c. 2005 Religion News Service U.S. Supreme Court to Review Oregon’s Doctor-Assisted Suicide Law WASHINGTON _ The U.S. Supreme Court announced Tuesday (Feb. 22) that it will take a case examining Oregon’s doctor-assisted suicide law. The court agreed to hear the federal government’s appeal of a lower court ruling that prevented the Drug Enforcement Administration from punishing doctors who prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients under Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act. It will hear the case in October at the beginning of its 2005-2006 term. A conservative law firm that focuses on constitutional law welcomed the high court’s consideration of the case. “The federal government must have the opportunity to legally prohibit physicians from prescribing life-ending medication to assist patients commit suicide,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice. Oregon supporters of legalizing assisted suicide said the court’s decision to take the case surprised them. “I guessed wrong,” said Dr. Susan Tolle, director of the Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health & Science University. “I didn’t think the court would take it.” Regardless of which way the Supreme Court rules, Tolle said she worries about the impact of the controversy on patients in need of pain relief. “We all know doctors step back just a little bit” in their willingness to prescribe potent pain-controlling drugs, she said, when the government threatens to use anti-drug laws to crack down on physicians treating patients under the Death With Dignity Act. During the first six years the law was in effect, 171 terminally ill people ended their lives under it. _ Ashbel S. Green, Jim Barnett and Don Colburn Founder of Catholic Communion and Liberation Movement Dies VATICAN CITY (RNS) Monsignor Luigi Giussani, who founded the Communion and Liberation movement of Catholic laity now active in 75 countries worldwide, died early Tuesday (Feb. 22) at his home in Milan, Italy. He was 82. An announcement said that Giussani suffered circulatory and kidney collapse caused by pneumonia. Born in the town of Desio near Milan, Giussani entered a seminary at the age of 10 but managed to read Jules Verne and other secular tales along with his religious studies. He went on to the Venegono Theological Faculty and after ordination as a priest taught there for a time, then in a Milan high school. Giussani published his first book, “Protestant and Orthodox Attitudes to the Dogma of the Assumption,” in 1951. This was followed in 1959 by “The Religious Sense,” a theoretical text about spreading the Gospel among young students, which grew out of his association with a group called “Student Youth.” It became the nucleus of the Communion and Liberation movement. Beginning with young people and later expanding to adults, the Communion and Liberation movement was based on the belief that living a Christian life in communion is the foundation of authentic liberation. Pope Paul VI, a former archbishop of Milan, gave the group its first Vatican encouragement in 1975, telling Giussani at a Vatican audience, “This is the path. Go on like this.” But it was under Pope John Paul II in 1982 that the Pontifical Council for the Laity formally recognized the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation as a “juridical entity for the universal Church” and declared it an “association of pontifical right.” The pope also named Giussani a monsignor and gave him the title of honorary prelate to his holiness. From 1964 to 1990 Giusanni occupied the chair of Introductory Theology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. Following a stay in the United States, he published “An Outline of American Protestant Theology from its Origins to the 1950s,” and in 1993 he began editing a successful series “Books of the Christian Spirit.” _ Peggy Polk Doctors Say Pope Recovered From Medical Crisis Faster Than Expected ROME (RNS) Pope John Paul II made a faster-than-expected recovery from the breathing crisis that forced his hospitalization, but he will need more time to complete his convalescence, the head of his medical team said Wednesday (Feb. 16). Rodolfo Proietti said in an interview with L’Avvenire, a Catholic daily newspaper with close ties to the Italian Bishops Conference, that the pope’s general condition is good. An anesthesiologist and reanimation specialist who is head of the Emergency Department of Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic hospital, Proietti led the medical team that treated the 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff during his nine-day hospitalization earlier this month. Asserting that there was “absolutely no mystery” about John Paul’s health, Proietti said the pope was suffering only from “acute laryngeal tracheitis with crisis of spasms of the larynx” when he was rushed to the hospital by ambulance the night of Feb. 1. Proietti said that the inflammation of the windpipe with spasms that closed off the larynx “fortunately was resolved with relative rapidity and without the appearance of other complications.” The pope, he noted, is 84 years old and has had previous illnesses but is “by character very strong.” John Paul has had intestinal and hip replacement surgery and suffers from Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological condition. “The time he took to heal was faster than we had initially foreseen. All the diagnostic investigations carried out showed a good and quick response to therapy, the resolution of the acute laryngeal tracheitis and the absence of complications,” the specialist said. “At that point we were able to anticipate his leaving of the hospital by one day.” Asked what condition the pope is in following his discharge from the hospital, Proietti said, “Certainly in good general condition even if he will have to conclude a period of convalescence.” He said it would take John Paul “some time to recuperate his full energy.” _ Peggy Polk Disciples Say New Church Program Is Making Huge Strides (RNS) The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) said a plan to start 1,000 new churches by 2020 is going so well that the denomination may meet its goal in half the time. The Indianapolis-based church planted 102 new churches in 2004, for a total of 289 new churches since the initiative was launched in 2001. The new churches represent some 20,000 parishioners. The 102 new churches are the largest number in a century. Last year the Disciples established 82 new churches. The church had not reported such significant rates in a half-century, since 76 churches were started in 1953. If the Disciples maintain the current growth rate of 2.76 percent _ well above the projected 1 percent _ church leaders say they will meet their goal by 2011 or 2012, nine years ahead of schedule. In 2003, the Disciples reported 770,793 members in the United States. The Rev. Rick Morse, director of New Church Ministry for the Disciples, said most new members did not previously attend church, and said the secret to success is providing a support network for the pastors of these new churches. “We’ve got a comprehensive program for working with new church pastors for the first seven years,” he said. “We don’t just train them and send them out. We provide coaching … and continuing education.” The Disciples’ initiative has made inroads in racial, ethnic and immigrant communities _ especially among Hispanics and Haitians. Still, the Disciples, like other mainline churches, continue to bleed members. Between 2000 and 2003, the denomination lost some 49,000 members. Morse said the new churches are not included in those numbers but will be once they are a “chartered” congregation, usually after year three. Other mainline churches have similar goals. The Episcopal Church, through its 20/20 initiative, hopes to double Sunday worship attendance by 2020. And the Presbyterian Church (USA) is planning a $40 million appeal to plant new churches at home and abroad. _ Kevin Eckstrom UPDATE: Felony Charges Dropped Against Religious Protestors of Gay Event
(RNS) Charges were dropped Thursday (Feb. 17) against four evangelical Christian men arrested for protesting at a Philadelphia gay and lesbian pride event.
Members of the Philadelphia-based evangelical Christian group Repent America, the men were charged with three felonies _ criminal conspiracy, ethnic intimidation and inciting to riot _ and five misdemeanors. The four had become causes celebres for social conservatives, who portrayed the charges as an attack on religious free speech.
In an unusual alliance, The American Civil Liberties Union joined conservative groups in criticizing the charges as heavy-handed.
Pamela Dembe, Court of Common Pleas judge, acquitted the men after viewing video footage of the Oct. 10 “Outfest” event and deciding criminal conduct had not taken place.
“There wasn’t even a shred of evidence,” said Brian Fahling, senior trial attorney for the American Family Association who is representing the defendants in a civil rights suit.
Fahling, who was in Philadelphia for the Thursday ruling, said his clients “breathed a deep sigh of relief.”
The ruling supports free speech for Christians and for broader society, according to Fahling.
“It means for my clients they’ll be able to go back into the streets and preach,” he said.
Eleven Christian protestors were arrested Oct. 10; charges against six were dropped in December. One, a minor, awaits separate court proceedings Friday (Feb. 18.)
All 11 will continue to pursue a federal suit accusing the City of Philadelphia and the district attorney of violating their civil rights and state law.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Gibson to Release Less Violent Version of `The Passion’
(UNDATED) Mel Gibson has trimmed five to six minutes of violent scenes from his movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” The new version, “The Passion Recut,” will open on 500 to 750 screens beginning March 11. The movie’s running time was initially 127 minutes.
“The Passion of the Christ” sparked a huge controversy, with Jewish leaders accusing Gibson of portraying Jews as responsible for Jesus’ death. Nevertheless, the film grossed $370.3 million in U.S. theaters and $3.2 million in video rentals since its initial release last year.
“There are no new scenes, and the cuts are limited to the more violent aspects of the film, if that’s the right term,” Bruce Davey, Gibson’s partner at Icon Productions, told Daily Variety. “The scourging scene in particular has been substantially adjusted.”
“I can understand why Gibson removed the violence,” said Frank K. Flinn, adjunct professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Flinn is a long-time “Passion” critic and a practicing Catholic.
He said that if Christ had been beaten as badly as Gibson’s portrayal, “he would have died at the pillar because three-quarters of his torso was flayed.”
A spokesperson for Newmarket Films, the movie’s distributor, said that Gibson recut the film to soften it and make it more accessible to a wider audience.
Although the original “The Passion of the Christ” received an R rating, Gibson hoped that his recut version would earn a PG-13. But even with the deleted scenes, the Motion Picture Association of America gave it an R. So Gibson decided to release the new version to theaters without a rating.
“Studios don’t (release a movie unrated) very often,” said Joan Graves, chair of the MPAA’s Classification and Rating Board.
Newmarket said that it currently has no plans to release a DVD or video version of “The Passion Recut.”
_ Angela Aleiss
`Black Contract’ On Moral Values Aims At Wide Swath of Christians
WASHINGTON (RNS) An African-American pastor who recently unveiled the “Black Contract With America on Moral Values” said Friday (Feb. 18) that he hopes to collect a million signatures of Christians from a variety of backgrounds by the end of the year.
Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Lanham, Md., expanded upon the plans of his new High Impact Leadership Coalition at a news conference at a Washington hotel. The coalition was first introduced at a Los Angeles summit on Feb. 1.
“We’re not saying you have to be black to sign this contract,” he said. “Really what needs to happen is the black community and the Christian community _ black, white, Hispanic and Asian _ need to sign up. These goals are consistent with the Bible so I’m expecting to see Christians sign up.”
In an interview, Jackson said he hopes the majority of signatures will be from African-Americans but he’s reaching out to other Christians to support the contract, which affirms traditional marriage, opposes abortion and aims to improve economic development, African relief and reforms in education, prison and health care.
Jackson told reporters that African-Americans have tended to concentrate on issues of justice while white evangelical Christians have tended to focus on matters of righteousness _ opposing abortion and same-sex marriage.
“We’re saying `time out,”’ he said. “We need to begin to bring these two things together.”
The Maryland pastor said he hopes to eventually deliver the contract and its signatures to President Bush and members of Congress.
Jackson’s agenda conflicts in some ways with more liberal African-American religious leaders and some of the more mainline black denominations, but he said he is not concerned about that.
“We’d love to have them, but we don’t need ’em,” he said. “If we get black Christians and white Christians, Hispanic Christians, agreeing on an agenda that will transform America based on the teachings of Jesus … we’re going to make a difference right away.”
Jackson said he is, likewise, open to discussions with people of different political parties. Since early February, he has heard from the Republican National Committee but hopes to hear from the Democratic National Committee as well, he said.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Numbers Up in World Council of Churches, Lutheran World Federation
(RNS) Membership in the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation inched up slightly in 2004 despite declines among American member churches in both Geneva-based bodies.
The WCC, which represents Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches, added eight member churches for a total of 347 in 120 countries. The new member churches came from Africa, Indonesia and Haiti, with new associate members in Burkina Faso, Colombia and Puerto Rico.
Two churches _ the Evangelical Methodist Church of Costa Rica and the International Evangelical Church _ have asked to leave the WCC.
The WCC bases its membership figures on member denominations, not the combined membership counts of all Christians in those churches.
The LWF added 3.6 million members (a 5.8 percent increase) for a total of 65.9 million Lutherans in 77 countries. The LWF includes 138 Lutheran denominations, 11 parishes and one council.
All together, the LWF claims to represent 65.9 million of the world’s 69.5 million Lutherans. Its president, Mark Hanson, is the presiding bishop of the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
The LWF reported 1.1 million new members in Africa, an increase of 8.2 percent, for a total of 14.1 million. In addition, Lutheran churches in Europe grew by 2.6 million for a total of 38.6 million. The growth in Europe reversed several years of decline, but was fueled by a merger of Dutch Protestant churches that boosted the figures.
In North America, the ELCA reported a 2 percent decline to 4.9 million members. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod do not belong to the LWF but both reported losses of 2 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Founder of Catholic Communion and Liberation Movement Dies
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Monsignor Luigi Giussani, who founded the Communion and Liberation movement of Catholic laity now active in 75 countries worldwide, died early Tuesday (Feb. 22) at his home in Milan, Italy. He was 82.
An announcement said that Giussani suffered circulatory and kidney collapse caused by pneumonia.
Born in the town of Desio near Milan, Giussani entered a seminary at the age of 10 but managed to read Jules Verne and other secular tales along with his religious studies. He went on to the Venegono Theological Faculty and after ordination as a priest taught there for a time, then in a Milan high school.
Giussani published his first book, “Protestant and Orthodox Attitudes to the Dogma of the Assumption,” in 1951.
This was followed in 1959 by “The Religious Sense,” a theoretical text about spreading the Gospel among young students, which grew out of his association with a group called “Student Youth.” It became the nucleus of the Communion and Liberation movement.
Beginning with young people and later expanding to adults, the Communion and Liberation movement was based on the belief that living a Christian life in communion is the foundation of authentic liberation.
Pope Paul VI, a former archbishop of Milan, gave the group its first Vatican encouragement in 1975, telling Giussani at a Vatican audience, “This is the path. Go on like this.”
But it was under Pope John Paul II in 1982 that the Pontifical Council for the Laity formally recognized the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation as a “juridical entity for the universal Church” and declared it an “association of pontifical right.”
The pope also named Giussani a monsignor and gave him the title of honorary prelate to his holiness.
From 1964 to 1990 Giusanni occupied the chair of Introductory Theology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. Following a stay in the United States, he published “An Outline of American Protestant Theology from its Origins to the 1950s,” and in 1993 he began editing a successful series “Books of the Christian Spirit.”
_ Peggy Polk
Petition by `Jane Roe’ of Roe v. Wade Fame Denied by U.S. Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Supreme Court on Tuesday (Feb. 22) declined to reconsider its 1973 decision legalizing abortion, turning down Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe,” of Roe v. Wade, who petitioned the court to overturn the landmark ruling.
The Justice Foundation, a San Antonio, Texas-based nonprofit law firm, filed the petition on behalf of McCorvey in January. It includes testimonies from 1,000 women who claim to regret their abortions.
“It is tragic and disappointing that the court is not willing to consider the aftermath of 32 years of abortion and its devastating effect on women, their families and our culture,” said Allan Parker, Justice Foundation president. “We will continue to tell America and the courts that abortion hurts women. We will not give up. We will continue to seek justice.”
The 5,000-page petition is based on three legal arguments: that the Supreme Court has a duty to monitor whether conditions have changed related to constitutional issues it has ruled on; that the legal conditions underlying Roe v. Wade have changed materially since the 1973 ruling, making further application of it unjust; and that McCorvey was denied due process in the lower courts because she wasn’t given a hearing based on the evidence.
_ Andrea James
Quote of the week: President Bush
(RNS) “I’m not going to kick gays, because I’m a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?”
_ President Bush, speaking while he was Texas governor in a phone conversation taped by Doug Wead, former religious adviser to Bush. The conversation was quoted in The Washington Post.
MO/JL RNS END
