A controversial new Scientology center that opened two weeks ago in one of Berlin's upscale neighborhoods won't be open on Sundays like Christian churches in the German capital – the government considers the group a business rather than a church and, as such, it falls under the country's rigid Sunday closing laws. Read the latest now on WND.com.
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The Decline of the Sabbath
Less praying, more working and playing.

BY MOLLIE ZIEGLER HEMINGWAY
Friday, June 15, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
Wall Street Journal

For many Americans, Sunday is unlike any other day of the week. They spend its luxurious hours curled up in bed with the paper, meeting friends for brunch, working off hangovers, watching golf, running errands and preparing themselves for the workweek ahead. But Sunday is also, for many, the Sabbath--a special day for religious reasons. Not that you would notice.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," we are told in Exodus. Of all the gifts Jews gave the world, that of a weekly day of rest is certainly one to be cherished. And yet the Sabbath is now marked more by its neglect than its keeping. Or so says Christopher Ringwald in his new book "A Day Apart."

Mr. Ringwald notes that in the late 18th century, states banned entertainment, hunting or unnecessary travel on Sundays. The Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s spread Sabbath-keeping to the frontiers. Church membership doubled, Sunday schools proliferated and long sermons dominated the morning. It was unthinkable that the general store would remain open on the Sabbath. "Nothing strikes a foreigner on his arrival in America more forcibly than the regard paid to the Sabbath," Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1840. "Not only have all ceased to work, but they appear to have ceased to exist." The so-called blue laws that were a part of American culture--closing down bars and preventing the sale of liquor on Sunday--were commonplace well into the 20th century.

But the Sabbath today is at odds with commercial culture. To generalize shamelessly from personal experience: My brother-in-law, who manages a national retail store in Colorado, works on Sundays, following church. He was shocked recently to find out he is now required to open the store on Easter Sunday. Easter used to be the one Sunday each year when retail stores closed. No longer.

Of course, debates over the proper observance of the Sabbath date back to ancient times. One early conflict between Jesus and his fellow Jews was over what it meant to keep the Sabbath. Jesus' failure to hew to ever-expanding rules--he healed the sick on the Sabbath--angered the Pharisees.

Not that Christians later fell into easy agreement about Sabbath conduct. In another new book, "Sunday: A History of the First Day From Babylonia to the Super Bowl," Craig Harline shows how all sorts of complicated rules governing work, travel, sex and leisure grew up around the Sabbath in medieval Europe, creating a tangle of proscriptions that had overwhelmed the day by the 14th century. One genre of church mural at the time, known as the "Sunday Christ," showed Jesus surrounded by tools of the fishing, carpentry and farming trades. Each ax, rake and fishing hook inflicted a fresh wound on the crucified Christ. The message was not lost on worshipers: Work on the Sabbath only added to Jesus' suffering.

Reformation leader Martin Luther resisted such Sabbath guilt, saying that the commandment was kept by daily worship and high regard for God's Word, not strict rules governing behavior. Discussing the Sabbath, he highlighted Paul's relief at being free from the demands of Jewish law. And yet from the 16th century to the modern era, a Sabbath consensus emerged. Christians were to keep Sunday as a day of rest and worship, and their governments supported this pious notion. The day of rest did not become secularized until very recently.

What happened? It is hard to say. Both Mr. Ringwald and Mr. Harline note that our religious practices are more and more isolated from the habits of the broader culture. Think only of the coarseness of the Internet, gossip rags and Hollywood fare in a country that claims 45% church attendance every Sunday: We live now on two tracks, a secular and a religious one, shuttling between them all too easily.

This Sabbath dissonance was evident even in the 1950s, Mr. Harline notes. More than 90% of American homes had a television, and some 37% were tuned to Sunday football.

"Sundays changed when the world changed," he writes. Stopping farming in the Middle Ages was easy. But to close restaurants, shut up amusement parks or clear the airwaves when Americans with money were trying to spend it that day was impossible.

The flip side to the prosperity we enjoy is that we have lost our day of rest for another day of consumption. The pace of commerce and technology provide unheard of options for ignoring family, religion and rest--not just on the Sabbath but every day of the week.

Ultimately, Mr. Ringwald would like to see the Sabbath restored to one track--if not a strictly religious one, then one not actively secular. Taking a day of rest protects us from ourselves, he writes, from "our urge to always be doing, improving, earning, getting, spending, having, consuming--all the ways we hurry on toward death."

Basketball champs refuse to play on Sabbath
League winners skip tournament, say 'Experiencing Christ' better than to 'Take state'
Posted: February 20, 2008
1:48 pm Eastern © 2008 WorldNetDaily

The mission statement for Campion Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist Church school in Colorado, is painted on the outside of the gymnasium, "Experiencing Christ in a Learning Environment." It isn't, "Take State."
So there have been virtually no serious complaints when the school's basketball team, winning the Northern Front Range League title in Class 2A basketball competition with a 13-1 record this year, again will not be participating in the Colorado High School Activities Association's state competition.
The team, the league champion for the fourth year, instead, is playing at a tournament for Seventh-day Adventist schools in Nebraska, according to a report in the Denver Post.
The academy's athletic director and basketball coach, Troy Beans, said he knew starting out the school was "academic-oriented."
"Sports aren't at the top of the list by any means," he told the newspaper.
The 101-year-old academy teaches strict adherence to the Ten Commandments, including the 4th, which is "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy." It defines the Sabbath as the traditional Jewish day from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.
The result? No games on Friday night or Saturday.
The state association had agreed to work with the school, and allow the Cougars to continue to compete as long as their opponents were flexible on the scheduling of games.
But the members of Campion's faculty voted against moving forward.
Beans disagrees, respectfully, with that decision, as do some players.
"I think it would be a good opportunity for our team to show who we really are, and be a good ministry for our school and our religion," starting center Nathan Lorenz told the newspaper.
Michael Beans, the coach's son, is a senior guard and scores 16 points per game.
He told the Post it's "frustrating" that recognition such as a championship is available for the school, but the team won't have that opportunity.
But his opinion couldn't be described as rebellion.
"I love this school, and I love this atmosphere," he said.
Many of the 155 students in grades 9-12 board on campus and work in various positions at the school, which only joined the state activities association in 1997. Troy Beans' father and grandfather also attended, but the three were able to participate only in intramural athletics.
Another Seventh-day Adventist school, Mile High Academy in nearby Denver, also has sports teams but the school doesn't hold a membership in the state organization.
Principal John Winslow said there's really no reason to change the school's priorities.
"I think of it in this realm: With all we have here, it's difficult to extend our season … We want to have good seasons, and then we're going to our local kind of church playoffs … and we're going to call it good," he told the newspaper.
"We're just trying to keep a balance," he said.

Pope Benedict XVI has appealed for renewed respect for Sundays as he celebrated Mass at St Stephen's cathedral in the heart of Vienna.

He was speaking on the final day of his three-day visit to Austria. In his sermon, the Pope said leisure was a good thing amid the mad rush of the modern world, but warned of the dangers of it becoming wasted time. Correspondents say the papal visit to Austria comes as the influence of the Catholic Church is in decline there.

"Give the soul its Sunday, give Sunday its soul," the Pope said, quoting a phrase coined by a German bishop in the 20th Century. "Leisure time is certainly something good and necessary, especially amid the mad rush of the modern world," he said in his sermon. The Pope added though that if leisure lacked an inner focus, it could easily become wasted time. The number of Austrians who regularly attend Sunday Mass has diminished to a tiny proportion of those who call themselves Catholics, according to church statistics, BBC's David Willey reports from Vienna. The Pope was visiting Austria not only as a pilgrim, but also as a missionary, according to the local press. His aim during the three-day visit was to help revitalise religious practice in an increasingly secular Austrian society, our correspondent adds. -EuroNews today Austria

“Sine dominico non possumus!” “Without Sunday [worship] we cannot live!” Pope Benedict xvi declared during a mass on September 9 at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.

Speaking on the final day of his three-day visit to Austria, the German pope voiced a strong call for Christians to revive Sunday keeping as an all-important religious practice.

“Give the soul its Sunday, give Sunday its soul,” he chanted before a rain-soaked crowd of 40,000.

Benedict said that Sunday, which he stated has its origin as “the day of the dawning of creation,” was “also the church’s weekly feast of creation.”

Warning against the evils of allowing Sunday to become just a part of the weekend, the pope said people needed to have a spiritual focus during the first day of the week, or else leisure time would just become wasted time.

Sunday worship, he warned, was not just a “precept” to be casually adhered to, but a “necessity” for all people.

In the opening greeting, the archbishop of Vienna said a movement in Austria had been initiated to protect “Sunday from tendencies to empty [it] of its meaning.”

In Austria, most businesses are restricted from operating on Sunday. However, some business groups are pressuring the government to be allowed to open, a move Roman Catholic groups vehemently oppose.

During Benedict’s trip to Austria, he called for Europe to look to its Christian roots, to trust in God and to defend traditional values.

The pope has been very vocal about Europe’s Christian—or Catholic—roots, and is pushing to have them included in the European Constitution. Although laws concerning Sunday worship are currently determined by individual nations, look for the European Union to eventually gain jurisdiction over the work week—which is one big reason the Catholic Church is so intimately involved with the evolution of the EU. For more on the Catholic Church and Europe, read “The Pope Trumpets Sunday” by the Trumpet’s editor in chief.

'Never on Sunday,'Scientologists told
Group considered business, not a church, in Germany – sales banned on worship day

A controversial new Scientology center that opened two weeks ago in one of Berlin's upscale neighborhoods won't be open on Sundays like Christian churches in the German capital – the government considers the group a business rather than a church and, as such, it falls under the country's rigid Sunday closing laws, Der Spiegel reports.

The 43,000-square-foot center, located in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district, is just the latest effort by the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology to make inroads into Germany.

Scientologists have been under surveillance for years by the domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and numerous court challenges to the monitoring have been made.

In 2003, a Berlin court ruled the group could not be monitored by German states since it was too small to constitute a threat. The ruling did not restrict the federal government.

"It is indispensable that Scientology be carefully observed in every state," Guenther Beckstein, a Bavarian interior minister, was quoted as saying by the newspaper Berliner Zeitung.

In 1995, the German Federal Labor Court ruled that Scientology is "neither a religion nor an ideology."

The German federal government categorizes Scientology as a commercial enterprise that takes advantage of those who are vulnerable.

Scientologists reject the charge, saying they are a religion and calling surveillance an abuse of their religious freedom.

The center's private opening ceremony was met by protestors – primarily neighbors who worried their children might be lured into the building by the agressive offers of sidewalk recruiters offering free mental-health checkups. Some carried banners reading, "No brainwashing."

A Berlin official, meeting with members of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf this week, said that the city had reviewed existing laws and determined nothing could be done to limit the center's outreach activities.

"In our view, this is a business activity," Marc Schulte, the city district's economic advisor, told the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel.

Community officials, responding to pressure from the center's neighbors and armed with the legal opinion that Scientologists seeking to recruit new members are involved in marketing, have invoked Germany's strict Sunday closing laws that prohibit business activities on that day.

Officials say they will closely monitor the Scientologists to make certain they are following the law.

Germany has been repeatedly criticized by the U.S. State Department in its annual Human Rights Report for continued monitoring of the group, Associated Press reported, despite acknowledgments by security officials no evidence of illegal activity has been found.

The Church of Scientology claims 30,000 adherents in Germany while the government estimates it has only 5,000-6,000 members.

(IsraelNN.com) MK Zevulun Orlev (NRP) has announced the findings of a poll showing 56% support amongst Israelis for his proposed legislation making Sunday a day of rest and allowing some public transportation and entertainment on the Sabbath.

Orlev's bill would change the official approach to Sabbath as the country's day of rest. Though businesses and government offices would continue to be closed, places of entertainment would be permitted to open - and public transportation, now banned in most cities on the Sabbath, would be available. The bill stipulates that such transportation and entertainment would be carried out with maximum
sensitivity to the religious public.

A survey commissioned by Orlev finds that 56% of the public support his initiative, while 30% object. The poll was carried out by Brain Base (Maagar Mochot) Institute, headed by Prof. Yitzchak Katz.

Orlev's bill, which he proposed last week, also calls for a second day of rest during the week - Sunday - during which businesses and offices would be closed. This would enable Sabbath-observant families to spend more time together, Orlev explains. Work hours lost to Sunday would be made up largely by increasing the workday on Mondays through Fridays from 8 to 9 hours.

The survey divides the respondents into religious categories, such as secular, hareidi-religious, etc. However, it lumps together the religious-Zionist public with those who consider themselves "traditional," i.e., minimally observant. The poll finds that 64% of this joint "sector" supports the new bill.

The two groups were combined in the poll, despite the expectation that the two would not have similar views of the issue. Other findings of the poll show, in fact, that support for the bill increases as level of religious observance decreases. For instance, 64% of the secular public supports the bill, compared to only 6% of the hareidi-religious public.

Asked to explain, Orlev's spokesman Moshe Inbar told Arutz-7 that the breakdown was determined by the pollster, "in consultation with me." Inbar said that lumping the two sectors together is in keeping with the NRP's new policy of "opening its gates" to the traditional community.

Arutz-7: "But information is missing from the poll, in that we do not know how many of the mainstream NRP voters - the religious-Zionist public - supports this bill."

In response, Inbar first suggested that "you can commission your own poll," but then added, "You can extrapolate from the other findings..."

Orlev said his bill was formulated with the help of leading religious-Zionist rabbis, and does not openly permit activities that are forbidden by the Torah, "but rather does not mention them."

MK Yitzchak Levy of the National Union party said the bill paves the way for further deterioration in the character of the Sabbath in the State of Israel. The National Union and the NRP joined forces for the last national election, merging into one electoral list.

Return the Church and moral law to their proper place in society, Pope Benedict tells Italian lawyers

Vatican City, Dec. 11, 2006 (CNA) - Saturday Pope Benedict XVI received participants in the 56th national study congress, promoted by the Union of Italian Catholic Jurists, which is being held in Rome on the theme: "Secularity and secularities." The Holy Father told the lawyers how the idea of secularity has been corrupted and challenged them to create a society in which the Church and the moral law are returned to their rightful place.

The concept of secularity, said the Holy Father in his address to the group, originally referred to "the condition of simple faithful Christian, not belonging to the clergy or the religious state. During the Middle Ages it acquired the meaning of opposition between civil authorities and ecclesial hierarchies, and in modern times it has assumed the significance of the exclusion of religion and its symbols from public life by confining them to the private sphere and the individual conscience. In this way, the term secularity has acquired an ideological meaning quite opposite to the one it originally held."

Secularity today, then, "is understood as a total separation between State and Church, the latter not having any right to intervene in questions concerning the life and behavior of citizens. And such secularity even involves the exclusion of religious symbols from public places."

In accordance with this definition, the Pope continued, "today we hear talk of secular thought, secular morals, secular science, secular politics. In fact, at the root of such a concept, is an a-religious view of life, thought and morals; that is, a view in which there is no place for God, for a Mystery that transcends pure reason, for a moral law of absolute value that is valid in all times and situations."

The Holy Father underlined the need "to create a concept of secularity that, on the one hand, grants God and His moral law, Christ and His Church, their just place in human life at both an individual and a social level, and on the other hand affirms and respects the 'legitimate autonomy of earthly affairs'."

The Church, the Pope reiterated, cannot intervene in politics, because that would "constitute undue interference."

However, he said, "'healthy secularity' means that the State does not consider religion merely as an individual sentiment that can be confined to the private sphere." Rather, it must be "recognized as a ... public presence. This means that all religious confessions (so long as they do not contrast the moral order and are not dangerous to public order) are guaranteed free exercise of their acts of worship."

Hostility against "any form of political or cultural relevance of religion," and in particular against "any kind of religious symbol in public institutions" is a degenerated form of secularity, said the Holy Father, as is "refusing the Christian community, and those who legitimately represent it, the right to pronounce on the moral problems that today appeal to the conscience of all human beings, particularly of legislators.

" This," he added, "does not constitute undue interference of the Church in legislative activity, which is the exclusive competence of the State, but the affirmation and the defense of those great values that give meaning to people's lives and safeguard their dignity. These values, even before being Christian, are human, and therefore cannot leave the Church silent and indifferent, when she has the duty firmly to proclaim the truth about man and his destiny."

The Pope concluded by highlighting the need "to bring people to understand that the moral law God gave us - and that expresses itself in us through the voice of conscience - has the aim not of oppressing us but of freeing us from evil and of making us happy. We must show that without God man is lost, and that the exclusion of religion from social life, and in particular the marginalization of Christianity, undermines the very foundations of human coexistence. Such foundations, indeed, before being of the social and political order, belong to the moral order."

An Unwelcome Rest
Politicians come under pressure to tear up France's archaic trading laws after a flagship Paris fashion store is told it can't open on Sundays

What does it take to be able to do business on a Sunday? Ask Louis Vuitton. The luxury retailer's revamped flagship store on the Champs Elysées has been attracting thousands of visitors every day since it reopened last October. But last week, a Paris tribunal ruled that the luxury-goods firm has been breaking the law by opening its huge, 1,800-sq-m emporium on Sundays, one of its most heavily trafficked days.

Although much Sunday trading is banned in France, Louis Vuitton had received an exemption from the Paris prefect by arguing that the store was a cultural landmark, not just a commercial one. But the tribunal upheld a complaint brought by a national federation representing small clothing retailers and a French Christian labor union. The federation took issue with what it sees as unfair competition, while the CFTC union — which doesn't represent any workers at the Louis Vuitton store — insists that Sunday should be a day of rest. "The little luggage store on the Champs Elysées is not above the law," crowed a sarcastic CFTC press release.

Yves Carcelle, Louis Vuitton's president, slammed the decision as "an unacceptable, Malthusian interpretation of the law," and said it puts 70 jobs at risk; the firm plans to appeal. The ruling highlights the variety of highly restrictive regulations on France's statute books that govern shopping, including criminal penalties for promotional sales below cost. There are also gaping contradictions: while Sunday trading as a rule is outlawed, cinemas, restaurants, cafés and fast-food chains are allowed to open. In today's Paris, it's one thing to eat a burger and quite another to indulge in a diet of luxury

In May, French courts ruled that the Louis Vuitton flagship store must remain closed on Sundays in accordance with law. The suit was brought against the famous Paris fashion house by the French Confederation of Christian Workers. Three facts are revealing:

3) An Ipsos telephone survey in April showed that 75 percent of French citizens polled approve of stores opening on Sunday.

Those three facts—along with every fact associated with this case—changed nothing though. Even if every American citizen approved of it, a community that began driving 50 miles an hour over the speed limit in school zones would still be violating law. In this case, French law was clearly violated: Thou shalt rest on Sunday.

But where does a law like that come from, especially when the citizens of the nation don’t want it? How can the French government defend that law’s existence?

The popular defense of the law is that small merchants can’t compete with larger retailers that have the resources to remain open on Sundays and therefore need government protection. That is poppycock. The law itself is 100 years old—a time when said large retailers simply didn’t have that ability. The National Clothing Federation might be able to make that argument today, but it has nothing to do with the origins of enforced rest on Sunday.

Enforced Sunday worship began with the Roman Empire—specifically Emperor Constantine.

In a letter written after the Nicene Council of a.d. 325, Constantine specifically addressed Sabbath worship: “[F]rom this day forward none of your unlawful assemblies may presume to appear in any public or private place. Let this edict be made public.”

Worship on any day except Sunday was illegal, as confirmed at the Council of Laodicea almost 40 years later, in a.d. 363. At that conference, it was determined, “Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath [that is, Saturday], but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord’s Day. … But if any shall be found to be Judaizers, let them be anathema [cursed and excommunicated] from Christ” (emphasis ours throughout).

At the Council of Tours in a.d. 1163, Pope Alexander iii was even more specific: “Whereas a damnable heresy [Sabbath worship] has for some time lifted its head in the parts about Toulouse, and already spread infection through Gascony and other provinces, concealing itself like a serpent in its folds; as soon as its followers shall have been discovered, let no man afford them refuge on his estates; neither let there be any communication with them in buying and selling: so that, being deprived of the solace of human conversation, they may be compelled to return from error to wisdom.” In other words, if you worshiped on some day other than Sunday, you couldn’t do business.

That is where Sunday labor laws have their origin. Working on Sunday marks those who do so as pernicious in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church, a stance many European governments have supported throughout the last 1,700 years.

Today, Louis Vuitton is unable to sell its handbags on the Catholic day of rest. In the future, as Europe becomes more integrated and the Vatican takes on a greater leadership role, we know that Sunday observance will be enforced as an identifying sign of the next incarnation of the Holy Roman Empire. For more information, please write for your free copy of Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast?

When Malls Stay Open on Sundays, the Pious Party
By Richard Morin Washington Post
Thursday, September 14, 2006; Page A02

Who knew Satan worked at the local mall?

While bars, cheap hotels and similar places of questionable repute may remain America's favorite spots to sin, two economists say that giving people an extra day to shop at the mall also contributes significantly to wicked behavior -- particularly among people who are the most religious.

Jonathan Gruber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Daniel M. Hungerman of the University of Notre Dame discovered the malevolent Mall Effect by studying what happened when states and counties repeal "blue laws." Those statutes prohibit the sale on Sunday of certain nonessential items, such as appliances, furniture and jewelry, typically sold in shopping malls, as well as liquor and cigarettes.

Gruber and Hungerman found that when states eliminated blue laws, church attendance declined while drinking and drug use increased significantly among young adults. Even more striking, the biggest change in bad behavior mostly occurred among those who frequently attended religious services, they report in a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, "The Church vs. the Mall: What Happens When Religion Faces Increased Secular Competition?"

At one time, all but eight states had blue laws. Today 13 have statewide Sunday selling bans on some products or leave it up to local jurisdictions to decide, with mall owners among those leading the fight to get these statutes off the books.

It turns out those business owners may be doing the devil's work. Before the shopping ban was lifted, about 37 percent of people in a state on average attended religious services at least weekly, Hungerman said. "After the laws are repealed it falls to 32 percent" -- a drop "not driven by declines in religiosity prior to the law change."

Instead of going to church, many of the faithful apparently were going astray. Marijuana use increased by 11 percentage points among church attendees, compared with those who never went to services, after the shopping ban was lifted. Cocaine use increased by nearly 4 percentage points, and heavy drinking increased by about 5 1/2 percentage points among churchgoers compared with those who never went to services, with frequent attendees even more likely to go on benders.

Hmmm. Interesting, but why would the elimination of blue laws suddenly provoke such an outburst of sinning among the religious? After all, there are six other days of the week to shop (or drink) until you drop. And it's not legal to buy cocaine or marijuana on any day of the week.

"That's the million-dollar question," Hungerman said. He suspects that keeping businesses open on Sunday means that some religious young people have to work or choose to go shopping, which apparently increases their exposure to sinners or otherwise weakens their resistance to the dark side.

"Instead of being in church, you're working or shopping in the mall surrounded by 'party animals,' " he said.

"Some claim that we are not observing the true Sabbath unless we are observing it on Saturday. They ask, 'How did the Sabbath change from Saturday to Sunday?'...In fact, the day of the Sabbath was changed by Christ and His apostles." D. James Kennedy, Why The Ten Commandments Matter, p. 76

"Have you ever heard the old saying, 'As goes the Sabbath, so goes the nation?' It's true. When the sabbath becomes profaned and desecreated, a nation sinks deeper and deeper into the mire of sin, and that has a profound negative impact upon any country....

"Christians need to understand that keeping the Sabbath really does create a more moral climate in our culture. It promotes an awareness that God and His ways and His laws are important to all of us. Without public morality, our secular laws have less meaning; the result is that lawlessness rises, and our nation sinks into crime, fear, disorder, and injustice.

"From the witness of the early Church, from the witness of our disarrayed lives, from the witness of our society as it teeters on the brink of moral collapse, we can see the need to keep the Sabbath is truly urgent." D. James Kennedy, Why The Ten Commandments Matter, p. 81,82

"The original Sabbath of the Hebrews of the Bible was Saturday....As custom developed, the Christian Sabbath, or day of rest and worship, became Sunday, and this was the day established by law in America. There was a time not long ago when Sunday was a very special day." Pat Robertson, The Ten Offenses, p .104

Sabbath-breaking 'caused tsunami'
Christian minister calls disaster
'divine visitation' on Lord's Day

A Christian minister claims the tsunami of Sunday, Dec. 26, killing at least 160,000 people, was direct result of "pleasure seekers" breaking God's Sabbath.

In the February issue of his church magazine, Rev. John MacLeod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland writes: "Possibly ... no event since Noah's flood has caused such loss of life by drowning as the recent Asian tsunami. That so many of our fellow creatures should have perished in so short a time, and in so awful a fashion, was a divine visitation that ought to make men tremble the world over."

He continued: "Some of the places most affected by the tsunami attracted pleasure-seekers from all over the world. It has to be noted that the wave arrived on the Lord's day, the day God set apart to be observed the world over as a holy resting from all employments and recreations that are lawful on other days."

The tsunami, a series of tidal waves sparked by a subsea earthquake off Sumatra, arrived on Sunday morning, the day after Christmas, in countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

MacLeod said: "To rule out the hand of God in this ... is to forget that He is in sovereign control of all events. If the sparrow falling to the ground is an event noted, and ordered, by Him, how much is this the case when the souls of so many thousands are parted from their bodies?"

The 74-year-old minister, now living in the London area after spending 35 years in Stornoway, Scotland, concluded: "Do not worldliness, materialism, hedonism, uncleanness, and pleasure-seeking characterize our own generation to a great extent and does not this solemn visitation in providence reminds us that He remains the same God still? God is no idle spectator of what is happening here in time and treats men with the sharpness and severity in order that they may know their vices."

…There have been news accounts about Muslims who believe the tsunami was divine retribution for sinning, but they have cited prostitution and heavy drinking instead of Sabbath observance.

Some have even gone so far as to claim God signed his name as Allah in the waves off the Sri Lankan town of Kalutara, as captured by satellite photography.

The focal point of this movement is the first annual Ten Commandments Day that will be held on Sunday February 5, 2006. On this date we are calling on all religious leaders who are concerned about traditional Judeo-Christian values to host special celebrations and/or deliver stirring messages centering on the Ten Commandments. (See Ministry Commitment Form). Many Christian and Jewish leaders have already pledged their support for Ten Commandments Day.

With the Ten Commandments Day, we will offer a powerful display of unity as we, with one voice, declare our unwavering support for the bedrock principles that made our country great-The Ten Commandments.

Some of the many Christian leaders involved with the Ten Commandments Day include:

Please take a stand and join the coalition of thousands of cross cultural interdenominational community leaders, pastors, rabbis, educators, and heads of denominations who are committed to bringing the Word of God back to our nation. Join us for Ten Commandments Day! (MAIN SITE = http://www.tencommandmentsday.com )

New Sunday noise rules don't plug enough holes to keep the peace
Thursday, September 15, 2005
-The Oregonian
by Karen W. Sorenson

Let me get this straight. Obnoxious, polluting, loud leaf blowers are allowed on Sundays in bucolic Lake Oswego, but the noisy hammers, table saws, etc. that go along with just about any city work permit aren't. My neighbor whose irritatingly loud music blasts into our backyard can crank up his stereo, but a construction worker cannot rock to his boom box.

Portable CD players have been put on notice and cannot be audible on construction sites with permits. Our city leaders approved this ban last week. In August, the city also nixed construction work during what many consider their day of rest. Any work that requires building, plumbing, mechanical or electrical permits is now prohibited in residential zones on Sundays and certain holidays. Lest anyone think I don't feel his or her pain when it comes to construction disruption: Our house borders the Westlake neighborhood. My family survived dust, trespassers, noise, lumbering trucks and general lack of privacy for well over two years during the development of that maze of houses. Construction noise is a problem, but it isn't new to the area. Arbitrarily shutting down certain forms of work is.

Who is to say that construction noise is worse than a muscle car without a muffler being repeatedly revved every Sunday in someone's driveway? If construction is an irritant, then let's go further in our quest for a quiet day. Why is a neighborhood store that attracts unwanted traffic allowed to open on Sundays? And what about a college student who wants to knock out a deck for extra cash on weekends? "For me, during the school year, that only gives me one day a week that I can work," says Evan Clemson, a junior at Oregon State. Evan comes home to L.O. on weekends because of his construction business.

"If I want to do it legitimately, it doesn't leave me many options," he says. "One day of work on Saturday isn't worth the drive home." "I can play a boom box at home as loud as I want, but not if I'm working. It doesn't make sense," he adds. If we're going after noise, how about no boom boxes at all? How about no lawnmowers or noisy mechanics of any kind? It is a false distinction to base a noise ordinance only on activity that requires city permits. The consequence of construction infill is that one hears more noise. The city has promoted and approved this activity.

For a city so concerned about giving people a day of peace, officials show their extremely heavy-handed way of governing when they go after permitted workers. And one last question. What about people whose day of rest is Saturday?
Karen Wallace Sorenson: ksweekly@aol.com

Sundays should be sacred, not work time

By Tim Walker
For the Journal and Courier

I am one of the six Alcoa employees who firmly believe that our religious rights have been discriminated against. I've read a Journal and Courier editorial and a letter from a former Alcoa employee. Those two pieces have had me thinking.

In regard to the Alcoa retiree's letter of last week, no, I did not agree to work 16 hours when Alcoa hired me. In fact, I was given a religious accommodation by Alcoa. They knew I was a pastor when they gave me a job, and the human resource officer and a representative from management gave me Sundays off so I could do my work as a pastor. This was put in my record (though Alcoa has not given me copies of this transaction).

I agree that Alcoa, up to this point, has been a very good employer. They respected my deeply held religious beliefs, and Sunday was never an issue. But it worked two ways. I went out of my way to do a good job for Alcoa. I have no records of discipline in my record, have never been talked to about my work ethic and was always held in high esteem by my supervisors. One of them told me that I was one of the hardest workers in the mill. And not just me, but the other five, who have filed religious discrimination complaints against Alcoa, were model employees as well.

So I'm not biting the hand that fed me. I don't owe Alcoa an apology; I believe they owe me an explanation of how I could be accommodated for so many years, and then told my accommodation would no longer be honored.

As for the editorial in the Journal and Courier, I agree with you on some points. I feel we Christians have become hypocritical in our approach to Sundays. If we say it's against our Christian conscience to work on Sundays, I believe it should be against our Christian conscience to require others to work on Sundays (with the exception of doctors, nurses and such). Hey, the merchants won't be happy with me, but if we Christians truly began to use Sundays as a day of worship, rest and family, and quit filling up Ryan's, Golden Corral and the mall, maybe businesses might return to blue laws of the past.

Others will be watching what happens at Alcoa, because if a large corporation can change its policy regarding religious accommodations, then others will follow suit. Soon, a Christian will be torn between God and church and making a living.

If religious accommodations can be so easily removed, and a group of six deeply convicted and deeply religious individuals made to toe the Sunday working line or sent packing, who will be next? Maybe single parents who only get their kids one weekend a month (the weekend they are to work)? Or maybe heavyweight people will be discriminated against in the hiring process? The corporations could simply say, "It's a burden to our insurance premiums." Or could it be that the older workers would be required to work longer shifts -- shifts that tax their aging bodies?

I never asked for this fight, I'd just as soon be doing what I did for 10 years: working six days a week at Alcoa, and preaching and serving the Lord at Colfax Wesleyan on Sundays.

This is how it looks to me: I'm a Christian pastor who is being treated as though he were a criminal because he won't work Sundays. The truth of the matter is, I'm already serving on Sundays. Or if you prefer, I'm involved in a labor of love on Sundays.

Walker is one of six Alcoa workers who last month took a complaint to the Lafayette Human Relations Commission about working Sundays.

On Importance of Sunday Mass
"Not an Imposition, But a Joy"

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 12, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered today from the window of his study, before praying the midday Angelus with thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

The Year of the Eucharist continues, called by our beloved Pope John Paul II, to reawaken ever more, in the consciences of believers, wonder toward this great Sacrament. In this singular Eucharistic time, one of the recurring topics is Sunday, the Day of the Lord, a topic that was also at the center of the recent Italian Eucharistic Congress, held in Bari. During the conclusive celebration, I also underlined how participation at Sunday Mass must be seen by a Catholic not as an imposition or a weight, but as a need and joy. To meet with brothers, to listen to the Word of God and to be nourished of Christ, immolated for us, is an experience that gives meaning to life, which infuses peace in the heart. Without Sunday, we Catholics cannot live.

For this reason parents are called to make their children discover the value and importance of the response to Christ's invitation, who calls the whole Christian family to Sunday Mass. In this educational endeavor, a particularly significant stage is the first Communion, a real celebration for the parish community, which receives for the first time its smallest children at the Lord's Table.

To underline the importance of this event for the family and the parish, next October 15, God willing, I will have in the Vatican a special meeting of catechesis for children, in particular of Rome and Latium, who during this year have received their first Communion. This festive gathering will fall almost at the end of the Year of the Eucharist, while the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops is under way, centered on the Eucharistic mystery. It will be an opportune and beautiful circumstance to confirm the essential role that the sacrament of the Eucharist has in the formation and spiritual growth of children.

From now on I entrust this meeting to the Virgin Mary, that she may teach us to love Jesus ever more, in constant meditation of his Word and adoration of his Eucharistic presence, and help us to make young generations discover the "precious pearl" of the Eucharist, which gives true and full meaning to life.

Perished Under Emperor Diocletian

BARI, Italy, MAY 29, 2005 (Zenit.org).- In an age of widespread religious indifference, Benedict XVI offers as models the martyrs of North Africa who gave their lives for celebrating Mass on a Sunday.

Presiding at today's closing Mass of the 24th Italian National Eucharistic Congress, the Pope spoke in his homily about the group of Christians who were killed in 304 during the persecution of the Roman emperor Diocletian.

The theme of the congress was the motto of the martyrs: "We Cannot Live without Sunday."

The emperor, recounted Benedict XVI, had prohibited Christians, "under pain of death, to possess the Scriptures, to meet on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist and to build premises for their assemblies."

In Abitene, a small village in what today is Tunis, "49 Christians, meeting in the home of Octavius Felix, were taken by surprise on a Sunday while celebrating the Eucharist, defying the imperial prohibitions. Arrested, they were taken to Carthage to be interrogated by the proconsul Anulinus," said the Holy Father.

"Significant, in particular, was the response given to the proconsul by Emeritus, after being asked why he had violated the emperor's order," he recalled.

Victorious

"He said: 'We cannot live without meeting on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist. We would not have the strength to face the daily difficulties and not succumb,'" the Pope said. "After atrocious tortures, the 49 martyrs of Abitene were killed.

"Thus they confirmed their faith with the shedding of blood. They died but they were victorious: We now remember them in the glory of the risen Christ."

The Pontiff called Christians of the 21st century to reflect on this experience, because "it is not easy for us either to live as Christians" in a world "characterized by rampant consumerism, religious indifference, and secularism closed to transcendence."
ZE05052906

Honoring the Sabbath

Sunday, April 24, 2005

JEAN SPENNER

THE SAGINAW NEWS

"I don't know who would track that," he said. "Some downtowns would have stores that close on Sunday. Typically, in malls and plazas, they would require specific hours."

Stores that choose to close on Sundays do so most likely for religious reasons, Scott said.

Along with Hobby Lobby, the Roly Poly Rolled Sandwich shop franchise in Midland closes. Other well-known stores that close on Sunday are Chick-fil-A -- a fast-food chicken eatery whose closest location is in Rochester -- and Franklin Covey, which this spring closed its store in Saginaw Township's Fashion Square Mall location. Typically, independently run Christian bookstores close on Sunday, although the Bible Factory at Prime Outlets in Birch Run has Sunday hours.

"Most people appreciate that we are closed on Sunday," said Tom Hopper, manager at Hobby Lobby. "When we're open, we do the best job we can. On Sunday, (our employees) can go home and spend time with their families. That's what it's all about, right?

"In this day and age, when things are so demanding ... We're not supposed to work on Sundays according to the Bible."

The chain, based in Oklahoma City, didn't always have the no-Sunday-work policy, said Bill Hane, vice president for advertising. President and founder David Green is a Christian.

"We began closing on Sundays in 1997 in block or regions of stores," he said. "Our intent was to go companywide with it, and we implemented that incrementally over 18 months.

"Our bankers were nervous," he said. "Statistically, Sunday was our second strongest retail day of the week. At that time, to close on Sundays, meant walking away from $100 million in sales."

The decision was one of principle, he said.

"It was something we chose to do as a way of honoring God," he said. "There was no guarantee that customers would shift their shopping habits, but it happened. There was an initial decline in sales."

Since then, response has proved positive. v

While some Saginaw Valley customers expressed surprise after finding the store closed on Sunday, 99.9 percent of feedback is positive, Hopper said.

For Roly Poly operators, the choice on Sunday hours is left to them, said Gwendolyn Karl, who owns the Midland franchise with her husband, James.

"Almost 65 percent of Roly Polys are closed on Sunday," Karl said.

The chain is based in Atlanta, and many of its franchise owners are Christians.

"My husband and I thought we would leave Sundays for our staff to be with their families," Karl said. "A lot of restaurants close on Monday. We're more of a sandwich shop, and Monday is a much bigger business days for us (than Sunday)."

On the flip side, today's busy lifestyle prompted Family Christian Stores to open on Sundays, spokeswoman Tara Powers said, a move that has proved fruitful. It was a decision not made lightly.

"We did a lot of research before we did the change," Powers said. "More people are running errands and doing shopping on Sunday. Our research said over 80 percent would shop on Sunday."

A small minority has express displeasure at the added hours, she said.

"But it hasn't been real vocal," she said.

Then there are the positive stories.

"We've heard of people who have spoken with someone in the morning (at services), and then have come in to buy a book to give to that person in the evening," Powers said.

Other independently run Christian-based retailers in the Saginaw Valley, have chosen to close on Sunday, including Holy Cross Christian Supply, 4654 State in Saginaw Township's Green Acres Plaza; Andrzejewsk's Marian Church Supplies, 3535 Bay in Saginaw Township; and Sunshine Christian Store, 7212 Gratiot in Thomas Township. v

Jean Spenner covers business for The Saginaw News. You may reach her at 776-9683.

Following to be used for sunday laws

Pope Relaunches Vatican II's Call to Justice
Reiterates a Theme of "Gaudium et Spes"

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 16, 2005 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II has again proposed to the Church and to humanity the call to justice launched 40 years ago by the Second Vatican Council.

"The challenge constantly facing the Church," consists in "reminding all believers of the need to interpret social realities in the light of the Gospel," said the Pope from his room in the Vatican where he is convalescing from a throat operation.

The Holy Father was echoing one of the key conclusions of the meeting of the world's bishops, reflected in the pastoral constitution "Gaudium et Spes," published December, 1965.

He took up this legacy in a message sent today for the opening of an international conference on the theme "The Call to Justice: The Legacy of 'Gaudium et Spes' 40 Years Later." The conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is being held in Rome through Friday.

In that 1965 document, the participants in Vatican II suggested to Pope Paul VI the establishment of what today is the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The pontifical council's mission is "to promote justice and peace in the world in accordance with the Gospel and the social teaching of the Church," according to the 1988 apostolic constitution "Pastor Bonus."

John Paul II's message said: "At times, the enormous progress of science and technology can lead to forget fundamental questions of justice, despite the common aspiration for greater solidarity among peoples, and for a more human restructuring of social relations.

"The sad permanence of conflicts and the repeated manifestations of violence in very many parts of the world are proof, by contrast, of the inseparable relationship that exists between justice and peace, according to the fundamental teaching proposed with courageous clarity in 'Gaudium et Spes.'"

"In this connection, I wish to reaffirm once again that peace is the work of justice," the Pope stated. "Authentic peace on earth entails the firm determination to respect others, individuals and peoples, in their dignity, and the constant determination to increase fraternity among the members of the human family."

However, the Church "does not reduce her teaching to this," he said.

Vatican II affirmed "that peace is also the fruit of love, which goes beyond anything that justice can realize," the Holy Father noted.

He added: "The virtue of love, which leads to forgiveness and reconciliation, and encourages the commitment of Christians in favor of justice," must never be forgotten.
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It's not that the Iraqis do not want time off - they just want the extra day moved to Thursday.

"We don't want Saturday! It's a Jewish holiday!" students chanted as they marched in protest last week to the governor's office in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

A high-school student pulled out a hand grenade and started waving it, and police fired into the air to disperse the crowd. At least three students reportedly were injured in the ensuing scuffle.

At Baghdad's University of Mustansariyah, a statement issued by a student union believed to be allied with the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr described Saturday as "the Zionist holiday" and said the government order should not be followed.

"We declare a general strike in the University of Mustansariyah to reject this decision and any decision aimed at depriving Iraqis of their identity," the statement said.

In predominantly Sunni Muslim Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, the al-Mutawakal high school opened its doors after insurgents threatened to kill its teachers if they took the day off.

There is no clear-cut rule for weekends in the Middle East and other Muslim countries in the region.

In Jordan, the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Bahrain, Egypt and Kuwait have Thursday and Friday off, while conservative Iran and Saudi Arabia only give Friday off.

In many Baghdad districts, including Shiite-dominated Sadr City, students and civil servants ignored the decree and went to school and work. At Sadr City's al-Fazilah secondary girls school, all 400 girls showed up for class.

"Sadr City is a Shiite Islamic city and we reject Saturday being our holiday because it is related to the Jewish weekend," said student union leader Safaa Dawoud Mahmoud, 18.

The student body delivered a letter to the school's administrators demanding that Thursday and Friday be the official weekend "because both days were blessed in Islam and by Sharia," or Islamic law.

The students, dressed in long skirts with their hair covered by dense black veils, vowed to stage sit-ins until the government reverses its decision and makes Thursday the first day of a two-day weekend.

"We will keep going to school with determination and persistence" on Saturday, sixth-grader Nassen Dawoud said.

"We can't be like Jews. Saturday is a Jewish holiday and I hope the government listens to us," sixth-grader Nada Alwan, said.

The influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, believed to be close to the insurgency, said that by making Saturday a weekend "the invaders, the occupiers are trying to impose their principles" on Iraq.

In Samarra, one teacher said on condition of anonymity that he had received death threats from militants warning him not to take Saturdays off.

In Ramadi, the heart of the insurgency in the so-called Sunni Triangle, the head of Anbar University decided to change the weekend on its own.

Keeping Sunday Holy
Emphasizing Mass as Center of Christian Life

ROME, FEB. 26, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Trying to ensure Christians celebrate Sunday as a special day is one of the aims of the Year of the Eucharist the Church is now observing. In his apostolic letter on the year, "Mane Nobiscum Domine," John Paul II wrote: "In a particular way I ask that every effort be made this year to experience Sunday as the day of the Lord and the day of the Church" (No. 23).

The Pope also called upon priests during the special year, which continues through October 2005, to pay more attention to the celebration of Sunday Mass as an event that unites the entire parish.

During his homily last Oct. 17 at the Mass held to mark the start of the special year, the Pontiff noted that particularly on a Sunday the Church lives the mystery of the Eucharist. Moreover, through the Eucharistic celebration the Christian community is called to a greater brotherhood and service to others.

The Holy Father's call to reinforce the importance of Sunday Mass has been followed up in a recent meeting of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, held Jan. 18-21. The commission issued a series of pastoral recommendations on how to maintain the Sunday Mass as a central feature of Christian life.

When Sunday loses its special meaning, it becomes absorbed into the generic concept of "weekend," the commission observed. Christians, instead, need to keep in mind that Sunday Mass should be at the heart of their religious life. Sunday Mass attendance is also an important means to ensure the Church maintains its missionary fervor, which is strengthened through a regular contact with Jesus in the Eucharist.

The commission insisted on the need for a dignified celebration of the Eucharist. This covers everything from the ornaments used by the priest, to the music used in the ceremony, to the way the liturgy is organized. This dignity must be safeguarded even in circumstances that present special difficulties, such as prisons, hospitals and nursing homes.

The Lord's Day

Another recommendation concerns the need for an active participation by everyone in the celebration. To ensure this, the commission called upon priests and laity alike to meditate on the meaning of Sunday Mass as the central moment of the Lord's Day.

The commission urged priests to increase their reverence at Mass, reflecting in their words and acts the great value of the mystery they are celebrating. The panel also recommended that adequate care be given to the preparation of the Sunday homily, basing its content on Scripture, the Tradition of the Church and the magisterium.

For those who participate in some way in the liturgical celebration as acolytes, readers, Eucharistic ministers, etc., the commission asked that they be given a careful preparation in the roles they carry out.

Another way in which the Christian community can value better Sunday Mass is through an adequate catechesis. The commission called for an increased effort in communicating the value of the Mass. Part of this involves a greater awareness of the connection between the sacraments, for example, baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist. As well, a more-frequent participation in the sacrament of reconciliation is suggested in order to ensure worthy reception of Communion.

The commission also noted the importance of ensuring that the whole family participates together in the Sunday Eucharist. Related to this is the need to teach within the family the importance of the Eucharist.

In Australia and Ireland

In recent weeks other countries have also responded to the Pope's call to reinforce Sunday Mass during the Year of the Eucharist.

A Jan. 20 press release by the Australian bishops' conference announced a program prepared by the National Liturgical Commission. The initiative will get under way during the Sundays of Easter and is linked with a proposal for a period of Eucharistic devotion from Trinity Sunday to Corpus Christi.

In the introduction to the program, the chairman of the episcopate's Committee for Liturgy, Bishop Kevin Manning, recalled the invitation of John Paul II for Catholics to dedicate the current year to the Eucharist.

"The Australian bishops have responded to the Holy Father's invitation and now offer the program, 'Sunday: Sacrament of Easter,' to the Australian Church as a means of enlivening our celebration of the Eucharist and to encourage devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament," Bishop Manning wrote.

In Ireland, meanwhile, the Diocese of Down and Connor announced last Monday that it will be starting a series of lessons in its parishes on the meaning of the Eucharist, reported the Irish Independent.

Launching the campaign, Bishop Patrick Walsh warned that Sunday is no longer a family day, let alone the Lord's Day, for many people. "The purpose of the Year of the Eucharist is to open the eyes of our faith so that we will come to recognize Christ more fully in the breaking of the bread, in the Eucharist, and stay with him in his presence in the Blessed Sacrament," he explained.

Christ's victory

This is not the first time John Paul II has insisted on the need to ensure that Sunday remains a special day for Catholics. In his 1998 apostolic letter, "Dies Domini," he noted that the Church has always given the Lord's Day special attention. On Sunday we recall Christ's resurrection and celebrate his victory over sin and death. "It is the day which recalls in grateful adoration the world's first day and looks forward in active hope to 'the last day', when Christ will come in glory (cf. Acts 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17) and all things will be made new (cf. Revelation 21:5)" (No. 1).

The Pope commented that until recently is was easier to preserve the special meaning of Sunday, because in most Christian countries it was practiced by virtually all the population and was also a part of civil society. Now, however, Sunday is submerged in a series of cultural and sporting activities that can cause us to lose sight of the day's spiritual meaning.

"The disciples of Christ, however, are asked to avoid any confusion between the celebration of Sunday, which should truly be a way of keeping the Lord's Day holy, and the 'weekend,' understood as a time of simple rest and relaxation," the Pope added (No. 4).

Achieving this requires a greater spiritual maturity and for Christians to act in accordance with their faith. Sunday should be a day that is at the heart of the Christian life, the Pope urged. "Do not be afraid to give your time to Christ! Yes, let us open our time to Christ, that he may cast light upon it and give it direction" (No. 7).

Moreover, he added: "Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained, so that our relationships and indeed our whole life may become more profoundly human." A lesson that the Pope hopes many will learn during this year dedicated to the Eucharist.
ZE05022602

Father Cantalamessa's Call for a Rediscovery of Sunday
In Year's 1st Lenten Sermon at Vatican

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 25, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Eucharist is a regenerating communion and expression of love of the risen Christ, explained the preacher of the Pontifical Household during a Lenten meditation in the Vatican.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa also called for a rediscovery of Sunday, and warned against the "de-personalization" of the sacrament of the Eucharist, during his meditation today.

His talk was the first in a series held every Lent, on Fridays, designed to help John Paul II and members of the Roman Curia prepare for Easter.

The Pope did not attend today as he is recovering in the Gemelli Polyclinic from a successful tracheotomy operation Thursday to ease his breathing problems.

Father Cantalamessa's sermon, in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, was a continuation of a reflection on the Eucharistic hymn "Adore Te Devote," which he began last Advent.

The third stanza "takes us to Calvary to" relive "the death of Christ," he said.

The fourth stanza -- ''I do not see the wounds as Thomas saw them / but I confess that thou art my God: make me believe in thee more and more, / that I may hope in thee and love thee" -- the object of today's meditation -- "takes us to the cenacle for us to encounter the Risen One," said Father Cantalamessa.

It was in the cenacle where the episode of the Apostle Thomas took place.

The preacher summarized his sermon for ZENIT.

In the "Adoro Te Devote" the "profound analogy" is made "evident that exists between Thomas' situation and that of the believer," said Father Cantalamessa.

Thomas "asks to touch the wounds, but we can also ask him to touch ours. ... Wounds that are different from his, caused by sin, not by love," he said. We can ask him "to touch them in order to heal them."

The "insistence on the chronological data of these apparitions shows the evangelist's intention to present Jesus' encounter with his own in the cenacle as the prototype of the Church's Sunday assembly," added the preacher.

In those moments "Jesus makes himself present among his disciples in the Eucharist; he gives them peace and the Holy Spirit; in communion they touch, more than that, receive his wounded and risen body and, like Thomas, proclaim their faith in him. Almost all the elements of the Mass are there," he said.

Father Cantalamessa said that the theological truth highlighted in the fourth stanza "is that in the Eucharist, not only is the Crucified present but also the Risen One," which is a "memorial both of the passion as well as of the resurrection."

"In every Mass Jesus is at the same time victim and priest," he continued. "As victim he makes his death present, as priest he makes his resurrection present."

And "through the resurrection it is God the Father who enters as protagonist in the Eucharistic mystery. If in fact the death of Christ is the work of men, the resurrection is the work of the Father," stated Father Cantalamessa.

Rediscovery of Sunday

"The profound theological link between the Eucharist and the resurrection creates the liturgical link between the Eucharist and Sunday," the Capuchin said. It is significant, he said, that the day par excellence "of the Eucharistic celebration is not that of the death of Christ, Friday, but the day of the resurrection, Sunday."

"There are urgent pastoral reasons that impel the rediscovery of Sunday as 'day of the resurrection,'" the priest continued. "We have gone back to be much closer to the situation of the first centuries than to that of medieval times, when the most important aspect of Sunday was the precept of the festive rest.

"There is no longer a civil legislation that 'protects,' so to speak, the day of the Lord. In the present organization of work, the law of festive rest itself is subject to many limitations and exceptions."

It is our task "to rediscover what Sunday was in the first centuries, when it was a special day not because of external supports, but because of its own internal force," he stated.

Father Cantalamessa said that "no faithful should return home from Sunday Mass without feeling himself also in some measure given a 'new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.'"

Not much is needed to achieve this "and to put the whole of the Sunday celebration under the paschal sign of the resurrection: a few, vibrant words at the moment of the initial greeting, the choice of an appropriate formula of dismissal at the end, such as 'May the joy of the Lord be our strength: go in peace,' or 'Go and take to all the joy of the risen Lord,'" he said.

Loving response

From the memory of Thomas and the words of Christ -- "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" -- a prayerful invocation closes the stanza: "Make me believe more and more in thee, that I may hope in thee and love thee."

"In practice, what is being asked is an increase in the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity," which "cannot but be rekindled when in contact with the one who is their author and object, Jesus, son of God, and he himself God," he said.

The "queen" of these virtues is love; and the "Adoro Te Devote" "speaks to us of a particular aspect of love: the love of the soul for Jesus" -- "Make me love Thee."

"It is of this loving response that an increase is requested," said Father Cantalamessa. "A call all the more precious for us today, in order not to 'de-personalize' the Eucharist, reducing it solely to the communal and objective dimension. A true communion between two free persons cannot be realized except in love."
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Newly found faith lands Marine in jail

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- U.S. Marine Cpl. Joel D. Klimkewicz says he's willing to clear land mines and risk his life for his country.

Because of his new-found religious faith, the Birch Run native is spending his holidays behind bars as a conscientious objector, convicted by military superiors who see him as a disobedient soldier.

"I couldn't see Jesus Christ taking human life," said Klimkewicz in a phone interview from the Camp LeJeune military prison. "In my faith, what I believe is that we're all citizens of heaven. Citizens of heaven are of all nations, and I refuse to take a life of a fellow citizen of heaven."

This month, a Marine Corps court sentenced 24-year-old Klimkewicz -- a combat engineer who is a member of a Seventh-day Adventist Church -- to seven months behind bars for refusing an order to pick up a weapon for training. He received a reduction in rank to private and a bad conduct discharge.

Since joining the church a year ago and becoming a conscientious objector to combat, he has taken some criticism from friends who have questioned his patriotism.

Seventh-day Adventists support non-combatancy for its members who serve in the military, but leave such decisions to a member's individual conscience, said church spokesman Mark A. Kellner.

"There are a lot of people who would view it as unpatriotic," Klimkewicz said of refusing to pick up a gun. "At first, some of (my friends) were stand-offish, but later on, some of them saw my sincerity and saw definitely that this was a choice of my conscience.

"And that I was willing to do everything I could do without disobeying my conscience."

"It's unusual that a Marine would claim conscientious objector status after being in the Marine Corps and knowing that there's a war going on," said Marine Corps spokeswoman 1st Lt. Kate VandenBossche. "That's what took everyone off guard at first."

Klimkewicz, a 1999 Birch Run High School graduate, signed a two-year re-enlistment in 2002. After participating in on-ship Bible studies with a Seventh-day Adventist chaplain, Klimkewicz started converting to his new faith, said Seventh-day Adventist attorney, Mitchell A. Tyner.

Klimkewicz formally joined the church in the fall of 2003 and attended services in Jacksonville, N.C. Klimkewicz, however, did not learn until after he applied for re-enlistment about the Seventh-day Adventist belief that one should not become involved in combat, Tyner said.

Klimkewicz told Marine officials that he was willing to serve, but not carry a weapon or take a life. Marine regulations provide that a Marine whose beliefs crystallize after enlistment can receive conscientious objector status, Tyner said.

The Marines decided that Klimkewicz was not sincere and that he really just wanted to avoid serving in Iraq, Tyner said. Klimkewicz initially admitted he was less than a productive Marine, Tyner said, and was reprimanded twice for insubordination.

Klimkewicz wasn't jailed because he requested conscientious objector status, VandenBossche said.

"He was charged with ... disobeying a lawful order from a superior commissioned officer," she said.

Klimkewicz refused an order to pick up his weapon at an armory and begin training with it, VandenBossche said. He was charged because he refused the order twice before stating religious reasons for his objection to it.

To rebut that charge, Klimkewicz volunteered to clear mines in Iraq, because those who do so do not carry a weapon. Twice, officials rejected his offer, Tyner said.

"The Marine Corps, in its zeal to prevent others from avoiding combat, has totally misread this soldier and the result is a serious miscarriage of justice," Tyner said. "We hope the corps will reconsider the total disproportional nature of the sentence and reduce it immediately."

Tyner said efforts from his office and congressional offices are now in motion to appeal the situation.

Klimkewicz's wife, Tomomi Higa, a Japanese citizen, has a temporary residence permit to live in the United States. They have a 3-year-old daughter. Members of the Jacksonville Seventh-day Adventists have indicated they will help Klimkewicz's wife and daughter as needed, Kellner said.

Klimkewicz said he is adjusting to life behind bars, and spends much of his time reading the Bible. He conducts an informal Bible study for a few fellow inmates.

"All I can say is that the Bible says people who suffer in the name of the Lord is a blessing to them," he said. "I take God's laws over men's laws." <

New Sunday noise rules don't plug enough holes to keep the peace Thursday, September 15, 2005 -The Oregonianby Karen W. Sorenson

Honoring the Sabbath

New Sunday noise rules don't plug enough holes to keep the peace
Thursday, September 15, 2005
-The Oregonian
by Karen W. Sorenson