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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 330
March 24, 2000
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Coming up, in the Holy Land, the pope expresses regret for the past failings of Catholics, calls for peace and justice in a troubled region and appeals for cooperation among people of all faiths.
And almost a year after the massacre at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, continues to ask itself: How did it happen?
Mr. JIM BECKMAN (Youth Minister): As a youth minister in this community, I take it personally, like, somewhere I missed two kids.
ABERNETHY: Welcome. I'm Bob Abernethy. It's good to have you with us.
BOB ABERNETHY: With Middle East politics complicating his every step, Pope John Paul II this week fulfilled his dream of a personal millennial pilgrimage to the most sacred sites of biblical history. John Paul's first trip as pope to the Holy Land was rich in personal religious reflection, but inevitably, the headlines were about the implications for peace and reconciliation between Christians and Jews, and Jews and Muslims.
We have two reports from Jerusalem: Kim Lawton on the religious significance of the trip, and Paul Miller on the symbolism and politics, beginning with John Paul's historic visit to Israel's memorial for the victims of the Shoah, the Holocaust.
PAUL MILLER: It was an emotional and historic moment: Pope John Paul II praying at Yad Vashem's eternal flame, paying homage to six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. The pope also expressed regret for centuries of anti-Semitism by Christians.
Pope JOHN PAUL II: The Catholic Church is deeply saddened by the hatred and the acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at many times and in many places.
MILLER: Some Jews had hoped the pope would apologize for what they see as the immoral silence of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust. American Rabbi James Rudin said the speech broke no new ground, but was important nonetheless.
Rabbi JAMES RUDIN: I think we will look back on this as a very important speech spoken at a very significant place at a time, and it gives impetus to much more work that needs to be done.
MILLER: The work of improving relations between Jews and Catholics was one of the pope's stated goals for this trip. He sought to expand interfaith dialogue with Muslims as well.
Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)
MILLER: The tone of this meeting was contentious at times, and the grand mufti of Jerusalem declined to meet with Jewish and Christian leaders, although he did agree to meet separately with the pope.
At an outdoor Mass in Manger Square in Bethlehem, once predominantly Christian and now Palestinian-controlled with a Muslim majority, the pontiff said he was praying for a new era of cooperation among all people. There was an immediate opportunity. The mosque next door put off the call to prayer until the pope finished speaking. The Mass was suspended until the call was finished. Throughout this visit, the pope spoke of the need for peace and justice in the region. At the Dehaisheh refugee camp, he deplored the suffering of the Palestinians. The Vatican said the pope's visit was only humanitarian.
The pope insisted there is no political significance to any part of his trip, but others found political meaning in almost every part.
Yasir Arafat and other Palestinians believe the pontiff's visit to Bethlehem cements their claim to an independent homeland. Israeli officials welcomed the pope, who had recognized their country diplomatically. They noted he stayed in Jerusalem, although some wished he had endorsed their claim to the city as their united and eternal capital. The pope negotiated the difficult diplomatic terrain and the strenuous schedule with a will and endurance some here found surprising. For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Paul Miller in Jerusalem. Now here's Kim Lawton.
KIM LAWTON: From the beginning, Pope John Paul II has called this Middle East visit his special jubilee-year pilgrimage, a search, he says, for the footprints of God in the sacred places of salvation history.
Cardinal WILLIAM KEELER (Archdiocese of Baltimore): Here in the Holy Land, what happened long ago seems to come alive. When you pause in quiet prayer, visualize what took place in the spot, you it can reach into your heart and penetrate the spirit much better than trying to imagine it from a distance.
LAWTON: The pope began his sacred journey in Jordan on Mt. Nebo, where the Bible says Moses stood and looked out at the Promised Land. John Paul called the spot a symbol of hope that God keeps his promises. He also went to the Jordan River. Christians mark this as the place where Jesus was baptized. According to the Bible, it's also the place where the prophet Elijah was taken to heaven in a fiery chariot at the end of his life.
John Paul crossed the Jordan by airplane and arrived in what he called the blessed land of Israel. Here, he retraced the life and ministry of Jesus, who Christians believe was God in human form.
Reverend JEROME MURPHY-O'CONNOR (Professor of New Testament, Ecole Biblique):
If you focus on the divine, then the human gets buried. But it's here where people can walk where Jesus walked, where they can make the same sort of observations on which he based his parables. Then that means a renewed sense of Jesus as a human person, and then they begin to see the divine as filtered through the human, and they begin to see Jesus as the way, the truth and the life.
LAWTON: The pope's itinerary included prayers in Bethlehem at the Grotto of the Nativity, where tradition says Jesus was born. It also included a youth Mass on the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus preached one of his most famous sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, in which he said, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.'
In coming as a pilgrim, John Paul is part of a long tradition that stretches back to the earliest days of Christianity, when believers began paying special reverence to the earthly places of divine importance.
Rev. MURPHY-O'CONNOR: It's really a desire for contact with God, because pilgrimage means to go to pray at a place in the hope of you see that prayer will be easier or that there will be some sort of tangible contact with holiness or with the divine.
LAWTON: Pilgrims from all over the world followed the pope to Israel this week, seeking that contact with the divine.
Unidentified Woman #1: At the spiritual level, I've gotten closer to God.
I've got -- received greater faith, much hope and joy.
Unidentified Woman #2: To think it's 2,000 years ago, and we're here seems so awesome. It really is just awesome.
Unidentified Woman #3: A dream come true for me to walk the same path that our Lord walked 2,000 years ago. That is just really great.
LAWTON: The earliest surviving description of a Holy Land pilgrimage is from the fourth century. A French Christian from Bordeaux talks about coming here to the Pools of Bethesda in Jerusalem, where the Bible says Jesus healed the lame. Since then, millions of Christian pilgrims have come to the Holy Land. Their coming has had dramatic implications for the political landscape here.
Mr. LORENZO CREMANESI (Author): There was always a direct connection between pilgrimage and politics in this area of the world. The holy places where often it protects for any different kind of power to be here, to be present.
LAWTON: From the time of Constantine, who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, through the Crusades, until today, outside religious interests have played a major role in the Holy Land, which is one reason why this pilgrimage has been so closely watched.
Pope John Paul II, after all, is no ordinary pilgrim. He's also head of the Vatican state. And the role of the pope as pilgrim is deeply intertwined with the role of the pope as politician.
Dr. HARRY HAGOPIAN (Middle East Council of Churches): Given that he is also the leader of the whole Catholic Church, so you're talking one billion Catholic adherents the world over, it is inevitable that some of his activities are going to have a political spinover. You cannot avoid that.
LAWTON: The visit to Dehaisheh refugee camp, for example, took place immediately after John Paul's prayers at the Church of the Nativity. Theada Bas helped coordinate the event. His family was displaced during the 1948 war and they've lived at Dehaisheh ever since. He says residents saw the visit as a gesture of support for their cause.
Mr. THEADA BAS: For Dehaisheh refugee camp, it's a political visit. And the content of this visit is a political visit. And for us, it's a political visit.
LAWTON: There were obvious political tensions over Jerusalem, a holy city for Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city, and their political leaders clearly let the pope know it.
Unidentified Man: ...to welcome you to our eternal capital, Your Holiness, the city of peace. Welcome to Jerusalem.
LAWTON: Both sides took the pope's visit as recognition of their claims. Political and religious tensions were also provoked by the pope's travel on the Jewish Sabbath, which forced security officials and others to work. In Israel, ultra-Orthodox Jews take the Sabbath very seriously, mandating that all work of any kind stop the minute sundown begins.
Analysts say given the highly politicized context here, every action is open to criticism.
Rev. MURPHY-O'CONNOR: The visit of the pope is political in the sense that a head of state can do nothing that doesn't have political implications. If what he does is read with goodwill, then you get one interpretation. Exactly the same gesture is read with bad will, you get a totally negative interpretation. And that is the risk he's taking, is going into the lion's den.
LAWTON: Church officials insist all of the pope's agenda, including his visit to Dehaisheh and his message at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, is related to his religious beliefs.
Cardinal KEELER: Many will try to read into situations, even to what Pope John Paul says and does, something that is political. But I think if you look closely at what he has been saying, you will see a simple, clear, consistent repetition of principles which flow from his faith in Jesus Christ.
LAWTON: Local Christian leaders say social concern has long been part of John Paul's ministry, and therefore, it's not surprising that he would include it in this deeply personal pilgrimage. But they also say the pilgrimage should be kept in perspective.
Dr. HAGOPIAN: We should all look at this visit as an old man coming on a pilgrimage to fulfill a lifelong dream during the Jubilee year, which incidentally is a year of action, of grace and of repentance.
LAWTON: Many here say they'll be watching to see how the fulfillment of that pilgrimage dream affects the future of this region. I'm Kim Lawton in Jerusalem.
Unidentified Woman #4: John Paul II, we love you.
BOB ABERNETHY: The government of Uganda this week said it will appoint a commission to probe the deaths of more than 500 members of a religious group who died last week in a fiery inferno. The deaths were first described in news reports as a mass suicide by members of the apocalyptic Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments. But as the week wore on, investigators said they were also looking at the possibility of murder, especially since the dead included 78 children and that many of those killed may have been lured to their deaths in the group's church. The sect was formed in the late 1980s by an excommunicated Roman Catholic priest who claimed the world would end in the year 2000 because people don't follow the Ten Commandments. The Roman Catholic Church in Uganda denounced the group, saying members had been misled into what the church called an obnoxious form of religiosity completely rejected by the Catholic Church.
BOB ABERNETHY: After months of controversy and charges of anti-Catholic bias, a Catholic priest has been named the new chaplain of the House of Representatives; the first Catholic ever in that position. He is Father Daniel Coughlin, the councilor to priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago. He was sworn in on Thursday by House Speaker Dennis Hastert. A House committee had recommended another Catholic priest, among others, for the job, but House leaders chose a Protestant. That prompted some Democrats and others to accuse the Republican leaders of being anti-Catholic, a charge that Speaker Hastert called slander. Father Coughlin said his appointment was terribly unexpected.
BOB ABERNETHY: The Supreme Court has ruled that a public university can collect student fees to fund activities, even if some of the activities conflict with a student's religious beliefs. A conservative Christian law student at the University of Wisconsin had argued it was a form of unconstitutional compulsory speech for his fees to be used to support such groups as a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender center. But the high court ruled nine to nothing that the fees are all right as long as the funding does not favor some groups and views over others.
BOB ABERNETHY: In its new yearbook out this week, the Children's Defense Fund says 13 million American children live in poverty. While slightly down from last year, that's still one child in five. Three-fifths of the poor children are white.
Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, urges the country to do much more for those she calls America's fifth child.
BOB ABERNETHY: This year's winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion is Freeman Dyson, a physicist and writer. The Templeton Prize is the world's largest cash award, nearly $1 million. Many past winners have been leading religious figures such as Mother Teresa and Billy Graham, but Dyson is different. He says he's a follower of Christ, but isn't sure God exists. And he says he sees religion as a way of life, not a belief. Nevertheless, Dyson was chosen for the prize because of his work to bring science and religion together in the service of humanity.
Dr. FREEMAN DYSON: Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe.
ABERNETHY: Dr. Dyson will formally receive the Templeton Prize in May.
BOB ABERNETHY: Next month on April 20th, it will be one year since the shootings at Columbine High School. The murders shocked the country, millions of people asking why Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 fellow students and one teacher and then killed themselves. On the eve of the Columbine anniversary, reporter Judy Valente visited Littleton, Colorado, and found there lingering guilt and anger, sharpened awareness of the fragility of life and widespread belief in the existence of evil. Our story begins with the remorse of a lay staff youth minister.
Mr. JIM BECKMAN (Youth Minister): What are we doing ourselves? What commitments are we making during the season to really help us get ready for all that God wants to do in our lives?
JUDY VALENTE: Jim Beckman is the youth minister at Saint Francis Cabrini Catholic Church, which buried three students from Columbine High School, more than any other church in Littleton. He still wonders how it could have happened.
Mr. BECKMAN: How did these two kids get so lost? This wasn't something that happened overnight. This is something that took years and years to develop, and it's years of neglect and being missed by just about everything around them. But as a youth minister in this community, like, I take it personally, like somewhere, I missed two kids.
VALENTE: Now Beckman believes he has the most important job in America.
Mr. BECKMAN: Since the shooting happened at Columbine, I feel like I've just been validated so much in my job. And I feel like what I do is so important. Building relationships with kids and through them, their families, and through them, their circle of friends, it put us in a place where, when everything happened last April, kids came running to us.
VALENTE: Just after the shootings, Beckman helped the Columbine community deal with its losses. But now his focus is on the living, trying to help them cope with feelings of anger, guilt, recrimination and an overwhelming sense of the impermanence of life.
Mr. BECKMAN: Tragedy could strike at any time, so live ready for that. Is your life in a place where you've considered eternity, you've considered what happens at the end of your life?
VALENTE: Ben Schumann narrowly escaped one of the gunmen. The bullet ricocheted off a wall, spraying Schumann's neck with debris.
BEN SCHUMANN (Junior): I thought that this was a safe haven, you know? I came here every day with no worry about if something was going to happen to me. And then they come running in wielding guns and it totally destroyed my whole sense of -- I don't know -- peace and trust.
A lot of my friends, they're also very angry. They have just such a deep sense of anger and sorrow.
VALENTE: Many parents are still seething with anger. Ken and DeDe Chism's daughter Amber was trapped inside a locked classroom for several hours before police rescued her.
Mr. KEN CHISM: I attended seven funerals with Amber. You know, that's too many for anybody to attend. That changes you.
Ms. DEDE CHISM: The day of the shooting, things were crazy. I hadn't told her goodbye. And then it petrified me. The police officer said, 'Can you tell me what your kid was wearing?' I could not do that. That is an awful feeling. So I can tell you that I know what my kids have on every day.
VALENTE: The Chisms say their daughter has matured quickly in the past year.
Amber says she feels not hatred but sadness for the shooters.
AMBER CHISM: Their lives were lost, too, and, like, their lives were lost even before the others because theirs were lost to evil.
VALENTE: The people of Littleton are still struggling to forgive. When one church planted these trees to memorialize all 15 of the victims, some people came and cut down two of the trees dedicated to the gunmen. But there's hope that the upcoming anniversary of the shootings will provide some measure of healing.
It won't be easy. Like many in the community, Jim Beckman is still haunted by the sheer horror of the event and questions over what could have been done to prevent it.
Mr. BECKMAN: I just remember the first time I cracked, I guess. We were in church before the funeral services and they brought in the funeral palls, you know, the cloth that they put over the caskets. And it's like I realized for the first time that, 'My God, this is real. Like, we're burying two kids today.' No one ever trained me to feel like that. You know, they don't give you that in youth ministry school.
VALENTE: Columbine has tried to return to normal. The girls' soccer team practices just a few yards from the very door where the gunmen began their rampage.
JAMIE NORWOOD (Senior): Just playing soccer was, like, such a great thing to come out and be, like, 'Oh, we're playing soccer. Like, we're actually doing something.'
VALENTE: Principal Frank DeAngelis, an active member of Saint Francis Church, says he is trying to keep in closer contact with Columbine's 2,000 students. He has paired older students with younger ones, put in 16 security cameras and established an anonymous tip box.
Mr. FRANK DeANGELIS (Principal): I have received information about students that may be thinking about hurting themselves. I received information about students that may be behaving in a manner that's not appropriate. And so I call those students in and we talk and really try to address the issues immediately.
VALENTE: The shootings continue to provoke calls for stiffer school security and gun control laws. Jim Beckman says these are only partial solutions.
Mr. BECKMAN: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold could have gotten those guns, even if there were 20 more gun control laws. They would have still done what they did. The question is: Who was focusing on changing them? Who was trying to reach them out of their despair and their -- the way that they had given in to this evil in their life? Like, who was trying to reach them and get them to change? As a whole country, as a whole society, we have grown so far away from a spiritual perspective on life that I think we're going to reap the consequences of trying to live like that.
VALENTE: At least once a week, Beckman has lunch with Columbine students, and under a unique arrangement with Principal DeAngelis, he has permission to enter the school at any time to counsel students, as long as he doesn't proselytize.
MIKE SHEEHAN (Student Body President): Just having that extra support with the youth group of the church has been phenomenal. I mean, I don't know how I could get by without him.
VALENTE: Beckman and his wife Meg have two small children of their own and one on the way. Beckman used to talk to students about the usual subjects: alcohol, sex and drugs. Now he finds himself talking with 15- and 16-year-olds about mortality. He offers this advice.
Mr. BECKMAN: Live ready for your death. Another thing that I've said is live with no regrets. And I'm challenging young people today, 'Don't be ruled by people. Try and look deeper at what's really going on in their lives.'
VALENTE: At a loss to explain the tragedy any other way, the people of Littleton talk about what happened last April in terms of good vs. evil.
Mr. DeANGELIS: I think people have taken the attitude that evil is not going to win.
Mr. BECKMAN: On April 20th, we survived; over this past year, we prevailed and continue to prevail as we work through issues. And we definitely have hope to carry on.
Mr. BECKMAN and Youth Parishioners: (In unison) So let us go forth in love and serve the Lord and each other. Thanks be to God. Amen.
VALENTE: For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Judy Valente in Littleton, Colorado.
BOB ABERNETHY: On our calendar this week, Naw-Ruz, the Baha'i new year. Nineteen days of fasting lead up to the festivities, which begin on the first day of spring. Baha'is celebrate this time of renewal with feasts, prayers, singing and dancing. Worldwide, about five million people practice the relatively new faith, which includes beliefs from all the major religions. Baha'i began in Iran in the mid-1800s and has believers in over 230 countries. Only Christianity has members in more nations. This year, the Baha'is are celebrating the year 157.
And this weekend, many Christians celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation. It's believed that on this day, nine months before Christmas, God sent the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary to tell her she was to become the mother of Christ.
BOB ABERNETHY: That's our program for now. I'm Bob Abernethy. As we leave you, more scenes from the pope's visit to Israel's Holocaust memorial.
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