IN BRIEF


Primates’ boycott ‘deeply felt’ The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said the absence of 10 conser- vative archbishops from last week’s meeting of Anglican primates in Dublin had been “felt and noted every day”, and that the names of the 10, who boycotted because of the presence of the liberal US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, had been placed on seats in the meeting. Dr Williams added that reports of as many as 1,000 Anglican parishes considering joining the ordinariate of the Catholic Church were “exaggerated”. “If this for them is a step further towards communion with Christ, God bless them,” he said.


Anger at activist’s funeral There were scuffles at gay-rights activist David Kato’s Anglican funeral near Kampala on 28 January after the pastor officiating called on homosexuals “to repent or be punished by God”. Ugandan gay-rights groups said this week that rallies held in Uganda in 2009 which described the gay movement as “an evil institution” and intended to “defeat the marriage- based society” had led to homophobic violence in the country.


Senate rejects euthanasia bill The French Senate has rejected a bill to introduce euthanasia that the Catholic Church had campaigned against. “Authorising euthanasia would install a regime of fear,” Lyons Cardinal Philippe Barbarin declared before the vote. Several hundred protesters in white shrouds lay down on the street outside during the debate to dramatise the opposition to assisted suicide.


Catholic hospital for Iraq The governorate of Erbil in northern Iraq has said it will donate two pieces of land for a Catholic-run university and hospital. Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil told Aid to the Church in Need that both schemes would provide job opportunities for the thousands of often highly skilled Christians flooding into Kurdistan from religious violence in Baghdad and Mosul. Archbishop Warda said the institutions were intended as “symbols of hope”.


Pakistan minister in danger Islamic militants in Pakistan are plotting the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for religious minorities, according to Fides news. Mr Bhatti, a Catholic, is being targeted because he supports a change in the nation’s blasphemy law. The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, of which the minister is president, has demanded more security for him.


For daily news updates visit www.thetablet.co.uk


Letter from Rome J


oão Bráz de Aviz is not a well-known figure at the hundreds of religious-order headquarters in Rome or hardly


anywhere else. But before too long he will


be. Pope Benedict XVI has appointed the Brazilian archbishop prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The 63-year-old head of the Vatican’s


office for Religious and future cardinal made his first big public appearance in Rome on Wednesday evening. It was at papal Vespers in St Peter’s Basilica for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, a day on which the Vatican focuses on vocations to the consecrated life. Archbishop Bráz de Aviz is not a consecrated Religious, but a Focolarino. In an interview this past week in


L’Osservatore Romano, he said: “The Focolari Movement has been my family since I was 17.” He even credits the movement with “saving” his priestly vocation from the “anguish” that liberation theology caused him while he was a student in Rome in the early 1970s. And he is convinced that more “theological work” must be done to root out the Marxist elements from liberation theology.


Archbishop Bráz de Aviz will have more than liberation theology to worry about in his new post. One concern is the crisis of vocations to religious life, which he links partly to a lack of fervour among lay Catholics. “As the baptised grow in faithfulness to their vocation as disciples and, at the same time their witness is shared in communion with the other charisms and realities of the Church, the vitality [of consecrated life] will reappear,” he said. He is convinced that this vitality depends on Religious making a greater commitment to living in community.


T


he 1 May beatification of Pope John Paul II is not being universally welcomed. The Survivors Network of


those Abused by Priests (SNAP) have come out in angry opposition to it. While back in 2005 a group of European and Latin American theologians already balked at the prospect as soon as Papa Wojtyla’s “cause” was hastily opened. SNAP’s objection is that the late Polish Pope did not do enough to deal with abusive priests and turned a blind eye to accusations (later substantiated) against Fr Marcial Maciel. The theologians oppose the beatification


because of – among other things – John Paul’s silencing of their colleagues, his refusal to debate the role of women in the Church, the Vatican’s scandalous financial improprieties during his long reign and his role in the “ecclesial isolation” of Oscar Romero.


And now a new group has stepped


forward with gripes over the John Paul II beatification ceremony. Their beef is not over the late pope’s worthiness, but the date that has been chosen to recognise him. The network of hotel owners in Rome say that holding the beatification on 1 May will create chaos that could easily be diminished if another day were selected. Rome is always packed on 1 May because nearly a million people come from all over Italy to attend the annual Labour-backed May Day Concert in front of the Cathedral-Basilica of St John Lateran. If another two million show up for John Paul’s beatification, there will be too few beds, hotel owners say. In fact, if you’re planning on coming for either of the celebrations and have not yet arranged your lodgings, forget about it. Unless, of course, you have friends here who have a guest room.


ardinal Gianfranco Ravasi seems to be the flavour of the month in Rome. The president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and noted Italian biblical scholar is appearing more frequently as a guest speaker or liturgical celebrant at significant events throughout the Urb. This is in addition to his already prolific life as a regular columnist in two Italian newspapers, weekly religion commentator on a Berlusconi-owned television channel and, of course, his day job as the Vatican’s “Minister of Culture”. This past Thursday Cardinal Ravasi was to preside at a Mass at the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls to mark the forty-third anniversary of the birth of the Sant’Egidio Community. Andrea Riccardi founded the community in February 1968 and today it numbers some 60,000 members in 73 countries around the world. Sant’Egidio is known for its untiring work on behalf of the poor and those suffering from illnesses such as Aids. But it is also known, at least in Rome, for its political savvy and its successful efforts at enlisting top members of the hierarchy to its cause. Cardinal Ravasi is only the latest one with a red hat to preside at Sant’Egidio’s annual anniversary Mass. He did so just two days after delivering a lectio magistralis on “The Symbolism of Food in the Bible” at a Rome conference in preparation for Expo 2015. This will be held in Milan and based on the theme, “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. Inviting Ravasi to speak may have been an inspired choice. The 68-year-old has long been touted as the leading candidate to become the next Archbishop of Milan. But some reports say he has already refused the post, while others say powerful Italian prelates are blocking him.


C Robert Mickens 5 February 2011 | THE TABLET | 29


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