News Briefs

W. German Lawmaker: No Tax Break if Church Bans Women's Ordination

BERLIN (RNS) — In an action that could have implications for the Roman Catholic Church in West Germany, a member of parliament there has moved to deny a traditional tax benefit to a small Lutheran denomination that bans ordination of women.

The challenge involves the Lutheran Church of Schaumberg-Lippe in Lower Saxony, the smallest of the 17 regional Protestant churches in West Germany, but the issues are the same for the Catholic Church, to which 27 million West Germans belong, more than all the Protestant churches combined.

Edith Niehuis, a Social Democratic member of the Parliament (Bundestag), argues that denial of ordination to women by the Schaumberg-Lippe church violates a provision of the West German constitution which bans discrimination based on a person's sex.

The Schaumberg-Lippe church, with only 70,000 of West Germany's 25 million Protestants, is the only one of the 17 regional churches which still denies ordination to women.

The system was instituted after the disestablishment of German churches at the end of the First World war. The church tax provides for a piggy back tax equal to 9 percent of the state income tax, paid only by church members but mandatory for them.

The tax is collected at the source by employers before church members see their money and forwarded through the state finance office to the church headquarters. The churches then decide on distribution for common tasks and to local churches.

New Jersey Removes Religious Reference from Law Licenses

(RNS) — The New Jersey Supreme Court has removed the phrase "in the year of our Lord" from law licenses after three lawyers complained about the religious reference.

In a letter of protest, Adam Jacobs, Charles Novins and Ann Sorrell—who described themselves as an agnostic, an atheist and a secular humanist respectively—said they "are personally offended that the certificate indicates the date of conferral by making reference to and exalting (through capitalization of the word 'Lord'), a deity in which we do not believe."

The lawyers said they "find it particularly objectionable that a direct reference to a deity is made on a document conferred by a judicial body, since the judiciary, among all other legal institutions, should be the most sensitive to maintaining religious neutrality on documents served in its name."

N.J. Township Discontinues Worship in Municipal Building

(RNS) — Religious organizations may no longer use the Municipal Building in Lacey Township, N.J. for worship services.

For eight years, the city had allowed three or four religious organizations to use the facility on weekends. But when a group of traditionalist Catholics asked to use the building once a month, they were granted permission only one time and then turned down for future requests.

The Rev. Paul A. Wickens, leader of the group called Traditional Catholics of Ocean County, said he believed the city caved in to demands from mainstream Catholic clergy in refusing permission for future use of the building.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State protested the decision, telling the Lacey Township officials they were not allowed to favor one religious group over another. In response, the city has told religious groups that none of them may use the Municipal Building for worship.

Orthodox Priests Cautious in Viewing Religious Liberty in U.S.S.R.

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Two Russian Orthodox priests, visiting the United States without their government's permission, said Aug. 4 that the Soviet Union's halting steps toward greater religious freedom are jeopardized by the country's political ferment.

The Revs. Gleb Yakunin and the Rev. Georgi Edelshtein, at a breakfast news conference held by the Institute on Religion and Democracy here, said the "situation for religious liberties" in the Soviet Union is "slowly getting better," largely because of the reform campaigns initiated by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

But the two priests also said that a well-entrenched, middle-level Soviet bureaucracy remains deeply hostile toward organized religion and that the KGB, the Soviet secret police, still threatens and dominates the country's official religious life. The sometimes pessimistic outlook of the two priests contrasted sharply at times with the buoyant assessments of other clergy from the Soviet Union and visitors from the West who have spoken with great optimism about the new religious tolerance.

The hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, like that of most other religious groups in the Soviet Union, "is still highly compromised by the KGB," observed Father Yakunin. "No one would fight against the KGB."

Father Edelshtein said the official attitude of the state toward religion has not changed. "It is not only a secular state, it is not even an atheistic state—it is a deeply anti-religious state and will be for a long time to come," said the 57-year-old priest.

Pope's Remarks on God's Covenant Stirs New Flap with Jews

NEW YORK (RNS) — Remarks made by Pope John Paul II during an Aug. 2 general audience at the Vatican have stirred a new controversy in Catholic-Jewish relations, which already were in turmoil over the continuing presence of a Carmelite convent at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

An English-language text of the pope's comments released by the Vatican Press Office quoted John Paul as saying that "the history of the Old Testament shows many instances of Israel's infidelity to God. Hence God sent the prophets as his messengers to call the people to conversion, to warn them of their hardness of heart and to foretell a new covenant still to come. The new covenant foretold by the prophets was established through Christ's redemptive sacrifice and through the power of the Holy Spirit."

The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith expressed concern that the pope was implying that the Jewish covenant with God has been superceded by the Christian covenant as the only everlasting one. Such an interpretation, the Jewish agency said, would fly in the face of the Second Vatican Council's document "Nostra Aetate" and previous statements made by John Paul himself affirming that God has an irrevocable covenant with the Jewish people.

Highlights of Pope John Paul II's Relations with Jews

(RNS) — Following are some of the highlights of Pope John Paul II's relations with Jews during the 11 years of his pontificate:

Mar. 12, 1979: Pope meets with 24 representatives of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations at the Vatican and reaffirms his commitment to Catholic-Jewish dialogue. Some Jewish participants express regret that John Paul referred to the "Jewish religious community" rather than the "Jewish people."
Nov. 30, 1980: In his encyclical, "Dives in Misericordia" (On the Mercy of God), pope refers to the Old Testament injunctions of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" as a "distortion of justice." American Jewish Congress says the encyclical misrepresents Judaism.
Mar. 5, 1982: Pope tells participants in Catholic-Jewish dialogue that relations between the Jewish and Christian communities have been "marked by misunderstandings and resentments" but that Christians are "on the right path" toward reconciliation.
Sep. 15, 1982: Pope receives Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat at the Vatican and tells him terrorism is "unacceptable" as a method for solving conflicts. Jewish leaders express outrage at the meeting, saying it gives the PLO added dignity and status.
Apr. 18, 1985: During an audience with Jewish and Catholic scholars, pope recalls "the deep Jewish roots of Christianity" and refers to Jewish suffering during the Holocaust.
Apr. 13, 1986: John Paul becomes the first pope ever to visit a Jewish house of worship when he goes to Rome's main synagogue, embraces Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff and describes the Jewish people as Christianity's elder brothers.
Oct. 2, 1986: Pope sends unprecedented message of good wishes to Chief Rabbi Toaff to mark the Jewish feast of Rosh Hashanah.
Jun. 15, 1987: Pope receives Austrian President Kurt Waldheim in a private audience at the Vatican. Jewish leaders express outrage, noting that Mr. Waldheim was involved in Nazi activities during World War II.
Aug. 8, 1987: In a letter to Archbishop John L. May of St. Louis, president of the (U.S.) National Conference of Catholic Bishops, pope uses the term "Shoah," the Hebrew word for martyrdom, to refer to the Holocaust. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who had sharply criticized the pope two months earlier for attempting to "de-Judaize" the Holocaust, says the new statement is "gratifying."
Sep. 1, 1987: Pope meets with American Jewish leaders at his summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. Jewish participants say meeting was historic and raised Catholic-Jewish relations "to a new plateau."
Jun. 23, 1988: On a visit to Austria, pope says the country suffered under the Nazis and calls attention to Catholics who were persecuted during World War II. Jewish leaders charge John Paul was deliberately ignoring Austria's history of anti-Semitism and Jewish suffering during the Holocaust.
Aug. 1, 1989: In a general audience at the Vatican, pope says Old Testament "shows many instances of Israel's infidelity to God" and refers to a new covenant "established through Christ's redemptive sacrifice." Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith expresses concern about "such a return to the dangers of past triumphalism."

Research on American Catholic Church Raises New Questions

(RNS) — After supporting research into several areas of American Catholic Church life in the past 15 years, the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment has found that the results raise new questions and problems.

In the last issue of Progressions, its occasional publication, Lilly presents journalistic summaries of the findings of several studies for which it has made research grants in the past decade and a half. Among other things, these projects have found that:

The vast majority of Catholics active in parish life approve of the reforms ushered in by the Second Vatican Council.
For every 10 priests who leave the active ministry by resignation, retirement or death, only six are replaced by ordination.
Seminarians today tend to be older and more conservative than their counterparts of the 1960s and express greater satisfaction with their training.
Some 80 percent of U.S. orders of Catholic nuns are not prepared to care for their retired members.

In a summary of the study projects, Fordham University sociologist James R. Kelly writes that "every question answered through this research has, it seems, raised paradoxes and other questions."

As examples, Dr. Kelly asks, "why do contemporary seminarians rate seminaries more favorably than in the past, even though the number of seminarians is declining? Why, in the face of that decline, has morale among priests reportedly increased since the mid-1970's? And why, while the ranks of seminarians decrease, do the data reflect favorable views of contemporary parish life and the clergy?"

According to the sociologist, examples like these "remind us how little is securely known about complex issues facing the church."

Writer Jane Redmont, who is working on a book on Catholic women in the United States, describes proposals for future Lilly research projects in the special issue of Progressions, for which she was general editor. She says the endowment is currently accepting such proposals in four areas:

Changing nature of Catholic leadership, studying the ways in which lay men and women are called, trained and compensated for official ministerial roles and the role of lay people in professional ministry.
Changing nature of Catholic education, examining the impact of the decline of the Catholic school system in the past 25 years and the contemporary identity and purpose of Catholic higher education.
Changing cultural makeup of the American Catholic people, collecting data about the numbers, origins, attitudes, religious practices and needs of the new immigrant groups.
Emerging pluralism in the American Catholic Church, in the areas of theology, worship, authority and expressions of religious life.

Seminary opening in Lithuania

A second Roman Catholic seminary will be opening this fall in Soviet-occupied Lithuania, according to the New York-based Lithuanian Information Center.

The Rev. Petras Kimbrys, one of the editors of Catholic World, told Vatican Radio that the seminary at Telsiai, Lithuania, is being reestablished after more than four decades, with the blessing of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Lithuania.

Telsiai was the site of one of four Catholic seminaries in pre-World War II Lithuania. It was forced to close in 1946.

Father Kimbrys said the decision to reopen the seminary comes at a time when the region is facing a critical shortage of clergy. Some 70 parishes, nearly half the total of the region, are without priests, he said.

Father Kimbrys reported that 30 young men have already applied for admission to the seminary.

Catholics, Though Still a Small Minority, Growing in the South

RICHMOND, KY. (RNS) — The Roman Catholic Church has been growing in the South, but it still represents a small minority of the population, according to figures cited by Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin of Chicago at a conference on evangelizing the South held here at Eastern Kentucky University.

The cardinal, a native of South Carolina, said that during the last two decades, the number of Catholics in Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Virginia increased by 425,000, or 59 percent. But the growth only meant that Catholics went from making up 2.7 percent of the population to 3.3 percent in 1989, he noted.

The Rev. Peter Dora, director of evangelization for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, said the growth came from migration of Catholics from other parts of the country, children born into Catholic families and adult converts to Catholicism.

"I know what this minority status means from my personal experience," Cardinal Bernardin said. "When I was growing up in Columbia, S.C., my sister, my two cousins and I were the only Catholics in our neighborhood and in the school we attended. While I have pleasant memories of that period in my life, being a Catholic in the South frequently meant having to stand up and be counted."

Witches in Rhode Island Granted Tax Exemption as Religious Group

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (RNS) — A coven of witches, with the help of testimony from a Unitarian minister, has convinced state officials here that it is a legitimate religious group entitled to tax-exempt status.

The state Division of Taxation July 28 reversed one of its own rulings and issued a sales tax exemption to the Rosegate Coven, also known as Our Lady of the Roses Wiccan Church.

"Yes, I think the decision gives us legitimacy," declared the coven's high priestess, Lady Genevieve, known to most people outside the coven as Joyce Siegrist, 45. "With this ruling, we witches will definitely be able to come out of the closet and take our place in our society."

Ms. Siegrist, who is employed by Blue Cross of Rhode Island, said her initial training for becoming a Wiccan priestess occurred during six years of study under Cassandra Salim, a high priestess in New Orleans. The Rhode Island group, she said, are the initiates, while the 11 coven members constitute the core group. Generally, she said, the coven meets as a "circle" about three times a month, depending on the phase of the moon, in a grange hall in Cranston, R.I., where the rituals are performed.

At the heart of Wiccan worship is a belief in a deity with male and female attributes, god and goddess in one. While witches believe a Wiccan can tap into a deity's psychic energy and use it for good or ill, those involved say no witch would try to use those forces for destructive purposes because they also believe that good or evil deeds return to them three-fold.

Ms. Siegrist recently has led a Wiccan Anti-Defamation League campaign against stories and letters linking witchcraft with devil worship or otherwise putting witches in a bad light.

Cartoon: A cloud (Spirit of Vatican II) blows a hot-air ballon (RENEW) but the balloon is punctured on a spire (communism). Other tall pointed objects (liberalism, ecumenism, modernism, humanism, and materialism) surround the balloon.