Pilgrims will have to pay as much as 25 pounds ($39) to attend one of the two public events in England to be led by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit in September, the Associated Press reports.

The charges — believed to be a first for a papal event — are for a prayer vigil in London's Hyde Park on Sept. 18 and the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman in Birmingham on Sept. 19.

Benedict's four-day visit to England and Scotland has been controversial almost from the start, with thousands of Britons signing a petition earlier this year against the pope's presence in the wake of outrage over sex crimes against children committed by Catholic priests.

Critics have also complained about the cost. Chris Patten, the official coordinating the event, has said the taxpayers' tab for the visit to Britain could be as much as 12 million pounds, not counting extra policing costs.

The previous government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown invited the pope — a decision the austerity-minded new coalition government has not sought to change, despite some public unease.

In Rome, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Wednesday that the Vatican understands that the faithful will be asked to make a "contribution" toward the visit but are not being charged a fee as such. Lombardi said he understood that those who cannot pay will be not be required to do so.

Lombardi noted that people are not charged to see the pope at the Vatican, in Italy or anywhere in the world. Even during the pope's 2008 high-security visit to the United States, tickets were given out free of charge via church parishes.

Benedict's Sept. 16-19 visit marks the first time a pope has traveled to Britain since Pope John Paul visited in 1982. During the trip, Benedict will meet with Queen Elizabeth II and will preside over the beatification of Newman — an important 19th century Anglican convert to Catholicism.

Church officials in England, who announced some details of the charges earlier this month, say those who wish to attend the events in London or Birmingham must join a parish group, and those groups will travel to the event by bus. Church officials say no one will be allowed to travel to the event on their own.

The church is charging 25 pounds for transportation to the Newman beatification in Birmingham, where 70,000 tickets are available. In Hyde Park, where up to 130,000 people may attend the vigil, the charge will be 10 pounds.

The church's communications' office sought to explain the cost by saying it was because the pilgrims would be "journeying" to see the pope, just as ancient pilgrims did, and would be provided with a "pilgrim pack" that includes a metro ticket.

"Those attending the gatherings are not just 'ticket' holders, nor guests nor visitors; they are gathering as a representative body of the faithful from across the U.K. and thus are more akin to the ancient notion of pilgrims journeying to a spiritual experience in the same way that the Vatican entitles all papal visits as an 'Apostolic Journey,'" the Catholic Communications Network said Wednesday in a statement responding to inquiries from The Associated Press.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, a longtime Vatican watcher, said papal visits to the developed world are immensely expensive for the local church, especially when the local government doesn't pick up the full tab.

He cited the costs of everything from renting stadiums to portable toilets to hotels for Vatican officials and insurance.

"In Third World countries, life is simpler: no insurance," he said in an e-mail. "Just find an open field, throw a rug over a wooden platform."

He recalled that when Pope John Paul II visited the United States in 1987, the archbishop of Mobile declined to host him because he didn't want to bankrupt his archdiocese. "He said he would lead a delegation to New Orleans to cheer the pope" instead, Reese noted.

Monsignor Andrew Summersgill, in a podcast on the papal visit website, said: "I think it's important to stress again that one does have to be part of a group in order to attend one of the Masses or the prayer vigil."

He added that there would be opportunities for people to see the pope as he travels around.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

The nation's leading Jewish civil rights group has come out against the planned mosque and Islamic community center near ground zero, saying more information is needed about funding for the project and the location is "counterproductive to the healing process," the Associated Press reports.

The Anti-Defamation League said it rejects any opposition to the center based on bigotry and acknowledged that the group behind the plan, the Cordoba Initiative, has the legal right to build at the site. But the ADL said "some legitimate questions have been raised" about funding and possible ties with "groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values."

"Ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right," the ADL said in a statement. "In our judgment, building an Islamic center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain — unnecessarily — and that is not right."

The director of the Cordoba Initiative, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, was in Malaysia, where the group has offices, on Friday and could not be reached. His wife, Daisy Khan, who is a partner in the project, said the center will be a space for moderate Muslim voices. She noted Cordoba had previously worked with the ADL to fight prejudice against Jews and Muslims.

"We believe it will be a place where the counter-momentum against extremism will begin," Khan said Friday. "We are committed to peace."

Based in New York, Cordoba aims to improve relations between Islam and the West by hosting leadership conferences for young American Muslims, and organizing programs on Arab-Jewish relations, building civil society in the Muslim world and empowering Muslim women.

The mosque and community center would be located two blocks from the lower Manhattan site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. SoHo Properties, a partner in the effort, purchased the property for nearly $5 million. Early plans call for a 13-story, $100 million Islamic center, of which the mosque would be a part.

Sharif El-Gamal, the CEO of SoHo Properties, has said the project's backers were committed to transparency and would work with the attorney general's watchdog Charities Bureau. The planned center has been renamed Park51 to reflect the broad scope of its programs, modeled on the YMCA or Jewish Community Center of Manhattan.

A city community board voted overwhelmingly last spring to back the project even as it sparked emotional protest from some local residents and relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports the mosque's construction. Disagreement over the project has become a national issue, drawing opposition from former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, among others.

The ADL, one of the most prominent groups in American Jewish life, is known for its advocacy of religious freedom and interfaith harmony. Its position on the mosque was met with shock and condemnation by several groups.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, head of J Street, the dovish, pro-Israel group, said he would hope ADL would be at the forefront in defending the freedom of a religious minority, "rather than casting aspersions on its funders and giving in to the fear-mongerers."

The Rev. Welton Gaddy, head of the Interfaith Alliance, a Washington advocacy group, said he read the ADL statement "with a great deal of sorrow."

"As an organization that for nearly 100 years has helped set the standard for fighting defamation and securing justice and fair treatment for all, it is disappointing to see the ADL arrived at this conclusion," Gaddy said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations urged ADL to retract its statement.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the ADL, defended his position.

In a phone interview, he compared the idea of a mosque near ground zero to the Roman Catholic Carmelite nuns who had a convent at the Auschwitz death camp. In 1993, Pope John Paul II responded to Jewish protests by ordering the nuns to move.

"We're saying if your purpose is to heal differences, it's the wrong place," Foxman said of the mosque. "Don't do it. The symbolism is wrong."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Surveillance video footage of a young Christian talking a gunman out of robbing her cell phone store last week has become an Internet sensation.

The tape shows a man entering the MetroPCS store in Pompano Beach, Fla., last Friday, approaching the manager, identified in media reports as 20-year-old Nayara Goncalves, showing her a gun and demanding money.

But Goncalves changes the subject.

“Know what?” she asks. “I'm just gonna talk with you about the Jesus I have.”

She identifies herself as a Christian.

“You know you don't need this, Jesus got something way better for you,” she says. “For everyone that's out there. I'm not blaming you, I'm not judging. I don't know what you are going through, but all of us are going through a hard time right now – a very hard time right now.”

The man appears to agree.

“That's why I refuse to do anything to anybody out in the streets,” he says. “I've never done this before.”

He says he attends Calvary Chapel. Gonclaves says she has been there, too.

“I love Pastor Bob,” she says.

The man says he is married and has a job, but needs $300 or he will be evicted. Goncalves says she will be held responsible for replacing any money he steals.

He gives up.

``I don't want to do that to you," he says, and apologizes. "I understand you still have to call the police."

Goncalves urges the man to go back to church. He tells her it was a BB gun: "That's how great I am at this.''

Police are looking for the man.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 4:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

Amare Stoudemire already knows some Hebrew phrases and sports a Star of David tattoo. Now he's gone to Israel to explore what might be his Jewish heritage, the Associated Press reports.

The five-time NBA All-Star who recently signed with the New York Knicks is on a weeklong visit to learn about Israel, its language and religions. He believes he has "Hebrew roots" through his mother, Carrie.

"She studied the scriptures and history and she believes she is a Hebrew," he told The Associated Press on Friday in Jerusalem. "I grew up in a very spiritual home. It's not about religion, it's about spirituality for me."

Stoudemire said he was "soaking up the culture," with his girlfriend and a few other friends from home.

He has long suspected his Jewish lineage — Judaism is passed down through the mother's side. Stoudemire's agent, Happy Walters, said his client is a "student of history" and is "exploring religions in general." He added that Soudemire may turn to a genealogist when he returns to New York to dig deeper.

The 6-foot-10 forward signed a five-year, $100 million contract with the Knicks three weeks ago. He will now be playing in the city with the largest Jewish population in the United States.

The NBA features two Jewish players: Israeli Omri Casspi of the Sacramento Kings and Jordan Farmar of the New Jersey Nets. When Farmar joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2006, he became the NBA's first Jewish player since Danny Schayes — son of Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes — retired in 1999.

Stoudemire said he's spoken to Casspi a few times about Judaism, "but we didn't go into details about it."

Stoudemire has begun studying Hebrew and his Twitter page features such words as "Shalom," "Le'chayim" and "ze ha'halom sheli," Hebrew for "this is my dream."

"It's great," he said. "Hebrew is the original language."

On Twitter, he also called himself "the new Reggie White," saying "I'm going 2 Israel 2 study Hebrew. It's time 2 get a better understanding on who we R."

White, the late NFL star and ordained minister, traveled to Israel late in his life and studied Hebrew to learn scripture in its original form.

Stoudemire spent his first eight NBA seasons with the Phoenix Suns, where he won the 2003 Rookie of Year award and became one of the league's dominant players. Now, his possible Jewish ties have stirred interest in Israel, with bloggers dreaming he could one day join the Israeli national team.

Stoudemire, however, laughed that off.

"I'm looking forward to playing in the 2012 Olympics," he said. "For the USA."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

A draft constitution that Kenya votes on next week guarantees women the same rights as men — unless a judge in a Muslim family court decrees otherwise, the Associated Press reports.

Critics, including some American evangelicals, complain that the document carves out too many exceptions for the country's Muslim minority and could create tensions between Muslims and Christians.

Creating a new constitution was a key part of a power-sharing deal that ended weeks of bloody riots 2 1/2 years ago. More than 1,000 people were killed in the violence after a disputed presidential election.

But the inclusion of the publicly funded Muslim courts has galvanized opposition among some Christians ahead of next Wednesday's vote. A clause in the bill — which polls show is likely to pass — grants equality to women, as long as it doesn't interfere with the application of Muslim law.

"All Kenyans should have the same rights regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender," said Oliver Kisaka, the deputy general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Kenya. "This is the unfair creation of a system within a system. And why should taxpayers pay for a judicial system that doesn't include them?"

Muslim leaders call that kind of attitude scare mongering, and point out that Kenya's Islamic courts predate the country's independence from Britain, when they were formally brought under the Ministry of Justice. Muslims make up about 10 percent of Kenya's 40 million people.

Everyone involved in a case before a Kadhi court must be Muslim, and must be there voluntarily. Muslim Kenyans also have the right to pursue cases in the congested secular courts. The harshest punishment the Kadhis can impose is a fine, and their mandate is limited to matters of divorce, marriage and inheritance. Appeals go to Kenya's secular High Court.

"How does this threaten Christians?" asked Fatima Abeyd Anyanzwa, an anti-rape activist and mother of six. She studied in California and has a certificate from the U.S. ambassador praising her as an "unsung hero" hanging on her wall. "This is just more propaganda against Muslims."

Both sides recognize the traditionally cordial relations between Muslims and Christians have worsened since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S.

Anyanzwa, echoing the complaints of many Muslims in Kenya, say followers of Islam here are often discriminated against.

"People don't even want to sit next to you on the bus when you wear this," said Anyanzwa ruefully, touching her bright pink headscarf.

Even some conservative American groups are weighing in on the Muslim courts issue ahead of the vote.

"This is a government-sponsored Islamic law system," said Jordan Sekulow, the director of international operations at the Center for Law and Justice. It was founded by U.S. evangelical Pat Robertson and has recently opened a branch in Kenya.

Press releases sent by the organization describe Sekulow as "heavily involved in grass-roots efforts with Christian organizations in opposition to the Kadhi courts."

Sekulow says public funds should be directed to reforming Kenya's secular courts instead, where cases that can be resolved within a month in the Kadhi courts can wait years for a judgment.

But Judge Ahmed Sharif Mudhar, a Kadhi judge in the capital of Nairobi, says Kadhi courts are already providing Christians with a service by dealing with 4,000 cases a year that would otherwise further clog the system.

"Muslim families feel if this section is removed they are being deprived of their rights," said Mudhar, who has a leather-bound copy of the Kenya Civil Procedures Act on his desk alongside the Quran. "Our brothers, the Christians and the Hindus and other religions, they have nothing to fear. Maybe this problem with the Kadhi courts is a foreign one that has come to Kenya."

Ali Mohamed, a lawyer who was preparing to enter Mudhar's court to argue a case last week, said Kadhi court clause in the draft constitution has become an issue only because of "agitation by the evangelicals."

"They fear their influence might be eroded by Muslims. Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world," he said.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Novelist Anne Rice remains committed to Christ. But she is quitting Christianity.

The “Interview With The Vampire” author, who in recent years has spoken publicly about her faith and written a series of novels tracing the life of Jesus, wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday that she was finished with organized Christianity.

For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being "Christian" or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to "belong" to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outside. My conscience will allow nothing else.

She followed that post a few minutes later with more details:

As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I'm out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

On Thursday, Rice posted a series of passages from the New Testament:

Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

And then, more detail:

My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (71)
        

Thousands of Israelis marched calmly Thursday in Jerusalem's longest gay pride parade despite opposition from anti-gay demonstrators, the Associated Press reports.

The subdued march from Jerusalem city center to the parliament building contrasted with flamboyant gay pride parades elsewhere in the world. Organizers said they were adjusting to the city's religious character and using it to promote their political agenda.

Carrying rainbow banners, several thousand demonstrators walked along the 1.5 mile (2.5 kilometer) route. Absent were standard features of many such parades — multicolor floats carrying scantily and provocatively dressed participants, loud music, wild costumes and explicit public examples of homosexual activity.

Even so, a few dozen black-suited ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters at the beginning and end of the route held signs denouncing homosexuals, with slogans like "Gays Play in Hell, Not Jerusalem." Many ultra-Orthodox Jews consider homosexuality to be an abomination.

Marchers said such opposition has forced Jerusalem's gay community underground in most parts of the city.

"In a religious society, a lot of people still don't realize we actually exist," said Sarah Weil, 26, who helps run an organization for lesbians who are also Orthodox Jews.

The march marked the one-year anniversary of a shooting attack at a Tel Aviv gay youth center that killed two.

"This is first of all a march of mourning," said organizer Yonatan Gher, "and at the end we will try to put the mourning behind us and look forward to the coming year, and declare tonight the beginning of gay rights year."

Thousands of Israeli police guarded the marchers.

The Jerusalem parade has been marred by violence in the past. In 2005, an Orthodox Jewish protester stabbed three marchers. Organizers said the fear of attack still keeps many people at home.

But parade participants say there are signs the climate in Jerusalem is changing.

"I don't think it's dangerous anymore," said Yair Lieberman, 23. "But even if there's danger, that shouldn't stop us from walking."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Police in Swaziland say they have arrested three traditional healers for allegedly desecrating graves to retrieve human skulls and bones for healing rituals, the Associated Press reports.

Police official Wendy Hleta said Thursday the three — who might be described in the West as witchdoctors — claimed a healer from neighboring Mozambique offered to make them "instant millionaires" if they dug up human bones.

Police found a skull on the property of one of the suspects who then identified a remote grave that had been opened.

Hleta said the healers were arrested Thursday and charged with violating grave sites in this tiny mountainous southern African kingdom.

Last month a Swazi court fined two traditional healers for using body parts of protected animals.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

A Utah Supreme Court decision that overturns polygamous church leader Warren Jeffs' 2007 criminal conviction won't automatically make him a free man, the Associated Press reports. Even if Utah doesn't retry him, Texas and federal prosecutors are waiting to move forward with their own cases.

Justices on Tuesday unanimously said Jeffs should get a new trial because state attorneys overreached in their argument that performing the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin amounted to facilitating a rape.

Utah officials now have two weeks to seek a rehearing before the state's high court and then a month to decide if they'll retry the 54-year-old head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on charges of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice.

A judge Wednesday set an Aug. 18 date for a hearing on a motion from Jeffs' defense attorneys seeking a "speedy trial before a jury of his peers."

Meanwhile, authorities in Texas are trying to get Jeffs sent there to face charges in connection with his own alleged marriages to underage girls in 2005. A federal indictment stemming from Jeffs' stint as a fugitive on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list is also pending.

"He would not go free," said Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Utah.

Any federal prosecution would likely come after cases in Utah and Texas are resolved, Rydalch said, but in the hours after the ruling, it was unclear just how the states would proceed.

"We're going to take a look at this case anew and do a legal analysis of the ruling," Deputy Washington County Attorney Brian Filter said. "We're going to talk to the victim and to law enforcement. What we've done from the beginning is tried to seek justice in the case, and that's what we're going to continue to do. Where that takes us, I don't know."

In 2007, a jury convicted Jeffs on two counts of rape as an accomplice for his role in the 2001 spiritual marriage of Elissa Wall and Allen Steed.

Jeffs performed the marriage ceremony in a Caliente, Nev., motel and later counseled Wall to be obedient and give her "mind, body and soul" to her husband to make her marriage work.

The Associated Press does not typically name victims of alleged sexual assault, but Wall has frequently spoken publicly about the case.

During the trial and later in her book, "Stolen Innocence," Wall said she objected to the marriage and was forced into sexual relations with her husband.

Prosecutors argued that Jeffs' abuse of his religious authority made him guilty of accomplice rape.

But in its ruling, Utah's high court said 5th District Judge James Shumate improperly rejected defense-proposed jury instructions that would have required the panel to determine that Jeffs intended for a rape to occur when he conducted the marriage.

The court also said state attorneys were wrong to equate Jeffs' actions and role as a religious leader with Steed's alleged act. Steed was charged with rape the day after Jeffs' conviction, but the case has never been resolved.

Jeffs' defense attorney Wally Bugden said the state was so invested in bringing down "an unpopular religious figure" that it relied on the wrong legal theories.

"They mixed and matched and confused the theories of accomplice liability, with the theories of lack of consent ... stretching, pushing the law beyond the limits of what was reasonable so that ultimately the Supreme Court agreed with us basically on every point that all of the jury instructions were wrong," Bugden said.

At a courthouse news conference, Wall called the court's ruling "emotionally devastating" but said justice had not been served and she would find the strength to testify against Jeffs again if needed.

"This is not the end and I, by no means, am backing down," she said. "I am still in shocked understanding that there is a huge possibility that we would do this all again and more than anything, that Warren Jeffs is possibly going to walk away."

Assistant Utah Attorney General Laura Dupaix called the court's ruling unfortunate and said it could make it harder to prosecute people who force young girls into unwanted marriages.

The FLDS church is one of at least 11 distinct self-described Mormon fundamentalist communities that consider plural marriage an essential religious doctrine that brings exaltation in heaven.

"I don't think the ruling forecloses us continuing to go after men like Warren Jeffs and prosecuting them for their crimes, which the state considers heinous," DuPaix said.

Tuesday's ruling also comes as Washington County authorities investigate allegations that Wall may have lied about her medical records that were used in the trial. Filter declined to comment on the status of that investigation or its impact on any decision about a future prosecution of Jeffs.

Texas authorities have charged Jeff with bigamy, sexual assault of a child and aggravated assault related to alleged marriages between Jeffs and girls ages 17 and 15 in 2005. The cases are based on information from family records gathered during a 2008 raid on a church ranch near Eldorado.

After Tuesday's ruling, however, an extradition hearing in 3rd District Court was canceled because Texas' request to bring Jeffs there was based on his status as a convicted felon in custody. It will now have to be refiled in 5th District Court.

Jeffs will oppose extradition, Bugden said.

Wall said she has not been contacted by Texas authorities cases, but said she is hopeful that the lack of accomplice liability issues in those cases will make it "easier for them to have a conviction stick."

Jeffs has been serving two consecutive terms of five years to life at the Utah State Prison, but with the court's reversal, he is now considered innocent and should soon be moved back to Washington County's jail, Bugden said.

Jeffs' lawyers hope to secure his release, but it seems unlikely that would occur. Federal prosecutors planned to file a detainer for Jeffs with the jail late Tuesday, Rydalch said.

"Even if everything else goes away, he would come in on the federal charges," she said.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday ordered authorities to expel gypsy illegal immigrants and dismantle their camps, amid accusations that his government is acting racist in its treatment of the group known as Roma, the Associated Press reports.

Sarkozy called a government meeting Wednesday after Roma clashed with police this month after the shooting death of a gypsy youth fleeing officers in the Loire Valley.

Sarkozy said those responsible for the clashes would be "severely punished" and ordered the government to expel all illegal Roma immigrants, almost all of whom have come from eastern Europe.

He pushed for a change in France's immigration law to make such expulsion easier "for reasons of public order." He said illegal gypsy camps "will be systematically evacuated," calling them sources of trafficking, exploitation of children and prostitution.

French Roma representatives were not invited to Wednesday's presidential meeting, which included the interior, justice and immigration ministers and top police officials.

Community leaders contend the very principle of the meeting — which singled out an ethnic group in a country that is officially blind to ethnic origins — is racist and warn of grave consequences if their side isn't heard. France's government does not count how many of its citizens are of a certain ethnicity; everyone is simply considered French.

"Today ... I am afraid we're preparing to open a blighted page in the history of France, which could sadly lead to acts of reprisal in the days ahead," said lawyer Henri Braun said at a Wednesday news conference by French Roma leaders. "There is a huge problem of racism in France towards this population, there is enormous discrimination."

France has two main populations often termed gypsies. One, known as "traveling folk," includes several hundred thousand French citizens who have lived in France for centuries, and were traditionally nomadic but have become increasingly sedentary in recent years. The others are recent immigrants who come mostly from Eastern European countries like Romania and Bulgaria, usually illegally, and are often seen begging on the streets of French cities.

Those in the more established communities say they are being unfairly lumped together with illegal new immigrants.

Alice Januel, whose organization represents Catholics among the French Roma, warned that "If Mr. Sarkozy thinks that by clamping down he is going to calm the youth, I don't think that he will succeed. We have a youth that is rebellious."

Sarkozy also proposed that France bring in about 20 Romanian and Bulgarian police to work in the Paris region and send French police to Romania and Bulgaria, to help fight trafficking and other crime by Roma.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

The population of Amish is growing in North America, and their search for affordable, fertile farmland is sending them into new areas to accommodate a population currently estimated at 249,000, the Associated Press reports.

A study released Wednesday by Elizabethtown College's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies shows settlements in 28 states and Ontario. Amish have even been scouting for land recently in Alaska and Mexico.

The number of Amish has increased nearly 10 percent in the past two years alone, and it's more than doubled since 1992.

Nearly all Amish are descended from a group of about 5,000 in the early 20th century.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

The highest court in the United Methodist Church will review its 2005 ruling that allowed a clergyman to bar a noncelibate gay man from joining a congregation, the Associated Press reports.

The Judicial Council will take up the issue when it convenes in October in New Orleans, according to United Methodist News Service.

The ruling five years ago came in the case of the Rev. Ed Johnson, who was senior pastor at South Hill United Methodist Church in Virginia. He had refused to allow a gay man, who said he was not celibate, to become a member of the congregation. Like many other Christian groups, Methodists are divided over how to interpret what the Bible says about same-sex relationships.

At the time, the Judicial Council effectively ruled for Johnson. The court said a pastor in charge of a local church has the authority to decide whether a layman is ready for membership.

Three other regional church districts — Northern Illinois, Minnesota and Arkansas Annual Conferences — are now asking the high court to reconsider. The Judicial Council includes some newly elected members who were not on the court when the 2005 ruling was made.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

A Malaysian court fined 12 Muslims on Tuesday and sentenced one of them to a week in prison for illegally protesting the construction of a Hindu temple and parading a severed cow's head, the Associated Press reports.

The protest last August stoked tensions among Malaysia's three main ethnic groups — the Malay Muslim majority and Chinese and Indian minorities, most of them Buddhists, Christians or Hindus who have complained that their religious rights are often sidelined in favor of Islam.

The 12 men were among scores of Muslims who marched with a bloodied cow's head from a mosque to the central Selangor state chief minister's office to denounce the state government's plan to build a Hindu temple in their largely Muslim neighborhood.

The cow is the most sacred animal in Hinduism.

All 12 pleaded guilty in a Selangor district court to a charge of illegal assembly and were fined US$320 each, said defense lawyer Afifuddin Hafifi. They faced up to a year in prison and a fine for the charge.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Ramsey is being criticized by a national Muslim rights group for positing that Islam may be more of a cult than a religion, the Associated Press reports.

At an event in Chattanooga earlier this month, Ramsey said: "You could even argue whether that being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, way of life, cult or whatever you want to call it?"

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Ramsey's comments are a sign of "a disturbing trend in our nation in which it is suggested that American Muslims should have fewer or more restricted constitutional rights than citizens of other faiths."

Ramsey responded with a statement saying he's concerned that "far too much of Islam has come to resemble a violent political philosophy more than peace-loving religion."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

New York's attorney general is on the trail of a fake nun who dons a habit and cross to solicit donations for a phony church with a violent past, the Associated Press reports.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office said it issued subpoenas Monday in the case of Mindy LeGrand, 54, who was photographed by the New York Post on July 17 panhandling in Manhattan's Little Italy neighborhood. She then removed her habit and took the subway to Brooklyn.

According to the Post, the impostor told some donors that she was collecting money for an upstate New York orphanage and others that she was collecting "for the homeless." She said she was an Episcopal nun, but the Episcopal Church has never heard of her.

LeGrand actually is part of an unaccredited church that has operated at least since the 1970s, when founder Devernon LeGrand kept a stable of phony nuns who were sent out to beg. According to the Post, she is his daughter-in-law.

Devernon LeGrand and a son, Noconda LeGrand, were convicted in 1975 of raping a young woman in the four-story Brooklyn building that houses the LeGrand family and the church, then called St. John's Pentecostal Church of Our Lord.

The church founder was convicted in 1977 of murdering two teenage sisters in the same building to keep them from testifying in the rape case. He also was convicted of murdering his wife in 1970. He died in prison in 2006. Noconda LeGrand was released from prison in 1980 and runs the church now.

No one answered the phone Tuesday at the building that still houses the putative church, which the LeGrands now call St. Joseph's.

A spokesman for Cuomo said he could not provide details of the investigation into the LeGrands' operation. But the office has a record of targeting phony charities.

Cuomo sued the formerly ubiquitous United Homeless Organization, which used to collect money in big plastic jars, in 2009.

Investigators said most of the money the group collected did not, in fact, go to help the homeless but was pocketed by workers and the group's founders.

A judge ordered the organization to stop collecting money last winter. Last month she granted a motion to dissolve the group after it failed to respond to the lawsuit.

Cuomo, a Democrat and the son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, is running for governor.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the convictions of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and ordered a new trial, saying a jury received incorrect instructions before considering his role in the 2001 nuptials of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin, the Associated Press reports.

Jeffs, 54, was convicted in 2007 of two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. He is serving two consecutive terms of five years to life in the Utah State Prison.

A telephone call seeking comment from the Washington County attorney's office and the Utah attorney was not immediately returned Tuesday. Jeffs' lawyers scheduled a news conference later Tuesday.

Jeffs is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The group, based on the Utah-Arizona state line, practices polygamy in marriages arranged by church leaders.

Jeffs performed the religious marriage of Elissa Wall and Allen Steed in a Caliente, Nev., motel and later counseled Wall to be obedient and give her "mind, body and soul" to her husband in an effort to make an unhappy marriage work.

During the trial and later in her book, "Stolen Innocence," Wall said she objected to the marriage and was forced into sexual relations with her husband.

The Associated Press does not typically name victims of alleged sexual assault, but Wall has frequently spoken publicly about the case.

In its ruling Tuesday, the court agreed with defense attorneys who argued that jurors should not have been told to decide whether Wall's marital relations were consensual based on Jeffs' actions and his role as her religious leader. That essentially equates Jeffs with Steed — the person who allegedly has had nonconsensual sex.

Justices said prosecutors were wrong to make that leap.

"Only after there is a determination that an offense has been committed can the law impose liability on another party who 'solicited, request, commanded, encouraged or intentionally aided' in the commission of that offense," the court's opinion states.

Steed was charged with rape the day after Jeffs' September 2007 conviction, but the case has languished and it's unclear how it might now proceed.

Under state law, the parties in the case now have 14 days to ask for a rehearing of the case before the Utah Supreme Court.

The ruling from the high court comes as Washington County authorities investigate allegations that Wall may have lied about her medical records that were used in the trial.

County Attorney Brock Belnap launched an investigation in February after he was told by a third party that Wall's "medical records had all been created in one day to make it look like she had seen a caretaker on several different occasions."

The status of that investigation was unclear Tuesday. Wall's attorney, Roger Hoole, told The Associated Press he had no comment ahead of a news conference he planned for Tuesday afternoon.

An extradition hearing for Jeffs was canceled after the Supreme Court's ruling was released. Jeffs had been scheduled to appear in Utah's 3rd District Court on Tuesday so a judge could ask him to sign a warrant seeking his extradition to Texas to face criminal charges there.

Texas authorities used family records gathered during a 2008 raid on a church ranch near Eldorado to charge Jeffs with bigamy, sexual assault of a child and aggravated assault. The charges allege marriages between Jeffs and girls ages 17 and 15 in 2005.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press last week, defense attorney Wally Bugden said Jeffs intends to oppose extradition.

It's expected that Texas authorities will have to start a new proceeding to continue efforts to extradite Jeffs.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

To get to church on a recent Sunday morning, the Yeldell family walked no farther than their own living room to greet fellow worshippers.

The members of this "house church" are part of what experts say is a fundamental shift in the way U.S. Christians think about church, Associated Press reporter Linda Stewart Ball writes. Skip the sermons, costly church buildings and large, faceless crowds, the experts say. House church is about relationships forged in small faith communities.

In general, house churches consist of 12 to 15 people who share what's going on in their lives, often turning to Scriptures for guidance. They rely on the Holy Spirit or spontaneity to lead the direction of their weekly gatherings.

"I think part of the appeal for some in the house church movement is the desire to return to a simpler expression of church," said Ed Stetzer, a seminary professor and president of Lifeway Research, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. "For many, church has become too much (like a) business while they just want to live like the Bible."

House church proponents claim their small groups are sort of a throwback to the early Christian church in that they have no clergy and everyone is expected to contribute to the teaching, singing and praying.

They are more commonly seen in countries where Christianity is not the dominant religion. Organizers say they're just starting to take off in the U.S.

A study by the Barna Group, a firm specializing in data on religion and society, estimates that 6 million to 12 million Americans attend house churches. A survey last year by the Pew Forum found that 9 percent of American Protestants only attended home services.

"The only consistent thing about house church is that each one is different," said Robin Yeldell, who, in 2006, left a traditional church where he was a missions committee chairman.

The gathering at the Yeldells' home is a lively, sometimes chaotic event, with noisy and mostly happy young children flitting about.

After a time of fellowship, everyone gravitates to the kitchen table to observe the Eucharist with prayer, pinched-off pieces of sourdough bread and red wine in plastic cups. There's grape juice for the kids.

The celebration continues with a potluck meal. When they return to the living room, one member picks up a guitar to strum praise-and-worship songs that others softly sing.

Sparked by a previous discussion about whether they should start collecting an offering for the needy, Yeldell shares a Power Point presentation he created about "corporate giving" on his big screen TV.

The majority seems averse to a regular offering, preferring to take up a collection only when a need or charitable cause arises.

As if on cue, Sean Allen, a laid-off welder who is now homeless with health issues, joined their gathering late. The soft-spoken 39-year-old said he had been sick and struggling to pay some bills.

"I'm just here," Allen told fellow worshippers. "Do what you want. Let the Lord lead your heart."

Allen, who recently converted to Christianity from Islam, said a friend at a traditional church introduced him to the house church, which he prefers and occasionally attends because "they're more down to earth."

A few people agreed to write checks directly to the companies Allen owes while some debated whether money is the best way to help the man. A couple with five young children told him they couldn't afford to assist financially but he was always welcome to join them in their home for meals.

"I'd say the vast majority of house churches we know are Christians honestly trying to live 24-7 for Jesus," said Tony Dale of Austin. He and his wife, Felicity, are pioneers in the American house church movement which is also referred to as home church, organic church or simple church.

There aren't any signs out front so house churches are difficult to find. Prospective worshippers usually locate them by searching the Internet or through word of mouth.

Members rotate the services from house to house and take turns facilitating the gatherings. Anything more than about 15 people and the small group loses its ability to interact with each person, churchgoers say.

When they get too large, they divide and multiply.

"We view it as natural to grow, flourish and disband into three or four new ones," Dale said. "Not everything multiplies. Sometimes it shrinks and dies."

Sometimes congregations with diverse religious backgrounds break up over doctrinal issues or personality conflicts, moving on until they find or create a better fit.

In Texas, home to several megachurches, the house church movement is beginning to catch on, judging from the chatter on social networking sites and interest in a national house church conference organized by House2House Ministries held in the Dallas area in recent years.

"Often when you see a trend (like the growing number of megachurches) you see a counter-trend, like the proliferation of micro-churches," Stetzer said.

The Dales are among those actively working to bring mega- and micro-churches together.

Tony Dale cites the Apex Community Church in Dayton, Ohio, and The Austin Stone Community Church in Austin as examples of the complementary approach. They operate a network of dozens of small house churches, which can band together to become big.

Some who embrace the concept "have become kind of disillusioned, maybe bored with what's going on in traditional church and looking for a way to be more passionate in church," said Dale, who co-founded House2House magazine.

Bill Benninghoff of Arlington, a former pastor of charismatic churches in Texas and North Carolina, has been attending house churches exclusively since 2005.

"You get to know people in their good and bad times," said Benninghoff, a software engineer. "You get to pray with one another and have an incredible sense of camaraderie and community."

Benninghoff said he and his wife "felt lost in the big church on Sunday."

Reggie McNeal, a church leadership consultant based in South Carolina, said many people experimenting with house church have been doing so "under the radar," especially in Bible Belt states.

"It's kind of seen as an alternative or radical kind or approach," he said. "An increasing number of people are saying that they don't want to go to (any) church so there better be a way for church to just be where people already are."

Although house churches emphasize shared leadership and lack hierarchy, there doesn't seem to be a backlash from accredited seminaries devoted to training clergy to take leadership roles in traditional churches.

Dr. Nancy Ramsay, executive vice president and dean of Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth said interpreting Scripture for people of faith is an important responsibility but they respect those who see it differently.

"I wouldn't want to say that we feel threatened by that," Ramsay said. "We are concerned."

She stressed that a greater challenge for various denominations is being able to financially support a full-time religious leader during these tough economic times.

House church advocates say that's not an issue for them because they don't have paid professional leaders.

"You don't have to be dependent upon someone you hear at church to translate for you," said author Neil Cole, who directs Church Multiplication Associates in Southern California, which has helped start hundreds of organic churches in the U.S. and abroad.

"God is capable of speaking your language and talking to you where you live and I think that's attractive to people," Cole said.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

An Owings Mills contractor who has offered the Archdiocese of Baltimore $700,000 to help pay transportation costs for children displaced by the closing of 12 Catholic elementary schools has taken to the airwaves, encouraging families to take advantage of his offer.

Area radio listeners are growing familiar with the voice of Danny Schuster, Baltimore Sun colleague Mary Gail Hare reports: Schuster, who owns a concrete company, took to the airwiaves earlier this year to protest the school closings.

He has taken a different tack this time, hoping to boost enrollment by helping students get to schools, including Holy Angels, an elementary the archdiocese is opening this fall on the campus of Seton Keough High School. There had been some concern that there would not be enough transferring students to fill the school.

"The archbishop and I have worked out a transportation plan," Schuster tells Hare. "Our goal is to get as many of these kids to take advantage of the offer and to continue their Catholic education."

Read more about Danny Schuster's help for Catholic School students at baltimoresun.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Seven pastors who work in the San Francisco Bay area and were barred from serving in the nation's largest Lutheran group because of a policy that required gay clergy to be celibate are being welcomed into the denomination, the Associated Press reports.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will add six of the pastors to its clergy roster at a service at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in San Francisco on Sunday. Another pastor who was expelled from the church, but was later reinstated, will participate in the service.

The group is among the first gay, bisexual or transgender Lutheran pastors to be reinstated or added to the rolls of the ELCA since the organization voted last year to lift the policy requiring celibacy.

Churches can now hire noncelibate gay clergy who are in committed relationships.

"It's going to be an extremely glorious and festive ceremony because it's the culmination of decades of work to welcome LGBT people into the ELCA," said Amalia Vagts, executive director of the Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, a nonprofit that credentials openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people for ministry.

Megan Rohrer, one of the pastors who will participate in Sunday's rite of reception service, grew up in South Dakota and attended a Lutheran college where she said students tried to exorcise her "gay demons" by throwing holy water on her. Some of those people are now Lutheran pastors in South Dakota, she said.

Rohrer, who is transgender and a lesbian, was ordained by four congregations in San Francisco in 2006, but could not join the ELCA roster until the denomination's national assembly approved the new policy in August.

"I didn't really believe the policy was going to change as quickly as it did," she said.

Rohrer said she is hopeful Sunday's service will be a "symbol" to young people that the Lutheran church is working toward becoming more welcoming of people of all different backgrounds.

Jeff Johnson, another one of the pastors who will be added to the roster, said the ELCA's position for years of not accepting the choice of some congregations to ordain gay clergy was painful and disappointing.

"The actions the church is taking on Sunday affirms the decisions of those congregations," Johnson, pastor of the University Lutheran Chapel in Berkeley, said. "The church is respecting our family, our partners, the choices we're making."

A small number of congregations have voted to leave the ELCA in response to the August vote. Johnson and Rohrer want Sunday's service to heal some of the rifts.

Johnson said the goal, in part, is to show people the church has space for many different opinions.

"There's room for them," he said. "It's a tolerant church."

The special rite of reception that will be used for the first time on Sunday was developed specifically to welcome gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender pastors, said Melissa Ramirez Cooper, a spokeswoman for the ELCA.

Two more rite of reception services are scheduled for September in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area and another will follow in Chicago, Cooper said.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

The Catholic Church in Italy, still reeling from the clerical sex abuse scandal, lashed out Friday at gay priests who are leading a double life, urging them to come out of the closet and leave the priesthood, the Associated Press reports.

The Diocese of Rome issued the strongly worded statement after the conservative Panorama newsweekly said in a cover story and accompanying video that it had interviewed three gay priests in Rome and accompanied them to gay clubs and bars and to sexual encounters with strangers, including one in a church building.

One of the priests, a Frenchman identified only as Paul, celebrated Mass in the morning before driving the two escorts he had hired to attend a party the night before to the airport, Panorama said.

In a statement Friday, the Rome diocese denounced those priests who were leading a "double life," said they shouldn't have been ordained and promised that the church would rigorously pursue anyone who is behaving in a way that wasn't dignified for a priest.

It insisted that the vast majority of Rome's 1,300 priests were truthful to their vocations and were "models of morality for all."

Those who aren't faithful to their vows "know that no one is forcing them to remain priests, taking advantage of only the benefits," the diocese said. "Coherency would demand that they come forward. We don't wish any ill-will against them, but we cannot accept that because of their behavior the honor of all the others is sullied."

No one knows the exact number of gays in the priesthood. Estimates of the number of gays in U.S. seminaries and the priesthood range from 25 percent to 50 percent, according to a review of research by the Rev. Donald Cozzens, an author of "The Changing Face of the Priesthood."

Church teaching holds that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered," and the Vatican has recently cracked down on gays in the priesthood.

In his first major policy statement as pope, Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 issued an instruction barring actively gay priests from seminaries. The Instruction said men "who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture'" cannot be admitted to seminaries. The only exception would be for those with a "transitory problem" that had been overcome for at least three years.

The fact that the document was being worked on came to light in 2002 at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal in the United States. A study commissioned by U.S. bishops found that most abuse victims since 1950 were adolescent boys.

Experts on sex offenders say homosexuals are no more likely than heterosexuals to molest young people, but that hasn't stifled questions about gay seminarians.

The Rome diocese appeared to link the two, quoting Benedict in denouncing the sins of priests in reference to the Panorama article. The pontiff had used those words to deplore pedophile priests, not gay priests.

One Catholic commentator noted that the problem wasn't that there were "three priests running wild in gay Rome."

"There are plenty of priests — straight and gay — who misbehave sexually with other adults," said Bryan Cones, managing editor of the liberal U.S. Catholic Magazine.

"The problem is that only these gay priests are the news, not all the other gay priests who labor faithfully, honoring their commitments along with their straight brothers as best they can. We don't hear their stories because they can't tell them for fear of expulsion. And that isn't right."

The arrest of a popular Connecticut priest who frequented male escorts and strip bars made international headlines earlier this month after he was arrested and charged with first-degree larceny, accused of stealing $1.3 million over seven years from the church to finance his lavish lifestyle.

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

I, for one, am glad to see that the Sun is selling enough advertisements to necessitate the abbreviation of wire stories. But I was disappointed to see that the piece in today's paper ("Man arrested on terror charges," page A10) relating the arrest of one Zachary Adam Chesser failed to mention the infamy he earned by threatening the creators of South Park for their depiction of Muhammad.

No doubt Chesser's alleged association with notable terrorist figures like Anwar al-Awlaki and Nidal Hassan had earned him a spot on the no-fly list (and a federal wiretap) before he put Trey Parker and Matt Stone in his sights. His defenders at the time tried to portray him as a harmless blogger, parroting his statement that he was simply observing (rather than threatening) that Parker and Stone might end up like murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

Chesser was picked up at JFK earlier this month when he allegedly tried to fly to Somalia in order to join up with the terrorist organization al-Shabaab, presumably not in the role of harmless blogger. Indeed, according to his own statements to FBI investigators, Chesser traveled with his infant son in order to deflect suspicion. Anyone who has attempted air travel with an infant knows that you don't do this unless you absolutely, positively, have to be there on an airplane. So clearly the guy was pretty serious.

What's especially sobering about this story is that Chesser is all of 20 years old. According to his interviews with the FBI, Chesser's commitment to the violent propagation of Islam was in considerable flux during the exactly two years between when he became interested in Islam and when he set off to another continent to join a terrorist organization. At times he was personally committed to violence, at times he was opposed; at times, Cuomo-esque, he supported others' violence but didn't want to perpetrate it himself.

At one point, Chesser indicated that his blogging efforts were directed not at encouraging "specific acts of violence," but merely "general and ambiguous acts of violence." Clearly, the al-Shabaab farm team is not being recruited from the deep end of the gene pool. But idiots can still do damage, as the Ravens secondary learns every time it lines up across from Ben Roethlisberger. This is one citizen who sleeps a little sounder knowing that our nation's law enforcement personnel are handling these threats to our security appropriately.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

Shaukat Malik is a certified public accountant who lives in Potomac. He is also an entrepreneur and a business and political strategist.

Extremist Islam has done so much damage to the Muslim image that during the 2008 U.S. presidential election opponents of Barack Hussain Obama tried to scare voters by declaring that he was a Muslim and supported terrorists.

President Obama’s being labeled as a Muslim for political advantage is a wakeup call for Muslims everywhere, as it clearly confirms the pariah status of the 1.2 billion people who were born in a Muslim home.

As a religion of submission and acceptance of other religions that gave refuge to the Jewish people running from persecution in Europe to Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia, today, unfortunately, it has been hijacked by the oil rich theocracies of Iran and the Middle East.

The great Rabbi Maimonides -- also known as Rambam – became leader of the Jewish community in Egypt in 1183 and was subsequently appointed physician to King Saladin’s vizier. He lived all his life in an Islamic society and died in Egypt. Harmonious co-existence between Muslims and Jews in 1183 confirms the existence of an Islam that was inclusive and welcoming to all, much like the United States of today. There is no reason why we cannot have Muslim states that are inclusive and welcoming to all.

The question we must ask is this. Let us imagine for a moment that Barak Hussein Obama is indeed a Muslim. Would this suddenly take away his intellect and his loyalty to the United States and transform him into an Osama bin Laden-like terrorist living in the White House?

No religion teaches you to harm another human being. The aim of all of the great faiths is to promote a just and fair society. We cannot say that Moses and Jesus were wrong and Prophet Mohammad is right. They were all God’s messengers who brought his message and wanted to spread peace, love and understanding.

Children are born into different religions all over the world. Clearly God wants you to practice the religion of yourth birth. He wants us to leave the judging to him.

Whenever and wherever religion is combined with government and politics, it leads to atrocities being committed in the name of religion. A theocratic state is the model state for political Islam. Saudi Arabia and Iran are examples of one-party theocratic states.

Dictators are fully aware of the power of religion and have devised methods of employing it to their own advantage. They have substituted religion for a legislature or a free court system by giving the clergy the power exercised in functioning democracies by elected legislators and courts.

As English is the global language of business, Arabic has become the monopoly language of the religious clerics and the practice of Islamic law. Islamic clerics funded by Saudis insist that the Quran should be read only in Arabic, thus keeping close to 800,000 non-Arabic-speaking Muslims in total darkness. An Arabic word, like words in other languages, can have more than one meaning, thus enabling Arabic-speaking clerics to monopolize the translation of the Quran to suit their point of view.

A cleric from India, Indonesia, or Pakistan will narrate the Quran in parrot fashion and impart whatever he has been told by his teacher without fully understanding the context of the verse. His listeners can read Arabic but do not understand the meaning and will accept whatever the cleric tells them.

Doctored translations of the Quran and made-up sayings of the prophet have led to propagation of false interpretations to justify polygamy, the hijab and other violations of women’s rights. In this way, a suggestion is conveniently converted into a requirement; a caution becomes a prohibition.

A woman is considered a sexual predator that has complete control of the desires of the man she will invariably lead astray. She must be stopped: prohibited from appearing in mainstream society unless covered, and even then, only if accompanied by a man she cannot marry. She should not drive, as this is will bring shame!

Give us all a break!

By declaring some groups as non-Muslim, dictatorships and pseudo-democracies in Muslim countries keep populations busy in petty vendettas and battles. This is evident in Iraq, where Shias and Sunnis –both Muslims – are fighting each other. The same is true in Pakistan, where Muslim sects target each other. This is a devious way of diverting attention from the failings of the dictatorships and kings who are usurping and spending their country’s resources on the well-being of the ruling elite.

By abusing and falsifying the image of Islam, terrorist organizations such as the Taliban and al Qaida have forced peace-loving countries to view Islam with suspicion. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and attempted attack in Times Square.

As the example of Turkey shows, kings and dictators cannot survive in a functioning democracy. The military dictatorship in Turkey finally had to give in to the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP, for its Turkish initials). By embracing democratic values and freedoms for Turkish citizens, the AKP has succeeded in keeping the power hungry-generals in their barracks, where they rightly belong.

A new chapter in Islamic party development and evolution has been written in Turkey. It must be used as a benchmark by Islamic parties everywhere.

The time is here for Islamic parties in Muslim-majority countries to seek guidance from Turkey, a country transforming itself into a force on the dividing line between East and West, and to gradually embrace the Turkish model of separation of church and state and freedom of religion.

Through this model, the Muslim world can deliver the inherent rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that every citizen – notwithstanding his or her religion – deserves to enjoy.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (60)
        

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien presided over the closing session of the diocesan inquiry into the cause for sainthood of the Rev. Patrick Peyton on Tuesday during Mass at the Baltimore Basilica.

The Irish-born Holy Cross priest is credited with coining the phrase “the family that prays together, stays together.” He was a fixture on American radio and television in the 1940s and ’50s, a platform from which he promoted the prayer movement called the Family Rosary Crusade.

The Vatican asked the Archdiocese of Baltimore to investigate the cause for sainthood in 2008. Copies of the documents the archdiocese has generated are to be sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, which will decide whether the matter merits further investigation.

The process of canonization in the Catholic Church involves three major steps: declaration of a candidate’s heroic virtues, beatification and canonization. During the process, the church considers evidence of miracles attributable to the intercession of the candidate. In general, two miracles need to be accepted by the church for a sainthood cause to advance.

According to the archdiocese, Peyton arrived in the United States in 1928 when he was 19. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1941 and founded Family Rosary in Albany, N.Y., the following year.

He conducted rosary crusades in 40 countries, drawing 28 million people. In 1947, he created Family Theater Productions, producing some 600 radio and television programs featuring hundreds of actors and celebrities, and more than 10,000 broadcasts.

Family Rosary, Father Peyton Family Institute and Family Theater Productions carry on the work of Father Peyton in 17 countries.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The Mississippi school district that canceled a high school prom rather than allow a senior to bring her girlfriend has reached a settlement with the student, her attorneys said Tuesday.

The Itawamba County School District has agreed to pay 18-year-old Constance McMillen $35,000 plus attorneys fees, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The district also agreed to implement a policy banning discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity – the first such policy in Mississippi – according to the ACLU.

"I'm so glad this is all over,” McMillen, a student at Itawamba Agricultural High School in in Jackson, Miss., said in a statement distributed by the ACLU. “I won't ever get my prom back, but it's worth it if it changes things at my school.”

According to the ACLU, McMillen suffered such harassment at IAHS that she transferred to another school to complete her senior year. The ACLU has accused district officials of staging a sham prom for McMillen while classmates attended a separate event elsewhere.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Culture, Education, Law and Courts, People, Politics, Sexuality
        

The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Every once in a while I encounter something that forces me to question some of my most deeply held beliefs. Sometimes it's being told about an experience I don't think ought to be able to happen. Sometimes it's a person doing something totally unexpected that somehow works out for the good. And sometimes it's a bunch of bigoted jerks disrupting a military funeral.

For a small church in Kansas, the Westboro Baptist Church has a presence that looms large over our area. Their 2006 protest at the Westminster funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder prompted a lawsuit which will make its way to the Supreme Court this fall. For those who are unfamiliar, WBC's membership consists primarily of the pastor's relatives, and its activities consist primarily of stretching the limits of First Amendment protections and going to court against their opponents.

This spring WBC announced that it would protest at the funeral of University of Virginia lacrosse player Yeardley Love at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. Apparently a young woman's violent death presented an opportunity to address the issue of pedophilia in the Roman Catholic Church by waving signs and shouting slogans with content unsuitable for a family blog.

I couldn't have been prouder that someone from our congregation was on site to hold up sheets and tarps to protect Love's family from seeing the WBC protesters (who, as it turns out, never showed). Much the same service was provided to Snyder's family by the Patriot Guard Riders, a corps of motorcyclists who fire up their Harleys at military funerals to drown out the voices of WBC protesters.

My libertarian streak runs deep and wide. Generally speaking I'm inclined to note that it's the right to free speech, not the right to not be offended, that is enshrined in the First Amendment. So on the question of offensive South Park episodes, as I argued on this blog several months back, a person who doesn't like how his prophet is being portrayed should change the channel rather than threatening violence against the show's creators.

So when people want to protest outside a political event, or a rock concert, or a Wal-Mart, or even an abortion clinic, I see that as an exercise of free speech that the people who don't like it have to tolerate anyway -- in this country, that's how we roll. To have true freedom of speech means to allow speech that is inconvenient, that is unwanted, that may be upsetting.

Yet at the same time there's a lot of sense in carving out space for civility and decorum in the midst of these freedoms in a few circumstances. And if there's any place where speech might legitimately be curtailed, I have to say as a pastor that it's at a funeral. I'd probably want to include weddings as well. It's not unreasonable for a free society to say, "You don't have the right to not be offended. But you do have the right to bury your son in peace," without people yelling across the street that his death should be celebrated as God's vengeance on America for its various moral failures.

I'm attracted to the rejoinder that freedom of speech allows counter-protesters to show up and shout down the hateful rhetoric of a small handful of lunatics. It may be that our free society has demonstrated that it can produce the Patriot Guard Riders, and that further restrictions aren't necessary. But it may also be that the kinds of reasonable restrictions that allow me to be free from hearing my neighbor blasting Celine Dion in the wee hours can be brought to bear on events more weighty than a good night's sleep.

Some states have set a broad barrier of 500 feet around funeral services and processions, within which protests are not allowed. Considering that during political conventions designated protest areas may be set much further away, this seems to me to be a reasonable approach to ensuring that a free society can also be a civilized society.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Writer, public health professional and attorney J. Samia Mair of Baltimore is the author of the children’s books Amira’s Totally Chocolate World and The Perfect Gift.

There is an old country music song called "I was Country, when Country wasn't cool." It reminds me of what it is like to be Muslim in America today.

In his new book soon to be released, A World Without Islam, Graham E. Fuller, former Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, states:

Muslims are now the object of intensified overt and covert suspicions, sometimes even discrimination on a de jure basis, on anything that smacks of security issues. Muslims in the West have yet to receive the benefit of public political correctness; their characteristics and culture remain open season for spoof, lampoon, derision, and hatred in ways no longer tolerated in Western society in respect to African-Americans, Jews, or Native Americans.

In other words, it is okay to hate Muslims.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress, recently stated “if you're not fighting for the civil rights of Muslim Americans, then you're not on the cutting edge of civil rights in America today.”

Yet, it is an historic time to be Muslim in America. And I’m glad to be part of it.

Being Muslim post-9/11 presents challenges but also opportunity. We have the opportunity to dispel the many misconceptions about Islam and address the outright lies. We have the opportunity to fulfill our duties to our neighbors and our communities, even though they might fail to fulfill their duties to us. We have the opportunity to act beautifully in the face of harsh treatment. In short, we have the opportunity to help determine the future of Islam in America.

Some day, our children and grandchildren will ask us what it was like to be Muslim post- 9/11 and at a time when the country with at war with other Muslims. I hope to answer them that it was a great time to be alive.

Chorus:

I was Muslim, when Muslim wasn't cool
I was Muslim from my hijab to my shoes
I still act and look the same
What you see ain't nothing new
I was Muslim when country wasn't cool

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (92)
        

Banning a fundamentalist church from protesting homosexuality outside military funerals would have a chilling effect on free speech, according to briefs filed to the U.S. Supreme Court by an ideologically diverse group of supporters, the Associated Press reports.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., picket military funerals around the country. They argue that U.S. military deaths are God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality and carry signs with slogans including "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., filed a lawsuit accusing the church of inflicting emotional distress and invading his privacy. He argues that the church's free speech rights did not trump his right to peacefully assemble for the 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, in Westminster.

A jury awarded Snyder nearly $11 million in damages. A judge later reduced that award, and an appeals court overturned the verdict. The Supreme Court will hear the case this fall.

Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia signed onto a brief supporting Snyder. The states argued they have a compelling interest in protecting the sanctity of funerals.

Seven briefs in support of Westboro were filed late Wednesday. They were submitted by law schools, civil liberties and free-speech organizations and other groups. The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press filed a brief on behalf of 21 media organizations, including The Associated Press.

Westboro argues that it did not disrupt Matthew Snyder's funeral, in part because its protest was 1,000 feet away from the church, on a public street. It also says the funeral was a public event and that the church was offering "hysterical" commentary on an issue of public concern.

"This Court should not permit the premature death of the First Amendment," the conservative Liberty Counsel wrote in its brief. A ruling in Snyder's favor "threatens potentially devastating consequences for the continued vitality of free speech in the United States," according to a brief by the Rutherford Institute, a civil-liberties group in Charlottesville, Va.

The brief by the media organizations notes that reporters often must publish controversial material on matters of public concern and says a ruling in Snyder's favor would "expand dramatically the risk of liability for news media coverage and commentary."

Westboro's supporters take pains to note that they disagree with the content of the church's protests.

"Most reasonable people would consider the funeral protests conducted by members of the Westboro Baptist Church to be inexplicable and hateful," the media groups wrote. "But to silence a fringe messenger because of the distastefulness of the message is antithetical to the First Amendment's most basic precepts."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela will rethink its relations with the Vatican as tensions rise between his government and Catholic Church representatives who accuse the socialist leader of becoming increasingly authoritarian, the Associated Press reports.

During a televised speech, Chavez instructed his foreign minister to "examine" relations with the Vatican. Without elaborating, he questioned the validity of an agreement giving the Catholic Church privileges that are not extended to other religious organizations in Venezuela.

Chavez also challenged the authority of Pope Benedict XVI, saying the pope "isn't God's emissary on Earth."

There was no immediately reaction from the papal nuncio in Caracas.

Chavez and Venezuela's Catholic Church are clashing like never before.

In recent weeks, Chavez has said that Christ would whip church leaders for suggesting that he's steering Venezuela toward a Cuban-style Marxist dictatorship. He also accused Cardinal Jorge Urosa of misleading the Vatican with warnings that Venezuela is drifting toward dictatorship.

Urosa has defended his decision to tell the Vatican that Chavez is curbing freedoms.

Chavez said Urosa represents the interests of "fascist, extreme right-wing" elites and accused the clergy of siding with opposition parties ahead of September legislative elections.

Priests critical of his government "are trying to manipulate the people," Chavez said.

The Venezuelan Bishops' Conference issued a statement this week warning that political polarization is creating a hostile environment ahead of the Sept. 26 vote.

Venezuela is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.

Chavez claims that Christianity has a big influence on his socialist movement.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (122)
        

An anti-Islam lawmaker in the Netherlands is forming an international alliance to spread his message across the West in a bid to ban immigration from Islamic countries, among other goals, the Associated Press reports.

Geert Wilders told the AP Thursday he will launch the movement late this year, initially in five countries: the U.S., Canada, Britain, France and Germany.

"The message, 'stop Islam, defend freedom,' is a message that's not only important for the Netherlands but for the whole free Western world," Wilders said at the Dutch parliament.

Among the group's aims will be outlawing immigration from Islamic countries to the West and a ban on Islamic Sharia law. Starting as a grass-roots movement, he hopes it eventually will produce its own lawmakers or influence other legislators.

Ayhan Tonca, a prominent spokesman for Dutch Muslims, said he feared Wilders message would fall on fertile ground in much of Europe, where anti-Islam sentiment has been swelling for years.

"So long as things are going badly with the economy, a lot of people always need a scapegoat," Tonca said. "At the moment, that is the Muslims in Western Europe."

Tonca called on "well meaning people in Europe to oppose this."

Known for his bleached-blond mop of hair, Wilders is a shrewd politician who has won awards in the Netherlands for his debating skills and regularly stands up for gay and women's rights.

But he rose to local and then international prominence with his firebrand anti-Islam rhetoric that has led to him being charged under Dutch anti-hate speech laws and banned from visiting Britain — until a court there ordered that he be allowed into the country.

He said he hopes to position the alliance between traditional conservative parties and far-right wing groups, saying that in Britain there is "an enormous gap" between the ruling Conservative Party and the far-right British National Party.

"The BNP is a party that, whatever you think of it, it's not my party — I think it's a racist party," Wilders said.

Wilders, who calls Islam a "fascist" religion, has seen his support in the Netherlands soar in recent years, even while he has been subjected to round-the-clock protection because of death threats.

His Freedom Party won the biggest gains in a national election last month, coming third with 24 seats in the 150-seat Parliament, up from the nine before the election.

However, mainstream parties will not form a coalition with Wilders, leaving him on the margins of Dutch politics for the next parliamentary term.

Wilders is due to stand trial in October on hate speech charges stemming from his short Internet film "Fitna," which denounced the Quran as a a fascist book that inspires terrorism. The film aroused anti-Dutch protests around the Muslim world, and he was banned for several months from entering Britain.

But he is unrepentant and said he now wants to take his message outside the Netherlands.

"The fight for freedom and (against) Islamization as I see it is a worldwide phenomenon and problem to be solved," he said.

Wilders declined to name any of the other founders of the organization he is calling the Geert Wilders International Freedom Alliance. He said he would hold speeches in the five countries where the alliance will first launch in coming months to drum up support.

Wilders has been criticized in the Netherlands for running his party as a one-man show that is shrouded in secrecy because he holds all the reins.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

The Vatican issued a revised set of in-house rules Thursday to respond to clerical sex abuse, targeting priests who molest the mentally disabled as well as children and priests who use child pornography, but making few substantive changes to existing practice, the Associated Press reports.

The new rules make no mention of the need for bishops to report clerical sex abuse to police, provide no canonical sanctions for bishops who cover up for abusers and do not include any "one-strike and you're out" policy for pedophile priests as demanded by some victims.

As a result, they failed to satisfy victims' advocates, who said the revised rules amounted to little more than "administrative housekeeping" of existing practice when what was needed were bold new rules threatening bishops who fail to report molester priests.

The rules cover the canonical penalties and procedures used for the most grave crimes in the church, both sacramental and moral, and double the statute of limitations applied to them. One new element included lists the attempted ordination of women as a "grave crime" subject to the same set of procedures and punishments meted out for sex abuse.

That drew immediate criticism from women's ordination groups, who said making a moral equivalent between women priests and child rapists was offensive.

The Vatican's sex crimes prosecutor acknowledged it was "only a document," and didn't solve the problem of clerical abuse. He defended the lack of any mention of the need to report abuse to police, saying all Christians were required to obey civil laws that would already demand sex crimes be reported.

"If civil law requires you report, you must obey civil law," Monsignor Charles Scicluna told reporters. But "it's not for canonical legislation to get itself involved with civil law."

Victims' groups have accused the church's internal justice system of failing to deal with abuse allegations and allowing bishops to ignore complaints in order to protect the church.

"The first thing the church should be doing is reporting crimes to civil authorities," said Andrew Madden, a former Dublin altar boy who took the first public lawsuit against the church in Ireland in 1995.

"That's far, far more important than deciding whether a criminal priest should be defrocked or not," he told the AP in Dublin. "The church's internal rules are no more important than the rules of your local golf club."

Barbara Dorris, of Survivors' Network for Those Abused by Priests, said the new guidelines "can be summed up in three words: missing the boat."

"They deal with one small procedure at the very tail end of the problem: defrocking pedophile priests," she said. "Hundreds of thousands of kids, however, have been sexually violated (by) many other more damaging and reckless moves by bishops and other church staff."

Earlier this year, the Vatican advised bishops to follow civil reporting laws and report abuse "crimes" — not allegations — to police. But that call was included in a nonbinding guideline posted on the Vatican website, not an official church document or piece of church legislation.

Sex crime allegations are handled by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from 1981 until he was elected pope in 2005. The congregation's procedures call for canonical trials or administrative punishments which can result in a priest being dismissed from the clerical state.

Recent efforts by civic authorities to investigate abuse allegations have again cast a spotlight on the church's efforts to deal in-house with a crime that is criminally prosecutable in most of the world: Just last month, police raided the residence of the Brussels archbishop and carted off boxes of documents as part of an investigation into clerical sex abuse amid concerns the Belgian church was protecting pedophiles.

The new rules extend the statue of limitations for the congregation's handling of alleged priestly abuse to 20 years, from 10 after the victim's 18th birthday, and can be extended beyond that on a case-by-case basis. Such extensions have been routine for years.

Defining the possession or distribution of child pornography as a canonical crime also simply makes current practice official.

The new rules represent the first major Vatican document since the clerical abuse scandal erupted earlier this year, with hundreds of new cases coming to light of priests who molested children, bishops who covered up for them and Vatican officials who turned a blind eye for decades.

But the bulk of the new document merely codifies existing norms for dealing canonically with pedophile priests, making previous guidelines set down in 2001 and updated in 2002 and 2003 to speed up defrocking of abusive priests permanent and legally binding. The document — a letter from the Congregation to bishops around the world — represents a permanent piece of church legislation, as opposed to the ad hoc guidelines used until now.

"That is a step forward, because the norm of law is binding and is certain," Scicluna said. But he acknowledged that the document was just an instrument, a set of norms, and that its application both in Rome and in diocese around the world was key.

"It does not solve all the problems," Scicluna said. "It is a very important instrument, but it is the way you use the instrument that is going to have the real effect."

With so few real changes, Scicluna said he didn't expect a new flood of cases to come forward, as happened in 2003-2004, after the abuse scandal exploded in the United States and some 80 percent of the 3,000 cases handled by the Congregation were opened.

"These new norms on sexual abuse really put into law the practice of the Congregation," he said, adding that it was important to publish them so everyone could know what the rules were.

New elements in the text, as first reported last week by The Associated Press, include treating priests who sexually abuse the mentally disabled — or an adult who "habitually lacks the use of reason" — with the same set of sanctions as those who abuse minors. Punishments can include being dismissed from the clerical state.

The rules also list the attempted ordination of a woman as a "grave crime" to be handled according to the same set of procedures as sex abuse — despite arguments that grouping the two in the same document would imply equating them.

"The idea that women seeking to spread the message of God somehow defiles the Eucharist reveals an antiquated, backwards church that still views women as unclean and unholy," said Erin Saiz Hanna, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference, a U.S.-based organization that works to ordain women as priests, deacons and bishops.

Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have said the question of ordaining women priests — often raised as an antidote to the priest shortage and to bring about more gender equality in the church — is not up for discussion.

The Vatican in 2007 issued a decree saying the attempted ordination of women would result in automatic excommunication for the woman and the priest who tries to ordain her. That is repeated in the new document, adding that the priest can also be punished by being defrocked.

At a briefing Thursday, Scicluna defended the inclusion of both sex abuse and ordination of women in the same document as a way of codifying two of the most serious canonical crimes against sacraments and morals that the congregation deals with.

"They are grave, but on different levels," he said, and noted that the document also lists crimes against the sacraments including apostasy, heresy and schism for the first time.

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the dean of Germany's bishops conference, welcomed the new guidelines as a clear signal stressing that cases of sexual abuse of children and youths have to be thoroughly investigated and punished.

"The injustice of the past is being cleared, and the conclusions for the present and the future are being drawn," he said in a statement.

Benedict's native Germany has seen a flood of abuse allegations surface, and even the pontiff's own tenure as archbishop of Munich has come under scrutiny since a pedophile priest in his archdiocese was allowed to resume pastoral work while being treated.

A spokesman for Germany's Justice Ministry cautioned that the guidelines were an internal matter of the Roman Catholic Church, but welcomed them as a move in the right direction.

German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger wants to push for an extension of the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse who are seeking damages in civil law suits from three to 30 years, the ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Argentina legalized same-sex marriage Thursday, becoming the first country in Latin America to declare that gays and lesbians have all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexual couples, the Associated Press reports.

After a marathon debate in Argentina's senate, 33 lawmakers voted in favor, 27 against and 3 abstained in a vote that ended after 4 a.m. Since the lower house already approved it and President Cristina Fernandez is a strong supporter, it becomes law as soon as it is published in the official bulletin, which should happen within days.

The law is sure to bring a wave of marriages by gays and lesbians who have found Buenos Aires to be a welcoming place to live. But same-sex couples from other countries shouldn't rush their Argentine wedding plans, since only citizens and residents can wed in the country, and the necessary documents can take months to obtain. While it makes some amendments to the civil code, many other aspects of family law will have to be changed.

The approval came despite a concerted campaign by the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical groups, which drew 60,000 people to march on Congress and urged parents in churches and schools to work against passage. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio led the campaign, saying "children need to have the right to be raised and educated by a father and a mother."

Nine gay couples had already married in Argentina after persuading judges that the constitutional mandate of equality supports their marriage rights, although their validity was later challenged by other judges. Congressional passage now removes that doubt.

As the debate stretched on for nearly 16 hours, large crowds held rival vigils through the frigid night outside the Congress building. When the final vote came, cheers and hugs broke out among the bill's supporters, with police keeping them separate from frustrated opponents who prayed and held rosaries.

"Marriage between a man and a woman has existed for centuries, and is essential for the perpetuation of the species," insisted Sen. Juan Perez Alsina, who is usually a loyal supporter of the president but gave a passionate speech against gay marriage inside the Senate chamber.

But Sen. Norma Morandini, another member of the president's party, compared the discrimination closeted gays face to the oppression imposed by Argentina's dictators decades ago.

"What defines us is our humanity, and what runs against humanity is intolerance," she said.

Same-sex civil unions have been legalized in Uruguay and some states in Mexico and Brazil. Colombia's Constitutional Court granted same-sex couples inheritance rights and allowed them to add their partners to health insurance plans. Mexico City went further, legalizing gay marriage and launching tourism campaigns to encourage foreigners to come and wed.

Argentina now becomes the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, granting gays and lesbians all the same rights and responsibilities that heterosexuals have. These include many more rights than civil unions, including adopting children and inheriting wealth.

Gay rights advocates said Argentina's historic step adds momentum to similar efforts around the world.

"Today's historic vote shows how far Catholic Argentina has come, from dictatorship to true democratic values, and how far the freedom to marry movement has come, as twelve countries on four continents now embrace marriage equality," said Evan Wolfson, who runs the U.S. Freedom to Marry lobby.

Wolfson urged U.S. lawmakers to stand up "for the Constitution and all families here in the United States. America should lead, not lag, when it comes to treating everyone equally under the law."

Gay activists in neighboring Chile hope Argentina's milestone will improve chances for a gay marriage law currently in committee in their own Congress.

"Argentina's political class has provided a lesson to the rest of Latin America," said Rolando Jimenez in Santiago. "We hope our own countries and political parties will learn that the human rights of sexual minorities are undeniable."

Activists in Paraguay plan to propose a similar law to the senate in October, said Martin Viveros of the group Somosgay. And in Uruguay, gays unsatisfied with the partial rights that come through civil unions are preparing legislation that would replace references to "man and woman" with "spouse" throughout the civil code.

But many Argentines remain firmly opposed to the idea of gay marriage. Teacher Eduardo Morales, for one, said the law was concocted by Buenos Aires residents who are out step with the views of the country.

"They want to convert this city into the gay capital of the world," said Morales, of San Luis province.

Ines Franck, director of the group Familias Argentinas, said the legislation cuts against centuries of tradition.

Opposing the measure "is not discrimination, because the essence of a family is between two people of opposite sexes," he said. "Any variation goes against the law, and against nature."

The president, who helped the law's chances by bringing two senators opposed to gay marriage with her on a state visit to China, spoke out from there against the Catholic Church's campaign and the tone she said some religious groups have taken.

"It's very worrisome to hear words like 'God's war' or 'the devil's project,' things that recall the times of the Inquisition," she said.

That may play well in Argentina's socially liberal capital, where many of the country's gays and lesbians live, but could be costly in the conservative provinces. Some opposition leaders accused Fernandez and her husband Nestor Kirchner, who lobbied hard for passage, of trying to gain votes in next year's presidential elections, when the former president is expected to run again.

The vote came after Sen. Daniel Filmus urged fellow lawmakers to show the world how much Argentina has matured.

"Society has grown up. We aren't the same as we were before," he said.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Republican Sharron Angle says her campaign to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada is "a calling" from God and that her faith is helping her endure a fiercely competitive race in which Democrats have depicted her as a conservative extremist, the Associated Press reports.

"When you have God in your life ... he directs your path," Angle told the Christian Broadcasting Network in an interview posted on its website Wednesday.

Asked why she entered the race, Angle said "the reason is a calling."

"When God calls you he also equips you and He doesn't just say, 'Well today you're going to run against Harry Reid,'" the tea party favorite said.

In the Bible "Moses has his preparatory time. Paul had his preparatory time. Even Jesus had his preparatory time," the former legislator said, citing her years in public office as her preparation for the race.

"God knew all of this in advance," Angle added. "I don't know what's coming up tomorrow but I do know that He is there. He saw it and that He has provided a way of escape and a way for me to endure."

In a wide-ranging interview, Angle said her media appearances are guided by the need to raise money for her campaign and she defended an overhaul of her campaign website in which many of her earlier positions on Social Security and other issues were rewritten, condensed or deleted.

Angle, a Southern Baptist, has called herself a faith-based politician who prays daily. Among her positions, she opposes abortion in all circumstances, including rape and incest.

Since her come-from-behind victory in the June 8 primary, Angle has appeared largely on conservative media outlets. She said her public schedule is being driven by the need to raise money and she gets the best return for her time on conservative programs, which drive up donations.

"The whole point of an interview is to ... earn something with it and I'm not going to earn anything from people who are there to badger me and use my words to batter me with," she said.

In mainstream media outlets "there's no earnings for me there," she added.

Asked about the retooling of her website, she said she was advised by consultants to condense the long-running text on her site. Reid's campaign later posted the website's original language.

"I am pretty wordy," Angle said. "We're still working on those precise statements."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (39)
        

The pope's delegate for the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ has told its members they must examine their consciences and reform following allegations that their founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered children, the Associated Press reports.

Archbishop Velasio De Paolis met with the order's top leaders for the first time Saturday and celebrated Mass with them at their Roman headquarters, explaining his job to them and assuring them of the pope's support, the order said Wednesday.

Pope Benedict XVI announced May 1 that he was naming a delegate to take charge of and overhaul the Legionaries after a Vatican investigation determined that their founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, had led a secret double life devoid of any scruples or religious sentiment.

The pope said the order must be purified of the abuses that allowed Maciel's misdeeds to go unchecked, including the authority structure that demanded obedience of its members, forbade questioning of superiors and made the order's growth a priority at all costs.

The Legionaries, which Maciel started in Mexico in 1941, had long been favored at the Vatican for their success bringing in new priests and money. The order was discredited by its long refusal to admit that Maciel had sexually abused seminarians, although it now admits such accusations were true and that he had fathered at least three children.

Benedict last week tapped De Paolis, a 75-year-old Italian canon law expert who heads the Holy See's financial office, to take over the order and reform it.

In his first homily to Legionary priests and seminarians, De Paolis struck a conciliatory tone, assuring them that the pope wanted to accompany them spiritually on the necessary process of reflection and restructuring.

But he also told them that the task before them was difficult — that the norms that had guided their lives for decades needed to be reformed — and that what was necessary was calm consultation, not confused, quick decisions.

"We need to reflect at times, to pause for an examination of conscience," he told them. "Not to reflect constantly about the past, but to take stock of our present, to realize our situation," he said.

"We will overcome the darkness that at times can oppress us; we will overcome the difficulties also of our human weakness and fragility, because the mystery of God is greater than all human weakness," he said.

De Paolis' appointment was the latest in a series of moves taken the Vatican aimed at shoring up the church amid a worldwide clerical sex abuse scandal. The Vatican is soon expected to release a new set of norms outlining the canonical procedures and punishments for priests who sexually abuse minors and adults with mental impairments.

The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had subjected Maciel to such a canonical proceeding in the 1990s, but the investigation was blocked by Maciel's supporters in the Vatican.

Only in 2006, a year after Benedict was elected pope, did the Vatican sentence Maciel to lead a "reserved life of penance and prayer," although it didn't say what for. He died in 2008 at age 87.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Thousands of demonstrators opposed to same-sex marriage have gathered outside Argentina's congress ahead of a key vote by lawmakers, the Associated Press reports.

Supporters of the measure also took to the streets in loud rallies in the capital and other cities.

Argentina's House of Deputies has approved same-sex marriage and sent the legislation to the Senate for consideration on Wednesday. President Cristina Fernandez promises not to veto the measure if it reaches her desk.

The legislation would open the way to adoptions by same-sex couples and faces strong opposition from the Roman Catholic Church and other religious groups.

The main slogan for Tuesday's protest against the legislation was "the children have a right to a mother and a father."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday urged Jewish groups to help persuade Cuba to release a Maryland man detained on the communist island for seven months without charge, the Associated Press reports.

Clinton told representatives of the American Jewish community that they should add their voices to calls for Cuba to release Alan P. Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor who was helping members of Cuba's small Jewish community use the Internet to stay in contact with each other and with similar groups abroad.

"Alan was providing information and technology that would assist this community to be better connected," Clinton said at a State Department reception in honor of Hannah Rosenthal, the Obama administration's special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. Gross' wife, Judy, attended the event.

"Our government works every single day through every channel for his release and safe return home," Clinton said. "But I am really making an appeal to the active Jewish community here in our country to join this cause ... because this family deserves to be reunited and each and every one of us should do everything we can to make it clear to the Cuban government that Alan Gross needs to come home."

Gross, a 60-year-old native of Potomac, Md., was working in Cuba for a firm contracted by USAID when he was arrested as a suspected spy in Havana on Dec. 3. He has been held without charge in the capital's high-security Villa Marista prison since.

The U.S. says Gross committed no crime and has repeatedly appealed for his release on humanitarian grounds. In May, the head of Cuba's high court said prosecutors had yet to open a legal case against him. Formal charges can't be filed in Cuba without a judicial accusation and the opening of a case, so it appears unlikely charges against Gross are imminent.

Judy Gross has said her husband had brought communications equipment intended only for humanitarian purposes and not for political use by Cuba's small dissident community. Satellite phones and other telecommunications materials are outlawed in Cuba, where the government maintains strict control over Internet access and the media.

Clinton's appeal to the U.S. Jewish community followed the release on Tuesday of seven jailed Cuban dissidents who were sent to Spain, the first of 52 political prisoners to be freed under an agreement worked out between Cuban authorities and the Catholic church.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Dozens of opponents and some supporters of a mosque planned near ground zero attended a raucous hearing Tuesday about whether the building where the Muslim place of worship would be created warrants designation as a city landmark and should be protected from development, the Associated Press reports.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, who has sought an investigation into the funding of the mosque, was among the witnesses who testified in support of giving the building landmark status, which could complicate plans by Muslim groups to develop a community center and mosque there.

After noting the lower Manhattan building's history and architectural significance, Lazio said it also warranted landmark designation because on Sept. 11, 2001, it was struck by airplane debris from the terror attacks against the nearby World Trade Center. That connection to the attacks, he said, made it "a place of deep historical significance and a reminder of just what happened on New York's darkest day."

Lazio has called on state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, his Democratic opponent in the governor's race, to investigate the funding of the project. On Tuesday, he repeated that request and said the pace of the landmark designation process should be slowed to allow time to thoroughly investigate the matter.

Nearly 100 people attended the hearing at a college campus on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Fifty-six people testified at the hearing, which turned contentious at times, with some speakers drowned out by shouts from the audience and with one man escorted out by campus security.

"To deprive this building of landmark status is to allow for a citadel of Islamic supremacy to be erected in its place," said Andrea Quinn, a freelance audio technician from Queens who said she had worked with people at the World Trade Center.

But Rafiq Kathwari, who described himself as a moderate Muslim, said the landmark discussion had been hijacked.

"This has been made by a very vocal minority into an issue of bigotry," said Kathwari, as he held up his U.S. passport and was nearly drowned out by shouts from the crowd. "I'm standing in a hall in which I feel ashamed to be an American."

The mosque and the related community center are a project of several groups, including the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, which promotes cross-cultural understanding between Islam and the West. Cordoba's director, Imam Faisel Rauf, has refused to disclose the sources of funding for the mosque.

But Sharif El-Gamal, the CEO of the company that owns the property, said that the project's backers were committed to transparency and were working to set up a nonprofit organization.

"We are going to go through a capital campaign," which will consist of equity debt, bonds, grants and fundraising from the grass roots, he said. They were committed to working with the attorney general's Charities Bureau, which supervises charitable organizations and works to protect donors, he said.

El-Gamal testified at the hearing, saying they were opposed to designating the building a landmark because it does not meet the requirements of historical significance.

"This is not the Woolworth building, this is not the Chrysler building," he said later in an interview.

The five-story building on Park Place, a few blocks north of Wall Street, was completed between 1857 and 1858 and is an Italian Renaissance-inspired palazzo. It formerly housed a department store, which closed after the building was damaged on Sept. 11. Muslim prayer service is held at the building at least one day a week.

Landmark status could require the owners to obtain the approval of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission before making significant changes. It's unlikely that, if granted such status, the building could be demolished.

The city's 11-member Landmarks Preservation Commission is expected to vote later this summer on whether the building meets the standards of architectural, cultural and historic characteristics to qualify it for landmark status.

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France's lower house of parliament overhwelmingly approved a ban on burqa-like Islamic veils Tuesday, a move that is popular among French voters despite serious concerns from Muslim groups and human rights advocates, the Associated Press reports.

There were 336 votes for the bill and just one against it at the National Assembly. Most members of the main opposition group, the Socialist Party, refused to participate in the vote — though they support a ban, they have differences with President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservatives over some aspects of it.

The ban on face-covering veils will go in September to the Senate, where it also is likely to pass. Its biggest hurdle will likely come after that, when France's constitutional watchdog scrutinizes it. Some legal scholars say there is a chance it could be deemed unconstitutional.

The main body representing French Muslims says face-covering veils are not required by Islam and not suitable in France, but it worries that the law will stigmatize Muslims in general.

France has Europe's largest Muslim population, estimated to be about 5 million of the country's 64 million people. While ordinary headscarves are common, only about 1,900 women in France are believed to wear face-covering veils. Champions of the bill say they oppress women.

With the proposed ban, the government also is seeking to insist that integration is the only path for immigrant minorities. France has had difficulty integrating generations of immigrants and their children, as witnessed by weeks of rioting by youths, many of them minorities, in troubled neighborhoods in 2005.

At the National Assembly, few dissenters have spoken out about civil liberties or fears of fanning anti-Islam sentiment.

The niqab and burqa are generally seen here as a gateway to extremism and an attack on women's rights and secularism, a central value of modern-day France.

The full veil "is the banner of a sectarian ideology" and threatens "human dignity," the head of French women's rights group Ni Putes Ni Soumises, Sihem Habchi, wrote in an essay in Tuesday's Liberation daily.

Critics say the proposed ban is a cynical ploy by conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government to attract far-right voters.

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The Church of England national assembly decided Monday that women should be allowed to become bishops, making only minor concessions to theological conservatives who have threatened to break away over the issue, the Associated Press reports.

Dioceses will now consider the draft law, which would leave it up to individual bishops to allow alternative oversight for traditionalists who object to serving under women bishops. The dioceses must report back by 2012 and a final vote by the ruling body, the General Synod, will still be needed, but supporters say a milestone has been passed.

"The decision to consecrate women as bishops has been taken," said church spokesman Lou Henderson. "Everybody recognized the importance of offering safeguards and assurances to those who find it very difficult (to accept women bishops), but in the end Synod as a whole was not prepared to go as far as the traditionalists would have liked."

The decision was not final and still faced many hurdles.

After the dioceses make a decision over the draft law, the Synod will need to hold a final vote to approve it. That could be complicated by the formation and desires of the next incoming assembly, Henderson said.

If approved, the first women bishops could be appointed in 2014.

The decision is an important step for the governing Synod, which has for decades been debating whether to let women become bishops with the same status as male bishops. Traditionalist Anglicans — believing that allowing women to be bishops is contrary to the Bible — oppose the move and say the decision could result in many leaving the Church of England. Others, however, argue that the church cannot afford to be seen as stuck in the past with out-of-date values.

Anglican churches in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Cuba already have women bishops, Henderson said. The Church of England began ordaining women to the priesthood in 1994.

At a meeting at York University over the weekend, the Synod narrowly voted down proposals to impose restrictions on the authority of female bishops.

Traditionalists had proposed a structure that guaranteed more conservative parishes would be supervised by male bishops and led by male priests who were not ordained by a female bishop. Under that proposal, the alternative bishop would have had some legally backed independence from a woman bishop.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who leads the church, and Archbishop of York John Sentamu tried to rally support for that plan to keep the church unified.

But the ruling assembly rejected that proposal, which would create, in effect, "second-class bishops," Henderson said. Instead, the body decided that women bishops could choose to delegate their power to an alternative bishop if they so wish — and they will also have the power to dictate what functions the alternative bishop carries out.

Although campaigners in favor of women bishops rejoiced, some religious leaders said they faced hard decisions with the news and expressed concerns that traditionalists were running out of options.

"The scope for remaining in the Church of England is getting more and more narrow and the options are rapidly closing," the Rev. David Houlding, a leading member of the Catholic Group on the General Synod, told the Press Association.

"I am staying in the Church of England for the time being until I am driven out. I am not going willingly, I will only go if forced," he said.

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Mormon church leaders have restated the faith's unequivocal position against gay marriage in a letter to members in Argentina, where the government is debating whether to legalize gay unions, the Associated Press reports.

"The doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is absolutely clear: Marriage is between one man and woman and is ordained of God," said the July 6 letter from church President Thomas S. Monson.

A copy of the letter and its English translation began circulating over the weekend on websites for former Mormons.

Church spokeswoman Kim Farah on Monday confirmed the letter was sent to local leaders in Argentina, where the faith has more than 371,000 members, according to a 2010 church almanac. The country's population is more than 41 million.

Argentina's Senate is debating whether to approve either gay marriage or a civil union law. The country's other legislative body — the House of Deputies — approved same-sex marriage legislation in May. President Cristina Fernandez has promised not to veto the measure if it reaches her desk.

The letter falls short of calling for political activism by members in Argentina, but is an echo of a 2008 letter from Monson to Latter-day Saints in California. Monson had called for Mormons to give their time and money to help pass Proposition 8, a state ballot initiative to ban gay marriage.

The church was seen as a driving force behind that initiative's success, with members donating tens of millions of dollars to the campaign.

In a statement, Farah said "the church has taken no official position on the legislation being considered" in Argentina.

Still, Mormon historian D. Michael Quinn, said the letter is a significant step in political activism for the church outside the United States.

"They have not urged (members) to take political steps, but they are taking a half-step in that direction," said Quinn, a former professor at the church-owned Brigham Young University who was excommunicated and is gay. "It demonstrates two things: how much an issue this for the LDS leadership, and what they are willing to risk."

Quinn said he did not know if the Utah-based church, which has more than 13 million members and a presence in more than 170 countries, had ever drafted similar letters in other countries where gay marriage has been made legal.

Farah could not immediately confirm whether the letter was the church's first such statement abroad.

Since the 1990s, the church has been politically active in defeating same-sex marriage initiatives across the U.S. and was a signature on a letter seeking a marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Argentina letter was directed to congregations in the Buenos Aires area and states that it is a response to concerns stemming from the proposed legislation that would change the definition of marriage.

The letter encourages members to review the "Proclamation on the Family," a 1995 statement from church leaders that set out traditional marriage as a sacred institution ordained by God and the family as a fundamental pillar of society.

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. A native of Pakistan, he arrived in the United States in 1980.

Muslims must accept the existence of other religions as God’s will.

God decides our religion at birth, and judges us based on how we followed our assigned faith. Generally, a child follows the religion of his parents; conversions are rare.

Abraham, Moses and Jesus were all good men and brought good messages of peace. We cannot reject their faith or message outright. The Quran confirms the messages in the Old and New Testaments. All of God's children are entitled to worship whatever faith God has chosen for them. There are many divisions between Muslims, yet they all pray to the same God. We should leave it to God to decide who is right and who is wrong.

Here is a verse from the Quran confirming the existence of other religions acceptable to God that have not been revealed to us. This would cover Hindus and Buddhists and the rest of humanity.

040.078
YUSUFALI: We did aforetime send messengers before thee: of them there are some whose story we have related to thee, and some whose story we have not related to thee. It was not [possible] for any messenger to bring a sign except by the leave of Allah: but when the Command of Allah issued, the matter was decided in truth and justice, and there perished, there and then those who stood on Falsehoods.

PICKTHAL: Verily We sent messengers before thee, among them those of whom We have told thee, and some of whom We have not told thee; and it was not given to any messenger that he should bring a portent save by Allah's leave, but when Allah's commandment cometh (the cause) is judged aright, and the followers of vanity will then be lost.

SHAKIR: And certainly We sent messengers before you: there are some of them that We have mentioned to you and there are others whom We have not mentioned to you, and it was not meet for a messenger that he should bring a sign except with Allah's permission, but when the command of Allah came, judgment was given with truth, and those who treated (it] as a lie were lost.

This verse confirms other messengers and the validity of their messages. Muslims are only 25 percent of planet Earth's population and should worry only about their own conduct and dealings with fellow human beings. Muslims cannot force conversion on the remaining 75 percent of the world, as they are non-muslims by God’s will and design.

The diversity of the human race is further confirmed by the following verse in the holy Quran.

It is by divine design that humanity is diverse, “For, had God so willed, He could surely have made you all one single community.” (16:93)

But God willed diversity and He did so for a purpose: “O men! Behold, we have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware.” (49:13)

God tells us in this verse that beneath our outward differences, we are a single humanity, sharing the same history and as children of Adam we should work together to create a just and fair society.

Muslims should follow the holy prophet's example of forgiving and being humble in our dealings with fellow human beings. Nobody is perfect, and individuals should not be deluded into believing that “my God is better than yours.” We all share the same God.

Each one of us is in this world by God’s will and his plan is beyond human understanding. We must learn to live at peace with each other and practice our faith whatever it may be to create a just and fair society.

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Police battled Irish nationalists for control of a Belfast road Monday as a day dominated by peaceful Protestant parades across Northern Ireland turned violent when night fell, the Associated Press reports.

Riot police in helmets and body armor dragged kicking, flailing protesters from the pavement of Crumlin Road even as other protesters packed into side streets pelted police with rocks, bricks and Molotov cocktails.

Many of the approximately 100 road-blocking protesters wore white T-shirts bearing the message "PEACEFUL PROTEST," while the rioters nearby wore balaclava masks, hoods or scarves to conceal their faces. Police deployed a massive mobile water cannon to blast the rioters while a helicopter overhead monitored the mob. Police also fired several snub-nosed plastic bullets to wallop or knock down rioters.

An Associated Press reporter saw one teenage rioter holding a brick get knocked off his feet as he prepared to throw it. Blood streamed from his face as he scrambled from the pavement. Other rioters stood further back and threw empty beer bottles blindly over rooftops into police lines.

The violence — beside a traditional Irish Republican Army power base called Ardoyne — underscores how socially divided Northern Ireland remains despite nearly two decades of peacemaking that has delivered paramilitary cease-fires and a fragile Catholic-Protestant government.

It followed daylong parades across Northern Ireland by the Orange Order, a British Protestant brotherhood that each July 12 celebrates its side's 17th-century military triumphs over Irish Catholics. For the past decade, Ardoyne Catholics have protested — and often attacked — the small Orange parade that passes near the district.

Police said they had no doubt that officers and protesters were suffering multiple injuries in the latest conflict, but did not expect to have accurate casualty numbers until Tuesday. They said a policewoman suffered a suspected fractured skull after being struck in the head in Ardoyne, and paramedics' efforts to evacuate her were delayed by the rioters' unrelenting barrage.

The violence spread to other working-class parts of Belfast where rival Protestant and Catholic communities live cheek by jowl.

Police reported suffering salvoes of stones, bottles and Molotov cocktails near the Ormeau Bridge in south Belfast, which also was barricaded with burning trash cans.

The latest trouble comes on top of rioting in two other Catholic parts of Belfast early Monday. Police said 27 of their officers were hurt during those street battles, including three who suffered pellet wounds from a shotgun blast.

Politicians accused Irish Republican Army dissidents opposed to Northern Ireland's peace process of directing the riots and orchestrating a series of other attacks and threats across the British territory.

"Society wants to move forward, and the organized actions of the past 36 hours are doing nothing to reinforce the peace that the people of Ireland voted for," said Belfast mayor Pat Convery, a moderate Irish nationalist.

Masked men in Catholic west Belfast hijacked a bus, ordered it to be abandoned outside a police station, and claimed a bomb had been hidden on the top deck of the bus. British Army explosives experts later declared the threat a hoax.

In the town of Lurgan, southwest of Belfast, masked youths in a Catholic district called Kilwilkie threw Molotov cocktails both at police and at a passenger train stopped in the town. The engineer drove the train away after Molotov cocktails hit the side of one cabin, but it didn't catch fire and none of the 55 passengers on board was reported hurt.

In the nearby town of Armagh, several hundred Irish nationalists in another Catholic district gathered around the burning hulk of a hijacked vehicle. Police monitored that scene but didn't intervene.

Each July, Northern Ireland's traditional Orange Order parades raise sectarian passions to boiling point. But British restrictions imposed on Orange routes since 1998 have largely stopped the Protestants — accompanied by "kick the pope" bands of tattooed men playing fife and drum — from parading past most Catholic districts.

Still, authorities have failed to negotiate alternative routes for some parades, including the one past Ardoyne's row of shops on Crumlin Road. The thoroughfare connects one Orange lodge to central Belfast.

The disputed Ardoyne parade involves a single Orange lodge of about 30 men and an accompanying band of about 50 men and boys. But it attracts several hundred Protestant supporters to match the Catholic crowds opposed to it, with police caught in the middle each summer.

Monday's parade passed the conflict zone after a two-hour delay. Some marchers in suits and ties shielded themselves with umbrellas as they walked quickly on a roadway littered with stones and broken glass. No marchers appeared to be hit.

The Orange Order commemorates July 12 — also known as the Glorious Twelfth, an official holiday in Northern Ireland — as the date when their community, descended largely from 17th-century Scottish settlers, secured their place in northeast Ireland versus Catholic natives.

On July 12, 1690, the forces of Protestant King William of Orange defeated the army of his dethroned Catholic rival, James II, at the Battle of the Boyne south of Belfast.

Earlier Monday, at 18 Orange rallying points across Northern Ireland, tens of thousands of Protestants enjoyed impromptu picnics in farm fields as their leaders read religious and political proclamations over loudspeakers. They asserted that William's 1690 victory "established civil and religious liberty," while Northern Ireland's political union with Britain remains "a heritage worthy of being passed down untarnished to future generations."

The Orange Order provides a grass-roots umbrella for Protestants from more than 50 denominations and sects. The order forbids its members to marry Catholics or attend Catholic services. It was a driving force behind the establishment of Northern Ireland as a new part of the United Kingdom in 1921, when the predominantly Catholic rest of Ireland won independence from Britain.

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Liberal Jewish groups were angered Monday after a parliamentary committee in Israel approved a bill that would give Orthodox rabbis more control over the sensitive issue of conversions to Judaism, the Associated Press reports.

The Reform and Conservative movements, which are the largest Jewish denominations outside Israel but wield little clout inside the Jewish state, fear the new bill could increase the influence of Orthodox rabbis at their expense and undermine their own legitimacy and connection to Israel.

Nathan Sharansky, the former Russian political prisoner who now heads the Jewish Agency organization responsible for Israel's relations with Jews abroad, said he had received angry calls from Jewish leaders.

"The meaning of this is a split between the state of Israel and large portions of the Jewish people," he told Israel Radio.

Of the world's roughly 13 million Jews, half live in Israel, with most of the rest concentrated in North America. Each Jewish denomination has its own requirements for people who want to convert, typically a prolonged process that involves studying Jewish tradition and accepting Jewish observance.

Under the current practice, Israel recognizes only conversions performed by Orthodox rabbis inside Israel, but people converted by non-Orthodox rabbis outside the country are automatically eligible for Israeli citizenship like other Jews.

The liberal Jewish denominations are concerned that the new bill, which would make minor changes in the conversion system in Israel while enshrining the control of Israel's Orthodox religious establishment, could mean that immigrants who converted to Judaism with non-Orthodox groups abroad would now be denied Israeli citizenship.

Uri Regev, a rabbi who heads the religious equality group Hiddush, said the bill threatened to sideline the liberal Jewish denominations.

"This bill hurts Judaism outside Israel because it embraces the Orthodox monopoly here," Regev said. He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has yet to publicly express his position on the bill, to oppose it.

The bill's sponsor, David Rotem, an Orthodox lawmaker from the largely secular Yisrael Beitenu party, rebuffed the criticism, saying his goal was to make conversion easier for immigrants from the former Soviet Union who make up the majority of his party's voters.

"This will not affect non-Orthodox conversions performed abroad. The non-Orthodox denominations have no reason for concern," he said.

Monday's approval by the committee clears the way for voting in parliament. The bill has to pass three rounds of voting before becoming law, a process that will likely take months.

In another collision Monday between supporters and opponents of religious pluralism in Israel, police arrested a woman for carrying a Torah scroll at the Jewish holy site known as the Western Wall, in Jerusalem's Old City.

The woman was part of a group praying at the wall to protest rules that forbid behavior straying from the strictures of Orthodox Judaism at the site. Carrying a Torah scroll is traditionally a male ritual.

Police said the arrest complied with a court ruling on acceptable behavior at the site. The woman was released on bail.

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The controversial death sentence by stoning for an Iranian woman convicted of adultery will not be implemented for now, said a judicial official on Sunday.

The world outcry over the death sentence has become the latest issue in Iran's fraught relationship with the international community, the Associated Press reports.

Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the top judicial official in the province where the mother of two was convicted, told the Iranian state news agency that her crimes were "various and very serious" and not limited to adultery, but that the sentence "will not be implemented for the time being."

He added Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's stoning would still take place if the judiciary wanted, despite the "propaganda" by the West.

The United States, Britain and international human rights groups have all urged Tehran not to carry out the sentence.

The first indication that the government had changed its mind came with a statement by the Iranian embassy in London that the stoning would not occur.

Ashtiani is currently being held in East Azerbaijan province's jail.

Human Rights Watch, one of several groups publicizing Ashtiani's case, said she was first convicted in May 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men following the death of her husband — for which a court in Tabriz, in northwestern Iran, sentenced her to 99 lashes.

But later that year she was also convicted of adultery, despite having retracted a confession which she claims was made under duress.

Stoning was widely imposed in the years following the 1979 Islamic revolution, and even though Iran's judiciary still regularly hands down such sentences, they are often converted to other punishments.

The last known stoning was carried out in 2007, although the government rarely confirms that such punishments have been meted out.

Under Islamic rulings, a man is usually buried up to his waist, while a woman is buried up to her chest with her hands also buried. Those carrying out the verdict then throw stones until the condemned dies.

Ashtiani's stoning was approved by the country's Supreme Court, but the law could allow the judiciary head to order another trial or appeal for a pardon from Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.

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A controversial Muslim group has canceled its annual U.S. conference after a suburban Chicago hotel backed out of hosting the event, the Associated Press reports.

American members of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HIHZ'-buht-ah-tuh-REER') planned to hold the event Sunday at a Marriott hotel in Oak Brook. Conference organizer Ayman Hamed says about 1,000 people were expected.

But he says the hotel sent a cancellation notice and refund without explanation about two weeks ago. The daylong event has drawn protesters in the past.

The group advocates establishing a worldwide Islamic state. Its members don't openly advocate violence, and it isn't considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government.

The hotel didn't respond to calls and e-mails for comment.

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The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founder of Southern California's Crystal Cathedral megachurch and host of the "Hour of Power" televangelism broadcast, announced Sunday he will retire as lead pastor after 55 years in the pulpit and his daughter will take over.

The 83-year-old Schuller told his congregation that Sheila Schuller Coleman will become sole lead pastor, after sharing that role with her father for the past year, the Associated Press reports.

The elder Schuller will not be leaving the church. He'll assume the newly created position of chairman of the church's consistory, which is its board of directors, The Orange County Register reported. And Coleman told the Los Angeles Times that her father will continue to preach "until the day he dies."

Coleman previously served as principal of a private Christian school run by the cathedral and head of the Orange County church's family ministries division.

She was ordained just a month before she was appointed to head up Crystal Cathedral Ministries.

"I'm very proud that Sheila has earned her doctorate at the University of California, Irvine, and that this university has declared her to (have earned) a distinguished alumnus award," Schuller told his congregation during the 9:30 a.m. service. "Congratulations, I'm very proud of her."

Coleman's appointment comes two years after Schuller's son, the Rev. Robert A. Schuller, split from the church during a family rift that made headlines. The younger Schuller had been groomed to take over for his father.

Robert A. Schuller is now part of Dallas-based American Life Network, a cable channel aiming to produce family-oriented programming.

Coleman, 59, lives in Orange with her husband, Jim, and has four grown children.

"That was emotional for me, and I'm humbled and honored to be asked to take this responsibility," Coleman said Sunday after being commissioned, wiping away tears as she addressed her congregation. "I truly know that God is here, he loves this ministry and my call is to help take the ministry into the future and to continue dad's ministry."

The 10,000-member all-glass church faces significant challenges under Coleman's leadership.

Earlier this year the church said it saw revenue drop 27 percent from roughly $30 million in 2008 to $22 million in 2009.

Church leaders blamed the decline on the struggling U.S. economy. They sold 170 acres in Southern Orange County, including a retreat and wedding center, laid off employees and cut "Hour of Power" from eight of the 45 domestic broadcast TV stations that air it.

The church also canceled this year's "Glory of Easter" pageant, which attracts thousands of visitors and is a regional holiday staple along with the church's "Glory of Christmas" show.

Crystal Cathedral also faces legal action from more than 100 vendors who are owed millions of dollars for their work on the church's pageants and other projects.

The senior Schuller first formulated his outreach to the unchurched in the mid-1950s when he opened a ministry at a drive-in theater in the suburbs of

Orange County that catered to Southern California's emerging car culture. He pulled people in with his sermons on the power of positive thinking.

The little church later grew into the Crystal Cathedral, a worship hall with a soaring glass spire that opened in 1970 and remains an architectural wonder and tourist destination.

The "Hour of Power" telecast, filmed in the cathedral's main sanctuary, at one point attracted 1.3 million viewers in 156 countries.

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President Hugo Chavez and leaders of the Venezuelan Catholic Church are tangling like never before, angering parishioners who feel the president and his clerical detractors aren't following Jesus Christ's creed of brotherly love, the Associated Press reports.

Over the past week, Chavez has said that Christ would whip church leaders for lying. Cardinal Jorge Urosa, speaking from Rome, countered he was right to warn the Vatican that Chavez is curbing freedoms.

Some parishioners are concerned over the tensions between Chavez and conservative priests, who are speaking out against what they see as the socialist leader's increasing authoritarianism. Venezuela is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. Polls consistently show the church, which wields significant influence, is among the nation's most respected institutions.

"I don't like the insults that Chavez hurled against the cardinal, but I don't like seeing the Church getting involved in politics either," said Amanda Ortiz, 47, after attending Sunday Mass at a church in downtown Caracas. "Both sides are losing respect for each other."

During one recent speech, Chavez accused Urosa of misleading the Vatican with warnings that Venezuela is drifting toward dictatorship. During another public address, he urged the Vatican to replace Urosa, while heaping praise on a government-friendly priest he thinks should be appointed cardinal.

"May God forgive him, because he knows that he's lying. The cardinal who accuses me of running roughshod over the constitution knows that he's lying," Chavez said. "If Christ were to physically appear, what would he do with them? I have no doubt that he'd whip them."

In a newspaper column published on Sunday, the president denied he's steering Venezuela toward a dictatorship.

"We're advancing toward the complete democratization that we've called 'Bolivarian socialism,' whose primary objective is to give power to the people," wrote Chavez, referring to his political movement named after 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Chavez, who served as an altar boy growing up in Venezuela's sun-baked plains region, remains a Catholic and sometimes jokes that he could have become a priest himself. He also often declares that his government's policies are strikingly similar to values outlined in the Bible.

Returning Sunday from the Vatican, Urosa said he hopes to reduce tensions between the government and church. He rejected charges from Chavez backers that the church's hierarchy is siding with a coalition of opposition parties ahead of legislative elections in September.

"We are not members of any opposition coalition," he said.

Urosa said he would not respond to Chavez's latest remarks.

Urosa argues that Chavez aims to copy Cuba's communist model and has raised concerns the president is borrowing tactics from his close allies — Raul and Fidel Castro — to sideline adversaries and muffle dissent.

The cardinal cites the government's refusal this year to renew the licenses of dozens of radio stations, effectively removing them from the airwaves.

Urosa also notes the predominantly pro-Chavez National Assembly has approved legislation taking power away from elected officials sided with the opposition while another ally, the attorney general, has filed criminal charges against several prominent media executives and government foes.

Opposition leader Julio Borges defended Urosa on Sunday and backed the cardinal's accusations that Chavez is seeking to reproduce Cuba's economic and political model, but the politician said the president "tries to hide it with a lambskin to distract and fool the population."

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A judge's rulings in Massachusetts that the federal law banning gay marriage is unconstitutional could have implications far beyond the state if they're upheld by a higher court after an appeal by the Obama administration, the Associated Press reports.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro said the law, the Defense of Marriage Act, interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and therefore denies married gay couples some federal benefits. He ruled Thursday in favor of gay couples' rights in two separate challenges to DOMA, which the administration of President Barack Obama has argued for repealing.

The rulings apply to Massachusetts, but if a higher court with a broader jurisdiction were to hear an appeal and agree with the judge's rulings, their impact would spread, said Boston College professor Kent Greenfield, a constitutional law expert. The rulings might encourage other attorneys general who oppose DOMA to sue to try to knock it down, he said.

"One thing that's going to be really interesting to watch is whether the Obama administration appeals or not," he said.

An appeal would be considered by the First Circuit, which also includes Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire.

The Department of Justice didn't immediately say whether it would appeal; it was reviewing the judge's decisions, spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said.

Massachusetts had argued the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in the state, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.

The judge agreed and said the law forces Massachusetts to discriminate against its own citizens to be eligible for federal funding in federal-state partnerships.

The act "plainly encroaches" upon the right of the state to determine marriage, the judge said in his ruling on a lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Martha Coakley. In a ruling in a separate case filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, the judge said the act violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

"Congress undertook this classification for the one purpose that lies entirely outside of legislative bounds, to disadvantage a group of which it disapproves," he wrote. "And such a classification the Constitution clearly will not permit."

One of the plaintiffs in the GLAD lawsuit, Nancy Gill, said she was "thrilled" with the rulings.

"I'm so happy I can't even put it into words," she said.

Gill and Marcelle Letourneau married in Massachusetts in 2004 after being together for more than 20 years.

When Gill, a U.S. postal worker, tried to add Letourneau to her family health plan, she was denied. The couple were forced to get separate insurance for Letourneau, who has a medical transcription business at home and does administrative work for the local Visiting Nurse Association.

Letourneau called the rulings "life-changing."

"I can get on Nancy's insurance," she said. "That's just a huge victory, and it gives us peace of mind."

Coakley called it a "landmark decision" and "an important step toward achieving equality for all married couples in Massachusetts."

The Department of Justice had argued the federal government had the right to set eligibility requirements for federal benefits — including requiring that those benefits go only to couples in marriages between a man and a woman.

Opponents of gay marriage said they were certain the rulings would be overturned on appeal.

Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, called the judge's rulings "judicial activism" and said he was a "rogue judge." Gay marriage advocates will keep pushing their agenda in the courts, she said, but noted voters consistently have rejected gay marriage at the ballot box, including in a recent California vote.

"We can't allow the lowest common denominator states, like Massachusetts, to set standards for the country," Lafferty said.

Tom McClusky, senior vice president of the conservative Family Research Council, said the rulings result in part from "the deliberately weak legal defense of DOMA" that the Obama administration mounted on behalf of the government.

"While the American people have made it unmistakably clear that they want to preserve marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman, liberals and activist judges are not content to let the people decide," McClusky said in a statement.

The law was enacted by Congress in 1996, when it appeared Hawaii would soon legalize same-sex marriage and opponents worried that other states would be forced to recognize such marriages. The lawsuit challenges only the portion of the law that prevents the federal government from affording pension and other benefits to same-sex couples.

Since then, five states and the District of Columbia have legalized gay marriage.

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Presbyterian leaders voted Thursday to allow non-celibate gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy, approving the first of two policy changes that could make their church one of the most gay-friendly major Christian denominations in the U.S., the Associated Press reports.

But the vote isn't a final stamp of approval for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or its more than 2 million members.

Delegates voted during the church's general assembly in Minneapolis, with 53 percent approving the more liberal policy on gay clergy. A separate vote is expected later Thursday on whether to change the church's definition of marriage from between "a man and a woman" to between "two people."

Under current church policy, Presbyterians are eligible to become clergy, deacons or elders only if they are married or celibate. The new policy would strike references to sexuality altogether in favor of candidates committed to "joyful submission to worship of Christ."

But such changes must be approved by a majority of the church's 173 U.S. presbyteries.

The assembly voted two years ago to liberalize the gay clergy policy, but it died last year when 94 of the presbyteries voted against it.

Still, the proposed changes "have the potential to be historic," said Cindy Bolbach, an elder at National Capital Presbytery in Washington and the assembly's elected moderator.

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is ranked the 10th-largest church in the U.S. with 2.8 million members, according to the National Council of Churches' 2010 "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches." The church's media materials tout 2.1 million members.

Earlier this week, both proposals were approved by assembly committees. The gay clergy change passed 36-16, and the definition of marriage cleared on a vote of 34-18.

"There are still big steps ahead, but I'm feeling better about this than I ever have before," the Rev. Ray Bagnuolo, the openly gay pastor of Janhus Presbyterian Church in New York City, said ahead of the clergy vote.

Some conservative-minded Presbyterians have tried to rally opposition to the changes.

"Blurring or obscuring the clear teaching of God's Word in order to keep in step with secular laws and changing personal morals only confuses our witness and causes innumerable problems for the future," Presbyterians for Renewal, a group opposed to the changes, wrote on its website.

Messages seeking comment from leaders of Presbyterians for Renewal and Presbyterian Coalition, another conservative group in the church, weren't returned Thursday.

"Our church is divided and actions we take today at general assembly can split it even further," Donna Rivett, an elder at the Presbytery of Tropical Florida, said during assembly debate on the gay clergy policy.

A number of major Christian denominations have voted in recent years to allow non-celibate gays to serve as clergy if they are in committed relationships. Among them are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the U.S. Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ.

"For the Presbyterian Church to stay current and enter the next generation, they really need to let go of this debate," said the Rev. Cindi Love, executive director of SoulForce, a gay Christian group.

Love said she also believed that if the Presbyterians approve the redefinition of marriage, the church would become the largest U.S. Christian denomination to recognize marriage between same-sex couples.

A separate measure, which would also require regional ratification, would remove the threat of punishment for clergy who perform same-sex marriages in states that allow it.

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The fundamentalist church that picketed the Westminster funeral of a Maryland Marine killed in Iraq with anti-gay signs argued Wednesday that its actions were protected by the First Amendment, the Associated Press reports.

An attorney for the Westboro Baptist Church submitted a 75-page brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear arguments in a lawsuit against the church this fall. Albert Snyder of York, Pa., claims that the church's free-speech rights did not trump his right to peacefully assemble for his son's funeral.

The Topeka, Kan.-based church claims that U.S. military deaths are God's punishment for America's alleged tolerance of homosexuality. Founder Fred Phelps and six of his relatives picketed the 2006 funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in Westminster carrying signs that read "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "You're Going to Hell," among other statements.

Margie Jean Phelps, the daughter of Fred Phelps and, like several in the family, an attorney, will argue the case before the Supreme Court. She argued in her brief that Westboro did not disrupt the funeral in part because its protest was 1,000 feet away from the church, on a public street. Snyder did not see the protesters and could not read their signs during the funeral, but was aware of their presence.

"He was able to go to and leave the funeral without any slightest disruption or interference," Phelps wrote. "WBC was out of sight and sound; maintained a very reasonable distance; acted peacefully and engaged in no disruption or intrusion. ... This is the wrong case to decide whether there is a privacy interest in a funeral."

Phelps also argued that the church was engaging in public speech on a matter of public concern; that the funeral was a public event; and that the church did not assert provable facts but instead expressed "hyperbolic, figurative, loose, hysterical opinion."

In 2007, a jury found against Westboro and awarded Snyder nearly $11 million as compensation for emotional distress and invasion of privacy. That award was later reduced and then overturned by a court of appeals.

The Supreme Court agreed in March to take the case, and the justices will hear arguments during the court's next term, which begins in October. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia submitted a brief in support of Snyder. The states argued they have a compelling interest in protecting the sanctity of funerals.

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Where would Jesus drill?

Religious leaders who consider environmental protection a godly mission are making the Gulf of Mexico oil spill a rallying cry, hoping it inspires people of faith to support cleaner energy while changing their personal lives to consume less and contemplate more, Associated Press environmntal writer John Flesher reports.

"This is one of those rare moments when you can really focus people's attention on what's happening to God's creation," said Walt Grazer, head of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.

Activists in the movement often described as "green religion" or "eco-theology" are using blogs and news conferences to get the word out. Some are visiting the Gulf, inspecting oil-spattered wetlands and praying with idled fishermen and other victims.

And believers in the stricken coastal regions are looking at the consequences of the oil's reach and asking what good can come out of it.

During worship services on a recent Sunday, pastor Eddie Painter of Barataria Baptist Church in the fishing village of Lafitte told his congregation a silver lining in the tragedy might be renewed government commitment to restoring the region's battered coastal marshlands.

"I actually didn't think I would be as deeply affected as I was by seeing oil in the water, the birds with oil stains, the marsh grass that had turned a shiny brown," said the Rev. Jim Ball of the Evangelical Environmental Network, who recently toured Louisiana's Barataria Bay by boat.

Another delegation was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on Tuesday for an interfaith prayer service and tour. Among the participants are Jim Wallis of the progressive Christian group Sojourners and Rabbi David N. Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Both have served on President Barack Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Their appearance is being coordinated with the Sierra Club, which has forged alliances with organized religion since its former director, Carl Pope, acknowledged in a 1997 speech the environmental movement had erred by shunning such ties.

"Different people have credibility with different segments of the population," said Lindsey Moseley, the group's Washington representative. "The oil spill is ultimately a matter of values, which for many people are rooted in deeply held religious beliefs."

Organizations including the National Council of Churches and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have issued statements calling for soul-searching. Some are providing ecologically themed online resources — prayers, liturgy, scripture readings — for use in worship services.

"We have used God's creation without regard for the impact our rapacity had on the other creatures with whom we share our earthly home," reads a model prayer on the Council of Churches' website.

The push for an ecological Great Awakening since the oil spill began in April has come from liberals as well as theologically conservative groups such as the Evangelical Environmental Network, which previously sponsored an ad campaign with the slogan "What Would Jesus Drive?" that called for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

In a resolution this month, the Southern Baptist Convention declared that humanity's "God-given dominion over the creation is not unlimited, as though we were gods and not creatures" and called for "energy policies based on prudence, conservation, accountability and safety."

"Caring for creation is an extension of loving your neighbor as yourself," said Russell Moore, dean of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky., who wrote the statement.

Disagreements persist, especially over public policies like climate-change legislation.

Painter, the Lafitte preacher, criticized the Obama administration's fight for a moratorium on offshore drilling, saying it would worsen unemployment in the struggling community.

"I think we're called to be good stewards of God's creation," said Painter, who's also a part-time crab fisherman. "But I have no patience with people who are using the situation to push a political agenda."

But some scholars say their response to the oil spill at least suggests an emerging agreement that environmental issues are fair game in houses of worship where they were long ignored.

"Very few of the world's religions were making any statements about the environment 20 years ago, and now virtually all of them have," said Mary Evelyn Tucker, a historian of religion and founder of Yale University's Forum on Religion and Ecology. "The challenge is to put them into practice."

Even people with no specific religious beliefs are recognizing a spiritual dimension in the Gulf tragedy and taking a deeper look at their energy use, Tucker said.

"There is a yearning for meaning and purpose and being able to contribute to something larger than ourselves," she said.

The disaster may help replace longstanding divisions based on dogma or culture with "a new kind of consensus that isn't liberal or conservative, left or right, but focuses on stewardship of creation, care for the poor and accountability for corporate leaders," Wallis said.

Moore, a native of "God-fearing, pro-defense, Republican-voting" Biloxi, Miss., said the creation care message is resonating in his home state as oil spoils its Gulf coastline and batters its economy.

For progressive believers, it's an easy sell. But many conservatives consider eco-theology a distraction from the church's primary mission of winning souls — or even a stalking horse for socialism or earth worship.

In Louisiana, where loyalty to the oil and gas industry remains strong despite the BP disaster, opposition to fossil fuels sometimes doesn't go over well.

"God put the oil there. He put it there for us to take dominion over and use responsibly," said Gene Mills, director of the Louisiana Family Forum.

Ball said it's understandable that some believers would embrace creation stewardship in theory while resisting specific measures that change their way of life. But making fundamental change is what religious commitment is all about, he added.

"As Christians we have the freedom to do God's will," he said. "We're not helpless, we're not hopeless."

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Pope Benedict XVI will soon issue a document outlining the church's procedures for handling clerical sex abuse cases that will gather the norms now in use and make them permanent and legally binding, a Vatican official and canon lawyer said Tuesday.

The "instruction" from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been in the works for some time, the Associated Press reports. But its impending publication has taken on new relevance amid the abuse scandal that has roiled the Vatican for months, with hundreds of new cases coming to light of priests who raped and sodomized children, bishops who covered up for them and Vatican officials who turned a blind eye.

The norms concern the canonical procedures for dealing with abusive priests, with penalties as severe as being dismissed from the clerical state. Separately, the Vatican issued informal guidelines earlier this year saying bishops should follow civil reporting laws in terms of reporting abuse to police.

It's unclear whether the new set of norms will include any reference to civil reporting requirements. Since such requirements vary from country to country, it would be difficult to make reference to them in a document that is canonically binding on the church around the globe, noted the Rev. Davide Cito, a canon lawyer and consultant at the Congregation.

The norms now in place have been modified and updated from a 2001 Vatican document and set of procedures issued by Pope John Paul II outlining how the church should handle the abuse of minors by priests.

The 2001 documents require bishops to report credible accusations of abusive priests to the Congregation, which then decides how to proceed, including through a full canonical trial. In 2003 — a year after the U.S. abuse scandal exploded — the norms were amended to speed up administrative penalties against abusive clerics where the evidence them is overwhelming, among other things.

But those 2003 modifications were ad hoc and temporary in nature and had to be reconfirmed, for example, by Benedict after John Paul died in 2005. By gathering them together and including them now in an official, binding document, they become permanent church law.

As a result, the new instruction is expected to contain little that goes beyond what is currently the practice of the Congregation, Cito said. The instruction, for example, is expected to formally extend the 10-year statute of limitations for abuse cases that was imposed for the first time in the 2001 procedures. But those limits have been waived on a case-by-case basis already since 2002 since the 10-year limit was deemed too short.

In addition, downloading child pornography from the Internet is expected to be included as a "grave" canonical crime for the first time in a Vatican instruction. That said, the Congregation's sex crimes prosecutor, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, has written that the Congregation for several years has considered it such in practice.

A Vatican official declined to give a date for the instruction's publication, but said it was expected in the near future. Cito said he understood the document had already been signed by Benedict, who on Wednesday moves to the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo for the rest of the summer.

Amid the current scandal, the 2001 norms have been held up by Vatican officials as evidence of Benedict's get-tough attitude to pedophile priests, since he was prefect of the Congregation at the time and signed a letter accompanying the documents to bishops around the world. The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, though, was known to be far more concerned with matters of faith than technical canonical procedures.

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France's justice minister went before parliament Tuesday to defend a hotly debated bill that would ban burqa-style Islamic veils in public, arguing that hiding your face from your neighbors is a violation of French values, the Associated Press reports.

Michele Alliot-Marie's speech at the National Assembly marked the start of parliamentary debate on the bill. It is widely expected to become law, despite the concerns of many French Muslims, who fear it will stigmatize them. Many law scholars also argue it would violate the constitution.

The government has used various strategies to sell the proposal, casting it at times as a way to promote equality between the sexes, to protect oppressed women or to ensure security in public places.

Alliot-Marie argued that it has nothing to do with religion or security — she argued simply that life in the French Republic "is carried out with a bare face."

"It is a question of dignity, equality and transparency," she said in a speech that made scant mention of Muslim veils. Officials have taken pains to craft language that does not single out Muslims: While the proposed legislation is colloquially referred to as the "anti-burqa law," it is officially called "the bill to forbid covering one's face in public."

Ordinary Muslim headscarves are common in France, but face-covering veils are a rarity — the Interior Ministry says only 1,900 women in France wear them.

Yet the planned law would be a turning point for Islam in a country with a Muslim population of at least 5 million people, the largest in western Europe.

France is determined to protect the country's deeply rooted secular values, and the conservative government is encouraging a moderate, state-sanctioned Islam that respects the secular state. Last week Prime Minister Francois Fillon inaugurated a mosque in the Paris suburbs.

Lawmakers at the National Assembly are expected to vote on the bill July 13. It goes to the Senate in September.

The legislation would forbid face-covering Muslim veils such as the niqab or burqa in all public places in France, even in the street. It calls for euro150 ($185) fines or citizenship classes for women who run afoul of the law, and in some cases both.

Part of the bill is aimed at husbands and fathers who impose such veils on female family members. Anyone convicted of forcing a woman to wear such a veil risks a year of prison and a euro30,000 fine — with both those penalties doubled if the victim is a minor.

France "does not accept attacks on human dignity," Alliot-Marie said. "It does not tolerate the abuse of vulnerable people."

France's opposition Socialists agree with much of the draft law, although they say a ban shouldn't be applicable everywhere — just in certain places, such as government buildings, hospitals and public transport.

"We're not going into this debate with a head-on attack," Jean-Marc Ayrault, who heads the Socialists in the French National Assembly, told Associated Press Television News.

The justice minister argued that the law must be applicable everywhere to be coherent — but she nonetheless presented a host of exceptions to the face-covering ban, such as masks worn for health reasons, for sports like fencing and at public fetes such as carnivals.

Authorities in several European countries have been debating similar bans. Belgium's lower house has enacted a ban on the face-covering veil, though it must be ratified by the upper chamber.

Said Aalla, president of a mosque in the eastern city of Strasbourg, said he believes legislators have the right to pass laws on societal issues. But like many French Muslims, he is concerned about how police will enforce it.

"Is this a law that is going to be implemented in a serene way, so as not to stigmatize the Muslim population?" he asked.

Amnesty International has urged French lawmakers to reject the bill, and a French anti-racism group, MRAP, which opposes such dress, has said a law would be "useless and dangerous." France's highest administrative body, the Council of State, warned in March that a total ban risks being found unconstitutional.

France banned common Muslim headscarves and other obvious religious symbols from classrooms in 2004.

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The Church of England may be on the verge of promoting a gay priest to bishop, a step that would widen the split over sexuality in the global Anglican Communion.

If that happens, the Associated Press reports, it would appear to be a significant turnaround for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Church of England and the world's Anglicans, who recently imposed sanctions on the U.S. Episcopal Church for electing a lesbian bishop.

According to newspaper reports, Williams is prepared to back the elevation of the Very Rev. Jeffrey John, who withdrew seven years ago from an appointment as a suffragan (assistant) bishop in the face of a heated controversy about his homosexuality. Williams' office will not comment.

"I think the strength of the opposition is much weaker this time," Rev. Canon Giles Goddard, the chairman of Inclusive Church, said Tuesday. His group was founded by people disappointed by John's failure to become a bishop in 2003.

John, who is now dean of St. Albans Cathedral, might be seen as a more acceptable candidate than the U.S. bishop because he has declared he is celibate — and therefore not in violation of church teaching.

A Crown Nominations Commission, composed of 14 Church of England representatives, including Williams, met in secret Monday and Tuesday to choose two nominees to become bishop of Southwark diocese, the half of London that lies south of the River Thames.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who has spoken strongly in favor of equal rights for gays, will have the final decision about whom to recommend to Queen Elizabeth II, who will make the formal appointment. Southwark diocese says a decision may not be announced before October.

Williams has said nothing publicly about the issue.

After the Episcopal Church elected Annapolis priest Mary Douglas Glasspool as an assistant bishop in Los Angeles, Williams moved to bar Episcopalians from representing the Anglican Communion on international ecumenical bodies. "This is simply to confirm what the Communion as a whole has come to regard as the acceptable limits of diversity in its practice," Williams said in a letter to the global church.

John, who is 57, has claimed celibacy despite being in a civil partnership. Neither Glasspool nor V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, has claimed to be celibate.

Rev. Paul Dawson, media officer for Reform, an evangelical grouping, objects that John has defended sexual gay relationships that are "Permanent, Faithful, Stable," as the title of one of John's books puts it.

"If you have a bishop who is effectively teaching what is against the Bible's clear teaching and what the Church of England says is its doctrinal position, if you have someone at the highest level saying this is a 'blessing,' this is a 'gift,' that raises all sorts of questions for the average churchgoer," Dawson said.

Appointments to bishoprics are the battleground in the Anglican debate about the role of women and homosexuals in the church.

The Church of England's governing General Synod will resume its debate about permitting female bishops this weekend as it continues trying to mollify conservatives who fought against making women priests and now resist what appears to be general support for women as bishops.

Anglican agonizing over sexuality has dogged Williams since 2002 when he became spiritual leader of the Church of England and of the Anglican Communion.

When John was nominated become bishop of Reading, Williams is believed to have yielded to conservative opposition.

"He cracked after two months of pressure and asked John to withdraw his name, establishing his reputation as a man who could be bullied," religion commentator Andrew Brown wrote in The Guardian newspaper.

"If he is beaten again, he is finished. If he wins, he will have shot the rapids and the Church of England will finally emerge from the turbulence of the last 30 years with a fairly clear and fairly coherent doctrine about sex."

The prime minister, in an interview with the gay magazine Attitude early this year, said his Conservative Party supported equal rights "whether you are male, female, black, white, urban, rural, straight or gay." The church, Cameron said, "has to do some of the things that the Conservative Party has been through — sorting this issue out and recognizing that full equality is a bottom line full essential."

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Hawaii's governor on Tuesday vetoed legislation that would have permitted same-sex civil unions, ending months of speculation on how she would weigh in on the contentious, emotional debate, the Associated Press reports.

The action of Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, who had sought advice from rabbis on either side of the debate, came on the final day she had to either sign or veto the bill, which the Hawaii Legislature approved in late April.

"There has not been a bill I have contemplated more or an issue I have thought more deeply about during my eight years as governor than House Bill 444 and the institution of marriage," Lingle said at a news conference. "I have been open and consistent in my opposition to same-gender marriage, and find that House Bill 444 is essentially marriage by another name."

Had Lingle not vetoed it, the measure would have granted gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits that the state provides to married couples. It also would have made Hawaii one of six states that essentially grant the rights of marriage to same-sex couples without authorizing marriage itself. Five other states and the District of Columbia permit same-sex marriage.

Lingle's decision is expected to be the last say on the proposal this year, because state House leaders have said they won't override any of Lingle's vetoes.

She said voters should decide the fate of civil unions, not politicians.

"The subject of this legislation has touched the hearts and minds of our citizens as no other social issue of our day," Lingle said. "It would be a mistake to allow a decision of this magnitude to be made by one individual or a small group of elected officials."

For weeks, Lingle heard emotional statements from both supporters and opponents of the bill. On Tuesday, she invited leaders from both sides to her standing-room only news conference.

Opponents of the measure, including many religious groups, erupted in cheers and hugs when the announcement was made.

"What she did was very just, and I'm very happy about it," said Jay Amina, 50, of

Waianae. "It sends a good message throughout the state of Hawaii — that our people here on the islands are standing for traditional marriage."

Supporters then shouted, "We'll keep fighting!" and "Let's go!" The group of about 100 joined in singing "We Shall Overcome."

"We had hoped the governor would do the right thing for civil rights an equality," Lee Yarbrough, of Honolulu, said while standing arm-in-arm with his partner. "This battle is far from over."

Earlier in the day, dozens of supporters had gathered for a daylong vigil in the state Capitol's ground-floor rotunda. Others waved flags and held signs along a busy street, to the honks of passing vehicles.

"I want to be able to get married," said Elizabeth Kline, a 22-year-old University of Hawaii student who quickly corrected herself to say she wants a civil union. "It's not marriage, but it's a step toward it."

A group of about 20 civil unions opponents raised their hands, closed their eyes and said blessings in front of the office doors of key lawmakers. They wore white shirts in a show of unity and buttons declaring "iVote," a promise of consequences come November if civil unions become law.

About 60 percent of the more than 34,000 letters, telephone calls, e-mails and other communications from the public to the governor asked her to veto the measure, the governor's aides said late last week.

Lingle said that "as difficult as the past few weeks have been, I am comfortable with my decision while knowing full well that many will be disappointed by it."

The Aloha State has been a battleground in the gay rights movement since the early 1990s. A 1993 Hawaii Supreme Court ruling nearly made Hawaii the first state to legalize same-sex marriage before voters overwhelmingly approved the nation's first "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment in 1998.

The measure gave the Legislature the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples. Lawmakers responded by enacting a law banning gay marriage in Hawaii but left the door open for civil unions.

Last year, civil unions easily passed the House but stalled in the state Senate. When legislators reconvened in January, it was passed in the Senate but shelved by House leaders until the final day of the legislative session.

Lingle blasted Democrats for reviving the bill and "manipulating the legislative process when it suits them."

"The legislative maneuvering that brought House Bill 444 to an 11th-hour vote on the final day of the session ... after the legislators led the public to believe that the bill was dead, was wrong and unfair," she said.

House spokeswoman Georgette Deemer said House Speaker Calvin Say would have no comment.

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The Roman Catholic Church is petitioning Chile's government for prisoner pardons that would include people responsible for crimes against humanity, angering rights activists and some conservatives, the Associated Press reports.

The church is asking for the pardons as part of the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Chile's independence on Sept. 18. The church proposes pardons for those older than 70, any with a terminal decease and women who are mothers.

The controversy centers on the inclusion of some convicted of committing crimes during the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. According to official statistics, 3,065 opponents of Pinochet's regime were killed and 1,200 more disappeared.

"There shouldn't be any pardons under any circumstances for those guilty of crimes against humanity," Mireya Garcia, vice president of the Group of Families of Detainees and Missing People, told The Associated Press on Monday.

Last week, Garcia's group asked President Sebastian Pinera not to pardon anyone accused of committing such crimes during Pinochet's dictatorship.

The national newspaper La Tercera says the army has sent a letter to Pinera asking him to show mercy for members of the military and for sick and older prisoners. Some 600 military personnel have been accused of crimes against humanity but no more than 150 are now in prison.

Liberal legislators announced Sunday that they would support the church's pardon petition only if it excludes people condemned for crimes against humanity.

Leaders of the conservative parties that support Pinera's government have said military personnel should be included in any pardons, but some lower-level members of the parties are opposing that idea.

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Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that "for all our weaknesses" priests have an important role in the world, the Associated Press reports.

Benedict did not directly mention the clergy abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic church for months. But during a daylong visit to a central Italian town, he received a round of applause and words of support by local youths greeting him "in this time of harsh attacks and media provocation."

Minutes later, Benedict told the youths that "for all our weaknesses, still priests are a precious presence in life."

The trip to Sulmona was dedicated to honoring Celestine V, the 13th-century hermit who resigned the papacy saying that he was not up to the task.

Benedict said his simple and humble lifestyle can serve as an example for modern men and women. The pontiff praised his predecessor for his detachment from material things such as money and clothes.

"We, too, who live in an epoch of greater comfort and possibilities, are called upon to appreciate a sober lifestyle," the pope said.

Celestine V resigned just months after becoming pope in 1294 at age 85. He was later put under guard for fear he would become the rallying point for a schism. Celestine died in 1296 and was declared a saint in 1313.

Benedict, at times wiping his forehead, conducted an open-air Mass in hot weather before thousands of faithful in one of Sulmona's main squares.

In modern society, Benedict told them, "it seems that every space, every moment must be filled with initiatives, activities, sounds. Often there isn't even the time to listen."

"Let's not fear the silence inside and outside of us, if we want to be able to perceive not just the voice of God but also (the voices) of those who are next to us," he said.

The pope also sought to encourage those still suffering from the earthquake that struck this region in April 2009, killing some 300 people. Benedict visited the area soon afterward, praying before the salvaged remains of Celestine.

The sex abuse scandal has shaken the Roman Catholic Church in Europe and beyond, as reports of rape and other sexual abuse of minors in seminars, schools and other church-run institutions have piled up. Victims have come forward accusing priests of abuse and bishops of covering up crimes in order to safeguard the church's name.

Benedict XVI has begged forgiveness from victims and promised to "do everything possible" to protect children.

The pope also held talks with local bishops and a small group of inmates from the Sulmona jail before heading back to the Vatican.

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An emotional debate over crucifixes in classrooms is opening a new crack in European unity, the Associated Press reports.

It all started in a small town in northern Italy, where Finnish-born Soile Lautsi was so shocked by the sight of crosses above the blackboard in her children's public school classroom that she called a lawyer to see if she could get them removed.

Her case went all the way to Europe's highest court — and her victory has set up a major confrontation between traditional Catholic and Orthodox countries and nations in the north that observe a strict separation between church and state. Italy and more than a dozen other countries are fighting the European Court of Human Rights ruling, contending the crucifix is a symbol of the continent's historic and cultural roots.

"This is a great battle for the freedom and identity of our Christian values," said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

The court case underlines how religious symbols are becoming a contentious issue in an increasingly multiethnic Europe.

French legislators begin debate next week on a draft law, vigorously championed by President Nicolas Sakorzy, that would forbid women from wearing face-covering Islamic veils anywhere in public.

Belgium and Spain are considering similar laws.

In its Nov. 3 ruling, the European Court of Human Rights accepted Lautsi's contention that a crucifix could be disturbing to non-Christian pupils and said state-run schools must observe "confessional neutrality." Rulings of the court are binding on the 47 members of the Council of Europe, Europe's chief human rights watchdog.

Crucifixes are on display in many public buildings in Italy, where the Vatican is located, and the Roman Catholic Church has encouraged support for keeping them. They will be taken down in schools, however, if the court ruling stands.

Despite the rhetoric, Italy has given no hint that the issue would be enough to compel it to quit the council, something no country has ever done.

Arguing the appeal Wednesday, New York University legal scholar Joseph Weiler stressed the importance of national symbols "around which society can coalesce."

"It would be strange (if Italy) had to abandon national symbols, and strip from its cultural identikit any symbol which also had a religious significance," said Weiler, an Orthodox Jew who wore a yarmulke while addressing the 19-judge panel.

Taken to the extreme, Weiler elaborated in an interview with Italy's La Stampa newspaper, the case for secularism could endanger Britain's national anthem "God Save the Queen."

Lined up with Italy are such traditional Catholic bastions as Malta, San Marino and Lithuania. The Foreign Ministry of the late Pope John Paul II's Poland — where crucifixes are displayed in public schools and even in the hall of parliament — says the country "supports all actions that the government of Italy has taken before the Council of Europe."

The list also includes such heavily Orthodox Christian countries as Greece and Cyprus, as well as Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria, which lived through religious persecution under communism.

"The support from so many other countries — we are talking here about a third of the membership of the Council of Europe — has given the case great political significance," said Gregor Puppinck, director of the European Center for Law and Justice, a Christian lobbying group.

A final ruling is not expected before fall. Lautsi filed the first complaint in 2002, and both her children are now in their early 20s.

The debate over the role religion should play on the largely secular continent has been simmering for more than a decade.

For years, Pope John Paul called on the European Union to include a reference to the continent's Judeo-Christian heritage in a new constitution, lecturing European leaders whenever they came to Rome. But France and other northern countries blocked such wording.

John Paul's successor, Pope Benedict XVI, urged Europeans to defend their continent's religious and cultural heritage just a week after the November verdict on crucifixes.

Benedict has held up the United States as an example, saying he admires "the American people's historic appreciation of the role of religion in shaping public discourse." The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of government displays of religious materials such as the Ten Commandments when their purpose was educational or historical rather than religious.

Some Muslims in Europe see supporters of crucifixes in classrooms as applying a double standard to religious tolerance.

Said Bouamama, a Muslim sociologist and specialist in immigration questions in France, says the push by Italy and other nations "reflects a clear preference for Christianity, meaning that tolerance is only extended towards one religion and not for all."

Such a measure must be "either for everyone or for no one. If not, it will produce even greater division," said Bouamama, a researcher at a French institute that trains social workers.

France has western Europe's largest Muslim population, about 5 million, and largest Jewish population, about half a million. Its generally moderate Muslim community has shown itself reluctant to pursue court action in cases involving clothing issues, as when France barred Muslim headscarves from classrooms in 2004.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Carrying U.S. and Hungarian flags, parishioners ended a 16-hour sit-in at a Cleveland Catholic church that is closing after police told them Thursday they would be trespassing if they did not leave, the Associated Press reports.

The protesters staged a vigil at midnight Wednesday at the 106-year-old St. Emeric Church near downtown Cleveland, then remained through about 4 p.m.

The historic Hungarian church is the last of 50 parishes to be closed by the local diocese. Bishop Richard Lennon has agreed to meet with protesters, police and protesters said. No date had been set.

The protest ended after police had entered the church several times and spoken with parishioners by cell phone. Police Commander Keith Sulzer said six protesters were inside the church. No one was arrested.

The protesters had locked themselves inside and declared that they were well-stocked with food and ready to stay "for a long time" in order to save their church.

John Yuhasz, a parish member and protest leader, emerged from the church and said it was important to challenge the closings.

"Somewhere along the way, someone had to take a stand in opposition for justice for all the parishioners, for all those broken souls who were thrown out of those parishes to have a chance at reconciliation," he said.

Some parishioners opposed the vigil and expressed concerns that it would damage the appeal to the Vatican to keep St. Emeric open and hurt discussions with the diocese to allow the Hungarian-American community to use the property for ethnic language, cultural and scouting programs.

The diocese called the protest an illegal occupation.

"We politely asked that they leave, and a police officer advised them that they would be considered to be trespassing if they did not do so," spokesman Robert Tayek said in an e-mail. "We are grateful for a prompt and peaceful resolution of this matter and will continue to work in cooperation with the police to ensure public safety and the security of church property."

Juhasz said the goal was to force the bishop into a dialogue toward saving the church.

"We have been rebuffed for four years by this bishop," he said by phone before the protest ended. Parishioners still hoped the closing could be reversed in a Vatican appeal, but that decision has been delayed, "and I believe Rome has taken a hands-off policy," Juhasz said.

Parishioner Marta Fordos said the pastor gave parishioners the key to the church on Wednesday with the understanding that they could stay until midnight, and they locked the door from the inside. Fordos said the protesters took soft drinks, water, desserts and bagels into the church with them.

Last year, a group of about a dozen protesters at St. John the Baptist Church in Akron sat for about two hours following its final Mass. The diocese had obtained a temporary restraining order, and police officers arrived to tell the protesters they would be arrested if they stayed.

The Diocese of Cleveland announced the closings last year, citing falling attendance, a priest shortage and financial problems.

Officials at the Vatican did not immediately return a call after office hours Thursday seeking comment about the situation in Cleveland. They have declined to comment on parish closings in the past.

The demonstrators were inspired by round-the-clock protest vigils at Roman Catholic churches in Boston a few years ago before the archbishop there decided to reverse a few church closings out of dozens, Juhasz said.

Lennon was one of then-Archbishop Sean O'Malley's chief deputies during the Boston church closings. Three parishes were fully reopened, one of which had been occupied by protesters. A fourth church that was scheduled to be closed started a vigil and remained open. Three others were reopened as chapels to a nearby parish.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

The pope has named a Swiss bishop with experience dealing with Orthodox and Lutheran churches to head the Vatican office responsible for relations with other Christians and Jews, the Associated Press reports.

Archbishop Kurt Koch replaces Cardinal Walter Kasper as head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. Kasper, 77, is retiring.

Koch, 60, has been Basel's bishop for nearly 15 years, and has served as a member of the pontifical council since 2002. In a statement Thursday, he said a "credible and sincere" ecumenical dialogue had long been close to his heart.

Kasper had headed the office since 2001, and was often put in the position of defusing Vatican standoffs with Jews such as when the pope lifted the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Several members of the last of 50 Cleveland-area Roman Catholic parishes shuttered in a downsizing locked themselves inside Thursday, declaring they were well-stocked with food and ready to stay "for a long time" in order to save their church, the Associated Press reports.

Meanwhile, police and officials of St. Emeric Church near downtown Cleveland gathered in front of the historic Hungarian church, where the parishioners had staged a midnight vigil — and never left.

Parishioner Marta Fordos said that when she left the vigil at 8 a.m. for personal reasons there were at least seven people still inside. The pastor gave parishioners the key to the church on Wednesday with the understanding that they could stay until midnight, and they locked the door from the inside, Fordos said.

The group has plenty of food, one of the protesters, John Juhasz, told The Associated Press by phone.

"We're going to hang out here for a long time," Juhasz said. The goal, he said, was to force Bishop Richard Lennon into a dialogue toward saving the 106-year-old church.

Last year, a group of about a dozen protesters at St. John the Baptist Church in Akron sat for about two hours following its final Mass. The diocese had obtained a temporary restraining order, and police officers arrived to tell the protesters they would be arrested if they stayed.

Juhasz would not confirm how many people were inside St. Emeric but said the number was growing. No one was seen entering or leaving the church from the front or side doors visible to members of the media, who were kept off church property by the diocese.

"We have been rebuffed for four years by this bishop," Juhasz said. Parishioners still hoped the closing could be reversed in a Vatican appeal, but that decision has been delayed, "and I believe Rome has taken a hands-off policy," Juhasz said.

The Diocese of Cleveland announced the closings last year, citing falling attendance, a priest shortage and financial problems. The diocese said Thursday it is reviewing the situation at St. Emeric but would not comment further.

Officials at the Vatican did not immediately return a call after office hours Thursday seeking comment about the situation in Cleveland. They have declined to comment on parish closings in the past.

At St. Emeric, several cars were parked outside, but it was impossible to see inside. Deacon Jim Armstrong, who has advised Lennon on the closings, was at the church. He said he came to see what was going on but wouldn't comment.

The protesters were prepared in the event of utilities being turned off, but diocesan officials did not indicate any such plan, Juhasz said.

Fordos said the protesters had shopped for food on Wednesday, taking soft drinks, water, desserts and bagels into the church with them.

Holy Communion was still contained in the locked tabernacle of the church, and protesters were maintaining a prayerful, dignified approach respectful of the church environment, Juhasz said.

The demonstrators were inspired by round-the-clock protest vigils at Roman Catholic churches in Boston a few years ago before the archbishop there decided to reverse a few church closings out of dozens, he said.

Lennon was one of then-Archbishop Sean O'Malley's chief deputies during the Boston church closings. Three parishes were fully reopened, one of which had been occupied by protesters. A fourth church that was scheduled to be closed started a vigil and remained open. Three others were reopened as chapels to a nearby parish.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The pope on Thursday told a German bishop who resigned amid accusations of physical abuse, sexual harassment and alcoholism that he must take time for silent prayer, treatment and reconciliation if he wants to return to pastoral work, the Associated Press reports.

Pope Benedict XVI laid out the terms for Bishop Walter Mixa's rehabilitation during a private audience with the 69-year-old prelate, during which Mixa again apologized for his mistakes, the Vatican said.

Benedict, for his part, "expressed the hope that his (Mixa's) request for forgiveness finds open ears and hearts" among the German faithful, the Vatican said.

Mixa's case marked an unusually public controversy that came to light at the height of the abuse scandal that rocked the church in Germany and elsewhere in the first half of the year.

Mixa, who served as bishop of the Augsburg diocese from 2005 to 2010, offered his resignation on April 22 after accusations surfaced that he had hit children decades ago as a priest and amid allegations of financial misconduct.

The pope accepted Mixa's resignation on May 8, but last month the bishop said members of the Augsburg diocese and two German bishops had forced him to resign against his will, and that he had written to the pope seeking to rescind the resignation. Fresh allegations later surfaced in the German media, including that Mixa was an alcoholic and had made sexual advances toward two priests.

Eventually Mixa apologized for his conduct and agreed to stand by the resignation.

The Vatican had said Mixa's resignation was never up for discussion and Benedict confirmed it definitively on Thursday. His title now is emeritus bishop of Augsburg.

In a statement, the Vatican press office said Mixa will take a period of time for silent reflection and prayer — as well as treatment and reconciliation. Afterward, he will be available for undetermined pastoral work in agreement with the new Augsburg bishop, the statement said.

During the audience, Mixa said he recognized that he had made mistakes "which caused a loss of trust and made his resignation inevitable." He again asked forgiveness, but also asked that "all the good that he had done not be forgotten," the Vatican said.

Benedict urged Mixa's fellow bishops to understand and help him find the right path and for the faithful to welcome Mixa's successor.

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

No doubt my fellow In Good Faith readers have donned their tuques and opened up a can of Elsinore in honor of Canada Day, our northern neighbors' July 1st version of Independence Day. As my family has recently suffered at the hands of the land I often think of as America's Hat, I thought I'd invite the denizens of this blog to weigh in on the ethical question being hotly debated here at my grandmother's house in Milwaukee.

Back in the spring, somebody called my grandmother claiming that he was me, that he had been arrested for DUI in Canada, and that he needed her to wire bail money right away. My grandmother, a 95-year-old teetotaller, is sharp as a tack and wasn't going to fall for the scam, which has apparently been popular in recent months (Google "Canadian DUI grandson scam").

But the question arose whether she should have called my parents to let them know about the call. She figured that in the unlikely event this wasn't a scam, I would eventually have had to make them aware of my transgression. That was my business and my responsibility; she wasn't going to get involved. My parents felt she should have called them to let them know (and be reassured that I wasn't anywhere near Montreal at the time).

I'm with Grandma on this, and not just because I'm staying at her house right now. My view is that under normal circumstances if an adult family member calls another adult family member for help, the person called should keep that private while encouraging the person in trouble to let people close to him know that he needs help.

What do you think?

Either way, I blame Canada. If it weren't for the lovely honeymoon my wife and I had in Nova Scotia, and lobsters from New Brunswick, and mussels from Prince Edward Island, and the nice Mountie in Banff who patiently posed for a picture with my daughter the last time I was in the 51st state, and my Canadian friends, and Sarah McLachlan, and John Candy, and most of all Rush ... well, I'd be pretty bitter right now.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)