“World Wide Religious News” (http://wwrn.org.)
(1) "Pope calls for religious freedom in Arab countries"
(Reuters, January 18, 2008)
Vatican City - Pope Benedict on Friday issued a strong call for religious freedom in Arab countries, saying everyone should have the right to practise their faith openly and to convert to other religions if they wanted.
The Pope, making his call in an address to Catholic bishops from Arab regions, also said he was concerned that parts of the Middle East risked becoming just "an archaeological site" if an exodus of Christians forced out by violence continued.
"I dearly hope that authentic religious freedom could become reality everywhere and that everyone's right to practise their religion freely, or to change it, should not be impeded," he told the bishops working in the Middle East and Africa.
"This is a primordial right for every human being," he added in his French-language speech.
The Vatican has long called for greater rights for Christians in Muslim countries, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where members of the tiny Christian minority are not allowed to practise their faith in public.
The Pope and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia discussed the situation of minority Christians when the king visited the Vatican last November.
The Pope did not name any countries in his reference to religious freedom.
He also repeated his concern about Christians leaving the Middle East because of wars, violence and insecurity.
"It is understandable that the circumstances sometimes push Christians to leave their country to find a more welcome land where they are allowed to live more freely," he said.
"But we must encourage and firmly support those who choose to remain faithful to their land, so that it does not become an archaeological site devoid of any church life," he said.
In the past, the Pope has specifically expressed his concern about the flight of Christians from Iraq, where a number of Christian clergy have been killed.
Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends.
(2) "Pope to change controversial prayer on Jews: report"
By Philip Pullella (Reuters, January 18, 2008)
Vatican City - Pope Benedict has decided to modify a controversial prayer for the conversion of Jews, an Italian newspaper reported on Friday.
Il Giornale newspaper said this would involve at least the removal of a reference to Jewish "blindness" over Christ but the changes could be more extensive.
A Vatican source said he expected changes to be announced before Good Friday on March 21 this year, but had no details. Good Friday is the day Christians commemorate Christ's death.
The Vatican had no official comment on the report.
Controversy arose last year when the Pope issued a decree allowing a wider use of the old-style Latin Mass and a missal, or prayer book, that was phased out after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which met from 1962 to 1965.
The Good Friday prayer in Latin asks that God remove the "veil" from Jewish hearts so that they would recognize Jesus Christ and speaks of the "blindness" of the Jewish people.
Jews have called for a change in the Latin prayer which, if left as stands, would be used by several hundred thousand traditionalists who follow the old-style Latin rite.
The overwhelming number of the world's some 1.1 billion Catholics would use a post Second Vatican Council missal, which includes a Good Friday prayer for Jews but makes no reference to Jewish "blindness" over Christ.
The strongest criticism to the Pope's decree has come from U.S. Jewish communities and there have been fears controversy could come up during the Pope's U.S. visit in late April.
Benedict's decree, issued on July 7, authorized wider use of the old Latin missal, a move which traditionalist Catholics had demanded for decades but which Jews and other Christian groups said could set back inter-religious dialogue.
Implementation of the decree has been difficult. The Pope's number two, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said recently the Vatican was preparing a document on how it should be introduced around the world.
Before the Second Vatican Council, Catholic mass and prayers were full of elaborate ritual led in Latin by a priest with his back to the congregation.
Many traditionalists missed the Latin rite's sense of mystery and the centuries-old Gregorian chant that went with it.
Some denounced Council reforms that included a repudiation of the notion of collective Jewish guilt for Christ's death and urged dialogue with all other faiths.
Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends.
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