Clerics Protest Anglican Primate's Homosexual Views

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK), Oct. 14—The incoming Anglican primate, the next Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, is known for permissive views on homosexual behavior. Now the clerics who staff one of the wealthiest and most prominent parishes in the United Kingdom are conducting a financial protest: They plan to refuse their church salaries, according to the London daily.

Instead they will be paid directly by their congregations. The revolt might spread across the country, said Rev. William Taylor, rector of the parish leading the protest, St. Helen's Bishopsgate in London. He called Williams' views immoral and divisive. Taylor and other “evangelical” members of the Anglican Church have threatened other protest moves as well.

A group representing their views, Reform, was scheduled to meet in mid-October. It has called on Williams to change his views in an orthodox direction or resign.

Crash Survivors Still‘Alive'—and Winning

REUTERS, Oct. 12—If you've seen the movie Alive, you know that three decades ago, a team of rugby players from Uruguay endured a plane crash in the Andes. The survivors were driven to eat the flesh of those who died in the crash. (St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that one may consume the dead if the only alternative is starvation.)

Now the surviving team members have gotten together again, this time to play the match that never took place 30 years ago.

The team, the “Old Christians,” crashed on Oct. 13, 1972, en route to play the Chilean team “Old Boys.” Some 16 team members survived more than two months in the snow—through desperate measures—before they were rescued by helicopter.

Twelve of the players reconvened on the 30th anniversary of the crash to beat the former Old Boys players 28-11, according to Reuters news service. Priests celebrated Mass on the rugby field before the game, and helicopters whirred over the field to commemorate the rescue.

“To this day, the sound of helicopter rotor blades makes the hair on my arm stand on end,” survivor Javier Methol said.

What had he learned from the ordeal? “You should not fear death but live your life fully.”

Women's Group Labeled‘Heretical'

THE MERCURY (Australia), Oct. 11—A feminist group called Ordination of Catholic Women will meet in Tasmania, Australia, next month to promote a female priesthood, according to Australia's The Mercury. But it has met unexpected grass-roots resistance.

The group's organizer, Ann Ryan, told the paper she had been described as a “heretic” and “rabid feminist” by other Catholics, and many Catholic papers across Australia had refused to run ads for the conference.

Ryan called the charges merely “amusing,” and rejected the Pope's 1994 authoritative letter, reiterating the constant teaching that the Church can never ordain women. She told the paper she wished she had more publicly dissented from Humanae Vitae when it was issued in 1968.

“We don't expect change on the issue of women's ordination soon, but we do want to keep discussion open,” Ryan said. “This is not about the Church of today, it's about the Church of the future.”