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Show c2 The Salt Lake Tribune RELIGION Saturday, August 14, 1999 Niederauer Says Vatican Rejects Sinful Acts, Not Gay People Controversial ministry was terminated because pair defied church, bishop says Si tivity toward and compassion toward people struging with their sexuality,” said Niederauer, bishop of the 100,000-member Utah Catholic Diocese. “The church has always made a distinction between homo- sexualorientation and homosexualacts. “It calls all Christians to a higher standard and idea with regard to sexuality. The church recognizes its goodness and valuein all humanlives, but this BYBO THE SALT L poweris to be used only in the context of a stable relationship between a man and a woman.” he add- E TRIBUNE The Vatican's termination of a long-running, controversial U.S. Catholic ministry to gays and lesbians is not rejection by the church of its members with same-sex attractions, says The Most Rev. George H Niederauer. Rather, the decision to end the 22-year-old Mary- land-based New Ways Ministry of Father Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick was finally forced by the pair's questioning of the church's doctrines, specifically that homosexual acts are immoral. “It was not a condemnation oftheir general sensi- ed. “That has beenthe teaching of the church sinceits beginnings. and it continuesto be. If you will, it is an equal-opportunity call to grace.” Nugent and Gramick founded New Ways in 1977, heralding it as a national reconciliation ministry for the church, gays and lesbians. Critics contend the ministry has regularly questioned the church's doctrines on homosexuality, prompting an investigation by a commissionof the Holy See in 1988. In 1995, Nugent and Gramick wereasked to con- firm church doctrine and correctthe errorsin their writings. Dissatisfied with the pair's responses, on July 13 the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed byCardinal Joseph Ratzinger, permanently barred Nugent and Gramick from further pastoral work with gays and lesbians. The congregation charged that the two had promoted unacceptablepositions “regarding the intrin- sic evil of homosexual acts and the objective disorder of the homosexualinclination.” In so stating, the congregation affirmed iongstanding teachingsin the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Underthat work’s section on “Chastity and Homosexuality,’ the church declares same-sex acts are “contrary to the natural law” and “under no circumstances can they be approved.” However, the Catechism also acknowledges that the number of men and women with same-sexattractions “is not neglible,” and that those so inclined “must be aecepted with respect, compassion and sen- thumbforall Christians to follow in order to avoid rushes to judgment. “The church does not abandonpeopleit calis to a higher standard. The churchneeds to continue to be a loving companion and guide to peopie as they struggle with all the ideals of the Christian life,” he said. Still, Christian love does not mean “indiscriminate acceptance,” he said. “That's not true of parents of children or the church. Parents are not being unloving when they say you shouldn't dothis or do that,”the bishop said. Nonetheless, controversy over New Ways Ministry has not ended with its rejection by Rome. Within days of the decision, the national council of Pax Christi USA, a 14,000-member national Catholic peace organization, called on U.S. bishops to appeal the ruling. Also coming to Nugent’s and Gramick’s support sitivity. Every sign of unjust discriminationin their regard should be avoided.” wasthe 2,000-memberNational Coalition of Ameri- The section concludes with a call to chastity. Niederauer said that “loving the sinner but hating the sin” is not a self-righteous cliche, but a rule of can Nuns. The group, which Gramick had served as co-chair, has demandedtheresignation of Cardinal Ratzinger. Ailing Pope Resolved to Make Controversial Pilgrimage His planned millennial walk through chaptersofthe Bible in Middle Eastis fraughtwith political minefields BYDAVID CRUMM KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE Trauma Deepens Understanding Of Life’s Meaning ®@ Continued from C-1 DETROIT — Pope John Paul II, world traveler, has saved his most ambitious pilgrimage for the climaxof his 21-year pontificate. Later this year, the pope plans to begin a yearlong celebration of the coming third millennium of Christianity with a series of walks privilege whose war experience turned him towarda life of poverty and service. Nelson Mandela's imprisonment becamea forge for spiritual strength and political praised by some as brilliant spiritual symbol of hope andreconciliation — and is being critiized by others whosayit could embarrass political leaders and inflame long-smoldering tensions amongreligious groups. “This is such an unusual trip that it’s difficult to see how it will commitment. “And Christ suffered right up to the very end,” said Grant, who is convinced — after 12 years of working with victims of work- evolve,” said Detroit Cardinal place accidents, random violence and even ritual abuse — that Adam Maida, who hasfrequently traveled with the pope.It is un- known whether Maida will ac- companythe pope on this trip. “I have already received let- ters from both Jewish and Arab Associated Press file photo Pope John Paul II walksin front of thousandsof Cubansduring his 1998 visit to the country. The popeis planning perhaps his most ambitioustrip yet — a pilgrimage to the Middle East. leadership in one way welcoming this trip, and in another way, they're concerned for the Holy Father.” Thomas Reese, editor of Amer- has left the Iraqi people impover- Mary to announce that she was “Already I’m hearing that the U.S. government is putting pres- Christians in Nazareth have been Holy Fathernot to go to Iraq, be- struggling over a Muslim proposal to build a giant mosque that ished. ica magazine in New York and sure on the church to ask the the church, said the popeis “facing a fantastic challenge, trying cause it will look bad for the U.S.,” said Christiansen Jews greatly respect John Paul's interfaith work — but the author of three books about to liptoe through this minefield He wants to retrace the footsteps of Abraham and the patriarchs, and thenvisit the Christian sites, too. But so many people are concerned about the political implications.” However, despite these risks and thepope's disabilities from a condition similar to Parkinson's disease, Catholic leaders agree that the pontiff is determined to set out on this journey. He has madeit clear that he regards the year 2000 and this pilgrimage as the crescendo of his papacy, said DrewChristian- sen, who advises American Cath olic bishops on the Middle East In an emotional seven-pageletter June 29, the popestressed thathe seesthis seriesof tripsto the Middle Eas aspiritual cul. mination of all of that work. He wants to start in Iraq at the an- meaningstothis plan of mine’ Nevertheless, religious and political leaders realize that any trip to Iraq is potentially explo sive. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein still is regarded as a threat to world peace by most governments. At the same time, however, the pope has joined with many Muslim and Arab leaders in condemning theinternational economic embargo that “He mustsend a clear message that he does not endorse Israeli a terrible idea, said Abraham Foxman, thedirectorof the AntiDefamation League in New York. lims. The future of Jerusalem, starting this pilgrimagein Iraq is holyby Jews, Christians and Mus- ‘No world leader of any real which Israel has controlled since 1967, has been a flashpoint in Arab-Israeli relations for dec- stature has visited Saddam Hussein since his war of aggression, said Foxman. “I can just antici- ades. pate the photo op with the Holy ‘The city was a political mine- Father standing next to Hussein, a man responsible for such horrendousatrocities. That moment would be so very damagingtothis pilgrimage.” Vatican officials have not said field 35 years ago when Paul VI becamethe first — and, so far. the only — pontiff in nearly 2000 years to visit the holy city. In 1964, Jerusalem wasdivided between Jordan andIsrael with ma- whether such a meeting is chine-gun nests and bleak demilitarized zones scarring its ancient landscape. Tensions surrounding the city may be even higher now than they were in 1964. The Palestin- planned, but the pope’s protocol on trips includes meetings with headsofstate. In contrast, many Muslim and Arab leaders applaud the Iraqi trip, ians’ desire to have their own not because they support Later in theletter, he stressed that the pilgrimage is intended as age. and I would be saddened if anyone wereto attach other fuse to meet with Israeli officials in Jerusalem. occupationof Christian and Muslim holysites and that he does not endorseIsraeli attempts to make Jerusalem an exclusively Jewish city,” he said. Onthe other hand, the stop in Jerusalem is one of the best parts of the pilgrimage for supporters povertyin Iraq Imam Muhammad Ali Elahi head of the Islamie Houseof Wisdom in Dearborn, Mich., said that ‘anexclusively religious pilgrim- wishes that the pope would re- Faster, dozens of people werein- Hussein, but because they hope that the media surrounding the trip will highlight theplight of three monotheistic faiths would overshadow the church. At zations across the United States, juredin rioting near the church. But thepartof the trip to Israel that rivals the controversy over Iraq is the pope’s desire to visit Jerusalem, a city regarded as the hometown of the patriarch Abraham, whois revered byall cient city of Ur, becausethat was pregnant with Jesus. However, for many months, Muslims and group, which is co-sponsored by most of the major Muslim organi- capital in Jerusalem remains one of the biggest roadblocks to Mid. dle East peace. “I commend the pope's courage for wanting to make this trip,” said the Rev. George Shalhoub of St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church in Livonia, Mich., most of whose membersare Pal- manyMuslims wouldlike to see Hussein overthrown, “but the issuethat concerns us here is that estinian-Americans. wehopethepope's visit mayhelp relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people from these sanctions.” “But the pope must make a statement abouttherights of Palestinians in Jerusalem. If he appearsto bless There are other controversial issues peppering the pope's itinerary, such ashis plantovisit the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth in the secondleg of his Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Thechurch marks a spot where the Bible says an angel visited Even if the pope doesnot formally salute Israeli control of Jerusalem, they say they hope that the media coverage of his visit will illustrate the safety of the city and will inspire millions of other pilgrims to follow. The pilgrimageto Israel is an inspired idea, agreed Rabbi James Rudin, interfaith director of the American Jewish Committee in New York. “Thereis a personalpoetry to this manthat I’m sure will make this a spiritually satisfying trip. Think about it: He’s nearing four scoreyears, and heis not well — and yet he has willed himself to make this trip. He has this poignant desire to return to the very roots of Judaism and Christianity andIslam,” said Rudin. It may be a dangeroustrip, but the idea behindit is brilliant, said Saginaw Catholic Bishop Ken- neth Untener, who is known nationwide as an innovatorin developing spiritual programsfor the church. “It helps to give the millenni- this will be devastating for Palestinians. And it will diminish the um a worthwhile character,” he said. “It showsthatit’s more than rights of the entire Christian just worrying about Y2K or a New Year's party. He's doing this on behalf of millions of people, east.’ Khalid Turaani, director of American Muslims for Jerusalem pilgrimage, probably in March. of Israel, Jewish leaderssaid. in Washington, said that his most of whom could never do this.”” great humanresiliency can arise out of the most terrible cireumstances. These ideas have lingered on the outskirts of psychological practice for much of the century. Occasionally, they have left a wide mark, as when psychologist Viktor Frankl reflected on his Holocaust experience in Man’s Search for Meaning. In that book, which sold more than 10 million copies, Frankl proposed a mode of therapy — known as “‘logotherapy” — that borderedonsecular theology. But logotherapy faded, and Frankl, whodied in 1997, never expected the bookto havelasting impact. “I simply thoughtit might be helpful for people prone to despair,” he oncesaid of his work. Nowideaslike his are moving into the psychological main- stream. Grant has been flown around the world by the U.S. Navy to lecture military chaplains, psychiatrists and other mental-health professionals about the spiritual dimensions of traumatic experience. University programs devoted to trauma study and treatmentare proliferating. In May, CharlesFigley, director of the Traumatology Institute at Florida State University, spent two days at a conference of 300 nurses and mental-health work- ers. They peppered Figley with anecdotes aboutthe spiritualcrises they witness and undergo as caretakers for people in pain. Af- terward, Figley reminded them that the Chinese wordfor “crisis” consists of two characters: “One character stands for danger, the other for opportunity.” “It is an opportunity,” said Figley, who in the 1970s helped pio- neer treatment of Vietnam veter- ans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. And the trauma survivors who copebest with their situations tend to be those “who believe in the power of God — whoare able to let go of questioning reality “Yet when someone talks in religious terms, mental-health protypically shut their doors and makethem talk in men- BULLETIN BOARD Compiled by Julie DeHerrera and Shannon Quinn CATHOLIC St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church will be holding its Annual Charity Pig Roast today, 6:30 to 10 p.m., at the church, 622 N. 600East, American Fork. Cost is $6 for adults, $3 for those 10 years old and under. Call 768-4729 or 763-5625, Mark, 231 E. 100 South, Salt Lake City. Call 322-4131 p.m.at Sacred Heart Church, 948 S. 200 East, INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIAN BUSINESSMEN International Fellowship of Christian Businessmen will have Pastor Joe Nwokoyeatthis month's meeting, Aug. 20 to 21, at the Ramada Inn, 600 S200 West, Salt Lake City. Lunch will be served Friday at noon. Cost is $7, Dinner will be served Saturday at 7 p.m. Cost is $8.75, Call 523-2340 or 943-6677 0 EPISCOPAL ‘The Episcopal Diocese of Utah is conduct ing a series of sermons, “Trinitarian Threads and Themes in Paul's Letter to the Romans, by the Rt. Rev. Carolyn TannerIrish, Sunday, 10:30 a.m,, at The Catyedral Church of St MISCELLANEOUS Jon Stemkoski's Celebrant Singers will present a community-wide concert on Thursday, 7 Oo LUTHERAN Hope Lutheran Church invites you to its Va- cation Bible School, Sunday, 9:15 a.m., at Hope Lutheran Church, 2930 W, 9000 South, West Jordan. Call 569-1111 Salt Lake City. No cost, but a free-will offer- tal-health terms,” said Figley. “We kind of stumble along and insult people, instead of trying to understand the powerof the spiri- tual self. We should never get in the wayof that. Rather we should ing will be taken. Call 363-8632. go with that,” @ Ogden Women's Aglow will have Anna Cagle, whose desire is to encourage women of all ages, sizes and shapesto realize their beau- counselors who were willing to do that, One night in 1978, while her ty in God's eyes, speak today, 9 a.m. to noon,at the Ogden Marriott Hotel, 247 24th St., Og- den. For breakfast reservations, call 782-5663 and for information call 544-4557 0 UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST The Samoan United Churchof Christis celebrating its fifth anniversary in the Salt Lake Valley by sponsoring a luau and Polynesian show Sunday, 3 p.m., at The Japanese Church of Christ, 268 W. 100 South, Salt Lake City. Com is $12.50, Call 363-3251 for ee chospiritual” dimensions of her ordeal. Descriptions of trauma are as old as myth. Yet the psychiatric community has not always sympa- lence” surrounded the traumatic stress disorders of Holocaustvic- St. Francis of Assisi was a man of His plan already is being therapists understood the ‘‘psy- stitute, in Burlingame, Calif. grace” of traumatic experience. He related it to historical figures: religious landmarks of the Mid- “But I had to reach out for something that was beyond me or I wasn't going to havea life worth living,” said Lommasson, whose thized with the reactions of people paralyzed by terrifying events. Shell-shocked soldiers weretreated with electric-shock therapies and described as ‘‘moral invalids” after World War I. Grant talked about the “dark dle East. for and need mostterrifies you. What is little startling is to hear this language spoken by mental-health professionals, as occurred recently on a rainy Sunday morning when Grant addressed a roomful of therapists at the Mercy Center, a Catholic-run retreat house and educationalin- throughthe chaptersof the Bible. The pilgrimage will take him through political minefields and powerful, the very thing you long Sandra Lommasson found children slept down the hallway and her husband was away on business, she awoke in her Davis, Calif., bedroom “to find a man standing over me with a knife.” Lommasson was raped She dropped into a ‘deep place of powerlessness and loss of con- trol. What trauma does is crush the individual with a frightening or overwhelming power,” she said, “And at somelevel, because God is named as being oy For years, a ‘conspiracy of si- tims, according to psychologist Yael Danieli, an expert in the field. But the rage and panic of Vietnam veterans — “crazy vets” in the war’s aftermath — elicited public sympathy by thelate ’70s. The feminist movement brought the trauma of rape victims and battered wives to light. In 1980, post-traumatic stress disorder was included in the American Psychiatric Association’s manual of mentaldisorders.Its symptoms — flashbacksand intensefear,recurrent memories of traumatic events, feelings of helplessness, anxiety or emotional detachment — are carefully delineated. The profession has developed treatments for symptoms brought on by many traumatic events, including sexual assaults, industrial accidents and natural disasters. As a rule, the regimens include medication or therapeutic methods that lead patients through the retelling of traumatic events. The stories —a soldier's witnessing of terrible carnage, a tornado vic- tim’s loss of family and home — are often so upsetting to cherished belief systems about the way the world works that survivorsare filled with what theologians call “ontological anxiety” overthe nature ofbeing. Larry Decker, a clinical psychologist for Persian Gulf War and otherveterans, said he never preaches or imposes a spiritual framework on therapy. Likewise, other mental-health professionals who arewilling to wadeinto spiritual waters emphasize that patients mustlead the way. Yet others caution that their colleagues are straying into areas where expertise fails them. “Say there’s a tumor developing that’s creating pain and stress in a cli- ent,” said James Gill, a psychiatrist and Jesuit priest. ‘I send him to a surgeon. And if the person's spiritual life is flawed in some way, I'm thinking in terms of‘this guy needsa spiritual counselor.’ I'm nottryingto playall the posi- tions on the team.” Still, Gill, a psychiatrist for 35 years, sees a growing complemen- tary role for mental-health professionals and clerics: “We used to say, ‘Get the psychiatry accom- plished and then go talk to your minister or priest.’ Psychiatrists felt that religionists would get in the wayof the therapy. And there were many religionists who felt that psychiatrists would not be moral enoughin their practice to point out to a person that their behavior was evilor sinful. There was a mutual suspicion that's just not there anymore.” Treatmentof trauma victims is still in an embryonic stage. People who live through traumatic events undergo neurobiological changes, Their immune systems may be compromised. No single therapeutic technique seems to work, so treatment is still very much a puzzle. The pieces fit togetherdifferently for every survivor, and the spiritual piece can be elusive. “The mental-health indi sets ‘normal’ timetables for getting over it (traurma)," said Grant. “There's always this presumption that we're going to ‘get overit." “But it takes time, Something new has entered into our realm of experience, and we have to take that into consideration. We all need to be shocked or blinded like St. Paul to the illusion of our self-sufficiency. We are more dependent on God and others than we ever realized. ") |