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2001-122

News Briefs

New SSJE superior elected

     (ENS) On May 13, the Society of Saint John the Evangelist (SSJE) elected the 
Rev. Curtis G. Almquist, SSJE, to a three-year term as superior of the religious 
order. Almquist was born in 1952 and ordained to the priesthood in 1984. He has 
served in a variety of capacities within the community, including assistant 
superior, novice guardian, and senior brother of both the monastery and retreat 
house.

     Almquist succeeds the Rev. Martin L. Smith, SSJE, who was elected in 1992. 
Smith succeeded Bishop M. Thomas Shaw III, SSJE, superior from 1983-92, who was 
elected bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Massachusetts in 1994, becoming 
diocesan bishop in 1995.

     SSJE was founded in the parish of Cowley in Oxford, England, by the Rev. 
Richard Meux Benson in 1866. It was the first stable religious community of men 
to be established in the Anglican church since the Reformation. The order came to 
Boston in 1870. For many years SSJE also had houses in Scotland, India, South 
Africa, Japan and Canada. The brothers of the North American congregation live at 
a monastery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard Square, and at Emery House, 
a rural retreat center in West Newbury, Massachusetts.

     SSJE ministries include spiritual direction, retreats, Cowley Publications, 
and Saint Augustine Ministries, which provides after-school mentoring and youth 
leadership programs.

  
   

Ugandan bishop denies resigning from Integrity chapter

     (ENS) Retired Ugandan bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo has denied reports in the 
Ugandan press that he has resigned as chairman of Integrity-Uganda.

     On May 16, Uganda's government-run newspaper New Vision reported that 
Senyonjo had resigned.   

     Ssenyonjo released two of the letters he sent to the Ugandan press regarding 
his involvement in the Integrity chapter. In the first, dated May 9, he corrected 
reports circulating in Ugandan newspapers that he himself is homosexual. "I am 
straight, i.e. I am heterosexual," the letter said. "Let no one doubt my 
orientation. All my children are also heterosexual."

     The retired bishop recounted the history of his involvement with counseling 
homosexuals and with the newly formed Integrity chapter, which he called "the 
beginning of the current misunderstanding between church authorities and me." He 
categorically denied any intention to "promote homosexuality" in Ugandan 
institutions or to encourage "gay marriages," and called for members of his 
immediate and extended family not to be "persecuted" because of his own ministry. 
Finally, he said, "I was not lured by money. When I accepted to counsel Integrity 
Uganda members, which is a local Ugandan chapter, I accepted without any promises 
of money."

      In a second letter, dated May 10, Ssenyonjo added that he is not and never 
has been chairman of the Integrity chapter in Uganda. "This word has created a 
lot of misunderstanding and it should be forgotten, cancelled and dropped," he 
said. "My role is to be counselor. Chairman has been a misnomer…I did not start 
the group and I am not their president.

     "Lastly, I am saddened to learn that there are all sorts of moves, 
decisions,  and sentences being passed against me even without being allowed to 
defend myself. Love is patient. Love is kind," he concluded.

     

Women cardinals may be in the Vatican's future

     (ENI) A retired Italian bishop and several Roman Catholic theologians have 
suggested that the Vatican include women in the College of Cardinals. 

     The College's main duty is to elect the pope. All 183 cardinals are ordained 
men, most of them bishops.

     "The current formula for electing a pope is out of date," said Giuseppe 
Casale, former bishop of Foggia in southern Italy. "It is indeed possible to 
imagine lay cardinals, ordinary members of the faithful, both men and women, 
participating in the process of choosing the Bishop of Rome [the Pope]. The 
position of cardinal is simply a product of history, and the method of electing 
the Bishop of Rome has undergone major changes throughout history."

     Severino Dianich, president of the Italian Theological Association, said 
that the sacrament of ordination includes bishops, priests and deacons, but the 
job of cardinal had been created by the church, and was therefore open to 
modification.

     "If women could be ordained one day as deaconesses, they could  [perhaps] 
join the College of Cardinals," Dianich explained. "But another possibility is a 
conclave [the meeting at which the cardinals choose a pope] including not only 
clergy but also lay people, both men and women."

     In May 1994 Pope John Paul categorically ruled out the admission of women to 
the Roman Catholic priesthood, but said nothing about women deacons. In its early 
years, the church had an order of "deaconesses."

      A Rome-based theologian, Caterina Iacobelli, said that merely creating two 
or three women cardinals would not be enough. "This would only have any meaning 
if it signaled the opening up to representatives of the whole of the Catholic 
people the election of the Bishop of Rome."

     A special four-day meeting of the College of Cardinals will be held in Rome in May to 
discuss in closed session some of the problems facing the Roman Catholic Church. The 
Italian media have speculated that some cardinals could suggest a reform of the papal 
election process.