Category Archives: Religious News

Catholic Lay Organizations plan for Council


The major Catholic Church reform organisations in the United States are in the process of organising a large scale, joint meeting in 2011 tentatively titled an “American Catholic Council”. Catholica is aware discussions have been underway between leaders of the largest reform organisations such as Call to Action (CtA), Voice of the Faithful (VoTF), and the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church (ARCC) and leaders of a number of other major lay organisations have also been involved in the discussions and are at various stages of consulting their wider memberships. Combined these organisations have tens of thousands of members. The scale of this initiative is of particular interest as it could well be the largest lay-generated reform initiative that has ever occurred anywhere in the world. The development might suggest that the continued attrition in Church membership is now cutting into sectors of the population who are no longer prepare to leave the Church without voicing their criticisms of where the ecclesial leaders have been taking Catholicism.

The idea has been promoted for a number of years by the President of ARCC, Professor Leonard Swidler, but recent developments including Pope Benedict’s visit to America earlier this year and the clearly decisive divisions that have emerged between the outlooks of the lay faithful in America and their bishops in the recent Presidential election appear to have added impetus to the initiative.

In a newsletter sent to ARCC members on Friday Professor Swidler writes:

The Reform Movement of the Catholic Church in America — in the spirit of Vatican II — is on the cusp of a “Great Leap Forward”, to borrow a phrase from Mao. ARCC has for several years been promoting the idea of all the major Catholic Reform groups in the U.S. joining together in an American Catholic Council to move our common agenda forward. That Great Leap Forward is now being launched! The largest of the American Catholic Reform organizations– Call to Action and Voice of the Faithful–are on board, along with, of course, ARCC, and others.

Professor Swidler goes on to outline four major points that have been agreed upon in the discussions that have taken place at the leadership levels of the reform organisations. They are:

The basic Resources of the American Catholic Council are the documents of Vatican II and the processes and documents of the 1976 Call To Action led by the National Council of Bishops and involving massive numbers of laity, religious, and priests. The major focus will be on church governance. None of the diverse concerns of the various U.S. Catholic reform organizations will be attainable unless there are structural means to work toward their implementation. That means, minimally, striving for Catholic Church decision-making structures that are built on the democratic principles of accountability, transparency, representativeness, and due process of law.

There will be the widest possible solicitation of input from all levels of Catholics around the country. Techniques that have already been discussed include national public hearings (as was done in 1976), approaches to parish organizations as well as organizations of laity, religious, and clergy, internet and other electronic means. Concrete suggestions in this area are especially solicited from you!

The initial aim will be the coming together of thousands of chosen delegates and interested Catholics from around the country in an American Catholic Council in the year 2011.

This interesting news item was found in an Australian Catholic website, www.catholica.com.au

Obama’s Notre Dame visit continues to rankle


THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The University of Notre Dame said Thursday that it will not award its Laetare Medal for the first time in 120 years, after having the first recipient reject the award over the university’s decision to honor President Obama and its subsequent defenses of its actions.

Instead, the university will have Judge John T. Noonan Jr., a previous Laetare recipient and noted legal scholar, “deliver an address in the spirit of the award” at the May 17 commencement ceremony, said the Rev. John Jenkins, university president.

Because Judge Noonan is a previous winner of the Laetare Medal, “we have decided, upon reflection, to not award the medal this year,” Father Jenkins said in a statement.

Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon, a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, said Monday that she was rejecting the medal because of Mr. Obama’s pro-choice actions as president and because the university cited her presence as justifying the Obama invitation. Father Jenkins said then that “it is our intention to award the Laetare Medal to another deserving recipient.”

Judge Noonan, a Notre Dame law professor from 1961 to 1966, received the Laetare Medal in 1984. He also has been a visiting law professor at Harvard, Stanford and the Angelicum in Rome. He was appointed by President Reagan to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1985 and has served there since.

The Laetare Medal, approved by the university’s founder, the Rev. Edward Sorin, was first awarded in 1883 and had been given every year since that time. It is the university’s most prestigious honor, given to Catholics “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity.”

Its past recipients include President Kennedy and sainthood candidate Dorothy Day.

Defecting to Faith



“Most people are religious because they’re raised to be. They’re indoctrinated by their parents.”

So goes the rationale of my nonreligious friends.

Maybe, but a study entitled “Faith in Flux” issued this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life questioned nearly 3,000 people and found that most children raised unaffiliated with a religion later chose to join one. Indoctrination be damned. By contrast, only 4 percent of those raised Catholic and 7 percent of those raised Protestant later became unaffiliated.

(It should be noted that about a quarter of the unaffiliated identified as atheist or agnostic, and the rest said that they had no particular religion.)

So what was the reason for this flight of the unchurched to churches?

Did God appear in a bush? Did the grass look greener on the other side of the cross? Or was it a response to the social pressure of being nonreligious in a very Christian country?

None of those reasons topped the list. Most said that they first joined a religion because their spiritual needs were not being met. And the most-cited reason for settling on their current religion was that they simply enjoyed the services and style of worship.

For these newly converted, the nonreligious shtick didn’t stick. There was still a void, and communities of the faithful helped fill it.

While science, logic and reason are on the side of the nonreligious, the cold, hard facts are just so cold and hard. Yes, the evidence for evolution is irrefutable. Yes, there is a plethora of Biblical contradictions. Yes, there is mounting evidence from neuroscientists that suggests that God may be a product of the mind. Yes, yes, yes. But when is the choir going to sing? And when is the picnic? And is my child going to get a part in the holiday play?

As the nonreligious movement picks up steam, it needs do a better job of appealing to the ethereal part of our human exceptionalism — that wondrous, precious part where logic and reason hold little purchase, where love and compassion reign. It’s the part that fears loneliness, craves companionship and needs affirmation and fellowship.

We are more than cells, synapses and sex drives. We are amazing, mysterious creatures forever in search of something greater than ourselves.

Dale McGowan, the co-author and editor of the book “Parenting Beyond Belief” told me that he believes that most of these people “are not looking for a dogma or a doctrine, but for transcendence from the everyday.”

Churches, mosques and synagogues nurture and celebrate this. Being regularly surrounded by a community that shares your convictions and reinforces them through literature, art and ritual is incredibly powerful, and yes, spiritual.

The nonreligious could learn a few things from religion.

NY Times Op-ed columnist, Charles M Blow

CNN Torture Survey

CNN reports that more than 6 in 10 evangelicals believe torture is justified while only 3 in 10 mainline Christians hold similar views.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. The survey asked: “Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?”

Roughly half of all respondents — 49 percent — said it is often or sometimes justified. A quarter said it never is.

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations — such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians — categorized as “mainline” Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.

Blogger Steven Waldman, editor in chief of Beliefnet suggests, “The real question: why hasn’t Christianity led to the opposite result, a revulsion against torture?”

Blogger Andrew Sullivan in his blog post called “Jesus Wept” makes the astute comment, “And people wonder why atheism is gaining in this country.”

With a Psalm (and a Song) in His Heart: Biblical Tales



The appeal of Scripture springs eternal, something Broadway and Hollywood have exploited for decades. Now there’s David M. Sanborn — an actor from a family of past and present Christian relief workers — who has brought his one-man musical, “King David,” to the Promise Theater, infusing the Books of Samuel with the aesthetics of both.

The idea of this family-friendly show — the book and songs are a collaboration between the good-looking, hard-working Mr. Sanborn and his mother, Ellen, who also directed it — involves Mr. Sanborn’s impersonating Hollywood actors (like Jimmy Stewart, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sean Connery) as he inhabits the figures in the life of David (including Saul, Goliath, the prophet Nathan and others).

Many of the renditions are spot-on, while others are less so. Some of the caricaturesque voices are the actor’s own creations. Helping to suggest antiquity are Elizabeth Richards’s simple but effective set and costumes.

But this is a musical, so there are songs, here set to prerecorded music and overflowing with lush arrangements, to say nothing of Mr. Sanborn’s impassioned vocals onstage. The actor, who has been touring with this production for 12 years, draws from a seemingly limitless well of feeling and makes the story wet, really wet, with emotion, especially in the musical numbers. You’ve never heard David suffer like this over the loss of his child by Bathsheba nor his anguished pleas for divine forgiveness. Except maybe in Las Vegas.

Inspirational pop can tend toward overwrought uplift, and so do the songs in “King David.” But families with a taste for this sort of thing will love it. Those seeking additional transcendence after the performance can look forward to “Judah Ben-Hur,” also starring Mr. Sanborn, which he has said he hopes to bring to Broadway in 2010.

“King David” continues through June 27 at the Promise Theater, 316 East 91st Street, Manhattan; (212) 352-3101, theatermania.com.

By Andy Webster in the New York Times

Poll: Support for Marriage Equality at All-time High


A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows support for marriage equality among Americans at an all-time high. According to the poll, 49 percent support same-sex marriage, while 46 percent oppose it. This is the first time supporters of same-sex marriage have outnumbered opponents in an ABC/Post poll.

Some key findings:

The poll found pronounced differences by age, with 66 percent of adults under 30 supporting same-sex marriage, 48 percent of adults between ages 30 to 64 supporting it, and only 28 percent of senior citizens in favor.

Support from conservatives, who remain least likely to favor same-sex marriage, increased threefold over five years, from 10 percent in 2004 to 30 percent now.

Polarization remains strong according to party affiliation, with conservative Republicans opposing same-sex marriage most strongly, and liberal Democrats favoring it most strongly.

Among the middle, the poll shows that 54 percent of moderates and 52 percent of independents favor same-sex marriage. However, the largest single shift is evident in moderate and conservative Democrats, where 57 percent support same-sex marriage now compared to 30 percent in 2006.

Additionally, 53 percent of respondents said that same-sex marriages performed legally in another state should be recognized in their states.

The poll was conducted by telephone from April 21-24 among a random sample of 1,072 adults. It surveyed attitudes on a range of questions including same-sex marriage, illegal immigration and decriminalization of marijuana. Results have a 3-point margin of error.

By Julie Bolcer on Advocate.com

Azhar Usman, Muslim comedian

 

From World Faith News
Azhar Usman is a Chicago-born Muslim comedian, of Indian origin. A former lecturer, community activist, and lawyer, he has been performing stand-up Muslim comedy since 2001 and is often referred to as the “Ayatollah of Comedy” and “Bin Laughin.” He says that his sole goal, through comedy, is to promote better understanding of Islam and Muslims.

He is the co-founder of Allah Made Me Funny – The Official Muslim Comedy Tour, and he has performed in over a dozen countries on five continents.

Azhar and the Tour have been featured in over 100 major world media, including the following: ABC Nightline, CBS Sunday Morning, FOX News, Dayside Comedy Central, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, MSNBC Countdown with Keith Olbermann, CNBC Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, CBC The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, Al-Jazeera International Riz Khan Show, Al-Jazeera International Frost Over the World with Sir David Frost, NPR All Things Considered, and numerous print publications. He has shared the stage with many of his favorite comedians including Dave Chappelle, Jim Gaffigan, Russell Peters, Todd Barry, and the late Mitch Hedberg.

Azhar is presently producing a concert/documentary project entitled “Allah Made Me Funny: Live in Concert” which is a Kings-of-Comedy-style concert film. Additionally, he is star and creator of “Tinku’s World,” a semi-scripted alternative web comedy show, and he is also developing a humor book project.

His parents are originally from India. He graduated from Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois in 1993. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Minnesota Law School.

United Methodists respond to hate group report


An African-American U.S. president is bringing out the best and the worst in the nation, say United Methodists who advocate against racism.

A recent report published by the Southern Poverty Law Center states there are more suspected hate groups in the United States now than ever in recorded history. The annual survey revealed 926 active hate groups in 2008, a 4 percent increase from the year before and a 54 percent increase since 2000, when there were 602 such groups.

“Sadly, it does not surprise me,” said the Rev. Andy Oren, a Milwaukee pastor, commenting on the report. “While the election of President Obama has been hailed by many … it has fueled the flames of racism within many as well.”

The Rev. Taka Ishii, a Japanese-American pastor of Golden Hill United Methodist Church in Bridgeport, Conn., sees a reactionary fear of the unknown at work among many who join hate groups. “We see this African-American president in the media every day, and although a majority of us celebrate his election, some are afraid of his presidential power and believe something awful might happen to them. It is fear of the unknown because he is not white.”

In addition to the first African-American president, two other key factors seen as contributing to a growing number of hate groups are the failing U.S. economy and vocal opposition to the growing presence of undocumented immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic/Latino. The immigration controversy has been an ongoing source of hate-group recruitment, but the election outcome and the worsening economy, including fear over loss of jobs and homes, bolstered those numbers in 2008, some analysts said.

Uncertain times

“This is a time of extreme anxiety for many,” said the Rev. Jerry DeVine, a West Michigan Annual Conference superintendent. “In such times people often look for quick blame and easy answers rather than working at creating a community of new alternatives. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. long ago contended that economics is a core part of systemic racism, and thus we can see a linkage to racist groups during unsettling and uncertain economic times.”

Dee Weaver, of Dallas, Texas, sees a backlash against President Obama, immigrants and the economy in the rise of hate groups.

“There is a racial component to the immigration issue. I believe it; I have lived it,” said Weaver, who is Mexican American and a member of the North Texas Conference. She feels that “misinformation and lack of truth” about immigrants and the economy contribute to widespread ignorance and hatred. She also fears for, and prays for, Obama’s safety from racists who would seek to harm him.

“Our society is getting better at covering racism. Today we call it everything except racism,” said the Rev. Bescye P. Burnett, a local pastor who chairs the Minnesota Conference Commission on Religion and Race. “Since we are not true to ourselves as a nation in regards to being inclusive, we keep the same hatreds in our hearts. Since we fail to get serious about who is our neighbor, we tend to treat others as strangers.”

Signs of hope

The Rev. Sharon White, director of advocacy ministries in the Indiana Conference, suggests that even if hate groups are growing, the number of groups working for racial equality and reconciliation might be growing as well—another research project worth undertaking perhaps.

“I do think things are getting better simply because of the greater number of young people who do not harbor the same attitudes as some of their parents and many of their grandparents and great grandparents,” said Curtis DeVance, who chairs the Iowa Conference Commission on Religion and Race. Questioning if overall membership in hate groups has actually increased, he reports that the Ku Klux Klan and other groups “are alive and well here in Iowa, but they are having little or no impact so far.

“I think the real issue is how long will the silent majority remain silent?” asked DeVance. “What can we do to provoke more of a response by that silent majority?”

The Rev. Greg Johnson, of York, Pa., believes things are getting both better and worse.

“There are inroads among many of us who are building bridges and being in true committed relationships across national, ethnic, cultural, social, economic and, most importantly, spiritual barriers,” he said. “But there are also those who are separating themselves from fellow human beings, and seeking to do harm that may lead to death as the final separation.”

Wisdom of love

The Rev. Eliezer Valentín-Castañón, executive for advocacy with the commission, laments the rhetoric of hate that “has created an environment of hostility and distrust perpetrated against all immigrants, not just the undocumented.

“In fact, many Latinos who have been victims of hate crimes in the U.S. have been either citizens or documented residents,” he reports. “Hate cannot distinguish between documented and undocumented, between U.S. citizens and immigrants.”

Migrant workers harvest tomatoes at a farm in Immokalee, Fla. A UMNS file photo by Scott Robertson.

Valentín-Castañón said the death of racism, asserted by some after Obama’s landslide election, has been greatly exaggerated. “This is like saying that after the Emancipation Proclamation black people were instantly made free. Or that after the passage of the 14th Amendment black Americans were treated with equality and dignity. Or that after the 1965 Civil Rights Act black, Latino, Asian and Native Americans, suddenly gained acceptance and equality.

“It is precisely when we see progress in America, especially in these movements toward equality and justice,” he explained, “that the forces of evil rise up and draw misguided new converts to their perverse cause. They traffic in fear, false pride, confusion, misdirected anger and destructive hatred. As people of faith we must be vigilant in opposing and speaking up against these activities. We must educate our people to resist the ignorance of hate and choose instead the wisdom of love.”

By John Coleman who is communications director for the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race. GCORR has launched a new blog site, where this article is featured, along with additional comments about this concern.

Holy See: Vatican and Arab League to work together to promote peace, justice in world


By FRANCES D’EMILIO, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – The Holy See and the Arab League have agreed to work together to promote peace and justice in the world, the Vatican said Friday, after a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the league’s secretary-general.

In a separate meeting, Amr Moussa and the Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, signed a memorandum of understanding between both sides, a Vatican statement said.

“During the cordial meetings, emphasis was placed on the importance of the agreement, which is intended to foster increased cooperation between the parties with a view to promoting peace and justice in the world. Particular importance was given to the role of intercultural and interreligious dialogue,” the Vatican statement said.

The meetings allowed for an “exchange of view on the international situation, especially in the Middle East, and on the need to find a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to the other conflicts which afflict the region,” the Holy See said.

The pope travels to the Middle East next month on a Holy Land pilgrimage. Benedict will visit Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Benedict’s envoy to Egypt, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, told Vatican Radio that besides appreciating the pope’s interest for peace and development in the region, the Arab League “takes into account also the situation of Christians in Arab countries.”

The Vatican has long shown concern for the Christian minorities in the Middle East.

As part of its interest in looking after its flock in the Holy Land, the Vatican and Israel have held periodic talks over several years to resolve long-standing differences over tax and property matters.

The Holy See and Israel said in a joint communique that a session between both sides in Jerusalem on Thursday yielded “meaningful progress” toward resolving these differences.

The latest meeting of the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission was characterized by “great cordiality” and a spirit of cooperation, the statement said.

Without describing the progress made, it said both sides want to reach agreement as soon as possible and will meet again next week at Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic ties in the early 1990s, but they still must resolve the status of expropriated church property and tax exemptions.

On wider issues, tensions between both sides have sometimes marked their relations. Earlier this year, Benedict’s lifting of the excommunication of a bishop who had denied the Holocaust caused anger among Jews as well as Catholics and others worldwide. Last month, the pope made an unusual public acknowledgment of Vatican mistakes of turmoil caused by his reaching out to the renegade, ultraconservative prelate.

The Vatican has said that Benedict did not know that the British-born bishop was a Holocaust denier.

Marriage — Not Just a “Gay Rights” Issue


Ann Dilenschneider in the Huffington Post

For years I have puzzled over the curious mix of civil and religious traditions in the United States that currently require a clergyperson to serve as both an agent of the state and a representative of her/his religious tradition when presiding at a couple’s marriage.

As current “religious” marriage ceremonies are conceived, it is almost impossible to untangle the church and state. However, a careful, historical reading of most “religious” ceremonies reveals which elements are required in order to guarantee that both members of a couple are coming of their own free will to enter into the legal contract of marriage, and which elements are determined by the particular faith community.

Separating the elements of civil and religious marriage, as the French have done since 1792, might provide a way to solve the heated debate over marriage that currently exists in many states. It would also ensure the separation of church and state in this matter.

In this scenario, couples would first be married in a civil marriage ceremony. This step would guarantee a couple’s legal rights, whether the couple was an opposite-sex couple or a same-sex couple. Following the civil ceremony, should the couple choose and their tradition permit, a religious marriage ceremony could be held.

This is not just a “gay rights” issue. The separation of civil and religious ceremonies would also provide another alternative: those persons who might lose benefits if they join in civil marriage could choose to have only a religious ceremony to honor their union. Over the years, I have heard time and time again from older couples that this option would honor their marriages before God so that they would no longer be living “in sin,” yet at the same time it would protect precious benefits that they would lose if they were legally married.

Separating civil and religious marriage is an idea whose time has come in the United States — by doing so, civil rights and benefits would be preserved, and the traditions of religious communities would be respected.