c. 2000 Religion News Service
National Council of Churches Cheers Elian’s U.S. Departure
(RNS) Officials of the National Council of Churches, which long has supported the return of Elian Gonzalez to his homeland, are glad he has been permitted to fly to Cuba.
“We are delighted that Elian Gonzalez is on his way home at last, in the company of his loving father,” the Rev. Robert W. Edgar, general secretary of the New York-based ecumenical agency, said in a statement Wednesday (June 28).
The U.S. Supreme Court ended a seven-month custody fight over the boy by rejecting appeals by Elian’s Miami relatives who wanted him to stay in this country. His father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who has lived with him in the United States for more than two months, wanted to return with him to Cuba.
They departed Wednesday afternoon from Dulles International Airport in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington.
“The courts of our land have done the right thing in saying that Juan Miguel Gonzalez is the only one entitled to speak for his son,” Edgar said. “We regret that it has taken so long for there to be a resolution that will enable the boy and his family to be reunited in their own home.”
The council became an advocate for the 6-year-old boy at the request of the Cuban Council of Churches.
He arrived in the United States last November clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Florida after his mother and others died in an apparent attempt to illegally immigrate to the United States.
The council supported the visit of the boys’ grandmothers to plead his case in January. An NCC delegation visited the boys’ family in Cuba.
“We pray that this little child now will have time, in familiar surroundings, to get on with his life, to come to terms with the loss of his mother, and to reconnect with friends and family following these many months of forced separation,” Edgar said in a statement.
Pope Urges End to Attacks on Christians in Moluccas and India
(RNS) Pope John Paul II appealed Wednesday (July 28) for an end to the “savage violence” against Christians in the Molucca islands of Indonesia and in India.
Addressing some 30,000 Holy Year pilgrims attending his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Roman Catholic pontiff expressed strong concern over the plight of Asian Christians under attack by Muslim and Hindu extremists.
“There is, unfortunately, no indication of a calming of the wave of ethnic-religious disorders that since January 1999 have shaken the Indonesian archipelago of the Moluccas,” he said. “The repeated bloody, armed attacks by Muslim extremists against Christian villages are causing many victims and unlimited damage.”
President Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia declared a state of emergency in the eastern Moluccas on Monday (June 26), saying that “the situation is out of control.” Nearly 3,000 Christians and Muslims have been killed in 18 months of fighting.
“Equally worrying news arrives from India where most recently there have been multiple aggressions against Christian communities and other minorities,” the pope said.
John Paul said Indian bishops have described the clashes as “the most serious since the country became independent.”
“I renew my sorrowful appeal that such savage violence might cease,” he said. “I dare to hope that whoever carries out or instigates it will understand that you cannot kill or destroy in the name of religion or manipulate it according to your own interests.
“I ask the authorities to strive with firmness to improve the situation and everyone to put aside hate and to work tirelessly for the re-establishment of religious harmony in reciprocal respect and love,” the pope said.
Supreme Court Rejects Law Banning Late-Term Abortion Procedure
(RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday (June 28) overturned Nebraska’s law banning a late-term abortion procedure, ruling the statute violates the Constitution by imposing an “undue burden” on a woman’s constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.
Nebraska’s 1997 law barred doctors from performing an abortion procedure in which doctors “partially deliver vaginally a living unborn child before killing the unborn child and completing delivery.” Violators could face stiff penalties _ loss of their medical licenses, up to $25,000 in fines and jail sentences as long as 20 years.
“All those who perform abortion procedures using that method must fear prosecution, conviction and imprisonment,” wrote Justice Stephen G. Breyer for the court.
“The result is an undue burden upon a woman’s right to make an abortion decision. We must consequently find the statute unconstitutional.”
The state’s law was challenged by Dr. Leroy Carhart, the only doctor in Nebraska known to perform abortions beyond the 16th week of pregnancy, who contended the law was so broadly written it could be used to prohibit most second-trimester abortions.
The court also struck down the Nebraska law on the grounds that it neither preserved a woman’s health nor protected the life of the fetus _ the two state interests established as the legal standard by the Supreme Court in earlier rulings.
The Supreme Court’s decision was condemned by a number of organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and the Family Research Council.
The Supreme Court’s decision gave “the abortion industry permission to cross a line from abortion to infanticide,” said Carrie Gordon Earll, a bioethics analyst with the public policy division of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit Christian organization.
But the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism applauded the decision.
“Today, in striking down Nebraska’s restrictive abortion law, the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the fundamental right of women to make their own decisions about their own bodies,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the center. “A physician in the operating room will not have to turn to a statute book for permission to provide appropriate medical care.”
In a related matter, the Supreme Court upheld _ with a 6-3 ruling _ a 1993 Colorado statute banning “sidewalk counseling” within eight feet of a person who has not given his or her consent and is within 100 feet of a health care clinic. The law _ which protesters had contended was a violation of their free speech rights _ also applies to the distribution of pamphlets and the display of signs.
Catholic Officials `Praying’ for Archbishop in Hostage Crisis
(RNS) U.S. Catholic officials were waiting prayerfully for the resolution of a crisis involving Archbishop Patrick Flores of San Antonio who was taken hostage in his office Wednesday (June 28).
“We’re watching it very carefully,” Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokesperson for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, told Religion News Service. “We’re praying and we’re hoping certainly for a peaceful resolution.”
A man seeking assistance with a passport problem and claiming to have a hand grenade took Flores hostage Wednesday morning.
“We haven’t confirmed that he has a grenade,” said Gabriel Trevino, a spokesman for the police department, who said police were negotiating with the man.
Flores’ secretary, Myrtle Sanchez, also was taken hostage but she was released unharmed after almost three hours. The rest of the archdiocesan headquarters building was evacuated.
Monsignor Larry Stuebben said Sanchez said of the unidentified man: “He’s very frustrated by the way he’s been treated and wants the archbishop to help him.”
Hostage negotiators, FBI representatives and bomb squad personnel were among those at the scene, police said.
Walsh said Flores was the first Hispanic to be named a bishop in this country when he became San Antonio’s auxiliary bishop in 1970.
He was named bishop of El Paso in 1978 and archbishop of San Antonio in 1979.
Heart Association Supports Stem-Cell Research
(RNS) The American Heart Association has endorsed controversial stem-cell research, an area of study rejected by abortion opponents.
Association officials said research on stem cells, which are the simplest building blocks of human tissue, could lead to helpful treatments for sufferers from strokes, heart disease and other illnesses.
But aborted fetuses and discarded human embryos are often the sources for stem cells, so anti-abortion groups and some medical ethicists oppose the research.
Forty-three members of the heart association’s board agreed Sunday (June 25) to support the use of money from donors and federal funds to further the study of stem cells, the Associated Press reported.
The decision endorsed a recommendation by a board-appointed task force that included scientists and a bioethicist.
“Ultimately, the board felt that this research has the opportunity to save million of lives,” said Dr. Rose Marie Robertson, president-elect of the association and a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
An association spokesman said the decision makes stem-cell research a candidate for future funding but doesn’t necessarily dispense money to a particular project.
Robertson said the association will not fund any such research until there are strict guidelines to avoid abuses.
The director of the American Bioethics Advisory Commission, a division of the anti-abortion American Life League, criticized the health association’s decision.
“The American Heart Association’s endorsement of using embryonic stem cells is gravely unethical,” said the Rev. Joseph Howard. “Every time stem cells are obtained from a human embryo, the inner cell mass is destroyed, along with an innocent human person.”
Presbyterians Move Toward a Ban of Same-Sex Unions
(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) is one step closer to a ban on same-sex unions after a church committee approved a change Tuesday (June 27) to the church’s constitution that would ban “any ceremony or event” that would bless same-sex relationships.
The issue now faces a vote by more than 500 church delegates gathered in Long Beach, Calif., for the church’s annual General Assembly. If approved by a majority of delegates, the measure would still have to be approved by a majority of the church’s 171 regional presbyteries.
A similar measure passed the church’s 1994 General Assembly but failed a vote in the presbyteries.
After two days of impassioned debate, the church’s Physical and Spiritual Well Being Committee voted 25-22 to approve the ban. While not mentioning same-sex unions or homosexuals specifically, the measure would prohibit church ministers and property being used in “any ceremony or event that pronounces blessing or gives approval of the church … upon any relationship” that is not between one man and one woman.
Committee members were sharply divided on whether the measure would tie the hands of local pastors who want to minister to gays and lesbians by performing such ceremonies. Some said the church could not bless a behavior that God has condemned.
“As Christians, we are all sinners, and we have been forgiven, but our sins have not been blessed,” said Elizabeth O’Brien, a youth delegate from Virginia.
The volatile issue of human sexuality took on a new urgency at this year’s convention following a ruling by the church’s highest court last month. The court ruled that because the church’s Book of Order does not explicitly prohibit same-sex unions, churches are free to conduct them. The bill passed by the committee would add that specific prohibition.
Christian College Group Receives Grant to Study Faith Development
(RNS) The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities has received a grant of almost $200,000 from the John Templeton Foundation to fund a study of undergraduate faith and spiritual development.
The “Faithful Change” project will assess changes in the faith of students as they study on campuses affiliated with the council. The Templeton grant of $197,000 will be used for the study of 360 students throughout their college years.
Arthur J. Nonneman, director of institutional research and assessment at Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky., will be one of the co-directors of the project.
“We anticipate that Faithful Change will provide a theoretical framework for conceptualizing spiritual growth,” he said. “Our hope is that these findings will have broad societal impact on institutions such as higher education, religious organizations, chaplaincy programs and nonprofit organizations.”
The Washington-based council is an association of more than 95 member colleges and universities.
Quote of the day: Judy Williams of the World Council of Churches
(RNS) “In fact, the reality for many has dramatically worsened in spite of huge increases in the wealth worldwide. In the past five years the few have continued to accumulate excessive wealth, while many still lack basic necessities and are constantly struggling to survive with human dignity and hope.”
_ Judy Williams of Grenada, a member of the World Council of Churches’ ecumenical team participating in the United Nations’ review of the World Summit for Social Development, held five years ago in Copenhagen. She made her comments June 26 in a speech to a U.N. meeting in Geneva.
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