RNS starts Friday’s report with an update from Stacy Meichtry in the Vatican City on the soon-to-be-released Vatican document on homosexuality: After a series of conflicting leaks regarding the content of the document in the U.S. and Italian media, the conservative daily Il Giornale of Milan published a report containing the first excerpts and direct quotes. “The Church cannot admit to the priesthood those who practice homosexuality, have deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or those who support the so-called `gay culture,”‘ Il Giornale quoted the document as stating. The Vatican will reportedly publish the document Nov. 29 under the title “Instruction on the criteria of vocational discernment regarding people with homosexual tendencies in view of their admission to the priesthood and to sacred orders.”
Bruce Taylor Seeman writes about the pressure religious leaders are putting on Tom DeLay for FDA tobacco control: Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, indicted by a grand jury in his home state and bounced from his leadership position in Congress, has another distraction: Interfaith groups are pressuring him to drop his opposition to Food and Drug Administration oversight of cigarettes sales, which health experts say could save thousands of American lives. Religious leaders say they have leaped into the smoking issue for moral reasons. It is wrong, they argue, for tobacco companies to market lethal and addictive products, particularly to youths.
Finally, we report on the “Rapture Index,” a feature on the Web site www.raptureready.com that measures how quickly the world is careering toward the Second Coming of Christ. Nancy Haught writes: On a good day, it claims 15,000 hits. Interest is peaking, spurred on by the apparent frequency and intensity of earthly disasters, last month’s release of the third “Left Behind” movie and the prospect of a bird-flu pandemic.
