Catholic bishops launch Web site on health care reform
Health care reform is on everybody’s lips these days.
Some faith groups have joined the fray.
They have their own opinions and they want to share them.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently launched a new Web site to promote its support of “truly universal health policy with respect for human life and dignity.”
You can find it here: www.usccb.org/healthcare.
The page includes letters from bishops to Congress, videos, facts and statistics, frequently asked questions, and links for contacting members of Congress.
A news release about the new site said people can access Web videos of conference policy staff discussing the bishops’ position on health care.
Expect to see facts and statistics about Catholic health care in America, as well.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Adopt a Catholic Congressman
A new prayer campaign targeting Catholic Congressial leaders was recently launched by OneNationUnderGod.org.
The faith-based organization said 50 percent of Catholic politicians serving in Congress have accepted large donations from ”pro-abortion” lobby groups “while reinforcing their support for abortion rights legislation.”
OneNationUnderGod.org is inviting people to join its prayer campaign for conversion of Catholic politicians “who hold great influence over the lives of the innocent.”
People involved in the campaign are asked to adopt a Catholic member of Congress and pledge a daily spiritual devotion for their enlightenment and for the continued inspiration of their bishop.
The campaign was launched June 22, the feast day of St. Thomas More, whom Pople John Paul II procliamed the patron saint of statesmen and politicians.
For more information about the campaign, go online to www.OneNationUnderGod.org.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Tweeting nuns on the road
TULSA — The “Flying Nun” of TV yesteryear was make-believe.
Here come the real-life tweeting nuns of today.
Calling it “Chris and Barb’s excellent adventure,” two Benedictine sisters with St. Joseph’s Monastery in Tulsa joined Twitter this week to tweet about their experiences on a recent road trip.
Sister Christine Ereiser, the monastery’s prioress, said she and Sister Barbara Austin, left Tulsa earlier this week headed for Chicago, Ill., where the pair plan to attend an annual meeting of Benedictine women from throughout the U.S. and Mexico.
Ereiser said they chose to travel on old Route 66 and wanted to stay in touch with Ereiser’s 87-year-old mother who lives in Tulsa.
Ereiser said she decided to try Twitter as a way to keep Mom informed and also several friends and the St. Joseph’s community.
Speaking by phone Thursday night after arriving just outside Chicago, Ereiser said she enjoyed sending tweets as part of the Twitter social network. The trip through the old towns on the old highway was “meditative,” she said.
“It’s rejuvenating to travel at a slower pace.”
Ereiser, who sends tweets as ChristineOSB, said she had to think a little about what details would be off interest to family and friends following her tweets.
She’s had some return tweets.
“Some people weren’t aware of some attractions that I’ve mentioned. Some people were giving advice to us to get off (the highway) in different places”
Will she continue tweeting now that she’s found Twitter?
Possibly, but probably not on a daily basis, Ereiser said.
“I think it’s important to have something to say.”
(ABOVE PHOTO BY JIM BECKEL, THE OKLAHOMAN: Sister Christine Ereiser, prioress of St. Joseph Monastery in Tulsa, poses for this 2007 photo at the monastery.)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
New Web site discusses “Angels & Demons”
Westminster Theological Seminary has launched a new Web site seeking to provide answers to the religious questions in the new movie “Angels & Demons.”
The new site is www.TruthAboutAngelsAndDemons.com.
“Just as academic institutions and other groups are using the momentum of ‘Angels & Demons’ and the scientific issues it highlights to provoke discussion, Westminster Theological Seminary stands strong and is committed to educating individuals about spiritual and historical truths, in addition to science, as it relates to the book and film,” Vern Poythress, professor of New Testament interpretation at Westminster and an expert on the intersection of science and religion, said in a news release.
Many universities around the nation and overseas are launching discussions to address the truth behind the scientific claims central to the suspense in the book and film.
Westminster launched the new Web site on May 13, hoping to help people ”sift through the mix of fact and fiction woven into the novel and film and encourage conversation,” leaders said.
The site contains articles on issues related to religion and science and seeks to provide answers to such questions as: “Is the Bible true?” “Can science answer the ultimate questions?” and “Is there evidence that God created the Earth?”
“Angels & Demons” premiered May 15 and is based on a novel by Dan Brown.
In 2006, Westminster launched a similar online response to l”The Da Vinci Code,” another novel-turned-movie by Brown.
“Westminster commends the scientific community for its strong response and conversation surrounding the film and joins in the pursuit of truth,” Peter Lillback, president of Westminster, said in a statement.
”We hope our site is a catalyst for people of faith to be better equipped to engage in spiritual conversation generated by this significant media and cultural event.”
Westminster Theological Seminary has campuses in Philadelphia, Dallas, New York and London.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
What Obama said at Notre Dame
Curious about what President Obama said during his commencement address at Notre Dame this past Sunday?
The White House Office of the Press Secretary sent a copy of his address to the news media.
Here is it in its entirety:
Remarks of President Barack Obama
Notre Dame Commencement
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Notre Dame, Indiana
Thank you, Father Jenkins for that generous introduction. You are doing an outstanding job as president of this fine institution, and your continued and courageous commitment to honest, thoughtful dialogue is an inspiration to us all.
Good afternoon Father Hesburgh, Notre Dame trustees, faculty, family, friends, and the class of 2009. I am honored to be here today, and grateful to all of you for allowing me to be part of your graduation.
I want to thank you for this honorary degree. I know it has not been without controversy. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but these honorary degrees are apparently pretty hard to come by. So far I’m only 1 for 2 as President. Father Hesburgh is 150 for 150. I guess that’s better. Father Ted, after the ceremony, maybe you can give me some pointers on how to boost my average.
I also want to congratulate the class of 2009 for all your accomplishments. And since this is Notre Dame, I mean both in the classroom and in the competitive arena. We all know about this university’s proud and storied football team, but I also hear that Notre Dame holds the largest outdoor 5-on-5 basketball tournament in the world – Bookstore Basketball.
Now this excites me. I want to congratulate the winners of this year’s tournament, a team by the name of “Hallelujah Holla Back.” Well done. Though I have to say, I am personally disappointed that the “Barack O’Ballers” didn’t pull it out. Next year, if you need a 6’2” forward with a decent jumper, you know where I live.
Every one of you should be proud of what you have achieved at this institution. One hundred and sixty three classes of Notre Dame graduates have sat where you are today. Some were here during years that simply rolled into the next without much notice or fanfare – periods of relative peace and prosperity that required little by way of sacrifice or struggle.
You, however, are not getting off that easy. Your class has come of age at a moment of great consequence for our nation and the world – a rare inflection point in history where the size and scope of the challenges before us require that we remake our world to renew its promise; that we align our deepest values and commitments to the demands of a new age. It is a privilege and a responsibility afforded to few generations – and a task that you are now called to fulfill.
This is the generation that must find a path back to prosperity and decide how we respond to a global economy that left millions behind even before this crisis hit – an economy where greed and short-term thinking were too often rewarded at the expense of fairness, and diligence, and an honest day’s work.
We must decide how to save God’s creation from a changing climate that threatens to destroy it. We must seek peace at a time when there are those who will stop at nothing to do us harm, and when weapons in the hands of a few can destroy the many. And we must find a way to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity – diversity of thought, of culture, and of belief.
In short, we must find a way to live together as one human family.
It is this last challenge that I’d like to talk about today. For the major threats we face in the 21st century – whether it’s global recession or violent extremism; the spread of nuclear weapons or pandemic disease – do not discriminate. They do not recognize borders. They do not see color. They do not target specific ethnic groups.
Moreover, no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone. Our very survival has never required greater cooperation and understanding among all people from all places than at this moment in history.
Unfortunately, finding that common ground – recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a “single garment of destiny” – is not easy. Part of the problem, of course, lies in the imperfections of man – our selfishness, our pride, our stubbornness, our acquisitiveness, our insecurities, our egos; all the cruelties large and small that those of us in the Christian tradition understand to be rooted in original sin. We too often seek advantage over others. We cling to outworn prejudice and fear those who are unfamiliar. Too many of us view life only through the lens of immediate self-interest and crass materialism; in which the world is necessarily a zero-sum game. The strong too often dominate the weak, and too many of those with wealth and with power find all manner of justification for their own privilege in the face of poverty and injustice. And so, for all our technology and scientific advances, we see around the globe violence and want and strife that would seem sadly familiar to those in ancient times.
We know these things; and hopefully one of the benefits of the wonderful education you have received is that you have had time to consider these wrongs in the world, and grown determined, each in your own way, to right them. And yet, one of the vexing things for those of us interested in promoting greater understanding and cooperation among people is the discovery that even bringing together persons of good will, men and women of principle and purpose, can be difficult.
The soldier and the lawyer may both love this country with equal passion, and yet reach very different conclusions on the specific steps needed to protect us from harm. The gay activist and the evangelical pastor may both deplore the ravages of HIV/AIDS, but find themselves unable to bridge the cultural divide that might unite their efforts. Those who speak out against stem cell research may be rooted in admirable conviction about the sacredness of life, but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son’s or daughter’s hardships can be relieved.
The question, then, is how do we work through these conflicts? Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort? As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?
Nowhere do these questions come up more powerfully than on the issue of abortion.
As I considered the controversy surrounding my visit here, I was reminded of an encounter I had during my Senate campaign, one that I describe in a book I wrote called The Audacity of Hope. A few days after I won the Democratic nomination, I received an email from a doctor who told me that while he voted for me in the primary, he had a serious concern that might prevent him from voting for me in the general election. He described himself as a Christian who was strongly pro-life, but that’s not what was preventing him from voting for me.
What bothered the doctor was an entry that my campaign staff had posted on my website – an entry that said I would fight “right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman’s right to choose.” The doctor said that he had assumed I was a reasonable person, but that if I truly believed that every pro-life individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then I was not very reasonable. He wrote, “I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words.”
Fair-minded words.
After I read the doctor’s letter, I wrote back to him and thanked him. I didn’t change my position, but I did tell my staff to change the words on my website. And I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. Because when we do that – when we open our hearts and our minds to those who may not think like we do or believe what we do – that’s when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.
That’s when we begin to say, “Maybe we won’t agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and spiritual dimensions.
So let’s work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoption more available, and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term. Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.”
Understand – I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away. No matter how much we may want to fudge it – indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory – the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.
Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words.
It’s a way of life that has always been the Notre Dame tradition. Father Hesburgh has long spoken of this institution as both a lighthouse and a crossroads. The lighthouse that stands apart, shining with the wisdom of the Catholic tradition, while the crossroads is where “…differences of culture and religion and conviction can co-exist with friendship, civility, hospitality, and especially love.” And I want to join him and Father Jenkins in saying how inspired I am by the maturity and responsibility with which this class has approached the debate surrounding today’s ceremony.
This tradition of cooperation and understanding is one that I learned in my own life many years ago – also with the help of the Catholic Church.
I was not raised in a particularly religious household, but my mother instilled in me a sense of service and empathy that eventually led me to become a community organizer after I graduated college. A group of Catholic churches in Chicago helped fund an organization known as the Developing Communities Project, and we worked to lift up South Side neighborhoods that had been devastated when the local steel plant closed.
It was quite an eclectic crew. Catholic and Protestant churches. Jewish and African-American organizers. Working-class black and white and Hispanic residents. All of us with different experiences. All of us with different beliefs. But all of us learned to work side by side because all of us saw in these neighborhoods other human beings who needed our help – to find jobs and improve schools. We were bound together in the service of others.
And something else happened during the time I spent in those neighborhoods. Perhaps because the church folks I worked with were so welcoming and understanding; perhaps because they invited me to their services and sang with me from their hymnals; perhaps because I witnessed all of the good works their faith inspired them to perform, I found myself drawn – not just to work with the church, but to be in the church. It was through this service that I was brought to Christ.
At the time, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was the Archbishop of Chicago. For those of you too young to have known him, he was a kind and good and wise man. A saintly man. I can still remember him speaking at one of the first organizing meetings I attended on the South Side. He stood as both a lighthouse and a crossroads – unafraid to speak his mind on moral issues ranging from poverty, AIDS, and abortion to the death penalty and nuclear war. And yet, he was congenial and gentle in his persuasion, always trying to bring people together; always trying to find common ground. Just before he died, a reporter asked Cardinal Bernardin about this approach to his ministry. And he said, “You can’t really get on with preaching the Gospel until you’ve touched minds and hearts.”
My heart and mind were touched by the words and deeds of the men and women I worked alongside with in Chicago. And I’d like to think that we touched the hearts and minds of the neighborhood families whose lives we helped change. For this, I believe, is our highest calling.
You are about to enter the next phase of your life at a time of great uncertainty. You will be called upon to help restore a free market that is also fair to all who are willing to work; to seek new sources of energy that can save our planet; to give future generations the same chance that you had to receive an extraordinary education. And whether as a person drawn to public service, or someone who simply insists on being an active citizen, you will be exposed to more opinions and ideas broadcast through more means of communications than have ever existed before. You will hear talking heads scream on cable, read blogs that claim definitive knowledge, and watch politicians pretend to know what they’re talking about. Occasionally, you may also have the great fortune of seeing important issues debated by well-intentioned, brilliant minds. In fact, I suspect that many of you will be among those bright stars.
In this world of competing claims about what is right and what is true, have confidence in the values with which you’ve been raised and educated. Be unafraid to speak your mind when those values are at stake. Hold firm to your faith and allow it to guide you on your journey. Stand as a lighthouse.
But remember too that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It is the belief in things not seen. It is beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us, and those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.
This doubt should not push us away from our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions, and cause us to be wary of self-righteousness. It should compel us to remain open, and curious, and eager to continue the moral and spiritual debate that began for so many of you within the walls of Notre Dame. And within our vast democracy, this doubt should remind us to persuade through reason, through an appeal whenever we can to universal rather than parochial principles, and most of all through an abiding example of good works, charity, kindness, and service that moves hearts and minds.
For if there is one law that we can be most certain of, it is the law that binds people of all faiths and no faith together. It is no coincidence that it exists in Christianity and Judaism; in Islam and Hinduism; in Buddhism and humanism. It is, of course, the Golden Rule – the call to treat one another as we wish to be treated. The call to love. To serve. To do what we can to make a difference in the lives of those with whom we share the same brief moment on this Earth.
So many of you at Notre Dame – by the last count, upwards of 80% — have lived this law of love through the service you’ve performed at schools and hospitals; international relief agencies and local charities. That is incredibly impressive, and a powerful testament to this institution. Now you must carry the tradition forward. Make it a way of life. Because when you serve, it doesn’t just improve your community, it makes you a part of your community. It breaks down walls. It fosters cooperation. And when that happens – when people set aside their differences to work in common effort toward a common good; when they struggle together, and sacrifice together, and learn from one another – all things are possible.
After all, I stand here today, as President and as an African-American, on the 55th anniversary of the day that the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brown v. the Board of Education. Brown was of course the first major step in dismantling the “separate but equal” doctrine, but it would take a number of years and a nationwide movement to fully realize the dream of civil rights for all of God’s children. There were freedom rides and lunch counters and Billy clubs, and there was also a Civil Rights Commission appointed by President Eisenhower. It was the twelve resolutions recommended by this commission that would ultimately become law in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
There were six members of the commission. It included five whites and one African-American; Democrats and Republicans; two Southern governors, the dean of a Southern law school, a Midwestern university president, and your own Father Ted Hesburgh, President of Notre Dame. They worked for two years, and at times, President Eisenhower had to intervene personally since no hotel or restaurant in the South would serve the black and white members of the commission together. Finally, when they reached an impasse in Louisiana, Father Ted flew them all to Notre Dame’s retreat in Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin, where they eventually overcame their differences and hammered out a final deal.
Years later, President Eisenhower asked Father Ted how on Earth he was able to broker an agreement between men of such different backgrounds and beliefs. And Father Ted simply said that during their first dinner in Wisconsin, they discovered that they were all fishermen. And so he quickly readied a boat for a twilight trip out on the lake. They fished, and they talked, and they changed the course of history.
I will not pretend that the challenges we face will be easy, or that the answers will come quickly, or that all our differences and divisions will fade happily away. Life is not that simple. It never has been.
But as you leave here today, remember the lessons of Cardinal Bernardin, of Father Hesburgh, of movements for change both large and small. Remember that each of us, endowed with the dignity possessed by all children of God, has the grace to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we all seek the same love of family and the same fulfillment of a life well-lived. Remember that in the end, we are all fishermen.
If nothing else, that knowledge should give us faith that through our collective labor, and God’s providence, and our willingness to shoulder each other’s burdens, America will continue on its precious journey towards that more perfect union. Congratulations on your graduation, may God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.
——
Look for a story that talks about where the president’s impasse with pro-life or anti-abortion advocates is headed in Saturday’s Oklahoman.
(ABOVE PHOTO: The Associated Press)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Notre Dame students plan counter assembly
Some members of Notre Dame University’s senior class have decided not to attend their own graduation, opting instead to hold the Class of 2009 Vigil for Life on the college campus.
Today, Priests for Life, a national pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia, issued a news release that said the Vigil for Life will feature Priests for Life director the Rev. Frank Pavone (pictured at right) as guest speaker. The vigil is set for Sunday, the day of the university’s commencement.
This is related to the controversy surrounding Pres. Barack Obama’s scheduled plans to deliver the commencement address at Notre Dame, a Catholic university in South Bend, Ind. Many Roman Catholics, particularly bishops, have expressed outrage that Obama, who is pro-choice, was asked to deliver the graduation speech.
The bishops, including the archbishop of the archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the bishop of Tulsa, said the selection of Obama flies in the face of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop’s stance on abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
In his statement released today, Pavone said he has joined with the students groups that comprise the ND Response in calling all the faithful to pray a million rosaries in reparation for the “scandal” that has arisen with Notre Dame’s decision to honor Obama.
In response to his invitation to speak at Sunday’s vigil, Pavone said “In standing with these students, I am standing with the true spirit of Notre Dame: a pro-life spirit, in harmony with human reason and Catholic faith. The scandal that has been generated does not represent what Notre Dame is all about; it represents a radical betrayal of what Notre Dame is all about.”
Pavone also urged graduating seniors to take control of the situation by showing up at the vigil instead of their commencement.
“The seniors who do this are manifesting the real meaning of commencement: they are carrying out the witness to truth and service that their hard-earned degrees have prepared them to give in the world.”
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Notre Dame-Obama controversy continues
Mary Ann Glendon, a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and respected bioethicist has told the University of Notre Dame that she will not accept the prestigious Laetare Medal because of President Obama’s scheduled commencement address, the Religion News Service reported today.
Glendon (pictured at right) said she had been “profoundly moved” when she was first told of the honor last December, but said Notre Dame’s decision to invite Obama and give him an honorary degree caused her to change her mind.
The university has come under withering criticism from conservatives, including nearly 50 U.S. bishops such as the bishop of the Tulsa Diocese and the archbishop of the Oklahoma City archdiocese, who say the school is ignoring the bishops’ guidelines that Catholic universities should not honor politicians who support abortion rights.
Glendon, who teaches at Harvard Law School, said she had tried to revise her planned remarks after Obama’s invitation became public, but decided she didn’t want to engage in a war of words on the commencement platform, according to the RNS.
“It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision … to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice,” Glendon wrote to Notre Dame President John I. Jenkins.
The RNS said Glendon’s letter was posted online by the conservative journal First Things, where she is a member of the editorial and advisory board.
Jenkins, in a statement, said the school was “disappointed” by Glendon’s decision but said “it is our intention to award the Laetare Medal to another deserving recipient, and we will make that announcement as soon as possible.”
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Catholics launch new initiative fitting for Earth Day
It’s Earth Day and the nation’s Catholic community has launched a new initiative that asks participants to take a special St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor.
The partners and sponsors of the new Catholic Climate Covenant include the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities USA, the Catholic Health Association of the United States, Catholic Relief services, the National Catholic Education Association, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Other participating groups include the Franciscan Action Network, National Council of Catholic Women, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, National Federation of Priests Councils and the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.
In taking the St. Francis Pledge, Catholics promise to:
– Pray and reflect on the duty to care for God’s creation and the poor and vulnerable;
– Learn about and educate others on both the reality of climate change and its moral dimensions;
– Assess their participation –as individuals and organizations — in contributing to climate change (i.e. consumption and conservation)
– Act to change their choices and behaviors contributing to climate change and;
– Advocate Catholic principles and priorities in climate change discussions and decisions, especially as they impact the poor and vulnerable.
Before Easter, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change sent resource packets including the pledge to all of the 17,000 Catholic parishes and 6,300 Catholic elementary schools in America.
“This is not just one more environmental message or one more plea to serve those in need but an urgent call and a different message: how does our Catholic community and our nation care for those most affected by impacts and remedies of climate change and reduce harmful behaviors impacting God’s gift of creation?” Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, honorary chairman of the covenant, said in a news release.
A Web site has been set up to offer concrete help in carrying out the pledge. Log on to www.catholicclimatecovenant.org for more information.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Debating Pope’s remarks on condoms
To say that Pope Benedict XVI’s recent comments about the distribution of condoms caused a stir is an understatment.
Anytime the pontiff mentions this sensitive subject is draws attention.
His latest remarks on the issue, made during this week’s papal trip to Africa, are no different.
The Associated Press reported that the pope told reporters on his flight to Cameroon that a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight AIDS, not the distribution of condoms.
His remarks brought both support… :
“Anyone who thinks that condom distribution, eduction and/or research is going to solve a problem which is mostly a function of behavioral recklessness is positively clueless. Not only that, such persons unwittingly contribute to the problem by distracting attention and resources away from that which works,” Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League For Religious and Civil Rights, said in a prepared statement.
… and opposition:
“We call on the pope to revisit the teaching on condoms with a view to lifting the ban at the earliest possible moment. In his review, he should include experts who are unequivocal that condoms can help prevent the spread of HIV, like UNAIDS, the World Health Organization and HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations around the world,” Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, said in a statement.
Meanwhile …
George Wirnkar, director of outreach for Human Life International’s Francophone Africa Region, said the media missed the “true” story behind Pope Benedict’s African trip. Wirnkar expressed surprise over the “furor” over the pope’s remarks:
“I would say that this problem of AIDS canot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem,” Wirnkar said in a statement.
“The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness — even through personal sacrifice — to be present with those who suffer.
“Perhaps the historic first visit of the Holy Father to Africa and his providential first stop in Yaounde, Cameroon should herald an era where the authentic voice of Africans is heard rather than the imposed views of Western press who do not speak for the people of Africa — the continent of hope.”
———-
Reading the comments made by this diverse trio, it is obvious that the issue of condom distribution to combat AIDS continues to spark debate.
(AP PHOTO above: Pope Benedict XVI greets the crowd upon his arrival at Luanda International Airport in Angola, today.)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Religion reporter loses faith
Reader, before you wonder if the blog title is referring to me, read on:
A story came over the wire yesterday that immediately captured my interest because it involved another religion writer (or former religion writer).
The story really hit home.
The Religion News Service had an interesting story about a new book by former religion reporter William Lobnell.
Lobnell writes about his crisis of faith in “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace.”
According to the RNS, Lobnell wrote that he lost his faith while covering the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal as a journalist for the Lost Angeles Times. Lobnell had been an evangelical Christian and was going through the process of converting to Catholicism when he began reporting on an Orange County priest accused of molesting boys.
The book’s premise, released just a day before Ash Wednesday, might seem like a downer during Lent. However, I found that it pushed me to think about those times that I’ve had my own crises of faith and how they were resolved.
None (and I can count them on one hand) had anything to do with a story I was reporting on. Rather they were spurred by personal disappointments within my own family and circle of friends. Some I brought on myself, a sort of internal combustion.
Each time, the resolution was basically the same: You will lose your faith if you place your hope in mankind, even yourself. Faith is placing hope in God, no matter what the circumstances look like.
Hey and often a story I worked on actually increased my faith. One in particular was last year’s story about the relatives of Stephen Beachboard, who found out what happened to him after reading my story on the Internet. I’ve blogged about it so I won’t go into details here, but suffice it to say that there are many times when faith is strengthened through the work of sharing these stories.
Sure there are some stories that are not so positive and downright ugly, so I can’t judge Lobnell. Everyone’s faith journey is different.
For those curious about Lobnell’s story, I’ve included the RNS article below.
For reporter, abuse scandal prompted a crisis of faith
By Andrea Useem
Religion News Service
What if you felt God called you to a task — and then you lost your faith while carrying out that very task?
That’s what happened to William Lobdell, a former evangelical Christian and aspiring Catholic, while he covered religion as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times. His new memoir, “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace,” tells the tale.
Lobdell, now 48, became an evangelical in his late twenties, after reaching a personal crisis point. “I had married a volatile woman whom I was divorcing, my career was going terribly, and I had gotten my girlfriend pregnant,” he said in an interview. “At age 27, I thought, `I could not have screwed up my life more.“’ Lobdell said a friend told him he needed God in his life — a bit of advice that led him to an Irvine, Calif., megachurch and a conversion experience during an evangelical men’s retreat.
Working in journalism at the time, Lobdell wrote that he began to see all around him amazing stories of faith at work in people’s lives — and he prayed that God would allow him to become a religion reporter to tell those stories. By the time that dream came true in 2000, Lobdell was a married father of four, but spiritually restless, and he began the process of joining the Catholic Church in search of a deeper, more authentic faith life.
Soon those two forces were on a collision course. On the religion beat, Lobdell was covering the story of an Orange County priest and Catholic school principal, the Rev. Michael Harris, accused of molesting young boys. After Harris’ diocese settled with an alleged victim for $5.2 million in August, 2001, Lobdell attended a meeting of survivors of clergy sexual abuse.
Up until that time, Lobdell wrote, he didn’t feel the bad actions of one priest affected his own faith: “I saw exposing what Harris did as cleaning up, not hurting, Catholicism.” But sitting in the room with seven abuse survivors, he wrote, was a “spiritual body blow.”
“I had written so much about the redemptive power of faith, but I had never seen, in a real and personal way, the opposite: the damage religion could do in the hands of bad people,” he wrote.
Only a few months later, in early 2002, the abuse scandal broke in earnest, driven by reporting in the Boston Globe, and Lobdell eventually told his “sponsor” in his Catholic conversion process that he couldn’t go through with it. “My long honeymoon with Christianity had ended,” he wrote.
Lobdell is not the only journalist to admit publicly that covering the abuse scandal critically damaged his faith. Dallas Morning News religion columnist Rod Dreher announced in October, 2006, in a widely read blog post at Beliefnet.com, that he had left his Catholic faith, in part because he had allowed the abuse scandal to “destroy” his belief. (He is now a member of the Orthodox Church in America.)
“I think many reporters experienced something like PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) because of hearing first-hand from people whose lives had been changed in a tragic way by people wearing a clerical collar,” said Debra Mason, executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association, a professional group for religion reporters. “Anecdotally, some reporters left the 1 / 8religion 3 / 8 beat after covering the scandal because they were just burned out.”
Michael Paulson, the Boston Globe religion reporter who received, along with a team of co-workers, the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2003 for reporting on the scandal, noted that while newsrooms sometimes provide debriefing for reporters who cover wars and natural disasters, he and his team members did not have any “formal preparation” for dealing with “heart wrenching and angry-making” stories they heard. “The emotion was much more raw than what we encountered on other stories,” Paulson said.
But Terry Mattingly, a syndicated religion columnist and director of a Washington D.C.-based journalism center for Christian universities and colleges, rebutted the idea that religion reporting necessarily leads to a traumatic loss of faith.
“I have only known one or two professionals who felt their faith was threatened by covering religion news,” he wrote at the website GetReligion.org after Lobdell’s first account of his loss of faith was published on Page One of the L.A. Times in July, 2007.
Lobdell not only decided to forgo his Catholic conversion, but he also resigned from his post as religion reporter in 2006 and now embraces a non-dogmatic atheism, he said in an interview. “If I were a postal worker who did his job everyday and went to church on Sunday, I like to think I would still have gotten where I am today, but it would have taken decades,” he said. Being a religion reporter, “I went through it in warp speed.
“The truth can be very uncomfortable sometimes, and for me that’s what my journey has been about,” said Lobdell, noting that while some readers have applauded his decisions, others have chastised him or invited him to a new faith. “Have I come to the truth? I guess we’ll find out.”
