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

A church service was held at New Hope on Sunday morning. This would be unremarkable were it not for the fact that it wasn't supposed to happen.

As the weather predictions grew more and more alarming on Saturday night, I tore myself away from the "A Christmas Story" marathon on TBS to email some of our leaders to get their thoughts on whether we should call off services the next morning. The response among those close to email was unanimous, and I figured we'd get ahead of things and call it early.

For a lot of us with young kids, Saturday night can look a lot different if you're not planning to get up in time to get everybody off to church in the morning -- all the more so if you're serving and need to show up early. So I sent out the email, changed the website, changed the phone message and alerted the media. I knew I'd have to figure out how to combine two sermons into one, but I decided to put off thinking about that and enjoy the evening with family.

Come Sunday morning I was nestled all snug in my bed, imagining a winter wonderland outside but not bothering to confirm it by opening the blinds. Bad move. Around ten -- when our service usually starts -- my parents came to say goodbye and mentioned that the weather outside was anything but frightful.

Meanwhile, seven or eight folks had shown up for church.

Apparently they had a rich time of worship. One of them got on the organ and led from the hymnal, another led prayer, another preached a sermon impromptu on our text for the day. (One called me to make sure I was all right.) They did their best to work through an urn of coffee and 4 dozen donuts.

I take several lessons from this.

1. Authentic worship is not dependent upon the minister. There are good reasons to have clergy with credentials, salaries, robes and such. But if every pastor suddenly disappeared this week God's people would still manage faithfully to worship him.

2. Authentic worship is not dependent upon a prepared worship service. Again, there are good reasons to designate people to lead worship, to choose and prepare music, to lead the congregation in singing, to coordinate the other elements of the worship service with the day's Scripture texts. But even if nobody able to play the organ had shown up, the people assembled at New Hope would have worshipped.

3. Not everybody is on email all the time. I try to stay off of my email on Fridays, the day my wife and I keep as a sabbath, and I will unapologetically spend half or even all of a day disconnected from the interwebs. But while some people had their iPhones at hand even after Christmas dinner, others felt free to be unreachable except by traditional means. If I want to be sure I get a time-sensitive message out, I may need to place a call or two. The people who aren't constantly connected to email may not be the strange ones.

4. Not everybody looks at the prospect of inclement weather through the eyes of a schoolchild, or a teacher. (It drove me nuts early in our marriage when my wife, a public school teacher, would delight in the day off a snowstorm gave her, even as my to-do list waited patiently during the time I was out shoveling.) Some of us think about snow as a potential distraction, a reason to give ourselves a bit more time to get places, an element to factor into our lives. But others know that snowstorms can, and often should, result in calling off public events for the safety of those who would attend, and those who share the roads with them.

Having grown up in New England, I used to scoff at Marylanders' panicked runs to Giant for toilet paper at the barest prospect of a flurry. But having blown out a knee not once but three times in the past eight months, I have a greater appreciation for the dangers involved in traveling by any means over icy terrain. Sometimes the better part of valor should get the nod.

5. I'm an idiot. Given how quickly forecasts were changing, I should have waited until the morning to make the call, however much it may have inconvenienced people (and however many calls I may have had to field asking if we were having church in the morning). And I certainly should have checked the weather that morning and gone to meet people at the church, shrugging my shoulders sheepishly and taking everybody out for corned beef & swiss omelets at the newly reopened Suburban House.

Then again, if I had, perhaps the organ wouldn't have been warmed up, and the hearts of the people who showed up, and the heart of the God whose name they lifted up.

Either way, I know I won't hear the end of this one for a while.

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

Associated Press writer Rachel Zoll reports:

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – In the ballroom of an upscale hotel a short train ride from New York, advertisers, food industry executives and market researchers mingled — the men in dark suits, the women in headscarves and Western dress. Chocolates made according to Islamic dietary laws were placed at each table.

The setting was the American Muslim Consumer Conference, which aimed to promote Muslims as a new market segment for U.S. companies. While corporations have long catered to Muslim communities in Europe, businesses have only tentatively started to follow suit in the U.S. — and they are doing so at a time of intensified anti-Muslim feeling that companies worry could hurt them, too. American Muslims seeking more acknowledgment in the marketplace argue that businesses have more to gain than lose by reaching out to the community.

"We are not saying, `Support us,'" said Masood, a graduate of the University of Illinois, Chicago, and management consultant. "But we want them to understand what our values are."

There are signs the industry is stirring: Faisal Masood, a Wall Street executive who organized the gathering, had attracted only 200 or so attendees when he started the event last year. This year, he had to close registration at 400 to keep from going over capacity.

The worldwide market for Islamically permitted goods, called halal, has grown to more than half a billion dollars annually. Ritually slaughtered meat is a mainstay, but the halal industry is much broader, including foods and seasoning that omit alcohol, pork products and other forbidden ingredients, along with cosmetics, finance and clothing.

Corporations have been courting immigrant Muslim communities in Europe for several years. Nestle, for example, has about 20 factories in Europe with halal-certified production lines and advertises to Western Muslims through its marketing campaign called "Taste of Home." Nestle plans to increase its ethnic and halal offerings in Europe in coming years.

In the United States, iconic American companies such as McDonald's (which already has a popular halal menu overseas) and Wal-Mart have entered the halal arena. In August, the natural grocery giant Whole Foods began selling its first nationally distributed halal food product — frozen Indian entrees called Saffron Road.

Along with new customers, however, the companies draw critics and can become targets in the ideological battle over Islam and terrorism.

Abdalhamid Evans, project director with the World Halal Forum Europe, which works with the global halal industry, said a recent backlash has prompted some mainstream businesses in Europe to keep a lower profile about their halal products or scale back their offerings.

In the U.K., after Kentucky Fried Chicken rolled out halal menu options in several dozen stores, the restaurant chain pulled the items in a few locations in the face of protests. Critics dubbed the menu "terror chicken."

Last September, the Daily Mail of London reported that many British supermarkets, fast-food chains, hospitals, schools, pubs and sporting arenas such as Wembley Stadium, were serving some halal meat and poultry without notifying the public. A large share of meat sold in Britain comes from New Zealand, where the slaughterhouses have expanded halal production as they try to boost their already robust exports to Islamic countries.

In the uproar that followed, Barnabas Aid, a group that fights Christian persecution worldwide, started a petition in Britain against what it called the "imposition" of halal. It "may be interpreted as an act of Islamic supremacy," the group said.

U.S. companies have also faced some resistance, although on a smaller scale.

Last year, Best Buy Inc. was inundated with calls, e-mails and letters complaining that the company was anti-American after acknowledging a Muslim holiday — "Eid al-Adha," or the Feast of the Sacrifice — for the first time in a national advertisement. That year, Eid al-Adha fell around Thanksgiving, so the ad, a small bubble at the bottom of the page, appeared in the company's Thanksgiving flier. Critics seized on the timing in their complaints.

"They used very abusive language," said Nausheena Hussain, a marketing manager for Best Buy in Minnesota. "It was pretty sad."

Best Buy executives stood by their decision. The company saw the holiday greeting as part of a larger goal of reaching consumers from different cultures. Soon, Muslims started calling to thank Best Buy and set up a Facebook page honoring the company, which continues to acknowledge Muslim holidays.

"It's a very viable customer segment," said Zainab Ali, senior marketing manager with the money transfer company MoneyGram, which ran a special Ramadan promotion this year for Muslims in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. "You just need to get over some of the fear and look at them as just another consumer."

The potential for profit is drawing more companies to the idea.

This year, Ogilvy & Mather, the global advertising firm, started an international Islamic branding consultancy called Ogilvy Noor that includes an emphasis on U.S. Muslims. ("Noor" means "light" in Arabic.) Muslims came to the United States in large numbers for doctorates, engineering and medical degrees, after the federal government eased immigration quotas in the 1960s. Studies have found that a significant percentage of Muslims are better educated and wealthier than other Americans.

Joohi Tahir, vice president of marketing and sales for Crescent Foods, the halal chicken producers based in Chicago, said Wal-Mart executives approached Crescent Foods two years ago looking for a halal chicken supplier, then invited Crescent executives to Wal-Mart headquarters in Arkansas to advise them on reaching Muslim consumers.

That same year, Wal-Mart opened a supercenter in Dearborn, Mich., an area with one of the largest Muslim and Arab populations in the country. The store is geared for Mideast consumers, with a range of halal products, including specialty foods.

"Mainstream is coming to halal," Tahir said.

Wal-Mart spokesman Bill Wertz said the merchandise in each store can vary according to the needs of the surrounding community, so it is difficult to know the exact number of U.S. stores that carry halal products. But several in Michigan and at least one store in Canada have advertised that they offer some halal items.

Manufacturers entering the field hope they can appeal to non-Muslims as well.

Jack Acree, executive vice president of American Halal Co., which produces the Saffron Road products, emphasizes that the entrees are not only halal, but also all-natural and humanely farmed, and free of antibiotics and hormones.

"Muslims are highly educated and live in metro areas, and they're shopping with us already," said Errol Schweizer, senior global grocery coordinator for Whole Foods. "If we have a customer base where there's a big Muslim population, it makes sense for us to service that population."

Schweizer would not answer directly when asked if anyone complained to the company over its Muslim outreach. He said only that halal foods will be judged like any other products — by whether the items sell.

For Muslims, the issue is not just a matter of convenience. Recognition by major companies is an important sign of acceptance as they struggle to establish themselves in the U.S. They are following in the footsteps of American Jews, who struggled for decades for mainstream acceptance of kosher food — and of Judaism.

Despite the sometimes unfriendly climate for Muslims, Evans, of the World Halal Forum, said it is inevitable that a large number of businesses will reach out Muslim consumers, given the wealth and size of the Muslim population — more than a billion people worldwide — and their presence in the West.

"It isn't a question of whether they're going to do it," Evans said. "It's a question of where and when and how."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Associated Press writer Mark Niesse reports:

KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii – President Barack Obama and his family took a break from their Hawaiian vacation to attend Sunday church services, a rare occurrence for a president who prefers to worship in private.

The first family arrived at a chapel at Marine Corps Base Hawaii mid-morning for a multi-denominational service. The Obamas were greeted by about 100 clapping parishioners and a band playing "Joy to the World" as they were led to their seats in the front row.

In his sermon, chaplain Steve Moses asked worshippers to recommit to God in the new year. He also joked that the reason God put him through a heart surgery was so he wouldn't suffer a heart attack while preaching before the president.

Obama was the first worshipper to take communion, dipping the wafer in wine before placing it in his mouth.

Though Obama speaks frequently about his Christian faith, his family rarely attends church services in Washington. The White House says the president hasn't joined a parish because his appearances would be disruptive to the rest of the congregation, though he does attend private services when he spends weekends at Camp David, the presidential retreat.

Obama last attended church in September, shortly after a poll was released indicating that a majority of Americans had doubts about the president's religious beliefs.

During the hourlong service, Obama and the other churchgoers sang along to a youth band playing Christmas carols such as "Silent Night" and "Oh Holy Night."

After church, Obama went golfing on the Marine base despite sporadic light rain.

The president and Mrs. Obama also extended wishes to people celebrating Kwanzaa. "The seven principles of Kwanzaa — unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith — are some of the very values that make us Americans," the Obamas said in a statement issued by the White House.

Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Honolulu contributed to this report.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

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

It’s that time of year again, and if you’re dreading the prospect of throwing the same old discs into the changer while you tend to the roast, here’s a rundown of several 2010 holiday offerings.

The Good

Erin Bode: A Cold December Night

This disc is by far my favorite of this year’s new holiday music, and I think Erin Bode is my favorite discovery of the year. With a voice and style reminiscent of Norah Jones, Bode displays both greater musical range and a deeper sense of perspective. The opening track, “Skating,” which Bode co-wrote with backing musician Adam Maness, establishes the mood right away: comfortable but not lazy, relaxed but not apathetic, friendly but not garrulous, thoughtful but not brooding, cool but not self-consciously hip. Much credit is due to Bode’s band; Syd Rodway’s basswork establishes a musical foundation that flows when it needs to and sits still when it should. The entire ensemble seems to be taking the music seriously, themselves not too.

Bode’s album succeeds where so many other solo female holiday albums fall short: Shawn Colvin’s Holiday Songs and Lullabies is heavy and over-produced, Sarah McLachlan’s Wintersong is thin and over-produced, and Sara Groves’ O Holy Night bears an unrelenting intensity that just doesn’t fit the artistic form. This is an album I wanted to listen to again after it was done, and I’ve kept coming back to it as often as possible.

The December People: Rattle and Humbug

What would your favorite Christmas carols sound like if they were played by the bands you hear on classic rock stations? Bassist Robert Berry gathered some of California’s top session and touring rock musicians to produce “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” as it would have been played by Boston, “Angels We Have Heard On High” as Peter Gabriel would have done it in the ‘80s, and a ‘90s U2 rendition of “What Child Is This?” Santana gets aped on “Feliz Navidad,” of course.

The arrangements and acoustical textures of classic songs are unmistakeable even as the actual notes have been written to stay on the clean side of the copyright fence. Drummer Mike Vanderhule is far too sober and consistent in his efforts to replicate Keith Moon on “Joy To The World” as the Who might have handled it; he’s a lot closer to Neil Peart. (How about a Rushesque version of Little Drummer Boy? Maybe next year.) But if you ever wondered what it would have sounded like for Queen to play “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day” this is the album for you. This would be a great disc to listen to with anybody who ever played in a garage band anywhere from the ‘70s to the ‘90s.

Indigo Girls: Holly Happy Days

Either you like their harmonies or you don’t. If you don’t, this album will drive you nuts. If you do, it will make a pleasant addition to the aural wallpaper of your holiday festivities. The influences of various genres are felt, but not attempted beyond the capacities of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. A few originals round out a collection of well- and not-so-well-known pieces. Saliers’ “Your Holiday Song” is difficult to imagine coming from any other place, but Amy Ray’s “Mistletoe” will certainly be picked up by other singers down the years.

The album packaging includes three lyrics printed on cardboard Christmas tree ornaments the size and shape of CDs. Without any sharp corners, they traced a lovely arc straight to the recycling bin. By this point the breadth of the Indigo Girls’ political activism has exceeded their gatefolds’ capacity, so they simply direct the conscientious listener to their website. Perhaps they will lead this trend as they led the one that had what seemed like every band plugging Amnesty International below the credits back in the ‘80s.

The Bad

Phil Keaggy: Welcome Inn – a Phil Keaggy Christmas

If I didn’t know what Phil Keaggy is capable of, I might have put this in the “not bad” category. Some of the pieces are lovely, including an instrumental version of “In The Bleak Midwinter.” But Keaggy’s re-casting of “All Through The Night” is ponderous, and the originals that comprise most of the disc are easily forgettable.

Annie Lennox: A Christmas Cornucopia

Generally speaking I don’t think Christmas albums are supposed to frighten anybody. Yes, the shepherds watching their flocks by night were sore afraid. But they would have been petrified if somebody had broken out an iPod with Annie Lennox’s new album. “Lullay Lullay (Coventry Carol)” presents itself as the beginning of a lullaby, but you wouldn’t want Annie Lennox singing anybody to sleep unless you wanted them to have nightmares. “Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant” begins with dissonance better suited to “Nous attendions cet heureux temps” than “Il est ne.” Future producers may wish to note that a vocoder conveys neither comfort nor joy, as is abundantly clear from Lennox’s rendering of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” A few pieces receive more suitable treatment: Lennox shows restraint in “In The Bleak Midwinter,” and proclaims, “Hail thou ever-blessed morn/ Hail redemption’s happy dawn/ Sing throughout Jerusalem/ Christ is born in Bethlehem” without stridency in “See Amid The Winter’s Snow.”

Sean Smith: Christmas

It’s my guess that whoever wrote “The First Noel” was not particularly angry when he wrote it. But Sean Smith’s heavy hand on this opening track is felt throughout not only this piece but the entire disc of guitar instrumentals. One can almost hear him concentrating intently on his fingering as he plays these arrangements with nary a touch of humor or grace. The silence in “Silent Night” comes from the agonizing pauses between phrases; one might have hoped for some softness if not silence, but even in this piece he seldom drops below a mezzo-piano. For the most part his dynamic range goes from loud to thunderous, which is what you want from a power trio but not a solo acoustic guitarist.

The Ugly

Jimi Hendrix, Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

Like Tupac Shakur (link includes language unsuitable for small ears), Jimi Hendrix continues to put out music from well beyond the grave. This year saw the release of Valleys of Neptune, whose title track alone was worth the price of the whole disc. The Hendrix estate took great care with that project to turn a cache of old session tapes into an album of music well worth listening to. From the extensive liner notes to Eddie Kramer’s skillful work at the mixing board, Hendrix fans were treated to a first-class introduction to music previously difficult or impossible to find.

The same cannot be said of this Christmas EP, which consists of a single mashup of Little Drummer Boy, Silent Night and Auld Lang Syne in both short and long versions, with a throwaway tune called “Three Little Bears” to round out the whole mess. Despite the occasional flash of brilliance, the Christmas medley (of sorts) sounds like a very talented guitarist playing, while very inebriated, music which he was very unaccustomed to playing. Folks, there’s a good reason Jimi never released these tunes, or (apparently) ever thought to; halfway through “Three Little Bears” it sounds like he’s ready to quit. Halfway through the first minute of the Christmas jam you’ll be ready to. These tracks should have stayed in the vault, or at least on the cutting room floor. Save your money and buy the new box set West Coast Seattle Boy instead.

Various Artists: Christine Lavin Presents: Just One Angel

This album is the sort of thing you’ll like, if you like this sort of thing. No doubt the marketing folks would have objected to “Have Yourself A Snarky Little Christmas,” however accurate it would have been as a title. About half of the cuts on the disc are novelty songs, but novelty songs devoid of whimsy or cheer or anything else that might make the ideas behind them sound new. Jeff Daniels’ opener “Won’t You Please Stay For Christmas, Santa Claus?” has a run time of 5:28 but feels like twice that. True to the genre, songs like Megon McDonough’s “The Christmas Guitar” end up being about the singer-songwriter more than anything else. (The difference between a puppy and a folk singer? If you ignore it the puppy will eventually stop whining.)

This collection of singer-songwriter treatments contains the occasional gem; Darryl Purpose’s rendition of Dar Williams’ “The Christians and The Pagans” may well be better than the original. Still, not everyone will embrace the idea of celebrating the Incarnation with a song that suggests it wasn’t all that significant. This is an album perfect for people who can’t stand the holidays. So why didn’t I like it, being one of said people? I think it reflects not only an aversion to the holidays and the way our culture celebrates them, but to the very impulses that fuel the whole mess. I hate the way they pervert the holy days, but desires for family togetherness, generosity, festivity and such are not entirely bad things. One gets the sense that the musicians on this album are commenting on the holidays as a cultural phenomenon that can’t be avoided, but nevertheless doesn’t really hold much personal interest for them.

The All-Time Great

Bill Mallonee: Yonder Shines The Infant Light

A songwriter who has received far less attention than he deserves, Bill Mallonee brings both comfort and joy in this rootsy EP. I’ll go out with the following refrain from “On To Bethlehem,” which he recorded with his erstwhile band Vigilantes of Love:

It’s cold this year, and I’m late on my dues

It’s cold this year, ah, but that’s nothin’ new

My heart’s electric with your love again

So it’s on to Bethlehem ...

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Associated Press correspondents Yahya Barzanji and Sameer N. Yacoub report:

KIRKUK, Iraq – No decorations, no midnight Mass. Even an appearance by Santa Claus has been nixed after Iraq's Christian leaders called off Christmas celebrations amid new al-Qaida threats on the tiny community still terrified from a bloody siege on a Baghdad church.

Christians across Iraq have been living in fear since the assault on Our Lady of Salvation Church as its Catholic congregation was celebrating Sunday Mass. Sixty-eight people were killed. Days later Islamic insurgents bombed Christian homes and neighborhoods across the capital.

On Tuesday, al-Qaida insurgents threatened more attacks on Iraq's beleaguered Christians, many of whom have fled their homes or the country since the church attack. A council representing Christian denominations across Iraq advised its followers to cancel public celebrations of Christmas out of concern for their lives and as a show of mourning for the victims.

"Nobody can ignore the threats of al-Qaida against Iraqi Christians," said Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako in Kirkuk. "We cannot find a single source of joy that makes us celebrate. The situation of the Christians is bleak."

Church officials in Baghdad, as well as in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul and the southern city of Basra, said they will not put up Christmas decorations or celebrate midnight Mass. They urged worshippers not to decorate their homes. Even an appearance by Santa Claus was called off.

"It's to avoid any attacks, but also to show that people are sad, not happy," said Younadim Kanna, a Christian lawmaker from Baghdad.

Even before the Oct. 31 church attack, thousands of Christians were fleeing Iraq. They make up more than a third of the 53,700 Iraqis resettled in the United States since 2007, according to State Department statistics.

Since the church attack, some 1,000 families have fled to Iraq's safer Kurdish-ruled north, according to the United Nations, which recently warned of a steady exodus of Iraqi Christians.

The latest threats were posted late Tuesday by the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, on a website frequented by Islamic extremists. The group said it wants the release of two women it claims are being held captive by Egypt's Coptic Church.

Muslim extremists in Egypt accuse the Coptic Church of detaining the women for allegedly converting to Islam, an accusation the church denies. The message posted Tuesday was addressed to Iraq's Christian community and said it was designed to "pressure" Egypt.

Few reliable statistics exist on the number of Christians remaining in this nation of 29 million. A recent State Department report says Christian leaders estimate there are 400,000 to 600,000, down from a prewar level of some 1.4 million.

For those who remain, Christmas will be a somber affair.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Sako said there will be no Christmas decorations outside churches and a traditional visit by Santa Claus has also been called off. Money usually used on celebrations or gifts will instead go to help Christian refugees.

Ashour Binyamin, a 55-year-old Christian from Kirkuk said he and his family would not go to church on Christmas and would celebrate at home.

At Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation Church, where more than 120 parishioners were held hostage by gunmen during the four-hour siege, all Christmas Masses have been canceled. Only a modest manger display will mark the occasion.

"We have canceled all celebrations in the church," said Father Mukhlis. "We are still in deep sorrow over the innocent victims who fell during the evil attack."

In Baghdad's Karradah neighborhood, where many of the city's remaining Christians live, churches were guarded by security forces Wednesday and surrounded by razor wire. Shop owners said few people were buying the Christmas trees and Santa Claus toys on sale.

Ikhlas Bahnam, a Christian in the neighborhood, vowed to go to Mass on Christmas Day, despite what she called the government's failure to protect her small minority. But she won't be visiting friends during the holiday season because all of them have fled the city.

"We did not put any decorations inside or outside our house this year," Bahnam said. "We see no reason to celebrate."

In Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, the Rev. Faiz Wadee, a Syrian Orthodox priest, said there will be no public Christmas celebrations there.

And Christians in Iraq's second-largest city of Basra have also called off all celebrations, said Saad Matti, a Christian legislator on the Basra provincial council.

"There will be only a small Mass in one church in Basra without any signs of joy or decoration and under the protection of Iraqi security forces," he said. "We are fully aware of al-Qaida threats."

Matti said Christians were also toning down their celebrations out of respect for a Shiite holiday going on at the same time. The majority of Iraqis are Shiite Muslims, especially in the south.

Even among Iraqi Christians who've managed to escape the violence, the mood was subdued.

Maher Murqous, a Christian from Mosul who fled to neighboring Syria after being threatened by militants, said his relatives are still at risk in Iraq, and since they cannot celebrate, neither will he.

"We will pray for the sake of Iraq. That's all we can do," he said from his home in Damascus.

Yacoub reported from Amman, Jordan. Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Rebecca Santana in Baghdad and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Associated Press correspondent Shawn Pogatchnik reports:

Ireland's constitutional ban on abortion violates pregnant women's right to receive proper medical care in life-threatening cases, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday, harshly criticizing Ireland's long inaction on the issue.

The Strasbourg, France-based court ruled that a pregnant woman fighting cancer should have been allowed to get an abortion in Ireland in 2005 rather than being forced to go to England for the procedure. The judgment put Ireland under pressure to draft a law extending abortion rights to women whose pregnancies represent a potentially fatal threat to their own health.

Ireland has resisted doing that despite a 1992 judgment from the Irish Supreme Court that said Ireland should provide abortions in cases where a woman's life is endangered — including, controversially, by her own threats to commit suicide.

The 18-year delay has created a legal limbo, forcing many women to travel overseas for an abortion rather than rely on Irish doctors fearful of being prosecuted.

In an 11-6 verdict, the 17 Strasbourg judges said Ireland was wrong to keep the legal situation unclear and said the Irish government had offered no credible explanation for its failure. The Irish judge on the panel, Mary Finlay Geoghegan, sided with that majority view.

The judges wrote that Ireland's failure "has resulted in a striking discordance between the theoretical right to a lawful abortion in Ireland on grounds of a relevant risk to a woman's life, and the reality of its practical implementation."

Under Irish law dating back to 1861, a doctor and patient both could be prosecuted for murder if an abortion was later deemed not to be medically necessary.

The Strasbourg court broadly upheld Ireland's right to outlaw abortion in the overwhelming majority of cases because that reflects "the profound moral values of the Irish people in respect of the right to life of the unborn." Voters in this predominantly Catholic nation enshrined that ban into the Irish Constitution in 1983.

But the court found Ireland guilty of violating one woman's rights.

The lawsuit dates back to 2005, when the Irish Family Planning Association sued Ireland's government on behalf of three women who traveled overseas that year for abortions: an Irish woman who had four previous children placed in state care, an Irish woman who didn't want to become a single mother, and a Lithuanian woman living in Ireland who was in remission from a rare form of cancer.

The judges said the first two women had failed to demonstrate that their pregnancies represented a sufficient risk to their health, but the Lithuanian woman faced a life-threatening situation. It ordered Ireland to pay her euro15,000 ($20,000) in damages.

The judges lambasted Ireland's defense claiming that the woman should have petitioned the Irish High Court for the right to have an abortion in Ireland. They said Irish doctors must be given clear legal guidance on the eligibility rules for abortions.

Health Minister Mary Harney said she was confident that Ireland would draft legislation to bring the country's laws into line with its own Supreme Court — but said the step would have to wait for the next government. Ireland faces an unscheduled national election in the spring.

"Clearly we have to legislate, there's no doubt about that," Harney said. "But I don't think we have the capacity to bring forward proposals in a matter of weeks."

Harney noted that the government twice tried to resolve the issue with referendums in 1992 and 2001, but voters on both sides of the abortion argument rejected that constitutional amendment. In both cases, the government sought to limit the right to legal abortion only to cases where the woman was at risk of death — but excluding suicide threats.

She said lawmakers would face a "highly sensitive and complex" debate over what specific definitions should apply for life-threatening conditions. She said pregnant women suffering from cervical cancer, exceptionally high blood pressure or ectopic pregnancies already were receiving abortions in Irish hospitals.

The vast majority of nations in the 47-member Council of Europe permit broad access to abortion, most recently Spain, which legalized first-trimester abortions in July. Only Malta and Vatican City ban the practice outright, while several others seek to limit it to exceptional cases including rape and fetal abnormalities.

European Court of Human Rights judgments are legally binding but difficult to enforce. Council of Europe nations often take years to enact the legal reforms ordered. An offending nation that refuses to observe a court order could be expelled from the Council of Europe, but this has never happened.

Thursday's judgment was the first by the Strasbourg court against Ireland since 1988, when Dublin gay activist David Norris successfully sued the Irish government over its law defining homosexuality as a crime. Ireland legalized homosexuality in 1993.

The Irish Family Planning Association and an Irish lobbying group, Doctors for Choice, welcomed Thursday's verdict.

"Doctors can feel vindicated today. For the first time we can feel confident about discussing abortion as an option for women in medical need without fearing prosecution," said Dr. Mary Favier, director of Doctors for Choice.

But William Binchy, a Trinity College Dublin law professor who advises the Pro Life Campaign said the judgment did not explicitly order Ireland to pass any new legislation. He said Ireland should kick the issue back to the public for a fourth referendum.

"What's at stake in this debate is the value of life. The sad experience is that once laws permitting abortion are introduced, they diminish the society's respect for the inherent value of every human life, born or unborn," Binchy said.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Associated Press correspondent Pete Yost reports:

The federal government sued a suburban Chicago school district Monday for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a central part of her religion.

In a civil rights case, the department said the school district in Berkeley, Ill., denied the request of Safoorah Khan on grounds that her requested leave was unrelated to her professional duties and was not set forth in the contract between the school district and the teachers union. In doing so the school district violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to reasonably accommodate her religious practices, the government said.

Khan wanted to perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia which every adult Muslim is supposed to make at least once in a lifetime if they are physically and financially able to. Millions go each year.

Khan started as a middle school teacher for Berkeley School District 87 — about 15 miles west of Chicago — in 2007. In 2008, she asked for almost three weeks of unpaid leave to perform the Hajj. After the district twice denied her request, Khan wrote the board that "based on her religious beliefs, she could not justify delaying performing hajj," and resigned shortly thereafter, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Chicago.

Berkeley School District compelled Khan to choose between her job and her religious beliefs, the lawsuit said.

The government asked the court to order the school district to adopt policies that reasonably accommodate its employees' religious practices and beliefs, and to reinstate Khan with back pay and also pay her compensatory damages.

In November 2008, Khan filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found reasonable cause that discrimination had occurred and forwarded the matter to the Justice Department. The case is the first brought by department in a project to ensure vigorous enforcement of the 1964 act against state and local governments by improving cooperation between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the department's civil rights division.

A message left for the school district seeking comment was not immediately returned.

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Associated Press correspondent Maryclaire Dale reports:

A fundamentalist Christian couple who relied on prayer, not medicine, to cure their dying toddler son was convicted Friday of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. Herbert and Catherine Schaible of Philadelphia face more than a decade in prison for the January 2009 pneumonia death of 2-year-old Kent.

"We were careful to make sure we didn't have their religion on trial but were holding them responsible for their conduct," jury foreman Vince Bertolini, 49, told The Associated Press. "At the least, they were guilty of gross negligence, and (therefore) of involuntary manslaughter."

The Schaibles, who have six other children, declined to comment as they left the courthouse to await sentencing Feb. 2.

Experts say about a dozen U.S. children die in faith-healing cases each year. An Oregon couple were sentenced this year to 16 months in prison for negligent homicide in the death of their teenage son, who had an undiagnosed urinary blockage.

Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore will ask the judge at sentencing to put the couple's other children under a doctor's care. She was not yet sure if she would seek prison terms for the two felonies.

Kent Schaible's symptoms had included coughing, congestion, crankiness and a loss of appetite, although his parents said he was eating and drinking until the last day, and they had thought he was getting better.

The lone defense witness, high-profile coroner Cyril Wecht, testified that a deadly bacterium could have killed him in hours.

Herbert Schaible, 42, teaches at a school affiliated with their church, First Century Gospel Church. His wife, 41, previously taught there, but now stays at home with the couple's children, from an infant to teenagers.

The Schaibles grew up in the church and have never received medical care themselves, not counting the help of the 84-year-old lay midwife who attends home births, according to pastor Nelson A. Clark.

Clark, 69, knew the couple as children and described them as honors students who dropped out of the church school in ninth grade, a year shy of the school's 10th grade graduation. Catherine Schaible did so at age 16 to begin teaching younger students, he said.

Clark balks at suggestions the church is a cult or fringe religion.

Church elders do not shun members who seek medical care, although they pray that they make a different choice next time, he said. He notes the high number of deaths blamed each year on medical mistakes — as many as 100,000 a year in hospitals alone, according to a widely discussed Institute of Medicine study from 1999.

"The legal community is trying to force our church group to put them in the hands of this flawed medical system, when they have chosen to put them in the hands of a perfect God, who does not make mistakes," Clark said Friday.

The couple did not take the stand during the four-day trial, but a social worker testified that Kent Schaible once said "the devil won" in the battle for their son's life.

Pescatore argued Thursday that adults can choose to forgo medical care for themselves but not for their children.

"If you want to be a martyr yourself and you don't want to go to the doctor or the dentist or the eye doctor, that's (within) your power. We're in America," she said in closings. "But you must take care of your children."

About a dozen U.S. children die in faith-healing cases each year, a handful of which spawn criminal charges, according to Shawn Francis Peters, a University of Wisconsin lecturer who wrote a book about the phenomenon.

The Schaibles deployed a defense strategy common in such cases: Their lawyers said they did not know Kent was near death.

Defense lawyers also argued that the case was not about religion. But Bertolini, who works for an educational testing service, said there was no putting religion aside. He said the deliberations were informed by several people of faith on the jury.

Some states carve out exceptions to criminal neglect statutes for parents who rely on faith or spiritual healing. But even in states that don't, juries or judges often sympathize with them.

In a 2009 Oregon trial with parallels to the Schaible case, a jury acquitted the defendants of manslaughter in their 15-month-old's pneumonia death, convicting the father, Carl Worthington, only of a misdemeanor.

But his in-laws, Jeff and Marci Beagley, were the couple sentenced to prison this year in their 16-year-old son's death.

"The fact is, too many children have died unnecessarily — a graveyard full," Judge Steven Maurer said at their March sentencing. "This has to stop."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

The Associated Press reports:

A French court has annulled a fine given to a woman driver wearing an Islamic face veil, months before a ban on wearing the garments goes into effect.

Traffic police in the western city of Nantes fined 31-year-old Sandrine Mouleres euro22 ($29.22) in April, saying she did not have a clear field of vision, but the court quashed the fine Monday.

Jean-Michel Pollono, Mouleres' attorney, said the court in Nantes had ruled "we are in a free country, and as a result, everything that isn't forbidden is allowed."

The initial fine drew widespread attention amid a nationwide debate over the place of Islamic veils. In September, the French parliament agreed to a ban on face-covering veils — such as the niqab or burqa — from being worn in public. The ban goes into effect in spring.

Many Muslims see the legislation as another blow to Islam — France's No. 2 religion — and fear it could raise levels of Islamophobia in a country where mosques are sporadic targets of hate.

Proponents of the new law, however, have said it will preserve French values, including secular foundations and women's rights.

The law sets fines of 150 euros — $199 — and/or citizenship classes for any woman, including tourists, caught covering her face. It also carries much heavier penalties for anyone, such as husbands or brothers, convicted of forcing the veil on a woman.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Associated Press reports:

The Legionaries of Christ is ordering images of its disgraced founder removed from its buildings worldwide as part of Vatican-mandated reforms.

The conservative order says photographs showing the late Rev. Marciel Maciel alone or with the pope must be removed from its installations.

Maciel founded the influential Legion in Mexico in 1941. He was dogged for years by allegations that he abused seminarians. But it was only after his 2008 death that the order admitted the allegations were true and that Maciel had fathered three children.

The Legion also announced on its website Monday that it was prohibiting the celebration of Maciel's birthday. It also banned the sale of Maciel's writings inside Legion centers.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

The Associated Press reports:

Days after the arrest of a Baltimore man accused of attempting to detonate a bomb outside an Army recruiting center in Catonsville, Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated his resolve to prosecute hate crimes, even as he defended the methods used in anti-terrorism cases.

Speaking Friday to Muslim Advocates, a San Francisco-based group, Holder told the group that he's heard from many Muslim and Arab Americans who feel uneasy and singled out by law enforcement.

The organization is one of several groups voicing concerns over hate crimes, alleged rights violations at the hands of law enforcement and the tactics used in anti-terrorism cases.

Carefully-crafted sting operations by FBI and Justice Department officials have included plots against a Portland, Ore., Christmas celebration, Dallas skyscrapers, Washington subways, a Chicago nightclub and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Undercover operatives in these cases have let suspects make clear they wanted to carry out an attack and gave them a chance to change their mind, according to authorities.

But Holder told the group he would make "no apologies" for the handling of the case against Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a Somali-born Muslim accused of plotting to set off a bomb in Oregon.

"Those who characterize the FBI's activities in this case as 'entrapment' simply do not have their facts straight or do not have a full understanding of the law."

In that case, Mohamud has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder of federal officers and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. After his arrest, someone set fire to an Islamic center where he occasionally worshipped.

Critics have called the stings entrapment of people who otherwise couldn't have carried out an attack and said the government has been enticing Muslims into terrorism.

"We have very serious concerns about FBI surveillance tactics that are used. We believe that law enforcement has an important job to protect us as a country but they should do so mindful of the rules of justice and fairness that are at the core of our criminal justice system," said Muslim Advocates executive director Farhana Khera, who invited Holder to speak to the group.

Despite the differences of opinion, Holder received strong applause and a standing ovation. Attendees said they felt reassured by his remarks on protecting the civil liberties of Muslim Americans.

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The Associated Press reports:

A social worker says the father of a dead toddler blamed the devil for the boy's death after he and his wife prayed for him rather than seek medical treatment.

Philadelphia social worker Kenneth Dixon testified this week that Herbert Schaible said "we tried to fight the devil, but in the end the devil won" when questioned about the January 2009 death of his 2-year-old son.

Schaible and his wife, Catherine, are on trial on involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of their son, Kent. Prosecutors say the boy died after a two-week battle with bacterial pneumonia because the couple failed to seek medical treatment for him.

Attorneys for the Schaibles say prosecutors cannot prove the couple knew the boy was in danger of dying.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 3:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

The Associated Press reports:

The Roman Catholic Church this week designated a Wisconsin spot where an apparition of the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared three times to a Belgian-born nun in 1859 as the only of its kind in the United States.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion, just east of Green Bay near Lake Michigan, has long been a popular destination for the faithful. But it was only in the last two years that the Diocese of Green Bay undertook the official process to earn the distinction that now puts it in company with renowned holy apparition sites including Lourdes, France; Guadalupe, Mexico; and Fatima, Portugal.

Green Bay Bishop David Ricken approved the sightings as legitimate apparitions after a two-year study by a commission he appointed. Ricken announced the distinction at a special Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception at the shrine, where he read from a decree that stated the apparitions witnessed by Sister Adele Brise in 1859 "do exhibit the substance of supernatural character, and I do hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief (although not obligatory) by the Christian faithful."

Brise was 28 at the time of the visions, and had emigrated to Wisconsin from Belgium with her family about four years earlier. Brise would recount that a lady dressed in dazzling white appeared to her and claimed to be the "Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners," according to information provided by the Green Bay diocese. The apparition asked Brise to do the same, and to gather children and teach them what they should know for salvation.

After receiving the apparitions, Brise established a Catholic school and a community of Franciscan women.

Such sites of confirmed apparition earn that designation only by a Catholic bishop's decree. A spokesman for the Green Bay Diocese said there are only 11 other such sites worldwide, none in the United States.

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The Associated Press reports:

A Greek Orthodox church in New York City that was destroyed on Sept. 11 is taking legal action against the agency that owns ground zero, saying it has reneged on a promise to rebuild the church.

The Wall Street Journal reports that St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church filed a notice of claim against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Monday. The papers seeks to compel the agency to live up to what it says is a "binding preliminary agreement" from 2008.

The two sides spent years negotiating a deal that would let the church rebuild on land south of its original site in exchange for financial help. Negotiations broke down in March.

The agency says it hasn't seen the papers and declined to comment.

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Associated Press correspondent Amy Teibel reports:

Three dozen top Israeli rabbis threw their support Tuesday behind a religious ruling barring Jews from selling or renting homes to non-Jews — an indication of growing radicalism within the rabbinical community at a time of mounting friction between Israeli Arabs and Jews.

The action by the clerics — chief rabbis in some of Israel's largest cities and influential among the devout — fueled charges of racism.

The religious opinion first became a focus of controversy last year when the chief rabbi of Safed — a town in northern Israel that has a large concentration of devout Jews — urged that it be applied specifically to Arabs.

Nitai Morgenstern, an aide to Safed's chief rabbi, Shmuel Eliahu, said the town has "a problem of a lot of people renting and selling to Arabs, and that destroys the city's social fabric."

Recently, a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews asked other chief rabbis to express their support for the ruling to prove it has widespread backing, Morgenstern said Tuesday. Thirty-seven rabbis signed it. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the ruling with their signatures attached on Tuesday.

Mordechai Nagari, chief rabbi of Maaleh Adumim, a large West Bank settlement outside Jerusalem, defended the letter, which he signed. "The rabbinical ruling is that you cannot sell houses to gentiles, and its purpose is to protect the Jewish identity of the state of Israel," he told AP Television News.

Morgenstern said he understood how this attitude could cause friction with the Arab minority, which accounts for one-fifth of Israel's population of 7.6 million.

"But people have to see the other side," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the initiative. "Israel categorically rejects these words" against its Arab citizens, Netanyahu said in a speech Tuesday evening in Jerusalem. "This must not happen in any democratic nation, and certainly not in the Jewish and democratic state" of Israel.

Amit Cohen said he and other Safed residents led the campaign to win other rabbis' support because clerics are "simply fed up with the fact that rabbis have to fear issuing or discussing religious rulings."

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel called on Netanyahu to take disciplinary action against the rabbis, who are employed by the state. Taxpayers pay the salaries of Israel's 126 municipal chief rabbis.

Arab Israeli lawmaker Ahmad Tibi said the rabbis should be fired and brought up on criminal charges "because we are talking about incitement or racism according even to Israeli law."

Israeli Jews have increasingly been questioning the loyalty of Arab citizens, who legally enjoy the same rights but tend to be poorer and discriminated against in state funding and job opportunities.

Israel's ultranationalist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, led his Yisrael Beitenu party to large gains in last year's parliamentary elections by playing on the perceived disloyalty of Israel's Arabs.

Meanwhile, some members of the Arab minority have become radicalized by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and are openly speaking about turning the Jewish state into part of a binational state that would be home to Israelis and Palestinians both.

Salah Mohsen, spokesman of Adalah, an advocacy group for Arabs in Israel, said the rabbis' action was "not surprising" and blamed Lieberman's party, which wants to redraw Israel's borders to exclude large Arab communities.

Rabbi David Rosen, the interfaith adviser to Israel's chief rabbinate, described the rabbis' action as "disturbing" but said he did not think that the majority of the country's rabbis would agree and called it a product of the lingering conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

"The rabbinate as a whole isn't xenophobic or hostile to Arabs," Rosen said. "As long as the conflict goes on here, it's logical to assume that the attitudes of all sides will harden, which is deeply regrettable."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Associated Press correspondent Linda Stewart Ball reports:

A Texas woman who was promised a Christian working environment claims she was devastated after learning that her boss, a prominent televangelist, was having an affair and his company was trying to cover it up, according to a lawsuit she filed against her former employer.

Jeanette Hawkins levied the accusations against Daystar Television Network and its founder, the Rev. Marcus Lamb, in a lawsuit Wednesday — a day after Lamb and his wife told their television audience that three unnamed people who knew about the affair were trying to blackmail them for $7.5 million.

On Friday, Daystar countersued Hawkins, saying she and her attorney made "outrageous allegations" and amended their original lawsuit that they'd given to media outlets, according to a statement released by the company.

Lamb and his wife, Joni, said on the air Tuesday that they'd mended their marriage after his infidelity years ago, but decided to go public because they refused to pay extortionists.

Hawkins' attorney, James Fisher, declined to comment on the countersuit because he had not yet seen it. But he denied the claims of extortion, saying he met with Daystar attorneys last month about reaching a settlement for Hawkins and two other women in an effort to avoid filing any lawsuits.

"People have claims, which are legal rights. Not only is it common but it's Biblical to try to resolve disputes before going to court," Fisher told The Associated Press. "(Hawkins) didn't commit extortion. She hired a lawyer to present her claims and to explore the possibility of settling them, and that's not extortion."

Hawkins' lawsuit also said she was defamed by the Lambs' remarks on television. Even though the couple didn't refer to anyone by name, many people at Daystar knew about a letter that named her and the other two women that Fisher sent to company attorneys.

Daystar, which is based in the Dallas suburb of Bedford, airs several high-profile evangelists including Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes and Benny Hinn.

Phone calls to Daystar's attorney and the Lambs on Friday were referred to the Lambs' spokesman, Larry Ross, who said the network's attorneys received "a lawsuit containing many allegations that are not correct and will be vigorously defended and disputed."

Ross wouldn't discuss details of the suit, but he said the demand for money came during a November meeting between the attorneys.

Ross said Daystar contacted Bedford police and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Texas. Bedford police confirmed they were looking into a case of possible extortion, and a U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman said she couldn't say whether the office was investigating.

Fisher, who said he never intended to take the case to the media, said the Lambs were "bullies and they're trying to intimidate us. They're trying to preserve their ability to collect donations out there."

Hawkins went to work for Daystar as its marketing director in 2005, after she was assured by Lamb and her would-be Daystar supervisor that the company was dedicated "to the highest standards of Christian behavior" and moral integrity was required of all employees, according to her lawsuit.

But in 2007, a Daystar employee who reported to Hawkins said he found e-mails that proved Lamb had been having "an illicit sexual relationship" with Hawkins' boss for about seven years, according to the lawsuit. The e-mails also showed that Lamb used Daystar's financial resources to "facilitate the trysts," the suit alleged.

In its statement, Daystar said Hawkins' lawsuit was revised Friday to remove "some of the more incendiary allegations," including the duration of the affair.

Hawkins' lawsuit said she and an information services employee who also had copies of the e-mails consulted two marriage counselors who often appeared on the Lambs' daily talk show. They also told Joni Lambs' father, a Daystar manager, and he told his daughter.

According to the lawsuit, the broadcast company paid the woman "substantial sums of hush-money" and she left the state, then the company mislead people about her departure, which Hawkins alleged was a breach of trust.

Hawkins said Daystar's misrepresentations caused her so much "severe emotional trauma" that she became depressed, suicidal and was involuntarily committed to a mental institution.

Her lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. Fisher would only acknowledge that it is a "multimillion-dollar case."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Associated Press reporter Timberly Ross reports:

A Christian group is proclaiming Jesus' return in billboards going up in Omaha, Neb., and other U.S. cities for the holiday season.

Allison Warden, of We Can Know, says an analysis of Scripture shows Jesus will come on May 21. She says the billboards showing three wise men following the star of Bethlehem are meant to spur the public's interest in the Bible, not frighten anyone.

Warden says the billboards have gone up in Omaha and Nashville, Tenn. She says they're also going up in Atlanta, Bridgeport, Conn.; Detroit; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Kansas City, Mo.; Little Rock, Ark.; Louisville, Ky.; and St. Louis. They'll be up for December.

We Can Know offers resources to learn about the coming of Jesus and the end of days through its website, wecanknow.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Associated Press correspondent Nicole Winfield reports:

The Vatican on Thursday released documentation showing Pope Benedict XVI sought as early as 1988 to find quicker ways to permanently remove priests who raped and molested children but was rebuffed.

A 1988 letter from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger could serve as the Vatican's best defense to date that the future pope wanted to quickly remove pedophile priests but found himself stymied by church law.

In the letter, republished in Thursday's Vatican newspaper, Ratzinger complained that church law made it exceedingly difficult to remove abusers if they didn't request to be laicized voluntarily. He asked to get around the problem by finding "a quicker and simpler procedure" than a cumbersome church trial to punish those priests who "during their ministry were found guilty of grave and scandalous behavior."

He was turned down on the grounds that the priests' ability to defend themselves would be compromised.

The documentation was included in an article in L'Osservatore Romano explaining an upcoming revision of church law, which was last updated in 1983.

The article, penned by the No. 2 in the Vatican's legal office, highlighted some of the problems and loopholes of the 1983 Code of Canon Law's penal section that presumably will be addressed in the revision.

The Vatican has long sought to portray Benedict as having done more than anyone else at the Vatican to crack down on pedophile priests. But it has usually cited as his starting point a 2001 decision to have all abuse cases sent to his then-office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Feb. 19, 1988 letter shows he sought changes far earlier given that his office was already hearing from bishops who were having trouble dealing with pedophiles.

Nevertheless, victims' advocates said one letter doesn't excuse decades of inaction when police, parents and parishioners should have been notified of abusive priests. They said nor does it excuse what they consider to be continued inaction by the pope in removing bishops who covered up abuse.

"Since when are public figures judged by one letter in a long, long career?" asked Joelle Casteix of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "Since when do words on paper count more than actual behavior?"

As the clerical abuse scandal erupted earlier this year, Benedict was mired by accusations that as prefect of the congregation, he repeatedly refused bishops' requests to have abusers removed.

Ratzinger at the time was following laws and rules introduced by his predecessor Pope John Paul II, which largely left punishing such priests in the hands of local bishops, who often decided against conducting church trials because they found them too cumbersome.

John Paul had also made it tougher to leave the priesthood, hoping to stem the tide of thousands of priests who left in the 1970s to marry.

A consequence of that policy was that, as the priest sex abuse scandal arose in the U.S., bishops were no longer able to sidestep the lengthy church trial necessary for so-called laicization.

Rather than conduct the church trials or report abusers to police, bishops often moved abusers from parish to parish or sent them for counseling — actions which later resulted in lawsuits by abuse victims that bankrupted many U.S. dioceses.

Ratzinger's request for faster procedures was rejected by Cardinal Jose Rosalio Castillo Lara, who headed the Vatican commission responsible for implementing the 1983 code.

In a March 10, 1988 letter to Ratzinger, Castillo Lara said simplifying the procedures "would endanger the fundamental right of defense" of the priest while straying from the church's legal-based system, according to the letter reprinted in L'Osservatore.

In the end — amid the explosion of abuse cases in the United States and more recently Europe — the Vatican in 2001, 2003 and most recently this summer took steps to streamline and formalize norms so that abusive priests could be removed quickly without a church trial.

The Rev. Davide Cito, a canon lawyer at Rome's Pontifical Holy Cross University, said the 1983 code was problematic both in that it left it largely up to bishops to decide whether to intervene and at the same time discouraged them from taking tough action against abusers.

"What they want to do now is to make a penal law that is applied seriously, that will be more concrete and obligatory" for bishops, he said.

Monsignor Juan Ignacio Arrieta, the No. 2 in the Vatican's legal department, said that in the coming weeks proposals for revisions of the penal part of the code will be sent to Vatican consultants and advisers.

No date has been set for publication of the changes, which have been under study for two years.

Nick Cafardi, a canon lawyer who detailed the problems American bishops encountered in trying to deal with abusive priests in his book "Before Dallas," noted that the penal part of the 1983 code didn't undergo any "trial" period after it was issued.

"It went right from the drafters to being effective law - and therefore had no time to have the bumps worked out," Cafardi said in an e-mail. "And obviously there were bumps - so many that the American bishops threw up their hands and chose not to use the canonical penal process to deal with these priests."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

The Associated Press reports:

Conservative Anglican leaders have rejected a proposed covenant to hold their global communion together just as the Church of England gave preliminary approval to the plan.

The covenant, backed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, aims to contain deep splits in the Anglican Communion over sexuality, the role of women and the authority of the Bible.

The communion is a fellowship of churches with ties to the Church of England in more than 160 countries.

Last week, the Church of England's governing General Synod voted to approve draft legislation that could lead to a final vote on the covenant in 2012. The covenant will now be referred to dioceses for consideration.

But in a statement, traditionalist leaders representing the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and the GAFCON movement, dismissed the covenant as "fatally flawed." The plan also has been attacked by liberals within the church.

The conservative statement was endorsed by archbishops from West Africa, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Australia and Anglican Church of North America, a breakaway group from the Episcopal Church.

Long-developing divisions among Anglicans broke wide open in 2003, when the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire elected an openly gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop.

The draft covenant would commit national churches "to act with diligence, care and caution in respect of any action which may provoke controversy."

Disagreements would be referred to a panel of Anglican leaders, which could declare a proposed action to be incompatible with the covenant. National churches would be free to withdraw from the covenant at any time.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)