c. 2000 Religion News Service
U.S. House Sides With Boy Scouts Over Federal Charter
(RNS) The Boy Scouts of America received a major show of support in the U.S. House of Representatives when members voted 362-12 Wednesday (Sept. 13) to oppose revoking the organization’s federal charter because of its policy to not allow gays as Scouts or Scout leaders.
Eleven Democrats and one Republican voted for the bill, offered by U.S. Rep. Lynne Woolsey, D-Calif. Republican leaders brought the bill to the floor to showcase widespread support for the Scouts, and 50 Democrats refused to vote because they were upset with how Republicans handled the bill.
Woolsey, a former Girl Scout, said she supports the Boy Scouts but does not support the exclusion of gays from membership and leadership positions.
“We’re not saying the Boy Scouts are bad; we’re saying that intolerance is bad,” Woolsey said, according to the Associated Press.
The legislation came after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year in which the court said that the Scouts, as a private organization, have the right to restrict membership in order to protect their message.
Conservative groups rallied against the bill, saying if passed, it would be the first step in a government effort to muzzle private organizations that do not accept homosexuality.
“Churches of all denominations whose tenets condemn homosexuality should prepare for the next wave of harassment and government intimidation,” said the Rev. Lou Sheldon, chairman of the conservative Traditional Values Coalition.
Archaeologists Discover Evidence of Ancient Flood
(RNS) Archaeologists have announced their discovery of remnants of a man-made structure under the Black Sea that provides evidence of an ancient flood that may have inspired the biblical story of Noah.
The expedition by explorer Robert D. Ballard also found beams, planks and other chunks of wood that had not been touched by mollusks or worms, The Washington Post reported.
“It is beyond our wildest imagination,” Ballard said in an interview with the newspaper on Tuesday (Sept. 12). “Wood is existing much shallower than we thought. When we do go deep, it can only get better.”
A robotic submersible is being used to investigate the site. It found a collapsed rectangular building _ “about like a good-sized barn,” Ballard said _ as well as two shipwrecks with jars used in ancient times to carry such liquids as wine or olive oil.
Columbia University geologists William Ryan and Walter Pittman suggested in their 1999 book “Noah’s Flood” that the modern-day sea was created 7,500 years ago when melting glaciers caused the Mediterranean Sea to overflow and dramatically raise the sea level.
Some scholars view the recent discovery as supportive of the theory about the quick rise in sea level causing the destruction of communities and deaths of people, animals and plants.
“Among scholars who take the Bible literally this will be confirmation,” said Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. “Critical Bible scholars are almost unanimous in regarding the flood story as a legend. On the other hand, legends arise not out of imagination but from an experience. I don’t think we’ll ever know what flood that was.”
First Hindu to Offer Congressional Prayer
(RNS) Just two days after the first Catholic nun opened the House of Representatives with a morning prayer, the House chaplain has tapped a Hindu priest from Ohio to offer the prayer Thursday (Sept. 14).
Venkatachalapathi Samuldrala will be the first Hindu to offer the prayer, according to the Rev. Daniel P. Coughlin, the House’s first Roman Catholic chaplain.
On Tuesday (Sept. 12), Sister Catherine Moran, a Dominican sister from New Jersey, became the first non-ordained woman to offer the opening prayer. Guest chaplains are recommended by members of Congress. Samuldrala was nominated by U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat.
Brown said he requested the prayer by Samuldrala to coincide with the special joint session address by Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Netherlands Approves Marriage Rights for Gay Couples
(RNS) The Netherlands on Tuesday (Sept. 12) became the second country in the world to approve full marriage rights for homosexual couples, as well as divorce guidelines and greater adoption rights.
The 109-33 vote by the Dutch legislature formalizes what many consider to be the most sweeping gay rights provisions in the world. The measure still needs the expected approval from the upper house of parliament, and the law should go into effect early next year.
Denmark in 1989 became the first country to allow gay marriage, according to the Associated Press, and France, Sweden and Norway allow gay couples to register their relationships. In the United States, only Vermont has approved marriage-like “civil union” benefits.
A handful of small Christian parties protested the bill, but an unusual coalition of all three governing parties supported the measure. Dutch Protestant and Catholic churches did not support the legislation, but a few breakaway Protestant churches voiced their support. The legislation allows civil ceremonies at city halls, but not necessarily religious rites.
“We will be able to call it what it is, and that’s marriage,” Henk Krol, a gay rights advocate and magazine editor, told the Associated Press after the vote.
While the Scandinavian countries have some limited programs in place, the Dutch provisions go further and essentially eliminate the distinction between heterosexuals and homosexuals. The only restriction placed on gay couples is that they will be able to adopt Dutch children, but not children from other countries.
Gay rights advocates in the United States said the Dutch vote is heartening for marriage rights at home and abroad.
“What the Dutch parliament has done is not create a marriage for same-sex couples, but allows marriage on the same footing as other people,” Evan Wolfson, director of the Marriage Project for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, told The Washington Post. “That’s a wonderful recognition that love is what counts.”
Update: Medieval Pope’s Skull Recovered
(RNS) Authorities in Spain have retrieved the stolen skull of a 14th century Spanish pope and arrested two suspects in connection with its disappearance.
Civil Guard police suspect the unnamed suspects _ one of whom is a minor _ may have taken the skull of Benedict XIII in April from an exhibit in the town of Sabinan, Reuters reported.
Benedict XIII ascended to the papacy in 1394 and served as pope during the turbulent Great Schism, when several others laid claim to his title. After Benedict’s death in 1423, his remains were kept at his birthplace in Illueca, but French soldiers destroyed most of them _ except for the skull _ during the Spanish war for independence.
Earlier this summer three ransom notes demanding a little more than $5,000 for the skull’s return were delivered to the mayor of Illueca. The thieves also sent photographs of the skull, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry, and said it had been sold.
Ministry officials announced the skull’s recovery on Wednesday (Sept. 13) but gave no details of how it was recovered.
Breakaway Polygamist Sect Members Withdraw Children From Public Schools
(RNS) Nearly 1,100 children have been withdrawn from public schools in Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, after their parents were told by leaders of a fundamentalist polygamist sect to prepare for the end of the world.
The group, which has an estimated 6,000 to 12,000 members scattered throughout Utah and the West, is led by an aging prophet, Rulon Jeffs, and his son, Warren. About 6,000 members live in the two towns near the Arizona-Utah border.
Enrollment in the two cities’ four schools has falled from 1,400 last year to only about 350 this year, the Associated Press reported. Dozens of teachers also left the schools, prompting city officials to close one nearly-empty school and move students to another school.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints broke away from the larger Mormon church in 1929, and members are said to still practice polygamy, which was disavowed by the mainstream church in 1890. Rulon and Warren Jeffs are said to have dozens of wives each.
Former church members say the two sect leaders told church members to withdraw their children and cut off contact with non-church members. Former members say the Jeffses are preparing for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, which is said to be either a few days or a few months away.
The sect’s Salt Lake City lawyer, however, issued a statement saying the group has not made any predictions about a coming apocalypse.
“The Fundamentalist Church and its officers have not made any predictions in regard to the exact date of the Second Coming,” the statement said. “It has long been the teaching of the church that no man knows the hour or the date of that event.”
World Bank to Fund Fight Against AIDS in Africa
(RNS) The World Bank said Tuesday (Sept. 12) it plans to extend a $500 million credit line to help combat the AIDS crisis in African countries.
“Last April we promised that no sensible AIDS program in Africa would want for funding,” said World Bank President James Wolfensohn in a statement, Reuters reported. “Today we deliver on that promise. We hope this program will help break the silence and inspire every country that needs help to ask for it.”
Kenya and Ethiopia will receive about $110 million immediately, the bank announced. In order to become eligible for World Bank funds, countries must be capable of distributing funds directly to communities, the private sector and civil societies, and must prove that they have drafted a “strategic approach” to combating AIDS. Countries that are not poor enough to qualify for World Bank concessionary loans are not eligible for the money.
“One of the most important features of the (program) is the participation of communities and of associations of people affected by HIV/AIDS in the design and implementation of activities at the village level,” said the bank. “The program will channel resources directly to them and help finance their own local initiatives in response to the epidemic.”
The bank also intends to ask its board of directors to approve loans and credit lines worth as much as $100 million to help fight AIDS in Caribbean countries, whose AIDS infection rates are second only to sub-Saharan Africa among nations worldwide.
Making Third Appeal for Barnabei, Pope Urges End to Death Penalty
(RNS) Making a third appeal for clemency for Italian-American Derek Rocco Barnabei on the eve of Barnabei’s scheduled execution by the state of Virginia for the rape-murder of his girlfriend, Pope John Paul II called Wednesday (Sept. 13) for an end to capital punishment worldwide.
Voicing the appeal before 35,000 pilgrims attending his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Roman Catholic pontiff linked it to the custom dating to Old Testament times of granting forgiveness during Jubilee years. The church is celebrating the start of the new millennium as a Jubilee Holy Year.
“In the spirit of clemency, which is characteristic of Holy Year, I join my voice once more with those of so many who ask that Derek Rocco Barnabei’s life not be taken,” John Paul said.
The 80-year-old pope made similar appeals in letters to Gov. James Gilmore on Barnabei’s behalf in December and July.
“Furthermore,” the pope said, “I hope that there will be a general renunciation of the recourse to capital punishment.” He said that states have other means at their disposal “to effectively suppress crime without definitively removing from the offender the possibility of redemption.”
John Paul has frequently stated his opposition to capital punishment, and in a message he issued June 30 to mark the church’s Jubilee in Prisons he urged that prison sentences be reduced as a Holy Year gesture to encourage inmates “to regret the evil” they have done and seek redemption.
Barnabei, 33, was convicted in 1995 of charges of rape and aggravated homicide in the death of Sarah Wisnosky. He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday (Sept. 14) night if his lawyers cannot win a stay from a federal appeals court or the Supreme Court.
The defense suffered a major setback over the weekend when a last-minute test of DNA material found under the victim’s fingernails implicated Barnabei in her killing.
Federal Court Judge James Spencer rejected the defense claim the evidence had been tampered with when it mysteriously disappeared from the prosecution’s keeping for a time last week before it was submitted for genetic testing.
A number of European politicians and death penalty foes also have been campaigning for Barnabei.
Gilmore has said he will not intervene in the case. He refused last week to permit European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine to visit Barnabei, and declined to meet with a delegation of three members of the Italian Parliament.
English Catholic Church to Probe Sex Abuse by Clergy
LONDON (RNS) An independent committee to investigate the way in which the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales copes with the problem of child abuse by its clergy, religious and lay workers has been set up by Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster with the agreement and support of his fellow bishops.
The nine-member committee is chaired by Lord Nolan, the former judge best known for chairing the committee on standards in public life that looked into the scandal of politicians becoming involved in corruption and made recommendations to ensure greater probity.
At a press conference in London on Sept. 12, Lord Nolan said the panel hoped to present an interim report by next Easter and to complete work within the year.
Introducing the press conference, Murphy-O’Connor renewed the apology to survivors of abuse and their families and communities made on behalf of the bishops by Bishop Christopher Budd of Plymouth in his preface to the 1994 guidelines.
“The errors of the past must not be repeated,” he emphasized.
“The Catholic Church has not and must not have anything to hide in its handling of the problems of child abuse and child protection,” he said. “Recent experiences have made me quite determined to do all I can to ensure that the Catholic Church sets up and maintains the highest standards in this regard both now and in the future.”
Meanwhile, figures distributed at the news conference showed that between 1995 and 1999, 21 priests were tried and convicted of child abuse _ or 0.343 percent of the total number of clergy. Four religious brothers were also tried and convicted _ 0.651 percent of the total.
One priest is currently on trial in Cardiff.
But, while only a very tiny minority of the clergy is involved, “one priest tried and convicted is one too many,” Bishop Peter Smith of East Anglia, one of the panel members, told the news conference.
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches
(RNS) “We in the church are called to fish in deep water. God is calling all of us, not necessarily the smartest, quickest or richest, to be about building God’s kingdom. … God is choosing ordinary people like us to do the extraordinary things that need to be done in the world.”
_ The Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, in a sermon Sept. 3 at the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Luyano, Cuba.
DEA END RNS
