PRIEST ACTION IN COMMUNIST-LED GROUP EXPELLED FROM ORDER

MANILA (RNS) — A Roman Catholic priest who represented a regional affiliate of the banned left-wing National Democratic Front (NDF) during the failed peace talks with the Philippines government was expelled from his order shortly before the truce collapsed.

The Rev. Rustico Tan was expelled from the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) January 15. The action was announced February 15, eight days after the peace talks and the truce ended, by an official of the Archdiocese of Cebu, a central Philippines island where Father Tan served both as priest and as a leader of the communist-led NDF.

Although the Church official did not give a reason for the priest's expulsion, it is widely believed to be the result of Father Tan's involvement with the communist group.

The announcement was made just three weeks after the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, led by Cebu's archbishop, Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, issued a statement condemning the actions of priest and nuns who join the armed left.

According to MSC district supervisor, Rev. Roberto Villanueva, Father Tan remains a priest but without a congregation or a jurisdiction where he can perform priestly functions. At least a half dozen priests came out openly as representatives of the NDF during the recently expired truce. Father Tan was the first to be punished.

In other actions believed to be aimed at countering communist influence in the Church, the bishops recently launched an investigation of the National Secretariat for Social Action, an agency of the bishops' conference.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Vidal has rejected a petition of soldiers calling for the expulsion of the Redemptorist Order from the island province. About 1,000 members of the Philippine constabulary asked the cardinal to expel the Redemptorist priests after they held funeral services for two slain members of the communist New People's Army in January. The soldiers accused the Order of being "sympathetic to communists."

MUGAVERO BARS DIGNITY FROM INSTITUTIONS OF BROOKLYN DIOCESE

NEW YORK (RNS) — Roman Catholic Bishop Francis J. Mugavero of Brooklyn has barred Dignity, a Catholic group that ministers to homosexuals, from using any diocesan institutions for its meetings.

His Feb. 12 order came as the Jesuit Provincial Office in the Bronx was talking with officials in the neighboring New York Archdiocese about a weekly Mass for Dignity that is held at St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan.

Bishop Mugavero's order made Brooklyn the latest in several Catholic dioceses around the country to take such action in the wake of a Vatican directive issued last October warning all bishops against support for homosexual groups. Bishops in Atlanta, Pensacola and Buffalo, New York, have been among those issuing such orders.

"I do not feel good about it," the church's pastor, the Rev. Ernest H. Fiorillo, said of the bishop's order. "I am personally convinced that we have more gay people at our regular parish Mass than in the Mass that was held for Dignity."

In a 1976 pastoral letter Bishop Mugavero expressed "concern and compassion" for people of homosexual orientation, and pledged "our willingness to help you bear your burdens, to try to find new ways to communicate the truth of Christ, because it will make you free."

Bishop Mugavero's order was directed at "any organizations which seek to undermine the teachings of the Church, which are ambiguous about it or which neglect it entirely." He named Dignity as one such group.

MALACHI MARTIN STIRS FLAP WITH NEW BOOK ON JESUITS

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Malachi Martin, the best-selling author of books about Vatican intrigue, has come out with a manifesto against the international Society of Jesus that has Jesuits in the United States crying foul.

His new book, The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church, accuses the 450-year-old religious order—which counts 26,000 members around the world—of everything from undermining the authority of the papacy to waging war against Western capitalism.

"What they've become are social planners and politicians," said Martin, a 65-year-old former Jesuit. "And they weren't founded for that. They were founded to defend the Church and teach the Gospel."

While Father Martin has for years written about the secret inner workings of the Roman Curia with a dramatic and often sensational touch, seldom has he infuriated Catholic leaders as he has with this new book which was released February 18.

The Jesuit Conference, which is headquartered in Washington and represents the Order in the United States, fired off a press released charging that the book is filled with "factual errors and profoundly erroneous interpretations of the religious history of the past quarter century."

America, a Jesuit weekly published in New York, described the book as a "latest literary artifact" that "does not qualify as fact and yet is not presented as fiction."

But Simon and Schuster is taking a different view, defending Fr. Martin as a critically acclaimed author whose "record of accuracy is so unique that it has been called 'uncanny.'"

Despite their relatively small numbers, the Jesuits have always been an object of fascination and controversy worldwide. The Order was founded in the sixteenth century by St. Ignatius Loyola as what Fr. Martin describes as the pope's "rapid deployment force," always ready to carry out his orders anywhere in the world.

The new book charges that the Jesuits have recently abandoned their traditional oath of loyalty to the pope.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II took the unprecedented step of appointing his personal delegate to govern the affairs of the Order after the former Superior General Pedro Arrupe suffered a stroke. The move was widely believed to be an expression of displeasure with political activism and liberal leanings within the Order.

Now The Jesuits is causing a new stir. Father Martin, a native of Ireland, who now resides in New York City, charges in the book that, among other things:

• A small group of Jesuits has installed a new and revolutionary agenda, unknown to many rank-and-file members of the Order.

• This agenda is thoroughly political but is disguised successfully as religion.

• There is a secret blueprint in which American Jesuits set forth their aims to replace democratic capitalism with Maoist Marxism in the United States.

POPE TO BEATIFY 85 MEN MARTYRED DURING REFORMATION IN ENGLAND

LONDON (RNS) — A total of 85 Roman Catholic men—including sixty-three priests and twenty-two laymen—who were martyred for the Faith during the Reformation in England will be beatified by Pope John Paul II, according to Church officials here.

The men, martyred between 1584 and 1679, will receive the title "blessed" during a ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on November 22. The ceremony will mark the second stage in a process that leads to a declaration of sainthood, expected for the group by the end of this century.

The announcement was welcomed both by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume, and by Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie.

Archbishop Runcie admitted that in a previous era, "this announcement would have fueled controversy and communal rivalry. Today we can celebrate their heroic Christian witness." Cardinal Hume said that the action of the Catholic Church honored the honest convictions of people of faith.

The title of "venerable," the first step in the process of canonizing saints, was bestowed on the 85 in 1929. The Rev. Peter Clark, spokesman of the Church in Britain, said the process is taking such a long time because the records of people who died long ago are often incomplete, making it difficult to determine "whether they died for their faith or were killed for some other reason, or died in prison."

VATICAN ASTONISHED BY REPORTS POLICE SEEKING HEAD OF VATICAN BANK

NEW YORK (RNS) — The Vatican has reacted with astonishment at reports that an Italian judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the American who heads the Vatican Bank and who was a target of an investigation into the collapse in 1982 of Banco Ambrosiano, Italy's largest bank.

According to report in Italian newspapers, warrants were issued for Archbishop Marcinkus and twenty-three others—including Luigi Mennini and Pellegrino de Strobel, senior officials at the Vatican Bank—in connection with the bank failure and the mysterious death of Robert Calvi, who was found hanged from the Blackfriars Bridge in 1982. Mr. Calvi was the bank's managing director and a friend of the Archbishop. The reports quoted an unidentified judge as stating that the Archbishop was wanted as "an accessory to fraudulent bankruptcy."

A brief, unsigned Vatican statement issued Feb. 26 said that "within Vatican circles…the news of the measures that have reportedly been taken by Milanese magistrates against the president and two high officials of the Institute of Religious Works (known as the Vatican Bank) could not but cause profound astonishment," particularly since the incident occurred a number of years ago and since, as far as the Vatican knows, there have been no new developments in the case.

The statement pointed out that when the investigation began the official judicial notices, which the Vatican refused to accept, were concerned with activities of the individuals in their positions as officials of the Institute for Religious Works. The Vatican maintains that the state is powerless to take action against Archbishop Marcinkus and the other two officials because of a clause in the 1929 Lateran Treaty. According to the Feb. 26 statement, the treaty provision "exempts the central agencies of the Catholic Church from all interference from the Italian State."

"Despite this exemption, with continues to be put forward by the Vatican" the statement said, Archbishop Marcinkus "from the start has declared himself willing to provide the judges of Milan with every clarification of the facts." The bank officials have cooperated with the investigation, the statement said, by producing various memos "accompanied by copious documentation."

The previous investigation of Archbishop Marcinkus centered on his role in the granting of a $1.3 million by Banco Ambrosiano to non-existing or "dummy" companies controlled by the Vatican Bank. Those loans, said authorities, led to the collapse of the private Milan-based bank.

Eventually, the Vatican, which once held a significant stake in Banco Ambrosiano, agreed to a settlement payment of $250 million to the bank's creditors. Vatican officials, however, have not admitted any responsibility for the bank's failure and have refused to detail the Vatican Bank's involvement in the matter.

THREE U.S. BISHOPS NAMED TO PANEL TO REVIEW SEATTLE ARCHDIOCESE

NEW YORK (RNS) — A panel of three U.S. bishops has been appointed to review the conditions in the Archdiocese of Seattle, where Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen was stripped of authority following disciplinary action by the Vatican.

A spokesman for Archbishop Pio Laghi, the Vatican ambassador to the United States, stressed that the new committee was not named in response to protests against the Vatican action that placed Auxiliary Bishop Donald Wuerl in charge of five significant areas of diocesan activities.

Several noted Church observers, however, hailed the move as a sign that the reaction by priests, bishops and laity against the disciplinary move have forced the Vatican to appoint the panel. Most of those interviewed also believe that the committee's review could pave the way to restoring full authority to Archbishop Hunthausen.

Hunthausen supporters also were heartened by the composition of the new ad hoc committee formed "to assess the current situation in the Archdiocese of Seattle," according to a brief Feb. 9 release from Archbishop Laghi. Members of the committee are Cardinals Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, John O'Connor of New York and Archbishop Quinn of San Francisco. Both Cardinal Bernardin and Archbishop Quinn are widely viewed as belonging to the "moderate to progressive" wing of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and sympathetic toward Archbishop Hunthausen.

Neither the Vatican representative nor the bishops' conference would provide any details about how the new committee will work or what its focus would be.

"All they are doing is just looking at the question of how the arrangement initiated by the appointment of Bishop Wuerl is working. This was envisioned at the time of Bishop Wuerl's appointment," said the spokesman for Archbishop Laghi.

He would not speculate on whether the committee's work could lead to restoration of Archbishop Hunthausen's authority but said, 'There is a wide scope of possible recommendations that could be made." While noting that Pope John Paul II has the final say in the matter, the spokesman said the recommendation of the ad hoc committee would be significant. "When they examine the situation, they will be in a better position than anyone to make a recommendation."

Both conservative and liberal Church observers view the appointment of this committee as the first step in restoring Archbishop Hunthausen's full authority. Those interviewed agree that the committee's makeup works in his favor.

VATICAN CONDEMNS ALTERNATIVE CHILD-BEARING METHODS

Washington (RNS) — In a long-awaited document on biological ethics, the Vatican has condemned new technologies developed to provide infertile couples with children.

Such practices as artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and "surrogate motherhood" come under criticism in the 38-page statement as attacks on the dignity of human life and sanctity of marriage. The statement, entitled "Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation," calls on civil authorities to restrict or outlaw use of the technologies.

"Respect for the unity of marriage and for conjugal fidelity demands that the child be conceived in marriage," says the document, issued by the Vatican's Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by Pope John Paul II.

"The bond existing between husband and wife" confers on the spouses "the exclusive right to become father and mother solely through each other," it asserts.

The Holy See has spoken often on biological and medical ethics questions, but the Congregation, headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, says in the document that a clarification of its positions was needed in light of advances in technology.

The Vatican cited, in particular, in vitro fertilization, in which the sperm and egg are fertilized in a dish. The technology which made it possible to "procreate apart from sexual relations," the Vatican said, "but what is technically possible is not for that reason morally permissible."

The Instruction, which carries the weight of official Church teaching, objected to what it described as the destruction of human embryos that occurs in the process of in vitro fertilization.

During the process a number of fertilized ova are cultivated but only one is transferred to the woman, the document notes. The others are either frozen or destroyed. "Through these procedures," it says, life and death are subjected to the decision of man."

The Instruction says that surrogate motherhood fails to "meet the obligations of maternal love, of conjugal fidelity, and of responsible motherhood," and that it "offends the right of the child to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world, and brought up by his own parents."

While expressing sympathy for couples unable to have their own children, the Vatican documents asserts that no one has a right to children. "The child is not an object to which one has a right, nor can he be considered an object for ownership," it says.

The document says infertile couples can find hope in breakthroughs in the study of infertility and its cures. It also says that sterility can be an occasion for couples to perform important services, such as adoption of unwanted children.

In addition to procreative technologies, such practices as medical experimentation involving human embryos and medical diagnoses of fetuses were viewed with suspicion by the Vatican.

The Vatican calls on medical researchers to "refrain from operations on live embryos, unless there is a moral certainty of not causing harm to the life or integrity of the unborn child and the mother."

On the matter of pre-natal diagnosis, the Instruction argues that the practice should not lead to abortion of fetuses found to be suffering from permanent afflictions. "A diagnosis which shows the existence of a malformation or a hereditary illness should not be the equivalent of a death sentence," it says.

The stances on both experiments using embryos and pre-natal diagnosis stem from the Church's view that the unborn are persons entitled to full rights.