A Catholic organization that attempts to minister...

A Catholic organization that attempts to minister to parishioners who separate from their spouses or divorce them--within a church that teaches the permanence of marriage--will hold its four-day convention, starting Thursday, at Loyola Marymount University.

The North American Conference of Separated and Divorced Catholics “is primarily a ministry of reconciliation since so many divorcing Catholics feel alienated from the church and abandoned by God,” said Paulist Father Christopher Witt of La Jolla, chaplain of the organization.

Church law permits divorced Catholics to receive Communion, but not if they have entered into second marriages and their first marriage has not been annulled by a church tribunal. But the Catholic hierarchy nevertheless urges remarried Catholics to attend Mass, raise their children in the church and otherwise participate in parish life.

Witt said the North American Conference was founded more than 20 years ago. “Today there are local chapters in almost every diocese in the United States and Canada,” Witt said.

“In my experience,” he added, “the church in Southern California is still catching up with other dioceses, notably in the Midwest, with regard to ministry to alienated Catholics.”

The convention next week is the 18th annual, but the meeting is the first in 15 years to be held outside of South Bend, Ind. Officials have decided to shift the convention sites each year to facilitate broader participation. Registration begins Thursday afternoon at the university’s McKay Hall; the first general session starts at 7 p.m.

WORSHIP/MUSIC

Joan SalmonCampbell, the newly elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and recording artist Isaiah Jones will combine in concert of gospel and contemporary black music Thursday night as part of a six-day conference on worship and music at Occidental College. The Presbyterian-sponsored conference, which begins Sunday evening, also features Episcopal priest John Westerhoff of Duke University Divinity School as the keynote speaker at 11 a.m. Monday.

The newly published “United Methodist Hymnal” will be featured during the biennial convocation at the School of Theology at Claremont July 16-20 of the national Fellowship of United Methodists in Worship, Music and the Other Arts. The Rev. William Sloan Coffin Jr., former pastor of New York’s Riverside Church and a peace activist, will preach and assist in workshops, sponsors said.

MEDIA

Author Hal Lindsey, a Southern California minister known for his apocalyptic books on “last day” prophecies, is out with his 12th book this month. “The Road to Holocaust” (Bantam) attacks the theocratic-oriented Christian Reconstructionist movement, claiming that the movement could contribute to a new wave of anti-Semitism. Lindsey pastors a church in Torrance and hosts a weekly program, “Weekend Review,” on Trinity Broadcasting Network.