Catholic Star Herald - That All May Be One

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Columns

Saturday, 18 May 2013 23:59

An important and historical meeting took place last week in Rome between Pope Francis and Pope Tawadros, leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which has over 10 million members. It was the first visit of the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church to Rome in 40 years and marked the 40th anniversary of serious dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Coptic Orthodox churches.

While the churches of Rome and Alexandria enjoyed close and fraternal unity for the first five centuries of church history, a formal break unfortunately took place in 451AD over a Christological dispute. Coptic Christians refused to accept the teachings of the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD which proclaimed the doctrine of the Hypostatic Union, that is, that Christ’s divinity and humanity were separate. Copts professed his natures were united. From that point in history the Oriental Orthodox churches were called “Monophysites,” because of their belief in the “One Nature” of Christ. Many attempts over the centuries to clarify our different views and restore unity failed for various reasons.

In 1973, Coptic Pope Shenouda met with Pope Paul IV in Rome. It was the first such meeting between a Bishop of Rome and Bishop of Alexandria in more than 1,500 years. They issued a momentous declaration at this meeting. They affirmed their common faith in Jesus Christ, who “is perfect God with respect to His Divinity, perfect man with respect to His Humanity. In Him His divinity is united with His humanity in a real, perfect union without mingling, without commixtion, without confusion, without alteration, without division without separation.”

They quoted the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil of Caesarea: “His divinity did not separate from His humanity for an instant, not for the twinkling of an eye. He who is God eternal and invisible became visible in the flesh, and took upon Himself the form of a servant. In Him are preserved all the properties of the divinity and all the properties of the humanity, together in a real, perfect, indivisible and inseparable union.”

This statement was monumental in its attempt to clarify any misconceptions over the confusion concerning the language of Chalcedon. Also during that historic visit in 1973, which fell around the 1,600th anniversary of the feast of St. Athanasius of Alexandria, who defended the undivided church of the third century against those who would deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ, his holy relics were given to Pope Shenouda in St. Peter’s Basilica by Pope Paul VI. They were brought back to Egypt amid great joy on May 10, 1973.

Pope Tawadros recalled these events to Pope Francis and said they “should be considered as a celebration of brotherly love between the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church.”

Pope Tawadros’ visit comes at a time of great suffering among the Coptic faithful in Egypt these days. Father Rafic Greiche, director of the press office for the Roman Catholic Church in Egypt, explained that since “the rising of Islamic parties in countries like Egypt and Syria means Christians are now feeling they are second or third class citizens. We Egyptian Christians want our brothers of all world churches to help us, to pray for us and to be real brothers in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Pope Tawadros told Pope Francis that the Coptic Church “has been irrigated until now with the blood of numerous martyrs, thus becoming stronger and stronger.

Pope Francis said that our churches are united by “an ecumenism of suffering.” He said, “Just as the blood of the martyrs was a seed of strength and fertility for the church, so too the sharing of daily sufferings can become an effective instrument of unity.”

Pope Tawadros responded, “The most important aim for both the Catholic and Coptic churches is the promotion of ecumenical dialogue in order to get to the most pursued goal, unity!”

Pope Francis added, “Let me assure you that your efforts to build communion among believers in Christ, and your lively interest in the future of your country and the role of the Christian communities within Egyptian society find a deep echo in the heart of the Successor of Peter and the entire Catholic community.”

May the great apostles St. Peter and St. Mark, founder of the Alexandrian Church, watch over our efforts and help us to establish full, visible unity among Roman Catholics and Coptic Orthodox Christians.

Columns

Saturday, 18 May 2013 23:59

Two gatherings in recent weeks, marking milestones for those who fought in or were Holocaust victims during the Second World War, caused me to marvel at the dwindling number of both today.

My father, Robert Wallace, who just turned 86 years old last week, served in the Navy and recently returned from his USS North Carolina Battleship crew reunion. The father of my good friend, Father James Dabrowski, Benjamin Dabrowski, 93, served in the Army during the North Africa Campaign. They are part of the greatest generation who served so bravely during WWII and they are heroes to our families.

It’s hard to believe that more than 16 million men and women served in the U.S. Military during WWII and that only 1.4 million survive today. The median age of military survivors from WWII is 92.

Another anniversary that commemorated what happened during WWII last week was the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The anniversary gathered together elderly survivors of the Holocaust and the veterans who helped liberate them.

The majority of the adult survivors of the Holocaust are mostly gone now and those who walked out of the camps as children survivors are now mostly in their 70s and 80s.

Tom A. Bernstein, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, said, “An estimated 6 million Jews in the 1930s and 1940s died in the Nazi campaign in which Adolf Hitler ordered European Jews to concentration camps where they were systematically killed in gas chambers, poison showers or under the stress of disease and fatigue.”

The anniversary drew together more than 750 survivors. Museum officials believe that this may be the last large gathering of survivors of the murderous actions of Hitler and the Nazis.

President Bill Clinton, who dedicated the museum 20 years ago, joined with museum founding chairman and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel in giving moving speeches at the gathering. At the tribute dinner the museum awarded its highest honor, the Elie Wiesel Award, to all WWII veterans, accepted on their behalf by Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and to Wladyslaw Bartoszewski of Poland, as a representative of all rescuers. “What the museum stands for and what many of you know firsthand is the fragility of freedom and the courage and sacrifice necessary to preserve it,” said Director Bernstein to the survivors. President Clinton said, “The Holocaust Museum will be here as our conscience.”

One of the survivors in attendance, Steen Metz, 77, said that he was only 8 years old when he was forced into a cattle car and taken to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic.

“Like many survivors, I didn’t talk about it or not much. I didn’t know what was going on. We were different, but we were not different. We were different in Hitler’s eyes,” he said that night.

Edith Hendel, 83, another survivor, said, “It’s very emotional and everything is coming back,” as she remembered her time at Auschwitz concentration camp. She added that “there are very little survivors. We’re all dying out.”

Vera Greenwood, 84, a native of Germany who escaped to Palestine and whose husband Fred survived the Holocaust in Holland hidden in a house, said that “in 10 years, most of us will be gone.”

Soon we will be living in a world that will have no more living Holocaust survivors. This fact alarms those involved in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. Here in New Jersey, thanks to such good people as Dr. Paul Winkler, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, teachers in both public and Catholic schools are educated in Holocaust studies for the classroom.

Dr. Winkler recently said that over the past decade the number of survivors living in New Jersey has decreased from 5,000 to 2,000. He is helping with a three-pronged approach: ensuring that as many New Jersey students as possible meet a survivor; training second-, third- and even fourth-generation groups to know their parents’ stories and how to share them; and giving teacher workshops on how to teach about the Holocaust without the presence of a survivor and how to respond to questions influenced by people who question the veracity of the Holocaust.

Dr. Winkler has been to many of our Catholic schools here in the Diocese of Camden.

Columns

Saturday, 18 May 2013 23:59

On Sunday, April 14, Jews, Christians and Muslims gathered at Congregation Beth El in Voorhees to attend a symposium, hosted by our Jewish-Catholic-Muslim Dialogue of Southern New Jersey, titled “Islamic Sharia Law: Myths and Facts.” There were more than 100 participants.

One of the opening speakers was U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ) who spoke eloquently about the plight of the Pilgrims who came to this land seeking religious freedom. He promised to spread the word in Washington about our gathering and how South Jersey was modeling religious tolerance and dialogue. When he sat next to me on the bimah he shared that he felt Congress was very close to accepting a bipartisan plan to overhaul the immigration law. He said that the bishops of the United States were very helpful in their support and suggestions.

Imam Sohaib Sultan, the Muslim life coordinator and chaplain at Princeton University and author of “The Koran for Dummies,” spoke of the fear that many Americans have about Muslims in general and the particular fear of some that Muslims are bent on imposing Sharia law on the nation.

“Let it be clear in this room and beyond this room. When people talk about regulating and imposing bans on sharia, they are regulating and imposing bans on Islam itself,” he said. He proceeded to present an explanation of Islamic law, customs and practices and fielded difficult questions that often revealed some of the fears and misgivings of non-Muslims. Unperturbed, he answered questions concerning women rights, honor killings, penal codes, Muslim views of Jews and Christians and violent reactions over perceived insults to Muhammad.

Participants shared food and conversation afterward.

The next day at the Boston Marathon, bombs killed three innocent people and injured more than 140 people. We all saw the images of the two women killed and the heartbreaking photo of young Martin Richard in his white first Holy Communion suit. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston released a statement that said, in part, “ We stand in solidarity with our ecumenical and interfaith colleagues in the commitment to witness the greater power of good in our society and to work for healing.”

On Wednesday the U.S. Senate defeated a bill that would have expanded background checks for gun buyers, with little outcry from a nation stunned by the violence in Boston.

At a meeting at the Cherry Hill Jewish Community Center of our Jewish-Catholic-Muslim Dialogue to discuss our Sunday program and our sacred Scriptures, I was asked to give the opening prayer. One of the Muslim participants asked me to pray that the individuals involved in the Boston bombings not be a Muslim, (the identity of the bombers was not yet known.) After the prayer some of the Muslims in attendance shared their fears that should it be a Muslim that perpetrated these horrendous crimes, Muslims throughout the country will experience dirty looks, rude comments and other painful reactions from some angry and fearful neighbors. Not only will Muslims feel the sting of bias, all immigrants may feel the same intolerance. The bill Congressman Andrews spoke of could be in jeopardy.

Here in our own diocese, Bishop Sullivan will be saying a Mass on Friday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. at Divine Mercy Parish in Vineland in support of immigrant families and a comprehensive reform of immigration reform.

We would all do well to reflect on the advice that Pope Francis gave to our compatriots in Boston. He prayed that “all Bostonians will be united in a resolve not to be overcome by evil, but to combat evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21), working together to build an ever more just, free and secure society for generations yet to come.”

May we never give in to the nativistic fears that would cause us to demonize an entire religious group because of the criminal actions of a miniscule and heretical subgroup or to turn our backs on the rights of human beings that come to us from other nations to seek a better way of life.

Columns

Saturday, 18 May 2013 23:59

Have you ever heard from a family member or friend that one of the scariest things about Islam besides terrorism is that it seeks to impose Sharia Law on the world? Of course, both these calumnies against Muslims have caused great suffering and fear in their communities throughout the West. Our Jewish-Catholic-Muslim Dialogue of Southern New Jersey, an outreach of our Catholic-Jewish, Catholic-Muslim Commissions, will be sponsoring a symposium titled, “Islamic Sharia Law: Myths and Facts,” a free symposium, on Sunday, April 14, at 2 p.m. at Congregation Beth El Synagogue, Voorhees. Prior registration is requested at www.jeresnj.org or 856 751-9500 ext. 1117.

Our keynote speaker for the symposium will be Imam Sohaib Nazeer Sultan, Muslim Life Coordinator and chaplain at Princeton University. He is a graduate of the Hartford Theological Seminary, earning a Masters in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, and a Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy. He has authored several books, including “The Koran for Dummies” and “The Qur’an and Sayings of Prophet Muhammad: Selection Annotated and Explained.” Sultan is also a public lecturer on Islam, Muslim Cultures and Muslim-Western Relations. He has traveled all around the U.S., Middle East and Europe to promote mutual respect and understanding. Congressman Rob Andrews will also attend and speak at the symposium.

Most of us are aware of many of the myths surrounding sharia law, as we have been bombarded with them in the news media. Many of the fear mongers will tell you that sharia law, instead of imposing fines and imprisonment, advocates whipping, amputations, blinding and the death penalty for minor offenses. Have you also heard that Muslims want to impose sharia law throughout the world? Out of the 50 or so majority-Muslim countries in the world, only nine small countries and Pakistan implement full sharia law. Remember the rumor that Muslims were trying to impose sharia law in major Western cities? A recent British poll found that 79 percent of Muslims in that country thought Christianity should dictate United Kingdom law. (A higher number than Christians themselves in the UK!)

Sharia law is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia influences and addresses most aspects of life for the Muslim. It addresses most topics found also in secular law such as, crime, politics, economics, as well as very personal human actions such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer and fasting. The two primary sources of sharia law come from the teachings found in the Quran (Islamic scriptures) and the example left by the Islamic prophet Muhammad found in the sunnah. The sunnah outlines the practices of Muhammad that he taught by the manner of his life. According to Muslim belief, this practice is to be followed by all the faithful as called upon by God. The sunnah of Muhammad includes his words, habits, practices and non-verbal example.

Some of the topics and aspects of Islamic life covered in sharia are purification, prayer, funeral prayers, alms, fasting, pilgrimage, trade, inheritance, marriage, polygamy, divorce, child custody, justice, legal and court proceedings, penalties, leaving Islam/apostasy, dietary laws, liquor and gambling, customs and behavior, rituals and dress codes.

Sharia also addresses some of the more contemporary issues facing Muslims, such as; democracy, human rights, freedom of speech, gay rights, women, slavery and emancipation and how to interact with non-Muslims.

There is no one stipulated interpretation of sharia law in Islam. Modernists, traditionalists and fundamentalists in Islam hold different views of sharia and its interpretation, as well as adhere to different schools of Islamic thought and scholarship. Also the culture of the various countries and peoples who adhere to Islam influences their practice, or lack of practice, of sharia law. The modern revival of Islam in the world today influences Muslim understanding and relationship with sharia law.

I hope you will be able to join us for this most interesting symposium. Bring an open mind and all your questions, fears and curiosities.

If you go:

“Islamic Sharia Law: Myths and Facts,” a symposium, is free and open to the public. It will be held Sunday, April 14, at 2 p.m. at Congregation Beth El Synagogue, 8000 Main Street, Voorhees. Prior registration is requested at www.jeresnj.org or 856 751-9500 ext. 1117.

Columns

Saturday, 18 May 2013 23:59

The Mass of inaugurating the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome that took place last week for Pope Francis was history making on several levels. First and foremost was the beautiful simplicity of the liturgy itself. As Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Press Office of the Holy See, explained about the different emphasis that Francis directed, “The correct term for the ceremony is not enthronement but inauguration. As successor of Peter, the pope is bishop of Rome and the Church of Rome ‘presides in love’ over the others. Also, it is a celebration rich with symbols that recall the pope’s tie to St. Peter, beginning with the place where, according to tradition, Peter was martyred.”

Pope Francis in fulfillment of his ministry to “preside in love” prearranged that seated in the prestigious seats on the left hand side of St. Peter’s Square, the porch side of the Basilica, on the day of his inauguration would be, as Father Lombardi explained, “bishops and archbishops (some 250), ecclesiastics and delegations from other churches and Christian confessions…. On the St. Peter’s statue side of the piazza will be seated Jews, Muslims and members of other religions.”

These invitations have been included in the seating of most of the popes since the Second Vatican Council.

What was truly historical about Pope Francis’s ceremony was that it was the first time ever that the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has attended the installation of a bishop of Rome. In deference to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, the Gospel was chanted in Greek at the Mass. Initially historians were citing that it was the inauguration first time that an Ecumenical Patriarch has attended an installation of a pope of Rome since the great schism of 1054 A.D. But upon further study it was decided that this was actually the first time ever. It’s difficult to express the momentous impact that the patriarch’s presence at Pope Francis’s inauguration will have on ecumenical relations between the churches of East and West.

After the inaugural Mass Patriarch Bartholomew said, “This pope is a good shepherd of his faithful. The Catholic Church needs a shepherd. From the off he has shown a real closeness to the people. I only met Pope Francis today and I was really impressed. We’re meeting in private tomorrow and I intend to invite him to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul as soon as possible.”

At that private meeting the next day which took place in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis met with representatives of non-Catholic churches, ecclesial communities, ecumenical organizations, as well as representatives of non-Christian religions, who came to Rome for the inauguration. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was chosen to represent those present and address the new pope.

The patriarch addressed the pope, saying, “Your Holiness, in the name of the Lord of powers, we wholeheartedly congratulate you on the inspired election and deserved assumption of your new duties as first bishop of the venerable church of Senior Rome, defined by the primacy of love…. The task and responsibility before you are immense before God and humankind. The unity of the Christian churches is surely our foremost concern as one of the fundamental prerequisites for the credibility of our Christian witness in the eyes of those near and afar.… As the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the worldwide Orthodox Church of Christ, we are certain that your venerable and dearly beloved Holiness, who commences this historical journey with such favorable auspices as bishop of Rome, will together with all those who are willing and able — exhibit special concern for the reparation of secular trends so that humanity may be restored to its ‘original beauty’ of love. We fervently pray with all Christians as well as with people throughout the world that Your Holiness will prove effective in this deeply responsible and highly onerous task.”

Seated in a simple armchair after refusing to sit in the throne, Pope Francis listened attentively. When Bartholomew finished speaking, Pope Francis thanked and embraced him calling him “my brother Andrew,” since the patriarchs of Constantinople are the successors of the Apostle Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.

Pope Francis then turned to the others and said that when he saw all of them present at his inauguration Mass, he felt, “in an even stronger way, the prayer for unity among believers in Christ and glimpsed prefigured in some way, its full realization, which depends on God’s plan and our sincere cooperation.”

Good health and long life to our new Holy Father, Pope Francis!