c. 2008 Religion News Service

Vatican astronomer suggests aliens do not need salvation

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Intelligent life may exist on other planets and has no need of redemption through Jesus Christ, the Vatican’s top astronomer said.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted in the Wednesday (May 14) edition of the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

The interview appeared under the headline: “The extraterrestrial is my brother.”

“Just as a multiplicity of creatures exists on the Earth, so there could be other creatures, even intelligent ones, created by God,” the Argentine Jesuit said. “This does not conflict with our faith, because we cannot set limits on the creative liberty of God.”

According to Funes, such creatures may never have fallen into sin, and so have no need of salvation through Christianity.

“It is not a given that they have need of redemption,” he said. “They may have remained in full friendship with their Creator.”

Asked about the possibility of redemption for sinful extraterrestrials, Funes said he was “sure that even they, in some way, would have the possibility of enjoying the mercy of God.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Funes argued that the “big bang” theory of the universe’s origins does not conflict with the biblical account of creation.

Funes also said that the Catholic Church had “recognized its errors” in its treatment of the 17th-century astronomer Galileo Galilei, who was convicted by the Inquisition for teaching that the earth revolves around the sun.

_ Francis X. Rocca

Archbishop says Kansas governor must decide Communion issue

(RNS) The Catholic archbishop of Kansas City, Kan., said he hopes Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will abide by his request to stop receiving Communion before he has to take further punitive measures because she supports abortion rights.

“There are a number of pastoral alternatives open to me at this time” if Sebelius refuses, including barring the governor from Communion or excommunicating her from the church, Archbishop Joseph Naumann said in an interview late Monday (May 12).

“I’m not sure that’s an action I would take,” Naumann said of excommunication, “but I’m not eliminating any options.”

The archbishop also said he could ask his priests to refuse the sacrament to Sebelius, but “it seems to make more pastoral sense to me to put the responsibility on the politician first.”

Catholic doctrine holds that abortion is “intrinsically evil” _ wrong in all circumstances. A spokeswoman for Sebelius said the governor will respond to Naumann by letter and has no comment at this time.

Naumann asked Sebelius to refrain from receiving Communion in a column in the archdiocesan newspaper, “The Leaven,” saying the governor’s support for abortion rights sends a “spiritually lethal message” to other Catholics.

The archbishop said he has met with Sebelius to discuss their disagreements on abortion at least four times, and privately requested that she not take Communion last August.

Naumann issued the public request, he said Monday, after he learned Sebelius later received Communion at a Kansas parish and the governor vetoed an anti-abortion bill April 21.

“Even if I am not able to help the governor understand the errors of her ways, then my other pastoral concern is to protect other people from being misled,” Naumann said.

Sebelius, who has been governor since 2003, has said she personally opposes abortion and worked to reduce them through adoption incentives, health care services and sex education.

In a 2006 speech to progressive Catholics, she said, “I disagree with the suggestion that criminalizing women and their doctors is an effective means of achieving the goal of reducing the number of abortions in our nation.”

Sebelius said she vetoed the April 21 bill _ which would have allowed family members to seek a court order preventing a woman from obtaining an abortion _ because it was “likely unconstitutional” and did not adequately protect women’s health.

Lisa Cahill, a moral theologian at Boston College, said, “I don’t think it’s fair to condemn her because she disagrees on the best way to reduce abortions.”

Naumann said Sebelius “has a responsibility to try to change the laws (on abortion). She, in fact, does that in all sorts of other areas.”

_ Daniel Burke

British Airways pulls meat meals to avoid offending Hindus

LONDON (RNS) British Airways has taken beef, one of the nation’s favorite dishes, off the menu for thousands of economy class passengers on long-haul flights over concerns that it might offend Hindus.

Britain’s flagship airline announced that in-flight choices are now restricted to fish or chicken dishes _ and that beef is no longer an option, at least for this summer.

It said it still had not decided whether to extend the beef ban into the winter season.

The airline explained to journalists that “we can only serve two options, and beef and pork obviously have religious restrictions … (and) we have to try to use two meals which appeal to as many customers as possible.”

British Airways’ second-largest long-haul market is to India, where Hindus, who make up the majority population, shun beef because of their religious beliefs. Economy-class passengers will be given the choice of a fish pie or chicken option.

However, in the airline’s business and first-class cabins, it will be business _ and beef _ as usual.

Britain’s Hindus appeared bemused by the move. “The Hindu community will welcome this decision and the news it has been made partly because Hindus don’t eat beef,” said the Hindu Council UK.

But “that said,” the council added, “Hindus are tolerant of the beliefs of others and do not expect everyone to stop eating a food because they (Hindus) do not eat it.”

_ Al Webb

Gospel singer Dottie Rambo dies in bus crash

(RNS) Gospel singer and songwriter Joyce “Dottie” Rambo died in a tour bus accident Sunday (May 11) in Missouri.

Rambo, 74, was in a tour bus that struck an embankment near Mount Vernon, Mo., after running off the highway, the Associated Press reported.

The Nashville, Tenn., resident published more than 2,500 songs including “We Shall Behold Him,” which was named the 1982 Gospel Music Association’s song of the year.

Others of her tunes, which have been performed by various artists, include “I Go to the Rock,” “I Will Glory in the Cross” and “He Looked Beyond My Fault (and Saw my Need).”

Her songs were recorded by musical luminaries such as Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Sandi Patty and Dolly Parton.

“We have lost one of the truly great poets, but her voice will only be amplified by death,” wrote fellow songwriter Gloria Gaither on the Web site she shares with musician-husband Bill Gaither. “Songs of Dottie Rambo will more insistently than ever speak to the experiences of life bringing hope, counsel, encourgement and perspective.”

Rambo, a Grammy-winning artist, wrote her first song at age 8 in her native Kentucky and started singing and traveling from church to church at age 12. Eventually, she was a staple on Christian television, including “The Dottie Rambo Magazine” on the Trinity Broadcasting Network in the 1980s.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney

(RNS) “ … I had missed an opportunity … to clearly assert the following: Nonbelievers have just as great a stake as believers in defending religious liberty. If a society takes it upon itself to prescribe and proscribe certain streams of belief _ to prohibit certain less-favored strains of conscience _ it may be the nonbeliever who is among the first to be condemned.”

_ Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, speaking at a May 8 dinner in New York where he was honored by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He was referring to the speech he gave on religious liberty during his recent presidential campaign.

KRE/LF END RNS