c. 1998 Religion News Service

U.S. church delegation to deliver $100,000 in medical aid to Iraq

(RNS) A U.S. church delegation departed Wednesday (April 8) for Baghdad to deliver $100,000 in medical supplies to aid the people of Iraq.”The main purpose of our mission is to bring humanitarian aid to ease the suffering of the people of Iraq,”said the Rev. Rodney Page, executive director of Church World Service, the relief arm of the National Council of Churches.

The group plans to”express our Christian compassion and solidarity for the churches and the people of Iraq at Easter time,”Page told the Associated Press.” The seven-member delegation includes three other Church World Service staffers and representatives of the American Friends Service Committee, Lutheran World Relief and the Middle East Council of Churches.

Page said the group will visit Baghdad hospitals to donate $100,000 in antibiotics and surgical supplies. In addition, delegation members will spend Easter Sunday with members of Iraq’s Chaldean Christian minority. The trip is scheduled to conclude April 13.

Mel Lehman, a spokesman for the delegation, said the group also is scheduled to meet government officials in Iraq”to discuss the humanitarian impact of the economic sanctions against Iraq.” Iraq has dealt with trade sanctions imposed by the United Nations after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which triggered the Persian Gulf War. The U.N. Security Council has said the sanctions will not be lifted until U.N. inspectors determine that Iraq has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction.

Church World Service started providing emergency relief in 1991 to Gulf War victims and has provided close to $3 million in humanitarian aid.

Stampede kills more than 150 at Muslim hajj

(RNS) Tragedy has again struck the hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, with more than 150 persons dying in a stampede Thursday (April 9).

Reports from Saudi Arabia said the stampede began when pilgrims began surging toward three pillars symbolizing Satan’s temptations that are ritually stoned with small pebbles. As the crowd moved forward, some of the pilgrims reportedly fell from a bridge, causing panic.

Most of the victims were from Malaysia and Indonesia and were elderly, the Associated Press reported.

Tragedy is no stranger to the hajj, one of Islam’s five”pillars,”or core requirements. Embarking on the hajj is incumbent upon all able-bodied Muslims who can afford it.

In 1997, fires whipped through a tent city housing pilgrims, killing 340 and injuring 1,500. In 1994, 270 died, also in a stampede during the”stoning the devil”ritual. And in 1990, 1,426 pilgrims died during a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites.

Political differences have also claimed hundreds of lives during the hajj, which takes place over the course of about a week and attracts millions of pilgrims from throughout the Muslim world.

This year, more than 2.3 million Muslims from over 100 nations were on hand for the religious rite, which dates from pre-Muslim times. According to Islamic tradition, Abraham, who is regarded in Islam as the first Muslim because of his belief in monotheism, is said to be the founder of the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Bishop: Pope’s visit to Austria could be marred by protests

(RNS) An Austrian bishop warned Thursday (April 9) that Pope John Paul II’s visit to Austria in June could be marred by protests unless the Vatican moves swiftly to determine the fate of disgraced Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer.

Groer, 78, a close friend of the pope, has been accused of molesting a school boy 20 years ago and has never clearly admitted or denied the charges. In 1995, he was forced to resign as head of the Austrian church over the allegations. Since the first allegations surfaced, several monks and priests have also come forward to say they were objects of sexual advances from Groer.

The Austrian bishops have asked the pope to rule on Groer’s fate as a result of the allegations.”I expect decisive measures before the papal visit to calm the situation in Austria, which is potentially explosive,”Bishop Paul Iby of the diocese of Burgenland told an Austrian newspaper, according to the Associated Press.”If there is no clear action, we must expect protest rallies during the pope’s visit. … Unresolved cases undermine the credibility of the church,”the bishop said.

Last week, Austria’s bishops appealed as a body to the Vatican to act on the Groer case. Thousands of Austrian Catholics have said they have left the church because of the scandal.

But the country’s nine bishops say they do not have the power to punish Groer.”Only the pope is responsible for bishops,”Johann Weber, chairman of the the Austrian bishops conference, told a news conference last week.

Archbishop of Canterbury, U.S. Bishop Spong end debate on gays

(RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey and U.S. Episcopal Bishop John S. Spong of Newark, N.J., have agreed to end a heated debate on homosexuality carried on by letter since last November.

In agreeing to bring the exchange to an end, Spong held out the possibility that the gay issue, which has sharply divided not only the Episcopal Church in the United States but Anglican churches worldwide, might be defused so as not to disrupt this summer’s Lambeth Conference, a gathering of Anglican bishops from around the world.

The exchange began last Nov. 12 when Spong, an ultra-progressive in the U.S. church on a number of issues, sent a letter and an eight-page statement on homosexuality to Anglican bishops around the world.

He said he feared the forthcoming Lambeth Conference would”act out of our (the church’s) longstanding ignorance and fear”on the gay issue and deal another blow to”these victims of our traditional prejudice.” Carey responded with a condemnation of Spong’s”hectoring and intemperate tone.” Since then, the two leaders have continued to exchange letters on the issue, but Spong told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, that Carey suggested in a Feb. 25 letter bringing their correspondence to an end. In a late March letter, Spong agreed.

Spong also said that following a suggestion from Carey, he had contacted Bishop Peter Lee, a South African Anglican bishop and leader of a conservative caucus in the church in an attempt to work out a means of defusing the gay issue at the July Lambeth meeting.

Lee, Spong told ENI,”appears to be an evangelical, but one with a calm demeanor who is looking for answers.” He said the two sides might work out a compromise where the conservative bishops would agree that gays should receive the ministry of the church and justice in secular society while liberals would support a conservative statement against”predatory”or”promiscuous sexual behavior, whether by homosexuals or heterosexuals.”

Belgian cardinal fined as employer in priest molestation case

(RNS) Roman Catholic Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium and a local assistant bishop have been held liable as employers in a sexual molestation case involving a priest.

Danneels, who heads the church in Belgium, and the bishop were ordered Thursday (April 9) to pay $14,000 in a case involving the Rev. Andre Vanderlyn, a 64-year-old Brussels parish priest accused of molesting three boys.

Vanderlyn was sentenced to six years in prison.

The payment, which will go to one of the three boys involved _ a 12-year-old _ marks the first time high-level officials in the Belgian church have been held responsible for the sexual misdeeds of priests.

The ruling came as another court case opens next week against a local church sexton charged with sexually molesting 26 boys and girls over three decades. A pastor and a school director have been charged with negligence in that case.

At Vanderlyn’s trial, Danneels testified that the church never tried to cover up the priest’s sexual misdeeds. The cardinal also promised to establish procedures to help prevent future such cases.

Toon Osaer, a spokesman for Danneels, said the church respected the court’s judgment, the Associated Press reported.

Germany apologizes to Switzerland for spying on Scientology

(RNS) Germany, which has long been at odds with the Church of Scientology, has apologized to Switzerland for the activities of a German agent who was detained in Basel and charged with spying on the church.

The unidentified German agent was released Thursday (April 9) after German federal officials posted bail for him and issued a written apology to Switzerland.

The agent had been detained since Monday (April 6) in Basel, a Swiss city on the German border. He was arrested after meeting with two Swiss women, including a Socialist lawmaker.

Swiss officials said the agent’s gathering information on Scientology constituted “illegal business for a foreign state.” They also said the agent carried false identification. Despite his release, the charges have not been dropped.

Germany’s ambassador to Switzerland delivered a written apology for the”unintentional violation”by the agent, who works for the Baden-Wuerttemberg state branch of Germany’s domestic security agency, the Office for Protection of the Constitution, the Associated Press reported.

The controversial, Los Angeles-based church has been a target of German officials who consider it not a religion but a socially subversive, money-making scheme, charges Scientology officials reject.

In the United States, Scientology has gained Internal Revenue Service recognition as a legitimate religion. U.S. officials have criticized Germany’s attacks on the church, which have included barring Scientologists from holding government jobs.

In a letter to the German ambassador to the United States, the Rev. Heber C. Jentzch, Scientology’s international president, said the arrest was proof of Germany’s “brazen disregard” for law and human rights agreements in regard to its treatment of Scientology.

Jentzch said the arrest “is but the tip of the iceberg” of Germany’s “bag of dirty tricks.” He also asked Germany to guarantee that it does not engage in espionage activity against the church in the United States.

Scientology, founded in 1954 by the late science fiction writer and philosopher L. Ron Hubbard, claims 8 million followers worldwide, about 30,000 of them in Germany.

Quote of the day: writer and academic Diane Winston

(RNS)”For those whose experience includes an unambiguous encounter with the risen Christ, the revelation at Sinai or the will of Allah, the fact of the miraculous is clear. But those lacking a dramatic encounter with the extraordinary are left to sift through the details of our ordinary lives. And to admit the distance between ourselves and the events at Gethsemane, Sinai and Medina.” _ Diane Winston, a fellow at the Center for the Study of American Religion at Princeton University, writing on miracles in the April 9 editions of USA Today.

MJP END RNS