Banner Graphic, Volume 10, Number 93, Greencastle, Putnam County, 21 December 1979 — Page 6

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The Putnam County Banner Graphic, December 21,1979

Condemned as a heretic

Roman Catholic theologians protest Vatican action against Rev. Kung

By KENNETH A. BRIGGS c. 1979 N.Y. Times NEW YORK Many leading Roman Catholic theologians Wednesday voiced shock and protest at the announcement this week that the Vatican had condemned the Rev. Hans Kung, the prominent European theologian, as a heretic and had revoked his status as a teacher of Catholic doctrine. In a document released Tuesday. the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the personal approval of Pope John Paul 11, accused Kung of teaching false beliefs such as the denial of Papal infallibility. The statement alluded to previous warnings made by the Holy Office to Kung and declared that he had “departed from the integral truth of Catholic faith.” It proclaimed that Kung “can no longer be considered a Catholic theologian nor function as such in a teaching role.” Holiday services at Bainbridge The combined youth groups of Bainbridge’s Christian and Methodist churches, under the leadership of Rev. Tim Tiffany and Rev. Charles Peters, are sponsoring Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve services. Christmas Eve services will begin at 8 p.m. at Bainbridge Christian Church. On New Year’s Eve, a candlelight communion service will be presented at 11:25 p.m. at Bainbridge Methodist Church.

Warm Chrittma* greeting* to all my friend* and neighbor*. May yoa know the peace and hope that come* only through the birth of this Christ Child. MRS. CECIL CARPENTER (BARBARA)

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The disciplining of Kung, coming on the heels of investigations of liberal theologians, unleashed a storm of complaints from Catholic scholars who believe the pope is orchestrating a campaign against dissenters. Sixty American and Canadian theologians signed a statement of protest prepared by three well-known scholars. The Rev. Charles E. Curran of Catholic University, The Rev. Leonard Swidler, editor of the Ecumenical Review and the Rev. David Tracy of the University of Chicago Divinity School. Noting that “no one of us necessarily agrees with the opinions of any other Roman Catholic scholar, including Hans Kung,” the statement continued. “we publicly affirm our recognition (that Kung) is indeed a Roman Catholic theologian.” Tracy called the action “shocking and depressing” and scored the investigation as “disgraceful” and “lacking in concern forbasic human rights in the church.” He added, “If they are going after Hans Kung, a major symbolic figure, I presume still others are in the offing. ’ ’ Swidler said that the rebuke of Kung, in the view of most scholars he had spoken to during the day, was “a most Program Sunday at Putnamville The Putnamville United Methodist Church will present its Christmas program, “The Light of Bethlehem”, at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23. The story of the first Christmas will be told through narration, choral reading and music. Slides of scenes around Putnamville and some from the Holy Land will be shown as the story progresses.

serious sign of the beginning of a very repressive era in the church. It sounds very much like the beginning of the antimodernist heresy hunt at the beginning of this century . ” While the reactions were mostly unfavorable, there were also expressions of support for the document issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Rev. Kenneth Baker,

Were bills of sale and contracts

Fragments of papyrus rolls oldest documents from

By BAYARD WEBSTER c. 1979 N.Y. Times LEXINGTON, Mass - A Harvard University scholar, after 15 years of reconstructing and deciphering fragments of worm-eaten papyrus rolls found in a cave eight miles north of Jericho, has succeeded in iden- • tifying the oldest legal documents known to have originated in ancient Palestine. Frank M. Cross, professor of Semitic languages, said that the sheets of papyrus that he had carefully reassembled were like present-day deeds or bills of sale and included contracts that had to do with loans, sales of slaves and property. “They are significant,” he said, “because they provide insights into the legal history of the area and how legal methods and customs developed in those times.” He found that the contracts were drawn up in a legal formulation that differed from previously discovered statutory writings. He also found that there were harsher provisions for the length of slavery than those ordained in the Pentateuch, the first five books of what later became known as the Old Testament. The documents, or papyri, were found among the bones of more than 100 noblemen from the province of Samaria who had rebelled against Alexander the Great and fled to a cave

editor of the Homiletical and Pastoral Review, called the action “a confrontation that was long overdue” and suggested that Kung should consider leaving the Catholic church if he finds himself too much at variance with its beliefs. “I think Kung was on a collision course with the teaching authority of the church,” Baker said. “The church was very patient with him. Pope Paul VI liked to reason

where Alexander’s soldiers found and massacred them in 331 B.C. The rolls were written between 375 and 335 B.C. Cuneiform tablets covering real-estate transactions, loans, adoptions and temple archives dating from 2500 to 300 B.C. had previously been discovered in Mesopotamia. And papyrus and leather rolls of marriage deeds and sales contracts of the Fifth Century B.C. had been found in southern Egypt. But the papyri reconstructed by Cross are the first Palestinian legal documents that have been found and they differ in structure and content from documents of other areas, describing legal transactions in greater detail. The cave containing the documents, almost inaccessible by foot, is high on the sides of a wadi, or ravine, in the Jordan River Valley that is part of the Jordan Rift, the fault that extends from central Africa to Syria. Scores of artifacts and written records, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, all preserved by the hot, dry climate, have been found during the last several decades near the banks of the Jordan River. Speaking at his home in this Boston suburb, Cross said that the papyri had been found by local tribesmen in 1961 and that archaeological authorities in Jerusalem, knowing of his knowledge of Aramaic, the ancient language of the Persian Empire, and his previous work in translating part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, notified him of the find. He went to Jerusalem in 1962 to examine the rolls and negotiated with the tribesmen to acquire them for study. The scrolls were rolled up, tied with string and sealed with a wax-like mixture of what appeared to be clay and vegetable gum. Cross and other scientists then carefully unrolled the fragile sheets that measured about 14 by 18 inches. “When I looked at them I could tell that many of them were legal documents,” he said. The first whole document, one Live nativity is planned The Senior High Youth Group of the Greencastle Christian Church, 620 Primrose Lane, will present a live nativity scene at the church from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23. The public is welcome to view it.

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with people, hoping they would come to agree with the church’s view. Pope John Paul is more realistic.” Among the issues raised by the furor are the freedom of theologians to explore areas even beyond official church teachings and the proper relationship between theolgians and the hierarchy. A related matter is the proper role of the Vatican to the universities. Only certain Catholic univer-

of eight that Cross finished translating this year, was the text of a contract for the sale of a slave for 45 shekels, “which was about a month’s pay,” he said The other translated documents included slave sales and money loan contracts. Cross said the text of the first slave-sale contract noted not only the details of the transaction the price, names of seller and buyer, description of the slave, and the like but also spelled out unusual personal guarantees. These were in the form of a written covenant between the buyer and seller that stated that they “had a bond with one another.” Such statements had not been found

Canadian Clive Harris accepts no money

Faith healer famous across Poland

By JOHN DARNTON c. 1979 N.Y. Times WARSAW - The phenomenon of faith-healing is sweeping Poland in the person of a thin, intense, curly-haired Canadian “miracle worker” named Clive Harris. Three months ago a small sign, posted on the interior courtyard of St. Jacques Dominican Church and Monastery here, advised people with ailments to submit applications to see Harris; it was the only printed notice that he would visit. This week the church was besieged by a tumultuous crowd, estimated by Harris’s assistants, and confirmed by the number of printed tickets issued, at 25,000 a day. Long lines snaked along the cobbled side streets of the Gothic-style New Town. Thousands waited

Powerful sermon triggers police calls In Lawton, Okla , there were calls to the police and the news organizations about a man found dead under the package-wrapping counter of a local department store. The report was that he had been shoved aside in the Christmas shopping bustle and had died of neglect. The report was traced to a Sunday sermon by the Rev. Forrest Siler, minister of the First Baptist Church, but his listeners had overlooked an odd detail about the dead man: He had strange scars on his palms. “It was just a parable of Christ being crowded out of Christmas by commercialism.” the minister said. “I evidently oversold it a little.”

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sities, such as Catholic University in Washington, come under the direct supervision of the Vatican and its theological departments are licensed by Rome as “ecclesiastical faculties of theology.” Other institutions such as Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., are chartered by secular auspices. At many European universities, particularly in Germany, the Catholic theology department is under Rome’s jurisdiction.

in Near Eastern legal contracts, Cross said, and the slave contract was the first legal record of this kind that had been found “There is significance here for biblical historians, too,” the researcher said, “because there is no reference in these slave contracts to the biblical orders that Hebrew slaves should be freed after the seventh year, which is in the Pentateuch which the Samaritans used as their basic religious text. They should have been bound by Biblical law,” He added, “although the slaves were all Hebrews, the slave documents made no mention of the seven-year clause.

patiently in the bitter cold as long as five hours for that appointed moment in which they would file quickly past Harris and feel the touch of his long, slender fingers. Among them were nuns and priests, civil servants, medical students, the aged in wheelchairs, farmers who had driven hundreds of miles and. terminal patients brought by ambulance from city hospitals. Faith healing in this form is new to Poland, and judging from its attraction it has struck a responsive chord among the deeply religious predominantly Roman Catholic population. At the same time it would appear to be an anachronism for a government that follows the path of scientific socialism and adheres to Marxist principles of rationality in human affairs. Harris, who is about 35 years

A controversy is shaping up in Germany over the status of Kung at Tubingen University where he is professor of theology and director of the university’s ecumenical center. Under terms of a concordat between the Vatican and the West German government, Kung, as a member of the Catholic faculty of a state university, must have the approval of the local bishop in order to fulfill the requirements of such an ap-

“We think this is evidence that the rich noblemen felt they were above the law and ignored it they didn’t want to give away their slaves they wanted to keep them forever,” he said. Cross had written a scientific paper a few years after the discovery about the circumstances surrounding the find and the condition of the papyri but had not discussed the substance of the writings because he had not reconstructed them. Now, after years of painstaking work that was like putting together an infinitely intricate jig-saw puzzle, he is preparing a manuscript on the

old and who accepts no money or gifts, is famous in Poland, where he is universally referred to by his given name. He is not that well known elsewhere in Europe, though he appears to be in good standing in spiritualist circles in Britain, Where he is known as an “independent healer.’’ During each of his six or seven previous visits here he has drawn progressively larger crowds, but never has the turnout been as large as on his current tour. The organizers of the visit, brothers named Maximilian and Benedict Bylicki, predict that he will see 450,000 people in the course of a three-week stay that will take him to all major cities. “When we began four years ago we had 100 people,” said Maximilian Bylicki, a 22-year-old musician, clicking a counter incessantly as the crowd surged around him. “Then we had 500 and then 1,000, and we were afraid. How were we going to handle all these people? Now we get 30,000 a day and we are not afraid at all.” Bylicki presides over 300 young volunteers, many of them members of Catholic youth clubs. For six weeks they have been sifting through applications and medical records and distributing free tickets, each marked with the bearer’s government identification number to avoid black-market scalping that ran up to S3O a ticket last year. To control the crowds, the volunteers use bullhorns, walkie-talkies, barricades and other paraphernalia. The Channel 8 to televise services The traditional Christmas Eve Celebration from Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis will be televised in its entirety by WISH-TV, Channel 8, Indianapolis, at 11:30 p.m The hour-long service will feature music by the Indianapolis Symphonic Brass Consort, the Tabernacle Choir and soloists from the Indianapolis Opera Company. Faculty members and graduate students from the Indiana University School of Music will also perform. The service has been a tradition in the church since the early 1940’s and is believed to be the first local Christmas Eve service ever televised in its entirety in Indianapolis.

pointment. The endorsement of Kung, formally called a “canonical teaching mission,’’ was nullified by the document from Rome with the concurrence of the Bishop of Stuttgart. problem of Kung’s status rests with the government. It is the first such test of the concordat. One solution would be to* remove him from the Catholic'’ faculty and to place him under. another department.

Palestine

legal documents for a book to be called “The Samaria Papyri It will be published in about two. years as part of the scholarly ’ historical series called*'* Discoveries in the Judean Desert, published by the>* Clarendon Press in Oxford,’-* England. it,-"/: The papyri, which are now in . the Palestine Archaeological I* Museum in Jerusalem, will not be made public or put on public^. display until the volume is,l--published, Cross said. “We* ; want to bring them to light as * soon as possible and make them 1 available to scholars, but there’s still much work to be* done with them before then.”

operation is mounted without a hitch. Neither of the two major ir\ : stitutions in public life, thf Roman Catholic Church and the Communist Party, has given public notice to Harris, but his ability to get visas to come from his home in London twice a yearand to hold his audiences in achurch refectory are taken as signs that the Central Com,mittee and the episcopate lend tacit approval to his activities. Newspapers have not avoided comment. Even the Marxist weekly Polityka ran a long ar* tide last year that attempted to weigh the results and determine whether Harris cured people. In a tone of “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,” it concluded that evidence was lacking one way or the other. People advance diverse theories to substantiate Harris’s purported powers. Some believe that his hands emit radioactive rays: othersexplain him in terms of biomagnetism. Some believe the primary effect is psychological but still valid, especially for cases so severe that they are given up as lost by physicians. . "You feel a sort of pinprick when he touches you.” said Marianna Witan, an elderly inhabitant of Otwock. She said Harris had cured her of a curvature of the spine, but now she felt she needed treatment for a tumor. “I have seen him cure a man whose fingers were so black and painful that he could not sleep at night,” said the Rev. Zygmunt Miszta, rector of a small parish church in Chruslin. He brought a 6-vear-old whose eyes have whirled uncontrollably since she suffered a dog bite: it was her second treatment and she was already improving, he added. What is striking is that the patients are from all walks of life. The head of the pediatric unit at a major hospital here is said to have consulted Harris, and rumors circulate that high party officials have appeared. “At night some limousines pull up." an assistant remarked. Harris works from 6 a m to midnight without a break, the line moving past him constantly. Each person holds up a card that lists, in English, the site of the ailment. Harris touches the affected area for less than a second, grimaces in concentration and moves on to the the next person while his assistants gently lead the patient away. * -