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United Church of Christ
United Church News
216/736-2177
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April 4, 2005

Across the country, UCC pastors offer condolences to grieving Catholics
By J. Bennett Guess
News Director

As mourners grieved the death of Pope John Paul II, local newspapers around
the country asked UCC pastors to comment on the pope's significance to
those outside the Roman Catholic tradition.

In the San Mateo (Calif.) Daily Journal, the Rev. Kristi Denham, pastor of
Congregational UCC of Belmont, Calif., said the pope's legacy of outreach
touched many non-Catholics.

"Any work that has been to reach out to other religious communities, to me
is the most important work being done," Denham said. "It's the hope of
our
species. The work he's done is a very good thing. It feels like he lived a
long and full life."

The Rev. John McFadden, pastor of First Congregational UCC in Appleton,
Wis., told Appleton's Post-Crescent, "To me, [the pope's] greatest legacy
is his global vision, his tireless travels and advocacy for the poor and
dispossessed as well as his constant proclamations for the ethics of life,
which made both conservatives and liberals uncomfortable, a sure sign he
was on the right path."

The Rev. Kim Henning, pastor of Grace Congregational UCC in Two Rivers,
Wis., told the Manitowoc (Wis.) Herald Times Reporter that she fondly
remembers an occasion when Pope John Paul II and the late Mother Theresa
met.

"We saw him and Mother Theresa together. It was hard to know who was
looking up to whom," Henning said. "He had such a high regard for her and
she, being a close adherent of the Roman Catholic faith, certainly admired
him."

"I have a high regard for him when I have seen him in Third World
countries, giving hope to the poor," Henning said.

The Rev. Robert Geehan, a UCC minister and pastor of the Reformed Church of
Poughkeepsie, N.Y., told the Poughkeepsie Journal that the pope was a
charismatic leader, but his positions on sexuality, gays and lesbians and
the role of women divided Catholics and Protestants.

Similarly, the Rev. Todd Hensley-Weir, a UCC minister who works for a
low-income housing organization, said the pope had been an advocate for the
poor and oppressed in many nations, but Weir found the pope's work on
behalf of women and others lacking, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported.

For some, it was the pope's approach to death itself that was noteworthy.

During the Pope's final days, as the world waited word on his inevitable
death, the Rev. Fran Bates, a UCC minister who works with Palliative Care
Hospice of the North Shore in Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune that she
marveled at the way the pope, who had battled Parkinson's disease for many
years, faced his life's end with dignity.

Bates said the pope's example was a validation of the decisions made by
many of her hospice patients and their families.

"I know they're paying attention to this," she said.

Similarly, the Rev. Carl Richter, pastor of First Congregational UCC in
Lorain, Ohio, told The Morning Star of Lorain that he was happy to see
the
pope die with dignity.

"What I think I'll remember the most about him is his spirit of ecumenism,
his reaching out to all people, not just Catholics," Richter said.

A quote from the UCC's general minister and president, the Rev. John H.
Thomas, was included in a compilation of world religious leaders'
statements distributed by Religion News Service.

"Differences we have in theological perspective do not keep us from giving
testimony to this remarkable legacy of faith and we celebrate those
achievements even as we mourn his death," Thomas was quoted by RNS as
saying.

Read Thomas' full statement here:
http://www.ucc.org/news/st040205pope.htm