c. 2007 Religion News Service
Pope Says `Nothing Positive’ Happening in Iraq
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Speaking from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday (April 8), Pope Benedict XVI offered a global survey of natural and man-made disasters, including military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and called on Christians to be “apostles of peace.”
A day earlier, the Vatican confirmed that the pope had personally intervened on behalf of 15 British military personnel held captive by Iran before their release.
In his traditional Urbi et Orbi (“to the City and the World”) Easter message, Benedict deplored a range of “natural calamities and human tragedies” including famine, disease, terrorism, religious violence and “the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons” on five continents.
Among the dozen crisis zones to which he referred, the pope spoke in particular detail about recent “violence and looting” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, upcoming elections in East Timor, and the need for a “negotiated solution” to civil war in Sri Lanka.
Four years after the fall of Baghdad to U.S.-led military forces, Benedict was strikingly pessimistic in his assessment of conditions in Iraq. “Nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees,” he said.
The pope also noted “growing unrest and instability” in Afghanistan, where U.S. and other NATO forces have been stationed since 2001.
On Saturday, the Vatican confirmed a report by the British newspaper the Guardian that Benedict had written to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urging him to the release the 15 British sailors and marines in time for Easter.
Freeing the Britons, who were captured by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf on March 23, would be a “significant religious gesture of goodwill from the Iranian people,” Benedict reportedly wrote to Khamenei.
It is unknown whether the pope’s appeal influenced Iran’s decision to release the captives, who returned to Britain on April 5.
Relations between the two leaders have been marked by tension. Last September, following Benedict’s controversial references to Islam in a speech in Germany, Iran’s supreme leader denounced the pope’s words as the “latest link in the chain of a crusade against Islam started by America’s Bush.”
_ Francis X. Rocca
`B.C’ Cartoonist Johnny Hart Dies at 76
(RNS) Cartoonist Johnny Hart, creator of the award-winning and sometimes controversial “B.C.” comic strip, died in his home in Endicott, N.Y., Saturday (April 7). He was 76.
Hart created the comic strip featuring prehistoric characters in 1958. The strip had a following of more than 100 million readers worldwide. Hart was inspired to create his own strip by the work of “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz. Hart read Schulz’s work during his time at the art department of General Electric, according to the Web site of the Creators Syndicate, which distributed “B.C.” to 1,300 newspapers nationwide.
After his religious conversion in 1987, Hart began integrating elements of his evangelical Christian faith into his comics, a decision that later drew criticism from Jewish and Muslim faith groups.
Jewish groups were especially upset with his Easter-themed cartoon published on Easter Sunday in 2001 that featured the words “It is finished” above a menorah that transforms into a cross.
Jewish groups called for the strip’s removal from newspapers and labeled it as “insensitive and offensive” because of what they saw as a depiction of Christianity superseding Judaism.
Hart insisted that he only intended for the cartoon to “pay tribute to both” Christians and Jews.
Hart and “B.C.” earned numerous awards, including Best Humor Strip in America and Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonist Society.
He is survived by his wife Bobby and two daughters, Patti and Perri.
_ Melissa Stee
Quote of the Day: Megachurch Co-Founder Lynne Hybels
(RNS) “Watching one of your own children die is horrible, and many people in Africa have experienced that. Equal to that is knowing you are going to die and not being able to care for your children. This is why women in the U.S. are getting so involved in AIDS. We can look at women in Africa and realize they are just like us.”
_ Lynne Hybels, co-founder of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., who was quoted by Sojourners magazine about her commitment to addressing the global AIDS crisis.
KRE/LF END RNS
