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2001-297

News Briefs

German president calls need for religious dialogue 'ever more urgent'  

     (ENI) Visiting the Geneva headquarters of the World Council of Churches, 
German President Johannes Rau said that dialogue between the world's religions 
was essential if the world was to live in peace.

     "Without peace between the world religions, world peace is not possible," 
said Rau, citing the Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Kung.

     The need for dialogue between cultures and religions had become "ever more 
urgent, particularly since the events of 11 September," when hijacked aircraft 
destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and damaged the Pentagon, killing 
thousands of people.  

     The WCC has called for an end to the United States-led military action in 
Afghanistan undertaken in response to the September attacks. But Rau told a press 
conference that the decision to launch military action in Afghanistan had been 
taken in agreement with the United Nations and was "appropriate".

     "Many were afraid that the reaction would be more adventurous than it was," 
said Rau, a prominent Protestant layman who as a school student was active in 
Germany's Confessing Church, which opposed intervention by the Nazis in church 
life.  

     Rau had been invited to Geneva by the WCC to take part in a round-table 
discussion on inter-religious and inter-confessional dialogue and on the role of 
religion in politics.  

     He told a press conference in Geneva that while there was "no alternative to 
globalization," its benefits must not be confined to industrialized countries. 
"Globalization that contributes to progress only in industrialized states will 
lead not only to international criticism but also to corresponding reactions," 
Rau said, adding that there was a need for "human rights to be globalized as much 
as the stock exchange."

     "But what I cannot do is to relate this directly to 11 September," he said 
when asked if he agreed with the WCC that the answer to terrorism was to deal 
with inequalities and injustices that breed violence between and within nations. 
"The only thing we know is that there is no justification for terrorism, no 
justification for the fact that planes are used as weapons, no justification for 
creating anxiety among people, that they are being contaminated by real or 
alleged chemicals."  

 
    

Church considers sale of paintings to boost investment funds 

     (ENI) The Church of England is planning to sell a set of religious paintings 
that have hung in one of its grandest bishops' palaces for more than 200 years in 
order to boost the church's investment funds. 

     The paintings, by the 17th-century Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbaran, 
show the biblical patriarch Jacob and his 12 sons. The set is estimated to be 
worth at least $15 million. The paintings hang in the Auckland Castle residence 
of the bishop of Durham, Michael Turnbull. 

     Campaigners opposed to the planned sale say the castle's Long Dining Room 
was created to accommodate the paintings and "is probably the first picture 
gallery in Europe to be so designed." 

     Bishop Turnbull has defended the decision of the church authorities to sell 
the paintings but has urged that they stay in the region. He said the Church 
Commissioners, who are responsible for much of the Church of England's 
investments, and who own the paintings, had the responsibility of helping poor 
parishes and maintaining the clergy "Keeping paintings in Auckland Castle is not 
doing much about that," he said.

     A spokesman for the Church Commissioners said no sale date had been set and 
no reserve price had yet been decided. He defended the planned sale as a "prudent 
investment decision." In a statement, the Church Commissioners' board of governors 
said it was "sympathetic to the view that the natural destination of the paintings" 
was northeastern England, their present location.

     Spain's famous Prado museum is among foreign buyers reportedly interested 
in the paintings.