c. 1996 Religion News Service
Australian court declines to stop euthanasia law, but will hold hearings
(UNDATED) _ An Australian court has denied a request from opponents of the Northern Territory’s euthanasia law to prevent the legislation from taking effect on July 1, but has agreed to hear their case challenging the measure.
A clergyman and a physician, representing groups opposing the Northern Territory’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, had requested the law be set aside until the conclusion of their legal challenge.
The Northern Territory Supreme Court on Friday (June 21) declined to grant a temporary injunction, but decided to begin a hearing prior to the time people could put the new law into practice, Reuters reported.
Although the hearing is scheduled to begin on the day the law goes into effect, the legislation includes a seven-day”cooling-off”period for assisted suicide requests. Thus, the first legal assisted suicide could not take place until at least a week later.
Dr. Chris Wake, of the Australian Medical Association, who along with a Uniting Church clergyman filed the legal complaint, and lawyers for the territory’s government _ who are defending the new law _ agree the case will probably be resolved before doctors could legally assist in a suicide.
Meanwhile, a doctor in Canada has been charged with aiding a suicide. Dr. Maurice Genereux, 49, is accused of helping a 31-year-old AIDS patient kill himself April 11 in Toronto, the Associated Press reported.
The Canadian Medical Association said it appeared to be the first time a Canadian physician has faced such a charge.
And for the third time in 10 days, Dr. Jack Kevorkian aided in a suicide Thursday, assisting a 67-year-old Ohio woman with a neurological disease in killing herself, according to his lawyer.
Louisiana jury convicts Catholic priest of molesting 8-year-old altar boy
(UNDATED) _ A Houma, La., jury has convicted a Roman Catholic priest of molesting an 8-year-old altar boy.
The Rev. Robert Melancon, 60, a senior pastor in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, faces life in prison for aggravated rape after his conviction Tuesday (June 18).
Melancon denied the charge, but admitted to years of pedophilia with a child at another parish in the 1970s and early 1980s. Those charges were too old to prosecute.
Shortly before Melancon’s criminal trial opened, the diocese settled a civil claim from the altar boy for $800,000.
A local deacon in whom the altar boy confided testified he did not turn in Melancon partly because he had gotten no satisfaction himself when he told diocesan officials eight years earlier he had been sodomized by a Houma priest.
The charges have stunned the blue-collar, heavily Catholic bayou community about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans.
Bishop Michael Jarrell issued a statement after the conviction urging all victims of sexual abuse to come forward. He promised zero tolerance of sexual misconduct on the part of priests or diocesan employees.
The Associated Press reported that Melancon has been removed from his ministerial duties.
Melancon cannot administer communion or hear confessions while in jail, the Associated Press said, but he would be allowed to hear a confession of a dying person who had no other way to see a priest.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 12.
Berlin court lifts Nazi judgment against anti-Nazi priest
(UNDATED) _ A Berlin court has lifted a Nazi legal judgment against Bernhard Lichtenberg _ a Roman Catholic priest martyred during the Third Reich _ just in time for his scheduled beatification by Pope John Paul II on Sunday (June 23).
The 54-year-old verdict was lifted because it was based on laws intended to defend Nazi ideology and was used to send a dissenter to jail, a court statement said Friday (June 21), Reuters reported.
Lichtenberg publicly prayed for persecuted Jews and other inmates of concentration camps during services in a Berlin Catholic cathedral. He was arrested in 1941 and charged with undermining Nazi power and misusing the pulpit.
The decision to lift the verdict was requested by public prosecutor Matthias Priestoph after he learned that the verdict was still valid.
Church officials were surprised by the decision, made public the day the pope arrived in Germany for a three-day visit. The pope was scheduled to celebrate a Mass to beatify Lichtenberg and Karl Leisner, another anti-Nazi priest. Beatification is the step that precedes being canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church.”The verdict aimed to impose the National Socialist system in Germany,”the Berlin State Court said in a statement announcing the decision.”The special court punished Bernhard Lichtenberg as a political opponent because he, with his Christian principles, stood up to those in power in Germany.” A special court sentenced Lichtenberg in 1942, at the age of 66, to two years in jail. In late 1943, when he was due to be released, the Gestapo said he was too dangerous to be freed and ordered that he be sent to Dachau concentration camp. Lichtenberg died enroute.
Catholic bishops donate $50,000 to fund to help burned churches
(UNDATED) _ The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops Friday (June 21) donated $50,000 to the Burned Churches Fund, the multi-faith effort to help rebuild a number of predominantly black, Southern churches that have been hit by a recent wave of arson attacks.
The contribution was announced by Bishop Anthony M. Pilla of Cleveland, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is meeting in Portland, Ore. Pilla said the contribution had been approved by the NCCB’s executive committee at a Thursday (June 20) night meeting.
It came in the wake of the bishops’ adoption earlier in the day of a statement denouncing the arsons and the burning of a predominantly black church in Portland just hours before the bishops adopted their statement.
In addition to sending the $50,000 to the Burned Churches Fund, jointly sponsored by the NCCB, the National Council of Churches and the American Jewish Committee, the bishops, at the urging of Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, also agreed to take up a special offering to aid the Portland church that burned early Thursday morning. No immediate figures were available on the amount collected.
In Thursday’s statement, the bishops called the recent wave of church arsons”evil acts”that are”terrible offenses against God.””We deplore any act of violence, but these sacrilegious acts, directed especially against African American congregations, seem particularly reprehensible,”the statement said.”Regardless of the source of this evil, our nation must take effective measures to expose its origins and stop its spread.” The bishops said the fires not only destroyed church buildings but also”shattered the illusion that bigotry _ racial and religious _ is no longer a significant problem in our society.”
Cumberland Presbyterian Church assembly prohibits gays’ ordinations
(UNDATED) _ After a three-hour discussion, delegates to the general assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church passed a resolution Thursday (June 20) prohibiting ministers from ordaining practicing homosexuals as leaders in the denomination.
The delegates, or commissioners, to the 166th General Assembly also passed a resolution opposing abortion as a means of birth control, citing it as being”inconsistent with the revealed will of God.” The meeting, in Huntsville, Ala., marked the first time the denomination has specifically made any statement regarding either issue, although both have been discussed in previous assembly meetings.
The Committee on Theology and Social Concerns recommended the action concerning homosexuality.
The committee urged that the assembly”go on record affirming that biblical teaching makes it clear that the practice of homosexuality is a sin, yet with the understanding that while God loves the sinner, he hates the sin, and his grace is available to all.” The committee recommendation also stated that”since the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with a Christian lifestyle, and since officers of the church must be `examples to the flock,’…the Cumberland Presbyterian Church does not condone the ordination of practicing homosexuals as deacons, elders, or ministers of the word and sacrament.” In other action, the General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution condemning the recent burning of black churches, calling the incidents”a senseless and cowardly act of violence.” The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is based in Memphis, Tenn., and has about 90,000 members.
Quote of the Day: Shabbir Mansuri, founding director of the Council on Islamic Education in Fountain Valley, Calif.
(UNDATED) _ Shabbir Mansuri, founding director of the Council on Islamic Education in Fountain Valley, Calif., was recently quoted in the Los Angeles Times on the Southern Baptist Convention’s call earlier this month for a boycott of Walt Disney Co. theme parks:”Disney’s leadership in recent years has profited enormously at the expense of maintaining its traditional role in supporting the family structure. The boycott advocated by the Southern Baptists is an indication that Disney’s corporate leaders have undermined what Disney has traditionally stood for, forcing members of various faith communities to re-evaluate the company’s commitment to fostering a moral society.”
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