International notes

South African Bishops lead way on land reform The South African Bishops’ Conference has announced plans to give large tracts of land to impoverished black communities. The 26 dioceses own over 49,000 acres of land, acquired years ago for missionary purposes or monastic communities, but largely underutilized today.

After illegal land occupations by the poor in neighboring Zimbabwe, many South Africans fear similar actions in their country. A number of community leaders have urged large landowners to voluntarily give up some of their land. The bishops’ conference has decided to do so, setting a good example. They are commissioning an audit of their lands to see how each tract is being used and how it might be given to landless people for individual or community ownership.

Brazil bishops: Condoms prevent AIDS

The bishop who heads the Brazilian Church’s AIDS commission made headlines in June by saying Catholics, especially among high-risk groups like homosexuals or prostitutes, should be free to use condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. Bishop Eugenio Rixen said his commission is pondering the use of condoms as a lesser evil than transmitting the AIDS virus. He said the commission’s views will weigh heavily in decisions by the Brazilian bishops’ conference to change its official position regarding condoms.

The Vatican and the Archbishop of Rio, Cardinal de Araujo Sales, protested that the Catholic ban on condoms is absolute and cannot be changed. But Rixen’s remarks were welcomed by Brazil’s health officials. They said his view is shared by those who work with the people at the local level. Brazil has the world’s largest Catholic population, and one of the world’s highest rates of AIDS: of 160 million people, 540,000 are infected.

ARCIC: New hope of reunion with Anglicans

Anglican and Catholic bishops meeting near Toronto in May sounded a strikingly hopeful note about progress toward reunion of the two churches. At a meeting of the long-standing Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), the bishops proposed new actions to move the process forward: regular meetings between the two hierarchies at the national level, a new look at mixed marriages, and wider publicity for progress already made on doctrinal issues. Most importantly, they said each Communion should agree not to make decisions on matters of faith and morals likely to affect the other without formal consultation first. (Prime examples: how does Roman exercise of papal authority affect Anglicans? And how does Anglican ordination of women affect Romans?)

The ARCIC statement emphasizes the fundamental communion that already exists between the churches. It is no longer helpful to talk of Catholics and Anglicans being “out of communion.” This points to the issue of intercommunion. At what point should a common Eucharist celebrate the unity already achieved rather than hold out for the more perfect unity still over the horizon?

Gebara: new book on ecofeminism

In her latest book, "Longing for Running Water," Brazilian theologian Sr. Ivone Gebara develops a gritty ecofeminism rooted in her work in a poor urban neighborhood in Recife. CTAers studying the book this summer at the Center for Theology and Social Awareness in St. Louis, Mo., recommend the way she connects unemployment, hunger and pollution with the patriarchal image of God. She calls for a new relationship with the earth and the cosmos. Gebara will be a major speaker at the CTA National Conference Nov. 3-5 in Milwaukee.