c. 2007 Religion News Service

Appeals Court Upholds Federal Law, Kosher Food for Inmate

(RNS) An appeals court has affirmed a federal law protecting the religious rights of inmates, denying the state of Virginia’s second request that it be declared unconstitutional.

The Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Ira Madison, a Virginia inmate who sued the state after officials denied his request for kosher meals.

Madison claims he is a member of the Church of God and Saints of Christ and a Hebrew Israelite who is required to eat a kosher diet. Madison argued that the denial of the kosher meals violated a provision of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.

Virginia officials argued that the law is unconstitutional because it exceeds the spending power of Congress, but the appellate panel disagree in its unanimous Dec. 29 decision.

“We hold that RLUIPA is a valid exercise of Congress’ spending power and that, because Virginia voluntarily accepted federal correctional funds, it cannot avoid the substantive requirements of RLUIPA,” wrote Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III.

He noted that their decision marks the fifth time a federal appeals court has ruled that RLUIPA falls within Congress’ spending power.

Virginia officials have doubted the sincerity of Madison’s beliefs and cited a history of disciplinary problems.

They earlier had argued that RLUIPA was unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. A district court agreed, saying it impermissibly advanced religion. But the 4th Circuit appeals court overturned that decision in 2003.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Church Hopes Thief Returns Archbishop’s Stolen Items

MOBILE, Ala. (RNS) Catholic officials say religious ceremonial items stolen from the archbishop’s car on Christmas Eve are valued at between $5,000 and $6,000, and one of the missing items _ the pallium _ cannot be replaced easily.

While not offering an award, the archdiocesan chancellor, Monsignor Michael L. Farmer, said church leaders hope the thief returns the stolen items.

Farmer said Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb was upset that the theft occurred. “It was raining and he forgot to lock the door,” Farmer said.

Lipscomb had backups for most of the items taken _ a crosier shepherd’s crook, a pectoral cross, a gold antique chrism vessel and four pointed bishop’s hats called mitres, Farmer said.

But the pallium, a two-inch wide white, woolen band that symbolizes the office of archbishop, can only be replaced by the Vatican, church officials said.

Farmer said the pallium, while made simply from inexpensive material, is highly valued by the archbishop.

“The pallium is very much part of being an archbishop,” Farmer said. “And (it) is given by the Vatican to an archbishop.”

To get a replacement, Lipscomb possibly will have to petition Catholic Church officials at the Vatican in Rome and that could take a month, Farmer said.

Police said Lipscomb had parked his black, four-door Mercedes at about 6:30 p.m. in front of a home where he attended a Christmas party. Lipscomb discovered the theft when he returned to the car, a police spokesman said.

Farmer said the crosier was a light weight, brass plated travel version and not of much value except to the archbishop. The large pectoral cross that was suspended by a chain around Lipscomb’s neck during religious ceremonies was silver plated and worth about $500, Farmer said.

Since a police report was filed, Farmer said, he doubted that the charges could be dropped even if church officials wanted not to prosecute.

But, he said, “The church has always given mercy and forgiveness.”

_ Ron Colquitt

Twin Cities Airport Attempts to Crack Down on Muslim Taxi Drivers

(RNS) Airport officials in the Twin Cities are trying to crack down on Muslim taxi drivers who refuse to carry passengers traveling with alcohol or dogs, according to a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

“It is time to draw a line in the sand to make sure people are not refused taxi services,” said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the commission, which oversees Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

A commission subcommittee decided Wednesday (Jan. 3) to recommend public hearings on a policy that would suspend the licenses of drivers who refused service. The step represents a breakdown in cooperation between the airport authorities and local Muslim leaders.

“We have been working with the Muslim community, trying to find solutions that work for everybody. Frankly, we have not able to,” said Hogan, who described a failed effort last year to label taxis with special lights to indicate whether drivers would transport alcohol or dogs. “There was a huge outcry against that idea,” he said.

Beginning several years ago, Muslim taxi drivers have said no to passengers carrying alcohol, or who are traveling with pet or service dogs, said Hogan. As many as 100 passengers were denied service each month. That number dropped in August when the Transportation Security Administration limited carry-on liquids, reducing the number of people traveling with alcohol.

Roughly three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers servicing the airport are Muslim, many of them ethnically Somali, the Star Tribune reported Thursday.

Last year, the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society issued a fatwa, or legal ruling, saying it was a violation of both Islamic faith and the spirit of the First Amendment to insist Muslims transport alcohol, the Star Tribune reported.

Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, however, said a fatwa was only “an opinion,” not a binding edict for all Muslims.

“In the case of guide dogs, the need to accommodate handicapped individuals should outweigh the discomfort Muslims might feel in having dogs in their vehicles,” said Hooper, who urged local Muslim leaders and airport officials to work out a compromise.

The commission’s decision on the issue is expected before May 11, when drivers apply to renew their licenses.

_ Andrea Useem

Study Says 85 Percent of U.S. Dioceses Experienced Thefts

(RNS) Eighty-five percent of U.S. Roman Catholic dioceses participating in a survey of financial controls have detected internal thefts during the last five years, according to a new study.

Though researchers did not put a dollar amount on the money taken, 11 percent of survey respondents reported embezzlements of more than $500,000 during the last five years. Twenty-nine percent reported thefts of less than $50,000, according to the survey. More than 90 percent of the dioceses that detected theft reported the crime to the police.

Of the 177 U.S. dioceses contacted by researchers from the Villanova School of Business’ Center for the Study of Church Management, 78 (44 percent) gave “usable responses.”

“Unlike corporations which provide quarterly financial statements to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and hold quarterly conference calls with outside analysts, the church is subject to almost no recurring outside financial scrutiny,” wrote the study’s authors, Villanova professors Robert West and Charles Zech.

Based on their findings, West and Zech recommend that all dioceses establish fraud policies, conduct internal audits annually and arrange for external audits at least every three years. The professors also recommend setting up a uniform budgeting process with standardized computer software for all diocesan entities and creating communication channels for church workers to report suspected irregularities.

_ Daniel Burke

Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund Aids More Than 1,000 Congregations

(RNS) More than 1,000 houses of worship will receive grants from the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help recover from 2005 hurricane damage on the Gulf Coast.

Fund spokesman Bill Pierce said the number of applications far exceeded expectations. Officials originally expected between 500 and 700 applications.

A total of $25 million of the fund’s $130 million will be distributed to houses of worship, Pierce said.

He said between 70 percent and 75 percent of the houses of worship have received their funds and the rest should receive them soon.

“Clearly this was overwhelmingly successful in terms of the outreach and the education that was done,” he said Thursday (Jan. 4).

The fund’s work with religious groups became controversial last summer when the co-chairs of its religious advisory committee resigned after questioning the fund’s financial oversight. Bishop T.D. Jakes, a Dallas megachurch pastor, and the Rev. William H. Gray III, the former president of the United Negro College Fund, said checks were distributed without their knowledge.

Most grants have been for $35,000 or $20,000 for physical repairs ranging from water damage to ruined steeples.

Churches were the predominant recipients of the grants but Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist congregations also received funding.

The fund is co-chaired by former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and aims to help meet long-term recovery needs along the Gulf Coast.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Warsaw Archbishop Steps Down Over Cooperation With Secret Police

BERLIN (RNS) Instead of celebrating his appointment as archbishop of Warsaw on Sunday (Jan. 7), Stanislaw Wielgus gave up his office after confirming media reports that he had collaborated with Poland’s secret police in the 1960s and 1970s.

The special service had been planned to celebrate Wielgus’ official ascendancy to archbishop of Warsaw, the most important position in the Roman Catholic Church in Poland. Instead, in a hastily rescheduled service, Wielgus announced his resignation. Supporters shouted “No!” and “Scandal!” as the statement was read.

Cardinal Jozef Glemp, the former archbishop of Warsaw who will now resume those duties until another successor can be named, then delivered a homily on confessing sins, according to Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Southern German Newspaper).

The allegations have forced Polish Catholics to choose sides. Glemp argued for Wielgus to be allowed to continue in his new role, arguing that Wielgus was being judged “based on shreds of paper and copies of copies” and “without lawyers or witnesses.”

But Polish President Lech Kaczynski reportedly called the pope directly to argue that having a confessed informant as archbishop would harm both Poland and the church, especially since Poland’s favorite son, the late Pope John Paul II, worked hard to defeat communism.

Allegations that Wielgus cooperated with the secret police were first published in the anti-communist magazine Gazeta Polska, shortly after Pope Benedict XVI appointed Wielgus as archbishop of Warsaw. The issue largely simmered until Jan. 4, when more mainstream publications printed the allegations with quotes from government documents. Those allegations were later confirmed by government and church experts, although Wielgus denied them until Sunday.

According to the newspapers, Wielgus cooperated regularly with the SB, the Polish secret service, between 1968 and 1973, eventually suggesting other members of the Catholic Church to approach as potential informers. With the SB’s help, he traveled to Germany in 1973, apparently with directions to report on the activities of the Polish exile community in Germany.

It is unclear if Wielgus’ assistance led to the punishment of any dissidents.

_ Niels Sorrells

U.S. Episcopal Bishop Tapped to Lead Canadian Natives

TORONTO (RNS) Canada’s Anglican Church has appointed the Episcopal bishop of Alaska as its first national indigenous bishop who will minister to all of Canada’s native Anglicans, no matter where they live.

Bishop Mark MacDonald’s appointment to the newly created post is “an historic moment” for the church, said the Canadian Anglican primate, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison.

“This has been the fruit of our elders’ dreams,” said MacDonald, 54, who has worked with native peoples for nearly all his professional life. “It really signals a deeper and more important reality that is the recognition by a major denomination in North America … of the God-given character of aboriginal life and culture.”

MacDonald said he will concentrate on blending Christian theology with aboriginal spiritual beliefs. In fact, he foresees the emergence of a separate stream of native Christianity “that will not be a replication of the European church” and which has existed since the first aboriginal contacts with European clergy.

“There’s a lot out there already,” he said. “It’s a treasure that has been undervalued at best.”

Hutchison said MacDonald’s appointment is the culmination of a process that began in 2005 when indigenous Anglicans petitioned him for a national native bishop.

While bishop of Alaska, MacDonald was a vocal opponent of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, partly because most of the native tribes living there are Episcopalians.

_ Ron Csillag

Vatican Gives Tentative OK to New Stem Cell Breakthrough

VATICAN CITY (RNS) A recent study showing that stem cells can be drawn from amniotic fluid without harming the pregnant woman or her fetus has received tentative backing from a senior Vatican official.

In two separate interviews, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the Vatican’s health minister, said the study’s results, if proven true, represent an ethical breakthrough.

Speaking to Vatican Radio late Monday (Jan. 8), Barragan gave the procedure his backing on the grounds that, unlike in traditional methods used to extract stem cells, the use of amniotic fluid did not result in the destruction of embryos.

In an interview published in La Stampa of Turin, Barragan called the study “a discovery to rejoice over and the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for.”

The Vatican has been a relentless critic of stem cell research, fiercely opposing the destruction of human embryos, which it regards as human life.

“The church is not obscurantist and is always ready to welcome real scientific progress,” Barragan was quoted as saying in La Stampa. “We’re saying yes to genetic engineering as long as it respects life, including embryos.”

The joint study, which was released Sunday, was conducted by researchers with the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., and by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital in Boston.

In Washington, Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, who opposes all research that would destroy embryos, said the research “should deliver a crippling blow to the agenda of House Democrats” who are scheduled to vote on a stem cell research bill Thursday.

One of the Wake Forest researchers, Anthony Atala, on Tuesday cautioned lawmakers that his study should not be a “substitute for the need to pursue other forms of regenerative medicine therapies, such as those involving embryonic stem cells.”

_ Stacy Meichtry

Update: Kennedy, Mohler Out of Intensive Care

(RNS) Two prominent evangelical leaders _ the Rev. D. James Kennedy of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. _ are out of intensive care but still hospitalized after emergency medical treatment.

Kennedy, 76, the senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, suffered a heart arrhythmia that led to cardiac arrest Dec. 28. Doctors implanted a pacemaker/defibrillator Jan. 3.

“He is alert and receiving physical therapy,” said Brian E. Fisher, executive vice president of Coral Ridge Ministries, in a Tuesday (Jan. 9) statement.

John Aman, a spokesman for Coral Ridge Ministries, said other ministers on staff will fill in for Kennedy, who previously had a pacemaker, during his hospitalization.

Mohler, who presides over the Louisville, Ky., seminary, entered a local hospital Dec. 27 after suffering intense abdominal pain for almost a week. He underwent surgery the next day, which removed scar tissue from a 1980s operation.

Mohler, 47, suffered a setback after the surgery when he developed blood clots in both of his lungs. He was moved to a private room Monday.

“He looks strong, is in remarkably good spirits and is even cracking jokes,” said the Rev. Russell D. Moore, dean of Southern’s School of Theology, in a statement. “He has a stack of books and articles in his bed along with a massive number of highlighters, so the Albert Mohler I know is back.”

During the hospitalization, Moore has taken Mohler’s place on his radio program that airs on 60 stations nationwide.

It is not known when either Kennedy or Mohler will be released from the hospitals.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Survey Finds Greater Satisfaction Among House Church Attendees

(RNS) Worshippers who attend services in independent house churches report higher levels of satisfaction than those attending conventional church services, a new study shows.

The Barna Group interviewed more than 2,000 Americans about their experiences in traditional congregations and the nondenominational churches whose services are held in homes or other locations than a church building.

Higher percentages of people attending a house church said they were “completely satisfied” with the four dimensions of church life they were asked about:

_ 68 percent of house church attenders were “completely satisfied” with the leadership of their church, compared to 49 percent of those attending conventional church services.

_ 66 percent of those attending a house church were “completely satisfied” with the faith commitment of the people in their gathering, compared to 40 percent of conventional church attenders.

_ 61 percent of house church adherents were “completely satisfied” with the level of personal connectedness they experienced, compared to 41 percent of conventional churchgoers.

_ 59 percent of those attending a house church were “completely satisfied” with the spiritual depth they felt in that setting, compared to 46 percent of conventional church attenders.

The study also found that the vast majority of house churches _ 80 percent _ meet weekly, but only one-quarter of them meet on Sundays; one-fifth of them vary their meeting day. Gatherings tend to last for two hours, with 7 percent meeting for less than an hour and 9 percent meeting for more than three.

Researchers found that many house church attenders are checking out the independent gatherings but have not yet made a decision to leave a conventional church. Forty-two percent of those attending house churches regularly rely on them exclusively for their primary worship experience.

The survey by the Ventura, Calif.-based research organization was conducted in August and October 2006 and included interviews of a random sample of 2,008 adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Week: Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk

(RNS) “Ultimately, we depend on free-will offerings. If people don’t like the product, they are likely to be less generous. We have no power of compulsion.”

_ Roman Catholic Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, talking to the Cincinnati Enquirer about his archdiocese’s debt and declining revenues.

KRE/CM END RNS