LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Instead of taking offense at a recent Vatican statement reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, evangelicals should seize the chance to respond with equal candor that “any church defined by the claims of the papacy is no true church,” according to a prominent Southern Baptist leader.

The Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote on his blog that he appreciated the document’s clarity in voicing a key distinction between Catholics and Protestants over papal authority. He said those differences are often forgotten “in this era of confusion and theological laxity.”

“We should together realize and admit that this is an issue worthy of division,” Mohler wrote. “The Roman Catholic Church is willing to go so far as to assert that any church that denies the papacy is no true church. Evangelicals should be equally candid in asserting that any church defined by the claims of the papacy is no true church. This is not a theological game for children, it is the honest recognition of the importance of the question.”

This month, the Vatican released a document restating the contention that the Roman Catholicism is the one, true path to salvation. Other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches, the document said, restating the views of a 2000 document.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Pope Benedict XVI headed before becoming pope, said it issued the new document because some contemporary theological interpretations of the Second Vatican Council’s ecumenical intent had been “erroneous or ambiguous” and had prompted confusion and doubt.

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Muslim women told to remove head scarves for license photo

CINCINNATI (AP) _ Two Muslim women had the right to continue wearing their head scarves when sitting for a driver’s license photo, the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles said.

Clerks at separate bureau offices in southwest Ohio were wrong to insist that the women remove the scarves, also known as hijabs, which are expressions of faith and modesty, said Tom Hunter, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the motor vehicles bureau.

The women’s photos were shot again for free.

“It was just a misunderstanding on the part of BMV employees as to what the policy was,” Hunter said. “We want to be respectful to all people and all cultures.”

No one was disciplined, Hunter said, but an e-mail was sent to the state’s 216 registrar offices in May reminding employees that head coverings, such as hijabs, are allowed.

People sitting for driver’s license photographs can’t wear head coverings, according to Ohio policy. But there are exceptions for wigs or hairpieces that a person customarily wears, along with headwear for religious reasons and medical treatments. However, nothing can cover a person’s face.

“I wear it for religious beliefs,” said Mariam Bashir, 33, of Mason, Ohio, who said she was one of the women asked to remove her head scarf when she went to renew her driver’s license at the BMV office in Loveland.

Eight men sue Seattle University, Jesuit order over abuse claims

SEATTLE (AP) _ Eight men, including five brothers from two families, have sued Seattle University and the Jesuit order, alleging sexual abuse by a Catholic priest who was named in a lawsuit that was settled last fall.

The latest case centering on the Rev. Michael Toulouse, a Jesuit priest who taught philosophy at the university from about 1950 until his death in 1976, was filed in King County Superior Court.

Plaintiffs allege that some senior priests in the order, including some who had worked at the school, knew Toulouse had molested minors. The plaintiffs contend the priests sometimes informed their superiors but did not act effectively to stop him.

A sexual abuse lawsuit filed by a man in 2005 against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, which oversees Jesuit operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska, was settled in November for $350,000. The man had alleged that Toulouse had molested him in the Jesuit residence at the school when he was 12.

As of October, the province had spent about $8.5 million to settle some 40 claims involving various priests, and as of November, 30 to 50 claims were pending.

The head of the Oregon Province, the Very Rev. John D. Whitney, issued a statement saying that if the accusations “are deemed to be credible, we will strive to respond as we have: with a firm commitment to healing and reconciliation. We do not seek to hide or deny what has happened, but to discover and set right what we can.”

Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod re-elects president

ST. LOUIS (AP) _ The head of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Gerald Kieschnick, will serve a third term as president of the 2.5-million member church.

Kieschnick was re-elected at the church’s convention in Houston. He received 644 votes, or 52 percent of the delegates’ vote. The Rev. John Wohlrabe Jr. of Virginia Beach, Va., came in second with 42 percent of the vote.

Half of the church’s voting delegates are ordained pastors and the other half are lay church members, church spokeswoman Vicki Biggs said.

Kieschnick, 64, has been president of the St. Louis-based church since 2001. The Houston native is a graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary, which was once located in Springfield, Ill., and is now in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Kieschnick previously served 10 years as president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s Texas District and worked with the Lutheran Foundation of Texas.

He has served as pastor of three congregations, one in Mississippi and two in Texas. He and his wife, Terry, have two grown children.

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod was founded in 1847 and claims more than 6,000 congregations, ownership of radio stations, two seminaries, 10 colleges and universities and the largest Protestant parochial school system in America.

http://www.lcms.org/

Seattle airport panel proposes ban on religious holiday displays

SEATTLE (AP) _ Decking the halls with boughs of holly is fine as long as it doesn’t look like Christmas at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, an advisory panel has recommended.

The region’s largest airport, scene of a controversy over holiday displays last winter, should be decorated for the holidays again this year, possibly with trees, lights, colors and fabric but not with any religious symbols, the Port of Seattle’s Holiday Decorations Advisory Committee decided.

“The use of light and color is especially appropriate in Seattle due to our dark winter travel season,” but holiday decorations should “reflect the Pacific Northwest environment and our diverse community, and convey universal values, such as peace and harmony,” the panel recommended. “Our goal is to create an inclusive and warm environment at the airport.”

The advisory group was formed after an uproar over nine trees decorated with red ribbons and bows at the airport last December.

The trees were taken down after Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky of the Chabad Lubavitch organization threatened a lawsuit unless a menorah representing Hanukkah was added. Then the trees went back up after Bogomilsky said he never wanted them removed, only that the Jewish holiday be recognized as well. No menorah was allowed.

In the future, any trees should be decorated so they do not appear to be Christmas trees, although some on the advisory panel insisted that the Christmas trees were not a Christian religious symbol.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)