Netherlands Activists Counter Vatican Document

ABC NEWS ONLINE, Aug. 31 — Homosexual-activist groups in the Netherlands have launched a campaign to oppose the Vatican's stance against legalizing homosexual “marriages,” ABC News Online reported.

Several such groups have collaborated to produce a marriage manual, which offers guidance on how to campaign on behalf of laws permitting such unions, detailing their own experience in Holland, where homosexual unions are now recognized by law.

The Catholic Church in the Netherlands refused to comment on the booklet until after the bishops' conference meeting, which was scheduled for the week of Sept. 7.

ABC repor ted that one Christian Democratic Member of Parliament, however, thought the bishops ought to be “considerate” in their response.

Catholic-Anglican Rift Grows

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 31 — Catholic-Anglican ecumenical relations, long at a standstill thanks to the Protestant group's decision to ordain female priests and bishops, have now hit a brick wall, according to the Associated Press.

The roadblock is due to the U.S. Episcopal Church's decision to ordain an openly homosexual bishop, V. Gene Robinson. The AP cited representatives of both churches, who spoke pessimistically of the future of interfaith relations in light of the most recent Anglican innovation, and noted that the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, “will get a firsthand readout of the damage when he pays his first visit to Pope John Paul II on Oct. 4, just days before Williams presides over an extraordinary gathering of Anglican leaders to discuss the fallout from the U.S. decision.”

John Wilkins, the editor of the London-based Catholic magazine The Tablet, suggested such ecumenical efforts might be dead.

“There comes a point when you can't go on anymore,” Wilkins said. “The two churches are going in opposite directions.”

Stockton, Calif., Bishop Stephen Blaire, chief of ecumenical affairs at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, warned of “serious implications” for Anglican-Catholic friendship,” admitting that the Episcopal decision created “new ecumenical challenges.”

Pope Begs Religions to Unite Against Terrorism

INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS, Sept. 2 — The week before the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, militant Islamic attacks on the United States, Pope John Paul II said the religions of the world must “unite their efforts to denounce terrorism and work together at the service of justice, peace and fraternity.”

They should do so because public opinion “could be tempted” to think that the acts of violence have a religious origin, the Pope told the bishops of the Coptic Church of the Assembly of the Catholic Hierarchy of Egypt, who visited him at Castel Gandolfo on Aug. 30.

John Paul thanked God for the ongoing presence of Christianity in Egypt, which was planted there by St. Mark. He said the most important testimony Christians can give in Egypt, where the dominant creed is Islam, is that of daily life “centered on the double commandment of the love of God and of the love for one's neighbors.”

The Pope concluded by praising the “important work” the Catholic Church is accomplishing in Egyptian society — in education, social work, promoting women's rights, assisting mothers and children, and in the fight against illiteracy.