RNSbriefs_07_04

RNS News Briefs

German archbishop appointed new head of Vatican’s doctrine office

By ALESSANDRO SPECIALE
c. 2012 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has tapped a fellow German to lead the Vatican doctrinal office he headed for 24 years before being elected to the papacy.

The Vatican announced on July 2 that Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller will replace American Cardinal William J. Levada as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The congregation that was once known as the Inquisition still focuses on enforcing orthodoxy in the Catholic Church, and it remains one of the most influential departments in the papal bureaucracy.

The CDF, as it is called, launched the Vatican investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the main association for the various communities of American nuns. In recent years its mission has expanded to include dealing with reports of sexual abuse by priests all over the world.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a leading U.S.-based support group for victims of sexual abuse by clergy, criticized Mueller’s appointment because in 2004, while serving as bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria, Mueller had returned a local priest, the Rev. Peter Kramer, to pastoral work without alerting the parish to previous charges of sexual abuse against Kramer.

“Pope Benedict had hundreds of options here. Yet he deliberately elevated a bishop who knowingly put kids in harm’s way,” SNAP said in a statement. “This choice rubs salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of thousands of suffering victims and millions of betrayed Catholics.”

In 2010, Mueller rejected criticism over his handling of the case, saying that reinstating Kramer in parish ministry had been done in collaboration with parish officials.

Mueller, 64, is considered a close follower of Benedict’s teachings and he is the curator of the German edition of the pope’s complete works. But Mueller has also raised eyebrows among conservatives for some of his connections to liberation theologians and his criticisms of schismatic traditionalists who Benedict is trying to woo back into the Roman fold.
Levada, a former archbishop of San Francisco, turned 76 in June and is retiring after seven years as head of the CDF.

First lady: “No place better” for political issues than in church

By ADELLE M. BANKS
c. 2012 Religion News Service

(RNS) — First lady Michelle Obama held up the church as the place to deal with political issues and the catalyst for getting people to the polls in a keynote speech June 28 to members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“You see, living out our eternal salvation is not a once-a-week kind of deal,” she said in a keynote speech at the historically black denomination’s quadrennial General Conference in Nashville, Tenn.

“And in a more literal sense, neither is citizenship.”

She noted that Jesus, too, did not keep his work within the walls of the church.

“And to anyone who says that church is no place to talk about these issues, you tell them there is no place better — no place better,” she said. “Because ultimately, these are not just political issues — they are moral issues.”

Obama said those issues — whether discussed in city council meetings or by Washington politicians — should resurface in grassroots locations like church parking lots, barbershops and beauty salons.

“Find that nephew who has never voted — get him registered,” she suggested.

The first lady urged about 10,000 people at the conference to resist those who think their vote doesn’t count.

“Let’s be very clear,” she said. “While we’re tuning out and staying home on Election Day, other folks are tuning in.”

Obama drew on images from the Old and New Testament to provide lessons about the importance of civic involvement.

“If a young shepherd could defeat a giant, if a man could lead a band of former slaves against the most powerful city in the land until its walls tumbled down, if a simple fisherman could become the rock upon which Christ built his church,” she said, “then surely, we can do our part to be more active citizens.”

Prior to his election, President Obama addressed the last AME General Conference in July 2008. His wife’s speech preceded scheduled discussions of get-out-the-vote initiatives during the AME Church meeting.

Archbishop of Canterbury slams Christians who feel 'disgusted' about homosexuality

By AL WEBB
©2012 Religion News Service

LONDON (RNS) — Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams criticized some Christians for feeling so "embarrassed and ashamed and disgusted" over homosexuality that they seem unwelcoming to outsiders and convey a lack of understanding.

Addressing a group of Christian teenagers at his Lambeth Palace residence in London, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion said Anglicans and other Christians are still in "quite a lot of tangles" about homosexuality. The confusion sometimes leaves the church "scratching its head and trying to work out," Williams said.

His comments came barely two weeks after he slammed the British government for its plans to legalize same-sex marriages -- something that Williams said would be a mistake. The Anglican Communion itself has been deeply divided over homosexuality. The Episcopal Church, the communion's U.S. branch, allows gay bishops and sanctions same-sex commitment ceremonies, while more conservative leaders in Africa strongly denounce homosexuality.

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Williams said that "what's frustrating is that we will have Christian people whose feelings about it are so strong, and sometimes so embarrassed and ashamed and disgusted, that it just sends out a message of unwelcome, or lack of understanding, or lack of patience."

"So whatever we think about it," Williams added, "we need, as a church, to be tackling what we feel about it."

Williams, who is retiring as Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of this year, also spoke about the upcoming Church of England Synod, in York, England, next week, where the controversial issue of women priests is expected to take center stage.

Such much debate has resounded over that one subject, the archbishop said, that the impression is left that sex is "the only thing the church is interested in."

Williams also told his youthful audience that some non-Christians might consider Christians to be "weird," "mad" and "primitive."

"As somebody who doesn't spend all his time with other Christians, I'm quite conscious, too, of the fact that people think we are weird," Williams said.