c. 2008 Religion News ServicePope congratulates Obama on `historic’ electionVATICAN CITY (RNS) Barack Obama may not have been the Catholic hierarchy’s favored candidate in the U.S. presidential race because of his support for abortion rights, but the Vatican on Wednesday (Nov. 5) hailed his election as a “choice that unites.”“America … is truly the country where everything can happen,” said a front-page editorial in the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. “America is truly the country of the new frontier … able to overcome fractures and divisions that until only recently could seem incurable.”The article, written by Giuseppe Fiorentino, appeared next to a full-color photo of the Obama family.Also on Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI congratulated the president-elect on the “historic occasion” of his election.In a telegram sent to Obama via the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Mary Ann Glendon, Benedict assured Obama of his prayers that God would assist him in his “high responsibilities in service to the nation and to the international community” and “sustain you and the beloved American people in your efforts, together with all men and women of good will, to build a world of peace, solidarity and justice.” Obama received a similar telegram from the Vatican’s No. 2 official, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, L’Osservatore reported.“The job of the president of the United States is a job of immense and most high responsibility, not only for his country but for the whole world,” the Rev. Federico Lombardi, head of the Vatican press office, told Vatican Radio. “Therefore we all hope that the new President Obama will be able to respond to the expectations and hopes turned toward him.”_ Francis X. RoccaFCC approves `white space’ technology that worries megachurchesWASHINGTON (RNS) The Federal Communications Commission has decided to grant Google, Motorola, Dell and Microsoft permission to develop “white space” devices that megachurch pastors worry will interfere with their wireless mics.The “white space” devices would use the same radio frequency that wireless microphones use, which means that pastors who use wireless microphones could have their sermons interrupted. Companies like Google and Microsoft want to use the frequencies to send broadband Internet to remote areas of the country.In a statement issued Tuesday (Nov. 4), the FCC promised to “act promptly to remove from the market any equipment found to be causing harmful interference and will require the responsible parties to take appropriate actions to remedy any interference that may occur.”More than 50 members of Congress, pastors and musicians have expressed concern, asking the FCC to protect their ability to communicate with their audiences. Shure Inc., an audio-visual company working with megachurches and other users, is backing its customers. “In anticipation of this ruling, Shure has been working diligently on technologies and technical support programs that will enable wireless microphone operators to be successful in more complicated interference environments,” said Shure president and CEO Sandy LaMantia.The FCC must test and certify all of the new devices to ensure they meet certain requirements, but Shure is still concerned that the safeguards that will help protect wireless microphones use “unproven technology.” “I want to emphasize we are cautious. We are waiting and anticipating a written rule. A lot of broadcasters were let down and disappointed because there are so many unknown variables in this,” said Bob Powers of National Religious Broadcasters. _ Ashley GipsonIrish bookies lower odds on God’s existenceLONDON (RNS) Thanks to _ or perhaps in spite of _ a huge new atom smasher near Geneva and a bus advertising campaign by atheists in London, a leading bookmaking firm in Britain has shortened odds on the existence of God to 4-1 _ subject to proof.The Irish bookie company Paddy Power actually began taking bets on whether there is a provable God when the multibillion-dollar Large Hadron Collider was switched on last September.This is the machine that physicists hope will get down to the fundamentals of how the universe was created, with the hoped-for discovery of an elusive sub-atomic particle nicknamed the “God’s particle.”At that time, Paddy Power offered longish odds of 20-1 that proof would be found that the Supreme Being is real _ but lengthened it to 33-1 when the atom smasher had to be shut down because of a magnetic problem.When a band of atheists launched a campaign of “There Is No God” signs on the sides of London buses, the bookmaker dropped the God odds to 4-1 _ meaning it would pay out only $4 for every $1 bet that God exists, provided that could be proved.What happened, Paddy Power says, is that “the atheists’ planned advertising campaign seems to have renewed the debate in pubs and around office water-coolers as to whether there is a God, and we’ve seen some of that being transferred into bets.”But the bookmaker cautioned “anyone still not sure of God’s existence to maybe hedge their bets for now _ just in case.”_ Al WebbQuote of the Day: Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C.(RNS) “I want to congratulate my opponent, Kay Hagan, on her victory tonight. Meanwhile, I urge you, also, to join me in praying for God to guide and support Kay Hagan as she takes on her tough new duties.”_ Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., in her concession speech Tuesday after she lost her re-election bid to Democrat Kay Hagan. Dole came under heavy criticism for an ad that tried to tie Hagan to the Godless Americans PAC.KRE/PH END RNS