c. 1997 Religion News Service

Catholic bishops: Don’t execute McVeigh

(RNS) The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops said Thursday (June 5) that convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh should not be executed.”We as bishops believe that to execute Mr. McVeigh could tragically perpetuate a terrible cycle of violence, further diminish respect for life and, perhaps most significantly, cannot truly ease the pain of those who have suffered so much,”Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., chairman of the domestic policy committee of the U.S. Catholic Conference, said in a statement.

Skylstad’s statement was prompted as the jury that found McVeigh guilty on 11 counts in connection with the bombing, including the murder of eight federal employees, began considering his fate. He faces the death penalty for the attack on the federal building in which 168 people were killed.”No act, including an execution, can really fill the void and heal the wounds of the loss of a child, a mother, a father, a brother or sister,”Skylstad said.

The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty except in the rarest of circumstances.”Our passions cry out for vengeance,”Skylstad acknowledged.”However, our God calls us to show mercy as he has shown mercy, to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. We must always seek ways to break the culture of violence that grips our society.” Skylstad said that sentencing McVeigh to life in prison rather would be”one step in demonstrating that all life is precious, even the life of one who has been found to have so brutally destroyed the lives of others.”

Update: Coup and religious leaders meet in troubled Sierra Leone

(RNS) Coup leaders met with members of the Interreligious Council of Sierra Leone (ICSL) in the African nation’s capital of Freetown early Thursday (June 5) to ask the religious community to broker negotiations between the coup and ousted President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

In a telephone interview with RNS from Freetown, the Rev. Alimamy P. Koroma said the ICSL was pleased with the meeting but will not approach Kabbah until the coup leaders make a public broadcast over radio promising to reinstate constitutional democracy in the troubled nation.”We have asked them to make that kind of statement,”said Koroma, general secretary of the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone and co-secretary of the ICSL.”If what he (the colonel who led the meeting) said to us is anything to go by, I think they will make it.” Since the May 25 military coup d’etat, Sierra Leone _ a small country on the western coast of Africa _ has suffered outbreaks of violence and looting. Nigeria, under the Economic Community of West African States, has led an international relief effort that includes airlifting more than 1,200 evacuees to a U.S. warship offshore.

The Organization of African Unity, meeting in Zimbabwe, and the United Nations have encouraged the Nigerian army to continue to work toward deposing the coup. Thursday (June 5), three more African nations joined the campaign.

But Koroma said he worries military intervention would only prolong the violence ravaging his country.”The foundation for even more chaos will have been created,”he said.

Although military leaders did not make a detailed statement to the ICSL about the proposed negotiations with Kabbah, Koroma believes they want to use the negotiations to avoid international military intervention.”They want us to approach President Kabbah so that he, too, can appeal to states to stay action as far as military action is concerned so there is enough time and scope to undergo negotiations,”Koroma said.

The ICSL will meet again Friday (June 6) with military leaders to further negotiate. Koroma says the ICSL’s next step will depend on whether or not the military leaders make the radio address.

TV industry inches closer to revising rating system

(RNS) Key players in the struggle to create a TV rating system acceptable to a variety of interests and concerns inched toward a possible compromise during a 45-minute meeting in Washington on Wednesday (June 4) of lawmakers and industry officials.

Under intense pressure from Congress and parental advocacy groups to improve the 5-month-old rating system, industry officials, while split on precise details, agreed in principle to improve the current system.

The TV industry is facing a critical two-week period. The Senate is considering two bills involving the rating system, and the Federal Communications Commission has scheduled a June 20 hearing on the issue.

Unless significant progress is made toward a mutually acceptable system, the issue will move toward its”irresistible political solution,”said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.)”I think we made progress; we are headed in the right direction,”said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., who called for the meeting. Participants included top lobbyists for ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.

Critics say the existing six-tier, age-based rating system does not provide parents with enough information on the content of programs to protect children from excessive violence, sex, and harsh language.

Fox, ABC and cable TV representatives said at the June 4 meeting they would consider adding”V”(violence),”S”(sex) and”L”(language) to the existing system. NBC has been opposed to the content-based ratings, and CBS has been uncommitted.

Lawmakers propose school voucher plan for nation’s capital

(RNS) House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., have introduced legislation that would provide low-income parents in the District of Columbia with taxpayer-financed”scholarship,”or vouchers, enabling them to send their public school children to religious and private schools.

The Armey-Lieberman plan is similar to voucher proposals currently under legal challenge in Wisconsin and Ohio.”District resident who would benefit most from my legislation, such as single parents and low-income families, want and deserve this opportunity,”Armey said in announcing the legislation.

Armey said he has visited private schools in the economically beleaguered nation’s capital that are providing”a quality education in a safe environment.””Private schools work,”he said.”They provide opportunities that are absent in too many District public schools and it is my hope that more low-income children in the District of Columbia will have an opportunity to attend the best schools.” Under the Armey-Lieberman plan, $7 million would be set aside in 1998 to provide up to $3,200 in tuition aid to families of some 2,000 students. The funds could be used at religious, private and public schools in the District and surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia.

The proposal was immediately challenged by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which charged the plan violates the Constitution and undermines public schools.”State and federal courts have repeatedly struck down voucher schemes that funnel tax dollars to religious schools,”said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United.”If this misguided scheme passes, they would do so again.” Lynn called the proposal a”disgraceful distraction”from efforts to find real solutions to the problems of inner-city public schools.

Quote of the day: UNICEF official Peter McDermott

(RNS) Peter McDermott, UNICEF’s deputy director of emergency programs, returned from a trip to North Korea Thursday (June 5) and said the communist nation is teetering on the edge of disaster as a famine tightens its hold on the country:”We have reached the critical juncture. Even under the most optimistic scenario, there’s going to be a major food problem. … If the crop in September-October is not good, I suspect we will see by the end of the year a major humanitarian crisis.”

MJP END RNS