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A Crisis Forestalled in
Nigeria, and . . .
. . . A new prelate for England; new repression in
Asia
THE VATICAN Jubilee for sick The Jubilee celebration for the sick reached its dramatic culmination at the Vatican on February 11—the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes—as Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Square for a congregation of thousands of people suffering from various forms of illness. “My dear suffering brothers and sisters, we owe you a debt. The Church owes you this debt, and the Pope as well. Pray for us!” the Pope said in his remarks at the conclusion of the Eucharistic celebration. The Holy Father was doing his best to emphasize a message that he has delivered frequently during his pontificate: that the sufferings of the sick, along with their prayers, are a powerful source of grace for the universal Church. On the day after his election to Peter’s chair, the Pope visited the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, to visit a friend (Cardinal Andrej Deskur) who had recently suffered a stroke, and ask him to offer up his sufferings for the success of the pontificate. More than 1,200 volunteers were on hand to assist the members of the unusual congregation for this papal Mass. There were at least 2,400 wheelchairs in use in St. Peter’s Square, and 280 specially equipped buses were used to shuttle the faithful from their hotels to the Vatican and back. Special first-aid stations had been set up for the occasion, and portable heaters had been installed around the altars in case of cold weather. (As it happened, the weather was mild throughout the day, and the heaters were not needed.) “You are welcome here,” the Pope said in his homily during the Mass. “You are close to the heart of Peter’s successor, who feels your worries and your pains as his own.” He continued: “Some of you have been confined on a bed of suffering for years. I pray to God that this meeting and this day will be a source of physical and spiritual comfort for such people.” He said that even healthy people should recognize and contemplate “the redemptive value of suffering.” The Pope pointed out that the Church, “following the example of Christ,” pays particular attention to those who suffer from physical illness, and that one of the seven sacraments is dedicated specifically to their pastoral needs. During the day’s ceremony he anointed 10 people with the Sacrament of the Sick. The day’s celebration was a logistical tour-de-force for organizers who were led by the Italian group UNITALSI, which arranged transportation for 15,000 people in special trains and buses from around Italy and France. Confession is the key In a note published on the front page of the official Vatican newspaper, the head of the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary—the body concerned with penances and indulgences—clarified the conditions for obtaining indulgences during the Jubilee year, placing special emphasis on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In the February 10 issue of L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal William Baum emphasized that a Jubilee pilgrimage should lead to “reconciliation with God,” beginning with individual confession. Msgr. Jean-Marie Gervais, an official at the apostolic penitentiary, explained that the note from Cardinal Baum was intended to clarify the purpose of the Jubilee pilgrimage. He explained: “Many people have planned to make a Jubilee pilgrimage to Rome during the Holy Year, but perhaps they have not all realized that this should first and foremost be a time of personal conversion, centered on the Sacrament of Reconciliation.” The note from Cardinal Baum was intended to provide a pastoral understanding of the pilgrimage and the accompanying indulgence. It also offered a less formal approach to the topic than had previously been available. The Apostolic Penitentiary had published an official decree in November 1999, setting forth the indulgences that could be obtained during the Holy Year, as well as a “manual of indulgences.” But these publications were legal documents; now Cardinal Baum provided a more accessible guide to the topic. In an introduction to the prelate’s note, L’Osservatore Romano noted that “the gift of an indulgence shows the fullness of God’s mercy which is expressed in the first place through the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.” The paper went on to say that even after being absolved of sin, “the human person is still marked by the ‘residue’ of sin, because of which he is not fully open to grace.” Thus the individual still needs God’s grace to complete the process of conversion. For this purpose, L’Osservatore stated, “the gift of an indulgence is a powerful help.” The Holy See is placing a heavy stress on the importance of Confession during the Jubilee year. Inside St. Peter’s Basilica, the entire right transept has been closed off to tourists, to accommodate confessionals for pilgrims. Also, rows of confessionals have been set up along the left side of the basilica, where priests from the Roman Curia are hearing confessions on a regular basis. Vatican officials are doing their best to ensure that pilgrims will have ready access to the sacrament, with priests available to hear confessions in a number of different languages. Beatifications encourage missions In setting out his plans for the Jubilee year, Pope John Paul II had said that an unusually heavy schedule of beatifications and canonizations could serve to encourage the faithful. Early in March, one series of beatifications delighted Catholics in several former mission territories. Shortly thereafter, the announcement of a new canonization was warmly greeted by the followers of a relatively new devotion. On March 5, Pope John Paul presided at the beatification of martyrs from what he called “the young churches.” The martyrs he honored were:
In the countries where these martyrs had served the Church as missionaries and catechists, the beatifications were both cause for celebration and reason for renewed hope. Cardinal Michael Michai Kitbunchu of Bangkok had set up a special committee to organize celebrations for the beatification of Thailand’s first martyr priest, and led a delegation of 300 Thai Catholics to the ceremony in Rome. “This beatification is an important example for missionary priests in our day, who are often subject to persecution,” Father James Fitzpatrick, OMI, the postulator of the cause for Father Katbamrung, told the Fides news service. “It will help re-launch priestly spirituality in the third millennium.” From the Diocese of Grodno, in Belarus, Bishop Aleksander Kaszkiewicz said that the beatification of Sister Mardosiewicz and her companions would inspire the work of the Church there, “newly reborn” since the collapse of the Soviet empire. Then on March 10, the Holy See announced that Blessed Maria Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun who initiated the Divine Mercy devotion, will be canonized on April 30. The date for that ceremony is particularly significant. April 30, the first Sunday after Easter, is the feast of Divine Mercy. Although the Vatican calendar for the Jubilee year had not originally included any plans for canonizations on that date, it was Blessed Faustina—a simple nun who died of tuberculosis in Krakow in 1938—who received the message from Christ calling for the establishment of that feast day. The canonization ceremony—which will take place in St. Peter’s Square, with Pope John Paul II presiding—is expected to draw tens of thousands of pilgrims to Rome. Undermining democracy In an address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Pope John Paul II has pointed to the crisis of “intellectual relativism” which threatens democracy. The Pontifical Academy, meeting in Rome from February 23-26, centered its discussions on the question of democracy. Pope John Paul remarked in his message that democracy can be distorted by the belief that “truth is determined by majority vote, and varies with the cultural and political trends.” Led by that belief, he pointed out, some people can reach the mistaken conclusion that “those who believe that certain truths are absolute and unchanging, must be considered as unreasonable,” so that their ideas are not taken into account. Fundamental principles, the Pope argued, cannot be based on opinions—which can change—”but only on the understanding of an objective moral law.” The Holy Father also emphasized that, despite the trend toward “globalization” of the world’s economic and social systems, the Church must uphold the principle of subsidiarity: the understanding that social problems should be addressed and resolved at the lowest social order—the order closest to the individuals involved in the problem. Condemns UN programs The Vatican’s chief foreign-policy representative has condemned UN programs that seek to promote contraception and abortion. Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Secretary for Relations with States, issued a somber warning against “threats to human life” in his remarks to a February meeting of the Pontifical Academy for Life. The Academy was meeting in Rome to discuss Pope John Paul’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae, which was published in March 1995. Archbishop Tauran lamented that many offenses against the dignity of human life are now treated as if they were fundamental rights. He pointed out that the drive to promote contraception and abortion began several years ago, amid fears that the earth’s population would outstrip the availability of food and other basic necessities. “Those fears are now recognized as unfounded,” he observed. “But now the proponents of abortion and contraception have shifted their rhetorical strategy, saying that these measures are necessary in order to give ‘individuals freedom over their own bodies’.” The archbishop said that UN conferences—such as the Cairo conference on population in 1994, and the Beijing conference on women in 1995—had seen important battles between proponents and foes of abortion and contraception. He explained to his audience that some groups use these conferences to introduce new theories in international law —theories that will later be invoked to justify changes in international policies or in the laws of smaller nations. He pointed out that many international bodies—such as the World Health Organization and the Red Cross—have now been enlisted in efforts to promote “emergency contraception” in places such as Rwanda and Kosovo. Authentic understanding of Vatican II Speaking on February 27 at the concluding session of an international conference on the implementation of Vatican II, Pope John Paul II said that the Council was “a true prophecy for the life of the Church,” and added that the teachings of Vatican II will continue to furnish a guide for the Church “for many years” during the new millennium. The Council is “a fundamental event” which must be grasped by anyone who seeks to understand the contemporary history and mission of the Church, the Holy Father told the 250 theologians, historians, and Church leaders who had gathered in Rome for the three-day conference. The Council’s teachings, he said, provide not only “a perspective on the faith” but also “riches that are still hidden.” In order to mine those riches, the Pope cautioned, it is essential to avoid the “preconceived and partial interpretations” that have often obscured the true intent of the Council. Among the misinterpretations that have caused confusion within the Church, the Pontiff mentioned the tendency “to read the Council as if it involved a break with the past.” Speaking of the main themes of Vatican II, the Pope mentioned the “zeal” for ecumenical work, leading toward Christian unity, and the understanding that all baptized Christians hold an important role and duty within the Church.” Lenten retreat The annual Lenten retreat for the Vatican leadership was preached by Archbishop Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The retreat, a week-long series of meditations, ran from Sunday, March 12, through Saturday, March 18. Because Pope John Paul II and the leaders of the Roman Curia attended the retreat, the working schedule for the Holy See was severely curtailed during that week. Archbishop Nguyen Van Thuan, who spent 13 years in Vietnamese prisons, was chosen by Pope John Paul to preach this year’s retreat for two reasons. First, as a Vietnamese native, the archbishop represents the Catholics of a land whose people are unable to come to Rome for the Jubilee because of political constraints. Second, as a former prisoner, he bears witness to the importance of religious freedom. Archbishop Nguyen was imprisoned from 1975 to 1998, after being named coadjutor archbishop of Saigon. To this day he wears a pectoral cross which he carved from a piece of wood while he was in prison, and hid from his jailers in a bar of soap; after his release, he covered the wooden cross with metal plating. During his years behind bars, the archbishop was occasionally able to write notes to his people, and smuggle them out of the prison. These notes were eventually collected, copied into a single notebook, and circulated first within Vietnam and later all around the world. They have been published in book form in several languages, under the title: Along the Path of Hope. Archbishop Nguyen chose a similar theme for the Lenten retreat: Witness and Hope. In 1999, Bishop Andre-Mutien Leonard of Namur, Belgium preached the Lenten retreat for the Roman Curia. In previous years the preachers had included Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini of Turin (1994), Father Thomas Spidlik of the Vatican’s Oriental Institute (1995), Archbishop (now Cardinal) Christoph Schönborn of Vienna (1996), Cardinal Roger Etchegaray of the Jubilee Committee (1997), and Cardinal Jan Chryzostom Korec of Nitra, Slovakia (1998). A bizarre protest A trio of young environmentalists climbed the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica on February 24, and flourished banners protesting a construction project—not at the Vatican nor even in Rome, but in northern Spain. After scaling the walls of the basilica late in the morning, and placing a banner across Michelangelo’s famous cupola, the young protesters were removed early in the afternoon, and taken into custody by Vatican police. Two of the demonstrators were identified as Spanish citizens; one was German.
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| ITALY Vatican asks government help Vatican officials have indicated that they are counting on Italian authorities to reconsider their approval for a massive gay-rights demonstration, which is scheduled to take place in Rome in July. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State, told reporters that the Holy See is emphasizing the damage such a demonstration could do to the cooperative plans for the Jubilee, and suggesting that the gay-rights protest “would not do honor to Italy.” Cardinal Sodano made his remarks after an hour-long visit with the Italian ambassador to the Holy See, in which he argued that the demonstration could constitute a breach of the Lateran agreement which governs Church-state relations. While recognizing that Italy honors freedom of assembly, he pointed out that public demonstrations require some government authorization. He told the press that the Vatican was not asking officials to ban the gay-rights demonstration, but simply to ensure that there would be no conflict with Church events. “Everything should be in its place,” he said. “We have confidence in the good sense of the Italian authorities,” Cardinal Sodano concluded. Moments after the cardinal’s discussion with reporters, one leading Italian authority gave a signal that the Vatican’s diplomatic efforts had been at least partially successful. Massimo d’Alema, the president of the Italian Council, told reporters that while the country must be “open and tolerant regarding all demonstrations,” the challenge in this case would be “to guarantee that this event does not provoke confrontations and that it can be compatible with other important events taking place in Rome at the same time.” Shroud to be displayed Officials of the Archdiocese of Turin have announced that the Shroud of Turin, widely believed to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ, will be displayed for pilgrims between August and October as part of Jubilee Year celebrations. The Shroud of Turin, which is not ordinarily available for public viewing, was only put on display four times in the 20th century. The most recent public showing came in 1998, when two million pilgrims saw the Shroud in the Turin Cathedral. The opening date for this year’s exhibition was moved up two weeks to allow pilgrims attending World Youth Day in Rome to see the Shroud. Shortly after the Turin archdiocese made its announcement, new scientific tests confirmed a connection that the Shroud originally came from the Middle East—specifically, from the region that covers modern-day Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine. “Regarding the problem of dating and origin, new data . . . confirm the presence of botanical traces which are significant as geographical indicators pointing to the area of Israel or Jordan,” the Shroud Millennium Committee said following a four-day meeting. The committee said further research was needed to ascertain the history of how the Shroud reached Turin.
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| FRANCE A little euthanasia The National Ethics Committee of France has issued a report saying that euthanasia might be ethically permissible in some circumstances. “A type of euthanasia exception could be imagined,” said the report, which was released after three years of committee deliberations. Rather than calling for legislation which could be defeated by opponents of “mercy killing,” the group instead called for the creation of what would amount to a loophole in the law, to allow doctors to assist in their patients’ deaths and still avoid prosecution. The “exceptional circumstances” which the committee decided could justify euthanasia include cases in which a patient’s pain could no longer be eased by drugs, or when people suffering terminal illness become “totally and definitively” dependent on life-support machines. The National Ethics Committee is a government-sponsored organization. The committee’s chairman, François Lemaire, said the recommendations in the document did not call for any real change in medical practice; he said that French doctors are already quietly helping to end the lives of their patients. A 1995 survey of 140 French anesthesiologists showed that 26 percent of them had deliberately injected patients with lethal drugs when they felt the patients had no chance of recovery. The committee report said that such surreptitious practices point to the need for the changes in French law, arguing: “It is never healthy for a society to have too wide a gap between its written rules and the lived reality.”
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| ENGLAND New prelate for Westminster On February 15, Bishop Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, bishop of Arundel and Brighton since 1977, was named by Pope John Paul II as the successor to the late Cardinal Basil Hume of Westminster. The appointment ended weeks of speculation and conjecture. Speaking at a press conference on the day of the announcement, the archbishop-elect, 67, said: “Although I am not as young as I was when I first became a bishop, I now undertake this new task with equal willingness, encouraged as I know I will be by the good wishes and prayers of so very many people.” The fifth son of Dr. George Murphy-O’Connor and his wife, Ellen, Cormac Murphy-O’Connor studied for the priesthood at the English College, Rome. His brother Brian is a priest of Portsmouth diocese, as was his deceased brother, Patrick. Archbishop-elect Murphy-O’Connor has been known for his work in relations between the Catholic and Anglican Churches and was awarded a Doctorate in Divinity by the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey, in recognition of his efforts for ecumenism. On the same day, the Vatican also announced the appointment of Bishop Vincent Nichols, an auxiliary bishop of Westminster since 1992, as the new Archbishop of Birmingham. Archbishop-Elect Nichols said: “I am deeply honored by my appointment to be the next archbishop of Birmingham. It is an awesome responsibility, and a very new step for me.” Lowering age of consent Britain’s Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of reducing the age of consent for homosexuals from 18 to 16. The legislation was passed in the House of Commons by 263 votes to 102. The bill now goes to the House of Lords, where it is bound to be opposed. But the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair has signaled that it is ready to use special powers to force the change through Parliament. The sexual offenses (amendment) bill will end the anomaly that heterosexuals and lesbians can give their legal consent to sexual relations when they reach the age of 16, while homosexuals have to wait until 18. Opening the debate, Home Secretary Jack Straw said that by lowering the age of consent, the government would help to create a more tolerant society. “For me the issue raised in this bill is one of equality,” he said, “of seeking to create a society which is free from prejudice, of one where our relationships with others, including with strangers, are based upon respect and not upon fear.” But Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe, a Catholic, described the bill as “a dangerous move,” sending the wrong signals to teachers, parents and young people. “It is wrong that a young person of 16 should be free in law to embark on a course of action that might lead to a lifestyle which would separate him, maybe permanently, from the mainstream life of marriage and family,” she said. The government introduced the move after a ruling that the existing law is
a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. The House of Lords has rejected
similar proposals twice since 1997. |
| IRELAND Online apostolate It is possible to be hip and holy. Just point and pray. That is the message behind an advertising campaign undertaken by the Irish Jesuits, who are promoting an internet prayer site: www.sacredspace.ie. The site was launched by the Jesuits during Lent last year, and the decision to run an ad campaign reflects a decision to take the “battle for the souls” to the streets. The pun “Who says praying isn’t PC?” began to appear in posters displayed on 100 buses in Dublin and 60 in Belfast. The total cost of the ad campaign—about £14,000—was funded by the Jesuits from the Irish Province of the Society and the Apostleship of Prayer. A team from the Jesuit Communications Centre designed the ads and TDI Metro bought the space. “Putting the ads on buses is a way to reach people who think they’re not very holy,” said Peter Scally, who works on the web site. “It has to do with the fact that people say they are very busy and don’t have time to pray, but often have to spend time on the computer.” Since its inception, nearly 400,000 people—from Malaysia to the Czech Republic to North America to Australia —have visited Sacred Space, and hundreds have shared their thoughts. One Philadelphian wrote: “At 82 and counting I have replaced the New York Times with Sacred Space and find the change enormously gratifying.” Another said: “We are so battered with a dumbed-down, materially focused society that it is poetic justice your web site is bringing God to so many through the internet!” Scally said the computer is a perfect place to pray, even at work; all it takes is focus. He pointed out that in today’s society, people invent reasons for their inability to pray, such as lack of time, or not knowing how to begin. “Sacred Space is the answer to these problems,” said Father Alan McGuckian, SJ, the director of the communication project. “Because you can get to it on your computer at the click of a mouse, it guides you gently step by step into prayer, and encourages you to use your own words, respecting your individual relationship with God.” The site is updated with a new scripture reading and reflection each day,
and visitors can even pray with the Pope or use the Irish-language version. And, when you
are done, all you have to do is click on Amen. |
| ROMANIA Apology to Catholics . . . The leader of the Romanian Orthodox Church has formally apologized for the Orthodox Church’s silence during the era when the Communist government destroyed churches and suppressed religions. Father Constantin Stoica, spokesman for Patriarch Teoctist, said: “This is a gesture of reconciliation. There were mistakes made under Communism and concessions the church made in order to survive.” In an interview with the church’s news agency, the patriarch said: “I personally ask for forgiveness and I am doing it now because I didn’t have enough courage before . . . in my heart I am sad . . . because I made a great number of the faithful suffer.” In just the ten years prior to the fall of Communism in 1989, at least 17 churches were destroyed by the government of dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu. Catholics, in particular, were evicted from churches that were handed over to the Orthodox Church, and many Catholics were imprisoned, tortured, and killed for practicing their faith. “It was a terrible period,” said Stoica. “With a simple movement of his arm, Ceaucescu made churches disappear.” Ceaucescu had whole villages, churches, and cultural sites destroyed as he implemented ambitious building plans. Since 1989, many new churches and monasteries have been built.
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| POLAND Ban on porn Early in March, Poland’s parliament passed a new law banning the import, distribution, or sale of pornography in the mainly Catholic country. But the ex-Communist President Aleksander Kwasniewski was expected to veto it. The bill passed the parliament’s lower house, the Sejm, 210-197, with 19 abstaining. Supported by the governing Solidarity party, the measure was opposed by left-wingers, including Kwasniewski’s party, and the Freedom Union, Solidarity’s junior coalition partner. The measure would address the explosion in the pornography and sex
industries since the fall of Communism in 1989 by imposing fines and prison terms of up to
two years on violators. Child pornography would garner five-year prison terms. Critics say
the law limits free speech and is unenforceable because it does not define pornography. |
| CZECH
REPUBLIC Regularization
for underground priests The Vatican has called upon all priests and bishops who were secretly ordained in Czechoslovakia during the years of the Communist regime to come forward and accept the directives offered by Pope John Paul II, so as to resolve any question about the validity of their ordination. In a message released in February, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith emphasized that the Vatican had no “lack of confidence” in the Czech priests, but wanted to “be sure in conscience that they are really priests,” so that they can validly administer the sacraments. Speaking for the Congregation, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger did indicate that there are “serious doubts” about the ordinations performed by one bishop, the late Felix Davidek. During years of savage repression, the “underground Church” in the country then known as Czechoslovakia (now split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic) conducted clandestine ordinations of priests and even bishops. When the Church won its freedom after the fall of Communism in 1989 the Holy See asked those priests to come forward for a new, “conditional” ordination, to erase any concern that their original ordination may have been invalid. About 50 priests from the underground Church accepted that “conditional” ordination, and are now working in dioceses in the Czech Republic. Special questions swirled around the status of some married men who had been secretly ordained, since the Latin rite does not allow for married priests. In 1997, the Vatican suggested that some of these priests could be incorporated into the Byzantine-rite Catholic Church, and 18 men have subsequently chosen that option. However, some of the priests who had been secretly ordained have not yet
come forward. It is to these priests that the Holy See addressed the February 14 message,
Cardinal Ratzinger explained. The cardinal emphasized that there may be “other
possibilities” for the married priests, and that the Vatican wished to have an
“open and sincere” discussion of their future. But he also stressed that it is
not acceptable for priests to continue operating “underground,” since “that
title is no longer justified.” He said that some priests are still apparently
maintaining small groups of Catholic followers, in private homes, outside the structure of
the dioceses. That situation, he said, is “the saddest problem” facing the Czech
Church today. The problem is compounded, the cardinal said, by the concern that some
bishops may have broken the rules governing the secret ordinations, so that the priests
they “ordained” would not actually be Catholic priests and the sacraments they
conferred would not be valid. |
| BELARUS Pastor told to stop The Belarusian authorities have ordered a Catholic priest who has been working in the country for the past nine years to halt his pastoral work on the grounds that it is “illegal.” Father Zbigniew Korolyak, a citizen of Poland, was given until March 15 to cease his activity as a parish priest in Brest. Despite reports broadcast on a radio station managed by Belarusian exiles in Poland, it appears that the government had not ordered Father Korolyak to leave the country, although his fate remains uncertain. As CWR goes to press, there has been no clarification from the government about the priest’s status, nor has Father Korolyak responded to the March 15 deadline. Boris Lepeshko, a government religious affairs official, wrote to Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek of Minsk, primate of Belarus, in January to order the priest to halt his activity. Lepeshko reminded the cardinal that—on the recommendation of his office—the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs in Minsk had not extended its permission for Father Korolyak to carry out religious activity to cover the years 1997, 1998, and 1999. “Despite this, Father Korolyak continues to hold services in the church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the town of Brest, thereby crudely violating current legislation,” he complained. Under the country’s law on freedom of conscience and organizations, the State Committee must give permission before any foreign citizens can conduct any religious work in Belarus. Father Korolyak was a popular priest in his parish, and parishioners petitioned the government to allow him to remain. They also asked Cardinal Swiatek not to give in to pressure to remove him. And in various letters, both to the local authorities and to the State Committee, Cardinal Swiatek had urged the government authorities to grant Father Korolyak renewed registration as a priest. He stressed that Father Korolyak had complied with an order from the Brest city council to cease giving out free meals and medicines to the poor on church property. Lepeshko admitted that the parish and Cardinal Swiatek both wished Father Korolyak to remain as the parish priest, but insisted that the choice of parish priest was as much a “state question” as an internal Church question. A number of Polish priests have in the past had problems obtaining and
retaining permission to work as parish priests in Belarus. Archbishop Dominik Hrusovsky,
the Vatican’s nuncio in Belarus, declined to discuss Father Korolyak’s case, but
said: “There have been difficulties in general” for foreign Catholic clergy,
although he could not recall any such problems in the previous six months. He confirmed
that of the approximately 250 Catholic clergy in Belarus, some two thirds were from
outside the country, mostly from neighboring Poland. “Foreign priests must have an
invitation from the local bishop and then obtain registration with the local
authorities,” Archbishop Hrusovsky said. “A lot depends on relations with the
local authorities.” |
| RUSSIA Lashes out at Rome The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church has said, in an interview published by a Greek magazine, that the Catholic Church is hurting efforts at healing the 1,000-year-old rift between East and West by failing to condemn proselytism in former Communist nations. Patriarch Alexei II told Religions Info that the Vatican has reneged on a promise to reduce support for Eastern-rite churches—which have liturgies and traditions similar to Orthodox churches—and that those Eastern Catholic churches aggressively seek out members in the former Eastern Bloc where Orthodox are traditionally in majority. “This entire situation has blackened our relations with the Roman Catholic Church,” he said. “Religions must come into contact with each other, but not fight for occupation and dominance.” As the leader of the largest Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexei would be instrumental in any ecumenical efforts to heal the Great Schism of 1054, but he has been the most reluctant Orthodox leader in pursuing dialogue. And to further complicate ecumenical matters, the patriarch also challenged the centuries-old structure that declares the Patriarch of Constantinople as the Ecumenical Patriarch, the “first among equals” of the 16 Orthodox churches. Alexei said there is “no theological problem” to bar the notion that his own Patriarchate of Moscow carries equal rank as a “second pole” of Orthodox leadership. Failing to register As of December 31, when the re-registration of religious organizations in Russia was halted, in accordance with Russia’s law “On freedom of conscience and religious organizations,” some 40 percent of centrally registered religious groups and up to half those registered locally had failed to achieve re-registration. The receipt of applications may now resume only after the State Duma of the Russian Federation has ratified a bill to extend the period for re-registration of religious organizations. According to the law, all religious groups must receive government permits in order to operate or gather. Aleksandr Kudryavtsev, head of the department for registration of religious organizations in the Ministry of Justice, said: “At a federal level, 191 organizations got through the re-registration process, while 127 were left without re-registration. In the provincial agencies of justice, 50 percent of organizations have been re-registered of the 15,000 on the list, though one needs to bear in mind that not all of them still exist.” He added, “The picture in terms of denominations is as follows: Protestant cases are going well; the Orthodox recently put on a late spurt and almost all have been re-registered. Islamic communities are in the worst position of all—but this is understandable; in the North Caucasus it’s not a priority right now.” Kudryavtsev added that information from local branches of the Ministry was still incomplete. Representatives of various central religious organizations were asked whether any of the churches had been closed because of the law. Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelical Christians/Baptists, and Pentecostals all reported that there have been no cases to date in which any religious organization has been closed down because of the expiration of the registration deadline. Aid for Chechnya The Russian Orthodox Church has been criticized in recent months for not going to the aid of victims of the war in Chechnya, but in a February interview, a senior Orthodox leader was adamant that the Church’s relief effort has been energetic. Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, abbot of Sretensky Monastery in central Moscow, said the monastery had been sending aid to Chechnya for the past two years, having sent consignments at Easter and Pentecost in 1998 as well as in July, October, and December of 1999. The monks decided to respond, he said, after they received a verbal request for supplies from parishioners of the now-destroyed Church of Michael the Archangel in Grozny. “After the first war they were literally dying of hunger. They had been keeping alive by feeding off rubbish dumps,” he said. Orthodox parishioners throughout Moscow had then begun to donate food such as canned meat and condensed milk and medicine such as antibiotics and cold medicine. According to Father Shevkunov, 150,000 people had taken part in the whole operation. Within Chechnya, the aid had been intended principally for Russians, Archimandrite Shevkunov said. “Unlike the Chechens they have neither work nor pensions,” he explained. However, he added that in Stavropol the aid had been distributed without distinction between Russians and Chechens, as the refugees there “include both nationalities, of course.” A portion of the aid had also been sent to soldiers in Stavropol, he said, and the monastery had responded to a whole list of requests for medicine. Since the start of the current Chechen war, he continued, it has only been possible to take the aid as far as the front, and Russian troops were “naturally” among the recipients. On the first two occasions, he had overseen distribution personally, and in general he had no concerns about its delivery. The editor of NG-Religiya, the religious supplement to the national
newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Maksim Shevchenko, admitted that previous criticism that
the Orthodox Church was not actively aiding the needy in Chechnya “had not fully
reflected” the monastery’s action, but insisted that the aid campaign was not in
fact humanitarian, but “delivery by a monastery of food and clothing to an army
fighting terrorists—which is nothing to be ashamed of.” He then commented that
the “pitiful crumbs which would reach the ‘Russian refugees’ and
‘Chechen children’” were not enough to change the character of the relief
campaign. |
| IRAQ Grateful for solidarity In February, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid welcomed the Pope’s plan for a “spiritual” pilgrimage to Iraq, saying that it is “an expression of John Paul’s love for the Iraqi people, who have been suffering for more than ten years in an unbearable situation.” When the Holy Father indicated that he would make his “spiritual pilgrimage to Ur,” the Chaldean home of the biblical patriarch Abraham, on February 23 (see story, page 38), the Chaldean-rite prelate also revealed that he would lead a pilgrimage of 1,000 Chaldean Catholics to Rome on March 18. And on February 23, as the Holy Father made his own spiritual pilgrimage in a ceremony at the Vatican, the Chaldean Church held a special penitential service in the cathedral of St. Joseph in Baghdad. Patriarch Raphael made his comments in an interview with the Fides news
service. He told Fides: “We were always sure of the Pope’s love and solidarity,
but now we feel it even more strongly.” He added that the Pope’s plan for a
private pilgrimage proves that his original desire to visit Iraq was “not political
in any way, as some people had feared.” |
| LEBANON Help from Rome? Prime Minister Salim El Hoss of Lebanon was received at the Vatican on March 2, at a time when tensions are rising and new violence has flared in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese leader met privately with Pope John Paul II and with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. He was accompanied on his trip to Rome by a delegation of a dozen Lebanese government officials. Lebanese government sources indicate that the Holy See made an unusually quick response to the request for a meeting. Pope John Paul has frequently voiced his concern about the future of Lebanon—a country where, until recently, representatives of the world’s three great monotheistic religions lived together peacefully in a pluralistic democracy. In recent years, however, the small country has been swept up in the Middle East conflict, with Hezbollah guerrillas raiding Israel from bases in southern Lebanon, and Israel responding by occupying a large portion of the country’s southern region. The Holy See made no official comment on the Pope’s meeting with the
Lebanese leader. However, Lebanese officials indicated that El Hoss was looking for help
from the Vatican in his efforts to arrange a peace agreement that would lead to the end of
the Israeli occupation. |
| PALESTINE New accord with Vatican A diplomatic accord between the Holy See and the Palestinian Authority, signed in Rome on February 15, recognizes not only the juridical status of the Catholic Church on Palestinian territory, but also a shared desire for an end to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and a resolution for the status of Jerusalem. “An equitable solution to the question of Jerusalem, based on international resolutions, is fundamental to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” the two parties agreed in the preamble to the new diplomatic accord. The document went on to condemn “unilateral decisions” which would “modify the special character” of the Holy City. The Vatican and the Palestinian Authority agreed to support the cause of “a special status for Jerusalem,” which would provide international guarantees for “freedom of religion and of conscience for everyone,” equality before the law for the three monotheistic religions that revere the city, free access to all of Jerusalem’s sacred sites, and a legal recognition of “the universal significance” of the city’s religious and cultural heritage. The new document also underlines the commitment of the Holy See to “the legitimate and inalienable national rights of and aspirations of the Palestinian people.” It points out that international law, supplemented by UN resolutions and by the existing terms of peace agreements between Israel and Palestine, supports the cause of Palestinian autonomy. The accord also establishes the legal rights of the Catholic faithful in Palestinian territory, and stresses that “all Palestinian citizens are equal” in that society, regardless of religious affiliation. The agreement commits Church leaders and Palestinian officials to work together “against all threat to human life and human dignity.” The Vatican dismissed complaints by the government of Israel that the new accord was an attempt by the Church to “interfere in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.” The Vatican press office, in an unusually blunt statement, observed that the new pact “has nothing to say about what has been established by the pertinent UN agencies and recent accords between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities.” And in its treatment of Jerusalem, the Vatican statement said, the new accord “does not enter into questions of territoriality or sovereignty.” The Israeli government had indicated its “great disappointment” with the announcement of the new agreement. The Israeli statement stressed in particular that the status of Jerusalem is not open to discussion. “Jerusalem is, and will remain, the capital of the state of Israel,” the Israeli statement insisted, and no statement by the Holy See or the Palestinian Authority “can change that fact.” The Vatican-Palestinian pact had implicitly rejected the Israeli position, saying that “unilateral decisions” regarding the status of Jerusalem are “morally and legally unacceptable.” Israeli officials confirmed that Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio
in the Holy Land, was summoned by the Israeli foreign ministry to explain the terms of the
new agreement. Archbishop Sambi reportedly spoke for roughly a half-hour with Eytan
Bentsure, the director general of that ministry, on the “delicate problem” of
the new pact. |
| ISRAEL Calls for a boycott After the papal nuncio to Israel defended Pope Pius XII on Israeli television, some Israelis angrily reacted by calling for a boycott of the papal pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Archbishop Pietro Sambi told an interviewer for Israel’s Channel 1 that Pope Pius XII did not publicly denounce the Nazi conduct toward the Jews in World War II because he was convinced that it would only result in more deaths and because he was unaware of the full extent of Holocaust. “I am convinced that a great strong condemnation would have increased the persecution of Hitler against the Jews,” Archbishop Sambi said. The archbishop also cited the great risks that the Pope and many Catholics took to secretly save many Jews from the death camps. Television interviewer Yaacov Ahimeir said “I’m a little stunned. In a way you justify the conduct of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust.” The archbishop replied, “I justify totally what he did to save many Jews.” Some Orthodox Jews have criticized Israel’s chief rabbis for planning
a meeting with Pope John Paul II, saying the March 20-26 visit might spur Christian
missionary activity. Slogans like “Don’t meet the pope” and “No to
blasphemy, No to meeting the pope” were found spray-painted on the exterior walls of
the building that houses Israel’s chief rabbinate. Rabbi Meir Lau, chief rabbi of
Israel’s Ashkenazi Jews, rejected calls for a boycott. “Judaism has taught us to
turn an enemy into a lover. But to take a friend and turn him into an enemy is not
sensible and not just,” he said. |
| EGYPT Roots of violence An Egyptian human-rights group has said that fighting between Coptic Christians and Muslims earlier this year had its roots in police brutality against Christians two years ago. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) recalled that in 1998, police investigating the murder of two Copts in the town of el-Kosheh detained more than 1,000 Christians, beating and torturing some. Government investigators cleared all of the officers involved. “Some Copts had a residue of bitterness inside them from what
happened in 1998. . . . Those who had relatives hurt that time wanted revenge,”
Abdel-Aziz Mohammed, president of EOHR told a news conference. EOHR said 21 people were
killed in the clashes in the village on January 2, 33 were wounded, and 81 buildings
destroyed. The clashes were touched off by a dispute between a Muslim customer and a
Christian shopkeeper on December 31. |
| KENYA Catholics speak out . . . In February, during a process of review for the nation’s constitution, Archbishop Raphael Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki of Nairobi called for Kenya to repeal the death penalty and to maintain the country’s strong laws against abortion. Archbishop Ndingi called abortion a crime against humanity and said the right to terminate life was God’s alone and did not belong to governments. “This is our stand as a Church and we shall continue preaching it till the government succumbs to the outcry,” he added. Preaching at a Mass for the sick and health care workers, the archbishop warned that once abortion was legalized, euthanasia would be next on the agenda. He also said the death penalty was useless and did not help anyone,
“not even the aggrieved nor those who face it or their families.” The
archbishop, who was assisted by more than 20 other clerics, offered prayers to hundreds of
the sick and disabled who were taken to Holy Family Basilica from various hospitals and
support homes. |
| NIGERIA Religious tensions flare, then cool Christian-Muslim fighting in the northern city of Kaduna left dozens of people dead late in February. But after tense negotiations, the violence ended, and prospects for a lasting peace were restored. The sectarian violence erupted as Christians protested calls for imposition of Shari’a law in the primarily Muslim state. The harsh Islamic law had recently been implemented in several regions of Nigeria, in a response by militant Muslims to the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, whose victory brought an end to 15 years of Muslim dictatorship. Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja warned that the clashes between Muslims and Christians were provoked not by genuine religious disputes, but by efforts to destabilize the Obasanjo government. Speaking to representatives of the Fides news agency, Archbishop Onaiyekan said: “There are elements that do not approve of the politics of President Obasanjo, and are using religious problems to put him in trouble.” The resulting outbursts, he said, are “endangering democracy” in Nigeria. Archbishop Onaiyekan insisted that the drive to establish Shari’a law was in turn motivated by a desire to undermine the Obasanjo government. He observed that opponents of the new president are receiving financial support from abroad. “Everyone knows that Saudi Arabia has promised economic aid to countries that introduce Islamic law,” he observed. In a join statement released shortly after the violence erupted,
Nigeria’s Catholic bishops warned the African country faced a potential
“national suicide” over the issue of Shari’a law. “The truth is that
Nigeria as we know it cannot sustain a Shari’a legal system parallel to the law of
the land in any part of the country,” they said. “Even now it is not yet too
late for government to take vigorous action to halt this mad rush to national
suicide.”
As February came to a close, President Obasanjo’s government and leaders of the country’s mainly Muslim northern states reached an agreement to end proposals for Shari’a law, thus apparently ending a conflict which had left more than 300 people dead. The agreement stipulated that states which had already passed Shari’a
laws will not enforce them, and other states will postpone any plans to enact the Islamic
law. “To restore normalcy and create confidence in the troubled polity, it was agreed
that as far as the Shari’a issue is concerned, everyone will revert” to the
previous state of the law, said Vice President Atiku Abubakar. |
| RWANDA Show trial continues Late in February, the presiding judge scheduled what he insisted would be the final day of courtroom testimony in the seemingly endless trial of Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro. The presentation of testimony in the trial of Bishop Misago—who was arrested in April 1999 on charges that he was involved in the genocidal killings of 1994—had originally been set to end on February 29. But prosecutor Francois Rwandampuhwe asked for more time, “so that if, in the end, Bishop Misago is found to be innocent we will be able to say that we did our duty.” Courtroom witnesses generally agree that the prosecution has failed to establish Bishop Misago’s involvement in any killings. The latest schedule for the trial calls for the presentation of the last testimony by witnesses in mid-March, followed by final summaries by both prosecution and defense. Then the trial will be adjourned, probably until late in April. So Bishop Misago will have spent more than a year in prison before his case is decided. During courtroom dates in late February and early March, witnesses for the prosecution spoke of a “direct citation” paper—a document introduced by the prosecution, which accuses the Catholic Church in Rwanda of “consolidating the ideology of genocide and the mobilization of Christians in favor of a totalitarian, sectarian, and repressive power.” As evidence for the complicity of the Gikongoro diocese, the prosecution document points to the purchase of 816 machetes in August 1993. Alfred Pognon, chief lawyer for the defense, pointed out that machetes were commonly used for field work, and that in any case the purchase of those tools by a local Catholic relief agency had nothing to do with the specific accusations against Bishop Misago. Meanwhile, on February 29, four men were condemned to death at Cyangugu
(in southeast Rwanda) after being found guilty of planning and carrying out a massacre of
more than 5000 people in April 1994. In the same trial, which involved a group of forty
people, 13 were given life imprisonment, another 13 were sentenced to serve 20 years, two
were sentenced to serve four years, and eight were found not guilty. In Rwanda today,
almost 130,000 people are still detained on charges regarding the genocide, and imprisoned
while they await trial. |
| MOZAMBIQUE Papal aid to flood victims A Vatican mission carrying aid to flood victims in Mozambique left Rome on March 8. Pope John Paul II asked the delegation—which is led by Archbishop Josef Cordes, the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum—to take a sum of $150,000 to relieve the suffering of the population, which is suffering after disastrous floods caused by cyclone Eline. Part of that sum comes directly from the Pope’s own charity fund, Cor Unum; the remainder is a donation from his Pontifical Mission Society for the Propagation of the Faith. The money will be used for emergency relief. The Pontifical Mission Societies are also planning various long-term aid projects, designed to repair or replace damaged social structures, pastoral centers, and churches. The papal nuncio in Mozambique, Archbishop Janusz Juliusz, told Fides: “The people of Mozambique are immensely grateful to Pope John Paul II. His constant appeals for help in their name and now this concrete aid are a great source of comfort and encouragement.” On March 7 the Mozambican bishops issued a statement in which they publicly thanked the Pope for his constant attention and repeated appeals to the international community to send more help. On the day after the Vatican mission left Rome, a French priest who had visited the flood-ravaged land told reporters how he had clung to treetops in order to avoid the flood waters, as he struggled to reach a distribution center where he supplied emergency aid to starving victims. Father Jean Pierre Le Scour reported that he saved five people from drowning while he sought desperately to break through the flood zone and supply food for 10,000 people in the isolated town of Mabalan. “They have put their trust in me,” Le Scour told the Reuters news agency. “Some may be dead, but I will try to do my best.” The east African nation has been devastated since tremendous rains began
in January, washing away crops that would have sustained the subsistence farmers in the
countryside. When the waters rose again at the end of January, thousands of people fled to
Mabalan and surrounding areas for safety. Meanwhile, floods destroyed Mabalan’s vital
train link to Maputo, which the town depended on for food delivery. |
| INDIA Mixed response to population policy There has been mixed reaction to a new population policy approved by the federal government of India. The policy proposal will be debated in the Indian parliament in coming weeks. “We have reasons to be happy,” said Father Alex Vadakkumthala, the secretary of the Indian bishops’ Commission for Health Care Apostolate. Father Vadakkumthala spoke on February 24, a week after the government unveiled its plans. That positive response from the Church spokesman reflects the fact that the new government proposal does not include the population targets and coercive policies that the population-control lobby had sought. India accounts for 15 percent of the world’s population (living on 1 percent of the earth’s land surface), and over 15 million babies are added annually to a population that is already heading toward the one-billion mark. Lamenting that population growth, the family-planning lobby has campaigned for a “tough” government policy. Instead, the federal government has come out with a rather “soft” policy refusing to endorse the harsh measures that the population control lobby had proposed. Moreover, the government’s proposal emphasizes health care and education—another “positive” aspect of the policy in the view of the Catholic bishops’ conference. In releasing the new policy, the government announced that the proposal was based on “just, humane and effective development policies,” highlighting steps to improve the quality of life by promoting better awareness of health-care options, and free education. The proposal stresses compulsory education for all children, up to the age of 14—a plan that should have an impact on a country where the literacy rate is only about 52 percent. The emphasis on improving health care and primary education, Father Vadakkumthala said, are certainly steps that the Church “welcomes wholeheartedly.” Yet the Church leadership will not endorse the policy, either. The government’s plan aims to curb population growth by promoting a small-family norm through several “promotional and motivational measures.” These measures include several giveaway programs designed to encourage parents to limit the number of their children at two. The government proposes special monetary rewards including free insurance to poor families that opt for sterilization after two children are born, and an increase in free facilities for abortion and the supply of contraceptives. “These are anti-life measures. The Church cannot support them,” pointed out Father Vadakkumthala. “The very fact that a family has more members should be no reason to discriminate against them. They are citizens of the nation.” On the opposite side of the political spectrum, advocates of tough population policy have already dismissed the government’s proposals as “toothless,” pointing out that the restraints on large families are “ineffective” and “purely voluntary.” “The government has introduced a family control program which is disappointing,” Kiran Chaudhary, the deputy speaker of the Delhi state assembly, told a press conference on February 24. She was seeking to mobilize support for the much stronger population-control bill she has introduced in the Delhi assembly. The new population policy drafted by the federal government, Chaudhary asserted, is “not proper for tackling the population explosion.” In contrast, Chaudhary’s own population bill proposes that any family with more than two children will be denied subsidized rations, housing loans, government jobs and promotions; members of such families would also be ineligible to run for public office. While such measures were proposed to the federal planning commission as policies which should be incorporated into the new national population policy, the government decided to drop such coercive measures, under pressure from political parties. Hailing the new population policy, K. Srinivasan, the executive director of Population Foundation of India, said that the new population policy is “true to the democratic credentials of India.” “There is no need for coercion in population policy. If the recommendations are followed up, certainly, we should be able to control the population without aping China,” he said. Srinivasan, the leading population expert in India, added that the critical question is whether the government will actually allocate the 30 billion rupees (US $700 million) annually required to fulfill the obligations it has taken on. “This is a good policy on paper,” said Father James Culaf, director of the Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI)—a forum of over 3,000 hospitals and health care agencies. He said that the policy has several “positive” elements, such as the stress on literacy and the need to improve primary health care. “The suggestions are good,” said Father Culaf. However, he is not optimistic that the government will make enough funds available to implement the agenda it has drawn up. More than that, he said, he is “not happy” with the policy as “it puts the cart before the horse.” The policy, he said, seems “to enforce the myth that by controlling population, poverty can be eradicated.” In reality, Father Culaf pointed out “experience shows that wherever there is proper development and better basic amenities of life, population will take care of itself.” The Times of India, a leading English-language daily, echoed similar views in its editorial on the new population policy. The provision for health insurance for the poor who undergo sterilization after having two children, the editorial pointed out, is based on the “belief in the myth that it is the underprivileged who mindlessly go about producing children.” Oppose constitutional review The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) has bluntly opposed the decision of the coalition government led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to appoint an 11-member committee to review the Indian Constitution. The Indian bishops thus join the chorus of protests over the controversial decision. “This is not meant for the betterment of the country or the people. It has a political agenda [behind it],” said Bishop Oswald Gracias, the CBCI secretary general, addressing a crowded press conference in New Delhi. Earlier in the day, CBCI president Archbishop Alan Basil de Lastic of Delhi revealed that he wrote to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee saying: “The Christian community together with other minorities and civil society were greatly surprised” with the announcement of the Constitution Review Committee. “We would like to register our strong reservations, and our protest, at the setting up of the commission to review the statutes. The greatest institution—the Parliament of India—has been bypassed, the [federal] presidency not only not consulted but ignored,” wrote the archbishop. This, he said, highlighted the “undemocratic” manner in which the 11-member panel was hand-picked by the BJP leadership, which did not even bother consulting the two dozen other political parties involved in the governing coalition. “We fear no democratically acceptable result can come from a structure which is itself rooted in what the people perceive to be undemocratic decisions,” said Archbishop Lastic. “Conversion permits” Hundreds of Christians protested outside a government office in February against a state government order that anyone planning a religious conversion must receive police permission. Religious conversions have become controversial in India, with extremist Hindu groups claiming Christians have tricked or forced the poor or uneducated into converting to their religion. In recent years, Christians, who make up a tiny minority of the population, have been subject to attacks and even murder by extremists. The order by the Orissa state government requires people who are
converting to Christianity to apply to a local official and receive police clearance. The
United Forum of Catholics and Protestants said the order is unconstitutional. |
| CHINA Archbishop arrested A US-based Catholic foundation announced in February that a Chinese archbishop of the underground Church, loyal to the Pope, was arrested by Communist authorities on February 10. The Cardinal Kung Foundation said Archbishop John Yang Shudao of Fuzhou was arrested by about 150 police near midnight at his home, and his whereabouts are now unknown. The archbishop had previously spent 30 years in jail, beginning in 1955, for refusing to renounce the authority of the Pope over the Catholic Church. He was released in 1981 and rearrested in 1988 for a 3-year term. Archbishop Yang has been arrested many times since then. Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said: “Contrary to the claims by the Chinese totalitarian government that there is religious freedom in China, there are at least eight Roman Catholic underground bishops, scores of priests, and many laymen now in jails.” Kung recalled that a secret Communist government document released by his group in 1997 urged local leaders to employ “resolute, decisive, and organized measures . . . to eradicate the illegal activities of the underground Catholic Church.” Another document dated last August said “the underground Church . . . must be eliminated by re-education, forced labor, dismissal, and isolation of stubborn priests and bishops.” Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for human rights, confirmed the scope of religious repression during a March meeting of human-rights agencies active in the Pacific region. “There has been a noticeable clampdown on religious expression,” Robinson said. The UN official listed the indications of new oppressive policies since the middle of 1999:
Amnesty International, summing up the evidence of tougher government policies, has argued that the situation regarding human rights in China today is worse than it was at the time of the Tienanmen Square massacre. During a three-day trip to Beijing, Robinson reported, she had sought in
vain to obtain promises from the Chinese leadership that religious leaders would be
released from imprisonment. Two years ago, China signed UN Conventions on social,
economic, and cultural rights, and on civil and political rights, but these have yet to be
ratified by the Peoples Assembly. Robinson said there has been some improvement in the
cultural and economic fields but she denounced China’s “failure” regarding
civil, religious, and political rights. |
| TAIWAN Not worried about ties Taiwan’s Foreign Minister has indicated his confidence that fundamental differences between Communist China and the Vatican make the prospects of formal diplomatic relations between the two unlikely. Chen Chien-jen was responding to questions from reporters from Hong Kong and Macao, two territories that have been returned to Beijing’s control. “Both Beijing and the Vatican have maintained various links over the last 20 years, but the variance between the viewpoints of the two sides will make it very difficult for them to reach a consensus,” Chen said. The Holy See is one of the few countries to maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which China regards as a breakaway province, and China has made breaking those relations a key to any diplomatic agreement with the Vatican. In February, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State, announced that an “unofficial channel” had been opened between Rome and Beijing. He stressed that this line of communication did not suggest any imminent plans to establish official links, but said that it would provide a mechanism through which both sides could “clarify their positions.” “Of course the Vatican hopes it can care for Catholics around the
world, including the 10 million or so in China, but whether or not they will compromise
their principles to do so, we will just have to wait and see,” said Chen. In regard
to Taiwan’s own ties with the Vatican, Chen said the relationship “has long been
very good.” |
| VIETNAM Persecution for the H’mong Overseas Vietnamese have alerted the Fides news service to the systematic persecution of Catholics in the diocese of Hung Hoa, in the north of the country, and say the same is reported from all over northwest Vietnam. For eight years now, Catholics in the Hung Hoa diocese have been without a bishop. Government authorities have persistently refused to accept the nominations of the Holy See. Some years ago, the government declared Hung Hoa a “New Economic Zone,” and encouraged settlement of newcomers. The native dwellers are mainly of H’mong origin, Montagnard people, members of impoverished tribes, who are disliked by the ethnic Vietnamese community. Observers say the government is concerned about the growing number of conversions to Christianity among the H’mong, who are already suspected of “opposing the regime.” The authorities will not allow priests to reside there to serve the community, and refuse even to let the laity build a chapel where they could gather for prayer. Last December 24, celebrations for Christmas Eve and the beginning of the Jubilee for the H’mong turned into tragedy. Three villages of the Son La district—La Va, Long Hom, and Hoi Thanh —were “visited” by members of the security police, who were accompanied by a few members of the local Communist Party, the People’s Committee. The visitors first demanded to be fed, forcing the people to slaughter and cook chickens and pigs they had raised for their consumption. Once they had eaten, the officials got down to business. Orders were given that all Catholics should abandon their religion, or their children would not be allowed to attend school, while the families would not be allocated fields for farming and might even be expelled from the country. Many Catholics felt compelled to obey. Some were so afraid that they signed the certificates that these government officials had prepared and placed before them. Not satisfied with forcing people to sign certificates of apostasy, the men then carried out house-to-house searches confiscating personal belongings such as prayer books, Bibles, holy pictures, medals, and crucifixes. They also forbade the faithful to meet for prayer on December 24. Many residents of these three villages fled into the neighboring mountains and forests, where they were able to celebrate Christmas in private prayer. They could not have gathered at their local parish church in any case; the church building was destroyed during the Vietnam war, and the government has refused to grant permission for the local Catholic community to rebuild it. The Catholics of Hung Hoa have written to the government asking for justice, and pointing to their “freedom to practice their religion” as guaranteed by the country’s constitution. And in an effort to counter the fears that seem to spring from ethnic tensions in the region, they assured the authorities that they have no plans “to create trouble or foster division among the races.” The H’mong group have been targeted by the government for years, and
the Catholic Church has frequently suffered attacks as well. But persecution evidently has
not dampened the fervor of Catholics, nor has it stopped their efforts at evangelization.
In the Hung Hoa diocese—where Catholics now account for just 173,000 of the
region’s 7.3 million people—there have been thousands of new adult baptisms
every year during the past decade. |
| SOUTH
KOREA No false idols On March 1, seven major religious group leaders signed a statement rejecting the “idolatry” involved in a lust for power and pleasure. The leaders also rejected any effort to divide the people of Korea on the grounds of religion, ideology, or ethnic origin. On the occasion of the 81st anniversary of Korea’s independence (from Japanese colonialism), some 333 leaders from the seven leading religious groups in Korea attended a meeting at Kyongbok Palace in Seoul, sponsored by the Organization Hand in Hand Campaign for Peace and Reconciliation (OHPR). The seven major religious groups which form the OHPR are the Catholic Church, the National Council of Churches in Korea, the Korean Buddhist Association, Won Buddhism, Confucianism, Ch’ondokyo, and the Association for Native religions. The Catholic delegation was led by Cardinal Stephen Kim Dou-hwan, emeritus archbishop of Seoul. In their statement the religious leaders committed themselves to working
for reconciliation of the Korean nation and to “work for unity and harmony of
creation, rejecting power, materialism and idolatry of pleasure.” |
| PHILIPPINES Priest’s killer jailed again Norberto Manero, leader of a feared paramilitary group which mercilessly killed Father Tullio Favali in 1985, has been taken back to prison in Mindanao. Last December, Manero was granted a conditional pardon by President Estrada, an act which sparked nation-wide protest, particularly from the Catholic Church. Manero, who surrendered to the head of the Philippine National Police on February 25 in Manila, will be tried for the kidnapping and murder of two men in 1977. Manero claims that he is innocent of the killings; his case had not come to trial for years because he had escaped from the jurisdiction of the Manila court. Spokesmen for the Catholic missionary groups active in the Mindanao area
expressed their relief that Manero would be back behind bars, indicating that he was
regarded as a threat to the priests working in that region. |
| INDONESIA Boy soldiers In the clashes between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia’s Moluccas region, more than 200 boys have been recruited to participate in marauding gangs, trained to fight and burn homes, and often left to die when trapped in the flames, according to volunteers working in refugee camps. One Catholic volunteer said both sides have formed what are called Agas squads of 7- to 12-year-old boys. The name “Agas” connotes “jungle mosquitoes” known for their agility and speed in attacking and flying away. Brother Passianus of the Brothers of Blessed Mary, Mother of Mercy (CMM), a school headmaster, recounts:
Brother Passianus said the campaign to recruit children started last October and intensified in January after the Christmas holidays. “In January, when school began, at least 20 children were absent: many from Muslim families,” he said. “Today our school is closed because there are no pupils.” In January volunteers discovered some agents provocateurs infiltrating
into a Catholic youth camp in Ambon, and instructing a group of youngsters on how to make
weapons and explosives. One of the volunteers, Margaretha Sutrisno, reported: “Many
are orphans whose parents were killed in the clashes.” She added that they were angry
and anxious for revenge: “One boy told me his mother had been shot. ‘Why should
I go on living?’ he asked. I must fight when the time comes.’” |
| EAST
TIMOR Justice
promised UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has promised that the parties responsible for atrocities in East Timor last year will be brought to justice. During a February visit, Annan pledged the UN’s help in rebuilding East Timor and preparing the country to accept a new elected democratic government. “Your transition to independence is underway. East Timor is on a more hopeful path than anyone would have imagined just a year ago,” Annan told a crowd in Liquica in western East Timor. Referring to the organization of a civilian police force, and contrasting that organization with the militia groups which had massacred at least 50 people in Liquica last year, Annan added: “The justice system has begun to take shape so justice can be handed down in the courtrooms and not in the streets.” The UN leader also called on refugees who are still living in West Timor
after escaping the massacres to return home. “My message to those still in exile is
simple: Come home, East Timor is your country,” he said. |
| AUSTRAILIA Condemn “gay Mardi Gras” The leaders of Sydney’s Catholic and Anglican churches condemned the city’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, calling it “gross exhibitionism.” Cardinal Edward Clancy wrote in an article in the weekly archdiocesan newspaper on Sunday that the March 4 festival should be boycotted by Catholics. “The Church . . . teaches that homosexual practices are contrary to the moral law,” he wrote. “Homosexual people are required to exercise self-discipline and to avoid such conduct.” He added, “The annual Gay Mardi Gras is an exercise in gross exhibitionism that promotes a homosexual lifestyle and does not merit our presence or our support.” The event, which started as a protest march in 1977, has grown to become a major tourism boost as it attracts nearly 500,000 people annually and injects US $61 million into the region’s economy. Anglican Archbishop Harry Goodhew expressed his agreement with his Catholic counterpart. “Cardinal Clancy is quite correct when he calls the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras an exercise in gross exhibitionism,” he said. “In highly erotic display it promotes a homosexual lifestyle and is certainly not deserving of the presence or support of citizens of this city.” He called on Christians, politicians, and community leaders who support the Mardi Gras to reflect on the example they were endorsing to Australian children. The president of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, David
McLachlan, lashed back at the archbishops, saying that they were “out of touch”
with community views on sexuality. “I was raised as a Catholic and it’s sad to
see how out of touch these Church leaders are in helping people deal with the development
of one’s sexuality,” McLachlan said. |
| ARGENTINA Search for consensus Cardinal Raul Francisco Primatesta, the retired archbishop of Cordoba and one of the most prestigious figures in Argentina, confirmed what the local press had been saying in February: that he had called together representatives from the government, labor unions, and entrepreneurs in an effort to resolve an economic crisis. Cardinal Primatesta said that he called representatives from the three sectors to a private gathering that took place early in March at a farm located in the northern city of San Rafael. The cardinal said he decided to intervene after labor unions and the new government of President de la Rua locked horns on new salary and social security policies. The government is trying to reduce the federal budget dramatically, while the unions say that such reduction will increase unemployment which currently affects more than 15 percent of the labor force. “The conversations, despite the good will of all sectors, were very hard and slow-paced,” Cardinal Primatesta said. “Nevertheless, we were able to reach a first agreement, which can be considered the founding layer for a more integrated social agreement.” Primatesta said that all parties have agreed that the three sectors must
agree to a formula that would secure the creation of a more efficient state, the
re-energizing of the economy, and the stimulation of employment. |
| BRAZIL Separating the sacred and profane Cardinal Eugenio Sales of Rio de Janeiro asked police to confiscate religious symbols from floats during raucous Carnival parades, under a law criminalizing slander against religion. A huge pink and purple painting of the Virgin Mary and a 13-foot cross were confiscated from one samba school. Other schools report similar seizures. Samba schools organize groups of dancers and floats in the parades and compete with one another for top honors in the annual festival that precedes Ash Wednesday. “It is an inappropriate use of religious symbols because Carnival is
a pagan festival,” one of the police officials in charge of the confiscation told the
Folha de Sao Paulo daily newspaper. Samba schools countered by pointing out that the theme
of this year’s Carnival was the history of Brazil as it celebrates its 500th
anniversary. “Religion is part of Brazil,” said Tatiane Avelino, secretary at
the Unidos da Tijuca samba school. |
| COLOMBIA Pressure on rebels Colombian rebels, accompanied by government officials, visited the Vatican in February to meet with officials of the Holy See and seek their help in mediating an end to the country’s 36-year civil war. The rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Colombia’s peace commissioner were on a European tour to gain support for the peace process in the South American country. The six Marxist FARC rebel commanders are all wanted on murder, kidnapping, and terrorism charges in Colombia. But arrest warrants pending against them have been suspended for the duration of slow-moving talks—now a year old—to end the civil war that has claimed more than 35,000 lives in the last decade. Archbishop Pedro Rubiano of Bogota observed that while talk with the FARC is important, it is also important to make demands of the rebels. “You have to make these people see that it’s not by destroying towns, killing children and women that peace is made,” he said. FARC has been ceded virtual control of a large portion of Colombia, ruling it in totalitarian fashion with harsh “war taxes,” involuntary drafts of young men, and a profitable trade in illegal drugs to North America. The Colombian Bishops’ Conference stepped up the pressure on the rebel groups later in February, releasing a document that showed that many families have been forced to leave their homes and become refugees as a result of the guerrilla violence. The document was dated December 1999, but was made public in February, on the occasion of the visit of the Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees of the United Nations, Soren Jesse-Petersen. Jesse-Petersen said during his visit that the Catholic Church has been “one of the few organizations with reliable figures” on the number of those displaced by the violence. The bishops’ conference started tracking the displaced population in 1995, when the problem became a nationwide drama. According to the latest report, between 1995 and last year, 726,000 Colombians fled their towns to seek safety in major cities such as Bogota, Cali and Medellin. Thirty-three percent were displaced because of “uncontrolled violence,” 29 percent as a consequence of activities from the left-wing rebels, while 14 percent escaped because of activities of the right-wing paramilitaries. The Church’s report said 65 percent of the people left their homes because of direct death threats, while 14 percent did so because of massive killings in the region. Moreover, 55 percent of the refugees are teenagers or children, most of whom have become beggars or a cheap and unstable labor force in the cities. The report also says that the large majority of the refugees want to go back to their places of origin, “but they require a minimum of safety and guarantees from the government.” The Colombian bishops then demanded that the rebel Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) express their “real desire for peace” by calling off
violent activities. After delegates of both the Colombian government and FARC met in Rome,
Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro of Tunja —speaking on behalf of the Colombian
Bishops’ Conference—said that the actions of FARC should “be consistent
with their words and show their real desire for peace, as they verbally expressed it”
in the Vatican meetings. Bishop Beniamino Stella, the apostolic nuncio in Colombia, said:
“It would be premature to make a positive assessment of the meeting [at the Vatican],
because deeds have yet to be seen.” |
| NICARAGUA Strings on international aid Thomas Jimenez, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) representative to Nicaragua, has announced that international aid to the country could be halted since the nation’s family planning programs contain “discrepancies” with UN programs. UNFPA was enraged over the decision of the Nicaraguan Minister for Families, Max Padilla, and Education Minister Fernando Robleto, to reject the UN’s “reproductive health” programs. The government ministers made their decision because the UN’s programs advocate legal abortion. Nicaragua is one of numerous Central and South American countries that
have declared March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, as the “National Day of the
Unborn.” The Nicaraguan decree for the day stated that “the right to life,
inherent in each of the inhabitants of the nation and the world, is the principal axis of
human rights and, therefore, merits the determined attention of the government.” |
| CUBA Political freedom shrinking A Cuban human rights groups said on March 5 that the country’s Communist government had increased its crackdown on dissidents in recent months, with nearly 600 people jailed as political prisoners in the past four months. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said the repression is the worst in a decade. “We regret to report that the situation for civil and political rights continues to be very unfavorable in our country, and we consider that there are few reasons to expect significant improvements,” the group said. The penalties range from imprisonment to orders to stay at home beginning around the time of the Ibero-American Summit of heads of state of Latin America, Spain, and Portugal last November. The rights commission said that in the past four months, 352 dissidents had been arrested and 240 had their freedom of movement restricted, normally by being ordered to stay at home. Of the 352 arrested, 21 “peaceful opposition activists” remained in detention, with four of them having been tried and convicted, the commission said. “In our opinion, the four dissidents condemned are completely innocent of the supposed crimes. They simply exercised or tried to exercise elemental civil and political rights in an absolutely peaceful manner,” the statement said. One of those four was Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, who was handed a three-year jail sentence for protests including turning the Cuban flag upside-down and carrying pro-life placards. Attacks on the Church In a letter signed on February 9, but released in Cuba two weeks later, Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino of Havana lamented the way the official press has used the case of Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez to attack the Catholic Church. The 11-year-old boy was found floating in an inner tube off the Florida coast in November after a boat carrying his mother and nine others sank, leaving Elian the only survivor. Relatives in Miami want to keep the boy, while the Clinton administration, Cuba’s government, and the boy’s father want him returned to Cuba. Cardinal Ortega recalled that the bishops’ conference issued a letter in December arguing that Elian should come back to his father in Cuba. Nevertheless, government propaganda suggested that the Church was backing US efforts to keep the boy in Florida, he pointed out. “Then came the notorious Brazilian Frei Betto, who frequently comes here to Cuba to give his not-so-accurate version of things,” the cardinal continued. He regretted the fact that the controversial Brazilian theologian, a supporter of Fidel Castro, had criticized Pope John Paul II for not intervening to bring Elian back to Cuba. The cardinal also regretted the way the official Cuban press has
“demonized” American Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin, whose Miami Beach home
served as the neutral ground for the meeting of Elian with his Cuban grandmothers.
“The sister’s mediation was an initiative of the [US] immigration service,
without any responsibility from the Archdiocese of Miami,” said the cardinal. He said
that the official press deliberately misled readers by confusing the sister’s
personal opinion with the position of the Church “thus eroding the credibility of the
Catholic Church. |
| UNITED
STATES When
euthanasia fails A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that efforts by doctors to assist in the suicide of their patients often fail, leading to more pain and medical complications. The study of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands, where it has been legal for several years, found that when patients sought to kill themselves with drugs prescribed by doctors, the plans did not work as expected in 16 percent of the cases. Other problems and side effects occurred in an additional 7 percent of the cases. Problems surfaced so often that doctors witnessing the attempted suicides felt compelled to intervene and ensure a quick death in 18 percent of the cases. In euthanasia cases, the researchers found that complications developed in 3 percent of the attempts. Patients either took longer than expected to die or (in 6 percent of the cases) awoke from a drug-induced coma that was supposed to be fatal. “This is information that will come as a shock to the many members of the public—including legislators and even some physicians—who have never considered that the procedures involved in physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia might sometimes add to the suffering they are meant to alleviate,” Dr. Sherwin Nuland of Yale University School of Medicine said in an accompanying Journal editorial. Honor for a prelate On March 6, Cardinal John O’Connor of New York was presented with a proclamation awarding him the Congressional Gold Medal, after Congress rushed through a resolution authorizing the presentation. The 80-year-old cardinal, who has been in ill health following brain surgery to remove a tumor last year, received the proclamation of the award, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in a private ceremony at his residence. “For more than 50 years, Cardinal O’Connor has served the Catholic Church and our nation with constancy and commitment,” President Bill Clinton said in a statement issued for the presentation. “Whether it was the soldier on the battlefield or the patient dying of AIDS, Cardinal O’Connor has ministered with a gentle spirit and a loving heart.” New York archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling said the cardinal was
thrilled to receive the honor. “He was very, very happy, very pleased about the whole
thing,” Zwilling said. |
CANADA Mob vandalizes church More than twenty activists stormed into Mary Queen of the World Cathedral in Montreal on March 7, burning homemade crosses, spray-painting altars and walls, blaspheming, throwing condoms, and attempting to overturn the tabernacle while shouting their support for legal abortion. Police arrested three women in their 20s, a girl younger than 18, and three men in their 20s, charging them with illegal assembly. They were released on a promise to appear in court. The police refused to name the suspects, but did say that two of the people arrested will also be charged with assault against police officers, and another with obstruction. Father Jean-Pierre Couturier, the vicar of the parish, told the National
Post that the “anti-Christians” were turning over flowerpots and sticking
sanitary napkins to pictures and walls. Women’s undergarments were found strewn
around the church and hymnals were torn apart. A witness told the paper that the attack
was orchestrated by feminist activists celebrating International Women’s Day. Back to Catholic Information Center on Internet's Main Periodical Page |