holy Father continued: “Naturally one cannot expect men to become enthusiastic for the Church and to find in her the joy of faith when questions which are actually of a secondary nature and importance become placed at the center of public interest; and even more so when such matters are proposed to the faithful as a subterfuge of an objective and concrete discussion and with exploitative methods.

“It is up to the bishops to be servants of the Church's joyous faith. This is a service which demands vigilance and cannot dispense one from the exercise of authority and cannot be suspended, either in public debates or in pastoral talks. Such a service must be offered in dialogue and always with great love, but also with clarity and decision.”

The Pope stressed the need for a close relationship between a bishop and his priests. He praised “the notable help that priests receive from the laity” but admonished: “In any case it is necessary to be careful that … the laity do not fall into the role of ‘substitute priest’ or‘ substitute chaplain.’”

The need for vocations and the importance of priestly formation were then touched upon by the Pope. He emphasized “the absolutely necessary and frequent contacts between bishops and professors at theological faculties.” And, indicating his awareness of budget cuts, he said that reduced monies should never “reduce the content of formation in the diverse subjects.”

John Paul II addressed the relationship between Christian families and the birth of vocations and said: “The family pastoral ministry must place greater emphasis on the ministry of vocations, giving great value to a close collaboration with religious orders.”

“The pastoral ministry of the family is the decisive cornerstone for ecclesial pastoral work.”

“The situation and role of the women in society is closely linked with the problem of the family,” the Pope went on. “Within the family the woman has an irreplaceable and front line task in the transmission of life and in the education of the children.” He said that today “there is an alarming weakening of the mother-child relationship. Pay attention so that social legislation does not proceed at the expense of the weakest, who are not represented by anyone or only by a small‘ lobby't o constitutional offices.”

SUNDAY

The Holy Father arrived in Berlin, this morning from Paderborn and having paid a courtesy visit to the president of the federal republic, he went to the Olympic Stadium for the beatifications of the Servants of God Bernhard Lichtenberg and Karl Leisner.

Having said that “this celebration is an hour of grace for the Church in Berlin and Muenster, an hour of grace for all German people,” he added: “May this city—Berlin—which was witness to Bernhard Lichtenberg's fight against the power of evil and the witness to [his] imprisonment, torture and death, be today a witness to your elevation in the Church of the living God.”

The Pope said that the two new Blesseds gave witness to Christ “not only with words, but also with their lives and deaths. They had dedicated themselves to Christ in a world that had become inhumane—He who alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

“Bernhard and Karl encourage us to remain on the path called Christ… Christ is the way that leads to life. All other ways will prove themselves to be detours or the wrong path.”

The Holy Father spoke then of Blessed Lichtenberg's witness to the truth. His example “calls upon us to‘ share in the work of truth’… Stay faithful to the truth that is Christ. Speak out courageously if wrong principles once again lead to wrong acts, if human dignity is harmed or if God's moral order is questioned.”

• • •

“From this famous city, which very intensively experienced the fate of European history in this century,” said John Paul II at today's Angelus following the beatification ceremony, “I would like to announce to the entire Church my intention to convene a second special assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops.”

He remarked that the 1991 synod for Europe “took on the task” of reflecting on events which followed the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. “The developments that took place in Europe in the five years that followed,” the Holy Father went on, “suggested the need for a new meeting with the representatives of the European bishops for the purpose of conducting a detailed assessment of the Church situation with a view to the forthcoming anniversary” of the Jubilee Year 2000.

• • •

The Pope met late this afternoon with the Central Council of the Jews in Germany and, in a reference to “the enormous suffering” caused by the “criminal dictatorship” of the National Socialists, said that “the oppression experienced during the Nazi reign of terror showed that without respect for God, respect for the dignity of man is lost. As a result of that reign of terror there were many who raised questions concerning God, who had permitted that horrible disaster to happen. But even more unsettling was the realization of what man is capable of doing when he does not respect God….”

Pointing to the sacrifices made by the two new Blesseds and by others, John Paul II stated: “These are burdens placed on us by remembrance…. Even though historians have shown that there were many priests and lay Catholics who turned against the terror regime, and that numerous forms of resistance arose in the everyday lives of the people, there were nonetheless too few who resisted.”

Turning to the Church's ties with Jews, the Holy Father remarked: “For us the Jewish religion is not something‘ external’, but rather in a certain way belongs to the‘ internal’part of our own religion. As such, our relationship with the Jewish religion is unlike that of any other religion. Further intensification of this relationship continues to be a major interest of the Church.”

This meeting took place on the first floor of the Bernhard Lichtenberg House, after which Pope John Paul went to the second floor for a meeting with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

• • •

Following the visit between Pope John Paul and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl today, a joint communiquÈ was issued by the Press and Information Office of the German government and by Joaquin Navarro-Valls, director of the Holy See Press Office. After speaking of the “friendly atmosphere” and “excellent” relations between the two, it said: “A central point in the talks concerned developments in Europe. Federal Chancellor Kohl acknowledged the major role of Pope John Paul in the collapse of the communist regime. He had provided many people, beginning with his Polish compatriots, with the moral strength to stand up for human rights, freedom and social justice.

“Pope John Paul thanked Federal Chancellor Kohl for his contribution to the unification of Europe on the basis of social justice and respect for the cultural particularity of the peoples. A true community of European peoples will only be possible when the gap between rich and poor countries has been overcome. Social tensions jeopardize internal peace, not the least of all. Pope John Paul II asked, in spite of the economic difficulties in Europe and Germany, not to forget that Europe has an unrelenting responsibility in the formation of a just world.

“There was agreement that it is a common task of the state and Church to contribute toward reconciliation and understanding between European peoples, just as the relationship between Germany and France and between Poland and Germany succeeded. The outbreak of brutal violence in former Yugoslavia has painfully demonstrated how the exaggerated nationalism is far from overcome and still represents a constant danger.

“Great hope is placed on the young generation. Young people continue to have a great deal of idealism and willingness to contribute to building the future. For this reason, it is important to promote encounters between young people beyond borders.”

• • •

Before bidding the German people farewell this afternoon at the Brandenburg Gate, the Pope prayed before the tomb of Blessed Lichtenberg at the cathedral in Berlin. Upon arriving at the gate, John Paul II crossed it from west to east accompanied by the federal chancellor, and from there made an appeal for freedom.

Recalling that in 1989 this gate, symbol of Berlin, witnessed liberation from the yoke of oppression, he noted that “when it opened it became a symbol of unity and a sign of the fact that finally the aspiration of fundamental law to obtain the unity and freedom of Germany in free self-determination had been accomplished. And in this way one can rightly say that the Brandenburg Gate has become the Gate of freedom.”

“In this place so permeated by history I feel compelled to address an urgent appeal for freedom to all those here present, to the German people, to Europe—also called to unity in freedom, to all men of good will. May this appeal also reach those peoples who until now have been denied the right to self- determination, to the not few peoples—indeed, they are many— who have not been guaranteed the fundamental freedoms of the person: freedom of religion, of conscience and political freedom.”

Europe needs “men who will protect human freedom through solidarity and responsibility. Not only Germany but all of Europe needs for this reason the indispensable contribution of Christians. I exhort all the people of Berlin and all Germans…. Keep this gate open with the spirit of love, justice and peace! Keep the gate open with the openness of your hearts! There is no freedom without love. Man is called to freedom. To all of you who listen to me, I proclaim: the fullness and realization of this freedom has a name: Jesus Christ.”

The Holy Father then went to the Berlin airport, and from there left by plane for Rome, where he arrived at 11:00 p.m.

MONDAY

The Holy Father nominated Father Carlos Garfias Merlos, episcopal delegate for the permanent formation of priests of the archdiocese of Morelia, Mexico, as bishop of Ciudad Altamirano, Mexico.

TUESDAY

The Holy Father received in separate audiences this morning three prelates of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei on “ad limina” visit.

WEDNESDAY

At today's general audience, which took place first in the Vatican Basilica and afterward in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope summarized his recent trip to Germany.

• • •

Today the Holy Father nominated:

Bishop Apparecido Jose Dias, S.V.D., of Registro as bishop of Roraima, Brazil.

Bishop Waldemar Chaves de Araujo of Teofilo Otoni as bishop of Sao Joao del Rei, Brazil.

Auxiliary Bishop Francisco Cases Andreu of Orihuela-Alicante as bishop of Albacete, Spain.

Father Ramon del Hoyo Lopez, vicar general of Burgos, as bishop of Cuenca, Spain.

THURSDAY

John Paul II received today 60 participants in the annual assembly of ROACO (the Association for Assistance to the Eastern Churches) accompanied by Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, its president, and thanked them for their “generous solidarity with so many brothers of the Oriental Churches” and the help in relieving “their suffering.”

John Paul II told them that “your heart, open above all to the needs of our brothers of the East, is a clear and strong sign of the love that transcends all limits and successfully reaches each situation, in this way manifesting the universal dimension of the Church, a mother who cares for everyone.”

• • •

The Holy Father received in separate audiences this morning:

Four prelates of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei on “ad limina” visit.

Jean Chretien, prime minister of Canada, with his wife and entourage.

Members of the “Sociedades Biblicas Unidas” Association.

FRIDAY

This morning the Pope received the general chapter of the Mercy Sisters of Charity, whom he reminded that “all genuine renewal requires a process that, above all, effectively helps one to feel in one's heart a passion for God's holiness.”

Following the charism of the founder, the Servant of God Juan Nepomuceno Zegri y Moreno, said the Holy Father, “you have as your own mission the exercise of the works of mercy in sectors as broad and diverse as hospitals, residences for the elderly, schools, centers for lepers, homes for priests,‘ ad gentes’ missions and aid to parishes, without forgetting the services you perform also for the Holy See.”

• • •

Pope John Paul today received participants in a meeting being held at the Vatican Observatory in Castelgandolfo on “Evolutionary and Molecular Biology: Scientific perspectives on Divine Action,” the fourth in a series devoted to dialogue between philosophy, theology and science.

“If scientific endeavor, philosophical inquiry and theological reflection are to bring genuine benefit to the human family, they must always be grounded in truth,” said the Holy Father. “When related to this truth, advances in science and technology, … spur men and women on to face the most decisive of struggles, those of the heart and of the moral conscience.”

“What you do as scientists, philosophers and theologians,” he pointed out, “can contribute significantly to clarifying the vision of the human person as the focus of creation's extraordinary dynamism and the supreme object of divine intervention. Thus there is an intimate link between the development of scientific perspectives on divine action in the universe and the betterment of mankind.”

John Paul II concluded: “In the final analysis, the true, the beautiful and the good are essentially one.”

• • •

The Holy Father received in separate audiences today:

Cardinal Jozef Tomko with Archbishops Guiseppe Uhac and Charles Schleck, respectively prefect, secretary and adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Archbishop Emil Paul Tscherrig, apostolic nuncio in Burundi, with family members.

Three prelates of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei on “ad limina” visit.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. (VIS)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican News -------- TITLE: Miracles, Virtues Declared DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE FOLLOWING DECREES were promulgated June 25 in the presence of Pope John Paul II and members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and postulators of the respective causes.

Seven decrees regarding miracles attributed to the intercession of seven Venerable Servants of God:

Gaetano Catanoso, Italian, priest from the diocese of Reggio Calabria, Italy, pastor and founder of the Congregation of the Veronica Sisters of the Holy Face (1879-1963);

Enrico Rebuschini, Italian, priest of the Order of Regular Clergy Ministers of the Sick (1860-1938);

Cipriano Michele Iwene Tansi, Nigerian, priest of the diocese of Onitsha, Nigeria, and later monk at the Trappist Monastery of Mont St. Bernard, England (1903-1964);

Maria Ana Mogas Fontcuberta, Spanish, foundress of the Congregation of the Third Order Franciscan Sisters of the Mother of the Divine Shepherd (1827-1886);

Maria Marcellina Darowska, Ukrainian, co-foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1827-1911);

Frederic Ozanam, layman born in Milan, died in Marseille, France, university professor, co-founder of the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul (1813-1853);

Caterina Jarrige, French, of the Third Order Secular of St. Dominic (1754-1836).

One decree of martyrdom of the Servant of God Vincenzo Lewoniuk and his 12 companions, martyrs, Uniate Catholics of Podlachia, killed for their faithfulness to the Catholic Church in Pratulin (Poland) in 1874 (see related story, this page).

Six decrees of heroic virtues of the following Servants of God:

Antonio Amumdarain Garmendia, Spanish, priest of the diocese of Vitoria and founder of the secular institute “Alianza en Jesus por Maria” (1885-1954);

Giacomo Alberione, Italian, priest of the diocese of Alba and founder of the Pauline Family (1884-1971);

Nicola da Gesturi (born Giovanni Medda Usai), Italian, lay professor of the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor (1882-1958);

Maria Teresa Lega (born Anna Amalia), Italian, foundress of the “Lega” Institute, Sisters of the Holy Family, of the Third Order of St. Francis (1812- 1890);

Teresa Gallifa Palmarola, Spanish, foundress of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Passion (1850-1907);

Liduina Meneguzzi (born Elisa Angela), Italian, professed religious of the Institute of the Sisters of St. Francis de Salles (1901-1941). (VIS)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lisapevtzow ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican News -------- TITLE: Group Claims to 'cure' Homosexuals DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

GAYS AND LESBIANS hoping to “recover” from their sexual orientation have flocked to a religious conference in suburban Boston run by a group that bills itself as a “recovery support group for homosexuals,” organizers said June 25.

Exodus International, a worldwide Christian ministry led by “recovered” homosexuals, said the conference in Wenham, Mass., treats homosexuality as a curable addiction similar to alcoholism and compulsive gambling. Organizers said 575 people from around the world were attending the 21st annual conference to hear speakers, many of them “ex-gays and lesbians,” testify that they're happier now that they're leading a heterosexual lifestyle.

“We are not here to bash gays,” said Bob Davies, director of the group's North American office in San Rafael, Calif. “Rather, we exist to offer a choice to those who are dissatisfied with homosexuality as a way of life.”

But Steven Pepper, a gay ordained minister with the United Church of Christ in Boston, argued the ex-gay movement fosters a “misguided hope” in Christian homosexuals who believe their rejection by society means they are rejected by God.

He said Exodus uses “discredited psychology and bad theology” to prey on “ill-informed, unhappy people,” often scarred by sexual abuse.

Exodus bases its teaching on “reparative therapy,” founded by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, which claims homosexuality is caused by a perceived lack of affection in parental relationships and other developmental problems. (Wire service reports)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Irish President Eyed for Top U.N. Post DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

WASHINGTON— “Should This Woman Run the World?” That's what The Nation magazine asked in an admiring profile of Ireland's President Mary Robinson. The April 15 feature was among many recent media suggestions that Robinson should be the next Secretary General of the United Nations.

At a June 14 press conference here, President Robinson said that “I have made it clear that I'm not a candidate” for the U.N. job. Noting that her term as Irish president “continues until December of next year” and that she has the option of seeking a second term, Robinson said that “there are enough candidates for the United Nations.”

The day before, however, The Washington Post had quoted her as saying of the U.N. post: “I suppose at the end of the day—because I have a great commitment to human rights—I could-n't decline to consider an offer, were one to materialize.”

Irish pro-lifers, however, question her commitment to the right to life and worry about what she might do if she were selected to head the United Nations. Before she held her current, largely ceremonial position, said Irish pro-life leader Richard Greene in a telephone interview, she was the first Irish politician who “advocated abortion rights.”

Greene, who leads a new Irish political party called “The People of Ireland” (Muintir na hEireann), said he would be “concerned about the agenda that she would bring to the United Nations.” Besides supporting access to abortion information as a lawyer and politician, Robinson has also pressed for legalization of contraception, divorce, and homosexual activity.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, the current Secretary General of the United Nations, has indicated that he wants a second term, but the Administration has made it clear that it is opposed to the Egyptian's return. After meeting with Mrs. Robinson during her state visit here, President Clinton said they hadn't discussed the U.N. job. But then, according to the Washington Times, he added: “I have a very high regard for President Robinson. I think she would do a good job in any position that she might be considered for.”

Some observers in the United States and elsewhere are suggesting that it's time for a woman to head the United Nations. It is not clear whether this is primarily a campaign for a woman or one aimed at Boutros-Ghali, or possibly something else. (The U.N. campaign for population control in poor nations is now waged under the banner of “women's empowerment.” ) Other women mentioned for the post include Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway and U.N. refugee commissioner Sadako Ogata of Japan.

Robinson—tall and pretty, photogenic and articulate—is quite popular in Ireland. Greene attributed her popularity to “round-the-clock media publicity.” He noted that on every trip she takes, “there's always a television crew from the state television company…. She's constantly being promoted.” Some Irish people like her personally, but don't necessarily agree with her policy views. One recently told the Irish Times, “I like the look of Mary, but she has fierce modern ideas.”

In her press conference at the National Press Club here, Robinson didn't stress “fierce” ideas, but focused on the concept of a “modern Ireland” that's an active member of the European Union and has a young and well-educated population. Robinson, a Catholic who is married to a Protestant and has a long-advocated sensitivity to Protestant concerns in Northern Ireland, argued for an “open, pluralist approach.” She suggested reaching out “to those in Northern Ireland who have a sense of themselves as being British,” saying that this “doesn't exclude the possibility of also having a component of Irishness.”

Speaking shortly after the start of peace talks in Northern Ireland—whose prospects were marred by a bomb that exploded in Manchester, England a week later—Robinson remarked that “I am not involved in the politics” of the situation there, but stressed her hope for “sustainable peace.” The key to negotiations, she declared, “is to have everybody in” the peace talks, and the way to accomplish that is for the Irish Republican Army to renew its cease-fire. She said that “if I had one fundamental wish or hope or plea, it would be that that would happen.”

Robinson answered reporters’ questions on a variety of topics, but declined to comment on the Public Order Act, an Irish law that gives police wide discretionary authority against protesters. Youth Defence, an Irish pro-life group, says the law violates the right to protest and has been applied against it in a discriminatory way. Robinson said a question about their criticism involved politics and that she avoids commenting on legislation.

According to Richard Greene, former Irish judge Rory O' Hanlon had just criticized Robinson for a statement she made before last year's divorce referendum. O' Hanlon claimed that she may have influenced the referendum outcome. (Divorce proponents won by a narrow margin, and the Irish Supreme Court upheld the results in a June 12 decision.) Greene said that, as president, Robinson is “constitutionally bound not to interfere in political matters” but that “she has, in fact.” He hoped that O' Hanlon's comment might lead others to “express concern about her activities and the people who are promoting her.”

Mary Meehan is based in Rockville, Md.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Meehan ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Public Order Act' Chills Pro-life Protests DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

DICK SPRING, the Irish Foreign Minister (and deputy prime minister or Tanaiste) appeared at the June 14 Washington, D.C. press conference of Irish President Mary Robinson. While she declined to comment on Ireland's Public Order Act, Spring did so after the press conference. He said the act was “a response to rising crime levels” and “late-night hooliganism.”

Members of Youth Defence, an activist pro-life group in Ireland, charge that police have also used the act to prevent them from displaying pictures of aborted children in public. Spring remarked that “I would certainly support” police in that. “There is a right to protest in Ireland,” he said, adding that “the test is reasonableness.” He said Youth Defence members “have gone way over the top” and have violated politicians’ “rights of privacy.” Spring said that he wasn't aware of a 1984 incident in Wexford, where Youth Defence demonstrators said that police linked arms and charged them, injuring one young woman so that she had to be hospitalized.

In an interview last year, Youth Defence chairwoman Niamh Nic Mhathuna called the Public Order Act a “draconian” law that “takes away all our constitutional rights.” She also criticized as hypocritical Spring's professed wish to be “cherishing the children” when, she said, “this is the man who wants to introduce abortion” to Ireland.

Last year the Irish Parliament authorized the circulation of information that shows where women can get abortions outside Ireland. In a June 13 telephone interview, Richard Greene, of the People of Ireland political party, said there has been “a significant percentage increase” in the number of Irish women going to England for abortions. He also declared that there is a drive to “make euthanasia acceptable to the Irish people.”

Green hopes his pro-life party can run “four or five good campaigns” and elect at least two people to the Lower House of the Irish Parliament. That will enable the party to “influence the agenda” there, he said, because it will make other politicians “afraid that they may lose their seats.”

—Mary Meehan

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Where's Our Man in Washington? DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

Ralph Reed, the angel-faced but politically astute executive director of the Christian Coalition has continued to make headlines ever since throwing the weight of his organization behind the “Contract with America.” His stature did not suffer even as Newt Gingrich and his revolutionary brand of Republican politics took a nose dive in the approval ratings. Most recently, coverage has focused on Reed's new book, Active Faith: How Christians Are Changing the Soul of American Politicsand his apparent call for moderation in the GOP plank's anti-abortion language, a move which got him into hot water with many pro-lifers. But the pragmatic gesture along with his soft-pedaling of the hot-button social issues such as school prayer—in favor of issues with a more mainstream appeal, such as tax reform to help families—further secured his image in the eyes of secular commentators as a smart “Republican political operative,” as he calls himself.

In its July 8 issue, The New Republicpaid tribute (in spite of itself, it seemed) in a lengthy and ultimately respectful cover story/book review. For good measure, the editors selected and perhaps touched up a photograph that makes Reed appear positively creepy. The reviewer noted that Reed “looks like an Upper West Side liberal's idea of a religious zealot from the Bible Belt, with his vanilla pudding face and headlight eyes.” Despite such digs, the review is ample testimony to Reed's success in becoming a genuine player, if not king-maker, in this year's presidential race.

For Catholics, Reed's power-broker status raises a question: Where is our man, or woman, in Washington? True, the Christian Coalition has branched out and created a Catholic wing to the organization. But, after a flurry of media interest—which focused mostly on outspoken criticism of the move by certain bishops—little has since been heard of the initiative. Then there is the Catholic Campaign for America, which, though solidly orthodox, has been hampered in its nearly exclusive appeal to hard-nosed GOP conservatives. Moreover, the organization has not yet produced a charismatic, recognizable “political operative” in the Reed mold.

There are a few candidates: The media-genic and highly articulate Helen Alvare of the U.S. bishops’pro-life office is one, provided she can be prodded and groomed to venture beyond pro-life territory and take on other aspects of public policy—welfare reform, education, health care. Or perhaps a member of ex-Gov. Robert Casey's family will follow in the footsteps of the Democrat who has combined pro-life commitment with a concern for social justice.

Reed has somehow managed to shake the liabilities of being associated with single-issue evangelical Christian politics whose image is so onerous to mainstream voters in both parties. In this regard, Catholics have some key advantages, among them a rich tradition of Catholic social teaching. The notion of subsidiarity, for example, is key to the protracted debate about federal funds and responsibilities devolving to the state level. Overall, the Catholic vision is, indeed, catholic,universal. Serving the common good, it grandly cuts across party lines and enriches the public debate. Our Ralph Reed need not necessarily be Republican. He or she could be a Democrat or even spring from a third party. Indeed, there could be several such Catholic “political operatives,” representing various political options that can bank on formidable intellectual and moral resources. That's something the “Christian Right” simply doesn't have at its disposal.

The point is that Catholics haven't even begun to tap their potential political resources. Ralph Reed deserves praise for his trail-blazing work and for rolling with the punches. But he shouldn't be the only game in town for committed Christians.

JK

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: opinion -------- TITLE: Excommunication: Wave of the Future? DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

AFTER “INQUISITION,” no word in Catholic life conjures up specters of hierarchic persecution more quickly than “excommunication.” But unlike the Inquisition, excommunication is a living part of Church law and, judging from recent events in the United States and Mexico, one that is likely to become more common.

The notion that excommunication, the Church's most severe censure, is a “living part” of ecclesiastical law strikes some as ironic. And yet, by classifying excommunication as a “censure” with medicinal purposes instead of as an “expiatory penalty” oriented to justice (see Canon 1312), canon law makes clear that its gravest penalty is designed primarily to bring about a personal reform. A bishop who actually considers invoking the penalty of excommunication, however, faces several difficulties.

Of the roughly 2,000 canon lawyers in the United States, probably fewer than 20 possess the level of understanding of ecclesiastical criminal law needed to effectively prosecute—or defend—excommunication cases.

First, the 1983 Code of Canon Law,which rightly favors pastoral resolutions of contentious situations over penal responses, has, some argue, been drafted in favor of the accused so as to make excommunication very difficult to apply in actual cases. To take just one example, while the number of ecclesiastical crimes punished by excommunication was sharply reduced in the revised Code, diocesan bishops who might wish to extend the reach of excommunication to meet new problems are expressly discouraged from enacting local laws involving that penalty (see Canons 1317-1318).

Second, on a more mundane level, being a bishop or even a canon lawyer does not guarantee sufficient knowledge to correctly apply those provisions governing excommunication which do exist. Of the roughly 2,000 canon lawyers in the United States, probably fewer than 20 possess the level of understanding of ecclesiastical criminal law needed to effectively prosecute—or defend— excommunication cases. The very rarity of penal cases means that, a dozen years after the revised law went into effect, the canons on excommunication remain relatively untested. Few ecclesiastical administrators relish venturing into unfamiliar, and clearly controversial, areas.

But beyond such practical problems, bishops face a greater obstacle in excommunication cases. Because the Church has no physical means of enforcing its sanctions and virtually no financial leverage over the community it governs, its system of censures, especially excommunication, depends for its effectiveness on the faithfuls’ grasp of and commitment to Church teaching. But a crisis of self-understanding has impacted much of the Western Church in the last 30 years. Therefore, until the values of being in communion with the Church are again understood at the popular level, the consequences of being out of communion with the Church will remain unappreciated.

Naturally, each of these disparate issues must be carefully weighed by bishops, well in advance of beginning an excommunication process. Once an announcement about excommunication is made, bishops and their staffs will probably find themselves at the center of a veritable feeding frenzy in the secular media. That would be a poor time to discover gaps in the preparation of an excommunication case, for such slips would allow the focus of attention to shift from the activities alleged to be destructive of ecclesial well-being to the technicalities of the process by which those activities are measured.

Against these many difficulties, however, bishops must weigh their basic duties to defend the teachings of the Church and to promote the spiritual welfare of the individuals committed to their care. Put another way, just as bishops are bound by Canon 1341 to employ all the pastoral means available for resolving penal situations before resorting to formal sanctions, so bishops are bound by Canon 392 “to promote the common discipline of the whole Church and to urge the observance of all ecclesiastical laws.”

The problems outlined above are not necessarily barriers to action. For example, while the procedural difficulties of adjudicating excommunication cases are real, they also tend to be exaggerated in the minds of some administrators. And while a bishop cannot be excused from following canonical due process merely because “he is trying to do the right thing,” canon law can and should be amended where practical experience shows its deficiency as written.

As for the shortage of qualified advisors in this area, including those whose advice might be against using excommunication in certain cases, bishops simply should consult with them before acting. Certainly, those individuals threatened with excommunication will exercise their right to seek the best in canonical advice; bishops should be no less prudent.

Finally, the post-conciliar period of ecclesiastical self-questioning—which might have provided both religious leadership and the common faithful with a basis for avoiding considering excommunication as a means to defend the Church's identity or for recalling wayward individuals from their errors—is on the wane. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other recent efforts become more effective in re-articulating authentic Catholic beliefs, the antipathy between solid Church teaching and the hardening of positions by certain extremists operating, or claiming to operate, under the color of Church authority will be drawn in ever sharper contrast. This combination of factors will almost certainly result in more cases in which excommunication will be proposed, considered, and in due course applied.

Dr. Edward Peters is director of canonical affairs for the Diocese of San Diego, Calif.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Peters ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

PUZZLE PIECE

I want to thank you for publishing Father Peter Liuzzi's review of Homosexuality-Catholic Teaching and Pastoral Practice by Father Gerald Coleman, S.S. (May 12). The reviewer identifies extremists who, on the one side, only condemn homosexuality and, on the other side, who only see it as sacrosanct and beyond the reaches of the Magesterium and traditional morality.

Father Liuzzi noted that the foreword to the book by Los Angeles Cardinal Mahony points out Gabriel Marceau's distinction between puzzle and mystery. If homosexuality is seen as a problem, we're likely to come up with overly neat solutions. But if it's seen as one of the mysteries of life, easy answers are not admissible.

Thanks, Cardinal Mahony, for the admonishment on better thinking. Thanks to the Register for publishing Father Liuzzi's review.

Mack Manning Chicago, Illinois

L.A. STORY

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony recently was quoted as calling St. Vibiana's the “worst or second worst” cathedral in the world. Eager to swing the wrecking ball on his cathedral, the cardinal has gone out of his way to disparage a church built at great sacrifice by the Catholics of Los Angeles and their neighbors of other faiths.

As the battle over the cathedral escalates we are told by the cardinal's supporters that the cathedral is unworthy of preservation because it is not an example of great architecture, but only a copy of a church in Spain. Since 1876, when St. Vibiana's was erected, numerous larger and more beautiful buildings have been constructed in the city. Yet that does not diminish the importance of St. Vibiana's or its unique role in the development of Los Angeles. Jesuit Father Michael Engh of Loyola Marymount University, who is president of the Los Angeles City Historical Society, tells us in his 1992 book Frontier Faiths that the construction of St. Vibiana's was made possible by hundreds of contributions from all segments of society: rich and poor, Catholics, Protestants and Jews. When completed, the baroque cathedral stood in grand contrast to the city's humble adobe and frame structures. Architecturally speaking, St. Vibiana's began the transformation of Los Angeles from an unsophisticated pueblo to a cosmopolitan city with a variety of architectural styles.

If the cathedral has grown dingy and unattractive in recent years, it is not because it lacks architectural merit or historical significance. It is because Cardinal Mahony has neglected to provide proper maintenance. The cardinal and his supporters have amassed $45 million in commitments to replace St. Vibiana's. But could not a small fraction of that money have been raised over the years to keep the present cathedral safe and attractive? The last time St. Vibiana's underwent major renovation was 25 years ago, simply to bring it into conformity with liturgical fashions of that time. Since then, it appears that the cathedral has been allowed to deteriorate in anticipation of the day when it could be knocked down.

Now in a huff because the Los Angeles Conservancy and others oppose his plan, the cardinal announces that if he can't level St. Vibiana's and build a huge cathedral-conference complex on the site, he will take this $45 million project to a more appreciative community in the San Fernando or San Gabriel valleys. All this has taught us much more about Cardinal Mahony and the city's political leadership than it has about St. Vibiana's.

J.L. Nichols Desert Hot Springs, California

TOP DRAWER

This comes as an embarrassing confession of my gross oversightedness in taking the Register's‘new look’ for granted. The format is super! The color photos add realism and attractiveness to your pages. The “news in brief” is a real eye catcher. I really like the “Pope's week” section. Creating that feature was a stroke of genius. The whole publication has a freshness and appeal to it. Whoever you hired to do the job sure knew what he/she was doing.

I can see the art of printing has come a long way since the time of the linotype machine and platen press. I would bet much of the layout, editing, etc., etc., is done on or with a computer and peripherals. The finished work (look) is top drawer quality from the word “Go.”

Aubert Lemrise Peru, Illinois

OPEN LETTER

The following is an open letter to the coalition that calls itself “We Are Church” :

Popular opinion has never been the basis for teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When you conduct sociological research, or cite those who do, as a basis for faith and morals, you fail to consider that there are millions of Americans today who classify themselves as “Catholics,” but who have neither in-depth knowledge nor any interest to find out what the Catholic Church actually teaches. They get most of their information on the Church from sources— like the secular news industry—that are alien to and biased against the Church. Many depend on the Church to get married or to bury a departed relative, or attend Mass only on Christmas or Easter. But that's where it ends. Perhaps the majority of Catholics polled would favor the radical changes you seek, but the majority of these same respondents also (according to similar research) accept egregious doctrinal errors—that the Eucharist is a symbol, not Christ's body, for example. Many, if not most, of the Catholics whose opinions you cite follow such patterns of behavior. To present them as “the Church” is not representative. If, however, research focused on those Catholics who regularly attend Mass, the numbers might be reversed.

It would appear you do not consider Scripture, tradition or the saints of the Church worthy of consultation or consideration. I ask you to consider that Christ never conducted referendums of crowds as a basis for doctrine, and neither did Ss. Paul, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas or any of Christ's vicars, from St. Peter to John Paul II, or any of the saints, martyrs or confessors.

Those Churches—like the mainline Protestant bodies—which have already taken the route along which you seek to lead the Catholic Church are in dismal shape today. The few religious bodies who are gaining ground today are not the liberalized mainline bodies with their “at your convenience” watered-down Gospel, but rather those groups who are strict on their followers and challenging to society—for example, evangelical Protestant groups, Mormons, and Roman Catholics. Churches gain when they challenge popular culture; they self-destruct when they imitate it.

You are not the Church. You are a comparatively small part of it, and I would humbly ask you to consider in your hearts if you truly are even that. The Church is the majority of confessing Christians throughout history, beginning at Pentecost and continuing despite numerous persecutions and corruptions to the present day. The Church is the Body of Christ spread out over every country on the planet. It also includes a large “cloud of witnesses” in Heaven. And for you to claim on behalf of American Catholics in the 1990s—or for those in Western Europe who have conducted similar referendums— that you are the Church is, frankly, myopic and arrogant.

Larry Carstens Arleta, California

CORRECTION:

Space editing of Father Peter Stravinskas’ recent reflections on the movie Priest (June 18) led, the author notes, to an unfortunate distortion of his views, which has alarmed some readers. In the original text Father Stravinskas made it clear that “in no way do I wish any reader to assume that that I am diminishing the significance of the homosexual ‘ acting out’ in the priesthood; the teaching and discipline of the Church are clear—celibacy obviates any kind of genital activity [heterosexual or homosexual]. However, that was not the main point of the film, just the hook on which to hang the real centerpiece….”

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Is There a Precedent for Deaconnesses? DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE ISSUE of deaconesses has been raised several times in the last three hundred years, yet the feminist movement and the general concern for women's issues have provided the current debate with a certain urgency and impetus. The most surprising support for the ordination of women to the permanent diaconate comes from the Canon Law Society of America (CLSA), which in 1992 established an ad hoc committee to study this question and has now produced a report which concludes that “women have been ordained permanent deacons in the past, and it would be possible for the Church to determine to do so again.” The publication of this report is startling because of the fairly conservative profile formerly associated with the CLSAand the role of canon lawyers. In this instance the Canon Law Society is, in effect, proposing a change in the canons. The report suggests that this be done only gradually, beginning with the granting of a dispensation, on an experimental basis, from the present canonical requirement which reserves diaconal ordination to baptized males ad validitatem, i.e., effecting the validity of the ordination. The report recognizes the seriousness of this requirement, but insists that “it is also of purely ecclesiastical law, which is capable of exception and modification.” With this dispensation, women in certain dioceses would be ordained and the results carefully monitored and evaluated to determine the possibility of a wider extension of this practice. The report carefully speaks of the ordination of women to the permanent diaconate since any possibility of the transitional diaconate is precluded by the stipulation that only males may be ordained to the priesthood.

Although the report acknowledges the need for further study, particularly in the areas of history and theology, it takes a firm stand and, one might argue, oversimplifies a complex issue.

In the history of the Church the term “deaconess” has been used differently from one church to another and from one age to another. Evidence indicates that the deaconess was someone who was singled out from the rest of the faithful, lived some form of consecrated life, and was engaged in a life of service, yet there is no single, universal meaning of the term. Sometimes the term is used for widows, at other times for the wives of deacons. Were they truly deacons? Were they ordained for a ministry uniquely their own? In spite of the assertion of the CLSA committee report that “women have been ordained” to the diaconate, scholars are not in agreement as to what the “ordination” of deaconesses means when it occurs in ancient texts and rituals; nor is it clear that the service of the deaconess involved any liturgical role at the altar. In the ancient practice of baptism by immersion, for example, the neophyte was anointed with oil and submerged in the baptismal waters without any clothes. In this case women obviously were needed to serve in the baptism of other women. In one of the Eastern Churches, where baptism by immersion continued to be the norm, the “ordination” of “deaconesses who assist in the baptism of women provides that the bishop lay hands on the deaconess's head not so much as an ordination but as a benediction. Each case and each text needs to be carefully evaluated. Available historical evidence does not provide a continuous tradition or understanding of the office and ordination of deaconess.

A further historical consideration is the relationship between the deaconess and the rise of feminine monasticism. Convents of nuns, as houses of monks, were always associated with the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and their lives of liturgical prayer took on an “official” ecclesial character. In one way the rapid expansion of monastic and conventual life for women in the West made the role of the deaconess anachronistic in the Latin Church. In the ancient Churches of Rome, Spain and Gaul, deaconesses known to be part of the discipline of the East, were positively excluded as contrary to apostolic practice, though some form of deaconesses can be found in the Middle Ages.

The thorniest aspect of this question may be its theological implications. The deacon is ordained to assist the priest and the bishop in the Liturgy and in the apostolic service of charity. He is a helper, a minister to other ministers, and to the whole People of God; he is a reflection of Christ the servant. The priest, in distinction, is ordained to act “in the person of Christ,” most properly in presiding at the celebration of the Eucharist, in forgiving sins, and in anointing the sick and dying. One might say that the priest is most properly a celebrant; the deacon is most properly an assistant. These are two distinct functions which flow out of the sacramental character given to the deacon or priest at the moment of ordination. Through the power of the Holy Spirit each is changed so as to reflect a different aspect of the mystery of Christ. This proper distinction between the deacon and the priest may well be used as an argument in favor of ordaining women to the diaconate.

On the other hand, in explaining the impossibility of ordaining women to the priesthood, Pope John Paul II has relied not only on the lack of scriptural warrant or historical precedent but has stressed as well the need for one who acts “in the person of Christ” to be “in the image of Christ,” i.e., to be a male. The discussion and decision regarding the ordination of women to the diaconate cannot occur outside the context of the nature of the priesthood nor that of the hierarchy of the three orders of deacon, priest and bishop. There is a certain unity and continuity here which must be respected and preserved.

In addition to the historical and theological aspects of the question, there are also cultural questions to be considered. For many Catholics this is where the issue primarily rests. Equality, recognition of gifts, participation in policy making, are phrases one hears. Others speak of the pain of exclusion, and sometimes rehearse the negative hype regarding the male domination and inherent sexism of the Catholic Church.

The CLSA report provides a service to the Church by introducing the issue of the ordination of women to the permanent diaconate in a thoughtful and reasoned manner. This is a question still open for argument and debate. A careful consideration of every aspect of the question will provide the necessary background for the Church's magisterial discernment.

Father Gabriel O' Donnell, O.P., teaches Liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, Pa.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lisapevtzow ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: This Politician Needs a Party DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

Fighting for Life, by Gov. Robert P. Casey (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1996, 255 pp., $22)

BY ROOTING out corruption and observing the law, Robert Casey built a good name for himself as a two-term auditor general for Pennsylvania from 1969-1977. Other Robert Caseys, however, profited from his good name.

In 1974, a register of wills named Robert E. Casey spent very little money to win the state treasurer's office in Pennsylvania. Then, in 1978, a Robert P. Casey from Pittsburgh, Pa. who taught biology and owned an ice cream store ran for lieutenant governor and a Robert J. Casey from the Pittsburgh area ran for Congress.

The confusion of Pennsylvania's voters helped to torpedo two of Casey's three tries for Pennsylvania's governorship. He refused to give up, however. And since Casey triumphed in 1986 and was reelected in 1990 as Pennsylvania's governor, he has built such a solid name for himself—not only in that state, but also among many Catholics and pro-life advocates nationwide—that nowadays theBob Casey is rarely confused with pale imitations.

Such stories, recounted in Casey's new autobiography, Fighting for Life, show him to be a man who has fought against long odds and, for the most part, won. The book makes for compelling reading as it weaves Casey's family life, health struggles and political career together.

Casey alternates chapters of his family and his political career with those of his struggle to survive and recover from a heart and liver transplant in 1993. The structure, which he credits to his son Chris, adds to the book's drama and makes it difficult to put down.

Casey's spouse, Ellen, and his father, Alphonsus, figure prominently in the book. Alphonsus grew up working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania but eventually graduated from college and earned a law degree at age 40. Through his example of hard work and emphasis on virtue, he taught his son to be a Christian gentleman with genuine concern for the underdogs in society.

Robert Casey and Ellen have eight children. The ex-governor writes that from the time he met her in high school his wife has been an anchor. Her successful battle with cancer in 1978 seems to fore-shadow his later triumph over severe health problems.

Like many Catholics, Casey never drew great attention to his faith in God. He just practiced it and served as a good example for others. Later in his life, though, the abortion issue compelled Casey to take a leadership role in a faith-driven cause, and his faith came out front and center.

For example, he writes how he and his wife didn't “plan” to have eight children, to run for the governor's office four times, or to live in the same house for more than 30 years. But Casey's openness to God's will and to taking chances helped set him apart from the vast majority of U.S. politicians.

Casey demonstrates a keen appreciation for the role of providence and the irony in his life. He writes at length about Dr. Tom Starzl, the surgeon who saved his life, and about Michael Lucas, the young man who died in a shooting and became Casey's organ donor.

Casey understands that hundreds—if not thousands—of strangers prayed for him during his operation and recovery, and that his life was saved by strangers. He also points out that organ bank officials did not give his request any special treatment, even though he was the governor of the nation's fifth-largest state.

For much of the book's second half, Casey writes about his struggles for the pro-life cause. He writes that he will always remain a Democrat, but acknowledges the chasm between him and his party on the abortion issue. While Casey may have fit squarely in the Democratic party 30 years ago because of his commitment to the family and to workers, his staunch leadership in the pro-life cause has made him an anomaly today.

Casey's retelling of the 1992 Democratic convention is particularly striking. After winning reelection in 1990 by the largest landslide in Pennsylvania gubernatorial history—approximately one million votes—Casey asked to speak at his party's presidential convention. The party snubbed him, insulting him further by neither answering him directly nor giving reasons for the refusal. Furthermore, the Democrats allowed a leading pro-choice supporter of Casey's 1990 Republican opponent—who had made abortion a leading issue in that campaign—to speak at the convention.

While some may label Casey's crusade for the unborn as obsessive, the ex-governor shows the flip side of the coin—that the Democratic party's aggressive pro-abortion stance is at odds with its historical mandate to help society's weakest members.

Though Casey's health has kept him from challenging President Clinton for the presidency, his story makes one hope that a young Casey-like Democrat will emerge from the ranks to give pro-life Democrats someone to rally behind and lead the party to where it belongs on the abortion issue.

Bill Murray is based in Rockville, Maryland.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bill Murray ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: God's Instrument in a Sinister Circle DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

Father Elijah: An Apocalypse, by Michael D. O' Brien (Ignatius Press, 1996, 600 pp., $24.95)

AUTHOR MICHAEL O' BRIEN warns in the preface to his recently released Father Elijah: An Apocalypse that his book “does not proceed at the addictive pace of a television micro-drama, nor does it offer simplistic resolutions and false piety.”

While there is a point to each of these caveats, the latter requires more heeding. The pacing of the novel is slow, thick with unbroken dialogue and lengthy descriptions of interior experiences. Plot changes occur unexpectedly and without fanfare—mere vessels for the theme in what the author calls “a novel of ideas.” But the book doesn't bore: the dialogue is heady but crisp, and though the plot doesn't rival Indiana Jones for thrills, it usually rewards the reader's patience with a good twist.

The title character is Father Elijah Schaefer: archeology expert, Holocaust survivor, widower-turned-Carmelite monk. Called to Rome by the Vatican from his peaceful monastic existence in the Holy Land, Elijah lands in an Eternal City rife with pornography and violence, its inhabitants hostile—sometimes physically—to men in clerical clothing. The Pope describes for Elijah what he believes to be an imminent crisis for the Church.

“Certain figures on the world stage are now moving toward the flock for a definitive attack,” he says. “They are approaching the moment where they will exert every effort at division and destruction. They are crying peace, peace, but there is no peace. Their hearts are full of murder. They hate the flock of God, and yet everywhere they are described as saviors.”

“They,” in O' Brien's vision, refers to a powerful global consortium of businessmen, politicians, religious leaders and academicians bent on a global revolution, ostensibly aimed toward peace and prosperity, but requiring the annihilation of those who don't fit the scheme. The Pope (never named, but by description undoubtedly John Paul II) chooses Father Elijah to contact and attempt to convert the movement's leader—a powerful businessman and head of the European Parliament, referred to simply as the “President.” The Pope believes he is the Antichrist.

Though Elijah's first reaction is one of surprise, it becomes increasingly more clear why he is well-suited for the task. His archeological knowledge gives him a part to play in the President's collection of “useful” persons. He is also, it seems, cut from similar cloth: once a powerful lawyer in Israel, Elijah admits he “was heading toward a future that contained power, the power to do good for mankind,” until he was granted a spiritual message that “dislodged” him from that path and lead him, instead, to the anonymity of contemplative life. In the end, Elijah's ability to persevere through hardship—whether as a “sewer rat” in World War II Warsaw, Poland, or after the death of his wife in a Tel Aviv bombing attack, proves to be his most valuable asset.

All the while, memories haunt him; the desires for power, revenge, physical affection, emotional intimacy—things he had renounced before entering the monastic life—return to tempt him and distract him from his task.

After several seemingly fruitless meetings with the President—the spell of the man's greatness nearly lulls Elijah into forgetting his mission—the priest is drawn into deeper and more sinister levels of the conspiracy. Enlisting the aid of a Tolkien-quoting priest-friend in Rome, and later an Italian widow and disillusioned former member of the President's inner circle, Elijah comes to learn the full extent of the attack on the Church.

All the while, memories haunt him; the desires for power, revenge, physical affection, emotional intimacy—things he had renounced before entering the monastic life—return to tempt him and distract him from his task. He becomes aware of “the barely perceptible movement of his heart” towards the widow, Anna Benedetti, recognizing a longing for “union with another heart.” Desperately, he offers this longing to God in prayer.

“Long ago you gave away your heart,” comes the response. “Countless souls depend upon your fidelity. In Paradise the love that awaits you far surpasses your present loneliness.”

As Elijah's interior struggles and sufferings mount, so too does the persecution of the Church. But divine intervention finally paves the way for the monk to deliver God's warning to the would-be Antichrist.

The absence of a neatly ribbon-wrapped ending notwithstanding, “Father Elijah” succeeds, foremost by making the interior struggles of Elijah applicable to all believers. Even married Christians, who celebrate the physical and temporal intimacy priests forsake, must recognize the place of primacy held by the spiritual and eternal love of God, a love that necessitates suffering. We don't just visit Calvary, O' Brien reminds; we don't just carry a cross—we must hang on it. The players in this novel share in Christ's death individually, as believers have for two millennia. They also suffer as a body, cursed and blessed together to undergo the prophesied persecution at the End of the Age.

The few consolations offered by the author mirror those given by God. We—and Elijah—do witness a glimpse of the heavenly reward, of cosmic justice being carried out, even as evil forces in the temporal world reach their apex. It is a satisfying glimpse.

Todd Aglialoro is based in New York.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Todd Aglialoro ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Gay Marriage Issue Low Key in Hawaii' DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

As head of the statewide Diocese of Honolulu, Hawaii, Bishop Francis DiLorenzo is at ground zero of the national debate brewing over same-sex marriage rites for homosexual couples. But while the mainland debate reflects the in-your-face, aggressive stance of the American gay and lesbian rights movement, there is far less rancor in the state that may become the first to legalize such unions.

“There's a Hawaii intensity and a mainland intensity,” Bishop DiLorenzo, who took charge of the diocese three years ago, told the Register during the U.S. bishops recent meeting in Portland, Ore. The Polynesian and Asian influences that contribute to Hawaii's laid-back way contrast sharply contrast with the swirling debate over gay marriage in continental America, he said. “The drama exists more on the mainland than it does in Hawaii.”

In August, a Hawaiian court panel of five judges will hear arguments for and against same sex marriage. Supporters say the state cannot block access to such a civil procedure. Approval of such marriages by three of the five judges will mean all other states will have to recognize Hawaiian marriages under the Constitution's full faith and credit law, in which states honor each others’ laws.

Presumed Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, President Clinton and possible Reform Party candidate Richard Lamm, the ex-governor of Colorado, all oppose same-sex marriage, saying they believe the traditional union should be reserved to one man and one woman. That view is part of a proposed, Church-backed amendment to the Hawaiian constitution.

“That's the value we're trying to uphold in the debate,” said Bishop DiLorenzo. While Honolulu's two major daily newspapers’ have backed same-sex marriage in editorials, polls by those same two papers found that 74 percent of Hawaiians oppose such unions.

“With marriage already under fire today, I think we can ill afford another social experiment,” said the Bishop DiLorenzo, who's view was widely supported by his fellow bishops at the Portland meeting. “It dramatically puts a new burden on an overburdened institution called marriage.”

Bishop Daniel Walsh of the Diocese of Las Vegas, Nev., described marriage as “an institution given to us by God. It's not an institution given by man or by government or by society.”

“The issue is—what is marriage? What's the state's interest in marriage?” said Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston.

Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw, Mich., said that while Church teaching and opposition to same-sex marriage is clear, “theologians are going to have to explore this, and I have no idea what possibilities exist.”

For the 106,000 Catholics of West Virginia, same-sex marriage is a non-issue, according to Bishop Bernard Schmitt of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. “West Virginia's just not into that at all. They think that's just ridiculous,” he said. “I'm not saying you wouldn't find a few in favor it. But it would be powerfully few.”

—David Finnigan

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Legislators Move Against Arsons DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

PRESIDENT CLINTON hosted a White House prayer breakfast June 26 for religious leaders and promised federal help to prevent arson at their churches.

Clinton told the leaders of various denominations that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will make available to churches arson prevention workshops and other resources to help them stem the recent rash of fires aimed mostly at predominantly black churches.

The president, before departing on a previously scheduled trip to France for the G-7 summit, also met at the White House with a group of leaders of major national fire and emergency services organizations.

The prayer breakfast involved nearly 50 religious leaders from denominations that included Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Unitarian, Seventh-Day Adventist, Mormon, Quaker, Evangelical, and Greek Orthodox.

“This was an idea that several religious leaders in the African American community had suggested to him as part of the healing process dealing with the church fires,” White House press secretary Mike McCurry said.

The White House described the meeting as a follow-up to the president's visit this month to the remains of a burned church in South Carolina, and to his meeting at the White House with a group of Southern governors.

As part of FEMA's response outlined to the church leaders, the agency has provided $773,000 to the affected states for arson training programs; will distribute radio and television advertisements describing arson prevention tips; and has established a toll-free number, 1-888-603-3100, as a central clearinghouse for information on arson prevention.

Meanwhile, the Senate unanimously passed a bill to double federal penalties for church arson.

“The wave of arsons primarily directed at African American churches is a reminder of some of the darkest moments in our history, when African Americans were mired in a quicksand of racial injustice,” Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said before the 98-0 vote.

“Burning of religious facilities throughout our country is truly a despicable act,” added Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican.

The Senate bill, similar to one that passed the House last week 422-0, gives the federal government greater jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute arson at religious buildings. It also increases the jail term for church arson from 10 to 20 years and provides federal loan guarantees to help rebuild burned churches.

On June 28, the House accepted the Senate version in a voice vote. Clinton is certain to sign the measure into law. (UPI)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: THIS SUNDAY AT MASS DATE: 07/07/1996 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: July 7, 1996 ----- BODY:

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Zc 9, 9-10 Ps 143, 1-2; 8-11; 13-14 Rom 8, 9; 11-13 Mt 11, 25-30

THE ORATION of Jesus we hear today gives the prerequisite for those who would be privy to the wisdom of heaven. That distinction is reserved to the merest children, and it is as an obedient Son that Jesus proclaims this truth. His prayer affirms how much Jesus approves of the Father's unconventional strategy for imparting His hidden riches. Christ's prayer invites us to embrace this plan of Providence and to make our own the Son's own conviction regarding the Father's care.

Who would expect such a scheme? That is precisely the point of today's Gospel. It is to those who expect it the least that God bestows His choicest blessings. The prophet Zechariah foretells the redemptive paradox of the Savior King who comes to us meekly riding on a donkey. But, the peace Jesus proclaims is the peace of Easter which makes sense of what the world considers absurd. For Jesus’ peace flows from the power of the resurrection, which restores God's prerogatives and priorities to the world while imbuing us with the confidence we need to place our total trust in divine Providence. The peace of Jesus proclaims that God is in charge, taking complete care of our lives according to His own ineffable wisdom and will.

Since we live according to the same Spirit “who raised Jesus from the dead,” we “belong to Christ.” We are an invaluable part of that “everything” that has been given over to Jesus by the Father; and so we are disposed to know the compassion and solicitude of the Father. To do so, we need only view our struggles in the light of the Spirit of Jesus who assures us, again and again, that “the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is good to all.”

For the more we come to know ourselves by knowing the Son, the more the divine rationale of grace unfolds in our life. We see how powerfully the Lord's promise of refreshment is hidden in every trial of weariness. Each experience of pain makes plain the Lord's loving invitation to be one with Him on the cross. We don't have to be afraid to identify with Jesus and take His yoke upon our shoulders; for by our courage and fortitude we learn from the Lord just how gentle and humble of heart He is. By turning to Jesus with our burdens, we find the rest in His Passion that the world cannot give. Our sacred claim and holy boast is that God purposefully lifts up the falling and the bowed down.

The only way to hear and make sense of this divine plan is to remain united to Jesus in attentive prayer, like a child who receives everything from the Father and just as we receive the Body and Blood of Christ from the Son. Therefore, we “rejoice heartily” and respond obediently to the voice of Jesus who beckons: “Come to me!”

Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., teaches homiletics at St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter John Cameron ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: To Stay in Race, Dole Must Close Gender Gap DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

Special to the Register

TO MOST OBSERVERS, May was a good month for Bob Dole. His presidential campaign was sagging badly when it first got a small lift by his decision to push to repeal the Clinton gas tax increase. Then a series of events, including Dole's decision to resign from the Senate and meet voters face to face, the guilty Whitewater verdicts in Arkansas, and the President's ill-advised decision to claim active-duty military status in order to delay a sexual harassment lawsuit have given the Dole campaign reason to smile. The Senator's polls, while still trailing the President's, have risen slightly and his campaign seems to have regained a sense of enthusiasm.

But one sour spot remains for Dole as he seeks to close the gap between himself and the President. While Dole may be making headway in some quarters, Bill Clinton owns a commanding lead among women voters. The ‘gender gap” is back and it is hitting the Dole campaign hard. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released May 26 found that President Clinton leads Senator Dole by a whopping 30 points among registered female voters; 61 percent for Clinton versus 31 percent for Dole. The same poll found only a 12 percent gap among male voters, while other polls have shown the male vote to be split about evenly between the two candidates.

There has been discussion about a growing gender gap between the two parties for many years, but the gap has become a reality only recently. In 1984, for example, Ronald Reagan received 55 percent of the women's vote, despite the presence of a female (Geraldine Ferraro) on the Democratic ticket. In 1988, George Bush won 52 percent of the women's vote in the race against Michael Dukakis. However, President Bush had several well-publicized clashes with the Congress over issues of importance to women-including abortion, child care, and family leave. By 1992, his support among women had waned considerably.

That same year Democrats made a high-profile effort to showcase their female candidates for the House and Senate. (In 1990, by contrast, the GOP did little to highlight the five female Republican House members running for the U.S. Senate—and all of them lost.) Democratic organizations like Emily's List actively recruited and funded women to run for Congress, and the Clinton-Gore ticket used its pro-choice credentials to its advantage while skewering President Bush for vetoing the Family and Medical Leave Act. “the Year of the Woman” theme helped boost female voter turnout, and Bill Clinton won 46 percent of the women's vote.

“I‘ve seen the poll numbers and you’ve seen the poll numbers that say: ‘well, there's a gender gapxs,’” Dole told the National Federation of Republican Women May 7. “does that bother me? You bet it does. I don't believe there should be a gender gap. I think that gap will close. Do I have a plan to eliminate it? Yes I do.”

In that speech, Dole mentioned some parts of his record “on issues of importance to women” that he will highlight in the campaign, among them his support for the Violence Against Women Act; his plan to crack down on repeat rapists; and his strong support for measures to make adoption easier for more families.

Anne Lewis, deputy director of the Clinton-Gore campaign, told The New York Times that Dole had been “wrong on every major issue affecting women, including, perhaps most symbolically, the Family and Medical Leave Act.” This bill, which Dole opposed, would grant working parents up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn, or a sick child, spouse or parent. It was strongly supported by many working mothers who often have to juggle workplace and family responsibilities. The bill was signed into law by President Clinton in 1993.

Clinton's unflinching pro-choice stance also appeals to a huge swath of women voters, while Dole's pro-life position appeals to a more narrow segment of women. “the abortion issue is a major problem for the Republicans,” said one female Democrat congressional aide. “younger and middle-aged women feel very strongly about it, and Dole and his party are on the wrong side.”

Some Republican women have made an effort to reach out to women on behalf of their party. Agroup of female Republican House members have recently begun speaking about the party's efforts on issues of importance to women. “The women of the Republican Party can be the best messengers this year,” said Rep. Jeimifer Dunn (R-WA) in an interview with The Washington Post. “We can tell the story of what the party is trying to do with a softer edge to the conservative message.” She points to the efforts of the GOP in increasing child care funding in welfare reform, and easing adoption regulations.

Even while some women Republican legislators are making these efforts, the divisive abortion issue is still an obstacle for the GOP to overcome as it appeals to women, a majority of whom are pro-choice. This helps explain why many pro-choice GOP women are making efforts to soften the pro-life plank in the GOP platform. “it's not the abortion issue in and of itself, but what the Republican Party says about women: less government is better except in the case of women,” said Senator Olympia Snowe (RME) recently.

Some Republican women are less concerned about the gender gap. Indeed, some question whether there is a series of so-called women's issues. “I think the notion that there is one set of ‘w omen's issues’ is wrong,” said Ruth Ravitit, a top aide to Connecticut's Republican Governor, John Rowland. “Women do tend to look closely at family issues, but economic issues are theirs, too.”

“It is harder to categorize issues just as ‘w omen's issues,’” said Julie Cutler, a Democratic consultant and veteran of Democratic House and Senate campaigns. “Women are just as concerned with economic issues as men are, but they tend to approach these issues in a different way. Women view education as an economic issue, for example, whereas men are more worried about holding the line on taxes. Some worry about Republican efforts to cut education and job training.”

She added that Clinton owes a debt of gratitude “to Newt Gringrich for his lead among women. Women see a threat in this Republican Congress. The Republicans’ willingness to cut programs that benefit women and children have made them seem cold and heartless. Women have had a strong emotional to the Republican Revolution.”

Some recent analyses do show that the women's vote may be harder to characterize than previously thought. “it's not easy to squeeze the nation's nearly 100 million females into a box labeled ‘the women's vote,”’ writes pollster Kellyanne Fitzpatrick in The Wall Street Journal. “there are large differences among the way women vote based on their age, marital status, geography, socioeconomic status, and race. A twenty-something female college graduate wondering why she pays for entitlements she'll never receive may have more in common with men her own age than with older women who rely on those entitlements.”

Fitzpatrick points to recent polls conducted for Emily's List, which found that 41 percent of white women under the age of 33 identify themselves as Republicans, as compared to 33 percent who say that they are Democrats. These younger women backed Republicans by a 26-point margin on economic issues, and by a 29-point margin on issues dealing with personal responsibility.

Another potential asset for Bob Dole is his wife, Elizabeth Hanford Dole. The former Cabinet member labor secretary under President Reagan, transportation secretary under President Bush, and current president of the American Red Cross, Republican insiders believe, can help her husband in his appeal to women. “she is a tremendous asset,” said Lauren Sims, spokesperson for House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “she is dynamic, articulate, and intelligent. She has a great grasp of the issues and she's a good campaigner. She is a role model for all women.”

Michael Barbera is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Barbera ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: France Mourns Slain Trappist Monks DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

“WE HAVE SLIT the throats of the seven monks, in accordance with our promise.” The declaration, signed by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in Algeria, hit Paris like a bombshell May 23.

Three days later, the bells of 40,000 churches throughout France tolled simultaneously in honor of the seven French Trappist monks who had been kidnapped from their monastery in southwest Algieria two months earlier. It was the first time such a solemn tribute had been paid to anyone since the death of Pope John Paul I 18 years ago.

Like many of their fellow Christian clerics in the North African Nation, the seven Religious, aged between 45 and 82, had decided to stay on in the civil war-ravaged country. They had lived, worked and prayed there, some for as long as 50 years, despite the GIA's threat two years ago to “eliminate all Jews, Christians and infidels from the Moslem soil of Algeria.”

In two years’ time, 18 monks and nuns, 14 of them French, have been murdered by Moslem extremists. Some 300 priests and nuns still remain in the country. Few are likely to heed the French government's renewed appeal to all French citizens— including those in religious orders—to leave Algeria forthwith, “because their safety can no longer be guaranteed.”

“There is no longer any question of our leaving,” Archbishop Henri Teissier, archbishop of Algiers, the country's capital, said on a recent visit to Paris. “the more time passes, the more our solidarity with the Algerian people grows. To leave now would be to abandon them in their hour of peril.”

But the brutal murder of the monks has severely shaken members of all faiths, Moslem as well as Christian, prompting messages of condemnation, and of sympathy from around the world for the monks’ families. In a May 26 address to some 50,000 faithful at St. Peter's Square in Rome, Pope John Paul II appealed to “all men of good faith, and especially to those who regard themselves as the sons of Abraham” (who include the Moslems) to ensure that “never again, in Algeria or anywhere else, such acts, which constitute the greatest offense against God and man, happen again.”

In France, home to Europe's largest Moslem community, most of them of Algerian origin, Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris mosque, said he was “overwhelmed and shattered” by the news of the monks’ deaths and called on France's three million Moslems to join him in a day of “prayer and meditation for these innocent victims.” The auxiliary bishop of Paris, Claude Frikart, met with Boubakeur who called their May 24 exchange a symbol “of the convergence between Islam and Christianity, their fraternity and solidarity in this time of trial.”

Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, told Vatican Radio May 27 that the slaying would not slow Catholic-Muslim dialogue. “On the contrary,” he said, “it should give it a new impetus.” The Nigerian prelate noted that “the great majority of Moslems agree with what the Pope said (on his recent trip to Tunisia) &hellips; ‘[that] no one can kill in God's name.’”

Even the Islamic Salvation Front, the main opposition movement in Algeria, condemned the murders, claiming, as its European spokesperson said, to see in “this sadistic and immoral act” the mark of the Algerian government's “special services,” while Iran denounced the assassination as an “anti-Islamic act.”

In Paris, French President Jacques Chirac paid tribute to these “men of peace [who] embodied the spirit of toleration, fraternity and solidarity,” adding: “May their sacrifice be a lesson to us all.” A minute's silence was observed by both houses of the French Parliament in memory of the slaughtered monks, while thousands gathered at the Place du Trocadero on May 28 for an all-party, all-faith tribute.

On learning of their deaths, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris went straight to Notre Dame cathedral and slowly blew out, one by one, the seven candles which had been kept burning since the monks’ abduction. In a shaky voice, the cardinal said: “they gave their lives; they did not seek to save themselves. They believed that pardon and love was far stronger than hate. We must encourage all those out there who struggle for peace.” After a moment of silence, he expressed his own grief: “I am extremely sad. I knew some of them.”

Cardinal Lustiger unwittingly offended France's predominantly moderate Moslem community by appealing during the brief, impromptu ceremony to “all Moslems” to “drive out the hatred” from their hearts. “One cannot take lives in the name of God,” he cried, as the assassins of the seven monks had claimed to do.

In response to the ensuing outcry, the cardinal (who has been in the forefront of talks to bring Catholics and Moslems closer together) hastened to explain that he had not meant to refer to the vast majority of ordinary Moslems, particularly in France, “who are not the bearers or hatred or violence,” but rather to the Islamic religious authorities who failed to condemn the thousands of murders carried out by fanatics in the name of the Qu'ran and God.

The May 26 celebration of Pentecost in France was tinged with the sadness of prayers for the slain monks. Various Trappist monasteries throughout the country reported their Masses were unusually well-attended, with some visitors traveling many miles to express solidarity with the order.

An estimated 50,000 civilians, including 116 foreigners (one third of them French), have been killed in Algeria's civil war that began after the military-backed government canceled parliamentary elections which the Islamic Salvation Front seemed poised to win four years ago.

Algerian Moslem Fundamentalists, and in particular their extremist terrorist wing, the GIA, accuse France, the former colonial power in Algeria, of supporting the Algerian regime. As such, France has become a prime target for the Moslem extremists, both in Algeria and in mainland France.

Algerian extremists are believed to have been behind the wave of terrorist bombings carried out in Paris and Lyons last year, which killed nine people and injured nearly 200 others. Police raids on suspected Moslem extremists in France resulted in hundreds of arrests, with about 200 still being detained in French jails.

In claiming responsibility for the kidnapping of the monks, the GIA demanded the release of their imprisoned militants, threatening otherwise to “slit the throats” of their hostages. But they gave no names other than that of former leader Abdelhak Layada, who is on death row, not in France, but in Algeria.

The same demand was made by the GIA terrorist commando which hijacked an Air France plane in Algiers in December 1994, threatening to blow it up in mid-air. Three days later, the four-man commando unit was killed after French elite troops stormed the plane, grounded at Marseilles, and succeeded in rescuing all but three of the 277 hostages.

This time, the French rescue attempt— if there was one—was clearly less successful. The kidnappers claim to have killed the monks only after President Chirac and his foreign minister had “broken off the dialogue” with the GIA. The French government, supported by statements from the Cistercian (Trappist) Order in Roe, insists that it never had any contact direct or indirect with the kidnappers.

But persistent rumors of secret talks and a possible bungled rescue attempt by the French government have been further fueled by a claim by Father Gerard, prior of one of the Cistercian monasteries in France, that a “french emissary” had visited the monks shortly before their assassination and had given them the Eucharist.

Father Gerard's comments have since been refuted as “null and void” by his own superior, Father Yves de Broucker, who said Father Gerard has been misled by a person who was not totally in his right mind. Suspicions, nonetheless, remain.

Diana Geddes is based in Paris. Robert Kelly contributed to this story.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Diana Geddes ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Statistics Show Benefits of Single-Sex Education DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

AT VILLA VICTORIA Academy in New Jersey, girls fill every leadership position and captain every sports team. The student council president is female, as is the head of the school's math team and the graduating class valedictorian. Girls have every leading part in the school's yearly theatrical production—both male and female.

“No one can sit back and let the boys take all the leadership positions,” said senior Karen Burke, a national merit semi-finalist. Villa Victoria admits only girls.

For more than 50 years, single-sex schools were often dismissed as old-fashioned and discriminatory. They were branded as mere finishing schools or, at the other extreme, as bastions of militant feminism. But while the U.S. Supreme Court is forcing formerly all-male military institutes and elite preparatory schools to open up their portals for women too, educators and lawmakers are telling girls schools it's OK to bar the door.

In the last several years, convincing evidence has shown that in the realm of single-sex education, at least, separate can be equal. A bill pending in Congress would provide $300 million to up to 100 school districts to set up single-gender public schools.

Research data, much of it drawn from Catholic schools, has shown single-sex schools are often more effective than their coed counterparts. Schooled apart from boys, young women achieve higher test scores, particularly in math and science, and accomplish more in later life. Educators also find that the girls show more self-confidence and self-esteem, said Cornelius Riordan, a sociology professor at Providence College, in Providence, R.I., who has conducted many of the studies. “American schools are failing at fairness,” Riordan said. “But research shows that here (single-sex schools) is something that works.”

The faculty at Villa Victoria and other Catholic girls's chools say that is something their religious orders have known instinctively for many years. Apparently, more parents are taking the findings to heart. “the parents are seeing these statistics. They see the benefit for their daughters,” said White. “the world is so competitive; they want them to put their best foot forward.”

For the coming school year, Villa Victoria expects to accept about 25 percent more students than last year. And at the Connelly School of the Holy Child in Potomac, Md., there has been a 43 percent increase in student enrollment in the last three years. Mary Kousch, the school's admission's director, attributes that to a larger school-age population, the fact that public schools aren't considered safe by parents, and the favorable publicity about girls’ schools. “girls in a classroom with (only) girls feel freer to express themselves,” said Kousch. “The atmosphere is freer of distractions all the way around.” Added Mary Lavery, vice principal of Villa Victoria: “We are not only equal opportunity, we are every opportunity.”

Research shows that at about the time of puberty, girls’ test scores take a nosedive and their self-esteem hits the floor. Many stop participating in class or only speak up if they expect to be 100 percent right. According to studies, teenage girls are easily intimidated by teenage boys and cowed into silence by fear of ridicule. Unconsciously, teachers play right into boys’ natural competitiveness, calling on them more than on girls and rewarding classroom outbursts with attention.

Girls learn differently, said Lavery. At all-girls’ schools, teachers emphasize cooperative learning and discussion rather than answering a rapid-fire stream of questions. Also, she said, no one who attends a girls’ school can graduate with the belief that girls don't do chemistry.

“I think it is the freedom to not be worried (in girls-only classes) about what boys think of them,” said Sister Mary Beth Read, principal of Mount St. Ursula, the oldest all-girls academy in New York State. “Any one of us who has taught boys and girls together knows that boys just somehow tend to draw the teacher's attention more,” said Sister Read. “in a coed setting, its the very strong girls who do tend to come out. The others just shrink and let the boys take the lead. If they like a boy, they aren't as likely to disagree with his position.”

Despite the many studies that turn up positive statistics on them, Providence College Professor Riordan reports that there is still plenty of resistance to single-sex schools. Political decision-makers are worried that support for single-sex education will be labeled politically incorrect. Even most feminists are uncomfortable with it, although the American Association of University Women sponsored the first study, in 1991. “There is a big political block that does not embrace the research or even read it,” Riordan said. “it's a fact that people who do call a lot of shots are against them.”

Many argue that girls who attend girls-only schools tend to be more serious-minded to begin with and less distractible than those at coed schools. If they achieve more, the reasoning goes, it is attributable more to the personal qualities of a student than to the makeup of the schoolroom. But Dr. George Corwell, director of education for the New Jersey Catholic Conference, argues that the much smaller class size at most of the girls schools also is a big factor in the higher test scores.

And, he added, if teachers call on boys more than girls, that is because boys pay less attention in class and tend not to do as well. Lessons get through to girls much faster, he said. “instead of being biased against girls, teachers are biased for girls,” said Corwell. “Teachers play to the weakest link, which are the boys.”

A real problem, said Riordan, is that many people who have attended single-gender schools often believe that they 've missed something. Many schools take great pains to encourage students to take part in after-school coed activities and arrange get-togethers with nearby boys’ schools. Mount St. Ursula's ecology club recently began a recycling drive among several nearby Catholic schools and then sponsored a conference on the subject. Despite such efforts, however, many believe that attending school with only girls or boys held back their social life. It has also been shown that many will develop negative stereotypes about the opposite sex.

At Villa Victoria, you're apt to be more popular when you're smart and do well in school. Peer pressure, in fact, works in a positive way; the most popular students belong to the math club, which just took first place in an eight state region. “I's the club to be in,” said team leader Karen Burke, who wants to study physics in college.

Without boys around, the students are also less preoccupied with how they look. Likewise, they get all the attention from teachers because there aren't any boys around. The girls at Villa Victoria dismiss concerns that spending much of the day without the company of the opposite sex will put them at a disadvantage later in life. High school, they say, truly isn't an accurate model of the wider world.

“It's not like I'm missing out on life,” said junior Lauren Ketterer. “We just don't need them (boys) in the classroom.”

At Villa Victoria, they say, no one will make fun of or snear at what the girls say.

Lisa Pevtzow is based in New York.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lisa Pevtzow ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: High Court Nixes Gay Rights Ban DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

Catholic justices split over Colorado amendment

Special to the Register

WHEN THE U.S. Supreme Court last month nullified a Colorado amendment because it unconstitutionally singled out homosexuals as a group which could not benefit from anti-discrimination legislation, it fell to the two Catholic justices on the court to write both the decision and the dissenting opinion.

Anthony Kennedy, writing for the 6-3 majority, said that the Colorado amendment, passed by a narrow margin by the state's voters, had placed homosexuals there in a “solitary class,” denying them equal protection of the law. The amendment prohibited cities in Colorado from enacting gay rights legislation, overturning ordinances in Aspen and Denver, among other places. But the amendment, wrote Kennedy, was unconstitutional because “a state cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws.”

In a particularly scathing rebuttal, Justice Antonin Scalia accused the justices in the majority of taking sides in “the culture wars” by setting itself above the will of Colorado's voters, who approved the amendment by a six-point margin in 1992. The amendment, wrote Scalia, was designed to “prevent piecemeal deterioration of the sexual morality favored by a majority of Coloradans” and was “an appropriate means to that legitimate end.”

While it may well have been coincidence that the two Catholic justices on the Supreme Court wrote the opinions on the case, their positions reflect a tension present in the interpretation of Church teaching.

One portion of that teaching—that gay sexual behavior is immoral—is well-known. The other part—that homosexuals have human rights, like everyone else—is subject to diverse interpretations.

Colorado's bishops, like other prelates across the country facing controversial gay rights arguments, stayed neutral in the debate over the amendment and issued no comments on the Court's ruling. Some gay rights advocates have compared the decision to the famous Brown v. Board of Education case, which declared that racial segregation in public schools was illegal.

But Christian groups who promoted the amendment cried foul at the court's ruling. Will Perkins, chairman of Colorado Family values, told the Register that the justices had overreached their authority and should be impeached. “they made a new law and moved the goal posts,” Perkins said.

He argued that the court “has infringed on the voting rights of Coloradans” and that gay rights groups— with the support of Gov. Roy Romer—are now free to amend the state's constitution to include sexual orientation among categories for which discrimination is forbidden.

His group, composed largely of Christian evangelicals, is opposed to gay-bashing, said Perkins. But, he added, “we are resisting the idea that how people have sex should have no impact on their civil rights status.”

Other conservative leaders echoed Perkins. Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council in Washington, told The New York Times that the decision was an example of “an out-of-control unelected judiciary.” Tom Minnery, vice president of Focus on the Family, an evangelical Christian group based in Colorado Springs, told the Times that the effect of the ruling was to “disparage the moral views of the people of Colorado.” Perkins noted that while Church leadership remained neutral on the issue, Catholic areas in the state provided some of the strongest support for the anti-gay rights amendment. He expressed surprise that the state's Catholic officials had not emphasized a statement from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger issued a few years ago in which the Vatican expressed its displeasure with the concept of gay rights legislation. The document argued that discrimination against homosexuals in the hiring of teachers and coaches, for example, could be morally justified under certain circumstances. Perkins warned that the court ruling could force churches which rent public space to cater to homosexual groups as well or be subject to fines and lawsuits.

However, Francis DeBernardo, director of New Ways Ministry, argued that the Court's decision is a positive reflection of Catholic social teaching on homosexuality. New Ways Ministry, based outside Washington in Mount Rainer, Md., is dedicated to promoting a positive view of homosexuals in the Catholic tradition. It has, however, run into opposition by some Church officials, including Cardinal James Hickey of Washington, who argues that New Ways has deemphasized the Church's teaching that homosexual activity is morally wrong. Its founders, Father Patrick Nugent and Sister Jeannine Grammick, are currently under investigation by a Vatican-appointed panel looking into their views on homosexuality.

“We are very pleased with the decision,” said DeBernardo, who noted that Catholic bishops around the country have in the past supported gay rights legislation. New Ways, said DeBernardo, hopes that the Court's decision “will be a signal that legislation designed to discriminate against gays and lesbians is unjust and will not hold up in the Supreme Court.”

He argued that amendment supporters often sent out messages “filled with hate” against homosexual people. And he disputed Scalia's assertions that gays did not deserve legal protection, because “those who engage in homosexual conduct tend to reside in disproportionate numbers in certain communities, have high disposable income” and “possess political power much greater than their numbers.” DeBernardo said that Scalia's language reflects “the rhetoric of hate which has been used against many other groups.”

But while some gay activists have compared the court's ruling to the Brown decision, DeBernardo was more cautious. “I'm not sure it will ensure gay and lesbian rights in all 50 states,” he said. But, he emphasized, it will “prevent other states from trying to use these tactics” of calling for a referendum against gay rights laws.

While Catholic officials have largely been mum on the Court's ruling, DeBernardo said that Kennedy's decision is actually a reflection of Catholic social teaching about homosexuality. “it promotes the same agenda the Church is promoting, equal rights regardless of orientation,” he said.

Carmelite Father Peter Luizzi, director of Ministry with the Gay and Lesbian Community for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, noted that Church officials have strongly opposed homosexual marriage and other goals promoted by gay rights activists. But there is a body of Church teaching, said Father Luizzi, which recognizes that homosexuals have rights—not because of their sexual preference, but because they are human beings. Such a view, he said, “is part of the distinctions and nuances that we as Catholics make;” that, he added, makes Church teaching unpopular with both militant gay activists and evangelical Christian organizations opposed to homosexual rights.

The views of Scalia and Kennedy are examples of two different strains of contemporary Catholic thought, said Father Luizzi, who argued that Scalia failed to acknowledge the dimension of Church teaching which argues that homosexuals are entitled to rights.

“Catholics have a unique contribution to make because we are well-nuanced. Catholic teaching,” Father Luizzi said, is based on a “radical center” approach which stays clear of both gay rights activism and the militant opposition of many evangelical Christians.

For Kennedy, special attempts to bar gay rights legislation are evidence of unconstitutional “animus” towards homosexuals, a position which cannot be justified for any legitimate public policy purpose. Scalia, on the other hand, argues that the Colorado amendment to bar gay rights legislation is “simply a modest attempt &hellips; to preserve sexual mores against the efforts of a politically powerful minority.”

One gay rights lawyer said it was the most important decision ever made in the legal battle over homosexuality. The ruling, some said, may have an impact on laws about gays in the military, sodomy laws, custody battles between gay and straight parents and even laws forbidding gay marriage.

Whether the Court's ruling will be narrowly applied or lead to a further recognition of homosexual rights has yet to be seen. What is certain, however, is that the arguments presented by the Court's two Catholics will figure prominently in future debate.

Peter Fuerherd, the Register's domestic affairs correspondent, is based in New York.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter Fuerherd ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Cardinal Vlk: East-West Arbiter DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, 60, the 35th archbishop of Prague, has been president of the Council of Catholic Episcopates of Europe (CCEE) since April 1993. Ordained in 1968, after studying at the Czech capital's Charles University, his state priest's license was withdrawn by the communist government a decade later, although he continued ministering secretly while working as a window-cleaner.

In February 1990, after communist rule was overthrown in Czechoslovakia's “velvet Revolution,” Cardinal Vlk was appointed bishop of Ceske-Budejovice, from where he succeeded the late Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek as Czech primate in August 1992. He was named a cardinal in October 1994. As the CCEE's first East European head, Cardinal Vlk has worked to rebuild ties between the Church on both sides of the continent. He spoke with the Register during a recent visit to Warsaw, Poland.

Register: When bishops from nine East European countries met in Warsaw at the end of April, their aim was to prepare a common position for the CCEE's ninth symposium in Rome next October. Why was the Polish capital the venue and what were the main priorities?

Vlk: This was the second big regional meeting of East European Church representatives. Warsaw was chosen since the Polish Church is the region's largest, with the greatest capacity and the most trained personnel working. In October 1994, we discussed what communism had done to Eastern Europe, especially in destroying the Church as a community and dividing bishops and priests from the laity. This had created a passive, inactive element within the Church. We have to address that problem in order to rebuild the sense of a living community.

When we meet our Western counterparts in October, we'll attempt to convey something of the insights which our unique experiences have given us. The latest meeting was one of five regional Church forums recently established around Europe, with bases in Warsaw, Poland; Budapest, Hungary; Paris, London and Rome.

Six years have now passed since the first discussions on how to reintegrate the Churches of the East and West after the collapse of communism. Has progress been made?

A West European bishop expressed well the differences between us at a recent meeting. “We in the West have highly developed social instincts,” he told me, “and we are now deeply involved in activities on the horizontal level. In the East, by contrast, you seem to have been more preoccupied with the internal spiritual life and have closed yourselves off from outward concerns.”

This neatly sums up the contrast between the two sides of the Church. We now need, on the one hand, to reach more deeply toward our spiritual roots, while also becoming more open to external tasks and challenges. It's in this sense that East and West really can exchange gifts—and learn to breathe, as the Pope has said, with both lungs simultaneously.

Is this summary of the differences really still applicable, though? Some would say belonging to a Catholic minority in West European society requires a high degree of spiritual awareness and commitment, whereas the East European Church has been preoccupied with regaining its properties and rebuilding its public structures?

When I say the East Europeans should be more open to externals, I particularly have in mind social issues. The communists barred us from being engaged in public affairs and did not allow us to speak out. They tried to drive us into the private sphere of life. But the Church is not just a spiritual institution. We are part of contemporary society, and are co-responsible for it—Christians are also citizens. If the Church wishes to be a spiritual sign, it must also be present in the public sphere.

In the past decade, the chairman of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, stressed that Europe “needs a soul.” His successor, Jacques Santer, said the same thing during a recent visit to Turin, Italy. The Church isn't the only institution which can support this dimension of life— there are others who should do it too. But it has a special duty to bring God closer. If it fails to respond to society's need for a spiritual anchor, it will be failing in its task.

Aren't there dangers that too active an approach to social matters leads to the Church being identified too closely with political parties—or at least failing to repudiate parties who claim to enjoy special Church favor?

We shouldn't descend to the level of party politics. The Church is universal and Christians belong to various parties. If we identify the Church with one party only, we circumscribe its role, alter our vocation and separate ourselves from others. We've seen this happen in recent years in many parts of Europe—especially in Eastern Europe, but also in Italy. In reality, Christians have the right to belong to various parties, according to their consciences.

Don't East European Christians have a tendency to think too ideologically?

Any merger of religion with party politics, or of religion with the state is inappropriate. The history of the Catholic Church shows this goes against the Church's vocation. Indeed, we already have plenty of experience of the problems that arise when that happens. Under the Habsburg Empire, the link between the Catholic faith and the rulers was highly damaging to both Church and state. But control of religion by the state reached its negative apogee during the communist period.

Should the Church in Eastern Europe also engage in the “accounting of consciences” which was urged by the Pope in his 1994 exhortation Tertio Millenio Adveniente?

This process is essential everywhere. In Eastern Europe, too, the Church is far from being an institution without any sins. It is formed out of people; and people are weak and easily lost. At the beginning of every Mass, we beat our breasts and confess our guilt with the words: “My fault, my very great fault.” This is not just a formality. If we take it seriously, it should also include our faults in public life. The holiness of the Church is more than the sum of the holiness of individual Christians. It is also the contemporary holiness of Christ. If we have committed sins, we must admit it loudly and clearly.

Some Church leaders have resisted this, saying that the Church's communist-era persecution has been penance enough for any past misdeeds. Some also argue that if the Church admits making mistakes, it implies that God makes mistakes too.

The communist persecution concerns only the last half-century. But for this 1,000-year anniversary, we must look back over the whole millennium, since the first major division between Christians. We shouldn't evaluate past periods from contemporary perspectives only. But we should state clearly that our predecessors committed many mistakes—particularly through the practice of giving truth priority over love.

In your own Czech Republic, this process of accounting is proving difficult. Some historians and theologians—Catholic and Protestant—say the May 1995 canonization of St. Jan Sarkander (1576-1620) only makes sense if some parallel gesture is now made by the Church on the case of the martyred Bohemian reformer, Jan Hus (1369-1415).

These two cases are completely different. Hus was a Catholic priest who was burnt at the stake calling Ave Maria. We have set up a special commission to study details of his life and personality. It has now become an ecumenical body, with almost all Christian confessions participating. Through working together we have turned the project into a laboratory of ecumenism.

Sarkander's case belongs to another epoch. It's clear that he was attacked for his opinions on the pretext of having brought Polish soldiers to fight the Protestants. And he was condemned to a martyr's death on the basis of the Protestant motto cuius regio eius religio (whosever the reign, his the religion), which Catholics didn't accept. From today's perspective, all of this would be unthinkable. But at the time, human freedom was not respected and Czech opinions were deeply divided. The controversy surrounding Sarkander has forced us to set up a separate ecumenical commission to arrive at the truth about the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. We want to foster reconciliation and a mutual healing of wounds in line with the intentions of John Paul II.

Some say these two cases also reflect a kind of schizophrenia in the Czech identity—of a society which feels itself Protestant, but which is today overwhelmingly Catholic. Are Czech's in a real sense, prisoners of the past?

The excessively close link forged between Church and empire after the defeat of Protestant rebel armies by the Habsburgs at the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620, far from extending the Church's benefits, actually caused it great harm. The absolutist Austrian Empress Maria Teresa (1740-80) and Emperor Joseph II (1741-1790) appointed bishops to state offices, which went against Czech interests. The situation provoked vengeful reactions when the first independent Czech republic was set up after World War I. The new Czech state had a strong patriotic, nationalist character—everything which seemed to go against this was punished. It has indeed taken a long time to break free from the painful consequences of Habsburg rule.

The communist regime continued the policy of “punishing the Church.” Perhaps we are seeing echoes of the same thinking in today's liberal, anti-clerical Czech Premier Vaclav Klaus, too.

The hostile attitudes shown by some politicians and other members of society are a historical inheritance, first and foremost, from the communist period. Communism struggled against the Church and attempted to destroy it. For decades, propagandists presented the Church as a backward institution from the past—the unenlightened force, as Czech writer Alois Jirasek (1851-1930) said, of an 18th century Dark Age.

It was a black image in a black time, intended to inspire feelings of revulsion within society. This image of the Church has penetrated many politicians’ heads. That explains why they are not capable of liberating themselves from this caricature of the Church, or of releasing themselves from this form of indoctrination. They unwittingly live under the impression that the Church is acting against the nation, while wishing to gain access to the ruling power. In this sense, communism still exists in peoples’ heads. Our task is to neutralize the prejudice. But this will take a long time.

There's talk today of a new border being formed in the heart of Eastern Europe—between countries with predominantly Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox divisions. The Balkan war, it's said, has shown that religious conflicts still live on beneath the surface of modern European life.

To speak of some new division would be an anachronism—a throwback to the situation in Europe after the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia which ended the Thirty Years War by dividing Europe into religious spheres. Certain religious groups and individuals do indeed appear to believe that cuius regio eius religio should be reapplied. But we can't go back 350 years into history. It would make no sense to return to such thinking today.

—Jonathan Luxmoore

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THOUGH BENJAMIN Netanyahu became Israeli's prime minister by less than one percent in late May, the election victory gives him a clear mandate to make changes in the Middle East peace process, according to Likud Party supporters.

“We want peace, but not at the crazy pace that (defeated Prime Minister Shimon Peres) was going, making concessions here and there, giving away our land,” said Ze'ev Ben Ami, 37, a teacher who lives in the occupied West Bank and who campaigned for Likud.

News of Netanyahu's win was met with silence by the PLO leadership in Gaza. Observers say the PLO is less hopeful about meetings with the new Israeli leadership than about the final-status peace talks which are scheduled to resume soon.

But June 3, in his first speech since the election, Netanyahu delivered a conciliatory message calling for peaceful relations with the Arabs. “this evening I stretch out my hand in peace to all the Arab leaders and all of our neighbors, our Palestinian neighbors,” he said.

Arabs leaders are cautious, but hopeful, about Netanyahu's promises to nurture relations with Jordan and Egypt and to continue dialogue with the Palestinians. Still, they are likely to withhold judgment until Netanyahu forms his government. One telltale of the new prime minister's intentions will be whether he withdraws Israeli troops from Hebron, on the West Bank, as Israel had pledged under Peres to do by mid-June. (Stephanie Nolan)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Romanian Orthodox Defend Churches' Communist-Era Record DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

ROMANIA'S ORTHODOX Church has attempted to improve its post-war image by publishing a book about hundreds of priests, monks and nuns who were imprisoned under communist rule. The author said many more names would be collected for a second edition in October, adding that Catholic and Protestant victims had been included as a “gesture to ecumenical ties.”

“While our Church is widely accused of having collaborated with the communists, it is important to remember that at least half of Romania's 10,000 Orthodox priests were imprisoned for their faith during this period,” said author Stefan Iloaie, a deacon teaching at Sibiu's Orthodox theology faculty. “As the first such project, this book reveals important but neglected aspects of the truth. It shows that the freedoms we retained were amply matched by resistance and persecution.”

The 85-page Witnesses behind Bars, issued by the Orthodox Church's Vad-Feleac-Cluj Archdiocese, contains biographies of 1700 mostly Orthodox clergy jailed for alleged political crimes after the 1948 imposition of communist rule.

In a Register interview, Iloaie said most data had been amassed from personal recollections by prison survivors, although information had also been collected from Church archives and Romania's Association of Ex-Political Prisoners.

“Since official documents were either not kept at all or later destroyed, many uncertainties remain,” he said. “unlike in other countries, Romania's Securitate secret police archives have not been opened. Gaining access to official records could still take years.”

Iloaie said the most intensive wave of imprisonments had occurred in the six years preceding a 1964 general amnesty, although Orthodox priests had been jailed for opposing communism right up to the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania's 1989 “Winter Revolution.”

The names of 250 Greek Catholic priests and several dozen Reformed and Lutheran pastors had been included in the book without separation into denominations, Iloaie said. He added that he believed the record could help both the Orthodox Church, of which 87 percent of Romania's 22.8 million citizens claim membership, and minority confessions in their campaign to obtain fuller rights in the country.

“It may be that the state authorities, even today, will find this material embarrassing,” said the Orthodox deacon. “All of us— Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Protestants—are obliged to live side by side. This book demonstrates that we also lived and suffered together in the communist prisons.” (Jonathan Luxmoore)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: THE POPE'S WEEK DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

May 25-31

The Pope received today on official visit President Julio Maria Sanguinetti of Uruguay, to whom he expressed his wish that “the pre-set objectives for fostering the modern development of Uruguay on a foundation of ethical values, so deeply rooted in the religious and cultural tradition of the people,” be achieved.

In his speech to the president, the Holy Father highlighted the path taken by his country “to face the challenges of a peaceful and harmonious coexistence among all.” He said that “the Holy See also follows closely the efforts of Uruguayan rulers to promote adequate economic and social development, seeking solutions, in the first place, to the problem of unemployment during this difficult moment in history.”

“The theme of the defense of life,” he continued, “holds particular importance&hellips; . Legislation that protects the right to life must be accompanied by adequate social and welfare measures to protect those who prepare themselves to welcome a new life, so that any temptation to make an attempt against that same life will be removed.”

Addressing this morning the third group of prelates of the episcopal conference of Colombia, who have just completed their “ad limina” visit, the Holy Father spoke of the need to proclaim and build peace in the face of the violence that reigns in the country.

“There are reasons that allow one to hope in a process of progressively growing awareness of social solidarity in your homeland &hellips; and a more deeply felt demand for honesty and justice in public administration, so that (public administration) may seek totally the promotion of the common good. Nonetheless, other realities endure that continue to worry your Pastors’consciences.”

The Pope referred specifically to the situation of violence, “which manifests itself in very diverse forms: the abominable crime of abortion and mistreatment in the family, confrontations between guerrillas and the Regular Armed Forces, the activity of paramilitary groups, common delinquency and banditry, as well as assassinations related to drug trafficking.”

He said that “efforts on behalf of a serene coexistence based on justice, reconciliation and love must be multiplied&hellips; . In this sense you have committed yourselves to diverse initiatives, such as the Commission for National Conciliation, which wishes to offer its good offices for dialogue among the different parties, in the hope that complete and stable peace will soon be reached in your country.”

Four thousand pilgrims from the prelature of Loreto, Italy, were received by Pope John Paul this morning, who spoke of his two visits to this Marian shrine during its recently-concluded 7th centenary celebrations and reflected on what this event had given to the Church.

According to tradition, this Marian basil-ica-shrine contains the remains of the house in which Mary is said to have received the visit of the Archangel Gabriel and in which she conceived the Eternal Word. Towards the end of the 13th century, the house miraculously appeared— carried by angels according to legend— on a laurel hill in a town in the Marche region of Italy. Loreto comes from the Italian “laureto” (from Latin “lauretum”), which means laurel.

Today the Holy Father sents telegrams to Archbishop Henri Teissier of Algiers, Algeria, and to Fr. Bernardo Olivera, general abbot of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, expressing his condolences for the tragic death of seven Trappist monks in Algeria.

John Paul II presided this evening at 8:30 p.m. at the Mass for the Pentecost vigil in St. Peter's Square, on the occasion of the opening of Rome's “great Citizens’ Mission.” There were 1,400 concelebrants, including cardinals and bishops present in the diocese.

Observing that with this prayer vigil “we have gathered to prepare ourselves for the Solemnity of the coming of the Holy Spirit,” he noted that this day marked the solemn beginning of the mission of the Apostles.

The Pope exhorted the priests present to “be the first tireless operators of the mission, be holy in order to be able to be obedient instruments through whom God may build the holiness of his people. It is from the parish that this mission must begin.” He encouraged the Religious to “surrender yourselves with enthusiasm” to the mission, and told members of ecclesial movements, organizations and associations: “Ensure your full and faithful collaboration to the citizens’mission, in close understanding with the pastors, parishes and the entire diocese.”

Today the Pope received in separate audiences:

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo with Bishop-elect Francisco Gil Hellin and Msgr. Francesco Di Felice, respectively president, secretary and under-secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

Bishop Gianni Danzi, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, secretary general of the Governorate, with his relatives.

SUNDAY

Before reciting the Regina Coeli, Pope John Paul reflected on today's solemnity of Pentecost, which he said recalls the “great effusion of the Holy Spirit &hellips; sent by the Resurrected (Christ) as a Consoler and the principle of a new life&hellips; . The Acts of the Apostles admirably describe the fruits of the pouring out (of the Spirit): souls open themselves to God, language barriers are overcome, and a principle of fraternity is born among peoples. Where the Spirit of God reaches, all is re-born and is transfigured.”

MONDAY

The Holy Father received in separate audiences this morning:

Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Four prelates of the episcopal conference of Indonesia on “ad limina” visit.

Luis Angel Casati Ferro, ambassador of Paraguay, with his family, on farewell visit.

TUESDAY

“The Holy Father received this morning Evghenij Primakov, foreign affairs minister of the Russian Federation, on his first visit to the Vatican,” said Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls in a declaration today.

He continued: “the audience was an opportunity to inform the Holy Father of the situation in Russia and for an overview of the international situation, in particular on Western Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East. Particular attention was paid to freedom of religion and ecumenical dialogue.

“After the audience with John Paul II, Foreign Minister Primakov had a working meeting with Secretary of State Cardinal Sodano and with Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, secretary for Relations with States.”

The Holy Father received in separate audiences this morning:

Cardinal Antonio Maria Javierre Ortas, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini and Frs. Jose Luis Redrado Marchite, O.H., and Felice Ruffini, M.I., respectively president, secretary and under-secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers.

The Holy Father has nominated Fr. Anacleto Pavanetto, S.D.B., as bureau chief in the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State.

WEDNESDAY

In this morning's general audience the Pope spoke on the Immaculate Conception, and reminded the 21,000 pilgrims present in St. Peter's Square that, “along with Luke's passage on the Annunciation, Tradition and the Magisterium have seen in the so-called Protogospel a scriptural source on the truth” of this dogma.

In the Protogospel “the enmity between woman and her lineage, on the one hand, and the serpent and its descendants, on the other, is proclaimed. This hostility established by God demands a total absence of sin in Mary from the beginning of her life. In addition, in this unique privilege conceded to Mary, the beginning of a new order, fruit of friendship with God, is instinctually known.”

John Paul II said that “chapter 12 of the Apocalypse, which speaks of the ‘woman dressed as the sun,’ is also cited frequently as biblical testimony in favor of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.” This image “can be interpreted as an expression of the loving care of the Father who envelopes Mary in the grace of Christ and the splendor of the Spirit.”

Also (in the Apocalypse), “the ecclesial dimension of the personality of Mary is recognized: the woman dressed as the sun represents the holiness of the Church, which is fully realized in the Blessed Virgin, by virtue of a singular grace.” The interpretations of Scripture on the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception “could seem to contradict the teaching of St. Paul that all of humanity— with the exception of Christ—has sinned and needs God's grace.” “But the parallel between Adam and Christ is completed with the parallel between Eve and Mary&hellips; . It was important that, like Christ, the new Adam, Mary too, the new Eve, not know sin.”

THURSDAY

This morning the Holy Father received 150 friends and supporters of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, to be built in Washington D.C., and he blessed the cornerstone which he said contains “a part from the area of the tomb of St. Peter in the Vatican Basilica.”

He told those present, including Detroit's Cardinal Adam Maida, that the cornerstone “will serve to symbolize the Center's union of purpose with the evangelizing efforts of the Successors of Peter.” Saying that “the Center will seek to make a specific contribution to Catholic intellectual life,” John Paul II pointed out that the teachings of “the Successors of the Apostle Peter will be studied, discussed and disseminated (here). It is not to be a monument to any one person, even if it bears his name, but to the centrality and continuity of the petrine ministry in the Church.”

The Holy Father recalled that “in Baltimore last October I put before American Catholics the need to challenge certain aspects of their own culture.” At times, he said, “witnessing to Christ means challenging that culture, especially when the truth about the human person is under assault. America has always wanted to be a land of the free. Today, the challenge facing America is to find freedom's fulfillment in the truth; the truth that is intrinsic to human life created in God's image and likeness&hellips; . The new Cultural Center must take up this task with competence and enthusiasm.”

This morning the Pope received in separate audiences:

Cardinal Adam Joseph Maida, archbishop of Detroit,.

Four prelates of the Episcopal Conference of Indonesia on “ad limina” visit:

Today the Holy Father erected the diocese of Ostrava-Opava, Czech Republic. He nominated Bishop Frantisek Lobkowicz as first bishop of the new diocese.

FRIDAY

The Holy Father this morning told the group of Volunteers of Suffering from Hong Kong, and the Silent Workers of the Cross who are assisting them on their visit to Rome, that “your faith and courage in the face of suffering make this meeting a special and significant moment for the Successor of Peter.” “you already know that your sufferings can lead you into the very heart of the Christian mystery,” said Pope John Paul. “for the Christian, infirmity, disease and other afflictions are not something to which we passively resign ourselves. Suffering belongs to human transcendence:&hellips; Accepted and borne in faith, suffering becomes the instrument of our sanctification and the sanctification of others.”

The Holy Father received this morning in separate audiences:

Cardinal Jan Pieter Schotte, secretary general of the Synod for Bishops,.Archbishop Patrick Coveney, apostolic nuncio in New Zealand, in the Marshall Islands, in Tonga and in Western Samoa; apostolic delegate for the Islands of the Pacific Ocean.

Archbishop Diego Causero, apostolic nuncio in Chad and in the Central African Republic.

Bishop Walter Mixa of Eichstatt, Federal Republic of Germany.

Four prelates of the episcopal conference of Indonesia on “ad limina” visit.

Today the Pope:

Elevated the eparchy of Przemysl of the Byzantine-Ukrainian Rite to metropolitan see, with the new name of Przemysl-Varsavia, Poland. He nominated Bishop Ivan Martyniak of Przemysl as metropolitan archbishop of the new metropolitan see.

Created the eparchy of Wroclaw-Gdansk of the Byzantine-Ukrainian Rite, Poland. He nominated Msgr. Teodor Majkowicz, as the first Bishop of the new eparchy.

Nominated as auxiliaries to the Cardinal Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Fr. Amancio Escapa Aparicio, O.C.D., vicar general of the same archdiocese, and Fr. Pablo Cedano Cedano, of the clergy of “Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia en Higuey,” Dominican Republic.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Rome Issues Marriage Document DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE VATICAN attacked permissive laws and the media May 27 for creating a climatethat it says favored the breakdown of marriages and urged priests to prepare couples better for a life together.

A Vatican document on marriage said modern society was marked by “an increasing deterioration of the sense of the family and a corrosion of the values of marriage.”

It decried what it said was an alarming drop in the rate of marriage and sharp rises in the rates of divorce and separation, even shortly into the marriage.

The concerns were expressed in “Preparation for the Sacrament of Marriage,” a 30-page document prepared by the Pontifical Council for the Family.

Societies in developed countries were suffering from a crisis of values that is spreading to other countries, according to the document, which says the media is guilty of extolling lifestyles—including common-law marriages and pre-marital sex—that are contrary to the Catholic faith.

“Permissive laws contribute to aggravating the situation and creating a mentality that hurts the family with divorce, abortion and sexual liberty,” the document said.

“Many means of communications spread and help consolidate a climate of permissiveness and present a framework that blocks young people from growing normally in the Christian faith,” it said. (Reuters)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Security vs. Justice DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU'S victory over Shimon Peres—architect, with Yitzhak Rabin, of the Middle East peace process—has sent shock waves throughout the world.

Given the recent Hamas suicide bombings and Hezbollah firing on Israel's northern cities, the pundits expected a close vote—with Peres winning by a hair. Few anticipated that the hair's breadth would go to Netanyahu and the staunchly nationalist coalition he heads.

What the Netanyahu win represents, however, is less a new direction than the old status quo. Throughout the ‘70s and ’80s—the age of Likud dominance over Israeli politics—Israelis were evenly split over competing visions of “calculated risks for peace” and “security.” Thirty thousand Israeli voters at the end of May (less than a percentage point) placed the nation on the time-worn path of “security.”

Security as national aim was a sensible strategy at a time when the Jewish state was surrounded by hostile Arab neighbors. But it's a potentially destabilizing one at a time of fragile new Arab-Israeli alliances, a Palestinian peace process entering its most delicate stage, and the promise of Israel's integration in the region's economic and political life.

The success of Rabin and Peres’ efforts last year, and the prime minister's assassination last November, briefly put the majority of Israelis on the “risk” track. Now, apparently, it's back to the familiar political gridlock of the recent past—a status quo in which Likud leaders have balked at every chance for rapproachment with Arabs and their Labor Party opponents have thwarted Likud's aims at every turn. In the current regional configuration, one fears the elections herald an era of no peace and no security.

The post-election scenario brings to mind the words of a wise, but little heralded, commentator on Middle Eastern affairs: the late Father Bruno Hussar, who died last Feb. 8 in Jerusalem. Father Hussar, a French Dominican priest, saw the problem on the Israeli side as “the search for absolute security,” a situation brought about by a strong military and an unparalleled internal security apparatus that would make Israelis virtually invulnerable to attacks by hostile Arab elements and give them a sense of complete safety. According to Father Hussar, the founder of the 25-year-old Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, a pioneering residential community of Arabs and Jews living together, that aspiration was not only illusory, but threatened to turn the country into a police state.

For the Palestinians, the problem was different, Father Hussar felt. For many Arabs, the search was for “absolute justice” —the return of all Arab land “confiscated” by Israelis and the right of every Palestinian to return to the home he'd occupied a half-century before. This, too, the priest said, while understandable, was a form of tyranny which placed the Palestinians on the illusory and self-defeating path of “permanent revolution.”

With either security or justice as absolutes, the achievement of peace between Arabs and Jews was impossible, Father Hussar believed. Both aims had to be tempered by realism and flexibility in order for peace to have a chance.

Israeli writer David Grossman, has written that the path to peace that Peres and Rabin ” laid out was one I could walk on, one that allowed me, without ignoring the harsh reality of the Middle East, to perceive room for maneuver. That small space was a place where I could begin to breathe.”

Let's hope that the new prime minister and his nationalist colleagues manage not to give in to the “politics of fear” and smother that small breathing space, created by brave Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians, with such difficulty and sacrifice.

G.R.M.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Loving With a Crooked Heart DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

Auden by Richard Davenport-Hines, (Pantheon Books, New York, 1996, 406 pages, $30)

LIKE TABLOID journalism, the field of literary biography has lately become a nasty business. For several years, we've been treated to a host of fat, well-documented debunkings of 20th century literary giants. We now know, for example, that playwright Bertold Brecht may have had much of his landmark output “ghost written” by talented female disciples, while he was off playing the role of cabaret radical; and that Polish-American writer Jerzy Kosinski lived every bit as self-invented a life as his most famous character, Chauncey Gardener, in Being There. The list of luminaries having their dark sides exposed with relish is growing.

Happily, Richard Davenport-Hines’ well-focused new study of British-American poet W. H. Auden (1907-1973) is an exception. Hines, a regular reviewer for the [London] Times Literary Supplement, may have been helped by the fact that—as he himself notes—his work was preceded by C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien biographer Humphrey Carpenter's judicious life of Auden (W.H. Auden: A Biography, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1981). Carpenter's “big picture” work allows Hines to focus his gaze on certain selective aspects of the character of one of the century's greatest poets. And the fact that Auden himself was always candid about the contradictions of his personal life—his homosexuality, his religious conversion, his 30-year relationship with poet and librettist Chester Kallman, his moral conservatism—relieved biographers of the temptation to excavate for “hidden faults.” To an epic degree, Auden's virtues and vices were always matters of public record.

What has not been well mined until Hines’ study is the reality of Auden's Christian faith. Like most British intellectuals of his time, Auden abandoned Christianity in his youth. Intellectually serious—a friend once observed that he “thinks things out with the thoroughness of a cement mixer” —Auden worked his way through the ideological fashions of the ‘20s and ‘30s, particularly socialism and Freudian psychology. A pivotal moment came in 1933 when, as three college friends chatted on a lawn, Auden experienced, along with the others, an extraordinary sense of well-being and mutual regard that he later regarded as a kind of revelation of love. Encounters with Catholicism during the Spanish Civil War (specifically, his horror at the Republicans’ barbaric treatment of clergy and the destruction of churches), attendance at a Russian Orthodox Easter service in China, and a long sojourn in Iceland prepared Auden for the spiritual crisis that visited him in a Manhattan movie house in November, 1939.

The German proprietors of the cinema were showing Nazi propaganda films about the then-recent invasion of Poland. When Poles appeared on screen, the audience exploded in a murderous fury. As Hines tells it: “Auden &hellips; was filled with a sense of evil that was irresistible by any secular power&hellips; . He felt there was such a schism in the universe as could only be reconciled by atonement and the Christian forgiveness of sins.”

After his experience at the theater, Auden resumed going to church, becoming an Anglican communicant by 1940. The poet soon immersed himself in the writings of St. Augustine and the 19th century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard who, with their vivid sense of Original Sin, fed the poet's profound, though not despairing, skepticism about human nature.

Simultaneously with his conversion, Auden met Chester Kallman, an aspiring 19-year-old New York poet who became the older man's lifelong companion and muse. (He also made yet another controversial decision and applied for American citizenship in 1940.) While relations between Kallman and Auden were often stormy—to put it kindly—they perdured, and suggested the other great theme in Auden's highly individual version of Christianity: the centrality of love.

Echoing Dante, Auden saw love as “an accident occurring in a substance,” “an indirect manifestation of the glory of the personal Creator through a personal creature.” In a 1940 poem, Auden exulted that:

“Anytime, how casually, Out of his organized distress An accidental happiness Catching man off his guard, will blow him Out of his life in time to show him The field of Being.”

But if the poet's sense of transcendence was in good working order in the annus mirabilis of 1940, troubles with Kallman, the death of Auden's mother in 1941, and the brutality of World War II toughened the poet's views, both of love and of faith.

In the text of the 1942 Christmas oratorio For the Time Being, set to music by composer Benjamin Britten, Auden has St. Joseph say:

“To choose what is difficult all one's days As if it were easy, that is faith.”

And in one of the work's finest passages, Auden prayed:

“Though written by Thy children with a smudged and crooked line

The Word is ever legible Thy meaning unequivocal And for Thy Goodness even sin Is valid for a sign.

Inflict Thy promises with each Occasion of distress That from our incoherence we May learn to put our trust in Thee And brutal fact persuade us to Adventure Art and Peace.”

That the vital, ironic, tough-minded Christian artist of the war years evolved into the prematurely-aging bohemian curmudgeon of New York's St. Mark's Place, Ischia, Italy and Kirchstetten, Austria, is well known. (When barely 60, Auden's friend Christopher Isherwood called him “monumentally old” ). Auden's faith always stood in tense counterpoint to his sexuality and the ravages that his abuse of alcohol, cigarettes and amphetamines visited on his body. Still, as Hines observes, Auden “developed a personal poetic theory of gratitude for both suffering and human imperfection.” That perspective finds one of its wisest expressions in these lines:

“O stand, stand at the window As the tears scald and start;

You shall love your crooked neighbor With your crooked heart.”

Auden died Sept. 28, 1973, of heart failure, following a poetry reading in Vienna. He was buried in the cemetery of the local Catholic church in Kirchstetten, Austria, where, though an Anglican, he'd been attending church since 1958. Sixteen months later, Chester Kallman died at age 54.

In one of Auden's last poems, a postscript to an elegy he'd written in the ‘60s, the poet imagines himself facing the divine tribunal:

“God may reduce you On Judgment Day To tears of shame, Reciting by heart The poems you would Have written, had Your life been good.”

As Hines concludes: “Even in death Auden was hard on himself.”

Recommended reading: W. H. Auden, Collected Poems, edited by Edward Mendelson, Random House,N. Y., 1976, 696 pp.

Gabriel Meyer, a Register contributing editor, is based in Los Angeles.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

CARDINAL LEO SUENENS

In your important obituary of Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens “Remembering Cardinal Leo Suenens,” May 19), you neglected to sufficiently highlight the cardinal's important and long-standing participation in and support of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. This was for him a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit and a joy. Flowing from his personal openness to the Holy Spirit, the cardinal first championed the recovery of charisms for the Church today in the debates of Vatican II.

Then, through his experience of fledgling charismatic prayer groups in the U.S., the cardinal became active in and pastored the movement in such a way as to insure its rootednesss in the Church. His book, A New Pentecost?, was key, as was his invitation to leaders in the movement to bring the fledgling international office to Belgium where it remained for several years until its subsequent move to Rome, where it exists to this day.

The cardinal was also influential in establishing the theological basis of the Charismatic Renewal through a series called the Malines Documents. In number IV, entitled “Renewal and the Powers of Darkness,” the cardinal wrote: “the Renewal is a precious grace which is offered to the Church and can powerfully contribute to the spiritual rebirth that the world so urgently needs.”

In 1992, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal celebrated its 25th anniversary. The cardinal was not able to be with us in person but a videotape was made and shown during the National Charismatic Renewal Conference in Pittsburgh, Pa. He encouraged us to open ourselves fully to the power of God, stressing that today more than ever before, the world needs the witness of people open to the Spirit.

Thank you, Cardinal Suenens, for your years of service to the Lord and to His Church, and thank you for your support to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Walter Matthews

Locust Grove, Virginia

SPEAK OUT

If the President's Medicare Board of Trustees report is correct in predicting that Medicare will be bankrupt in five to seven years, one would think that responsible Church leaders would insist on solutions now. It will do no one any good in the future if these funds are not available. The administration's solution, so far, has been to criticize Republican ideas as “draconian cuts.” But they haven't come up with any ideas to save the program.

Much has been written regarding the President's veto of the Partial Birth Abortion Act. It would also be interesting to see a list of Catholic Senators and Congressmen who voted against this legislation. Church hierarchy must speak out on both of these issues!

Jim Ashcraft

Cle Elum, Washington

PAGAN ATTITUDES

How disappointed I was to read Father Richard McBrien's comments (“Father McBrien Criticizes Silly Season in the Church,” Nation, May 12). When he said, “even a conservative Pope, unless he wants to preside over a wreckage, is going to adopt a whole new style of leadership,” in reference to John Paul II, I felt compelled to write. Though Father McBrien may ridicule Bishop Bruskewitz and Archbishop Curtiss, almost every Catholic I know, and many Catholics I have conversed with over the Internet, have great admiration for the actions both have taken to prevent further dissension from the Church.

It seems unjust to allow our priestsóthe only men capable of turning bread into our precious Eucharistóto cater to dissenting parishioners with pagan attitudes who typically don't even believe in the Real Presence. I hope that Bishop Bruskewitz will become one of many that will tighten their ships, allowing our priests to serve our spiritual needs without being ridiculed and persecuted by members of their own parish for believing in the true faith.

I respect David Blankenhorn's efforts to make fatherhood a more profound concept to society (“Without Fathers, Children Remain Children,” Q & A, May 5). However, when he asserts that unwed mothers should be stigmatized, I fervently disagree. It is the stigmatization of these unwed mothers that led to illegal abortions many years ago. Right now we are dealing with 1.5 million abortions a year in the United States. The worst thing that we could do is give women more reasons to kill their unborn.

Though I agree that fatherhood is extremely necessary for a child's upbringing, I do not feel it is wise to assume that children from fatherless homes will be as damaged as Blankenhorn describes. It is dangerous to assume anything about them. There are many adults who grew up in a fatherless environment who would feel insulted by such a rigid analysis. I'm also sure that there are many adults who grew up with fathers who could fit the same kind of negative description that Blankenhorn used for the illegitimate children.

The key to solving the illegitimacy crisis is simply bringing our sons and daughters back to the Church—back to the truth. We must be examples of devotion and help our children discover the true meaning of sexuality and the beauty of marriage. They must also learn to leave judgment of others up to God.

Valerie Terzi Manhattan, Kansas

JEWISH ROOTS

I thank Lisa Pevtzow for her thoughtful article ( “catholic Schools Help Students Rediscover Jesus’ Jewish Roots,” May 5).

On the whole, Pevtzow's comments are balanced, and in agreement with the Vatican II guidelines (1974-75). I simply point out the following: Jews do not refer to Hebrew Scriptures as “the Old Testament” since Jews do not accept Jesus as God and do not accept Christian Scriptures as “authoritative.” Nor are Hebrew Scriptures constructed in the same way that the Catholic-Eastern Orthodox Scriptures are: the language is, obviously, Hebrew; the texts are divided into the Torah (the Five Books of Moses; the Prophets (subdivisions—major and minor); and Writings (which include “books” as Psalms, etc.) Nor are certain celebrations which are included in today's Jewish communities “biblical” (i.e., they were not practiced in the first century)i.e., bar/bat mitzvah; Purim etc. However, that Jesus received the basic Jewish education that he did can be traced to laws making elementary education a requirement for all Jewish communities.

Carol Bodenheimer

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Tribunals Look for Cues in Rota Address DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

WHEN POPE John Paul II delivered his annual address to the Roman Rota earlier this year, his words echoed far beyond the confines of the Catholic Church's highest judicial court. But in no country, perhaps, will his observations on canon law in general—and on annulment cases in particular—have greater impact than in the United States where 80 percent of the world's annulments are granted.

Although they can hear almost any case arising under canon law, nearly all ecclesiastical tribunals, including the Roman Rota, hear only those alleging the nullity of marriage. It was no surprise, therefore, that most of John Paul II's comments to the Rota concerned annulment cases.

More than once in his remarks, the Pope affirmed that the Church's fundamental teachings on marriage apply to all Catholics in all cultures. But, touching on a matter of some controversy, the Pope also stated that it is the judge's responsibility to determine precisely how those teachings were incorporated by the actual parties to the marriage before him.

“It is never a case of bending the objective norm to the satisfaction of private subjects,” John Paul II said, “much less of interpreting or applying it in an arbitrary way&hellips; . [But] since the abstract law finds its application in individual, concrete circumstances, it is a task of great responsibility to evaluate the specific cases in their various aspects in order to determine whether and in what way they are governed by what the law envisages.”

Noting the multi-cultural mix among rotal officers, the Pope specifically called on canonical judges to look “beyond preconceived mental categories, which are perhaps valid in a given culture and a particular historical period, but which cannot be applied a priori always and everywhere in each particular case.”

Finally, John Paul borrowed a theme from Pope Pius XII and urged the entire rotal staff “to cultivate the same goals” in their important work, which both popes have identified as the discovery of objective truth in a case, that is, determining whether the bond of marriage in a particular case is valid or null.

More than once in his remarks, the Pope affirmed that the Church's fundamental teachings on marriage apply to all Catholics in all cultures.

Opinions will vary on the ultimate impact in the U.S. of John Paul II's 1996 rotal address for at least two reasons. First, canon law, unlike Anglo-American common law, does not give higher Church courts direct authority over lower courts (1983 CIC 16). Thus papal instructions to the Rota are not understood as automatically applying to diocesan courts.

Moreover, American tribunals are already clearly bound by canons which require the prompt hearing of all cases, including marriage nullity petitions (Canon 1453), and presumably needed little reminding on that point.

On the other hand, the Pope is the Pope and the Rota is the Rota; what transpires at those levels inevitably has an effect on canonical cases at lower levels of ecclesiastical judicature. Certainly the Pope's words on the importance of weighing cultural influences in assessing the merits of individual nullity petitions will ring true in the U.S. where demographic factors have long been thought to play important roles in marriage nullity cases.

For the thousands of laity involved in marriage nullity petitions, perhaps the most important lessons in the Pope's words are the following. First, those filing nullity petitions should know that, despite the recent surge in annulments numbers (to more than 60,000 annually in the United States), there is no automatic right to an annulment and each case must be heard on its own merits. Second, for those opposed to annulments or critical of the process by which the cases are heard, there is no automatic right to a negative sentence and the fact that an annulment might be declared in one or many cases is not a sign of laxity in Church law. Third, all those involved in annulment cases have a right to a reasonably prompt adjudication of the case in accord with canon law, lest, as the Pope says, uncertainty about one's status in the Church be unduly prolonged.

Dr. Edward Peters is director of canonical affairs for the Diocese of San Diego, Calif. His latest book, 100 Answers to Your Questions on Annulments, is due out from Basilica Press this summer.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Peters ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Sacred Heart, Sacred Love DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is Friday, June 14.

WE OWE A great debt of gratitude to the Jesuits for promoting devotion to Jesus under the aegis of the Sacred Heart. It also cannot be forgotten that many saints and blesseds (St. Gertrude, Bl. Henry Suso, O.P., among others)—before St. Margaret Mary and her Jesuit confessor St. Claude de la Colombiere— played a key role in developing the devotion. Why does Church teaching make so much of it? Why did Pius XII say it is essential to Catholic faith and practice?

The Sacred Heart is a sign of Christ's emotional love for us as individuals whether we be terrible sinners or saints. Nothing we can do against Him will undermine his tender love for us. We believe that Christ possesses infused knowledge about us individually, and thus know that He can understand and love us on a very personal level, something no mere human being could ever do. We can only love people in groups or think of them one at a time. Jesus, in His humanity, can think of and love each of us simultaneously. This often neglected truth of the Catholic faith is crucial in an age that has produced so many children who are either over- or under-affirmed. And anger, when virtuous, is based upon a deep love because it defends against what is destructive. So God may permit afflictions in our lives when we are ruining something very beautiful in us—namely, His image and likeness—by sin.

Second, the Sacred Heart symbolizes Jesus’ specifically intellectual and volitional love for us. He tailors His grace to our individual or specific needs, depending upon our personal vocation, responsibilities, and particular challenges. All of the graces we need for our salvation come from Him and through Him, as the priest proclaims in the Eucharistic rite.

Third, the Sacred Heart symbolizes the Divine love which Jesus, as God, has for us, which means that nothing ever happens to us by chance. There is a plan for the kingdom of God and for each one of us. We may not always cooperate with that plan and sometimes it seems painfully slow in being accomplished. But God's eternal decrees are meant to bring what is the very best for us, though we do not always understand how much, even less why. God is both Creator and Redeemer of creation. His saving work on earth is the saving of our wounded natures and the world around us.

Finally, the Sacred Heart is an icon of the most Blessed Trinity. True, Jesus is the second person of the Blessed Trinity but where there is one Person, the other two are present, too. Neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit became incarnate, yet they were in time—and presently are in eternity—with Jesus. Living in the state of sanctifying grace means that we possess the Trinity in the depths of our being. By baptism we are also sharers in Jesus’ unique Sonship. By thinking of the Sacred Heart of Jesus then, we are constantly reminded of our identity as “sons in the Son,” possessing a share of the divine life that animates the “heart” of the Trinity. We're thus reminded to remain faithful to the merciful love of Jesus when times seem bleak and hopeless. It is then especially that we need to surrender to the truth that we are deeply loved by the Holy Trinity, through Jesus’ Sacred Heart.

Father Basil Cole, O.P., is a member of the Western Dominican Preaching Team which gives parish missions and renewals.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Basil Cole ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: 'without the Eucharist We Are Dea'd DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE BODY and Blood of Christ is the formal title of the solemnity celebrated in the United States on the Sunday following Trinity Sunday. In Latin the solemnity is called Corpus et Sanguinis Christi, or in popular usage, Corpus Christi.

This observance prompts reflection upon what Catholics call “the Real Presence,” a phrase first used by the Oxford scholar Duns Scotus, who was recently beatified by Pope John Paul II. It means that Christ is truly present in the appearances of bread and wine. What were bread and wine are no longer bread and wine, but the Body and Blood of Christ. Indeed, Christ's presence in the sacramental signs of bread and wine is so real that the Church describes adoration of the Eucharist by the precise term meaning adoration exclusively given to God, latria, a Greek word directly taken into the English language.

The conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's Body and Blood is described by the Church as “transubstantiation,” a term reflecting the Latin words for “substance” (substantia) and “conversion” (trans). Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical Mysterium Fidei (The Mystery of Faith) explained that, this precise use of language “has often been the watchword and banner of orthodox faith.” “transubstantiation” is a good example. The word surpasses by far, both in precision and depth, contemporary coinages like “transfinalization” and “transignification,” whose meanings are vague, at best. “transubstantiation” disallows a merely figurative interpretation of the Eucharist, as well as any suggestion that the bread and wine “co-exist” with the Body and Blood, soul and divinity, of the Lord. The term helps us understand Jesus’ own promise: ” &hellips; I myself am the living bread &hellips; The bread I will give is my flesh” (Jn 6, 51).

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi turns our minds and hearts toward Holy Communion and Eucharistic adoration, without which we could not withstand the assaults of a confused, erring and disbelieving world. History shows that this is how it has always been.

Deep within the Eternal City, Rome, lie the catacombs—miles and miles of crypts, chambers and passageways in which the early Christians gathered for the Eucharist. They knew that they could not survive without the Body and Blood of Christ.

The early Christians knew they could not survive without the Body and Blood of Christ.

In second-century North Africa, the Christians of Abitinia, taunted with threats of execution for their faith, exclaimed: “Without the Eucharist we are dead.”

In England, when King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I persecuted Catholics, St. Nicholas Owen, a master carpenter, constructed tunnels beneath the streets of London to safeguard priests from the police, thereby ensuring that the Eucharist would not disappear from the land.

The histories of Poland and Ukraine and Ireland abound with similar stories: heroic interventions by men, women and children so that the Eucharist would not be taken from their midst.

Malcolm Muggeridge, the renowned British writer, academician and television personality, who embraced the Catholic Church a few years before his death, remarked in Jesus Rediscovered that “a very large number of letters” he received over the years attest to an “extraordinary spiritual hunger” prevailing today among people of all classes and ages. It is a hunger, he said, that is not satisfied by such ideas that God is dead, or that morality derives from a majority opinion. No, he insisted, the only way of satisfying this hunger “remains that bread of life which Jesus offered, with the promise that those who ate of it should never hunger again.”

Our deepest yearnings, our most profound quests for personal fulfillment and happiness, can be fully realized in partaking of Jesus in the Eucharist. It is in and through the Eucharist that we come to know in our hearts that God is not dead, but rather that He provides for us by actually intervening in our lives. It is here that we really come to know how right and urgent it is to live our lives in accordance with God's will; and how wrong it is to separate ourselves by sin from so loving and merciful a Savior.

We arrive at another Corpus Christi in the pilgrimage of life, praying that our thanksgiving for the Eucharist may be even greater than it was at this time last year.

Father David Liptak is the Pastor of St. Catherine Church, Broad Brook, Conn., and teaches theology at Holy Apostles Seminary, Cromwell, Conn.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Liptak ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Casey: Taking Advantage of an Open Door DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

“THE SUPREME Court Reverses Roe v. Wade! ” In 1992, the Court supposedly was poised to do just that in a Pennsylvania case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. That headline has been anticipated many times since 1973 when the Supreme Court constitutionalized abortion. It didn't materialize in 1992. Many pro-lifers still anticipate that banner head someday, but, after 20 years ‘work, they are sorely disappointed.

As a constitutional lawyer, I'll tell you a secret. Although the Court did not reverse outright, it seriously weakened the legal underpinnings for Roe in 1992. Now is the time to start the process of building consensus and passing legislation to expose that secret.

Any lawyer who has done any courtroom work knows that who wins and who loses often depends on who has the burden of proof and what the lawyer has to prove. The principal reason that Roe was so difficult to constrain in these 23 years is that the Court, in constitutionalizing abortion, made it a “fundamental right.” By calling an abortion decision a “fundamental right,” the majority of the Court affected the burden of proof and the standard of proof. By making it a “fundamental right,” the Court made it almost impossible for any state to regulate, much less restrict, abortion.

Under Roe, the state had the burden to prove that any imposition on the abortion decision was justified, not by some good reason, but by a “compelling” reason. “compelling interests” are described by the Court as strictly related to health, safety, or welfare. To be valid, any such imposition on a “fundamental right” is permitted only to the narrowest degree necessary to accomplish a compelling interest. In the Roe world, pregnancy was neatly divided into trimesters and the asserted interest of the state in each trimester was rapidly compressed. Not surprisingly, in virtually every case following Roe, states’attempts at regulation failed and the Court increasingly narrowed the grounds on which a state's supposed interests could be deemed compelling. Aperson could, legally, have an abortion throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy for any reason or none at all.

In 1989, the Court seemed to signal its willingness to reconsider Roe in a fundamental way. It is my theory that, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in 1992, the Court did just that. Newly appointed justices were sharply critical of Roe and the Court seemed to tire of the endless litigation. The Court carefully moved away from the rhetoric and standards of fundamental rights. It called abortion a “liberty” interest and changed the burden and standard of proof. By abandoning the language of fundamental rights, the Court provided that this ” liberty “ interest could now be balanced against various state interests. Now the opponent of a proposed regulation or restriction, not the state, has the burden to prove that the regulation is an “undue burden” on the abortion decision. Although the test is still weighted in favor of the abortion decision, the Court has at least abandoned the strict regime that governed constitutional abortion for nearly 20 years, opening the door to the political process and the people.

Significantly, the three justices who made up the governing “plurality “ opinion in Casey— Justices Sandra Day O'connor, David Souter, and Anthony Kennedy—declined to overrule Roe expressly, but not necessarily because abortion itself was some important constitutional interest. They did so on the grounds that the decision was then 20-years-old. To them, other aspects of contemporary society and law depended on the continuing vitality of that decision. This deference to established legal precedent is called stare decisis. Roe was protected on this ground, and not because any of these three justices would have constitutionalized abortion if this decision had been presented to them in the first instance. Since Casey however, now that the door has been opened, there has been little or no movement by the Court. Rather, it has avoided revisiting abortion in any significant way.

I will let you in on another secret: I suspect, but cannot prove, that a plurality of the Court thinks it has “solved” the abortion problem for the Supreme Court. It has protected the abortion decision itself but made it increasingly subject to regulation and has changed the standard of review and burden of proof in such a way that it will be easier for state regulation to be sustained on judicial review. In this way, I suspect, the Court thinks it can have it both ways—it protects abortion but allows it to be increasingly subject to scrutiny and even restriction.

Since Casey, the Court has addressed the rights of protesters and the rights of clinic operators to resist them. It has decided that the federal civil rights laws cannot be used as a basis to prosecute abortion clinic protesters. It has rendered an exceptionally detailed decision about how far and how vigorous protesters may be around clinics. The Court has refused to grant petitions to review decisions involving detailed state laws governing abortion, preferring to leave the work ultimately to state legislatures and lower federal courts. This tinkering “around the edges” has provoked criticism inside and outside the Court. A most recent example came in a sharp dissenting opinion filed by Justice Antonin Scalia April 29 in a case involving parental notice laws of South Dakota.

In my view, the Court cannot pretend that it has solved the problem of abortion. But, even more important, the pro-life movement cannot fail to appreciate the significance of the fact that the Court has changed the ground on which abortion has stood for these all-too-many years.

We find traces of the Court's abortion cases in the recent “right to die” decisions. In creating a “right to die,” the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California relied on rhetorical flourishes found in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. There, the plurality opinion, referred to above, discusses life's “intimate choices” and lumps in abortion decision-making with these choices. It wasn't much of a jump for the Ninth Circuit to find in this rhetoric a basis on which it presumed to create a new constitutional right to hasten death. In my view, Casey cannot be read so broadly and we have said so in our briefs amicus curiae and in scholarly articles. That reading is erroneous. Indeed, citing the work of the Bishop's Conference, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected this broad new constitutional right. It expressly disagreed with its California cousin but nonetheless, unfortunately, protected a decision to hasten death, on substantially narrower legal grounds. That decision, too, is wrong. The need for Supreme Court action is clear: The abortion rhetoric is encouraging more legal mischief that is detrimental to our society.

Even if it were not for the mounting toll of abortion, these new decisions show up the dangerous jurisprudence loosed by the Court in Roe and left deliberately unclear in Casey. These “right to die” decisions show that more careful attention must be given in state legislatures to laws exploring the gray area between permissive abortion and comprehensive regulation, even restrictions. For example, informed consent laws providing for a more vigorous advance of a state's policy protecting childbirth, and laws banning certain abortion methods—such as the law against partial-birth abortions recently vetoed by the President—would all seem to be permissible after Casey. Legislative initiatives could specifically test the Supreme Court's seeming willingness to allow for more state regulation.

In 1983, in her first decision on the Supreme Court concerning abortion, Justice Sandra Day O'connor suggested that Roe's rhetoric was on a collision course with itself. She said that the Court's willingness to accept regulation, even outright restriction, in the third trimester after viability was bound to collapse, given advances in medical science pushing back the date of viability into the second trimester. In 1996, I would suggest that the law is on a similar collision course with the Court. Perhaps not this year, but some time soon, the Court must come to grips with the consequences of its decision in Casey. This is the time to begin that process.

Mark Chopko is general counsel for the United States Catholic Conference.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Chopko ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Priests, Religious Live in Peril in Algeria DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

Two years of heavy terrorist activity in Algeria have led to the deaths of 18 priests and Religious, 14 of them French:

May 8, 1994: Henri Vergé s, 64, a Marist Brother, and Paule-Héléne Saint Raymond, 67, Little Sister of the Assumption, both French, are assassinated in the Kasban at Algiers. The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) claims responsibility.

October 23, 1994: Two Spanish Augustinian Sisters, Ester Alonso, 45, and Caridad María Alvarez, 61, are shot at a church entrance in the Bab-el-Wed district of Algiers.

December 27, 1994: At Tizi Ouzou (Kabylie), the GIA, reportedly seeking revenge for the death of four of its members whom terrorists killed in an Air France airbus hijack attempt, assassinate four Missionaries of Africa. Three—Jean Chevillard, 69, Christian Cheissel, 36 and Alain Dieulangard, 75—are French; and one—Charles Deckers, 70—Belgian.

September 3, 1995: Two Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles, one French, Denise Leclerc, 65; the other Maltese of English origin, Jeanne Littlejohn, 62, are shot in the Belcourt district of Algiers.

November 10, 1995: One French Sister, Odette Prévost, 63, is killed and another is seriously wounded in a shooting incident in the Kouba district of Algiers.

March 27, 1996: Seven Trappist monks are kidnapped from their hilltop monastery, Notre Dame ’dAtlas in the Médéa region. It is not until April 18 that the GIAclaim they are holding the monks. On May 23 the GlA announce that the monks are dead.

Since October 1993, 116 non-Algerians have been killed, of whom 39 were French. An estimated 50,000 Algerians have been killed in the past four years.

—Robert Kelly

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Kelly ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: This Sunday at Mass DATE: 06/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 09, 1996 ----- BODY:

Dt 8, 2-3, 14-16 Ps 147, 12-13; 14-15; 19-20 1 Cor 10, 16-17 Jn 6, 51-58

MOSES URGES the Israelites: “Remember, the Lord, your God.” Their memorial is meant to keep them mindful of God's specific saving acts. Moses responds to the all-too-human inclination to forget the Lord, to overlook His redemptive works in our life, to neglect His offer of mercy and disregard God altogether.

That we, too, might remain mindful, Jesus gives us the great memorial of the Eucharist. And just as God guided the Israelites in the desert, so He guides our memory as we make our way to Him in the Eucharist. He does this in three ways:

The Eucharist responds to the human experience of hunger. God allowed the Israelites to “be a afflicted with hunger” in their desert wandering. But He does so in order to feed them Himself, with the miraculous food of manna, and to persuade them that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” That is to say, thanks to divine Providence, the experience of hunger leads us back to God.

Hunger makes us cherish what really matters most in life— the Word of God. It rekindles our commitment to rely on God to provide what we need to make it through our own vast and terrible deserts, our own struggles with slavery. Hunger reminds us that the craving of our bodies is satisfied only by the human body of Jesus—the Word that proceeds from His mouth, offering us His flesh as food: “He who feeds on my flesh &hellips; has life eternal.”

Hunger, then, tests our intention to keep God's commandments, which is the surest sign of our love for Jesus (Jn 14, 21). Hunger makes us “true to his Word” (Jn 14, 22) as we accept the Eucharist—not as mere bread—but as “the best of wheat” filled with God's promise: “Anyone who eats this bread shall live forever.” The Eucharist satisfies hunger with the sustenance of hope.

At the same time, the Eucharist recalls how God glories in doing the impossible. The crowd quarrels: “How can He give us His flesh to eat?” But as we live by faith, we experience how the efficacy of the Eucharist transforms contradiction into grace-filled affirmation. Our sharing in the Body of Christ radically changes the way we look at things. Just as every occasion at table reminds us of our sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ, so, too, does every encounter in life prompt us to see the real presence of Jesus, who is at work in our midst as “the life of the world.”

And the Eucharist reminds us how we are to regard ourselves. Jesus gives us His flesh and blood as real food and drink, so that we might become His Body. In Communion, Jesus promises to remain in us and we in Him. We are to look beyond the flaws and defects of our human bodies to discover within us the love of Jesus who transforms us into Himself.

Father Peter John Cameron, who teaches homiletics at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., is a Register contributing editor.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter John Cameron ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Defense of Marriage Act Moves Ahead DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

Special to the Register

THE DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT, which would give states the right to refuse to honor same-sex marriages performed in other states, has been drafted by members of Congress. The act defines marriage, for the purposes of federal law, as a union of only one man to only one woman.

The ruling grew out of the Hawaii Supreme Court's 1993 ruling that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples violated the state constitution's Equal Protection Clause and Equal Rights Amendment. The court sent the case to trial to see if there is a compelling state interest in denying same-sex marriages. Legal experts expect the outcome of the trial to be consistent with the Hawaii Supreme Court's ruling, requiring the state to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

These actions in Hawaii could affect the other 49 states. The U.S. Constitution provides that “full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State” (Article IV, section 1). In effect, the “full faith and credit” clause would override any state laws outlawing homosexual marriages.

Homosexual couples across the country will want to get married in Hawaii and return to their home states as legally-married couples.

This would hold major ramifications for insurance coverage and benefits, as well as raise some sticky questions. Will state and federal benefits payments be affected? Will adoption laws need to be changed? Will school curriculums need to be changed?

A USA Today poll found that 67 percent of Americans are opposed to same-sex marriages.

Although the Defense of Marriage Act does not prohibit individual states from recognizing same-sex marriages, it does allow that “no state should be required to give effect” to a same-sex marriage license issued by another state. Congress is now considering the legislation, which has been sponsored by Rep. Robert Barr (R-Ga.). The House version of the bill (H.R. 3396) had 113 co-sponsors as of June 13, while an identical Senate version sponsored by Sen. Don Nickels (R-Okla.) has 18 co-sponsors.

The bill was passed by the House Subcommittee on the Constitution May 30, and by the House Judiciary Committee June 12. It now awaits a vote on the House floor.

“The outlook for passage of the bill is excellent,” said Carter Cornice, a spokesman for Congressman Barr. “Our supporters are bi-partisan, and we are getting new co-sponsors everyday. The House leadership has told us that there will be a floor vote this summer, hopefully in July. We are hopeful that Senate action will follow shortly thereafter.”

In his opening statement before the House Subcommittee on the Constitution May 15, Rep. Charles Canady (R-Fla.) said “I expect—and in fact I hope—that most Americans will think it quite odd that we are actually considering legislation to define marriage as an exclusively heterosexual and monogamous institution. Simply stated, in the history of our country ‘marriage’ has never meant anything else,” he added. “It is, inherently and necessarily, reserved for unions between one man and one woman.”

Backers of the legislation can point to overwhelming public support. A USA Today poll found that 67 percent of Americans are opposed to same-sex marriages.

President Clinton angered the gay and lesbian community when he indicated he would sign the bill. Supporters of the Defense of Marriage Act are pleased that Clinton shares their point of view for a change.

“If we can find an issue where the Christian Coalition and Bill Clinton are on the same side, I'm all in favor of it,” said Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed in an interview with The New York Times.

Reed, however, like some profamily leaders, wonders whether Clinton will follow through on his pledge. “Once this bill goes to his desk, there's a better than even chance that the organized gay lobby will go into orbit and create a lot of problems for the President. And I think that will be a real test of his leadership.”

Michael Barbera is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Barbera ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Hope for Prompt Catholic-Lutheran Union Justified? DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

Special to the Register

“JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH”—450 years ago, those were fighting words, the battle cry of the Reformation. Emerging from the theological debates sparked by an obscure 16th century Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, and his subsequent excommunication by Pope Leo X, the Reformation—with “justification by faith” as its cornerstone—divided Western Christendom into Catholic and Protestant camps.

The doctrine of justification deals with how one is reconciled with God, experiences sanctification and attains salvation in Jesus Christ.

If contemporary Catholic and Lutheran leaders have their way, justification, as an issue of contention, may soon be a thing of the past. Also scheduled to be relegated to the dust bin of history, leaders hope, are the 16th-century condemnations issued by the two Churches against each other in the name of that doctrine.

Last year the Lutheran World Federation, representing 55 million Lutherans, and the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, asked their respective Churches to review a draft declaration asserting that the 16th-century Catholic and Lutheran condemnations on justification do not apply to what Catholics and Lutherans believe and teach today.

The draft proposes a common statement of faith that both sides would find to be an adequate, although not necessarily exhaustive, expression of the essentials of Christian teaching on justification.

The Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France, responsible for analyzing the Lutheran responses, reports that a majority of Churches have affirmed the thrust of the draft.

The conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the largest U.S. Lutheran body that is not a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) nor a member of the LWF, is not a party to the proposed joint affirmation.

Last spring, the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Coordinating Committee expressed strong support for a common statement by the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation on justification. Echoing the sentiments of many officials in both Churches, Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pa., expressed hopes that Catholics and Lutherans would be able to issue such a declaration by 1997, the 450th anniversary of the Council of Trent's condemnation of errors then attributed to Lutherans and the 50th anniversary of the Lutheran World Federation.

The 30-year Lutheran-Catholic dialogue has been one of the success stories of modern ecumenism. “Of all the [ecumenical] dialogues, the Lutheran-Catholic [one] has probably had the greatest theological depth—even more than the Anglican dialogue,” Father John Richard Neuhaus, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Religion and Democracy, told the Register. Father Neuhaus, himself a convert from Lutheranism, pointed to the Lutheran Church's “deep and complex theological tradition that comes out of a direct engagement with the Catholic Church from the 16th century.”

Brother Jeffrey Gros, associate director of the U.S. Catholic bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, agrees. Calling Lutherans “the flagship of the Reformation Churches,” Gros told the Register that in the nine years of official dialogue with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, “we've touched on all five areas [outlined in Pope John Paul's 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint] with a depth yet to be reached in any of the other dialogues.” (The Pope's five topics for ecumenical dialogue are: relations between Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition; the Eucharist; Ordination; the Magisterium entrusted to the Pope and the episcopate; and the Virgin Mary.)

Archbishop Francis Stafford of Dnver, Catholic co-chair of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Coordinating Committee in the United States, sees “this unexpected progress” in the light of Vatican II, and “from there, the renewal of biblical studies, patristics. In the light of that new understanding, we have been able to restudy the theologies of Luther and of Trent.” He also pointed to the 1983 U.S. dialogue's common statement “Justification by Faith” as a milestone in the current pursuit of a formal declaration by the Vatican and the LWF.

“I remember when the justification statement was issued [in 1983],” Archbishop Stafford commented, “I read it with great interest and critical reflection and found my own faith in Christ deepened.”

In part, that statement reads: “Our entire hope of justification and salvation rests on Christ Jesus and on the Gospel whereby the good news of God's merciful action in Christ is made known; we do not place our ultimate trust in anything other than God's promise and saving work in Christ.”

Commented Archbishop Stafford: “Some scholars have concluded that what Protestants call justification by faith is what Catholics call justification by grace. Faith, hope and love is the Catholic triadic summary of what Protestants call faith. If that's true, then their understanding of justification by faith can be sustained and substantiated by Scripture.”

Daniel Martensen, director of the Department of Ecumenical Affairs for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a 5.2 millionmember denomination, agreed that the 1983 justification document “is the underlying factor in this recent initiative,” but also points to Pope John Paul's 1982 visit to northern Germany as a catalyst.

“The Pope met with the bishops in Hamburg,” Martensen recalled. “There were tensions there and a need for an affirmation of common ground between the two traditions.” Out of the discussions a committee of Catholic and Lutheran theologians was formed. The committee concluded, Martensen said, that the condemnations published in the Lutheran Book of Concord, a compilation of classic Lutheran confessions, and the Council of Trent, in the area of justification, don't apply to the 20th century.

Martensen believes that the generally positive response so far to the draft declaration suggests that a common declaration on justification will not be long in coming.

“To have agreement on justification by faith—the heart of the dispute—well, it's certainly not full communion, but it's a major, major step,” Martensen said.

According to the veteran Lutheran ecumenist, a final text is being drafted which will then be formally presented to the Vatican and the council of the LWF. By this fall, “we should all have a common declaration , which will be given wide distribution. Each Church will be asked to respond to it by the end of the year,” he said. He anticipates that next year “official decisions about lifting condemnations will be made—ideally, [from the Lutheran side] in Hong Kong when the LWF holds its 50th anniversary assembly.”

Some Catholic officials, however, are not so sanguine about the declaration's swift passage.

“This is not a done deal,” said Archbishop Stafford. “There is opposition among conservative elements [in the Lutheran Church] which may prove insurmountable,” he cautioned. “One of the things we Catholics have learned in the course of the dialogue is that there are profound differences among Lutherans.”

Archbishop Stafford also pointed to reservations that he and other Catholic participants have about the draft proposal.

Specifically, he indicated that the final form of the joint declaration must be expanded to show more clearly how differences are to be reconciled between Lutheran teaching on justification and three canons from the Council of Trent (canons 4, 28 and 30) dealing with preparation for justification, the faith of unrepentant sinners, and satisfaction.

“For myself,” he told the Register, “clarification on these issues is essential to warrant the general conclusion of the proposed joint declaration that none of the condemnations of the 16th century on justification still applies to either party.”

Father Neuhaus also sees obstacles in the path to the joint declaration. “The Catholic side is essentially content with the present draft,” he says. “The serious question is whether the Lutheran side has accurately represented the Lutheran position to the Pontifical Council and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Of course, it's up to the Lutherans to know if they've accurately represented their position or not.”

Another complication, Father Neuhaus said, has to do with proposed Church mergers. “The ELCA is entertaining an accord with the Episcopal Church. It's not definite that this will come before the [ELCA] general convention in 1997, but, if it does, this will further complicate relations between the Lutheran community and the Catholic Church” given the difficulties between Rome and Canterbury over women's ordination and other issues.

“But what the Catholic Church is doing is making crystal clear that our determination to seek honest unity is irreversible, not optional, no matter what happens between now and the return of Christ,” Father Neuhaus said.

Gabriel Meyer, a Register contributing editor, is based in Los Angeles.

Martin Luther's Complex Legacy

ABOUT THE most polite thing that Donald Attwater's 1931 Catholic Dictionary calls Martin Luther is “an apostate monk” who led countless souls to perdition.

What a difference a half century and a few decades of ecumenical dialogue make. Along with a growing theological rapprochement between the Church of Rome and the world's major Lutheran bodies has come a reassessment of the man who sparked the Reformation.

In 1983, Pope John Paul II noted that studies by Lutheran and Catholic researchers “have led to a more complete and more differentiated image of the personality of Luther.”

Earlier this year Catholics joined in the activities commemorating the 450th anniversary of Luther's death in Eisleben, Germany, on Feb. 18, 1546. And this month Eisleben has played host to the first joint Catholic-Protestant religious ceremonies ever held there.

Martin Luther was born Nov. 10, 1483, in Eisleben. Although he was the son of a miner in an age when few outside the noble and merchant classes were literate, he began school at the age of seven, eventually earning university degrees and studying law. In July 1505, enroute to the university, Luther was thrown to the ground by a lightning bolt. Praying to St. Anne, Luther promised to become a monk if his life were spared. Faithful to his vow, he entered an Augustinian monastery, studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1507.

Three years later, while in Rome, Luther saw the great Basilica of St. Peter's under construction—a vast project heavily funded by the selling of indulgences.

In Luther's day, “indulgence hawkers” sometimes accepted monetary payment in lieu of prayers—a practice the Catholic Church later condemned.

Returning to Germany in 1511, Luther received his doctorate in theology and taught Scripture at Wittenberg University.

He soon became known for his opposition to indulgences. Focusing on St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, Luther taught that humanity's only hope of justification rests on God's mercy.

Luther posted his famous 95 theses, a list of topics on which, he believed, the Church needed reform, on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg in October 1517. This action placed the theologian afoul of a local archbishop who was getting a portion of the proceeds from the selling of indulgences. The case was referred to Rome.

By 1521, Luther had become highly critical of the Renaissance papacy. He was excommunicated by Pope Leo X and found himself the leader of a volatile movement for ecclesiastical and political reform. Attempts to reconcile Luther's views with those of Rome continued until 1530, but by then positions had hardened on both sides and separation was inevitable. By this time, Luther had married a former nun and fathered children by her.

Luther's accomplishments include his translation of the New Testament, which laid the groundwork for modern German. The dark side to his legacy includes his attacks on Judaism, the violence of his criticism of the papacy and his opposition to a German peasantry revolt in the Peasants'War of 1524-26.

Father Richard Neuhaus, a former Lutheran pastor now a Catholic priest, points out that Pope John Paul II has called Luther “a religious genius.”

“That's different, of course, from calling him an orthodox Christian,” Father Neuhaus told the Register. “Luther was no doubt a real genius, but he was also erratic and idiosyncratic. It's important that the [current] Roman Catholic-Lutheran dialogues focus not on the personality of Luther, but on the Lutheran confessions. These are a far more reliable basis for discussion.”

For example, Father Neuhaus pointed out, the Ausburg Confession of 1530 was adamant that the Reformation did not envision a separate Lutheran body, but existed to serve the interests of the one Catholic Church.

— Gabriel Meyer

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholic Hospitals Brace For Funding Cuts DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

Special to the Register

THEY COME OFF the streets of Paterson, N.J., every day: the poor and the uninsured. They come seeking medical care at St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center. The price tag on the services: more than $48,000 a day.

While the hospital provides the care, it's the state's responsibility to pick up the tab, says William Boland, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference.

“[New Jersey] has no public hospitals, per se,” he said. So the state reimburses hospitals, including St. Joseph, St. Peter and New Jersey's 11 other Catholic health care institutions, for providing charity care. But for most of 1996, the state hasn't held up its end of the bargain.

The problem began when a proposal to secure funding for charity programs in private hospitals died in the state assembly late last year. Reimbursements to hospitals remained frozen until last month, when the state finally passed a measure to resume funding. The new two-year measure provides $310 million for the first year and $300 million for the second. The allocated funds fall well short of what many hospitals will need.

All this has New Jersey hospitals and government officials asking, Who is responsible for patients who can't pay?

The answer is especially critical for the state's Catholic hospitals; most are in cities where many people are uninsured or otherwise unable to pay.

The freeze in state reimbursement has left some hospitals unable to pay vendors, and having to cut staff. St. Joseph hasn't had to lay off people yet but it is “missing a lot of cash,” said St. Joseph's president Sister Jane Frances Brady.

Some of the state's Catholic hospitals are involved in a lawsuit filed April 15 by the 114-member New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA) requesting that the state reimburse them.

The NJHA is still pursuing the lawsuit despite passage of the new funding law, said Ron Czajkowski, the organization's vice-president.

That the law is only temporary, expiring in two years, also means there may be a repeat of this year's funding freeze. Robert DeSando, press secretary to Assembly Speaker Jack Collins, said that the reduced funds the law makes available for charity care is something hospitals may have to get used to it. Collins believes less money should be earmarked for charity care in the future.

DeSando said the amount of money hospitals have received in the past does not encourage cost containment and may even encourage fraud.

To that end, a charity care/managed care program and a “smart card” carrying a patient's medical history have been implemented. The system is designed, DeSando said, to get people out of emergency rooms and into private practice offices or managed care clinics.

A person who comes to an emergency room with flu symptoms, for example, should be referred to one of these alternatives. If not, the hospital might not be reimbursed, he said.

“That's why we believe hospitals will not need that much money in the future,” he added.

Sister Brady sees things differently. She agreed that if a flu patient came to St. Joseph's emergency room, he or she should be referred elsewhere. But savings in managed care, she said, should not be used to support charity care. “They are two separate issues.”

“I think he's (DeSando) completely missed the boat,” said St. Peter's Tofani, citing research that charity care is a $1.2 billion a year problem in the U.S. Tofani wondered who, with the limited budget, was going to pay for managed care. “I think they're really ignoring the problem.”

Even before the cuts, said Sister Brady, New Jersey was not providing enough money for charity care. To be reimbursed, a hospital has to provide documentation from patients they've treated. Some—illegal aliens, for example—have no records, she said. Without documentation, they become what the state calls “bad debt,” for which New Jersey does not reimburse hospitals.

If St. Joseph receives $25 million, for example, it probably provided double that in charity care, she said.

With a long-term solution nowhere in sight, St. Joseph's and the other hospitals continue treating patients without insurance or other resources. The question of who will pay remains.

Christopher Martinez is based in Florida.

The Perils of Government Funding

HOW MUCH SHOULD the Church rely on government funds?

When disaster strikes anywhere in the world, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is there, providing food and shelter. In calmer times, it provides assistance to agricultural and community projects in developing nations.

But CRS is conscious—and uncomfortable with—its reliance on government money for most of its budget. The organization is reviving its private donation efforts and concentrating more on foundations and grants, said spokesperson Jennifer Brill.

The reason? When government funds get cut, organizations like CRS feel the pinch.

Some institutions are weaning themselves of such public funds. “As reimbursement of charity cases has decreased, we have decreased our reliance on it,” said Jerry Tofani, vice-president of finance at St. Peter Medical Center in New Brunswick, N.J.

The dilemma for charitable organizations is whether to serve more people while funds are available—and to make harsh cuts when they dry up—or to stick to more modest programs regardless of available funds.

Most of CRS' $317 million budget comes from government sources. It receives $100 million for food—31 percent of its budget—from the U.S. Congress. Another $59 million in cash grants comes from the U.S. government for emergency relief and support of development projects. In addition, the government reimburses CRS $53 million for shipping food overseas. All told, just 27 percent of CRS' budget comes from private sources.

Other agencies share CRS' uneasiness about government dependence. “We really don't know what we're looking at for our new fiscal year,” said Todd Hamilton, who depends on federal funds to run senior citizen job training programs in the Baton Rouge, La., diocese. Congress' examination of funding for job training programs “does compel us to look at other possibilities” for funding, Hamilton concluded.

—Christopher Martinez

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Christopher Martinez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Theological Society at Odds with Rome DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

Special to the Register

THE CATHOLIC Theological Society of America (CTSA) held its 51st annual convention in San Diego earlier this month. The convention left little doubt as to the direction of the Society, making clear its continued trend away from mainstream Catholic theology and toward the increasingly radical theories of feminist and dissenting moral theologians.

Last year the CTSA elected Sister Elizabeth Johnson as its new president. Sister Johnson, author of She Who Is, believes that past ecclesial injustices against women must be amended by re-imaging the Trinity as three female figures.

Jesuit Father John Randall Sachs of the Weston Jesuit School of Theology gave the conference's opening address. In the course of his talk he pointed out that the Holy Spirit arises from human interactions; it is not sent from “on-high.” Father Sachs referred to God in feminine terms, called for women's ordination and the acceptance of homosexuality. Jesus, Father Sachs informed his listeners, is not necessary for the salvation of non-Christians. It is we Christians, rather, who must view non-Christian religions as “necessary, revelatory elements” to our understanding of God. Father Sachs presented Vatican II as a starting point for a new theology, but then conceded that “the familiar way that Vatican II continued to insist on the fullness of truth in the Roman Catholic Church while admitting the presence of truth outside it is no longer adequate. The fullness of truth is not present and realized in the Roman Catholic Church, both because the Church is sinful and because it is not yet truly Catholic.”

At the CTSA business meeting, a resolution was adopted criticizing the U.S. bishops' recent censure of Father Richard McBrien's Catholicism. A statement on the ordination of women, prepared by a previously-appointed committee of three prowomen's ordination members, was presented to the Society. CTSA member theologians are to consider the statement during the coming year, in preparation for voting on it at the 1997 meeting.

The group also voted by a wide margin not to admit Father Augustine DiNoia, O.P., to the CTSA Board of Directors. Father DiNoia is theologian to the U.S. bishops' Doctrine Committee and author of the Committee's “general review” of Father McBrien's book.

After the business meeting a discussion of women's ordination was undertaken. A panel of five professors—four supporting ordination of women, one, Father Avery Dulles, opposing—offered brief opening remarks. Questions and comments from audience members followed. Those who criticized recent Vatican documents on the subject met with loud applause. Those who supported Church teaching met with silence. Some where even laughed at, as was Father Benedict Ashley, O.P.

An Eastern Orthodox nun, Sister Nona Harrison, claimed that the Orthodox Church is reconsidering its position on women's ordination. This was supposedly because of “the attitude the Orthodox generally have to papal assertions of universal authority.” In this case, she said, the assertions “may have the unintended effect of encouraging further discussion of women's ordination in the Orthodox Church.” Cheers and applause followed.

Arguments challenging the Vatican were presented mostly on procedural, not theological, grounds. Speakers questioned, for instance, whether Cardinal Ratzinger had “the right,” according to canon law and Vatican II guidelines, to categorize as infallible John Paul II's 1994 letter barring women from priestly ordination.

The Society's Saturday evening Mass was celebrated at nearby Our Lady of the Angels parish. Father Charles Curran (suspended from Catholic University in 1987 because of his dissenting views) presided over the Mass. Sister Johnson gave the homily.

Father McBrien's case isn't about freedom of inquiry or the right to speak out; it's about the obligation of bishops to safeguard the integrity of Catholic doctrine.

A minority group of pro-Vatican theologians made their presence felt at the meeting. Many of them are affiliated with the journal Communio (founded by the late theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar and Cardinal Ratzinger), including the editor of Communio's North American edition, Dr. David Schindler of the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., Sister Agnes Cunningham and Sister Sarah Butler of Mundelein Seminary, Father Matthew Lamb of Boston College and Father Marc Ouellet of St. Joseph Seminary in Edmonton, Canada.

The various seminars given by Father Avery Dulles, Father Benedict Ashley, Father Augustine DiNoia, Father Robert Imbelli and Dr. Robin Darling Young were all well attended, especially by younger theologians, who seemed especially pleased with the Balthasar Society's discussion of Schindler's new book, Heart of the World, Center of the Church (Eerdman's), and Father DiNoia and Dr. Young's presentation of the “Criteria of Catholic Theology.”

Asked why he and others like him remain in the Society, Schindler responded that “there are a number of good sessions at the annual meeting of the Society, and it's important to keep alive some of the theological discussion that goes on in these sessions.” But the Society's “increasing ‘proceduralism’— focusing on political strategies and legalistic nuances, rather than on theological issues”—drew criticism from Communio's editor. “The proposal regarding the study of whether the Vatican statement on women's ordination is infallible seems to amount to little more than a kangaroo court,” he said. “They're offering a oneyear study of a 2,000-year-old tradition, and the three members who prepared the statement for study are all on record as favoring women's ordination.”

“As for the letter in connection with Father Richard McBrien,” Schindler continued, “his criticisms regarding the bishops' procedure with respect to the book would be more credible if he had shown a sign of good faith by discussing his revision with the bishops prior to publishing the new edition.”

“Perhaps the time has come,” concluded Schindler, “to consider whether an alternative theological society should be founded. One that could provide for more vigorous and substantive Catholic theological discussion, without spending so much time on political posturing.”

Lesley Payne is based in San Diego.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lesley Payne ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Jerusalem at Center of Israel Tug-of-War DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

Special to the Register

JERUSALEM—Across the street from the Orient House, a once-gracious Arab mansion, six Israeli soldiers lounge at a guard post.

Inside the Orient House, once referred to as the Palestinian White House, Rami Tahboub, an Arab official, gestures at the soldiers. “They are here to provoke us,” he says.

But the Border Police unit appears just as likely to protect.

As prospects for peace seem to dissipate, for right-wing Israelis (and, ironically, Palestinians as well) the Orient House has become a symbol of the battle for Jerusalem. And if the peace process breaks down, on-lookers predict, the Orient House is likely to be at the center of a tug-of-war over this fragile city, holy to Jews, Moslems and Christians.

Ostensibly the headquarters of the Palestinian steering committee for the multi-lateral peace talks, the Orient House is widely considered to be Palestinian Leader Yassir Arafat's shadow foreign ministry, his political toe-hold in the city he has vowed will be his.

To dampen such aspirations, conservative Israelis— buoyed by the Likud election victory—have called for the closure of the Orient House. It acts as an arm of the Palestinian Authority and its presence, they charge, chips But shutting down the Orient House would signal that Jerusalem is not on the negotiating table, said Tahboub, the head of its Arab World Political Desk. And the Palestinians would then withdraw from the talks, according to Palestinian leader Faisel Husseini, the senior Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) official in Jerusalem.

“If someone says no negotiations on Jerusalem, I don't believe that this peace process will have any chance,” said Husseini, who predicted an uprising if the new government closes the Orient House or allows significantly more Jewish housing to be constructed in Arab parts of town. “Without Jerusalem, there would be no peace with us. It is our red line. We would compromise on anything, but not on Jerusalem,” Tahboub said.

Israel's Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu said through an aid June 5 that he would not discuss Palestinian political claims to parts of Jerusalem. So far, Netanyahu's actions and statements have been judicious and carefully-worded. But it is clear that he must either break every one of his campaign promises, which included the expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank, or put relations with the United States in jeopardy by provoking an abrupt and bloody end to the peace process.

The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported in mid-June that the prime minister, in a meeting with Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, said that the “government must give a big boost to the development of Jerusalem.”

Yediot Ahronot said that an alleged project includes plans for Jewish construction in East Jerusalem with a view to cutting off Palestinian territorial ties between Bethelehem, on the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Supposedly, there are even plans to build Jewish neighborhoods in Abu Dis, a village close to Jerusalem that has been mentioned as a possible Palestinian capital.

Responding to such reports, the Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem, Akram Sabri, called for “resistance against the occupation.” The mufti also claimed that the Likud has promised to “strike [discussion of the status of Jerusalem] from the agenda” of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“Until now, the new government has tried to avoid the problem of Jerusalem,” said Professor Ruth Lapidot, an expert on international law here who advised the Israeli government on the issue of sovereignty in negotiations with Egypt. “And that is wise,” she said. “Jerusalem has no strategic or economic importance. But, as a symbol, it is emotionally important.”

She predicted that in the three years left to negotiate the final status of Jerusalem, both sides will begin to seriously address the problem only in the final month. In the last halfhour, she says, a compromise will be reached.

Meanwhile, hard-line Likud members clamor for Netanyahu to strengthen Jewish Jerusalem.

“We now have a government that truly supports Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Shmuel Meir, deputy mayor of Jerusalem. The day the election results became final, the rabbi unveiled a plan to incorporate into a greater Jerusalem a dozen settlements ringing the capital and to place thousands of Jewish housing units in Arab neighborhoods.

The National Religious Party, whose support the Likud needs in order to gain a majority in the Knesset, has made the immediate implementation of the plan a coalition demand.

Israel Kimhi, a former Jerusalem city planner, said that Meir's plans just might be implemented. Until now, every administration has used the granting or withholding of housing permits to preserve a balance in Jerusalem of 30 percent Arabs and 70 percent Jews, he said.

“This was very important until the peace process,” Kimhi commented. “Of course, if we're going to live peacefully together, it doesn't matter whether there are more Jews or more Arabs. If we are not, it is important to strengthen Jerusalem by putting in more Jews.”

Father Robert Fortin, A.A., superior of St. Peter in Gallicantu Church near the City of David, warned that the Israeli government can't expand the settlements and get peace at the same time. “They start with one and go on to two, then 10 and 20,” said Father Fortin. “They're moving in because they want to eventually take over the neighborhood.”

Father Fortin described the general mood of the Christian community as pessimistic. The now three-month-long closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, preventing most Palestinians and goods from entering Israel, has destroyed livelihoods and erased savings.

“No discussion on Jerusalem or on the Golan (Heights), no Palestinian state. I don't know what is left,” wondered Father Fortin. “It is coming to the point of no return, to the time where you have to go for broke. They have no alternative. If you can't get justice one way, you get it another.”

The next intifida (uprising), he predicted, will be more violent. “If they have explosives, they will use them.”

A resurgence of the intifada—with Palestinians availing themselves of the at least 20,000 weapons now at their disposal—is a grave concern of many.

“For the Palestinians, this is a big provocation,” said Ehud Sprinzak, an Israeli expert on the right wing. On the other hand, Sprinzak added, worldwide attention might prevent Netanyahu from tipping the delicate balance of the peace process.

Professor Lapidot said the Palestinians and Israelis should avoid talking about sovereignty and instead concentrate on dividing powers and responsibilities. She suggests that the city be administered along the lines of a borough system to give representation to the different communities, which comprise not only Christians and Moslems, but also ultra-Orthodox, secular and observant Jews.

The Holy Places should be administered by those who hold them as holy, Lapidot argued, with an inter-religious or international observer group ensuring free access. “We have to take into consideration,” she said, “the wishes of millions of people who do not live in Jerusalem.”

Lisa Pevtzow is based in Jerusalem.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lisa Pevtzow ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: THE CUBAN BISHOPS CONFERENCE DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE CUBAN BISHOPS CONFERENCE are concerned about a new sex education campaign to be launched by the Ministry of Education.

The ministry announced its plans June 16 for a massive sex education program aimed at 6- to 25-year-olds as the incidence of Cuban youth with sexually transmitted diseases continues to rise.

“We will launch an open campaign that will not hesitate to show condoms to six-year-old kids,” said epidemiologist Rolando Ramirez, who will head up the national program. According to Ramirez, the Union of Young Communists as well as the “Pioneers”—6- to 15-year-old members of the Communist Party—will be involved in promoting the campaign.

A Catholic Church spokesman who requested anonymity said the bishops question whether the program is attacking the causes of the problem or, instead, fostering the spread of sexual diseases. The spokesman noted the problem of sexually transmitted diseases is also tied to the increasing number of foreign “sex tourists” coming to Cuba's new beach resorts. (Alejandro Bermudez)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: India's New Leader to End Discrimination DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

AFTER DECADES of waiting, India's 21 million member Christian community has been assured by the country's new coalition government that one of their long-standing demands will be met.

Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda told a delegation from All India Christian People's Forum (AICPF) June 14 that special statutory rights would be extended to Christians of low caste origin.

The necessary legislation will be introduced and passed in the next session of parliament the Prime Minister said.

Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, head of the Welfare Ministry told the delegation earlier that “the Prime Minister has already asked me to initiate steps” to end the discrimination against Christian dalits (low castes) who comprise more than 60 percent of Christians.

Brindavan Moses, AICPF general secretary, said: “We are indeed happy that for the first time we have got a categorical assurance from the government. The undeclared apartheid against Christians is on the verge of collapse.” (Anto Akkara)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anto Akkara ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: THE POPE's WEEK DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

June 15 - 21

SATURDAY

John Paul II met this morning with the fourth group of prelates of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, who have just completed their “ad limina” visit, and encouraged them to “take on with audacity and generosity” the mission of “proclaiming Christ the Redeemer of man.”

The Holy Father addressed the prelates present—from the archdiocese of Cali and the apostolic vicariates and prefectures of Colombia— and told them: “Both the mission ‘ad gentes’ and the new evangelization to which I have been calling the whole Church spring from the certainty that in Christ there is an ‘unfathomable wealth’ that does not annul the culture of any period and to which men can always have recourse in order to enrich themselves spiritually. This wealth is, above all, Christ himself, His person, because He himself is our salvation.”

“For this reason,” continued the Holy Father, “it is urgent that the name of Jesus Christ resound with renewed energy in Colombia, and to the ends of the earth.… It is necessary for the Church today, at the doors of the Third Millennium of Christianity, to take a great step forward in her evangelization, entering into a new historical phase of her missionary dynamism.”

On this missionary work “will depend to a great extent that priests … work with genuine pastoral zeal, and even offer themselves voluntarily to be sent to evangelize outside their own region. Likewise, it will help men and women religious, called to carry out an important mission at this moment in the Church … and it will favor the effective participation of the laity in evangelizing work.”

John Paul II observed that “with the advance of sects and the proselytizing action by pseudo-religious groups who imbue Colombian society with false proposals of salvation, … a continued effort to revitalize formation and catechesis at all levels becomes urgent. The work of catechesis must be centered on the person of Jesus Christ, using as a most useful instrument the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

He also encouraged them to “take advantage responsibly of the space dedicated to religious teaching in your nation's schools.”

“Another important issue in the face of the new evangelization to which you are generously committed is the creation of small Christian communities where the faithful can profess their faith with joy and coherence, congregate assiduously for prayer and mutually encourage each other in the witness of the Gospel.”

•••

Today the Holy Father received the National Confederation of “Misericordie” (mercy workers), of Italy, and representatives of that association from various European countries, and told them that “it is time to commit oneself vigorously to promoting the culture of life and of authentic solidarity.”

“This,” the Pope added, “is central to that authentic Christian humanism which finds in the apostolate of charity its most genuine and eloquent expression,” John Paul said to the 7,000 participants. He then spoke about “the role of the ‘misericordie’ in the Church and society. Right from the year 1244, they have been involved, through generous forms of voluntary work, in the welfare field at the service of the weakest and most needy, bringing together ordinary citizens from every social class and age, determined to honor God through works of mercy.”

•••

This morning the Pope received in audience Dr. Giorgio Giacomelli, under-secretary general and executive director of the United Nations International Drug Control Program, to whom he handed over a message to mark the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking to be held June 26.

“The Holy See is concerned at the ever growing spread of drug abuse and illicit trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances which public opinion seems at times to accept with widespread indifference and often with the apparent belief that protection from this scourge can be had by marginalizing and abandoning its victims, but without addressing its devastating causes.”

The message goes on: “the Holy See attaches great importance to both preventive and therapeutic medical treatment which seeks to help the victims of drug abuse to rediscover their own dignity as human beings by reactivating the personal resources which have been buried. Equally important is the commitment of individuals, families, society and institutions to the struggle against the despicable illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs.”

•••

The Holy Father made the following nominations:

Archbishop Dario Castrillon Hoyos of Bucaramanga, Colombia, as pro-prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.

Archbishop Adriano Bernardini, apostolic nuncio in Bangladesh, as apostolic nuncio in Madagascar, in Mauritius and in the Seychelles.

Bishop Francisco Robles Ortega, auxiliary of Toluca, as bishop of Toluca, Mexico.

•••

The Holy Father received in separate audiences today:

Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy with Bishop Pierre Duprey and Msgr. Eleuterio Francesco Fortino, respectively president, secretary and undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Cardinal Simon Ignatius Pimenta, archbishop of Bombay, India.

Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon.

Archbishop Erwin Josef Ender, apostolic pro-nuncio in Sudan, apostolic delegate in Somalia.

Archbishop Jean-Paul Gobel, apostolic nuncio in Georgia, in Armenia and in Azerbaijan; apostolic administrator “ad nutum Sanctae Sedis” of the apostolic administration of Caucasus.

SUNDAY

At 7:30 this morning, the Pope celebrated Mass at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens for a group from the “Communaute des Beatitudes,” to whom he spoke about the Lord's invitation “to embrace the Kingdom that he began among us.”

“He proposes to us that we follow Jesus, be his genuine witnesses in our brothers' midst, be signs of the presence of God's salvation in their midst.” And he added: “Go out to proclaim the Good News to all those who find themselves discouraged, tired, abandoned at the side of the path.”

John Paul II urged that their “personal and community prayer take on concern for the universal mission of the Church. May it implore God so that ever more numerous ‘disciples’ will accept serving his plan of reconciliation and salvation for all men.”

•••

At today's Angelus the Holy Father referred to the just-concluded U.N. conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Habitat II, and said that the “unanimous affirmation of the right to a house for every person with their own family is a result to be greeted with satisfaction.”

John Paul II highlighted “the drama of so many persons and of entire families forced to live in the street or be content with hazardous or inhospitable refuge.” He said it was sad that young people, because of lack of housing, had to delay marriage or the start of a family. “Welcome indeed is this renewed expression of the international juridical and ethical conscience which, while insisting on the right to a house for everyone, underlines the close link with the right to build a family and to have adequately paid work.”

There must be a global strategy, he went on, “to reduce the differences between rich and poor countries and to eliminate the inequity in the very nations which have the highest income.” And he appealed to leaders “to better harmonize development and economic progress with solidarity.”

“Assuring a suitable ‘habitat’ to everyone,” concluded the Holy Father, “is a measure of civilization and a condition of peaceful and fraternal coexistence.”

At the end of the Angelus and after the greetings, the Pope said: “I see a banner in the square wishing me a good trip. They are right. I commend myself to your prayers, to the prayers of all of you, during my upcoming visit to Germany.”

MONDAY

Members of the Holy See delegation to the U.N. Conference on Human Habitat, which concluded June 14 in Istanbul, Turkey, were received this morning by the Pope, who thanked them for their “dedication and sensitivity to the real needs of people as regards housing and living conditions.”

“Your principal concern at the conference,” he told them in English, “has been to put the inalienable dignity of the human person at the center of everyone's attention, and to draw out the consequences for the international community of that dignity in relation to something as fundamental to people's well-being as the human habitat, the physical and social environment in which individuals and families work out their earthly destiny.”

“Through your skill and commitment,” concluded the Holy Father, “you have made public opinion more clearly aware of the fact that the human habitat will not be truly human unless it also promotes the spiritual and moral development of the human person, and is open to the fraternal solidarity which springs from the social dimension of human life.”

•••

The Holy Father received in separate audiences this morning:

Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Archbishop Francisco-Javier Lozano, apostolic nuncio in Tanzania.

Rodrigo Pardo Garcia-Pena, minister of foreign affairs of Colombia, with his wife and entourage.

Members of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision and Amendment of the Vulgate.

Members of the General Council of the Congregation of Christian Brothers.

WEDNESDAY

At today's general audience, Pope John Paul continued his catechesis on Mary, recalling that the Church holds, in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, that she was preserved from original sin at the first moment of her existence and, as well, that “Mary was free from personal sin and moral imperfection throughout her life.”

The Holy Father went on to say that “the possibility of sinning does not spare even a Christian who is transformed or renewed by grace … unless, as the Council of Trent stated, a special privilege assures such immunity from sin. This is what happened to Mary.” The council, stating that the Church “firmly holds this (privilege of Mary), … confirms its solid doctrinal character.”

John Paul II observed that some Fathers of the Church in early centuries, and even some recent authors, “have attributed to Mary some imperfections or moral defects.” But, he said, Gospel texts “do not allow in any case for the attribution of a sin, or even of only a moral imperfection, to the Mother of the Redeemer.”

According to St. Luke, when Jesus was told: “Your Mother and brothers are outside and wish to see you,” he replied: “My Mother and my brothers are those who listen to the Word of God and put it into practice.”

“Jesus’ words,” John Paul II said, “exalt Mary's fidelity to the will of God and the greatness of her maternity, lived by her not only physically but also spiritually.”

He remarked that “in weaving this indirect praise (of Mary), Jesus … better showed the solidarity and closeness of the Virgin to mankind on the difficult path of holiness.”

Pope John Paul concluded: “The special privilege given by God to the ‘all holy’ … reminds us that Mary has been always and entirely the Lord's, and that no imperfection cracked the perfect harmony between her and God.”

The pope first met with 4,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Basilica, then with 9,000 faithful in the Paul VI Hall.

THURSDAY

Made public today was the Holy Father's letter to Cardinal Pierre Eyt, archbishop of Bordeaux, France, written in Latin and dated May 2, in which he named him his special envoy to the June 23 celebrations for the 9th centenary of the erection of the cathedral of Nimes. Msgr. Robert Dalverny, pastor of the cathedral of Nimes, and Jacques Cannat are also part of this pontifical mission.

•••

The Holy Father received the following today in separate audiences:

Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, archbishop of Bologna, Italy.

Cardinal Bernardino Echeverria Ruiz, archbishop emeritus of Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, president of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy.

Archbishop Blasco Francisco Collaco, apostolic nuncio in Bulgaria.

Father Tiburcio Ferrao, superior general of the Missionary Society of St. Francis Xavier of Pilar (Goa).

Madina Ly-Tall, ambassadress of Mali, on a farewell visit.

Torsten Orn, ambassador of Sweden, with his wife, on a farewell visit.

FRIDAY

Pope John Paul II left for Germany this afternoon at 4:45 p.m. on his 72nd foreign pastoral visit.

He prepared a video-taped message, transmitted on the vigil of his departure, in which he said he was looking to this pastoral visit “with great hope and expectations.”

•••

The Holy Father this morning received a group of 80 French athletes from the archdiocese of Toulouse, about to undertake a 1,000 kilometer relay, and told them: “You wanted to make this event not only a sporting exploit, but also a true spiritual preparation for the celebration of the Jubilee year 2000.”

John Paul II referred to the Apostle Paul, who compared his life to a race, and added: “I hope you run with ardor and intelligence, and that you aim, beyond the exploit, at the true goal to which we all tend: … that the Lord Jesus Christ came among us two millennia ago and that he is by now he to whom all our lives must be oriented.”

•••

The Holy Father made the following nomination:

Msgr. Gervasio Gestori, under-secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference, as bishop of San Benedetto del Tronto-Ripatransone-Montalto, Italy.

(VIS)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Hidden Lessons of Centesimus Annus DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

AMONG U.S. scholars who embrace Catholic social teaching, there are two basic positions regarding the applicability of that teaching in the United States. Some, such as David Schindler, editor of the North American edition of Communio, argue that structural flaws in the U.S. system make it impossible to apply Catholic social teaching. For Schindler, the errors of the Enlightenment are built into the core of the American democratic experiment.

A second school, representated by Michael Novak, believes that Catholic social doctrine is eminently applicable in the United States because truly representative democracy and a free market economy are consonant with the image of man upheld by Church teaching.

The latter school was focused on at a conference held last month at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty in Grand Rapids, Mich., the seminar commemorated the fifth anniversary of Centesimus Annus.

Centesimus Annus was received five years ago as an encyclical on the economy. It did not intend to offer a “third way” between communism and free market capitalism. Yet Dr. Stephen Krason of Franciscan University of Steubenville insisted that John Paul II seems to favor, though less explicitly than Pius XI sixty years before him, economic restructuring based on some sort of third way.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse offered points of contact “between economists and the Catholic mind.” Economists stand alone among social scientists because they hold, as a given of their science, a concept of human nature. For them, there is something universal and enduring in man. They also hold that human beings make choices, free choices, even when such choices are constrained. For Dr. Morse, the rational-choice paradigm of modern economics offers singular opportunities for dialogue.

The seminar gradually shifted from viewing Centesimus Annus as the last in a one-hundred-year series of encyclicals on social issues to the first of a group which, together with Veritatis Splendor and Evangelium Vitae, were described as a “triptych” by George Weigel.

The Church's social teaching focused initially on systems, Weigel suggested—on forms of government and economy most in conformity with the Church's vision of the human person. Centesimus Annus, in Weigel's view, seems to say that history has largely settled the question, favoring democracy over authoritarianism, and free market over state economic control. This leaves culture as the key issue to be addressed, which is precisely what the Pope is now doing. The notion of the three-fold division of society into the political, economic and cultural spheres was already present in Vatican II's Gaudium et spes, in which Karol Wojtyla had a hand, Weigel said.

Michael Novak, for his part, underlined the points of originality in Centesimus Annus, not the least of which was this “shift in attention to cultural issues.” Socialism, he pointed out, amounts to a state monopoly on society as a whole, whereas capitalism forms part of a juridical and constitutional order. Novak went so far as to say that the Pope did not need to propose a third way because “the third way is concrete; it is how the United States has operated for years.”

Mr. Michael Joyce, contrasting the encyclical with the U.S. bishops' pastoral Economic Justice for All, argued that a culture which would cultivate virtue in its citizens would also foster true subsidiarity. The needs of the weak would be attended to by those closest to them, without expending often useless energies lobbying the government.

In his keynote address, Jesuit Father Avery Dulles argued that politics and economics have their matrix in culture, and that culture is incomplete without religion. Culture is renewed, he said, through openness to transcendence and disinterested concern for the true, the beautiful and the good. Cultural institutions (such as education and research) that center on truth, need to join forces with the arts, which encourage beauty. Then together, Father Dulles said, these two institutions must collaborate with religious institutions, which promote the good.

The three transcendentals of Christian philosophy, said the theologian, stand or fall together, and are ultimately rooted in God. Revealed religion inspires beauty and excellence because it is rooted in truth and goodness. That's why a culture that is not grounded in revealed religion cannot fully satisfy the queries of man.

The transcendentals are not the only things that stand or fall together. The same goes for culture, politics and the economy, the seminar seemed to say. Thus, as George Weigel said, “by debating abortion, marital law and v-chips, we are at the heart of the matter of democracy's future.” The crisis of American democracy, he added, depends on “whether we are to understand ourselves as a procedural republic or as a substantive, ongoing moral test of our capacity for self-governance.”

Edward Mulholland is based in Washington, D.C.

The Acton Institute

The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty was founded by Fr. Robert A. Sirico and Kris Alan Mauren in April, 1990. Nonprofit, ecumenical, educational and literary, it promotes among religious and business communities the moral virtues of a society with limited government and a free market economy.

The Institute is named after John Emerich Edwad Dalberg-Acton (1834-1902), an English Catholic leader who was convinced that “freedom should be religious, and religion should be free.”

From their base in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Institute's staff organizes conferences and seminars to promote research and progress on the relationship between ethics, liberty, and free market economy. It conducts student outreach programs including three-day “Toward a Free and Virtuous Society” seminars and on-campus discussion “Acton Circles.” Monthly “Lord Acton Lectures” are held in Grand Rapids, and a bimonthly publication, “Religion and Liberty,” examines critical social, cultural and economic issues in the framework of religion and liberty.

– Edward Mulholland

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Mulholland ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: European Birth-Rate Remains Precariously Low DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

Special to the Register

FRENCH PRESIDENT Jacques Chirac's 33-year-old daughter, Claude, who works at the Elysée Palace as the president's communications adviser, gave birth to a boy last March. The baby, the president's first grandchild, was born out of wedlock. The father is a former French Olympic champion, turned television host.

To Anglo-Saxon eyes, the story had all the makings of a juicy frontpage scandal. It was treated as an inside news brief by most of the French press.

Unlike the prurient Americans and British, who delight in exposing the smallest sexual peccadilloes of their political leaders, the blasé French have never gotten too excited about their leaders' private lives.

To renew the generations, every woman needs to bear an average of 2.1 babies. In the 15 member states of the European Union, the average birth rate is now only 1.45.

Recall their phlegmatic reaction to the revelation that their former president, FranÁois Mitterrand, had had an illegitimate daughter by one of his many mistresses. Hardly an eyebrow was raised when the daughter, Mazarine, now age 21, and her mother were officially presented to the nation alongside Mitterrand's legitimate family at his funeral in January.

Yet, for all their lack of prurience, the French seem obsessed with sex, incapable of selling yogurt or appliances without it. Radio and television talk shows are dominated by it.

The “cinq-‡-sept,” in which businessmen and women reportedly sneak out of their offices for secret trysts with their lovers, has—if the French are to be believed—become a veritable national institution.

In spite of this, however, polls show that 72 percent of men and 86 percent of women say they have never been unfaithful to their spouses. Only 3 percent of men and 1 percent of women admit to having been unfaithful “often.” For the overwhelming majority (84 percent of men and 93 percent of women), their ideal is to live with the same person throughout their lives.

“The family,” far from being an outmoded value, has rarely been held in higher esteem. Ninety-three percent of the French say they have “confidence” in the family; 89 percent hope it will remain the foundation of society; eight out of ten turn to it first in times of crisis.

Even among the young, the family appears to be back in favor. Nine out of ten 18 to 25-year-olds say they would like to “found a family” of their own one day. Eight out of ten rate “the family” as the most important value in their lives, second only to “friendship.” “Sexuality” is very low on their list.

But it is not the same “family” as in the past. Marriage is no longer considered important. The number of weddings in France has fallen to a post-war record low of around 250,000 a year, 40 percent less than the peak in 1972. Only one in two weddings takes place in a church, compared with almost 100 percent 25 years ago.

An estimated 2.2 million couples live together out of wedlock, seven times as many as twenty years ago. More than one in three French babies are born out of wedlock— the highest rate in the European Union outside Nordic countries such as Norway, Sweden and Iceland, where about half of all babies are born to unmarried couples.

Outside of traditional Catholic circles, illegitimacy no longer carries a stigma in France. Hence the lack of fuss over President Chirac's new grandson. Chirac himself, in fact, announced the news. Any contradiction between his daughter's private life and his own public promotion of family values was apparently lost on him.

Last month, Chirac's prime minister, Alain Juppé, hosted a one-day “conference on the family,” uniting family associations, trade unions, political parties and government ministers, as the kick-off to a nationwide debate designed to lead the collaboration (in Chirac's words) of a “new, ambitious policy for the family.”

Its not merely—or even primarily— morals that the government is worried about. It is also very concerned about the catastrophic decline in France's birth rate which has fallen over the last thirty years from an average of 2.8 live births per woman to 1.7, despite having one of Europe's most generous systems of family support and child care.

France's birth rate, however, is still relatively high compared with most of its European neighbors. But that does not mean its situation is good; simply that it's less disastrous than the rest of Europe.

In order to renew the generations, every woman needs to bear an average of 2.1 babies. In the 15 member states of the European Union, the average birth rate is now only 1.45, down from 2.6 in 1965.

The French system of family support, which costs tax-payers a hefty 250 billion francs a year, is now geared to promoting big families. A flat-rate child benefit of 665 francs a month is paid to all families, regardless of their income, from the birth of a second child, rising to 3,222 francs for five children.

Although eighty percent of French women of child-bearing age work, most of them full-time, this is not the main cause of the birth rate's fall.

Child care facilities in France are, on the whole, excellent. Virtually all three- to five-year-olds and two in five two-year-olds are enrolled in full-time state nursery schools, while state-subsidized “crËches” are often available to look after infants from as young as 2 months.

Some argue that if women were offered sufficiently high financial inducement to stay at home and look after their children, then more babies would be born.

Yet evidence does not always bear this out. In Sweden, for example, where mothers receive 90 percent of their former salary for two years after their baby's birth, the birth rate is 1.9—barely higher than in France where women get only three months paid maternity leave. In Germany, the generous incentives paid to encourage mothers to stay at home have not affected the country's birth rate of 1.26—one of the lowest in Europe.

Most women just like to get out of the house. A recent study of working women in France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain showed that half would want to work even if she had enough to live on; less than one quarter said they would prefer to stay at home.

Diana Geddes is based in Paris.

----- EXCERPT: France no exception despite support for 'family values' ----- EXTENDED BODY: Diana Geddes ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: True Happiness in an Unhappy World DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

Happiness and the Limits of Satisfaction, by Deal Hudson (Rowman & Littlefield, 1995, 218 pp., $21.95)

EVER SINCE a visit to Disney World, a question has nipped at the edge of my thoughts. It is one of those questions which, in Eric Voegelin's words, “is not permitted” in an affluent capitalist society. Nonetheless it gets a definitive answer in Dr. Deal Hudson's masterful new book on happiness.

Why (the question goes) am I experiencing a mild depression in the middle of the Magic Kingdom? And why do the people around me, in rapid transit between the log flume ride and Space Mountain, look like they have the same problem?

Hudson supplies the epigrammatic answer in a brilliant chapter dissecting our modern engineers of happiness: “Aim at pleasure directly and you miss it; trust that it will arise out of skillful exertions and it will.” In other words, my friends who spent their vacation climbing Mount Washington in the wind and rain were probably having a better time.

Since the “pursuit of happiness” is an increasingly desperate enterprise in our hedonistic society, Hudson's Happiness and the Limits of Satisfaction renders a real service by exploring the true nature of human satisfaction and exposing its counterfeits. It is a lucid and thought-provoking survey of what happiness has meant to the most important thinkers since antiquity.

Philosophers have always agreed that happiness is a legitimate goal of human existence. So, what exactly is happiness? Hudson, a Thomist philosopher who edits Crisis magazine, takes expert inventory of those thinkers who simply, and mistakenly, equate it with pleasure.

These include Freud, for whom happiness is satiated biology, and his intellectual heirs who preside over our therapeutic culture. Their first mistake is to separate happiness from virtue. Their second is to treat it as antithetical to suffering—or, put another way, to treat suffering as something out of which no good can possibly come.

Aristotle was on the right track when he said that a life can be judged happy only as a whole. And life is always going to include suffering. In the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle is purified and deepened by the event on Calvary. Henceforth, true fulfillment cannot be separated from the Cross, although Aquinas, a great realist, also regards goods such as friendship—and indeed pleasure—as legitimate ingredients of human felicity.

Hudson moves deftly between the natural and supernatural spheres on this issue, explaining why the two finally cannot be separated. Human nature, he writes, “requires an infinite object to satisfy its aspirations.” Unlike cats and dogs, we are incomplete creatures who will be totally satisfied only by the beatific vision. Since the Enlightenment, mankind's biggest mistake has been to transfer these absolute yearnings to the temporal order, creating various utopias which turn out to be previews of hell rather than heaven.

Now that the much advertised “end of history” has arrived, the utopian impulse has waned and mankind is going to spend the next several millennia fine-tuning consumer preferences. This makes Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher who reduced happiness to a “continual success in gratifying individual desires,” the final guru of humanity. Except that most people, even very rich people, still seem to find our earthly existence, in St. Teresa of Avila's words, a bad night in a bad inn.

According to Hudson, this is because they are seeking themselves rather than getting out of themselves. Their polar opposite is the saint, the happiest of sublunary creatures. St. Francis, for example, who is rightly accounted a joyful personality, did not experience a moment of good health once he had made his full surrender to God. The same is true of many other saints. They found the seam, as it were, between suffering and the hundredfold promised us by Christ even in this life. It is in its attempt to avoid suffering at all costs that our affluent society reveals its ultimate poverty and immaturity.

Happiness and the Limits of Satisfaction is a rich philosophical treatise which deeply probes an inexhaustible subject. What I particularly like about it is its realism. We are not all St. Francis, nor are we meant to be. We would like a few clues about leading richer lives and attaining sanctity in the midst of ordinary circumstances. Hudson's is the best explanation I've read of why such a goal is fundamentally at odds with the bourgeois pig-happiness offered by our secular culture.

George Sim Johnston is based in New York.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: George Sim Johnston ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Trouble with 'Welfare Replacement' DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

Renewing American Compassion, by Marvin Olasky (New York: The Free Press, 1996, 201 pp., $21)

I HAVE TO BEGIN this review of Marvin Olasky's Renewing American Compassion—a spirited argument for radical change in America's way of delivering social services to the needy—with a disclaimer. My son is a professional social worker. He serves a large caseload of persons with serious disabilities living in the core of a typically troubled big city. He is overworked and underpaid, and when he goes home at night he worries about his clients and their problems.

My son does not consider himself an instrument of social engineering. He would not be amused to be called a cog in a selfperpetuating bureaucratic machine. He does what he does because he wants to help people. I think he probably is good at that.

On the micro level and maybe also on the macro, this has relevance to Marvin Olasky's book as well as to pleas for welfare reform in general. (I take “welfare reform” to be shorthand for changing the social services delivery system overall and to involve a lot besides “welfare” properly so called.)

Conservative welfare critics say plenty that makes sense. But knocking social workers makes me queasy. Olasky tends to do that when deploring the professionalization of American social work early in this century. So, for example, he quotes a source of that day on the “opinionated and self-righteous attitude” of trained social workers. Maybe so. They weren't—and aren't—the only ones.

By all means, let us have more volunteers and volunteerism. But let us be aware that the professionals are in the trenches by choice, doing work that most of us wouldn't care to attempt.

Welfare has been a gold mine for political rhetoric for a long, long time. Bill Clinton campaigned for the White House in 1992 promising to “end welfare as we know it.” Four years later welfare is an issue in another campaign. Clinton argues that change is occurring in a number of states, with encouragement (if not exactly bold leadership) from his administration. Bob Dole argues that Clinton has been more hindrance than help—witness his vetoes. The debate is highly politicized. Both sides probably are right in part and partly wrong.

Olasky, editor of the lively evangelical newsweekly World and a veteran writer on welfare, is interested in reform but much more interested in something else. “It is time now,” he says, “to talk not about reforming the welfare system … but about replacing it with a truly compassionate approach based in private and religious charity.” He wants to turn social services over to the private sector, especially churches. He calls this “welfare replacement.” The model is the American charity system of the 19th century.

With some exceptions, Great Society-type programs haven't worked very well and often have done harm by fostering dependency and rewarding selfdestructive behavior.

Does this make sense? It is easy to agree that, with some notable exceptions, Great Society-type programs haven't worked very well and often have done harm by fostering dependency and rewarding selfdestructive behavior. It does not follow that across-the-board privatization is the answer. Judicious experiments—bearing in mind that these are experiments with people's lives—would seem to be in order.

Olasky employs an anecdotal method— vignettes from real life—to make his points about private initiative and personal conversion as keys to change. One wants him to be right. But is he? His prescriptions may work with redeemable down-and-outers. But what about those who, humanly speaking, are beyond redemption—who cannot change, cannot reform, cannot be other than dependent?

My son's clients include severely braindamaged persons. In other cases, recipients of social services are confirmed alcoholics and drug addicts, sociopaths, schizophrenics. Private charity already helps many of these people and probably could help more. But can the private sector care for them all?

Olasky's preferred funding mechanism is dubious. He rejects even federal block grants. Leave the money in the states, he says, and let them fund programs. But what about states with disproportionately large concentrations of needy people? Either taxpayers there will be taxed out of their socks or—more likely —the needy will get short shrift. Suddenly the federal bogeyman doesn't look so bad.

Olasky mocks the image of the social safety net spread by government largesse, but something of the kind is necessary. It must be woven tightly enough that even the worst cases—including the obnoxiously undeserving poor—do not fall through. Imperfect as it is, the present system at least sees minimally to that.

Still, as the interminable welfare debate continues, so does change. Responsible change should be welcomed. But as it takes place, let's not trash the gutsy people—professionals and volunteers alike, including those acting on religious motives—who strive to help the damaged human products of a profligate culture. My son doesn't deserve that.

Russell Shaw is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Russell Shaw ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Opus Dei, In Its Own Words DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

Opus Dei: Who? How? Why? by Giuseppe Romano. Translated by Edmund C. Lane, S.S.P., (Alba House, New York, 1995, 197 pp., $9.95)

A Gift of God: Blessed Josemaria Escriva (videotape produced and distributed by REYMAX, White Plains, N.Y., 1994, 57 minutes)

EVEN A CASUAL knowledge of its ideals shows that Opus Dei is in harmony with many of the important initiatives of the Second Vatican Council. It's characterization as a secretive and somewhat controversial group will probably not prejudice sensible people, especially on this side of the Atlantic. Still, there remains the need for reliable information about Opus Dei. A book, Opus Dei, Who?, Why?, How?, and a video, A Gift of God: Blessed Josemaria Escriva, try to satisfy this need.

The book's author, Giuseppe Romano, is clearly identified as a member of Opus Dei. A foreword by Cardinal James Hickey of Washington recommends the book, Opus Dei itself, and its “world-wide apostolate” (in 1990 it reported 1,350 priests and some 72,000 lay people in about 80 countries). The initial chapters contain some epistemological posturing about what the “well-intentioned observer” knows about Opus Dei, which may only serve to make something sound fishy that wouldn't otherwise.

The book is divided into three parts. The first contains a brief biography of the founder, Blessed Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. The important events in his life are cited but little effort is made to trace the major influences on his life and thought, be they teachers, theologians, spiritual writers, etc. Romano is satisfied to put the Opus Dei founder's prophetic vocation down to divine intervention. He also likens the inspiration behind Opus Dei to Holy Scripture itself, which may come across as a bit presumptuous.

Romano goes to great lengths to distinguish between the “message”— the philosophy and spirituality of Opus Dei—and the “instrument”—its institutional structure. These then become the themes of the book's second and third parts. This plan is somewhat hard on the reader, as there are many places where the theory begs illustration. By book's end, however, the reader will have a good sense of what Opus Dei is about. There is also an appendix of questions and answers that deal with the controversies involving Opus Dei.

A book on the “message” and “instrument” of Opus Dei leaves one curious about the “people” of Opus Dei. The video, A Gift of God: Blessed Josemaria Escriva, happily takes a more personal approach to its subject. Made in 1994, A Gift of God focuses on the founder, who died in 1975. The production-quality is good, it's well-paced and the music is tasteful.

Along with a standard biographical approach to the founder's life, the video profiles some Opus Dei members, mostly Americans. A South Bronx teacher relates how Opus Dei helps her transcend the prevailing despair of that environment. ABoston child psychiatrist says that Opus Dei helps support her faith amid the secularism of her profession. A Chicago couple with seven children testify to the way Opus Dei helps them as a family: “Many people today think that having a large family is a burden too difficult to accept, but I would say that if a husband and wife trust in God, and accept the children He wants to send them, then God will also give them the help they need to care for them.” Such evidence of real faith is rare, proof that Opus Dei succeeds in positively affecting people's lives.

Both the book and the video emphasize that Opus Dei concentrates on forming and spiritually directing its members. Opus Dei apparently provides support on the fraternal and cultural level, yet there is almost no description of how it does this on a day-to-day basis. Where Christian culture has evaporated, the fraternal and cultural roles of Opus Dei take on more importance and we would benefit from hearing about them. As they realize that practicing their faith requires support from mediating institutions that build community and Christian culture, it is likely that more Catholics will be looking into Opus Dei. This book and, even more so, the video, are good places to start.

Brother Clement Kennedy, O.S.B., is a monk at the Prince of Peace Abbey in Oceanside, Calif.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother Clement Kennedy, O.S.B. ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Good Things Are Happening Everywhere DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

NOT THAT there are no bad things, but that there are plenty of good things, too. More and more all the time it seems.

A great many of them are layinspired or lay-guided. Lay people are realizing they don't have to accept things as they are. If there is no trustworthy Catholic school around for me to send my kids to, I can teach them myself or, better yet, start my own school and evangelize, not just protect.

The “institutional” side of our Church is also full of good news these days. The steady increase of religious and priestly vocations among orders and seminaries that look to Rome for guidance. The deep spirituality and solid theology of so many of our younger priests. There may be fewer being ordained, but those coming out of good seminaries are as dedicated as can be and more than make up for their reduced numbers. One holy priest does more good than 50 mediocre.

The bishops of the Church, for their part, seem to be freeing themselves of bureaucratic functions and resuming their roles as pastoral leaders. Economic and strictly political concerns are giving way to passionate discourses on the sanctity of life, the evils of racism, the true priorities of Catholic education, and a genuine reaching out to youth, keeping them in the Church or bringing them back if necessary.

Though it continues to be belittled by the media, Catholic morality (where it is taught clearly and with the appropriate pedagogy) is experiencing a rebirth among Catholic youth. Chastity is in. Drugs are out. Volunteering for service projects is cool. Worrying about me and only me is lame.

Catholic morality, moreover, is getting a second look from the medical field. Medical reports praising the unsuspected wisdom of natural family planning are starting to multiply. The benefits of abstinence are being openly admitted. As medical professionals (influenced, perhaps, by the successes of natural medicine) concentrate more and more on preventive medicine, the scales tend to fall off their eyes.

The Catholic media continues its own renaissance. New publications focused on intelligent evangelization and clear teaching are springing up. There are new publishing houses for the seekers of solid doctrine and proven spirituality. New periodicals for scholars. New magazines and new videos for families. New TVand radio shows.

In effect, a new Catholic culture is taking root in our country. And it's not a mere return to a supposedly-glorious past. It's a Holy Spirit-inspired mix of the best of yesterday and the best of today, preparing the ground for a better-than-ever tomorrow.

So many good things happening, yet so often unknown.

Last fall, producers, distributors, and retailers of Catholic goods and services met in Chicago in an effort to rectify the situation. The feeling was unanimous. There was need for an organization to bring Catholic producers and retailers together so as to more effectively get the tools for evangelization into the hands of Catholics everywhere. The Catholic Marketing Network (CMN) was born.

Amission statement was articulated, by-laws were drawn up, and a board of directors elected. The board began meeting monthly to discuss possible courses of action. A national trade show was finally decided on as a groundbreaking event for the CMN.

Apprehensiveness set in. How is an unknown organization to sell all the booths and attract all the retailers necessary to run a successful national trade show, and do it without any money? It was going to be a risk, through and through. Adate was nervously set and a hotel/convention center even more nervously booked.

The fears proved to be unfounded. All 115 booths sold out in a matter of weeks. Some 250 retailers registered for the show. Successful producers and retailers offered to give seminars for free. People from around the country, sent in money to join the CMN and attend the trade show. Even some who said they wouldn't be able to attend sent in money. The CMN, they said, was desperately needed and they wanted to support it and be a part of it.

The CMN is one example among countless, worthy of special mention here only because its first trade show is this weekend (June 28-30) in Somerset, N.J. The CMN is in on its way to becoming a major, albeit behind-the-scenes, force in the Catholic Church in this country. And it all began with an idea and the courage to take that idea and make it a reality. But isn't that the story behind everything Christ does through and for His Church?

The Church is limited in what it can do as an institution. In and of itself, it does not change society. Rather, it transforms the hearts and minds of its members and then sends them out to transform society. This is true at every level of the Church's life.

The Church does not, for example, run parishes. It merely preserves intact the structure for running parishes. Priests, individual men, run parishes. Where there is a saintly priest, there is a flourishing parish. The Church, on its own, does not produce saintly priests (if it did, they would all be saintly). The Church merely makes saintly priests possible.

Taking another example, the Church does not normally found religious orders (there have been exceptions). It simply approves the foundation of new orders. The orders themselves are founded by individual men and women, men and women who see an unmet need and decide to do something about it. Few of them begin with the idea of starting an order. They see a need, get an idea for how to begin answering it, and end up founding an order.

Lay Catholics today need to look to the founders of the past (and the present) for inspiration and guidance. Lay Catholics today are called to be founders in their own way. Founders, not of religious orders, but of works of apostolate. So many of the good things alluded to here exist because of lay people who have lived their baptismal promises seriously and have felt compelled to act on an idea.

And just like for the founders of old, doing so has meant hardship, misunderstanding, and even rejection at times. But for those who open themselves up to the gift of serving Christ with all their energy through, with, and in the Church, the bitter-sweet struggle leads to ineffable joy and indescribable peace.

The next time you get a good idea, act on it.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

REAL PRESENCE

Apparently some pastors and at least one bishop believe it so important to change the “posture” of the laity during Mass they will break the law of the Church to accomplish it.

As I understand it, the general norm is to kneel for the consecration. In the United States, it has been our custom to kneel at the “Holy, Holy, Holy” and remain kneeling thereafter, except for the Our Father. The Church has allowed the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (not individual bishops, priests, or parish liturgical councils) to modify these postures but only in accord with the purpose and meaning of each part of the Mass and the sensibilities of the people.

At the latest bishops' conference, a motion to change the posture was defeated. It is not clear to me whether the motion entailed standing during the consecration. In any case, I have attended more than a few Masses recently where the congregation, under instructions from the priest, stood during the entire Liturgy of the Eucharist, including the consecration. At one parish, they stood at the consecration but knelt during part of an R.C.I.A. ceremony!

This appears to be in open defiance of the Church's rule. But even more important, to my mind, is the apparent change in the belief of those who so desire this “reform.” They apparently no longer believe in the doctrine of Transubstantiation, which has been defined de fide and for all time by the Church at the Council of Trent and alluded to as “remaining intact” by Vatican II.

In a culture that prides itself on kneeling to no man or thing, but only to God, standing, where once we knelt, indicates that we no longer believe that Christ becomes present, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, when, and only when, the words of consecration are spoken.

Some liturgical experts will say (and I have heard them say it) that Christ is present as much in the Liturgy of the Word and in the assembly of the faithful as in the consecrated host. And that I submit is the new doctrine they are trying to have the people learn through the posture change. Others seem to say that it is not the words of consecration that effect the substantial change but the entire Liturgy of the Eucharist, of which the “Institution Narrative” is only a part.

Both of these ideas are contrary to the teaching of the Church. Paragraph 1376 of the Catechism, quoting the Council of Trent, reads: “… by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the body of Christ our Lord.…” Also paragraph 1377: “The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration.…” Also, paragraph 1374, quoting Pope Paul VI's Mysterium Fidei: “This presence is called ‘real’—by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.

How could anyone brought up in our culture remain standing when this occurs? Would we remain standing if Christ were to appear in our midst in such a way that we could see and hear and touch Him?

John Prendiville

Oak Park, Illinois

MODERN GOALS

The petition that a coalition of dissenting Catholic organizations is circulating (“Catholic Reformers Launch Petition Drive,” the Register, June 9) is sad in its narrowness. All of the demands are for power in the Church or for changing doctrines and disciplines related to sex. In earlier centuries, Christian disputes were about the Incarnation, the Trinity, Grace, and other issues involving God. Now the main concerns of dissenters are organizational power and their sex lives. They want the Church to permit contraception, divorce and remarriage, premarital sex, homosexual intercourse, etc. One might wonder why laymen, most of whom have no desire to become priests, are concerned with abolishing the requirement of celibacy. I suspect that in many cases it is because celibacy is, among other things, a witness that people can control their sexual appetites. People can choose to refrain from satisfying their sexual desires. People who don't want to refrain from satisfying their sexual desires would prefer that that witness be less noticeable. Similarly, I suspect that the reason many heterosexuals support the legitimization of homosexual intercourse is that if homosexual intercourse is legitimized, anything goes, including whatever they might want to do.

Martin Helgesen

Malverne, New York

via e-mail

REED's SHIFT

The reason Ralph Reed's “subtle shift” on the abortion “issue” (“Ralph Reed's Gambit,” the Register, May 19) caused such a brouhaha among pro-life people was not because the pro-life movement is opposed to using legal efforts as well as moral persuasion to ban all abortion. Rather, it is the implication, implicit in Mr. Reed's omission of a human life amendment from his proposed platform language, that the pro-life movement no longer has abolishing abortion as its ultimate goal.

The pro-life movement does not exist to legislate and regulate the wholesale murder of innocent children. It exists to eliminate it. A human life amendment, if drafted to uphold the personhood of the preborn child, would preclude a “states rights” approach and direct the states to give total protection to every innocent baby from fertilization on.

Although a human life amendment may not currently have the support needed to pass in Congress, it is precisely because the pro-life movement, Ralph Reed case in point, has stopped asking for it. Out of sight, out of mind. Just like 1.5 million babies a year.

Rebecca Lindstedt,

Alexandria, Virginia

MORE REED

The Register's May 19 editorial defending Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed's promotion of a revised pro-life plank for the Republican party (“Ralph Reed's Gambit”) missed the point. Some leaders of the pro-life movement are simply off track. Instead of focusing on eliminating all abortion—through a principled, persuasive strategy—some of these leaders have all but given up efforts to push a human life amendment or human life statute through Congress. One need not look any further than the past session of Congress. Although a bill which would have banned abortion, HR 1625, was introduced by Rep. Bob Dornan and a few others, only a handful of national pro-life groups even bothered to mobilize support for it (namely American Life League and March for Life). Instead, most national groups focused on a bill which would have restricted the use of a rarely-used abortion technique … and even this bill had an exception in it. If this is the best we can do with the supposed “most pro-life Congress since Roe v. Wade,” then it's a sad commentary on the pro-life movement.

Yes, the battle over the Republican plank is exposing division in the pro-life movement. We need to decide—we either stop the political compromise with babies'lives or continue trying to win kudos from political elites while 4,500 babies die every day.

Greg Chesmore

Janesville, Wisconsin

ABORTION TOLL

Last April, New York Gov. George Pataki announced he would lead the charge to strip the pro-life plank from the Republican Party platform at the National Convention in August. Ray Kerrison, premier columnist of the New York Post, (April 21) suggested Pataki check out the fate of presidential hopefuls Sen. Arlen Specter and Gov. Pete Wilson, as well as the overwhelming majority in both Senate and House outlawing partial-birth abortions. “Only a presidential veto keeps this crime on the books.”

Kerrison's column added a statistic I found devastating: “Every year, 1.5 million unborn babies are destroyed in the womb. Since legalizing abortion in 1973, more than 30 million American babies have been snuffed out before birth.” The overwhelming vote in Congress (which included both pro-choice Democrats and Republicans) banning full-term abortions indicates “this mass slaughter is beginning to trouble the national conscience.”

There is another aspect that deserves consideration. Jesuit Father Robert Brungs, a St. Louis physicist and theologian, made a stunning observation that is relevant here: “The loss of 25 million potential Social Security contributors through abortion, although it is protected as a private act, will have an enormous public effect down the road in a few years” (St. Louis Mo., You See Lights Breaking Upon Us, p. 37, ITEST Press, 1989).

Is this why Social Security and Medicare are facing bankruptcy?

Sister Thomas More Bertels, O.S.F.

Manitowoc, Wisconsin

DISSENTERS

I am not typically an outspoken person, but “We Are Church Comes Stateside” (the Register, June 16) sure upset me.

The fact that it was printed is commendable (it should wake people up), but the fact that this type of movement is occurring is not acceptable!

It is incredible how liberals use statistics to paint an illusion so that the “average American” will feel obliged to support their agenda. I wish people would wake up and realize that statistics can be manipulated to say anything.

I am affiliated with a religious order and have been involved with many others on different occasions. Any rule or constitution I have ever read included a vow of obedience. This would apply not only to one's superior, but to the Church and the Magesterium as well. According to Canon Law, the laity is also bound to obey the teachings of the Magesterium.

To have a Catholic sister carrying the banner for this movement brings shame to everybody who is “truly Catholic.” Somebody in the hierarchy should officially warn her, and if no response is observed, place the sister and/or her religious house under interdict.

We need somebody to follow the lead of Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz and stop this movement in its tracks. If that means excommunicating everyone that signs that petition, so be it! The “weeds” must be removed if the “flowers” are to survive. Church Doctrine is not a product of popular opinion!

Where is all this going to stop? If this was not such a serious subject, I would never be able to keep myself from laughing! But in reality I am on the verge of crying. Remember Our Lord's warning about “wolves in sheeps'clothing”?

Matthew Callihan

Butler, Pennsylvania

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: A Declaration of Dependence DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

EVERY JULY 4, we Americans celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence when the founding fathers declared our freedom from the British. At the heart of our fledgling country was the belief that the citizenry could not live in harmony unless there was a strong religious element in the culture. Our founders believed that human nature is broken and prone to sin. The tendency to self-centeredness had to be held in check, they believed, by fostering a general spirit of religious worship.

When religion becomes isolated from or foreign to a country, its legal, social and cultural institutions gradually disintegrate. Instead of being concerned with the common good of the nation, citizens madly scramble for pleasure, license and material possessions. Since the end of World War II, religion in our country has lost its influence on individuals (fewer churchgoers) and on institutions (the unraveling of laws protecting family life).

Respect for the divine laws underpinning civil law has been lost. The notion that we do not have dominion over human life means nothing if we no longer believe in God. When religous indifference prevails, Congress, the courts, and other agencies determine the parameters for acceptable human behavior. This gives rise to situations in which women insist on total control of their bodies, dismissing the rights of the preborn, of fathers, and even God.

In America, both the government and the culture at large continue making small declarations of independence from God and religion.

The human race has always wrestled with what constitutes permissible behavior. At times we've been too rigid about what is allowable under God's laws (alcohol consumption or reasonable cigarette smoking), and other times too tolerant (genetic manipulation, assisted suicide, same sex marriages, etc.). In America today, both the government and the culture at large continue making small declarations of independence from God and religion.

Religion, as defined by St. Thomas Aquinas and others, is a declaration of dependence on God. Adoration or its absence has tremendous repercussions on society because people need to pursue common goals and values in a cooperative way. If the goals are confused, the means for achieving them will be obfuscated by clever lawyers and judges who will circumvent stringent laws in the name of a confused freedom.

Msgr. George Kelly has written several books about the “battle for the American Church.” The more critical battle, I believe, is for the cultural soul of the American Republic. If grace presupposes nature, and nature becomes distorted by bad laws and a culture that glorifies vice, then saving Catholicism in any given country is only part of a broader re-evangelization. The battle to be fought is for what is truly natural in the human sphere, as opposed to what people want to be true.

Our religion is a supernatural creation of the Son of God. It calls us to live beyond mere precepts and principles by acquiring the mindset of the beatitudes. We are called to an excellence that can be realized only with the gifts of the Holy Spirit inspiring us each day.

Living under the power of the Holy Spirit presupposes reasonable behavior but goes beyond mere “right reason.” But when a culture denies the use of reason in establishing ethics or determining moral action, then the few who believe in the existence of a moral deposit in the depths of human nature must realize that doing “violence” to enter the Kingdom means fighting, first of all, for what is essential to living, as both responsible citizens of our country and faithful children of our Heavenly Father.

Father Basil Cole, O.P., is a member of the Western Dominican Preaching Team which gives parish missions and renewals.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Basil Cole, O.P. ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Father McBrien: Martyr or Dissenter? DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

“STOKE THE FIRES and oil the rack, let everyone know the Inquisition's back,” chant the defenders of Father Richard McBrien. Merely raising the question of whether Father McBrien's brand of Catholicism may violate truth-in-labeling laws has the apparatus of theological dissent up in arms.

We've heard it before: The Church did nasty things to Galileo and later Galileo was proved right in a big way. The Church did nasty things to people like Henri de Lubac and John Courtney Murray, who were also proved right in a big way. Ergo, the Church is now doing nasty things to Father Richard McBrien and of course he too shall be proved right.

Father McBrien's case isn't about freedom of inquiry or the right to speak out; it's about the obligation of bishops to safeguard the integrity of Catholic doctrine.

Omitted from this litany of ecclesiastical martyrs, of course, are those to whom the Church has said “no” but who were not later proved right: Judaizers of Paul's time, Marcion, Arius, Pelagius, the Cathari, the Jansenists, the Feeneyites, the Lefverites, and so on…

In the present case, however, we are told that what is at stake isn't so much who's theologically correct (the Magisterium or Father McBrien) but rather a theologian's right to pose questions. But no one is suppressing Father McBrien or his book. No one is keeping him from asking questions. Anyone who wants a copy of Catholicism can buy it at a nearby bookstore.

No, Father McBrien's case isn't about freedom of inquiry or the right to speak out; it's about the obligation of bishops to safeguard the integrity of Catholic doctrine and about the rights of the faithful to receive that doctrine unadulterated.

If he wants to, Father McBrien is free to challenge any or all aspects of Catholic doctrine—just not in the name of the Catholic community, not as one ordained and commissioned by the Church to faithfully transmit its message. After all, non-dissenting Catholics have rights, too. And Father McBrien certainly isn't justified in demanding that we accept as Catholic his formulation of doctrine, especially when that formulation deviates from—if not outright contradicts—official Church teaching.

The debate will undoubtedly center, not on whether Father McBrien's teaching is misleading and harmful, but on his right to a fair hearing, and whether he got such a hearing. Did the bishops' doctrinal committee follow due process so as not to unfairly impugn Father McBrien's reputation as a theologian? This is precisely what Father Richard McCormick, S.J., one of Father McBrien's leading supporters, has argued in America magazine. Fairness to Father McBrien, not the substance of what he says, is the issue at hand.

Now, of course Father McBrien should be treated fairly. But so should the rest of us.

We have a right to know whether what is presented by, say, directors of religious education, comes from the Magisterium's Catholicism or Father McBrien's Catholicism. We have the right to know whether seminarians, once ordained, will give us Pope John Paul II's teaching or Father McBrien's opinions. We have a right to know that when someone calls himself a Catholic theologian, he is presenting himself as one of inquisitive faith, yes, but above all of mature, supernatural faith.

Mark Brumley is managing editor of The Catholic Faith and Catholic Dossier.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Brumley ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Evil That Is Racism DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

The following are excerpts from a recent statement published by Donald Wuerl, Bishop of Pittsburg.

…AMONG CHRISTIANS the call to unity is greater because it is rooted in grace and, therefore, racism merits even stronger condemnation. Every one who is baptized into Christ Jesus is called to new life in the Lord. Baptism unites us with the Risen Lord and through him with every person who sacramentally has died and risen to new life in Christ. This unity, sacramental and real, brings us together on a level above and beyond the purely physical. It carries that oneness we all share through the natural reality of creation to a higher level—the realm of grace.

In Christ we live in the same Spirit, we share the same new life and are members of one spiritual body. The members of the Church are called to be witnesses to the unity of God's family and, therefore, to be a living testimony to the inclusiveness that is a graced sign of our oneness.

The call to a unity that transcends ethnic ties and racial divisions is a hard one for some people to accept. Too often we become comfortable in the enclave of our own familiar world and view others who are different from us, ethnically or because of the color of their skin, as a threat. Nonetheless, to be truly faithful to Christ we must respond to his teaching that we are one in him and, therefore, one with each other.

Intolerance and racism will not go away without a concerted effort on everyone's part. Regularly we must renew the commitment to drive it out of our hearts, our lives and our community. While we may devise all types of politically correct statements to proclaim racial equality, without a change in the basic attitude of the human heart we will never move to that level of oneness that accepts each other for who we are and the likeness we share as images of God.

In the bishops' statement on racism, Brothers and Sisters to Us, we read: “To the extent that racial bias affects our personal attitudes and judgments, to the extent that we allow another's race to influence our relationship and limit our openness, to the extent that we see yet close our hearts to our brothers and sisters in need—to that extent we are called to conversion and renewal in love and justice.”

In a personal way conversion means examining our attitudes and actions. This includes expressly rejecting racial stereotypes, slurs and jokes. We can also be an influence on coworkers, friends and family members by speaking out on the injustice of racism. Part of personal spiritual development includes a self-conscientious sensitivity to what we say and think. In a positive manner we can interact with one another in a way which reflects the teaching of Jesus: “Treat others the way you would have them treat you” (Mt 7, 12).

In an article entitled “Racism and Respect for Others,” I reflected in the Pittsburgh Catholic on the “proactive” stance that we must all adopt if we hope to overcome gradually but decisively the evil that is racism. “The Church must show its opposition to intolerance, whether religious, ethnic or racial, in her teaching and example. The inherent human dignity of every person is a theme that should be increasingly woven into the fabric of the Church's daily proclamation of the Gospel. In our schools, religious education programs, adult education efforts and every opportunity available to us, we must continue to weave that thread into the fabric of the life of the Church. We must educate people with God's truth and motivate them with God's love.”

Responding to Christ's love calls us to action. We need to move to the level of Christian solidarity. This term often spoken of by our Holy Father as a virtue touches the practical implications of what it means to recognize our unity with others. There is a sense in which solidarity is our commitment to oneness at work in the practical order.

The Sunday Eucharist offers a wealth of opportunities to reflect on this issue. The prayers of the faithful can promote social justice and urge the elimination of racism. Homilies can deal with the implications of the Christian faith for prejudice and racist behavior. Parish efforts at evangelization ought to reach out to people of every race, culture and nationality.

We need to be alert to and articulate in addressing racism wherever we meet it. In housing, citizens need to insist that the government enforce fair housing statues. In the workplace, recruitment, hiring, and promotion policies need to reflect true opportunity. In public education, we can support the teaching of tolerance and appreciation for each culture. In the public debate on the illnesses of our age, we ought also to insist on the place of religious faith. Without God and the sense of right and wrong that religious convictions engender, we will never adequately confront racism.

The elimination of racism may seem too great a task for any one of us or even for the whole Church. Yet we place our confidence in the Lord. In Christ, we are brothers and sisters to one another. With Christ, we have received the Spirit of justice, love and peace. Through Christ, we are called to envision the new city of God, not built by human hands, but by the love of God poured out in the Savior. On the journey to that “new heaven and new earth,” we make our way with faith in God's grace, with hope in our own determination, and above all with love for each other as children of God.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald Wuerl ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Spirituality DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE IMPACT of Saints Peter and Paul— whose Solemnity was celebrated June 29—on the Mystical Body of Christ is considerable. By virtue of their heroic faith and heavenly intercession, they are an abiding presence among the disciples of Jesus Christ.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, St. Peter, “the Apostle to the Jews,” is honored for his profound faith in “Christ's divine sonship,” which “will be the center of the apostolic faith” (442). He is also venerated for the authority entrusted to him: “Simon Peter holds the first place in the college of the Twelve.” This ordinary fisherman “will remain the unshakable rock of the Church. His mission will be to keep this faith from every lapse and to strengthen his brothers in it” (552).

St. Paul, “the Apostle to the Gentiles,” is most noted for his thirteen epistles, quotes of which are sprinkled throughout the Catechism. His moving words regarding the supernatural virtue of charity—“ the form of all the virtues” (2346)—is an example: “… charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things!” (1825).

Sts. Peter and Paul are commemorated, not so much for any inherent goodness they had, but rather for what God accomplished through them. Weak men, Peter and Paul experienced the forgiveness of the Almighty, and by cooperating with His grace became the great evangelizers of the ancient world.

Peter and Paul set a standard for all followers of Jesus. These “superapostles,” buoyed by the Lord's assistance, attained a high degree of personal holiness, becoming exemplars of faith, hope and charity.

Even today, the Church relies on the example of Sts. Peter and Paul. They are truly men for all seasons; their astonishing perseverance and indomitable fortitude in preaching the Gospel never go out of date. Indeed, these two martyrs' witness is needed more than ever today, when sacrifice and lasting commitment are so rare.

Peter's keys and Paul's pen have helped the Gospel of the Redeemer to be better known and loved by people of all nations and all times. Continuing to teach the modern-day disciple of Christ to be generous and loyal in both joy and sorrow, Peter and Paul capture the essence of following the Master and spreading His Gospel, even at the cost of laying down one's life.

Father Charles Mangan is a priest of the Diocese of Sioux Falls, S.D.

----- EXCERPT: Sts. Peter and Paul: Apostles for All Time ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Charles Mangan ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: This Sunday at Mass DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Kgs 4, 8-11; 14-16a

Ps 89, 2-3; 16-19

Rom 6, 3-4; 8-11

Mt 10, 37-42

WHILE HE commands our absolute love, it is precisely Jesus' justifying love that makes it possible for us to love others selflessly. The more we love Jesus, the freer we are to love others truly. But to love the Lord authentically, we must first respond to His love as He offers it to us, moment by moment.

This entails, among other things, taking up our cross and following after Him. By embracing suffering, we manifest confidence in God's provident love—a love that never lets us down. We accept the cross as a sign of God's love. As we love Jesus through our struggles, He shows us that He is our strength.

Our self-worth and future glory are not determined by what we have or who we know. Love of Jesus moves us to hope, not in our own resources and accomplishments, but in God's promise. It is not by our own talents or power that we live a new life, but rather by the glory of the Father who makes us worthy of His Son by calling us to love Jesus as the Father loves Him.

We love Jesus by welcoming Him, especially as we encounter Him in the neediness of others, just as the woman of Shunem welcomed the holy prophet Elisha. Our attentiveness to Jesus' presence purifies and deepens our love for one another. If we did not love Jesus above all things, we would not be capable of selfless charity. Nor would we receive its assured reward. Because of her graciousness to Elisha, the woman is blessed with a baby son. When Jesus occupies the central place in our hearts, even as we love and care for others, God sends us His own Son, making us worthy to receive Him in the Eucharist.

Father Peter John Cameron,O.P., teaches homiletics at St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Peter John Cameron,O.P. ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Dedication, Orthodoxy Help Priest to Save School DATE: 06/30/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 30, 1996 ----- BODY:

CANBY, Minn.—Five years ago, a young priest, Father Paul van de Crommert, arrived in this little town on the prairie's edge for his first pastorate. He was determined not to allow St. Peter's Grade School to die.

Defying all odds, the school and parish are now flourishing. For Father van de Crommert, a Catholic school is the heart of a parish, giving it cause and purpose. He's convinced that instructing children well in the faith is the best way to re-evangelize parents.

In Minnesota, location is judged by driving distance from the Twin Cities. Canby, near the South Dakota line, is in the hinterlands, four hours from Minneapolis-St. Paul. The number of inhabitants— 1,800—has dropped by 300 since its last census.

As the region's cash crop farms grow ever larger, the population slowly continues to age and recede. For decades now, young people from Canby and elsewhere in rural Minnesota have gone to the Twin Cities to find work.

Canby is heavily Scandinavian Lutheran (the main street is “St. Olaf Avenue” and Canby's Lutheran Church is large enough to seat 700). Few places, it would seem, provide a more unlikely setting for a thriving Catholic school.

As a youth, Father van de Crommert didn't attend Catholic school because his parish didn't have one. He later went to a minor seminary (now closed) and on to St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., and then to St. Paul Seminary. In 1988 he was ordained for the Diocese of New Ulm.

Father van de Crommert has gained a reputation around the diocese for being “thoroughly orthodox.” When he arrived in 1990, not many gave St. Peter's School much of a chance. Enrollment had sunk to about 85, and the parish was running a sizable deficit. St. Peter's, like several other Catholic schools in the diocese, seemed to be headed for closure.

The new pastor immediately immersed himself in the daily routine of the school. He became the school's superintendent, celebrated weekly Mass for students, began teaching religion, ate lunch daily in the cafeteria, and involved himself in every school-related activity. And he continues to do so.

“It's healthy for priests to have a lot of work to do,” he says. “I've been in rural rectories in parishes without schools, and it's so quiet that everyday seems like a Sunday afternoon. Priests are subject to sin and temptation like everyone else, and the worst situation is when we have too much idle time on our hands.”

St. Peter's School took a great step forward four years ago when Father van de Crommert recruited Sister Adelyn, SSND. The 63-year-old nun had been director of religious education for a parish in Munich, N.D. The duo was convinced that the only way for the school to survive was by establishing strict codes of discipline and being authentically Catholic.

Enrollment has risen to 100, with students coming from St. Peter's and three neighboring parishes. Some students travel as far as 25 miles. A30-passenger bus was bought this year to help transport students.

As a parish priest, Father van de Crommert works as hard with his parishioners as he does with his students. He puts a great deal of preparatory work into his preaching because he's convinced it's his best opportunity to evangelize people and do some real “continuing-ed.”

“What people need,” he says, “is basic Catholicism, instruction in the simplest elements of the Faith, and to hear about the saints and the sacraments in very understandable language.”

They also need to see a priest who is fully committed to his vocation, he believes. In a small town like Canby, people notice when the Catholic pastor doesn't skip town every chance he gets, but instead tends not only to sacramental and educational work, but also to manual labor on the parish grounds.

After more than five years, Father van de Crommert says it's getting easier. He isn't criticized like he was his first couple of years. “It's hard to pull in the reins. It is so easy as a priest to let everyone do whatever they want and say everything is great. I think so often of that passage of Scripture in which Isaiah writes: ‘We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way.’” Catholics sometimes come from all over to attend Mass at St. Peter's where, they tell Father van de Crommert, “It really feels like you've gone to Church.”

Patrick Slattery is based in Wisconsin.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Slattery ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pope's Nod to Evolution Deals Creationism Setback DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

CONTRADICTING media images of an ailing, backward-looking papacy, Pope John Paul II told an international group of scientists Oct. 22 that the Church accepts evolution as“more than a hypothesis.”

Nearly a century and a half after Charles Darwinfirstpublishedhis “Originof Species”—and 50 years after Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Humani Generis which indicated that Catholics might embrace evolution as long as it was not presented as“certain doctrine,“—John Paul told the plenary sessionofthePontifical Academyof Sciences that“today, … new knowledge leads to the recognition that the theory of evolution is more than a hypothesis.”There was evidence, the Pontiff asserted, in the fact that several scientific disciplines had come up with evidence of evolution independent of one another.

Lately, the Vatican has shown heightened interest in evolution theory. At a June symposium,co-sponsoredbythe Vatican Observatory and encouraged by the Pope, participants suggested that to view the development of human life in terms of an“ongoing creation”is a scenario that makes increasing sense, both scientifically and theologically. The theme of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences'session for which the Pope drafted his remarks on evolution was“The Origins and the Evolution of Life: Reflections on Science at the Dawn of the Third Millennium.”The Academyadvisesthe Pope on scientific matters.

“More than‘the theory’of evolution,”the Pope cautioned in his statement,“it is appropriate to speak of‘the theories' of evolution. This plurality accounts, on the one hand, for the diversity of explanations that have been proposed as the mechanism of evolution and, on the other hand, for diverse philosophies. We have thus materialistic and reductionist readings, and spiritualist readings.”

Here, the Pope echoed the concerns of his predecessor, Pius XII, who wrote about evolution against the 1950s backdrop of the spreadofcommunismandphilosophicalmaterialismin Europe—views which denied the existence of God and His role in creation. Pope Pius's essential point, John Paul noted, was that“if the human body has its origin in living material which preexistsit,thespiritualsoulisimmediatelycreatedbyGod.”Considering the evolution of human beings, the Pope said, one is confronted with an“ontological leap”that cannot be explained through observation or measurement.

These means of acquiring knowledge, he said, fail to explain“the moment of passage into the spiritual,”when the creature that became the modern human being acquired a soul. Only theology can fill that gap.

Interestingly, the Pope's message made no claim to have all the answers to some inevitable questions, such as how to reconcile the biblical account of creation with evolutionary science. Church observers were quick to note that the Pope was not basing his evaluation of evolution on his religious authority or presenting evolution as a teaching of the Catholic Church—but, rather on the scientific evidence in its favor.

“What belongs to science, belongs to science, and what belongstoreligionbelongstoreligion,” Msgr.Francis Maniscalco, a spokesman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) told The New York Times Oct. 25. Religious truth and scientific truth must ultimately be in harmony, he said, but even when they have implications for each other, they rest on different grounds.

Ironically, while the Pope's position will likely have little effect in Catholic schools, where evolution is routinely taught, it threatens to add ammunition to the current debate in the United States over the teaching of creationism, or so-called creation science, in public schools.

A dispute going back to the 1920s and the famous Scopes“Monkey trial”between Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, the creationism debate pits fundamentalist Christians who favor a reading of the Book of Genesis that renders it a literal, scientific account of creation against those who view evolution as the standard modern theory of the origins of life. The dispute has cropped up in school boards all across the country.

The Tennessee legislature this year narrowly defeated a bill that would have banned the teaching of evolution as fact rather than theory. In Alabama, textbooks now come with a disclaimer saying that evolution is just a theory, and in Draffenville, Ken., pages of a textbook teaching evolution have been glued together because they do not include the teaching of creationism.“Science will suffer for [what the Pope has said],”Bill Hoesch, public information officer for the Institute for Creation Research, a not-for-profit corporation in Santee, Calif., told the Register. The Institute promotes what it calls scientific creationism.“The Pope is recognized as a very influential figure, and it's unfortunate that he would choose to coincide with the popular culture. The Pope's statement makes [evolution theory] appear beyond dispute,”he said.

Hoesch criticized the Pope for declaring himself not at odds with evolution theory at a time“when there's a respected biochemist, Michael Behe, a Catholic, who calls into question the very fundamentals of Darwinian theory in his new book Darwin's Black Box.“

Hoesch also said that the Pope“shows abysmal lack of understanding about what the scientific community understands by evolution.”By definition, Hoesch said, it's an undirected process, a random process without a purpose:“That's the heart and soul of what the scientific community believes. So, how can evolution be both a directed and an undirected process?”Creationists are particularly alert to the public relations implications of the Pope's support for evolution, said Hoesch.“Obviously, what his statement does more than anything else is marginalize people like us even further.“

The Bible has to be taken at face value, Hoesch declared, when it talks about the events of earth history. The Pope says the opposite.“So, secularists will hold this up to say,‘See, religion and science are perfectly compatible. The only holdouts are those biblical fundamentalists’“

Not surprisingly, opponents of creationism warmly welcomed the Pope's action.“It reaffirms the message that devoutly religious belief and the teaching of evolution are not incompatible,”Deanna Duby, director of education policy for People for the American Way, told The New York Times. The organization, which campaigns for separation of Church and state, published a report in April on what it termed an alarming upsurge in efforts to stifle the teaching of evolution as scientific fact.

“That view [the compatibility of faith and evolution] has been part of the debate all along,”said Duby,“but it often gets lost. To have a religious figure as visible and powerful as the Pope make that argument is a very important step in getting out that point of view.“

Most commentators, however, see the Pope's evolution message less in terms of the long-running U.S. debate about creationism, than in terms of John Paul II's concern to bridge perceived gaps between science and faith, and align the Church in the 21st century toward a creative alliance between these two vast, and often competing, sources of knowledge.

Removing obstacles to the dialogue between the Church and science may not only stand behind the Pope's message on evolution, but also behind his 1992 statement to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences rectifying one of the Church's most infamous wrongs toward science—the persecution of Galileo for asserting, in contrast to the geocentricism of the Bible, that the earth moved around the sun.

Robert Russell, founder and director of the Berkeley, Calif.-based Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, sees the Pope's evolution statement in that light.“We applaud the position taken on God and evolution by Pope John Paul II in his recent message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences,”Russell, a professor of theology and science at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) and a United Church of Christ minister, told the Register.

“[The Pope's position], in our view, is the‘middle way', a third option between fundamentalist Christians who are conflicted about science and those reductionist scientists who claim that science can explain everything about the human person, that science is the only route to truth.”

Russell pointed to the need to have a moral voice about the technologies science makes possible—for example, the theological implications of gene research—as well as address the deeper spiritual questions that arise from science but which science itself cannot answer: Where we came from, why we're here.

What's so positive about the Pope's response, said Russell, is that, unlike fundamentalist Christians who view evolution as an atheistic construct, or scientists like Carl Sagan who also view evolution as atheistic,“here's a very robust response to evolutionary theory—namely, that God creates through it, that God is the ground of being on which it all depends.”

Gabriel Meyer, a Register contributing editor, is based in Los Angeles.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Cardinal Bernardin Argues For For 'Limited, Occasional' Dissent DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

CHICAGO—It appears that Cardinal Joseph Bernardin has given critics of the Common Ground initiative he launched last August more ammunition. Speaking at this city's new Sheraton Hotel Oct. 24 after a closed-doormeetingoftheCommon Ground committee, the Chicago prelate, citing Veritatis Splendor, suggested that“that limited and occasional dissent”is acceptable, as distinct from“an overall and systematic calling into question of traditional moral doctrine.“

Thepassagefromthe1994papal encyclical on the Church's moral teaching reads in part:“… [A] new situation has come about within the Christian community itself, which has experienced the spread of numerous doubts and objections of a human and psychological, social and cultural, religious and even properly theological nature, with regard to the Church's moral teachings. It is no longer a matter of limited and occasional dissent, but of an overall and systematic calling into question of traditional moral doctrine, on the basis of certain anthropological and ethical presuppositions. At the roots of these presuppositions is the more or less obvious influence of currents of thought which end by detaching human freedom from its essential and constitutive relationship to truth”(Veritatis Splendor, 4, emphasis added).

“I do find a‘consensus about dissent'but it is very different than that of Cardinal Bernardin's statement,”said Father Matthew Lamb, a professor of theology at Boston College.“The statement, by referencing Father Dulles and the Pope, confuses two very different sets of teachings: 1) legitimatedisagreementsregardingtheological opinions and 2) dissent from authoritativeChurchteachings. Thetextof Veritatis Splendor makes it clear that there is no acceptance of dissent, limited or otherwise, from authoritative Church teachings. Indeed, the only‘consensus about dissent'in conciliar and papal documents is that there is no acceptance or legitimization of dissent whatever.

“This statement seems to again illustrate exactly what Cardinal [Bernard] Law criticized when he took to task the Common Ground's launching statement, Called to be Catholic: Church in a Time of Peril, for finding some way of making truth and dissentequalpartnersintheso-calleddialogue.”According to Father Lamb,“when one accepts limited and occasional dissent in a culture that separates freedom from truth, then, as the Holy Father observed, it becomes too easily generalized.“

Dominican Father Romanus Cessario, a professor of theology at St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Mass., argued that the virtue of faith leads one first to ponder the precious deposit of Christian doctrine. Thisexplains,hesaid,why VaticanII's Lumen Gentium invites believers to embrace the Magisterium with a religious submission of will and intellect (25). Because faith can never oppose charity, Veritatis Splendor, said Father Cessario, insists that“opposition to the teaching of the Church's Pastors cannot be seen as a legitimate expression either of Christian freedom of the diversity of the Spirit's gifts”(113).

Cardinal Bernardin also cited Fordham University scholar Father Avery Dulles, S.J., whom, the cardinal said,“no one can accuse of being radical or reckless in his views.”

“Roommustbemadeforresponsibledissent,”Father Dulles was quoted as saying;“the good health of the Church demands continual revitalization by new ideas.”According to the Jesuit theologian, said Cardinal Bernardin,“theologians ought to alert Church authorities to the shortcomings of its teachings.”Asked to comment, Father Dulles said that“Cardinal Bernardin has quoted me correctly and responsibly. I have always favored dialogue within the Church as well as among Churches and religions. I assume that the Cardinal holds, as I do, that dissent should be reluctant, respectful, and relatively rare, and that dissenting opinions should never be presented as they were accepted Catholic doctrine.“

The Catholic Common Ground Project, launched Aug. 12, called for a process of dialogue to end the polarization dividing the Church in the United States with regard to the role of women, liturgical reform, religious education and a host of other issues.

With the exception of Cardinals William Keeler of Baltimore and John O'Connor of New York, who have not publicly comment on the initiative, and Cardinal RogerMahonyofLos Angeles,amemberofthe Common Ground Committee, the Chicago prelate's fellow cardinals have expressed varying degrees of reservation.Despitethepresenceonthecommitteeof Templeton Prize winner Michael Novak and Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, many believe the project is misguided, saying that Church teaching should not be subject to a popular review. On the other hand, some have criticized the composition of the 25-person committee picked by Cardinal Bernardin to direct the initiative as too conservative. The committee's seven bishops, five priests, three woman Religious and eight lay people also include Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati; Robert Casey, former governor of Pennsylvania—who did not attend the committee meet-ing—Msgr.PhilipMurnion,headoftheNational Pastoral Life Center in New York; and Margaret 0'Brien Steinfels, editor of Commonweal magazine.

In his address, Cardinal Bernardin cautioned that the Common Ground Project is not synonymous with merely seeking a middle ground, or a process that follows purely democratic principles. The project's goal is to arrive at the truth, he said, as proclaimed by Catholic tradition and the Magisterium. Common Ground will not rethink Church teaching but more fully examine it, the cardinal said.

“Our aim is not to resolve all our differences or to establish a new ecclesial structure,”the cardinal said.“Rather, it is, first of all, to learn how to make our differences fruitful.“

“This project does not aim at the lowest common denominator. Nor when it speaks of dialogue does it imply compromise,”he said.“Rather, in both instances, its goal is the fullest possible understanding of and internalization of the truth.“

In many cases differences among U.S. Catholics has led to mistrust and deadlock, he said.“Candid discussion is inhibited. Ideas, journals and leaders are pressed to align themselves with preexisting camps,”he said.

The cardinal's address, open to the public, came after the Common Ground committee met for the first time earlier in the day, behind closed doors. The committeewillholdaconferencenextMarchand announced that it will work toward engaging ordinary Catholics in dialogue.

Cardinal Bernardin said the process of dialogue he envisions will meet certain conditions:

&atilled; Jesus Christ will be central to the project.

&atilled; It will be accountable to Scripture and Catholic tradition, conveyed to humanity by the Church and its Magisterium.

&atilled; The complexity of the tradition will not be reduced to fundamentalist appeals to a text or by narrow appeals to individual or contemporary experience.

&atilled; The Church will be treated not merely as a human organization but as a Communion, a spiritual family.

&atilled; Proposals will be tested for pastoral realism. -

&atilled; The Liturgy will not become a battleground.

Cardinal Bernardin argued that many of the differences among Catholics, including matters of religious education and the quality of the Liturgy, are pastoral, not doctrinal. Yet even the most pastoral questions have doctrinal aspects, he said.“It is both justified and imperative to ask what are the implications for doctrine of pastoral proposals or the implications for pastoral proposals of doctrine,”he said. The process, he added, will affirm legitimate debate and discourage“pop scholarship, sound-bite theology, unhistorical assertions and flippant dismissals,”the cardinal said.

Mary Ann Glendon, in an Oct. 21 letter to Cardinal Bernardin (see box) had warned that the project could lead to more disunity unless certain safeguards are taken.

In her letter, Glendon urged the committee to adhere to the words of Pope John Paul II in Tertio Milliennio Adveniente and affirm that the papacy is the chief servant of Church unity. She called on the committee “to recognize the new Catechism as the most effective remedy [for disunity]we possess: the foundation as well as the tuning fork of our discussions.“

AmericanEnterpriseInstitutescholarMichael Novak also sounded a note of caution.“Tradition is democracy of the dead. We can't betray what they gave us,”said Novak following the committee meeting in Chicago.“It's very hard to know how to give assent. It's easier to dissent,”Novak said.

Cardinal Bernardin, his voice sometimes weak and hoarse, announced that Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb of Mobile, Ala., will succeed him as chair of the project. The cardinal, who has cancer, was told by his doctors last summer that he has perhaps a year to live. Whether Archbishop Lipscomb, the prime mover behind the U.S. bishops'ill-fated pastoral on women, can bring opposing sides together remains to be seen.

Cardinal Bernardin, whose long distinguished leadership has been marked by the ability to bring Church factions together, urged Catholics to embrace dialogue, saying that he has chosen to devote some of his final days to this project.“A dying person does not have time for the peripheral or the accidental. He or she is drawn to the essential, the important, the eternal,”he said.“To say it quite boldly, it is wrong to waste the precious gift of the time given to us, as God's chosen servants, on acrimony and division.”

Sister Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., a committee member and theologian at Fordham University, N.Y., spoke after Cardinal Bernardin and reminded the audience of how ancient Christians would tell those soon to be martyred to pray for them once they were in heaven. Turning toward Cardinal Bernardin, she said:“Pray for us for the Common Ground vision when you get to heaven.“

Jay Copp is based in Chicago.

----- EXCERPT: Archbishop Lipscomb takes reins of Common Ground Project ----- EXTENDED WORD: Jay Copp ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Colorado's Non-Profit Tax Plan Would Drain Church DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

DENVER—Catholicsareworking and praying for the defeat of a proposed propertytaxthatwouldforcemany Churches and charities to shut their doors.

Amendment 11 would make Colorado the first state to tax 7,500 properties of Churches, charities and nonprofit organizations. If it passes Nov. 5, tax assessors will view the property of each nonprofit the same way they view commercial businesses. The property of soup kitchens, for example, will be taxed at the same rate as the property of fast-food restaurants.

For pastors of struggling, inner-city parishes, the amendment would amount to an eviction notice.“If Amendment 11 passed, at the current assessor's value of the property, our bill would be $71,000 a year plus,”said Father Gene Emrisek, pastor of Church of the Annunciation, a largely Hispanic parish on this city's west side.“That's more than our Sunday collection for a year.“

Catholic organizations are not Amendment 11's only targets. Other taxable entities include the Boy and Girl Scouts, the YMCA, the Salvation Army, blood banks, arts and cultural facilities, Easter Seals, Meals on Wheels, home health care services, hospices and Little Leagues. The only nonprofits excluded by the tax are schools, orphanages, communitycorrectionfacilities,cemeteries and housing for low-income homeless, abused,disabledorelderlycitizens— institutions that, the amendment says, fulfill a“social duty.“

While the idea may seem ludicrous on its surface, the amendment's author hasinfluencedmanyvotersbyciting examples of abuses in the nonprofit sec-tor and promising lower tax bills for homeowners. Attorney John Patrick Michael Murphy, a former Catholic and radio talk show host from Colorado Springs, wants people to believe taxpayers are subsidizing religion.

Onegroupthatsupports Amendment11isthe Annandale, Va.-based Business Coalition for Fair Competition. The coalition says America's million-plus nonprofits have a combined income of more than $500 billion, including $375 billion income from the sales of products and services, and don't need government tax breaks, which only give them unfair advantages over for-profit firms.

“Colorado Citizens are in the unique position of saying it's time to recognize that nonprofits have changed,”says Kenton Pattie, coalition executive director.“They are more like businesses than ever before, and thus should be treated more like businesses.“

“Every Catholic across the United States should be extremely concerned about what's happening in Colorado,”said Jim Tatten, executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference.“If Amendment 11 passes here—or comes close to passing—we can expect to see it on ballots in other states. States will begin to look at the community helpers as sources of revenue.”Churches, charities and nonprofits historically have not been taxed on real property because they provide services that lessen the burden of government.

“They are rightly recognized as assets—not expenses,”Archbishop J. Francis Stafford of Denver, newly appointed president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, wrote in a DenverCatholicRegister editorial. “Butultimately,the value of the good done by the Catholic community cannot be measured in dollars and cents. How do we measure the valueofSetonHouseindowntownDenverwhere Missionaries of Charity sisters house and care for up to 15 terminally ill AIDS patients at a time—without using any taxpayer money? What is the value of a single child steered away from drugs or gang affiliation by an inner-city parish? How do you measure the community benefit of the Christian values instilled in children at each of our parishes?“

BishopRichard Hanifen of Colorado Springs says the amendment challengesdecadesof legal precedents and long-heldassumptions about the positive influence Churches and charities have on American society.“The reason for the property tax exemption for our institutionsinthefirst placewasthatwe serve the community in many ways that reducethegovern-ment's need to provide services,”said Bishop Hanifen.“Now that contribution from all of us is being called into question.”

There are a few concretemeasuring sticks. For example, a 1994 Senate joint resolution stated that Catholic Charities assisted 416,000 people that year, and“demonstrates in its services that helping people change their lives to become self-sufficient is a central component in solving the problems of homelessness and poverty.“

But Amendment 11 would put financial shackles on day-cares, counseling centers, hospices and countless other community services.“You'll lose some programs; some agencies will be forced to close,”said Jim Mauck, president of Catholic Charities in Colorado.“We have begun a process of rolling back government in social programs and you cannot come back and also then hit them with additional financial requirements. That's the essence of what Amendment 11 does. It slaps us for being charitable.“

Another Senate joint resolution in 1993 declared that Catholic schools save taxpayers $68.3 million annually. While nonprofit schools are said to remain exempt under Amendment 11, in practice they are not. That's because the same people contributing to Catholic Churches and charities contributetoCatholicschools. Andpeople—notbuild-ings—pay taxes.

“If our parish property is taxed, this will not allow parishes to make the sizable contributions which they have made in the past to Catholic schools,”said Father Samuel Aquila, secretary for education for the Denver archdiocese.“The survival of our schools is at risk.“

The schools most immediately in danger are those in poor neighborhoods. St. Rose of Lima, an inner-city Denver elementary school with more than 130 students, would be forced to close without help from other parishes. The average subsidy at St. Rose is $1,300 per student. If all Catholic Churches are taxed, however, that money may have to be used by other parishes to pay tax bills.

Annunciation's elementary school is in a similar predicament. Father Emrisek believes that's bad news for taxpayers.“[If the school closed] we would have 190 students who would enter into the public school system at an additional $5,000 a head,”he said.“By my calculation, that's about $1 million.“

The timing for such a proposal is ironic from a social perspective. The recent federal welfare reform bill sends a strong message that the United States will have to rely on Churches and charities to provide much-needed community services. Almost simultaneously, however, Amendment 11 could eliminate many of those institutions and agencies.

The measure has made strange bedfellows, briefly united previously antagonistic groups like Planned Parenthood and its anti-abortion nemesis. Focus on the Family. They have joined forces with dozens of other organizations and hundreds of individuals to battle the amendment.

“One of the most exciting things about this campaign has been our steering committee meetings, where people who have never sat down at a table together and rarely agree on their philosophies about life work together because they realize how detrimental this is to Colorado,”says Janelle Jones, a spokeswoman for CitizenAction for Colorado Nonprofits.

A SeptemberpollpublishedbyDenver'sRocky Mountain News said 49 percent of respondents would oppose the measure and 39 percent would support it.

The so-called“Murphy's Law”has failed to draw the support of groups that advocate Church-state separation, in part because of the measure's confusing wording, which some see as a potential playground for lawyers. For example,propertiesusedto house homeless people wouldbetax-exempt, butpropertyusedto feed, clothe or counsel the homeless would be taxed.

For this reason, AmericansUnitedfor SeparationofChurch and State, a constitutionalwatchdogorganization based in Washington, D.C., opposes the measure. In Americans United's view,Amendment 11 couldfurthermuddy relations between Churchesandgovernment entities by requiring officials to monitor faith-based groups in an efforttoqualifysome and disqualify others for tax exemptions.

As TV ads opposing Amendment11point out, the measure's backers take a“tough luck”approach to such consequences. In an Oct. 13 editorial in the Denver Post, amendment drafter Murphy wrote:“Granted, management adjustments will be needed, and a few may fail—just as small businesses do that pay taxes. Some Churches may have to resolve minor differences and merge.“

The Catholic community has mobilized to fight the tax, coordinating its efforts with CitizenAction for Colorado Nonprofits, a political campaign organization representing the interests of the Church and nonprofit sectors. The local Knights of Columbus delivered“Vote No on 11”yard signs to individual parishes, and literature is lining the pews.

But as election day approaches, there is a palpable sense of uneasiness in Colorado's Catholic community. People are concerned about the consequences that should the measure pass, but they also wonder about the moral state of a society that debates whether Churches are assets or liabilities.

Greg Kail is based in Denver. RNS contributed to this story.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: GREG KAIL ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: John Paul II's 50 Years of Priesthood: 'Eucharist of Christ, Today, Forever' DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE APPENDECTOMY thePopeunderwent last month ago seems long forgotten. The buzz around the Vatican these days centers on the celebration of the 50th anniversary of John Paul II's ordination. Karol Wojtyla was ordained a priest Nov. 1, 1946, at age 26. Poland was just beginning to rebuild after World War II, but the Nazi occupation had been replaced by the looming threat of communism. Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha of Krakow moved forward the date of Wojtyla's ordination so he could send him to Rome as soon as possible for post-graduate studies.

John Paul recalled his first Mass three years ago:“My mind still sees the place, the crypt below the cathedral of Wawel, in Krakow, where mortal remains of the kings, great leaders and prophetic spiritual leaders of my country lie. Their presence and their witness permeate the cathedral, just as one notes in St. Peter's Basilica the spiritual power radiating in a significant way from the tombs of the Popes…. That day, the day of one's first Mass, one never forgets. It remains not only in the memory, but is perpetuated in the Eucharist of Christ, which is the same, yesterday, today and forever.“

While the Nov. 7-10 festivities will focus on the Pope, the pontiff has made a point of sharing the spotlight with all the priests, bishops and cardinals,whoalsowereordainedin1946. According to the Congregation for the Clergy, of all the priests ordained that year, 7,000 are still living. All of them were invited to Rome to celebrate their jubilee alongside the Pope; some 1,500 of them had already accepted the invitation by mid-October. As the Register went to press, the offices of Opera Roma Pellegrinaggi, which are in charge of handling responses, were deluged with last minute calls from around the world. By Nov. 7, the number of priests ordained in 1946 who will be in Rome for the festivities is expected to reach close to 2,000. Among them are five cardinals and 86 bishops.

“The celebration is meant to be a feast of thanksgiving,”Msgr. Crescenzio Sepe, secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy, who is in charge of preparing celebrations, told the Register.“It is a special event in the Pope's life and in the lives of thousands of priests who now want to give thanks to God together for this gift, even if they have already celebrated the event in their parishes.“

For those who come and those following the event from afar, John Paul II has a surprise in store: He is expected to release a document in which he recounts the story of his vocation.

Jesus Colina is based in Rome.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: JESUS COLINA ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Partial-Birth Veto Won't Defeat Clinton, But Could Hurt Dems DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

IF BOB DOLE can pull close to President Bill Clinton in key states in the final days leading up to the Nov. 5 election and play up his pro-life credentials, Clinton's veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Actmay come back to haunt him, say some observers.

“The pro-life issue, since 1980, has had a significant effect on the national elections,”said Carl Anderson, vice president for public policy with the Knights of Columbus in Washington.“The degree of effect it will have on this election depends on the closeness of the race and the extent to which the candidates make it an issue.”

While Clinton's veto of the bill that would have banned a late-term abortion procedure was unpopular with many voters, it seems unlikely that it will keep the president, who had a double-digit lead in pollsinlateOctober,frombeingreelectedin November.

“Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion ban ought to be the determination in the presidential race, but I don't see any indication that it will be,”said Father Robert Sirico, president of The Acton Institute, a conservative think tank in Grand Rapids, Mich.“That says a whole lot about the state of our nation and, even more lamentably, the Church,”he added, even though the U.S. bishops made a strong stand for overriding President Clinton's veto.

The prospects for Dole look grim, but some prolifers have higher hopes for congressional elections. Andersonpointedoutthatin1994nopro-life incumbents lost, and that an overwhelming number of the freshmen congressmen who were elected were pro-life. He argues that the postcard campaign and television and newsprint ads that the Catholic bishops have waged around the partial-birth abortion issue may help to swing the election in key battlegroundstateslikeFlorida,Indiana,Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio.“Partial-birth abortion issue cuts to the core of the abortion issue and favors pro-lifers,”said Anderson.

TheCatholicbishops' pro-lifeofficehas received a significant number of calls from voters who intend to switch votes in November because of abortion.“We've received [more than] 100 calls from people who've told us that they voted [for Clinton] in '92 but will never vote for him again,”said Susan Wills, assistant director for pro-life programs with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) in Washington.

“But Dole's not made enough of it as an issue,”added Wills,“and it's hard to overcome the disinclination people have towards the Dole campaign.”She also said that many non-churchgoers and other Americans are probably unin-formed about what a partial-birth abortion is.

Nonetheless, Mary McGrory, a Washington Post columnist who is pro-choice, wrung her hands in April when Clinton vetoed the bill that would have banned so-called partial-birth abortions. In a column after Clinton's veto, she described attending a party with Catholic liberals who were disgusted with Clinton and had no intention of voting for him in November. McGrory predicted that many Catholics who voted for Clinton in 1992 would not vote for him this year out of protest for his veto.

President Clinton has co-opted many popular Republican legislative initiatives—to improve his public image and bolster his image as a moderate, critics argue—but he has held steadfast to his opposition to any curtailing of access to abortion. While he may not lose the November election, critics argue that if pro-life politicians and their supporters capitalize on the issues, then Clinton's ban of the partial-birth abortion ban hurt pro-abortion politicians in the long term.

Jonathan Alter,acolumnistfor Newsweek who describes himself as pro-choice, says the partial-birth abortionissue “maybejustabouttheonlyissueworking against”Clinton and his supporters.“Not this year, perhaps, but the pro-choice forces are in danger of turning themselves into extremists on this one,”he said. Alter compared Clinton and his pro-choice supporters refusing to compromise with the National Rifle Association's refusal to budge on gun control issues.

Another observer downplayed rumors that multitudes of liberals were going to vote for Dole.“I've heard the stories of Catholics of a progressive persuasion who've declared they're not going to vote for [Clinton],”remarked Father Sirico.“But I don't see a broad-based, grass-roots movement”towards Dole as a result of Clinton's veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

“It represents a profound failure of the Dole campaign that they haven't made the distinctions“—about late term abortions for people who don't traditionally support pro-life stances but are repulsed by partial-birth abortions—the priest said. Nonetheless, Father Sirico predicts that the presidential race will tighten prior to the election, and that, in a worse case scenario, the Republicans will hold control of the House of Representatives and Senate.

During their Oct. 9 debate in Florida, Vice President Al Gore and Republican vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp squared off on the partial-birth abortion ban. Following a question from moderator Jim Lehrer, Gore said that Clinton would have signed a bill that would have included exceptions for the threats to the life of the mother, while Kemp stated that Clinton rejected any compromise with Congress and that Dole would not have vetoed the ban.

In a September vote to override the president's veto, somepro-abortionpoliticians,suchasCatholicSens. DanielMoynihan(D-N.Y.)andPatrickLeahy(D-Vt.) broke with their party and voted to override Clinton's veto. Nonetheless, 45 percent of Catholic politicians in Congress voted with Clinton.

Catholics make up roughly a quarter of the United State'spopulation,butnearlyathirdofvoters. While Catholics remain a highly sought-after swing group that can determine an election, they exercise different prerogatives in casting their votes. Five of the largest groups of Catholic voters—if one can make such distinctions—are economic conservatives, immigrants, pro-lifers, economic and social liberals, and union members. It's difficult to imagine a more galvanizing issue than the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act to move Catholics to vote as a bloc. Despite the hopes of Dole supporters, it doesn't appear that Clinton's veto is making enough of a difference.

Bill Murray is based in Rockville, Md.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: GABRIEL MAYER ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Kept Out of Election Spotlight, School Choice Still Gains Momentum DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

SUPPORTERS OF school choice may look back favorably on the presidential race, even if their candidate loses the election. Education has been given unprecedentedemphasisinthisyear'scampaign, adding a sense of urgency to the call for reform of the public education system. Former Sen. Bob Dole's staunch endorsement of a federal voucher program— and President Bill Clinton's bitter opposition to it— have put the spotlight on voucher programs being considered by state legislatures around the country.

Voucher initiatives were recently defeated in Texas, California,and Washington,D.C.,butOhioand Wisconsin have approved voucher programs that are currently being tested in Cleveland and Milwaukee. Thousands of children from some of the neediest families in these cities applied for 1,800 state-funded vouchers in Cleveland and 1,650 state-funded vouchers in Milwaukee this year.

Presently, participants in the Milwaukee program can use tuition benefits only at private secular schools. The Wisconsin courts are weighing whether religious schools can be eligible. Until the case is settled, a MilwaukeeorganizationcalledParents Advancing Values in Education (PAVE) is offering half-tuition scholarships to eligible families who want to send their children to religious schools. They raised $4.2 million this year from more than 1,000 private and corporate donors, which helped fund scholarships for 4,300 children.

AccordingtoPAVE'sexecutivedirector,Dan McKinley, Dole's proposed $2.5 billion federal program—which would offer $1,500“opportunity scholarships”to up to 4 million children (10 percent of all school children) nationwide—is based on the PAVE model.

“It would be a successful program if he got elected and put it into play,”McKinley said.“Ninety-six percent of our 4,300 PAVE families say they are‘very satisfied' with their child's education. Ninety-seven percent of the parents participate in the schools, on the PTO or as volunteers.“

“[School choice] is a populist kind of movement … it gives financial power to poor parents,”McKinley said.“And the (teachers') union is standing in the way of kids getting a good education.”

In Wisconsin and elsewhere much of the opposition to the voucher system has been organized and fundedbythe2millionmember-strongNational Education Association(NEA),thelargestpublic school teachers'union in the country. Union members fear vouchers would take money away from the public schools and adversely affect teacher salaries and job security.

Proponentsofschoolchoicedisagreewiththe teachers union that private school vouchers will put the public schools in dire financial straits. School choice is meant to offer just that, they argue, a choice between public and private schools, with the hope of improving educationalqualityandefficiencyatallschools through cooperation and competition. The vast majority of the financial support for public schools comes from property taxes paid within the school district. That amount will not be affected by a voucher program. The smaller percentage of funding which comes from the state and federal governments, often calculated on a per-pupil basis, could be affected if fewer students are enrolled in public schools.

But unless there is a dramatic exodus, the public schools are unlikely to be put at risk by most voucher programs, school choice proponents say. In fact, a voucher system could give public schools the leverage to ask state and federal governments to reduce some of their costly bureaucratic requirements in an effort to cutexpensesandoperatemoreefficiently.

For example, a voucher demonstration program proposed in New York would pay $2,500 per pupil for private school tuition. It currently costs the state $9,000tosendastudenttopublic school. The reason for the discrepancy, according to Kathy Gallagher, associate director of the New York State Catholic Conference, is that Catholic and other private schools, are“streamlined.”

Gallagher pointed out that school choicealsodovetailswithanother important issue this election year: welfare reform.“In our way of thinking, school choice is the best possible welfare reform idea you could put across,”she said.“School choice is a way out of the cycle of poverty. It's a way to get a diploma. Our demonstration program is certainly targeted to those needy, disadvantaged children.”

Tom Needles, administrative assistant to Ohio Gov. George Voinovich, arguing that school vouchers can make a huge difference in the lives of many children, 75 percent of the children participating in the Cleveland scholarship program have annual family incomes of about $6,000; the other 25 percent have annual family incomes of no more than $20,000.“Parents don't want to feel their kids are doomed or trapped in a failed (school) district … there is nothing more important than choice to children who may fall through the cracks in this society. Thepublicschoolsystem should not be a monopoly. There ought tobeoptions,” saidNeedles,who helped draft the Ohio school voucher legislation.

In Cleveland, the current voucher program allows parents to choose secular or religious schools. The Ohio legislature created separate funding for the voucher program that does not dip into any public school funds. Vouchers for $2,200 per student, per year, are paid for bythestate'snew “Disadvantaged Pupil Adjustment Fund.”

The Cleveland Catholic schools get a lot of credit for their part in furthering thevoucherprogram. “TheCatholic Diocese of Cleveland has always been on the forefront in major social changes, going back to the desegregation days,”said Bert Holt, director of the Cleveland Scholarshipand TutoringProgram.“Theyhaveahistoryofproviding opportunities benefiting all children.”

A large part of Holt's job involves evaluating the progress of students in thevoucherprogram.Shedisagrees with the teachers' union, and others, who question the effectiveness of the voucher system, based on a controversial study conducted in Milwaukee by a University of Wisconsin professor, John Witte. The Witte study concluded that voucher participants did not progress any faster academically than their public school counterparts.

The study was flawed, according to Holt, because it did not ask the people involved—students, parents, and teach-ers—about their experiences. And it did not track students over the long term.“Our goal is to give the children exit outcomes that prepare them for higher education. We need longitudinal studies that will tell us … how many are graduating, how many are going on to higher learning,howmanyaregainfully employed, how many are not in a penal institution,”said Holt, who is a former public school teacher and administrator.

During the first presidential debate, both candidates spent a lot of time talking in broad terms about their agendas for education reform, and specifically about their positions on school choice.“If a local school district in Cleveland, or any place else, wants to have a private school choice plan, like Milwaukee did, let them have at it,”Clinton,whosupportschoiceonly within the public school system, said during the debate.

Analysts in newspapers around the country disagree about the significance of Clinton's remark. One political insider, Ohio businessman and Republican party operative David Brennan, doubts that Clinton will include private schools in his choice mix if he is re-elected.“Clintondoesnotobjectto[school choice] in principle … but he can't turn his back on the unions,”said Brennan, who has been involved in planning the voucher pilot program for Cleveland.“Thefundamentalquestionhereis whose opinion is more important, the government, or the parent?”

A United States Catholic Conference(USCC)documentpublished in 1995, Principles of Education Reform in the United States, agrees that the parents' right to choose is fundamental.“No one school model fits the needsofallchildren-public,private, Catholic, charter, magnet. We think that all parents have the right to choose,”said Father William Davis, O.S.F.S., the USCC'srepresentativeforCatholic Schools and Federal Assistance.

Inspiteoftheircommitmentto school choice, the USCC does not offer blanket approval of all proposed voucher programs.“We want to read each piece of legislation,”Father Davis said.“Some we are not crazy about.”He pointed out that although vouchers are the hot topic in education reform today, they are not the only way to offer parents a choice.

“It doesn't have to be a voucher. You canalsoreformthetaxcode.In Minnesota, parents are offered a tax deduction, and in Iowa, parents can get a tax credit … for all educational expenses: tuition, transportation, extra-curricular activities,”Father Davis explained.

And while voucher programs currently in place assist families living in poverty, tax credits can also offer assistance to middle class families who pay private school tuition.“The Supreme Court has already ruled (on a case from Minnesota) that it is constitutional. The fact that one parent benefits more than another does not make the law invalid,”Father Davis said.

Molly Mulqueen is based in Colorado Springs, Colo.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Molly Mulqueen ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: The Pope's Week DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

SATURDAY

ThePopesentamessageto Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, today for the meeting of believers of various religious traditions,“in memory of the unforgettable Day of Prayer”(Oct. 27, 1986). The gathering, in Assisi, was an initiative of the Franciscan families.

“Religions,”wrote the Pope,“are called in a special way to cooperate with the commitment of all men of good will to strengthen peace in the world, and the prayer initiatives are a privileged instrument in this difficult walk towards reconciliation among peoples and nations.“

John Paul II pointed out that religions,“far from justifying hatred and divisions, must inspire their own followers to overcome the barriers of misunderstanding and prejudice, favoring the opening to others in reciprocal respect.“

“I hope that each one of you will know how to become a generous witness to the‘spirit of Assisi' in the milieu in which you live and work, drawing inspiration for your behavior in every circumstance from the values which all those present at the encounter 10 years ago unanimously shared.“

SUNDAY

For the first time since his return from Gemelli Hospital, Pope John Paul appeared at his study window for today's Angelus and told the faithful:“Your presence confirms for me theaffectionwithwhichyoufollowed me in recent days, giving me comfort and support.”

“In fact,”he said, addressing the tens of thousands of people gathered inSt.Peter'sSquare, “duringmy recent hospital stay, I felt the lively and constant solidarity not only of brothers and sisters in Christ, but also of a number of followers of other religions and even of people who are distantfromthefaith.Iamdeeply moved and thank everyone from my heart.”

Noting that it was World Mission Day, the Holy Father said that this“missionregardsallChristians,all dioceses and parishes, institutions and ecclesialassociations.” Hethanked those who have“generously”contributed, through prayer, sacrifice and support, to missionary activity and added:“The mission of Christ Redeemer, entrusted to the Church, is far from being fulfilled. This is why the Church invites everyone to follow in the work of missionary cooperation.”

Afterprayingthe Angelus,the Holy Father appealed for the release of 30 students kidnapped in Uganda and asked for respect for the right to life in Poland.

“This Sunday of missionary prayerisunfortunatelyovershadowed by the news of the kidnapping of a large group of students in the Catholic school of Aboke in northern Uganda. Thirty young girls are at this moment in the hands of the kidnappers, while their respective families and the Catholic community are living hours of anguish about their fate. I appeal to the conscience of those responsible, so that an end might be put to the brutal kidnapping: respect the life and dignity of these young girls! In the name of God I ask for their immediate release.”

SpeakinginPolish,hethen recalledthat “todayKrakowand Poland are celebrating the solemnity of St. John of Kety.”After greeting his fellow Poles, he thanked them for the prayers offered for the anniversary of his election to the papacy and during his recent hospital stay.

“In this context,”he added,“I also thinkwithgratitudeofmyfellow Poles who, with dedication, defend the right to life of the most innocent and defenseless. Let us pray for our country so that every man's right to life from conception to natural death might be respected there. Allow me to now repeat once again the words I said on Sept. 1 of this year:‘A people who kill its own children is a people without a future’“

TUESDAY

Today the Holy Father nominated, among others, the following Americans as ordinary members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: Paul Berg, professor of genetics at Stanford University; Joshua Lederberg,professorofmolecular genetics at Rockefeller University in New York; Joseph Edward Murray, professorofsurgeryatHarvard Medical School; Vera Rubin, professorofastronomyattheCarnegie Institution in Washington, D.C.

WEDNESDAY

Pope John Paul spoke from his window at 11:30 this morning and addressedthepilgrimsgathered below in St. Peter's Square, thanking them for their presence“for the traditional Wednesday general audience”andfor “theaffectionwhich,as always, you show me.“

“Thesedays,” hethensaid,“Christians are invited to reflect on the current relevance and urgency of their missionary commitment, both as individualsandasacommunity. Preciselytheknowledgeofthe Gospel's value for the salvation of the world induces every believer to be a witness to it, in whatever milieu he lives. We are all called to be evangelizers, that is, announcers of and witnesses to Christ.“

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: vatican -------- TITLE: The Parish as 'House of Formation'óDiscerning The Gifts of the Laity DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

SHERRY WEDDELL has lived a life as varied as the spiritual variety that characterizes the American religious scene. Since“going forward”to make a commitment to Jesus Christ at age nine, she has been steadily guided bytheHolySpirit;comingfroma backgroundthatwasovertlyanti-Catholicintofullcommunionwith Rome; taking on the job of pastoral associate for lay formation at Blessed SacramentParishinSeattle, Wash.; and becoming Spiritual gifts program director for the Western Washington Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

“I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church in rural Mississippi thinking the local Catholic Church two doors down the street was sort of the ante-room of Hell,”she explains. In her teenage years, Weddell left her Fundamentalistroots,spentseveral years as a non-Christian, returned to Christian belief (under the influence of thewritingsofEvangelicalFrancis Schaeffer), explored various Christian traditions and became a Quaker. Next, sheobtainedadegreeinMiddle Eastern studies at the University of Washington, went to a Quaker seminary and transferred to Fuller Theological Seminary, an Evangelical school in Pasadena, Calif., to pursue her interest in mission to the Islamic world. Eventually she ended up in a community of Welsh non-Conformists whoranan Anglicanmissionin Ramallah, on the West Bank.

She found herself becoming increasingly open to“classical Christianity” whichclimaxedina transformative experience in 1985 that“opened the whole sacramental realm to me and made sacraments a necessity.”Quakers, however, have no sacraments, so Weddell began to look more deeply into the Catholic faith and was finallyreceivedintotheChurchin December 1987.

LikemanyothernewCatholics from a Protestant background, Weddellbroughtthefire,zealand savvy of her Evangelical training with her and committed herself to renewing orthodoxbeliefandpracticeinthe American Catholic Church. She returned to school and received her masters in Adult Education at Seattle University in 1993, did an internship with the Western Washington Catholic Charismatic Renewal office and becameactiveinfacilitatingparish renewal programs in the Archdiocese of Seattle. Eventually, her supervisor asked her to create a program to help people discover and discern their spiritual gifts or charisms. Out of this was born the Spiritual Gifts Discernment Program,aprogram Weddellnow offers internationally and which has helpedhundredsofCatholics,both Religiousandlay,todiscerntheir charisms.

According to Vatican II's Lumen Gentium, says Weddell, charisms are given not just to a spiritual elite of the saints,butto “thefaithfulofevery rank.““'Charism,’”she says,“is simply a Greek word for‘gift of grace’“ThepurposeoftheSpiritualGifts Discernment Program is to help the ordinarypersondiscernhisorher charisms and to discover a particular vocation.“A vocation is a work of love to which we are called by God,”says Weddell—and this doesn't only mean a vocation to the Religious or priestly life.

“We all have a call,”she says.“We all have a vocation. We all have a missionasbaptizedChristiansandthe charisms are tools that we are given to help carry this mission out.“

Weddell'sprogramconsistsofa six-hour introductory seminar that presents Church teachings with regard to charisms, alongside a hands-on practicalapproachtothediscernment process.

The success of the program promptedFatherMichaelSweeney, pastor at Blessed Sacrament Parish, to invite Weddell to join him as a co-presenterataconferencelastyearon evangelization and the role of the laity, which was sponsored by the Western Dominican Province. At that conference, Weddell articulated a vision of the parish as a“house of formation”for lay people.“The parish is to be a house of formation for the laity, just as a seminary is to be a house of formationforReligiousandclergy,” she says.

Such formation is crucial, she adds, since it is increasingly the task of the laity to, in line with Vatican II,“evangelize, sanctify and renew the temporal order.”Weddell argues that much of the confusion in the Church in the United States stems from a kind of clericalism leading some to think discipleshipmeanslargely “helpingat Mass,” andotherstocomplainthat“priests have all the power”and that thosewhocannotbeordainedare barred from exercising power.

What's needed, insists Weddell, is a healthy understanding of Vatican II's take on the role and authority of the layperson. “Inthelayarena—the evangelization, sanctification and ordering of the world in the light of the Gospel—wearecollaboratorsand equals with the ordained clergy, not competitors or delegates,”she says.“The Council teaches that this task and theauthoritytoperformitderives from our baptism into the prophetic, priestly and kingly office—which is the inheritance of all the baptized.“

This year Weddell was hired as the pastoral associate for lay formation to help create the institutional structures at the parish level for making the local community a“house of formation.”Meanwhile, Weddell stays busy offering the Spiritual gifts discernment program to other parishes and dioceses around the country.

Forfurtherinformationcallthe Western Washington Catholic CharismaticRenewalofficeat(206)364-2272.

Mark Shea is based in Mountlake Terrace, Wash.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Mark Shea ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Conversion: Desire to Make Right Our Wrongs DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE SACRAMENT of Penance involves both inner peace, which the Spirit alone can bring, and the search for inner wholeness, which the Holy Spirit inspires in a contrite heart. These are the essential components of a complete conversion of life, something Jesus demands right at the beginning of His preaching.“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God and saying,‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel'”(Mk 1, 14-15). Conversion involves two necessary movements: We renounce our sins; and we adhere with positive faith to Christ and, through Him, to the Holy Trinity.

Metanoia, or repentance, is an indispensable part of every serious conversion. When we commit sins after Baptism, this metanoia involves a confession or declaration of our faith in the power of grace. The Christian joyfully struggles with the weaknesses left in his character after the Fall.“Nevertheless the new life received in Christian initiation has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized”(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1426). We all struggle with this on a daily basis. We die on a daily basis.

A great aid in this struggle is the Sacrament of Penanceor “'confession'—acknowledgmentand praise—of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man”(CCC, 1426). The renunciation of sin always involves a positive proclamation of the power of God's grace and love. Like all love though, it must be acknowledged and interiorly sought in order to be fruitful.

Interior fruitfulness of any sort expresses a movement of the mind and heart. The movement away from sin has traditionally hinged on three required acts on the part of the penitent:“be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practice complete humility and fruitful satisfaction”(Roman Catechism II, V, 21; Council of Trent {1551}: DS 1673; CCC, 1451).

Many people have either lost the sense of sin in their lives completely or they make mechanical confessions of deeds, as though they were mere instances of behavior involving body only—without any relationship to the formation of the heart. All spiritual authors agree that a true conversion of heart begins with a desire to free oneself from sin and to pursue virtue.

Interior sorrow for sin is the first requisite for ongoing conversion. One moves away from those acts which destroy or compromise our connection to inner life with God. This is contrition. One may have perfect contrition because of pure love of God. To obtain forgivenessinconfession,however,sorrowfor motives that are less pure, like the fear of hell, suffices. This is called attrition or imperfect contrition.“In itself … imperfect contrition cannot obtain forgiveness of grace sins, but it disposes one to obtain forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance”(CCC, 1453). Perfect contrition can remit mortal sins, but to do this it must include“a firm resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible”(CCC, 1452).

Some think that the general confession which the faithful make at the beginning of Mass is sufficient for the forgiveness of grave sins and that they can continue to receive Communion for many years without actually ever enunciating their sins to a priest. This is true of venial sins, but not for mortal sins. Interior movements of the heart must lead to external acts, speaking our sins out loud. How would one measure the devotion of a lover who protested that he has great interior love for his beloved but never visits her, never expresses his regret for injuries done her, never kisses her, never expresses his love for her? Contrition of heart is proven by confession on the lips.“Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance:‘All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligentself-examinationareconsciousmustbe recounted by them in confession'”(CCC, 1456).

Private confession to Christ—through the mediation of the Church in the person of the human priest— is an essential expression of sorrow. The penitent reveals that part of his personal life to which he wishes to apply the healing remedy of divine grace. To purposely hide sins in confession or to avoid confessing them reveals a lack of honest contrition.“Anyone who is aware of having committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he experience deep contrition without having first received sacramental absolution, unless he has a grave reason for receiving Communion and there is no possibility of going to confession”(CCC, n. 1457).

Personal conversion includes the desire to make right our wrongs, including those done to another. For thisreason,everyonewhoconfessesreceivesa penance to perform which strengthens the sincere desire to make amends. This is also known as making satisfaction.“Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused”(CCC, 1459). Making satisfaction is most fruitful when the penitent performs the penance assigned by the confessor and looks on each joy and suffering as an opportunity to seal one's repentance.

Father Brian Mullady, O.P., teaches theology at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Brian Mullady ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Bridge to the 21st Century DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

IN A VARIATION on Plato's famous line on philosophers and kings one could argue that Catholic prelates, too, should be men of ideas. Maybe that is not fair to the dynamic, hands-on men who lead the Church in the United States and are putting ideas into action. Nevertheless, a New York audience late last month was treated to a discourse by one of Europe's leading Churchmen, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the archbishop of Paris and one of John Paul II's small circle of intimate confidants, and made to understand why the Pope is so adamant that the European Church renew itself. For better and for worse, from Europe—and in particular Germany and France—flow the theories and ideas that mark the Church worldwide.

For the Jewish-born Cardinal Lustiger, whose mother perished in Auschwitz, the notion that ideas have power and must be rooted in truth is hardly theoretical. Witness, he said, this century's“crimes of unspeakable magnitude on an unprecedented scale in human history.”Belief in scientific rationality spawned murderous ideologies.

On the threshold of the third millennium, the cardinal, echoing John Paul II's As the Third Millennium Draws Near, argues that the Church is in a unique position as a guardian of the highest expression of the principles that“characterize‘modernity’”They are found in the motto of the French Revolution—ìliberty, equality, fraternity.”These goods, he insists, can only be fruitful if they are considered and lived out in the context of their roots in Scripture and the Christian tradition. Cut off from their mooring, the cardinal said—delivering the annual Erasmus Lecture, sponsored by the Institute for Religion and Public Life—the freedoms and gains of the Enlightenment become instruments of darkness, creating a world, in which, he said,“might is right.“

Liberty, the cardinal notes, can degenerate into personal license and blindness to the needs of others, while, in the political realm, misuse of freedom leads to totalitarianism aided“by technological power.”Man, says Cardinal Lustiger, needs guidance and“bear judgment on the way he uses his liberty.”Ultimately, he says,“the divine law is the guarantor of human freedom, the deepest foundation of the human laws which protect liberty [and] Jesus said:‘The truth will set you free’“

The notion of equality, Cardinal Lustiger continues, supposedly won by seemingly unstoppable progress, has degenerated into the Darwinian theory of“life as a struggle,”in which the strongest prevail, a theory that also“[legitimatizes] economic competition.”Then there is this century's scourge of theories of racial inequality, the cardinal went on, even today, he adds, referring to controversial writings of Charles Murray, in the face of scientific agreement that“there exists only one human race.”Then there is artificially pursued equality of the sexes, which distorts the differences between men and women which are“anthropologically grounded.”Finally, the cardinal considers the fundamental inequality of the unborn and those elderly targeted for mercy killing. Again, in various forms,“might is right.”But if life is a struggle, the cardinal affirms, the“Cross stands up as the cipher that makes the world intelligible. Jesus invites the one who wants to be the greatest to make himself the smallest and the servant of all.“

As to fraternity, Paris' archbishop criticizes the perspective that fraternity or unity only concerns individuals, peoples and nations“at a given moment in history.”By contrast, he argues, fraternity must be pursued“diachronically,”across, in recognition of those who have gone before us, in particular our parents. With parents increasingly shut out from exercising their natural“authority,““young people no longer realize that they have received their own lives from their parents and, through them, from God [and] life becomes meaningless, whereas it makes sense when it opens itself to the others and ultimately to God.”Cardinal Lustiger extends the notion of fraternity also to our responsibility to care for all creation and not to dominate and exploit it, to discover and respect“its greatness and all its secrets.”The Bible, he says, teaches us that the world has been given to man for him to take care of it, to have it bear fruit and thus glorify the Creator Who made him His deputy.“

Revelation, according to the cardinal,“provides our culture with directions on the way to foster brotherhood not only among peoples and nations, but also between the generations and also in human relationship with the whole of creation.“

Masterfully, the cardinal demonstrates that at the dawn of the third millennium the gains of the Age of Reason—so often presented as made in defiance of the Church's obscurantism—need rescuing. Modernism has issued into post-modernist nihilism and relativism; the secular foundations of“liberty, equality and fraternity”are crumbling. Cardinal Lustiger makes it clear that the underpinnings of man's dignity have roots far beyond the 18th and 19th century—they belong to the dawn of Christianity.

And just as the Church has not always recognized and abided by these gifts in her 2,000-year history and is now prepared to make amends and start fresh in the new millennium, so human society at large stands to benefit as“liberty, equality and fraternity”are purged of their corruptible setting and newly calibrated to their foundation in truth as part of the new evangelization. Now there is a bridge to the 21st century.

JK

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: opinion -------- TITLE: Ireland's Heroes and the Politics of Terror DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

REVOLUTIONS OFTEN devour their own. The skill and eagerness to kill that are necessary to overthrow a government creates a murderous momentum that's difficult to stop once victory is achieved.

The Irish Troubles are a prime example. The savagery required to end 700 years of brutal British oppression led to terrorism and civil war after independence, as former comrades in arms senselessly slaughtered each other. The legacy of this violence continues to this day.

MichaelCollins isabrilliantpieceofpartisan hagiography about one of the martyred leaders of that rebellion. But Irish writer-director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire) refuses to tackle many of the moral and psychological questions raised by his chosen subject.

The movie, which won the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival, begins with the Easter Rising of 1916 when the British army crushed the Irish rebels.Imprisonedafterthebattle,MichaelCollins (Liam Neeson) prophesies that next time“we won't play by their rules. We'll invent our own.“

Collins is true to his word. The British have been abletocheckmatetherevolutionaries' everymove because their elaborate network of spies has completely penetrated the resistance movement. Collins, minister of intelligence in the rebels' shadow cabinet, realizes that destruction of that intelligence apparatus is the key to victory.

Collins recruits a squad of teenage Dublin assassins who cold-bloodedly liquidate the fingered government agents, shooting them down without warning. Twice the British attempt to rebuild the network with personnel from Belfast and London, but each time Collins wipes them out. In the process, Collins devises a method of modernurbanterroragainstwhichanopponent's numerical and economic superiority has little effect.

The British are stymied by Collins' carefully calculated“bloody mayhem.”Much to everyone's surprise, they offer to negotiate. Collins is chosen to head the Irish delegation to the talks which include Winston Churchill on the other side. Collins returns with a treaty that establishes the Irish Free State but fails to win full independenceforhiscountry.Italsoagreestoapartition between the Protestant North and the Catholic South, a situation which still exists today.

The treaty is opposed by two of Collins'comrades in arms—theshifty-eyedEamonde Valera(Alan Rickman), commander-in-chief of the Irish forces, and big-hearted Harry Poland (Aidan Quinn), Collins' best friend and key lieutenant. But Collins is now as passionate for peace as he once was for war. He convincingly argues that the flawed agreement is the best deal that British are willing to cut at this time. The Irish people support his position by a wide margin in a national referendum. De Valera and Poland reject the results and start a civil war. Collins outguns his old allies but is killed in an ambush on the way to a meeting with de Valera.

Embellishing the historical record, Jordan makes de Valera the villain of the piece. It's suggested that the manipulativerebelchieftainknewthattheBritish would never accede to the demands his faction wanted. Consequently, Collins is duped into leading the negotiations so he will be the fall guy when they produce unsatisfactoryresults.Moresinisterly,themovie implies that de Valera is somehow complicit in Collins' assassination.

In reality, Collins was every bit as politically sophisticated as his opponents, and it's said that de Valera wept for an entire day when he learned of Collins' death. Jordan is forced to scapegoat de Valera because he's unwilling to probe too deeply into Collins'psyche. The guerrilla leader is depicted as a reluctant assassin, with plenty of boyish charm but no inner life or contradictions. When he's made to say of the British,“I hate them for making hate necessary,”it rings false.

In reality, Collins had a strange passion for fighting. Before the revolution, he used to take a bite out of the ears of his defeated wrestling opponents. But Jordan wants Collins to be a larger-than-life, epic folk hero, without the kind of interior tragic flaw that could bring his downfall. To achieve this goal, his death must be shown to be a martyrdom, caused by the stupidity and evil of others.

In all probability, only a person like Collins could have led the Irish to freedom. His emotional ruthlessness and propensity to violence enabled him to match the viciousness of British colonialism and outwit it. But these character traits also created a mechanism of terror which, once unleashed, even he couldn't control.

BecausethebloodshedcontinuesinNorthern Ireland, a movie on this subject must be more than a piece of glorious folk art. It must also offer us some kind of understanding of the horrors of the present. By thesestandards, MichaelCollins feelsincomplete despite its many moments of bravura filmmaking. It excessively romanticizes its hero and turns a blind eye to what makes modern political terrorists tick.

John Prizer is based in Los Angeles.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: The Convergence of Science and Faith DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

God&theBigBang:DiscoveringHarmony Between Science and Spirituality, by Daniel C. Matt, (Woodstock, Vt.: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1996, 200 pp., $21.95)

BOTH SCIENCE and religion have kept a wary eye on one another at least since Galileo's time. Recent scientific findings (e.g. quantum physics, Planck time, singularities, black holes, etc.) have been interpreted as substituting for, if not actually disproving, religious assertions that the universe was created by a Supreme Being. NASA's discovery of possible ancient primitive life forms on Mars posed the most recent challenge to traditional religious belief about God's and our own unique place in the universe.

In God & the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony Between Science and Spirituality, David Matt, a professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., seeks to stimulate the dialogue between religion and science. Borrowing from ancient Jewish mysticism (ìKabbalah“), Hasidism (a popular Jewish revivalist movement begun in the 18th century), other religious traditions (e.g., Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.) and contemporary scientific discoveries, the author proffers both scientific and theological arguments in making the case for God. To a degree, he succeeds.

The book is divided in three parts. The first section,“The Big Bang,”expounds on the currently accepted scientific theory about the universe's origin, according to which, the universe originated some 15 billion years ago with an explosion in a point which—although smaller than a photon (an infinitesimally minute particle)—nevertheless contained all the material now comprising the universe. However, while scientists can describe with great precision what occurred only billionths of a second after the Big Bang, they cannot tell us what happened before that moment.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian priest and mathematician, first hypothesized that the universe began with the explosion of one primordial atom. In 1951, the Catholic Church declared that the Big Bang theory is not incompatible with biblical creation accounts.

Science, unable to identify an ultimate origin, can't convincingly postulate that the universe has meaning or purpose. Traditional Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious beliefs ascribe the origin of creation to God as Prime Mover or First Cause. The notion of a Supreme Being, apart from the chemical processes that brought about the universe, imbues creation with purpose. Not only does the universe have a beginning and an end; through its history, it also accomplishes its divinely-appointed purpose. How science and religion can contribute to this understanding serves is the subject of parts two and three of Matt's book.

Science concerns itself with investigating external, visible phenomena; religion deals with the inner life. But Matt also investigates God's relationship with creation. Thirteenth century Jewish mysticism holds that God constitutestheoriginalonenessandnothingness. Kabbalah's name for God, Ein-Sof (literally,“there is no“), is not intended negatively; the belief is not that there is nothing, but rather there is nothing but God. Everything, then, is imbued with the divine essence.

God's oneness at the beginning of time finds an analogy with science's notion of symmetry. At Planck time (1043 of a second after the Big Bang), the four forces of gravity are undifferentiated due to the compactness of matter at that time, making space and time meaningless. However at 1011 of a second, matter begins to differentiate. According to Hasidism, creation occurred when Godwithdrewfromaninfinitesimalspotthatwas nonetheless large enough for the cosmos. Creation, then, is never completely separate from the Creator. The primordial vacuum vacated by God always contained part of His essence.

Part three of Matt's book discusses how to discover the moral purpose of God's creation and put it into practice. The Jewish Torah provides guidance on how one is to live a life of love and of following God who is love. According to Hebrew numerology, the Hebrew words for“one”and“love”are equivalent numerically; and the two added together give the same numerical value for“Yahweh,”the personal name of Israel's God. As the universe grows and expands according to scientific laws, so too does commentary on the Torah and the revelation of God's providential plan for the universe, including the birth of other religions—engaging science and religion in genuine dialogue.

Father Pius Murray, C.S.S., is a professor of Old Testament studies and Director of Library Services at Pope John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Mass.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Pius Murray ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE:LETTERS DATE: 11-03-1996 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

Death Row

My name is Michael Ross. I am a condemned man on Connecticut's death row. When most people think of death row inmates, I'm the one that they think of. I'm the worst of the worst, a man who has raped and murdered eight women, assaulted several others, and stalked and frightened many more. When I am finally executed, the vast majority of the people of this state will celebrate my death. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I can see the hundreds of people who will gather outside the prison gates on the night of my execution. I can see them waving placards, drinking and rejoicing, and I can hear their cheers as my death is officially announced.

I have lived here on Connecticut's death row for over eight-and-a-half-years. I live in an eight-by-ten foot unpainted concrete cell for 23-hours-a-day—24-hours-a-day on weekends. I come out for an hour of“recreation”five days a week. The only other times that I leave my cell is for a 15-minute shower five days a week, or for an occasional visit (30 minutes, through glass, on a telephone). My meals are brought to my cell in a Styrofoam box three times a day. I live in a single cell—and since I can only talk to the two people on either side of my cell—I quite often feel alone.

One of the results of this almost total isolation is that, after a while, a person is forced to look at himself. I'm not talking about the cursory, superficial manner in which most people look at themselves, but rather a quite painful, unrelenting search of one's very soul.

Many inmates in prison, and many of those on death row, are able to lie convincingly to themselves, to see themselves as basically good people who are the innocent victims of a corrupt judicial system or of an unfair and uncaring society in general. Sometimes it is very difficult to honestly see ourselves as we truly are, and much easier to blame others as justification for our actions. I know this to be true because for years this is exactly what I did. During this period I was angry—very angry—at everyone and everything except for the one person I should have been angry with—me. It took a very long time—years in fact— for that anger to subside, to accept who I was and what I had become, and even longer before I was ready and willing to accept responsibility for my actions.

Mypersonaltransformation…allowedmy humanity to awaken, giving me back something that I thought I had lost forever…. Now that my mind was clear, I began to see—really see. It was like a spotlight shining down on me, burning away the mist, exposing every shadow of my being. I saw things as they really were; things I didn't like; things that brought great anguish.

Yet it is … reconciliation that I yearn for the most: Reconciliation with the spirit of my victims; reconciliation with the families and friends of my victims; and finally, reconciliation with myself and my God. This will be the final part of my transformation—and undoubtedly the most difficult part…. I have gone through quite a transformation since the day I first set foot on death row—most of it alone.

There is a group of people who firmly believe in this concept of reconciliation—victim-offender reconciliation and of the offender's reconciliation with society. They stand up for their beliefs and actively promote reformation and reconciliation. For more information about this group contact: Pat Bane, director; Murder Victims'Families For Reconciliation, PO Box 205, Atlantic, VA 23303-0208. Or call her at (801) 824-0948. And please tell her Michael Ross sent you.

Michael Ross, no. 127404 Northern Correctional Institution Somers, Connecticut

Immigration Mystique

Ordinarily I consider it inappropriate for an author to reply to his reviewers, but Robert Moser's charge that my book The Immigration Mystique: America's False Conscience is“anti-Catholic”and that I have“disdain for the Catholic Church”must be answered. I am Roman Catholic; and if Dr. Moser is unable to recognize a co-religionist when he reads him, perhaps that is because he has come to think of his Church as simply another social service agency, and its teachings as indistinguishable from the Democratic Party.

Interestingly, Dr. Moser does not refer to my remarks on Thomism and its displacement in the American Church in particular by the modern Catholic left. In the Thomistic view our obligations are to those connected to us by nature, to friends rather than strangers, and to one's country rather than to the world.

As I say in my book, the immigration crisis is a serious temptation to the Churches—not just to the Catholic Church—to confuse the worldly with the otherworldly. Undoubtedly, the fact that immigrationismhasbecomeafalsereligion—indeedan idol—goes far to account for this confusion; and nowhere has immigrationism been made more an object of idolatry than in the American Church's refugee and immigrant services departments, where Dr. Moser resides. Thus Moser's opinions in respect of immigrants do not surprise me. His inability to recognize Catholic argument when he meets it, however, disappoints.

I could answer his charge regarding my own lapses in logic. This being a letter in defense of my faith, and not of my book, I won't.

Chilton Williamson Jr.Kemmerer, Wyoming

Father Coughlin

Gabriel Meyer's article on the most famous radio orator in history was most interesting. My father used to set aside Sunday afternoon to listen to Father Coughlin. Unfortunately, his rise to fame proved Aeron's maxim that power corrupts.

However it is worth noting that when Father Coughlin was silenced by his bishop he lived up to his vow of obedience in the capacity of a parish priest for 37 years until he died in 1979. Many liberals who were opposed to any form of censorship applauded his retirement but asked“why did it take so long?“

Would an activist accept the authority of a bishop in today's climate?

Edward Halpin Park Ridge, Ill.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: opinion -------- TITLE: A Letter to the Cardinal DATE: 11-03-96 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

HARVARD LAW Professor Mary Ann Glendon, Common Ground project committee member, addressed the following letter to Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. It was dated Oct. 21.

“Thank you so much for your gracious response to my letter of Sept. 20. I am taking the liberty of writing again to share a few additional thoughts about how to assure the best possible conditions for the success of the Common Ground Project.

The measured reactions of several of your fellow cardinals to the statement “Called to be Catholic,” suggest that this document, though well-intentioned, carries a significant risk of undercutting its own purpose to promote unity within the Church. Fortunately, our project is at such an early stage that we can learn and benefit from this experience. Afew simple steps at this stage could, I believe, greatly improve our chances of success by averting unnecessary misunderstandings and anxieties.

What is most urgent, in my humble view, is to clarify what is meant by dialogue, and to acknowledge that dialogue has conditions. Hence the following suggestions that I plan to make at our Oct. 24 meeting.

1) The first condition for effective dialogue is an atmosphere where the participants can get to know and understand one another. Your response to my Sept. 20 letter is greatly reassuring on this point

2) Genuine dialogue must be informed dialogue. Much, perhaps most, “disunity” in the Church is simply the result of poor formation, plus a culture which makes it difficult to lead a Christian life. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians: “We have a wisdom to offer those who have reached maturity, not a philosophy of cur age, still less of the masters of our age.” A prerequisite for any discussion of Catholic common ground must be familiarity with the essential elements of that Common ground which are, as you yourself have made clear, Scripture and the authoritative teachings of the Church. Alas, such familiarity cannot be presupposed. Thus it would be well if the group were to explicitly acknowledge this problem, and to recognize the new Catechism as the most effective remedy we possess: the foundation as well as the tuning fork of our discussions. We should be mindful of the fact that if our group is to try to model dialogue, it must also model exceptional knowledge. That 'is a daunting challenge!

3) Dialogue among Catholics, as within a family, takes place within a framework of shared commitments. Unfortunately our project has received some undeserved praise as well as criticism from Catholics who confuse dialogue with negotiating and compromising the “precious deposit of Christian doctrine.” We should act immediately to negate any notion that dialogue means dumbing down doctrine to the comfort level of persons in a highly permissive society. As St. Paul says, “Do not be conformed to the spirit of this age.”

4) The best way to get the common ground project off to the best possible start, on the firmest possible basis would be to place our work directly and explicitly within the program recommended by John Paul II in Tertio Millennio Adveniente.This would simultaneously:

&atiled; alleviate the worries aroused by the statement,

&atiled; cure the statement's omission to recognize the papacy is the chief servant of Church unity,

&atiled; provide us with a peerless set of starting points for discussion,

&atiled; establish a model for similar discussions based on the same document around the country, and with the help of God's grace,

&atiled enable us to make a uniquely valuable contribution to the Great Jubilee 2000 as well as to Church unity.

With continued prayers and all good wishes for you personally, dear Cardinal Bernardin, I am sincerely yours in Christ, Mary Ann Glendon.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: news -------- TITLE: 'Faithful and Hopeful: The Catholic Common Ground Project' DATE: 11-03-96 CATEGORY: November 3-9, 1996 ----- BODY:

(ExcerptsofcardinalJoseph Bernardin's Oct. 24 address)

“… Asweknow,differences have always existed in the Church. St. Paul's letters and the Acts of the Apostles and the fact that there are four gospel accounts rather than one all tell us that Christian unity has always coexisted with Christian differences. Differences arethenaturalreflectionofour diversity,adiversitythatcomes withcatholicity.Differencesare thenaturalconsequenceofour grappling with a divine mystery thatalwaysremainsbeyondour complete comprehension. And differences, it must be added, can also spring from human sinfulness.

“… You may have noticed that so far I have spoken about differences without using the word“dissent!' Some people have objected that the Catholic Common Ground Project will legitimate dissent, and others, perhaps, have hoped that it will. In part, I have addressed this concern by noting the range of differencesamongU.S.Catholics that are not strictly or primarily doctrinal. But dissent, in addition, is a complicated term. I mean neither to avoid it nor to pretend to address all the issues surrounding it.

“One can find, however, some major points of consensus about dissent.

“On the one hand, consider the view that all public disagreement or criticism of Church teaching is illegitimate.Suchanunqualified understandingisunfoundedand wouldbeadisservicetothe Church.‘Room must be made for responsible dissent in the Church,’ writes Father Avery Dulles, whom no one can accuse of being radical or reckless in his views.‘Theology always stands under correction’

“‘Dissent should neither be glorifiednorbevilified,’ Father Dullesadds.Itinevitablyrisks weakening the Church as a sign of unity, but it can nonetheless be justified, and to suppress it would be harmful.‘The good health of the Church demands continual revitalizationbynewideas,’ Father Dullessays,addingthat ‘nearly everycreativetheologianhas at one time or another been suspected ofcorruptingthefaith’ Infact, accordingtoDulles,theologians ought to alert Church authorities to the shortcomings of its teachings.

“Similarly, in Veritatis Splendor Pope John Paul II distinguishedbetween ‘limitedand occasional dissent' and‘an overall and systematic calling into question of traditional moral doctrine’ I would argue that dissent ceases to belegitimatewhenittakesthe formofaggressivepubliccampaignsagainstChurchteachings that undermine the authority of the Magisterium itself.

“Noonecandenythatsuch campaigns exist. But I would go further. Theproblemofdissent today is not so much the voicing of serious criticism but the popularity ofdismissive,demagogic, ‘cute' commentary, dwelling on alleged motives,exploitingstereotypes, creating stock villains, employing reliable‘laugh lines’ The kind of responsible disagreement of which I speak must not include‘caricatures' that‘undermine the Church as a community of faith'by assuming Church authorities to be‘generallyignorant,self-serving,and narrow-minded’ It takes no more than a cursory reading of the more militant segments of the Catholic press, on both ends of the theological and ideological spectrum, to reveal how widespread, and how corrosive,suchcaricatureshave become.

“ThisiswhytheCatholic CommonGroundProject,while affirming‘legitimate debate, discussion, and diversity,’ specifically targets ‘popscholarship,sound-bitetheology,unhistoricalassertions,andflippantdismissals’ Moreover, it aims at giving Catholics another model for exploring our differences. Before speaking of that model I want to make it clear that, in speaking of a‘common ground'this project does notaimatthelowestcommon denominator. Nor when it speaks of dialogue does it imply compromise. Rather, in both instances its goal is the fullest possible understanding of and internalization of the truth.“

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: news -------- TITLE: Ancient See of Antioch Makes Overture to Orthodox DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

JOHN PAUL IIs wish for the Churches of the East and West to unify and join forces in the new millennium was given a boost by the decision of the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate of the ancient See of Antioch to make overtures to the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch.

The Holy Synod of the Antioch Orthodox met late last month to consider the Melkite gesture. But if Antiochian Orthodox sentiments on this side of the Atlantic are any indication, unity prospects are fragile. Still, many observers are heartened.

Next to Jerusalem, no city deserves to be called the “cradle of Christianity” more than the city of Antioch. Located in the northwestern part of today's Syria, Antioch was the site of the Church's first missionary impulse to the Greek cities of the near East, the locus of Paul and Barnabas's first communities of Gentile converts, and the place where the term “Christian” (or “messianist”) was first applied to the followers of Jesus.

History, however, has not been kind to the Church of Antioch. Wracked by divisions over Christology, its influence curbed early on by Alexandria and Jerusalem, and, like the rest of the Christian Middle East, absorbed into the Muslim world, Antioch today boasts no fewer than five rival patriarchs: Orthodox, Catholic, two Syrian varieties and a Lebanese claimant.

But this past summer, senior hierarchs of the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate—a Church following Orthodox norms that has been in union with Rome for more than 200 years— have launched a campaign to reverse that process. Meeting in Rabweh, Lebanon, under the leadership of Melkite (Greek Catholic) Patriarch Maximos V Hakim, the Holy Synod, the Church's governing body, issued a document titled Reunification of the Antiochian Patriachate July 27, which calls for formal discussions with Antioch's Greek Orthodox that would lead to communicatio in sacris— “wor-ship in common” —between the two Churches.

Melkite Greek Catholics and their Eastern Orthodox counterparts have been divided since 1724 when Patriarch Cyril Tanus, a supporter of Orthodox reunion with Rome, was excommunicated by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Orthodoxy's titular head.

Based in the Middle East, the Melkites' patriarchal See is presently in Damascus, Syria, governing 16 eparchies (dioceses) in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and Egypt. Outside the Middle East, there are dioceses in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and Australia, with vicariates in Western Europe and Argentina.

In addition to declaring that common worship between the two Churches is “possible,” the statement, signed by the Melkite patriarch, 31 archbishops and bishops and four general superiors, and addressed to Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim and his Synod, calls for the governing Synods of both Orthodox and Catholic Antiochenes “to do whatever is necessary … to reach Antiochian unity through oneness of heart, and to find ways for the two Churches—Melkite Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox—to return to communion with each other and into unity under one Antiochian Patriarchate.”

The statement stresses that unity is not “a victory of one Church over another, or one Church going back to the other, or the melting of one Church into the other,” but, rather, “putting an end to the separation between the brothers.”

Building on the efforts of the Joint International Theological Commission between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches and on the momentum created by Pope John Paul II's recent encyclical Ut Unum Sint (“That All May be One”), the Melkite synod offers the Church's experience during the first millennium—before the separation of the Christian East and West—as “the model for unity today.”

All the while, the Melkite Synod reaf-firms its historic commitment to full communion with the Apostolic See of Rome. “This communion would not be ruptured” by the proposed push for the healing of Antioch's Catholic-Orthodox rift, the synod says.

Melkite officials enthusiastic about the ecumenical gambit. “What the [document] is saying is that the time for unity has come, [the time] to begin talking more seriously about how to bring it about,” Melkite Bishop Nicholas Samra, auxiliary bishop of the Melkite Eparchy of Newton, Mass., told the Register. Along with Bishop John Elya, head of the diocese, Bishop Samra is one of only two American signatories to the document.

Samra stressed, however, that the move comes with a history dating back nearly 20 years, to the pioneering efforts of Archbishop Elias Zoghby of Baalbek, Lebanon. Zoghby, now retired, urged the setting up of a joint commission between the two synods to pursue reconciliation as early as the 1970s—a move stalled by Lebanon's 16-year civil war, which broke out in 1975.

The process was resumed last year, Samra said, when Archbishop Zoghby published, as a private initiative, a brief “profession of faith,” subscribed to by 24 of 26 Melkite bishops present at the 1995 meeting of the synod. That two-point declaration professed belief in “everything which Eastern Orthodoxy teaches,” and in “communion with the Bishop of Rome as the first among the bishops, according to the limits recognized by the Holy Fathers of the East during the first millennium, before the separation.”

The Zoghby initiative, presented to both Melkite and Greek Orthodox patriarchs, “resurrected the discussion,”according to Bishop Samra, and resulted in the recent appeal, now with the support of Melkite Patriarch Maximos.

“In Lebanon and Syria, it's created a new excitement for unity,”said Samra, “especially on the level of [both] hierarchies. Not that [unity] will happen overnight. But great strides have already taken place. I'm very optimistic.”

In addition, Samra said, the initiative has received a lot of good press among ecumenists in Europe. Even more importantly, the initiative has sparked interest among Greek Catholics in Ukraine— where there is deep division between Eastern Catholics and local Orthodox.

Antiochian Orthodox authorities have as yet released no statement of their own in response to the Melkite move. “Communicatio in sacris [‘common worship'] is not a means to union, but the sign of a union achieved,”cautioned Father Joseph Allen, New Jersey-based director of theological education for the Antiochian Orthodox diocese in the United States. “Until all the issues which divide us in terms of our faith understanding are clarified, there can be no intercommunion between Melikites and Antiochian Orthodox. This has always been our view,”Father Allen declared, “and I can't see how the Antiochian bishops in the Middle East can take a different tack.”

What's more, Rome feels the same way, said Allen. The Orthodox educator went on to stress that the decision about communion can't be decided by one auto-cephalous [or self-governing] Church, but is a decision for the whole Church. “I do not imagine,”he told the Register, “that Antioch will make a decision about intercommunion unless it is in concert with all the other Orthodox Churches.”

If the Melkites in the Middle East are envisioning the religious divisions in Antioch as an internal problem that can be resolved locally, he said, “that's not the way the Orthodox Synod of Antioch is going to look at it. These are not local issues.”Father Allen likened the Melkite bid to a Roman Catholic bishop devising on his own a formula of Church union with a local Protestant denomination without reference to the larger Church. “It's fine to try to break the [ecumenical] logjam,”he said, “but there's just no way around the issues.”

A Catholic expert on the Eastern Churches, however, doesn't see the Melkite proposal in such stark terms. “It's an old idea, the notion of a ‘double communion'—that is, Churches in communion both with Rome and with the Orthodox,”Father Ron Robeson, associate director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Catholic Conference (USCC), told the Register. “The main thing is that the [Antiochian] rapprochement happen.”Robeson pointed out that, unlike the Rome-Constantinople split, the Melkite-Orthodox rupture is a relatively recent development (1724). “It's a very specific case,”he said.

The division resulted from the work of Catholic missionaries within Orthodox communities in the Middle East in the 17th and 18th centuries. What happened, he said, was that, in an effort to reestablish full communion with the ancient see of Antioch by way of a Catholic party, Rome miscalculated, resulting in an unintended split, in the emergence of two separate Churches—one in communion with Rome, the other, not.

Robeson disagrees with the assessment that recent Melkite moves amount to a uni-lateral act on the part of the Melkite bishops. “The bishops have met and formulated a statement—that's all. They're going to remain in communion with Rome, they're submitting some ideas to the Orthodox to see what can be done to bridge the divide,”he said.

Robeson noted that if the Orthodox have not yet formulated a response to the Melkite initiative, neither has the Vatican. “While I'm not sure the [Melkite] document was submitted to Rome for approval,” he said, “I wouldn't read too much into Rome's silence on this matter. In fact, I don't see how Rome could object to the document as it now stands. After all, the Melkites remain in full communion with Rome, and they won't take any major step without Rome's approval. There's nothing objectionable here.”

As for the Orthodox, Robeson thinks that if the current Greek Catholic initiative is accepted by the Antiochenes, the two hierarchies will likely discuss the proposal, and then submit their findings to a broader consultation involving Rome and the other Orthodox Churches.

“This is the future,” said Robeson. “The Eastern Catholic Churches are realizing a greater and greater autonomy than before—as Churches, not as merely rites within the Catholic Church. The more that develops,”he speculated, “the more they approximate their Orthodox counterparts, the more solutions like this we can expect.”

Gabriel Meyer is based in Los Angeles.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Mayer ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Anencephaly Newest Frontier in Prenatal-Testing, Abortion Battle DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

EVERY YEAR in the United States, approximately 800 babies are born with a birth defect known as anencephaly. It is a condition where, early in pregnancy, an error in development occurs which prevents the top portion of the brain and skull from forming correctly. Such babies have only a brain stem in place of the entire brain and lack part of the skull. Despite the severity of the defect, about half of such babies are born alive. However, almost all die shortly after birth, with only a rare few living months or years.

In years past, anencephaly was not detected until birth. However, with the advent of routine ultrasound and a newer blood test for the mother called AFP screening, the condition can often be detected during pregnancy.

Although abortion for unborn babies with terminal illness or disabilities has long been condemned by the Catholic Church, in the past few years some ethicists have developed a rationale by which pregnancies involving babies with anencephaly could be terminated by inducing labor as soon as the diagnosis is made.

Such terminations are called “early inductions of labor”rather than abortions by proponents, as anencephaly is usually not discovered until midway through the pregnancy. As justification, these ethicists have cited the possibility of difficulties during labor and delivery, the emotional trauma of the parents, and the apparent absence of mental development in babies who have the fatal condition. Reports of such terminations occurring at Catholic hospitals have prompted anger in the pro-life movement and calls for reexamination of the issue by other ethicists and doctors.

In an ironic twist, at the same time these ethicists were proposing ending anencephalic pregnancies prematurely, the Council for Ethical and Judicial Affairs of the American Medical Association (AMA) proposed the continuation of such pregnancies at the parents' discretion so that the babies'organs could be harvested shortly after birth and before death. Earlier this year, the council reluctantly withdrew its proposal after strong opposition from AMA members, legal experts, pro-lifers, and parents of infants with anencephaly. These critics argued that taking organs before death should remain legally and ethically forbidden.

Moral Principles

In a definitive statement issued Sept. 16, 1996 and titled “Moral Principles Concerning Infants with Anencephaly,”the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) Committee on Doctrine condemns both practices. The NCCB statement reaffirms the Church's position that “it can never be morally justified directly to cause the death of an innocent person no matter the age or condition of that person.”

Specifically, the Committee on Doctrine states: “The fact that the life of a child suffering from anencephaly will probably be brief cannot excuse direct causing death before ‘viability'(the ability of a baby to live outside the womb) or gravely endangering the child's life after ‘viability'as a result of the complications of prematurity.”

As the statement points out, while it is permitted to treat a life-threatening pathology of the mother even when this has the unintended side-effect of causing the death of her child, “[a]nencehpaly is not a pathology of the mother, but of the child, and terminating her pregnancy cannot be a treatment of a pathology she does not have.”

Because the child has an ultimately fatal condition, the statement says that babies with anencephaly “should be given the comfort and palliative care appropriate to all the dying” but that “extraordinary means to prolong life”can be foregone.

The statement also recognizes that while a wish to help other children by donating organs from babies with anencephaly is commendable, “this may never be permitted before the donor child is certainly dead.”

In the August 1996 issue of the Linacre Quarterly, Father Kevin O'Rourke, director of the Center for Health Care Ethics at St. Louis University, reversed his previously held opinion that premature delivery for unborn babies with anencephaly was justified. He now states that “because intervention in the pregnancy of an anencephalic infant results in a direct killing of an innocent human being, the only suitable, ethical opinion seems to be to allow the pregnancy to go to term, …”thus concurring with the NCCB Committee on Doctrine's conclusions.

Prenatal Testing and Anencephaly

With the advent of prenatal testing, particularly AFP or “triple screen”testing of the mother's blood, more and more parents are faced with the possibility of learning before birth that their baby has anencephaly or other birth defects. In 1994, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists officially recommended that a “triple screen”test of the mother's blood be offered to pregnant patients of all ages.

This implies a legal mandate to practicing physicians who cannot afford the liability of not offering such a test after a national recommendation has been made. This has resulted in “triple screen”testing becoming a common routine during pregnancy.

The “triple screen”test is done around 16-18 weeks into pregnancy when levels of certain substances produced by the baby can be detected in the mother's blood. An abnormally high result suggests such conditions as anencephaly or spina bifida (an opening in the spine). An abnormally low result primarily suggests Down's syndrome.

However, the rate of false-positive results is quite high and the vast majority of women with abnormal test results will be carrying perfectly healthy babies. Further testing is supposed to be recommended when an abnormal result is obtained, but there have been reports of mothers being offered the option of abortion after only the initial test.

Routine “triple screen”testing remains controversial. The anxiety engendered in pregnant women by abnormal but usually false-positive test results, the financial cost of testing all pregnant women as well as the costs of retests, and the implicit support for aborting so-called “defective” infants have spawned criticism of this policy. Supporters of the policy point to the potential cost savings of abortion over the costs of caring for infants with severe birth defects and the parents' right to know all information currently available as justifying the policy.

As the 1987 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's document Donum Vitaemakes clear, the Churchs position is that prenatal testing which does not pose disproportionate risks to the unborn child or mother is permitted if the intention is not to abort but rather to safeguard or heal the child.

Nancy Valko, R.N., is based in St. Louis, Mo.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Nancy Valko ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Rome UN Summit Tackles World Hunger Crisis DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

ROME—800 million people on the planet are undernourished. To address the crisis, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has convened a summit of world leaders. The meeting begins here Nov. 13 and will conclude Nov. 17 with heads of state signing a joint declaration that organizers hope will express a firm commitment to develop a plan of action that will guarantee food for everyone.

Preparatory sessions underscored the difficulties that often mark major U.N. summits. The asof-yet unsigned declaration features a host of bracketed sections, whose context has yet to be agreed upon. Thus far, it seems, the only consensus is on the proportion and tragedy of the hunger problem. “We consider it intolerable,”reads the draft, “that more than 800 million persons in the whole world, and especially in the developing countries, do not have sufficient food to satisfy their basic nutritional needs.”

One contested passage reads: “[T]he conflicts, corruption and degradation of the environment also contribute considerably to food insecurity.”Delegations from developed nations— including the United States—have objected to a proposal “to eliminate the unilateral application of economic and commercial measures by one state against another that affect the free flow of international trade and endanger food security.”

As at previous U.N. meetings, sharp disagreement about demography and world population growth will figure prominently at the summit. The so-called “group of 77”(which actually includes 130 countries today) and the Holy See have opposed proposals by the European Union and the United States to resort to “demographic strategies”to solve the food crisis. Their opposition hinges on the FAO's assertion that it is possible to produce enough food to feed all of humanity. The real problem, some experts insist, lies in distribution. Some proposals from richer nations also violate the constitutions of nations that guarantee parents' rights to determine the number of children they will have. Western initiatives have also been opposed by Japan, which retracted its support after noting a lack of “cultural sensitivity”in the proposed measures.

Some observers worry that the disagreements will obscure the overarching purpose for the gathering. In an attempt to keep the summit focused on hunger, John Paul II has asked Cor Unum, the pontifical council that coordinates the Church's charitable work (including Caritas), to draw up guidelines to avoid deadlock. A document was expected to be issued a week before the summit.

Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, recently appointed president of Cor Unum, told the Register that the Vatican document will appeal to all believers to tackle the problems of hunger and poverty head-on. “People are accustomed to dealing with the problem of hunger as if it were a subject that politicians and economists have to solve,”the archbishop said. “In this way we shake off any responsibility. [But] putting the blame on others does not solve the problem. The document wants to overcome the attitude of those who say, ‘I have nothing to do with this.'”

“For Catholics,”he added, “the action of charity [is] the real test of the Church's credibility and [that] of her message.”

The Vatican document will focus on the concept of “a fair price”as the solution to the food distribution problem. A “fair price,”says the text, “is applied when the free market is not left adrift but is based on social justice, that is, when all human relations are based on the rights and duties of the person.”

Archbishop Cordes stressed that the Christian conscience demands that economic relations respond to the just demands of others; that they will have to take into consideration the right to fair play, compelling nations to undertake trade relations only with those partners who do not belittle the dignity of the working human person.

According to the U.N. data as of 1993, 34,000 children die from hunger every day. The FAO summit is drawing extra attention because of Fidel Castro's inclusion among the heads of state who will be present in Rome. It would be the first time that the Cuban leader, in his capacity as “maximum leader,”would set foot in Italy. Heads of state who visit Rome, especially for the first time, customarily pay a visit to the Pope, and all indications are that a Castro visit would be no different.

Recently, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made overtures to encourage better relations with the Holy See. The minister of foreign affairs of the Vatican, Archbishop Jean Louis Tauran, spent four days in Cuba late last month, discussing Fidel Castro's Roman visit and a papal visit to Cuba next year. Last year, in an interview with CNN, Castro expressed his “high consideration of”and “esteem for”John Paul II, whom he labeled as “one of the most brilliant and extraordinary figures that the Church has had in the last centuries.”He also said that “he was in agreement with [John Paul II] in many aspects.”

Despite 30 years of persecution, Catholicism in Cuba is currently experiencing rapid growth. There were just 7,000 baptisms in 1971 but 34,000 last year. And religious marriages are starting to become a custom. Nevertheless, the Castro regime continues to bar the Church from opening schools or to assure a presence in the media, alongside other restrictions. Last Christmas the Communist Party even prohibited nativity scenes.

A Pope-Castro meeting would certainly be another step toward warmer relations, but whether the encounter will actually take place remains to be seen. The Cuban strongman never confirms his diplomatic commitments until the last minute.

Jesus Colina is based in Rome.

----- EXCERPT: Talk of papal audience for Fidel Castro adds to meeting's profile ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jesus Colina ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: At Long Last, Young Adults Get Serious Attention DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE U.S. BISHOPS, meeting in Washington Nov. 11-14, will consider “Action Item 9.” Submitted for their approval by Bishop Tod Brown of the Diocese of Boise, Idaho, it reads: “Does the National Conference of Catholic Bishops approve the publication of Sons and Daughters of the Light: A Pastoral Plan for Ministry with Young Adults ?”

Its 77 pages, are the result of four years of planning, listening, drafting, rewriting and reflecting on Catholic young adults, the elusive, post-baby boom core of the Church's future generations. From college freshmen to those in their 30s contemplating marriage or a possible delayed vocation, young adults often have trouble feeling at home in parishes dominated by families and older Catholics. Coming of age in a media culture and untouched by the Church's post-Vatican II battles, they seek a home in an institution they don't quite fit—but that will be theirs soon.

If adopted by the bishops, the document will mark the first time the U.S. Church has formally initiated a strategy to reach out and embrace young adults, rather than teenagers. “The bottom line is, what is the good news?”said James Breen, director the young adult office for the Archdiocese of Boston. “The good news is the Church is reaching out to young adults—officially.”

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) Committee on the Laity, chaired by Bishop Brown, drafted the document, which will sell to pastors for about $8.95 per copy. The National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association (NCYAMA) and the Catholic Campus Ministry Association have both endorsed the text. Next year, campus and young adult ministers are supposed to begin implementing the document's suggestions, which include seemingly small matters like making parish bulletins more young adult-friendly, dropping the focus on school and family news.

“The NCCB and the pastoral plan have done the who and the what and the why of young adults, and we're doing the how,”said Breen, president of NCYAMA. Conferences to discuss implementing the plan are scheduled to be held in Chicago, San Diego and Washington, D.C.

“I didn't want it to be a controversial statement,”said Delis Alejandro, one of six members of the pastoral plan's steering committee and a pastoral associate at St. Monica's Church in Santa Monica, Calif., home to one of the nation's most extensive and popular young adult ministries. Controversy, she said, might mean nothing happens for Catholics age 20 to 35.

“We wanted to make a statement [addressing] the commonality of people in that age range,”Alejandro said. “I think the whole point of this document is that there's an urgency. We need to do something now.”

St. Monica's parish might launch a mid-life spirituality group next year. Above all, said Alejandro, “it is getting people in the door [of] a Church that may have they thought was just [about] spiritual mementos of their childhood, the faith of their parents.”

“My principle thing was to get them here,”said Alejandro, 41, a former pediatric social worker. “This is a major population of people missing in the pews. Get the people in the door first.”

The bishops'document is less a teaching vehicle than a pastoral plan, which was inspired by the success of Denver's 1993 World Youth Day. It opens with an acknowledgment of “the pain many of you speak of in feeling unwelcome and alone— strangers in the house of God.”

Many Catholic young adults, like their non-Catholic contemporaries, disagree with Church teaching on a host of issues, like abortion and living together before marriage. This is handled diplomatically. “The document is pastoral, not doctrinal. It presumes the teaching of the Church,”said Father Charles Hagan, a Philadelphia diocesan priest and a steering committee member who works in the department of education at the United States Catholic Conference (USCC). If approved, the document “becomes the work of the bishops,”he said.

The pastoral does not want to turn off young adults, whom statistics show, often leave the Church after college but often return when they get married. If the Church hits young adults head-on with a series of hard rules, they are less inclined to embrace their faith, young adult coordinators argue.

“People were saying that young people were being turned off at this moment,”Hagan said, “If you just take the issue of (pre-marital) cohabitation and zero in on that, you're going up a oneway street that's a dead end. So if you hit these people with a series of things they need to get married—birth certificates, workshops—they really have to have a sense they are feeling welcome to this community.”

The pastoral plan has received early praise from some bishops. It refers to sexuality as an appropriate theme for faith formation and adult catechism and makes two references to abortion. The plan encourages young adults, “to be zealous in the pursuit of justice for the poor, the marginalized, the unborn, the elderly, the suffering, the brokenhearted.”It also says that “their commitment to the care of their children and to the unborn … all form a worthy testament to the role of young adults in living out their faith.”

Paul Henderson is the NCCB staffer who helped write the pastoral plan. He is now executive director of the Secretariat for the Third Millennium and the Jubilee Year 2000. “We as a Church have not done a good job in regenerating our ministries,”he said. “If the Church is going to continue into the 21st century, it has to regenerate itself,”he said. “It is young adults who are going to be the leaders of the Church. And the Holy Father has clearly identified the idea that in reaching young people, getting them on your side, that's how you will change the world.”

David Finnigan is based in Los Angeles.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Finnigan ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Separation of Church & State: Europe vs the United States DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

NEW YORK—Americans may have almost invented the concept of religious freedom, but Europeans have a more pragmatic approach to the issue, at least in the case of the Italians, a seminar audience was told here Oct. 29 at the New York University (NYU) Law School.

While the United States has clung to a model of Church-state separation in the cause of religious liberty, the Italian model—contingent upon agreements negotiated by religious leaders with the government—“is no less effective than separation in [safeguarding] religious freedom,” Giuliano Amato, a former Italian prime minister, said.

Amato, now a professor of law at NYU, provided a European perspective on Church-state issues along with Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris. They were joined by two American jurists, Judge John Noonan, a California federal court judge and legal scholar—as well as a one-time candidate for the Supreme Court—and the Rev. Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who is a minister and an attorney.

“We have a range of solutions,”Amato said about the Italian approach. Before becoming prime minister, he said, his job was to negotiate agreements with various religious groups regarding issues such as publicly-funded chaplains, Sabbath observance and education, among other concerns. For example, a religious group might be able to declare a forest holy ground, and the Italian government would make an effort to allow the group to spend a weekend retreat there, undisturbed by outside influences.

Many of the agreements, he said, offered provisions similar to the concordat that the Italian government maintains with the Catholic Church. The agreements, he said, provide a series of ready solutions to possible impasses over religious freedom issues. While thorny issues remain—such as the right of Jehovah's Witnesses to refuse necessary blood transfusions for their children—Italians enjoy religious liberty in an atmosphere with little discord.

Total separation, he said, is not possible in a European context without being unfair to believers. Calls for separation of Church and state in Europe, he said have always been tinged with anti-religious sentiment. Only gradually, he said, has the ideal of religious tolerance taken hold in Europe. “The principle of liberty has legs and it takes steps little by little,”he said.

While Amato claimed progress in Italy, the situation is, of course, much murkier in France. Cardinal Lustiger said that Church-state relations in his country have been marred by the fallout from the French Revolution, which included widespread persecution against the Church. Only “since the beginning of this century have we learned to live together,”he said. “Modern France is founded on political freedom against religion,”added Cardinal Lustiger. Although the leader of Catholics in France, Cardinal Lustiger himself was born a Jew and is a convert to Christianity. The end result of the long French Church-state conflict has been a complex “compromise the French way,”noted the cardinal, who sometimes grasped for the proper English words to convey his meaning. The French government owns and maintains churches and pays the salaries of Catholic school teachers.

“The state can control some things in the Catholic school,”said the cardinal, who noted that the French government is able to set standards about curriculum, while still allowing the Church to maintain the religious character of its schools.

France is now dealing with the needs of new immigrant groups, including many Muslims from North Africa, who share neither the tradition of French religious skepticism nor the country's Catholicism. For example, the French government has prohibited female circumcision and polygamy, practices which are often part of African and Muslim religious practice.

The French are also preparing for integration into the European community. “We are in a hurry to make our own laws,”noted the cardinal, citing a fear in France that decisions on knotty issues will be made by the European community if firm national laws are not developed soon. Whether that rush to judgment will be good or bad for French Catholics, the cardinal couldn't say.

In contrast to the 18th century European experience—where the religious faith of the people was frequently determined by the beliefs of the reigning sovereign—“the American commitment to the free exercise of religion was unique,” Judge Noonan told his audience.

Noonan, a Catholic who has written extensively on religious freedom concerns. He noted that the Founding Fathers made sure “that free exercise, not mere tolerance, was written into the Bill of Rights.”

While nearly half the original states featured established Churches, the arguments of James Madison—who said that faith was “a great barrier resisting the tyranny of the state”—resulted in the federal government resisting the temptation to establish a national Church.

Still, said Noonan, American law has yet to solve three basic problem areas:

Religious-based conscientious objection to military service and taxation. Noonan, who has represented a Catholic conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, said that the courts in such cases have traditionally ruled in favor of small peace sects, such as the Amish, but have not supported the rights of Catholics to object to military service on the grounds of just-war theory. “We can let a member of a little religious group get out (of military service), but not a member of a large one,”said Noonan, who said the court rulings in such cases bended to pressure from the government to maintain military forces.

Only gradually, he said, has the ideal of religious tolerance taken hold in Europe.‘The principle of liberty has legs and it takes steps little by little.’

Moral crusades based on religious belief. Noonan skipped contemporary examples, of which the argument over abortion may be the largest. But he did cite the fight to abolish slavery, which was sparked by a small group of New England ministers who met in 1831. He said that “the [Civil] War would not have happened if the South was not morally outraged by this crusade.”Such outbreaks of religious zeal raise uncomfortable questions for those Americans who do not share the moral perspective of the crusaders, he added.

The challenge of religious pluralism. When Madison promoted the free exercise of religion, he was convinced that the four major Protestant denominations active in the new nation would cancel each other out, never letting any one become overly-dominant. He never envisioned a large Catholic presence in the United States and loyalty to a Church that transcends national boundaries.

While Noonan, Cardinal Lustiger and Amato all conceded the need for government to cooperate with religious authority to advance the public interest, Lynn advocated the absolutist separatist point of view. A leader in the American Civil Liberties Union, he argued that the “hedge of separation between the garden of the Church and the wilderness of the world”—first articulated by Rhode Island founder Roger Williams and repeated by Thomas Jefferson—is a guarantee that the Churches can exist free from government interference.

He said that the separation ideal is a long American tradition. Jefferson, as president, declined to declare public days of prayer and Madison later recanted his support of a federally-funded Congressional chaplain, he said. Lynn argued that the United States, which has one of the most religious populations in the industrialized world, is in danger of allowing the state to contaminate religious practice.

He criticized laws allowing peyote to be used in Native American Indian religious rituals, despite its being illegal for secular use. And various groups, he said, are attempting to breach the wall of separation between Church and state on issues such as prayer in public schools, promoting religious symbols on public property and distributing welfare through religious agencies. The temptation, he said, is towards “a mutual corruption”of both the state and religion. “Both are dangerous and both are wrong.”

As an example, he cited the first Nativity scene allowed on the White House lawn in the mid-80s. He said the créche featured a ceramic Holy Family behind Santa Claus and his reindeer. The end product was “a Christian zoo”offensive to believers and non-believers alike.

But Amato countered that Lynn's stance of non-accommodation towards religion could never have worked in modern Italy, which, for much of the post-war era, struggled with the influence of a strong communist party in electoral politics. Religious groups, he claimed, could not have been silent in the face of such a threat. The result was the formation of political parties that accepted the Christian label and unabashedly supported Catholic concerns. Yet he conceded that the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, a non-Italian, has discouraged Church leaders from becoming overly-involved in internal Italian politics.

Lynn, however, was not too sure that there is enough distance in the Italian model between Church and state. Noting Amato's hypothetical sacred forest, he asked what would happen if a non-believer wanted to tread through the woods on his day off. Would the government prevent it? Amato looked at the civil libertarian and responded: “I would just call him a wise guy.”

Peter Feuerherd is based in New York.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter Feuerherd ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Pope Reiterates Right to School Choice DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

ROME—Pope John Paul II took advantage of his weekly Angelus address Oct. 27 to reaffirm Church teaching on the right to Catholic education. Speaking to the thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square to celebrate Catholic Schools Day, the Pontiff reminded his listeners that “Catholic schools provide an important service to the Church and society and serve as modern educational outposts.”He went on to affirm that parents' choice of Catholic schools “should not unjustly penalize family finances.”

The Italian secular press was quick to read between the lines. Though on this occasion the Pope made no explicit mention of government subsidies to private schools, the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa headlined its story about the address “Government Should Aid Catholic Schools.”The leftward-leaning journal La Repubblica called John Paul's words “a clear, albeit indirect, reprimand of the government,” and “something more than a papal exhortation.”

As loose as these interpretations may be, they aren't far off the mark. Just two years ago the Pope unequivocally stated that “it is the task of governments who have the grave obligation of organizing the educational system to make the exercise of this freedom concretely possible.”Still earlier, in his 1981 apostolic exhortation on the family, Familiaris Consortio, Pope John Paul affirmed that “that right of parents to choose an education in conformity with their religious faith must be absolutely guaranteed,”and “the state and the Church have the obligation to give families all possible aid to enable them to perform their educational role property.”

The Pope's recent remarks on school choice are squarely in line with traditional Catholic social teaching. Vatican II's declaration on Christian education, Gravissimum Educationis, warned against a “monopoly of schools which would be prejudicial to the natural rights of the human person.”The decree explicitly maintained the right of parents to choose Catholic schools and called on civil society to guarantee this right through a just distribution of economic assistance.

“Parents, who have the primary and inalienable right in regard to the education of their children, should enjoy the fullest liberty in their choice of school. The public authority, therefore, … is bound according to the principles of distributive justice to ensure that public subsidies to schools are so allocated that parents are truly free to select schools for their children in accordance with their conscience”(GE6).

The point of contention for some Italians is article 33 of the national Constitution, which speaks of the right of private persons to organize schools, but “without burden to the State.”During the latest convention of the International Office of Catholic Education in March 1994, Cardinal Pio Laghi, head of the Vatican Congregation which oversees all Catholic schools, requested—without result—the establishment of a bilateral commission for full academic recognition of Catholic schools, and economic parity visávis public schools. At that time the Australian system was put forward as a model. In Australia, 50 percent of Catholic school teachers' salaries are financed by the federal government, 25 percent by local government, and the remaining 25 percent by the Church. In Chile, Belgium and the Netherlands, the state provides full funding for all schools, public and private.

These arguments are not foreign to Americans. In the past several years the school choice movement has experienced steady growth despite fierce opposition from America's largest union, the NEA. Many U.S. citizens have come to believe that the effective monopoly of public schools over families unable to afford private education constitutes a violation of their religious convictions. This frustration has given rise to concrete programs. In Milwaukee and Cleveland, for example, legislation was struck down to provide needy students with tax-funded scholarships, enabling them to attend the school of their choice, whether public or private. The Milwaukee program was struck down by the courts; Cleveland's is currently in force, pending judicial decision.

Politically, school choice accounts for one of the prime areas of divergence between the Democratic and Republican parties. Bill Clinton, who receives substantial funding from the NEA, is decidedly anti-school choice, whereas Bob Dole supported school choice as part of his platform.

Father Thomas Williams is based in Rome.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Thomas Williams ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: The Pope's Week DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

At today's Angelus, Pope John Paul said that the liturgy celebrated this morning in St. Peter's Basilica by the bishops and priests of the Byzantine-Ruthenian rite, was to thank “the Lord for the re-establishment, in 1646 at Uzhorod, of full communion between the Ruthenian Church and the Roman Apostolic See.”

“With this anniversary,”he went on, “my thoughts turn to our brothers of the Christian Orient, in a special way to the venerable Orthodox Churches, to whom we are linked by a deep communion of faith, which everyone hopes will reach its fullness, in obedience to the will of God. During my recent stay in the hospital, the expressions of solidarity received from the various brothers of those Churches were of great comfort to me.”

Following the recitation of the Angelus, the Pope greeted various groups present in the piazza. To one he said: “I thank with affection all the 50-year-olds who wished to celebrate their birthday, participating in the thanksgiving for the 50 years of my priesthood.”

MONDAY

Pope John Paul met at noon today with 150 Poles from the local governments of the Malopolska region of Poland to thank them for making him an honorary citizen of this region and to encourage them in all their efforts to “defend the dignity of the human person and the perennial values, strongly rooted in this area”of the country.

The Pope said that linking one's social duties to a Christian attitude of faith was “a just aspiration”for society's leaders. He pointed out that the moral order—“which must be observed in every action in favor of the common good”—could be better understood when it is read “in the light of faith.”

The Holy Father emphasized that among “the principles which must guide believers who have a social mission”is that of “concern for families.” Citing Familiaris Consortio, he said: “The public authorities must do everything possible to ensure that families have all those aids—economic, social, educational, political and cultural assistance— that they need in order to face all responsibilities in a human way.”

WEDNESDAY

At 11:30 a.m. today, the Holy Father came to the window of his private study and addressed the faithful in St. Peter's Square:

“I still remember with emotion, after the wait and preparation with prayer during the month of October, the rite of ordination by the archbishop of Krakow, Adam Stefan Sapieha, in his private chapel. Since then I have let myself be guided by the Lord along the paths that He has opened before me day after day: priestly ministry in the different areas of pastoral activity, responsibility for my diocese as archbishop of Krakow, and later, the service of the Church in Rome as Successor of Peter.”

John Paul II said that “throughout these years I have always started my day with the celebration of the Eucharist, foundation and heart of my entire priestly life, discovering each time with immense gratitude that this is the mysterious and essential link that unites each priest with Christ the Redeemer. In the school of Jesus, Priest and Victim, I have understood better and better that the priest does not live for himself, but for the Church and for the sanctification of the People of God.”

• • •

Following this morning's general audience, the Pope appealed for an end to arms, hatred and ethnic rivalries in Zaire:

“With unspeakable pain I am following the events in northeastern Zaire, where fierce fighting and pillaging forces thousands of Rwandan and Burundian refugees—above all old people, women and children—to wander aimlessly. It is an endless tragedy, which has also involved for some time now the local Zairian populations.

“It is anguishing to see how human beings who sons of God and our brothers are being treated! The Lord will ask for accountability for each one of them!

“In his name I beg for arms to be silenced, for hatred and ethnic rivalries to lessen, and for an end to the shameful manhunt and ask that the path of negotiations be pursued, rendering justice to everyone, with adequate answers to the serious problems which afflict the Great Lakes region.

“I encourage all those who, even at the risk of their own life, continue to give witness of Christian charity at the side of their tested brothers and sisters, and I sincerely hope that the international community will do all in its power to efficaciously bring aid to this all-consuming catastrophe.”

THURSDAY

Following is the text of the telegram sent by Pope John Paul to Bishop Faustin Ngabu, president of the Episcopal Conference of Zaire, on the occasion of the death of Archbishop Ngabo:

“Having learned with great emotion of the tragic death of Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa Mwene Ngabo of Bukavu, I join the pain and the prayers for this valorous pastor of the Church in Zaire, who gave his life in sharing the trial of the people entrusted to him. May God receive him in his Kingdom of Peace! As this tragedy which afflicts the Great Lakes region continues, I implore the Lord to touch the hearts of men so that arms might be silenced and feelings of hatred might disappear, giving space to the search for peace and justice for all. I strongly encourage Christians to be in their brothers'and sisters'midst as tireless witnesses of Christ's charity and mercy. To the bishops of Zaire, to the faithful of the diocese of Bukavu, to the family of the deceased, as well as to his brothers in the Society of Jesus, as a sign of comfort, I impart with a full heart my apostolic blessing.”

FRIDAY

The Holy Father's general prayer intention for the month of November is: “For teachers and agents of mass media, that they be aware of their obligation to educate to fraternity and universal solidarity.”

His missionary intention is: “That among all the baptized the sense of mission be extended and intensified.”(VIS)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Vatican Down on Collegiality? Look Again DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

IS THE ROMAN Curia an impediment to collegiality? An address at Oxford University last summer by San Francisco's retired Archbishop John Quinn suggested it is. A different view of the Holy See's approach to collegiality was presented Oct. 21 in San Diego, Calif., by Cardinal Jan Schotte, secretary general to the World Synod of Bishops. At a diocesan forum, the cardinal discussed the history of the synodal process, which, he claimed, demonstrates that the Vatican's commitment to collegiality often runs deeper than that of the bishops themselves.

Cardinal Schotte said collegiality is manifested at several levels, of which the bishops' synod is one. The Pope's pastoral visits to numerous countries play a part, as do the bishops' ad limina visits to Rome. The regional episcopal bodies and national bishops'conferences also ensure collegiality. The process may be understood by the phrase cum Petro et sub Petro, (“with Peter and under his authority”), he said. The highest expression of this is an ecumenical council. The synod of bishops is a consultative body that serves Church government not as a kind of Parliament, where factional interests are jealously guarded, but a as reflection of the Church's communio. True collegiality, the cardinal said, involves the responsibility all the bishops have— along with the Pope—for the welfare of the Universal Church.

“From the start,”he said, “the Holy Father has insisted that communion among the bishops is a condition for communion among the faithful. And that, in turn, is a model for the communion within the whole Church.”He cited the Pope as saying at one point: “I will be ready to sign everything that comes out of the synod, provided the decision is reached in a collegial way and in communion.”

Decisions are not made, added the cardinal, “as a result of the cleverness of one group that manipulates [the process] until they get their ideas put down in the conclusions. I must confess that we are still far away from the ideal situation, when bishops can come together to reflect and discuss matters on the level of the Universal Church—without this pre-occupation for provincial and parochial [concerns].”

The process of organizing a synod begins with the consultation of bishop's conferences, which are asked to suggest three topics in order of priority. “Normally we get a 50-60 percent response [rate],”Cardinal Schotte said. “[T]hat 40 percent of the bishops don't take any interest in the beginning of the process,”he added, hurts collegiality.

Once the topics are analyzed by the synod council and approved by the Pope, the lineamenta—a proposal for the synod's theme—are prepared. The bishops'conferences are asked to give precise answers to a series of questions following consultations on the local/national Church level. Next, the working paper, or instrumentum laboris, is prepared, which serves as the synod agenda.

The cardinal also expressed disappointment at the response rate to the lineamenta questions: In 1974 (the Synod on Evangelization), Rome received only a 52 percent return; in 1977 (catechetics), the rate was 48 percent; in 1980 (the family—a topic that in the consultation phase all agreed was “urgent,”according to Cardinal Schotte) the response was only 42 percent. For more recent synods the rate has improved. Leading up to the 1994 African synod, the continent's bishops' conferences delivered a 94 percent response rate.

Decisions are not made, added the cardinal,‘as a result of the cleverness of one group that manipulates [the process] until they get their ideas put down in the conclusions.’

According to the cardinal, a generally poor response-rate lowers the level of collegiality for the entire synodal institution, which in turn makes the Pope less willing to endorse the synod's conclusions. And even when a response is decent, it can happen that submitted answers have not been prepared in a collegial manner. Cardinal Schotte cited instances when the responses were in no way related to the actual questions; or when the answers were prepared by a small group of bishops, or only one prelate; or where the task had been delegated to diocesan “middle-management.”These are all circumstances which diminish the collegiality of the process, said Cardinal Schotte.

Pope Paul IV instituted the synod in 1965 with the idea that it would meet every two years. After the synods of 1967 and 1969, the bishops asked for more time between the gatherings.Under the present pontificate, proposals for a four- or five-year interval between synods were voted on, resulting in a 50-50 split. The matter was put to John Paul II, who said: “I will not be the Pope who diminishes the frequency of the synods.”His own level of commitment may be judged by the fact that he is the only bishop who has attended every synod since Vatican II.

In the years ahead, the cardinal reported, the Special Assembly for Asia will address stagnation in many Asian Churches (the Philippines being a significant exception). The Special Assembly for Oceania will be seeking consensus in a panoply of unique cultures; also coming up is the Special Assembly for the Americas, at which participants will tackle issues like urbanization, migration and economic responsibility from a North-South perspective, while recognizing the commonality of a Pan-American entity. Another synod for Europe is in the planning stages as well.

Though he estimates it takes about 10 years for the results of a synod to filter down to the grass-roots levels, the cardinal sees great potential for lay involvement in answering lineamenta questions. The synodal process could thus become a powerful pastoral tool for the bishops, he concluded.

Brother Clement Kennedy, O.S.B., is a monk at Prince of Peace Abby in Oceanside, Calif.

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READERS MAY still wonder at our reflections on literature, rare as they are. It's subject matter rarely dealt with in the mainstream Catholic press. The Register was pleased to present Dr. Ralph McInerny's series on 20th century Catholic authors, as well as Jesuit Father John McIntyre's meditations on modern American authors, with a cycle being completed this issue with a look at William Faulkner. Both contributors are alive to the importance of Catholic reflection on the arts, of recognizing the great opportunity of interacting with and influencing the world-views that help shape the culture. The Church is no longer in a position to be a powerful patron of the arts, but its contributions to the world of film, visual arts, music, literature, etc., though perhaps more subtle and indirect, can play a vital role in the New Evangelization.

In the popular educated mind, Christians are thought of as cultural philistines. To a degree, that image is deserved, while, on the other hand, it is also a convenient charge to silence critics of publicly-funded poor or even blasphemous art. Be that as it may, it is urgent that believers, with the encouragement of their leaders, become active participants in the arts and transcend their status as perennial outsiders and nay-sayers.

One hurdle to clear is the mistaken insistence that so-called “Catholic”or religious films or literature, for example, should feature explicitly (Judeo-)Christian characters and themes. Reflections on faith and the search for truth need not be obvious. Religious themes can be anonymously present in a work of art. The moderately successful film “Spitfire Grill”is one of example of this approach as it presented characters who were clearly motivated by notions of duty, sacrifice and love.

More obscurely, perhaps, the winner of the Cannes film festival, “Secrets & Lies,”arguably contained a hidden pro-life theme alongside its primary message that stresses the importance of genuine communication and intimacy—the very lack of which renders contemporary life so barren.

Sometimes a biblical theme is crystal clear. Catholic author Ron Hanson's Atticus, which at press time was up for a National Book Award, is a modern-day version of the story of the Prodigal Son. Set in Mexico, the son of a wealthy Colorado rancher hits his physical, emotional and moral bottom. His devout father's search for his son, a presumed suicide, and their eventual reunion bring healing and renewal to both. Those who might pass on such a heavy theme should know the novel reads like a detective story set in an exotic locale. Literature's calling, after all, is to (in)form and to entertain.

Music, of course, has been the vehicle of many conversions. Literature, too, can powerfully serve that purpose, if only people would get a little direction from those in the know. Imagine, as Father McIntyre explains, that Faulkner's technique demonstrates that the past is never absent from the present and that his characters—and, by extension, all of us, of course—live with the effects of Original Sin at any given moment. How few listen when this given of Christianity is merely stated dogmatically; how delicate and subtle, yet powerful, is the artistic rendering of the same. Art, one could say, persuades stealthily, amusingly, movingly. Can there be a more powerful argument made for the moral duty to avoid evil and the perils to do otherwise than Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment ? Despite excessive violence and its catering to the public's unhealthy obsession with the occult, the new show Millennium on the Fox television network deals meaningfully with the objective existence of evil, presenting it as a reality that exists not only in the hearts of men.

Art can help galvanize the New Evangelization and help it accomplish the huge task set before it by Pope John Paul II: the re-Christianization of Western culture, which, in turn, would affect the world at large. The Church cannot simply preach and teach; it must learn to convince, prompt and delight. Art captures the imagination, lowering the mental defenses that are quick to throw up doubt when we are confronted with painful or challenging truths. Art can overcome sloth and spiritual laziness. Planting seeds, the arts can vivify and make fruitful the culture. Long live the arts.

—AJK

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: AJK ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: In 'Sleepers,'A Cynical View of Streetwise Priest DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

GOOD-HEARTED, streetwise Catholic priests were once a staple of Hollywood films. Who can forget Pat O'Brien as Father Connolly in Angels With Dirty Faces, walking with his childhood pal, gangster Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney), to the electric chair, reminding him of what is right up until the very end? Or Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley in Going My Way, who wins the trust of his errant youthful charges by taking them to ball games and singing the Ave Maria ? Or Spencer Tracey as Father Flanagan in Boys Town, who saves the souls of unruly orphans with his belief that: “There is no such thing as a bad boy?”

The tough-guy clerics in these '30s and '40s classics befriended the poorest outcasts among the young and helped them resist the temptation of thievery and violence so prevalent in their slum-ridden environments. Of course, it was only the movies, but, underneath the heroics and sentimentality, there was a strong image of the Catholic Church as an unswerving bulwark of faith and morality on these otherwise mean streets.

This fall's hit film, Sleepers, recycles this archetype of the compassionate urban priest in a cynical, postmodern fashion, completely inverting the meaning of his relationship to the surrounding culture. A well-meaning cleric's loyalty to his charges is used to reinforce a kind of moral relativism totally opposite to the unchanging transcendent values so proudly upheld in the earlier movies.

Sleepers is adapted from a best-selling memoir by Lorenzo Carcaterra. The title is slang for kids who do time in juvenile detention facilities. Many of the book's incidents have been called fabrications in the press, and a feeling of falseness carries over into the film.

The time is 1966, and four young teenage boys are growing up wild in an idealized version of New York's impoverished Hell's Kitchen. Shakes (Joe Perrino), Michael (Brad Renfro), John (Geoffrey Wigdon) and Tommy (Jonathan Tucker) are best of friends, pledged to sticking together through good times and bad.

There are two stabilizing forces in their community: the Mafia and the Catholic Church. But in a reversal of Hollywood's earlier treatment of this material, writer-director Barry Levinson (Rain Man ) regards these institutions as morally equal. In fact, Catholicism is judged slightly more harshly than the mob because, according to the movie, its opposition to divorce deprives the neighborhood women of one of their protections against domestic violence.

King Benny (Vittorio Gassman), a stylish Mafia don, gives the teenagers a job making payoffs to local cops. Father Bobby (Robert De Niro), in the tradition of movies like Angels With Dirty Faces, is “a friend who just happens to be a priest.”He warns about the evils of a life of crime while playing basketball with the youngsters and defending them from abusive parents.

The innocence of their harsh but happy childhood is forever destroyed when a street prank unexpectedly turns sour, and a passerby is severely injured. The four are sentenced to the Wilkinson Home for Boys where they are subjected to gratuitous beatings, tortures and rapes at the hands of a quartet of guards led by the sadistic Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon). The scars upon their psyches are deep and permanent.

Flash forward to 1981. John (Ron Eldard) and Tommy (Billy Crudup) have become hardened criminals. When, by chance, they come upon Nokes in a bar, they can't resist getting even and kill him in front of witnesses.

They're soon arrested, and, despite the overwhelming evidence against them, their former comrades who've gone straight, Michael (Brad Pitt) and Shakes (Jason Patrick), vow to get them off. Michael, now an assistant district attorney, wangles himself the assignment of prosecutor in the case and sets out to botch it.

The movie's presentation of the trial is riddled with implausibilities. The eyewitnesses' testimony is discredited by flimsy arguments and a Wilkinson's guard (Terry Kinney), who's called to testify as to Nokes's good character, is unconvincingly tricked into confessing his cohorts' sadistic exploits.

Michael succeeds in wrecking the prosecution's case, but his buddies can't be assured of walking unless someone provides them with an alibi. Shakes, now a newspaper reporter, tells Father Bobby about the abuse perpetuated on his former charges. Deeply moved, the priest perjures himself on the witness stand and testifies he was at a basketball game with the accused on the night of the murder. The jury, of course, believes the saintly-looking cleric, and John and Tony are acquitted.

The movie applauds Father Bobby's action even though he put his hand on the Bible and lied, allowing two men to get away with a vigilante-style killing. In so doing, the filmmaker elects not to show us Father Bobby wrestling with his conscience because a fair-minded presentation of his options might undermine the audience's sympathy for his decision.

It's also instructive to compare Father Bobby's attitude with that of a cleric in a similar situation in an earlier film. “What earthly good is it for us to teach that honesty is the best policy,” laments Father Connolly in Angels With Dirty Faces, “when all around they see dishonesty is a better policy … that the hoodlum and the gangster is looked up with the same respect as the successful businessman or popular hero?”

Father Connolly realizes he must serve as an example and set himself apart from the law of the jungle that prevails in his neighborhood, teaching the youth under his care to do the same even when it brings them into conflict with the culture in which they've been raised. In Sleepers, Father Bobby decides not to take this difficult path. Instead he violates one of the commandments to accommodate the eye-for-an-eye code of Hell's Kitchen, and although a kind of rough justice is accomplished, his choice devalues his calling. Father Bobby is more like a social worker making the best of a bad situation than a priest with his eyes on eternity. The clerics played by Pat O'Brien, Bing Crosby and Spencer Tracey knew better.

John Prizer is based in Los Angeles.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Sadly, Problem of Evil Baffles Author DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

READING HAROLD Bloom's Omens of Millennium is rather like going to a cocktail party and encountering a well-spoken stranger who tells you solemnly that he believes in fairies. “My own religious experience and conviction is a form of Gnosis,”Bloom writes. Indeed? One smiles, nods, tries to edge away.

In the present circumstances one scans the book. Bloom, after all, is a Yale and New York University professor of literature and the author of well-regarded volumes of criticism—in other words, a big name in intellectual circles. Surely he has something interesting to say?

He doesn't. Unless, that is, one is interested in astral bodies, metatron, “the crisis within the Pleroma,”the Gnostic Anthropos, and the like. Bloom disparages New Age as a kind of no-brain Gnosticism, and undoubtedly he is right. But his own version is pretty brainless, too.

Worse still, he is bent on selling. “Gnosticism [is] the spiritual alternative available right now to Christians, Jews, Muslims, and secular humanists,”he says. The only thing missing from this hucksterism is a 1-800 number.

What do Gnostics believe? Bloom has the irritating habit of calling different things “the heart of Gnostic knowing,” “the center of Gnosis,”and so forth, with the result that it is difficult to say just what he thinks the “heart”and the “center”really are.

By common account, Gnosticism is a dualistic system of obscure Eastern origin. It exalts spirit over matter, viewing the material world and the human body as essentially evil. It posits the existence of a complex hierarchy of supernatural beings and embraces a fantastic mythology concerning the origin of the world. Manichaeanism is an offshoot of Gnosticism. So is medieval Catharism, otherwise known as Albigensianism. Whatever else it may be, Gnosticism is not a Christian heresy.

As a proselytizer, Bloom wishes to present a friendly face to the adherents of other religions. Even so, the mask slips now and then, as when he takes a shot at “the Catholic Church's long history of fraud and violence.”

His particular quarrel with Catholicism, it seems, is the bloody Catholic campaign waged against Cathars in southern France in the 13th century. And he is right— suppressing heresy by killing the heretics is inexcusable. Still, the Cathars are a less than appealing group. The sect was divided into an elite (“the Perfect”) practicing rigorous asceticism and the common mass of adherents (“the Believers”) who, as one author remarks, “lived without fixed rules of morality.”Their doctrine was dismal and life-denying.

Bloom's last—and, as he supposes, most telling— argument against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam is the problem of evil. “If you can accept a God who coexists with death camps, schizophrenia, and AIDS, yet remains all-powerful and somehow benign, then you have faith,”he says.

The problem of evil surely is that—a problem— which is to say, a mystery, impossible fully to comprehend. Yet, thinkers from Augustine to John Paul II have offered a hint, and sometimes a great deal more, of an explanation. It turns on such things as freedom, sin, the nature of evil as essentially privation (the absence of something positive that should be present), and the idea of co-redemptive suffering in cooperation with Christ.

Does Gnosticism offer anything better? Is twaddle about “the alien, or stranger God, cut off from this world”—who also, it would seem, is somehow or other “the God within the self”—of any real help to anyone? That's difficult to imagine.

In this age of relativist ideology and mindless toleration, when every system of belief, except orthodox Christianity, is culturally welcome, one violates the rules of politically correct secular discourse in saying Omens of Millennium is 255 pages of blatant foolishness. But it is. Early on, Bloom speaks of “aspects of the uncanny that now interest many among us.”I find it uncanny that many—or any—among us should regard this book as interesting.

Russell Shaw is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT:Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams and Resurrection, by Harold Bloom (New York: Riverhead Books, 1996, 255 pp. $24.95) ----- EXTENDED BODY: Russell Shaw ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

Ethiopians

The Oct. 27 article on Ethiopian Christians (“Queen of Sheba's Visit to King Solomon Sparked Centuries of Pilgrimage to Jerusalem”) claims that they “do not believe in the Trinity.”This is untrue. When we read that comment to a friend, a Coptic Catholic, he confirmed that the Ethiopian Orthodox believe in the Trinity.

James and Rosemarie Scott Queens, New York

Bad Apples

I would like to respond to the letter “School of the Americas”(Sept. 29) from Capt. Kevin McIver. I am a Jesuit priest serving a four-month federal sentence for demonstrating against the School of the Americas (SOA). I am presently incarcerated at the prison camp at Sheridan, Ore; 12 of my companions were also given prison sentences.

The U.N. Truth Commission investigated the activities in the El Salvador war (1979-91) in which our government supported the military dictatorship there with supplies, military training, and the use of U.S. troops. The commission indicted 60 of the highest ranking military officers for human rights abuses. Of these officers, 49 were SOA graduates. Their victims included Archbishop Oscar Romero, four Religious women, six Jesuits, a housekeeper and daughter, 900 inhabitants of El Mazote, and countless others. The deadly Atalactl Battalion, responsible for many of the atrocities, trained at the SOA.

What is true of El Salvador is true of most other Latin America countries. Through the years there have been 10 SOA-trained military dictators in various Latin America countries who were involved in terrible slaughters of their own people.

Amnesty International notes that Columbia has had the worst human rights record in the western hemisphere in the last few years. SOA graduates from Columbia, using the excuse of drug interdiction efforts, are using their counter-insurgency tactics against their own people. The course in human rights that has been introduced into curriculum as a result of public protest “is a laugh,”says retired Major Joseph Blair, who was an instructor at the SOA. He simply says, “the school should be closed.”The government has admitted the existence of a manual of torture that was put out by the SOA as part of the training program.

This has not been, as the government claims, the “work of a few bad apples.”The opposite is true.

For our government and its representatives to say that the SOA is necessary to introduce democracy into Latin America is tantamount to placing the fox in charge of the chicken house. We need to accept responsibility for allowing the SOA to remain open. Working together to close the SOA will be a way for us to gain our souls and our freedom and help the people of Central America gain theirs.

Father Bill Bichsel, S.J. Federal inmate no. 86275-020 Tacoma, Washington

Northern Ireland

In an otherwise excellent article on Cardinal Cahal Daly (“For Retiring Irish Primate, Peace Hinges on Faith,”Oct. 20), Ben Kobus writes of íthe potential resurgence of the Northern Ireland crisis.î

The “Northern Ireland crisis”—which is as old as Northern Ireland—will persist so long as Northern Ireland exists. The English set up two Irelands: in the “south,”a state 90 percent Roman Catholic, which brought the best out of the Catholics—peace, equality, civil and religious freedom, power-sharing with Jews and Protestants etc.; in the “north,”a monstrosity! Ulster was divided; tens of thousands of Ulster Protestants trapped in the Republic. Nearly 1 million Protestants locked into a state with 600,000 Roman Catholics who expected in 1920 an end to four centuries of Protestant abuse!

Northern Ireland's second city, Derry, had a 68 percent Roman Catholic majority and a Catholic lord mayor. Counties Fermanagh and Tyrone had Roman Catholic majorities. Most of the countryside was in the hands of Roman Catholics and 100,000 of them lived in Belfast. Today only 50.6 percent of the people identify themselves as Protestants (1991 census). The end is in sight.

If Ben Kobus covered the story from Londonderry instead of London he would have seen the struggle for votes, jobs, and housing and an end to repression as an everyday affair.

Robert Phelan Belmar, New Jersey

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Phelan Belmar ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Mother Mary Comes to Me DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE VATICAN last month elevated the liturgical celebration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from an optional memorial to an obligatory one. This action clearly signals the importance of this feast in the faith-life of Christians. As John Paul II recently put it, “we have greater need than ever to rediscover the dimensions of the ‘heart;'we need more heart.”

One of the greatest propagators of devotion to the Immaculate Heart was the 17th century saint John Eudes, a priest, outstanding preacher, confessor, and founder of several seminaries and a religious community. He composed and published a number of liturgical prayers and theological meditations in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which help us grasp the essence of this mystery.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary reveals the ineffable love of the Father. St. John Eudes calls the Heart of Mary “a living portrait and perfect image of the infinite love of the Eternal Father.”In the profession of love between God and the Blessed Virgin at the Annunciation, the Father makes plain the transforming power of His intimate love for Mary and for all of humanity.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary proclaims that the Father's love is not constrained by the limitations or lowliness of humanity. Rather, in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, God breaks through the hardness of human obstinacy, doubt, and fear, and begins to reverse the damning cycle of sorrow and sin. He does this by manifesting His divine desire in the pure Heart of a Mother who ceaselessly visits those most in need of seeing and imbibing the beauty of the Father's love. The Acathist Hymn of the Byzantine rite celebrates how John the Baptist, from the womb, recognizes the Father's love in Mary. John cries out to the Mother of God, “bouncing and singing”: “Hail, O Tender of mankind's loving Tender; hail, O you Favor of God to mortal men!”

Mary is called “blessed”because the utter purity of her heart enables her to see God—and we are called to the same. That is why Mary proclaims: “God has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts”(Lk 1, 51). For God “looks with favor of his lowly servant,”preferring to comfort and caress us with divine love at the moment we think it's least possible. St. John Eudes heartens us with the reminder that God has impressed on Mary's heart “a perfect semblance of the divine qualities of his love, a perfect image of the sanctity, wisdom, goodness, mercy and charity of the infinite love of our Heavenly Father.”This is ours to claim, too, by our love of the Blessed Mother.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary reveals how Mary loves Jesus. We need this revelation because we are called to love Jesus in the same way. St. John Eudes comments: “What delight the divine Son of Mary found in that motherly Heart which loved him more ardently than he had ever been loved, even by the purest spirits in the heavenly Paradise!”In the Heart of Mary, that privilege of loving Jesus with such incomparable ardor becomes our own.

Moreover, the saint attests that the Heart of Mary is “the faithful depository of all the mysteries and marvels of our Savior's life. Her Heart is a living book, an eternal Gospel. It is this book of life we should incessantly study.”To do so is to imitate the Blessed Mother in the most authentic sense. It was Mary who “treasured in her heart”(Lk 2, 19) the Christmas report of shepherds, and it was Mary who “kept in her heart”(Lk 2, 51) all the mysterious words and actions of her young Son. Mary loves Jesus by embracing every truth about His life and by living that truth from her heart.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary also reveals how the Blessed Mother loves us. Psychologists tell us that a child can only experience his feelings when someone accepts him fully, and understands and supports him. The Immaculate Heart of Mary provides us with such unconditional acceptance so that we can richly experience every dimension of our relationship with God. The Blessed Mother was pierced with a sword “so that the thoughts of many hearts may be laid bare”(Lk 2, 34). Once we give ourselves to the truth that Mary loves us as she loves Jesus, then we can benefit from the reality that St. John Eudes makes clear: “Mary's most gracious Heart is an inexhaustible source of gifts, graces, favors and blessings for all who love this Mother of Beautiful Love, and devoutly honor her most lovable Heart.”

The Immaculate Heart of Mary reveals how we are to love each other. Jesus warns us that “a good man produces goodness from the good in his heart”(Lk 6, 45). Our heart becomes filled with goodness when “we give ourselves to our Lord, to be united with the love of his Heart and Heart of his most Blessed Mother… detached from our own earthly heart, so that we shall gain a Heart truly celestial, holy and divine.”

The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary invites us to pray with St. John Eudes: “O Mother of Fair Love, obtain for me that I may have no other Paradise or pleasure in this world than to love, serve and honor Jesus, the Son of Mary, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus.”

Father Peter John Cameron, O.P. teaches homiletics at St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter John Cameron ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: William Faulkner: Chronicler of the Southern Ethos DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

Contemporary literature is often hostile to moral values or, at best, flippant when it comes to religious sensibilities. Serious readers often have to look to the past for authors with whom they feel comfortable. William Faulkner is one such writer who continues to inspire. His work is discussed by Father John McIntyre, S.J., who teaches canon law at St. Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a former professor of English and American literature.

WILLIAM FAULKNER (1897-1962), the sage of Yoknapatawpha County, has described, in encyclopedic style, the Southern experience. Delineating the Southern ethos, he reveals the motives of the human heart, its virtues and vices. Faulkner constructs his own universe, a mythic place that is home to a half dozen representative families. The nine novels concerned with Yoknapatawpha County tell the stories of the Compsons and the Satorises, the Sutpens and the Snopeses. Their stories largely involve the in-fighting that occurs between the landed aristocrats and “the new folk.”If both classes wish to work their “design”on the landscape, the curse of slavery has considerably complicated their plans.

Faulkner writes about Southern tradition and its decay. In the aftermath of the Civil War the land begins to disappear. As Ike McCaslin puts it movingly in the novella “The Bear”(1942), the land has been “deswamped and denuded and derivered in two generations.”Moderization brings about displacement of a way of life and its values, for which Southerners were quite unprepared.

The Sound and the Fury (1929), the story of the Compsons, reveals the deterioration of the family, both physically and morally. Jason Lycurgus Compson Ill, the father of Quentin, Caddy, and Jason IV—all moral failures—finishes his days by drinking whiskey and writing Latin epigrams. Faulkner's use of the classics, the “dead”languages, suggests the end of an era and the trappings of tragedy, with physical weakness mirroring moral decay.

Between the gentility of the landed aristocracy and the meanness of the new settlers stand the blacks, whom Faulkner calls the Negroes. Because they're not caught up in the code of the antebellum South nor motivated by the avarice of the newcomers, “they endure.” Faulkner here is referring to Dilsey, one of the characters in The Sound and the Fury, the one who gets the story right. He might have also included Lucas Beauchamp from Intruder in the Dust (1948). The author finds in these humble servants a nobility of character that marks them out as the true aristocracy. Other characters in Faulkner's repertoire achieve their notoriety either by excess or defect. They embody “predominant passions.”But in blacks, Faulkner finds a quiet dignity.

Faulkner discovers no essential difference between the mores practiced before and after the Civil War. Since the land had been stolen from the Indians in the first place, he discerns a residual guilt that marred any completion of the original project. Without being overtly religious, Faulkner insists that the sins of the fathers are visited upon their children. In cracking the obduracy of the human heart, Faulkner reveals a continuum of intractability. He would have us live like his characters, meditating on the consequences of our actions. In recognition of this kind of moral stance, Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in 1950.

His famous acceptance speech speaks of the “soul”and “immortality,”as well as a “spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.”He insists that it is the writer's privilege and duty to persuade man of these values “by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past.”He concludes by asserting, “I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail.” However, Requiem for a Nun (1951), A Fable (1954), The Town (1957), The Mansion (1959), and The Rievers (1961)—all written after the Nobel Prize—do not reveal man's “immortal”essence. Consequently, his last books are rather unsatisfactory.

Style is pivotal in Faulkner. Despite a veneer of stream-of-consciousness realism, he uses a very definite technique. After a while, we realize that Faulkner's narrative style has to do with the uses of time. His multiple narrators tell their story in order to live with the past. It's a way of imposing form on otherwise intractable materials. As memory probes events and actions, the mind looks for meaning. In this way, Faulkner sets up a dialectic between art and understanding.

The narrative, in effect, becomes an exercise in reflexive consciousness, enabling the protagonists (and us) to grasp what is at best only imperfectly perceived. This is what Faulkner means, when he says: “[T]he past is never dead. It is not even past.”The author realizes that there is a gap between “the doing”and “the understanding.”He intervenes with the poet's art and shows us how we re-live the original fall, day by day, by day. He teaches us what it means to live in time.

Father John McIntyre teaches canon law at St. Paul University, Ottawa, Canada.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Mcintyre, S.J. ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: For Vatican, Human Person is the Measure of Sustainable Growth DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

Archbishop Renato Martino, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations addressed the Second Committee of the 51st Session of the General Assembly Oct. 23, on item 97: Environment and Sustainable Development. Excerpted.

… As in every discussion on development, the Holy See must testify to the centrality of the human person when considering issues of environment and development. This centrality is enshrined in the first principle of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development which states: “Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.”

During his visit to the United Nations in October 1995, Pope John Paul II reminded us that, ‘The human person must be the true focus of all social, political and economic activity”(Address to the U.N. Staff Members, Oct. 5, 1995).

Human beings are the stewards of creation which—as Pope John Paul II stated—“is ultimately a common heritage, the fruits of which are for the benefit of all. In the words of the Second Vatican Council, ‘God destined the earth and all it contains for the use of every individual and all peoples' (Gaudium et Spes, 69)”(Message for the World Day of Peace, Jan. 1, 1990)….

Unfortunately, as we prepare to enter the new millennium, … [t]he whole concept, the spirit behind development, especially in the poorest countries, seems to have become stale. As a result, the poorest of countries fall farther and farther behind.

True to its mission, the Holy See wishes to help the world community recognize the need to give due consideration to the ethical dimensions of problems affecting developing countries. In working out equitable access to resources, important issues of justice must be realized.

1) Developing countries, especially those least developed, must be empowered to take part in a globalized economy. Only through integration in the global economy, will developing nations be able to begin to catch-up to and compete with world markets and economies and provide a better life for their people.

2) Women must be empowered to have equal opportunities in the economic and developmental programs of their countries. The opportunity for involvement of each and every person is essential to providing ownership to growth and prosperity.

3) Present needs should be filled without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to fulfill their own needs. While the world economy must move to meet the issues that are the causes of poverty, hunger, disease, the disparity between rich and poor nations, growing unemployment and under employment, illiteracy, and environmental degradation, it must also protect the ability of the next generation to do the same.

Along with this, fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to development must be safeguarded.

4) Access to information and technologies for trade and the creation of an enabling environment for development should be looked upon as an essential element in the process of development. Cooperation, especially among developing countries, in building the framework of growth, is a key element in the use of all available tools for development….

In the discussion of “Environmentally sustainable, healthy and livable human settlements”that took place during the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), delegates agreed upon language that called for (inter alia) measures to prevent and control air, water and soil pollution, access to appropriate preventive and curative health care, improved shelter, improved waste management, especially toxic/hazardous/radioactive waste, water resource management and measures to prevent transboundary pollution. The conference stated that these environmental issues are as important to the health and quality of life of the population as is the clinical response to disease.

The relationship between the environment and sustainable growth was also recognized in the [U.N.'s] Agenda for Development: “The environment, like peace, the economy, society and democracy, permeates all aspects of development, and has an impact on countries at all levels of development”(para. 68).

This understanding, coupled with Rio's call for an authentic, durable and widespread change of habits and attitudes, especially in industrialized countries, will begin to create a pattern for development that is not only environmentally and socially sustainable but that will also be equitably distributed with the human person as its central focus.

Moreover, as His Holiness Pope John Paul II has stated: “It must also be said that the proper ecological balance will not be found without directly addressing the structural forms of poverty that exist throughout the world…. Rather, the poor, to whom the earth is entrusted no less than to others, must be enabled to find a way out of their poverty. This will require a courageous reform of structures, as well as new ways of relating among peoples and states”(Message for the World Day of Peace, Jan. 1, 1990).

No country can do this on its own. The Holy See calls upon the world community to rekindle the authentic spirit of development so that a real partnership for sustainable and lasting development can be formed.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Renato Martino ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: A Compassionate Response DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

In 1992, David and Anne Andis had a little girl with anencephaly whom they named Emma. Although an ultrasound showed the possibility of anencephaly only 10 weeks into the pregnancy, David and Anne, who are not Catholic, made the decision not to abort but found little support or information on dealing with their family's crisis.

Although Emma lived only five days after birth, the Andises found that being able to know and love Emma during her short life was a meaningful and healing experience for them and their family. In response to their situation, they helped to start the Anencephaly Support Foundation to help other parents, families, and friends deal with the physical and emotional challenges of having (and losing) a baby with anencephaly. They now give such practical tips as the best kind of bottle to use if the baby can suckle and how to care for the skull defect as well as linking parents with other parents who have had children with anencephaly.

David and Anne are also spearheading an effort to establish a national birth defects registry and federal funding to study the causes of birth defects, hoping this information will lead to some answers and help prevent future babies from dying. Currently, low levels of the vitamin folic acid has been linked to the incidence of anencephaly but further research is considered warranted.

The Andises maintain an Internet site and also recently produced a videotape called The Anencephalic: A Suitable Donor? which deals with the controversial subject of using anencephalic infants as organ donors before death.

The Anecephaly Support Foundation can be reached by the Internet address http://www.asfhelp.com or by the toll-free phone number 1-888-206-7526.

Nancy Valko

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Nancy Valko ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: The Patriarchate of Antioch DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

Founded originally by St. Peter, Antioch grew into one of the chief centers of early Christian evangelization (Acts 11, 19-30). Soon its influence spread over much of the Middle East: Syria, Phoenicia (Lebanon), Arabia, Palestine, Cilicia, Cyprus and Mesopotamia.

At the first ecumenical council (Nicaea I, A.D. 325), Antioch, along with Rome and Alexandria, was recognized as one of the ancient apostolic patriarchates. But by the 5th century, theological controversies had served to undermine its influence: Nestorius, an Antiochene, was condemned at the Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431) and two decades later, the Council of Chalcedon created the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, further reducing Antioch's authority and prestige. The Church was further weakened by splits occasioned by the so-called monophysite controversy. From 550 onward, the Patriarchate of Antioch was divided between the Melkites who were loyal to the Christology of the Council of Chalcedon and the so-called Jacobites who opposed Chalcedon.

Until the early Middle Ages, all Antiochenes followed the West Syrian rite, but Byzantine influence in Syria resulted in the gradual adoption of the Liturgy of Constantinople by the Melkite Antiochenes. The non-Chalcedonians continued to be faithful to the older Syriac traditions.

The Crusades added yet further divisions. Regarding the Orthodox Melkites as schismatics, the Crusaders established Latin patriarchates in Antioch and Jerusalem—thus forcing the Melkite patriarchs to reside in Constantinople until the end of the Latin occupation of the see in 1268. In addition, the region's Muslim rulers forbade all contact with the West.

However, in the early 17th century, Catholic missionaries—Capuchins, Jesuits and Carmelites, principally—succeeded in infiltrating Melkite communities in Syria and fostering a desire for union with Rome. For more than a century, as individual Melkite communities and hierarchs sought rapprochement with the West, while retaining their ancient traditions, no distinctions were made between Orthodox and Catholic elements.

But in 1724, on the death of Patriarch Athanasius III, an unmistakably Rome-oriented patriarch, Cyril Tanus, was elected, according to custom, by the clergy and people of Damascus. While Rome recognized the appointment, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Orthodoxy's titular head, excommunicated Cyril as an apostate. Unintentionally, with the election of Cyril, the Antichene patriarchate was split further—into separate Melkite (Antiochian) Orthodox and Melkite Catholic jurisdictions.

—Gabriel Meyer

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Next Sunday at Mass DATE: 11/10/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 10-16, 1996 ----- BODY:

Nov. 17, 1996 Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Mt 25, 14-30

SEVERAL QUESTIONS come to mind as we listen to the Lord's parable today about a discriminating man entrusting his assets to lowly servants. The story strikes us as unusual. Yet, God does the same with us: He invests us with His divine wealth and resources. The parable at root challenges us to believe in God's prerogative to make us partners in His grace and blessings. We are called to have confidence in what God has confided to us.

This “handing over”of funds—an action that reminds us of Jesus being handed over to His enemies in death—takes place with great deliberation and expectation on the part of the Master. He gives out predetermined amounts of money proportionate to “each man's abilities.”In other words, God gives us gifts commensurate to our own endowments, so that grace might perfect nature. The responsibility for the Master's assets in our life is not an obstacle, but rather an incentive to develop, nurture, and perfect our personal capacities. Divine grace acting like “capital,”we are blessed with the power to attain the personal fulfillment, completion, and excellence that we long for. Moreover, divinely bestowed gifts alert us to real abilities that we never thought we had.

The Master's charge to us, His servants, comes with certain expectations: The bestowal of heavenly holdings reveals the image of God at work within us; and they equip us for action that imitates the very ways of the Master. God, who creates out of nothing, calls us to “reap where we did not sow”by fully realizing the sacred “collateral”we have been entrusted. We do so by relying on our faith and so learn to become unfailingly dependable regarding even the small matters that come our way—a practice that prepares us for much larger responsibilities. We live in hope that refuses to give in to the fear, futility, and dread that would otherwise lead us to bury God's graces in the ground. We fire our desire to grow rich in the love of God. We can never get enough of that wealth. But the only force that ensures its constant increase is our desire for God's love to be the priority and the summit of our life. The moment we cease wanting God's love more than before, the moment we let our ardor reach a plateau, is the moment that we “will lose even the little that we have.”

Finally, God confers His self-worth upon us to persuade us how much He desires for us to “share the Master's joy.”God delights in our success, especially as it reflects the courage, trust, and devotion with which we respond to His gifts in our life. He does not need us to increase his wealth or property. Rather, He invites us to be industrious, creative, and enterprising so that through that experience we might have a deeper understanding and more thorough enjoyment of Him.

Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., teaches homiletics at St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter John Cameron, O.P. ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Joseph Cardinal Bernardin and the Art of Reconciliation DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 -----

CHICAGO—Until the final year of his life, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago put his imprint on U.S. Catholicism through his influential leadership. But it was his serene, faith-inspired response to personal crises that overshadowed his official achievements and served as a final sermon to his flock.

Cardinal Bernardin, 68, died from pancreatic cancer in the early morning hours of Nov. 14. He had been a priest for 44 years, a bishop for three decades, head of the Chicago archdiocese since 1982 and international Church leader for many years. He spearheaded the U.S. bishops' peace pastoral in 1983 and landed him on the cover of Time magazine; formulated the consistent ethic of life, defining the terms of the abortion debate; and wielded enormous authority as general secretary and later president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops(NCCB).

But his personal travails in the last stage of his life redefined his spiritual leadership. For Chicagoans especially, he was transformed from a pious, formal, even distant prelate, into a courageous civic figure for non-Christians, and a revered model of holiness for Christians.

His last years unpacked a stunning reversal of fortunes: The stage was set for a Church hero turned tragic figure. But the cardinal's woes did not ruin him—instead, they revealed a steady faith. Pope John Paul II, in a telegram to the Chicago archdiocese, said that the cardinal's “witness of dignity and hope in the face of the mystery of suffering and death will inspire all who knew him to ever greater fidelity to Christ and the Gospel of our redemption.”

In 1993, Cardinal Bernardin was accused of sexual abuse by Steven Cook, who had been a teenager in Cincinnati where Bernardin had been archbishop. The cardinal steadfastly maintained his innocence of the alleged abuse during the late 1970s and repeatedly expressed no ill will against Cook. Four months later Cook retracted his charge. The cardinal subsequently met with Cook, forgave him and celebrated Mass for him. Cook reconciled with the Church before he died from AIDS in 1995.

The cardinal's cancer was discovered in June 1995. After a successful seven-hour operation he began undergoing chemotherapy treatment. But he learned last August that the cancer had returned; he stopped chemotherapy treatment weeks ago and accepted his oncoming death.

Since his cancer was first discovered, the cardinal visited hundreds of ailing patients, offering his prayers and his example of faith. He said many times he regarded death “as a friend” and sought to show others how to die just as he had preached how to live. He freely shared his medical progress with the media, once joking that he had no choice because they would find out what was happening anyway. But, more seriously, he said he chose to be open about his illness because he regarded the people of Chicago as his family.

Born in sparsely Catholic South Carolina, young Joe Bernardin was an unlikely future prince of the Church. His father, a stonecutter, died when he was six, and his widowed mother struggled financially. For a time the family lived in public housing. An excellent student, Bernardin planned to be a doctor until, as a college student, he suddenly told his mother he wanted to be a priest. Years later, while a powerful cardinal, Bernardin, a private man, would wistfully recall in an interview his attraction to medicine.

Intelligent, ambitious and a conciliator from the get-go, he rose quickly in the Church. At age 38, he became the youngest bishop in the country when he was named an auxiliary of Atlanta in 1966. In 1972, he was named archbishop of Cincinnati.

When Bernardin was appointed to lead Chicago, the archdiocese was still reeling from the autocratic tenure of Cardinal John Cody. He introduced himself to his new flock by proclaiming “l am Joseph, your brother.” Bernardin set about building bridges to parish priests, encouraging lay ministry and initiating ecumenical partnerships.

His reputation as a mediator also led the U.S. bishops to look to him in maintaining good relations with Rome. When the Vatican pressured Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle to step down in 1986 following reports that he allowed irregularities in Church practice, Seattle clergy and other U.S. Catholics reacted negatively. With the incident threatening to taint a U.S. papal visit scheduled for 1987, Cardinal Bernardin assumed the role of an even-handed broker. With then-Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco and Cardinal John O'Connor of New York, he fashioned a compromise that allowed for Archbishop Hunthausen to remain in his post until an agreeable successor was found.

Soon after, Cardinal Bernardin's diplomatic acumen helped resolve a dispute over an NCCB administrative board statement on AIDS that was opposed, with Vatican support, by Cardinal O'Connor and Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston. Cardinal Bernardin led the bishops to retain the original wideranging statement on AIDS while clarifying the hierarchy's position on the controversial passage about condoms.

But Cardinal Bernardin's most daunting challenges were still before him. In the early 1990s the Chicago archdiocese was rocked by a series of clergy sex-abuse scandals. Cardinal Bernardin set up a commission to study the issue and recommend policies. Other dioceses soon looked to Chicago as a model. Ironically, when Cardinal Bernardin was accused by Cook, he willingly subjected himself to the archdiocesan review panel he had established.

Cardinal Bernardin also acted decisively when the archdiocese faced severe financial problems. He closed 51 parishes and schools in the early 1990s, angering thousands of Catholics but steadying the finances of the archdiocese.

Cardinal Bernardin also took a strong interest in health issues, urging local Catholic hospitals to collaborate and writing and speaking on health issues. One of his last official acts was to write a letter to the Supreme Court justices asking them to reverse two lower-court decisions that would legalize physicianassisted suicide (see page 9).

On the national scene, he led the pro-life efforts of the U.S. bishops as head of their pro-life committee from 1983 to 1989. His “seamless garment” approach linked life issues like abortion, the arms race and capital punishment. Critics claimed his approach weakened the fight against abortion and honored pro-abortion elected officials who championed other life issues. Cardinal Bernardin drew the ire of some Catholics in September when President Clinton, who advocates legal abortion, awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Conservative Catholics also criticized the cardinal for tolerating dissent within his archdiocese by not barring speakers at parishes or cracking down on pastors who disagreed with the Church's teaching on birth control, female priests and other issues. In August, to quell bickering within the Church, Bernardin launched his Catholic Common Ground Project. Some Catholics welcomed the initiative but others, including some of his fellow bishops, questioned whether Church teachings would be subject to popular review.

The suddenness of his death caught many by surprise. He had kept a busy schedule until nearly the end, finishing several projects. One of the last things he did was mail out personal Christmas cards to close friends. In the days after he died people flocked to Holy Name Cathedral and drove by the residence where he lived and died. Solemn prayers were said and tears were shed. His funeral Mass—with Cardinal Mahony, who was present when Cardinal Bernardin died, as principal celebrant—at the cathedral on Nov. 20 was expected to draw a standingroom-only crowd.

Jay Copp is based in Chicago.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jay Copp ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- -------- TITLE: Papal Telegram Upon the Death of Cardinal Bernardin DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

Pope John Paul sent the following telegram to the archdiocesan administrator of the archdiocese of Chicago Nov. 14.

“Having learned with great sadness of the death of the archbishop of Chicago, Joseph Bernardin, I offer my prayerful condolences to the auxiliary bishops, priests, religious and laity of the archdiocese. I join all gathered for the solemn funeral rite in commending the cardinal's noble soul to the eternal love of Almighty God, who in His Providence never fails to raise up wise and holy men to shepherd his people. I am confident that the example of the cardinal's devoted service as priest in his native Charleston, as archbishop of Cincinnati and archbishop of Chicago, his untiring work as general secretary and president of the bishops'conference, his generous cooperation with the Holy See, as well as his witness of dignity and hope in the face of the mystery of suffering and death will inspire all who knew him to ever greater fidelity to Christ and to the Gospel of our Redemption. Invoking the comforting gifts of the Holy Spirit upon the cardinal's mother and family and upon all who mourn in the hope of resurrection, I cordially impart my apostolic blessing as a pledge of peace in Jesus Christ Our Lord.”

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Hierarchy Wants to Be Heard DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

A Register News Analysis

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Some cried foul, saying the hierarchy should have put up more of a fight. But when Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia got up to address the U.S. bishops Nov. 13 and expressed his support for new guidelines to implement the Pope's directives for higher education it was clear the text would pass without a hitch.

The uneventful deliberations were typical of this year's bishops' meeting, whose tone was further muted by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's failing condition. Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, president of the bishops'conference, ran a tight ship. But the efficiency with which a number of weighty matters were dealt with—pastoral strategy aimed at young adults, Communion guidelines, televized Masses—could not prevent a certain blandness from slipping in. Ironically, that is precisely what the bishops say they want to do something about, as they announced ambitious media plans to ensure a “national presence” for the Church. If the level of faith commitment on the part of young adults is any indication, that effort is badly needed.

The sticking point in the higher education debate had been the role and authority of the local bishop vis-‡-vis theologians teaching in academic institutions located in his diocese. According to Canon 812 of Church law, the ordinary must formally approve of theology professors. Ever since Pope John Paul II issued Ex Corde Ecclesiae (“From the Heart of the Church”), his 1990 call to maintain the religious identity of Catholic higher education, the episcopal mandate has been widely opposed as an infringement on academic freedom. Officials at leading Catholic universities such as Notre Dame, Georgetown and Boston College made it clear, publicly and privately, that such an adaptation of Ex Corde for the U.S. situation would never be acceptable.

The bishops, bringing to a close more than two decades of a “festering problem,” as Bishop John Leibrecht of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo., chairman of the bishops' Ad Hoc Ex Corde Ecclesiae Implementation Committee, put it, ended up referring Canon 812 to a footnote saying the matter will be further discussed in future. They also acknowledged that possible disputes may be submitted to juridical procedures provided for in canon law. That was recourse enough for Church leaders like Cardinal Bevilacqua, who, at the bishops' assembly last June, had expressed concern that the U.S. hierarchy was falling short in bringing Ex Corde to bear on U.S. Catholic colleges. For the time being, the bishops expressed confidence that the schools themselves will be responsible for ensuring that their staff will teach in accordance with Church teaching and that preservation of the schools'Catholic identity is in competent hands. There are 235 Catholic universities and colleges in the United States, with a combined enrollment of 635,648 students.

The decision, which must be ratified by the Vatican—an action, sources said, that is as good as certain—was met with disappointment by conservative groups who had argued for a more prominent role for local bishops in the hiring—and firing—of theology professors. The Cardinal Newman Society for the Preservation of Catholic Higher Education said in a statement that the new ordinances approved by the bishops are “weak and unlikely to lead to a reversal of secularization at many Catholic colleges and universities, which are following the path of many historically Christian colleges … [that have] abandoned their religious heritage for prestige in an increasingly secular culture.” The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, Women for Faith and Family and the Society of Catholic Social Scientists also made their displeasure known to the bishops. But for now the matter is closed, and as one critic of the hierarchy put it, “the document is unlikely to be heard from ever again.”

The bishops' meeting got underway less than a week after the presidential elections, but there was no mention of the fact that U.S. voting patterns contained some unwelcome surprises for the Church. A majority of Catholics voted for Clinton, whose support for partial-birth abortion apparently failed to harm his re-election effort. In New Orleans, retired Archbishop Philip Hannan outright labeled a vote for the President and a local pro-abortion rights Catholic politician as sinful. Both candidates won handily. The U.S. cardinals staged a prayer vigil on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and inundated Congress with postcards urging an override of the presidential veto of the partial-birth abortion ban. It all made little apparent difference.

To have more of an impact on society and to help ensure the future health of the U.S. Church, the bishops recommitted themselves to reaching out to young adults, whose overall level of Mass attendance and involvement in Church life is dangerously low. They also addressed the revamping of their communications efforts in the wake of the Catholic Telecommunications Network of America debacle, which cost millions but produced few results.

Sons and Daughters of the Light: A Pastoral Plan for Ministry with Young Adults—which proposes strategy at the local, regional and national levels— passed without opposition Nov. 12. The document reflects the bishops'belief that pastoral flexibility, up to a point, is crucial and should precede doctrinal firmness in dealing with Catholic young adults. “We have failed to adequately reach out,” said Bishop Tod Brown of Boise, Idaho, chairman of the Committee on the Laity, which had drafted the plan of action. “And that mostly has to do with attitude,” he said, adding, “so much depends on the local priest. The focus needs to be pastoral. The focus needs to be positive.”

Another natural avenue in the American context for the Church to get its message across, said Bishop Joseph Galante of Beaumont, Texas, is the media. The Philadelphia-born prelate is chairman of an ad hoc committee charged with developing the bishops' national media strategy. That job will ultimately fall to Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., the chairman-elect of the bishops' Communications Committee. Bishop Galante suggested that funds are relatively scarce in the wake of the CTNA's demise and that the bishops plan to proceed cautiously, using a “building block approach” to creating a Catholic presence in print media, on cable, television and radio. The young adult document also discusses the Internet as a potentially powerful evangelizing tool. “We cannot expect to be at the top of the field in any particular technology just like that,” the Texas bishop said, but the Church must be a participant in all the media, he added.

Greg Erlandson, editor-in-chief of Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., one of the most successful Catholic publishing houses in the country, told a seminar later that Catholic print media often feel like the elder son in the parable of the Prodigal Son, always steady and dependable, but underappreciated, especially today when television and the Internet get most of the attention. There are 549 Catholic publications in the U.S. with an estimated readership of 24 million. In a population of 60 million Catholics, that is a high penetration rate; but despite such impressive figures, Erlandson said, large sectors of the Church, including members of the hierarchy, seem largely oblivious of the potential of the print media. Archbishop Justin Rigali of St. Louis, Mo. concurred, saying the press is “still a largely ignored tool of evangelization.” The Catholic press establishment hopes the bishops will devote more time, energy and funds to print media, but with the immediacy of new media holding such appeal, the chances that ordinaries will focus serious attention on their newspapers looks slim at best.

Despite their failure to have an effect at the polls Nov. 5, the bishops appear undeterred in their commitment to influence the nation's economic and social policies. Bishop John Ricard, SSJ, auxiliary of Baltimore, blasted the government and Congress in a talk Nov. 11. Speaking as chairman of Catholic Relief Services, the bishop charged that “compassion is going out of fashion as an element of our foreign aid concerns.” “As we protest,” he added, “at times seemingly alone—our government's attempts to balance the federal budget on the back of poor welfare families, so must we object when our leaders fail to pursue the global common good and leave unfulfilled basic responsibilities to the most vulnerable members of the human family.”

On Nov. 12, the bishops approved A Catholic Framework of Economic Life. The 10-point manifesto echoes the U.S. bishops' 1986 pastoral, Economic Justice for All. But while that letter raised a storm of controversy, the latest statement—which stresses that economic policies must have a moral foundation and that the “poor and vulnerable,” at home and abroad, are entitled to basic food and shelter—is unlikely to get much play in an era when Democrat and Republican policies are converging in their emphasis on budget cuts and a reduction in entitlement benefits. Answering those critics who say the Church should stay clear of politics anyway, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., said that “our defense of the poor, our pursuit of economic justice, is fundamentally a work of faith.”

Work on the restructuring of the bishops'conference, a project shepherded by Cardinal Bernardin, was postponed until June, but a motion to give voting rights to retired prelates in the matter was defeated. In a far cry from the lively debate over inclusive language two years ago, the hierarchy quietly approved revised English texts to be used worldwide in the Sacramentary. In other business, the bishops approved new guidelines for receiving communion (see page 2) and were given additional resource material on the Church's handling of sex abuse cases by the Bishops'Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse.

This year's meeting, though, seemed to mostly focus on the U.S. Church ad extra, as the bishops considered their impact on society at large—in particular its policy-makers and media-consumers, young Catholic adults included. As Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, the apostolic nuncio, made clear in his address to the assembly, the third millennium can be fruitful for the Church only if its voice is forcefully broadcast. That is the U.S. bishops' most urgent task in the waning years of the century.

Joop Koopman is the Register's editor.

----- EXCERPT: Communications, young adults, higher education and economic policy top agenda at annual meeting ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joop Koopman ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Government Revokes Rebuke of Mexican Prelate DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

MEXICO CITY—Banner Headline: The Church “not only can, but should” participate in politics, Archbishop Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City said in a recent Sunday homily at the Mexican capital's Metropolitan Cathedral. “When public authority abandons the legal framework from which it can and should govern, there is no obligation to uphold it.”

In Mexico, where the Church has been marginalized from public life by anti-clerical laws for nearly two centuries, the statement was a bombshell. The archbishop— who heads the largest archdiocese in the world, with more than 14 million Catholics—provoked a furious debate. It seemed everyone in Mexico, where 90 percent of the population is Catholic, had something to say—high government officials, lawyers, congressman, political parties, freemason organizations, Catholic associations, bishops, intellectuals and even the president himself.

The Ministry of the Interior set off a firestorm when it notified the archbishop through an official communiquÈ that he had violated the law. Should such an incident recur, the message warned, the government would impose severe penalties on the Church, including a fine equivalent to 20,000 days of the minimum wage, the closing of the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Mexico City See's loss of legal status as a religious association.

The Church has plenty of critics of its emerging role in public, but most commentators agreed that the government's reaction was exaggerated. CuauhtÈmoc C·rdenas, leader of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, for example, said: “I want to know who would have the guts to go and close the Metropolitan Cathedral,” alluding to the public outcry such a move would provoke. Heberto Castillo, another left-of-center leader, called the government official responsible for the reprimand as a “mental dullard.” One commentator, Ernesto Julio Teissier, said that “the possibility of the Metropolitan Cathedral being closed as if it were a little candy shop on the street corner, and the legal registry of the archdiocese canceled as if it were a driver's license, seems foolish and reckless.”

Other observers insist that the prelate's comments were legitimate. “Archbishop Rivera not only did not violate the law in his homily, but his statements are in consonance with the constitutional precepts that oblige the Government to adhere its behavior to the juridical framework,” said Jose Luis Soberanes, director of the Institute of Juridical Research of the main national university, the UNAM.

The government's rebuke of Archbishop Rivera provoked bitter memories of the anti-Catholic persecutions that have marked the history of Mexico in the past two centuries. Jean Meyer, author of The Cristero War, a classic on the armed popular Catholic movement of the 1926-1929 period, said that the government response to the homily came “in an old fashioned language that takes us back to a past everyone thought had ended.” Alfredo Altamirano, head of the centrist PAN Party, spoke about the “return of the dinosaurs” to power in the Mexican government, as he referred to the political recovery of the old hard-liners (the duros) of the governing party (PRI), often associated with freemasonry.

The controversy over the prelate's statements died down as it became clear that he had been quoted out of context. Archbishop Rivera's sermon had also defended civil government's legitimate authority and autonomy. He said the Catholic Church's role in politics is “to remind Christians and the general public that they ought to obey and respect government … when it seeks the common good.” He also cited Jesus' mandate to “‘render unto Caesar what is Caesar's’ and to respect and obey just laws and legitimate authority. However, his suggestion that “the Church must remind the state that legislative authority is conditioned by the obligation to respect human rights, and that the state can never [legislate] in opposition to God's law”—was enough to unsettle a government already on edge as it is confronted with seemingly intractable political and economic problems.

But Church officials affirmed that the Church has always adhered to the right— and obligation—to enlighten the moral conscience of the Catholic faithful with respect to the temporal order. Pope John Paul II most recently reiterated that point in citing St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae: “Human law is law inasmuch as it is in conformity with right reason and thus derives from the eternal law. But when a law is contrary to reason, it is called an unjust law; but in this case it ceases to be a law and becomes instead an act of violence.”

In an Oct. 24 interview in the Mexico City daily La Prensa, Archbishop Rivera further clarified his views and noted that canon law explicitly prohibits members of the clergy from “participating in partisan politics. For no reason can the Church become involved in partisan politics,” he said, although “it can be active when being involved in politics means working for the common good.”

Public calm was restored thanks to the intervention of President Ernesto Zedillo and the retraction of the threat issued by the Interior Ministry. On Oct. 25 Rafael Rodriguez, assistant secretary for the government's bureau of legal affairs, simply said that “relations between the Mexican government and the Catholic Church are excellent.”

Ricardo Olvera is based in Tijuana, Mexico.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ricardo Olvera ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Ex-Seminarians Get a Closer Look the Second Time Around DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

National Affairs Correspondent

A VATICAN document urging the world's bishops to take a careful look at their seminary candidates who have a record of attending other seminaries has opened discussion of a little-noticed phenomenon in Church circles.

The practice of “seminary shopping”—with seminarians asked to leave one institution only to surface at another—may come under greater scrutiny as the result of an instruction to the world's bishops sent out this fall by the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education.

The congregation warned that “too easy acceptance of ex-Religious and ex-seminarians, made without thorough preliminary investigation, is usually the cause of unpleasant surprises and disappoints for indulgent bishops.” According to the document, lax investigation of seminary shoppers is “a cause for discomfort” among those bishops “who are rightly demanding in the selection of their candidates.” The congregation urged bishops to examine “problems concerning human and affective maturity, psychological and sexual anomalies” in candidates who have been in different seminaries. Regions where such procedures may be lax were not spelled out in the document.

In the United States, it is not uncommon for seminarians to switch institutions, dioceses, or religious orders. Some have complained that some seminaries and dioceses deliberately discourage seminarians who express strong support for Church teachings in controversial areas such as contraception, papal infallibility, and the all-male priesthood. Such candidates have found homes in what are considered “conservative” dioceses, most notably the Dioceses of Peoria, Ill., Arlington, Va., and Lincoln, Neb.

Elsewhere, seminary officials have argued that candidates who are overlyrigid in their views will not be able to handle the demands of priesthood in contemporary American life.

Dominican Father Peter Cameron, a professor at St. Joseph' Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., cautioned not to read too much into the Vatican statement. “It depends on why a man leaves one seminary to go to another,” he told the Register. The reason men leave seminaries “has many analogies in life,” noted Father Cameron. “Why does a person change a line of work? Or a college? It depends on the character of the individual.” Wherever seminarians are educated, he said, “they have a right to the teaching of the Church and the traditions of the Church. There are seminaries that deprive them of that.” Like others interviewed for this article, Father Cameron declined to identify those institutions where students allegedly don't get the full flavor of Church teaching.

‘There are seminarians who have had a bad experience. They may need a fresh start. I don't think that every seminary is for every candidate.’

Bishop Elden Curtis of Omaha, Neb., in a statement issued in 1995, complained that some worthy candidates were being deprived of ordination because of seminary directors who discouraged those who are seen as overly-zealous in defense of traditional Church teachings.

Father Peter Stravinskas, editor of The Catholic Answer, said that often enough seminary criteria are subjective and stacked against candidates who are not considered liberal enough. Frequently, he said, psychological criteria “are unfairly open to manipulation.” The result is that theologically conservative candidates will leave—or be asked to leave—seminaries with a liberal reputation. “The rector is not going to say it's because the candidate is opposed to women's ordination. He's going to say that the seminarian is unbending or rigid,” said Father Stravinskas, who claimed to have a similar experience happen to him before he was ordained in 1977.

He added, however, that this document will not preclude seminarians who have been treated unjustly from finding a diocese or religious order who will accept them. It is a legitimate attempt by the Vatican, he said, to assure that bishops weed out those candidates with sexual, financial or criminal problems that would preclude ordination. Finding out information about a candidate, he said, is crucial. What bishops do with such information should remain in their hands. “There is a distinction between consultation and following advice, “ he said.

Father David Kipfer, director of vocations for the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., noted that his diocese, and every American See that he knows of, consults with other dioceses and religious orders when men who have been seminarians apply for admission into a new program. “Peoria has followed through. That's mainly for our own protection,” he said.

He noted that the Peoria diocese does have a large number of seminarians, 36— nearly twice that of neighboring dioceses in Illinois. But, he emphasized, most of the candidates are either native to the diocese or were students at the University of Illinois, where they came into contact with diocesan priests. Only a relative handful, he said, have come from other seminary programs. Those cases are carefully examined, according to Father Kipfer. “It depends on why they left. Sometimes you have to be careful. Did he leave because he thought they were going to dismiss him?”

Sometimes a candidate is sent to a local parish in the Peoria diocese as a means of testing a vocation before he is sent away to a seminary. Like many smaller dioceses, Peoria does not operate its own seminary and sends candidates to a variety of institutions across the country.

There are cases, Father Kipfer said, in which seminarians who consider themselves staunch defenders of Church teaching have been treated unfairly. “There are seminarians who have had a bad experience. They may need a fresh start. I don't think that every seminary is for every candidate,” he said. While psychological testing is legitimate in spotting problem areas, said Father Kipfer, “to put all the eggs in the psychological basket may not be fair to the student.” Other areas, such as the development of prayer life, intellectual ability and devotion to the Church should also be considered, he said.

Father James Kimball, director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wis., said that at the archdiocese's St. Francis Seminary there are no horror stories that he is aware of regarding seminarians being told to leave because of conservative theological views. “We are doing all we can to get them through,” said Father Kimball, noting that the archdiocese has 23 students in various stages of formation.

He said the complaints about expulsions may be coming from angry students dismissed for reasons that have nothing to do with views on theology. “Because a student may be angry, he might misinterpret what a faculty member says,” said Father Kimball.

Psychological testing, he noted, is necessary “to help the student realize whether he has the psychological strength to do good ministry” and to discover if he is free of major psychological difficulties that could hinder the exercise of his priesthood. “Sometimes [some]one who has experienced failure in life thinks that priesthood is the solution,” he said. Testing candidates can be a way to help students who need to leave the seminary deal with personal problems. Abuse of such criteria, “hasn't been a difficulty here. If anything, there's a tendency to be lenient,” he said.

Keiren O'Kelly, director of admissions for the Chicago Theological Union, argued that one purpose of seminary education is to expose candidates to different views of the priesthood. Her school trains candidates for the priesthood, various religious orders, and lay ministry. About half of the students are women. The school is located in a city neighborhood.

Such an atmosphere may be a different experience for some seminarians used to all-male institutions in isolated settings, said O'Kelly, particularly seminarians from other countries. “If they are from Poland, Guatemala or Ireland they might have a more conservative view of priesthood,” she said. “They have the opportunity here to explore other notions of what priesthood is all about.”

The International view of the Church may be a key to the recent Vatican document. Experts contacted for this article said that it was routine procedure for U.S. dioceses to check on their candidates. The concern is to weed out potential problem cases. Seminarians who come from other dioceses, said Father Kimball, “at times are not completely honest with what happened.”

Father Kipfer suggested that the Vatican document is probably aimed at situations which may have nothing to do with the routine situation in U.S. seminaries. For example, he's found that “it's very difficult to get information from a diocese in Africa about a candidate. “I don't think it's just a U.S. problem.”

The document itself provides clues that what may be involved is simply a need to communicate pertinent information. Documents about seminarians, it said, must “not hide or mask the true state of affairs”—but must also protect a candidate's right to privacy and his reputation, the texts says. Roman officials, not surprisingly, have remained mum on the issue.

Peter Feuerherd is based in New York.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter Feuerherd ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Assisted-Suicide Advocates Have High Hopes in Court DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

CONFIDENT OF A positive ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court next year and predicting total victory by the end of the century, advocates of assisted suicide gathered in Denver, Colo. last month for the ninth national conference of the Hemlock Society.

Approximately 250 activists, representing 30 states, heard from a virtual “Who's Who” list of euthanasia advocates, including Geoffrey Fieger, attorney for Jack Kevorkian; Seattle attorney Kathryn Tucker who, in January, will argue one of the assisted suicide cases facing the U.S. Supreme Court; and Hemlock Society founder and author of the how-to book on suicide Final Exit, Derek Humphry.

Headquartered in Denver, the Hemlock Society claims 25,000 members nationwide, chapters in many states, and is the oldest and largest organization in the “right to die” movement.

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear the appeals of two landmark cases from New York and Washington state dealing with physician-assisted suicide, Hemlock members are openly optimistic. The cases, Vacco v. Quill from the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Washington v. Glucksburg in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, each address different legal questions surrounding assisted suicide. However the Supreme Court's ruling—which is expected in June of 1997—is expected to reshape the battle over whether patients have the constitutional right to ask a physician to be directly involved in ending their lives. The issue and put state legislatures in the hot seat.

Anticipating the upcoming battles in state legislatures, state Hemlock leaders gathered a day before the conference for a special legislative session to discuss political strategy. Facilitated by four present or past state legislators from Maine, Colorado, Washington, and Wisconsin, the legislative conference included detailed updates on what is happening on various state levels, effective legislative activity, grassroots lobbying, and the components of model legislation.

Democratic State Rep. Fred Richardson of Maine encouraged the activists to introduce assisted suicide legislation at the state level, regardless of the political landscape. Richardson's bill in the Maine state legislature to legalize physician-assisted suicide gathered 20 co-sponsors last session, and he expects the bill to pass at least one house of the legislature in 1997. He promised the leaders that legislative success can happen anywhere in the country.

“We have the people,” said Richardson, citing national polls he claims show overwhelming support for physician-assisted suicide. “we must bring that fact to bear on the legislators— and the key to that is grassroots lobbying.”

In addition to the nuts and bolts of lobbying for assisted suicide, Richardson also counseled Hemlock leaders on the most effective way to combat opposition to assisted suicide on the state level. Opposition from groups that care for the dying, such as Hospice, can greatly damage a bill's chances, he said, but he suggested some legislators are beginning to see Hospice's “vested self-interest” in stopping assisted suicide, such as loss of funds for the group and its leaders.

Calling pro-life activists “hysterical crazies,” Richardson suggested the creation of “front organizations” to combat the steady opposition from groups such as state branches of the American Medical Association, Hospice, nurses organizations, AIDS activists, and members of the religious community. These front groups will dilute the potency of these other organizations' opposition, he said.

Colorado Democratic State Rep. Peggy Lamm, sister-in-law of former Colorado Gov. and presidential candidate Richard Lamm, encouraged assisted suicide activists to keep pressing legislators to take a stand on the issue. Both Lamm and Richardson agreed that more and more state legislators are privately stating their support for legalizing assisted suicide, but consider the issue too much of a political liability at this point. Lamm predicted that this fear will disappear if, as she expects, the Supreme Court gives the green light to state legislatures to begin allowing assisted suicide, at least in certain circumstances.

The switch in the assisted suicide debate from the courts to state legislatures is not entirely new. Currently, 38 states explicitly prohibit assisted suicide, while most others prohibit it through common law. Many supporters of assisted suicide, including state Hemlock Society chapters, have attempted in recent years to repeal various states' statutes prohibiting the practice. No state legislature has actually passed a bill legalizing assisted suicide, although voters in the state of Oregon narrowly approved a pro-assisted suicide law in a 1994 voter initiative. An injunction to stop Oregon from enforcing its law was issued, and the law remains on hold until the Supreme Court rules in the two cases it is currently considering.

This expected switch back to state legislatures has some pro-life leaders concerned. Mary Matuska, a 22-year pro-life veteran and state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, said she sees assisted suicide activists following the same path abortion advocates did in the early 1970s. Matuska's organization has fought two attempts in the past three years to legalize assisted suicide in Wisconsin—and succeeded each time. But she worries about the future.

“The same arguments used to strip preborn children of their rights are now being used to justify giving physicians the right to kill their patients,” she said. “They're using the same body of law and many of the same legislators. If we're not vigilant now, I'm afraid we'll be facing the Roe v. Wade of assisted suicide in 1997.”

Matuska's fears are verified by Kathryn Tucker, the lawyer for the Washington-based Compassion in Dying, and the Ninth Circuit Court that ruled in March that there is a “right to die” in the Constitution and a right to determine “the time and manner of one's own death.” This right, the Court said, is like a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy, an “intimate and personal choice.” Tucker acknowledged during the Hemlock conference that her legal defense of the right to assisted suicide is based on a woman's right to “reproductive freedom.” She also noted that several women's rights groups, including the Center for Reproductive Law and Public Policy, have also filed amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in support of assisted suicide.

“Just as the state interest in protecting the potential for life increases later in pregnancy, the state interest in protecting life should diminish as the potential for life decreases,” said Tucker. “The focus is on personal choice.”

While repeatedly linking their struggle to abortion, Hemlock leaders also reiterated the importance of public opinion polls in strengthening their political position. Speakers consistently quoted statistics claiming 75-85 percent of the public supports assisted suicide, yet a new poll commissioned by the National Hospice Organization and published in the Oct. 8 edition of Washington Post Health found that Americans are almost evenly split on the question. The poll's results found 50 percent of those surveyed believe assisted suicide should be legal, while 41 percent wanted it to remain illegal. In addition, it found that fear of pain and “losing one's dignity” were not the greatest fears associated with dying. Instead, “being a burden to your family and friends” was cited by 40 percent of the respondents, almost three times as often as fear of pain.

Statistics like these give pro-lifers like Matuska hope. I still believe that when people find out what assisted suicide really is and where it will lead our society, they will reject it,” she said. “But it's a battle and pro-lifers must be educated, energized, and organized.… We have to be, the stakes are high.”

Greg Chesmore is national field director with the

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Greg Chesmore ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Archbishop Tutu on 'Troublemakers' List DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

QUEZON CITY, Philippines—The leader of the Anglican Church in the Philippines has protested against the government's inclusion of Archbishop Desmond Tutu on a list of “potential troublemakers.”

The Philippines government put Archbishop Tutu's name on the list as part of security preparations for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit beginning on Nov. 25 at Subic Freeport, 90 kilometers from Manila. President Clinton and many other government heads will attend.

According to Philippines News and Features news service, the “banned” list drawn up by the government's Bureau of Immigration includes about 100 individuals from 19 countries, mostly prominent people and human rights advocates, who are coming for “anti-APEC” conferences to be run in parallel with the APEC summit.

The banned list includes East Timorese activist Jose Ramos-Horta, who along with Timorese Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, won the Nobel Peace prize last month; Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the late French President Francois Mitterrand, and retired Catholic Bishop Aloysius Nobuo Soma, of Nagoya, Japan.

Narciso Ticobay, Prime Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines has written to Philippines President Fidel Ramos expressing his indignation at news reports that Archbishop Tutu— winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace prize— has been included in the government's list of potential troublemakers. (ENI)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Getting into Icon Business Proves Boon for Monks DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

A SECLUDED VALLEY road in rural southwestern Wisconsin's Crawford County is the unlikely base for North America's largest icon factory and distributorship. Last year, St. Isaac of Syria Skete sold and shipped some 43,000 icons. This year the goal is to sell 50,000, and 70,000 next year. The “skete” of St. Isaac of Syria Skete comes from Scetis, a great early Egyptian monastic center. Askete combines elements of a hermit's life with a more communal existence.

While St. Isaac's business is making the monastery self-supporting, there's more to this business than making money. Father Simeon, a 50-year-old Orthodox monk who founded the monastery and directs its icon business, wants to make quality Christian art reproductions affordable to everyone. Father Simeon was born and reared Jewish in Chicago. In the mid-1960s, he was an English and philosophy major—and one of the first hippies—at the University of Illinois. Then came his conversion. “God decided to knock me over the head, a great surprise from which I have yet to fully recover,” he says. Nearly three decades ago, he began pursuing the religious life, and through the years has lived with other monks in several monasteries. Eventually he joined a small and traditionally-minded Orthodox association called the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and for more than a decade lived in a monastery in Texas.

Even after living as a monk for many years, he says the journey toward holiness is a day to day struggle. Father Simeon came to Wisconsin about 10 years ago to visit his brother who lives in Crawford County. Immediately, he fell in love with the region's natural beauty, which he found conducive to a life of prayer. He remodeled a ramshackle tobacco shed into living quarters, which today serves as a chapel. For the first few years he lived in extreme poverty. With the arrival of another monk, Father Menas, a community began to develop. Although Father Menas departed recently to join another monastery in the Southwest, and today there are seven—four men and three women—living a religious life at St. Isaac's. They wear the traditional black garments of Orthodox monks and nuns. The monks grow beards and draw their long hair into ponytails.

At St. Isaac of Syria, communal activities center around the chapel and the icon factory. Three very primitive individual cells for hermits— Father Simeon lives in one—are located about a half-mile into the woods. Like the famous monasteries on Mt. Athos in Greece, no women are allowed on these grounds, while male visitors may only come by invitation.

The idea for producing icons came shortly after Father Simeon founded St. Isaac's when he was confronted with the practical question of how to support himself. “There are no czars or emperors around anywhere to support the likes of what we're doing,” he says. The business was launched with about $100 in 1989. They bought their first boards of birch veneer plywood, used a friend's woodworking shop, and mounted a few icon reproductions. They then tried to sell their wares to Catholic religious goods stores in Chicago. They were turned down, but on the way home received a $600 order from a Milwaukee company. Their new business was off the ground.

Today five of the 11 mobile homes on the monastery's property are joined by decks and roofs. The structure serves as factory and office headquarters. Being creative with used mobile homes was the only way the business could get started, explains Father Simeon, who by his own account, has become a master scrounger.

That thriftiness doesn't get in the way of the production of high quality copies of icons. A state-of-the-art color copier, purchased two years ago, allows the monastery to produce 20-30 percent of its own prints. Any art of this type that's more than 100 years old is public domain, and can be reproduced at no charge. Some icon prints are purchased in Greece, Italy and.

St. Isaac of Syria Skete offers reproductions of 600 different icons, with plans to add 150 more. They come in ten sizes, with $6 being the least expensive. The most popular size, 8” x 10,” costs $20.

The business utilizes modern marketing methods to sell their work. Soon, they hope to make their catalogue available on the Internet. Sales are somewhat seasonal, says Father Siemon, with the high point coming in the pre-Christmas season.

Icons—which Christians in the East have long looked to prayer aids—have become increasing popular in the United States, especially since the downfall of communism in the former Soviet Union has made hundreds of new icons available in the West. Father Simeon cites God's providence, rather than his own cleverness, for launching a business that is right for the times.

Still, the icon business at the skete, while showing great promise, has yet to become a big money maker. If and when it does, Father Simeon has blueprints ready or a new church. The plans also include a display room so that all icons can be viewed in one place. Though Father Simeon would like to see that happen without delay, he's been a monk long enough to surrender his own plans and allow God to lead the way.

Patrick Slattery is based in La Crosse, Wis.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Slattery ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Denver Archdiocese Finds Internet Is an Equal Opportunity Media Outlet DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

by GREG KAIL

ON THE ever-expanding worldwide web, even a mediocre site garners all the interest of a seesaw in a high-tech amusement park.

So when the Archdiocese of Denver began designing a home page (www.archden.org/archden) in early 1996, the page creators vowed to ensure more than a presence in cyberspace. They wanted a competitive edge—and appropriately so, since Denver is one of the national centers of the emerging telecommunications revolution.

Ten months later, the archdiocese has found its voice—an audible one, at that. The web site carries audio interviews with local and national experts discussing religious and cultural issues. With the click of a button, web visitors can listen to lengthy chats with Dr. Neil Postman, an internationally known computer culture expert and writer; fiction author Michael O'Brien, who wrote the critically acclaimed Father Elijah; and Father Michael Glenn, archdiocesan vocations director. “The web is moving toward multi-media, not text,” said Kevin Knight, the 29-year-old Denver webmaster. “Someday everyone will be using audio, and we wanted to use it today.”

But for the Communications Secretariat of the archdiocese, the greatest fruits of the web page emerged from the effort to create it. Why not hire a professional service? Because, explained Communications Secretary Francis Maier, the development process helped those involved understand how the emerging computer culture will change the way people think and behave. “The best way to experience that is to immerse yourself in it,” Maier said. “It's learning a new language, and form drives content.”

“Society as we know it is a creation of the assumptions of print culture, and Christianity as we experience it is deeply interwoven with print assumptions. We wanted to begin to figure out what moving from a print culture to an electronic culture is going to do to the way we organize our religious life and our faith.”

Those answers are slow in coming, and they're modified with every new hiccup in technology. Among the most promising new possibilities, noted Maier, is cyber-classroom “distance learning” via the Internet. For now, interviews with cultural gurus like Postman may help some Catholics understand why the imminent changes deserve serious attention.

The recorded interviews are posted using RealAudio, a popular program that Internet users can download free of charge. The interviews commence almost immediately after they're selected, so visitors need not download the entire file to their personal computers. The aim is to keep the page fresh and useful for frequent visitors to the site.

Knight is no stranger to Catholicism in cyberspace. His “New Advent” page, which was launched in May 1995, carries Catholic resources for cyberspace visitors such as Aquinas' Summa Theologiae and papal encyclicals. It already gets 2,700 hits a day. “We're not willing to cede this territory to the other guys,” said Knight, who does much of his web work on volunteer time. “It ensures that among the many voices out there, ours will be one of them—and one of the strongest.”

Stories and photos from the Denver Catholic Register are also posted weekly on the site, and that venture is already paying off. A couple of weeks after the page was launched, a man in Massachusetts called in to comment on a story about Catholic affordable housing in the mountains. He also inquired about donating a piece of land for such a project.

“Anyone in publishing would be crazy not to look at the opportunities there and not find some way to use it,” said Peter Droege, editor of the Denver Catholic Register. But Droege believes a Catholic presence on the web is both an opportunity and a responsibility. “The manipulation of information has become almost a tragedy among many media outlets,” Droege said. “The respect for individual freedom and human dignity that is such a part of the Catholic faith in some ways depends on our ability to deliver the truth in a way that's undiluted and authentic.”

Catholics on the web can go directly to Catholic sources for information. For example, when Pope John Paul II addressed the theory of evolution in a recent talk, many Catholics were directed to the Archdiocese of Denver web page for the full text of the statement. Knight said most people would he surprised how much interest religion pages on the web generate. “In all the other media we're treated as a subculture that few care about,” he said. “I was surprised to see what a prominent position we [can assume] in the continuing conversation once we're allowed to have an equal voice. The web is the ultimate guarantee that everyone can have an equal voice.”

Visit the Archdiocese of Denver web site at www.archden.org/archden. For more information, contact archdiocesan communications at francisx@archden.org.

Greg Kail is based in Denver.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Greg Kail ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican-Israeli Accord at Three DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

WHEN THE VATICAN and the State of Israel established formal diplomatic relations in December 1993, the accord was hailed as an important first step toward warmer relations between the Holy See and Israel. Three years later, both sides agree that relations have improved considerably—even though much still remains to be done.

Leaders on both sides applauded the agreement when it was signed in Jerusalem Dec. 30, 1993, and none more so than Cardinal John O'Connor, archbishop of New York. The cardinal had labored tirelessly to help put the agreement together and strongly supported the Vatican-Israeli Permanent Bilateral Working Commission, which was formed in July 1992 to work out issues surrounding the normalization of diplomatic relations. Six months alter the formal agreement was signed, Israel and the Vatican mutually extended formal recognition and established full diplomatic relations.

“In such recognition, I believed could be found at least the beginning of justification, if such were needed, to establish formal diplomatic relations between two great spiritual realities,” Cardinal O'Connor wrote in AChallenge Long Delayed: The Diplomatic Exchange Between The Holy See and the State of Israel, a commemorative booklet issued this fall.. Shmuel Hadas, the first Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, wrote that “the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Holy See and the State of Israel was the culminative process that lasted almost a century. The Church adapted to a new reality that openly contradicted ancient theological principles: the creation of a Jewish state in the Holy Land as a result of a Zionist act commenced in the late 19th century. The request for support for the creation of a Jewish state, sent in 1905 by the founder of the Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl, to Pius X, is well known, as is the Pope's unequivocal and explicit refusal: ‘The Jews did not recognize our Lord; thus we cannot recognize any right of theirs to the Holy Land.’”

The 1993 agreement strongly condemned all forms of anti-Semitism and religious bigotry. The agreement also pledges both nations to support Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and Israel agreed to allow full guarantees of Catholic worship inside Israel. The agreement also makes special reference to the right of the Church to continue its work in health care and social welfare programs inside Israel.

At a recent seminar at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Catholic and Israeli leaders discussed the treaty's impact on the eve of the third anniversary of the agreement's signing.

Rabbi David Rosen, director of Interfaith Relations of the Jerusalem office of the Anti-Defamation League. spoke of the accord as merely the culmination of a beginning” of a new relationship between Catholics and Jews. Rabbi Rosen, who helped negotiate the 1993 agreement, now proposes that the two sides develop a concrete agenda to permanently put aside historical rifts and current political disagreements. “Many Israeli Jews, particularly those who are most Orthodox, still think of the Church as being stuck in its past anti-Semitic viewpoint,” said Rabbi Rosen.

Father Drew Christiansen, director of the Office of International Peace and Justice at the U.S. Catholic Conference, noted that the agreement also called for Israel to “maintain and respect” Christian holy sites and the right of the Church to carry out “religious, moral, educational and charitable functions” and have its own institutions inside Israel. In particular, he said that the welfare of Roman Catholic Arabs living within the West Bank and Gaza must be considered. He cited two concrete examples of areas where Israel could begin to make relations a bit smoother. First, the Israeli government recently turned down a request to establish a Catholic-run Arab-language radio station. Second, he mentioned the needs of students and teachers at Catholic-run Bethlehem University who cannot freely pass between die West Bank and Israel proper because of periodic border closings.

“The accord is better understood outside of Israel than within it,” said Father Christiansen. “There is a lack of awareness of the accord's provisions among many Israeli government officials.”

In total, some 20,000 Catholics—many of them Arabs—live in Israel proper. Another 10,000 reside in the West Bank and Gaza. In addition, more than 50,000 Greek Melkite Catholics and smaller numbers of Syrian Catholics, Armenian Catholics, Coptic Catholics, and Chaldean Catholics all live in Israel and the West Bank.

Father Christiansen also described the many concrete diplomatic benefits of the agreement to the Vatican. The 1993 agreement formalized into international law the rights of Catholics living in a non-Catholic nation. He added that the Vatican hopes to use the model of this Israeli-Vatican agreement to establish similar relationships with Muslim nations in the Middle East.

Michael Barbera is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Barbera ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Fin de Pontificat Jousting Produces a Strange Mixture of Truth & Fiction DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

AS REPORTS of the Pope's ill health give rise to fin de pontificat maneuvering, we are promised a spate of books “explaining” John Paul II's role in world affairs. Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi have offered one kind of explanation—a kind of reductio ad absurdum, in which it all comes down to CIA funds, spy satellites and political conspiracies.

As a would-be demolition job on John Paul II, His Holiness and the Hidden History of Our Time contains plenty of pithy, entertaining passages. But serious readers will see it as no more than a concoction of muck-raking gossip.

Consider Bernstein's and Politi's premise: Karol Wojtyla, a primitive Pole and fanatical anti-communist, is made Pontiff by a right-wing coalition. He proceeds to subvert the Soviet empire in collaboration with the CIA, whose clandestine funds keep dissent alive in Eastern Europe and liberation theologians at bay in Latin America.

When Bernstein, a former Watergate journalist, put forward this notion in a 1992 Time magazine article, Church and Solidarity spokesmen in Poland dismissed it as “sensationalist rubbish.” The only daily paper to welcome it, the ex-communist Trybuna, gleefully proclaimed that Bernstein had “cast a shadow over the changes in Poland and Solidarity's role in them.”

The new book adds Wojtyla's biography, and sets out to discredit the John Paul for betraying the liberal agenda on abortion, women's rights and Church government. But its main section, “Shaking the Empire,” is essentially an expanded version of the 1992 Time article. It uses the same technique: the narrative is spiced with big names to give it an authoritative air; well-known facts are blended with vague reminiscences to make the two seem indistinguishable. Once more, we encounter “witnesses” who appear never to have actually witnessed the events they describe, and “revelations” that were actually reported in the world's press a decade ago.

No documented evidence is cited to substantiate interview claims of former U.S. officials, beyond a couple of unspecified Administration “cables” supposedly obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Although the authors claim CIA director William Casey and Reagan's envoy, Vernon Walters, gave secret “intelligence briefings” to the Pope at 15 Vatican meetings, they are able to date just two, and appear to have more luck pinpointing John Paul's talks with Soviet ambassadors. Nothing in this book proves the briefings are not a total fabrication.

Even if Walters did, on one occasion, show the Pope satellite photos of the Soviet military build-up on Poland's borders, so what? US satellite shots from Iraq to Bosnia are not infrequently plastered over the world's press. They hardly qualify as “America's most closely guarded secrets.”

But what kind of information might John Paul II have been trading in turn? “The Communist authorities in Poland, the Pope told Casey, were under unrelenting pressure from Moscow,” write Bernstein and Politi. “John Paul II thought that some kind of repressive response by the authorities was probably likely. What mattered was how repression would be imposed, if it came—by whom, on what terms, and how prepared the Church and Solidarity would be.… Casey was mightily impressed.”

With “intelligence” like that to be obtained in Rome, no wonder Reagan needed his “holy alliance.” Again and again, serious readers will be left scratching their heads trying to make sense of the book's absurdities—the CIA man explaining why Solidarity “wasn’t going to be done as a classic covert operation”; Soviet Bloc dissidents failing to comprehend the great hopes aroused by Marxism among “so many men and women in the industrialized countries”; Reagan's “salvific Christianity” (“All the United States had to do was tip the balance toward Christianity and the USSR would revert to its natural Christian state”).

As for the claim that Solidarity received $50 million in covert US aid during the 1980s, it was branded “offensive and scandalous” by the movement's former treasurers in 1992. So this time around, the authors add a handy caveat: the level of funding, they say, was “unbeknownst to the underground.” In reality, Solidarity's U.S. Congress allocations were openly declared and bitterly criticized by the communist press.

Remarkably, Bernstein and Politi do not appear to have interviewed a single priest or bishop in Poland about events from the 1970s onwards. This may explain why the book's coverage of the Church's role is full of distortions and inaccuracies, and why its commentary so often varies from the banal (“[Wojciech] Jaruzelski seemed almost overwhelmed with ambiguity.… Wojtyla as Pope meant trouble”) to the laughable (“Many of them believed the choice of Wojtyla had been engineered by the United States.… The puppet master, the chief wire-puller behind the whole thing was Zbigniew Brzezinski”).

The truth is that Karol Wojtyla played a major role in the collapse of communism— but not the fantasized role Bernstein and Politi put forth, and certainly not as an “extremist” pushing the resistance to more radical demands. If he had come to Poland and preached “anti-communism,” he would have been coldshouldered by his own Church.

What he did preach was a system of values, a language of rights and freedoms, which enabled his listeners to work towards a “moral victory” over falsehood and injustice. That did far more to bring the system down than all the “sophisticated political analyses, information from satellites, intelligence agents, electronic eavesdropping and policy discussions” the White House and CIA could have mustered in a lifetime.

How then, can we explain the shallow, naive view of events set out in this book? The publisher's blurb says it “finally casts the history of the most important event of our era in an understandable light, uncovering the largest and most significant pieces of the puzzle heretofore missing.” It is a revealing statement.

Those who cannot understand the complex role of beliefs, value systems and ideologies, and who are unable to fathom the meaning of social movements and their power-political impact, must simplify the data and seek a more primitive explanation. Marx opted for class struggle, Hitler for a theory of race. And if we sink from the sublime to the ridiculous, we end up with Bernstein and Politi.

In their view of the world, one man controls a nation, another sends him money. The price of justice and dignity is $50 million. And the struggle to obtain it has nothing to do with dialogue, peaceful resistance, the moral resources of the poor and downtrodden. No—it all happens by way of spies and slush funds, lies and manipulation.

“For more than sixty years the Catholic Church and the Kremlin had struggled fiercely, and these men in black attire, trained in their seminaries to despise and fight the ‘enemies of God’throughout the world, had been in the front lines.… Solidarity, inspired by the Pope and supplied by the CIA, had survived its long underground struggle.” Anyone reading sentences like these may be struck by a sense of dÈj‡ vu. It is, of course, precisely what was proclaimed daily by Soviet propagandists at the height of the Cold War. The fact that it is now repeated by Bernstein and Politi suggests an interesting tie-up.

Both authors attach more credence to communist than Catholic or opposition sources, and the whole episode of martial law in Poland is told from the perspective of General Jaruzelski. Why? The likeliest explanation is that this version of events— cynical, opportunistic, drained of ethical content—was the only one the authors could really cope with, even if it meant literally turning the truth on its head.

Thus, Jaruzelski becomes (in the words of a U.S. official) “one of the most Christian persons I ever met in Poland.” Striking miners kill ZOOM riot police at Poland's Wujek colliery before being massacred themselves. The regime offers to release Solidarity internees “in return for political concessions” (from Solidarity!).

To be fair, Bernstein and Politi make their purpose clear from the outset. Their book says nothing about Wojtyla's university years, when he was known as “the Socialist” by fellow-students. Nor do they mention the angry denunciations of “empty charity” in his radical play Brother of our God; or his glowing enthusiasm for the leftist “worker priests” he met in France and Belgium. It would, clearly, have interfered with the depiction of the future Pope as a blinkered right-winger.

Instead, one of the longest sections is reserved for then-Cardinal Wojtyla's acquaintance with a certain Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, in which every possible nuance and insinuation is used in a desperate effort to suggest they had an affair. We learn how Tymieniecka's influence can be seen in the Pope's “encyclicals, pronouncements and philosophy;” how she lent him her husband's shorts “to wear beneath his swimming trunks;” and how she complained of Wojtyla's “sexual innocence.”

Tymieniecka is described as a “fetching, diminutive woman in a miniskirt, her blond hair pulled back in a short ponytail.” For someone who must have been 50 at the time, that is good going. The authors finally pluck up courage and come clean. Tymieniecka, they confess, felt “a powerful sexual attraction” to Karol Wojtyla. But that miserable old cleric from Krakow “did not return her love.”

The book authoritatively announces that Wojtyla had already “brushed up against erotic attraction” with a teenage friend in his Wadowice hometown. Later, when he became Pope, we are informed that “at audiences, nuns went crazy. They screamed that he was handsomer than Jesus and threw themselves at him.” Does this constant sexual harassment, one wonders, provide a clue to the Pope's health problems?

The authors have little regard for the Polish Church that Wojtyla comes from. After all, its priests drive around in Mercedes, and are “caught by police roistering at night in the company of halfnaked women.” They “interfere in family life” by complaining about divorce and abortion. And they promote “Christian values” in the media “just as the Communist Party had once demanded that the media confirm to Marxist-Leninist principles.”

These statements appear in the book's two closing chapters, which form a solid diatribe against John Paul II. In the end, the picture of the Pope can be summarized thus: He is racist (in Latin America, he singles out a Polish child in a crowd of “100,000 Indians”); He is anti-Semitic (the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz which John Paul II ordered closed in 1993 was actually all Wojtyla's idea!); He is cowardly (he “prayed for deliverance but never joined the resistance” in occupied Poland); and last but not least, he is arrogant, narrow-minded, dogmatic and dictatorial (“The Pope was almost ferocious in his denunciation of any revisions of the Gospels that deviated from Church doctrine”).

The picture presented in this crude, malicious book will be completely unrecognizable to anyone with a basic, common-sense awareness of events surrounding the fall of communism. It tells us far more about the prejudice and ignorance of supposedly sophisticated journalists.

Jonathan Luxmoore, the Register's Eastern European affairs correspondent, is based in Warsaw, Poland.

----- EXCERPT: His Holiness: John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time, by Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi (Doubleday, 1996, 582 pp. $27.50) ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jonathan Luxmoore ----- KEYWORDS: News ------- TITLE: Human Life as a 'Non Event' DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

GOING BY Stephen Jay Gould's own statement of intent, Full House is an attempt to rectify a wayward conceptual habit of Western man. It is a scientist's venture into the realm of philosophy.

Gould, a gifted professor of zoology and geology at Harvard, argues that Plato's philosophy encouraged subsequent thinkers to erroneously treat abstract concepts as having real existence outside the mind. He examines cases where trends are treated like things, as when .400 batting averages in baseball are thought to be actual entities; so their disappearance in recent times has to be explained in the same causal way just as other natural or tangible phenomena, like the erosion of soil, for example. Confronted with a grouping of some kind that exhibits a range of variation, Gould argues that we are making a mistake in taking the average and then proceeding to study the characteristics— the “essence”—of the average, as if that were the real thing. Gould treats variation itself as the fundamental reality, finding in Darwin a paradigm of this approach: “Darwin's revolution should be epitomized as the substitution of variation for essence as the central category of natural reality.”

Gould argues that just as previous scientific revolutions were interpreted as robbing mankind from its privileged position in the cosmos, the effect of his, approach is to dislodge man from even having a privileged position among other creatures. Darwin at least allowed for the idea of progress, with evolution directed, teleologically, toward more complex species. In other words, there is a purpose and a plan. But Gould charges that Darwin was merely aping the Victorian zeitgeist; and that the mechanisms of evolution—random variation and natural selection— actually have no need of such a hypothesis, which Gould suggests is only a sop to human arrogance. For the author, Homo Sapiens doe not culminate the evolutionary process. According to Gould, bacteria have been, are, and always will be the dominant form of life on earth. More complex creatures arise from a purely random mechanism that is as likely to move backwards as forward, he reasons.

There is no middle ground for Gould between Bible-thumping fundamentalism and his own brand of hard-line materialism: “Only two options seem logically available.… We might, first of all, continue to espouse biblical literalism and insist that the earth is but a few thousand years old, with humans created by God just a few days after the inception of planetary time.”

It seems a bit arrogant to dismiss a priori more nuanced theistic positions. The 1950 encyclical Humani Generis demonstrated evolution's compatibility with the faith. Anyone who understands God's use of secondary causality should be able to look Darwin squarely in the eye. The Pope made this abundantly clear in his recent talk on evolution theories.

It gets worse when Gould discusses the “radical contingency” of human life, i.e., the sum of all the necessary conditions that had to be in place for human life to emerge at all. While many reasonable people see evidence of an other-thanrandom process at work, Gould speculates about other randomly possible universes in which human life did not arise. It all supports his view of human life as a kind of non-event.

Brother Clement Kennedy, O.S.B., is a monk at Prince of Peace Abby in Oceanside, Calif.

----- EXCERPT: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin, by Stephen Jay Gould, (New York: Harmony Books, 1996, 244 pp., $25) ----- EXTENDED BODY: Clement Kennedy ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'You're Pregnant Again?' DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

ROSEMARY DIAMOND must have heard it repeatedly: “You're pregnant again?” She and her pediatrician husband Eugene raised 13 children, now grown with youngsters of their own. So, how did they manage? From a practical perspective, small families may wonder just how does a large household function. And, how do they cope with a society that favors small families, disdaining, in fact, large families?

Dr. Diamond offers the strategies and principles he and his wife lived by, while warning readers not to look at this as a howto book. “Whatever successes resulted in the raising of our large family were not earned or achieved by special techniques,” he tells his readers in the introduction. “We tried very hard to love our children selflessly, but the most important ingredient in their outcome has been the grace of God.”

Which isn't to say they made it up as they went along. Diamond's parenting philosophies, along with his warmth and wisdom, are apparent throughout this readable book. Parents often struggle with the child-rearing task, thanks in part to the myriad conflicting theories and admonitions from experts.

The Diamonds obviously found a system that worked for their family: All the kids went to graduate school (four physicians, four attorneys, two social workers, a nurse, a physical therapist, and a social administration grad.) Moreover, all the married children live near the elder Diamonds. “We have ready access to all the families and grandchildren,” he notes.

Diamond moves from personal experiences within his family to the larger societal issues. He extols a traditional structure, with the mother as homemaker and the father as breadwinner— at least while the kids are young. Eventually, he says, “many mothers of large families take on careers in mid-life.”

Diamond argues that many government policies detrimental to family life as well. “Instead of financial policies favorable to families,” he writes, “we have day care centers so that mothers are relieved of their children, rather than their burdens.”

Some suggestions are bound to make some of us uncomfortable, as when he asserts that “one of the most important qualities that the mother of a large family should have is a sense of aesthetics.” He then tells us that his wife “never conceded elegance to efficiency.” Tables were always set beautifully, with most dinners served by candlelight. “It was unpardonable to put a milk carton or a cereal box on the table.”

I was reading this while my 3-year-old and 1-year-old napped and I struggled with morning sickness, realizing my only aesthetic achievements were piling all the dirty dishes into one side of the sink and shoving all the Mega Bloks into a corner of the play room. However, such quibbles are more than compensated for by the solid advice Diamond provides, including the admonition that “almost nothing else is as important in a large family as meals in common.”

He also highlights the crucial role of faith in the family. “There is a strong correlation between the religious practices of the father and the long-term religious orientation of the children,” he insists. “Children seeing the devotion and the subservience of the deified father to a Supreme Being will come to comprehend the awe-inspiring majesty of the God to whom this kind of allegiance is shown.”

Ultimately, Diamond's book serves as a refreshing look at large families, offering hope and encouragement to those who feel called by God to parent many children. In addition, those with smaller families will find many of his insights helpful and may even decide that having more children is not such an intimidating proposition after all.

Tracy Moran is based in San Diego, Calif.

----- EXCERPT: The Large Family, A Blessing and a Challenge, by Eugene Diamond, M.D. (Ignatius Press, 1996, 165 pp., $9.95) ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tracy Moran ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Neglecting the Moral Order DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

IT SHOULD come as no surprise to observers of recent American political muggings that the target of Robert Bork's Slouching Towards Gomorrah is modern liberalism. In 1987, a constellation of liberal forces—NOW activists, ACLU libertarians, NAACP enthusiasts, Hollywood celebrities, etc.—handily defeated Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court. The learned former U.S. Court of Appeals judge is still smarting. This is not to suggest that Slouching Towards Gomorrah is a score-settling memoir. On the contrary, the book combines trenchant philosophy and sober cultural analysis.

Bork's philosophical critique is particularly illuminating. Modern liberalism, he argues, rests on two calamitous ideas: radical egalitarianism (“the equality of outcomes rather than of opportunities”) and radical individualism (“the drastic reduction of limits to personal gratification”). Both ideas conspire to make modern liberalism illiberal: Radical egalitarianism denies the freedom to achieve, he argues, which leads to a bogus, oppressive equality; radical individualism denigrates restraining disciplines, which invites the tyranny of sin or licentiousness. The two ideas, Bork notes, form a curious pair, “for individualism means liberty and liberty produces inequality, while equality of outcomes means coercion and coercion destroys liberty.”

Nevertheless, the two ideas, for Bork, now coexist and press modern liberalism towards a paradoxical destination—collectivism. Radical egalitarianism encourages collectivism by demanding the elimination of all differences; radical individualism, by unleashing moral chaos and by destroying the institutions (family, Church, etc.) that stand between the individual and the state (“[t]he individual becomes less of a member of powerful private institutions and more a member of an unstructured mass that is vulnerable to the collectivist coercion of the state,” Bork's argument goes).

According to Bork, classical liberals bear some intellectual responsibility for the perilous condition of their modern offspring. By leaving the concepts of liberty and equality rather undefined, he says, they laid the groundwork for the dangerous conclusions of their ideological descendants. The great English utilitarian John Stuart Mill, for example, advanced a concept of liberty that lacked specific moral content or limits, helping to inspire the modern liberal divorce of freedom from truth. Similarly, the stirring but ambiguous liberalism in the Declaration of Independence has proven problematic. “The signers of the Declaration took the moral order they had inherited for granted,” Bork writes. “It never occurred to them that the document's rhetorical flourishes might be dangerous if the moral order weakened.”

Bork's cultural survey is less striking. To readers conversant with the recent spate of right-wing tracts, this collection of liberal cultural horrors may seem tired. All of the usual suspects are trotted out: hopelessly liberal academics who foist anti-Americanism on their students; rappers who craft paeans to misogyny and primal passions; judges who override the traditional moral sensibilities of communities; feminists who spew venom at the traditional family; toothless religious leaders who succumb to the siren song of secularism, etc.

Understandably, Bork concludes on a dark note. It is midnight in America. The barbarians are not at the gate; they're inside, running the show. The poet William Butler Yeats was right: “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”

The barbarians are not at the gate; they're inside, running the show.

Still, Bork warns, total moral resignation is unacceptable. While “the pessimism of the intellect tells us that Gomorrah is our probable destination,” the “optimism of the will” can give us the courage to halt the destructive march of modern liberalism. Bork draws a modicum of hope from the Irish monks who lived during the Dark Ages at the shrine of Skellig Michael, a rock seven miles off the Irish coast. As the barbarians pillaged the European continent, the monks, “on the fringe of civilization,” preserved religion and classical learning. When “the Continent was once more ready for civilization, the Irish reintroduced Christianity and the religious and secular classics their monks had copied.” Such a regeneration, Bork suggests, could happen again: “When the barbarians struck in the 60s, America did not show confidence in its own worth and values. We were taken by surprise, but we have had time to recover and form a new center that just may hold.”

George Neumayr is based in Arlington, Va.

----- EXCERPT: Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline, by Robert Bork (Regan Books, 1996, 382 pp., $25) ----- EXTENDED BODY: George Neumayr ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Excitement, Romance of Orthodoxy DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

WHAT's THE problem with religious education? Consider this. Writing recently in The Tablet of London, David Toverell angrily rebuffed critics of a new religion text who complained that it calls into question the bodily Resurrection of Christ. Denouncing the criticism as “unfair,” Toverell, a senior lecturer at Liverpool Hope University College, said: “Incorporated into this section is an opportunity for pupils to explore and think critically about such doctrines and beliefs. Questions are included about meaning and differences of interpretation.…”

No doubt they are. But does the book say the Resurrection happened or not? Toverell does not say.

Everyone agrees that it is a good thing for Catholic children to explore religious doctrine and think critically about it. One would think it just as obviously a good thing that children learn the content of the Church's faith and accept its truth. Alas, to a considerable extent in the last 30 years or so, that has not been happening—at least, not happening in the case of far too many children in Catholic schools and religious education programs.

The new catechists have no better way—but still they are eager to trash memorization.

Why is that so? There are many reasons of course, chief among them the continuing war waged against faith by the process called secularization. But by now it also is clear that no small part of the problem lies with catechesis itself.

In the years before Vatican II, Msgr. Michael Wrenn and Kenneth Whitehead point out, something called the “new catechesis” came into vogue among religious educators. They explain:

“The new catechesis no longer looks primarily to the Church's Magisterium for its fundamental guidance and inspiration. Rather, it looks to the modern social sciences and to fashionable new educational theories. “Within the Church it tends to look especially to what we may aptly call the new theologians, the new exegetes, and the new liturgists … in short, to some of the same revisionists and minimizers responsible for much of the confusion and dissent in the Church.”

The result has been a disaster: a generation of Catholics shockingly ignorant of the faith (recall The New York Times poll in which two-thirds of American Catholics agreed that the mode of Christ's presence in the Blessed Sacrament is symbolic only), steep declines in religious practice (it appears that the Sunday Mass attendance rate in this country is now about one out of three or four)—in other words, a Church in crisis. The new catechesis did not accomplish this all by itself, but it did a lot to help.

Flawed Expectations is not, however, simply an analysis of an aberration in religious education. Its focus is on the great remedy proposed by Pope John Paul and the bishops—The Catechism of the Catholic Church—and on its “reception.” They paint a mixed picture.

The Catechism is a cause for much hope. It is orthodox, comprehensive, and, for a committee document, surprisingly well done. But there's a problem. Too often, Wrenn and Whitehead point out, implementation of the Catechism has fallen into the hands of the “catechetical establishment” that produced the catechetical crisis the Catechism is meant to overcome.

The authors are well qualified to argue their case. Msgr. Wrenn is a veteran of the catechetical scene, a consultant to Cardinal O'Connor of New York who for 10 years directed a graduate catechetical institute. Whitehead, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, has written widely on religious topics.

Their book is not mere speculation about things that might happen. It exhaustively documents the distortions and misrepresentations already introduced into materials widely used to introduce the Catechism to classroom catechists. As they point out, there are some excellent commentaries on the Catechism. There also are some truly atrocious ones.

Thus they speak of a new “inculturated” catechism that claims to be based on The Catechism of the Catholic Church: “This is a book by and for people who have precisely lost the excitement and romance of orthodoxy.… These people secularize and trivialize the faith of Jesus Christ in exactly the same way that many modern religion textbooks do—because, evidently, these people no longer believe the faith of Christ in its fullness.”

Permit me a personal note. It was, I suppose, some 25 years ago that it occurred to me why the argument against memorizing catechism answers missed the point. Having memorized vast quantities of religious formulae as a child, and having forgotten almost all of them as soon as I could without suffering for it, I was aware of certain weaknesses in memorization as such. But memorization did convey something crucial. The message was this: There is a body of religious truth out there which it is vital for you to know.

If there is a better way than memorization to get that idea across to children, it. If not, better stick to memorizing. The new catechists had and have no better way—but they were and still are eager to trash memorization. This appears to reflect hostility to the very idea that there is a body of teachable, knowable religious truth.

Wrenn and Whitehead end on an optimistic note: “As the years go by, the Catechism will be used and accepted even more widely than it is already, and simply because it is there. Meanwhile, it is safe to predict, the kinds of commentaries and parodies of the Catechism which we have been looking at … will be forgotten.” No doubt they will. But they can also do a lot of harm before that happens. Almost certainly, there is a hard fight ahead.

Russell Shaw is based in Washington, D.C

----- EXCERPT: Flawed Expectations: The Reception of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, by Msgr. Michael Wrenn and Kenneth Whitehead (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1996, 418 pp. $17.95) ----- EXTENDED BODY: Russell Shaw ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Cardinal DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

Much sooner than anyone expected, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin has died. His legacy will undoubtedly be the subject of lively debate for years to come. Even as he lay dying, he inspired contradictory sentiments, admiration and love, as well as bitterness. What was the nature of the cardinal's genius? What about his less successful policies and efforts?

The Register is hardly in a position to make these judgments. In fairness, it must be acknowledged that, especially in the 80s, the archbishop of Chicago was a target of frequent criticism in these pages. Other publications were even more caustic in their attacks. Many conservative commentators were eager to take a crack at the man they considered the prime architect of the bishops' conference and, therefore, the man responsible for many of the policy statements and pastoral initiatives that they felt were inappropriate or even harmful for the Church's mission.

Most notably there was the U.S. bishops' 1983 letter on war and peace, with its call for unilateral moves toward disarmament. Reagan, critics now say, proved the effort wrong; by being tough and investing in a huge military build-up, he eventually brought the Soviet Union to its knees. Nevertheless, Cardinal Bernardin was behind the comprehensive consultation process that went into the making of the pastoral, an approach that would profoundly mark the bishops' future endeavors, such as the 1986 letter, “Economic Justice for All” and many other pastoral documents.

The cardinal had a gift of enlisting people in joint projects, of moving toward compromise and, up to a point, a reconciliation of differing visions and wants. That, one could argue, is a peculiarly American genius, one eminently suited for U.S.-style democracy. Obviously, it doesn't always fit the workings of the hierarchical structure that is the Church, a body, after all, that was founded by a single Person and is governed by a single leader, the bishop of Rome. Still, in his commitment to collegiality, the cardinal brought a definite dynamism to the workings of the institution, an energy that, no doubt, will be a lasting legacy.

For many, the cardinal is associated with the so-called “seamless garment” theory, the unfortunate genesis of which term he explained in a Register interview last summer. He spoke too quickly at the time, he said, later preferring instead to describe his position as a “consistent ethic of life,” a vision, he felt, that was affirmed by the Pope in Evangelium Vitae. At one of his final public appearances, Sept. 9 at Georgetown University, he again stressed that abortion, assisted-suicide/euthanasia and capital punishment are related as life issues. But that doesn't mean that there is a moral equivalency between abortion and the death penalty, as many of the cardinal's detractors continue to insist he meant. Sad to say, he will be remembered by some as a Church leader who wasn't strong enough on the abortion issue.

Perhaps his gift for encouraging dialogue—now enshrined in the Common Ground project—had an unintended downside. Catholics basically at peace with Church authority and teaching felt less attracted to or, perhaps, welcomed in, the cardinal's characteristic consultative approach. Cardinal Bernardin was a consummate modern Churchman and his ways weren't for everybody. Their merit, however, is undeniable: He wanted not to cut off, but to include, as much as possible, those whose lives and views are in tension with traditional Catholicism. This approach often left conservative Catholics feeling angry and that is unfortunate. However, that should not diminish the life and work of a formidable Church leader. In his Register interview, Cardinal Bernardin put it thus: “I don't feel the need to explain. I have a long record of 30 years.… My record is open and I have nothing to apologize for. Have I made some mistakes in some judgments? Yes … but I think the record will show that that I're tried to be a faithful servant.” May he rest in peace.

—AJK

----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: AJK ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Word of God Sparks Lively Conversation DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

MOST OF US study the Bible to deepen our faith. Bill Moyers's 10-part series, Genesis: A Living Conversation, has a different agenda. The text is examined primarily for its meaning and relevance to our cultural heritage, not as sacred truth—a perspective that owes more to the mythological studies of Joseph Campbell (about whom Moyers produced a celebrated series) than an orthodox Christian understanding.

Each episode of Genesis features Moyers and seven experts in a lively, free-wheeling discussion that focuses on a single story. These include: the creation; Adam and Eve in the garden; Noah and the flood; Cain and Abel; Abraham and Sarah in Egypt; Sarah's jealousy of Hagar and Ishmael; God's asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac; Jacob's stealing of his birthright from Esau; Jacob's dreams; and Joseph working for pharaoh in Egypt.

The participants come from a variety of religious backgrounds— Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and atheist—in fact, almost everyone except fundamentalist Christians who believe in creationism. Each explores the narrative from his or her own particular perspective.

This format had its origins in the Genesis seminars held monthly for the past decade at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York under the direction of Rabbi Burton Visotzky, an expert in Midrash, or Torah interpretation, who also functions as a kind of co-host on most of the programs. (The show airs weekly on PBS until mid-December. Check your local listings for exact times.)

Visotzky isn't a big fan of conventional piety. “Genesis is an ugly little soap opera,” he writes in his book, The Genesis or Ethics. “All those dirty secrets we know about each another strung into a ‘family’ narrative.” The televised discussions adopt a similar tone.

As the series allows us to see some of the best and the brightest of each denomination at work, it also unintentionally provides an overview of contemporary religious studies. Some generalizations are in order: The Islamic scholars seem to be the only ones who still believe completely in their religion; the feminists consider much of the Genesis material damaging to contemporary women's self-esteem; all the African-American experts make an effort to relate the stories to their faith; and most of the Catholics display an orthodox understanding of the Bible—but, when challenged, they lack the vigor and selfconfidence of the Muslims and the feminists in defending their point of view.

The most disturbing part of the series may be the overt hostility to God expressed by some of participants. For example, the devastation caused by the flood is compared to the holocaust inflicted on the Jews by Hitler, and God is held responsible. When the African-American preacherscholar Samuel Proctor tries to defend Yahweh, Visotzky asks: “Why are you so protective of God?” Moyers ups the ante: “Why does God have to destroy everyone,” he wonders. “Can't He distinguish between a misdemeanor and a felony?” Prodded by Moyers, Visotzky adds: “God does evil things.”

Father Alexander Di Lella of The Catholic University of America joins Proctor in standing up for the text, but they're overwhelmed. Noah is compared unfavorably to Oscar Schindler who sheltered Jews from the Nazis during World War II. Visotzky closes by saying: “I have to believe that God is large enough to contain my anger.” He's almost certainly right, but some may be uncomfortable with that perspective.

To see a Catholic, Protestant and Muslim bond together around this sacred text is a beautiful moment…

This kind of heated exchange is typical of the series. An even nastier punch-up erupts during the program on Joseph's stay in Egypt. Feminist scholar Phyllis Trible of Union Theological Seminary takes issue with the seduction of Joseph by Potiphar's wife. Joseph is the Egyptian Potiphar's slave, charged with managing all his master's affairs. Potiphar's wife tries to take the Israelite to bed, and when he refuses, she falsely accuses the young man of trying to seduce her. Joseph is thrown in jail.

She places it in the context of the teaching in Proverbs: “Proverbs has only two places for women—the gutter and the pedestal.” Sister Dianne Bergant of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago agrees that the Joseph story does both. Trible goes further: “Atext may be one day the word of God and another day may not be the word of God.” The Muslim scholar, Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University, is appalled at the moral and cultural relativism implicit in Trible's arguments and tries to rebut them. The Christians remain sadly silent.

Then the program takes a turn for the better. As is often the case during the series, the heated disagreements lead to personal sharing, and some agreement emerges. Nasr identifies with the story because Joseph is in exile; the Muslim scholar relates it to his painful separation from his native Iran. Francisco Garcia-Treto, a Presbyterian who teaches at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, sympathizes with Nasr. Garcia-Treto was born in Cuba, and he talks movingly of the deep pull he feels towards both America and his place of birth.

Nasr broadens the discussion by observing that “all spiritual people are in exile.” Sister Bergant, who had previously attacked the Joseph story, agrees. Her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience often make her feel an exile in her native land, she says estranged from America's materialistic culture. To see a Catholic, Protestant and Muslim bond together around this ancient sacred text is a beautiful moment in which the series fulfills its highest promise.

Visotzky ends the discussion with an observation which could be the series' credo: “When we read, when we talk, when we get heated, that's when we hear the word of God. That's when the text becomes revelation.” Most orthodox Christians believe otherwise; they are taught that the word of God remains revelation even when we're not in the frame of mind to receive it.

Nevertheless, an encounter with the series can enrich our faith in a way different from the usual Bible studies. In wrestling with the intelligent and unsettling challenges thrown up by these programs, we're forced to examine our own beliefs and reflect more deeply on the meaning of our own walk with God.

John Prizer is based in Los Angeles.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: With the Elections Over, Immigrants Should Find Respite DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

FEW CLASSES of immigrants to these shores except those who arrived aboard the Mayflower have escaped contempt. Who doesn't know the labels given in the past to Italians, Slovaks, Poles, Germans, Irish, Jews, Filipinos, Hispanics, Chinese, Japanese and countless others, each in turn. Even a passing acquaintance with the early history of New York City gets the blood boiling in anyone with a shred of decency. Are we again in grave danger of repeating some of our historic outrages toward immigrants?

I have at least a general understanding of the complexities involved in trying to design equitable legislation and reasonable public policy in regard to immigration. I am equally aware that a number of government executives are trying to achieve such goals. What concerns me, however, is the apparent “climate” within which legislation and public policy are being formulated. In my judgment, we are dangerously close to a pervasive climate of deep-seated contempt for the human person.

This is not a Republican-Democratic, conservative-liberal thing, and the answer cannot be found in slogans, nor, certainly, in politics as usual. Let it be said unequivocally: Every single piece of legislation or public policy must be rooted in the unambiguous conviction that every man, every woman, every child, of every culture, of every race, of every color, of every ethnic background, of every religion is made in the image of God, hence, sacred. No legislation, court decision or regulation may deprive any person of the God-given right to live in dignity. Immigration status may never be used to deny anyone of the moral right to the basic necessities of life.

The nature of the human person must be the starting point of any responsible approach to immigration. This is why the Archdiocese of New York provides every service to immigrants we can reasonably provide.

Pastoral services are offered in 27 different languages. (Masses are celebrated in 30.) Professional counseling and legal representation on immigration matters are offered in 15 languages: English, Russian, Vietnamese, Spanish, German, Cambodian, French, Cantonese, Tagalog, Polish, Mandarin, Futonese, Italian, Korean, Creole.

More than 85 percent of immigrants come to the United States legally, 72 percent of them to join close family members. Immigrants, in fact, pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. Legal and undocumented immigrants combined pay some $70.3 billion per year in taxes, while receiving $42.9 billion in such services as education and public assistance.

Perhaps most shocking of all for those repelled by the alleged laziness of immigrants and their being a burden on the welfare roles is that working-age immigrants use welfare at a lower ratio, 3.9 percent, than Americans born here, at 4.2 percent. Do immigrants automatically destroy neighborhoods? The National Immigration Forum asserts the contrary about New York. “City planners say immigrants brought indirect urban renewal, and that without immigration, New York would have about 1 million fewer people and the kind of derelict, abandoned neighborhoods plaguing [certain] other major centers.…” The Washington Post and others credit the revival of dying neighborhoods in New York City to Asian, Latino, Caribbean, Russian, Jewish and Irish immigrants.

If I understand recently approved federal legislation, most noncitizens could lose eligibility for food stamps and other key benefits in the future. Government statistics indicate that 124,000 New York state immigrants— approximately 60 percent of whom are elderly and 40 percent disabled—are vulnerable to losing key benefits because of this new legislation. The ban on benefits goes beyond those traditionally defined as “welfare” to include such programs as preventive health care, prenatal care and others. Does fundamental respect for the human person not require a safety net, a transitional support system?

Would it be too much to ask, in the name of basic human decency, that perhaps a year from now, when the tumult and the shouting of a political campaign have mercifully faded, a nonpolitical analysis can be made of our approach to immigration? In the meanwhile, could not responsible authorities at each level of government significantly delay or even suspend application of the more draconian measures in recently approved legislation? Please God. In any event, however, the Church in New York will continue to do everything it can for those deprived of the benefits essential to human dignity, and even increase its efforts. For the Church is haunted by the question asked of Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” The answer given in the beautiful story of the Good Samaritan seems to us to be suspiciously close to a responsible formula for the treatment of more than a few of our brother and sister immigrants.

Cardinal John O'Connor is Archbishop of New York. Reprinted with permission from Catholic New York.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cardinal John O'Connor ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

Forgiveness

St. Maria Goretti, martyred for her purity, forgave her murderer before she died, and appeared to him from heaven while he was in prison telling him he would be in heaven with her too. Pope John Paul II went to prison to forgive his assailant as well. Michael Ross, no. 127404, death row inmate of the Northern Correctional Institution, Somers, Conn., convicted for the murder and rape of eight women and various other crimes, seeks reconciliation (“Death Row,” see Letters, Nov. 3-9).

The Sacrament of Reconciliation in the Catholic Church will give him pardon and peace. Jesus Christ, the ultimate victim, will forgive his sins and he is the only one who can speak for the murdered victims. No one else can. I can forgive your crime against me, I cannot forgive your crime against my neighbor.

Mary De Voe

South River, New Jersey

Irish Ire

I resent being fed the English government line by Ben Kobus in London. He writes of “the potential resurgence of the Northern Ireland crisis” (“For Retiring Irish Primate, Peace Hinges on Faith,” Oct. 20). The Northern Ireland “crisis” has been ongoing every minute of every day since 1920. It is the result of a grave injustice foisted upon Ulster's Protestants. They had fought “home rule” but got it anyway. They had envisioned no partition of Ireland but Ulster itself was divided, and tens of thousands of Ulster Protestants were trapped in what to them was a foreign state.

Two of Northern Ireland's six counties had Catholic majorities; 40 percent of the population was Catholic. There were 100,000 Catholics in Belfast and 60 percent of Londonderry's people were Catholics. Obviously, Northern Ireland was not going to remain both a civilized, democratic state and a “Protestant” one. The English knew that when they set it up. Elsewhere they set Jew against Arab, Hindu against Moslem, Greek against Turk, New France against New England, etc. The record of British rule in India, North America, Cyprus, Palestine clearly shows that “divide the conquered” was the preferred policy.

In Northern Ireland, Catholics were to be denied the vote, a job (in either the private or public sector), and public housing in a concerted effort to encourage their emigration. Irish Catholics are engaged in a constant struggle for dignity and rights in a fascist police/army state. Think of Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights struggle— there was a constant story of injustice, while flareups were just the tip.

Why doesn't Kobus go to Londonderry and report the real story?

Robert Phelan

South River, New Jersey

Eat and Run

During the summer months, I am often a guest in different Catholic parishes. I're grown to love the many differences between the churches; architecture, music, the priests, and my brothers and sisters in Christ. One thing many have in common, however, is an apparent lack of reverence for Holy Communion. I am shocked at so many communicants' exodus immediately after reception of the Eucharist.

It seems that the banquet of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus has become just another fast food experience for busy Catholics. One morning as I arrived, I bumped into a lady running down the church steps busily chewing the Blessed Sacrament. So many people were leaving church I thought I had arrived just in time for the next Mass. Once inside, I was surprised to see parishioners still in line to receive while others were exiting the church without stopping to give Jesus any acknowledgment or reverence.

Many Catholics appear to take Jesus' presence for granted, no longer savoring the holy food. Don't eat and run when it comes to Christ!

Susan Heydlauff-Starling

New Orleans, Louisiana

Your correspondence regarding the Register,its features and Catholic issues are welcome. Submissions should be typed doublespace, and sent to: Letters to the Editor, National Catholic Register, 33 Rossotto Drive, Hamden, CT 06514; or faxed to: (203) 288- 5157; or e-mailed to cmedia@pipeline.com.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Joseph Cardinal Bernardin: 1928 - 1996 DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

A NOBLE SOUL and towering figure of the Catholic Church locally, nationally and worldwide has passed from the scene. He did not think of himself that way. To himself and towards others he was simply Joseph Bernardin. He was my friend. While I pray for the repose of his soul, confident that God has rewarded him for his labors, I will miss him.

The last time I was with him, a few weeks ago, he reminded me that he still intended to come for dinner at my house in spite of having to cut back on his activities because of his illness. When he came for dinner during Christmas a couple of years ago there was a large package under the tree, festively wrapped, left for him by Santa Claus. We all laughed as he undid the wrapping paper to reveal an Italian cookbook. He was that way. A quiet person, with a big heart open to all the world. He did not stand aloof on the dignity of being the cardinal archbishop of Chicago. He extended to all he met the warmth of his friendship and thus won the hearts of millions.

It was this openness to everyone that undoubtedly shaped Joseph Bernardin's most outstanding characteristic. All his priestly life he sought to reconcile differences among people that often produced unjust actions and conditions. He wanted to heal the wounded, to reconcile differences and to create consensus. This was true of his earliest efforts to eliminate racial segregation in the South where he was born. It was the case of his most recent initiative to promote understanding and reconciliation among opposing factions in the Catholic Church. While you might disagree with him on some of the positions he took, you could not doubt his compassion or sincerity.

Ordained a priest in 1952, Joseph Bernardin was formed by the Catholic intellectual currents that found expression in the Second Vatican Council. From the moment Pope Paul VI made him a bishop in 1966, he dedicated himself generously, through his episcopal ministry, to the internal renewal of the Church. With faith and love, he also sought to present the Church's message of hope to the world. As general secretary and later as president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops he played a significant role in giving life and direction to that institution called for by the council, under the guidance of his mentor and friend, Cardinal John Deardon. For more than 20 years he contributed actively to the deliberations of the Synod of Bishops. As archbishop of Cincinnati and later in Chicago, the nation's second largest See, he devoted himself to the pastoral renewal of the local Church in the light of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the changing circumstances of American society.

Perhaps the most lasting legacy of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin will be the example of the quiet, faith filled courage with which he bore the sufferings of the last years of his life. First there was the calumnious accusation publicly made against him. He endured that humiliation as Jesus submitted to his unjust death, knowing that the truth makes us free. From the beginning he pardoned his accuser. In the same way he faced the truth of his approaching death from cancer with utmost sincerity, even in the public eye. He knew and bore witness to the truth that the way of the cross is the way to life. His last public statement was to bear witness to the immensity of the gift of life.

An infrequently mentioned characteristic of Cardinal Bernardin was his devotion to our Blessed Mother. A few years ago, when the largest church in Illinois—dedicated to the Mary—was in danger of being torn down as a result of the changing patterns of Catholic parochial life in Chicago, he found the way to make sure that this did not happen. Today the Church of St. Mary of the Angels, with its bright blue light and white dome, reminds the millions who pass by on the nearby Kennedy Expressway of the love of the Mother of Life. This too is a lasting part of the legacy of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin.

Very Rev. William Stetson is delegate vicar of Opus Dei in Chicago.

----- EXCERPT: The Truth Makes Us Free ----- EXTENDED BODY: William Stetson ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Consummate Conciliar Cardinal DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

JOSEPH BERNARDIN was the very embodiment of Vatican II. Just as we can best understand spirituality as it is lived by a saint, anyone exercising leadership in the Church need only look to Cardinal Bernardin's life for an authentic interpretation of the Council's fundamental ecclesiology. Commitment to the council was, for him, a matter of structure and style.

Bernardin devoted his energies to the structures of implementing collegial and participative leadership as set down by council: the triennial Synod of Bishops, which was meant to effect a kind of permanent council, and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops as the expression of unity among the bishops of the United States. Literally on his last day, as he lay dying, his aides ensured that he was informed about the progress of his last project, revisions in the “mission and structure” of the conference of bishops. Earlier, as chairman of the special committee of bishops that prepared the pastoral letter on war and peace, he provided a model for the leadership of the U.S. bishops—in which the teaching office of the bishops was enhanced by drawing on the wide range of knowledge and experience to be found among theologians, military and diplomatic experts, and the people of the Church—structuring a moral argument that made demands on personal conscience and public policy. In the Archdiocese of Chicago, he oversaw a planning process that was necessarily complex and arduous because it engaged thousands of people throughout the Church in consideration of the future of ministry and education in the archdiocese.

Cardinal Bernardin's approach was not merely a matter of structure and strategy, it was a characteristic of the very style of the man. By nature he respected all of life and every person, even his accusers and detractors. The patience he demonstrated in trying to forge bonds of unity and positions of integrity among persons and positions that seemed irreconcilably opposed to each other was rooted in that respect for persons and his enduring belief that we have more to gain than to fear from each other. This was what distinguished his approach not as compromise of the truth but as the attainment of a richer understanding of truth. It both challenged us, as individuals, and strengthened us in communion with one another and the Lord. His very quiet manner invited trust and dialogue, assuring us that his ego was not at stake or in the way of pursuing the best course for the Church. His was a curious combination of caution and courage.

Even when he might be entitled to focus entirely on himself—when cancer invaded him or accusations besmeared him—he both confronted the situation as fully and directly as possible and turned the occasion into an opportunity to serve the Body of Christ as well as the body politic. Think just of the last days, when his own struggle with cancer became an opportunity to minister to others similarly afflicted. His final days became an occasion, not for self-pity but for exemplifying and expressing to the U.S. Supreme Court how each person's life, even in the face of death, has meaning and value for the whole human community, which would be tragically ignored by approving physician-assisted suicide. Here he was carrying through in person the consistent ethic of life he had so wisely offered to the Church and nation as a way of understanding both the sacredness of every life and the community of all life.

I came to know Cardinal Bernardin most directly these past four years in discussions about how to improve our ability to understand and address critical pastoral issues by broadening and deepening the dialogue among people who have not been listening to each other because they have been divided into camps. The Catholic Common Ground Initiative and its founding document, “Called to be Catholic” was vintage Bernardin. Stating from commitment to Christ and the teaching of the Church and accountable to both the boundaries of authentic teaching and respect for differences, the initiative is, in the title of the Cardinal's last public address, both “faithful and hopeful.” Here again the cardinal was consistently conciliar, bringing together people of diverse views and positions to contribute to the ongoing search for ways to enhance the community and mission of the Church. This was no settling for any lowest common denominator, but the pursuit of the richest possible understanding that emerges when sincere people respectfully unite in careful dialogue. It is no wonder that Cardinal Roger Mahony has described the project as the last and fitting legacy of Cardinal Bernardin to the Church. I was deeply saddened when Cardinal Bernardin told me on Aug. 29, the 55th anniversary of my own father's death, that the cancer had returned and there was little time left. From the beginning he has made clear provisions that the initiative not depend on him, and he has assured continuity with the agreement of Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb to succeed him as chair. It will go forward as one modest and conscientious effort to search out ways for the Body of Christ to carry out the mission of Christ more effectively in our time and culture.

Ultimately his conciliar manner was more than a matter of structure and style, it was a theology that had become a spirituality for Cardinal Bernardin. The new understanding of the Church as expressed in the documents of Vatican II is inevitably replete with ambiguity, compromise and incompleteness that often makes agreements on authentic and orthodox interpretation difficult. When this is true we can do no better than to consult the life of one who embodied this ecclesiology.

Msgr. Philip Murnion is director of the National Pastoral Life Center in New York.

A Final Plea for Life; Letter to the Supreme Court

Dear Honorable Justices:

I am at the end of my earthly life. There is much that I have contemplated these last few months of my illness, but as one who is dying I have especially come to appreciate the gift of life. I know from my own experience that patients often face difficult and deeply personal decisions about their care. However, I also know that even a person who decides to forego treatment does not necessarily choose death. Rather, he chooses life without the burden of disproportionate medical intervention.

In this case, the Court faces one of the most important issues of our times. Physician-assisted suicide is decidedly a public matter. It is not simply a decision made between patient and physician. Because life affects every person, it is of primary public concern.

I have often remarked that I admire the writings of the late Father John Courtney Murray, who argued that an issue was related to public policy if it affected the public order of society. And public order, in turn, encompassed three goods: public peace, the essential protection of human rights and commonly accepted standards of moral behavior in a community.

Our legal and ethical tradition has held consistently that suicide, assisted-suicide, and euthanasia are wrong because they involve a direct attack on innocent human life. And it is a matter of public policy because it involves a violation of a fundamental human good.

There can be no such thing as a “right to assisted-suicide” because there can be no legal and moral order which tolerates the killing of innocent human life, even if the agent of death is selfadministered. Creating a new “right” to assisted-suicide will endanger society and send a false signal that a less than “perfect” life is not worth living.

Physician-assisted suicide also directly affects the physician patient relationship and, through that, the wider role of physicians in our society. As has been noted by others, it introduces a deep ambiguity into the very definition of medical care, if care comes to involve killing. Beyond the physician, a move to assisted-suicide and, perhaps beyond that, to euthanasia creates social ambiguity about the law. In civilized society the law exists to protect life. When it begins to legitimate the taking of life as a policy, one has a right to ask what lies ahead for our life together as a society.

In order to protect patients from abuse, and to protect society from a dangerous erosion in its commitment to preserving human life, I urge the Court not to create any right to assisted suicide.

With cordial good wishes, I remain

Sincerely yours,

Joseph Cardinal Bernardin

Archbishop of Chicago (Nov. 7)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Philip Murnion ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Next Sunday at Mass DATE: 11/24/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 24, 1996 ----- BODY:

The Holy Season of Advent

by PETER JOHN CAMERON, O.P.

Dec. 1, 1996

First Sunday of Advent

Mk 13, 33-37

AS WE AWAIT His coming at Christmas, this first Sunday of Advent, Jesus recounts a story about a man leaving home to travel abroad, leaving his servants behind, unsure when he'll return. In our preparation for the birth of Jesus, we do “know when the appointed time will come”—Dec. 25. But our knowledge of the historical trappings of the Incarnation in no way dispenses us from the kind of watchfulness and vigilance the Lord asks of us today.

He refers to sleeping in order to symbolize the evil of being ill-prepared and inattentive to the master's return. The great Advent virtue is wakefulness: We are to be fully conscious in every respect. And, first of all, our attentiveness must first be directed to the instructions the at today's Mass. They hold the clue as to how our attentiveness prepares us to receive the Master and participate fully in His life, death, and resurrection.

Today's reading appears in Mark's Gospel just immediately before chapter 14 that begins the passion narrative. That is to say, the passage provided by the liturgy to prepare us for the birth of Jesus was originally written by the Evangelist to prepare us for the death of Jesus. Indeed, the two objectives are not opposed. For the Church reminds us that everything that Jesus did, from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, is to be seen in the light of the mysteries of Christmas and Easter. These two great mysteries taken together complete and perfect our personal participation in the saving actions of Jesus Christ.

And, as we prepare for the Lord's coming, our preparation does not cease once he arrives. The presence of Jesus Christ in our midst only further emboldens us to be one with him in his Passion. That's why Jesus gives us a special reminder about the possible times the master in the parable might appear. He may come at dusk, as he does at the Last Supper. He may come at midnight, as he does in the Garden of Gethsemane when he is handed over by his betrayer. He may come when the cock crowsal reminder about the possi him. Or he may come at early dawn—the time of the Resurrection.

Unlike the disciples sleeping in Gethsemane while Jesus experiences his agony, we must remain wide awake this Advent, attentive to his presence, praying in his company, willing even to suffer with him. We stay on guard against laxity, laziness, sinfulness, and apathy. And we know that we will be successful in our efforts to be watchful and awake. For the Master has left us, his servants, “in charge.” He has blessed us with the grace, the desire, and the ability to seek him, to wait for him, to find him, and to respond to Him in a way that exceeds our natural capacities. That supernatural capacity to welcome and to embrace the Master—in the way that he deserves—is the great grace and privilege of this holy season of Advent.

Father Cameron teaches homiletics at St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Cameron ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Common Ground' Proving Hard to Find DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

‘Stakes are high for future of American Church’

MSGR. PHILIP MURNION, director of the National Pastoral Life Center in New York, is a major player behind the Common Ground project recently launched by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago.

In a statement intended to begin the dialogue, Common Ground organizers lament a Church in the United States which “has entered a time of peril” in which many of its leaders feel “under siege and increasingly polarized” by pressure groups from the left and the right.

The statement, titled Called to Be Catholic: Church in a Time of Peril, and a follow-up series of meetings planned for next year, come at a time of growing discord in the Church. It's been something of a long, hot summer in American Catholic circles as several issues have come to the fore.

If Msgr. Murnion had any doubt that the Common Ground statement was speaking to real divisions in the Church, it was disabused by the quick critical reaction it generated from opposing quarters. Two prominent American cardinals, Bernard Law of Boston and James Hickey of Washington, D.C., attacked it for not supporting the teaching of the hierarchy and encouraging dissent. Frances Kissling, director of Catholics for a Free Choice, a group in favor of abortion and condemned by the hierarchy, argued that the statement wasn't inclusive enough of groups like hers.

“Putting the statement out has provoked the kind of polarized comments that the statement said is getting in the way of the real challenges the Church is facing,” Msgr. Murnion told the Register.

The Common Ground statement describes a Church in the United States still groping to make an impact on society more than 30 years after Vatican II. It argues that a “mood of suspicion and acrimony hangs over many of those most active in the Church's life” and that “candid discussion is inhibited” in a polarized atmosphere beset by arguments between liberals and conservatives.

It calls for a dialogue which addresses the role of women in the Church and society. It also urges the initiation of an open discussion about the image and morale of priests; the ways in which the Church manifests its positions in the political sphere; the dwindling financial resources in many parishes, and how decisions are made in the Church. It calls for discussing such issues in an atmosphere free of rancor and with the recognition “that no single group or viewpoint in the Church has a complete monopoly on the truth.”

Cardinal Bernardin, in announcing the project during a Chicago press conference, said that “the unity of the Church is threatened” by growing polarization in the Church and that “the great gift of the Second Vatican Council is in danger of being seriously undermined.”

Driven to succeed

The cardinal, who has a long reputation as a reconciler in the Church, said he wants the project to succeed, in part because he is personally battling cancer. He indicated that Common Ground could be his final lasting achievement in a long career which included national leadership positions with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and as a leader who has always sought common ground on difficult issues, including the controversial U.S. bishops statement which condemned the arms race and warned about the potential perils of nuclear conflict.

“When one comes face to face with the reality of death in a very profound way as a cancer patient, one's perspective on life is altered dramatically,” said Cardinal Bernardin.

The project will feature an advisory committee of seven other bishops, including Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb of Mobile and Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland, O.S.B., It will also include 16 Catholic leaders from across the ideological spectrum, including Msgr. Murnion, philosopher Michael Novak, Judge John Noonan Jr. of San Francisco, Commonweal editor Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, former Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey, Harvard Law professor and Vatican adviser Mary Ann Glendon, and John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO.

Despite the involvement of this Catholic American dream team, criticism from Cardinal's Law and Hickey has gotten the project off to a rocky start. While neither attacked the project, both criticized the launching statement as going too far in encouraging dialogue with dissident viewpoints.

“Throughout, there are gratuitous assumptions, and at significant points it breathes an ideological bias which it elsewhere decries in others. The fundamental flaw in this document is its appeal for ‘dialogue’ as a path to ‘common ground,’” said Cardinal Law.

“Dissent from revealed truth or the authoritative teaching of the Church cannot be ‘dialogued’ away,” he added. “Truth and dissent from truth are not equal partners in ecclesial dialogue.”

Cardinal Hickey argued that “we cannot achieve Church unity by accommodating those who dissent from Church teaching—whether on the left or on the right. To compromise the faith of the Church is to forfeit our ‘common ground’ and to risk deeper polarization.”

Cardinal Hickey said that the statement “does not give the magisterium its due” because “it seems to regard magisterial teaching as only one element of consensus that is to be forged out of contrasting opinions.”

Novak said that he agreed with the tone of the cardinals' criticisms of the statement, but that doesn't mean the dialogue should be stopped.

“The statement is not the guide of what we do. It is the description of the current situation,” he said.

He said that Church teaching, as articulated by Pope John Paul II, often includes a long process of dialogue and discussion.

Novak, himself a former critic of the Church teaching which forbids artificial contraception and now a supporter of it, noted that in many cases, “you just don't get it. You have to walk your way through it.”

Disagreeing, he said, is “an art” which is often not fully appreciated in Church circles. Such a dialogue envisioned by Cardinal Bernardin, said Novak, could be useful in promoting the teaching of Pope John Paul II.

Michael Ferguson, director of the Catholic Campaign for America, a group of lay Catholics which prides itself on its fidelity to papal teaching, agreed.

“My impression is that it's a good faith effort to bring people in the Church together around the teachings of the Pope,” said Ferguson, who is not a part of the dialogue. But he warned that “we can't create our own common ground” which is not consistent with Church teaching.

Seeking new harmony

Msgr. Murnion said he hopes that the statement, which has already been published in both the Register and the National Catholic Reporter, will be widely read. The National Pastoral Life Center is encouraging the distribution of reprints.

“One of our hopes is that people will take the statement and see how it applies to their own actions,” he said, noting that leaders of pressure groups on the left and right can learn to better respect each other.

As discussion continues and the statement is distributed, Msgr. Murnion said he would like to see “more attentive listening” in the Church instead of wallowing in “the divisions which rob us of learning from each other.”

Commonweal's Steinfels said the stakes in the Common Ground project are high. It needs to succeed if the Catholic Church is to be a force in American culture in the next century.

“There has been a kind of wandering in the desert” over the past 30 years, she told the Register.

While “I feel often that most of us have more in common than disagreement,” time is running out on the Church in the United States,” said Steinfels. The Common Ground process needs to be re-enacted throughout Catholic America, she said, warning that the Church in this country has about 10 years to get its act together.

At that point, she said, the priest shortage will begin to make a major impact on the way the Church operates. If lay people are not prepared, the impact of Catholicism here will wither, she cautioned.

“Lay people will really have to be the heart of the Church. I don't see it happening, in part because we are paralyzed by some of these arguments.”

Efforts like Common Ground, she said, are a way “to look the future in the face.”

Peter Feuerherd is based in New York.

----- EXCERPT:Initiative stirs emotions on all sides ----- EXTENDED BODY: PETER FEUERHERD ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: GOP Ticket Enjoying Some Real Momentum DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE REPUBLICANS left their San Diego convention with a bounce in their step, buoyed by rebounding poll numbers and a renewed enthusiasm from party activists. Post-convention polls showed the Dole-Kemp ticket slicing into President Clinton's once commanding lead both nationally and in key battleground states.

Three events combined to rejuvenate the Dole campaign which just weeks ago was stumbling along without money or message. The announcement of the Dole tax plan, with its call for a sweeping 15 percent across the board tax cut as well as other tax cuts for families, businesses and investors, gave the campaign a central theme that united the party. The selection of Jack Kemp for the Vice Presidential nomination also played well in the media and with party regulars. Kemp, always a favorite of grassroots GOP activists, also put a jolt of electricity into the Dole effort with his energy, optimism, and enthusiasm. Finally, the four-day convention went smoothly, with winning prime-time speeches by Colin Powell, Elizabeth Dole, Kemp and the nominee himself being broadcast to a national audience.

The campaign then left the city by the sea and took to the road, with stops in Denver, at the Illinois State Fair, and in Buffalo, Jack Kemp's hometown. In Buffalo, Dole and Kemp addressed an overflow rally of 7,500 cheering supporters who turned out to welcome their hometown hero who was once a championship quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. The team them moved on to other battleground states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Dole and Kemp campaigned together until the week of August 26, when the two were to take separate vacations during the Democratic Convention.

Another factor in the Dole resurgence is as old as politics itself: money. When Dole was formally named the GOP nominee, he was eligible for more than $62 million in federal matching funds, and the campaign was allowed to begin spending its own money again. Prior to the Republican convention, the Dole campaign (which spent heavily in the spring to win the GOP nomination) was hitting up against the pre-convention campaign spending limit, and was prohibited from spending. The campaign coasted into San Diego by using funds freed up by the Republican National Committee, but there are limits to how much the RNC can spend to prop up the Dole effort during this interim period.

With the influx of new dollars, the campaign can spend more freely to set up huge rallies (like the one in Buffalo), and to begin airing television commercials. The campaign began doing just that this week, airing ads in California, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania touting the Dole tax cut plan—thus ending a four-month string in which the Clinton-Gore team had the airwaves to themselves.

Post-convention polls show that Dole and Kemp have chipped away at the Clinton lead, which was holding steady at 20 points just weeks ago. According to most polls, the gap now stands at between six to 10 points. An Aug. 19 Newsweek poll showed the race to be “neck and neck” (Clinton-44 percent, Dole-42 percent), but the Aug. 17 ABC News tracking poll showed a more realistic 47-38 percent spread in favor of Clinton-Gore. Of course, the President himself can expect a boost from his own convention in Chicago.

Nearly as important as the national polls are surveys showing that the Dole-Kemp ticket was making headway in many key states, including California. A Field Poll released Aug. 20 showed that the Clinton lead in California had been cut by more than half, to just 10 points (43 percent to 35 percent). “No question, Dole has made a remarkable bounce,” said poll director Mervin Field. “The Dole movement is across the board. This is going to reawaken public interest, and it's now a contest.” Polling in battleground states like New Jersey, Illinois, and Ohio also show the race tightening considerably.

Many analysts are asking themselves what this newly-energized Dole campaign means for a crucial swing vote for 1996—religious Catholics. Can the GOPbuild on the party's 1994 showing, when a majority of Catholics voted Republican in congressional elections'?

“Bob Dole has really helped himself with the selection of Jack Kemp,” said Michael Ferguson, executive director of the Catholic Campaign for America. “Catholics are concerned with reaching out to the poor and impoverished. They want to help people in a positive, empowering way— and that is exactly what Jack Kemp has been talking about for years.”

“On another level, Kemp is solid on many issues that are important to Catholics,” he continued. “He is prolife and pro-family, and he is a big supporter of school choice. I think Kemp will be a big help with Catholics.”

Congressman Peter King (R-N.Y.), a pro-life Catholic from Long Island said, “Catholics, especially ethnic Catholics, are really the classic Reagan Democrat swing voters.

Many experts now can envision a scenario in which Dole and Kemp pull off a near-miraculous comeback.

“They MayVoteRepublican, But they are on leave from the Democratic Party. They will only stick with us if we talk about issues that matter to them.

“The problems Republicans had with Catholics in 1995 was that we spent all our time talking about greeneyeshade budget issues,” he continued.

“You are not going to win over a Catholic family by talking about budget projections for the year 2002.”

Ferguson agrees. “Catholic want to know about issues that affect their family every day. They are very much concerned about practical everyday issues.

“Now Dole and Kemp are finally starting to connect,” said King, whose district is more than half Catholic (and where the largest employer is the Diocese of Rockville Centre). “The Dole tax plan and school vouchers mean a lot to Catholic families. Kemp also will resonate very well with Catholics. He speaks about issues in a way that appeals to the average family. He talks about basic values that middle- class Americans understand. These are the kind of things that Catholics want to hear.

“Most Catholics are not comfortable with evangelical rhetoric,” he said. “We believe in personal responsibility, but we are not vindictive. That is why Kemp will do well. He is compassionate, and he speaks the language of the middle class.”

Congressman Chris Smith (RN. J.), a pro-life Catholic, said, “This is a ‘Dream Team’ for church-going Catholics.

“Here we have two men who have a great track record on our issues, and that is in sharp contrast to Bill Clinton.

“Dole and Kemp have been with us on the issue of life, they have been with us on school choice and school prayer,” he continued. “They have always supported Judeo-Christian values. Bill Clinton on the other hand represents Joycelen Elder's values. He is the pro-abortion President. The contrast for Catholics could not be clearer.”

Assuming Dole can keep the heat on the President into the fall, the Republicans just may make enough headway with Catholics and other key swing voters to close the gap even further. In fact, many experts now can envision a scenario in which Dole and Kemp pull off a near-miraculous comeback—a notion which was almost unthinkable as recently as early August.

Charles Cook, a respected political professional and poll-watcher, recently mapped out a strategy for a Dole victory. Conceding the Democrats the Northeast and the Pacific coast states, Dole could still topple the President if he wins nearly all the southern states and Mountain states and most of the Rust Belt/Great Lakes region. “A disciplined campaign in which Dole taps into voters' distaste for Clinton while assuring them that he too has a modicum of empathy for their plight can simultaneously erode Clinton's support nationally while bolstering his own,” Cook opined in the Sept. 2 New Republic. “ Suddenly, a Dole victory is not so hard to imagine after all.”

Michael Barbera is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: MICHAELBARBERA ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Chicago Plan Aims to Cure Local Church Woes DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

Critics say funding for non- Catholic students at risk

CAN THE NATION'S second largest diocese, grappling with low church attendance, flagging financial support and fewer priests, become a model of success at evangelization?

The Archdiocese of Chicago is intent on it. Two years ago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin launched an ambitious strategic plan, called Decisions, to guide the archdiocese into the next century. Decisions called for a renewed emphasis on evangelization/education and ministerial leadership.

Now nearly halfway through the process, the archdiocese is training lay ministers, has created a parish-based program to increase racial sensitivities, has helped more than 100 parishes boost Sunday collections and will conduct on-site evaluations of priests. Altogether, the archdiocese has reached 14 of its 40 goals and is making headway on others.

“The Church in Chicago will be significantly different by the year 2000,” said Mercy Sister Mary Brian Costello, the cardinal's chief of staff. “The plan is coming together. Some pieces swiftly and others more slowly.”

The goals of Decisions were established after broad input, first from archdiocesan administrative leaders and consultative bodies and then from more than 8,000 Catholics at parishes. If nothing else, Decisions mobilized Catholics and forced them to confront basic issues. It created energy to address the problems facing their parishes, schools and the Church at large.

Yet some question if any amount of diocesan planning can alleviate broad Church issues like the priest shortage, alienated Catholics and poor financial support. And Decisions has been criticized by some priests at poor, African- American parishes in Chicago who question if the Church is turning inward and abandoning evangelization among non-Catholics.

When Decisions began, Chicago, much like other dioceses, was beset by a wide assortment of problems. The number of active diocesan priests had gone from 937 to 767 for its 380 parishes. The archdiocese predicted only 561 priests would be active by the year 2,000, and most of them would be graying.

Regular Mass attendance for the 2.3 million Catholics in the Chicago area was somewhere between 25 and 30 percent. The financial outlook was gloomy as well. Chancery operations were in the red, but the real bleeding was at parishes where giving had been stagnant. Unless changes were made, the parishes were expected to post a staggering $27 million deficit by the end of the century. This was especially dismaying to archdiocesan officials in light of the 46 parishes and schools they had closed in 1990 to address a shortfall then.

Yet Decisions was conceived chiefly as a boost to evangelization/education and ministerial leadership. “We should be involved in this type of planning even if we had all the money in the world,” Cardinal Bernardin said when the program was launched. “I would like to think we are mission-driven and not money-driven. Our purpose is to enhance the mission of the Church.”

Most of the 40 goals revolve around priests, parishes or lay leadership. Decisions calls for increased recruiting for the priesthood, professional development and spiritual renewal for priests, and more effective deployment of priests.

At the parish level, Decisions requires an evaluation of Sunday worship and sacramental celebrations and participation in homily improvement programs for all authorized to preach. The program also calls for seeking out and training lay leaders of diverse backgrounds and for developing standards of preparation for all ministers. A $225,000 scholarship fund was set up to help train the laity.

A number of goals are supposed to be achieved each year, and all of them by 1999. The cardinal's much-publicized battle with cancer has not slowed down Decisions, said Sister Costello.

Archdiocesan officials are particularly proud of Decisions' impact on its Parish Sharing program. For years parishes in more affluent areas, paired off with parishes in poor areas, have shared financial resources. Parishioners also meet socially or at church to help break down barriers caused by different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The Parish Sharing program, though successful, was reinvigorated through Decisions. Parishes that had been lukewarm toward the program took a renewed interest in it, especially after the cardinal issued a pastoral statement on parish sharing. As with other components of Decisions, putting a spotlight on a problem or issue has led to concrete results.

“We've created an environment that didn't exist before,” said Sister Costello. “Decisions gave us a certain energy. We're looking at the issues now and grappling with them.”

Another chief accomplishment was helping parishes increase their Sunday collections. Guided by the Development Office, dozens of parishes that took part in a special offertory program saw collections rise between 25 to 33 percent. Today, archdiocesan finances remain a key concern, but officials insist there will be no repeat of the massive closings of 1990.

Still to be implemented is a pilot program in parishes to ease racial distrust. In highly segregated Chicago, parishes have seen changing neighborhoods undergo complete racial turnover. Other parishes have suffered racial tension, typically between Hispanics new to the parish and well-established ethnic whites who resent changes in Liturgy and parish governance. A Decisions document bluntly decried “a lack of unity and harmony in some parishes and the withdrawal of members of ethnic groups from others.”

Indeed, another key concern of the archdiocese is meeting the needs of the growing Hispanic population. More than 23 percent of archdiocesan Catholics are Hispanic, yet relatively few clergy or parish staff share those roots. One goal of Decisions is to train ministers to run Hispanic-influenced Liturgies.

Decisions also calls for making a Catholic school education available to every Catholic child. Regional schools, as opposed to parish schools, likely will be formed in some areas, meaning some schools will consolidate and many school parents will be angered.

But the part of Decisions that worries inner-city priests and principals is a reevaluation of diocesan aid to schools with large African-American, frequently non-Catholic, populations. Some Catholics and Church leaders have quietly questioned for years why the diocese generously funds schools with few Catholics while the needs of Hispanics and other mostly Catholic ethnic groups are supposedly not met.

Decisions calls for continuation of the Big Shoulders Fund, a non-profit, non-sectarian group begun by the cardinal to raise money among corporations and individuals for inner-city schools. The archdiocese also pledges to keep supplementing well-attended and needy parish schools. But Decisions also ominously asks each parish to “discern realistically how much it can provide for year to year education of non-Catholic students” and calls for “new standards for recipients of grants.”

Decisions' effects on black parishes have been called into question by some critics. One priest at a thriving black parish in a low-income area criticized Decisions as directing evangelization at fallen-away Catholics and ignoring the pressing need to evangelize among blacks, who are a quarter of the 5.5 million people in the archdiocese yet represent less than 5 percent of all Catholics.

Still, the larger question remains as to the overall effectiveness of Decisions. Can a large diocese retool itself in a few years? And is broad consultation the best way to do it?

Sister Costello said involving ordinary Catholics in planning is precisely the right way to effect change. Catholics need to be encouraged not to be parochial, to recognize that the Church extends beyond parish boundaries.

“We've told people for 150 years to make parish life vibrant, ‘Good you've done that. Now let's be concerned about the wider Church,’” said Sister Costello.

Father William Kenneally, pastor of St. Gertrude Parish in Chicago, said Decisions helped his parish rethink itself. Several parishioners were deeply involved in the process. Later on, following the Decisions program, St. Gertrude analyzed itself. It decided a chief need was evangelization of teens.

But the parish still has not developed a way to evangelize teens. “That might be the way it works with the diocese, too,” said Father Kenneally. “We determined our priorities and said what our problems are. But we still don't know what to do.”

Still, Father Kenneally endorsed Decisions and its consultative model. “It's easy to criticize the cardinal and his ‘liberal fuzziness.’ But it's the right way. It was broad-based and brought in lay people. Whether in the long run it willbring about smoother change, I don't know.”

Jay Copp is based in Chicago.

----- EXCERPT:Evangelization gets renewed emphasis ----- EXTENDED BODY: JAYCOPP ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Homeless Not on This Year's Political Shortlist DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

IN PAST PRESIDENTIAL elections, homelessness has been cast as one of the most pressing crises facing the country; this year, the issue is rarely mentioned. Democrats and Republicans are now equally eager to pass punitive laws against “vagrancy,” and to reform what many perceive as an overly-generous welfare system. New York, San Francisco and other cities have passed laws against panhandling, sleeping in public, and additional measures designed to curb the activities of the homeless.

Some observers argue that among the homeless there is a core group of professional beggars who refuse help offered by shelters, and need harsh measures to convince them to change their lifestyle. Others see the new laws as aimed at soothing people's consciences by forcing the homeless out of sight.

“There are many people on the streets of Sacramento,” said David Pollard, associate director for public policy of the California Catholic Conference (CCC). “But the city has developed plans to have them less visible and less obtrusive. This is doubly true in the [San Francisco] Bay area and Los Angeles.”

Pollard said the plight of the homeless is a non-issue in this election. “The administration in power hasn't alleviated it. The challengers to them haven't alleviated it. Neither side can promise they're going to eliminate it, because both have had the opportunity.”

Nancy Wisdo, director of the Office of Domestic Development at the United States Catholic Conference (USCC), agrees that the homeless issue has become less visible. “It's not that people don't care anymore—it's just the opposite. Homelessness and helping the homeless has become an industry in itself. But so many people are involved in helping the homeless that we fail to ask the larger question of why people are homeless and why they don't get permanent housing—they're shuttled from shelter to shelter.”

Father Joe Carroll, founder of St. Vincent de Paul Village, a model full-service help facility in San Diego, thinks the issue of homelessness has lost voters' attention recently because the numbers of homeless have stabilized, now running about one-quarter to one-half percent of a city's population. In addition to providing meals and housing to homeless individuals and families for over 14 years, St. Vincent de Paul Village provides education, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, medical care, parenting classes, psychological counseling and other services designed to address the root problems which prevent homeless persons from functioning effectively in society. St. Vincent de Paul's also provides lunch each day for thousands of homeless who do not live at the shelter. The number of daily meals nearly doubled in 1994 after the City of San Diego passed zoning restrictions which closed many smaller shelters and soup kitchens run by other churches.

Father Carroll believes the homeless issue will come to the forefront in the next few years, estimating that, as a result of new welfare reform measures, the numbers of homeless will double or triple. He said the “block grants” that will be given to states can easily be abused, with funds either being used up in bureaucracies before they reach local programs providing services to the homeless, or being spent on other things. “l think they'll find reasons to build roads and police stations in poor neighborhoods, rather than shelters,” said Carroll. “The money that goes to meals, literacy, or job training will go to make the cities look beautiful.”

Welfare reform, added the CCC's Pollard, will initially cause an upheaval in methods of delivering services to the homeless. Federal money will be given to each state for welfare programs, to be administered at the state's discretion. Pollard predicts that with the upcoming reduction in federal programs, Catholic organizations will likely also be called upon to provide childcare, emergency food, as well as temporary and permanent housing. He notes that, since government assistance will now be denied to legal immigrants (illegal immigrants are already excluded from nearly all aid), private programs like Catholic Charities will be all the more important. “One thing that is very clear is we are going to have to do something relative to immigrants—what will the response of Catholic hospitals and Catholic Charities be to the denial of prenatal care to undocumented women and their babies? What is going to be the effect relative to legal immigrants? None of that is clear.”

Pollard doesn't see the transition to private charities and local rather than federal management as all bad: “Ultimately, it becomes a renewed opportunity for people to be personally conscious of their individual responsibility. But to say good will come out of it, I don't want to vindicate the political actions that brought it to be.” Pollard said it has yet to be determined whether private groups can be as efficient as large federal programs. He emphasized the importance of personal contact between the poor and homeless with other members of society, explaining the benefits to his son, a senior at a Jesuit High School near Sacramento, who spent the summer working at a center for youngsters with learning disabilities.

“One of the greatest rewards he experienced was that connection with others. He sat down with this kid on a one-to-one basis and all of a sudden, the kid not only saw the importance of education, but saw someone who cared enough to use his summertime volunteering to help him,” said Pollard. “These kinds of messages need to be communicated to every human being. That is the essence of Catholic social ministry. That's one of the things that is missing from the welfare system. But the two are not incompatible; that can be a complement to a well thought-out, sensibly administered financial assistance program.”

Mark and Louise Zwick also laud the idea of personal contact. The couple run the Houston Catholic Worker, providing food and housing for hundreds of homeless, especially immigrants, relying solely on donations from local businesses and individuals. The group has three shelters— two short-term and one long-term, as well as programs for distribution of food, clothing and other necessities. The Zwicks contend, in the tradition of Catholic Worker founders Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, that personal interaction with the poor is essential—for the person in need, as well as for the soul of the person providing assistance. They also are quick to mention the far-reaching, unseen effects from such practice of the Corporal Works of Mercy.

Said the CCC's Pollard: “The Catholic response historically and throughout the world is, where you find the suffering human being, you supply what's needed.”

Father Carroll agrees, but is less optimistic about small private initiatives making up for reductions in government programs. “[St. Vincent de Paul Village] can feed 4,000 people a day; a parish soup kitchen might feed 50, and much less cost-effectively.”

Lesley Payne is based in San Diego.

----- EXCERPT:Political parties ignore issue that won't fade ----- EXTENDED BODY: LESLEYPAYNE ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Religious Freedom Is 'Permanent and Complete' in Post-Communist Albania DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

Leke Tasi has been deputy director of the Albanian government's Office for Religions since its creation in 1992. From 1946 to 1967 Tasi was a State Radio Orchestra Cellist in Communist Albania. Abandoning his musical career, he became a laborer in 1967. Then in 1975 he was exiled to a remote village because he was a suspected “enemy of the people.” Since returning to Tirana in 1990, Tasi has exhibited paintings and written for Christian journals. Tasi, who is also a member of Tirana's Orthodox Cathedral Council, recently spoke with the Register.

Register: Recent months have brought growing tension between Albania's conservative government and former communists overalleged attempts by President Berisha to monopolize power. How have the tensions affected the country's religious communities?

Tasi: Religious freedom is permanent and complete now, and no one is afraid to profess their faith. The State and government guarantee this freedom, although lack of funds and relevant laws means they cannot help the churches in practice. In fact, this lack of legal regulation is a realistic option, since certain extreme tendencies in our country would favor a law which impeded religious activities. We should remember that religious life is also largely unregulated in the United States.

Five years after the fall of Albania's exceptionally brutal communist regime, the country's traditional religious breakdown— 70 percent Muslim, 20 percent Orthodox, 10 percent Catholic—is now clearly outdated. How have the three confessions contributed to the recovery of national identity?

Catholic priests were playing a small but important role in Albanian culture as early as the 16th century. In the south, the Orthodox clergy translated the Bible, and promoted Albanian identity within the predominant Orthodox culture of Greece. When Albania became independent in 1912, the Orthodox Church was required by its canons to become autocephallous, or selfgoverning. This helped create a new national consciousness.

Albania's mostly Sunni Muslims were more backward. But followers of the Bektashi branch of Islam, mostly found in the south, fought for independence and fostered Albanian patriotism. In the Albanian-inhabited Kosovo region of neighboring Yugoslavia, the Serbs tried to destroy this identity by turning local Muslims into Muslimani, as in Bosnia. But their efforts never succeeded. These respective contributions are all remembered today.

The Orthodox Church has been at the receiving end of bitter disputes since the June 1992 appointment of a Greek national, Anastasios Yanulatos, as its first post-communist archbishop. Aren't religious affairs in danger of becoming a focus of popular conflict?

My own Office has received several drafts for a new religious law, containing both hidden and overt obstructions to religious life. But in November 1994, when citizens voted in a referendum to reject a new constitution, one reason was that it contained a clause requiring all religious leaders to have been Albanian citizens for 20 years. In reality, Anastasios is an enlightened person, who has played a key role in the Church's recovery and the renewal of ties with other Orthodox communities. But when cross-border relations with Greece deteriorated three years ago, opponents of the Democratic Party and pro-Western tendencies found a pretext for acting against him.

But President Berisha himself has criticized Anastasios's appointment, and warned that his presence in Albania should be regarded as provisional only.

I repeat, Anastasios has done very valuable missionary work. As a former vicechairman of the Conference of European Churches, he has contacts with Roman Catholics, Anglicans and others, and has helped make our Church known and accepted abroad. He is also respected in Greece, and helped ensure humanitarian treatment for Albanians working there. This makes him an ideal person to help bring Albania into the European fold. Albanian believers have only one wish— to see their Church re-established. Very few resisted Anastasios's appointment.

The main opposition was led by a Muslim ex-communist parliamentarian, who tried to resurrect the idea of an exclusively Albanian national Church associated with the early Twentieth Century nationalist leader, Bishop Fan Noli.

It's true that President Berisha imposed a theoretical time-limit and said the archbishop's presence should be seen as provisional. But Orthodox canons say that, once enthroned, a bishop cannot be dismissed except by his own free will or in case of scandal. Anastasios responded to the President's statement with the words, “We are all provisional on this Earth.” In reality, Berisha has been one of Anastasios's main supporters. He visited him at Christmas and Easter, and put his appreciation on record.

Aren't you painting too rosy a picture of the Albanian government's stance? Last January, the government was accused of confiscating 20 churches, mostly Orthodox.

The main object of these complaints was the Orthodox monastery of Our Lady at Adenitsa, outside Tirana. After the ravages of Ottoman and communist occupation, very few centers like this survive. So when the monastery was returned at the Church's request, along with other communist- confiscated buildings, the Technical Institute for Monuments proposed that they should not be used until their historic and cultural value had been protected. This provoked an outcry from some Orthodox intellectuals. But Archbishop Anastasios simply asked Berisha to overturn the Institute's ruling— and the President did.

Looking at your own background, how did your personal sufferings influence your attitude to Church affairs?

My father, a supporter of Bishop Fan Noli, fled to Greece in 1924 after King Zog's return to power, and only came back to Albania in 1941. He was appointed deputy governor of Kosovo, but was ousted by the Italians and imprisoned for 20 years by the communists. He died in 1966, 18 months after his release. Two of my uncles were jailed too—one died in prison in 1961. My brother served seven years for belonging to an “anti-Communist group”; and my sister was sentenced to eight years for making “false statements.”

My sister was jailed again in 1979, four years after my family was exiled from Tirana. She failed to applaud when she was accused of “bad attitudes” at one of the village meetings which were regularly convened to denounce “enemies of the people.” Locals attacked our house and smashed the windows. And when we failed to turn up for work, the police came and arrested my sister—they had wanted to imprison her anyway. She came home in 1982 under an amnesty plan. Her eyesight was damaged.

You were also a musician and artist. Was it possible to be creative under such rigid, terrifying conditions?

I gave up my job as a cellist in 1967 and spent the rest of the communist period as a manual laborer. I continued to paint secretly. But it was dangerous to seek recognition as an artist, since then one became known. At my last exhibition in 1966, the Albanian premier rejected my three pictures during the preview.

Artists and writers adopted a servile attitude to communism. Even the works of Albania's best-known literary figure, Ishmael Kadare, show this clearly. Much of Kadare's work is good technically. But true humanity in art and literature must reveal the complexity of things, while also following clear criteria and maintaining a positive, self-confident attitude. Nietzsche, for example, was anti-religious; but his approach to religion can be appreciated since it was clear and consistent. Awriter who merely changes according to circumstances lacks character and value.

You also remained a religious person, even though all religion was outlawed in 1967 when Albania was declared the world's “first fully atheist state.”

Although all places of worship were closed in 1967, some priests continued to wear vestments secretly at home. I myself risked severe punishment by listening to religious services on foreign radio stations. I even translated a catechism and history book for Orthodox Christians, though these have yet to be published.

Against this background, it is a great joy to see religious practices reviving, especially among the young. Paradoxically, the changes in thinking may have been relatively easy in Albania. Unlike in neighboring Yugoslavia, very few people retained any illusions. The very harshness of Albanian communism made its disappearance all the quicker. American friends tell me ritualistic religion is dying out. But if properly directed, ritual can stimulate a deep response from the heart.

Some say the idea of “religious revival” is fraught with dangers. Bosnia also had a deep-rooted tradition of Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims living side by side.

Albania has always been, and will continue to be, an example of harmony. This is a source of national pride. It's true that Bosnia also had religious communities coexisting as national groups. But religious pluralism has brought only positive results in Albania. Of course, rival political factions are full of animosity for each other here too—and at times the feuding has painted a primitive picture of Albania. But the only attempts to politicize religious divisions have come from crypto-communist and nationalist groups hoping to create instability. In the 19th century, it was said that the real Albanian religion was “Albanian-ness.” This is true today too. And it ensures that religious identities cannot be used in a negative way. In our new Parliament, only arguments will be valid, not religious loyalties.

—Jonathan Luxmoore

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jonathan Luxmoore ----- KEYWORDS:opinion -------- TITLE: PBS's Fall Lineup Heavy on God and Virtue DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

CHILDREN'S CARTOONS about virtue. A 10-part series on the Book of Genesis, complete with a companion book and discussions of the subject in communities across America. A documentary on the historic roots of the religious right.

These three series, scheduled to air in Public Broadcasting Service markets this fall, continue a trend that began earlier this year with two major PBS series on the world's religions and the search for spirituality in America.

What's going on here? PBS has got religion, bigtime.

“We looked at this whole area of religious beliefs and individual values as something that was especially important at this particular point in time,” said Kathy Quattrone, PBS's executive vice president of programming services. “It's certainly a subject up front and center in a whole range of debate and dialogue. It is something that we … wanted to have as an important part of our schedule.”

PBS, an umbrella organization of 345 independent public television stations, has had a long history of presenting programs focused on questions of “human existence and moral definition,” Quattrone said, citing the 1993 series, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, which focused on American evangelicalism, and the 1995 Martin's Lament: Religion and Race in America, which dealt with Martin Luther King's challenge to the church to lead a racial integration movement.

But the five series on religion and values PBS is launching in 1996 indicate a special emphasis on the subject.

Adventures from the Book of Virtues is a cartoon series for families adapted from the best-selling anthology edited by William Bennett, former drug czar and secretary of education in the Reagan administration. PBS's first prime-time animated series features morality lessons taken from classic literature, such as European fairy tales, Native American legends and African fables.

Bennett, a member of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Washington, said the stories chosen for the series show how “people are fearful, and yet still do the right thing.” He paraphrased author C.S. Lewis in expressing his hope that the stories bring about “a sensibility, an orientation, a view of the world, that connective tissue between the mind and the heart.”

One of the episodes deals with 11- year-old Zach learning a lesson about honesty. Characters such as Plato, a wise buffalo, and Aurora, a red-tailed hawk, share classic tales to encourage Zach to tell the truth. Three one-hour specials are scheduled to air Sept. 2-4. Other episodes are expected to air during the winter.

A few weeks later, the hour-long With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America premieres Sept. 27. The six-hour documentary series looks at the origins and development of the conservative Christian political movement.

The first episode, “The Early Crusades, 1950-1968,” features a young Billy Graham preaching his hope that Christians would bring their faith to bear on the world.

“We could turn the world upside down and start a counterrevolution, a spiritual revolution with love instead of hate and prejudice, following the Christian flag until Christ is known around the world,” Graham said in a speech before a receptive crowd.

The episode goes on to show how many of those committed to spiritual revival became politically active in conservative causes; protested the early 1960s Supreme Court decisions banning organized prayer in public schools; and launched a national drive against sex education classes.

The third series is Genesis: A Living Conversation, Bill Moyers' modern-day inquiry into the first book of the Bible, designed to appeal to people of all faiths. Each episode features dramatic readings of Bible stories by actors Mandy Patinkin and Alfre Woodard, followed by philosophical discussions moderated by Moyers with scholars, artists and scientists spanning a variety of religious and professional perspectives. The series airs Oct. 16 and subsequent Sundays, beginning Oct. 20.

In “The First Murder,” an examination of Cain's killing of his brother Abel, a rabbi and six novelists sit in a circle and discuss the modern-day challenges of controlling jealousy, envy and other human emotions depicted in the fourth chapter of Genesis.

“What I take away from the story is that violence is in all of us,” said Faye Kellerman, author of The Ritual Bath. “The ability to do bad is in all of us, and we have to confront our own ability to do evil. It lies at our doorstep, just as the text says.”

WNET, the New York public TV station presenting the Genesis series, is working with national religious and secular organizations to plan discussion groups about the series. In addition, Doubleday is publishing a companion volume to the series that will be available in October.

While advocates of quality television welcome the rising visibility of religion, Tim Graham, associate editor of MediaWatch, a publication of the Media Research Center, is questioning the motives behind PBS's new emphasis on religion and moral issues.

“We have claimed for many years that public broadcasting has a liberal bias,” said Graham, whose conservative watchdog group is based in Alexandria, Va. “I believe that airing programs on religion is a clever move to create for public broadcasting an image of conservatism or at least of moderation.”

Dorothy Swanson, president and founder of Viewers for Quality Television declined to speculate on PBS's motives. But she is enthusiastic about the value of the Adventures from the Book of Virtues cartoon series— especially for those children who don't have the opportunity for formal religious instruction.

“It's wonderful that they're doing this, and I hope it's scheduled at a time when kids don't have to choose between Power Rangers and The Book of Virtues, said Swanson, whose nonsectarian organization is based in Fairfax, Va. “I think it teaches children in a pleasant, not hitting-them-overthe- head kind of way…. How many kids go to Sunday school anymore? This kind of fills that void.”

To Moyers, whose focus on religion dates to a documentary on the Moral Majority in the mid-1980s and a critically acclaimed 1988 series on the life and work of mythologist Joseph Campbell, PBS's emphasis on religion and spirituality all boils down to one reality: People find it fascinating.

Moyers cited polls showing widespread interest in religion and an American religious landscape that has grown to include more Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. Another measure is the 1,000 letters religion scholar Huston Smith has received from readers as a result of Moyers' profiles of him in the Wisdom of Faith series. And local stations are repeating the series, Moyers added, some of them airing it during pledge drives.

“All these trends back up the importance of covering what can no longer be ignored as a vital and dynamic, sometimes dark and often illuminating side of American life,” Moyers said. “I've always found a positive response (from PBS). I'm glad now that other young producers coming along and journalists coming along are finding the same welcome.”

CNS contributed to this report.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ADELLE BANKS ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Brazil Readies 'Male Pill' DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

THECATHOLICCHURCH and pro-life organizations in Brazil are concerned about the commercialization of a male contraceptive pill, which the Brazilian laboratory Hebron recently announced will be ready for the market early next year. The product, whose commercial name will be “Nofertil,” has no side effects, according to the laboratory.

“Nofertil”—which in Portuguese means “non-fertile”—has been approved by the World Health Organization. It has been tested on 500 men from different countries from Latin America, Asia and Africa, according to a laboratory spokesman.

But Brazilian pro-life organizations since have argued that the test results are incomplete.

The pill contains “gosipol,” a chemical substance taken from cotton seeds, which blocks the action of the sperm, according to Hebron.

Pro-life protests, originally timed for the pill's public introduction, have already started. (Alejandro Bermudez)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mexico: 500 Seminarians Wanted DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE ARCHBISHOP of Mexico City, the most populated archdiocese in the world, recently launched an archdiocesan vocational campaign aimed at having 500 students in the local seminary for the year 2000.

The campaign, officially announced by Archbishop Norberto Rivera in late August, will help the archdiocese acquire “wise and holy pastors to shepherd our people in the next millennium.

“With 500 seminarians, we will be ready to form the new generation of priests that our people need,” he said.

According to Archbishop Rivera, the new priests are necessary “not only because of the increasing population, but because of the numerous challenges the current society poses to Catholics,” including the rise of sects. (Alejandro Bermudez)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Reformed Churches Urged to Question Vatican's U.N. Status DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

A REPORT TO the World Alliance of Reformed Churches states that there is growing concern about the “unique and certainly questionable” status enjoyed by the Vatican at the United Nations.

The report—a review of United Nations activities over the past year, prepared by Robert Smylie, official observer for WARC and the Presbyterian Church (USA) at U.N. headquarters in New York— expresses deep concern about the Vatican's use of its influence at the United Nations and calls for Christians to discuss whether the Vatican should relinquish its special status.

The report is not a statement of the official policy of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

No other religious body— Christian or otherwise—has the same status or privileges as the Vatican, according to the report. The Pope has an automatic right to address—as a head of state—the U.N. general assembly, and the Holy See has full rights to participate and speak at U.N. meetings. Other religious groups relate to the United Nations as non-governmental organizations. Heads of other religious traditions have at times been invited or permitted to address the general assembly, but no other religious body has official rights to address the United Nations.

However, the Vatican does not participate in voting at the United Nations, nor is it obliged to contribute to financing the United Nations, as it has the status of an observer state.

“This arrangement for voice but no vote allows the Vatican to influence debate at the highest level, and to use its leverage with other states that have been traditionally ‘Catholic’ in identity, politics or history. Yet the Vatican bears no responsibility,” according to the report, presented recently to the executive committee of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), meeting in Detmold, Germany. WARC has 200 member churches around the world.

The issue of the Vatican's role at the United Nations has been particularly controversial since its highprofile intervention at the U.N. conference in Cairo on population and development in 1994. (ENI)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Protestant Group Marches Against Birth-Control Pills DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

DEMONSTRATING at a research facility of the Searle drug company in Skokie, Ill., on Aug. 17, Protestants Against Birth Control accused Searle of making birth-control pills that sometimes cause early abortions.

Searle spokesman Charles Fry later said that “over 40 years of scientific study and utilization have shown that” the birthcontrol pill acts mainly “to prevent ovulation.” Fry didn't deny that they sometimes have an abortifacient effect, saying, “that's their contention.”

Organizers said there were about 30 demonstrators. Fry estimated the number at 15-25. Several pro-life groups, including the American Life League and the Pro-Life Action League, co-sponsored the protest.

Rev. Michael Skott, director of Protestants Against Birth Control, has urged Searle “to research, develop, produce and market only drugs which help and heal people.” (Mary Meehan)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mexico: Light at the End of A Long, Dark Tunnel? DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

FROM 1988-1994, the brother and friends of former President Carlos Salinas amassed some of the largest fortunes in the world, in a country where most of the population lives in poverty.

This was done through the selling of public property to private buyers (“privatization”), a tactic that mirrored the confiscation and sale of Church property in the middle of last century. In those years, the radically anti-Catholic Liberal Party appropriated all the Church possessions and auctioned them off.

At the time there was a wide and efficiently organized Church network of educational, religious and welfare institutions. These properties were considered “dead beat” goods, because they were out of commercial circulation. The Liberals insisted on confiscating and auctioning them. The same fate befell Indian communal property, their agricultural and livestock communal lands. Most of that real-estate fell into the hands of speculators and adventurers.

The Liberal Party, which had come into power thanks to arms and money from the international Masonic lodges, was isolated and weak. It was thud forced to build a make-shift social base, opening its doors to opportunities drawn by the chance to get rich quick. Joining a lodge was all that was needed in order to be able to purchase choice properties at ridiculously low prices. Monetary concessions and enviable public appointments were added enticements. Under the shelter of political power, a new kind of “businessman” emerged in Mexico, ancestors of families that are today among the richest in the world.

The peasant revolution at the beginning of this century, which overthrew General Porfirio Diaz after more than 30 years in power, changed little more than the names of the beneficiaries. The best properties of the old “Porfirian” haciendas confiscated by the new liberal regime fell not into the hands of the peasants that had joined in the armed struggle, but into those of the chief generals and their “compadres.”

In 1940, the so-called “golden” post- Mexican Revolution era began with an economic boom. But the big public projects, such as freeways, irrigation systems and energy distribution, benefited mostly the former revolutionaries and their heirs, who “won” contracts with gigantic state monopolies such as Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) the Federal Electricity Commission.

When the national bankruptcies of 1982 and 1987 seemed to announce the end of the old system, a surprising change took place: the old “nationalist revolutionary” demagogy changed to the cold and technocratic Ivy League-educated politicos that came to power with Salinas in 1988. The old doctrines of absolute market freedom were resurrected and an aggressive “privatization” program of the state companies and monopolies was launched. Everything was put on sale. This was necessary, of course, because the state had monopolized entire sectors of the national economy, including the banking system. The problem, once again, was that the public auction of these goods was carried out in a fraudulent manner aimed at benefiting the president and his cohorts.

During the so-called golden years (1988- 1994), Mexico became one of the leading countries in the world in number of super-millionaires, according to Forbes magazine. It also remained one of the poorest countries in the world.

Since the disastrous bankruptcy of December 1994, at least one part of the system— political impunity—has changed, and greater civic participation has hobbled the old State-party system. For the first time in 70 years, the opposition parties are gaining significant political positions in the country. Under the present system it is impossible to terminate or significantly reduce public corruption, but the final defeat and profound transformation of this system is now a realistic possibility.

President Ernesto Zedillo has insisted that he will seriously reform the Mexican political system. Restoring to the Church the goods confiscated by the State at the beginning of this process of public corruption would be a welcome sign that he means what he says.

Ricardo Olvera is based in Tijuana, Mexico.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Colombian Church Reluctant Player in Drug Crop Substitution Program DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA—As more than 50,000 peasants protest against the Colombian Government's efforts to wipe out cocaine fields in Guaviare and Putumayo, the Church has agreed to collaborate in the crop-substitution programs.

PLANTE, as the program has been dubbed, seeks to stop the cultivation of cocaine and other narcotics through fumigation and/or an agreement with the producers to replace these crops with legal ones with financial and technical assistance from the government.

The Church is not entirely satisfied with the program. Bishop Belarmino Correa Yepes, apostolic vicar of San Jose in Guaviare, is recognized for his broad knowledge on the subject. “If we don't eliminate interest in cocaine production,” he says, “the people aren't going to consider other alternatives, and that's the problem with PLANTE. There has been plenty of good will, funding, and a fairly good strategy on the part of the government, but the people are simply unwilling. Another problem is that some growers receive money from the program, but since growing cocaine is more attractive, they figure out a way of diverting the money in that direction….”

The Colombian Episcopate has expressed its own concern about the inadequacy of the program.

PLANTE director, Hector Moreno Reyes, has asked the bishops and to collaborate with the program. According to Reyes, “cooperation with the Church was sought from the very beginning, but unsuccessfully, and so the program lacked the Church's authority and ability to bring people together.”

Bishop Fabian Marulanda of Florencia (Caquet·) has publicly responded to PLANTE's request that Church participation should be seriously considered: “They have looked to the bishops to consider continuing PLANTE with the infrastructure of Pastoral Social, (a Church social action body) which has worked with the community, knows it well, and would provide a sense of spirituality. But we're hesitant to get involved because people might think we're wedded to the government's way of thinking, and that we're working for the government.”

“The Church,” the bishop says, “wants to end the cocaine growing and drug trafficking in general in Colombia. We have to find the best and most appropriate way of helping.”

Bishop Belarmino Correa has made it clear to the directors of PLANTE and the government that, despite the government's wish for “the Church to act as a moderator, this cannot be because there would be too many implications involved.” The church's most valuable role, the bishop said, would be “in creating an awareness in the community,” and guaranteeing “the correct use of the funds invested in the program.”

These comments led to the drafting of a threepoint program that was completed at the end of July. Msgr. Hector Henao, director of the Pastoral Social in Colombia, explained the program's three points: “First, all illicit plantations need to be eradicated. Second, citizen-based watch groups need to be created; these would receive support from the Church. The Church will participate only if the programs are feasible and realistic. Third, solid plans that respond to the needs and desires of the people of the region need to be determined, all according to what is legally permitted.”

At the moment, the situation is serious and delicate. Protests have led to clashes with the police and army; the cocaine producers complain that the solutions proposed by PLANTE do not meet their needs. Two weeks ago army troops clashed with farmers in Putumayo. Four farmers died of gunshot wounds.

Then on Monday, Aug. 20, further clashes between farmers and the military left two dead and at least 30 wounded. Among the wounded were two local (Caquet·) police officers.

Fabian Giraldo is based in Bogota, Colombia.

----- EXCERPT:History of corruption hampers reform of Mexican government ----- EXTENDED BODY: RICARDO OLVERA ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Dialogue and Common Ground, or Truth and Unity? DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

AMONG CHRIST'S PARTING WORDS to His disciples and “those who will believe in me through their word” is His solemn wish that “they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn 17, 20-21).

If we want to follow Christ faithfully, fully embracing the gift of our Catholic faith, if we want to be authentic and effective witnesses of Jesus Christ, we must be as united to one another as Christ is to His Father. In this light, the present divisions within the Church pain the heart like few other things, and every effort to mend them is to be welcomed, cheered, and carefully considered.

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's “Common Ground” project aims to be one such effort on a grand scale. Rejected by some (perhaps too hastily), welcomed by others (also perhaps too hastily), it has yet to receive careful consideration. That fact alone attests to the accuracy of the project's portrayal of the Catholic Church in America as crippled by a “polarization” that “blocks a candid and constructive response” to problematic situations.

The charter for Common Ground is a document entitled Called to be Catholic (a very good TITLE: being Catholic is a calling, a vocation, a gift from God). It begins with a description of the present state of the Catholic Church in the United States. It is a Church “in peril” and “increasingly polarized,” whose faithful, especially the young, “feel disenfranchised,” “confused,” and “increasingly adrift.” The Church's institutions “feel uncertain of their identity.” The few exemplary efforts “dotting the Church's landscape” are “burdened” by “fingerpointing and demoralization.”

All of this bodes ill for the future of Catholicism in the United States. Will our Church become, the charter asks, “a Church on the defensive, torn by dissension”? The answer, for the architects of Common Ground, “depends on whether American Catholicism can … reverse the polarization that inhibits discussion and cripples leadership.” “American Catholics,” the charter concludes, “must reconstitute the conditions for addressing our differences constructively—a common ground centered on Jesus, marked by accountability to the living Catholic tradition, and ruled by a renewed spirit of civility, dialogue, generosity, and broad and serious consultation.”

That the Church in the United States is “in peril” and “increasingly polarized” few would contest. That our youth “feel disenfranchised,” “confused” and “increasingly adrift” is plain for all to see. The description is written, as the charter itself says, with “hard words.” Hard to pronounce, hard to hear, but undeniable. The charter does us all a great service by describing with sobriety and clarity this situation. It is to be hoped that keeping this sober and clear assessment before our eyes will be an ongoing contribution of the Common Ground project.

The seriousness of the situation calls for clear-headed analysis. It's not enough to know how bad things are. Knowing how we reached such a state is a requisite condition to emerging from it.

The charter, unfortunately, offers very little on this score. It merely states that “for three decades the Church has been divided by different responses to the Second Vatican Council and to the tumultuous years that followed it.” Yet the tensions created, the charter is quick to add, “were by no means always unfruitful.” They were, in fact, “virtually unavoidable.” “Differences of opinion,” it states a little further on, “are essential to the process of attaining truth.”

With that we hit the weakest point of the charter. AHegelian dialectic seems to set in. Such a dialectic requires opposing elements (thesis and anti-thesis) to attain synthesis. If one of the elements refuses to enter into the dialectic the process is paralyzed. This, according to the charter, is precisely the situation: “party lines have hardened,” and “candid discussion is inhibited.” So we are where we are, it seems, because of a steadily increasing unwillingness to enter into dialogue. This increasing unwillingness has hardened and now reached an impasse. The only thing left for us is to search for a “common ground” so that dialogue can begin again.

Whether or not increased dialogue is the solution to the problem depends, first of all, on whether or not decreased dialogue is in fact the cause of the problem.

We should begin by asking, What is the purpose of this dialogue? To “attain the truth.” What kind of truth are we talking about? Political truth? Moral truth? Theological truth? Revealed truth? With a title such as “Called to be Catholic” we cannot be accused of over-simplification if we conclude that we are talking about Revealed truth, the truth God has revealed to us in Sacred Scripture. Is such truth “attained” through “dialogue.” If so, the Catholic Church has got it all wrong and I will go back to being the Protestant I once was. If, however, Revealed truth is received in faith, then I was right to switch.

It may be, however, that Revealed truth is not the truth being talked about (“common ground” is, after all, more of a political than a theological concept). Then what kind? What other kind has any real bearing on the issue when we are talking about an institution founded by a man who called himself “the Way, the Truth and the Life”? And when that same man, God Incarnate, chose to found a Church, naming Peter its first visible head, giving him absolute authority: “what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”? Invested with such authority, Peter chose to pass that same authority on to his successors down through the ages, thus making the Pope the “perpetual and visible source and foundation of unity of both the bishops and the whole company of the faithful” (Lumen Gentium, 22).

Why settle for “common ground” when unity is so close at hand? Besides, having to search for “common ground” (within the Church) is not part of being “called be to Catholic.” Does “one in me as I am in you” sound like “common ground”?

Moreover, returning to Revealed truth, discussion and dialogue may very well inhibit its grasp. Revealed truth is accepted and embraced because it is from God, who is the source and summit of all knowledge and truth.

Dare we entertain the notion that dialogue is part of the cause of the problem, not its solution? What if it's discovered that dialogue has served only to mask and therefore aggravate deeper problems, such as a general loss of genuine, religious faith? Is the Common Ground committee prepared to re-focus its energies and get to the root of the problem, uprooting the whole ugly tree rather than snipping away at its branches?

Dialogue, it is true, has its place. It can be invaluable for penetrating a truth more deeply and for learning to transmit it more effectively. But dialogue follows on humble acceptance, does not replace it. If it does come to replace it, problems of the most serious nature are bound to surface and multiply, problems, perhaps, such as Church institutions “uncertain of their identity,” youth who are “confused” and “increasingly adrift,” and increased “polarization” between those who accept the gift of Catholic faith just as it is and those who would prefer to dialogue about it.

That is not meant to be a cheap shot. It is merely an honest, reasoned assessment, one the Common Ground people should be prepared to consider. They have called for candid critique. Candid and constructive, which means we can't stop here.

Dialogue, we have attempted to point out, is not enough, and may even be part of the problem when it takes the place of a growing faith that humbly accepts the truth God has revealed to us—that the Church is His and that He has placed the Pope as its visible head on earth, as the visible foundation of its unity.

We have also stated our case for unity rather than “common ground.” Unity is far more ambitious, yet it is the only proper goal for us if we are to be “one in Christ as Christ is in the Father.”

Present divisions, however, are a reality. How are we to mend them?

In the first place, unity, like happiness, cannot be pursued directly. It is a byproduct. Unity flowers on its own, of necessity, when a shared goal breeds shared priorities and shared experiences, as it did for the early Christian community.

What was the driving force of that community? Alife-transforming experience of Christ and an unstoppable zeal (even when it meant death) to spread that experience.

The key to rediscovering our unity is right before our eyes: a generation “disenfranchised,” “confused,” and “increasingly adrift.” Ageneration that does not know Christ. Out of genuine love for our youth we should hand on to them, by our actions and our words, the full truth of the Gospel just as it came from the lips of Christ: a narrow road, yes, but the only one that leads to fullness of life here and in eternity. The youth of America are the great mission before the Catholic Church in the United States, the mission capable of uniting us and reinvigorating our faith. “Only by becoming missionary will the Christian community be able to overcome its internal divisions and tensions, and rediscover its unity and its strength of faith” (Redemptoris missio, 49).

J.B.S.

----- EXCERPT:EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS:opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

Who Cares?

I noted the somewhat negative review of my book, The Saints Show Us Christ (“Role Models and Friends in Heaven,” May 12), in your pages. Unfortunately the reviewer missed the whole point. The book is not for monks and scholars, but the people in the pews. Imagine him counting the number of entries of each saint, or being disturbed that the one entry of St. Paul was not on the feast of St. Paul. The people say “Who cares?”

The people love this book; the hardworking, family people—the backbone of the Church—who have been confused so much in recent years by the scholars. Many proud writers in the Church have all but done away with the saints. The people are glad they are back, and are presented in daily readings for inspiration each day. How do I know this? Because for more than 45 years I have worked in the parish, with the people, laughing and crying with them, talking with them. They are the neglected people of the Church but they are “the salt of the earth.” Let us not begrudge a book written for them.

To complain that a book for the people is not a scholarly tome is quite beside the point altogether.

Father Rawley Myers Colorado Springs, Colorado

RU-486

With all due respect to the American Life League, I feel that the approach that they are using to argue against RU-486 is not effectual in prevention (“RU- 486 Foes Use Risk Factor in PR Campaign,” Aug. 11).

I do not feel that a woman in a desperate situation will care at all about the risk she is taking with her body, considering that she took the chance on pregnancy in the first place.

The argument with RU-486 is best applied when its consequences to society as a whole is perceived.

Was human life meant to be flushed down a toilet? Can our society, so threatened with violence and apathy, afford to allow human life to become so disposable? Can we allow this pill to enter our materialistic society when the poor are being so oppressed?

Most people are appalled at partial-birth abortion, an obvious massacre of human life. Yet the implications and inevitable effects of the RU-486 pill on society are, in a sense, much more damaging. Not only will this pill destroy human life, but it will allow our nation to subliminally target and destroy our nation's poor as it threatens the sanctity of the remaining survivors.

Valerie Terzi Manhattan, Kansas

Absolute Wrongs

Capital punishment, euthanasia, voluntary abortion— that they are logically, reasonably, and justifiably wrong is a certainty, therefore an absolute.

The acceptance, notoriety, glorification, and publicity these wrongs receive, need to be stopped. Yet many high courts, legislative bodies, educators, politicians, media and news representatives, some religious leaders, and large percentages of society do not reject, but accept and even support these monstrosities. Why no presidential candidate has enough fortitude to publicly reject these collective wrongs is a disgrace.

With this blatant disregard for the absolute, how can we expect to prevent wars, stop terrorism, reduce crime, or lessen social problems. Human dignity, legitimate self-defense, justice, and common sense have been made a mockery of by the acceptance of these wrongs.

Hopefully with work, sensibility, and prayer, our local, state, national, and world leaders, along with society, will reject these wrongs, and honor and abide by the absolute.

I believe future historians, when they review and analyze the past, will in retrospect say, “Surely they must have known.”

Zeno Boehmer Nacogdoches, Texas

LA Cathedral

Allow me to make two corrections to David Finnigan's story on the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to be designed by JosÈ Rafael Moneo for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (“L.A. Picks Design for Cathedral of the Year 2000,” Aug. 11).

The archdiocese never intended to incorporate the old cathedral of St. Vibiana into the new Cathedral Square project, although the original plan was to build anew on the same site. The old cathedral suffered more than $20 million in earthquake damage and there is neither the money nor the desire to repair it, especially since it was so woefully inadequate.

(Indeed, Pope St. Pius X authorized its demolition in 1904 in favor of a new cathedral that would be better able to serve the thriving community of Los Angeles. When St. Vibiana's was dedicated in 1876, there were about 10,000 people in all of Los Angeles; today, the Archdiocese numbers about 4.5 million Catholics!)

Second, the Los Angeles City Council took the old cathedral off the list of historic places on July 17, 1996. The archdiocese removed all significant historic, religious and liturgical items from the old building so that they will be available for the new Cathedral Square complex. It has always been the intention of the archdiocese to “memorialize” the old cathedral in the new. The mortal remains of St. Vibiana, virgin and martyr, will rest in a prominent devotional chapel in the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Father Gregory Coiro, O.F.M. Cap. Director of Media Relations Archdiocese of Los Angeles

Icon

While iconography is a treasured and valued asset in the Eastern Church, the West often seems to misunderstand or misinterpret it. In the Aug. 4 issue on page 5, in a description of an icon of the Last Supper stating “the beardless figure of Jesus blesses the chalice….”

The figure of Jesus is actually on the left side of the table. In iconography, Christ is depicted with a halo containing a cross and the Greek “0 WN” (the one who is).

Edmund Gronkiewicz Chicago, Illinois

Your correspondence regarding the Register, its features and Catholic issues are welcome. Submissions should be typed doublespace, and sent to: Letters to the Editor, National Catholic Register, 33 Rossotto Drive, Hamden, CT06514; or fax to: (203) 288-5157; or e-mail to cmedia@pipeline.com.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS:opinion -------- TITLE: Grace-filled Moments: The Hermit Encounters Loneliness DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

LONELINESS MIGHT be described as a feeling of emptiness combined with sadness and sometimes powerlessness that overwhelms men or women when they feel isolated from loved ones and even from self. Any kind of failure, real or imagined, whether to sustain a business, a marriage, raising a family, or being misunderstood by loved ones can give rise to the feeling.

To enter a monastery of hermits such as the Carthusians or simply becoming a lone hermit, like St. Nicholas of Flue (the patron saint of Switzerland) or St. Rose of Lima (a Dominican tertiary, 1586-1617), is to confront loneliness head on. The hermit is not afraid of sensing and experiencing nothingness and emptiness in the crucible of seclusion. Hermits know they will be deprived of human companionship to varying degrees, according to the Rule and circumstances of life. What happens in this voluntary deprivation?

The hermit turns the trials that accompany this special vocation into loving solitude with the Triune God who must become the hermit's all in all. To the American temperament, which has a special talent for the practical, this seems at first glance a complete waste of time, talent and energy. But to Catholic morality and spirituality, the most important aspect of moral goodness is not an act's aim (like feeding a hungry person) but the motivation behind it, namely, to love God with one's whole heart and soul and mind.

Through their witness, hermits teach the importance of the grace-filled times of loneliness everyone must experience. At certain times in life, we all have to turn loneliness into holy solitude. This entails more intense acts of faith, hope, and charity. Instead of a time to feel sorry for oneself, loneliness is a hidden opportunity to grow in a deeper relationship with God, his Church and even one's self.

In October, the Church celebrates a contemplative with the spirit of a hermit: St. Teresa of Jesus (1515-1582), the foundress of the Discalsed Carmelite nuns, and doctor of the Church. Her personal description of the contemplative journey is no less an attempt of encourage everyone to center their lives in God as much as possible and to attempt to become saints by trying to develop “mental prayer,” as she calls it, each day. And since Teresa demanded a deep community life in contact with her sisters, her teaching can be more easily assimilated by all, notwithstanding the witness of the pure hermits. She teaches us to laugh at ourselves and transcend ourselves by forgetting self in the service of the “common good.”

Fromthe hermits and the Carmelites, then, we learn that the twin poles of prayer and service to others are the key to coping with loneliness, for we are not made to find integral fulfillment in self nor do we have the means to save, heal or transcend ourselves on our own.

Father Basil Cole, O.P., is an invited professor of Spiritual and Moral Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (the Angelicum) in Rome.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: BASIL COLE ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: AConvert's Case for the Catholic Church DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

DAVID CURRIE has done both Evangelicals and Catholics a great service. His Born Fundamentalist, Born-Again Catholic explains Catholicism in terms readily accessible, if not entirely acceptable, to the typical Evangelical. Meanwhile, he offers a glimpse into the Evangelical mind, helping Catholics to understand why so many of their Protestant brothers and sisters have trouble with Catholic teachings and practices.

Born Fundamentalist, Born-Again Catholic is, as the title suggests, autobiographical. It is an outstanding specimen of a growing number of conversion stories to the Catholic Faith from Evangelicalism. (A decade ago, most converts were going in the other direction—from Catholicism to Evangelicalism. Today, not a few Evangelical ministers are becoming Catholics.)

He offers a glimpse into the Evangelical mind, helping Catholics to understand why so many of their Protestant brothers and sisters have trouble with Catholic teachings and practices.

Currie's is a thought-provoking and spiritually searching account of how he, a P.K. (preacher's kid), reared in a conservative Protestant home, made the unthinkable move of becoming a Roman Catholic.

Yet the book is more than a spiritual autobiography; it is an extended essay on the Catholicism which Evangelical Christians frequently encounter. It might well have been subtitled, “How I Changed My Mind and Heart, and Learned to Pray the Mass.”

Currie begins with his childhood, recounting his grief over JFK's assassination— deep sorrow over the President's death, yes, but more dismay because “in my heart of hearts I knew that he was in hell. He was a Catholic, and I was a Christian fundamentalist.”

The brand of Fundamentalism Currie imbibed was full-blooded. Its immediate enemy was liberal Protestantism and its penchant for watering down the “fundamentals of the Faith.” Yet, if it “was bad to be a liberal,” Currie writes, “it was much worse to be a Roman Catholic.” His anti- Catholicism was as sincere and deep as it was wrong.

Currie eventually shed the narrow trappings of Fundamentalism for a mainstream Evangelicalism more intellectually spacious if no less anti-Roman in its tenets. But his relentless intellect and searching heart wouldn't stop there.

What made him become a Catholic? Nor a warm community experience—he had plenty of that as an Evangelical. Not some deep-seated emotional need. He became a Catholic for one simple reason: He became convinced Catholicism is true.

What convinced him? You might say the Bible made him do it. Through an intense study of Scripture, Currie came to believe that the Catholic Church is the Church Christ founded. Eventually his deeply disconcerted Evangelical wife, Colleen, also came to agree.

Yet there were many doctrinal hurdles to jump before Currie and his wife arrived at the church door. Born takes us over these hurdles.

The Eucharist was a major obstacle. Evangelicals differ among themselves on what the Eucharist is—some see it as a spiritual presence of Christ, others a mere symbol of that presence. On this point, though, they all agree: It isn't the Body and Blood of Christ.

Currie examines the biblical evidence for the Eucharist as Catholics understand it and finds it ample. He shows how the usual Evangelical interpretations of passages such as John 6 and 1 Corinthians 11, 23-24 are implausible and inadequate, and how these same texts fit well with Catholic doctrine.

Regarding the Bible, Currie refutes the Evangelical position of sola scriptura—the idea that Christians should follow the Bible alone without any tradition or teaching authority to interpret it. The argument Currie uses is by now familiar: The Bible nowhere teaches sola scriptura, so people who believe it do so on extra-biblical grounds. But that contradicts the idea that we should follow the Bible alone, therefore sola scriptura is self-contradictory. Currie also examines at length the biblical texts on tradition and shows that, far from condemning tradition, the Bible upholds the authority of apostolic tradition.

Other topics treated include the Catholic canon of the Old Testament, apostolic succession and papal authority, salvation, purgatory, the Incarnation, Mary and the End Times. Currie takes each issue from an Evangelical perspective, emphasizing why Evangelicals feel compelled to differ with Catholics, and then goes on to show the biblical and theological cogency of the Catholic view.

There are other books which cover these same subjects well, Karl Keating's Catholicism and Fundamentalism being among the best. But most were written by cradle Catholics. As a convert, Currie has the advantage of saying to Evangelicals: “I've been there. I understand your problems with Catholicism and your arguments. Here's what I've found in the Scripture.”

In that respect, Born is a testimony to what God has done in the lives of David Currie and his family. For Evangelicals, the book is an open invitation to examine the biblical case for Catholic Christianity, presented by a man of deep Christian faith. His love for Evangelicals and passion for full Christian unity are manifest on every page. It is also a valuable tool to help Catholics better understand their own faith as they are given a clear vision of Catholicism through the eyes of a convert.

Mark Brumley is managing editor of The Catholic Faith magazine in San Francisco.

----- EXCERPT:Born Fundamentalist, Born-Again Catholic, by David Currie (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1996, 211 pp., $11.95) ----- EXTENDED BODY: MARK BRUMLEY ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: America's Liberal Democracy Under the Microscope DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

GEORGE WEIGEL explains in this collection of essays why the United States and other liberal democracies need the Church: to be decent and humane societies, grounded in moral principle and thus able to avoid the extremes of individualism and coerced conformity. The Church is willing. But are the United States and other liberal democracies? That is not so clear.

Americans are well into a dreary presidential campaign pitting a value-free incumbent against a headstrong septuagenarian who believes morality should stay out of politics. Propelled by ego, a populist libertarian billionaire is preparing to join the race. The only significant religious force visible on the scene is the Christian Coalition. Catholics? In American politics today, Catholic voters divide up just like everybody else. Four years ago, they helped elect the most pro-abortion President in history. Apparently they are preparing to help keep him there this year.

George Weigel has gone to work on a biography of Pope John Paul II, with the approval of the Pope. According to Weigel, one reason Americans should find John Paul interesting is that he is interested in them: That is, he views the American experiment in liberal democracy as a “laboratory” for the future of much of the rest of the world. John Paul is right. How are things going in the lab?

In the term that begins in October, the Supreme Court is expected to review two lower federal appeals courts rulings that signed off on assisted suicide. Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, giving the United States the most permissive policy on abortion of any country outside China, do not inspire confidence regarding what the high court might say. Gay “marriage” lurks just over the horizon. The list is indefinitely expandable. By no means is it certain this experiment in liberal democracy will turn out well.

Weigel has two heroes, Pope John Paul and Jesuit Father John Courtney Murray, the theologian of Church and state. Father Murray, the most eloquent and sophisticated of the Americanists, made his reputation in the 50s by arguing the compatibility of Catholicism and the American system. But he made it clear that if the consensus on natural law collapsed, America would be in big trouble.

Throughout his U.S. trip last October, John Paul sounded a drumbeat on that theme. “Freedom is ordered to the truth…. Detached from the truth about the human person, freedom deteriorates into license in the lives of individuals, and, in political life, it becomes the caprice of the most powerful and the arrogance of power,” he said.

Weigel suggests that Americans are “rediscovering” the need for religion and moral values. Some are. But how widely is that happening? Do not the presidential campaign, the recent record of the Supreme Court, and much else, point in other, alarming directions?

In one of the best of these intelligent and wellwritten essays, Weigel traces the evolution of the Church's view of liberal democracy beginning with Gregory XVI and Pius IX in the 19th century to John Paul II today. There has been an enormous change—a shift from suspicion and hostility, to today's recognition that, considering the alternatives, liberal democracy is best. But need that always be the case? That is not John Paul's view. Time and again he warns that the cultural dominance of ethical relativism leads to democratic totalitarianism. That is the path we are traveling now.

Weigel understands all that, and writes about it well. But he does not address here the argument between himself and his ideological allies (people like Father Richard John Neuhaus and Michael Novak), who consider liberal democracy redeemable, and critics like David Schindler, who hold that liberal democracy's roots in Enlightenment principles effectively place it beyond redemption. On that debate, it seems, the jury is still out.

Russell Shaw is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT:Soul of the World: Notes on the Future of Public Catholicism, by George Weigel (Grand Rapids, Mich.:Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996, 206 pp. $18) ----- EXTENDED BODY: RUSSELL SHAW ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Journalism Trumps Scholarship in this Biblical Mystery DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE CENTRAL PREMISE of Carsten Thiede's and Matthew D'Ancona's Eyewitness to Jesus—that three small papyri fragments from the twenty-sixth chapter of Matthew's Gospel at Magdalen College in England can be redated to the period A.D. 66- 70—has caused quite a stir.

According to the authors, the implications of this redating are enormous. First, it signifies that Matthew's Gospel was composed earlier than previously thought. The contemporary scholarly consensus usually dates Matthew's Gospel between A.D. 80-95, or up to a generation after the destruction of Jerusalem and the composition of the first Gospel by St. Mark. Thiede and D'Ancona argue that this earlier dating makes the author of Matthew's Gospel an eyewitness account of Jesus' life and definitively refutes the contention that the New Testament narratives are inventions. Finally, the earlier dating reinforces for believing Christians the historical reality underlying the events described, even if the Gospels may not be biographies of Jesus in the modern sense of the term.

The book's intended audience is the general public and to this end Eyewitness to Jesus is highly readable. It seems to be the biblical equivalent of Watson and Crick's best-seller The Double Helix, which recounts in an almost novelistic style the scientists' race to discover DNA's double-helix structure that earned them the Nobel Prize. But there is an inherent weakness to combining scholarly discoveries with journalistic revelation. Normally, scholarly findings are first published in peer-reviewed journals after a slow, painstaking process of research, not only to guard against error, but to ensure correct identification and interpretation. Journalism, on the other hand, thrives on immediate reaction— the antithesis of scholarly research. Although journalism strives for accuracy by using as many sources as possible, it still rewards, first and foremost, the scoop.

This dilemma (scholarly vs. journalistic) is evident in Eyewitness to Jesus. Chapter three, “Investigating the Magdalen Papyrus,” and chapter five, “Redating the Magdalen Papyrus,” give detailed accounts of how papyrologists analyze ancient manuscripts to arrive at their interpretations and conclusions. However, the assertion that “[t]he new claim deserved a much broader audience than the comparatively small guild of papyrologists to whom Thiede's learned article was addressed” serves journalism's, not scholarship's, primary interest. Ideally, scholars should be shy about going public with the results of their research for fear of misinterpretation or misrepresentation of their findings.

Ultimately, Eyewitness to Jesus aims to reconnect the Jesus of history with the Jesus of faith. Contemporary culture and certain scholarly methods have concluded that the traditions, teachings, sayings, and even miracles attributed to Jesus are myths, mere inventions of second-century Christians. The book hopes to provide provisional proof that part of the New Testament text, as found on the Magdalen Papyrus, could have been written by an eyewitness to Jesus, thus affirming the divine origin of our Christian faith. That is quite a service indeed. But one wonders what all the hype is about; the Catholic Church has always held this as the truth.

Father Pius Murray, C.S.S., is Professor of Old Testament and Director of Library Services at Pope John XXIII Seminary in Weston, Mass.

----- EXCERPT:Eyewitness to Jesus: Amazing New Manuscript Evidence About the Origin of the Gospels, by Carsten Peter Thiede, and Matthew D'Ancona (New York: Doubleday, 1996, 206 pp., $23.95) ----- EXTENDED BODY: PIUS MURRAY ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: After Plunging from Civility to Law of the Jungle, Liberia Struggles to Find Peace DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

LESS THAN ONE year ago, The Washington Post cautiously hailed a Liberian peace accord as a hopeful example of West African cooperation for peace. Today, the only law that remains in Liberia is the law of the jungle. How could such a change have happened so fast?

For all the violence we Americans lament in our own society, we enjoy relative peace. We can count on long-standing institutions to settle differences of opinion; we may grumble, but we accept the decisions of the deliberative bodies that anchor our society. Furthermore, we can participate in public life. From Church groups to the PTA, from the Girl Scouts to neighborhood associations, we have a voice in shaping our communities.

In Liberia (and throughout much of Africa) this is not the case. Even before the recent war, the foundations of peaceful civil society were never allowed to take hold. Descendants of U.S. slaves founded the country in 1823, quickly set themselves up as overlords. They treated the indigenous population much as their own grandparents had been treated by their white owners in the United States. It took over 150 years for a representative of those indigenous people, Samuel Doe, to seize power from the Americo-Liberians. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a more effective representative of his own interests than a leader of his people. Charles Taylor overthrew Doe in 1989, opening up the struggle for power between a half dozen factions.

But Taylor, the chief architect of Liberia's current anarchy, has failed to consolidate control over the country. His most powerful rival, Roosevelt Johnson, has resisted Taylor's efforts to take him prisoner. Today, the two brood over the wreckage of the country they would rule.

Liberia lacks the civil society that might foster the peaceful resolution of conflict. The proponents of peace have been marginalized by war. The leaders of four main factions foment violence and reward their followers with the spoils. Displaced people face starvation as their farms have been destroyed. Relief agencies like Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Save the Children, Lutheran World Service and Medicins Sans Frontieres, their offices and goods looted by bandits and militias, have scaled back their efforts until public authorities can guarantee them freedom of movement and neutral status.

Until this round of fighting, CRS carried out its relief and development program for six years, providing food and facilitating agricultural recovery.

The recent fighting has been exceptionally devastating; it is the first time since 1989 that Monrovia has been the site of heavy combat (ironically, as a result of the peace accords in Abuja, factional soldiers of all stripes gained entry to the city in Aug. 1995); and it is the first time humanitarian workers have been targeted with impunity by soldiers serving the faction leaders.

While humanitarian agencies have decided not to reestablish their offices until certain humanitarian principles are in place, they have pledged to provide targeted, life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable Liberians. Using food supplies protected by the soldiers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOMOG), thousands of displaced Liberians are fed each month. In addition, hundreds of farming families have received seeds from CRS so that they can replant fields and feed their communities later in the year. As the crisis goes on, humanitarian agencies have continued to assess the needs of newly-displaced people, and are prepared to lend a hand.

It is difficult to determine the right prescription for long-term peace in Liberia. Samuel Koffi Woods, director the country's Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, maintains that citizens must establish a lasting accord: “Liberians must provide an alternative to violence. The teeming minority who want war” have held sway over those whom Woods calls “the real Liberians.” Real Liberians, he contends, don't care who emerges victorious from this power struggle, they just want peace.

Tom Garofalo is a communications associate for Catholic Relief Services.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: TOM GAROFALO ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Good Word on America's Railways DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

AROUND THE TURN of the century, salesmen reached far-off customers by train. Priests used the same mode of transportation to spread the faith in rural areas in the northwest and south.

Chapel cars were attached to the back of trains traveling through these regions. From 1909 to 1917 they introduced the Catholic faith in towns where most people had never seen a Catholic, much less a priest, and most were deeply suspicious of outsiders.

The three chapel cars, “St. Anthony,” “St. Peter” and “St. Paul,” were funded by the Catholic Church Extension Society, formed a few years earlier by Father Francis Clement Kelly. During several “begging tours” to raise funds for his parish in Lapeer, Mich., Father Kelly discovered fellow priests living in poverty while struggling to build churches and gain converts in inhospitable areas.

Many of the chaplains of these early chapel cars kept journals that offer a fascinating glimpse of their struggles. Father E.K. Cantwell wrote of attaching “St. Anthony” to the back of Southern Pacific trains as they traveled throughout the northwest. When the trains arrived at a small town, the chapel car was detached and left for several days while Father Cantwell celebrated Mass, preached, baptized— and tried to gain converts.

When he reached a town where it was apparent that neither he or his message was welcome, Father Cantwell informed the townspeople that his talks were only for “the most intelligent people among them.”

“After that they came in crowds,” he wrote. In West Fork, Ore., the mayor and his family attended every night. “The last two nights we could not get all the people into the car and were obliged to turn away some for want of room. The backbone of prejudice was completely broken.”

In Glendale, Ore., he found 15 Catholics who were without a church and attended Mass about once a year in a private home. “They were looking for the coming of the car with the same eagerness with which children look forward to the coming of Santa,” he noted.

Archbishop Alexander Christie of Portland was enthusiastic about the work of the chapel car chaplains. “Persons who have never done pioneer missionary work have no conception of what it means to go to a town where there is no church and there, against great odds, to make a start in places that are, to put it mildly, simply miserable.

“I have seen for myself what the chapel car is doing and I am convinced that it is the most effective means yet devised for bringing the blessings of our Holy Religion to places where there are no churches.”

While some priests worked the Pacific northwest, others traveled through “the neglected districts of Louisiana” preaching the Gospel.

In his book, 75 Years of Service, recounting his years as the chaplain of “St. Paul,” Father Byron Krieger wrote: “In most places we visited, the few Catholics we found were in woeful ignorance of the most elementary doctrines of the Church.”

“In most localities the chapel car and the missionary were received joyously, and shown every mark of esteem and courtesy by the townspeople. But in other instances the priest had to contend against the most aggressive bigotry.

“The car and the missionary were cursed outright; the services were disturbed and food had to be ordered from places as distant as 30 miles, because the fanatics refused to sell to the hated priest and his car. Often there was nothing on hand but canned goods, unless some generous family would go to the next town to purchase fresh provisions.”

Chapel cars were used until World War I when the government ordered them to remain at one location. After the war new regulations were issued that effectively banned the railroads from giving free rides to these traveling chapels. However, by that time, the use of the automobile had made it easier for missionaries to reach remote areas.

Jean Guarino is based in Oak Park, Ill.

----- EXCERPT:Before WWI, priests evangelized in mission territory riding chapel cars named after saints ----- EXTENDED BODY: JEAN GUARINO ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: THIS SUNDAY AT MASS DATE: 09/01/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 1, 1996 ----- BODY:

Twenty-second Sunday In Ordinary Time Jer 20, 7-9 Ps 63, 2-6; 8-9 Rom 12, 1-2 Mt 16, 21-27

THE PSALMIST prays: “Your kindness is a greater good then life.” In other words, the tender compassion, solicitude, and generosity of God who calls life into existence surpasses the value even of that great gift. However, to understand such a profound mystery, we need, as St. Paul informs us, to be transformed by the renewal of our mind so that we “may judge what is God's will.” For we cannot appreciate what is truly “good, pleasing, and perfect” about life without the revelation of grace.

Only such a mental renewal enlightens us as to the crucial role of sacrifice in happiness. Peter learned this when he allowed his life to be led by presuppositions and good intentions alone. Jesus reproves him: “You are not judging by God's standards but by mans'.” To judge by God's standards means to join Jesus as he undertakes his deliberate journey “to Jerusalem to suffer greatly there.” Our own participation in that self-sacrifice involves three things.

To follow Jesus we must deny our very self, as Jesus does, by offering our “bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God.” For what is the meaning of life without God? It is “like the earth, parched, lifeless, and without water.” By denying ourselves, we refuse to seek comfort, pleasure, or security in anything apart from God: “You are my God whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts.” And in the process, we find with joy our life lost in God. It is the power of “the mercy of God” that enables us to reject all conformity “to this age” and to revel in the holy profit of gaining, not “the whole worldod's will.” Such a hope-filled “exchange” in divine mercy is the only type of which we are capable.

The renewal of our mind also informs us of the necessity of taking up our cross. For it is only in the taking up of our struggles and burdens that we discover the unfailing source of our own strength. Under the weight of our cross we become convinced that God is our help. The more we hold fast to our cross in faith, the more do we embrace the crucified Jesus. In asking us to take up our cross, we may feel, like Jeremiah, that the Lord is duping us. In reality, He uses our trials to prove to us that, if we remain united to Him, his strength will overcome our temptations and He will triumph in us.

When we put on the mind of Christ we feel compelled also to follow in his footsteps. It is a call to accompany the Lord in love, especially by calling upon Jesus' name. God's name becomes like a fire burning in our hearts, directing our steps, guiding our hands. To share in the privilege of uttering God's Holy Name remains an unequaled sharing in His kindness that satisfies our souls and that fills our life with all goodness.

Father Peter John Cameron teaches homiletics at St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: PETER JOHN CAMERON ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Thousands Cheer Mel Gibson and Sen. Santorum in Chicago DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

CHICAGO — In one busy late-July week, Mel Gibson promoted his film The Passion to Catholic leaders and journalists in New York, Washington and Chicago. But none of the audiences he assembled matched his July 18 appearance at the Regnum Christi Youth and Family Encounter on Chicago's Navy Pier.

The July 17-20 event, a combination apostolic convention and pep rally, was attended by nearly 5,000 Catholics. On the second evening of the four-day event, Legionary Father Owen Kearns, publisher of the Register, announced a “surprise” guest and Mel Gibson came to the podium.

Pulling a rosary from his pocket, Gibson said, “Nothing is more powerful than prayer.”

The passion of Christ was one of the themes of the Youth and Family Encounter that included concerts, how-to talks on evangelization and separate events for children.

Immediately following Gibson, keynote speaker Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., spoke of policy issues regarding family and culture.

On abortion, he said the American rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness must come in that order.” He said Americans should oppose abortion not on a religious basis but because the “right to abortion” distorts this country's founding principles “by putting the mother's right to liberty ahead of her baby's right to life, which is never justified. The right to life must always be primary,” he said.

“There is nothing quite like seeing so many Catholic families who are so committed to their faith that they feel they ‘must’ do something more for Christ,” said Mary Ann Yep, a mother of eight and one of the key organizers of the Chicago event. “It was a challenge, but ever so worth it, knowing that thousands of people will return to their cities and parishes ready and motivated to continue serving the Church.”

Regnum Christi, Latin for “Kingdom of Christ,” is one of the new ecclesial movements Pope John Paul II has hailed as a “sign of the springtime of evangelization foretold by Vatican II.” In the United States and Canada, the movement currently numbers more than 8,000 lay members.

The weekend culminated in a Mass celebrated by Bishop Thomas Paprocki, auxiliary bishop of Chicago, who said he hopes to see Regnum Christi spread throughout the archdiocese and the world.

The Chicago encounter took as its theme Christ's words to Peter in a similar lakeside setting: “Cast your nets.” Evan Lemoine, a Regnum Christi member from Louisiana now beginning a year of service to the Church as a co-worker, shared his testimony and said, “If every single one of us casts out our nets at our schools, our workplaces, our families, our neighborhoods … we would change the world for Christ.”

The Youth and Family Encounter began with a focus on the Passion. The audience was given an eight-minute peek at a video being produced by Dr. Thomas McGovern, a physician from Indiana. The video, When God Died, explains the medical reality of Christ's passion and puts it in its spiritual context.

“It leads us to appreciate more and more just what Christ went through for us,” said Gregg Backstrom, a Regnum Christi member from the Minnesota who is involved in ConQuest clubs and camps for boys.

The video was fallowed by an appearance from Steve McEveety, producer of several Gibson films, including The Passion, who explained what filming the story of the last hours of Christ's life has meant to him. “Everyone involved has come away a different person, myself included,” he said. “I don't care if the movie doesn't make a penny. It had to be done.”

He played an extended trailer of the movie.

Other highlights of the weekend included a talk by Rev. Jerry Kirk on the dangers of pornography. Kirk is a Presbyterian minister from Cincinnati and the co-founder with the late Cardinals John O'Connor and Joseph Bernardin of the Religious Alliance Against Pornography.

In Catholic circles Kirk is widely known as the father of Kimberly Hahn and father-in-law of theologian Dr. Scott Hahn. Kirk began his presentation on the scourge of pornography in society by quoting several inspirational passages from Christ Is My Life, the new book-length interview of Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi. Kirk, who had received the book only the day before, said he stayed up into the wee hours reading it. “This book is a blessing to me,” the noted Protestant leader said.

Past Youth and Family Encounter events have featured Father Maciel. He was unable to attend the Chicago event, but in his place the event featured a presentation by Jesus Colina, director of Zenit news agency and the interviewer of Father Maciel for the biographical book, Christ is My Life.

In one extended session, Father Anthony Bannon, territorial director of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi in North America, then announced the most ambitious apostolate yet undertaken by the Legionaries and Regnum Christi in this territory: the University of Sacramento. The crowd cheered on the new university, waving pompoms and singing the school's fight song.

But the biggest cheer of the evening came when Father Kearns returned to introduce Mel Gibson. The actor spoke briefly about how he met the Legionaries while filming The Passion in Italy.

“I'm not a preacher, and I'm not a pastor,” Gibson said. “But I really feel my career was leading me to make this. The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing traffic. I hope the film has the power to evangelize. “

He then offered to take questions from the audience, including a 10-year-old boy's question: “Can I shake your hand?” Gibson agreed, and the crowd cheered as the boy made his triumphant return to his seat, both fists raised high above his head.

Another questioner asked why The Passion “ is spoken in dead languages instead of English.” Gibson answered with a pointed question: “Have you seen the versions done in English?”

Jay Dunlap contributed to this article.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Catholic Pastor Embattled By Picketers

THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 28 — While there may be an incipient priest shortage in America, some parishioners in New Jersey are mighty dissatisfied with their new pastor, according to The New York Times.

The paper reported that a group of some 30 discontented parishioners of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Newark, N.J., have begun to picket the church's Sunday Mass — to protest Father John Perricone's use of traditional liturgical options.

These include facing the altar, rather than the congregants, while saying the Mass, whispering the words of consecration, declining to use extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and employing Latin phrases at certain points in the Mass.

The Times did not point out that all these practices are legitimate under the liturgical guidelines of the Novus Ordo Missae, the Vatican II reform of the liturgy. The story received very prominent coverage, leading the Metropolitan section of the paper.

While Father Perricone was using options permitted by Vatican II, certain parishioners are suspicious. They know by reputation that the priest, who served for several years in the neighboring Archdiocese of New York, is an advocate of the wider use of the traditional Latin liturgy, as codified at the Council of Trent.

Pro-Life Democrats Not Welcome on Web

THE ROCKDALE CITIZEN (Ga.), July 20 — Political columnist Mark Shields called the Democratic National Committee to task for hypocrisy for its refusal to include links to Democrats for Life on its otherwise exhaustive Web site — even though such a link was requested by 17 Democratic members of Congress.

Shields cited language in the Democratic Party platform that says: “We also recognize that members of our party have deeply held and sometimes differing views on issues of personal conscience like abortion and capital punishment. We view this diversity as a source of strength, not a sign of weakness.”

In their letter to Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, the House members protested that their exclusion from the party's site meant that “members of the Democratic Party who are opposed to abortion and capital punishment are being denied their right to be heard.”

Study Connects Daycare to Aggression in Kids

THE WEST BEND DAILY NEWS (Wis.), July 22 — A recent edition of The West Bend Daily News cited a study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development linking aggressive behavior in young children with the amount of time they spent in day care instead of with their mothers.

Researchers found that the small percentage of children who exhibit violent behavior are typically those who have spent unusually long hours at day care centers.

The report cited is the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which surveyed 1,200 families during 12 years.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News l-------- TITLE: Hope Who 'Gave Hope' Converted to Catholic Faith a Few Years Ago DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

TOLUCA LAKE, Calif. — He brought hope and happiness to troops from World War II to the Persian Gulf War as well as laughs to audiences everywhere, but he kept much of his philanthropy and even his conversion to the Catholic faith quiet. Few knew the Catholic side of comedian Bob Hope, who died July 27 at age 100.

According to published reports, Hope died at home near North Hollywood surrounded by his family, including his wife of more than 69 years, Dolores, and a priest at his bedside. After an early morning memorial service attended by the family at the Hopes’ parish church, St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood, he was buried July 30 at San Fernando Mission cemetery near Los Angeles.

An invitation-only memorial Mass will be held Aug. 27 at St. Charles, and a public service will be held the same day at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, according to eonline. com, a Web site about celebrities.

“There is a side of [Bob Hope] not many people know,” said Father Maurice Chase, whose ministry to the homeless Hope supported for decades. “He helped many thousands of people here on skid row in Los Angeles.”

The 83-year-old Father Chase, also known as Father Dollar Bill, can be found every Sunday giving cash, rosaries, smiles, blessings and hope to the residents of the streets of Los Angeles.

“Bob has supported my work [financially] for the past 25 to 30 years,” he said, and “all that time nobody's ever heard about it — he never asked me to publicize it as some [other supporters] have.”

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles — like Father Chase — said few knew of the extent of Bob and Dolores Hope's support of the Catholic Church.

In a statement provided to the Register, the cardinal said: “The Hopes have also contributed to the faith life of our Catholic community through donations to so many Catholic causes, so often quietly and without public notice.”

The cardinal specifically cited their support of the new Cathedral in Los Angeles and their funding of the Our Lady of Hope Chapel at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., as “another testament to their faith and devotion.”

The cardinal grew up in St. Charles Borromeo parish in North Hollywood — near Bob and Dolores’ home in Toluca Lake, a suburb of Los Angeles — and he recalled how Bob Hope opened up his backyard to the students when the school playground was paved over for a parking lot as well as the fund raisers for the construction of the parish school Hope supported with his talents.

The cardinal also confirmed that Hope became Catholic a few years ago — something very few people knew. The archdiocese was unable to provide a specific date for the conversion.

“One of my greatest joys is knowing that Bob Hope died as a Catholic,” Cardinal Mahony said. “Over the years I would invite him to join the Church, but he would respond with his typical humor: 'My wife, Dolores, does enough praying to take care of both of us.’ But eventually her prayers prevailed and he was baptized into the Catholic Church and was strengthened these past years through the regular reception of holy Communion.”

Despite their three decades of communication, it was news to Father Chase that Hope had become Catholic a few years ago, but he was hardly shocked by the news.

Dolores Hope, a lifelong Catholic, is a daily communicant, Father Chase said, and Bob Hope was made a Knight Commander of St. Gregory the Great, a papal honor. So he said he was “not surprised to hear that [Hope] became Catholic.”

Holy Cross Father Thomas Feeley, vice postulator for the cause of the Servant of God Father Patrick Peyton, was one of the few who knew of Hope's conversion.

“I interviewed Mrs. Hope a couple of years ago for Father Peyton's cause, and while I was there, she asked if I would go upstairs and bless Bob, who was sleeping — she told me Bob had become Catholic and she wanted me to bless him,” Father Feeley explained.

Father Feeley explained that Bob and Dolores had long been supporters of Father Peyton's work in Hollywood.

“Dolores Hope and Loretta Young were the most important people to back Father Peyton's work [in Hollywood],” explained Father Feeley, adding that Bob had helped by donating his talent to make several of the radio dramas — designed to provide a positive moral message — for Family Theater, the Sunset Boulevard-based company Father Peyton founded.

Dan Pitre, a spokesman for Family Theater, said Bob Hope helped on several radio dramas both as host and as an actor.

Hope was heard on at least 10 of the shows between 1947 and 1958.

Family Theater of the Air — the program Hope collaborated on — was designed to bring radio dramas with a moral lesson. It was the longest-running radio show in American history and ran for 22 years between the 1940s and 1960s.

Fifty-two of the dramas from the radio shows are set to be released in a digitally remastered format soon, with more to follow — though Family Theater is unsure whether any of those featuring Hope will be among the initial batch released.

Father Chase said he agreed with Archbishop Fulton Sheen's characterization of Bob Hope at a dinner years ago.

“Archbishop Sheen introduced him as Hope, a man of hope,” Father Chase said, because “he was not only named Hope, he gave others hope.”

Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Did U.S. Violate International Law With Corpse Pics?

L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO, July 26 — Days after the U.S. government published photos of Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reminded readers that international law forbids the publication of photos of war casualties.

In a lead article titled “Once Again the Tragic Face of War,” the paper said that regardless of the cruel crimes of which both men have been plausibly accused, the use of the photos is an offense against “the dignity of man.”

The Hussein sons were killed July 22 in Mosul during an attack carried out by the U.S. military.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had protested against Iraq's use of photos of American prisoners and casualties, defended his decision to release the photos, saying it was necessary to prove that the two men were indeed dead in order to reduce continued guerilla attacks against American troops in Iraq.

Pope Right on Celibacy, Says Advice Columnist

ABS-CBN International, Aug. 1 — The Philippino news service defended Pope John Paul II's stance on celibacy. Citing the Holy Father, the news service's advice columnist, Bob Garon wrote:

“The key to being a good and faithful priest is holiness. Nothing is more important than holiness. If priests were allowed to marry and lacked holiness, they would still fall and scandalize our people. The calling of the priest is to be holy.

“That says it all. He can be a lousy preacher, a poor manager, but if he's holy, he's doing his job. There is absolutely no substitute for holiness. None whatsoever.

“Lastly, we don't make the rules. When you join any organization, you must follow its rules. There's no denying that. If one cannot or will not live by the rules, he should not join. Nobody says you must become a priest.

“It's a call and you don't have to answer the call if you cannot or will not live by the rules that govern that call.”

Pope Peppers Irish With Text Messages

BLOOMBERG NEWS, July 24 — Irish mobile phone users can now get daily text messages straight from Pope John Paul II, Bloomberg news service has reported.

The “Papal Thought of the Day” is now available to Irish subscribers to Vodafone Group Plc, Meteor and MMO2 Plc, each day at noon, for 23 cents per day.

Ciaran Carey, general manager in Ireland of the Italy-based Acotel Group SpA, explained why he instituted the service: “We approached the Vatican and suggested they do this because mobile communications is now very much entrenched in Irish life.”

More than 80% of the overwhelmingly Catholic Irish use cell phones, Bloomberg reported, noting that the Pope “made history on Nov. 22, 2001, when he sent the first papal message via the Internet.”

The daily broadcast includes excerpts from the Holy Father's homilies and talks.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: In New Document, Vatican Clarifies Issues Regarding Homosexual Unions DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican issued a strongly worded document July 31 giving guidelines to bishops and politicians on how to counter the growing trend of legalization of homosexual unions. (Read the complete text on page 16)

In the document, titled “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons,” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, restates and clarifies the sanctity of marriage between man and woman and calls homosexual unions “gravely immoral.”

“There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage,” the statement reads. “Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural law.”

The document, requested by bishops, has been two years in the making and comes on the heels of legislation passed recently in Holland and Belgium — and pending in Canada — to permit homosexual “marriage.”

It reminds Catholic politicians they have a “moral duty” to publicly oppose such legislation and to vote against it in legislative bodies.

“To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral,” the document says. It urges non-Catholics to join the campaign to “defend the common good of society.”

The issuance of the guidelines was met by a small protest in St. Peter's Square by Italy's Radical Party, where demonstrators held up banners reading “No Vatican, No Taliban.”

Italian parliamentarian and homosexual-rights activist Franco Grillini said the document was part of a “homophobic crusade” by the Vatican. A senior official in Germany's Green Party, Volker Beck, called it “a sad document of closed-minded fanaticism.”

But its release came a day after President Bush, at a White House press conference, upheld the sanctity of marriage, suggesting it be codified in some way.

Vermont is the only state to recognize civil unions that give homosexual couples the full benefits and responsibilities of marriage but are separate from legal marriage. A Massachusetts court is expected to rule soon on the legality of homosexual marriage in that state.

Dominican Father J. Augustine DiNoia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the body responsible for upholding sound Church doctrine, told the Register the document is “in line with the magisterium and the teachings of Pope John Paul II, where he argues the importance of democratic societies coming to some consensus about the truth of what it means to be human and for human beings to be in a society that fosters the common good.”

“If the consensus is not argued through in a rational manner and some convictions about truth are not presented, then the consensus is going to have to be imposed,” he said. “It's not instruction or notification. It's directed toward helping people direct arguments in different cultural, political and legal contexts from country to country and where there are different kinds of proposals.”

“Marriage is not something created by the state,” Father DiNoia continued. “It's a natural institution. The state acknowledges its existence but it cannot alter or destroy what marriage is.”

However, the state can differentiate between persons in society by granting benefits to married rather than unmarried persons. By recognizing homosexual unions in this regard, therefore, Father DiNoia argued they are being put “on a par with marriage, and that's what this document is arguing against.”

Father John Harvey, director of Courage, an international organization that works with people who have same-sex attractions and desire to live a chaste life, very much welcomed the document, saying it is importantly based on natural law arguments as much as on Scripture.

“Most people don't understand there's actually such a thing as natural moral law because they're so obscured by relativism, subjectivism and other forms of moral theology that are not rooted in objective reality,” Father Harvey said.

“From natural moral law you can point out that God created man and woman as complementary to one another, which leads to sexual physical union out of love, out of which come children and family,” he added. “Fruitfulness and complementarity belong to the very nature of marriage.”

“By its very nature homosexual activity is objectively disordered, and there's no way it can ever be tolerated,” he continued. “Governments that allow such conditions to exist through the recognition of homosexual unions are therefore weakening the common good.”

Although the document makes a particularly strong demand on Catholic politicians to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions, it is essentially aimed at all lawmakers.

“It's time we challenged these politicians no matter what their religion and get them to recognize marriage and the goodness of marriage,” Father Harvey said.

Catholic journalist and author Russell Shaw also welcomed the document for being “clear, forceful and timely,” but added he was “very anxious” about the impact it will have on public opinion.

“Unfortunately the sex-abuse scandal has put the bishops under a dark cloud among many Catholics,” he said. He said he was not sure if it would “hurt or help” the Church.

Msgr. Peter Fleetwood, deputy general secretary of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, praised the clarification the document brings for those whose task it is to instruct the Catholic faith. He also applauded its “tone of sensitivity” but said it “won't help people to deal with the awfully delicate situations that are bound to arise.”

But could the Church be responding too late? “The Church has by implication already condemned this,” Father Harvey said. “It's late, but not too late.”

“Who could have anticipated how this might have appeared as little as five years ago?” Father DiNoia said. ‘It's a bit surprising it's gone so far and so fast.”

Although he criticized a “lack of leadership” from bishops opposing homosexual-rights legislation, Father Harvey said he is “hopeful that by God's power things will begin to change.”

But he was under no illusion about the challenge the issue poses not just to Catholics but to all Christians.

“The battle is on,” he said, “the battle for our culture.”

Edward Pentin writes from Rome.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: God Upholds the Humble of Heart (July 23) DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

The psalm that was just sung is the first part of a composition that the original Hebrew version of the Bible preserves in its unity. The ancient Greek and Latin versions divide the song in two different psalms.

The psalm begins with an invitation to praise God and then lists a long series of reasons for praising him, all of which are expressed in the present tense. These are God's activities that are considered to be characteristic of him and that he still carries out at this time. However, they vary in nature. Some refer to God's interventions in the life of mankind (see Psalm 147:3, 6, 11), particularly for the benefit of Jerusalem and Israel (see verse 2); others concern the universe he has created (see verse 4), especially the earth with its plants and animals (see verses 8-9).

Finally, when describing those in whom the Lord takes pleasure, the psalm invites us to adopt a twofold attitude: one of devout fear and one of trust (see verse 11). We have not been abandoned to our own devices or to cosmic energy; we are always in the hands of the Lord for his plan of salvation.

Creator of the Universe

After a festive call to praise (see verse 1), the psalm unfolds in two poetic and spiritual movements. The first movement (see verses 2-6) presents, first of all, God's work in history, using the image of a builder who is rebuilding Jerusalem, which has returned to life after the Babylonian exile (see verse 2). However, this great architect, who is the Lord, also reveals himself as a father who bends down to help those who are wounded interiorly and physically — those who are present in the midst of his people who have been humiliated and oppressed (see verse 3).

In his Exposition of Psalm 147, which he delivered at Carthage in 412, St. Augustine commented on the phrase, “The Lord heals the brokenhearted,” in the following words: “Whoever does not have a broken heart cannot be healed … Who are the brokenhearted? The humble. Who are those who are not brokenhearted? The proud. Therefore, the broken heart is healed, and the heart swollen with pride is abased. Moreover, in all probability, if it is abased, it is precisely so that once it is broken, it can be straightened out and healed … ‘He heals the brokenhearted, binds up their wounds’ … In other words, he heals the humble of heart, those who confess, those who expiate, those who judge themselves with severity so that they will be able to experience his mercy. Behold the one he heals. Perfect health, however, will only be reached at the end of the present mortal state when our corruptible being will be clothed with incorruptibility and our mortal being will be clothed in immortality” (5-8: Esposizioni sui Salmi, IV, Rome, 1977, p. 772-779).

A Loving Father

But God's work is not only manifested when he heals his people of their suffering. He who surrounds the poor with his tenderness and care manifests himself as a severe judge when confronting the wicked (see verse 6). The Lord of history does not remain indifferent to the raging storms of the arrogant, who think that they are the only arbitrators of human affairs: God flings down into the dust of the earth those who defy heaven with their pride (see 1 Samuel 2:7-8; Luke 1:51-53).

God's work, however, is not exhausted in his lordship over history; he is also the king of creation and the whole universe responds to his cry as its Creator. Not only can he number all the limitless series of stars; he is also able to give each one its name, thus defining its nature and its characteristics (see Psalm 147:4).

As the prophet Isaiah already sang: “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who has created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name …” (Isaiah 40:26). The “armies” of the Lord, then, are the stars. The prophet Baruch added: “The stars shone in their watches and were glad; he called them, and they said, ‘Here we are!’ They shone with gladness for him who made them” (Baruch 3:34-35).

After a new joyful invitation to praise (see Psalm 147:7), the second movement of Psalm 147 unfolds (see verses 7-11). God's creative work in the universe is still at the center of the stage. In a land that is often arid, as is the land of the East, the first sign of God's love is the rain that makes the earth fertile (see verse 8). In this way, the Creator prepares a banquet for the animals. Moreover, he takes care to give food to the smallest living being, such as the young ravens that cry out with hunger (see verse 9). Jesus later invites us to look at “the birds in the sky — they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26; see also Luke 12:24, where there is an explicit reference to the “ravens“).

God Loves the Humble

But once again our attention shifts from creation to human existence. Thus the psalm ends by showing us the Lord bending down to those who are righteous and humble (see Psalm 147:10-11), as was already stated in the first part of the hymn (see verse 6). Through two symbols of strength, the horse and the legs of a runner, God's attitude emerges: He does not allow itself to be conquered or intimidated by force. Once again, the Lord, in his logic, ignores the pride and arrogance of the powerful and takes the side of those who are faithful, “those who hope in his steadfast love” (verse 11) — those who have abandoned themselves to God's guidance in their way of acting, thinking, planning and living out their daily life.

It is among these faithful ones that people of prayer must place themselves, basing their hope on the Lord's grace, with the certainty of being enveloped in the mantle of God's love: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death, and keep them alive in famine … Yea, our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name” (Psalm 33: 18-19, 21).

(Register translation)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: God Forgives Us in His Mercy (July 30) DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

This is the fourth time during our reflections on morning prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours that we have heard the proclamation of Psalm 51, the famous Miserere. In fact, it is repeated every Friday, thereby becoming an oasis for meditation where we discover the evil that we harbor in our conscience and ask the Lord to purify and forgive us. Indeed, as the psalmist confesses in another prayer of petition, “Before you no living being can be just” (Psalm 143:2). In the Book of Job we read: “How can a man be just in God's sight, or how can a woman's child be innocent? Behold, even the moon is not bright and the stars are not clear in his sight. How much less man, who is but a maggot, the son of man, who is only a worm?” (Job 25:4-6).

These are strong and dramatic words that attempt to convey in all seriousness and gravity the limitations and the fragility of human beings and their perverse capacity to sow evil, violence, impurity and lies. However, the message of hope contained in the Miserere, which the Book of Psalms attributes to David, a repentant sinner, is this: God can “blot out, wash away and cleanse” any guilt that we confess with a contrite heart (see Psalm 51:2-3). As the Lord says through Isaiah, “Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

A Message of Hope

On this occasion, we will reflect briefly on the conclusion of Psalm 51, an ending that is full of hope because the psalmist is aware that God has forgiven him (see verses 17-21). At this point, his mouth is about to proclaim the praises of the Lord to the world, thereby attesting to the joy that he feels in his soul, which has been purified of evil and, consequently, freed from remorse (see verse 17).

The psalmist gives witness in a clear way to another conviction, which is related to a teaching that the prophets reiterated (see Isaiah 1:10-17; Amos 5:21-25; Hosea 6:6): The most pleasing sacrifice that rises up to the Lord like a perfume and a sweet fragrance (see Genesis 8:21) is not a holocaust of bulls and lambs but rather a “broken, humbled heart” (Psalm 51:19).

The Imitation of Christ, a text so beloved in our Christian spiritual tradition, repeats the same admonition as the psalmist: “The humble contrition of sins is for you the pleasing sacrifice, a perfume sweeter than the smoke of incense … In it, every iniquity is purified and washed away” (III, 52:4).

Christ Our Mediator

The psalm ends unexpectedly, giving us a completely different perspective, which even seems to contain a contradiction (see verses 20-21). From the final plea of an individual sinner, a transition is made to a prayer for rebuilding the entire city of Jerusalem, transporting us from David's era to the era when the city was destroyed several centuries later. Moreover, after having expressed God's rejection of animal sacrifices in verse 18, verse 21 of the psalm proclaims that God will be pleased with these very same sacrifices.

It is clear that this last passage is a later addition that was made during the time of the exile. In a certain sense, it was an attempt to correct or at least to complete the viewpoint in David's psalm. It does so in two ways. On one hand, it did not want the psalm to be restricted to an individual prayer; there was also a need to reflect on the pitiful situation of the entire city. On the other hand, there was a desire to reappraise God's rejection of ritual sacrifices; this rejection could neither be a blanket rejection nor a definitive rejection since it concerned a form of worship that God himself prescribed in the Torah. The person who completed the psalm had a valid intuition: He understood the need that sinners experience — the need for sacrificial mediation. Sinners are not capable of purifying themselves through their own efforts; good intentions are not enough. An external yet effective mediation is needed. The New Testament later revealed the full meaning of his intuition, showing us that Christ has brought about the perfect sacrificial mediation by offering up his life.

Communion of Saints

In his Homilies on Ezekiel, St. Gregory the Great understood very well the difference in perspective between verses 19 and 21 of the Miserere. He proposed an interpretation of these verses that we can receive as our own, thereby concluding our meditation. St. Gregory applies verse 19, which speaks about a contrite spirit, to the Church's earthly existence, and verse 21, which speaks about holocausts, to the Church in heaven.

Here is what this great pontiff had to say: “The holy Church has two lives: one in time, the other in eternity; one of labor on earth, the other of reward in heaven; one in which merits are gained, the other in which merits gained are enjoyed. Both in one life as well as in the other life, it offers sacrifice: here the sacrifice of remorse and on high the sacrifice of praise. About the first sacrifice it has been said: ‘My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit’ (Psalm 51:19); about the second it has been written: 'Then you will be pleased with proper sacrifice, burnt offerings and holocausts’ (Psalm 51:21). … In both flesh is offered, since here on earth the offering of flesh is the mortification of the body, while on high the offering of flesh is the glory of the resurrection in praise of God. On high flesh will be offered as a holocaust, when it will be transformed in eternal incorruptibility, and there will no longer be any conflict or anything mortal, because it will remain wholly burning with love for him in endless praise” (Omelie su Ezechiele/2, Rome, 1993, p. 271).

(Register translation)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Church in Sri Lanka Takes Peacemaker Role DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — For nearly two decades, Sri Lanka has been ravaged by a bloody conflict between the country's Buddhist Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists. The ethnic conflict has killed tens of thousands and forced hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians to take refuge in India and the West.

A peace process has been in limbo since April, when Tamil rebels walked away from the negotiating table. The process began at Christmas 2001 when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam — controlling Tamil minority areas in northern and eastern parts of the island nation — declared a truce that led to a cease-fire agreement in February 2002.

Archbishop Oswald Gomis of Colombo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka and secretary-general of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, has been actively involved in the Church's bid to promote peace and unity.

Catholics make up 6.7% of Sri Lanka's population of 19.5 million.

In an exclusive interview at his office in Colombo, Archbishop Gomis briefed Register correspondent Anto Akkara about the Church's attempts to foster peace and unity.

How is the Church trying to intervene to meet this challenge?

Our aim is to ensure that the people are not misled.

All the Christian leaders in Sri Lanka met June 3 and discussed ways to promote fresh programs to support the peace process. There will be a united Christian peace rally Aug. 22 in Colombo and other places.

The Catholic Church has been carrying out special peace-education programs targeting children. We have also been arranging exposure programs for the Tamil and Sinhala people to meet and understand each other. Unless we bring the divided people together, there will be no peace.

The Church has always made it a point to ensure that our [peace] programs include all communities. There is no point in confining our peace campaigns to the Christians alone.

Even if the whole Church agrees, as long as the majority Sinhala Buddhists and Hindu Tamils are not prepared for peace, there can be no peace. So the Church is acting as “matchmaker” to make the divided communities come together.

Do you face opposition in such ventures?

Initially our peace programs had only a nominal non-Christian presence. But now most of the participants of our peace programs are Buddhists in the South and Hindus in the North.

Recently, we held a peace rally at Polonnoruwa. The majority of the 5,000 people who attended were Buddhists, and many monks participated.

We have held several rallies like this besides holding village-level programs to build support for the peace process, especially after the cease-fire began.

What is the focus of the Church's peace initiatives?

We think the Christian message of forgiveness and reconciliation is very crucial for the success of the peace process. In the exposure programs, we take Sinhala people from the South and lodge them with Tamil families in the North and vice versa. Now we find that these families have become so friendly to each other that they forget their differences and prejudices.

Gradually, the number of those opposed to the peaceful solution is steadily declining.

Since the peace process began, more and more Buddhist clergy are actively participating in our peace programs. Many of them are now more open to visit Tamil areas and are encouraging their people to visit the Tamil areas in exposure programs.

What is the stand the Church has taken on the ethnic conflict?

We have always adopted a united stand on the conflict based on human values.

Though the ethnic division runs deep in this country, Christians are the only religious community with members from both ethnic groups. You can hardly find a Tamil Buddhist or a Sinhala Hindu in this country.

We have three Tamil majority dioceses and eight Sinhala majority dioceses. The bishops’ conference, despite differences of opinions, has always spoken in one voice. As much as I love Sinhala people, as I am a Sinhala man, I cannot deny the rights of the Tamils.

We have always stood for a peaceful solution of the conflict, reiterating that “war is no solution.”

With this demand, the bishops have gone to the government and to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. Recently, all the bishops went to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam headquarters and told them frankly things they should not have done.

We are firm on this: It should be one country only but certainly it must recognize the right of the Tamil minority. So, the Church has always preached “peace with dignity.”

The Tamil rebels have demanded interim administration in Tamil areas under their control as a precondition to resuming the peace talks. But that demand would be outside the constitution. Do you think the peace process is in a deadlock now?

It is not a hopeless situation. A solution to the present imbroglio is very much possible. The government is offering different proposals. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam has not accepted these. Both sides can arrive at a formula soon to resume the negotiations. We are hopeful this stalemate will end soon.

The constitution is not an impregnable rock. It is man-made and if there is consensus, any constitution can be changed. The only thing is that the people have to be educated for this change.

Has the present stalemate doused the optimism of the people?

No, the support for the peace process is quite a bit stronger now. There has been no bloodshed or violence for more than a year. The people have tasted peace after years of suffering. At the moment, the civil society here is committed to peace more than ever before.

At the same time, there are small groups that want to destroy the widespread optimism in the ordinary people. In a conflict situation, there are always warmongers who have their own personal and financial interests. They are vociferous in their opposition to peace because their aim is to fish in troubled waters.

Anto Akkara is

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anto Akkara ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Double Standard for Anti-Catholic Movie?

THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE, Aug. 1 — Catholic League president William Donohue criticized the Scottish movie “The Magdalene Sisters” — and its reception by critics —-in a press release. The film is highly critical of homes for mothers the Church once ran in Ireland.

“Imagine an anti-Semitic director who admits he packed into one movie every anti-Semitic theme he could draw on and then gets an anti-Semitic duo to distribute it,” he said. “Next imagine film critics taking the anti-Semitic propaganda at face value and then offering anti-Semitic remarks in their reviews. Fat chance.”

He continued: “For example, there will never be a movie about Jewish slumlords in Harlem or Jewish managers of black entertainers in the 20th century. If there were, and if it were to present a wholly one-sided portrait of the worst excesses of how some Jews exploited blacks, the ADL would be up in arms. And rightly so. But luckily for Jews, this is not likely to happen. Catholics are not so lucky-they have to endure Catholic-bashing directors like Peter Mullan shopping his anti-Catholic script to anti-Catholic distributors like Harvey and Bob Weinstein, only to have it reviewed by anti-Catholic critics.”

James Ossuary's Dealer Arrested

ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 24 — The ossuary he had for sale might have called the Blessed Mother's perpetual virginity into question, but now Oded Golan's reputation has suffered a serious blow.

The Israeli antiquities dealer was arrested July 22 on suspicion of creating two relics forgeries — including the burial box that purported to be that of Jesus’ brother James.

Golan was picked up in Israel and is also suspected in connection with a tablet inscribed with forged instructions for caring for the Jewish Temple, the wire service reported.

The Israel Antiquities Authority had already declared both artifacts forgeries. The ossuary bore the inscription, “James, the brother of Jesus.” The artifact had been valued at $1 million to $2 million, based on the claimed link with Jesus Christ.

Golan continued to insist the artifacts were authentic.

Europeans to Follow Dinosaurs?

THE ECONOMIST, July 17 — The West is going gray, according to demographers, and the consequences won't be pretty, according to The Economist, a socially liberal free-market British magazine.

It noted that European fertility rates have declined so precipitously that population across the continent is likely to fall by 28 million in the next 50 years.

By the year 2050, Italy is likely to shrink from 57.5 million in 2000 to only 45 million, while Spain may drop from 40 to 37 million; Germany, it warned, will decline from 80 million today to 50 million.

Given generous public retirement pensions, this will prove economically unsustainable, the magazine noted, triggering a “struggle for resources between generations.”

The Economist noted ironically that a recent meeting of the Friends of Europe was chaired by 77-year-old former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and held in the dinosaurs’ hall of the local natural history museum.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholics Need Not Apply DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Since May, we have reported on how the Senate excludes Catholics from federal judgeships. We couldn't say it any better than Denver's Archbishop Charles Chaput did July 30 in his archdiocesan newspaper:

Some things change, and some things don't.

In the summer of 1963, a friend of mine — she was just 11 at the time — drove with her family to visit her sister, who had married and moved away to Birmingham, Ala. Stopping for gas in a small Alabama town on a Sunday morning, her father asked where they could find the local Catholic church.

The attendant just shrugged and said, “We don't have any of them here.”

The family finished gassing up, pulled out of the station — and less than two blocks away, they passed the local Catholic church.

Most people my age remember the ‘60s in the South as a time of intense struggle for civil rights. Along with pervasive racial discrimination, Southern culture often harbored a suspicion of Catholics, Jews and other minorities. Catholics were few and scattered. In the Deep South, like Alabama, being Catholic often meant being locked out of political and social leadership.

Today, much of the old South is gone. Cities like Atlanta and Raleigh-Durham are major cosmopolitan centers. Time, social reform and migration have transformed the economy along with the political system. The South today is a tribute both to the courage of civil-rights activists 40 years ago and to the goodness of the people of the South themselves.

Most people, most of the time, want to do the right thing. And when they change, they also change the world they inhabit, which is one of the reasons why the Archdiocese of Atlanta can now draw thousands of enthusiastic Catholic participants to its Eucharistic Congress each year in a state where Catholics were once second-class citizens. It also explains how a practicing Catholic, William Pryor, can become Alabama's attorney general — something that was close to inconceivable just four decades ago.

I've never met Mr. Pryor, but his political life is a matter of public record. He has served the state of Alabama with distinction, enforcing its laws and court decisions fairly and consistently. This is why President Bush nominated him to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and why the Senate Judiciary Committee approved him last Wednesday for consideration by the full Senate.

But the committee debate on Pryor was ugly, and the vote to advance his nomination split exactly along party lines. Why? Because Mr. Pryor believes that Catholic teaching about the sanctity of life is true; that the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision was a poorly reasoned mistake; and that abortion is wrong in all cases, even rape and incest. As a result, Americans were treated to the bizarre spectacle of non-Catholic Sens. Orrin Hatch and Jeff Sessions defending Mr. Pryor's constitutionally protected religious rights to Mr. Pryor's critics, including Sen. Richard Durbin, an “abortion-rights” Catholic.

According to Sen. Durbin (as reported by EWTN), “Many Catholics who oppose abortion personally do not believe the laws of the land should prohibit abortion for all others in extreme cases involving rape, incest and the life and the health of the mother.”

This kind of propaganda makes the abortion lobby proud, but it should humiliate any serious Catholic. At a minimum, Catholic members of Congress like Sen. Durbin should actually read and pray over the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the encyclical Evangelium Vitae before they explain the Catholic faith to anyone.

They might even try doing something about their “personal opposition” to abortion by supporting competent pro-life judicial appointments. Otherwise, they simply prove what many people already believe — that a new kind of religious discrimination is very welcome at the Capitol, even among elected officials who claim to be Catholic.

Some things change, and some things don't. The bias against “papism” is alive and well in America. It just has a different address. But at least some people in Alabama now know where the local Catholic church is — and where she stands — even if some people in Washington apparently don't.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTER DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

In Defense of Ave Maria

I should like to respond to Dr. John Hittinger's letter (titled “Ave Maria Fallout“) in your July 20-26 issue.

It is correct that the only campus that Ave Maria University of Michigan operated was that of St. Mary's College. However, parents and friends should be aware that this is a distinct entity from Ave Maria University of Florida, which begins operations this fall at a site in Naples with a projected enrollment of some 100 students, including students from Ave Maria College.

Over our three-year period of operation, Ave Maria invested $150,000 in new books and periodicals, which met or exceeded any commitments we made to St. Mary's library.

Dr. Hittinger's statement that the expenses of St. Mary's “were never over budget” is simply not accurate. In fact, during the two years Dr. Hittinger served as dean, actual operating and capital expenditures exceeded the budgeted amounts by more than $1.1 million. Indeed, the total ongoing deficits (averaging more than $1.5 million per year) were far beyond what a development effort could be expected to cover.

Regarding Dr. Hittinger's implication that St. Mary's employees were mistreated, all faculty members were on contracts for one year or longer, and all have had their contracts honored. Therefore, we did not treat these faculty as “at will” employees.

Furthermore, North Central Association accredited St. Mary's College (and has given candidacy status to Ave Maria College), implicitly approving our approach to faculty status and governance. In fact, when Ave Maria University of Michigan took over operations of St. Mary's College, a retirement plan was added, which previously did not exist, and salaries for faculty and staff were raised significantly.

Thomas S. Monaghan

Ann Arbor, Michigan

The writer is chairman of the board of Ave Maria University.

Secret Meeting ‘Outed'

Thank you for reporting on the so-called “confidential” meeting of some bishops and others (“Dissenters’ Secret Bishops Meeting,” July 27-Aug. 9).

My good sense-tells me that secret meetings have something to hide. Secret meetings cannot be called to accountability.-This must not be allowed to become a precedent to build “alternate” or-unaccountable “powerbases.”

At a time when our Church in America is suffering from collapsed leadership, some bishops entertain meetings under cover with-peo-ple of-unknown agenda and notable hostility to Church doctrine and Catholic life, while the intent of our faithful is to preserve-the Catholic faith and their fidelity to Christ, both of which are-now under relentless assault.-Our faithful-do not need-distracting, confusing-or let alone-secret controllers fragmenting, sidetracking our bishops’ conference.

What we are for is-unifying and-strength-ening-the Church's-hand, as we-all-need the true voice of Christ, who calls us to union with himself and [who calls] strangers to repentance.-Our own faithful people in the pews, at home and in the workplace need confirmation in the faith and in their true witness to Christ,-whose divine authority-gives clear and sure direction-by our true bishops and in union with the lawful successor-of Peter in Rome.

Gratitude and prayers for your work. Your continued fidelity and vigil are commendable. We ask you to-remain alert and continue to help us to keep “watching and praying” with-the suffering Christ in his Mystical Body, our Church.

FATHER L. STEPHEN GALAMBOS, O.F.M.

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Vocations to Sanctity

Two articles in the July 27-Aug. 9 issue — “Mom Prayed and God 'Turned the Lights On,’” and “A Small Football Player with Big Faith” — are incredible witnesses to family life. Both guys come from solid families.

St. Thomas teaches that grace builds on nature, and-there is no-better place to nurture Christian and human formation than in the Christian family. When our Holy Father came to St. Louis in 1999 he said, “As the family goes, so goes the nation.”

It seems safe to say, after reading proof of this, that solid families produce solid heroes, and one can safely add-and-solid vocations to sanctity, whether as priests, religious or laity.

FATHER WILLIAM C. KEEBLER JR.

Penfield, Illinois

Imitation Love

In you editorial “Massachusetts’ Marriage Mess” (July 20-26), it was fair for you to write that we shouldn't dismiss all homosexuals as pariahs. We should treat homosexuals the same as we treat those who masturbate or couples who use contraception and all others who by their disordered acts destroy their capacity to love. They need to be loved and helped to repent so that they can learn to love and live chaste lives in keeping with their human dignity.

But my problem with your editorial is that you affirmed the lie that some homosexual relationships are based on love. Christ and his Church aren't against homosexual acts because love is “rarely” found in them, but rather because those acts are totally antithetical to love.

If you truly love a person, then you don't lead that person to violate the natural law just so that you can selfishly satisfy your lustful desires. When you say that people who do that “love” each other, you blaspheme, because sacred Scripture says that God is love.

On the other hand, there was some good in your editorial. Thank you for bravely telling of the evils in the homosexual lifestyle and for calling the voters to action. For that I commend you.

LAWRENCE MARTIN

Chicago, Illinois

Abortion Amplifications

Just two clarifications from the article “Pro-Lifers Press on With Agenda After Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Victory” (July 20-26). The article mentioned the educational efforts of Priests for Life in showing what abortion looks like and then spoke about the Silent No More awareness campaign, which shows the harm abortion does to women.

Lest anyone think these two efforts are in any way in opposition, I'd like to point out that Silent No More (www. SilentNoMoreAwareness.org) is a project of two organizations, Priests for Life and the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life. Moreover, Priests for Life has, from the beginning, joined with the many other groups who have insisted that society must understand that what harms the baby harms the mother, too.

On another point, the article mentioned that we have commissioned medical diagrams of two abortion procedures. For accuracy, may I point out that those procedures are the dilation and evacuation (D&E), the most common second-trimester procedure, and also the suction-curettage method, the most common procedure overall. The article inadvertently misquoted me on that.

I would also add that while I used to say that we had won the argument with the public about the humanity of the child, a closer look at the situation will reveal that the public is still largely confused about how well-developed the child is in the first 10 weeks, when most abortions occur, and even more confused about the violence abortion inflicts on that child.

FATHER FRANK PAVONE

Staten Island, New York

The writer is national director of Priests for Life.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Video-Store Values DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

I was quite interested to see the-headline “Are Video Stores Safe for Kids?” in the July 20-26 issue, thinking that finally someone was going to address a topic that had been on my mind lately: the sleazy video/DVD covers-displaying nearly naked men and women in all-varieties of suggestive poses.

The first few paragraphs of the article seemed to be heading in the right direction, but I was completely amazed to then read that Blockbuster Video was-being hailed-as a “conspicuous example” of a “large video chain [setting] up safeguards to protect children from being exposed to these temptations.” Since when?

Okay, they may have “youth-restricted viewing” and they may help children pick appropriate titles, but there's nothing to keep kids from seeing the aforementioned sleazy pictures all over the store. If Blockbuster really wanted to get serious about making their business “family-friendly,” they would stop carrying so many of those trashy direct-to-video movies, have plain covers with only the title shown to replace the soft-porn-ones and bring back more of the old, truly family-friendly movies, like the vintage Disney films of the ‘60s and black-and-white classics like Arsenic and Old Lace (which my husband and I discovered was unavailable-from Blockbuster).

Until video stores really clean up their act, I would suggest that any-parents wanting to-rent movies for the family should leave the kids at home.

CELINE MCCOY

San Diego

“Are Video Stores Safe for Kids?” addressed an important issue of interest to all parents. Unfortunately, your reporter gave a clean bill of health to Blockbuster, the national chain, quoting them as being a “family-friendly destination.” Nothing could be further from the truth, at least in our neighborhood.

The local Blockbuster has taken on an insidious policy of seeding the regular displays with soft porn from B-grade producers. Cover photos of naked bodies in bed, or in various stages of the act of undressing, from non-Hollywood production companies are interspersed with the regular drama, action and recent releases that we would all recognize from the major studios. The situation at the local Blockbuster is so bad that some parents have considered a boycott. Complaints to he manager and, by writing, to the national headquarters have not been responded to.

How ironic, then, that the Register would publicly provide such a ringing endorsement of Blockbuster. I wish you had dug a little deeper before issuing such a glowing report on this media chain.

KEVIN PARKER

Rochester, New York

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: What's in a Name? Ask the Groups That Push Abortion DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Like any other businesses in a sales slump, organizations that sell the culture of death have reacted to the waning popularity of their products with marketing makeovers.

In fact, during the past year, four seminal organizations of the culture of death have changed their names, hoping to widen their appeal by softening their public presence.

In the most publicized move, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League changed its name to NARAL Pro-Choice America. The reason for this decision fooled no one, on the left or on the right. As a generation of women has now witnessed the undeniable humanity of their unborn children through ever-more-stunning sonogram images, “pro-choice” has simply become more palatable than “pro-abortion.”

Kate Michelman, the organization's president, said the new name “is the right name for this moment in history.”

She is correct; this point in history appears to be the point in which the nature of the unborn child — whether it is a clump of cells or a human being — has been largely resolved, and not in her organization's favor. And so the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League did what it had to do: It “re-branded” its product — abortion on demand — to reflect the new realities of the marketplace. The group now seeks to create a “generation pro-choice,” to use its own words, just like a long-running soft-drink campaign sought to create a “Pepsi generation.”

The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League even claims that “NARAL is no longer an acronym for the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.” Its very name is now a word without a meaning; we are supposed to believe that the initials stand for nothing, especially that first, increasingly troublesome “A.” But this is, of course, a fraud. The organization remains in the business of promoting abortion on demand, just like Marlboro ads are meant to sell cigarettes, not horses and weekends at dude ranches.

Another name change is under way at the Hemlock Society, the group spearheading the assisted-sui-cide movement. Hemlock selected its original name because Socrates took hemlock to commit suicide; the organization sought to link itself, and the cause it espouses, with one of Western civilization's intellectual giants. Then why change? It appears that suicide has become too unpopular to advocate explicitly, so the Hemlock Society is now using focus groups to help it select a more ambiguous name.

Zero Population Growth, the organization responsible for scaring 30 years worth of schoolchildren into thinking that the human race is breeding itself into oblivion, has changed its name to Population Connection. The organization abandoned a name that perfectly captures the goal of its advocacy and replaced it with one as appropriate for a dating service as it is for a group of strident political activists.

Finally, the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, an organization that uses legal challenges to attack abortion restrictions all over the world, has changed its name to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Why? The group does not want to draw unnecessary attention to the fact that it seeks to defeat the will of democratic majorities — most notably the Catholic majorities of Latin America that recognize life from the moment of conception — through legal maneuvering.

Of course, these groups plan to change nothing but appearances, the marketing equivalent of a label on a box of cereal that reads, “Bold new package, same great taste!” The organization admits that nothing else will change: “The name change does not alter the way in which the center functions nor does it change the mission that has driven us for the past 10 years. We will continue to pursue legal remedies in the courts … to promote and defend the reproductive rights of women worldwide.”

Zero Population Growth also admits nothing else will change: “We are changing our name, but our mission remains exactly the same.”

Once renamed, the Hemlock Society will continue to give desperate people suicide recipes — what it calls “advice and tips on hastening death” — on its Web site. And, of course, NARAL Pro-Choice America continues to fight for one choice and one choice only — a woman's choice to kill her unborn, and sometimes partially born, child.

But, even so, the renaming of these four organizations seems to mark an important moment in the struggle between the culture of death and the culture of life, a moment in which important elements of the culture of death felt the debate begin to slip away from them and responded by disguising both their methods and their ultimate goals.

Douglas A. Sylva is vice president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Douglas A. Sylva ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Married Priest Backs Celibacy DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

On June 14, Father Steven Anderson was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Lansing, Mich., by Bishop Carl Mengeling. What made him unusual among his classmates was that his wife and three children were with him in the cathedral, participating in the ordination liturgy.

Father Anderson is a former clergyman of the Charismatic Episcopal Church and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood under the “pastoral provision,” a series of norms and criteria for accepting former Protestant clergy as candidates for the priesthood.

The pastoral provision was established by Pope John Paul II in 1980 to deal with the growing number of Anglican (Episcopalian) clergy who were becoming Catholic and inquiring about the possibility of becoming Catholic priests. Approximately 70 men have been ordained in the United States under the pastoral provision since its inception.

Father Anderson's journey into the Catholic Church began in the early 1980s while he was attending a Presbyterian seminary. He had the good fortune to take a systematic theology course with an Eastern Orthodox priest.

Rather than getting the reformed approach to theology he was expecting, the professor's lectures and readings were a deep and thorough introduction to the early Church Fathers, such as Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Irenaeus and the Cappadocians. The real eye-opener for Father Anderson was reading Justin Martyr: “I thought, this will be great, since Justin gives the first historically recorded Church service. But when I read it, my face dropped, my heart dropped, because what he described was a Catholic Mass.”

“From then on,” he said, “the Holy Spirit was working in my heart to show me that from the beginning the Church was Catholic.”

But perhaps even more important for Father Anderson was St. Irenaeus.

“Irenaeus writes, 'Don't take my word for it, go to the bishop.’ And then he gives a whole list of churches, like Ephesus, Smyrna and Rome, and describes the glorious history of these churches and how they were founded by apostles. He talks about how the bishops of these churches are all united, and he says that he and these bishops are ‘all teaching the same thing.’”

Father Anderson described how tears came to his eyes when he read that, and he said, “Not anymore, Irenaeus. There are 30,000 denominations and they're all teaching their own thing.”

So Father Anderson resolved to find out what was this “same thing” that the early Fathers were teaching. He said, quoting Cardinal Newman, “to read history is to cease being Protestant.”

After completing his seminary degree, Father Anderson realized that with the growing Catholicity of his faith he would be “contentious” and “wouldn't fit in” at the Presbyterian Church. So he joined the Episcopal Church and worked “in the world” for 10 years.

Then he felt the tug of vocation once again and began exploring the possibility of ordination for the Episcopal Church. But after moving to Michigan, he became acquainted with the Charismatic Episcopal Church.

He felt very much of “one heart and one mind” with the canon missioner, and later bishop, of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, Fred Fick. “We had a love of the early Church Fathers, of recovering Catholic tradition: all of the glorious Catholic sacraments and rites.”

“We were recovering those things that, it seemed, many American Catholics were ready to let go of,” he continued. “These things brought us great joy and great meaning. It was a time of recovering things old, but with the Holy Spirit making them new for us.”

Father Anderson was ordained for the Charismatic Episcopal Church in 1995 and served at a congregation in Brighton, Mich.

Why Am I Not Catholic?

Father Anderson married his wife, Cindy, while in college. “She's been with me on this whole journey,” he said. “It's been great that we've been able to do this together.”

Cindy describes herself as being “just a few steps behind him.”

“I learned so much from what he was studying,” she said.

For Cindy, it was St. Francis of Assisi who “cemented” her desire to become Catholic: “He was so charismatic but also very obedient to the Church,” she said. “He really helped solidify my faith.”

After serving in the Charismatic Episcopal Church for four years, Father Anderson became convinced that he should become Catholic.

“After all that study and all that rediscovery of things Catholic, I understood that if there was such a thing as a line in the sand between being Catholic on one side and being Protestant on the other, when I looked down, I was on the Catholic side,” he said. “I just realized, ‘I'm Catholic; why I am not Catholic?’”

After making initial inquiries with the Diocese of Lansing, he met with Bishop Mengeling, who would receive him into the Church at Easter 1999. A year later, Bishop Mengeling informed him that his petition to become a candidate for the priesthood had been accepted by Rome.

Seminary and Family

Father Anderson was sent to Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. Though he understood the need for further preparation, he describes himself as reacting “stoically” to the news that he was going back to seminary. “Seminary was,” he said, “a powerful time of God working in me. But I would rather have been in a church.”

Father Anderson was dispensed from the normal weekend obligations of the seminary to be with his family, and they occasionally came to visit him at the seminary as well. But the arrangement did place additional strain on his family. Cindy felt the challenge as God calling her “to step up a level, and God made me stronger for that.”

During his years of formation, Father Anderson lived side by side with seminarians who were preparing to embrace the call to celibacy and doesn't recall any instance of meeting hostility or resistance. He can relate a number of occasions in parishes where priests expressed their gratitude for what he was doing and that they “were glad the Church was going to allow me to be a priest.”

If any priest was resistant or hostile to him and his unusual situation, he never expressed it to Father Anderson.

Occasionally, he encountered lay people who were skeptical of him.

He attributes this to their love of the priesthood and their desire to protect and cherish the tradition of clerical celibacy.

He believes such people initially saw him as a potential threat to the celibate priesthood. But he found that as people got to know him and what he stood for, they “became very generous and gracious toward me and felt very comfortable around me and with what was happening for me.”

He characterized a married priesthood as the “badge of a movement” and reported that some advocates of that movement have from time to time attempted to “co-opt” him into supporting them but that he has no interest in being part of their agenda.

“I'm willing to be everybody's priest,” he explained. “But I'm not willing to speak for this cause or that cause. I'll speak for the Church.”

Father Anderson's ordination attracted interest not only in Michigan but also across the country. Outspoken “conservative” homosexual and Catholic Andrew Sullivan was combative in his commentary. In his Internet Web log “The Daily Dish” on May 25, he asserted that Father Anderson's ordination was “proof that there is no good reason that married men cannot be good Catholic priests” and that “the mandatory celibacy policy … has led to … a collapse in vocations in our current world.”

He attributed the Church's failure to drop clerical celibacy to “bloody-mind-edness from reactionaries and institutional inertia.”

Father Anderson is unhappy with Sullivan's attempt to make him an object lesson for abandoning the tradition of a celibate priesthood. “Activists of all kinds are looking for prophets, mouthpieces or poster boys for their cause,” he said.

He also told of occasions where, being interviewed by other journalists, they assumed because he was going to be a married priest he must be an advocate of a more “progressive” agenda.

“They'd ask me all kinds of questions about whether I was in favor of women priests and all the other stuff,” he said.

But Father Anderson, in responding to them, reiterated his refusal to be identified with such causes and his resolution to “speak for the Church.”

Indeed, Father Anderson doesn't see his ordination, or the ordinations of other married men under the pastoral provision, as having any real impact on the Church's discipline of priestly celibacy. He regards the Church's decision to ordain him as a mercy extended to him.

He recalled an article by Bishop Mengeling in which the bishop quoted the Holy Father: “Fellowships of mercy are more profoundly human than societies of justice.”

Father Anderson also compared himself to the Prodigal Son, who “got it wrong, who didn't do it right.” He sees Pope John Paul II as “in that long tradition of mercy,” and he sees the Pope as saying, in effect, “We are a people of mercy.” Father Anderson describes the Pope as choosing, “through mercy, and not just bare justice, to allow me to be a priest in the Roman Catholic Church.”

Some might think that, by being married, Father Anderson might have an advantage over celibate priests in dealing with pastoral issues involving family or marriage.

But he doesn't see it that way.

“Every priest has an advantage over every other priest in what he uniquely brings to his priesthood,” he said. “We each have our own way of being in the world.” He has great admiration and respect for celibate priests and for the wonderful things he sees so many of them doing for their people.

But he doesn't see things dividing along married vs. celibate lines.

“I think that each individual priest who happens to be married brings things and each celibate priest brings things,” he said. Ultimately, he said, “there's only one priest in the Catholic Church: Jesus Christ. And we all share in that one priesthood.”

Father Robert Johansen is a priest of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan,

----- EXCERPT: Father Steven Anderson's Story ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Robert Johansen ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Why God Made Bob Hope DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

On the passing of Bob Hope, President Bush offered this succinct and fitting tribute: “Today America has lost a great citizen … Bob Hope made us laugh. He lifted our spirits.”

Sir Robert Hope, who held an honorary knighthood in Britain, was honored four times by the U.S. Congress and by every branch of the military. But it is the latter part of his presidential encomium that I want to elaborate on.

Comedy runs the gamut from Bozo the Clown to Dante's Divina Commedia, from the jester to the visionary. In thanking Mr. Hope for lifting our spirits, President Bush correctly located America's most honored comedian somewhere in the vicinity of the visionary.

It is a law of anthropology, as inexorable as the law of gravity, that we cannot lift our spirits. We can bow our heads, confess our sins, repent and amend our lives. And no one else can do any of these things for us. But we are entirely reliant on others to be gracious, thoughtful and hopeful enough to lift our sagging spirits.

Humor at its best has its eye on a higher plane. Otherwise, it could not elevate. It was the genius of Bob Hope never to allow us to remain glum or gloomy. He was bright, energetic and, as his name suggests, a man of hope. “Golf is my real profession,” he once quipped. “Show business pays my green fees.”

Hope was a visionary because he knew something about greener pastures. We know of another man, one who has earned the nickname “His Polishness the Hope,” who also knows the secret of combining humor with vision.

Once, when the Holy Father slipped and fell several steps on newly installed carpeting in St. Peter's Basilica, he had the presence of mind and readiness of wit to say: “Sono caduto ma non sono scadutto” (I have fallen, but I have not been demoted). Even when he falls (though not like a fallen angel), he lifts our spirits. He assures us that a fall merely recedes a rise. The very best of all humor is an anticipation of the Resurrection.

When he was the butt of his own jokes, Bob Hope made himself appear to be even more invincible.

Though a star of the silver screen, Hope never won an Academy Award. Yet he superlatively emceed the Academy Awards 18 times.

“Welcome to award night! In my house it's known as Passover.”

“This is envy time in the valley and I'm the Jolly Green Emcee.”

Losing apparently never really got him down. It merely armed him with better jokes. His message to us was that though we are all down, we are not necessarily lost.

A fall is not perdition. We can get up and go on.

He joked that he had so many movies rerunning on TV that he could change the dial and watch his hairline recede. He could laugh at his own failures and imperfections (especially his ski-jump nose), and all the while use his humor to enhance his image as both a human being as well as a humanitarian. He saw something, as does John Paul, that is larger than life. Don't let the bumps in the road get you down; the prize ahead still awaits us. Have hope.

G.K. Chesterton ended his Orthodoxy with a curious rhyming couplet: “There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when he walked upon the earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was his mirth.”

Bishop Fulton Sheen thought that Christ was exhibiting a pretty good sense of humor when he renamed the man who thrice denied him, Peter, and then established his Church on the “Rock.” Biographer Henri Daniel-Rops found it easy to imagine Christ laughing mirthfully as he dandled children on his knee while they pulled and tugged at his beard.

God has given us the Pope and a man named Hope, both gifted with the genius of appealing to the sunny spots in the human heart. The best humor presupposes hope, lifts the spirits and gets us back again on the road of life (to Singapore, Zanzibar, Morocco, Rio, Bali, Hong Kong or Utopia — sometimes known as Paradise).

Thanks for the memories, but even more for rejuvenating our hope in better things to come.

Donald DeMarco teaches philosophy at Holy Apostles College in Cromwell, Connecticut.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald Demarco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Wisdom of the Church Is in Her Silence, Too DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Discussions about the timing of embryonic ensoulment have generated intense discussion among Catholics for centuries. My letter on this subject in the June 1-7 issue of the Register has likewise resulted in intense discussion in a number of follow-up letters.

I pointed out that the Church has not defined when ensoulment/personhood of the early embryo occurs. This is clearly a disconcerting thought to some Catholics, who had supposed that the Church must have declared that the embryo receives its immortal soul from God right at fertilization.

Some of the letters attempt to shore up this uncomfortable situation by suggesting that ensoulment is likely to occur at fertilization even if the Church hasn’ t made up her mind on the matter.

Some go further and argue that the Church actually has made up her mind on the issue quite recently, in just the last few years. In reply to these letters, I would like to offer a few observations, which I hope will help clarify the discussion.

What Documents Say …

Several recent Church documents explicitly state that the question has not been definitively resolved. In addition to the critical passage from the “Declaration on Procured Abortion” of 1974, which I quoted in my first letter, we find further confirmation in the “Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation,” which took up the matter in 1987:

“Certainly no experimental datum can be in itself sufficient to bring us to the recognition of a spiritual soul; nevertheless, the conclusions of science regarding the human embryo provide a valuable indication for discerning by the use of reason a personal presence at the moment of this first appearance of a human life: How could a human individual not be a human person? The magisterium has not expressly committed itself to an affirmation of a philosophical nature, but it constantly reaffirms the moral condemnation of any kind of procured abortion. This teaching has not been changed and is unchangeable.”

This passage is important because it reveals the Church's great caution and nuanced language in addressing the question of the timing of personhood/ensoulment, coupled with her resolute firmness regarding the moral condemnation of any violation of embryonic human life.

Notice the phrasing: “… the conclusions of science … provide a valuable indication.” The Church is quite cognizant of how good biology will dovetail with the philosophical discussion of personhood and even impinge on the theological question of ensoulment.

The document sees in the findings of science a “valuable indication” (not a definitive indication, not a proof) that a personal presence might exist from the beginning. Refusing, however, to say outright that it is so, the document instead ventures to muse further on the matter by offering a reflective question: “How could a human individual not be a human person?”

Even after such a leading question, however, the document is quickly circumspect as it homes in on the essential bottom line: “The magisterium has not expressly committed itself to an affirmation of a philosophical nature …” This fundamental statement directly reiterates the opening point of my letter, which stressed that “the Church has never definitively stated when the ensoulment of the human embryo takes place. It remains an open question.”

… and Don't Say

Father Anthony Zimmerman suggests in his letter that somewhere between 1974 and 2003 the Church made up her mind about the timing of ensoulment. He states, “In his letter, Father Tadeusz cites correctly the Church document of 1974; but this is 2003!” He goes on to argue: “The Church, not yet sure of itself in 1974, is now certain.”

He suggests the Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses the issue in section 364. This is not correct. Section 364 discusses neither embryos, ensoulment nor the latter's timing explicitly but rather discusses only the reality that exists (“body and soul but truly one“) after ensoulment has already transpired. Section 364 prescinds entirely from the details of the timing of ensoulment of the human embryo. Moreover, if we were to glance ahead just a few paragraphs to section 366, where the action of ensoulment is explicitly discussed, we would see that although God's activity of creating the spiritual soul is briefly mentioned, once again there is no specification of the particulars of the timing.

Think how simple it would have been to put in just three words: “God ensouls zygotes.” But the Catechism never does so, nor has any authoritative magisterial teaching in the Roman Catholic tradition ever done so anywhere in 2,000 years of her history.

In fact, if we examine a different section of the Catechism, section 2270, we find once again a very precise and carefully nuanced formulation, reminiscent of the various other Church documents I have already referred to:

“From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person.” Again, the moral affirmation about rights is firmly stated without ever declaring that the human being at the first moment of his existence is already a person.

The rights of the person accrue to the embryonic human because if he is not yet one, he is about to become one, in virtue of the core biological truth that he is a being that is already human. That is to say, he already possesses an internal code for self-actualization and is an organism with an independent and inherent teleology to develop into a human adult, and is physiologically alive and genetically human.

What the Pope Says …

But it doesn't stop there. Even more recently, in 1995 (two years after the Catechism was issued), the Holy Father, writing in the encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) stated the following:

“Furthermore, what is at stake is so important that, from the standpoint of moral obligation, the mere probability that a human person is involved would suffice to justify an absolutely clear prohibition of any intervention aimed at killing a human embryo. Precisely for this reason, over and above all scientific debates and those philosophical affirmations to which the magisterium has not expressly committed itself, the Church has always taught and continues to teach that the result of human procreation, from the first moment of its existence, must be guaranteed that unconditional respect that is morally due to the human being in his or her totality and unity as body and spirit: 'The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception'; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life.”

It is significant how careful and precise the Holy Father is here, writing in an encyclical, an instrument intended for widespread dissemination throughout the Church and, indeed, to “all people of good will.”

He again notes: “[O]ver and above all scientific debates and those philosophical affirmations to which the magisterium has not expressly committed itself.” The Church in one document after another has explicitly refused to commit herself to the particulars of the timing of personhood/ensoulment of the embryo. Yet she has never hesitated to promulgate the firm and unalterable ethical and moral teaching that specifies how zygotes and embryos are to be respected and treated, with the respect that is due to persons, even if they might possibly not yet be persons.

Hence Father Zimmerman's attempt to close the door on the possibility of non-personal human beings is premature. He suggests that between 1974 and 2003 there was some shift in the way the Church evaluates the question of when ensoulment occurs. At least as of 1995, the date of Evangelium Vitae, there was not any monumental shift of this sort. Father Zimmerman surely realizes how, in the arena of large and disputed questions in the history and development of dogma, the Church thinks in terms of centuries, not years or even decades. The Church invariably moves slowly and with great care in deciding these matters.

… and Doesn't Say

What about the comments addressed by the Holy Father to the scientists of the Pontifical Academy of Life? Father Zimmerman refers to an address by the Pope to the academy on March 1, 2002 (which was actually delivered Feb. 27). By quoting only pieces of the passage, and by making rather liberal use of ellipses, Father Zimmerman ends up leaving out several important modifiers that become crucial to a proper understanding of the meaning of the passage. The full and uncut text of what the Holy Father stated is as follows:

“The Church affirms the right to life of every innocent human being and at every moment of his existence. The distinction sometimes implied in international documents between ‘human being’ and ‘human person,’ so as to limit the right to life and to physical integrity to persons already born, is an artificial distinction, without any scientific or philosophical foundation: Every human being, from the moment of his conception until the moment of his natural death, possesses an inviolable right to life and deserves all the respect owed to the-human-person.”

In this passage the Holy Father is stressing precisely what I stressed as the central point of my letter — namely, that the distinction between human being and human person may never be used in such a manner as to justify the violation of prenatal human life. In other words, there is no philosophical or scientific basis for making a distinction between rights that accrue to the human being and those that accrue to the human person, primary among which is the right to life.

What the Holy Father does not do here is to make a pronouncement that human beings and human persons are always absolutely coterminous.

Rather, he again shifts the discussion to focus on the key ethical affirmation that every human being “deserves all the respect owed to the human person.” Clearly, the Pope could have chosen to phrase it differently, e.g.: “Every embryonic human being is a person, and therefore deserves respect,” but he didn't, and in no official Church teaching that I am aware of has the Church ever phrased it that way, because that is not how she typically reasons about this complex and important matter.

Pro-Life Error?

It can be tempting to ignore these subtle nuances in what the Church is teaching when she makes declarations on the subject of the ensoulment/personhood of the embryo. I think many of us in the pro-life movement are guilty of having done just that in the interests of strengthening our own arguments on behalf of protecting embryos and fetuses.

While the intention here might be good, it is never truthful to suggest to others that the Church has formally defined something that she in fact has not.

I am convinced there is enormous wisdom in the Church's hesitancy to declare that zygotes are ensouled with an immortal, rational soul. She is deeply sensitive to the complexities of human embryonic development, not to mention the conceptual conundrums raised by strikingly novel methods of making embryos, including parthenogenesis, cloning, twinning and chimerization.

The Church is also quite aware of the challenges involved in trying to philosophically explicate the primordial reality of personhood. She always insists, nevertheless, in an absolute way on the moral and ethical affirmation, without trying to oversimplify the reasons for that affirmation. She refuses to jump to quick and easy conclusions about zygotic or embryonic ensoulment. I think it was Einstein who once remarked that, “Everything should be made as simple as possible — but no simpler!”

Above all, it is important that we as pro-life Catholics not put words into the mouth of the Church. Since she has never definitively declared the exact moment when God infuses the immortal soul into the early embryo, we should not misrepresent the state of affairs to others in a way that makes it appear that she might have defined this question.

The Church's nuanced and careful approach to the matter must be our own as we submit in obedience to her patient and attentive consideration of the matter. One day in the future, it may in fact be the case that the Church will declare that zygotes are ensouled by God, but for the moment it is not so, and it would not be honest for us to suppose or otherwise give the impression that she really does teach in this way.

Rev. Dr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk writes from Fall River, Massachusetts.

Father Pacholczyk holds a doctorate in neuroscience from Yale University and worked as a molecular biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital before becoming a priest.

----- EXCERPT: The Embryonic Ensoulment Debate: Father Pacholczyk Responds ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: 'Just' Fiction? DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Spirit & Life

It's just fiction!” I've heard I this remark quite often I over the past few years, referring to the Left Behind series and the Harry Potter novels, and now to the latest fiction sensation, The Da Vinci Code.

It seems that fiction, for many people, is simply entertainment and escapism that can have only a positive effect. So, the Left Behind books explain Scripture but never misinterpret it. The Harry Potter books inspire children to read but never to explore the occult. The Da Vinci Code explains the true history of Christianity but never misrepresents it.

Meanwhile the enormous success of the Left Behind series and of The Da Vinci Code in particular indicates that novels promoting esoteric beliefs, presented in a fast-paced fashion and loaded with attacks on the Catholic Church, make for best sellers. It also suggests that best-selling fiction — despite being “just fiction” — is a source of theology, philosophy and history for a formidable number of readers.

The Illinois Conference of Catholic Bishops recognized this fact and recently issued a statement describing the Left Behind series and its creator, fundamentalist Tim LaHaye, as anti-Catholic. LaHaye denies the charge, saying the bishops are “reading into these books something that's not there.”

However, in several nonfic-tion books, LaHaye claims the Catholic faith is “pagan” and is a “Babylonian idolatrous religion,” marked by corruption, murder and numerous false doctrines. The anti-Catholicism is more subtle in the Left Behind books, but it's obvious to the alert reader. LaHaye is adamant that “true Christianity” was nearly destroyed by the emperor Constantine, who allowed pagan practices and “Babylonian mysticism” to infiltrate the Church. In his commentary Revelation Unveiled, he asserts that the Catholic Church promotes “Babylonian mysticism in many forms and salvation by works.”

Armageddon, the latest installment in the Left Behind series, was published in April and quickly topped the best-seller lists. The Da Vinci Code, a whodunit with a theological agenda, appeared around the same time. The author, Dan Brown, states he is a Christian, “although perhaps not in the most traditional sense of the word.” That's a mild understatement, considering his novel is based on the beliefs that Jesus was not divine, he was married to Mary Magdalene and had children, and that the Catholic Church has kept all of this hidden through intimidation, deception and even murder.

Just as many readers believe the Left Behind novels are God-given guides to understanding the “end times,” readers and critics are fawning over The Da Vinci Code and its explanation of the real history of Christianity and the Catholic Church. This, despite Brown's stiff, disjointed thriller being packed full of historical errors, feminist propaganda and neo-Gnostic sermonizing.

The absurd assertion is made that Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea to deify Christ. As one character, a historian, soberly explains, “until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet … Jesus’ establishment as 'the Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea.”

Sadly, these distorted views of history and the Catholic faith — views that really are fictional — are the closest thing to theology and catechesis that some people will ever read. Bad fiction distorts truth by pretending to be more than just fiction. Good fiction should reveal truth, not misrepresent it.

Carl E. Olson is the editor of Envoy magazine and the author of Will Catholics Be “Left Behind“?

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carl E. Olson ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Our Lady's Island Getaway DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

It was while crossing the short causeway that connects the Connecticut mainland to diminutive Enders Island that I first laid my eyes upon the Chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption. (The Church commemorates the Assumption Aug. 15.)

The impression was of a sturdy spiritual beacon that has been watching over the boats on Fisher's Island Sound for at least a century — maybe several.

Then I parked my car, approached the structure and read the cornerstone. “For the greater honor and glory of God,” it reads. “2001.”

The chapel is designed in traditional Romanesque style but with unique details. For example, its exterior stones were cut and laid by a master mason, just as they would have been centuries ago. Yet its interior displays new liturgical art crafted by some of the artists who teach at the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art.

(The art institute is a function of St. Edmund's Retreat, the retreat ministry of the Society of St. Edmund. You realize as you're pulling onto the island, thanks to a carved sign marking your arrival, that St. Edmund's Retreat is synonymous with Enders Island: The ministry is the 12-acre island's sole enterprise.)

We noted that the chapel's mason and architect, Dennis Keefe of Boston, carefully selected his stones to match those of the beautiful, turn-of-the-century mansion that serves as the retreat center's main house and dining facility. Scattered among these fieldstones are rocks from Marian shrines throughout the world and from the abbey where St. Edmund, 13th-century archbishop of Canterbury, is buried.

“The building itself is a prayer,” Edmundite Father Tom Hoar, director of St. Edmund's Retreat, told my wife, Mary, and me. “All the art was done by folks who … are people of prayer and exquisite artistic talent, people who are able to bring to the visible world the mystery and wonder of salvation.” Looking around, we could see that he wasn't exaggerating.

We were also quick to pick up on the nautical theme reinforced throughout, complementing the chapel's island setting. As we entered, the Holy Spirit welcomed us from a stained-glass window atop the front doors, descending over the waters of creation and baptism. Straight ahead sat the altar, with a centrally situated tabernacle directly behind. Walking forward toward it, we “navigated” eastward toward the rising sun (symbolic, we were reminded, of the Risen Son).

The picture windows flanking the sanctuary magnify this ancient symbolism. Both clear and delicately tinted with roundel accents, they're positioned to always catch the rising sun — one from the summer solstice onward, the other beginning with the winter solstice. But no one planned a beautiful bonus: As the sun streams through the roundels, it forms crosses of light on the chapel's honey-colored walls. Peering out these windows, we saw that we were only yards from the calm waters of Fisher's Island Sound, which is naturally protected from the open waters of the Atlantic by Fisher's Island, N.Y.

Overhead, the cathedral-like ceiling is reminiscent of the inverted hull of a ship. Its honey-toned beams are cut from Douglas fir and pegged — never nailed — in the medieval manner. Suspended from one beam over the tabernacle is a handblown sanctuary lamp in the shape of a boat. The plaster walls increase the chapel's radiance, as do the oak pews with the symbol of the Society of St. Edmund carved at each end.

Seasoned Stations

Moving to the altar, we learned that the granite table was cut from a larger altar that had been in place when the island served as the Edmundites’ novitiate. The pieces left over have not been wasted. One large slab, for example, serves as the pedestal on which the tabernacle sits; smaller (but equally symbolic) segments are found around the chapel's perimeter.

Alongside the altar sits the chapel's processional cross, a stirring sight in its own right: Mounted in its rough wooden stem is a relic of the True Cross, along with the papal seal of Innocent IX, which testifies to its authenticity.

In stained-glass windows flanking the tabernacle, two angels gaze longingly toward the space in which the Bread of Life is reserved. These windows and all their companions enjoy brilliant blends of cobalts, aquamarines, corals and scarlets. All are the work of Nick Parrendo, a teacher at the St. Michael Institute whose half-century of stained-glass artistry is internationally recognized.

The three tall transept windows on one side take us on a briny spiritual voyage with themes of faith and hope. In the center, Jesus walks on water toward us. In the background is the bark of St. Peter, the symbol of Christ present in the Church. The roundel above Jesus pictures Jonah in the whale; the one below him, Pentecost.

The Stations of the Cross are nothing short of stunning. They're done as medieval manuscript illuminations patterned after the Book of Hours, and the entire Passion unfolds in the settings of Enders Island. The backdrops progress through the cycle of the seasons. In the 14th station, for example, Mary wraps Jesus in the tomb; look closely and you see that the site of the tomb is Enders Islands’ open-faced seaside chapel (located elsewhere on the island) in the winter. The artist behind these images, Jed Gibbons, hand-ground pigments in the time-honored way from semiprecious lapis lazuli, malachite and corals.

Our Lady, Assumed

To the rear of the sanctuary, a small side chapel invites more prayer. At the center is a nearly life-sized carving of the Blessed Mother being assumed heavenward. She wears softly tinted blues and reds, and the backlighting lends the carving a celestial effect.

This side chapel also features two radiant icons — one of Blessed St. Joseph holding the Child Jesus, the other of St. Michael the Archangel. They were crafted by Vladislav Andrejev, another St. Michael Institute teacher, whose work graces churches around the world and who's painted icons for the Holy Father.

Here we also venerated an unforgettable relic — the 800-year-old hand of St. Edmund himself. It's on display in a clear glass reliquary.

Three times a day, the tower bell (cast in Lyons, France, in 1883) rings out the Angelus. Father Hoar told us he very actively encourages people to “pray this prayer for world peace because it's a prayer announcing the Good News of the coming of the Prince of Peace.”

This chapel is clearly the island's new anchor, but it's far from its sole attraction. Following our prayer tour there, we could hardly wait to walk around the lovely, peaceful grounds. Sure enough, we found that the seaside setting helps foster deep and peaceful contemplation.

Connecticut's coast has a number of charming lighthouses. As far as we're concerned, the Chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption in Mystic outshines them all. From now on, we'll think of it as the Constitution State's true house of light.

Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.

----- EXCERPT: Chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption, Mystic, Conn. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Talking to Your Computer DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Many of us who use computers do a lot of typing and mouse-clicking — and pay for all those small, repetitive motions with serious aches, pains and stiffness in the joints.

Personally I have had problems with the finger I use for clicking the mouse. Another brother here developed carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists and had to have surgery.

A few years back, we would have had just two basic choices: Live with the worsening pain or find another line of work. Today, however, there is a third option: voice-recognition software.

I'm dictating this article aloud, using Dragon Naturally Speaking Version 7 software. This approach to writing takes some getting used to, but it works quite well.

What makes this program particularly appealing to me is that that it lets me avoid not just the keypad but also the mouse. I've even found that it's not easily confused by ambient noises in the room such as a fan blowing or a bird chirping outside my open window.

It's easy to set up, too. When voice-recognition technology was new, the user had to speak for around 45 minutes to “train” the program to recognize his or her voice. I had this program trained in just five. I am able to bounce back and forth between dictation and commands. And I don't believe I have much of an accent, as I'm from Michigan, but a Bostonian has told me it works fairly well for him. Interestingly, the smart software analyzes documents you have already written. Apparently, this helps it recognize your style of writing.

Unlike Captain Picard of the Starship Enterprise, I'm not pacing the room while talking to my computer; I'm seated and wearing a headphone with a microphone. I'm sure it's possible to get a wireless headset for those who like to walk around. It's also possible to dictate into a pocket PC or use a digital recorder that can be plugged into your computer.

Oops — time to switch back to typing for awhile. Our next-door neighbor has just decided to mow his lawn. Ambient noise is one thing, but that kind of clatter is in a different category! (As we are temporarily living in a rented house, our monastery is located in a thickly settled neighborhood.)

For many of us, answering e-mail means doing a ton of typing. Speaking the text into the computer would speed things up and save our aching extremities. Other activities like chat and instant messaging would become faster and easier as well.

Okay, I'm back to dictating once again — in a different room. This time I'm using the voice-recognition software that comes with Microsoft Office XP. You turn it on by selecting “Speech” under the “Tools” menu on the Microsoft Word toolbar. I don't find this application as easy to use as its Dragon counterpart. But the dictation accuracy is fairly good, for five minutes of training. It also has some limited voice-command options for controlling Office programs, but it's not designed for mouse-free control.

Recently I tried using Dragon with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser for surfing the Internet hands-free. I found that I was able to go to any Web page on my “Favorites” menu, enter a Web address in the address bar, scroll within a Web page and perform lots of other surfing-related functions.

This use of the software takes a little more practice than simply dictating an article. But for those who have had chronic and severe repetitive-strain problems, I believe it would be well worth the investment of time.

Those interested in making the switch to voice-recognition software will find three main contenders vying for their attention: IBM's ViaVoice, ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Ultimate Interactive Desktops’ Voice Studio 2003. All these products let you speak commands to your PC, as well as dictate directly into most Windows applications. And they're all fairly inexpensive.

With Dragon, you can have text read to you aloud from e-mails or other documents. I'm not sure whether or not the other two offer that feature. Before buying, make sure your computer measures up to the system requirements. Dragon requires an Intel Pentium III/500 Mhz or equivalent with 128 megabytes of RAM and 300 megabytes of free hard-disk space. Usually, performance is better with more than the minimum system requirements.

Microsoft is looking into incorporating voice into future versions of the Windows operating system. That could only make the system, which is not without its hurdles for those who name “ease of use” as a top priority, truly user-friendly.

Several companies are working on speech recognition and you may already be experiencing the results. California's Nuance Communications and Boston's SpeechWorks are two of the market leaders in interactive voice-response systems. They have developed software that lets the computer understand — and respond to — routine natural-language requests. One way it's being used is on telephone help desks.

In fact, SpeechWorks’ call-center technology is used by such big businesses as Office Depot, the U.S. Postal Service, Thrifty Car Rental, United Airlines and Amtrak. The latter got back its $4 million investment in labor costs with this technology in 18 months. Nuance's software is being used by Schwab, Sprint PCS and Bell Canada. Intel is looking into audiovisual speech recognition.

With this kind of rapid deployment, maybe we will soon be witnessing real-life human-computer interaction like the kind the astronauts had with HAL 9000 in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Stay within earshot!

Brother John Raymond, co-founder of the Monks of Adoration, writes from Venice, Florida.

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Thinking of heading somewhere for summer vacation, but not sure where to go? Be sure to check into these Catholic travel sites.

A few years ago I met James Adair, the president of Regina Tours, at a conference. Its Web site, regina-tour.com, has helpful information on a number of sites popular with Catholic pilgrims. Hot spots include the shrines of France; Rome, Assisi and Florence; Fatima, Lourdes and Spain; various locales in Ireland; Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico; and the California missions.

I met young Catholic travel writer Kevin Wright, president of Catholic Adventures International (catholicadventures.com), at another conference. His company provides guided tours of Europe, North America, the Caribbean and other places. It also offers exclusive opportunities to interact with top Catholic speakers and experts.

Dr. Rosalie Turton, whom I have known for a number of years, began the 101 Foundation, named after the 101 tears that Our Lady shed in the approved apparitions in Akita, Japan. Turton makes sure that pilgrims make a pilgrimage and are not just taking a vacation. Her Web site is at 101foundation.com.

Bob and Penny Lord are internationally known pilgrimage directors who lead tours to the shrines of Europe, Mexico and North America. Their Web site, Journeys of Faith (bobandpennylord.com), lists a few pilgrimages for 2003.

I know nothing about Best Catholic Pilgrimages at eholy.com, but it claims to offer the best pilgrimages at affordable prices, along with a priest or bishop as a spiritual leader. Sounds like a Web site worth a visit to me.

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The Emperor's Club (2002)

Unlike most teachers in inspirational-teacher movies, William Hundert (Kevin Kline) isn't charismatic or cool; in fact, he's stiff and a bit boring. I like that about him. He isn't selling students (or the audience) his own personality, authenticity or commitment; he isn't selling education as self-actualization (Dead Poets Society), doesn't work miracles with disaffected kids (Dangerous Minds) and doesn't succeed with every single student (Mr. Holland's Opus).

He's overly pedantic: Instead of merely urging a student to stay off the grass, he exhorts, “Walk where the great men who have gone before you have walked” — not just because it's good for the grass, but “because it's good for you.” By the time we meet Mr. Hundert's one and only problem student, it almost looks as if the movie is going to be about the free-spirited youngster inspiring the inhibited teacher to seize the day rather than the inspirational teacher transforming the unmoti-vated student.

Refreshingly, The Emperor's Club is about neither of these things. Instead, it's a thoughtful look at the purpose and limits of education, the importance of character and principle, and the meaning of success and failure.

Moral considerations: Adolescent sexually-themed dialogue and behavior (no sex or nudity, apart from fleeting glimpses of a girlie magazine); some crude and profane language; implied divorce and remarriage. Suitable for mature, discerning teens.

Atlantis (1991)

Following his 1988 aquatic feature The Big Blue, director Luc Besson spent two years capturing the extraordinary footage for Atlantis, a pure documentary that eschews educational Discovery Channel-type narration in favor of sheer wonder at the exotic, mysterious world under the sea.

Loosely structured into thematic “chapters” such as “light,” “rhythm” and “grace,” accompanied by an eclectic Eric Serra score, Atlantis is a sort of documentary Fantasia, a poetic marriage of image and music (though the score, apart from an aria from Bellini's La Sonnambula, lacks the pedigree of Disney's masterpiece).

Marred only by a brief opening voiceover, which muses pretentiously about man's evolutionary origins in the ocean, Atlantis lets the beauty of the undersea world speak for itself.

No matter how many ocean documentaries you've seen, Besson's film will show you things you've never seen before — and things well worth seeing again. From the alien majesty of the giant octopus in his seaweed-forest home, to the hypnotic undulations of the striped-sweater sea snake, to the dirigible-like bulk and mailbox-slot mouth of the whale shark, to the bovine placidity of the Florida manatee (whose comically graceful bulk evokes the hippo ballerinas of Fantasia), Atlantis is an unparalleled look at a fascinating world.

Moral considerations: Documentary footage of a shark feeding frenzy and sea animals mating should not pose an obstacle to most children.

The Mark of Zorro (1920)

You haven't seen Zorro till you've seen Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in this 1920 silent I swashbuckling classic (not to be confused with the fine 1940 Tyrone Power remake).

A born action hero, a natural acrobat and stuntman, Fairbanks was in a class by himself, and the last reel of this film contains some of the most amazing acrobatics in any black-and-white action movie, and certainly in any silent film.

This telling of the Zorro tale also outdoes later portrayals in its depiction of the main character as a champion of faith as well as justice, and of his Catholic milieu. As one of his enemies puts it, “Pick on a priest or a native, and — presto! Zorro!”

In one sequence, an old Franciscan, falsely accused of fraud, tells the corrupt magistrate, “If I were a supporter of the licentious governor, I would be innocent. I am a robed Franciscan — therefore I am guilty!”

When the priest is beaten, Zorro angrily confronts the blue-blooded caballeros: “You sit idly sipping wine while the naked back of an unprotesting soldier of Christ is beaten!” We also see the priest being carted off to safety, blessing his rescuers with the sign of the cross.

Moral considerations: Action violence, brief flogging of an elderly priest and a brief depiction of a man assaulting a woman are sufficiently restrained to pose little difficulty for young viewers.

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All times Eastern

SUNDAY, AUG. 10

Visions of England

PBS, 8:30 p.m.

This aerial tour of once-Catholic England's most picturesque and historic sites flies us over the White Cliffs of Dover, the Thames, Brighton, Bath and other spots “as God sees them.” Gilbert and Sullivan tunes and other English musical themes accent the views.

MONDAY, AUG. 11

Feast Day of St. Clare

EWTN

EWTN pays tribute to beloved St. Clare (1194-1253). “Poor Clares: A Hidden Presence,” at 2:30 p.m., depicts the life of her cloistered sisters today. “Super Saints,” at 9 p.m., shows us her incorrupt self and the miraculous Cross of San Damiano. She once repulsed an army by praying before the Blessed Sacrament at the gates of her monastery.

TUESDAY, AUG. 12

The Gardens of Castel Gandolfo

EWTN, 4:30 a.m., 6 p.m.

This special escorts us around the tranquil summer retreat of the vicars of Christ. Highlights include the “secret” 17th-century garden, trees from the 13th century and a Roman statuary from the first century A.D.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 13

The Films of Gary Cooper

Turner Classic Movies; check listings for times

Devoting each day this month to a single star, TCM today presents Gary Cooper films from early morning until late night. The Western Along Came Jones (1:30 p.m.) and the Lou Gehrig baseball bio The Pride of the Yankees (9 p.m.) are among them.

THURSDAY, AUG. 14

House Hunters

Home & Garden TV, 7:30 p.m.

Young Catholic families might want to tune in to this how-to program. In tonight's show, “Leaving Behind Apartment Living,” realtor Nick Peters helps Mark and Amie Bradford come up with strategies for finding a dwelling they can afford.

THURSDAY, AUG. 14

Secrets of the Bog People: Windover

The Learning Channel, 9 p.m.

Some 168 skeletons and 87 artifacts recovered from a boggy pond in Windover Farms, Fla., since 1982 and dated to 6,000-5,000 B.C. reveal that the dead received reverent burials. Reports call these ancients humane: They cared for a woman in her 50s who had multiple fractures and for a boy with spina bifida who eventually died in his teens.

FRIDAY, AUG. 15

Donny Osmond's American Parks

Travel Channel, 9 p.m.

Entertainer Donny Osmond takes us along to his six favorite national parks.

SATURDAY, AUG. 16

Secret Subs: Cuban Missile Crisis

Discovery Channel, noon

Government agencies are gradually releasing material about the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, but submarine operations remain largely secret. Here is what is known.

Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: How to Pray for - and With - the Holy Souls DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

The Rosary for the Holy Souls in purgatory

by Susan Tassone

Our Sunday Visitor, 2002

160 pages, $6.95

To order: (800) 348-2440

www. osvpublishing. com

Since my father's death in March 2001, my use of the rosary has been sporadic at best. I have simply found it too emotionally painful to pray in a way that, for some reason, causes me to think about my loss for such an extended period of time. Then, too, it's difficult for me to move the beads between my fingers because I've got spastic cerebral palsy.

Well, I am happy to report that Susan Tassone's new book has got me back to the mysteries of the rosary in a major way.

For me, The Rosary for the Holy Souls in Purgatory makes the rosary routine much more than a dry ritual. That's because, even before I came upon this book, I had a special intention in mind to pray with Mary for holy souls like my dad and two of my brothers who have gone before me marked with the sign of faith.

The Scripture-based text makes the book an excellent tool for keeping the mind (and heart) focused on the mysteries. It also serves as an apologetical buffer against those who say Catholics don't know the Bible. As Chicago Cardinal Francis George writes in the book's foreword: “The Rosary takes us on a j 'tour’ of the Old and New Testaments, giving us the opportunity to call to mind the events that j shaped the earthy life of Jesus and His mother as well as those events that gave birth to the Church and changing the course of human history. These are the mysteries of the Catholic faith to which Holy Scripture gives written witness.”

Tassone builds on that theme in her introduction. “Among private prayer and devotion,” she writes, “the Rosary is the greatest and most powerful form of mental and vocal prayer to assist the holy souls in purgatory to attain heaven.”

How often Pope John Paul II has reminded the faithful to pray this devotion in order that the Church suffering might build up the Church triumphant. What an awesome thought!

We all have relatives who have gone before us in death. Taking 20 to 25 minutes a day to pray for the holy souls not only helps them complete their journey to the Father in heaven, but it also helps us learn about his love, his justice and his mercy.

One point Tassone articulates has stuck with me with special power: The individuals we help get to heaven becomes advocates for us. In other words, we help them get to heaven and they help us to join them there. This truth should encourage all of us.

St. Paul reminds us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Tassone's book shines the bright light of Marian hope upon that daunting and inescapable fact. It helped to shake me out of my “rosary resistance” — and I'm sure it can do the same for you.

Bill Zalot writes from Levittown, Pennsylvania.

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Seminary Rector

THE BOSTON HERALD, July 15 — Dominican Father John Farren, director of the Knights of Columbus Catholic Information Service in New Haven, Conn., since 1999, began a four-year term July 1 as rector of St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Mass.

While he began his term the same day it was announced that Bishop Sean O'Malley of Palm Beach, Fla., would lead the Boston Archdiocese, Father Farren was appointed by Bishop Richard Lennon, the administrator of the archdiocese since the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law in December.

Father Farren's earlier assignments included vicar general for the prelature of Chimbote, Peru; serving as an official at Dominican headquarters in Rome; as prior of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington; and as an official at several Vatican congregations.

Summer Vocation

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON, July 1 — Some 80 incoming freshmen at the Ohio university are spending part of their summer vacation to consider the importance of vocation.

The program at Dayton and approximately 30 other colleges and universities around the country are funded by grants from the Lilly Endowment. The goal is not to entice students to enter the ministry or religious life but to encourage them to think about their life choices in vocational terms.

Longest Tenure

THE CATHOLIC HERALD, July 21 — As many in the media are noting that it is no longer exceptional for members of the laity to lead Catholic colleges, the archdiocesan newspaper of New Orleans recently featured Norman Francis, who has served 35 years as president of Xavier University of Louisiana.

The university claims that his tenure is longer than any other U.S. college president, lay, religious or clerical. Xavier was founded by St. Katharine Drexel in 1925 and is the only historically black Catholic university in the Western Hemisphere.

The start of Francis’ tenure at Xavier has roots in African-American history. He was appointed to the presidency on April 4, 1968, the same day Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

Courage in Faith

FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY, July 21 — Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh received the Steubenville, Ohio, university's 2003 Courage in Faith Award.

Conferred annually on a Church leader for upholding Catholic moral teachings and principles, Bishop Wuerl was cited for his work in education and communication.

Bishop Wuerl's best-selling adult catechism, The Teachings of Christ, is in its 26th year of publication and has been translated into more than 10 languages. He has a national weekly TV program of the same name.

New Roles

WHEELING JESUIT UNIVERSITY, July 10 — Jesuit Father George Lundy, president of Wheeling Jesuit since July 2000, has resigned his post, the university announced.

Jesuit Father Joseph Hacala, executive director of the university's Appalachian Institute and senior adviser to the president, was named interim president.

After a brief sabbatical, Father Lundy will serve as a link between the Jesuit provincial in the South and the two Jesuit institutions in the 10-state New Orleans Province, Loyola Unive-sity in New Orleans and Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala.

Joe Cullen writes from New York.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: The Trinity: Marriage as a Reflection of the God Who Is Love DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

When Pope John Paul II's pontificate is assessed by future generations, he may well be remembered as the “Pope of the family.”

Indeed, he has provided more teaching on marriage and the family than all previous popes combined.

Much of this teaching was presented at the outset of his pontificate in 129 catechetical addresses termed the “theology of the body.”

In these addresses John Paul did nothing less than redefine the nature of man: “Man became the ‘image and likeness’ of God not only through his humanity but also through the communion of persons that man and woman form right from the beginning. The function of the image is to reflect the one who is modeled to reproduce its own prototype. Man becomes the image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion. He is, in fact, right ‘from the beginning’ not only an image in which there is reflected the solitude of a Person who rules the world but also, and essentially, an image of an inscrutable divine communion of Persons” (Nov. 14, 1979).

When I read this admittedly difficult statement to audiences, I receive many puzzled looks. In it, the Holy Father has placed the mystery of the Blessed Trinity at the very heart of the mystery of man. Nonetheless, we must tackle this mystery if we are to understand John Paul's vision of marriage.

Trinity in Five Steps

I have found that most people's understanding of the Blessed Trinity is limited to the formula “three divine Persons in one divine Being.”

Although the Blessed Trinity is the central mystery of our faith, most Catholics have received no catechesis on the Blessed Trinity outside of that formula. Therefore, I present what I call “the Blessed Trinity in five easy steps” to audiences as a prelude to the Pope's teaching on marriage. I promise them that the effort will be well spent when we apply it to man and woman.

1. The Father is the starting point — the Principle that has no other principle.

2. The Father forms an intellectual image of himself — the Word.

3. The Father and Word form a conception of their love — the Holy Spirit.

4. The Word and Spirit proceed from the Father as a “unity of the two.”

5. The Word is together with the Father the source of the Spirit.

These steps appear more difficult than they really are. The first three simply relate to the three divine Persons. The Father is the starting point. The Word proceeds from the Father according to the divine intellect and the Spirit proceeds according to the divine will. Since the divine intellect and will cannot be separated, the fourth step says the Word and Spirit proceed as a “unity of the two.” Finally, since thought precedes action (intellect precedes will), the Word is, with the Father, source of the Spirit.

You and the Trinity

This basic Trinitarian theology is essential to understanding the story of man's creation in the Book of Genesis. In the first story we read: “God created man in his own image … male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

In other words, God the Father remains the starting point and a human “unity of the two” flows forth from his bosom. In the second story of creation we read: “God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman” (Genesis 2:21ff). In other words, the man is with the Father the source of the woman. Since the woman is taken from next to man's heart, we might even say that God the Father and man form a conception of their love — woman.

From this perspective we do indeed see a profound reflection of the Blessed Trinity. However, we are able to go further.

Since man is with the Father source of woman, we find a unique analogy to the Word. Man is created with a special relationship to the Word, which is why the Word becomes incarnate in a human man. Jesus Christ, and he alone, has lived the life that man was created to live.

Christ specifically identifies this life as the manifestation of the Father: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Further, Jesus inseparably unites the manifestation of the Father to the issue of life: “As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:26). With Jesus, men are to become the manifestation of the Father by becoming the “source of life.”

When they do so, they are given the unfathomable dignity to “reveal and relive on earth the very fatherhood of God” (Fam-iliaris Consortio, No. 25).

Since woman proceeds from the Father through man, we find a unique analogy to the Holy Spirit. Note that I am not saying that the Holy Spirit is feminine, which would be heretical. I am saying that the story of woman's creation as presented in Scripture is analogous to traditional Catholic (Thomistic) theology regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit within the Blessed Trinity.

Therefore, woman has a special relationship to the Holy Spirit, which is why Our Lady is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit (cf. Luke 1:35). Further, the manifestation of the Father that we have discussed is made through the Word in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the milieu of life: “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Therefore, although life goes forth from man, it is nurtured and sustained in woman.

God the Father is specifically manifested in the union of man and woman, where he gives life through the husband in the wife.

It is the moment that unifies God's final gift to humanity in their innocence with his original blessing — the “one flesh” (cf. Genesis 2:24) union of man and woman is the place where the Father grants the blessing of life (cf. Genesis 1:28). The Holy Father states that this union of man and woman together with God is the primordial sacrament that makes visible the invisible God: “Thus, in this dimension, a primordial sacrament is constituted, understood as a sign that transmits effectively in the visible world the invisible mystery hidden in God since time immemorial” (Feb. 20, 1980).

In reality this is the only vision of man that fulfills the deepest longing of his heart. The desire to make the unconditional gift of self. An offering that is met by the unconditional gift of the other. A union in which total self-surrender is identical to total self-fulfillment. A union that opens to the divine.

This is John Paul's vision of marriage. It is a vision that modern man is desperately seeking. It is a vision that only Christianity — with a triune God who is love (1 John 4:16) — can offer.

Steve Bollman is the founder of Paradisus Dei, a lay organization dedicated to implementing

Pope John Paul II 's teaching on marriage and the family. He may

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steve Bollman ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Original Sin in the Union of Man and Woman DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

The story of humanity's temptation and fall has intrigued spiritual writers for ages.

The insights Pope John Paul II presented during his “theology of the body” lectures are profound: “Sin and death entered man's history, in a way, through the very heart of that unity which, from the beginning, was formed by the man and the woman, created and called to become ‘one flesh’ (Genesis 2:24)” (March 5, 1980).

I believe that insight will do nothing less than revolutionize the Church's understanding of original sin.

‘You Shall Be as Gods'

Scripture presents the temptation of Adam and Eve in very simple terms: “The serpent said … Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’” (Genesis 3:4ff). I think that a fuller understanding of “good and evil” greatly illuminates this original temptation.

Philosophically, good is that to which we are drawn. Ultimately, it is God: “No one is good but God alone” (Mark 10:18). Evil is simply the absence of good. Ultimately, it is the absence of God. Satan has promised Adam and Eve that if they eat the forbidden fruit they will know both good and evil, which is to say they will ultimately know both God and the absence of God.

Since Adam and Eve are created directly by God, they know good. If they remain united to God, then they continue to know only good. However, if they separate themselves from God, then they will know both good and evil. They will know good in their creation from God and they will know evil in their rejection of God. Satan tempts Adam and Eve to separate themselves from God.

At this point, John Paul's insights into the original unity of man and woman shed incredible light on humanity's primordial temptation. In a previous article, we noted that the Pope has placed the union of man and woman at the heart of humanity's image and likeness of God: “Man became the ‘image and likeness’ of God not only through his humanity but also through the communion of persons that man and woman form right from the beginning” (Nov. 14, 1979).

He goes on to state that the union of man and woman reflects and reproduces the Blessed Trinity as its divine prototype. In the previous article we noted man and woman proceed as a “unity of the two” from the bosom of the Father in a manner analogous to the Word and Spirit's procession from the bosom of the Father.

Now we must note that the Word and Spirit also return into the bosom of the Father as a “unity of the two.” Adam and Eve are called to do likewise. In fact, what is apparent from Scripture is that Adam and Eve are called to form a “one-flesh” (Genesis 2:24) union, which they offer to the Father. When they do so, Adam and Eve encounter God as Father. He grants life through the husband in the wife: “God blessed them and said: Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). Adam and Eve encounter God together in their union.

If Adam and Eve accept Satan's temptation to separate themselves from God, then it must mean that they separate their union from God the father. Adam and Eve close their union to the fatherhood of God. In modern terms we would call it a contraceptive union (recognizing that Adam and Eve did not have available to them the modern means of contraception).

St. Edith Stein states: “So the first sin may not only be considered as a purely formal one of disobedience of God. Rather it implied a definitive act… Indeed, the act committed could well have been a manner of union that was at variance with the natural order.” Pope Paul VI specifically referred to the natural order when he confirmed the Church's constant teaching on contraception in Humanae Vitae.

St. Augustine, who identifies disobedience as the original sin, states: “They felt for the first time a movement of disobedience in their flesh, as though the punishment were meant to fit the crime of their own disobedience to God” (City of God, 13.13). He goes on to discuss, in fairly graphic terms, that it is specifically the sexual organs that have become disobedient to man.

The Church teaches that the original sin was disobedience (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 397). God asked humanity not to separate themselves from him, which humanity did. I also think it reasonable to conclude that this separation entailed the closure of man and woman's union to the fatherhood of God, which we would call a contraceptive union.

The Consequences

Scripture relates two immediate consequences of Adam and Eve's original sin. First, Adam and Eve are separated from each other: “Then the eyes of them both were opened … and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons” (Genesis 3:7). Before the fall Adam and Eve lived in such intimate union that they were “naked and unashamed” (Genesis 2:25), which is to say that they had nothing between them.

After the fall, Adam and Eve separated themselves from each other by placing clothes in the midst of their union. This separation results from a fundamental mistrust that is sown in their union as evidenced by the fact that each blames the other for the fall (cf. Genesis 3:12ff). This mistrust is itself the result of the change that occurs within the individual. In traditional terms, it is the darkening of the intellect and weakening of the will.

Significantly, Pope John Paul II has related this back to man and woman's union. When the intellect is darkened, man and woman begin to look upon each other as an object of pleasure. When the will is weakened, man and woman seek to “appropriate” or grasp the other as an object instead of making the gift of self to enter into union.

The second immediate effect of the fall is that Adam and Eve are separated from God: “And [when] they heard the sound of the Lord God … the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God” (Genesis 3:8).

In the previous article we noted that union of man and woman occurs in God, which is why they receive the blessing of life in their union. Now we find that separation from God and separation from spouse go hand in hand.

Promise of Redemption

Finally, we must note that God does not allow man's unfaithfulness to have the last word. The literal translation from the Hebrew is “It shall crush your head” (Genesis 3:15). We shall find that the “it” refers to a new union between man and woman, in other words to a new Adam and a new Eve.

The union of man and woman was essential to humanity's creation, temptation and fall. It will be, in a certain sense, essential to its restoration.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steve Bollman ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mary: The Union of Man and Woman in the Mystery of Salvation DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

It has been stated that Pope John Paul II's theology of the body will be the basis for the renewal of all Catholic theology. In this series we have already seen the profound ramifications of the Pope's insights on the theology of man's creation, temptation and fall.

I believe that the implications of the theology of the body for the field of Mariology are greater still.

If the union of man and woman is essential to humanity's creation and fall, then it must find an expression in humanity's redemption. The story of salvation essentially includes a new Adam and a new Eve.

The Church resolved early Christological controversies based on two patristic principles.

The first was that humanity's salvation had to be accomplished by God: “It was not possible that man who had once for all been conquered, and who had been destroyed through disobedience, could reform himself and obtain the prize of victory … Unless it had been God who had freely given salvation, we could never have possessed it securely” (St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.18.2-3.18. 7). The second principle was that the entirety of the human nature had to be elevated into the divine to be redeemed: “What is not assumed is not restored, but what is united to God is saved as well” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Epist 101,7). Based on these principles, the early Church defined that the Word elevated a true and proper human nature (body and soul, intellect and will) into his divinity.

In the theology of the body, John Paul defined the communion of persons formed by man and woman from the beginning as an essential aspect of humanity's “image and likeness” of God (Nov. 14, 1979). He further defined that it was through the union of man and woman that sin and death entered human history (March 5, 1980). As such — according to our two basic patristic principles — the union of man and woman must be elevated into the divine if it is to be restored.

New Adam, New Eve

St. John's Gospel provides the basis for understanding this mystery. At the climax of his Passion narrative, he presents to us a man, a woman and a type of profound mystical union between them. Jesus Christ is presented as “the man” (John 19:5). St. John lets us know that Jesus is the mystery of the Word Incarnate (cf. John 1:14). He is the fulfillment of what man was created to be. He is the manifestation of the Father: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Immediately after presenting Christ as the man, St. John presents Mary as the “woman” (John 19:26). Mary is everything woman was created to be. This mystery can only be understood in light of two moments in St. John's Gospel.

First, Jesus specifically reveals the Holy Spirit to be the paraclete (cf. John 14:16; 14:26; 15:26; 16:7). The term paraclete comes from Greek legal terminology referring to someone who pleads the cause of someone else, i.e. an advocate. Second, this is precisely the light in which St. John presents Mary at the wedding feast of Cana. When the wine runs short, Mary turns to Jesus: “They have no wine” (John 2:3). St. John presents Mary as living the life of the Holy Spirit.

St. Maximillian Kolbe had gone so far as to state: Mary “is united to the Holy Spirit so closely that we really cannot grasp this union. But we can at least say that the Holy Spirit and Mary are two persons who live in such intimate union that they have but one sole life” (June 27,1936). A word of caution is in order at this point. Jesus Christ is God. He is the divine Person of the Word Incarnate. Mary is human and only human. It is her human life that is elevated into the divine life of the Holy Spirit.

The Union

Since Mary lives the divine life of the Holy Spirit, she is able to form an inseparable union with Jesus Christ. The Holy Father goes so far as to say that Mary is perfectly united to Christ in his sacrificial offering: “Through this faith Mary is perfectly united with Christ in his self-emptying … At the foot of the cross Mary shares through faith in the shocking mystery of this self-emptying … Through faith the Mother shares in the death of her Son, in his redeeming death” (Redem-ptoris Mater, No. 18). We must carefully consider this mystical union between Christ and Our Lady on Calvary.

St. John presents the wounding of the heart as the conclusion of Christ's passion: “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear” (John 19:34). It is the moment that Christ and Our Lady are most perfectly united. Mary's heart is spiritually pierced by the same sword that physically pierces Christ's heart: “A sword will pierce through your own soul” (Luke 2:35).

However, we must go a step further. Mary is purified in the blood flowing from the wounded heart of Christ. The grace of Christ's passion is perfectly applied to Mary at the moment of her immaculate conception. Mary's immaculate flesh is, if you will, taken from the blood flowing from Christ's wounded heart: “Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify … that [she] might be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25ff). This verse properly applies to the Church, but we must note that the Catechism states that the Church is holy in Mary (cf. Catechism, No. 829).

Significantly, while Mary's flesh is being purified in the blood shed during the Passion, Christ turns to address his mother as “woman” (John 19:26). It is the address of Adam for Eve when she was taken from his heart. In fact, it was Adam's only address for Eve prior to the fall.

Adam goes on to state that he is destined to form a “one-flesh” (Genesis 2:24) union with Eve. It is a statement perfectly fulfilled — in a nonsexual manner — by Christ and Our Lady. Jesus Christ and Our Lady properly speaking have the same immaculate flesh. Jesus Christ can look upon Mary and state: “Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman” (Genesis 2:23). Jesus Christ and Our Lady form the one-flesh union that had been foretold of man and woman from the beginning.

Further, whereas Adam and Eve closed their union to the fatherhood of God, Christ and Our Lady specifically offer it to him — in a mystical fashion — upon Calvary. When they do so, they receive the sign of the Father's presence — the gift of life: “Woman, behold your son” (John 19:26).

It is the moment that Christ and Our Lady redeem the union that man and woman were called to form from the beginning: “The Lord, wishing to bestow special gifts and graces and divine love on [marriage], has restored, perfected and elevated it” (Gaudium et Spes, No. 49).

Steve Bollman is the founder of Paradisus Dei, a lay organization dedicated to implementing

Pope John Paul II 's teaching on marriage and the family. He may be contacted through

www.paradisusdei.org.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Keep the Customer Satisfied

We are trying to make a shift in our small company toward more customer satisfaction. How can we best motivate our employees to see this as a priority?

Psychologist William Miller has been writing for decades about the types of communication that make people motivated for positive change. Miller realizes that motivation isn't just an internal quality — it's largely a product of being around people who encourage and trigger positive change.

So how do we motivate others to change and grow? The process is rather complicated, but it boils down to what Fats Domino said about rocking and rolling all night: You have to be ready, willing and able.

We have to be ready to change and we have to want to do it now, not later. The proposed change has to be a priority. I'll visit the client in the fall, but not now. Or I want high-speed access to improve service, but I can't afford the cost.

This is ambivalence about priorities. A leader may have to frequently reinforce the fact that customer contact and satisfaction are worth the cost and of sufficient importance to be addressed — now.

We are willing to change if we see a need for change and if the change is important enough. St. Thomas said that we're more powerful when we go after things than we are when we resist things. We get more bang for the will-buck by encouraging it to attack than to stop.

Is customer satisfaction important enough and is it not currently in our grasp? Then we need to will to attain it.

The ability to make the change is important as well. If we are confident that we have found a way to make a change, then we are able to change. When we don't feel we are able to change, then the classic defense mechanisms make an appearance. We either blame others (Why are our customers so fickle?), deny the importance of the change (They won't really care anyhow) or rationalize the status quo (things are n 't so bad now, so why bother?).

A leader has to convince his staff that he and they have what it takes to make the change. Encouragement is important here.

Miller stresses that ambivalence about the proposed change is what keeps people stuck. So leaders have to create an accepting, enthusiastic atmosphere that encourages exploration.

As Christians we shouldn't be surprised that motivating is an interpersonal activity, for it is through our relationship with Christ that we are able to be transformed, sometimes radically, through grace.

Just so, in our relationships with the members of our staff, we are able to transform the culture of our workplace into one not only of self-motivation but also of a certain kind of mass transformation.

Art Bennett is director of Alpha

Omega Clinic and Consultation Services in Vienna, Virginia, and Bethesda, Maryland.

Reach Family Matters at

familymatters@ncregister.com

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art Bennett ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Honesty Wins Handily DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Facts

A survey group of close to 250 people was asked to respond to the statement, “People who take ethical shortcuts are more likely to succeed at work.” Here's how they responded:

•I strongly agree: The best player—not the nicest player — wins. 9%

• I agree. Sometimes you have to make compromises to get ahead. 8%

• I disagree. Honesty is the best policy — usually. 17%

• I strongly disagree. People eventually smell a rat, no matter how good his disguise. 66%

Source: Josephson Institute of Ethics, July 16

Illustration by Tim Rauch

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: The Assumption: Questions and Answers DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

The Assumption is a puzzle to many Catholics. It's one of the mysteries of the rosary, but scriptural rosary books struggle to find quotes to go along with it. It's a holy day of obligation (Aug. 15), but even the most devout Catholics don't seem to know a lot about it. Herewith, some questions and answers.

Why is it called “the Assumption” to start with?

The word “assume” comes from the Latin verb “to take.” Mary is “taken” into heaven. We use the word assume to mean “to take” also: to take a certain meaning, to take on a certain form, to take on a responsibility. In the Assumption, Christ assumes Mary into heaven, body and soul.

Anyway, in the Eastern Church it's not called the Assumption. It's called the Dormition or “Falling Asleep and Departure.”

Isn't it a new dogma?

It's old and new.

Old, because the feast of the Dormition of Mary was celebrated in the Byzantine Church before the year 500.-St. Gregory of-Tours wrote about the Assumption in the sixth century. The theology of the Assumption was articulated in fine theological detail by the 700s, in the three sermons St. John Damascene preached for this feast. In his second sermon, he states that belief in Mary's Assumption comes from long-standing tradition, which he-was merely handing down.

New, because the formal declaration of this dogma only occurred in 1950, the most recent use of a pope's formal, ex cathedra authority. At that time, Pope Pius XII issued a bull formally defining, as part of the deposit of faith, the fact that “the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, was on the completion of her earthly life assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven” (Munificentissimus Deus, 1950.)

Is it mentioned in the Bible?

There are, in fact, clear scriptural supports for Mary's Assumption. Two Old Testament figures, Elijah and Enoch, were taken into the next life without dying (Genesis 5:24; 2 Kings 2:11).-Matthew's Gospel relates that, after Christ's death, “many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.”

Jimmy Akin,-director of apologetics and evangelization-at Catholic Answers in El Cajon, Calif., notes that it would be odd to think this resurrection was only temporary — surely they were taken to heaven a short while later. So there is scriptural precedent for-some people receiving the gift of resurrection before the end of the world. That Christ would grant this privilege to his immaculate mother is quite believable.

A more-obvious support from Scripture occurs in the second reading for the feast, says Akin. “The Church traditionally has seen an allusion to Mary's Assumption in Revelation 12, where John sees the sign of the woman in heaven,” he says. “While there is an allusion here it is not an explicit statement.”

But if the Bible doesn't explicitly mention it, how can we believe it?

Most Protestants reject belief in Mary's Assumption because it seems to lack a scriptural “proof text.” This attitude points to a basic divergence between Catholics and Protestants that-is deeper than the issue of Marian devotion.

Protestants hold that the Bible alone is to determine what Christians should believe. Not so in the Catholic Church, Akin points out.

“Doctrines don't have to be found in Scripture to be true,” Akin points out. “Scripture does not teach that it is the source of all doctrine. As a result, the best sources for some teachings can be the traditions recorded in the early Church Fathers, as is the case with the Assumption. Pope Pius XII drew upon these early Christian traditions when he infallibly proclaimed this dogma. This was another case of the pope using his ability to engage the Church's infallibility to confirm particular traditions that had been passed down from the Apostles.”

What evidence do we have of the Assumption?

Well, it's hard to find evidence that someone left the earth — but one bit of evidence that Mary's body is in heaven is found in the fact that no church or city ever-laid claim to-the relics of Mary. In the early ages of Christianity, the bones of an apostle or martyr were considered prized possessions. There were often article bitter disputes over which church had the better claim to various relics, and sometimes less-than-vir-tuous actions were taken to obtain possession.

If there was ever any question as to what happened to the body of Our Lady, we can be sure that someone would have proudly claimed her mortal remains. Indeed, there are rival claims to the location of her tomb — Ephesus and Jerusalem. But both tombs are empty.

If everyone was so certain about the Assumption from early times, why did the Pope have to make a special dogmatic declaration about it? And why define the Assumption in the middle of the Space Age? Doesn't it make the Church look out of touch with the modern world?

Father Christopher Armstrong has a doctorate in sacred theology from the International Marian Research Institute in Dayton, Ohio (the U.S. branch of Rome's Marianum). He is a pastor and former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. And he thinks the definition of the Assumption did indeed answer a need of the times.

“It was very opportune [to define the dogma], when you see where the world was in 1950,” says Father Armstrong.

“At that time most of the world's Catholics lived in Europe, which was still reeling from the carnage and human degradation of the Second World War. It was still witnessing the horrors of totalitarian ideology and atheism. Declaring the Assumption of Mary was a reaffirmation of the dignity of the human person — that there is a real value to the human body,” he said.

“And at the same time, it was a reaffirmation of the human person as body and soul. The punishment for Adam and Eve was death,” he said. “The body became corruptible. The Assumption is a reminder that we are destined to follow the pattern of the Resurrection, that body and soul are meant to be incorruptible, impassable and immortal.”

What does the Assumption teach us about ourselves?

It is a sign-of hope for our own future resurrection from the dead and assumption into heaven. “Mary is both an icon of the Church and of the individual believer,” says Akin. “As a special grace, God allowed her to share in the benefits of following Christ early. Her Immaculate Conception points to the fact that God will one day free all of the elect from every trace of sin, and her Assumption points-to the fact that one day all of the elect will be caught up body and soul to be with Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). For us, this will happen at the end of the world but God has allowed us a glimpse of our destiny by giving this gift to Mary early.”

“You might say she was carried away by love, the love of her Son,” adds Franciscan Father Patrick Greenough, national director of the Militia Immaculata, the Marian movement founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe, and guardian of Marytown in Libertyville, Ill. “She could not remain separate from him in any way. He had dwelt, body and soul, in her womb, so she was to dwell with him in heaven, body and soul. With us, our bodies and spirits are often at war — just think how hard it is to get up for Mass on Sunday morning or to refrain from overstuffing yourself at a buffet. But Mary did not have that division within her. Her body and soul were always united. It is only fitting that they remain that way into eternity.”

Okay, so it reminds us of heaven. How should it affect our lives now?

Father Armstrong-believes that the meaning of the Assumption of Mary-is best expressed in the preface of the Mass for the feast: “Today the Virgin Mother of God was taken up into heaven to be the beginning and pattern of the Church in its perfection and a sign of hope and comfort for your people on their pilgrim way,’” he reads. Then he adds: “What happened to Mary is going-to happen to every faithful Christian.”

Daria Sockey writes from Cincinnati.

----- EXCERPT: What we must assume about 'that other empty tomb' ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Abortion Mills Meet Their Match DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

Prolife Profile

Here's a little-known fact: Every abortion mill in the country has at least one Catholic parish praying for it.

That's because, this past June, Priests for Life “matched” each of the nation's 17,000 parishes with an abortion facility and began asking parish members to pray for the closing of the abortion business and the Christian conversion of its staff.

Calling the parish-matching program a “countdown to victory,” Father Frank Pavone, Priests for Life's national director, is confident the prayers will be heard and the 700-plus freestanding abortion mills operating in the country “will all eventually be closed.”

Abortion facilities are the abortion industry's weakest link, he adds, and parishes are the Church's strongest — so a spiritual face-off between the two favors the eventual triumph of the Church.

“The Church is the only institution that has the divine guarantee that it will prevail over the culture of death,” says Father Pavone. “It is up to us to use the tools of grace that the giver of that guarantee has provided us.”

There were more than 2,000 freestanding abortion mills in operation in the early 1990s, according to Life Dynamics Inc., which maintains a list. Today only 728 remain, but an estimated 1 million lives are aborted at these abortion sites every year. This does not include hospitals or doctors’ offices where abortions are performed, often in secret.

Father Pavone says he has learned through interaction with pro-life people and parishes that abortion is a “local phenomenon,” and everyone needs to take responsibility to stop the killing in their communities. He adds that a pastor has spiritual responsibility for his flock and Church law specifies that responsibility geographically.

“If, then, there is an abortion mill within the parish, a special bond of responsibility is already there,” he says. “The same is true in the relationship of a bishop with his diocese.”

The project's approach — orchestrated nationally but implemented locally — has helped energize Catholics, says Deacon Jim Stahlnecker, coordinator of the Respect Life Vicariate of Staten Island, N.Y. It's making people aware that the killing of innocents is going on practically in their own backyards. And it's helping them focus on the problem at a human scale, thus countering the perception that the idea of “ending abortion” is an overwhelming challenge.

“It's like taking a light bulb and focusing the rays in one area, shining right on the clinic,” says Father Pavone. “Even here in New York, marvelous things can be done.”

Proactive Prayer

Of the 34 parishes in Staten Island, where Priests for Life's headquarters is based, 17 have already adopted the project since it was introduced in June, and more parishes will be added as Deacon Stahlnecker follows up with them.

While Priests for Life offers many suggestions, it is up to the individual parish and its pastor to fashion a response. In Staten Island, some parishes are promoting the program in the bulletin and naming the abortion business to pray for. Others are distributing information about the abortion site on wallet-size cards to pray at home and praying the intentions after daily Mass.

Deacon Stahlnecker is also distributing an end-abortion prayer to various Catholic associations in the diocese, including the Knights of Columbus, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Blue Army and the Legion of Mary.

For 10 years, Deacon Stahlnecker has done sidewalk counseling with Msgr. Philip Reilly, founder of Helpers of God's Precious Infants. The deacon is convinced the key to ending abortion is a combination of prayer and action.

“I've seen, on some days, up to 30% of the girls who go into the clinic come out and decide not to have an abortion,” he says. “They thanked us for being there. But prayer is so key. From prayer follows activism.”

Life Dynamics president Mark Crutcher has worked with many former abortion-business employees who have told him that, when people are outside the abortion site praying, there's a “tenseness inside the facility and an angst that they can't describe.”

Some didn't want to come to work if “those people” were there.

“There are certain human behaviors in the human experience that are repugnant whether they are legal or illegal,” he says. “The abortion clinics don't close down because of lack of business; they close because they can't get people to work in those places. They have not been able to remove the stigma of abortion even through legality. We know that prayer has an effect and to think that it doesn't is to deny your Christian belief system.”

By praying at home, Charliene Damone feels she can contribute to ending abortion without cramping her schedule. As a single mother of three young children, she doesn't have time to pray in front of abortion businesses nor much money to donate to pro-life organizations. So when she first heard about the match program, she went to the Priests for Life Web site and found an abortion site in her area. She has posted the prayer on her wall next to a crucifix and a picture of the Blessed Mother.

“Planned Parenthood, Sunrise Avenue, Roseville, California,” she says of the abortion mill nearest her. “I didn't know that one even existed before.”

Damone sympathizes with young girls who find themselves in crisis pregnancies. When she found herself in this situation, she never considered abortion but knows firsthand the struggles young girls have to face.

“They can't possibly understand what they've been given,” says Damone. “It makes me mad at Planned Parenthood for misleading so many people about this great gift of life. All of the ideas and passions I have about what needs to be done will be passed on to my children, and maybe they will be the ones to fulfill them.”

Making Headway

The Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Chicago has fully implemented the “match” program into a wider effort called the Mother Teresa Project, says Mary-Louise Kurey, project director. In addition to contacting each parish and matching them to one of 17 abortion mills in the archdiocese and two outside the archdiocese, it is partnering with Helpers of God's Precious Infants to organize prayer vigils outside of abortion businesses and train sidewalk counselors.

The diocese is also encouraging Catholics to pray the rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet daily, distribute leaflets to abortion workers written by former abortionists and get more involved with pregnancy resource centers.

At the political level, Illinois is “hostile territory for pro-lifers,” says Kurey, but the combination of prayer and action is helping the pro-life movement make headway.

“Prayer is the center of all that we do, but it's also important to bring that prayer into action,” she says. “People are really getting energized here politically, even though it can be discouraging. The pro-abortion culture is so powerful, but the pro-life movement is getting younger and younger, and that is very encouraging.”

Prayer for Life

ternal God, You have revealed Yourself as the Father of all Life. We praise You for the Fatherly care which You extend to all creation, and especially to us, made in Your image and likeness.

Father, extend Your hand of protection to those threatened by abortion, and save them from its destructive power. Give Your strength to all fathers, that they may never give in to the fears that may tempt them to facilitate abortions.

Bless our families and bless our land, that we may have the joy of welcoming and nurturing the life of which You are the source and the Eternal Father. Amen.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 10-16, 2003 ----- BODY:

FDA Cries Foul on Pill Ad

REUTERS, July 15 — U.S. regulators have warned a major pharmaceutical company that its television advertisement for birth-control pills is misleading.

Regulators said the ad for the drug, called Yasmin, overstated the product's safety and effectiveness and minimized the health risks, according to a letter released by the Food and Drug Administration.

Reuters news service reported that the FDA told Berlex Laboratories, a unit of German drug maker Schering, to immediately discontinue the ad.

The FDA's letter was sent July 10 and posted on the agency's Web site.

Berlex ran the commercial in May and June for test-marketing purposes and stopped airing it before receiving the FDA's notice, Berlex spokeswoman Kim Schillace said. Last year's U.S. sales of Yasmin totaled $95 million.

No Pill for Scottish Schoolgirls

SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY, July 13 — Scottish health minister Malcolm Chisholm has said that, in response to a public backlash, schools will not be distributing the morning-after pill to pupils without their parents’ knowledge.

Chisholm told the newspaper: “We have to take account of people's views. The morning-after pill in schools is not on the agenda at all. I think people can be reassured. There is obviously a lot of concern about that among parents and I think we have to look at different ways of dealing with those issues.”

Japan Seeks Fertility

KAISERNETWORK.ORG, July 24 — The Japanese parliament's upper house has passed a measure that officials hope will help raise the country's record-low fertility rate.

According to a report released last month by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan's total fertility rate fell more than expected in 2002 to a record 1.32 children per woman —the country's lowest level since the end of World War II.

The bill would create a panel, to be headed by the prime minister, that would look for ways to increase the nation's total fertility rate.

The bill paves the way for the health ministry to spend $2.1 billion next year on plans to increase the total fertility rate, such as paying couples who receive fertility treatments.

Victory in Northern Ireland

RADIO TELEFÍS ÉIREANN, July 7 — Pro life groups claimed a major victory after a bid to introduce termination guidelines in Northern Ireland was dismissed in court, Ireland's national public-broadcasting organization reported.

Justice Brian Kerr rejected an attempt by the Family Planning Association to force health chiefs into setting out the circumstances in which abortions were legal.

Undercurrent laws, women can only have a termination in the North if their life is at risk or if there is a serious threat to their mental or physical health by continuing the pregnancy.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Newsinbrief DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

A MAJORITY OF AMERI-CANS still backs Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, although support has softened in the last five years. Arecent poll conducted by Louis Harris and Associates of 1,008 adults found 52 percent support the decision and 41 percent oppose it. However, support has fallen from a high of 65 percent in 1991; it is at its lowest level in more than a decade.

FINANCIAL GIANT Merrill Lynch announced Sept. 11 that it will help finance a plan proposed by New York Cardinal John O'Connor and endorsed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to send 1,000 of the city's public school students to Catholic schools. The plan has come under fire from some Jewish and Church-state separation groups because it is unclear whether public tax money would be used to fund the plan.

JUST DAYS BEFORE Senate action on a global chemical weapons ban was postponed indefinitely, Bishop Daniel Reilly of Worcester, Mass., chairman of the U.S. bishops' International Policy Committee, urged lawmakers to ratify it because such weapons “are unworthy of humanity and may not be justified on any ethical ground.” The Clinton administration Sept. 12 accepted the indefinite postponement of Senate action on the Chemical Weapons Convention, as the treaty is called.

POPE JOHN PAUL II'S inflamed appendix will be removed sometime after an Oct. 6 beatification ceremony, the Vatican announced. The Pope's personal physician and other medical consultants have recommended surgery, and the Pope has agreed to have the operation, according to a Sept. 14 statement from the Vatican.(See page 3)

THE VATICAN is relying on local bishops to get the word out about a four-day celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Pope's priestly ordination. Every diocesan or religious order priest ordained in 1946 is invited to participate in a Nov. 7-10 jubilee program of talks, Masses and prayer services, and celebrations. It is unclear how many men were ordained to the priesthood the same year as the then-26-year-old Karol Wojtyla who became Pope John Paul II.

CHURCH LEADERS in Nicaragua have expressed concern over preparation for the October elections, in particular the lack of voting cards. Less than half of the country's 2.7 million voters have obtained their voting cards and might not do so in time for the general elections scheduled for Oct. 20. Church sources said the problem is especially pronounced in remote areas of the countryside, where bitter combat was waged in the 1980s between the army and U.S.-backed counterrevolutionaries.

BISHOP HUBERT PATRICK O'CONNOR, former bishop of Prince George, British Columbia, was sentenced to two-and-one-half-years in prison Sept. 13 for raping a woman in the mid-1960s. Justice Wally Oppal of the British Columbia Supreme Court also sentenced the bishop to three months in prison for sexually assaulting another woman the year after the rape. The term is to be served concurrently with his other sentence.

ISRAEL'S SUPREME COURT ruled Sept. 12 that a childless woman estranged for her husband could have their frozen embryos implanted in a surrogate against the husband's wishes. An 11-member panel of judges voted 7-4 in the landmark decision that the right of the woman, Ruti Nahmani, to be a mother outweighed objections to fatherhood, made by Danny Nahmani, the husband from whom she is separated.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Dorothy Day Hits the Big Screen in 'Entertaining Angels' DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

AFTER SIX YEARS of prayer and hard work, Paulist Father Ellwood “Bud” Kieser, is bringing his 110-minute cinematic vision of the life of Catholic Worker Founder Dorothy Day to the big screen. But he's going it alone, without the hype and fanfare that accompany most of Hollywood's releases.

Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story, premiered earlier this month at the Toronto Film Festival, where it earned some critical praise and international interest, including an invitation for a screening at a Greek film festival. It will open on Sept. 27 in one theater per city in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto. Oct. 11 will mark the second phase of Father Kieser's independent “roll-out” release with Entertaining Angels opening in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego. Other cities include Montreal, Detroit, Washington, Dallas, Denver, Miami; by Oct. 25, it will come to Cincinnati, Atlanta, St. Louis, San Jose, Calif. and Kansas City, Mo. Ultimately, Father Kieser hopes to sell television rights and arrange for overseas distribution, as well as video sales. The priest hopes to tap into the same market-including Catholic schools and groups-that made his 1988 film, Romero, a modest success.

Father Kieser broke even on Romero, ultimately recouping the $3.5 million invested in the story of the Salvadoran bishop who was slain for championing the poor. Father Kieser financed his current $4.5 million movie largely with Catholic money, and with little direct support from Hollywood. “We're doing it ourselves and, we're relying on a lot of Church support,” he told the Register. Distributing it himself means, “we can target it, leave it in cities longer, fine-tune it.”

Father Kieser said his movie “is more relevant than ever, given President Clinton's signing of the welfare reform bill. We're going to have more poor … more people on the street.”

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference is helping promote Entertaining Angels. The Catholic Communications Campaign gave the film $228,000, in funding, in addition to plugs in its newsletter and on its toll-free movie review line. In October, an Entertaining Angels flier will be included in the Church's Campaign for Human Development (CHD) annual appeal fundraising kit which goes out to 40,000 priests across the United States. The national CHD newsletter will include information on creating diocesan benefit screenings.

Paulist Father Bruce Nieli, the NCCB's director for evangelization, can't say enough about the project: “I would love every Catholic in America in the United States to see this movie.” He has already shown it to NCCB staffers. He wants diocesan staffs to “promote it in their secretariats, raise a critical mass of viewing audiences in the highways and byways of U.S. Catholicism. I am promoting this movie to enflesh evangelization, by saying, ‘Here's someone who put it all together.’”

But bringing Day's story to the big screen didn't come easily. Some 30 stars-including Meg Ryan, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jodie Foster-turned down the lead, citing scheduling conflicts, disinterest or an unwillingness to work for Father Kieser's traditional union scale wages. “I had another actress say, ‘I love the script but not enough to cut my price by 96 percent,’” Father Kieser said.

No big-name director was attracted to the project either, and Father Kieser was unsuccessful in his attempts to attract a Hollywood studio to produce the script, or later, to distribute the film. (Paramount did let him shoot street scenes of 1930s New York on their back lot.)

“We looked at it, we looked at it twice,” said Barry Riordan, a Catholic and president of Warner Bros. Distribution who successfully marketed the 1986 film The Mission. Riordan said he took the Dorothy Day movie to his video division executives, asking if they could sell about 50,000 copies of it. If they said yes, Riordan thought he might be able to give Entertaining Angels a limited theatrical release to jump start video store sales. They said no.

“I have been rejected so many times,” Father Kieser said. “Who likes to be rejected? This has been a faith journey from the beginning. This has been the most difficult movie I've ever made.”

Michael Rhodes of the canceled, Christian-themed CBS series, Christy, came on board as director. Irish-born, Long Island, N.Y.-bred Moira Kelly, known for her roles in Chaplin, The Cutting Edge and With Honors, signed on to play Dorothy Day. Martin Sheen co-stars as Catholic Worker co-founder Peter Maurin.

Father Kieser sees the obstacles to making the film as providential. His interview mantra is that he didn't get a big-name studio, director or star. He then talks of how he got a director and lead who weren't big but who made for magic on screen. He hopes God is as providential in distribution and marketing.

John Wells, executive producer of NBC's E.R.wrote the script. But the final version has the imprint of Father Kieser's vision of Day's life. “I basically made it for secular people, I wanted to reach the unbelieving,” he said.

Entertaining Angels is a bookend story opening in 1963 with Day in jail on a protest charge, cradling a drug addict in their shared cell. It ends with her holding the addict, gently singing Amazing Grace.

In between, the movie covers Day's pre-Catholic life in 1917 as a suffragist and writer for the old New York socialist newspaper, The Call. She had an abortion. Scarred by that, she retreated to a beach house. Anun helps her convert. By the Depression-era 1930s, Day is back in Manhattan. With Peter Maurin, they start The Catholic Worker newspaper and set-up the first Catholic Worker soup kitchen.

The movie doesn't chronicle Day's entire life. Her later work with Caesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers movement or her Vietnam War protests aren't covered and the film makes no mention of the Catholic Worker split over World War II. Ignoring Day's post-Pearl Harbor pacifist call for U.S. non-aggression, half the Catholic Workers enlisted. The other half went to conscientious objector camps. The split caused Day's newspaper to lose two-thirds of its circulation, as it was dropped by parishes grieving over altar boys-turned-soldiers who died at Corregidor or the Bataan Death March.

Father Kieser grew up around World War II heroes. “I'm not a total pacifist, as Dorothy was,” he said. “But I do think we need to explore and use non-violent conflict resolution.”

At showings in Toronto and New York, secular journalists from MTV and the Village Voice praised the film. Critics from Catholic magazines like America and Commonweal, apparently more familiar with Day's life, had reservations, wondering why Father Kieser did not cover all periods of Day's life. The Christian magazine Sojourners' lukewarm review this month said audiences not familiar with Day will find the movie, “a good chronicle of this amazing woman's early life … for those looking for a profoundly moving or enlightening cinematic experience, Entertaining Angels falls too short….”

“I think you miss the whole mystery, the whole subtlety of her conversion,” said Robert Ellsberg, editor of Orbis Books, who lived with Day in a Catholic Worker house. Day's actual conversion, he said, began with a copy of the Baltimore Catechism given to her by a traditional nun, not the more modern-talking nun in the movie. “I found it odd that the nun was so clearly post-Vatican II in her style of ministry,” Ellsberg said.

Other Catholics have embraced this partial biography. Shown at an August Pax Christi convention in Cleveland, the movie ended, the lights came up, and the audience sang, Amazing Grace. Catholic Workers came up to Father Kieser with bouquets of roses. “I felt like an opera singer,” he said.

To those Dorothy Day aficionados complaining that the story is incomplete, the priest challenges them to put away their rarefied view of “Saint Dorothy” and just watch the movie, released a year before what would have been Day's 100th birthday.

“The whole movie doesn't quite fit the icon,” he said. The Catholic critics, he said, “almost expected that I made a documentary. I didn't make a documentary. I made a drama. I had to get inside Dorothy's head and I'm allowed theatrical license.

“Many devoutly believing people are very critical of what Hollywood produces. Okay. You've been cursing the darkness. I would like to think that we've given some light, and I hope the people are going to gravitate toward it…. Not only going to see the picture but inviting their non-Catholic friends, their relatives, their parish groups to go as a group, and then use it as a discussion tool about the Gospel in 1996, not for a night or a week but for months….”

David Finnigan is based in Los Angeles. He was an unpaid extra on the set of Entertaining Angels.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Finnigan ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Catholic-Funded 'Spitfire Grill' Finds Success Despite Skepticism DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

A FILM FINANCED by a Catholic group has earned at least $10 million. But respect is hard to come by in Hollywood and in the mainstream media, which has expressed concern about a religious group funding movies.

The Sacred Heart League, a charitable organization run by the Sacred Heart Fathers in Walls, Miss., funded The Spitfire Grill, a film that debuted in theaters nationwide in early September and placed in the top 10 with approximately $3.5 million in revenues its first week.

Sacred Heart League financed, produced and marketed the film through its for-profit subsidiary, Gregory Productions, which seeks to “present the values of the Judeo-Christian tradition,” such as “love of and reverence for God,” through film and media. It also wants to make money for the League, which runs schools, clinics and other programs serving the people of northern Mississippi.The Spitfire Grill is Gregory's first film. It won this year's audience award for drama at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

The film features a character named Percy Talbot, a woman who's recently released from prison and decides to make a fresh start in a small Maine town, where she finds work at the local grill. After the initial scrutiny and suspicion that towns-people give Percy, she becomes friends with two women at the diner.

The film takes a dramatic twist when one of her friends, who owns the grill, decides to sell it. A tragic event helps Percy to teach the townspeople a lesson in sacrifice, forgiveness and the importance of not prejudging strangers.

Despite their success, Sacred Heart and its director, Roger Courts, haven't earned much applause from the mainstream press. Castle Rock Entertainment, which paid $10 million to distribute the film, has downplayed it's association with the organization in promoting the film. Nonetheless, the company sees potential for profit in Spitfire, and it has spent $15 million to market the movie. Perhaps sensitive to criticism leveled by Hollywood executives and the media, Castle Rock makes only one reference to Gregory Productions or to the film's origins at its World Wide Web site.

But Caryn James, a reporter for The New York Times, wrote from the Sundance Film Festival that “some executives in Hollywood are uneasy about the Church's connection with the film and what they see as Gregory's religious agenda.”

Ron Austin, a Catholic who teaches in the Cinema Department at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, called James' viewpoint “a particularly narrow kind of secularism. I don't think most people in Hollywood have a problem,” with Gregory's involvement in The Spitfire Grill, he said.

Lee David Zlotoff, the movie's writer and director, is an observant Jew. Zlotoff, a television producer who created Remington Steele and MacGyver, told Gregory in 1994 that he wouldn't work with them if they wanted to make a movie with religious overtones. As Zlotoff tells it, Gregory wanted to “make a movie with humanistic values and no sex or violence.” Zlotoff, who is married and has four children, had no problem with that mandate and quickly signed on to make his first movie.

New York Times reporter James calls the film “a manipulatively heartwarming story,” and an “effective button pusher.” She charges that “viewers are being proselytized without their knowledge.” She cites a scene in which Percy, fresh from prison, meditates in a church. Henry Herx, director of the United States Catholic Conference's office for film and broadcasting, called the movie, “one of the better films of the past few months.”

One Jesuit priest argues that James' contentions only demonstrate a bias against religious influences in film. “If, in Spitfire Grill, the young woman released from prison had been taken to a motel room for some lesbian sex, would critics have felt they were being manipulated?” wrote Father Francis Canavan, S.J., a political science professor at Fordham University in New York, in The New Oxford Review.

One aspiring Catholic film-maker is encouraged by Gregory Productions' success. “Hopefully, it will encourage more religious people to get involved,” said Alvaro Calabia, a graduate student in film at Howard University in Washington. “It's one thing to complain about what Hollywood is producing, and another thing to do something about it,” said Calabia, who grew up in Madrid, Spain. “Maybe they'll open a door for me.”

He has a lot of company. According to USC's Austin, who is a retired producer and writer, “there's been a major, major change in Hollywood. More younger filmmakers are motivated by what they call 'spiritual’ interests, which can mean everything from traditional religion to the New Age religions.” According to Austin, three groups have sprung up in the past 10 years to meet some of the spiritual needs of Catholics in the entertainment world in Hollywood.

While some of the great Catholic intellectuals have made their mark in the academic world or in literature, it appears that more will work in mass media in the 21st century. Walker Percy, the late Louisianan novelist and philosopher, said near the end of his life in 1990 that movies had displaced literature as the art form with the greatest possibility of impacting society.

“He's correct. In today's world, movies are the best way to reach a wider audience,” said Herx. “It's the perfect medium for today's storytellers.”

“We are a movie-going people,” concurred Courts in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “It's a place from where the young derive their value systems.”

Courts is a 60-year old former Arthur Murray dance instructor who came to work at Sacred Heart 38 years ago as a typist. He now manages a staff of 370 which amassed $21 million in contributions through direct mail last year.

Courts raised $4 million for Spitfire with a loan from the Sacred Heart League and from the sale of equity in the movie company to the nonprofit organization that provides for Sacred Heart's 170 priests. Despite assembling a low-budget cast, hiring a non-union crew and shooting in just 38 days, the film cost $6.1 million. To make up the difference, Gregory Productions took out another $2 million loan.

The gamble worked and Sacred Heart is reaping the benefits. The after-tax profit on the movie was $3.5 million, and Gregory will earn much more if the film does well at the box office. Sacred Heart is building a new elementary school in a rural Mississippi county for 400 students. It plans to name the school's cafeteria The Spitfire Grill. Courts is reviewing scripts for future films.

Bill Murray is based in Rockville, Md.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bill Murray ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Congress Upholds Marriage Defense Bill DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Senate followed the lead of the House in mid-September when it passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), legislation which would allow states to outlaw same-sex marriages. Hours later, the Senate also debated a related amendment which would have made sexual preference a protected minority class and therefore subject to federal anti-discrimination laws.

DOMA passed the Senate on an overwhelming 85 to 14 vote and will soon be sent to the White House, where President Clinton is waiting to sign it. The President indicated his support for the legislation earlier this summer, when the bill was first considered by the House. DOMA passed the House on July 12, by a runaway 342 to 67 margin.

L'Osservatore Romano, a newspaper that often reflects Vatican thinking, hailed the passage of DOMA, saying it was a common-sense rejection of same-sex unions. ASept. 12 editorial by moral theologian Father Gino Concetti praised the United States for showing more “strength and courage” than European countries in protecting the value of marriage and family. In passing the bill, Congress resisted pressures by homosexual groups, it said. The editorial noted that the Church makes a distinction between the “tendency” toward homosexuality and its “institutionalization.”

The issue of same-sex marriage became a legislative issue as a result of a court case in Hawaii. While many states have laws on the books outlawing same-sex marriages, court action in Hawaii threatens to render many of these laws unconstitutional. In May, 1993 a divided Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples violated the state constitution's Equal Protection Clause and Equal Rights Amendment. The court held that the equal rights amendment amounted to a mandate to the state to issue marriage licenses to couples of the same sex, and remanded the case for trial to see if there is a compelling state interest in denying same-sex marriages. Most legal experts expect that the outcome of the trial will be consistent with the Hawaii Supreme Court's ruling, and that the state will soon have to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

These actions in Hawaii could have far-reaching implications for the other 49 states. Article lV, section 1 of the U.S. Constitution provides that “full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the Public Acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.” This means that every state in the union must honor same-sex marriages in Hawaii as legal in their own state. In effect, the “full faith and credit” clause of the U.S. Constitution would override any state laws outlawing homosexual marriages.

Currently, 15 states have laws on the books barring same-sex marriages, and similar measures are currently pending in two other states. In addition, Republican Govs. Kirk Fordice (Miss.) and Fob James (Ala.) have signed executive orders banning gay marriages in their states.

Both sides in the gay-marriage debate-gay rights groups on one hand and pro-family organizations on the other- noted that gay couples could simply travel to Hawaii, get married, and ex-pect their home state to legally recognize that union. Such a decision would have far-reaching implications for insurance coverage, state and federal benefits payments, adoption laws, and school curricula.

To address these matters, DOMA states that no state “shall be required to give effect” to a same-sex marriage license issued in another state. In the Full Faith and Credit Clause, however, Congress is given the right to regulate the “effect” of the clause. By passing DOMA, Congress is invoking its authority to utilize this “effects clause.” DOMA also defines marriage for the purposes of federal law as the legal union between one man and one woman, and a spouse as “a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”

Supporters of the bill point out that the legislation does not prohibit states from recognizing same-sex marriages, it simply does not compel them to do so.

The Catholic bishops weighed in on the issue of same-sex marriages, although they did not comment specifically on DOMA. “The Roman Catholic Church believes that marriage is a faithful, exclusive, and lifelong union between one man and one woman, joined as husband and wife in an intimate partnership of life and love,” said the statement by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. “We oppose attempts to grant legal status of marriage to a relationship between persons of the same sex. No same-sex union can realize the unique and full potential which the marital relationship expresses.”

Debate on the DOMA legislation in the Senate was more measured than the high-decibel discussion in the House two months before. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lot (R-Miss.) called the bill a “preemptive measure to make sure that a handful of judges in a single state cannot impose a radical social agenda on an entire nation.”

The vote margin on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, however, was razor-thin. The bill was defeated 50-49, but the vote would have been tied had Sen. Daniel Pryor (D-Ark.) been able to vote. Pryor, who remained in Little Rock to be with his family while his son underwent cancer surgery, had committed to vote for the bill. Had the vote been a tie, Vice President Al Gore was prepared to cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the measure. The President supports the discrimination bill, according to a statement which stressed his opposition to “discrimination against any group of Americans, including gay and lesbian individuals.”

Many pro-family groups opposed the bill because it would have singled out homosexuals as a protected class, along with minorities and women, for the purposes of anti-discrimination statutes. Sen. Nickels argued that this was tantamount to the federal government sanctioning homosexuality. Opponents of the bill stressed that it would give the federal government new powers over private business and would results in a new wave of crippling litigation.

“Many supporters [of the bill] equated homosexuality with being black or Hispanic,” said Gary Bauer, President of the Family Research Council, in a statement. “But minority groups that enjoy special protections do so because of group histories of political powerlessness, economic deprivation and unchangeable characteristics. Homosexuals do not qualify in any of these categories.”

The bill included exemptions for churches and synagogues, but not extend to other values-based organizations like religious broadcasters, religious publishing houses or bookstores, and daycare and summer camps for religious youth.

Pro-family groups were delighted with the double victory, even predicting that these issues could energize religious conservatives for the fall election campaign.

“This is a huge string of victories for the pro-family movement,” Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition, said. “These are the bricks in the wall that allow you to build the turnout of religious conservatives.”

Michael Barbera is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Barbera ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Poland's Abortion Restrictions Overturned in Surprise Vote DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

Special to the Register

WARSAW, Poland-For Ewa Kowalewska, these are trying times. A quarter of a century has passed since she began participating in pro-life demonstrations alongside her husband as a member of Gdansk University's Catholic Students Association.

When communism collapsed in 1989, the couple started a newspaper, Glos dla Zycia (Voice for Life), from their small apartment near the city's fabled shipyards, as well as a pro-life information sheet, which was produced and circulated at their own expense.

Still in her early 40s, Kowalewska now heads the Polish branch of Human Life International. She's also a leading member of the Federation of Pro-Life Movements, a coalition of 93 organizations around the world that promote natural family planning and support for single mothers.

Late last month that work was dealt a severe blow when Polish parliamentarians, led by former communists, voted to throw out their country's ground-breaking 1993 abortion law. The new measure has left pro-lifers like Kowalewska shocked and angry. “Despite a hostile media, the current law has raised national awareness, and is accepted by society, while the gloomy predictions made when it was passed have all been disproved,” Kowalewska told the Register. “But the deputies weren't interested in facts and arguments, society's attitude or the effects of their bill. They simply followed the political line laid down for them.”

The 460-member Sejm lower house passed the new bill by 208 votes to 61, with 15 abstentions, after 120 opposition deputies attempted to prevent a quorum by walking out, while a junior party in government, the Polish People's Party (PSL), refrained from voting. But the bill gained near-unanimous backing from ex-communists in the ruling Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), giving it the appearance of another blow struck in the party's long-running feud with the Catholic Church.

Whereas Poland's existing 1993 law, passed after a four-year campaign, permits abortions only when a

mother's “life or health” are endangered, as well as in rare cases of rape, incest and “very serious and irreparable fetal damage,” the new bill allows abortions up to 12 weeks of gestation for women facing “burdensome living conditions or a difficult personal situation.” It also scraps an existing clause restricting legal abortions to state hospitals, and expressly allows girls as young as 13 to undergo abortions with parental consent.

Meanwhile, the bill reimposes an existing two-year jail sentence for illegal abortions. But it allows for state subsidies on contraception-at a time when most ordinary medicines are often too expensive for poorer citizens-and requires all students to take controversial “biological” classes in sex education.

Poland's Catholic primate, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, has warned that those who voted for the new measure are guilty of a “grave sin,” while the secretary-general of Poland's Catholic episcopate, Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, has warned the bill's supporters that they face excommunication. “I would not shrink from calling this a crime against humanity,” Bishop Pieronek said after the vote. “When a baptized person commits acts against Christian principles, he excludes himself from the Church community and can only return through penance and [reparation].”

Pro-life activists still hope the bill can be turned back when it reaches the Polish Senate, where the SLD's majority is weaker. And even if it passes, they'll try to have it blocked by the country's Constitutional Tribunal. But such steps are unlikely to succeed. When a similar liberalizing bill was passed in June 1994, it was vetoed by President Lech Walesa.

By contrast, Poland's current head of state, Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former communist, has pledged to sign the latest bill into law. “I'd be happy if this problem didn't exist,” the 41-year-old Kwasniewski said after the vote. “But liberalization of the law will correct a hypocritical situation which has already lasted for several years.”

That claim has been at the hub of the SLD's campaign against the 1993 “Law on Family Planning, Defense of the Fetus and Acceptance of Pregnancy Terminations.” Poland's Health Ministry certifies that the law has cut abortions from 11,640 nationwide in 1992, when they were still available on demand, to 782 in 1994 and 559 in 1995.

However, pro-abortion campaigners say the ministry has turned a blind eye to thousands of abortions still conducted illegally for high fees at most gynecology clinics, as well as abroad, via companies specializing in “abortion tourism.” (Ironically, the Polish law hasn't reversed a decline in annual live births from 678,000 in 1985 to 482,000 in 1994. The growth-rate of the country's population of 38.6 million has also fallen by half since 1990, making it the lowest in half a century.)

Although the new law requires sex education to be available at schools, there's been no agreement on a national course. And although it says contraception will be “freely available,” it remains expensive and is used by only a small percentage of the population. Meanwhile, although police investigated 53 alleged illegal abortions nationwide in 1993, and a further 88 in 1994, most cases were dropped for lack of evidence.

The 1993 law required the authorities to provide “all necessary social, medical, legal and material help” to pregnant women and single mothers. But with 13 percent of Polish citizens living in state-defined “absolute poverty,” and the proportion rising, this help has been minimal. However, pro-life reject suggestions that this justifies changing the law, accusing the new bill's supporters of distorting the figures. Although illegal abortions occur, pro-lifers say, their frequency is entirely unconfirmed.

What is certain, according to police and Health Ministry findings, is that fewer children are being abandoned or killed now than in 1990. There are also fewer miscarriages and deaths in childbirth, while the health of Polish women is improving, as is the sense of security of wives and mothers.

The abortion problem, pro-lifers stress, is a moral rather than a social one. Most abortions occur in relatively well-off Polish households, and current rates can't be related to poverty levels and the lack of public resources. Even if the 1993 law is working imperfectly-and this hasn't been proved-that can't be the reason for changing it, these activists stress.

At her Human Life International office in Gdansk, Ewa Kowalewska is certain the 1993 law has had positive results. Recent surveys suggest public opinion has shifted against abortion, with well more than half of Poland's 38.6 million citizens now declaring themselves in favor of tight restrictions. Meanwhile, the predictions made in 1993 have long since been exposed as false. There's been no increase in abandoned children, and Poland's orphanages aren't overflowing, she said. Instead, there's actually been a fall in admissions to single mothers' homes, and the line of parents hoping to adopt children is longer than ever, she reported.

Kowalewska thinks pressure from the United Nations and other international organizations has played a part in the SLD's pro-choice campaign. Some foreign groups are known to have given money to Poland for contraception and sex education and to have urged legislators to reject “Catholic indoctrination” in their approach to social and moral issues.

Like others, Kowalewska is bitter. A wave of clinic pickets and occupation strikes could well be the only answer if the new bill becomes law in November, she predicted. “As Catholics, we don't show aggression. But this vote represents a provocative attack on Polish Catholicism and Christian values. Though I hope we can solve the problem democratically, I can't rule out a certain aggressiveness on society's part,” Kowalewska said.

“I think God will judge us not by what we've done, but by what we've tried to do. I see this as a struggle for Poland, for the future, for our children. And I'm sure the struggle will continue.”

Jonathan Luxmoore, the Register's eastern Europe correspondent, is based in Warsaw.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jonathan Luxmoore ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Nation's Cardinals Hope Vigil Will Help Effort to Outlaw Partial-Birth Abortion DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

AN UNPRECEDENTED public prayer service was held Sept. 12 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Its goal: To override of President Clinton's veto of the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act.

All eight U.S. cardinals-James Hickey of Washington, D.C. William Keeler of Baltimore, Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, John O'Connor of New York, Bernard Law of Boston, Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia and Adam Maida of Detroit-more than 50 bishops and archbishops and a host of religious leaders presided over a crowd of over 2,500 participants.

Two days later, at a Christian Coalition rally in Washington for Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole, his running mate, Jack Kemp, added his voice to those calling for an override of the veto. “It is impossible for our nation to be a city set on a hill while partial birth abortion is allowed in this country….,” he said. “Let me say that Bob Dole as president would never veto any attempt by Congress … to save those precious lives.”

The Sept. 12 prayer service crowned an ongoing effort that, according to Cardinal Keeler, hinged on prayer, education, and action.

Immediately following the veto, the cardinals and bishops wrote to the President in protest. At that time, they pledged to “do all we can to educate people about partial-birth abortion…. We also urge Catholics and other people … to do all they can to urge Congress to override this shameful veto.” Since April, more than 5 million educational fliers on partial-birth abortion have been distributed; a mail campaign (still underway) is expected to send close to 32 million postcards to Congress. An Aug. 20 memo from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America affirms the effectiveness of this grassroots effort: “The Catholic bishops' postcard campaign has generated overwhelming pressure on Members.… A House office reports getting 9,000-plus anti-choice (sic) postcards, 600 anti-letters and only one (emphasis in the original) letter supporting the member's pro-choice position.”

In a historical first, the U.S. Catholic cardinals and the head of the Catholic bishops' conference jointly wrote to each member of Congress urging them to vote to override the veto. In the letter, dated Sept. 10, the prelates addressed concerns about “the claim that partial birth abortion is sometimes medically necessary to preserve a woman's health or her ability to bear children,” by calling attention to the Physicians' Ad Hoc Coalition for Truth (PHACT), a group of more than 300 doctors appalled by repeated false claims of “medical necessity.” They also noted former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's statement that Clinton “was misled by his medical advisors on what is fact and what is fiction in reference to late-term abortions.”

In a June 7 letter protesting media bias in the 60 Minutes story on partial birth abortion, Rep. Tom Coburn (ROkla.), lawmaker and obstetrician, said: “From my experience as a physician and having delivered more than 3,000 babies in my lifetime, I know that it is never necessary to take the life of a child in the process of being born.”

In order to override the veto, a two-thirds majority is required in both Houses. The House vote is expected to pass, but Doug Johnson of National Right-to-Life cautioned that a battle lies ahead for pro-lifers. “Two pro-life members are in the hospital and may not make the vote” said Johnson; “this is not a done deal.” A victory in the House would force a Senate vote. The ban passed in the Senate last spring with only a 54-44 margin; 13 more senators are needed for the override to pass. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said that “it is going to take a miracle for this to pass the Senate. There is only one way I know of to obtain a miracle, that is why I am out here praying. A culture is defined by what it does. We must show moral outrage about what is going on in our culture. It is not a pretty picture.”

The prayer service was preceded by a press briefing in which Helen Alvare of the Pro-Life Secretariat of the bishops' conference noted the significance of meeting “at the place where life and death decisions are made among law-makers” in order to “reject the cruel destruction of infants seconds away from taking their first breath.” Cardinal Hickey set the tone for the gathering: “You and I stand at the edge of a new century and a new millennium. Either it will be an era of life or an era of death. Either we will protect life or destroy it … we pray that this nation will choose to protect life … and we are here because we believe that prayer changes things. Prayer can awaken a nation caught in the grip of the culture of death.”

Opposition to partial-birth abortion, crosses party lines and even bridges the gender gap. According to a recent Tarrance Poll, 71 percent of all Americans support the bill vetoed by the President, breaking down as 78 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of Democrats, and 68 percent of “ticket-splitters” or independents.

When asked whether the prayer service was staged close to the election deliberately, Cardinal Law said that “we have spoken about this time and again, we will defend life at any time.”

The service began with a greeting by Cardinal Law and a passage from the Pope John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) read by Cardinal Bernardin.

Cardinal O'Connor lead the opening prayer. Bishop Basil Losten of the Ukranian Diocese of Stamford, Conn. lead the gathering in the “Litany for Life” authored by Cardinal O'Connor, while petitions taken from the prayer-books of different denominations were also read.

Pastor George Anderson of Mt. Oak United Methodist Church in Mitchellsville, Md., highlighted the ecumenical nature of the event by saying that, “this is not a Catholic issue, it is a moral issue, a human issue.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Thomas Melady said that “we are here to protest a heinous act, but to protest within the Constitution. We are committed to follow the Constitution and to do so as Catholics in the public square.”

Edward Mulholland is based in Washington, D.C.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Mulholland ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Polish Church Decries Satanist Bible DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

WARSAW-Poland's Catholic Church has condemned the publication of a translation of a U.S.-authored “Satanist's Bible,” intended for use by young members of the country's Satanist movement.

“The Church unequivocally rejects any invocation of the Devil and demons,” said Bishop Zygmunt Pawlowicz, a bishops' conference authority on alternative religions. “We advise everyone created in God's image, who has a body and immortal spirit, who is responsible for their own development and behavior, and who is obliged to live in love for God and man, not to read this book beyond its introduction.”

The “Satanist's Bible,” written by the Georgian-Romanian founder of the U.S. “Satanist church,” Szandor La Vey, was released in early September by the Wroclaw-based Mania publishing house. Among other contents, the book sets out rituals and symbols for use in Satanist weddings and “blessings,” and well as guidelines for recruiting potential human victims. It defines the Devil as “the spirit of progress, inspirer of all great movements contributing to the development of civilization and progress of humanity, and embodiment of all heresies leading to liberation.”

In his statement, Bishop Pawlowicz said Polish Catholics should remember that the Catechism of the Catholic Church rejected all forms of magic and occultism. “Every thinking person, and Christians especially, should feel disgusted by the portrait of humanity presented by La Vey and his concept of life in a world ruled by demons,” the bishop added.

Reports of a Satanist movement in Poland were officially rejected by the last communist government in the late 1980s, but have resur-faced in the last three years after a spate of cemetery and church desecrations. In October 1994, Polish newspapers reported that four teenage girls had been found hanged in a village near Olsztyn after allegedly being “ordered” by Satanists to kill themselves on reaching their 18th birthday.(Jonathan Luxmoore)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: World -------- TITLE: The Pope's Week DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

Sept. 8-13

SUNDAY

At this Sunday's Angelus in Castelgandolfo Pope John Paul II pointed to the role of eastern Christianity in providing answers to today's “pressing need to return to our roots, the intimate desire for silence, for contemplation, for the search for the absolute.”

Contemporary man “sees that science, technology and economic well-being are not enough,” said the Pope. “The goods produced by industrial civilization can make our lives more comfortable, but they do not satisfy the needs of the heart.”

“To this need, Christianity has always offered a response…. Today I would like to underline the contribution of oriental Christianity, whose spirituality merits being ever better known, not only in its exterior traits, but especially in its deeper motivations.”

“The Fathers of the East,” the pontiff continued, “set out from the awareness that genuine spiritual commitment is not reduced to an encounter with the self … but must be a path of obedient listening to the Spirit of God. Actually, they maintained, man is not thoroughly himself if he closes himself off to the Holy Spirit…. Man reaches his fullness only by opening himself to God.”

“The true enemy of this inner ascent is sin,” he concluded. “It is necessary to defeat it in order to make room for the Spirit of God…. This is a difficult path, but the finishing line is a great experience of freedom.”

After today's Angelus, the Pope spoke about “the important peace talks in Northern Ireland that will resume this week.”

“Both communities,” he said, referring to Catholics and Protestants, “wish for the end of the violence. They have demonstrated that peace and reconciliation are possible if everyone has the courage to embrace the path of dialogue, mutual comprehension, respect for each other's legitimate rights, and above all, for human rights.”

MONDAY

The Pope accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, presented by Bishop John McDowell on having reached the age limit.

TUESDAY

John Paul nominated Msgr. Nicholas Di Marzio as auxiliary to the archbishop of Newark, N.J.

WEDNESDAY

This morning during the general audience in St. Peter's Square, John Paul II reflected on his recent apostolic trip to Hungary on Sept. 6-7, a pilgrimage whose theme was “Christ is our hope!” The Pope told the 14,000 pilgrims present that the primary goal of his trip was the celebration of the millennium of the arch-abbey of Pannonhalma, a Benedictine monastery that “was for centuries a relevant beacon of culture and played an important role in the defense of freedom and truth.”

He also highlighted “the important ecumenical value” of the pilgrimage to Pannonhalma. The ancient abbey, he said, “is a witness to the period in which Christians of the East and West were still in full communion. This prompts us, as we prepare for the Jubilee Year of 2000, to remember this full unity in order to overcome completely the divisions that surged afterward.”

In the Eucharistic celebration in Gyor on Sept. 7, “I renewed to the Hungarian Church, in the name of Christ, the Good Shepherd, a fervent exhortation to hope, pointing to the example of those who, in decades past, paid personally, even with their lives, for their resistance to violence and brutality.” The Pope gave the examples of Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty and the Servant of God Vilmos Apor, bishop of Gyor, whose beatification process has reached its conclusive stage.

FRIDAY

This morning in Castelgandolfo, the Holy Father received a group of bishops from Indonesia, in Rome on their ad limina visit.

He spoke of the “complementarity of roles between clergy and laity…. Priests should be careful not to usurp the laity's role in the temporal order, while the lay faithful should avoid a kind of ‘clericalization'which overshadows the specific dignity of the lay state founded on baptism and confirmation.” He went on: “When the laity receive a solid Christian formation, they are equipped to play a constructive role in the life of the nation, with a distinct motivation and force.”

“A serious challenge to your ministry in relation to the family,” John Paul II observed, “is the threat posed by aggressive programs of population control, rooted in a utilitarian approach to the value of life itself.” Methods of orienting demography must “respect the primary and inalienable responsibility of married couples and families' … and should exclude the use of methods ‘which fail to respect the person and fundamental human rights.’”

The Pope urged the bishops to teach the young people of Indonesia “to be the evangelizers of their own generation. Listen attentively to their aspirations, their doubts and struggles, as well as their reasoned criticism. Above all, teach them to pray-with pure hearts, lively faith, firm confidence and persevering vigilance.” (VIS)

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: On Eve of Saints Centenary, Shrine Needs Help DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS-The Great Depression of the 1930s forced an entire nation to re-focus its priorities. Turning away from the high living of the previous decade, Americans adopted a more austere lifestyle, with many eschewing materialism and turning to basic values of faith and family.

The National Shrine of the Little Flower in San Antonio, Texas, witnesses to that time. Its community combined meager resources with ample faith to produce a monument to simplicity and trust in God, in honor of the saint who exemplified those virtues.

Though founded in 1926, at the height of a prosperous decade, upon the shrine's completion in 1931 the Depression was in its “darkest years,” said Discalced Carmelite Father Louis Scagnelli, the shrine's bursar who also serves as provincial procurator for missions of his order. Built with money from “a lot of poor people, a lot of women scrubbing floors,” the church is one of the first to be dedicated to St. Therese of Lisieux (known also as St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the “Little Flower”), who died in 1897 and was canonized in 1925.

The Spanish Colonial-style church-the largest of its kind in San Antonio-initially served to meet the needs of southern Texas's Mexican Catholic population. Beneath the traditional red tile roof, alongside the Italian marble altar and pillars, visitors can behold the shrine's most treasured possession: a life-sized oil painting of the saint by her sister and fellow Carmelite Celine. The work was also featured during the canonization ceremony of St. Therese.

The “shrine was built by people who gave all they had during the Depression, which proves that people basically want God and prayer in their lives,” said Father Scagnelli. The culture at-large, he says, increasingly recognizes of the importance of spirituality, if not necessarily organized religion. He also believes that as the centennial year of her death-which officially begins Oct. 1, the day after the 99th anniversary of her death-approaches, St. Therese is the perfect saint for the modern age, claims the priest. “Her message is one the world badly needs today,” he said. St. Therese's childlike love for and trust in God stands in sharp relief to a world “where people overestimate their exploits,” are preoccupied with themselves and “cannot listen to the promptings of God's grace in prayer.”

Even before entering a French Carmelite convent in her mid-teens, Therese Martin prayed and fasted for the soul of an infamous murderer due to be executed. She saw her prayers answered when the man kissed a crucifix before his death. Her cloistered life and early death from tuberculosis afforded her no opportunity for active evangelization or other feats. Still, the Church recognizes her as co-patroness of missionaries (with St. Francis Xavier) for her diligent and humble acts of sacrifice for the conversion of souls. Rome is also expected to pronounce her a Doctor of the Church.

Father Scagnelli tells the story of how a Carmelite sister came upon St. Therese, nearly dead from the tuberculosis that had been eating away at her lungs for years, walking around vigorously in her sick room. Ordered to return to bed, St. Therese refused, insisting that she was walking so that “a missionary in a foreign land would be able to get up and minister to souls.” Denied her wish to travel to a mission in Vietnam because of her poor health, St. Therese spiritually adopted missionaries around the world.

Reinforcing walls, overall structural repair and a badly leaking roof are top priorities for Father Scagnelli, who hopes to complete repairs in time for the end of the centenary year.

The Shrine of the Little Flower attracts 46,000 visitors annually. Recently a petition was sent to Rome to grant the church status of minor basilica.In addition to welcoming pilgrims with tales of St. Therese's so-called “little way” of love, Father Scagnelli likes to cite Pope John Paul II: “Let them go to the shrines and they will return to the parishes.”

The restoration of the Shrine of the Little Flower is estimated to cost $2.5 million. Donations to help the Discalced Carmelites of the Southwest Province of St. Therese may be sent to: Little Flower Shrine Restoration Fund; PO Box 5280; San Antonio, TX 78201-0280.

Father Scagnelli also publishes a bimonthly 32-page magazine for the Apostolate of the Little Flower. All requests to be receive the magazine or to join the apostolate, may be sent to the address above, with the heading “Apostolate of the Little Flower.”

Todd Aglialoro is based in New York.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Todd Aglialoro ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Excerpts From the Prelates' Letter to Lawmakers on Partial-Birth Abortion: DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

Dear Member of Congress,

Soon you will vote on an issue that is critically important, needlessly misunderstood, and singularly indicative of the extent to which our nation respects the dignity of human life. At issue is H.R. 1833, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which was vetoed by President Clinton.

We want to be clear. We believe that every human life is a gift from God, and that no child should ever die by abortion. We believe not only that innocent human life must not be taken, but also that each human life should be protected, nurtured and sustained. At the same time, the partial-birth procedure causes us particular alarm because it is an especially egregious attack on a child in the very process of being born….

Whether or not you agree with our moral beliefs, we urge you to heed the voice of physicians who have come forward to explain why partial-birth abortions are never medically necessary. Obstetricians, gynecologists and perinatologists are emphatic: it is never necessary to force a child into a breech position, virtually complete delivery, and then kill the child, in order to protect a woman's health or future fertility. Rather, such a procedure poses its own risks to a woman's health and fertility….

As a nation, as a people, we must not continue down the path that takes us one step further to acceptance of infanticide. If killing mostly-born children is justified as a natural extension of abortion, this same lethal logic can be extended tomorrow a few inches more-to justify killing newborn children.

As the assembled Catholic cardinals of the United States and the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, we join in this unprecedented joint letter to urge you to vote to override the presidential veto of H.R. 1833.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Shame on This 'Nation of Immigrants' DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

IMMIGRATION has become a hot political issue this election year. And just as politicians wanted to be “tough on crime” in 1992 and 1994, this year they want to be “tough on immigration” to better their chances of success at the polls.

We seem to have entered into one of those spasms of xenophobia that have occasionally marked our history. There is concern and uncertainty about the economic future of our country and it has become fashionable to scapegoat immigrants for our national problems. Clearly the lament of Pope Paul VI nearly 30 years ago that “human society is sorely ill” is still true today, but blaming immigrants is neither rational nor productive.

Despite the manner in which politicians have debased the issue, immigration is more than mere politics. It concerns real people-those whom Jesus would call the least of his brothers and sisters-whose human dignity is being called into question.

Obviously I do not deny our nation's right-and duty-to police its borders and to develop a sensible and humane immigration policy, but Congress will soon give final form to legislation its proponents argue will “reform” our nation's immigration laws in a most drastic manner. I believe it places the narrow interest above the common good and flatly ignores our nation's responsibility to what John Paul II calls the “virtue” of solidarity. In fact, without significant change, this legislation threatens the very life of some and attacks the human dignity of all who seek to make a better life in the United States. As it currently stands, this legislation is shameful for a “nation of immigrants” where history and convictions have always welcomed the stranger.

There are many problems in the House- and Senate-passed versions of this legislation. Some of them are so egregious in their violation of common moral principles, their lack of human compassion, and their outright threat to life that they deserve special attention.

The House and Senate both have put the lives of unborn children and their mothers at risk by denying Medicaid services-including prenatal care-to legal immigrants. They are certainly the most vulnerable members of the human family, but they're not the only ones whose health is endangered by this legislation. Another provision requires medical providers to turn in those suspected of being undocumented aliens when they seek medical attention. The bill will drive many undocumented to forego medical care as they attempt to avoid inevitable deportation-endangering their own lives and those of the entire community.

Another greatly disturbing part of this bill would present a real threat to the lives of those fleeing persecution in their homelands. It would change the process by which their cases are heard upon arrival in the United States, thus subjecting them to the real possibility of being returned by our country into the very hands of their oppressors. We have a special moral responsibility to protect these people. Allowing a low-level immigration official to determine the asylum status of someone at a port of entry-without appeal-is totally unacceptable.

In another provision, states would be allowed to deny public education to undocumented children. Proponents argue that states should not be saddled with the cost of educating these children, But this cannot really be defined as a financial issue. It is an issue of human dignity-developing in these children the talents and abilities God has given them. It is immoral and illogical to condemn children to a life of illiteracy as punishment for their parents' actions. Furthermore, the provision is short sighted and counterproductive to the goal of saving the state money. I fear that without the structure of the school day, these children will be tempted by delinquency-or worse, become its victim. The money which states think they could save by denying education could instead be needed for additional law enforcement.

All of us-whether we are native born citizens or are those who come from foreign lands-are human beings, and as such we are governed by natural truths which cannot be escaped. We must live in solidarity with one another, actively caring for the needs of those around us-especially the “least among us.” In so doing, we build up the common good. Unfortunately, the immigration legislation pending in Congress neither encourages solidarity nor promotes the common good.

It is a sad time for this great country when aliens are consigned to the exclusionary pronoun “them,” when strangers are allowed to become the scapegoat of many of our frustrations and disappointments, and when the tradition of immigration that made this country what it is comes to be decried as a liability.

Most Rev. Theodore McCarrick is Archbishop of Newark, N.J. He is the immediate past-chairman of the Migration Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops / United States Catholic Conference.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: GUEST EDITORIAL -------- TITLE: On PBS, a Balanced Look at the Religious Right DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT is the bogeyman of American politics, used to frighten mainstream voters about the dangers of a faith-centered commitment to conservative principles. Secular liberals and their media allies enjoy conjuring up images of an emerging puritan theocracy, peopled by intolerant fanatics, teetering on the edge of violence. If these so-called “extremists” were ever to come to power, it's argued that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights would come under serious attack.

With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America thankfully breaks with these stereotypes. A six-part documentary series which airs on PBS beginning Sept. 27 (check local listings for exact times), it mixes TV news footage, interviews with political professionals and evangelicals themselves for a surprisingly even-handed look at the subject

Series producers Calvin Skaggs and David Van Taylor tackle most of the explosive issues head on. They carefully examine the complex relationship between religious activists and vote-hungry politicians in a 45-year period, raising legitimate questions about each side's attempts to exploit the other. The different arguments about the role of Church and state are presented fairly, if less in-depth. There's even an acknowledgment of possible anti-Christian media bias.

The series begins in 1950, when evangelical and mainstream America shared a common set of moral values despite disagreements over a few high-profile issues like creationism. Evangelicals didn't perceive either the government or popular culture as threats to their way of life so, by and large, they stayed out of polities, concentrating on revival meetings and youth rallies to win souls for their cause.

During this period, fundamentalists strongly favored a strict separation of Church and state. Their opposition to John Kennedy's candidacy for president was based on fears that his Catholicism would make him more loyal to the Vatican than the U.S. Constitution. Kennedy successfully addressed the issue with his speech at a conference of pastors in Houston, Texas, in early 1960. But the controversy established evangelicals as a potent force in the secular political arena.

The series records some of the deep-seated anti-Catholic bigotry characteristic of Protestants of that era. A fundamental-ist scholar justified the Houston pastors' fears by commenting: “[Catholics] finally got around to forgiving Galileo last year. Another evangelical remarked: “The Pope controls Kennedy.”

The civil rights struggle, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., pushed black evangelicals into politics as they battled Jim Crow. But their white brethren lagged behind. Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell confesses to the PBS interviewer that he now believes his opposition to the civil rights movement was “incorrect,” a remarkable change of heart for an evangelical leader usually depicted as inflexible and mean-spirited by the secular media.

But it was a Supreme Court decision that finally woke the sleeping giant. In 1962 the high court banned prayer from public schools. This was followed by similar judicial decrees that kicked the Bible and overt displays of religious faith out of public places. Evangelicals believed the country was turning its back on God. Their way of life was now under attack by the federal government, and they decided to fight back through political means.

The 1964 GoIdwater campaign tried to corral some of the fundamentalist anger to its advantage with limited success. Soon thereafter evangelical discontent exploded in a Southern California-based grassroots campaign against the teaching of sex education in public schools. Local school boards were forced to change their curricula as the result of fundamentalist pressure.

“Evangelicals believed the country was turning its back on God. Their way of life was now under attack by the federal government, and they decided to fight back through political means.

The Nixon White House saw the evangelical vote as key to their so-called “Southern strategy” and shamelessly exploited fundamentalist discontent, turning the East Room into a chapel where every Sunday the President and specially targeted evangelical pastors ostentatiously worshipped together. The Rev. Billy Graham became the unofficial White House chaplain. The Watergate scandal shocked Graham and other Protestant leaders, alerting them to the dangers of manipulation by cynical politicians. But the permissive, secularist drift of American culture kept pushing evangelicals and political conservatives back into each other's arms.

Fundamentalist fury erupted again at the grassroots level during the 1974 textbook wars in Kanahwa County, West Virginia. A new series of high school texts, which their editor, James Moffett, describes as “reflecting the progressive spirit of the 60s,” clashed with many of the parents' deeply held religious beliefs. They feared that “their children were being mentally kidnapped.” Local evangelical pastors helped organize opposition to the textbooks, and when the school board refused to back down, demonstrations, violence and national media attention followed.

Outsiders from the political right, such as the Heritage Foundation, the John Birch Society, and soon-to-be-Congressman Bob Dornan, rushed in to help. According to Moffett, the controversy “put the fear of God into the publishers,” and “the books were sanitized.” Angry believers and political professionals had successfully joined together to win a victory in the first of many battles of what would soon be called “the culture wars.”

The election of Jimmy Carter in 1976 seemed to temporarily change the equation. Both a liberal and a self-proclaimed “born-again” Christian, he persuaded many conservative evangelicals, like Pat Robertson, to support him. This alliance was short-lived. The politics of his Democratic administration seemed to accommodate the permissive, secularist forces in our culture rather than confront them. These differences came to a head during the ill-fated White House Conference on Families, which couldn't even agree on a definition of family.

Fearing that gay-rights and pro-abortion advocates were setting the agenda, conservative pro-family groups walked out. They felt their born-again brother, Jimmy Carter, had betrayed them. Conservative Catholics also played an important part in this highly publicized confrontation. Opposition to the changes in America's moral climate had begun to spread beyond evangelical Protestants. The Religious Right was becoming an ecumenical movement.

Conservative activists, Morton Blackwell and Paul Weyrich, set out political out to create a national Christian political organization and persuaded Jerry Falwell to set it up. Following Weyrich's lead, Falwell named it the Moral Majority. Ronald Reagan aggressively courted this and other similar groups, who subsequently registered millions of evangelical voters, helping provide Reagan with his margin of victory over Carter in 1980.

Once in office, Reagan put his economic agenda first, neglecting moral issues like school prayer and abortion which were important to evangelicals. Religious leaders were forced to choose between the role of truth-speaking prophet and that of trusted adviser. Most, like Falwell, opted to be insiders and muted their public expression of disappointment with Reagan's policies. As Falwell's assistant, Ed Dobson, puts it, evangelicals were “thrown bones and dog biscuits.”

Disillusioned with Reagan's compromises, Pat Robertson decided to run for the White House himself in 1988. The scandals which broke around televange-lists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart didn't seem to effect his prospects. Mobilizing his evangelical supporters at the precinct level, he finished ahead of Bush in the Iowa caucus.

Bush's operatives deployed a variety of dirty tricks to defeat Robertson in the South where the born-again vote was strongest. Bush then used much of Robertson's message on moral issues to win 81 percent of the evangelical vote in the final election.

Afraid that Bush, like Reagan, would neglect the interests of evangelicals, Robertson founded the Christian Coalition and hired Ralph Reed, a brilliant political organizer, to run it. They were determined never to have to kowtow to a Republican president again. Reed declared: ‘We will be the most powerful force in American politics.” Using the same people and offices deployed in Robertson's primary campaign, he built up an organization modeled on the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with strength at both the grassroots and Capitol-Hill level.

As anticipated, Bush's relationship with religious activists was a stormy one. To placate them, he gave Robertson and conservative Catholic Pat Buchanan prime time for their speeches at the 1992 GOP convention in Houston. The media played up their remarks about “culture wars” and America's moral decline. The Religious Right was then branded as extremist. Its influence was supposedly pulling Republicans away from the concerns of mainstream Americans. These damaging allegations were never challenged by the Bush campaign.

Nevertheless, the Christian Coalition was key to the GOP upset victory in the 1994 congressional elections as it broadened its scope and took positions on economic issues. During the 1996 primary campaign Reed even hinted at a willingness to compromise on abortion if this would help the Republican coalition.

Some born-again activists, like Operation Rescue's Randall Terry, believe Reed is compromising his Christian principles to gain a seat in the halls of power. ‘I don't want a place at the table,” Terry declares. “The table is corrupt.” To Terry, only “God's law” matters.

Opponents of the Christian Coalition are wrong to assume that infighting among evangelicals over political tactics in any way dilutes their potential power. For, as long as America continues its slide into moral and cultural relativism, the Religious Right will grow from strength to strength.

John Prizer wrote and co-produced the PBS documentary Inside The Republican Revolution.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

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----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

Shea's Way

Mark Shea's column in the Aug. 25 issue (ldquo;The Strengths and Weaknesses of ‘Called to be Catholic’”) was a blockbuster. Starting from my agreement with him that Chicago's Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's “Common Ground” plan was positive but unworkable, I found myself, after reading it a second time, in agreement that “polarity” is the problem.

According to Shea, Cardinal Bernardin implies there should be “an open invitation to view all parties in the conversation (whether the magisterium or those who urge dissent) as equally legitimate ‘voices’ who ‘have something to say’ and are, in their own way, 'speaking in the Spirit’ to the Church.” To reserve judgment on one another and to withhold evaluating ideas in initial discussions is, indeed, an ideal way to start a dialogue process. To restrict what can be discussed beforehand-and even to restrict who can discuss it-would surely increase the polarization that is so obvious nowadays.

Where is our trust that the Spirit will prevail? And anyway, wouldn't the dialogue Cardinal Bernardin is talking about be the very opportunity to find out just how much we must worry-if worry we must? Marriage Encounter teaches us that dialogue makes for a good (re-) start to a relationship but it doesn't mean we that have to give up our positions. In fact we can be-should be-steadfast and open at the same time. Haven't we experienced that listening to others especially allows them to be more honest and open to us? What greater opportunity for us to speak the orthodox truth?

Orthodox Catholics are concerned. Shea and Cardinal Hickey and Boston's Bernard Cardinal Law made this abundantly clear. But maybe we don't need to be the ones to determine the adequacy of others opinions. We don't have to determine, before the discussion, the fullness of their truth. Right now, we are being asked only to talk to them, to find out just how “full” they believe their truth to be. We perhaps shouldn't be as sure about what we think they believe, as we must be about what we believe. I, for one, am truly interested in knowing how they see things.

In Shea's very civil openness, he has actually taken a bold step forward into the dialogue itself, by stating clearly his position and wondering about that of his dialogue partners. Now, God willing, the fullness of the words of our Lord, echoed appropriately in the words of our Pope, may be brought a step closer to realization: “May they all be one.”

Erik Mansager

Phoenix, Arizona

Reformers

Gabriel Meyer's interesting front page presentation on Archbishop John Quinn (ldquo;Prelate Gives Old Debate Another Spin,” Aug. 11) gave me additional information on the prelate. The NCCB on which Archbishop Quinn served as president, was created after Vatican II with the specific purpose, it appears of enhancing the power and autonomy of American bishops at the expense of Vatican influence, and orthodoxy, ultimately.

Archbishop Quinn's criticism of the Curia's power is an indirect attack on papal power. The prelate prefers to have divorce, birth control, women's ordination, appointment of bishops, priestly celibacy, etc. put up for grabs rather than consider them already dogmatically defined. Yet, there is no group that can insure vital infallibility, whether they be priests, bishops or nuns. The power of binding and loosing was given to Peter only.

Priests or prelates who pretend loyalty to the chief shepherd and then privately advise the flock to use their own consciences to decide moral issues-such as on contraception and abortion-are hirelings. A shepherd protects and nourishes his flock, admonishing the sinner, instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful. The hireling exploits the flock for his own purposes, while plotting to subvert the sheepfold.

In 1907, Pope St. Pius X wrote an encyclical on modernists, who seem to pop up in each generation. These enemies of the cross, both clerical and lay, are animated by a false zeal for the Church. Armed with new and deceitful arts, these partisans of error present themselves as reformers. False teaching and the trivialization of the Mass and Eucharist have caused 20 million Catholics to leave the Church in past decades. Reportedly only 35 percent of Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Sex education, never taught in Catholic school curricula until the second half of this century, has done irreparable spiritual harm to many children.

Clifford Roell

Cincinnati, Ohio

Charitable Ways

A few years ago there was a voter initiative (601) in Washington state to limit the growth in state spending. The three bishops in the state were publicly opposed to this initiative and even went so far as to use Church funds in their opposition. Their reason was that it would constrain money for the poor and they made dire predictions. The initiative passed, the dire consequences did not come to pass and the taxpayers were much better off.

Now we have welfare reform. The bishops across the country are now making their dire predictions. Forty years ago, the poor amounted to 15 percent of the population. After spending $5 trillion, the poor today are 16 percent of the population. We lost the “War on Poverty.” It's time for a new battle plan. State, local and federal spending have been growing at twice the inflation rate and, if not curbed soon, the poverty rate will be 30 percent. Currently more than 50 percent of the money appropriated for social programs is used to administer the programs which means that the needy are getting less than 50 percent of the money we taxpayers are spending for their benefit. If a charity operated at that rate it would be closed down. What is the Church leadership's plan for welfare reform and to save the country?

Jim Ashcraft

Cle Elum, Washington

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NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER

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RECENTLY, CARDINAL John O'Connor together with the Episcopal and Lutheran bishops of New York issued a tightly-worded statement on Christian-Jewish dialogue, in which all three are deeply committed and active participants. The accompanying press release noted that the statement was necessitated by the questions all three were receiving in the wake of a resolution by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) announcing a renewed commitment of its own to a mission specific to the Jews. Without commenting on the SBC's action, the practical effects of which are in any case not yet clear, the three bishops wished to clarify the approach of their own traditions to some of the complex theological and pastoral questions involved.

The statement is a brief one. The three Church leaders agree on the theological understanding of the relationship between the Church and the Jewish people as articulated in 1965 by Vatican II's historic declaration, Nostra Aetate (no. 4), and the Episcopal Church's more recent 1988 Guidelines for Christian-Jewish Relations. The former relies on St. Paul to affirm that “in respect to the election, (the Jews) are beloved by God because of the patriarchs. God's gifts and call are irrevocable” (Rom 11, 28-29). Or, as Pope John Paul II has put it so well (although this language is not cited in the joint statement), God's covenant with the Jewish people has “never been revoked by God.” This means that the Church's dialogue with the Jewish people is not “extrinsic” to the essential life of the Church, but “in a certain sense intrinsic” to it. The Church's spiritual bond with God's People, Israel, is for the Pope “more intimate” than with any other religion, and in a very real sense “unique,” since the Jewish faith, like our own, is a response to God's revelation in the Hebrew Scriptures.

The Episcopal Church's Guidelines state that “Christians believe that God's self revelation is given in history. In the Covenant with the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai the sacred law became part of our religious heritage. Christians see that same God embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, to whom the Church must bear witness by word and deed among all peoples. It would be false to its deepest commitment if the Church were to deny this mission. The Christian witness toward Jews, however, has been distorted by coercive proselytism, conscious and unconscious, overt and subtle.”

In the first part of their joint statement the three bishops enter a level of the divine mysteries, if I may be permitted to put it into traditional Catholic categories. Yes, they seem to be saying that the Church's proclamation of the Gospel is universal, “to Jews and Gentiles alike” (cf. Acts 4, 10; 12). Yes, Christians affirm the universal salvific significance of Christ's death and Resurrection, such that no person is saved except through that event. Yet one does not have to be a formal, baptized member of the Church as an institution to participate in it, since God's salvific will is also universal (cf. John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 1991, no. 10). If this is true of all people faithfully following the tenets of their religious traditions, how much more so of the Jews, called into being by God to receive and to witness to divine revelation?

Thus far the reasoning is theological. But I believe that the joint conclusion, eschewing the development by the Churches of any organization designed specifically to convert Jews, is reliably based on prudential, pastoral reasoning by the bishops. The history of Christian conversionary efforts directed toward the Jews has been long and incredibly tragic through the centuries. Refraining from organized proselytizing among Jews is hardly a denial of the universality of the proclamation of the Gospel. On the contrary, it is a commitment flowing out of profound respect for the very nature of that proclamation and the freedom of faith necessary for its fulfillment.

Dr. Eugene Fisher is Associate Director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C.

Readers interested in pursuing these topics would be well to begin with the statement, Dialogue and Proclamation issued jointly in 1991 by the Holy See's Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Congregation for Education, the 1974 Guidelines for Implementing Nostra Aetate no. 4 and the 1985 Notes on the Correct Presentation of Jews and Judaism issued by the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eugene Fisher ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: 'You Will Do My Works'-St. Thér`se of Lisieux (1873-1897) DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

THERESE of the Child Jesus' way of practicing charity reflected her strength of soul. The Church has confirmed this by canonizing her. Those who read her writings or pray to her can testify that the saint's charity is still being exercised. Therese is always at work. She said it herself: “I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth.”

What she does, she does not do of herself and her work, her methods come from the Father. Like the Son, she does what she sees done by the Father. Jesus Himself declared: “Whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do.” This kind of charity in action reveals God's face to us. Love reveals love; true knowledge communicates itself. This charity, which is by nature divine and therefore everlasting, is offered to us. We receive it, as Therese did, through a life of prayer and contemplation-the Theresian “little way.”

It is Jesus who does everything (Letter 142). It's one of the saint's keenest insights into the nature of her relationship with Jesus. She goes on to say: “and I do nothing.” The Father is the source of all good for her, but it is always through Jesus that He acts. Through Jesus, He makes Himself known to her, guiding and calling her. It is in Him that Therese sees the working of God, first as a whole and then in its particular movements. The Son is everywhere. When she writes of God, Jesus' name flows naturally from her pen. This shows Therese's clear perception that it is through Jesus that God is for her; through Jesus she is linked to the Father and through Jesus she is able to approach Him.

When she thinks about Jesus, Therese sees Him at work. He works for Therese, for everyone, for all sinners. Therese goes so far as to attribute to Jesus the very work of the Father. She calls Him the Creator, labeling herself His child. She sees Jesus welcoming the prodigal son. She attributes all gifts to Him. This is not mere sentiment, but a keen understanding of the relationship between Father and Son and their work of love. Until 1894, she hardly even mentioned the Father in her writings. And the word “God,” for Therese, is “generic.” Whenever it is a question of a specific action and relationship, Therese speaks of Jesus.

If you knew the grace you have received! When Therese says this to her sister Celine, she is expressing the orientation of her soul and her habit of docility. Her “investigations of grace,” one of the major preoccupations of her writings, aren't a matter of speculation or curiosity, but a way of studying reality. Therese probes events, encounters and thoughts which occur to her in order to discover in them the precise actions of the Lord. Therese welcomes the truths taught by the Church not as propositions but as revelations of a reality to which they refer but cannot exhaust. She discerns God's action in everything that happens. The penetration of her gaze grows along with her fidelity to this practice-her simple, total response to the light she receives. Therese tells Celine not to ask God for palpable signs of His presence, but simply to follow the light He gives her. Such an attitude denotes faith, but also, as she is ever attentive, tremendous flexibility, the fruit of Therese's absolute gift of self. Therese recognizes the truths of faith in the events of her life. Even when tempted to see only human manipulation behind what's happening to her, Therese would say that this or that “cross” is a grace, a gift from Jesus.

God made me understand. Jesus leads Therese by means of a personal relationship, whose intimacy reaches to the depths of her being. For Therese, understanding hinges, first of all, on a relationship between two persons who love each other. It's a matter of understanding and being understood. In this way, the beloved becomes accessible in his or her very movement and life, beyond appearances and more intimate than any words could express. More than any other person, Jesus is the One Who understands Therese and the One Whom she understands. This understanding doesn't derive from intellectual activity-it is a gift, that flows from a relationship, an openness to the Other.

Suffering attracted me. It had charms which ravished me. In consenting to suffer, Jesus has pushed His love to the limit and thus accomplished the work of the Father. Therese would do no less. For her, suffering resonates in her being in opposition to her vitality, even arresting it. Therese is a vibrant person and life for her is movement. Everything which, one way or another, impedes this movement she experiences as suffering. She tells the Abbe Reverony: “All the distractions of the pilgrimage to Rome could not drive from my soul for an instant the desire to be united with Jesus. Oh, why does He attract me so strongly if I am to languish far from Him?”

Through Jesus, she learns to yield herself up to suffering instead of resisting or fleeing it. In Jesus Who suffered, and Whom she understands because she too suffers, Therese sees Love. Jesus delivered Himself up to death, not by one isolated act but in a journey, a progression through life. Therese enters into this movement. Looking at Jesus, she discovers the charms of suffering. To suffer while loving is the real plenitude, the real triumph of eternal life and the most profound happiness. Suffering appears to her as the setting for the pure exercise of love.

Instead of fearing suffering, the reflex of our vital powers contradicted by death, Therese, rising to the plane of eternal life, loves in the midst of suffering and loves suffering itself. Instead of rejecting suffering in order to preserve her life, she lets it penetrate and purify her love. Therese sees suffering, therefore, as a gift from God, which arouses in her the living, ardent flame of love. She gives thanks for it. She longs for this suffering and abandons herself to it.

For a long time now Jesus and poor little Therese looked at and understood each other. Therese of Lisieux describes her First Communion as the occasion when Jesus united her to Himself in a bond so close she calls it “fusion.” A fundamental characteristic of Therese's relationship with Jesus is established: It is He who loves her and understands her. He is the one to whom she can happily unite herself.

Jesus, the spouse, awaits a spousal love. Therese will follow Him wherever He wills, as He wills, at His speed, in a way more unseen than seen, in lowliness rather than on the heights, in abandonment rather than mystical transports.

I felt myself consumed with a thirst for souls….While contemplating Jesus on the Cross, Therese is struck to see the Crucified's blood falling to earth with no one to gather it up. She senses His unrequited love. She perceives its ardor, power, and abandonment. She suffers the very suffering of Jesus. She understands that it is sinners-those who do not respond to His love, who reject Him-whom Jesus loves. She places herself close to Him in order to receive His overflowing love and to pour it out upon souls, thus obtaining the object of His desire.

She is at once the object of His love and one who loves with His love. The love of Jesus is a love which gives itself by sharing. Its nature is to be received and to give itself. In Jesus, Therese catches a glimpse of the Father, the One Who has sent Him. In Jesus' love, she perceives the very love which He Himself has received. Therese discovers that God delights in giving Himself. She understands that this is the fundamental movement of God. It is this characteristic that she wishes to satisfy. She wants to give joy to God: It seems to me that You would be happy not to hold back the waves of infinite tenderness within You….

Even as God loves, and gives Himself without return, so Therese wants to give herself unconditionally. She enters into the reality of the glowing log, whose sole occupation is to burn in the fire without ever being consumed. This is a divine reality; for creatures, it would be impossible. If Therese expresses herself in this way- even though she was criticized for it-it's because she possesses within her [a kernel of] that same divine generosity.

Through His incarnation, the all-powerful God “made Himself subject to weakness and suffering for love of me,” the saint says. Christ experiences not only weakness but suffering as well. He takes upon Himself all our weaknesses, including those of moribund nature, but especially the sufferings resulting from sin. He assumes all the pain and darkness of sin. In Gethsemane, this darkness nearly overwhelmed Him. Therese sees in the face of Jesus infinite depths of love joined to limitless suffering. She wants to love Him in the same way.

On that night … He armed me with His weapons. After the night of Christmas 1886, Therese finds within herself the weakness and suffering that can carry the weight of the sins of the world and overcome it. These were Jesus' weapons. When the very love of God takes over in her soul-to the point where she can say: “It seems to me that Love penetrates and surrounds me"-the suffering [caused by] sins of the world also penetrates her. She consents to this with Jesus' own love: “Your child, 0 Lord, has understood Your divine light, and she begs pardon for her brothers. She is resigned to eat the bread of sorrow as long as You desire it; she does not wish to rise up from this table filled with bitterness at which poor sinners are eating until the day set by You….”

God makes Therese share in His own movement by entrusting souls to her. With Him, she will love them throughout her earthly life and for all eternity. “You, Jesus, will be everything.” She discovers within herself the very movement of the Son who is turned toward the Father who sent Him, and this movement turns her, united with Jesus, toward men, whom He loves. This movement encounters sin. Like Jesus, Who was crushed by sin, Therese suffers, too, but in suffering she loves. She pours herself out and extends the work of God.

Seized and animated by this divine movement, Therese discovers little by little, with ever more ravishing depth, the life that is in God. Time is telescoped, as it were, and eternity almost captured in the simple created moment: “After all, it's the same to me whether I live or die. I really don't see what I'll have after death that I don't already possess in this life. I shall see God, true; but as far as being in His presence, I am totally there here on earth.”

Whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works.Therese never ceases to gaze upon the One who asks for her heart. She believes in Him to the point of never looking outside of Him for inspiration or a reason for living. The One on whom she gazes with faith and perseverance impresses her to understand the Heart of God. Through her, He gives us access to it. Therese put it simply: “Love alone counts.”

Father Loys de St. Chamas is based in Venasque, France. Translated by Sister Mary Thomas Noble, O.P.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Loys De St. Chamas ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Abortion Numbers High in Post-Communist Eastern Europe DATE: 22/09/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 22, 1996 ----- BODY:

LAST MONTH'S VOTE to liberalize Poland's 1993 law will be a setback to those campaigning to tighten abortion rules elsewhere in the region. Abortion has been a political issue throughout Eastern Europe, since efforts were made to tighten permissive communist-era laws after 1989. In Romania, where abortion was prohibited under communist rule, and where breaking the law could even lead to the death penalty, sudden liberalization in 1990 gave the country by far the highest abortion rate in Europe, with more than 1.2 million performed yearly in a population of 24 million. A total of 110,000 abortions-seven for every live birth-were registered in the capital of Bucharest alone in 1994. Lacking medicines and vitamins, Romania also has Europe's highest incidence of infant mortality.

In the traditionally Catholic countries of Eastern Europe, official figures suggest abortion rates are falling as living conditions improve and contraception becomes more widely available. A permissive 1986 law, allowing women to obtain abortions free of charge during up to three months of pregnancy, is still in force in the Czech Republic, where pro-life groups have failed to mobilize support for tighter restrictions. However, the Health Ministry there says abortion rates have been falling every year, from 107,130 in 1990 to 53,674 in 1994.

In neighboring Slovakia, a Christian Democrat-sponsored 1992 bill would have tightened the existing 1954 law, while still allowing abortions for “social and economic reasons.” There too, this initiative was swamped by other legislative priorities. But the abortion rate has been falling in Slovakia anyway. Current official figures are at least 10 percent below those of the late 1980s.

So far, the only country to have gone as far as Poland in adopting full-scale new regulations is Hungary, whose December 1992 “Defense of Fetal Life Act” says “the planning of a family is the right and responsibility of parents,” but stipulates that abortions “cannot be an instrument of family planning and birth control.” The law allows abortions up to 12 weeks when the mother's health is threatened or when the fetus has a “severe impairment or other deficiency,” as well as in rape cases, or when the mother is “in a severe crisis.”

However, it permits them up to 18 weeks when a woman is “fully or partially incapacitated,” up to 24 weeks when genetic defects are diagnosed, and at any time when the mother's life is endangered or the baby will “fail to attain proper life.” All hospitals with gynecology departments must have an abortion team.

As in Poland, Hungarian law obliges schools to teach “esteem for human life, a salutary way of life, responsible relationships with partners, and family values worthy of mankind.” It also requires the government to publicize contraception and “fetal protection,” and provides for a pregnancy grant from the fourth month equal to the allowance for a living child. Hungary's Health Ministry reported a steady decrease in abortions in the 1970s and 1980s, after a peak of more than 200,000 recorded in 1969 in a population of 10 million. The rate rose again in 1990 to 90,394, but has been falling since, reaching 74,491 in 1994.

But there are doubts about the 1992 law's practical effect. Out of 7,000 women who visit Hungary's Family Welfare Service every month for the statutory pre-abortion “advice,” only a few hundred decide to keep their babies. With live births averaging 125,000 yearly, Hungary's aging population is expected to fall by at least 10 percent in the next 20 years.

Some health experts say figures like this are mild compared to those of Russia, where an estimated 300 million abortions have been performed since the procedure was legalized in the 1920s. Over 3.5 million abortions are registered annually, according to Russia's Health Ministry. However, independent estimates put the figure closer to seven million, with 170,000 women dying yearly from side-effects of abortion. The average Russian female citizen is reported by State statisticians to have 4-5 abortions in her lifetime, with 98 performed annually for every 1,000 women aged 15-49. Only 15 percent of Russian women have not had abortions.

In Moscow, 137,000 abortions and five female deaths were officially recorded in 1994, compared to 64,000 live births. Acity council directive declared abortions free in state hospitals and clinics from October 1995 onward. However, in a November 1995 survey, reported by Russia's Blagofest-Info ecumenical news agency, 60 percent of Muscovites said they believed abortions should be even “easier to obtain.”

-Jonathan Luxmoore

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