c. 1997 Religion News Service

Bishops hit Oregon assisted-suicide vote

(RNS) Cardinal Bernard Law, head of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-life Activities said Wednesday (Nov. 5) the decision by Oregon voters to retain their state law authorizing physician-assisted suicide was”a tragedy for all Americans.” The Oregon vote was the most closely watched contest by faith groups in a spate of elections, ballot initiatives and referendum questions across the nation Tuesday.

In 1994, Oregonians voted to legalize assisted suicide but opponents, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other religious groups and conservative advocacy organizations, mounted a vigorous repeal campaign.

However, the repeal effort garnered only 40 percent of the vote.”Oregon has made itself a laboratory for testing a radical policy,”Law said.”It will discover what the experience of the Netherlands has already shown: This deadly experiment will do great harm to the helpless subjects it claims to help.” Focus on the Family, a faith-based Colorado Springs, Colo., conservative advocacy group, also criticized the Oregon results saying it gives doctors”the green light to kill their patients.” Carrie Gordon, a bioethics analyst for Focus, said the vote”perverts the practice of medicine and opens the door for coercion of vulnerable, suffering Americans to `choose’ an early death by profit-motivated health care companies, misguided physicians and even well-meaning family members.” In other ballot issues watched by religious groups, Houston voters decided to keep the city’s affirmative action program, Washington state voters rejected a gun control measure and a proposal to bar workplace discrimination against homosexuals.

The race for governor in Virginia also attracted the attention of some religious groups involved in politics, with the Christian Coalition hailing the election of Republican James Gilmore as”mission accomplished.” In the campaign, Democrat Donald Beyer ran attack ads linking Gilmore with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, suggesting Robertson was a religious extremist.

Randy Tate, the Chesapeake, Va.-based coalition’s executive director, said the ads backfired, invigorating conservative Christians to get out and vote for Gilmore.

Number of ordained Southern Baptist women grows

(RNS) The number of ordained women in the Southern Baptist Convention _ which on the national level strongly opposes women pastors _ has grown to about 1,225, with a quarter of them serving as chaplains.

The latest statistics on Southern Baptist women clergy were reported in the Fall 1997 edition of Folio, the newsletter of Baptist Women in Ministry, based in Kansas City, Kan.

Sociologist Sarah Frances Anders wrote in an article that 35 percent of the women served in church staff positions. At least 85 are pastors and more than 100 are associate pastors.

Anders reported that North Carolina has the largest number of women pastors and 16 states have churches where women are serving as senior pastors. Less than 2 percent of the ordained women are academics.

The other top 10 states for employing Baptist clergywomen are, in order, Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Alabama and Maryland.

Anders noted how difficult it is to keep tabs on ordained Southern Baptist women. An annual denominational report lists clergy in a variety of positions but does not identify them by gender.

But she said the number of ordained women is growing despite opposition to the practice in the denomination.”While the number of (Southern Baptist) clergywomen was relatively small in comparison to those in other mainline churches, they began to grow in the 1970s and 1980s at a more rapid rate even though negative resolutions about the ordination of women were passed at some (Southern Baptist) conventions,”she wrote.

In 1979, a volume titled”Women in Baptist Life”published by Leon McBeth reported there were just 58 Southern Baptist clergywomen.

Alabama officials vow to defy federal judge’s religion ruling

(RNS) Alabama’s governor and a state judge best known for his defiant posting of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom, say they will fight a federal judge’s ruling limiting religious activity in public schools.

Republican Gov. Fob James said he will defy the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Ira DeMent barring prayer in pubic school classes if he is invited to speak at a school.

And Etowah County Circuit Court Judge Roy Moore issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday (Nov. 4) blocking enforcement of DeMent’s ruling.

DeMent’s order, issued Oct. 29 and stemming from a suit by parents opposing school prayer, prohibits state-sanctioned prayers at commencement, in Alabama classrooms and at other school events. Students are permitted, however, to give thanks to God at graduation. DeMent said violators of the ruling will undergo contempt proceedings.

James said he would resist the order”by every legal and political means, with every ounce of strength I possess.” The state officials’ actions were criticized by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which helped sponsor the lawsuit.”Some Alabama officials seem to be trying to secede again,”said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United.”All government officials are bound by the U.S. Constitution and the rulings of the federal courts. No one is above the law.” Lynn said Moore’s restraining order was an example of”flat-Earth jurisprudence. Even the slowest freshman in law school knows that state courts cannot overturn federal court rulings.” DeMent’s ruling has been met with protests by some students in northeastern Alabama. More than 400 students at one school protested the federal ruling during a rally and 60 students walked out of classes in another school.”We don’t want to have to pray under our breath,”said student Kristie Gilley.

House rejects school voucher proposal

(RNS) The House of Representatives has rejected a school voucher proposal that would have provided needy parents with a federal subsidy to send their children to private and parochial schools.

In a 228-191 vote Tuesday (Nov. 4), lawmakers rejected the measure calling it an attack on public education.”This bill will leave our public schools in ruins in search of a panacea for a few,”said Rep. Matthew G. Martinez, D-Calif., The Washington Post reported.

Supporters of the measure, however, said the plan would give public schools competition, forcing them to offer parents and students higher quality education.

The Senate also blocked a bill that would have given parents a tax break for saving money to be used for elementary and secondary education. Under terms of the bill, parents and others could put aside $2,500 per child to a savings account and withdraw the interest tax-free to pay for educational expenses, including home tuition and home computers.

Italian priest arrested for aiding Mafia with Masses

(RNS) Italian police have arrested and charged a Roman Catholic priest in Italy with aiding and abetting the Mafia.

The Rev. Mario Frittitta, 58, was accused Tuesday (Nov. 4) of celebrating Masses for a Mafia boss at his hideout in Sicily and presiding at the secret wedding of another mob figure, Reuters reported.

Police said Frittitta conducted Mass last Christmas and Easter for Pietro Aglieri while the top boss and his bodyguards were living in a secret hideout in Bagheria, Sicily. Aglieri, a top Mafia fugitive, was wanted for a car bombing that killed anti-Mafia Judge Paolo Borsellino in Palermo in 1992. He was arrested in June.

Investigators said the priest also presided at a secret wedding at a church for Giovanni Garafolo, another Mafioso who was then at large.

Frittitta admitted meeting Aglieri, but said he gave the Mafia figure spiritual help and tried to get him to change his ways.

Magistrate Alfonso Sabella said the priest violated the law by helping Aglieri because he told authorities he did not know where Aglieri was when the suspect was a fugitive.

Aglieri headed the Mafia family called”Saint Mary of Jesus,”named after the Palermo neighborhood it controlled.

The archdiocese of Palermo said in a statement the local church had”never tired of restating that the Mafia is incompatible with the gospel and the authentic Christian life.”

Quote of the day: the Rev. Alex Karloutos, Greek Orthodox spokesman

(RNS)”That’s why in the Orthodox Church we don’t believe in infallibility.” The Rev. Alex Karloutos, spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, jokingly explaining why the chartered plane carrying Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew landed at the wrong Dallas-area airport Tuesday (Nov. 4).

MJP END RNS