NATION - News Briefs

National Catholic Reporter, June 15, 2001 by Gill Donovan

Lutheran bishop resigns after lesbian ordination

The Lutheran bishop of the Los Angeles area will resign July 31 after he openly defied church law by participating in the ordination service of a lesbian pastor at a St. Paul, Minn., church in April. Bishop Paul W. Egertson said he will honor a promise made to fellow bishops that he would step down if his conscience ever called him to break with church rules.

"In the end, the only credibility we have is in the truth we tell and the promises we keep," Egertson wrote in an open letter to members of his Southern California West Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

On April 28, Egertson participated -- along with three retired bishops -- in the ordination service of Anita Hill, a lesbian living in a committed relationship, at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church.

Because the 5.2 million-member church requires gay clergy to be celibate, Hill's ordination is not recognized and Egertson violated church standards on ordination.

Police, parishioners reconcile after disturbance

More than a month after an unexpected police sweep disrupted Good Friday services at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Los Angeles, nearly 1,000 members of the community and law enforcement officials gathered May 15 for a celebration.

The purpose, explained Fr. Jarlath Cunnane, St. Thomas' pastor, was both to conclude the holy day tradition that was interrupted and "to recognize the pain and grief of our people, but also to seek healing ... to seek reconciliation."

"We were anxious to find a way to heal some of the distrust that's there already -- and that this Good Friday experience deepened -- and move beyond it to a more hopeful and positive collaboration with the Los Angeles Police Department," Cunnane told The Tidings, Los Angeles' archdiocesan newspaper.

That accomplishment came some four weeks after the April 13 law enforcement sweep by Los Angeles Police Rampart Division officers targeting unlicensed street vendors outside a site serving as temporary quarters for St. Thomas Church. The original church building is being reconstructed after a 1999 fire caused extensive damage.

According to Cunnane, the surprise sweep escalated from a simple disturbance stemming from excessive noise to a complete disruption of the Good Friday liturgy when officers on the scene ordered an estimated 2,000 parishioners to leave the service. It was later discovered that the order to disperse came after an unknown person in the crowd gathered outside the church hurled an object at officers enforcing the sweep.

First Tohono O'odham deacons ordained

Three members of the Tohono O'odham nation were ordained to the permanent diaconate May 27 in Santa Rosa, Ariz., marking the first time that Catholic members of the Native American tribe have their own ordained clergy.

The reservation, the size of Connecticut with a population of 22,000, is within the Tucson diocese. Today's Tohono are the descendents of Native Americans who converted to Catholicism under the auspices of Jesuit missionary Eusebio Kino in the late 1600s.

Alfred Gonzales, Philip Lopez and Frederick Segundo were ordained by Tucson Bishop Manuel D. Moreno. A crowd of more than 600 participated with prayer, song and applause in the Santa Rosa Boarding School Gym. Santa Rosa is about 100 miles from Tucson.

At the presentation of gifts, the newly ordained Lopez sang in Tohono a recent dream in which he and his brother Tohono deacons were shown by the saints of the tribe how to serve their people.

"This is going to be a real breakthrough," said Franciscan Sr. Carla Riach about the possible impact of the ordinations on vocations from the Tohono people. Riach was a primary organizer of the eight-year process that led to the ordinations.

Relatives protest Bush's reference to Dorothy Day

Tamar and Martha Hennessy, the daughter and granddaughter of Dorothy Day, have collaborated to write a letter to the editor of the Rutland Herald in Vermont objecting to President George Bush's reference to Day in his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame May 20. Bush referenced Day while promoting his faith-based initiative plan.

"Dorothy was an ardent believer in social justice, the rights of workers, and care of the disenfranchised," they wrote. "Her life's work was dedicated to picking up the pieces of human wreckage, the result of policies that continue to be perpetuated by the Bush administration. It is shameful to have her efforts associated with an administration that gives priority to corporate profiteering over human needs.

"Dorothy understood that a just system was as equally important as her ideal of personalism, where each takes individual responsibility for the well-being of all. The speech writers for George Bush have distorted her message regarding the works of mercy by using her words in their arsenal of deceit."

Boston Catholics to build low-income apartments

In a dual effort to ease Boston's housing crunch and set a good example, the Boston archdiocese has committed to build as many as 4,000 new apartments on church properties.