c. 2004 Religion News Service

Pope Deplores Terrorism, Appeals for French Journalists’ Release

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Offering a prayer for the “precious gift of peace,” Pope John Paul II on Wednesday (Sept. 1) deplored terrorist attacks in Israel and Russia and the executions of 12 Nepalese in Iraq and appealed for the release of two French journalists held hostage by Islamic militants.

Speaking to some 5,000 pilgrims attending his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall, the 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff linked the attacks to his memories of the Nazi invasion of his native Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, at the start of World War II.

“Thinking again of those days in this moment of grave and widespread tensions, we invoke from God, father of all men, the gift of peace,” the pope said, speaking slowly and with evident emotion.

John Paul said he learned “with great sadness and concern” of the terrorist attacks in southern Israel and in Moscow on Tuesday, which claimed the lives of more than 20 “defenseless and innocent victims.”

“Also in tormented Iraq the chain of blind violence that impedes a rapid return to civil coexistence is unbroken,” he said. “Accompanying the execration over the barbarous execution of 12 Nepalese citizens is the trepidation over the fate of the two French journalists still hostages of their kidnappers.”

The pope said he wanted to make “a pressing appeal” that violence be halted everywhere and that the French journalists held in Iraq “be treated with humanity and restored unharmed as soon as possible to their dear ones.”

_ Peggy Polk

American Humanist Association Opposes French Head Scarf Ban

(RNS) As the French school year begins, leaders of the American Humanist Association have stated their opposition to a new ban on religious apparel in France’s public schools.

“This ban violates the principle of religious freedom, denying children the identity of their faith,” said Tony Hileman, executive director of the Washington-based association, in a statement.

Hileman explained why his organization, known for its nontheistic viewpoint, differs from other humanists on the controversial decision banning Muslim head scarves and Jewish yarmulkes that takes effect Thursday (Sept. 2).

“While government should be neutral toward religion and schools kept free from proselytization, we see no compelling interest in banning clothing that is not disruptive and does not create a threat to safety,” he said.

American Humanist Association President Mel Lipman said individual religious expression should not be suppressed.

“France has an honorable history of appropriately separating religion from government, but in this case shows an unnecessary favoritism to religious people whose faith does not mandate the wearing of specific apparel, and discriminates against religious minorities,” Lipman said.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Angry Catholics Mount All-Night Watch at Closed Mass. Church

(RNS) Parishioners of a Catholic Church in Weymouth, Mass., that was closed by the Archdiocese of Boston have launched a round-the-clock sit-in in an attempt to keep their parish open.

Angry parishioners brought blankets and guard dogs to St. Albert the Great Church to protest a closing order that took effect Wednesday (Sept. 1). Members say their bustling parish does not fit the low-attendance or aging-building criteria used by church officials to close 82 parishes.

The last official Mass at St. Albert’s was held Sunday (Aug. 29). Church records have been taken to a nearby church for safekeeping and its pastor has been reassigned to help fill in for pastors at other churches.

“We’re going to go down with the ship,” parishioner Pat Perry told The Boston Globe. “There is no reason under the sun to close us. We’ve got a wonderful pastor and standing room only at every Mass.”

St. Albert’s was closed under a massive reconfiguration plan by the Archdiocese of Boston. Four larger parishes in Weymouth will remain open. Church officials say they will be patient and are not looking for a confrontation.

“We’re certainly not going to do anything to escalate the situation. As time goes on, we hope to reach a resolution,” the Rev. Christopher Coyne, a spokesman for Archbishop Sean O’Malley, told the Associated Press.

Parishioners hope to raise $100,000 to mount a legal challenge to the closure. They say the parish is self-sustaining with 1,600 families, a paid-off mortgage and renovated buildings.

Other parishes slated to be closed have vowed to battle the archdiocese over who owns church property. At St. Anselm’s in Sudbury, parishioners want to buy the building from the archdiocese and open their own parish, and St. Jeremiah’s Church in Framingham wants a refund on the $400,000 they contributed to an archdiocesan fund-raising campaign.

Members of St. Albert’s have signed up for all-night vigils and slept on pews. Rita Garufi brought her German shepherd dog to help keep watch. “He’s a good Catholic dog,” she told The Globe. “He was born in a monastery.”

Irish Cardinal Daly Calls for Action on the Environment

(RNS) A call for urgent action to ward off environmental catastrophe has come from Cardinal Cahal Daly, former archbishop of Armagh, in a new book titled “The Minding of Planet Earth.”

The book tackles the relationship between religion and science _ “a question which has interested me for many years,” the 86-year-old cardinal said. In particular, his final and longest chapter challenges the suggestion that according to the Bible human beings have absolute dominion over the planet.

“The book argues that the biblical mandate given to human beings by the creator is a stewardship to be exercised in accordance with the divine plan for creation and subject to the moral law of justice and respect for the rights of others _ and particularly for the poor people and nations who share the planet with those who are not poor,” he said.

“Men and women are stewards, not masters, of the universe. They are given a duty of care for the planet, not a plunderer’s license,” he said.

He said he saw his book as sounding a note of urgency.

“Effective action must be taken, and must be taken soon,” he said. “Action must be taken nationally and internationally, and it must be taken by all of us at local or domestic level, if environmental catastrophe and international and inter-racial conflict at world level are to be averted.

“Much of what has been done up to now is mere tokenism, given the scale of looming crisis. There must be changes of life and lifestyle, and these do not come without cost.”

In an interview with the Belfast daily The Irish News, he called on politicians to work together across party boundaries to tackle environmental issues.

“The resources of the planet are limited, but we are acting and have acted as if they were unlimited,” he said. “I think it is dawning on us more and more that our oil supplies and energy sources in general are limited. We are at the beginning of an energy crisis. Insufficient attention has been given by governments to the need to replace oil as our major source of energy.”

Quote of the Day: Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C.

(RNS) “Two thousand years ago, a man said, `I have come to give life and to give it in full.’ In America I have the freedom to call that man Lord, and I do. In the United States of America we are free to worship without discrimination, without intervention and even without activist judges trying to strip the name of God from the Pledge of Allegiance, from the money in our pockets, and from the walls of our courthouses. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. The right to worship God isn’t something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend.”

_ Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., addressing the Republican National Convention on Tuesday (Aug. 31).

DEA/PH END RNS