RELIGION & ITS ALTERNATIVES
POPE SILENCED 100 THEOLOGIANS
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57560-2005Apr15?language=printer
ALAN COOPERMAN AND DANIEL WILLIAMS WASHINGTON POST - By some estimates, the Vatican silenced or reprimanded more than 100 Roman Catholic theologians during John Paul's 26-year reign.As 115 cardinals prepare to enter a conclave Monday to elect the next pope, dissidents are calling for a new openness and willingness to debate such topics as the ordination of women, condom use to fight HIV/AIDS and the morality of homosexuality.
"Suppression of thought, loss of ideas, closing down of discussion -- that's not an act of faith. That's not of the Holy Spirit," said Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun from Erie, Pa. "Unity is good, but it has a dark side."
Chittister is one of several critics of John Paul's legacy who have been brought to Rome by an international dissident network, We Are Church, in an effort to widen the pre-conclave debate. Feeling they are shut out of normal discourse with church leaders, they are holding a series of news conferences, hoping to have an impact through the media.
Their appeals for greater tolerance of dissent are echoed by theologians such as the Rev. Hans Kung of Germany and the Rev. Charles E. Curran of the United States, both of whom were stripped of authority to teach in Catholic universities under John Paul. Neither Kung nor Curran has come to Rome, but they are speaking out. "Many people are now hoping for a pope who will seriously free up the log-jam of reforms" and "have the courage to make a new start," Kung said in a statement.
Advocates for sex abuse victims, Catholic feminists and groups seeking a greater role for the laity in church governance are also calling for a pope who will allow more open debate. Giovanni Avena, editor of the Catholic lay newsletter Adista, said John Paul created a "medieval atmosphere" at the Vatican by emphasizing ritual for ordinary believers while restricting discussion on important issues to his inner circle. He said the decision to bar the College of Cardinals from talking to the media after John Paul's funeral exemplified this attitude.
"They let everyone watch the rituals. Then they forbid access to reality," said Avena, a priest who once worked to turn young people in Sicily against the mafia. "There is no real participation. That is why in Italy you have plazas full of people for this kind of spectacle, and empty churches. Dissidents are asking simply for citizenship to be restored to the people of the church, to the community of believers."
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FEDERAL APPEALS COURT RULES SOME RELIGIONS BETTER THAN OTHERS
http://tinyurl.com/c6n6h
MEREDITH BONNY, RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH TIMES-DISPATCH - The federal appeals court in Richmond ruled yesterday that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors can exclude a member of the Wiccan faith from giving invocations at county meetings. But Wiccan priestess Cynthia Simpson said she intends to renew her appeal in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "I'm eager to appeal," Simpson said. "The ACLU is eager to appeal. We still think we're right."
The Virginia branch of the American Civil Liberties Union came to aid Simpson's case after she was rejected from joining the list of eligible clergy who may be invited to say the prayer during supervisors' meetings. The county policy limits that list to religions that follow Judeo-Christian traditions.
Simpson's belief in Wicca holds among other things that the deity is not separate from humanity and the world but that human beings and everything in and on the Earth are divine. . .
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said yesterday that he was "shocked" by the appellate court's decision. Americans United backed the appeal of Simpson's case along with the ACLU."This is a terrible decision," he said. "It allows government officials to engage in rank discrimination against religious minorities that they don't approve of."
But the three-judge panel that decided the Simpson case noted that the list of eligible clergy is a broad cross section of the county's religious groups. That "made plain [the county] was not affiliated with any one specific faith by opening its doors to a wide pool of clergy. The Judeo-Christian tradition is, after all, not a single faith but an umbrella covering many faiths."
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LOOKS LIKE CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS DIDN'T GO TO THE FUNERAL
http://slate.msn.com/id/2116443/
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, SLATE - The God-given right of the papacy to make and enforce absolute judgments is not at all at stake. Popes may have been wrong on everything, but they were right in general. By the time the church apologizes for saying that condoms are worse than AIDS, or admits that it was complicit at best in the mass murder in Rwanda, another few generations will have died out. This is almost exactly the sort of stuff with which Communists and their fellow travelers once had to content themselves. There had indeed been "spots on Stalin's sun," as one hack so prettily phrased it. But the leading role of the party was still a sure thing. . .
Unbelievers are more merciful and understanding than believers, as well as more rational. We do not believe that the pope will face judgment or eternal punishment for the millions who will die needlessly from AIDS, or for his excusing and sheltering of those who committed the unpardonable sin of raping and torturing children, or for the countless people whose sex lives have been ruined by guilt and shame and who are taught to respect the body only when it is a lifeless cadaver like that of Terri Schiavo. For us, this day is only the interment of an elderly and querulous celibate, who came too late and who stayed too long, and whose primitive ideology did not permit him the true self-criticism that could have saved him, and others less innocent, from so many errors and crimes.
______________________________________________________________________________
Recovered history
POPE ATTACKS GAY AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050222/2005-02-22T201215Z_01_L22608092_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-POPE-BOOK-DC.html
PHILIP PULLELLA, REUTERS, FEB 2005 - Homosexual marriages are part of "a new ideology of evil" that is insidiously threatening society, Pope John Paul says in a new book. In "Memory and Identity," the Pope also calls abortion a "legal extermination" comparable to attempts to wipe out Jews and other groups in the 20th century. . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57560-2005Apr15?language=printer
ALAN COOPERMAN AND DANIEL WILLIAMS WASHINGTON POST - By some estimates, the Vatican silenced or reprimanded more than 100 Roman Catholic theologians during John Paul's 26-year reign.As 115 cardinals prepare to enter a conclave Monday to elect the next pope, dissidents are calling for a new openness and willingness to debate such topics as the ordination of women, condom use to fight HIV/AIDS and the morality of homosexuality.
"Suppression of thought, loss of ideas, closing down of discussion -- that's not an act of faith. That's not of the Holy Spirit," said Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun from Erie, Pa. "Unity is good, but it has a dark side."
Chittister is one of several critics of John Paul's legacy who have been brought to Rome by an international dissident network, We Are Church, in an effort to widen the pre-conclave debate. Feeling they are shut out of normal discourse with church leaders, they are holding a series of news conferences, hoping to have an impact through the media.
Their appeals for greater tolerance of dissent are echoed by theologians such as the Rev. Hans Kung of Germany and the Rev. Charles E. Curran of the United States, both of whom were stripped of authority to teach in Catholic universities under John Paul. Neither Kung nor Curran has come to Rome, but they are speaking out. "Many people are now hoping for a pope who will seriously free up the log-jam of reforms" and "have the courage to make a new start," Kung said in a statement.
Advocates for sex abuse victims, Catholic feminists and groups seeking a greater role for the laity in church governance are also calling for a pope who will allow more open debate. Giovanni Avena, editor of the Catholic lay newsletter Adista, said John Paul created a "medieval atmosphere" at the Vatican by emphasizing ritual for ordinary believers while restricting discussion on important issues to his inner circle. He said the decision to bar the College of Cardinals from talking to the media after John Paul's funeral exemplified this attitude.
"They let everyone watch the rituals. Then they forbid access to reality," said Avena, a priest who once worked to turn young people in Sicily against the mafia. "There is no real participation. That is why in Italy you have plazas full of people for this kind of spectacle, and empty churches. Dissidents are asking simply for citizenship to be restored to the people of the church, to the community of believers."
______________________________________________________________________________
FEDERAL APPEALS COURT RULES SOME RELIGIONS BETTER THAN OTHERS
http://tinyurl.com/c6n6h
MEREDITH BONNY, RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH TIMES-DISPATCH - The federal appeals court in Richmond ruled yesterday that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors can exclude a member of the Wiccan faith from giving invocations at county meetings. But Wiccan priestess Cynthia Simpson said she intends to renew her appeal in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "I'm eager to appeal," Simpson said. "The ACLU is eager to appeal. We still think we're right."
The Virginia branch of the American Civil Liberties Union came to aid Simpson's case after she was rejected from joining the list of eligible clergy who may be invited to say the prayer during supervisors' meetings. The county policy limits that list to religions that follow Judeo-Christian traditions.
Simpson's belief in Wicca holds among other things that the deity is not separate from humanity and the world but that human beings and everything in and on the Earth are divine. . .
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said yesterday that he was "shocked" by the appellate court's decision. Americans United backed the appeal of Simpson's case along with the ACLU."This is a terrible decision," he said. "It allows government officials to engage in rank discrimination against religious minorities that they don't approve of."
But the three-judge panel that decided the Simpson case noted that the list of eligible clergy is a broad cross section of the county's religious groups. That "made plain [the county] was not affiliated with any one specific faith by opening its doors to a wide pool of clergy. The Judeo-Christian tradition is, after all, not a single faith but an umbrella covering many faiths."
______________________________________________________________________________
LOOKS LIKE CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS DIDN'T GO TO THE FUNERAL
http://slate.msn.com/id/2116443/
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, SLATE - The God-given right of the papacy to make and enforce absolute judgments is not at all at stake. Popes may have been wrong on everything, but they were right in general. By the time the church apologizes for saying that condoms are worse than AIDS, or admits that it was complicit at best in the mass murder in Rwanda, another few generations will have died out. This is almost exactly the sort of stuff with which Communists and their fellow travelers once had to content themselves. There had indeed been "spots on Stalin's sun," as one hack so prettily phrased it. But the leading role of the party was still a sure thing. . .
Unbelievers are more merciful and understanding than believers, as well as more rational. We do not believe that the pope will face judgment or eternal punishment for the millions who will die needlessly from AIDS, or for his excusing and sheltering of those who committed the unpardonable sin of raping and torturing children, or for the countless people whose sex lives have been ruined by guilt and shame and who are taught to respect the body only when it is a lifeless cadaver like that of Terri Schiavo. For us, this day is only the interment of an elderly and querulous celibate, who came too late and who stayed too long, and whose primitive ideology did not permit him the true self-criticism that could have saved him, and others less innocent, from so many errors and crimes.
______________________________________________________________________________
Recovered history
POPE ATTACKS GAY AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050222/2005-02-22T201215Z_01_L22608092_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-POPE-BOOK-DC.html
PHILIP PULLELLA, REUTERS, FEB 2005 - Homosexual marriages are part of "a new ideology of evil" that is insidiously threatening society, Pope John Paul says in a new book. In "Memory and Identity," the Pope also calls abortion a "legal extermination" comparable to attempts to wipe out Jews and other groups in the 20th century. . .
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 5:13 AM
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