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Contents
Headune Hopscotch 3
News 3
Commentary 4-5
Hispanic Ministry 6-7
Faith Alive! 8-9
Notices 10-11
Last But Not Least 12
Vol. 80, No. 3
$.50 PER ISSUE
Thursday, January 20, 2000
Vatican official downplays idea
of pope declaring King a martyr
A Catholic school girl holds up an image of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
during a program honoring the slain civil rights leader in Newark, N.J.
By John Thavis
Vatican City (CNS)
Vatican official downplayed spec
ulation that Pope John Paul II
would declare the Rev. Martin Luther
King, Jr., a Christian “martyr” during
the jubilee year, saying that current
plans call for a no-names prayer ser
vice honoring all Christians who died
for the faith in the 20th century.
U.S. media reported in mid-January
that King, a Baptist who led the U.S.
civil rights movement until his assas
sination in 1968, would be declared a
martyr by the Catholic Church, one
of a long list of martyrs expected to
be unveiled by Pope John Paul II at
an ecumenical service at Rome’s
ancient Colosseum May 7.
But Jesuit Father Jozef Maj told
Catholic News Service January 14
that no specific recognition of martyr
dom for King was planned for the
May 7 service.
The ceremony “will not involve any
canonical process of recognition of
the martyrdom of individuals, in the
sense that they would be presented to
the faithful for veneration,” said
Father Maj, a member of the commis
sion planning the event and an offi
cial of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity.
Father Maj said the Vatican has
opted to avoid promulgating or publi
cizing the thousands of individual
martyrs whose names have been sent
in from around the world, because it
could give rise to misunderstanding
or even division.
“The collecting of names was a
purely internal matter, in order to take
a better look at the situation. The
names will not be presented at this
ceremony, which is a general thanks
giving for those who witnessed [to]
the faith (in the 20th century), even to
the point of giving their blood,” he
said.
He said the Vatican was still study
ing the possibility of making public a
few of the names, who could symbol
ize groups of martyr-witnesses. But
he indicated that any such names
would be persons who suffered
directly because of their profession of
faith in Christ, leaving aside “politi
cal or other factors.”
While Martin Luther King Jr. was
an admirable figure and was certainly
motivated in part by his faith, he is
known more for his political and
social activism, Father Maj said.
He said one reason the Vatican had
decided for now not to emphasize
names of individuals was because
some are closely tied to the causes of
specific communities, but would not
necessarily be equally appreciated by
all Christians.
Last fall, the Vatican’s New
Martyrs Commission said it had com-
(Continued on page 11)
German bishop says he thinks pope would resign if too ill
Cologne, Germany (CNS)
leading German bishop said he thought Pope
John Paul II would resign if ill health made it
impossible for him to fulfill the responsibilities of
the papacy.
Bishop Karl Lehmann, president of the German
bishops’ conference, made the remarks in an inter
view with German Radio broadcast January 9. He
expanded on them in another radio interview the
same day.
On January 10, after Italian media reported his
comments as a call for the pope’s resignation,
Bishop Lehmann said he was not at all questioning
the pope’s present capacities but discussing a hypo
thetical situation in the future.
The 79-year-old pontiff has appeared frail and
unsteady in recent weeks as he opened jubilee year
activities. He is believed to suffer from Parkinson’s
disease, a debilitating nervous system disorder.
But the pope’s top aides say his mental faculties
are undiminished and that his work schedule has
remained virtually unchanged.
Bishop Lehmann said that he, too, had recently
witnessed the pope’s “extraordinary intellectual
presence” at last fall’s European bishops’ synod
and on other occasions.
But if the pope’s condition worsens in the future,
he said he thought the pope would resign if he
decided he could no longer lead the church.
“I personally believe the pope has the capacity,
that if he were to feel that he simply is no longer
sufficient in his role—to lead the church in a
responsible way—then I believe he would have the
strength and the courage to say, ‘I can no longer fill
this office in the way that is needed’,” Bishop
Lehmann said.
The bishop said he was not certain that those
around the pope “and all the others who give
advice” would agree with a resignation. He said it
was “not easy to think about this. No one is accus
tomed to something like that happening, like a pope
resigning.” But he cited one precedent, Saint
Celestine V, who resigned from the papacy in the
13 th century.
Bishop Lehmann said he was not sure whether
the pope’s present illness was having an influence
on the leadership of the church and on decisions
reached in the Vatican.
He said he had the impression that the pope has
gathered all of his strength for Holy Year 2000, and
that the highlight of the jubilee year would be his
visit to the Holy Land in March. He said that in
effect the pope was enjoying the “decisive high
point” of his pontificate.
In the later interview with South-West German
Radio, Bishop Lehmann said the church needed as
pope a “strong man who could lead,” because oth
erwise he “could not hold together a world church
of a billion people with so many differences.”
But he said the church also needed strong local
churches which should have the courage to bring
their concerns to Rome.
He said that if the pope should one day resign, he
thought it would be wise to call a third Vatican
council to deal with several important pastoral
issues.
“That would be a possibility to overcome block
ages which are simply there,” he said.
Bishop Lehmann said that, although he did not
want to discuss the issue of an eventual successor
to the pope, he thought the church would look to
Latin America to find one. He added, however, that
“one has learned once more to value what the
church in Italy means for the world church.”
(Continuedon page 3)