http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040730/ap_on_re_us/catholic_oath_3
Fri Jul 30, 3:32 PM ET
By AVIVA L. BRANDT, Associated Press Writer
PORTLAND, Ore. - As a lay liturgical minister and a cantor, Wilma Hens was a leader for years at her Roman Catholic parish in the central Oregon city of Bend. But then Bishop Robert F. Vasa issued a two-page "affirmation of faith." It tells lay ministers and cantors that, if they want to continue in their roles on the altar, they must accept the church's teachings opposing abortion, contraception, gay relationships and other issues.
Hens couldn't agree, so she quit — publicly. She stood at a microphone at St. Francis of Assisi Church last month and told the congregation she was stepping down because she could not accept the bishop's requirement.
"I could no longer pretend that I could ascend to some of those articles of faith any more than others can," she said Thursday in a telephone interview.
The affirmation singled out issues that many American Catholics have struggled with, such as the sinfulness of contraception and "the church's teaching that any extramarital sexual relationships are gravely evil and that these include premarital relations, masturbation, fornication, the viewing of pornography and homosexual relations."