“Thank goodness this is out there, clearly stated, with ample documentation and very reasonably put forward,” said Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of Baltimore, which is hosting the fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week. “I think it’s going to be a very positive document.”

While “Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan” does not represent new Catholic teaching, bishops said the pastoral letter would address a need for an authoritative source to which church leaders may refer as they campaign against divorce, unmarried couples living together and same-sex unions. The bishops, meeting through Thursday at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, are scheduled to hear details of that campaign on Wednesday.

“We have the need to defend marriage within our culture,” said Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, a member of the committee that wrote the document. “This pastoral letter will also serve as a foundational document as we seek a direction and a strategy to defend marriage over these coming years.”

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The leader of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States on Monday launched a new effort to rein in Catholic debates and dissidents and to remind the flock that the bishops will be the arbiters of what it means to be a Catholic.

In remarks at the opening of the hierarchy’s annual meeting in Baltimore, Chicago Cardinal Francis George made it clear that after years of repeated questions about the bishops’ credibility, it was time for the bishops to clarify just who can and cannot speak for the church. He also confirmed that he had set up three committees of bishops to develop guidelines for determining what will be considered legitimate Catholic entities.

“Since everything and everyone in Catholic communion is truly inter-related, and the visible nexus of these relations is the bishop, an insistence on complete independence from the bishop renders a person or institution sectarian, less than fully Catholic,” George, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, told some 300 of his fellow bishops. “The purpose of our reflections, therefore, is to clarify questions of truth of faith and of accountability or community among all those who claim to be part of the Catholic communion.”

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Congratulations to them–go and check out the picture.

President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession.

With the U.S. unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, Obama told Fox News his administration faces a delicate balance of trying to boost the economy and spur job creation while putting the economy on a path toward long-term deficit reduction.

His administration was considering ways to accelerate economic growth, with tax measures among the options to give companies incentives to hire, Obama said in the interview with Fox conducted in Beijing during his nine-day trip to Asia.

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Sharon Henry, music minister at Stockton’s Valley Ministries MCC church, had a commitment ceremony in October 2004.

Then, in June 2008, during the window when same-sex marriages were legally performed and recognized in California, she and her wife, who are raising teenage boys, had a civil ceremony.

“It was more validating than I ever thought it would be,” Henry said. “It was the first time I was able to say, ‘I’m married.’ It was a pretty big thing.”

The question of same-sex marriage continues to be a contentious one, with polls showing most Americans opposed to it.

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Responding to scientific advances and widespread “confusion” among their flocks, U.S. Catholic bishops today issued detailed guidelines on marriage, reproductive technologies and health care for severely brain-damaged patients.

The bishops gathered here for their semi-annual meeting also heard a preliminary report on the “causes and contexts” of the clergy sexual abuse scandal that resulted in some 14,000 abuse claims and cost the church $2.6 billion since 1950.

Researchers from New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice told the nearly 300 members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that homosexual orientation should not be linked to the sexual abuse, even as some church leaders have sought to make a link between gay priests and sexual abuse.

“What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse,” said Margaret Smith of John Jay College. “At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now.”

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The Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude, the Most-Blessed JONAH, Archbishop of Washington and Metropolitan of All-America and Canada, and Locum Tenens of the Diocese of the South, will be making his first Archpastoral visit to Holy Ascension Orthodox Church. It is the first visit of an Orthodox Primate to Charleston, I believe, ever.

His Beatitude will offer a talk open to the public on Saturday evening, 11/21, at 7pm, here at Holy Ascension, entitled, “Do not resent. Do not react. Keep Inner Stillness.” 265 N. Shelmore Blvd. (I’On) in Mt. Pleasant, SC.

He will also give a reflection entitled, “The Cross of Christ: An Orthodox Christian Perspective”, at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion, on the corner of Ashley and Cannon, downtown Charleston, on Monday, 11/23, at 11:30am, after meeting with Bp. Mark Lawrence. This talk is posted on Bp. Lawrence’s November 12 E-newsletter at www.dioceseofsc.org.

Further details of this Primatial visit are available at www.ocacharleston.org.

It is our joy to welcome his Beatitude to Charleston, and we open our doors to all who would come and pray with us, and who would like to sit at Metropolitan JONAH’s feet for a while.

Very gratefully yours,

Fr. John Parker
Priest-in-charge
Holy Ascension Orthodox Church

The bishop gave his address. He made a distinction between leaders and managers. We need managers, but we also need the visionaries who can provide direction to the managers and others. Times are tough, these days, with a bad economy, violence in our streets and around the world, insufficient health care and political wrangling, etc. However, we as Christians and particularly as Rochester Diocese Episcopalians must work harder to address problems to the best of our ability.

Three resolutions were presented that were related to the bishop’s address. These would establish task forces to review the “apportionment” process that calculates parish giving to the diocese, the models of ministry for rural communities and the opportunity to “plant” new congregations in this diocese. These were discussed and passed.

Time was allotted for the groups at each table of 10 to discuss how we came to be Episcopalians and how we might reach out to others. A few groups summarized their discussions.

The Youth Advisory Report proposed a new structure for youth ministry, splitting the diocese into five parts. There was some discussion about the proposal to combine urban and suburban parishes, and the resolution passed.

The 2010 diocesan audit and budget were discussed. Parish apportionments will be discounted 10% from the formula calculation (compared to 15% for the 2009 budget). At last year’s convention, the shock of the economic downturn was fresh and unprecedented since WWII. The bishop’s address at this year’s convention called for renewed energy even in the face of continued trying times. 2010 spending is slightly higher than in 2009, and the delegates passed the budget.

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Hundreds of worshippers packed into Sacramento’s Trinity Cathedral on Sunday morning to hear the nation’s leader of the Episcopal Church talk about the need to embrace change.

“Changing isn’t the problem,” said Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in her message. “Our fear and anxiety about it is.”

Jefferts Schori spoke to a supportive and welcoming crowd. After all, she interned at the midtown cathedral 16 years ago. Sunday she returned to deliver a message of hope and change for the Episcopal Church that has been marked by controversy in recent years.

Read the whole article.

The financial crisis has promoted some bad ideas about economic reform, European Central Bank Governing Council Member Yves Mersch said Tuesday.

Mersch, who is also governor of Luxembourg’s central bank, singled out the so-called Tobin Tax as a “scurrilous idea” during an economic conference in Brussels.

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In accordance with General Convention 2009 observation that that “the discernment of The Episcopal Church is that there are no theological barriers to blessing ”¦ same-sex relationships that are based on love, fidelity and lifelong commitment ”¦” I offer the following interim measures, which you may bring to your parish or not, at your discretion.

As you know from our discussion at our Retreat, the General Convention, in addition to the words just quoted, empowered bishops to make “Generous Provision” regarding pastoral and liturgical ministry to same-sex couples. What follows are the pastoral provisions I feel able to make at this time, and I hope they may be seen as generous.

It hardly needs to be said that because this is a new thing, I will want to be kept well informed (and have provided for that in what follows), so that I can make adjustments as needed. This is not a burden on the couple, nor does it reflect on their integrity, but helps me do my job of being pastor to all the parishes.

I am not generally broadcasting this decision yet (although I suspect the word will be quickly out) because it is up to the clergy of a place to decide if they are interested, and then to take it up within the parish system.

Read it carefully and read it all (Word document).

The 13th of December is the defining moment for faith organizations and churches to conduct a church service and ring bells, sound conch shells, or beat drums or gongs 350 times.

For centuries, across the world musical instruments like bells and drums have been used to warn people of imminent danger ”“ but also to call people to religious service, marking important moments in worship and seeking to connect to God. Sunday 13 December marks the height of the talks at United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

At 3 p.m. ”“ marking the end of a high profile ecumenical celebration at the Lutheran Cathedral in Copenhagen, the Church of Our Lady where the Archbishop of Canterbury will be preaching ”“ the churches in Denmark will ring their bells, and Christians around the world are invited to echo them by sounding their own bells, shells, drums, gongs or horns 350 times.

Ecumenical partners, including the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, envisage a chain of chimes and prayers stretching in a time-line from the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific ”“ where the day first begins and where the effects of climate change are already felt today ”“ to northern Europe and across the globe.

Read the whole thing.

From here:

Women Bishops Legislation Now on Right Track

WATCH is delighted to hear that the Revision Committee on Women in the Episcopate has decided that legislation for women bishops will no longer include proposals for the mandatory transfer of authority – the vesting of particular functions by law ”“ in bishops who would provide oversight for those unable to receive the Episcopal and/or priestly ministry of women.

WATCH commends the recent work of the Revision Committee, which met yesterday to explore how the previous proposed arrangements could be made to work. WATCH is aware of the huge outcry from members of General Synod and from other Church members to the earlier announcement of the Revision Committee to make changes in law that would have resulted in a two-tier episcopate.
WATCH Chair, Christina Rees said: “This is a real breakthrough. I am delighted that now we can look forward to having women as bishops on the same terms that men are bishops. Women will bring valuable different perspectives and ways of doing things and will also bring a sorely needed wholeness to the Episcopal leadership of our Church. The House of Bishops will cease to be the ”˜men only’ club it has been and will be more representative of the people whom the Church exists to serve. Now the Church will be able to draw on the experience and wisdom of many gifted women. We know from 15 years of having women as priests that they are often able to reach people and approach situations in ways that are creative and empowering for many others.”

WATCH is pleased with the outcome on two counts: first, and most importantly, the new proposals express the theological understanding of the Church about the status of baptised Christians and about the relationship between men and women and God. Secondly, the Revision Committee has shown that it has heeded the will of General Synod to draft legislation that would not have arrangements in law that would differentiate between male and female bishops.

WATCH continues to urge to Revision Committee to bring proposals to General Synod in February 2010 which adopt the simplest possible legislation, so that the Church of England can proceed to opening the Episcopate to women in such a way that the nature of the Episcopate is retained and the Church can best communicate its belief that women and men are equal in the eyes of God.

From here:

Women Bishops and the Revision Committee

MCU has published a paper that welcomes the Revision Committee’s change of policy. However, it questions the emphasis on seeking to satisfy the opponents of women bishops while showing no comparable concern for the majority appalled by the continuing gender discrimination.

The paper argues

* that the proposed proliferation of different classes of bishops (women, men consecrated or not consecrated by women, men who do or do not ordain women, etc) should be resisted;
* that church leaders should resist the influence of magical views of the sacraments, treating priests and bishops as if the value of their ministry depended on whether their appointment followed precise rules;
* that the ‘theology of taint’ – the idea that a bishop who has once ordained a woman priest is no longer an acceptable bishop – is not acceptable and no allowance should be made for it;
* that resistance to change, while characteristic of many reactionary religious campaigns, is unrealistic since churches do, and need to, make changes;
* that the increasing appeal to the individual conscience as though it were a basic unchanging fact, rather than an expression of what the individual currently believes to be true, should be resisted;
* and that the current reactionary mood among church leaders is in danger of being made permanent by the proposed Anglican Covenant.

You can find the MCU paper there.

From here:

The decision of the General Synod’s Revision Committee to back away from proposals to give opponents of women bishops a way of staying in the Church of England has “overturned the will of Synod, created the spectre of confrontation, and risks extending the controversy for another five years,” according to the chairman of Reform, the Rev’d Rod Thomas.

Responding to the announcement made on Saturday 14th November that the Revision Committee had failed to approve the transfer of jurisdiction from female to male bishops where parishes could not accept their oversight, Rod Thomas said:

“At last February’s General Synod there was a clear desire to provide legislative safeguards for those who could not, in conscience, accept the oversight of women bishops. This has now been overturned by the Revision Committee. Whereas there was a prospect of agreement, the Revision Committee has now set the General Synod on a course of confrontation. It has served the Church badly.

“There has been much speculation about Anglo-Catholics leaving the Church of England for Rome. What has been overlooked is the number of large evangelical churches which the Church of England now risks losing ”“ not to Rome, but to independence or alternative Anglican affiliations.

“Within the General Synod there will be many who will be deeply unhappy at the bullying tactics being used to dismiss opponents of the proposed new legislation. Some evangelicals who do support the introduction of women bishops will nevertheless vote against proposals which have the effect of excluding other evangelicals. This means that by the time the proposals have finished their tortuous progress through the General Synod, they will be likely to fail, since they will be unable to garner the two thirds majority support needed.

“It may be that in the providence of God, the result of the Revision Committee’s decision may be the reverse of what they intend: that this unbiblical move to put women in positions of headship in the church will fail. Reform will now renew its commitment to work towards this outcome.”

See what you make of the list.

Americans may be tempted to take John Connally’s view that none of this is our problem, especially when U.S. stocks are rising and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says there’s nothing to worry about.

But that’s a mistake. Asset bubbles that build and burst in Asia will eventually cause trouble here, much as they did in the Asian monetary crisis of 1997. And if Chinese leaders conclude the U.S. is deliberately squeezing their currency as a way to devalue away America’s rising debt burden, they will find ways to return the offense””perhaps on Iran, or North Korea.

The larger mistake is to believe that any nation can devalue its way to prosperity. As other currencies rise in value and force productivity gains, the U.S. economy will become relatively less efficient. American living standards will decline, as those in Asia rise. This is the real lesson of the Connally-Nixon devaluations of the 1970s and the inflation that followed.

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What I can point to are the trends confronting our diocese.

1) In the past decade, our diocese has experienced not one, or two, but three tsunamis — General Conventions 2003, 2006, and 2009.

2) I can also say that there is a deep theological and practical divide between our clergy and laity, such that the conflict brought on by those every-three-year General Conventions is intensified and heightened.

3) The effect of those two things gives way to something that I have noticed not only in parish life, but also in individual lives and that is, simply, that we as Episcopalians have no further slack in the system. In the old days, parishes could go through the normal vicissitudes of parish life — a troubled rector, a search process gone wrong, a bad economy, some challenging diocesan issues, a layperson “in the news” for the wrong reasons — and recover from those issues, even thrive, fairly easily. But unfortunately, with the every-three-year tsunami, parishes simply have not recovered fully when met with everyday standard crises.

The effect is a rolling tide of cumulative loss and stress and conflict. Barely has one caught one’s breath from the latest General Convention than a local crisis hits. Barely has one recovered from — or just salvaged something — after the local crisis, then we have another General Convention. The diocese is in — and is likely to remain in — a constant state of stress. This is the “new normal” for TEC parishes, and it’s not something that we are prepared for at all.

Check it out.

The Fort Worth Court of Appeals has ordered the suspension of further proceedings in a suit brought against the diocese last April. The stay was issued late on Monday, Nov. 16, in response to a Petition for Writ of Mandamus filed by the diocese on Friday, Nov. 13. The suit is pending before the 141st District Court. The Hon. John P. Chupp is the trial judge.

Monday’s order, issued by the Court of Appeals for the Second District of Texas, says, “The court has considered relators’ [the diocese’s] petition for writ of madamus and motion for stay and is of the tentative opinion that relators are entitled to relief or that a serious question concerning the relief requires further consideration.” The order sets a deadline of 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 30, for any response to be filed by parties of interest, who could include Judge Chupp and attorneys Jonathan Nelson and Kathleen Wells. The stay is in effect until the Court of Appeals issues a decision.

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What, I wonder, does this say about blogging? For many writers, exploring the genre for the first time, it’s the anonymity of the blogosphere that’s both thrilling and unnerving. Free content and anonymous self-expression is liberating but intrinsically irresponsible. Writers who grew up in the more constrained world of print can find the adaptation difficult, even antipathetic to the nature of their art.

—Robert McCrum

The U.S. now has an economy shifted too much toward consumption, debt and imports and too little toward production, innovation and exports. It now has a mounting federal debt that creates present indulgence and future hardship.

Americans could once be confident that their country would grow more productive because each generation was more skilled than the last. That’s no longer true. The political system now groans to pass anything easy ”” tax cuts and expanding health care coverage ”” and is incapable of passing anything hard ”” spending restraint, health care cost control.

The standard thing these days is for Americans to scold each other for our profligacy, to urge fiscal Puritanism. But it’s not clear Americans have ever really been self-disciplined. Instead, Americans probably postponed gratification because they thought the future was a big rock-candy mountain, and if they were stealing from that, they were robbing themselves of something stupendous.

It would be nice if some leader could induce the country to salivate for the future again. That would mean connecting discrete policies ”” education, technological innovation, funding for basic research ”” into a single long-term narrative.

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Worth the time when you get a chance.

During the forum after the service, Jefferts Schori discussed the Vatican’s recent decision to establish a formal structure for disaffected Anglicans. The move makes it easier for traditionalist Anglicans unhappy with the church’s embrace of gay and female clergy to enter communion with Rome while retaining certain liturgical traditions.

It’s a bigger issue in England than the United States, where traditional Episcopalians have already formed conservative structures and are thus unlikely to seek communion with Rome. And, Jefferts Schori said, provisions allowing Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church already existed, with four ”Anglican Use” congregations operating in the United States.

The two churches have a long history of losing members to each other, she added: ”The road between Rome and Canterbury is pretty well-traveled.”

Jefferts Schori said the Episcopal Church also continues its decades-long debate on homosexuality. As Bishop of Nevada, she supported the Diocese of New Hampshire when it elected Gene Robinson — a gay man in a long-term relationship — as bishop.

Robertson ”is not the only gay-partnered bishop,” she said. ”He’s the only one who’s open about it.”

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In the 19th and 20th centuries, however, the relationship of the spouses assumed new importance, as the church came to understand that marriage was a profoundly spiritual relationship in which partners experienced, through mutual affection and self-sacrifice, the unconditional love of God.

The Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer puts it this way: “We believe that the union of husband and wife, in heart, body and mind, is intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is God’s will, for the procreation of children and their nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord.”

Our evolving understanding of what marriage is leads, of necessity, to a re-examination of who it is for. Most Christian denominations no longer teach that all sex acts must be open to the possibility of procreation, and therefore contraception is permitted. Nor do they hold that infertility precludes marriage. The church has deepened its understanding of the way in which faithful couples experience and embody the love of the creator for creation. In so doing, it has put itself in a position to consider whether same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

Theologically, therefore, Christian support for same-sex marriage is not a dramatic break with tradition, but a recognition that the church’s understanding of marriage has changed dramatically over 2,000 years.

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Watch it all.

For the Fed chairman to comment on currencies at all is highly unusual. By convention, the US Treasury Secretary is the sole US official who talks about the dollar.

Mr Bernanke’s comments came amid growing international unease about the weakness in the dollar, the global reserve currency, which forms a backdrop to President Barack Obama’s tour of Asia.

Liu Mingkang, China’s banking regulator, criticised the Fed at the weekend for fuelling the dollar carry trade in which investors borrow dollars at ultra-low interest rates and invest in higher-yielding assets abroad, creating the risk of new asset price bubbles.

The Fed chairman also indicated that the US central bank would not ignore the impact of rising commodity prices when evaluating the outlook for inflation. He said he would not rule out using interest rates to combat new asset price bubbles, even though he did not see obvious mispricing in the US at this stage.

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Gov. David Paterson openly criticized the White House on Monday, saying he thought it was a terrible idea to move alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists to New York for trial.

“This is not a decision that I would have made. I think terrorism isn’t just attack, it’s anxiety and I think you feel the anxiety and frustration of New Yorkers who took the bullet for the rest of the country,” he said.

Paterson’s comments break with Democrats, who generally support the President’s decision.

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Hunger is the most cruel and concrete sign of poverty. Opulence and waste are no longer acceptable when the tragedy of hunger is assuming ever greater proportions. Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Catholic Church will always be concerned for efforts to defeat hunger; the Church is committed to support, by word and deed, the action taken in solidarity ”“ planned, responsible and regulated ”“ to which all members of the international community are called to contribute. The Church does not wish to interfere in political decisions: she respects the knowledge gained through scientific study, and decisions arrived at through reason responsibly enlightened by authentically human values, and she supports the effort to eliminate hunger. This is the most immediate and concrete sign of solidarity inspired by charity, and it brooks neither delay nor compromise. Such solidarity relies on technology, laws and institutions to meet the aspirations of individuals, communities and entire peoples, yet it must not exclude the religious dimension, with all the spiritual energy that it brings, and its promotion of the human person. Acknowledgment of the transcendental worth of every man and every woman is still the first step towards the conversion of heart that underpins the commitment to eradicate deprivation, hunger and poverty in all their forms.

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He added: The Church must examine “case by case” who these people are. “You cannot only be a Catholic because you are in disagreement with the choices of your own confession; how it’s not sufficient to just sign the Catechism of the Catholic Church, even if it is a meaningful choice. That’s why I want to reiterate: You must look at this on a case-by-case basis and not generalize.”

The cardinal predicted it will not be an easy decision for Anglican bishops and pastors to make also from the standpoint of social position. Among the practical issues to be addressed, Cardinal Kasper pointed to “concern among some Anglican bishops and pastors about sharing their dioceses: one part that enters into the Catholic Church and another that remains Anglican. How to manage a separation like that? And then church buildings: Who do they belong to? Who determines if a building is owned by the state or municipality or the community, if it’s Catholic or Anglican?”

Concerning the Traditional Anglican Communion, Cardinal Kasper said: “Nearly two years ago, their representatives asked to be incorporated into the Catholic Church. But they have not taken part in the talks. Now, however, they’re getting on board a train that is already in progress. Okay, if they are sincere, then the doors are open. But we do not close our eyes to the fact that since 1992 they have not been in communion with Canterbury. “ He added: “We must respect conscience and freedom of conscience. Conversion, then, is a personal matter: There is the freedom of grace, the freedom of human decision.”

On the sensitive issue of priestly celibacy, for Cardinal Kasper, there are no points to be clarified, as there is no change in the discipline of the Church.

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The establishment of special structures for Anglicans who want to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church absolutely is not a signal of the end of ecumenical dialogue with the Anglican Communion, said the Vatican’s chief ecumenist.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the visit Nov. 19-22 of Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, primate of the Anglican Communion, to the Vatican “demonstrates that there has been no rupture and reaffirms our common desire to talk to one another at a historically important moment.”

Archbishop Williams was scheduled to speak at a conference sponsored by Cardinal Kasper’s office and to meet privately Nov. 21 with Pope Benedict.

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