c. 2000 Religion News Service

Vatican Expects to Issue Text of the `Third Secret of Fatima’ This Month

(RNS) The Vatican expects to issue the full text of the “Third Secret of Fatima” before the end of this month.

Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said during the weekend that publication of the prophecy three shepherd children said the Virgin Mary made to them in an apparition in 1917 “is a question of days, a couple of weeks at the latest.”

Navarro-Valls spoke following the dramatic disclosure Saturday (May 13) by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, that the secret foretold the attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981.

Sodano made the revelation to some 600,000 pilgrims gathered at the sanctuary of Fatima for the beatification of two of the young shepherds, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who died aged 11 and 10, respectively, of influenza. The third, their cousin Lucia dos Santos, now a 93-year-old Carmelite nun, attended the papal Mass.

“On this solemn occasion of his visit to Fatima, his holiness has directed me to make an announcement to you,” Sodano told the pilgrims.

He said the pope made his third pilgrimage to Fatima to renew his gratitude to the Madonna for her protection during his papacy, which “seems to be linked to the so-called third part of the secret of Fatima.”

Right-wing Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca shot and seriously wounded John Paul during an audience in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, exactly 64 years after the Virgin’s first reported apparition at Fatima.

The pope has credited the Madonna of Fatima with saving his life by directing the bullets away from vital organs.

In the children’s vision, the cardinal said, “The `bishop clothed in white’ makes his way with great effort toward the cross amid the corpses of those who were martyred. He too falls to the ground, apparently dead, under a burst of gunfire.”

Sodano said the Vatican will publish the secret in full “after the preparation of an appropriate commentary” by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has custody of a letter from Lucia dos Santos containing the prophecy.

During a prayer service at the Madonna’s shrine Friday (May 12), the pope placed at the feet of her statue a ring that Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of Poland gave him after his election as pope in 1978. The cardinal, a staunch foe of communism, told the pope he would lead the Roman Catholic Church into the new millennium.

The gesture provoked speculation that John Paul intends to announce his resignation on his 80th birthday Thursday (May 18). Navarro-Valls flatly denied the speculation and said John Paul had simply wanted to donate something “of great value to him.”

Appeals Court Upholds Revocation of Church’s Tax-Exempt Status

(RNS) An appellate court has upheld a federal court ruling removing a New York church’s tax-exempt status after it bought newspaper ads opposing then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign.

The revocation _ which marked the first time a church lost its tax exemption for political activity _ “neither violated the Constitution nor exceeded the IRS’ statutory authority,” ruled a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Friday (May 12).

Lawyers for the Church at Pierce Creek in the Binghamton, N.Y., area, had argued the Internal Revenue Service violated the church’s free-speech rights, engaged in selective prosecution and exceeded its authority.

“These objections are without merit,” the appellate court found in a unanimous ruling, the Associated Press reported.

Just before the 1992 election, the church and its pastor, Daniel J. Little, purchased full-page advertisements in USA Today and The Washington Times to encourage voters to reject Clinton based on his stands on homosexuality and abortion.

Americans United for Separation and State filed a complaint with the tax agency after the “Christians Beware” ads appeared.

“The decision slams the door on mixing religion and partisan politics,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based public policy agency. “This is a staggering defeat for Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and others who want to convert America’s churches into a partisan political machine.”

The court said churches can form separate, non-exempt organizations “for the promotion of social welfare.” Those entities can create political action committees to take part in campaigns, it ruled.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, represented the church. He said his law firm, which was founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, had not decided whether to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.

“While we are disappointed with the … case involving the Church at Pierce Creek, we are encouraged that this court appears to provide a blueprint for churches to express their beliefs in a political context,” said Sekulow. “This is an important development in the area of protecting the First Amendment rights.”

Survey Finds Patterns of Discrimination, Ignorance of Religions

(RNS) A new survey released by the National Conference for Community and Justice shows a “disturbing pattern” of discrimination in America and a lack of familiarity with different religious groups.

The nationwide poll found that 42 percent of blacks said they experienced at least one episode of discrimination and 12 percent said they had two or more such experiences in the month before they were surveyed. Thirty-one percent of Asians said they suffered individual unfair treatment and discrimination. Sixteen percent of Hispanics and 13 percent of whites also reported at least one occurrence of discrimination during the prior month.

“A disturbing pattern is evident,” said Sanford Cloud Jr., president and CEO of NCCJ, a New York-based human relations organization, in a statement. “On a daily, monthly and annual basis, acts of discrimination occur all too regularly.”

The survey also found a significant amount of unfamiliarity with different religious groups.

For example, when respondents were asked how close they felt to different groups, 36 percent said they did not know enough to form opinions about Muslims.

“Only 13 percent of respondents describe themselves as close or very close to Muslims,” said Cloud. “Across the nation, we need to build interfaith understanding and work to overcome this divide through interfaith dialogues and seminary programming.”

A preliminary report of the survey results found atheists are “largely socially invisible” and fundamentalist Christians “are deemed to be more influential than most.” Gays and lesbians were “considered the top target of discrimination,” followed by blacks.

The survey found an increase in interracial/interethnic contact among different racial and ethnic groups.

“With more contact, people more readily recognize how discrimination affects others and show a greater interest in improving intergroup relations,” Cloud said.

The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates for the NCCJ. A total of 2,584 people were interviewed by telephone from January 20 through March 19. The survey has a margin of error of about plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Former South African Cleric Begins Three-Year Prison Sentence

(RNS) South African anti-apartheid activist and former cleric Allan Boesak began a three-year jail term for fraud and theft Monday (May 15) as cheering supporters rallied at the prison.

“I go to prison this morning knowing that I am innocent,” Boesak, 53, announced outside Pollsmoor Prison, Reuters reported. Pollsmoor is the same prison where famed anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was held for a portion of his 27-year prison term. “Going to prison as a price to pay for loyalty to my comrades is not too high. I promise you that I will one day step out of the gates of these prisons and I will be among you again.”

As Ebrahim Rasool, the provincial leader of the ruling African National Congress walked alongside, Boesak was carried to a police station on the shoulders of supporters who say they do not believe he mishandled money donated to help those victimized by the racist polices of apartheid.

On Friday (May 12), the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld Boesak’s conviction on two counts of fraud and theft involving nearly $200,000 of foreign donations earmarked for victims of South Africa’s apartheid regime. The court halved a 6-year sentence handed down last year by the High Court in Cape Town.

Boesak protested his innocence on Sunday (May 14), saying he would remain silent in order to protect members of the ruling African National Congress, which came to power in 1994 during the first elections open to all races in South Africa.

He said Scandinavian donors were always aware his now-defunct anti-apartheid fund Foundation for Peace and Justice was not a charity, but a front for the African National Congress, which had been outlawed at the time.

“I will wrestle with that for the rest of my life … I really want to know what it is that made them change, what made them decide to make of Allan Boesak a scapegoat, what made them come to Cape Town and lie in my trial,” said Boesak, noting he did not testify at his trial because he wanted to avoid being forced to name African National Congress members who had accepted money from the foundation and now serve as senior government officials.

Boesak will be eligible for parole in December of next year.

He is the former president of the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches and once held a top post in the African National Congress in the Cape Town area, playing a leading role in dismantling apartheid.

ADL Will Appeal $10.5 million Judgment

(RNS) Lawyers for the Anti-Defamation say they will appeal a $10.5 million judgment against the organization for defaming a Roman Catholic couple the group accused of being ant-Semitic.

The April 28 judgment came after a four-week defamation and invasion-of-privacy trial in U.S. District Court in a case stemming from a 1994 dispute over two neighbors’ dogs in Denver’s upscale Evergreen suburb.

In announcing the decision to appeal, the ADL also said it “does have the resources to pay whatever damages arise (from) this case.”

The case involved William Quigley and his wife, Dorothy Quigley, who are Catholic, and their neighbors, Mitchell and Candice Aronson, who are Jewish. The neighbors had once been friends but a feud developed over accusations that the Aronsons’ larger dog attacked the Quigleys’ smaller dog.

After the Aronsons discovered they could pick up the Quigley’s portable telephone conversations, they began taping them _ before federal law banned such activity. They felt some of the calls were threatening.

The Denver ADL held a news conference to denounce the remarks, accusing the Quigleys’ of anti-Semtism.

But the jury concluded the ADL statements were “not substantially true.”

“The verdict is a crashing and unequivocal vindication of the Quigleys’ position during the last six years,” said the Quigleys’ attorney, Jay Horowitz after the April 28 ruling. He said their position “has been and is that their Jewish neighbors sought to play `the Jew card’ and with the assistance of the ADL transmogrified a neighborhood dispute in which the provocateurs were the Aronsons and the victims were the Quigleys into an alleged anti-Semitic campaign.”

Update: Rebels in Sierra Leone Release U.N. Peacekeepers

(RNS) Rebel troops in Sierra Leone who have held some 500 United Nations peacekeepers captive for weeks have released 139 hostages into the custody of Liberian officials, U.N. officials announced Monday (May 15).

“We believe this is the beginning of the end of the crisis for our people,” said U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst. He confirmed a report from Liberian President Charles Taylor that 15 of the captives freed by the Revolutionary United Front were flown Sunday (May 14) to the Liberian capital of Monrovia, while the remaining 124 would be evacuated from Foya, a town along the Liberia-Sierra Leone border, the Associated Press reported.

Rebel troops in Sierra Leone began abducting peacekeepers earlier this month, derailing a U.N. peacekeeping operation to supervise a peace accord signed last July that was intended to bring an end to nearly 10 years of civil war between the government and rebel forces.

Genevieve Jacques, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches, sent an appeal Thursday (May 11) to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan calling for swift action “to halt the terrors” of Sierra Leone’s civil war, and warned the international community that delays in doing so “after such long and detailed forewarning would certainly lead to the charge that their silence and inaction makes them complicit with the equally foreseeable consequences.”

“The members of the Security Council, and indeed of the United Nations at large, can have no excuse for not having foreseen the present situation and taken appropriate measures to prevent it,” Jacques wrote. “…The major powers have been quick to respond to crises elsewhere in the world in recent times, often decisively, with massive force and at enormous expense. The peoples of the world, especially those of Africa, are well-justified in judging harshly the failure of the same powers to act in an equally timely and decided way here. …”

The release of the 139 hostages followed an announcement Sunday (May 14) from U.N. officials who said 11 Indian peacekeepers and seven military observers from different countries had been released to Indian U.N. troops.

Update: More Confessions From Iranian Jews Accused of Espionage

(RNS) Two more of 13 Iranian Jews accused of spying for Israel have confessed, bringing the number who have done so to eight.

Farhad Seleh, a trained geologist who works as a shopkeeper, and Asher Zadmehr, a university instructor, confessed separately to a closed session of the Revolutionary Court that they had collected information for Israel.

But the two men insist they did not establish a spy ring nor were they guilty of carrying out propaganda against Iran’s Islamic system, according to their defense team, Reuters reported.

Seleh told the court “I was only a member of the network, I did not create it,” according to defense spokesman and attorney Esmail Nasseri, while Zadmehr argued he was only responsible for collecting and assessing information gathered by others.

Zadmehr’s lawyer dismissed claims his client orchestrated an espionage ring.

“There is nothing in the file to support such a thing, but because he is the most learned among the accused some have come to the incorrect conclusion that he is the leading figure,” attorney Saeed Karam-Nejad said.

Seleh and Zadmehr are two of 13 Iranian Jews arrested and imprisoned more than a year ago on charges of releasing classified information to Israel. If convicted, the men face lengthy prison sentences _ possibly the death penalty.

Court officials have reported that five other defendants have already confessed to giving confidential information to Israel.

Defense attorneys said Seleh also denied other charges leveled against him, including a claim that he had obtained arms illegally. Nasseri said the judge has granted Seleh’s request to confront and question witnesses in connection with the charges of propaganda and illegal weapons possession.

Both Seleh and Zadmehr said they gave information to Israel for religious reasons, not money, Nasseri said.

Quote of the Day: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, lieutenant governor of Maryland

(RNS) “It’s a lot easier to childproof a gun than bulletproof a child.”

_ Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend speaking at the Million Mom March on Sunday (May 14).

DEA END RNS