c. 2004 Religion News Service

IRS Says About 20 Churches Under Review for Improper Politicking

(RNS) The Internal Revenue Service is investigating about 20 churches on charges of improper partisan activity and said allegations that such probes are motivated by partisan politics are “repugnant and groundless.”

IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said Friday (Oct. 29) that the agency is investigating more than 60 cases of nonprofit groups possibly engaged in illegal partisan activity. About one-third of the cases involve churches.

Everson’s statement came after some conservative groups accused the IRS of telling churches they cannot pray for President Bush’s re-election. The IRS said it has made no formal ruling or change of policy.

“Career civil servants, not political appointees, make these decisions in a fair, impartial manner,” Everson said in a statement. “Any suggestion that the IRS has tilted its audit activities for political purposes is repugnant and groundless.”

Everson said the agency reviewed about 100 cases and found 60 that “merited examination.” Federal law prohibits the agency from commenting on the nature or circumstances of any case, he said.

Since April, the IRS has issued two reminders to religious groups and candidates, advising them that nonprofit groups are prohibited from working “on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office.”

A Presbyterian pastor from Virginia, the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, said an IRS official told his lawyers on the phone that he could jeopardize a church’s tax-exempt status if he prayed that God “grant President Bush four more years” during a speaking tour in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The IRS said allegations from conservatives that it was telling churches how to pray were baseless.

“The IRS has never issued a ruling telling people how to pray,” said IRS spokeswoman Nancy Mathis.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Despite EU Constitution, Pope Expresses Hope for a Christian Europe

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Speaking one day after the 25 countries making up the enlarged European Union signed a constitution that did not acknowledge Christianity, Pope John Paul II said he hopes Christian values will continue to inspire Europe for years to come.

John Paul spoke of his hopes for Europe to Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka at a Vatican audience Saturday (Oct. 30). He said they met “in a moment so important for Poland and for Europe.”

The signing of the constitution, he said, “is an event that in a certain sense concludes the process of enlargement of the community to those states that have always cooperated in the formation of the spiritual and institutional foundation of the Old Continent but during recent decades remained, so to speak, at its margins.”

The pope said, “The Apostolic See and I personally have tried to support this process so that Europe might breathe fully with two lungs: with the spirit of the West and of the East.”

He said he will continue to remind European leaders of their debt to Christianity.

The framers of the constitution rejected John Paul’s appeal for a reference to Europe’s Christian roots in its preamble on grounds that this would violate the separation of church and state. Poland was among countries backing the pope.

“I have faith,” said the pope, “that, even though an explicit reference to the Christian roots of the culture of all the nations making up the community today is lacking in the European Constitution, the eternal values elaborated on the foundation of the Gospel for generations of those who preceded us will continue to inspire the efforts of those who assume the responsibility of forming the face of our continent.”

Illustrating the importance of the issue, the pope spoke again of the constitution on Sunday (Oct. 31) as thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square below his study window for the noon Angelus prayer.

“The Holy See has always been favorable to the promotion of a Europe united on the basis of those common values that are part of its history,” the pontiff said. “To take into account the Christian roots of the continent means to avail oneself of a spiritual patrimony that remains fundamental for the future development of the union.”

_ Peggy Polk

Vermont Bishop Bans Common Communion Cup to Help Stop Flu

(RNS) As Americans rush for a limited supply of flu vaccines, the Roman Catholic bishop of Vermont has told his priests not to allow parishioners to drink from a common Communion cup or exchange a sign of peace.

Bishop Kenneth Angell of Burlington, in a brief message sent to priests on Oct. 25, said the ban will remain in effect through Easter (March 27) as a “protective measure.”

Angell’s directive is thought to be the first in the country as many Americans plan to go unvaccinated in the flu season. Vaccine supplies were slashed after a British lab that supplied most of the vaccines was shut down for unsanitary conditions.

“Because of the flu vaccine shortage, I am requesting that, as a protective measure … we do not give the `Sign of Peace’ or the chalice for Communion starting Sunday, Oct. 31, 2004, and remaining in effect until Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005,” Angell said.

Last year, parishioners in three California dioceses were asked not to hold hands during the Lord’s Prayer, and priests were instructed not to place Communion wafers on worshippers’ tongues. Similar changes were made in the Diocese of Colorado Springs, Colo.

In April 2003 during an outbreak of the SARS virus in Canada, Catholic officials discouraged a handshake during the sign of peace and told worshippers not to kiss the crucifix as a sign of veneration during Holy Week.

In 2000, Canadian cardiologist David Gould said parishioners face more risk of catching a cold from airborne germs than from sharing a common chalice. He also said dipping Communion bread into the wine rather than sipping from the cup may be worse because hands contain more germs than a person’s mouth.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Ruling Stopping `Parish Nurse’ Funding Draws Mixed Reaction

(RNS) Legal experts have offered mixed reaction to a district court decision that said a “parish nurse” training program was constitutionally inappropriate for governmental funding, in part because of an official’s endorsement of religiously motivated health care.

A U.S. District Court judge in Montana ruled Wednesday (Oct. 27) that funding of the Parish Nurse Center at Carroll College in Helena was “preferential” and impermissibly advanced the integration of religion in the secular health care setting. Magistrate Judge Richard Anderson cited particular concerns about the religious perspectives of David M. Young, the director of the Montana Office of Rural Health and co-convener of the Montana Faith-Health Cooperative, who administered the grant.

“The undisputed facts inescapably lead the court to the conclusion that Young’s actions were actually motivated not by the purpose of enhancing the delivery of health care, but by the more specific purpose of advancing and endorsing religion as a substantial component of the health care to be provided,” Anderson ruled.

George Washington University Law School professor Ira Lupu said the court recognized that Young had academic and religious freedom to privately support his beliefs, but “his problem was that he brought it into his office.”

Gregory S. Baylor, director of the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom, questioned the judge’s consideration of Young’s beliefs.

“Courts should not be digging into the convictions of individuals in a misguided and legally irrelevant quest to find a personal religious motive for their actions,” he told Religion News Service.

Reached by phone, Young declined to comment on the judge’s view that his faith played a role in the funding, which was awarded through the Compassion Capital Fund of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But he said parish nurses, who are driven by their faith to meet people’s holistic health care needs, visit people in small rural communities regardless of their faith.

“We feel by partnering with all the people, the secular and religious communities, that we can have healthier rural communities, but we’re not proselytizing,” Young, a member of the United Church of Christ, said of the goals of the cooperative he co-founded. “We’re not promoting a religion.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which filed the suit, cheered the decision.

“This is a solid victory which should be considered precedent to stop this kind of faith-based funding,” said Anne Gaylor, president of the Madison, Wis.-based foundation, in a statement.

Both Lupu and Baylor told RNS they didn’t think the decision would threaten the larger national initiative created by President Bush in 2001 to improve access to government funding for faith-based and community organizations.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Adamec

(RNS) “It has been suggested that, for such an awesome task, we should take God into the polling booth with us. Indeed, he does come along, whether we would choose to have him there or not. For, while our vote is to be a secret one, it is not unknown to the Almighty.”

_ Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Adamec of Altoona-Johnstown, Pa., in a pre-election pastoral letter on voting.

MO/KRE/PH END RNS