eChurch Blog

Media watchdog: Pope takes wary approach to communications explosion

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Toward the end of his encyclical “Charity in Truth,” Pope Benedict XVI included a brief but strongly worded analysis about the “increasingly pervasive presence” of modern media and their power to serve good or immoral interests.

The two pages on communications were barely noticed in an encyclical that focused on economic issues, but they underscored the pope’s cautionary and critical approach to today’s media revolution.

In particular, the pope zeroed in on the popular assumption in the West that the penetration of contemporary media in the developing world will inevitably bring enlightenment and progress.

“Just because social communications increase the possibilities of interconnection and the dissemination of ideas, it does not follow that they promote freedom or internationalize development and democracy for all,” the pope wrote.

The pope’s critique made several important points:

– The mass media are not morally “neutral.” They are often subordinated to “economic interests intent on dominating the market” and to attempts to “impose cultural models that serve ideological and political agendas,” he said.

– The media have a huge role in shaping attitudes, a role that has been amplified by globalization. That requires careful reflection on their influence, especially when it comes to questions of ethics and the “solidarity” dimension of development, he said.

– Media have a civilizing effect when they are “geared toward a vision of the person and the common good that reflects truly universal values.” That means they need to focus on promoting human dignity, be “inspired by charity and placed at the service of truth,” he said.

Inspired by charity? That may sound overly idealistic to those familiar with some of the more popular talk-radio shows or blogs these days.

Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said recently that the pope is not naive about what’s out there.

“He knows perfectly well what’s circulating on the great networks of information. That’s why he says we need to reflect on the distribution of words and images that are degrading to the human person, and put a halt to whatever fuels hatred and intolerance, or whatever wounds the beauty and intimacy of human sexuality,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Celli, who has pioneered some of the Vatican’s new media initiatives, said that while the pope wants to affirm the opportunities of the media explosion he will voice concern when needed. One example is the concept of friendship: The pope believes it’s an important element of the digital age, but risks being trivialized.

“It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop online friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbors and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation,” the pope wrote in his annual message to communicators earlier this year.

Pope Benedict faces a challenging task when it comes to communications. The 82-year-old pontiff is definitely old school, preferring books to videos and expressing his most important ideas in documents that he writes out longhand.

At the same time, his aides have gone to great lengths to portray the pope as a friend of new media, featuring him in text messages, YouTube videos and podcasts. Yet Pope Benedict’s teaching style is not easily reduced to sound bites or video clips. Even his off-the-cuff remarks come across as carefully reasoned.

Moreover, the pope has found that his core message — the importance of faith in God and the power of the Gospel to change lives — often fails to make the news ticker. Media interest perks up when there’s a Vatican controversy, but not when the pope talks about the need for saints in modern society.

Even the pope’s long-awaited encyclical on economic justice, timed for release as the world’s leaders were meeting to tackle the global financial crisis, was bumped off network newscasts and relegated to the inside pages of newspapers by an event too big to ignore: the massive memorial service the same day for Michael Jackson.

It’s doubtful any of this surprises Pope Benedict. Several years ago, he commented on the church’s relationship with the media in his book “Salt of the Earth.”

“The convictions and modes of behavior that hold the church together are located at a deeper level than the forms of expression and behavioral patterns that are imposed on us by the mass media,” he said.

That’s no sound bite, either, but it reflects the pope’s caution against presuming that today’s media culture is on the church’s wavelength. It also implies that the media themselves should be a major target of modern evangelization.

Lutherans start last debate on gay clergy proposal

By PATRICK CONDON (AP) – 30 minutes ago

MINNEAPOLIS — Opponents made a last stand Friday against a proposal to allow sexually active gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy in the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination.

Gays and lesbians are currently allowed to serve as Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ministers only if they remain celibate.

At 4.7 million members and about 10,000 congregations in the United States, the ELCA would be one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance on clergy.

“We are today part of a church denomination that is changing, and it will make possible sexual moral standards that are contrary to the Bible — which is what brings Jesus closer to us,” said convention delegate Al Quie, a former Republican governor of Minnesota.

The debate over the so-called “ministry recommendations” got under way first thing Friday, and Quie proposed an alternative proposal: “Practicing homosexual persons are excluded from rostered leadership in this church.”

The proposal, which would have left the church’s policy more or less unchanged, failed. In addition, conservatives lost an important vote Wednesday night when the convention’s 1,045 delegates approved by a two-thirds supermajority a “social statement on human sexuality” that said the ELCA could accommodate diverging views on homosexuality.

The Rev. Katrina Foster, a pastor in the Metropolitan New York Synod, pointed out that the church has ordained woman and divorced people in violation of a literal interpretation of scripture.

“We can learn not to define ourselves by negation,” Foster said. “By not only saying what we are against, which always seems to be the same — against gay people. We should be against poverty. I wish we were as zealous about that.”

Some critics of the proposal have predicted its passage could cause individual congregations to split off from the ELCA, as has been the case with other Christian denominations, including the Episcopal Church.

The Rev. Tim Housholder of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Cottage Grove, Minn., who spoke in favor of Quie’s alternative, described himself as a rostered ELCA pastor “at least for a few more hours.”

“This assembly is not the ELCA,” Housholder said. “This is an agenda-driven group.”

The Christian Institute

Scots gallery to host gay police recruitment drive

The Christian Institute

Christmas lights in August? For all faiths, says council

Irish Catholic

Bishop warns against gay marriage move

Michael Kelly

A leading bishop has warned the Government against the introduction of domestic partnerships for gay couples insisting that ”the State exists for the family and not the family for the State”.

Speaking at the Annual Knock Novena, Bishop Christopher Jones argued that the ”Government must never introduce any form of legislation that could possibly undermine the importance and significance of marriage and family life in our country.”

Dr Jones, who chairs the bishops’ committee on the family, warned that ”society through its government has a huge responsibility to support and promote family rooted in marriage”.

”Society depends on the family rooted in marriage to provide happy and healthy citizens. Indeed nothing is more destructive to the person, the family and society than dysfunctional and broken marriages.

”Tragically so many children, who are victims of broken and dysfunctional families, become liabilities for the State, because of juvenile delinquency, crime, drugs and gangland murders,” Bishop Jones told the packed congregation in the basilica.

Underlining the fact that the Church teaches that ”the family rooted in the life-long marriage of a man and woman provides the greatest guarantee of happiness for the married couple” he said that the ”Government must realise that change in legislation in the area of marriage and family will inevitably change the perception and attitudes of people”.

The Civil Partnership Bill (2009), which is due to be debated before the Oireachtas in the Autumn, provides for a number of rights for same-sex couples similar to the rights enjoyed by married couples.

Quoting research from the Church’s marriage advisory service Accord, he said that while 12% of couples in Ireland choose long term cohabitation instead of marriage ”the family based on marriage is still the fundamental unit of society.”

”All of this should give us great hope at a time when soap operas night after night present promiscuity as if it were the norm and as mass media would give the impression that most marriages end in divorce,” he said.

Alexa traffic rank for echurchwebsites.org.uk:

7 Day Average – Alexa Global Traffic Rank – 166,758

1 Month Average – Alexa Global Traffic Rank – 274,386

3 Month Average – Alexa Global Traffic Rank – 478,905

From the Archbishop Canterbury

This was the latest in such attacks over many years and has attracted international condemnation from religious and political leadership in Pakistan and internationally.

One of the causes of such attacks is the ability of extremists and others with private motivations, to incite attacks on Christians and on occasion also on Muslims; and the inability of the police and local judiciary to protect innocent people. The blasphemy laws currently in force in Pakistan provide such people with the means to incite violence and seem to have played a part in the recent incidents which led to the death of a number of Christians.

Following widespread discussions with Christian partners and correspondents in Pakistan, Christian and Muslim organisations in the United Kingdom and with the Pakistan authorities, there is a desire amongst many people to express their concerns to the Government of Pakistan and to press for change in the blasphemy legislation and for the protection of Christians and others who are suffering from its abuse. The petition is signed by the Rt Revd Michael Jackson, who chairs the Anglican Communion Network for Inter Faith Concerns and by Dr Musharraf Hussain the Chair of the Christian Muslim Forum. The Rt Revd David James, Bishop of Bradford is the first petition signatory.

The petition will be delivered to the Pakistan Government and is intended to assist in their efforts to prevent further attacks. The more people who sign, the more effective the petition will be and we urge you to take action now by:

• signing the petition yourself

• by putting this letter prominently on your own and as many other websites as possible.

It is by actions such as these that people of faith and of goodwill can show their active concern for the good of the world and in this case their support of the Christian community of Pakistan

Please do sign today – one click makes it possible!

Click here for the petition

Jerusalem Post

US Jews protest Catholic salvation text

Major Jewish groups and rabbis from the three largest branches of American Judaism said Thursday that their relationship with Roman Catholic leaders is at risk because of a recent US bishops’ statement on salvation.

Jewish groups said they interpret the new document to mean that the bishops view interfaith dialogue as a chance to invite Jews to become Catholic. The Jewish leaders said they “pose no objection” to Christians sharing their faith, but said dialogue with Jews becomes “untenable” if the goal is to persuade Jews to accept Christ as their savior.

“A declaration of this sort is antithetical to the very essence of Jewish-Christian dialogue as we have understood it,” Jewish leaders said in a letter to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The signers were the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and rabbis representing the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements.

The statement fueling the tension was issued by the bishops in June to clarify a 2002 document called “Covenant and Mission.” The bishops said the earlier document mistakenly played down the importance of sharing the Gospel and was therefore misleading.

“While the Catholic Church does not proselytize the Jewish people, neither does she fail to witness to them her faith in Christ, nor to welcome them to share in that same faith whenever appropriate,” said Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut, chairman of a bishops’ committee on doctrine. He had said the revisions affirmed statements from the Holy See.

The tensions are rooted in a complex theological debate about salvation for those outside the Catholic Church. Discussion of the issue between Jews and Catholics focuses on the significance of the ancient covenant between God and the Jews.

Pope John Paul II had spoken repeatedly of a covenant “never revoked.” Many Jewish groups view the bishops’ statement as stepping back from the pope’s position.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the US bishops, said Thursday: “Catholic-Jewish dialogue has been important to the US bishops for almost 50 years. The bishops have just received the letter and currently are studying it.”

My Goodness

Army bomb experts have blown up a hand grenade found in a box donated to a church jumble sale in County Durham.

The vicar of Woodhouse Close Church in Bishop Auckland alerted police after it was discovered on Thursday afternoon.

The church was evacuated and a cordon placed around nearby streets before the device was detonated hours later.

Police are now studying CCTV footage from the church in an attempt to identify the person who handed the box in to helpers.

Insp Russell Robson, of Durham Police, said: “The person may have done this in all innocence and may have been unaware that there was a live grenade in the cardboard box.”

ELCA approves full communion with United Methodist Church

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted 958-51 on Thursday to enter into full communion with the United Methodist Church.

Voting members made the move at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, which runs through Sunday at the Minneapolis Convention Center in downtown Minneapolis.

With the agreement, the ELCA and UMC recognize that they have a shared common confession of Christian faith, mutually recognize the baptism of one another and can share clergy. The agreement also provides for joint worship and exchangeability of members.

Announcement of the approval drew a standing ovation from the assembly and prompted embraces by representatives of the denominations. The assembly then sang the Charles Wesley hymn “Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.”

The discussion on the topic was a veritable ecumenical love-fest, with person after person stepping to the microphone to support the communion.

And Bishop Callon Holloway of the Southeast Ohio Synod said Lutherans in Southeast Ohio are in a “sea” of Methodists.

“And we enjoy the relationship, and we’re swimming well,” he said.

After the vote, ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson said, “We rejoice in what the Spirit has in store for us.”

Pastor Marilee Bergerson, a voting member from the Northwest Minnesota Synod, was glad to see the measure go through.

“Any time we can gather together and be reminded that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, that we are here for the very same purpose, it is a very good thing,” she said.

And Eastern North Dakota Bishop Bill Rindy said the agreement is “going to be a gift to both churches.”

The UMC adopted the same agreement last year. The ELCA also has full communion agreements with the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, the Moravian Church, the Reformed Church and the Episcopal Church USA.

The Assembly also began discussion on a set of four proposals that, if passed, would open up the rosters of the clergy to non-celibate gays.

Bergerson said she had “no idea” how the vote would go. She did say that in her discussions with others she has heard people say “they are here to really listen.”

Bonnie Nordvall, a Northwest Minnesota Synod voting member from Warroad, said she will be surprised if the proposals don’t go through. She noted that the human sexuality social statement passed with a two-thirds majority Wednesday and that the proposals related to gays in the clergy require only a simple majority.

But she doesn’t support it. She believes “it represents a departure from the foundation we once had.”

Bob Kelly, a pastor at Peoples Church in Bemidji, said he’d like to see it go through. His daughter is a bisexual and currently seeking ordination in the ELCA, and he said one of the reasons he was at the assembly was to support her.

Homosexuality is “not a problem, not a moral issue,” he said. “Promiscuity is an issue,” but not homosexuality, per se.

One demonstrator showed up at the assembly Thursday. A man who declined to identify himself stood outside the convention center with a piece of duct tape over his mouth, holding a sign that read “Elect Jesus as Your Lord” and a shirt that read “Will work for Christ.” He said they “ran me out” of the convention center.

The south Minneapolis resident was there in response to the human sexuality social statement that passed Wednesday, the proposals on gay clergy that will be considered today and for what he called “false teaching” and “hypocrisy” in the ELCA.

He said he wasn’t there in judgment of anyone, but “to bear witness of the truth of Jesus Christ.”