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January 9, 2002
Month-by-month look at key religious events in 2001
Pope calls Sept. 11 terrorist attacks `dark day' in history
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Here is a month-by-month overview of some events in the world of religion in 2001.
JANUARY: Pope John Paul II closes Holy Door to end jubilee year, issues apostolic letter on Church agenda for start of new millennium. U.S. Lutherans and Episcopalians enter full communion. Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick is installed as archbishop of Washington. Afghanistan's Taliban regime decrees death penalty for converting to Christianity or distributing Christian literature. Hundreds are killed by earthquake off Salvadoran coast; India's worst earthquake in 50 years leaves thousands dead. President Bush takes office in Washington, reverses Clinton policy on abortion funding abroad, establishes federal offices for faith-based initiatives. Congo President Laurent Kabila is assassinated, Kinshasa archbishop urges end to country's civil war. British Parliament approves rules letting scientists clone human embryos for research.
FEBRUARY: Abigail McCarthy, noted Catholic writer and women's advocate, dies. Israel elects Ariel Sharon as prime minister. Bishops of Americas meet to discuss migration issues in Western Hemisphere. John J. DeGioia is named first lay president of Jesuit-run Georgetown University. Pope installs record 44 new cardinals, including three Americans: Archbishop McCarrick, Jesuit theologian Father Avery Dulles and New York Archbishop Edward M. Egan. Twelve U.S. and Canadian bishops of Pacific Northwest issue joint pastoral letter on Columbia River region. Vatican warns of potentially misleading doctrinal ambiguities in book on religious pluralism by Belgian Jesuit Father Jacques Dupuis.
MARCH: National consultation on women in Church leadership draws 150 women who hold diocesan posts. Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George leads pope's Lenten retreat. Death threats force several Catholic missionaries to flee Indian state of Manipur. Afghanistan's Taliban regime destroys massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues despite international protests. Caritas Internationalis urges immediate suspension of sanctions against Iraq. Church leaders criticize science group's plan to clone humans. Vatican says it is working to address sexual abuse of nuns by priests. Pope urges fight against racism in the Church. Pope John Paul II Cultural Center is opened in Washington. Guatemalan court begins trial of five people accused in 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera.
APRIL: Cardinal George issues pastoral letter on racism. U.S. and Sudanese bishops urge strong U.S. role to end war in Sudan. Vatican, Dutch church leaders condemn new Dutch law legalizing euthanasia. At least 22 Catholics including bishops and priests reported arrested in China around Easter. Team of scientists claims extraction of stem cells from placenta can bypass embryonic stem-cell debate. Guyana's Catholic, Anglican bishops deplore wide ethnic violence, including attacks on religious facilities, following divisive elections. Pope says world leaders must control forces of globalization. Bush rejects papal plea not to execute Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Global coalition of Catholic agencies urges faster, deeper debt relief for poor countries. Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences studies globalization and Catholic social teaching.
MAY: Pope visits Greece, Malta, Syria; he apologizes for Western Christians' treatment of Orthodox, visits a mosque and urges Christian-Jewish-Muslim cooperation in Middle East. U.S. Charity Sister Barbara Ann Ford is gunned down in Guatemala City; fellow human rights backers call it political execution. Vatican issues strict new rules for translation of Latin liturgy texts into modern languages. Pope convenes 150 cardinals for special consistory on church priorities in new millennium. Bush delivers Notre Dame commencement address. Msgr. John Egan of Chicago, social activist, dies. Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo weds Korean woman in mass ceremony presided over by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Four nuns are among 20 School of the Americas protesters sentenced to six months in federal prison.
JUNE: Pope meets with Anglican Archbishop George Carey of Canterbury. McVeigh receives last rites from Catholic chaplain before he is executed in Indiana; Catholic leaders urge end to death penalty. Guatemalan court finds three military officers and a priest guilty in Bishop Gerardi's murder. Two nuns are among four Rwandans found guilty of participating in 1994 genocidal killings in Rwanda. U.S. bishops, meeting in Atlanta, adopt statements on Middle East, global warming, Christ's real presence in Eucharist, Communion under both kinds; they also criticize U.S. treatment of refugees, make changes in liturgy norms and health care directives and issue guidelines for granting theologians a mandate to teach. Pope visits Ukraine for first time. Leading U.S. ecumenist, Father John Hotchkin, dies. In message to U.N. meeting on HIV/AIDS, pope challenges "exorbitant" cost of AIDS medicines in poor countries. Patriarch Maximos V Hakim of Antioch, head of Melkite Catholic Church for 33 years, dies at age 93.
JULY: National Conference of Catholic Bishops becomes U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Head of U.S. bishops urges president, Congress not to fund human embryo research. Before Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy, pope urges leaders of rich countries to protect rights of poor countries. Vatican says it won't punish two nuns who spoke at international women's ordination conference. Meeting with Cuban bishops, pope calls for lifting of U.S. embargo. Belgian bishops oppose government plan to legalize euthanasia. Vatican warns Archbishop Milingo he faces excommunication. Vatican says Mormon baptism is not valid. G-8 summit is marred by street violence, forms $1.2 billion fund to combat AIDS and other diseases in Africa, but does not advance on debt relief. Pope meets President Bush, asks him not to fund stem-cell research on human embryos. Catholic-Jewish controversy grows as joint team of scholars suspends study of Vatican's World War II archives. U.S. House of Representatives votes to ban all cloning of human embryos.
AUGUST: Pope meets Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, urges end to violence on both sides in Middle East. Interfaith TV programming venture gets reduced hours as Odyssey Channel becomes Hallmark Channel. Bush announces policy of funding research on stem cells taken from human embryos destroyed before Aug. 9. Archbishop Milingo meets with pope, renounces his attempted marriage, reconciles with church. Jim Nicholson, former Republican National Committee chairman, is sworn in as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Mother Teresa's sainthood cause ends local phase, moves to Vatican. Catholic, Anglican bishops appeal for peace in Sudan. Pope calls on science researchers to observe moral limits.
SEPTEMBER: World Conference Against Racism goes forward despite U.S., Israeli pullout. Pope calls interreligious dialogue critical to world peace. Scores die in Christian-Muslim violence in Jos, Nigeria. Cardinal Ratzinger says globalization has replaced Cold War as world's ideological battle ground. Terrorists strike World Trade Center towers and Pentagon with hijacked planes, killing more than 3,000; pope calls it "dark day in the history of humanity." Heroism of rescue workers inspires country. Attendance soars at worship services, more than $1 billion is donated to victim assistance funds. Catholic leaders urge outreach to Muslims and Asian-Americans to counter acts of hate directed against them. Air travel, tourist industry face heavy losses as unemployment rises in economic downturn. Religious leaders, ethicists agree attacks were an act of war, urge U.S. response to focus on justice, not revenge. Bush demands that Afghanistan surrender al Qaeda head, Osama bin Laden. Bishops in predominantly Muslim Pakistan fear for Christians' safety. Pope visits Kazakstan and Armenia; in Kazakstan he condemns terrorism, begs God to prevent war and warns that religion should not bring division.
OCTOBER: Bishops from around world meet at Synod of Bishops in Rome to reflect on church governance, ministry, teaching, spirituality and their own Church role. First anthrax death — a photo editor Oct. 5 at a national tabloid publishing company in Florida — marks start of bioterrorism by mail. United States, Britain begin bombing campaigns against Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds in Afghanistan. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wins Nobel Peace Prize. Pope beatifies Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, first married couple beatified together. Pro-life leaders condemn anthrax threats directed at abortion clinics. Pope seeks dialogue between church, Chinese government. Christian leaders, peace activists march on Bethlehem to urge end to new wave of violence. Vatican approves eucharistic sharing in some circumstances between Chaldean Catholics and members of the ancient Assyrian Church of the East. Pope denounces slaying of 16 Pakistanis at a Catholic church by masked gunmen.
NOVEMBER: Court challenges follow U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's decision to prosecute doctors who assist suicide with federally controlled drugs. Vatican challenges World Trade Organization to treat poor countries more fairly; Vatican's U.N. nuncio calls for closing of rich-poor gap of nations. Pax Christi International, French bishops urge end to U.S.-led bombing in Afghanistan. Taliban power crumbles under air, land assaults. Vatican official warns food conference that world hunger is major threat to world peace. Pope urges aid to refugees; Catholic Relief Services seeks $50 million to aid Afghan refugees, displaced persons. Meeting in Washington, U.S. bishops elect first African-American president, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill. They issue statements on facing the world after Sept. 11 and on solidarity with Africa, revise their pro-life activities plan and approve — after a delay to complete voting by mail — a pastoral statement on the Asian and Pacific presence in the U.S. Church. As first "Harry Potter" movie debuts, some commentators laud story's moral vision while some parents fear influence of occult on children. Vatican urges international convention banning human cloning. Pope issues post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the church in Oceania. Church officials condemn first reported human cloning. Terrorism crackdown draws growing debate over dangers to human rights, civil liberties. U.S. Catholic-Jewish consultation group warns that losing civil liberties to fight terrorism is "a Faustian bargain." Pope asks Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to help break deadlock in Catholic-Orthodox dialogue. DECEMBER: Vatican says liberalizing drug laws has "disastrous" effects. Gerhart Riegner, a founder of the World Jewish Congress and pioneer in Catholic-Jewish relations, dies in Geneva at the age of 90. Doctrinal congregation takes jurisdiction over Church trials of priests accused of sexually abusing minors. Amid escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence, pope pleads for end to "useless spiral of death." National Catholic Youth Conference draws 24,000 to Indianapolis. Pope asks that fight against terrorism not distract nations from addressing severe poverty, injustice and other tensions that "menace the fragile equilibrium between nations." Pope convenes Catholic Holy Land leaders in Rome to discuss pastoral concerns. Pope asks Catholics around world to fast for peace on Dec. 14. In World Peace Day message he says self-defense against terrorists is justified, but forgiveness is needed for peace.
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