c. 2005 Religion News Service
Thief Takes Collection from Altar After Christmas Eve Mass
EDISON, N.J. (RNS) The Grinch stole Christmas _ at least in one Catholic church.
Someone stole close to $8,000 in cash and checks from the collection basket at The Church of the Guardian Angels just after a crowded Christmas Eve Mass on Saturday (Dec. 24) afternoon, according to police and church officials.
“I don’t know how someone does this and lives with their own conscience,” Monsignor James Moran said. “We do have programs for the poor and needy.”
The large, brown wicker basket filled with donations had been placed on the altar during the service and was left there while Moran went to the front door to greet parishioners after the standing-room-only service.
When he returned to the altar about 20 minutes later, the basket was in precisely the same spot beneath the brightly colored stained glass windows and the soaring wooden ceiling. But it held only some coins, Moran said.
Close to 900 people attended the Mass, the biggest of the year. The church depends on the collections to pay for a variety of expenses, such as maintenance bills, insurance and salaries.
Moran announced the theft to stunned parishioners at midnight Mass and yesterday, warning those who left checks to cancel them. There were audible gasps in the audience as he relayed the news. Many members have been attending since the church was founded in 1962.
“I told the people God will get the person,” he said.
Margaret Reilly of Edison, along with her three children, were among those attending Mass on Christmas morning. “Everybody was a little shocked,” she said. “People do get robbed, but you don’t expect that to happen in church or on Christmas.”
Moran hopes the church will still get most of the money if parishioners write new checks. But he estimated that $2,000 in cash was taken.
“Losing that big a percentage of the Christmas collection will certainly have a dire impact on our budget this year,” he said.
From now on, the collection basket will be locked in a closet, he added.
“I pray that the person has a change of heart and will return the money,” he said. “It’s disappointing our society has become like this. Some just want to live very God-less lives.”
_ David Schwab and Sue Epstein
New York City Warns Jews About Health Risk of Circumcision Ritual
NEW YORK (RNS) A clash between a religious ritual and public health concerns has escalated with a city Health Department letter warning Jewish communities about practicing an aspect of circumcision.
The ritual, called metzitzah b’peh, or sucking blood from an infant’s penis to clean it after circumcision, puts babies at risk for getting herpes, Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden wrote in a Dec. 13 open letter to Jewish media and leaders.
“Because oral herpes is common (most adults have it), and because it is spread by infected saliva through breaks or cuts in the skin, metzitzah b’peh can directly expose circumcised infants to the herpes virus,” Frieden noted.
Type-1 herpes causes common cold sores in adults. But since babies’ immune systems are immature, neonatal herpes can be life-threatening, he said.
The Health Department’s board is considering whether to require doctors to report all cases of babies who contract herpes.
Some rabbis, however, do not believe the circumcision ritual puts infants at risk and said the Health Department shouldn’t interfere.
“I think it has no basis,” said Rabbi Romi Cohn, a Staten Island and Brooklyn-based rabbi who says he has not seen a single infection among the 15,000 circumcisions he has performed throughout the region.
According to tradition, he said, whoever does the circumcision must use sterilized equipment, undergo routine blood tests and be healthy and clean. The person must visit the family three days before the procedure to talk with the parents and make sure they are living a moral life.
Problems ensue, Rabbi Cohn said, when practitioners do not follow these guidelines.
The rabbi said metzitzah b’peh is an integral part of circumcision, a ritual that is thousands of years old. He added that from a health standpoint, “there are more important things to be concerned with,” such as whether the instruments used are sterile.
But Frieden’s letter outlined a variety of studies and recent incidents tying metzitzah b’peh to neonatal herpes.
“There is no reasonable doubt that the practice of metzitzah b’peh (`suction by mouth’) has infected several infants in New York City with the herpes virus, including one child who died and another who has evidence of brain damage,” the letter stated.
In one previously reported case, a Staten Island baby who was circumcised in November 2003 was diagnosed with genital herpes 12 days later and had to be hospitalized for three weeks.
The Health Department’s letter comes after months of discussions with Orthodox Jewish leaders following an investigation into three cases of neonatal herpes among circumcised babies in November 2004 _ all of which were traced to one rabbi _ and two additional cases in 2005.
Since 1988, Frieden’s office has documented at least seven infants who contracted the disease after circumcision.
Frieden said some wanted to ban the metzitza b’peh outright, but he said
“educating the community through public health information and warnings is a more realistic approach.”
_ Lisa Schneider
Survey Says Requests for Food, Shelter Up in 2005
(RNS) More Americans requested emergency food and shelter in U.S. cities this year than in 2004, according to a national survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Some service providers were forced to turn clients away, and officials fear caring for relocated hurricane victims could further inundate urban agencies in 2006.
Emergency food requests rose an average of 12 percent in the 24 cities surveyed by the U.S . Conference of Mayors _ including San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Nashville _ according to their Dec. 19 report. Forty percent of those requests were from people with jobs; 54 percent came from children and their parents.
Requests for emergency shelter grew by 6 percent. Lack of affordable housing and low-paying jobs were the top causes of hunger and homelessness identified by city officials.
“The American way of life dictates that if you work hard you will move ahead or at the very least stave off poverty. However, today’s survey results prove that working families are increasingly at risk,” said Rod Bond, of Sodexho, a food services company that sponsored the survey.
“Working families are forced to choose between housing or groceries, heat or groceries, medicine or groceries.”
Heating costs are largely responsible for the 20 percent increase in requests at American Red Cross food pantries in Boston, said Maureen Schnellman, the Boston chapter’s director of hunger relief programs.
Her experience supports the survey’s finding that people rely on emergency food programs for long-term sustenance. “People are coming back month after month because it’s the only way they can afford to keep food on the table,” Schnellmann said.
Despite increased resources, 18 percent of food requests and 14 percent of emergency shelter request went unmet. People remained homeless an average of seven months, with most cities saying the duration of homelessness increased this year.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita evacuees have not yet strained resources, officials said, but they fear lack of federal commitment to these victims may soon take its toll.
_ Nicole LaRosa
Swedish Designer Makes Waves With Satanic Jeans
BORAS, Sweden (RNS) A Satanic logo, with a cross turned upside down on the forehead of a skull, has increased sales of a new jeans line among Swedish teens.
Designer Bjorn Atldax, who claims to be a devout anti-Christian, told RNS that the logo on the Cheap Monday jeans is intended to make Christians angry.
He said his disdain for religion influenced the creation of the emblem. “I think organized religion is not good for the society. I don’t oppose people believing in God privately but I hate congregations,” Atldax said.
Atldax termed the Bible as “probably the most dangerous book ever written” and that it is “filled with a lot of contradictory things.”
Local media reports describing the designer as a Satanist may have encouraged some parents to return the jeans their children bought and one shop canceling an order. But owners of Weekdays jeans stores in Stockholm, the Swedish capital, said the reports have not stopped teens from lining up to make purchases.
Atldax stressed that he used satanic symbols because they stood out.“I don’t believe in Satan or God. I don’t care if there’s a God or Satan because they have never spoken to me.” he added.
The designer plans to create logos mocking, and critical of, other religions. “I plan to make something anti-Hindu because I think its caste system is awful. I am not considering any anti-Islamic work now because there are already a lot of anti-Islamic sentiments,” he said.
_ Simon Reeves
Quote of the Day: `NunBun’ Owner Bob Bernstein
(RNS) “They went right for the bun. What the heck they are going to do with it, I can’t imagine. It’s sure not something anyone would eat. I hope they do eat it. It will teach them a lesson.”
_ Bob Bernstein, owner of the Bongo Java coffee shop in Nashville, on the theft of the famous “NunBun,” a cinnamon bun that was discovered in 1996 and preserved for its uncanny resemblance to the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The bun was stolen from Bernstein’s coffee shop on Christmas day. He was quoted by the (Nashville) Tennessean newspaper.
KRE/JL END RNS
