[St. Johann Tetzel]

He's also very involved with the raving heretic Episcopal bishop out there (the appropriately named Bishop Swing) and seems sympathetic to the United Religions Initiative.

Bad, bad, bad. The URI is a perfect place to hatch the "one world religion." They're truly a bunch of kooks.

Lee Penn's book should be out soon. In it I think he exposes the Catholic idiots aligning with the URI.

[livius]

Interesting. I didn't know anybody was writing a book on it. The URI is all the rage in San Francisco (I know this because I have family living there and I visit from time to time).

[leepenn]

It would be bad news if Abp. Levada were appointed to the CDF.

Under his leadership, the Archdiocese of San Francisco is working closely with ECUSA Bishop Swing and the United Religions Initiative (URI).

Here's a story I did on this in November 2003 for The Christian Challenge, a traditionalist Anglican magazine:

Catholic Support For Controversial Movement
Grows Despite Hierarchy's Opposition

By Lee Penn
The Christian Challenge (Washington, DC)
November 14, 2003

THE VATICAN stands firmly against it.

Nonetheless, Catholic support for it has spread worldwide, beyond the usual array of dissident Catholic theologians, priests, and religious orders.

"It" is the eight-year-old, controversial interfaith venture, the United Religions Initiative (URI), founded by liberal California Episcopal Bishop William Swing. Far from including only the major ancient religions, the URI has opened its doors to "spiritualities" of all sorts, including those of the pagan, occult and New Age genre. Some critics point to evidence that the URI will act to distill from these many belief systems a one-world religion. Though still relatively unknown, the URI has grown to 201 chapters and more than 15,000 adherents around the world, and has attracted some major benefactors.

At Rome in 1996, Bishop Swing received a firm rebuff from Cardinal Arinze, who was then the head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue. According to Bishop Swing, the Cardinal "said that a United Religions would give the appearance of syncretism and it would water down our need to evangelize. It would force authentic religions to be on equal footing with spurious religions."

Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, who worked under Cardinal Arinze (and is now his successor), pointedly ignored Bishop Swing's invitation to attend the 1997 URI summit conference.

Since then, the Vatican has restated its opposition to the URI. In a June 1999 letter to Homiletic & Pastoral Review, a magazine for Catholic priests, Fr. Chidi Denis Isizoh of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue said: "Religious syncretism is a theological error. That is why the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue does not approve of the United Religions Initiative and does not work with it."

As the San Francisco Chronicle reported in June 2000, "Swing found that the Vatican wanted nothing to do with his organization."

MANY CATHOLICS, however, are not following the Vatican lead. Open supporters of the URI in the episcopate have included Cardinal Paul Evaristo Arns (the retired Archbishop of São Paulo, Brazil), Archbishop John Baptist Odama (from Uganda), Thomas Gumbleton (auxiliary Bishop of Detroit), and Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco (the retired Archbishop of that city).

William Levada, the Archbishop of San Francisco, has not officially stated support for the URI. Nevertheless, the Archdiocese of San Francisco is--in practical terms, if not formally--cooperating closely with the URI. Diocesan spokesman Maurice Healey agreed that "through its actions, the Archdiocese has viewed the URI positively." Fr. Gerard O'Rourke, director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, has been an enthusiastic supporter of the URI from its beginning; he served on the URI Board of Directors until 2002.

The Jesuit leaders of the University of San Francisco (USF) also support the URI. Fr. John Lo Schiavo, S.J. (Chancellor of USF) served through 2000 on the URI Board of Directors. In April 2001, Fr. Steven A. Privett S. J. (current president of USF) praised Bishop Swing's "realization that dogma divides and action unites" when he introduced Swing to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. The Rev. John P. Schlegel, S.J., (President of USF from 1991 through 2000) donated to the URI in 2000.

Sister Bridget Clare McKeever, director of the Office of Spirituality for the Catholic diocese of Salt Lake in Utah, publicly endorsed the URI in 2001.

The Catholic Diocese of Oakland, California, donated to the URI in 2000--the only Roman Catholic diocese yet to go on the record as doing so.

URI activities have also been supported by Catholic Relief Services, the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Religious Orders Partnership (associated with Global Education Associates), Pax Christi USA, and many orders of nuns.

John Borelli, Associate Director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said in November 2002, "Since the Archdiocese of San Francisco is involved in the URI, the Catholic Church is involved."

In March 2003, Borelli said, "My advice to Gerry O'Rourke from the start is that all kinds of interfaith activities are beneficial and he should be involved in the URI if he feels it is a worthwhile project." Borelli added that there has been "no formal communication from the Vatican to the USCCB about the URI." Thus, the USCCB bureaucracy is a de facto supporter of the URI.

Catholic support for the URI is worldwide. Five of the 37 URI Global Council members are Catholic, including Fr. James Channan, of Pakistan (a Consultor for the Vatican Commission on Religious Relations with Muslims and prior Vice-Provincial of the Dominican "Sons of Mary" order), and Fr. Dr. George Khoury (President of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal of the Greek Catholic Church, in Israel).

Other prominent Catholics who have endorsed the URI include Fr. Thomas Michel S.J. (director of the Jesuit Secretariat for Interreligious Dialogue); Fr. Joseph Wainaina (who has been the National Pastoral Coordinator for the Kenya Episcopal Conference); and Fr. Albert Nambiaparambil, who served in the 1990s as Secretary of Interreligious Dialogue for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India. Catholics in Belgium, Brazil, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and other countries have taken leadership roles in local and regional URI activity. Dissenting theologians supporting the URI include Paul Knitter (senior editor at Orbis Books and professor of theology at Xavier University), Leonard Swidler (professor of "Catholic Thought and Interreligious Dialogue" at Temple University), and Hans Küng.
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