Rome (ENI).The Vatican has delivered a severe warning to a Belgian Jesuit priest for his views on religious pluralism. The Vatican has asked Jacques Dupuis to remove "ambiguities" from his teaching which "could lead a reader to erroneous opinions" and raise doubts about Christ's saving power. In a "notification" released this week and signed on 24 January by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the 73-year-old Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, declared that Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, a book published by Father Dupuis in 1997, gives rise to "difficulties on important doctrinal points" that had often been defined in church teaching. The four-page notification, which is available on the Vatican's website (www.vatican.va), states that while other religions hold some truth, ultimately they also derive from the founder of Christianity. "It is consistent with Catholic doctrine to hold that the seeds of truth and goodness that exist in other religions are a certain participation in truths contained in the revelation of or in Jesus Christ. However, it is erroneous to hold that such elements of truth and goodness, or some of them, do not derive ultimately from the source-mediation of Jesus Christ." [778 words, ENI-01-0082]

27 February 2001

New York (ENI). The incoming general secretary of the World Methodist Council (WMC) plans to expand and strengthen Methodism's sense of "family" as the council enters a new millennium. "The world is shrinking," George H. Freeman told ENI in an interview as he prepared to take up his new job with the council when Methodists hold their next world assembly, in July in Brighton, England. "It's important that we realise that when we worship on Sunday morning, other people in our tradition are doing that all over the world." Freeman is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church (UMC), one of the biggest Protestant denominations in the United States. [538 words, ENI-01-0081]

26 February 2001

Ottawa (ENI). Canada's churches have applauded a decision by the country's Supreme Court on 15 February forbidding the extradition of two alleged killers to the US state of Washington unless the United States authorities give assurances that the two men will not face the death penalty if convicted. The Supreme Court's decision has been welcomed by the Canadian Council on Justice and Corrections (CCJC), a coalition of 11 churches which together have 14 000 congregations in Canada. The last execution of a criminal in Canada took place in 1962 and the country abolished the death penalty in 1976. [894 words, ENI-01-0080]

23 February 2001

Maputo (ENI). An alarming picture of political tension in Mozambique - a country whose government has been widely praised by the international donor community - has emerged in a report produced jointly by religious bodies and human rights campaigners. The hard-hitting report, published last month, contains the first eyewitness accounts of last year's ''black November'' when street violence broke out in the north of the country and the police suffocated at least 88 people who had been rounded up for allegedly supporting the opposition. [633 words, ENI-01-0078]

Sri Lanka's president orders inquiry into attack on Evangelical church

New Delhi (ENI). Sri Lanka's president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, has ordered an investigation into a mob attack on Sunday 18 February at an Evangelical church in the centre of the country. Twenty-five people were injured, three of them seriously, during the attack on the Sanasum Sevana (New Life) church in Nuwarawatte near Hingurankoda, 220 kilometres north-east of Colombo. The attack has angered many Christians, but the nation's main ecumenical body has urged people not to "over-react". [868 words, ENI-01-0079]

22 February 2001

Geneva (ENI). Almost five centuries after Martin Luther protested against many practices of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican has held a consultation with two organisations representing mainstream Protestantism to discuss the issue of indulgences - a practice that contemporary Protestant theologians find perplexing, as Luther did. The consultation on indulgences, held in Rome on 9 and 10 February, brought together leading theologians representing the Vatican's Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) - which represents 60 million of the world's 64 million Lutherans - and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), which links 75 million Christians in 214 churches in 106 countries. [1343 words, ENI-01-0077]

21 February 2001

New York (ENI). The Episcopal (Anglican) bishop of the US state of Montana is likely to be defrocked as a priest. This is the sentence recommended by a panel of bishops after a church court found him guilty of sexual misconduct involving a married woman who was a parishioner and church employee. If the sentence, given by the panel on 14 February, is upheld, 58-year-old Bishop Charles I. "Ci" Jones will no longer be allowed to administer the church's sacraments - the strictest possible punishment under church law. His attorney, Edward Curry, said Jones was considering appealing against the sentence. Jones has 30 days to file an appeal with a church court. Until that date, the sentence is "stayed" pending a possible appeal. [581 words, ENI-01-0076]

20 February 2001

London (ENI). A Christian shrine in Scotland has become the focus of a political row and has cost a member of parliament his job with the British government. The MP advised Ireland's Taoiseach (prime minister), Bertie Ahern, not to visit a Marian shrine near Glasgow because he feared sectarian disturbances. Ahern, who accepted the advice, was scheduled to unveil a new memorial at the shrine, Carfin Grotto, on 11 February to victims of the 19th-century Irish potato famine. [498 words, ENI-01-0074]

Catholics must not receive Anglican Eucharist, warns Dublin archbishop

London (ENI). Ireland's second most senior Roman Catholic leader, Archbishop Desmond Connell, has ignited a controversy over inter-communion only days before going to Rome to be made a cardinal. In an interview with the Sunday Business Post published on 18 February, Connell, who is Archbishop of Dublin, complained about Catholics taking communion in Anglican churches. He said that by allowing Catholics to receive communion at its services, the (Anglican) Church of Ireland was not respecting the faith and obligations of Roman Catholics. [487 words, ENI-01-0075]

19 February 2001

Warsaw (ENI). Orthodox leaders in Ukraine have warned of public protests if a pilgrimage to their country by Pope John Paul II goes ahead in June. "A visit should take place in a normal, brotherly atmosphere - how can we extend our hands when there are still conflicts between us?" Orthodox Archbishop Adam Augustyn of Lviv, in western Ukraine, near Poland, told ENI. Lviv is on the Pope's itinerary. "As clergy, we will not organise any actions against this visit. But, if this deeply Orthodox nation chooses to protest, how can we stop it?" However a Greek Catholic bishop organising the visit told ENI the papal pilgrimage would definitely go ahead. [1104 words, ENI-01-0072]

Palestinian priest Elias Chacour wins Niwano Peace Prize

Geneva (ENI). Elias Chacour, a Roman Catholic priest from Galilee, was named today as the winner of the 18th Niwano Peace Prize. The prize, which includes a certificate, a medal and 20 million yen (US$172 000), will be presented to 61-year-old Father Chacour on 10 May at a ceremony in Tokyo. The awarding of the prize to a Palestinian who preaches peace seems intended by the Niwano Foundation to send a message to all parties to the violence in Jerusalem and beyond. [775 words, ENI-01-0073]

16 February 2001

New Delhi (ENI). Following accusations at a seminar on the abuse of dowries in India that organised religions are "perpetuating" the illegal dowry system, prominent churchwomen have declared that the nation's churches have done little to put an end to the abusive practice among Christians. In their findings on the dowry system, the seminar participants declared that "organised religions are not part of the solution but part of the problem". Many leading Christians agree. [1360 words, ENI-01-0071]

15 February 2001

Warsaw (ENI). The new head of Poland's Lutheran church has said his exposure to religious tensions in the north of the country, where he has spent much of his life, will help him work for better ecumenical relationships. [529 words, ENI-01-0070]

14 February 2001

Ahmedabad (ENI). The head of a leading Christian action group in the Indian state of Gujarat has called on Christians not to abandon their "evangelical mission" because of threats from Hindu fundamentalists. "India is a free country, and the people have freedom to preach their religion," the co-ordinator of the Gujarat branch of Operation Mobilisation India (OMI), told ENI. OMI is an evangelical network based in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. [739 words, ENI-01-0068]

A Moscow parish overcomes the sound barrier

Moscow (ENI). Over the past ten years, a small Orthodox parish in Moscow has created, almost from scratch, sign language for Orthodox liturgy. Many of the worshippers at the church, Our Lady of Tikhvin, are deaf or hearing impaired. At a recent service, the small choir sang for those who could hear, while for those who could not, a woman in a headscarf stood near the choir translating the hymn into sign language with rapid, vigorous gestures. [670 words, ENI-01-0069]

13 February 2001

London (ENI). Almost 400 people, including an estimated 20 church ministers and several politicians, were arrested during a protest in Scotland outside the Faslane naval base on the River Clyde, where Britain's fleet of Trident nuclear-armed submarines are based. Among those arrested was Norman Shanks, leader of the renowned Iona Community, the multi-denominational worship community on the island of Iona where Celtic Christianity first came to Scotland. [665 words, ENI-01-0067]

12 February 2001

New York (ENI). A major policy initiative by US President George W. Bush to increase federal support for faith-based organisations and charities that provide social services is drawing mixed reactions from the nation's faith communities. The initiative, announced during a series of appearances by the new president late in January, would allow faith-based groups to compete for about US$10 billion in funds for various social service programmes - in effect, opening up the management of many programmes to faith-based groups and charities. [1094 words, ENI-01-0066]

9 February 2001

London (ENI). One of the world's leading teachers of comparative religion, Ninian Smart, who called himself an "Episcopalian-Buddhist" to suggest that no religion has a monopoly of the truth, has died at the age of 73. Professor Smart, a Scot, was described by friends and colleagues as a larger-than-life character who sported a kilt around the campus at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he taught, kept peacocks on his lawn and told excellent anecdotes. But, more importantly, he was a tireless worker, with more than 30 books to his credit, including The Religious Experience, Buddhism and Christianity - Rivals and Allies and, in 1999, World Philosophies. [939 words, ENI-01-0064]

Middle East violence forces Lutherans to shift meeting

Geneva (ENI). A major international church meeting planned to take place in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, is being moved by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF),to Geneva because of the Middle East violence. The LWF council - the organisation's governing body - was to have taken place in Jerusalem from 12 to 19 June. However, the LWF announced today that, after consultation with Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (ELCJ), the meeting's hosts, the venue was being changed because of the "present uncertain situation" following four months of violence in the region. [350 words, ENI-01-0065]

8 February 2001

Bhuj (ENI). A bishop from Gujarat, the Indian state devastated on 26 January by the nation's worst earthquake in 50 years, has warned that survivors need more than mere material assistance. Vinod Malaviya, the Church of North India bishop of Gujarat, told ENI: "It is not enough that relief material is distributed to the affected people. We need to send counsellors to help the people overcome the trauma. We are making arrangements to train young people urgently in counselling before sending them to the villages." [1049 words, ENI-01-0063]

7 February 2001

London (ENI). Cathedral choristers in a diocese in south-west England are visiting primary schools to help children discover the lost joys of singing. Headmaster Richard White of Polwhele House, the "feeder" school for boys for the Truro cathedral choir, has become alarmed that choral singing, once common in English primary schools, is "fast becoming something of a rarity". White believes that choral singing is being driven out by pressures to concentrate on exam subjects and by the lack of funds for specialist teachers, leaving thousands of children deprived in what he described as a vital human area. As chairman of the Choir Schools Association, White realised that he could do something to reverse the trend. He told ENI: "I thought we should be doing more to offer the inspiration of singing to others, and I thought I'd better start at home." [756 words, ENI-01-0062]

5 February 2001

Berlin (ENI). As darkness fell yesterday afternoon on a snowy, bitterly cold day in this reunited city, several hundred Christians and a few curious onlookers huddled together in the shadow of the Brandenburg Gate at a candlelight vigil to mark the official start of the World Council of Churches' Decade to Overcome Violence. The WCC's general secretary, Konrad Raiser, noting that the gate was now open after marking the division between East and West Berlin for almost 30 years, called it "a sign of hope for our journey through the decade, hope that other dividing and excluding walls and gates will open to allow us to walk the way of peace". [1073 words, ENI-01-0054]

Armed intervention to save lives can be justified, says Nobel peace laureate

Berlin (ENI). Nobel peace prize laureate José Ramos-Horta, in Berlin for the launch of the Decade to Overcome Violence, has strongly defended the need for armed intervention by the international community to deal with human rights abuses. Ramos-Horta, joint winner of the 1996 Nobel peace prize and cabinet member for foreign affairs in East Timor's United Nations Transitional Administration, was speaking to journalists at a press conference yesterday (4 February) during a series of events to mark the official launch of the World Council of Churches' Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches seeking Reconciliation and Peace, 2001-2010. [984 words, ENI-01-0055]

Polish bishop disowns priest who ran up debts of $2 million

Warsaw (ENI). A Roman Catholic bishop in northern Poland has disowned a senior priest who has run up debts of US$2 million. "This priest has committed a crime and been penalised by the church for it," said Andrzej Sliwinski, bishop of Elblag, a Baltic Sea port of 125 000 inhabitants. "We've tried to help the people affected by his activities. But we are not obliged to, as this is not the diocese's responsibility". [975 words, ENI-01-0056]

Armed intervention? Let the churches decide

Potsdam (ENI). After a week of debate about whether armed force is justified as a form of humanitarian intervention, the World Council of Churches' central committee today agreed on a compromise that sends a report on the issue to the WCC's 342 member churches "for further study, reflection and use as they deem appropriate". [832 words, ENI-01-0057]

3 February 2001

Berlin (ENI). Lothar was a university professor in East Germany until the political and social upheavals spawned by German reunification in 1990 cost him his job. Then he started drinking, and lost his family and his home. For the following eight years he survived - barely - on the streets of Berlin. "I used to think I was drinking because I was living on the streets. Then I realised I was living on the streets because I was drinking, so I decided to change things." That change began one day in 1998, when Lothar staggered into Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche (Holy Cross Protestant Church) in the multi-racial Kreuzberg section of inner-Berlin. Today, Lothar - who has not had a drink for two years - is a leader of the church's outreach programme to Berlin's estimated 12 000 homeless people. [626 words, ENI-01-0051]

Where they once saw no future, Germany's Jews build a new community

Potsdam (ENI). Professor Julius Schoeps, director of the Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European Jewish Studies at the University of Potsdam, Germany, has a vision for the future - a "new German Jewry". According to government figures, before Hitler came to power in 1933, 600 000 Jews lived in Germany. In 1945, after the end of the Second World War, there were only a few thousand Jews left in Germany, survivors of the Nazi policy of eradicating Jews from Europe. In the early 1970s Russian Jews began to migrate to Germany, at first only a few thousand. But political developments from the late 1980s onwards - the easing of travel restrictions in the former Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany - prompted tens of thousands of Russian Jews to move here. By 1998, as the local Jewish communities tripled or quadrupled in size, the number of Russian Jews living in Germany had reached 100 000. [795 words, ENI-01-0052]

Initiative to cut violence worldwide raises questions for Christians

Potsdam (ENI). From land reform in Zimbabwe to school discipline in Germany, speakers at the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee meeting here today outlined a sprawling agenda to be addressed as the organisation launches its Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches seeking reconciliation and peace, 2001-2010. The DOV was mandated by the WCC's eighth assembly in Harare in 1998. It calls on the WCC's 342 member churches to work to overcome all forms of violence, with the WCC itself playing a coordinating and information-sharing role. The DOV is also "a declaration of the churches' readiness to work together with local communities, secular movements and people of other faiths everywhere to build a culture of peace". The initiative is to be formally launched tomorrow, 4 February, in Berlin. [1149 words, ENI-01-0053]

3 February 2001

Berlin, le 3 février (ENI\Stephen Brown) - Margot Kässmann, évêque de l'Eglise évangélique luthérienne de Hanovre, en Allemagne, a critiqué la Déclaration du Vatican Dominus Iesus et souligné que les Eglises protestantes sont - contrairement à ce qu'indique le document - des Eglises au sens propre.

La publication de Dominus Iesus, sur l'unicité et l'universalité salvifique de Jésus-Christ, en septembre a provoqué la consternation générale, notamment dans les cercles protestants. La Déclaration affirme que les Eglises qui n'ont pas conservé "l'épiscopat valide et la substance authentique et intégrale du mystère eucharistique ne sont pas des Eglises au sens propre".

Le 1er février, lors d'une réunion organisée à Berlin dans le cadre de la rencontre du Comité central du Conseil oecuménique des Eglises (COE) - qui se tient à Potsdam, du 29 janvier au 6 février - l'évêque Margot Kässmann de Hanovre a contesté que les Eglises allemandes soient des Eglises de deuxième classe ou seulement "des communautés ecclésiales" comme les décrit le document Dominus Iesus.

Ce qui est écrit dans le document "ne représente pas du tout la conception luthérienne de l'Eglise", a affirmé Margot Kässmann qui ne pense pas que les remarques faites sur l'Eglise dans le document soient fondées sur la Bible. "Il ne fait aucun doute que nos Eglises sont des Eglises au sens propre! Notre ministère - et notre ministère épiscopal - est un ministère authentique, selon l'enseignement de Jésus-Christ."

Martin Luther, a-t-elle ajouté, a souligné que l'Eglise de la Réforme n'était pas une nouvelle institution mais était en continuité avec l'ancienne Eglise.

L'évêque Kässmann, qui s'exprimait lors d'un débat sur l'avenir de l'oecuménisme en Europe, a appelé les Eglises européennes à mettre de côté les divergences doctrinales et à présenter une voix chrétienne commune pour l'Europe.

"L'Europe ne doit être façonnée seulement dans l'esprit de l'Euro et de la bureaucratie. L'Europe a besoin d'une âme. Nous devons apprendre que nous baptisons au sein de l'Eglise une de Jésus-Christ, qu'il y a reconnaissance mutuelle du ministère et que nous pouvons nous inviter les uns les autres à la célébration de l'Eucharistie."

"En même temps, les Eglises doivent présenter au monde extérieur des critères éthiques clairs pour l'Europe. Au monde extérieur, nos divergences internes sont relativement peu importantes. La Conférence des Eglises européennes (KEK) et le COE ne doivent pas être seulement des lieux de rencontre, mais des lieux où la voix chrétienne en Europe peut franchir les frontières nationales."

Il ne sera pas facile de développer un témoignage commun des Eglises en Europe, a poursuivi l'évêque Kässmann, car le climat oecuménique est actuellement décevant.

Faisant remarquer qu'il y avait une "autre tendance anti-oecuménique" au sein de certaines Eglises orthodoxes, l'évêque Kässmann a évoqué une déclaration adoptée l'an dernier par le Conseil des évêques de l'Eglise orthodoxe russe, qui affirmait que l'Eglise orthodoxe russe était l'Eglise authentique et non juste une Eglise parmi d'autres.

"Dans certains secteurs - même si ce n'est pas dans tous - de l'Eglise orthodoxe, l'oecuménisme est comparé à l'hérésie, a-t-elle dit. En particulier, l'Eglise orthodoxe russe met une grande distance entre elle-même et le mouvement oecuménique, même si pendant les années de la guerre froide, elle a pu utiliser le mouvement oecuménique comme plate-forme", a dit l'évêque Kässmann, en faisant référence au fait que durant la guerre froide les Eglises situées derrière le rideau de fer ont pu établir des contacts avec le monde extérieur grâce à leur adhésion au COE, et recevoir des gouvernements communistes l'autorisation d'envoyer des délégués aux réunions de l'organisation.

Margot Kässmann, la seconde femme en Allemagne à devenir évêque luthérien, chef de l'Eglise évangélique luthérienne de Hanovre, est très engagée dans le mouvement oecuménique. Elle est membre du Comité central du COE depuis 1983; en 1991, elle a été élue au Comité exécutif du COE dont elle est restée membre jusqu'en 1998. Elle est notamment présidente du Conseil consultatif d'ENI. (660 mots)

2 February 2001

Potsdam (ENI). In Furstenwalde, a city of 35 000 residents on the German state of Brandenburg's border with Poland, the group Plattform gegen Rechts (Platform against right-wingers) has persuaded more than 50 local businesses to post small, green signs in their windows identifying their shops as places of refuge from violent racist attacks. The signs - line-drawings in white on a green background showing a person entering a doorway - are simple. The message, said Plattform organiser Rainier Killisch, was clear: "We will not tolerate racist violence and here is a safe place if you are attacked." [878 words, ENI-01-0048]

1000 nuns in Zambia go public with letter criticising government inaction

Lusaka (ENI). Catholic nuns in the Zambia Association of Sisterhoods (ZSA) and the (Catholic) Religious Superiors Conference of Zambia - which unites the leaders of Catholic orders of nuns - have issued a pastoral statement criticising the Zambian government for the nation's falling education standards and poor health care in public hospitals and other institutions. Together the two organisations represent about 1000 nuns across Zambia engaged in missionary work and care for the poor. The Catholic nuns also claimed that the government was not seriously committed to reducing Zambia's widespread poverty. "Poverty and hunger are growing; the majority of our people live on one meal or less a day, and salaries of workers are not paid for months." [622 words, ENI-01-0049]

Protestant denominations are not 2nd-class churches, Lutheran declares

Berlin (ENI). One of Germany's most prominent Lutheran church leaders has taken issue with last year's Vatican statement Dominus Iesus, and insisted that Protestant denominations are - contrary to statements in the declaration - churches in the proper sense of the word. Speaking last night (1 February) in Berlin at a meeting linked to the annual gathering of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) central committee in nearby Potsdam, Bishop Margot Kässmann of Hanover rejected suggestions that Protestant denominations were second-class churches or merely "ecclesial communities" as Dominus Iesus describes them. [808 words, ENI-01-0050]

1 February 2001

New Delhi (ENI). A member of the government of the state of Karnataka, in southern India, has been forced to resign after claiming that the earthquake which killed tens of thousands of people in the western Indian state of Gujarat last week was God's punishment for atrocities against Christians. T. John, a civil aviation minister in Karnataka's state government and a member of the Orthodox church, has handed in his resignation after widespread criticism and protests by Hindus angry at his interpretation. [674 words, ENI-01-0046]

End of Cold War made us all subjects of capitalism, laments churchman

Potsdam (ENI). The 20th-century ideologies of fascism and communism have been replaced by a "new ideology" - the "worship of the golden calf and the power of money", according to Paul Oestreicher, a prominent European churchman with a special interest in East-West relations. Speaking yesterday to the central committee of the World Council of Churches meeting here yesterday, Canon Oestreicher, an Anglican priest and former east/west secretary of the British Council of Churches, said that the task facing Christians was to "take away the power of the golden calf" and replace it with a system based on justice. Canon Oestreicher questioned whether the end of the Cold War, marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, was "really a gift of God" - a suggestion that has been made by a number of speakers at this gathering, the first major WCC meeting in Germany since the nation was united in 1990. [932 words, ENI-01-0047]

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