News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. October 31, 2001 [2001-313]
Special prayers, names of terrorist attack victims available on web site
(ENS) Bishop George Packard, suffragan bishop for the Armed Services, Health Care and Prison Ministries, notes that there is a list of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks on his office's web site (www.episcopalchurch.org/chaplain), as well as special Prayers of the People for All Saints' Day related to the attacks, written by Chaplain Charles T. A. Flood.
The prayers can also be used for the Sunday after and for November 11, which has been set aside as a memorial day for the victims. A link to CNN.com provides the latest list of victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and the crash in Pennsylvania.
Packard said that the Ground Zero chaplains, 150 of them, have received the special prayers, which he called "a powerful statement." He emphasized that the chaplains "have been there all along" since the attacks, with special access largely because of the presence and ministry of St. Paul's Chapel.
Catholics and Protestants to start talks on doctrinal agreement
(ENI) The Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) are to start discussions in November with other Protestant denominations about the doctrine of justification--one of the most contentious issues of the 16th century Reformation.
The Vatican's top ecumenical official, Cardinal Walter Kasper, suggested that the talks with the Reformed and Methodist churches could broaden a consensus already reached in 1999 between the Vatican and the LWF.
Two years ago in a "joint declaration on the doctrine of justification," the Vatican and the LWF agreed there was "a consensus in basic truths" about the doctrine and that doctrinal condemnations from the Reformation era no longer applied to the teaching of the two communions. It is believed to be the first time that the Vatican ever declared that Roman Catholic doctrinal condemnations no longer applied to a Protestant communion.
November's talks will take place in Columbus, Ohio, with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the World Methodist Council. The Anglican Communion will be present as an observer.
Kasper was speaking before an ecumenical service on October 28 at Brunswick Cathedral, in northern Germany, to mark the anniversary of the signing of the joint declaration. He had been invited to Brunswick by Christian Krause, who is the Lutheran bishop of Brunswick and president of the LWF.
Krause and Kasper took part in the service in Brunswick's Lutheran cathedral, filled with Lutherans and Catholics coming not only from the Brunswick area but from all over Germany. The venue itself is highly symbolic since the cathedral is a former Roman Catholic cathedral that became Lutheran during the Reformation. The last Roman Catholic service was held here about 500 years ago.
Speaking at a press conference before the service, Krause and Kasper reaffirmed their intention to work together and continue their dialogue.
Kasper insisted that the commitment of the Roman Catholic Church to ecumenism was "irrevocable and irreversible." A controversial Vatican document published last year angered many Protestants by restating firmly the Catholic belief that Protestant denominations are not churches in the proper sense of the word. Observers have also suggested that the Vatican has been giving greater priority to relationships with Orthodox churches. However, Kasper rejected such suggestions and denied that dialogue with Orthodox churches had a higher priority for the Vatican than its relationships with Protestants.
Krause told the press conference that the signing of the joint declaration was only the beginning. For German Christians, one of the most important issues was the question of the ecumenical sharing of the Eucharist. There are equal numbers of Catholics and Protestants in Germany--roughly 27 million of each--and many mixed marriages, Krause pointed out, where couples wanted to be able to share the Eucharist together. "As pastors we have to see to it that they can do so soon," Krause said.
Kasper, who is German and the former Roman Catholic bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, agreed that this was an urgent problem. But the Vatican, he said, first wanted to discuss the issues of ministry, the nature of the church and the "common faith." Pointing to the practice of Scandinavian churches, he suggested blessing the members of other churches when they attend the Eucharist.
Romero's supporters push Vatican for sainthood
(ENI) Church leaders, academics and others headed to the small Italian town October 26-27 to honor Archbishop Oscar Romero from El Salvador and plot strategy for how to convince Vatican officials to finally declare the assassinated church leader an official martyr.
Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, the nation's capital, was gunned down on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in a hospital chapel in San Salvador. A United Nations truth commission later found that army officers had ordered the prelate's murder.
Romero was a popular spiritual leader for the poor majority of his war-torn country, and calls to recognize him as a saint began shortly after his death. Often referred to as "Saint Romero of the Americas," the slain archbishop is today a spiritual and political hero for many throughout Latin America.
The formal process that could lead to Romero's canonization by the church began in 1993 when the archdiocese of San Salvador created an Ecclesiastical Tribunal to study Romero's homilies, writings and personal letters, as well as receive testimonies regarding Romero's short four years as archbishop. The archdiocese sent its paperwork on the investigation to the Vatican in 1997, where it was turned over to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
At the time, many hoped that instead of lingering in musty Vatican archives for decades, as is the case for most potential saints, Romero's case would qualify for swift beatification, in part because of the Vatican's perceived need to appeal to Latin Americans, who today are the biggest single geographical constituency within the church.
Yet the controversial archbishop, whose unremitting condemnation of injustice troubled Vatican officials while he was alive, has proved no easier to manage now dead.
One obstacle on the path to sainthood is Pope John Paul II's reputed obsession with Latin American theologies that he views as aberrant. "Many in the Vatican are convinced that beatifying Romero would mean sanctifying liberation theology," said Rafael Urrutia, a priest who served as chancellor of the San Salvador archdiocese under Romero.
The current archbishop of San Salvador, Fernando Saenz Lacalle, who is a member of the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei, has sought to make Romero more palatable to the Vatican, even though his personal commitment to Romero's canonization is questioned by many. The archbishop has stressed Romero's personal piety and downplayed his strident criticisms of the Salvadoran military and the United States government that backed it.
Another factor slowing the movement of Romero's case through the halls of the Vatican is concern that he was killed not for his faith, but for his politics. If the Congregation for the Causes of Saints decides that the archbishop was killed out of hatred for the faith (in odium fidei), then the beatification process will not require a post-mortem miracle, as would be the case if the Congregation were to decide that Romero's killing was essentially political.
Should the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approve the request, Pope John Paul II--or his successor--will have the final say.
Massachusetts bishops join pro-Palestinian rally
(Boston Globe) The three bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts yesterday joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in front of the Israeli consulate in Boston October 30. The bishops, in purple cassocks and pectoral crosses, held candles and signs with such slogans as ''Christian-Muslim solidarity in the face of Israeli invasion'' and ''Destruction in Bethlehem.''
Bishops M. Thomas Shaw, Barbara C. Harris, and Roy F. Cederholm Jr. are apparently the first local denominational leaders to take their concern from the pulpit to the picket line. The bishops, who lead the largest Episcopal diocese in the country, decided over the weekend that escalating violence in the Mideast in recent days required them to be more public about their concerns.
''Today and every day we stand with our Palestinian brothers and sisters who are suffering violence in West Bank towns occupied by Israeli forces,'' the bishops said in a statement. ''There can be no peace without justice, and the Palestinian people are victims of an injustice that cannot be allowed to continue.''
The bishops were joined by about 60 other protesters, including Jews, Muslims, and other Christians. Some waved Palestinian flags, while others held posters showing a Palestinian boy dwarfed by an Israeli tank. The group called for Israel to withdraw from West Bank towns and begin peace negotiations, and called for international protection for Palestinians.
''I wish these same people would have shown up when the Palestinians have killed innocent Jewish Israeli people, like the day before yesterday,'' said the Israeli consul general to New England, Itzhak Levanon. ''Palestinian terrorists are killing innocent Israeli civilians, and here are people supporting them.'' Levanon said Israel had no alternative but to move into Palestinian territory because the Palestinian Authority has failed to rein in terrorists.
Asked about the impact of the bishops' appearance on Christian-Jewish relations, Shaw said, ''We are hopeful that this will encourage an even more honest dialogue between Christians and Jews.'' He said the bishops ''feel strongly about justice for Palestinians and Jews alike.''
Anglican bishops of Brazil and Portugal meet for first time
(ENS) For the first time, the Anglican bishops of Portugal and Brazil, joined by a delegate from a diocese forming in Angola, met in Porto Alegre, Brazil, to discuss their common concerns and mission. A representative from Mozambique was not able to attend. The meeting, described in a communique as "a historical landmark in the life of our churches, with expected repercussions for the mission of each one of them in their respective geographic areas," could lead to the formation of an International Lusophone Alliance.
Participants in the meeting expressed concern for events in the international arena, especially the "violent response from the United States being materialized in Afghanistan" as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11. "This situation rekindled our solidarity with the Angolan people, victims of the deplorable ambivalence of a war which is lasting for nearly three decades. We feel very much challenged to commit ourselves even more with the cause of justice among peoples. It has become increasingly clear," the statement said, "that the nations of the world need to find ways of living together in harmony, in cooperation for the common good, engaging in global policies which serve all the peoples of God and not just a few."
The statement from the meeting pointed out that participants represent "a linguistic community which embraces around 200 people, making Portuguese the seventh most commonly spoken language in the world." The statement underscored the "horizontal and fraternal relations between sister churches," a relationship that "should stimulate all the churches of the Anglican Communion to carry on the effort of breaking with the residue from a colonialist past, which is still present in the inter-ecclesial relations in our Communion." Participants expressed a hope that implementation of a resolution from the 1998 Lambeth Conference might lead to formation of an Iberian-Afro-Latin American consultative forum.
Diocese of Sydney in Australia opens possibility of laity presiding at Eucharist
(ENS) Resolutions passed at a meeting of the Synod of the Diocese of Sydney move closer to the possibility that laity and deacons could preside at the Eucharist. The resolutions had the support of the new archbishop, Peter Jensen. A committee will be appointed to "investigate the options" that would clear the legal path. Another resolution called for efforts to "promote a bill for a canon to permit a deacon to administer Holy Communion" when the synod meets again in 2004.
"The theology of lay administration is linked to lay ministry and especially lay preaching, and flows naturally and properly from the theology of the Bible and our reformed heritage as it applies to the contemporary world," said Jensen. "Lay administration, should it be legal, would be a contribution to the common task of bringing the gospel to Australia."
Jensen said that he had discussed the issue with other Anglican leaders, including Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey, who has publicly stated his strong opposition, warning that such a move could be schismatic.