News Briefs

Times ad calls for reform of Catholic Church; bishop among signers

New York (RNS)  — A statement calling for fundamental changes in the Roman Catholic Church, including ordination of women and married men, ran as a full-page ad in the New York Times Feb.28. The ad was signed and paid for by more than 4,500 people, including Bishop Emerson Moore, an auxiliary in the New York Archdiocese.

The Ash Wednesday ad, characterized as a "pastoral letter" from Catholics advocating reform in the church, was also meant to highlight the 25th anniversary this year of the Vatican II document "Gaudium et Spes" (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World). It is the document often credited with redefining the church's approach to the world as more open to all cultures and to other religious traditions.

Ground broken for new convent for nuns living at Auschwitz

(RNS) — A Roman Catholic leader joined with a representative of the Polish government Feb. 19 in breaking ground for the site of a new convent for a group of Carmelite nuns now living at the site of the Auschwitz. A representative of Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, took place almost three years to the day after Cardinal Macharski and three other European cardinals signed an agreement pledging to have the convent relocated by the end of February 1989. The presence of nuns at the site has been a source of controversy between Catholics and Jews who believe that Auschwitz should be free of any sectarian structures.

Nuns in Wilmington praying to St. Joseph for another miracle

Wilmington, Del. (RNS)  — Nuns living at the Visitation Monastery here are used to having their prayers answered—although not always in the way they intended.

They tell of Mother Baptista, who lived in the cloistered community shortly after the monastery was built in 1893 and who prayed to St. Joseph for an organ for the chapel.

The way Sister Marie Joan Kelly tells the story, "She was on her knees praying and she said, "Oh, St. Joseph, we need an organ so bad. Please provide an organ for the chapel." The next day a man came to the door with a typewriter. Mother Baptista said, "Oh, St. Joseph, wrong type of keys."

Today Sister Kelly and her 27 colleagues at the monastery—ranging in age from 25 to 97—are praying to St. Joseph for another miracle. The monastery's roof is leaking in five places, and almost all of its 200 custom-sized windows need to be replaced. The cost of a major renovation would be prohibitive, so the nuns are praying for a donation of more than 100 acres of land to replace their facility which covers an entire city block.

"We trust completely in divine Providence," says the community superior, Mother Margaret Mary Rumpf, "If it is God's will for us to move, God will provide the land and the financial resources."

Poll of Minnesota Catholics shows broad disagreement with leaders

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A majority of Minnesota's Roman Catholics say their church's leaders are out of touch with lay people on birth control, on the role of women and on the rule against married priest.

These were findings of a copyrighted poll conducted by the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch and WCCO radio and television.

By a margin of 64-33 percent, Catholics said they disagreed with the hierarchy's position on artificial birth control.

Catholics favored the ordination of women to the priesthood by a margin of 60 to 37 percent.

And 68 percent of all Catholics said they felt priest should be allowed to marry.

The poll asked both Catholic and Protestant Minnesotans if they would favor the ordination of practicing homosexuals into the ministry or the priesthood.

Some 61 percent of the Protestants said they do not want homosexual clergy while 31 percent said gay clergy would be acceptable.

Catholics were slightly less adamant in their opposition to homosexual clergy with 58 percent saying they would not approve while 34 percent said they would accept a gay priest.

The newspaper, in an article about poll results, quoted Catholics on both sides of the birth control and other issues.

"I'd like to follow all the church's teachings," said John Spott of Elaine, Minn.

"They (the hierarchy) have their view of birth control, but I don't think it is completely realistic in this day with high teen-age pregnancy and poverty levels."

New Catholic bishop of Brooklyn would bar Cuomo from speaking

New York (RNS)  — The newly named Roman Catholic bishop of Brooklyn went toe-to-toe with two difficult issues in his debut here when he criticized Gov. Mario Cuomo's stance on abortion and a gay Catholic group for viewing homosexuality as morally equal with heterosexuality.

Neither the governor nor Dignity, the gay group, will be allowed to use diocesan facilities, Bishop Thomas V. Daily told reporters at a press conference Feb. 22.

The statements at once established his episcopal style and conservative credentials and showed he will be compatible with the positions voiced by New York's Cardinal John O'Connor.

Asked where he stood on AIDS, condoms, gay rights and elected Catholic officials who take an abortion stance at odds with church teaching, the new bishop said he was "coming from what the church teaches on all of these issues.

"That's where I start. That's where I get my direction." he said.

In answer to a question, Bishop Daily reportedly said he supports Auxiliary Bishop Austin Vaughan's position that Mr. Cuomo is endangering his soul by publicly supporting women's right to abortion while privately opposing that choice."I find it to be a contradiction to have a private view of one thing and have an opposite view in public. I think that politicians have to be consistent." he said. He also told reporters that he would bar Mr. Cuomo from speaking in parishes in Brooklyn because of the governor's position on abortion.

Lutheran-Catholic dialogue teams differ on saints and Mary.

(RNS) — While acknowledging a common belief in the role of Jesus Christ as the "sole mediator" between the believer and God, participants in an official Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue said that members of the two traditions are "still separated by differing views on matters such as the invocation of saints and the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary."

These subjects are discussed in a document titled "The One Mediator, The Saints, and Mary," which was unanimously approved Feb. 17 by the 20-member dialogue during a working session in Lantana, Florida.

The report culminated seven years of study and discussion by participants in a dialogue that will observe its 25th anniversary in September. In 1983 the dialogue approved a common statement on justification by faith and decided to focus on the saints and Mary in the next round of talks.

Signers of the new document identified four major areas of disagreement between Lutheran and Catholics—the use of the term "saint", the question of whether saints in heaven intercede for believers on earth, whether Christians should invoke the saints in their prayers and whether Mary plays a mediating role between the believer and Christ.

Dr. H. George Anderson, president of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and Lutheran co-chair of the dialogue, said the latest round of talks "has opened a window for Lutherans into Roman Catholic piety since Vatican II. Most of us have an image of Marian devotion that dates to before Vatican II. Understanding the depth of a piety that is not our own can make more real for us the Communion of the Saints, which Lutherans confess."

Bishop Asks Priest to Stop Blessing Homosexual Unions

PORT HURON, Mich. (RNS) — The bishop of the Michigan Episcopal Diocese made an emotional plea to priests here March 2 to stop blessing same-sex unions until the diocese can clarify its beliefs about such blessings.

However, at least one priest said he would not obey the bishop's request.

And several conservative priests chided the bishop for not going far enough in censuring activity which they say clearly violates Scripture and church teachings.

Michigan Diocesan Bishop R. Stewart Wood, presiding over one of the most controversial conventions in the diocese's 155-year history, told the 500 delegates that more dialogue is necessary before the blessings can be accepted.

The bishop directed his request in particular to the Rev. Zalmon O. Sherwood, 33, interim pastor of St. Paul's Church in Jackson, Mich.

Father Sherwood, an openly gay priest, publicly admitted blessing same-sex unions during a Jan. 13 symposium in Detroit (the same meeting in which the Rev. Robert Williams of Newark, N.J., remarked that Mother Teresa's life would be improved if she had sex). Father Sherwood has also written about his past sexual affairs with various men in his book, "Kairos: Confessions of a Gay Priest."

A group of 11 priests recently asked Bishop Wood to formally discipline Father Sherwood and uphold the 1979 General Convention's ruling that it is inappropriate to ordain practicing homosexuals.

However, another group of 32 priests sent a letter to Bishop Wood calling on him to resist pressure to discipline priests who openly discuss their sexuality.