CNA Staff, Jun 5, 2020 / 09:21 am (CNA).- Just days after submitting his resignation as bishop of the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, due to a recurrence of leukemia, Bishop George Murry, S.J., has died, the diocese announced Friday.
Murry died on the morning of June 5 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, New York. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
On May 26, the diocese announced the Murry had submitted his resignation to Pope Francis. At age 71, he was four years younger than standard retirement age for bishops.
Bishop Murry was initially diagnosed with leukemia in April 2018. He underwent a month of intensive chemotherapy treatment at the Cleveland Clinic, and was released in late May of that year. His doctors said he responded well to the treatment, and the leukemia cells had been suppressed, although he would need to return to the clinic weekly for monitoring.
In July 2019, he returned to the Cleveland Clinic for a reoccurrence of the leukemia.
He was confirmed to be in remission, but the leukemia returned this past April.
The diocese had said in its May 26 announcement that the bishop was no longer able to carry out his role as head of the diocese.
Following his initial leukemia diagnosis, Murry had stepped down from his role as chair of the U.S. bishops’ new Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, as well as his role as chair of the conference’s Committee on Catholic Education.
Bishop Murry was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1948. He entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1972, and was ordained to the priesthood seven years later. Murry holds a M.Div. degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, California, and a Ph.D. in American Cultural History from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
He served in administrative roles in two Washington, D.C., high schools, as well as serving as a professor of American Studies at Georgetown University and as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Detroit-Mercy.
In 1995, Pope John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago. In 1998, the pope appointed him Coadjutor Bishop of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands and on June 30, 1999, appointed him bishop of the diocese.
Bishop Murry had led the Youngstown diocese since 2007.
Also on Friday, the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan announced that Bishop Emeritus James Murray died peacefully that morning following a decline in health. Bishop Murray was one month away from turning 88. He had retired in April 2009.
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Fr. Kapaun with his pipe. Courtesy of the Diocese of Wichita.
Wichita, Kan., Sep 25, 2021 / 16:40 pm (CNA).
The remains of Servant of God Fr. Emil Kapaun returned to his hometown of Pilsen, Kansas on Saturday, ahead of his formal funeral Mass on… […]
A scene from the trailer promoting Liberty University’s campus ministry production of “Scaremare.” / Scaremare on YouTube
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 29, 2022 / 10:55 am (CNA).
This October some churches and ministries in the United States are once again hosting Christian versions of haunted houses, and nonbelievers and believers alike are lining up for some rather existential spine-tingling for the first time since the pandemic.
Popular among evangelical Protestant churches in the South, these “judgment houses” typically stage dramatic representations depicting what happens after people die, leaving visitors to ponder whether they themselves are headed for heaven or hell, and presumably, to act accordingly.
Is this a good way to save souls? Some Catholics experts in evangelization who spoke to CNA have reservations.
A different way to evangelize
The late Jerry Falwell, the Baptist televangelist, and founder of Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, is credited with hosting the first judgment house in 1972, “Scaremare.”
Scaremare is still going strong in Lynchburg, where the university’s campus ministry stages a production every year around Halloween that draws people from all over the region attracted by the lure of “fun-house rooms and scenes of death in order to confront people with the question ‘What happens after I die?’”
The performance does not disappoint those looking for the sort of adrenaline surge a horror movie produces. As many as 4,000 visitors a night witness gruesome death scenes including a massacre at a movie theater and a camper who is mauled by a wild animal.
According to Josh Coldren, the director of the 2022 production of Scaremare, the scenes are intended to make people think about their fears and their mortality.
“We talk about how everyone faces death, but how there is hope beyond our fears and hope beyond death, and that hope is in Jesus Christ,” Coldren told CNA.
According to Scaremare’s website, over 26,000 people who visited over the years “have made decisions for Christ over the past two decades. Ironically, this House of Death points to the Way of Life!”
While judgment houses can function as memento mori, efficacious reminders of the inevitability of death, some judgment houses, also known as “Hell Houses,” have become controversial for taking the idea to an extreme. Graphic scenes such as abortions, extramarital sex, and drug use are sometimes depicted along with the consequence of these actions as the sinners are shown condemned to spend eternity in hell.
Scaremare doesn’t get into these issues or talk about hell at all, Coldren told CNA.
“We don’t have a scene of hell, and we stay away from demons. We believe those things are real, we just make sure we stay away from them,” Coldren said.
Tom Hudgins, is the owner of Judgement House, a company based in Seminole, Florida, that provides scripts to churches to stage dramas. Before COVID, he told CNA, they helped as many as 350 churches at a time hold Judgement Houses. They are slowly getting back to business, he said, and about 50 participating churches are listed on their website.
Hudgins explained to CNA that, unlike more extreme Hell House productions, his scripts never talk about social issues. Small groups of visitors walk through scenes meant to encourage self-reflection. Each production begins with death, by a car crash or cancer, for example, and then the audience sees what happens after death.
“They see what hell would be like, but they also see what heaven will be like, and everyone can make their own decisions,” Hudgins said.
A scene from a production of a Judgement House script. Decaturville Pentecostal Church YouTube
Bonnie Gilliland, the dramatic director at Morningside Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Florida, is staging a play with the help of Judgement House this October. She told CNA that the productions are a way of sharing the Gospel.
“We include a lot of scripture, it’s very biblically based,” she said.
Gilliland explained that this year’s production isn’t just for nonbelievers – it’s meant to give the regular churchgoer a wake-up call.
“The current drama gives people an opportunity to understand and examine whether they have a relationship with Jesus Christ because it’s more than just going to church, it’s about accepting Jesus as your savior and receiving the gift of eternal life,” Gilliland said.
Kelly Armstrong, the director of the judgment house at New Harmony Baptist Church in Albertville, Alabama, told CNA that past productions have depicted scenes of car wrecks, overdoses, and abuse.
Visitors see “how people make decisions that affect their eternity,” he said. “It brings our church together, and makes people think.”
Catholic criticism of “hell houses”
Judgment houses have not found favor among Catholic churches in the United States, and two experts in evangelization and pastoral care told CNA that they don’t think talking about hell attracts people to the Church.
Sherry Weddell is the founder of the Catherine of Siena Institute, an apostolate that helps evangelize Catholic parishes to turn pew-sitters into “intentional missionary disciples.” She told CNA that she advises any Catholics considering introducing hell-related themes to their Halloween decorations or celebrations, to rethink that idea.
“If you live in an area that has a significant number of young adults, especially parents of young children, or in an area that is highly secularized like urban areas of the East or West coasts, many will find it offensive or off-putting. And there is a real chance that sensitive and young children could be upset by it which would fuel their parents’ unhappiness with the sponsoring Catholic community,” Weddell explained.
“You could upset people who might otherwise have been open to attending an Advent or Christmas event at your parish or just open to a friendship with a Catholic like you.
“Instead of building or strengthening bridges of trust, you could be shattering or weakening whatever trust may already exist. There are creative, positive, child and parent-friendly alternatives such as “trunk-or-treating,” costume parties, and community of light events that foster both long-standing relationships and fun,” Weddell said.
Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, the chief exorcist for the Archdiocese of Washington, and a psychologist and researcher at the Catholic University of America, told CNA that the threat of hell isn’t effective in this day and age.
“People today are not convinced or influenced by threats of hell. The Church just really stopped doing that because it just doesn’t work. You know, you can do all the hellfire and damnation sermons you want, but people just kind of yawn, “ Rossetti said.
“We’re trying to emphasize God’s love and God’s mercy, which I think is much more to the point, frankly. And also more of a message that’s needed in our day. And I think that started with Pope John XXIII at Vatican II. He said, today what the message needs to be is of God’s mercy and compassion and God’s love.
“This is what attracts people, and this is sort of the core of our message. God loves us and God has saved us out of his love and compassion in Jesus,” he said.
CNA Staff, Dec 8, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The Labor Department (DOL) finalized a rule on Monday that allows faith-based government contractors to make employment decisions based on their religious beliefs.
The rule clarifies existing protections for faith-based contractors that date back to the Johnson era. It allows them to hire only people of a certain faith without regard to an anti-discrimination requirement of the government.
Exempt contractors can also make employment decisions based on an employee’s “acceptance of or adherence to religious tenets.”
The final rule retains most of the proposed rule, with some alterations regarding the scope of the religious exemption, DOL said.
Religion, according to the rule, includes “religious belief” as well as “all aspects of religious observance and practice.”
Eligible religious groups are not limited to churches and similar bodies, DOL said, but can be “a corporation, association, educational institution, society, school, college, university, or institution of learning” that is “organized for a religious purpose.”
The rule also says that “the contractor must engage in activity consistent with, and in furtherance of, its religious purpose” and is exempt when it “makes it reasonably clear to the public that it has a religious purpose.”
The agency says it would not challenge a group’s “sincere” claim of religious character, but a “sincere” claim must be more substantial than a group adding “a religious purpose to its documents after it becomes aware of potential discrimination liability or government scrutiny.”
Eligible contractors would not necessarily be non-profits, as some religious groups may operate small stores or could be entities such as hospitals, the agency said. However, any for-profit group would need to present “strong evidence” of their religious character, DOL said.
The group First Liberty Institute welcomed the new rule on Monday.
“Religious organizations should never be forced to abandon their religious identity and mission in order to be eligible to partner with the federal government,” said Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute.
There were more than 109,000 comments on the proposed rule, according to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
“When a religious group hires people of the same religion to carry out their mission, it’s not ‘discrimination,’ it’s common sense,” said Luke Goodrich, senior counsel and vice president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, to CNA when the rule was first proposed in Aug., 2019.
“And when the government refuses to work with religious groups that do the best job of caring for the needy, it’s not ‘equality,’ it’s nonsense,” he added.
In May, the agency issued broad new religious freedom protections for federal employees and faith-based grant recipients, including by implementing religious freedom into the daily operations of the agency and establishing “reasonable religious accommodations” for employees and applicants.
Under the guidance, religious groups had to have equal access to federal grants as their secular counterparts.
Very disheartened to here about George’s death. I knew he had been ill, but was in remission. I met George when he was a St. Joe’s student and I was a high school freshman. We carried on a friendship for over 50 years and I was at his first Mass in Philly. We usually communicated at Christmas and I was about to sent greeting when I thought I’d see if he were still bishop or if he had retired. To my sadness I see where he passed six months ago. He was a good man, a good priest. My regrets are that we were never able to see each other in person over the years. God bless you, George.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let your perpetual light shine upon Bishop George.
Amen.
Very disheartened to here about George’s death. I knew he had been ill, but was in remission. I met George when he was a St. Joe’s student and I was a high school freshman. We carried on a friendship for over 50 years and I was at his first Mass in Philly. We usually communicated at Christmas and I was about to sent greeting when I thought I’d see if he were still bishop or if he had retired. To my sadness I see where he passed six months ago. He was a good man, a good priest. My regrets are that we were never able to see each other in person over the years. God bless you, George.