Affirming Catholic identity, Boston College adds crucifixes to classrooms

BOSTON (AP) -- Boston College officials have quietly placed crucifixes in every classroom and Christian artwork around the Roman Catholic university's campus, stirring some faculty complaints.

The Jesuit school made the additions during winter break, part of a trend among Catholic universities and colleges attempting to affirm their Catholic identity through symbols and curriculum changes.

While Boston College students have been mostly supportive, a handful of faculty protested to the administration. Some unsuccessfully circulated a petition asking to have crucifixes removed.

Biology professor Dan Kirschner, faculty adviser for the school's chapter of the Jewish student group Hillel, said the school is being "insensitive" to people of other faiths.

Maxim Shrayer, chairman of the Slavic and Eastern languages and literature department, said the religious symbols run "contrary to the letter and spirit of open intellectual discourse."

Not all faculty agree. The Rev. John Paris, a Jesuit priest who teaches bioethics, said the criticism amounts to "the narrow and bizarre musings of a few disgruntled folks."

Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn said the artwork reinforces the school's Catholic mission. He said there have been no complaints from students, about 70 percent of whom are Catholic.

The identity issue has been of concern to Pope Benedict XVI, who addressed the presidents of the nation's more than 200 Catholic universities during his U.S. visit last year. He told educators they "have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice."

Chicago-area female rabbi to lead Reform rabbinical assembly

NEW YORK (AP) -- Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, who leads a small congregation in suburban Chicago, will become the second woman to head the rabbinical assembly of Judaism's liberal Reform movement.

Dreyfus, 57, is to be installed as president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis on Feb. 28 in Jerusalem and will begin her tenure in Israel. The group represents nearly 2,000 Reform rabbis.

Since 1998, Dreyfus has served as rabbi of B'nai Yehuda Beth Sholom in Homewood, Ill. She said in a statement that one of her priorities will be reaching out to younger Jews.

"Many of them are very involved in religion and their Jewish lives, but do not belong to congregations," she said. "Some are involved in their own groups and online communities. We need to embrace and adapt to this young generation, as they are potentially the future of the Reform movement."

Three of the four main U.S. rabbinical associations will be led by women when Dreyfus begins her tenure.

In October, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld was named executive vice president of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly. Rabbi Toba Spitzer, the first openly gay or lesbian person to head a rabbinical assembly, became president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association in 2007.

Kansas church members raise money for building with ties to poet

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Members of a historical church that poet Langston Hughes once attended are collecting money to preserve the nearly 100-year-old building.

St. Luke African Methodist Episcopal Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Hughes, the Harlem Renaissance author and poet, has said the church influenced his writings.

Bill Tuttle Jr., professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, said the church is "literally falling down."

Some of the formerly enslaved men and women to first settle in Lawrence established the congregation in 1862, during the Civil War. The present structure was built in 1910.

"The people that built it 100 years ago built it with dedication, love and hard work," said the Rev. Verdell Taylor Jr. "It's our job now to make sure it remains standing and we continue to have a place to worship."

A group of church members and local historians, called Second Century Fund, have raised more than $205,000 in the past five years. But about $75,000 is still needed.

The group hopes to complete its fundraising before the church celebrates its centennial.

Hughes was born in Joplin, Mo., on Feb. 1, 1902, but spent several of his early years in Lawrence. In the book "The Big Sea," Hughes said the church of his childhood helped influence his later writings.

School superintendent's proposal to hold classes on Good Friday questioned

LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) -- A public school superintendent's proposal to make up a snow day by holding classes on a religious holiday, Good Friday, is causing a stir.

Lawrence School Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy recommended Good Friday, which falls on April 10, as a date to make up one of five days lost because of bad winter weather this school year.

"A lot of students go to school that day," Laboy said. "I hope we don't appear to be sacrilegious in that way, but we don't have a lot of days."

The proposal did not sit well with a union representative or members of the school committee who objected on various grounds to holding classes on the day Christians commemorate Jesus Christ's crucifixion.

"I may not be the greatest Catholic, but I do go to church," said James Vittorioso, a committee member. "I think it's a disgrace."

Another committee member, Martina Cruz, said she was concerned many students would be absent anyway, because they would go to church with their families.

Teachers' union president Frank McLaughlin called classes on Good Friday a contract violation and pledged to file a grievance if Laboy follows through.

Laboy said that New York City, the nation's largest public school system, holds classes on Good Friday, as do a number of other school systems across the country.