c. 1999 Religion News Service

Vatican working behind scenes to end violence in East Timor

(RNS) Pope John Paul II is closely watching the escalating violence in East Timor, and Vatican diplomats are working behind the scenes to help restore peace, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Tuesday (Sept. 7).

Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, the apostolic administrator of Dili, who won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in behalf of the East Timorese and was forced to flee the territory, appealed Tuesday for a peacekeeping force to avert a massacre.

The Vatican spokesman said Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres telephoned Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, on Monday to discuss the worsening situation in the former Portuguese colony.”Cardinal Sodano recalled the interest with which the Holy Father is following the situation,”Navarro-Valls said.”The secretary of state assured the prime minister that the Holy See is in contact with the governments involved to find a way out of this situation as soon as possible.” Military-backed militias opposed to last week’s overwhelming vote for independence from Indonesia have been attacking the people of East Timor, killing some and forcing at least one-third of the population of 800,000 to flee the territory.

The militias have fired on embassies and burned shops and homes, including Belo’s residence in Dili, the capital of East Timor, where some 6,000 people had sought refuge, forcing the bishop’s evacuation to Australia.

The pope, who strongly supports the principle of self-determination, appealed Sunday from his summer residence at Castelgandolfo near Rome for an end to the violence in East Timor.”Worrying news is arriving in these hours from East Timor where serious acts of intimidation and violence are taking place,”the pope said. He called for prayers for the return of”a climate of serenity and harmony _ a true pacification and constructive respect for the will expressed in recent days by the Timorese population.” Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales urged an international, armed peacekeeping force be sent to East Timor”as soon as possible.” Bishop David Konstant, chairman of the bishops’ department of international affairs, said the Timor situation is”an injustice that cries out for action by the international community.”We cannot stand by all this violence to continue,”he said.”We urge the British government, the United Nations, the European Union and all members of the international community to bring all possible pressure to bear on the Indonesian government.” Speaking in a telephone interview with the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire, Belo also urged swift deployment of an international force to prevent a massacre on the scale of the estimated 200,000 East Timorese killed in the Indonesian occupation of the country 25 years ago.”Now more than ever, East Timor needs an international peacekeeping force here on its territory,”the bishop said.”I believe that the militias are laying the groundwork for a repeat of what happened in 1975. This is not a civil war but a true organized attack drawn up by the Indonesian military using the militias as foot soldiers. In this way, they want to make it believed that a conflict is raging among Timorese to which they are totally extraneous,”he said.

The United Nations is examining the possibility of sending a force of 5,000 to 7,000 troops from Australia, Britain, New Zealand, Canada, the Philippines, Japan, Malaysia and possibly Portugal with logistical support from the United States.

Noting that his earlier appeals for U.N. intervention had been ignored, Belo said,”Today, everyone can see the results.”

Survey: Public schools need to do more to accommodate Muslim students

(RNS) Most U.S. public school districts have been slow to address Muslim religious concerns, according to a new survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In its 1999 annual report on Muslim civil rights, CAIR said the nation’s public schools are a”major area in which Muslim apprehension about the lack of religious accommodation is growing.” Among the problems most often cited was the inability of Muslim students to pray during school hours or be excused from going to the cafeteria during Ramadan, the Islamic holy month during which dawn to dusk fasting is observed. Religious Muslims pray five times a day.

Some three-quarters of those Muslim students and parents surveyed by CAIR in Philadelphia and Washington also said it was difficult to distinguish”pork from non-pork food products”in school cafeterias. Muslims are prohibited from eating pork.

Modest Muslim dress has lessened as a problem for students, with only 5 percent in Philadelphia and 4 percent in Washington saying wearing Islamic-style clothing presents them with difficulties at school.

The CAIR survey noted what some school districts have done to accommodate Muslim students.

In Chicago, alternative foods are offered whenever pork is served. In Fairfax County, Va., a”pig”sign on school menus signifies items that include pork products. The Paterson, N.J., school district cancels classes on two Muslim holidays.

CAIR concluded that”Muslim parents must shoulder the responsibility in educating school personnel about the needs of their children.”However, CAIR, a Muslim watchdog agency headquartered in Washington, also noted that”many (Muslim) parents do not request accommodation because they fear rejection.”

Cardinal O’Connor convalescing following brain tumor surgery

(RNS) Roman Catholic Cardinal John O’Connor of New York has returned to his Manhattan home following surgery for a brain tumor. Few details about O’Connor’s condition have been released.

O’Connor, archbishop of New York, entered Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan Aug. 25 after experiencing weakness and nausea. Friday (Sept. 4), his office announced that a small tumor had been removed from the surface of O’Connor’s brain, and that outpatient radiation therapy would be conducted for several weeks.

The announcement did not say when or by whom the operation had been performed. It also gave no details about the size or exact location or nature of the tumor or O’Connor’s medical prognosis, other than to say that”no other areas of the body were affected”beside the brain.

The announcement, made by Joseph Zwilling, the cardinal’s spokesman, did say O’Connor was in good spirits, had celebrated private Masses while hospitalized and looked forward to returning to a”full and vigorous”work schedule. However, the announcement also said O’Connor’s schedule would be”somewhat lessened for the immediate future.” O’Connor has long been rumored as likely to retire on his 80th birthday in January. He has led the 2.3 million-member New York archdiocese since 1984.

Religious leaders welcome Israeli ruling on torture

(RNS) Liberal Jewish rabbis _ and one leading Islamic religious figure _ have welcomed Monday’s (Sept. 6) landmark Israeli Supreme Court ruling explicitly banning the torture of imprisoned security suspects. But the decision has drawn fire from Jewish religious nationalists who say it will undermine Israel’s efforts to prevent terror attacks.”The ruling certainly is in keeping with Jewish teaching which does not allow you to exploit an individual under your control except in a situation of life and death,”said Rabbi David Rosen of the Jerusalem Office of the Anti-Defamation League.

Rabbi Arik Asherman, of Rabbis for Human Rights, described the court ruling as the culmination of a decade-long campaign by Israeli and international human rights activists to outlaw the forms of physical abuse that have long been sanctioned within the interrogation cells of the Israeli Shin Bet, or General Security Services.

Sheikh Abdullah Nimmer Darwish, a leader of the Islamic Movement based inside Israel, also described the ruling as a”democratic and humane decision.”He called on Israeli Arabs to clamp down on extremist Arabs who were continuing to carry out”crimes”against Jews _ a reference to the suicide car bombings in Tiberias and Haifa on Sunday in which several Israelis were injured and at least three suspected terrorists were killed.

Sharp criticism of the Supreme Court decision, however, was heard in religious nationalist circles. Hanan Porath, a leading Orthodox politician, said that in the aftermath of the ruling Israel’s security services might as well close up their offices and hand over their investigative functions to the Supreme Court.

Update: Murdered priest in India involved in `illegal’ conversions

(RNS) A Roman Catholic priest murdered in remote eastern India was attacked because of his”illegal”involvement in converting Hindus to Christianity, according to a report.

Newsroom, a British-based evangelical-oriented news service, said Monday (Sept. 6) that the top police official in Orissa state, site of the killing, said the priest was”involved in illegal conversions.” Reports from the region have been sketchy and contradictory. The dead priest has been identified as 35-year-old”Father Arul Doss”by Newsroom and”Aruldoss”by the New York Times.

Dilip Mahapatra, Orissa director-general of police, told the Times of India newspaper that he had evidence that the priest had violated a 1967 Orissa law that prohibits forced conversions. No details were provided by the Newsroom report, however.

Newsroom said the priest had been converting”low-caste Hindu tribal people”for four years. He was killed Thursday (Sept. 2) by an angry mob wielding bows and poisoned arrows as he gathered with Christian converts in the jungle village of Jamabani.

Despite earlier reports of arrests in the case, the conflicting reports made it unclear whether that had in fact happened. Christians and Hindus have clashed repeatedly in recent years across India over the issue of conversions.

British to open _ almost _ new millennium with prayer

(RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has succeeded in ensuring Britain’s official millennium celebrations will begin with a Christian prayer, according to a report in the Sunday (Sept. 6) Telegraph newspaper.

Earlier this year, Carey threatened that church leaders would boycott the celebrations in the Millennium Dome, built at great expense on the site of a former gas works at Greenwich, if there were not a significant Christian component. In January, the late Catholic Cardinal Basil Hume suggested it would be”quite wrong”if the archbishop of Canterbury was not seen and heard leading the nation in prayer at midnight when the new millennium began.

However, according to the Sunday Telegraph report, Carey’s prayer won’t actually come at midnight but at 11:15 p.m., five minutes after the arrival of Queen Elizabeth at the Dome. The newspaper also said the queen had intervened to break the deadlock between church leaders and the Dome organizers, who were afraid public prayer might dampen the atmosphere for the 10,000 guests invited to the celebration.

Carey had earlier been offered _ and rejected _ a slot in the celebrations at 10:30 p.m. The queen agreed to arrive at the Dome earlier than planned so as to allow a compromise: prayer in the Dome, but not too close to the chimes of midnight.

Quote of the day: Paige Patterson, Southern Baptist Convention president

(RNS)”Friend, it is as logical as it can be: If we do not have a more sure word of prophecy from the Word of God, if we do not have the Word of the Lord, infallible and inerrant and absolutely trustworthy, then nobody, nobody, nobody who’s ever lived, nobody who lives now, nobody who will ever live, has an answer that will tell us how to get to God for sure.” _ Paige Patterson, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and Southeastern Baptist Seminary, on why he defends a view of the Bible as without any errors. He made his remarks in a chapel message at the Wake Forest, N.C., seminary he heads.

DEA END RNS