Associated Press writer Mark Niesse reports:

A group of nine Hawaii senators held hands, bowed their heads and sought God's blessing this week, signaling that they'll still pray despite a vote last week to abandon official invocations.

Fears of court challenges compelled the state Senate to end prayers, making it the first legislative body in the nation to do so.

The informal prayer Wednesday took place in the Senate chamber before the daily lawmaking session, convened in such a way so as not to contradict the decision to remove invocations from Senate business.

"The message is that not all senators have eliminated prayer," said Democratic Sen. Will Espero, who organized the group. "We're well within the confines of the law."

The 25-member Senate changed its rules in a unanimous voice vote last Thursday to end prayers after the American Civil Liberties Union sent lawmakers a letter complaining that the invocations often referenced Jesus Christ, contravening the separation of church and state.

Senate leaders said they wanted to avoid the potential for breaking the law, but lawmakers who participated in the quiet prayer Wednesday said their faith has a place in their work.

"It's nice to start off the day with a prayer because we need all the help we can get," said Democratic Sen. Mike Gabbard.

The ACLU of Hawaii declined to comment Wednesday. The ACLU previously has said the Senate's action to remove prayers helps create an environment where everyone feels welcome regardless of spiritual beliefs.

Democratic Senate President Shan Tsutsui, who did not participate in the prayer session, said he condoned their independent movement to keep prayer alive.

"It's a matter of free speech," Tsutsui said. "We do encourage members, at their own will and desire, to go ahead and engage in prayer."

He said prayers could be held in the Senate in the future because the chamber's rules are silent on the issue following last week's vote.

The brief prayer asked God to bless senators' choices and sought guidance to do right for the people they represent, said participant Sen. Pohai Ryan, a Democrat.

"Government and faith should be separate. But just because I voted against it doesn't mean I'm not a spiritual person," Ryan said.

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The Associated Press reports:

Pope Benedict XVI says public officials today would do well to model themselves on Joan of Arc, the French saint who was tried for heresy and burned at the stake for her convictions.

Benedict highlighted the life of the 15th century mystic in his Wednesday audience, which over the past several months he has used to highlight important women in the church's history.

Joan of Arc led the French to several victories over the English during the Hundred Years War. She was tried for heresy and witchcraft and burned at the stake in 1431. Her conviction was later annulled and she was canonized in 1920.

Benedict says: "Hers is a beautiful example of holiness for lay people working in public life, particularly during the most difficult situations."

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A leader of the Southern Baptist Convention has withdrawn from a coalition that supports the rights of Muslims to build mosques in their communities.

Richard Land, the head of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said he heard from many Southern Baptists who felt the work of the Interfaith Coalition on Mosques crossed the line from defending religious freedom to promoting Islam.

"I don't agree with that perception but it's widespread and I have to respect it," he told The Associated Press.

The Coalition was formed last year as an initiative of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group that fights discrimination. Its first action was to file a friend of the court brief opposing a lawsuit that sought to stop a planned mosque in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville.

"My constituents, many felt, 'Yes. We certainly believe in religious freedom. People ought to have a place of worship. But it's a bridge too far not only to advocate for that, but to file suit,'" he said.

Saud Anwar is the founder and co-chair of the American Muslim Peace Initiative and a member of the coalition. He said he was saddened and disappointed by Land's action, which he believes undermines Land's professions of support for religious liberty for all.

"The Southern Baptist community is one of the finest examples of faith in action that I know of," Anwar said. "You are setting an example by your action."

Land said he was surprised by the opposition.

"I do think it's important to note that people were not calling me and saying Muslims don't have a right to have mosques," he said.

Land opposes building a Muslim community center with a mosque near New York City's Ground Zero, but he qualified that opposition: "That's not a religious liberties issue. That is a good manners issue."

Asked about statements from some evangelical Christians opposed to the Murfreesboro mosque that Islam is not a legitimate religion, Land said neither the government nor society should decide which religions are "kosher" and which are not.

"That's not religious liberty; that's toleration," he said.

Land said he will continue to work for religious freedom and feels he can do it just as well from outside the coalition as from inside it.

"I promise you, we're not going to back up in our defense of religious freedom," he said.

The other prominent evangelical Christian member of the coalition, the Rev. Joel Hunter of Orlando-area megachurch Northland, a Church Distributed, said he had heard "surprisingly little" opposition to his participation.

"Most conservative evangelicals I talk to in my own congregation are really clear on First Amendment rights, that every religion has a right to free expression," he said.

He added that, as a pastor, he is in a different position than Land, whose potential constituency includes all Southern Baptists. With almost 16.2 million members, the Nashville-based SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.

Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman released a statement on Land's withdrawal writing, "We respect Richard Land. We respect his decision. We wish it were otherwise."

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Categories: Christianity, Interfaith, Islam, People, Politics
        

Associated Press correspondent Nicole Winfield reports:

Pope Benedict XVI told priests over the weekend to do a better job counseling would-be spouses to ensure their marriages last and said no one has an absolute right to a wedding.

Benedict made the comments Saturday in his annual speech to the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal that decides marriage annulments. An annulment is the process by which the church effectively declares that a marriage never took place.

Benedict acknowledged that the problems that would allow for a marriage to be annulled cannot always be identified beforehand. But he said better pre-marriage counseling, which the Catholic Church requires of the faithful, could help avoid a "vicious circle" of invalid marriages.

He said the right to a church wedding requires that the bride and groom intend to celebrate and live the marriage truthfully and authentically.

"No one can make a claim to the right to a nuptial ceremony," he said.

Benedict has used his annual speech to the Rota to impress on its members the indissolubility of marriage and that they should avoid the temptation of granting annulments on a whim. Last year, he urged the tribunal to work harder to encourage couples to stay together and not confuse "pastoral charity" with the need to uphold church law.

On Saturday, Benedict said priests had an important pastoral job to discern whether would-be spouses are prepared and able to enter into a valid marriage.

"The church and society at large place too much importance on the good of marriage and the family founded on it to not make a profound commitment to it pastorally," Benedict said.

The Vatican's concern about marriage annulments is largely directed at the United States, which in 2006 had more annulment cases launched than the rest of the world combined.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Catholicism, Faith Practices, International, People, Sexuality
        

The Associated Press reports:

The Air Force Academy superintendent's choice of speaker for a prayer luncheon in February has come under fire from a frequent foe of religious practices at the school.

Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein says the choice of Marine 1st Lt. Clebe McClary shows superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould is tilted toward evangelical Christianity and tolerates an environment where proselytizing is accepted.

McClary is a wounded Vietnam veteran who says he's in the "Lord's Army" and that the Marine initials USMC stand for "U.S. Marine for Christ." The school defends Gould's decision saying the luncheon is optional and that McClary is part of a broad spectrum of religious views.

Weinstein is calling for Gould's ouster over the choice.

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Associated Press writers Patrick Walters and Maryclaire Dale report:

A Pennsylvania abortion doctor who catered to minorities, immigrants and poor women was charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said. State regulators ignored complaints about him and failed to visit or inspect his clinic since 1993, but no charges were warranted against them, District Attorney Seth Williams said.

Gosnell "induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord," Williams said.

Williams said patients were subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell's Women's Medical Society.

Authorities went to investigate drug-related complaints at the clinic last year and stumbled on what Williams called a "house of horrors."

"There were bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses were scattered throughout the building," Williams said. "There were jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical purpose."

The clinic was shut down and Gosnell's medical license was suspended after the raid.

Workers, some of whom were also charged with murder, were untrained and unlicensed, including a high-school student who performed anesthesia with potentially lethal narcotics, Williams said.

Gosnell and nine other employees are in custody, authorities said.

Gosnell has been named in at least 10 malpractice suits, including one over the death of a woman who died of sepsis and a perforated uterus.

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Associated Press writer Jay Reeves reports:

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley told a church crowd just moments into his new administration that those who have not accepted Jesus as their savior are not his brothers and sisters, shocking some critics who questioned Tuesday whether he can be fair to non-Christians.

"Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother," Bentley said Monday, his inauguration day, according to The Birmingham News.

The Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday called Bentley's remarks shocking.

"His comments are not only offensive, but also raise serious questions as to whether non-Christians can expect to receive equal treatment during his tenure as governor," said Bill Nigut, the ADL's regional director.

Speaking at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church after the official inaugural ceremony, Bentley told the crowd that he considered anyone who believed in Jesus to be his brothers and sisters regardless of color, but anyone who isn't a Christian doesn't have that same relationship to him.

"If the Holy Spirit lives in you that makes you my brothers and sisters. Anyone who has not accepted Jesus, I want to be your brothers and sisters, too," Bentley said.

After his speech, Bentley said he did not mean to insult anyone.

Responding to questions about it, Bentley's office released a statement Tuesday saying he believes "he is the governor of all of Alabama."

"The governor clearly stated that he will be the governor of all Alabamians -- Democrat, Republican and Independent, young, old, black and white, rich and poor. As stated in his (inaugural) address, Gov. Bentley believes his job is to make everyone's lives better," the statement said.

Ashfaq Taufique, president of the Birmingham Islamic Society, told The Birmingham News he wasn't sure how Bentley's remarks were intended.

"Does it mean that those who according to him are not saved are less important than those who are saved?" Taufique said. "Does he want those of us who do not belong to the Christian faith to adopt his faith? That should be toned down. That's not what we need. If he means that, I hope he changes it. We don't want evangelical politicians. They can be whatever in their private life."

The official with the Anti-Defamation League, which fights discrimination against Jewish people, said it sounded like Bentley was using the office of governor to advocate for Christian conversion.

"If he does so, he is dancing dangerously close to a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which forbids government from promoting the establishment of any religion," Nigut said.

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The Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of a Maryland pastor and others seeking to overturn the District of Columbia's same-sex marriage law.

Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, has led the lawsuit against the district's elections board for rejecting a ballot measure defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman on the District of Columbia ballot.

The Supreme Court turned away the appeal on Tuesday without comment. Washington began recognizing sane-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions in 2009, and began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples last year.

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Associated Press correspondent Nicole Winfield reports:

Pope Benedict XVI has signed off on the miracle needed to beatify Pope John Paul II and set May 1 as the date to honor one of the most beloved popes of all times as a model of saintliness for the church.

Benedict said in a decree Friday that a French nun's recovery from Parkinson's disease was miraculous, the last step needed for beatification. A second miracle is needed for the Polish-born John Paul to be made a saint.

The May 1 ceremony, which Benedict himself will celebrate, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Rome — a major morale boost for a church reeling from a wave of violence against Christians and fallout from the clerical sex abuse scandal.

"This is a huge and important cause of joy," Warsaw Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz told reporters at his residence in the Polish capital.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul's longtime secretary and friend, expressed "huge thanks" to Benedict for the decree. "We are happy today," he said.

Benedict put John Paul on the fast track to possible sainthood just weeks after he died in 2005, responding to the chants of "Santo Subito!" or "Sainthood immediately!" that erupted during his funeral.

Benedict waived the typical five-year waiting period before the process could begin, but he insisted that the investigation into John Paul's life be thorough so as to not leave any doubts about his virtues.

John Paul's beatification will nevertheless be the fastest on record, coming just over six years after his death and beating out Mother Teresa's then-record beatification in 2003 by a few days.

The last remaining hurdle in John Paul's case concerned the approval by Vatican-appointed panels of doctors and theologians, cardinals and bishops that the cure of French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, was a miracle due to the intercession of the late pope.

The nun has said she felt reborn when she woke up two months after John Paul died, cured of the disease that had made walking, writing and driving a car nearly impossible. She and her fellow sisters of the Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Maternity Wards had prayed to John Paul, who also suffered from Parkinson's.

On Friday, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre said John Paul was and continues to be an inspiration to her because of his defense of the unborn and because they both had Parkinson's.

John Paul "hasn't left me. He won't leave me until the end of my life," she told French Catholic TV station KTO and Italy's state-run RAI television.

Wearing a white habit and wire-rimmed glasses, she appeared in good health and showed no signs of tremors or slurred speech which are common symptoms of Parkinson's.

"John Paul II did everything he could for life, to defend life," she said. "He was very close to the smallest and weakest. How many times did we see him approach a handicapped person, a sick person?"

Last year, there were some questions about whether the nun's original diagnosis was correct. But in a statement Friday, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints said Vatican-appointed doctors had "scrupulously" studied the case and determined that her cure had no scientific explanation.

Once he is beatified, John Paul will be given the title "blessed" and can be publicly venerated. Many people, especially in Poland, already venerate him privately, but the ceremony will make it official.

Born in Wadowice, Poland, in 1920, Karol Wojtyla was the youngest pope in 125 years and the first non-Italian in 455 years when he was elected pope in 1978.

He brought a new vitality to the Vatican, and quickly became the most accessible modern pope, sitting down for meals with factory workers, skiing and wading into crowds to embrace the faithful.

His Polish roots nourished a doctrinal conservatism — opposition to contraception, euthanasia, abortion and women priests — that rankled liberal Catholics in the United States and Western Europe.

But his common touch also made him a crowd-pleasing superstar whose 26-year papacy carried the Roman Catholic Church into Christianity's third millennium and emboldened eastern Europeans to bring down the communist system.

He survived an assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square in 1981 — and then forgave the Turk who had shot him.

He was the most traveled pope ever, visiting more than 120 nations during the third-longest papacy and covering distance equal to nearly 1 1/2 trips to the moon.

After suffering for years from the effects of Parkinson's disease, he died in his Vatican apartment on April 2, 2005, at the age of 84.

While adored by Catholics, John Paul did not escape scrutiny about the clerical abuse scandal which came to light in the final years of his papacy. Many of the thousands of sexual abuse cases that emerged in Europe and beyond last year concerned crimes or cover-ups that occurred under his watch.

Vatican officials have said there was nothing in John Paul's record that called into question his path to beatification.

Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus, one of the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organizations, noted that John Paul's beatification process is not a "score card on his administration of the Holy See."

Rather, he said, it's a statement about his personal sanctity since beatification is way of holding up Catholics as models for the faithful.

"Pope John Paul's life is precisely such a model because it was lived beautifully and with love, respect and forgiveness for all," Anderson told the AP in an e-mail. "We saw this in the way he reached out to the poor, the neglected, those of other faiths, even the man who shot him. He did all of this despite being so personally affected by events of the bloodiest century in history."

Dziwisz, John Paul's most trusted friend who seemed at times impatient with the slow pace of the process, gave thanks on Friday from Krakow, where he is archbishop.

"We are happy that this process came to an end, that what people asked for — "Santo Subito" — was fulfilled," Dziwisz said. "I express great joy on behalf of the entire diocese of Krakow — and I think I am also authorized to express this on behalf of all of Poland."

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Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien has entered into a friendly wager with the Catholic bishop of Pittsburgh over Saturday’s Ravens-Steelers game.

If the Ravens win, Bishop David A. Zubik of Pittsburgh will make a donation to Our Daily Bread, the Catholic Charities program that serves more than 250,000 hot meals in Baltimore each year.

If the Steelers win, O’Brien will make a donation to the Catholic charity of Zubik’s choice.

“I am looking forward to delivering Bishop Zupik’s check to Our Daily Bread after the Ravens beat the Steelers,” Archbishop O’Brien taunted Thursday. “I have great faith that Coach Harbaugh, a product of Catholic schools, will have his team well-prepared for the game and the Ravens will move one step closer to the Super Bowl!”

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Sarah Palin is drawing condemnation from some Jewish leaders for her use of the phrase “blood libel” to describe criticism leveled against her following the Arizona shooting attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee used the phrase Wednesday morning in her most expansive comments yet on the attack that left six dead and 14 more, including Giffords, wounded.

In the aftermath of the shootings, Palin’s opponents revived criticism of the violent imagery she used during the 2010 congressional campaign, when she urged supporters, “Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD!” and posted a map of the United States with crosshairs over Democratic congressional districts, including Giffords’.

In a video released Wednesday, Palin deplored “the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event.”

"Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn,” she said.

“Blood libel” most commonly refers to the claim, dating to Medieval Europe, that Jews used the blood of Christians in their rituals.

“Unless someone has been accusing Ms. Palin of killing Christian babies and making matzoh from their blood, her use of the term is totally out-of-line,” said Simon Greer, president of Jewish Funds for Justice.

“The term ‘blood libel’ is not a synonym for ‘false accusation,’ " Greer said. "It refers to a specific falsehood perpetuated by Christians about Jews for centuries, a falsehood that motivated a good deal of anti-Jewish violence and discrimination ...

“The fact that Rep. Giffords is Jewish and Ms. Palin is Christian makes the accusation even more grotesque.”

From Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League:

“It was inappropriate at the outset to blame Sarah Palin and others for causing this tragedy or for being an accessory to murder. Palin has every right to defend herself against these kinds of attacks, and we agree with her that the best tradition in America is one of finding common ground despite our differences.

“Still, we wish that Palin had not invoked the phrase ‘blood-libel’ in reference to the actions of journalists and pundits in placing blame for the shooting in Tucson on others. While the term ‘blood-libel’ has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused, we wish that Palin had used another phrase, instead of one so fraught with pain in Jewish history.”

And from David A. Harris, president and CEO of the Naitonal Jewish Democratic Council:

“Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow engaging in a ‘blood libel’ against her and others. This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries — and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today.

“Perhaps Sarah Palin honestly does not know what a blood libel is, or does not know of their horrific history; that is perhaps the most charitable explanation we can arrive at in explaining her rhetoric today.”

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The Associated Press reports:

House leaders have announced plans for a bipartisan congressional prayer service on Wednesday to mark the weekend shooting that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona gravely wounded and six others dead.

Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi say in a letter to lawmakers it is important to gather together and pray for the health of Giffords, those who died in the attack and those who were wounded.

Giffords was shot in the head on Saturday when a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol while she greeted constituents outside a Tucson, Ariz., grocery store.

Among the dead are an aide to Giffords, a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl.

A 22-year-old man, Jared Loughner, faces federal charges in the episode, with state charges also expected to be filed.

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Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien will celebrate Mass at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, the first anniversary of the earthquake that leveled Haiti.

O'Brien is inviting Catholics and others in the Archdiocese to "stand in prayerful solidarity" with the people of Haiti.

The archdiocese, which has a long-established Haiti Outreach Project, raised more than $730,000 last year for earthquake relief efforts.

Through a sister relationship with the Catholic Diocese of Gonaives, the archdiocese sponsors three schools, including the Cardinal William H. Keeler Trade School, and feeds 15,000 children each day. Eighteen parishes in the archdiocese have partnerships with parishes in Haiti, funding feeding programs and improving teacher salaries in schools.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called on Catholics to participate in a novena — nine days of prayer — for the people of Haiti beginning on Wednesday. More information is availablet at the conference website.

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A priest who served as vicar of a Harford County church from 2001 to 2007 has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of child sexual abuse, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland said Wednesday.

The church has initiated the process of barring the Rev. Donald Belcher from exercising any priestly functions, the diocese said. The church has opened an investigation to determine whether the allegations are true and to determine whether pastoral care is needed for victims.

Belcher, 82, served as vicar of the Church of the Holy Cross in Street from 2001 to 2007, according to the diocese. He was ordained in Montana in 1997 and served parishes there before coming to Maryland.

Belcher currently lives in Montana, according to the diocese. He could not be reached for comment; telephone numbers listed in his name in Maryland and Montana had been disconnected.

"The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland takes very seriously our church's commitment to maintaining a safe environment for all who come to us seeking pastoral care and God's sacraments," the Rev. Canon Scott Slater said in a statement. "We are saddened and dismayed even when allegations are first made. So we pray for all concerned and will continue to work diligently to make sure we have safe churches for all who come seeking God."

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Associated Press correspondent Alison Mutler reports

MOGOSOIA, Romania – Solace for world leaders trying to enforce painful austerity measures: At least you're not running Romania.

Angry witches are using cat excrement and dead dogs to cast spells on the president and government who are forcing them to pay taxes. Also in the eye of the taxman are fortune tellers, who should have seen it coming.

And President Traian Basescu isn't laughing it off. In a country where superstition is mainstream, the president and his aides wear purple on Thursdays, allegedly to ward off evil spirits.

Witches from Romania's eastern and western regions will descend to the southern plains and the Danube River Thursday to threaten the government with spells and spirits. Mauve has a high vibration, it makes the wearer superior and wards off evil attacks, according to the esoteric group Violet Flame — which practices on Thursdays.

A dozen witches will head to the Danube to put a hex on the government and hurl mandrake into the river "so evil will befall them," said a witch named Alisia. She identified herself with one name, as is customary among witches.

"This law is foolish. What is there to tax, when we hardly earn anything?" she said by telephone on Wednesday. "The lawmakers don't look at themselves, at how much they make, their tricks; they steal and they come to us asking us to put spells on their enemies."

The tax on witches went into effect Saturday as part of the government's drive to crack down on tax evasion in a country that is in recession. Like any self-employed person, they will pay 16 percent income tax and make contributions to health and pension programs.

And it's not only witches: Astrologers, embalmers, valets and driving instructors are now considered by law to be working real jobs, making it harder for them to avoid income tax. Some argue the law will be hard to enforce, as the payments are made in cash and relatively small at 20 to 30 lei ($7-$10) per consultation.

Magic in Romania is no laughing matter. Centuries-old superstitions are rife and are tolerated even by the Orthodox Church, to which more than four-fifths of Romanians belong.

In 2009, the loser in Romania's presidential race, Mircea Geoana, and his wife claimed he was subjected to attacks of negative energy by Basescu's aides during a crucial debate in which he performed poorly.

Geoana aide Viorel Hrebenciuc alleged there was a "violet flame" conspiracy during the campaign. He said Basescu and others aides dressed in purple on Thursdays to increase his chance of victory. They continue to be seen wear purple clothing on important days. Before that, late Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena had their own personal witch.

Queen witch Bratara Buzea, 63, who was imprisoned in 1977 for witchcraft under Ceausescu's repressive communist regime, is furious about the new law.

Sitting cross-legged in her villa in the lake resort of Mogosoaia, just north of Bucharest, she said Wednesday she planned to cast a spell using a particularly effective concoction of cat excrement, a dead dog and a chorus of witches.

"We do harm to those who harm us," she said. "They want to take the country out of this crisis using us? They should get us out of the crisis because they brought us into it."

`My curses always work!" she cackled in a smoky voice. She sat next to her wood-burning stove, surrounded by potions, charms, holy water and ceramic pots

Not every witch is threatening fire and brimstone.

"This law is very good," said Mihaela Minca. "It means that our magic gifts are recognized and I can open my own practice."

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In spite of the slow economic recovery, and a national downturn in charitable giving, the Archdiocese of Baltimore raised a record amount for ministries and programs in 2010, the archdiocese said Tuesday.

More than 40,000 people donated more than $8.7 million to the Archbishop's Annual Appeal, up more than 67 percent since 2006.

“Ironically, the Appeal has seen its greatest growth since the downturn in the economy -- a clear indication not only of the efforts of the Archbishop and pastors and pastoral life directors who promoted the appeal as a way of helping people in need, but also the extraordinary generosity of Catholics and others in the Archdiocese of Baltimore,” said Patrick Madden, the archdiocesan director of development.

According to the archdiocese, 46 percent of the money raised in 2010 was returned to parishes to fund church operations and programs, 23 percent went to Catholic Charities, and 31 percent is funding ministries and outreach programs such as AIDS ministry, prison ministry and the Interfaith Housing Alliance in Western Maryland.

“The reach of the Appeal is enormous," Madden said. "In fact, many of the programs the Appeal supports could not continue to operate without funding from the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal."

The appeal also provided more than $1 million for tuition assistance and other aid to Catholic schools, the archdiocese said.

The archdiocese cited a 2009 report by The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University showed charitable giving in the United States down by 3.6 percent.

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Associated Press correspondent Maggie Michael reports:

CAIRO – In the weeks before the New Year's Day suicide bombing of an Egyptian church, al-Qaida-linked websites carried a how-to manual on "destroying the cross," complete with videos on how to build a bomb and the locations of churches to target — including the one that was attacked.

They may have found a receptive audience in Alexandria, where increasingly radicalized Islamic hard-liners have been holding weekly anti-Christian demonstrations, filled with venomous slogans against the minority community.

The blast, which struck Saturday as worshippers were leaving midnight Mass at the Mediterranean city's Saints Church, killed 21 people.

President Hosni Mubarak has accused foreign groups of being behind the attack, which has sparked a wave of angry protests by Christians in Egypt.

But on the ground, investigators are searching in a different direction — scrutinizing homegrown hard-liners, known as Salafis, and the possibility they were inspired by al-Qaida.

Only two or three days before Saturday's bombing, police arrested several Salafis spreading fliers in Alexandria calling for violence against Christians, a security official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

According to authorities, the strong belief among investigators is that local extremists who knew the area and the nature of their target were behind the blast. The Egyptian weekly Al-Youm Al-Saba said police were examining photos of the Salafis' weekly protests for suspects.

In the weeks before the attack, al-Qaida militants on the Web spewing calls for "jihad," or holy war, on Egypt's Christians laid out everything anyone would need to carry out a bombing.

One widely circulated posting includes a so-called "Jihadi Encyclopedia for the Destruction of the Cross," with a series of 10 videos describing how to build a bomb.

In the videos, an unidentified militant in a white lab coat and a black mask is shown listing the ingredients to make TNT and mixing up the chemicals in beakers.

The site lists Coptic Christian churches in Egypt, along with phone numbers and addresses — including Alexandria's Saints Church. "Blow up the churches while they are celebrating Christmas or any other time when the churches are packed," it says.

Security officials say they were aware of the online "how-to manual" before the church bombing and are examining any links between it and the material posted on Islamic websites.

One main Salafi group, the Salafi Movement in Alexandria, issued a statement condemning the bombing, saying its preachings "reject such practices."

The ultra-conservative Salafi ideology has been gaining followers throughout Egypt in recent years, preaching a return to the ways of early Muslims. It calls for strict segregation of the sexes and rejection of any religious "innovations," such as permitting boys and girls to attend school together or collecting interest on bank loans.

The movement has spread across class lines, among wealthy businessmen, the middle class and urban poor. Men grow long beards and shave off mustaches, to imitate the Prophet Muhammad. Women wear the black niqab robes and veil, which envelop the entire body and face, showing only the eyes.

In many ways, it resembles the doctrine of al-Qaida, with one major difference — while it advocates jihad against "foreign occupiers" in Iraq or Afghanistan, it rejects holy war inside Egypt, at least for now.

But many observers warn that some members are growing more radicalized and have begun to advocate jihad within the country, providing fertile ground for al-Qaida influence.

They cite the group's unprecedentedly fierce campaign against Egypt's Coptic Christian Church.

It was sparked by the case of two Christian women who reportedly converted to Islam to get divorces from their husbands, since the church bans divorce. The Salafis accuse church officials of forcing the women to renounce Islam and return to Christianity, a claim the church denies.

At weekly protests attended by hundreds outside mosques in Alexandria and Cairo, Salafis have accused the church of holding the women against their will. Vowing vengeance and denouncing Coptic Pope Shenouda III as an "infidel," the protesters accused Copts of trying to "Christianize" Egypt's Muslims and stockpiling weapons in churches and monasteries.

In September, one Salafi cleric, Ahmed Farid, wept as he told worshippers at an Alexandria mosque that Muslims were being "humiliated" by Christians, chiding them for "giving up jihad."

At a Salafi protest in Cairo in October, some raised the flag of al-Qaida in Iraq — a black banner emblazoned with the phrase "there is no god but God and Muhammad is God's prophet."

Two days later, al-Qaida in Iraq attacked a church in Baghdad in a siege that left 68 Christians dead, the worst attack ever against Iraq's Christian minority. The group issued a statement vowing a campaign against Christians unless the two women in Egypt were freed, and several other attacks on the community in Baghdad have followed.

Since then, calls on al-Qaida-linked websites for attacks on Egypt's Christians have grown to a fever pitch.

A statement posted with the videos decries the failure of Muslims to act to free the two women.

"Will we keep on dreaming and dreaming, or is it time to wake up to the echoing boom and the flying torn limbs that will please the faithful and scare the infidels?" the statement reads. "Of course, it is better to act as a group, but that must not be an impediment between you and action. ... Move forward on your own."

The threats raise the question of why security officials did not do more to protect churches. On New Year's, Saints Church had only three or four policemen outside and cars had easy access to the street.

Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's nearly 80 million people, accuse the government of ignoring threats against them and doing nothing about growing anti-Christian sentiment.

Experts say the government has tacitly allowed the growth of Salafism because it is not anti-government and does not get involved in Egypt's politics, as opposed to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which is the regime's main political rival.

"The Egyptian regime is harvesting the sour fruits for letting this extremist thought to grow and recruit thousands of young Egyptians," said Rifaat Sayyed Ahmed, an expert on Islamic groups.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Associated Press correspondents Asif Shahzad and Nahal Toosi report:

ISLAMABAD – The governor of Pakistan's most dominant province was shot and killed Tuesday by a bodyguard who authorities said was angry about his opposition to blasphemy laws carrying the death sentence for insulting the Muslim faith.

Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, regarded as a moderate voice in a country increasingly beset by zealotry, was a close ally of U.S.-backed President Asif Ali Zardari. He is the highest-profile Pakistani political figure to be assassinated since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto three years ago, and his death underscores the growing danger in this country to those who dare challenge the demands of Islamist extremists.

Taseer was riddled by gunshots while walking to his car after an afternoon meal at Kohsar Market, a shopping center in Islamabad popular with Westerners and wealthy Pakistanis.

Initial reports indicated the suspected gunman, a police commando guarding Taseer, unloaded up to 26 rounds from a Kalashnikov automatic rifle. The gunman could have fired that number of rounds in a matter of seconds.

Other guards then forced the police commando to the ground, according to police and hospital officials.

"It was one shot first and then a burst," said R.A. Khan, a witness who was drinking coffee at the time. "I rushed and saw policemen over another police commando, who was lying on the road with his face down."

An intelligence official interrogating the suspect said the commando had been planning the assassination since learning three days ago that he would be deployed with the governor. Police were trying to determine how he was assigned to Taseer's security detail Tuesday and whether he'd had any help.

Taseer's admirers called the governor a profile in courage in a fight for the soul of Pakistan, which in recent years has increasingly swung away from South Asia's Sufi-influenced moderation to the more fundamentalist approaches to Islam found in some areas of the Middle East.

"Taseer showed himself to be a rare politician, willing to risk his life in espousing an unambiguous position against discrimination and abuse," said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.

"He was the most courageous voice after Benazir Bhutto on the rights of women and religious minorities," said Farahnaz Ispahani, a fellow leading member of the Pakistan People's Party, who wept as she spoke. "God, we will miss him."

The U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, called Taseer "a champion of tolerance."

The death also is a blow to Zardari, Bhutto's widower whose ruling party is struggling to retain power after the defection of a key ally. The country's leading opposition party on Tuesday gave the government a three-day deadline to accept a list of demands to avoid collapse.

The renewed political turmoil bodes ill for military action against Muslim extremists that the U.S. believes is key to success in neighboring Afghanistan, analysts say. Pakistan's powerful army could use the lack of political consensus to avoid operations that clash with its perceived strategic interests.

Taseer, a 66-year-old businessman and media tycoon known for wearing sunglasses in public, took on the ceremonial role of Punjab governor in 2008.

Punjab is Pakistan's most populous province and is home to many of the country's wealthiest citizens. A number of militant movements thrive there, though not to the extent of the Taliban in the northwest.

Taseer publicly vented his opposition — even using Twitter — to Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws that effectively order death for anyone convicted of insulting Islam. Although courts typically overturn convictions and no executions have been carried out, rights activists say the laws are used to settle rivalries and persecute religious minorities.

People accused of blasphemy are often killed by extremists or spend significant amounts of time behind bars. In some cases, the charges border on the ridiculous: A man was recently held because he threw away a business card of someone whose first name is Muhammad.

The laws came under renewed international scrutiny late last year when a 45-year-old Christian woman, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Taseer called for granting Bibi a pardon, a stance that earned him death threats from Islamists.

"I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I'm the last man standing," Taseer tweeted on Dec. 31.

The guards assigned to his security detail Tuesday were provided by the Punjab province government, which is headed by the rival Pakistan Muslim League-N party, according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The guards were apparently one of two squads protecting Taseer, who has a permanent group at all times but gets an additional, rotating squad depending on the district he is visiting.

Officials identified the suspect as Mumtaz Qadri, a 26-year-old from Rawalpindi. They said Qadri became a police constable in 2003 and transferred to an elite squad after commando training in 2008.

Jehangir Khan, a witness who saw the suspect after he was detained by the police, told The Associated Press that the man was boasting about the act, saying, "Hey, you all, come and see, I have killed a blasphemer. You come and join me. Chant Allahu Akbar (God is great)!"

The intelligence official said the commando said he was proud to have killed a blasphemer. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media on the record.

Photos of Qadri show a bearded young man whose forehead bore bruises typical for Muslims who routinely rest their heads on the ground to pray.

His family members — including five brothers — were immediately detained for questioning, said police official Bisharat Chaudhry.

A childhood friend, Haseeb Ahmad, told AP that Qadri's family was religious and that he was an active member of an Islamic association called the Shahab-e-Islam Pakistan — or the Star of Islam in Pakistan, a street level group that organized a recent conference on the issue of blasphemy.

"Mumtaz recited verses in the praise of Prophet Muhammad," Ahmad said. "He also wept while discussing the blasphemy issue."

People's Party member Samiullah Khan said that he was surprised when he saw the attacker's appearance: "Look at his face, his beard. We are surprised how a man with such a religious appearance managed to be part of the squad meant for such a sensitive job."

Pakistani political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais said the assassination signals the radical mindset that has crept into Pakistan's security forces. Punjab in particular is a major base and recruiting ground for Pakistan's military and security establishment.

Islamists also have significant political power, and their political parties have brought tremendous pressure on the ruling People's Party, a largely secular grouping. Facing protests by Islamists, for instance, the People's Party recently insisted it would not touch the blasphemy laws.

"This fear and the insecure environment will make political leaders in the mainstream parties extremely cautious to offend the religious sensibilities of the radical fringe, and that is not a good sign for democratic progress and liberal politics in Pakistan," Rais said.

People's Party supporters wept and beat their heads at the hospital where Taseer's body was taken. Outside his residence in the eastern city of Lahore, hundreds of supporters chanted slogans on his behalf, while in the central city of Multan dozens burned tires and demanded the attackers be punished.

"This is a war," Taseer said in a recent sessions with reporters broadcast Tuesday by Pakistan's Geo TV. "Whether we receive threats or not, it does not make any difference to us. I am a Muslim. ... God willing, life or death for a Muslim, we are not afraid of that. Whatever threats they give to us."

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed, Sebastian Abbot and B.K. Bangash contributed to this report.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (55)
        

The Associated Press reports:

Pope Benedict XVI says an apparent suicide bombing outside a Mass in Egypt that left 21 worshippers dead "offends God and all of humanity."

The pope offered condolences and expressed his grief for the victims and their families during his traditional Sunday Angelus prayer.

He compared the attack to bombs placed near churches in Iraq, saying both are meant to intimidate Christians and prevent them from attending services. Benedict has repeatedly denounced the violent campaign against Christians in Iraq blamed on al-Qaida militants.

He also remembered the "numerous" pastoral workers killed in 2010.

The pope urged Christians Saturday in his New Year's appeal to remain strong in the face of intolerance and violence.

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