c. 2004 Religion News Service

Study Links College Students’ Religious Involvement to Emotional Health

(RNS) College students with significant religious involvement report better emotional health than those with no involvement, new research from UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute shows.

The results, drawn from a national study of 3,680 college students, indicate that students who are not churchgoers are more than twice as likely to say they have felt depressed or had poorer emotional health than students who frequently attend religious services.

The findings, released Monday (Oct. 25), show that religious activity has positive links to emotional health. Those who often attend religious services are far less likely to frequently feel overwhelmed during college.

The survey examined religious involvement such as service attendance, participation in campus religious organizations and reading of sacred texts. It labeled feelings of depression, stress or being overwhelmed as indicators of “psychological distress.”

“College can be an unsettling time as students struggle with change and fundamental issues about themselves and the world,” said Alexander W. Astin, an education professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and co-principal investigator for the project.

“This study suggests that religion and spirituality can play a positive role in the mental and emotional health of students.”

The study also found that religious involvement may decrease the chances that non-drinkers will start drinking in college. For example, of those who abstained from beer before entering college, 74 percent continue to abstain during college if they are very religiously involved. Forty-six percent continue to abstain if they have no or little involvement in religious activities during college.

The analysis is part of a national study of third-year college students at 46 colleges and universities.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Catholic Charities USA Names Minnesota Priest as New President

(RNS) A Minnesota priest who helped distribute more than $30 million in aid following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been named the new president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA.

The Rev. Larry Snyder will head the Alexandria, Va.-based agency after leading its local affiliate in St. Paul-Minneapolis for five years. He succeeds the Rev. Bryan Hehir, a respected social policy expert, who was recalled last year to his native Archdiocese of Boston.

Snyder, a former high school teacher, will oversee one of the nation’s largest social services agencies, which serves nearly 7 million people a year. Since 2001, Snyder chaired Catholic Charities’ National Disaster Response Advisory Committee following the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The service performed by all the local Catholic Charities agencies around the country is vastly important,” Snyder said. “It is my goal to find ways that (the national office) can be of even better service to them so that their work can go forward.”

Snyder, 54, joined the Twin Cities office in 1991 and was named CEO in 1999. He oversaw an agency with an operating budget of $39 million that operated 48 programs for 150,000 people in need. He will start at the national office on Feb. 1, 2005.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Catholic Bishops Launch Ads Against Embryonic Stem-Cell Research

WASHINGTON (RNS) The nation’s Catholic bishops have launched an ad campaign before the Nov. 2 elections to convince Americans that embryonic stem-cell research is faulty science.

The ads, appearing in USA Today, The Washington Times and National Catholic Reporter, say real cures will be found in adult stem-cell research, not stem cells harvested from embryos that are destroyed in the process.

“Let’s find cures we can all live with,” says one of the two ads, featuring a 9-month-old baby named Joshua. The ad implies Joshua would never have been born if his embryo had been destroyed for research.

The controversial research has taken center stage in the elections after the Catholic hierarchy and President Bush opposed it. Sen. John Kerry, a Catholic, supports the research and promised to lift federal funding restrictions if elected.

A voter’s guide distributed by some conservative bishops lists opposition to embryonic research as one of five “non-negotiables” _ along with gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia and cloning _ that must shape a Catholic’s voting choice.

“All human life deserves respect, and the lives of some must never be destroyed for the potential benefit of others,” said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, director of planning for the bishop’s pro-life office.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Pastor Crafts Hymn From NCC Voting Guidelines

(RNS) Dozens of groups from left, right and center have proposed election-year criteria voters should consider, but only one, apparently, has been set to music and may be coming to a church near you.

The Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, a Presbyterian pastor and contemporary hymn writer, took the “Christian Principles in an Election Year” produced by the National Council of Churches and set them to music.

The guidelines emphasize opposition to war and violence, foreign policy reforms, care for the poor, racial equality, environmental stewardship, immigration reform and affordable health care, among other things.

The result is “In Times of Great Decision,” set to the tune of “The Church’s One Foundation.” Gillette said her husband, the Rev. Bruce Gillette, found the principles on the Internet and thought they would make a good hymn. The Gillettes are co-pastors of Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Del.

“Some people say we should separate the `political’ and `religious’ sides of life, but I believe we are supposed to carry our faith convictions into the way we vote and the way we choose our leaders,” she said.

Gillette also penned a hymn, “O God, Our Words Cannot Express,” that was widely used after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and “God, Whose Love Is Always Stronger” that was used in the weeks before the United States launched the war against Iraq.

“To me, a hymn is always a prayer,” she said. “It can have depth, content and theological integrity, but it is always a prayer.”

The last stanza of Gillette’s hymn goes this way:

“You call on every nation to put aside all greed

To care for your creation, and for your ones in need

To care for those in prison, for children, for the ill

In times of great decision, may we choose leaders well.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Quote of the Day: Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver

(RNS) “Claiming that `we don’t want to impose our beliefs on society’ is not merely politically convenient; it is morally incoherent and irresponsible.”

_ Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, writing in The New York Times about Catholic politicians who support abortion rights against church teaching.

MO/PH END RNS