c. 2006 Religion News Service

Ohio Bishops Give $3 Million to Sex-Abuse Counseling Fund

CLEVELAND (RNS) Ohio’s Catholic bishops are reaching out to survivors of childhood sexual abuse with a new program that will allow victims to get counseling independent of the church.

In what appears to be the first voluntary program of its kind in the country, eight dioceses and an Eastern Rite jurisdiction have contributed $3 million to a fund for victims of childhood sexual abuse who no longer trust the church to help them.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Timothy Luckhaupt, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Ohio, said Wednesday (Nov. 15). “We’ve harmed people. We should help them.”

The new Counseling Assistance Fund will accept claims from those abused as minors by clergy or other representatives of the Catholic Church and who were Ohio residents at the time. Abuse victims have 18 months to submit a claim.

In an effort to get the word out, the Catholic Conference is notifying mental health agencies and is asking all the state’s parishes to make people aware of the fund during weekend Masses.

Some see ulterior motives behind the new program.

Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), criticized the fund as “one more public relations move that’s basically designed to forestall any real legislative reform.”

Blaine said the Catholic Conference fought hard this year against an effort in the Ohio Legislature to allow abuse victims an extra year to file civil lawsuits after the current statute of limitations expires.

Under the fund, abuse survivors who are not currently working with a diocesan program or have a pending legal claim against the church may submit a claim for mental health services. The request will be evaluated by a claims panel that the church said is independently appointed by county Probate Court judges and other public officials.

_ David Briggs

Publishers Weekly Chooses Best Religion Books of 2006

(RNS) Publishers Weekly has released its list of this year’s best religion books. The list, including 10 nonfiction books and two fiction titles, was released in its Nov. 6 issue.

The nonfiction titles are:

_ “Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming Faith” by Diana Butler Bass (HarperSanFrancisco)

_ “Peter, Paul & Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend” by Bart D. Ehrman (Oxford)

_ “Gonzo Judaism: A Fresh Path for an Ancient Faith” by Niles Elliot Goldstein (St. Martin’s)

_ “Overcoming Life’s Disappointments” by Harold S. Kushner (Knopf)

_ “My Life With the Saints” by James Martin (Loyola Press)

_ “Darkness Is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental Illness” by Kathryn Greene-McCreight (Brazos)

_ “A Jew Among the Evangelicals: A Guide for the Perplexed” by Mark Pinsky (Westminster John Knox Press)

_ “Essential Torah: A Complete Guide to the Five Books of Moses” by George Robinson (Schocken)

_ “Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish” by Tom Shachtman (North Point Press)

_ “Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?” by Philip Yancey (Zondervan).

The fiction titles chosen are:

_ “Winter Birds” by Jamie Langston Turner (Baker/Bethany House)

_ “Dwelling Places” by Vinita Hampton Wright (HarperSanFrancisco).

_ Adelle M. Banks

Church Says Limitations Violate Religious Freedom

MONTCLAIR, N.J. (RNS) A New Jersey megachurch said restrictions imposed by town officials _ including a required two-hour lapse between Sunday services _ violate state and federal religious discrimination laws.

The restrictions, imposed as part of the approval for the church’s expansion program, prohibit Christ Church from holding Friday and Sunday evening events, require that Bible study be held on Wednesdays and cut the number of parking spaces the church can build.

The church formally opposed the restrictions in a recent letter to the planning board in Rockaway Township, N.J.

“They placed conditions that are just not possible for the church to fully conduct its activities,” church spokesman Marc Weinstein said. “They basically have tied both hands behind their back. And it’s unfair, because the issue here is that none of these conditions are being placed on any other religious institutions in Rockaway Township.”

But Mayor Louis Sceusi said the township’s conditions were lawful, and came directly from testimony provided by the church’s pastor, the Rev. David Ireland, and others.

“As long as we do it based on the evidence that was presented, we are within our legal rights, and actually, we’re following our obligation just as we followed our obligation to approve the application,” Sceusi said. “We’ve tried our best to balance the interests of the town also, and to mitigate the strain that it’s going to create on the township.”

Christ Church has been a controversial project that involved nearly three years of hearings before township boards. Many residents were upset about the project’s size, the additional traffic it would cause, its environmental impact and the fact that the church is a tax-exempt organization.

In October, the planning board approved the church’s plans for a sanctuary for some 2,500 people, a K-5 school and other amenities.

But the approval came with dozens of conditions, some of which are contrary to the U.S. Constitution and a federal law that prohibits land use decisions that discriminate against religious organizations, church leaders said.

Ireland, the pastor, said, “When the planning board asked me about midweek functions, I mentioned that we have Wednesday night Bible study.” That’s not the same, he added, as letting the town dictate when the church can hold Bible study.

“What happens if we decide to change the day of our study? Or if we decide not to have a weekly Bible study, how is that an issue with local government?”

_ Paula Saha

Quote of the Day: Former White House Adviser David Kuo

(RNS) “Jesus was resurrected only once. The religious right has been resurrected at least twice in just the past 15 years.”

_ David Kuo, the former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, writing in a New York Times op-ed piece that the conventional wisdom that the religious right is dead after the midterm elections is premature.

KRE/PH END RNS