c. 2005 Religion News Service
U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Take Case of Brain-Damaged Woman
WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (Jan. 24) declined to review a case involving Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman whose right to life has been at the center of a 15-year legal battle.
A Florida Supreme Court decision had denied Florida Gov. Jeb Bush the power to block a court ruling that Schiavo’s life support be stopped. Her parents had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review that decision.
The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative Christian group representing Schiavo’s parents, expressed dismay over Monday’s development.
“By declaring `Terri’s Law’ unconstitutional, the Florida courts have handed down a death sentence for her,” said Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice.
Schiavo suffered a heart attack in 1990 that led to severe brain damage, causing her to be dependent on a feeding tube. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has said that he wants the life support to be stopped so that she may die peacefully.
Terri’s parents protested, saying that Terri is not in a vegetative state and that pulling life support would amount to state-sponsored starvation. They also said that Terry’s husband should be removed from this case because he will receive $650,000 in medical malpractice awards upon Terri’s death.
Monday’s development does not necessarily mean Schiavo’s feeding tube can be removed.
Barbara Weller, co-counsel for the Terri’s parents, Mary and Robert Schindler, said the Supreme Court’s refusal to take the case, although disappointing, has no direct impact on other litigation that’s still pending.
“It would have helped us, but it doesn’t hurt us,” said Weller. “We are going full speed ahead in the Florida courts.”
George Felos, representing Michael Schiavo, said the Supreme Court ruling was a victory for his client.
“Mr. Schiavo is obviously very pleased,” Felos said. “… It effectively ends the governor’s interference with this case.”
_ Lauren Etter
Pope Warns Misuse of Media Images Can Cause War and Genocide
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Underlining the “grave responsibility” of the communications media to report accurately, Pope John Paul II warned Monday (Jan. 24) that misusing images can cause “violence, war or even genocide.”
The pope made the warning in his message for the 39th World Day of Social Communications, which the Catholic Church will mark May 8 on the theme “The Communications Media: At the Service of Understanding Among Peoples.”
“Modern technology places at our disposal unprecedented possibilities for good,” John Paul said. “Yet its misuse can do untold harm, giving rise to misunderstanding, prejudice and even conflict.”
The pope emphasized the power of images to “convey lasting impressions and shape attitudes.” He said they subtly influence whether people consider members of other groups and nations to be “friends or enemies, allies or potential adversaries.”
“When others are portrayed in hostile terms, seeds of conflict are sown which can all too easily escalate into violence, war or even genocide,” he said. “Instead of building unity and understanding, the media can be used to demonize other social, ethnic and religious groups, fomenting fear and hatred.
“Those responsible for the style and content of what is communicated have a grave duty to ensure that this does not happen,” John Paul said. “Accurate knowledge promotes understanding, dispels prejudice and awakens the desire to learn more.”
The pope cited the reporting of the tsunami disaster, which hit 11 countries of South Asia on Dec. 26, as an example of how the media can encourage “the swift mobilization of aid in response to nature disasters.”
“It was heartening to see how quickly the international community responded to the recent tsunami that claimed countless lives. The speed with which news travels today naturally increased the possibility for timely practical measures designed to offer maximum assistance,” he said. “In this way the media can achieve an immense amount of good.”
_ Peggy Polk
Pope Concerned About Effects of Secularization, Especially on Youth
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II has expressed strong concern about growing secularization in Western society, especially its effects on young people growing up in ignorance of their “rich spiritual patrimony.”
The 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff raised the issue in addresses on Saturday (Jan. 22) to Monique Patricia Antoinette Frank, the new ambassador of Holland to the Vatican, and again on Monday (Jan. 24) to Spanish bishops making the visit to the Vatican required of all prelates every five years.
To fight “the phenomenon of secularization,” he said, Holland’s young people must “receive a solid education that develops and unifies the personality.”
In a ceremony at which he received the Dutch ambassador’s credentials, John Paul also focused on respect for life in Holland, which has legalized euthanasia. He said Catholics must “testify always to their attachment to respect for the human person from conception to natural death.”
John Paul stressed “the urgency for a deeper dialogue” in Holland, where a controversial politician and a filmmaker have been murdered for their views. He said dialogue is needed “between the different groups that make up the nation so that they may learn to know and to respect each other.”
Addressing Spanish bishops, led by Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid and president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the pope said that entire generations of Spaniards were growing up in an atmosphere of “indifference to religion that ignores the Christian tradition of this rich spiritual patrimony.”
John Paul called it “the duty” of public authorities to support Catholic schools in order to guarantee a Catholic education to all families who request it.
The pope said that he feared for religious freedom in Spain, where the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero has enacted legislation permitting same-sex marriage and research on stem cells taken from human embryos.
A “temptation to moral permissiveness” in Spain contrasts to “the most noble Spanish traditions” marked by the country’s deep Catholic faith, John Paul said.
_ Peggy Polk
`Ten Commandments’ Judge Says U.S. Is Under Godless `Tyranny’
WASHINGTON (RNS) President Bush’s inaugural speech addressed tyranny around the world, but former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said Saturday (Jan. 22) that tyranny is also a domestic issue.
“The real issue in this country is not terrorism, it’s tyranny,” Moore said. “Tyranny is putting ourselves above God, and our federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court have done exactly that.”
Moore was in Washington to address a religiously conservative gathering to honor America’s first ladies. In a wide-ranging interview before the speech, Moore discussed what he calls the loss of liberty in America, his losing fight to display the Ten Commandments as he saw fit, his political future and the church-state cases now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Moore acknowledged that officers of the federal government regularly invoke God’s name in prayers, oaths and even the start of a workday in Congress. Asked for proof that such recognition is threatened, Moore cited his own case.
He was removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court after defying a court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state judicial building. Moore testified that the monument was intended to specifically honor the Judeo-Christian God as the basis of American law and a judge found the combination an affront to the separation of church and state.
“So I can’t say who God is? That’s ridiculous,” Moore said.
References to God in a more generic sense with the intention of respecting religious diversity are pointless, he said.
Moore said a Supreme Court ruling in favor of government displays of the Ten Commandments in similar pending cases would be a “devastating” blow to his cause. That’s because the two cases, from Texas and Kentucky, center on Ten Commandment displays within a historical context.
_ Mary Orndorff
Election Ends Peacefully at Contested Sikh Temple
FREMONT, Calif. (RNS) A three-year battle for control of the country’s second-largest Sikh temple has ended peacefully.
Fremont’s Gurdwara Sahib congregation elected five men to the Supreme Council _ in charge of overseeing the temple’s finances and community programs _ in the court-mandated vote.
The results were announced Jan. 13 in an Alameda County courtroom in Hayward, with armed bailiffs and police standing by because of the gurdwara’s volatile history. In its 25-year existence, police have responded to several violent outbursts at the temple, including minor bloodshed during a 1996 election scuffle.
Seven Sikhs filed suit against the Supreme Council in 2002, contending that the board had taken power illegally, with no intention of stepping down. Judge Julia Spain ruled the 1996 congregation voice vote had violated California business codes requiring democratic elections, and ordered the temple to hold a ballot vote.
Thousands stood in long lines to cast their votes at the cream-colored temple, supervised by a retired state appellate justice with plainclothes police officers monitoring the crowd.
Sikhism is a 500-year-old monotheistic religion originating in the northern Indian state of Punjab. Male followers traditionally wear turbans and beards and carry ceremonial swords.
The new Supreme Council members are Sukhdev Singh Bainiwal, Ram Singh, Tara Gill, Davinder Chana and Kuljeet Singh _ all members of the Panthak, or Sikh Nation platform. They defeated the slate of Sadh Sangat, or Holy Congregation, which was backed by the outgoing leaders.
_ Nicole Neroulias
Quote of the Day: Spiritual Guru Deepak Chopra
(RNS) “I think God is more likely to be a woman because women are nurturing and caring and loving. The human male has become the most predatory animal on our planet. It’s time that we embrace the feminine face of God.”
_ Spiritual guru Deepak Chopra, quoted by Time magazine
MO/PH RNS END
