c. 1999 Religion News Service

Anti-suicide bill stalls in Senate

(RNS) Defenders of Oregon’s landmark physician-assisted suicide law were given time and some momentum Wednesday (Nov. 17) when the Senate’s second most powerful member said there will not be an anti-suicide vote this year.

Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., told the Portland Oregonian he will not attach his anti-suicide bill to other end-of-the-year legislation, as he had threatened. The decision avoids a floor showdown with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who vowed to filibuster if Nickles brought the bill directly to the floor, bypassing the normal process.

It also puts the Pain Relief Promotion Act, as the anti-suicide bill is called, on a potentially long and jagged road through the Senate Health, Education and Pensions Committee. The panel is chaired by Sen. Jim Jeffords, R-Vt., a moderate facing re-election, and includes Nickles’ ideological foe, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

If there is one thing people on all sides of the issue have agreed on, it’s that the Oregon law’s greatest ally is delay.

Nonetheless, in his brief statement, Nickles said he is still optimistic.

“The Senate is a more deliberative body than the House so legislation often moves more slowly here,” said Nickles, the assistant Senate majority leader. “There is a lot of healthy discussion about why this bill is right and good for both doctors and patients.

“We’re signing up new Senate co-sponsors every week. Several key Democrats are working to help pass the Pain Relief Promotion Act, and I expect the Senate to pass it next year.”

Wyden took credit for the delay.”I feel like I’ve had my thumb in a dike for days now,” said Wyden.

The bill says federally controlled substances cannot be used for intentionally ending life through through physician-assisted suicide.

The Oregon Death With Dignity Act has been under legal and political attack since voters narrowly approved it in 1994 and overwhelmingly affirmed their decision in 1997. The law made Oregon the only state to permit assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.

Survey: Americans know little about vouchers, charter schools

(RNS) Vouchers and charter schools may be hot election topics, but average Americans know very little about them, a survey has found.

The survey of 1,200 adults by the nonpartisan organization Public Agenda found that even in areas of the country where such innovations are in place, most parents know nothing or hardly anything about them.

The study found that 63 percent of American adults said they know nothing or very little about vouchers. Eighty-one percent said the same thing about charter schools.

Sixty percent of parents of schoolchildren in Milwaukee and Cleveland _ two cities where vouchers are being used _ said they know very little or nothing about vouchers and 75 percent said they needed more information to form an opinion about them.

Fifty-two percent of parents in Michigan and Arizona _ states with high numbers of charter schools _ said they know very little or nothing about charter schools and 68 percent said they needed more information before forming an opinion.

A nationwide survey of elected officials, business executives and other community leaders found that 42 percent said they needed more information about vouchers and 54 percent said they need to know more about charter schools before they could determine their views on them.

Researchers also found that most Americans said they would not be concerned about permitting parents to use public funds in the form of vouchers to send their children to religious schools. Some critics believe such a policy violates the constitutional separation of church and state.”It’s hard to overstate how unfamiliar and confusing these proposals are to most citizens _ parents included,”said Deborah Wadsworth, executive director of the New York-based Public Agenda.”In focus groups, Public Agenda’s moderators had to hand out printed explanations of how vouchers and charter school proposals work. The country simply has to address this gulf in understanding.” There are 1,682 charter schools, which operate with taxpayer money but without control from a local school district.

Since January, bills proposing vouchers or tax credits have been introduced in 40 state legislatures.

The study, titled”On Thin Ice: How Advocates and Opponents Could Misread the Public’s Views on Vouchers and Charter Schools,”has a percentage of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, damaged in earthquake, to reopen

(RNS) The medieval Upper Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, badly damaged in an earthquake two years ago, will reopen Nov. 28 with its structure repaired and many of its priceless frescoes at least partially restored, officials announced Thursday (Nov. 18).

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, will represent Pope John Paul II at the dedication ceremony to be attended by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and 620 guests, including everyone involved in the $40 million restoration project.

According to the Italian Ministry of Culture, 80 construction specialists, 70 art restorers and 20 volunteers labored 140,000 hours on the project. While workmen reinforced the church’s vaulted ceilings with 25,000 bricks, art experts pieced together 320,000 fragments of frescoes with the help of computers.

Some frescoes are only partially complete because not all the fragments could be recovered, experts said. Restorers are still trying to reconstruct a Cimabue painting by using a digital process to match 120,000 fragments to the work’s image in a”virtual archive.” The 13th century basilica, which dominates the Umbrian hilltown of Assisi where St. Francis was born in 1182, suffered severe damage in two strong earthquakes that hit central Italy on Sept. 26, 1997.

The tremors killed 11 people, including two Franciscan friars and two art experts from the Ministry of Culture who were inspecting damage inside the basilica when the second earthquake struck.

Months of aftershocks threatened to compound the damage already done.”The story of how we healed the wounds of the earthquake is the story of a race against time,”Minister of Culture Giovanna Melandri told a news conference.”The race against time has been won.” She said the atmosphere in the basilica was”truly Franciscan with everyone helping everyone else in the best team spirit, which doesn’t always happen.” The Rev. Giulio Berrettoni, custodian of the Sacred Convent (monastery) of Assisi, said he had asked the pope to receive all the work force at a Vatican audience on Dec. 15.

Brother Agostino Gardin, minister general of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor, directed members of the community of the Sacred Convent to carry out a prayer vigil Nov. 21 to 27 to give thanks for the basilica’s restoration and remember thousands of earthquake victims still living in temporary quarters.

Toll collector distributing religious fliers fired

(RNS) A Florida toll collector who had been warned he could lose his job for distributing a religious flier to drivers has been fired for passing out the literature while on the job.

The toll worker, whose name was not released, was fired Monday (Nov. 15) after telling his bosses he needed to give out the material”because he was doing the `Lord’s work,'”said Sal Secondo, state Transportation Department spokesman.

State Rep. Curt Levine complained to the agency in early November after the toll collecter handed him a $2 fare receipt along with a flier that urged the reader to”throw yourself upon the mercy of God and He will graciously forgive and justify you through Christ.” The state agency confronted the worker after receiving two more complaints, the Associated Press reported.

Toll collectors are employed by a private contractor but must abide by the same rules as state workers, including the ban against distributing religious literature in public places.

The contractor, North Carolina-based Barton Protective Services Inc., could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

British Catholic bishops call for total debt cancellation for poor

(RNS) The Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales have called on the British government to cancel all the debt owed to Britain by the world’s poorest countries.

In a statement issued at their autumn meeting, held this year in Leeds, England, the bishops asked the government to accept the”urgent need”for the poorest heavily indebted countries to be awarded a 100 percent cancellation of their bilateral debt with the United Kingdom, and to press for an equivalent commitment with regard to multilateral debt from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The bishops also asked the government to make every endeavor to ensure”that the benefits of any debt relief are devoted to poverty reduction and sustainable development.”

Pope says there is no excuse for poverty, hunger in the world

(RNS) Declaring there is no longer any excuse for poverty, hunger and disease in the world, Pope John Paul II called Thursday (Nov. 18) for action, spearheaded by the United Nations, to attack the problems at their roots.

John Paul made his comments at a Vatican audience for delegates to a meeting of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the largest specialized agency in the U.N. system.

He painted a dire picture of the world today, saying:”Millions of human beings are denied the most basic necessities of life _ food, water, shelter. Diseases both new and old continue to affect countless lives. The scourge of violence and war is unceasing. The gap between rich and poor increases alarmingly. Scientific and technological progress is not always accompanied by attention to the moral and ethical values which alone can ensure its correct application for the genuine good of people today and tomorrow.”In many ways,”he added,”life is under assault, with the weak inevitably suffering the most.” John Paul said that faced with these facts,”many people are overcome by a kind of moral paralysis, believing that little or nothing can be done to address these great problems at their roots. The best we can manage, they claim, is a palliative approach which may relieve the symptoms but can do nothing to tackle the causes.”Yet what is required is not paralysis but action,”he said.”With the means available today, poverty, hunger and disease can no longer be regarded as either normal or inevitable.” The pope said the world must attack these evils with”the creative power of hope”based on”the growing sense of the human person’s worth and dignity and of the inviolable rights which flow from it.” John Paul said he hoped that in the new millennium, the United Nations”may become a more effective instrument of development, solidarity and peace in the world. A strong United Nations organization would ensure the recognition that there are human rights which transcend the will of individuals and nations.”

Church of England urges prison reform, hospitalization of offenders

(RNS) The general synod of the Church of England has called on the British government to ensure that offenders who are mentally ill are treated in secure hospitals rather than sent to prison.

Britain’s prison population has been rising rapidly in recent years, spurring concern among religious groups about who is being jailed and for what crimes.

The number of inmates has risen by over 64 percent since the end of 1992, said Bishop Robert Hardy of Lincoln, the Church of England’s bishop with responsibility for its work in prisons.”You and I, as opinion formers, have responsibilities here, to challenge the punitive elements in our society, to tackle the blame culture which is so prevalent, and to explore and commend the concepts of restorative justice,”he told the synod.

But at the same time, he said, the church should not become sentimental about crime and criminals.”There are some difficult and dangerous people who need to be there,”Hardy told the synod.”But there are also many who are deprived, lost and vulnerable.” The synod said it welcomed the British government’s commitment to developing programs of so-called restorative justice _ alternatives to imprisonment _ but recorded its unease at the disproportionate number of black offenders in prisons and welcomed initiatives to eradicate racism throughout the judicial and penal system.

The synod’s debate was preceded by an upbeat address from the new director general of the prison service, Martin Narey, who emphasized the changes being made to improve a system that has been severely criticized.

Quote of the day: Parents Alliance for Youth Sports

(RNS)”I will encourage good sportsmanship by demonstrating positive support for all players, coaches and officials at every game, practice or other youth sports event.” _ The first article of an ethical code of conduct for parents created by the Parents Alliance for Youth Sports that aims at teaching parents how to behave on the sidelines and that has been made mandatory by a youth athletic league in West Palm Beach, Fla. The article was quoted by the Associated Press on Thursday (Nov. 18).

DEA END RNS