c. 2006 Religion News Service

July `Most Dangerous’ for Darfur Aid Workers, Groups Say

(RNS) Eight humanitarian aid workers were killed in Sudan’s Darfur last month, making July the most violent month for relief personnel and threatening to disrupt one of the world’s largest aid operations, four nongovernmental groups said Tuesday (Aug. 8).

The statement by World Vision, Care International, Oxfam and the International Rescue Committee said violence in the refugee camps has risen steadily, in part because of opposition to the May 5 peace agreement reached between one rebel group and the Sudanese government.

“July was the worst month of the three-year-old conflict in terms of attacks on aid workers and operations,” the relief agencies’ statement said.

The United Nation’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs called for all sides to respect the neutrality of relief personnel.

“The level of violence being faced by humanitarian workers in Darfur is unprecedented,” said Manuel da Silva, a special representative of the U.N. secretary general and humanitarian coordinator for Sudan. “This is completely unacceptable.”

“The situation is made even more serious by the fact that the need for humanitarian assistance is increasing, while our ability to respond is being even more restricted,” da Silva said.

Four of the deaths of aid workers were in Darfur’s restive squatter camps, which are home to an estimated 2.5 million people displaced by the fighting between non-Arab rebels and the so-called Janjaweed militias, mostly Arab fighters backed by the central government in Khartoum.

A total of 3.6 million people _ those in camps and those in remote villages _ depend on outside aid for their survival. There are 14,000 aid workers, 1,000 of them international staff, working to aid those displaced or rendered vulnerable by the fighting.

A small, underfinanced and understaffed African Union peacekeeping force is charged with maintaining peace in Darfur, a region of western Sudan that is about the size of France.

While the United States and the U.N. have been pushing for a larger U.N. peacekeeping force to secure the region, the Sudanese government has rejected the proposal.

“The danger is clear,” said Kurt Tjossen, a spokesman for the International Rescue Committee. “If we cannot access the people who need assistance, then the humanitarian situation is going to rapidly deteriorate. As usual in Darfur, civilians are the ones to suffer _ from being attacked, displaced and also from denied access to the assistance that they urgently need.”

_ David E. Anderson

Critics Say Philadelphia Archdiocese Lags on Reforms

(RNS) Two former prosecutors who helped conduct a 2005 investigation into clergy sex abuse in Philadelphia have sent a blistering public letter to church leaders saying they have not done enough to prevent further abuses.

“Surely, when you consult your conscience rather than lawyers or public relations advisers, you must know that the problem of sexual predators in the priesthood is not fixed in Philadelphia,” wrote Maureen McCartney and Mariana Sorensen in a July 26 letter to Cardinal Justin Rigali.

The Philadelphia Inquirer posted the letter on its Web site.

McCartney and Sorensen had prominent roles in the Philadelphia district attorney’s 40-month investigation of clergy sex abuse. They are no longer prosecutors, and told Rigali that they do not speak for the district attorney’s office.

The district attorney’s investigation, released last September, named 63 priests whose “abusive behavior was well documented in archdiocesan files” and charged that archdiocesan leaders _ including two former cardinals _ had “excused and enabled the abuse.”

A grand jury found hundreds of instances of criminal sexual abuse but filed no charges because the statute of limitations had expired.

In a statement to the Inquirer, the archdiocese said that “we have intensified our safe environment training and enhanced our Child and Youth Protection Web site with more detailed information.”

The archdiocese’s Web site lists 57 priests accused of sexual abuse and their current status.

“We also wish to make clear that we report all allegations of abuse to the appropriate authorities,” the archdiocese’s statement concludes. A spokesman for the archdiocese declined further comment.

“The Archdiocese is again demonstrating an all-too-familiar pattern: offering assurances and the appearance of action while failing to take steps needed to prevent sexual abuse,” McCartney and Sorensen wrote.

_ Daniel Burke

Alliance of Baptists to Appeal Fine for Cuban Travel

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Alliance of Baptists plans to appeal a Treasury Department notice alleging that churches affiliated with the group violated rules regarding travel to Cuba and should be fined $34,000.

The notice, dated July 5, said itineraries of five churches that used the alliance’s travel license “did not reflect a program of full-time religious activity.”

Treasury Department officials accused workers from at least one church of using their license for “sightseeing and beach time,” but officials from the moderate Baptist group said their activities were legitimate.

It comes at a time when the Bush administration has been tightening sanctions against Cuba, including blocking humanitarian aid from reaching the Cuban Council of Churches.

The Rev. Stan Hastey, executive director of the Washington-based alliance, said a majority of the group’s board members have asked him to send a written response appealing the notice from the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Hastey said the “prepenalty notice” arose from an investigation of churches that traveled to Cuba between 2003 and 2005.

“We’re told that they engaged in substantial tourist activities and that’s simply not the case,” he said. “They engaged, by any reasonable definition, in programs of full-time religious activity.”

He said the participating churches met with partner churches in Cuba, attending worship services and visiting homes in nearby communities. The alliance intends to file its written appeal by early September.

The alliance, which is affiliated with 117 U.S. churches, is among religious organizations that have been affected by recent regulation changes by the Treasury office and no longer have a license to travel to Cuba.

Its previous license was suspended in 2005 when that office determined that one of the five churches spent time earlier that year on “sightseeing and beach time.” Hastey said the purpose of a stay at a beach resort with ties to a religious group was to visit a church, not go to the beach.

When asked for details about the notice received by the alliance, Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said it does not “comment on individual cases.” She was not aware of religious groups that previously had been fined.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Christian Groups Call for Immediate End to Middle East Violence

(RNS) Citing what they called the “intransigence” of both Israel and Hezbollah, three major international Christian groups called for an immediate end to the fighting in the Middle East.

In a statement, the three groups _ the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Lutheran World Federation _ also urged an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The Tuesday (Aug. 8) statement was signed by the Rev. Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches; the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches; and Bishop Mark Hanson, president of the Lutheran World Federation.

In an implicit criticism of the Bush administration’s Middle East policy, the three religious leaders said that while terms for a lasting peace cannot be reached in a brief time, “the world cannot wait for signs of a `new Middle East’ to stop the killing.”

The Bush administration has insisted that a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah would be meaningless unless the elements of a lasting solution _ a disarmed Hezbollah and a “robust” United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon _ were in place.

But the religious leaders said an immediate cease-fire “is an imperative first step” before any political solution can be negotiated, noting that Israel will not leave until there are peacekeepers, and Hezbollah vows to continue fighting until Israel withdraws.

“It is time for this intransigence by both parties to end,” the three groups said in their statement. “Israel must withdraw speedily from all the Lebanese territory, and Hezbollah, at the same time, must cease its actions against the Israeli people.”

Casualty figures indicate that the number of Lebanese deaths in the fighting that began July 12 is approaching 900, nearly one-third reportedly children under the age of 12. The Israeli death toll is over 100.

“Whatever the reality of the alleged provocations by both sides of the conflict, this spiral of violence serves no end but the devastation of Lebanon and the inflicting of wounds of terror in Israel.

“Neither the terror of Katyusha rockets nor the destruction of Lebanese homes, schools, and villages can contribute to a lasting peace in the region,” the statement said.

_ David E. Anderson

Quote of the Day: Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ibrahim Hooper

(RNS) “If you send lentils, at least no one can accuse you of supporting terrorism.”

_ Council on American-Islamic Relations Spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper on the necessity of donating material goods to Muslim charities because of U.S. government investigations into terrorism funding. He was quoted by The Washington Post.

KRE/JL END RNS