WORLD - Catholic-related current events - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, July 2, 1999 by Matt Kantz

Canadian bishop closes school rather than bow to union

A 45-year-old Roman Catholic school in northern Canada is being closed because its teachers have joined a union that won't accept the regional bishop's method of dealing with staff who might offend against Catholic teaching.

Prince George Bishop Gerald Wiesner says he is closing the only Catholic school in Fort St. John's, British Columbia, because the British Columbia Government Employees and Services Union refuses to accept a religious morality clause that would make it a firing offense for teachers to be sexually active homosexuals or to have a live-in relationship outside of marriage.

Wiesner said the 200-student Immaculata elementary school was scheduled to be shut down at the end of June. Ted West, director of 11 Catholic schools in the Prince George diocese, said the bishop demands a "Catholicity clause" to make sure teachers' personal behavior is in line with Catholic morality.

Birmingham archbishop resigns amid controversy

Archbishop Maurice Couve de Murville of Birmingham, England, resigned June 27 in the wake of an impending legal battle involving the victims of a priest convicted of indecent assault.

Couve de Murville served as the Birmingham archbishop for 17 years before announcing his retirement in a letter to his priests June 11. The letter states that Pope John Paul II agreed Couve de Murville could retire on his 70th birthday, which was June 27.

Couve de Murville said he plans to go on retreat before having a prostate operation in August.

"I feel that it is in the best interests of the diocese that I step aside for a younger and more energetic man as we approach the new millennium," Couve de Murville wrote.

A civil action brought by 20 persons who say they were victimized by the former priest Eric Taylor is asking for several million dollars in damages. Taylor is serving seven years in prison for the indecent assault charge.

A source in the Birmingham archdiocese told The Sunday Times, "It is widely known that the archbishop has become weary and exhausted by the criminal proceedings which were taken against the priest. He is thought to have been worried by the prospect of long, drawn out civil actions."

Bishop Philip Pargeter will be apostolic administrator for the diocese until a new archbishop is appointed.

Patriarch Pavle attempts to keep Serbs in Kosovo

The head of the Serbian Orthodox church says he will move to Kosovo "for an extended period" in an attempt to get minority Serbs to stay in the province despite fears that returning ethnic Albanians will seek revenge.

Pavle, who has called for the ouster of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, on June 16 urged Serbs and Orthodox Montenegrins not to flee Kosovo, the historic home of Orthodox Serb culture.

Tens of thousands of Serbs are reported to be leaving Kosovo with retreating Yugoslav military forces because of fears that ethnic Albanians will seek revenge for the atrocities they say Serbians carried out against them.

Pavle said he would go to Pec, a western Kosovo city that has been the Serbian Orthodox church's spiritual center since 1346. Pavle appealed to Orthodox Christians not to abandon Kosovo, the location of thousands of churches, monasteries and other Orthodox sites.

Despite Pavle's call, the Serbian Orthodox bishop of Prizren in Kosovo fled that city June 16 with a number of priests. Bishop Artemije left Prizren under German escort because, he said, his safety could not be guaranteed.

Sri Lankan army withdraws from national shrine

The Sri Lankan government has finally removed its troops out of the grounds of the national Marian shrine of Our Lady of Madhu and begun to restore the shrine area to pave the way for regular pilgrimages.

The move came after appeals made by Bishop Rayappu Joseph of Mannar April 5 and the Catholic Bishops' Conference in Sri Lanka two weeks later to President Chandrika Kumaratunga calling for the troops' withdrawal.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam took control of the shrine when armed conflict broke out in the early 1980s between the government and the militants seeking a separate state for ethnic Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

Last March 22, government troops regained control of the northern area where the shrine is located. Until their recent transfer the troops had occupied the 160-hectare shrine grounds.

The army has now transferred its troops to a location some two kilometers away from the shrine in northern Sri Lanka.

Milroy Fernando, deputy minister-of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development and a Catholic, who inspected the area June 9, said he was happy with the rehabilitation work within the shrine area.

"The government has developed the roads -- both approaching and within the shrine area," he said, adding that installation of power transmitters would be completed in time for the July 2 festival, marking a popular pilgrim season. In addition, work on the reservoir which supplies bathing water to the shrine is also progressing, he added.