eni-summary list Ecumenical News International News Highlights 13 June 2003

WCC and African churches call for peace-keepers in Liberia

Geneva (ENI). The World Council of Churches’ (WCC) general secretary Dr Konrad Raiser on Friday in a letter to United Nations’ secretary-general Kofi Annan expressed serious concern at an escalation of fighting in Liberia between government forces and a rebel group, and urged support for peace-keeping forces in the region. “Given the gravity of this near-anarchy situation that has developed, it is difficult to foresee a cease-fire holding out without the backing of a credible peace keeping force,” said Raiser. [403 words, ENI-03-0282]

Churches dismayed as Canadian province legalises same-sex marriages

Vancouver (ENI). Several same-sex couples rushed to apply for marriage licenses – and several church organizations were just as swift to respond – after a court ruling in the Canadian province of Ontario relaxed the definition of marriage, allowing gays to legally marry. In a unanimous decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the existing definition of marriage, which refers to the union of one man and one woman, violated the equality provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Canadian constitution. The court instead defined the couple getting married as “two persons”. [502 words, ENI-03-0280]

Protests follow Catholic priest’s punishment for defying Pope on Eucharist

Stuttgart (ENI). A Roman Catholic priest from Bavaria has been prohibited from performing his normal priestly duties or celebrating mass for defying Vatican orders by receiving Eucharist from the hands of a Protestant pastor. The priest, the Rev. Bernhard Kroll, received the punishment, which is for an undefined period, following a service organised in Berlin at the end of May, to challenge official Vatican rules preventing Protestants and Roman Catholics from sharing the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. [418 words, ENI-03-0279]

Philippines president, church leaders plea for less of a ‘feast’ on scandal

Manila (ENI). A scandal involving a Filipino bishop has created such a furore in the local media that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Roman Catholic Church have called an end to feasting on the scandal. The Vatican was investigating allegations that well-known Bishop Teodoro Bacani, 63, had made sexual advances on a woman employed at his northern Manila diocese. In a second statement on the matter within a few days, the president urged Filipinos to stop indulging in speculation on it. [409 words, ENI-03-0281]

African traditions help Catholic church grow in South Africa

Durban (ENI). “You’ll be surprised at how little of Rome there is in the Roman Catholic Church in South Africa,” says 62-year old Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, one of the world’s youngest cardinals and head of the Roman Catholic Church in South Africa. The church is growing fast with new places of worship being built every year. Part of the reason for this, say Napier and his colleagues, is the “Africanisation” of the church – the incorporation of African culture and style into a formerly very European style of liturgy. [566 words, ENI-03-0278]

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