28 PAGES 25 CENTS A shift from Moscow to Mecca Influence of Islam new Vatican concern Martin Moran In the inte rnational arena of religious persecution, Rome's focus is shifting from Moscow to Mecca as the third millenium of Christ's birth approaches. That was one of several observations brought back to Denver by Archbishop J . Francis Stafford follow­ ing a five-day visit to the Vatican with a de legation of the National Council of Churches (NCC). The archbishop, in his role as chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Inter­ religious Affairs, accompanied the 10-member NCC delegation to the Vatican April 10-14. In a press conference upon his return April 17, Archbishop Stafford termed the visit of the NCC team "a very historic trip" in that it was only the second time an NCC delegation had officially visited the Holy See. The last visit by the NCC leadership was 20 years ago. Pope John Paul II presented copies of a new transla­ an ordained Presbyterian minister and president of the "It was an historic opportunity to strengthen the tion of the Latin Vulgate Bible April 14 to Archbishop Natlonal Council of Churches, when a group of NCC ties of the Catholic Church in the United States and Stafford, right, and the Rev. Patricia A. McClurg, center, offlclals visited the Pope and Vatican offlctals. Continued on page 5 'Growing up Catholic' in America Patricia Hillyer Based her feelings Her exodus Register Staff Susan Love described for the audience "the posi­ Disappointed and a ngry after her exodus from Religious life, she took a several-year hiatus from "Growing up Catholic" is a loaded subject - any­ tives and negatives" of her youthful e ncounter with the Catholic faith. the Catholic Church and said that "just in recent time, anywhere. Thus, when three national figures years, I've begun to find my way back." tackled the topic April 13 at the University of Color­ Using a jovial, upbeat approach, sprinkled with ado's Conference on World Affairs, the expected humorous anecdotes to make her points, Love cate­ Along the way, Love said, she tried to become an happened - a spirited explosion of facts, feelings, gorized her early religious upbringing as "sometimes Episcopalian, "but it just wasn't the same." and foibles. scarY. There were so many stringent rules and regu­ lations that left me fearful and guilty - more than I Recently, a fter becoming a mother, she began The trio of speakers, from totally diITerent back­ again to re new her religious commitme nt. She found grounds, showered the audience with totally differ­ should have been. It ·brought fairytale de mons into re al life - like, step on a crack, break your mother's a parish in Boston that is "unde rstanding and ac­ ent perspectives of their formative years as Catho­ back - eat hamburger on Friday and you'll go to cepting," attended classes, had her baby baptized lics. They recounted delightful experiences, painful and now is in the church. memories, valued lessons, and magnanimous misun­ hell." derstandings. But when the session ended, there She said that children are often unable to recog­ "I want to pass o n my re ligious culture to my child, emerged one solidly common judgment: " We're glad nize levels of rights and wrongs, so that if they do but I wish I could keep from passing on the church we grew up Catholic." something wrong, no matter how insignificant, they politics," she said. think of themselves, as bad as if they did something A crowd filled the chapel of Old Main to hear the terribly wrong. "That can be dangerous thinking in Because he was the son of Italian immigrants who panel, which included Roger Ebe rt, film critic and formative years," she surmised. always viewed the church with a "critical eye,'' Blase cohost of the TV s how "Siske! a nd Ebert;" Susan Bonpane said he did not "get caught up in the fear Margaret Love, professor of surgery a t Harvard Med­ Love said that during he r adolescent years her and guilt syndrome" that he fe els so many other ical School and an expert in the field of women's religion "was a great help - a safe haven when Catholic children experienced. issues; and Blase Bonpane, who has a doctorate in hormones were surfacing. I became a very ardent liberation theology and is the founder and director believer and found the rituals and romanticism of my Different attitude of the Office of the Americas, an organization focus­ faith quite wonderful.'' "Upwardly mobile Italians just seemed to have a ing on peace and justice in the Americas. Later, after college, Love spent nine months in a different attitude toward the church than many other The session was one of nearly 200 seminars held convent preparing to become a nun, leaving after she ethnic groups," he said. "They believed that no one during the weeklong world affairs conference , which realized that the fantasy she had built for he rself should be a slave to re ligion, so that's the way I was is in its 42nd year at CU and features nationa lly about life in the convent was not real. "I thought brought up." evefYone the re was going to be like the wonderful recognized expe rts in a variety of fields from the arts continued on page 4 to e nvironment to relationships. nuns who had taught me in junior high," she said. Easing the Speclal on Speech, PMn of victims Language, Hearing . PAGES 18-21 . PAGE 3 PAGE 5 . ., Page 2 - A • 1' 19, 1989 - Der1ver Catholic A4iglste'r' A pilgrimage with the Council of Churches I was looking forward to assisting Vatican offi­ Church upon our relations :::;tn t~e Orthod_ox and cials in hosting the delegation o,f officials from Anglicans. There is an ancient _axiom of fa1t~: lex the National Council of Churches of Christ in the ARCHBISHOP'S orandi lex credendi (the law oJ· prayer constitutes United Slates of America (NCCC). the law of belieO. It had been 20 years COLUMN since their last and only Many say that ecumenism has been stuck on .. visit to th,e Holy See and plateau for some time. In fact it appears to some much had changed since heid in South Africa is an ideology stemming that the field of cooperation among Christian then in th,~ relationship of from a perverse interpretation of reform theol• churches and ecclesial communities has become Protestant and Orthodox ogy. From its earliest years, the NCCC felt a stagnant or that they have re·ached an impasse. Churches to the Catholic particular obligation to confront this obstinate From my point of view, it SE!ems that we have Church. As chair of Uic and vain conception of the gospel message. paused - yes - in order t,o delve more pro­ Bishops' Committee on The government of the Catholic Church in foundly into the meaning of the unity we seek. Ecumenical a nd Inter­ Rome revealed itself as a complex and ordered This unity is a mystery in the Church, for it is faith AfTa'irs of our Am­ and respectful community of men and women. We Trinitarian. We hear ever moire clearly the chal­ erican conference, I have found a strong complimentarity of the charis­ lenge of Church unity as a divine challenge, a made a s:ignificant com­ matic and hierarchical elements. Those who divine initiative. Without dou'bt certain illusions mitment of time and govern the Church are united in discerning as a have disappeared which first became evident in thought to the work of the communion of disciples the direction in which the· period of euphoria immediately aner the NCCC and its Faith and Order Commission, the the Holy Spirit is calling the universal Catholic Second Vatican Council. Today we see more chair of which, Dr. Melanie May, was included in Church. The mystery of the Church was unfolded clearly the complexity of the issues we face, es­ the visiting delegation. She is a minister of the for me in the presence of the historical Peter in pecially in the purification of the memory of Church of the Brethren. In discussing various his successor, Pope John Paul II, and in the all­ centuries - long strife and division. We also nspects of Protestant life, it wa.s she who first embracing motherhood of the Church. The same understand better that the diifferences that his­ mentioned to me the severe shortage of ordained can be said in other words: I found in Rome that torically divided the different Chr istian confes­ ministers anticipated in most Protestant churches the Church of Christ is constituted both by a sions were not, as some claim, simply painful and within the next five to ten years. She was unable Marian principle and a Petrine principle. easily overcome misunderstandings. In reality we to give specific reasons for thi.s startling and The chief doctrinal issues discussed at our are discovering that these divisions are rooted in unexpected dearth in anticipate d vocations, al­ meeting centered on various concerns: the rela­ the very core of Christianity: is the relationship though she did say that "the crisis is rooted in tionship of particular cultures to Catholicism, between God and the human person a matter modernity." Conside rable research is being de­ "the massive fact" of the Moslem reality in Africa which concerns exclusively the interiority of the voted to explore this issue. and Asia, and the process of "reception" of vari­ i°ndividual as Protestants maintain or does it oc­ During our weeklong meetings with various ous ecumenical agreements among theologians by cur by means of an historical, human mediation members of the Roman Curia 2md of religious the Roman Catholic Church.