Groups Raise Issue of Sainthood for Priest

Is sainthood possible for the late Father Patrick Peyton, the “rosary priest” remembered for the slogan: “The family that prays together, stays together”?

The Family Rosary, based in Albany, N.Y., and Family Theater Productions in Hollywood, two groups founded by the priest from the Holy Cross religious order, have sent letters to 50,000 people on their mailing lists, asking if they favor launching a campaign for beatification and sainthood by the Vatican.

The Irish-born Peyton died of kidney failure June 3, 1992, in San Pedro at the age of 83.

The motto about families praying and staying together was coined in the living room of actress Loretta Young and her husband, Tom Lewis, as they tried to help the priest launch his radio ministry. His Family Theater of the Air, which ran on the Mutual Broadcasting Co. from 1947 to 1969, featured hundreds of actors and actresses donating their time for the dramatic series.

Peyton was also known for his rosary crusades, drawing huge assemblies in Brazil and the Philippines, among other places.

Father Leo Poiselli, president of the Family Rosary/Family Theater, said that past supporters of the priest were queried to determine if enough evidence could be assembled to warrant a Vatican petition.

Generally, Rome requires that to be declared first “blessed,” then a “saint,” a candidate must be shown in the long investigation process to have practiced Christian virtue to a heroic degree, and a miracle must be ascribed to the candidate’s intercession in prayer.

PEOPLE

The Rev. Samuel S. Chetti has been named the executive minister of the 135-church Los Angeles Baptist City Mission Society--thus becoming the first Asian American to head a regional unit of the American Baptist Churches USA. The India-born Chetti has been serving as the society’s interim executive since the death of the Rev. Emory C. Campbell in January 1995.

* Rabbi David Lieber, president emeritus of the University of Judaism, was recently elected to a two-year term as president of Conservative Judaism’s 1,400-member Rabbinical Assembly, the first rabbi from the West Coast to hold the post. Lieber, who was University of Judaism’s president from 1963 to 1992, is also general editor of a Conservative Jewish Torah Commentary in the works.

* Nicholas Royce of North Hollywood, who has sought for five decades to get more public recognition for Eastern Orthodox churches from government and media figures, has donated his papers to the University of Minnesota’s immigration history research center. Royce, who retired two years ago after 14 years as film coordinator for Family Theater Productions, is recovering from a minor stroke suffered March 10.

* Father David O’Connell of St. Francis X. Cabrini Catholic Church in Los Angeles has been elected chairman of the Priests’ Council of the Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese, succeeding Msgr. Charles Hill of St. Genevieve Catholic Church in Panorama City. The Priests’ Council is an advisory body to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony. Hill continues his term on the archdiocese’s College of Consultors, which the cardinal is required by church law to consult on certain decisions.

CONFERENCES

Members of the Catholic Theological Society, ending their four-day annual meeting last week in San Diego, voted overwhelmingly to support Father Richard P. McBrien in his procedural dispute with the U.S. Catholic bishops’ Committee for Doctrine, which criticized the content of the relatively liberal Notre Dame theologian’s revised edition of his 1994 book, “Catholicism.” The theologians said they believe the bishops’ refusal to grant “formal doctrinal dialogue” to McBrien disregards the U.S. bishops’ guidelines, adopted in 1989, on resolving misunderstandings between theologians and bishops.

* Two self-described reform organizations in the Catholic Church will open a joint, three-day conference Friday in San Diego. Corpus, the National Assn. for a Married Priesthood, and the Federation of Christian Ministries will be meeting on the UC San Diego campus. Speakers will include Corpus President Anthony Padovano at 11 a.m. Friday; biblical scholar Florence Gillman of the Catholic-run University of San Diego at 7 p.m. Friday and marriage counselors Thomas and Bonnie Geary of Northridge at 9 a.m. on June 30. (619) 726-8831.

WORSHIP

Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, has broken ground on the Westside for an educational, cultural, athletic and religious center to supplement worship and other activities at the domed synagogue in the Wilshire district. Founded in 1862 and meeting at its present site for more than 65 years, the Reform congregation now draws half of its membership from the San Fernando Valley and the Westside.

The new campus will occupy a block at the northeast corner of Olympic Boulevard and Barrington Avenue. Two existing buildings will be renovated and three new ones will be built, with a preschool and nursery school scheduled to open in September.

* After many delays, the only major denomination of churches primarily serving gays and lesbians closed escrow Tuesday on its $3.8-million purchase of a building complex in West Hollywood, which will become its first permanent headquarters and provide a new home for the Los Angeles congregation. The 28-year-old International Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, long based in Hollywood, has nearly 300 churches with 32,000 members in 18 countries.

DATES

A Jewish tour of the Mormon Temple and the Mormon Family History Center on the Westwood grounds will be offered Wednesday by the University of Judaism. The three-hour tour starts at 1 p.m. Open to the public and led by the Jewish Genealogical Society, the tour will include an overview of the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Reservations for the $30 tour must be made in advance. (310) 476-9777, Ext. 246.

* Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, a onetime Jewish homemaker in Brooklyn who has led an ashram since 1976 in Roseland, Fla., combining Eastern and Western teachings, will give public talks at 6:30 p.m. today and Sunday at Plummer Park’s Hall A in West Hollywood. A master of Kali Yoga, she will talk about her work in interfaith activities and caring for the dying. (310) 659-4003.

* The Yorba Linda Friends Gospel Ensemble, winner of McDonald’s Gospelfest Competition Award, and two other choirs that competed in the event in November will combine for concerts at 5 and 8 p.m. Sunday at the Friends congregation, called Church on the Hill, 5211 Lakeview Ave., Yorba Linda. The combined 90-voice concert will be emceed by Tina Brown, a former choir coordinator for the annual McDonald’s Gospelfest. Tickets are $5. (909) 307-0013.

* Two Worldwide Church of God congregations are sponsoring a racial healing and reconciliation workshop today and Sunday at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. The workshops, which begin both days at 9 a.m., will be led by Pastors Richard Parker and Curtis May of the Long Beach and Los Angeles congregations and by ministers from the Pasadena headquarters of the denomination. Free. Open to the public. (818) 304-6199, Ext. 5596.

* A workshop on “Couple Communication in Stepfamilies” will be led at the Mary & Joseph Retreat Center, 5300 Crest Road, Rancho Palos Verdes, on June 29 by counselor Marie Rientord; $50 for couples or $35 per person. Registration by today is requested. (310) 377-4867.

* “The Golem,” a short film starring actor Ed Asner as an elderly rabbi of Boyle Heights’ last remaining synagogue, will be shown at 11 a.m. Sunday by the Jewish Historical Society at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theatres in West Hollywood. The film will be followed by a discussion with writer-director Lewis Schoenbrun and Zev Garber of Los Angeles Valley College. For more information, call (213) 653-7740.

* A 12-session “Introduction to Zen Buddhism” at UCLA Extension will be taught by Mario Poceski, trained as a monk in the Chinese Ch’an, or Zen, tradition. He is a doctoral candidate in UCLA’s Buddhist studies. The class will meet two days a week, starting Monday. Tuition is $195 non-credit, $280 credit. (310) 206-8456.

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