Subject: Religion in the News - April 26 - May 10
Date:    Thu, 14 May 1998 00:24:48 +0000
To:      "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>

From:    Eddie Chumney
To:      heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Religion in the News


                       Religion in the News
                     April 26 - May 10, 1998


ECUMENISM: THE POPE'S DREAM --
Dr. Malachi Martin, Roman Catholic priest and excorcist reported
the following on the Art Bell Show - 5/4/98

The only dream Pope John Paul II has had "has always been to
create a dynamic at the center of which would be Roman Catholics;
grouped around them would be the other Christian religions or
sects or churches, Greeks and Russians and western protestantism;
and grouped around them would be the Jewish people; and grouped
around them would be the Moslems. His dream was to make out of
that a dynamic the world would have to respect.  It's his dream."

THE NEXT POPE?
The Courier-Mail, Saturday, April 18th, 1998, via MINI-DESPATCH.
April 28, 1998. W. B. Howard...Editor of Despatch provides the
report and commentary.

The Courier-Mail, Saturday, April 18th, 1998, had a full-page
feature on Cardinal Francis Arinze, who also attended the WCRP
conference in Melbourne, July last year.  Said the feature, on
the subject of who will be the next Pope (large picture of Arinze
dominating the article): But inevitably the spotlight keeps
turning back on Arinze, whose qualifications grow. When Pope Paul
II was in Nigeria earlier this year he started the process that
probably will lead to the sainthood of Nigerian priest Father
Cyprian Iwene Tanai. John Paul II beatified him, the first step,
and confirmed that Father Cyprian - who died in Leicester.
England. in 1964 - once performed a miracle by curing a child of
cancer. One miracle is necessary for sainthood.

St Cypriot, if he becomes that, may well have one other claim to
fame. It was he who baptised a young Nigerian boy into the church
more than 60 years ago - Arinze. The Black Saint who baptised the
First Black Pope. Oh yes, it is some scenario and one a modern
church might find absolutely irresistible.  (End of quote).

Cardinal Francis Arinze, born in Eziowelle, Onitsha on November
1, 1932, is a charismatic figure. When I met him at the WCRP
conference in Melbourne I could not help being affected by his
personality. Of all the delegates there, and there were certainly
some interesting people attending, Arinze stood out. He was so
beaming, with shining eyes, such a calm peaceful, kindly look
about him! A medium sized man, with a round face and round gold
glasses, his boyish appearance denied his age of 65.  This Arinze
is a man deeply entrenched in Vatican politics already as
President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious dialogue,
a confidant and adviser to John Paul II. Arinze is an Interfaith
expert, a syncretization worker for the unity of all religions in
a One World. Could he be the next Pope, a Black Pope? The other
favorite for the position, Cardinal Carlo Martini, who is 70, of
Milan, could be disqualified because he is a Jesuit, there has
never been a Jesuit Pope. Another contender for Pope, Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, or "Joe the Rat", as he is known as in the
Vatican, is said to be the most powerful man in the Vatican. This
Cardinal has been the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the
Faith (or the Inquisition ) since 1982. This Congregation has
been around for hundreds of years, it is the very organization of
the Inquisition, the very same, which put hundreds of thousands
to death for refusing the Catholic apostate rule back there in
church history! Could we be looking at the False Prophet of
Scripture in one of these men, right now? Read about this
counterfeit Holy Spirit of the fake Trinity in Revelation 17 &
Rev. 13:11-14.

PILGRIMAGE IN THE GREAT JUBILEE OF THE YEAR 2000
VATICAN CITY, APR 28, 1998 (VIS)

At midday today, the document entitled "Pilgrimage in the Great
Jubilee of the Year 2000" from the Pontifical Council for the
Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, was presented at
the Holy See Press Office.

John Paul II approved the publication of the sixty-page document,
written in Italian, on April 11, 1998. The document carries the
signature of Cardinal Giovanni Cheli and Archbishop Francesco
Gioia, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical
Council, dated April 25.

The text is made up of an introduction and six chapters: "The
Pilgrimage of Israel"; "The Pilgrimage of Christ"; "The
Pilgrimage of the Church"; "The Pilgrimage towards the Third
Millennium"; "The Pilgrimage of humankind"; and "The Pilgrimage
of the Christian today."

"The reflections of this document", says the introduction, "wish
to help all pilgrims and pastoral leaders of pilgrimages, so that
in the light of the Word of God and the secular tradition of the
Church, all may participate more fully in the spiritual riches of
undertaking a pilgrimage."

In the presentation, Cardinal Cheli said that "visits to shrines,
particularly pilgrimages, constitute part of the vitality of the
Church, a privileged place of evangelization, a truly efficient
means of renewal in the sacraments and a driving force in the
building of Church communities."


MARK OF THE BEAST

DOG TAGS OUT
The American Legion Magazine, February 1998:

This is probably the last year U.S. troops will be issued
traditional military identification tags universally known as
"dog tags."

Starting in 1999, the services expect to replace the stamped
metal dog tags with "PICs" or "personal information carriers."
These small plastic tags might look something like dog tags but
will contain a computer chip packed with information about the
wearer.

Medical histories, copies of X-rays, vaccination records another
personal data will be stored on the chips.  Detailed medical
information is expected to be particularly helpful during
deployments, says Lt. Gen. Ronald Blanck, surgeon general of the
Army, since the military has not done a good job of making sure
medical records accompany troops during deployment.


APOSTASY AND THE ONE-WORLD CHURCH

ECUMENIST RENEWS CALL FOR UNIVERSAL CHRISTIAN COUNCIL
Ecumenical News International ENI News Service 28 April 1998
 By Piet Halma Kampen, The Netherlands, 28 April (ENI)

Dr Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of
Churches, has renewed his call for the main Christian churches to
start, in the year 2000, a process to lead to a universal
Christian council uniting all churches and Christians.

Speaking at the opening of the Dutch Kerkendag (church day) on
Saturday, 25 April, Dr Raiser said that in the year 2000, leaders
of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican and
Pentecostal churches should make a solemn promise not to rest
until such a council had been achieved.

In his speech, Dr Raiser said that there had been little progress
in reconciliation between the different Christian traditions.
There had been steps towards unity between some Protestant and
Anglican churches, he said. But the situation was very different
in relations between the Reformation churches and the Roman
Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Rome and the Orthodox churches
had a love-hate relationship, he said.

It would not be necessary to resolve all outstanding issues
between the main Christian traditions to achieve a universal
Christian council, Dr Raiser said, but among those that needed to
be tackled were the issues of tradition in the Orthodox church,
the question of ministry and authority in the churches of the
Reformation, and the primacy of the Pope in the Roman Catholic
Church.

BROADWAY COULD SEE PLAY ABOUT JESUS-LIFE FIGURE WHO IS GAY
May 1, 1998 NEW YORK (AP)

Acclaimed playwright Terrence McNally is working on a play
featuring a Christ-like character who has sex with his apostles,
the New York Post reported today.  "Corpus Christi,'' likely to
open on Broadway or off-Broadway in September or October,
features a character called Joshua, the newspaper said. The name
Jesus is a variation of the name Joshua.

Gilbert Medina, an assistant to McNally's agent, confirmed that
the play is being produced by Manhattan Theater Club, the paper
said. A reading of the play was held Tuesday at the club, and
about three dozen people attended.  The sex in the play is
offstage and just talked about, the newspaper said.

The play borrows dialogue from the Bible's New Testament,
paraphrasing Pontius Pilate's questioning of Jesus Christ before
his crucifixion, the paper said.  "Art thou king of the queers?''
McNally's Pontius Pilate character asks instead of "Art thou the
King of the Jews?'' "Thou sayest,'' the Joshua character answers.

CAREY URGES CATHOLIC CHURCH TO SHARE EUCHARIST WITH OTHER
CHRISTIANS
Ecumenical News International ENI News Service 30 April 1998 By
Cedric Pulford London

The Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has appealed to the
Roman Catholic Church to drop its ban on non-Catholics taking the
Eucharist at its services.  Dr Carey, who is the spiritual head
of the Anglican Communion, with 70 million members world-wide,
used the opportunity of a sermon in Luxembourg's Roman Catholic
Cathedral on 26 April to highlight "the distressing situation of
eucharistic separation".

Archbishop Carey said on 26 April: "In my [Anglican] tradition we
regularly invite those who are baptised and full members of other
Christian churches to receive eucharistic hospitality on
occasions as we receive it from them. We have found this to be a
source of great fellowship and joy - a visible sign and foretaste
of the unity to which we are called.

"It is also a reminder that the Eucharist does not belong to us,
we do not own it; rather it is a gracious gift from God."

After acknowledging that it "hurts to be denied the Lord's Supper
by a fellow disciple of Jesus Christ", Dr Carey expressed the
hope that the Millennium could be the occasion for "positive
signs" over the Eucharist.

LUTHERANS LIKELY TO SIGN DOCUMENT WITH CATHOLICS ENDING 400-YEAR
DISPUTE
Geneva Ecumenical News Int'l 5/4/98

The Lutheran World Federation - the world's major grouping of
Lutheran churches - has received significant support from its
member churches for a major ecumenical initiative with the Roman
Catholic Church which is intended to resolve a doctrinal dispute
that has lasted more than 400 years. Next month, the LWF's
Council (the organisation's governing body) will decide whether
sufficient consensus exists within its member churches for the
LWF to sign with the Vatican a joint declaration on the doctrine
of justification, a key difference between the two traditions
since Martin Luther broke with Rome in the 16th century.


PERSECUTION AND ANTI-SEMITISM

CHRISTIAN GETS DEATH PENALTY FOR 'BLASPHEMY' PAKISTANI JUDGE
ORDERS MAN HANGED FOR 'HURTING FEELINGS' OF MUSLIMS
  Copyright 1998, Compass Direct KARACHI, Pakistan

A Punjab district court sentenced Pakistani Christian Ayub Masih
to death yesterday, declaring him guilty of blasphemy against the
prophet Mohammed. Masih, 31, was convicted and sentenced to hang
under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries a
mandatory death penalty.

Sahiwal Additional Sessions Court Judge Rana Abdul Ghaffar
announced his April 27 judgment under strict security inside the
walls of the Sahiwal Central Jail, reportedly in the absence of
the accused's lawyer. In addition to the death penalty, the
presiding judge ordered Masih to pay the state a fine of 100,000
rupees ($2,500).

According to Masih's lawyer, his client was convicted for
allegedly telling a Muslim neighbor named Mohammad Akram, "If you
want to know the truth about Islam, then read Salman Rushdie."
Akram and other Muslim villagers from Chak No. 353-EB near
Arifwala charged that by endorsing Rushdie's ideas in his novel
"The Satanic Verses," Masih had in fact slandered the prophet
Mohammad.

However, Catholic Bishop of Faisalabad, John Joseph, continued to
reject the charges against Masih as falsified claims "cooked up"
to force the village's handful of 15 Christian families to
abandon a local land dispute.  "So Ayub Masih is to be hanged
because he quoted Salman Rushdie," Bishop Joseph told Compass in
a telephone interview today. "It's as simple as that."

SOME 1,000 CATHOLICS HOLD A MASS AT CROSS NEAR AUSCHWITZ
May 1, 1998 WARSAW, Poland (AP)

Some 1,000 Roman Catholics prayed for Nazi victims Friday at a
controversial cross that commemorates a 1979 papal mass and
stands near the Auschwitz memorial.  Worshipers, including a
handful of Solidarity activists, held banners reading "Let's
defend the cross'' and "God, Honor and Homeland'' during Friday's
mass, the PAP news agency reported.

Jewish organizations say the 26-foot-tall cross, visible from the
former death camp, disturbs the memory of the Jews who died
there.  But many Poles view the cross   located where 152 Nazi
resisters were murdered in 1941   as a symbol of the nation's
martyrdom under German occupation.  A compromise to remove the
cross has fallen through, and a national debate about its fate
continues.

SOUTH AFRICA: JEWISH CELEBRATIONS MARRED BY MUSLIM PROTESTS IN
CAPE TOWN. "ONE BULLET, ONE JEW"
Johannesburg SAPA in English 30 Apr 98 - Kahl's I&G News 5/3/98

Muslim protesters angered by Israel's 50th anniversary
celebrations gathered outside the Cape Town Civic Centre on
Wednesday night chanting anti-Zionist slogans. The guests were
oblivious to what was happening but once they came outside they
were greeted with chants like "One bullet, one Jew", and "Death
to the Jews" hurled at them as they left. Earlier in the evening
the protesters tried to crash the celebration party. After police
intervened, they burnt an Israeli flag.


ONE-WORLD ECONOMY AND COLLAPSE

VATICAN SIGNS UP FOR NEW CURRENCY
>From Richard Owen in Rome London Times 5/4/98

AS ITALY yesterday celebrated joining the euro, the Vatican ended
uncertainty over its own currency plans by indicating that it
would follow suit and adopt the euro rather than the US dollar.

The Vatican City, which has fewer than a thousand residents and
covers 0.44 square kilometres (0.16 square miles) of sovereign
territory in the heart of Rome, at present uses the lira. The
Vatican Mint and the Vatican Bank - properly called the Instituto
di Opere di Religione, or IOR - are linked to the Bank of Italy.
But the Vatican carries out transactions in a variety of
international currencies, above all the US dollar. In the past it
has become enmeshed in financial scandals as a result of
ill-judged investments and business partners, some linked to the
Mafia.

There had been reports that the Vatican might opt to join the
dollar zone. But yesterday, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican
newspaper, hailed Italy's adherence to the euro as historic and
said the decision by 11 countries to adopt the currency was "a
very positive step". Bishop Francesco Salerno, secretary of the
Vatican Prefecture for Economic Affairs, said the Holy See would
now "begin to pave the way for the euro as well". He did not say
whether the Vatican euro would have the Pope's image on it, as
Vatican lira coins do.

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