c. 1996 Religion News Service

East Timorese bishop permitted to attend Nobel ceremony

(RNS) Indonesian officials have cleared the way for East Timorese Bishop Carlos Belo to travel to Norway, where he will receive his Nobel Peace Prize next week.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said Tuesday (Dec. 3) that the government would not raise objections to Belo’s travels to Oslo for the ceremony, the Reuter news agency reported. The bishop also will visit Pope John Paul II at the Vatican and meet German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Bonn.

Belo was jointly awarded the peace prize with self-exiled East Timorese resistance leader Jose Ramos-Horta.

In November, Alatas warned Belo against meddling in politics after a controversy arose over an interview in which the bishop reportedly said the East Timorese were treated like”scabby dogs”and”slaves”by Indonesian troops.

The sometimes outspoken Belo later denied using the word”scabby”in the interview with Der Spiegel magazine. The interviewer has stood by his story.

East Timorese citizens gathered in the thousands to show their support for the bishop when he returned to the territory after facing demonstrations against his Der Spiegel comments during a visit to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in November.

Indonesia has long faced opposition to its rule in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, which it invaded in 1975 and unilaterally annexed the next year. The United Nations has not recognized Jakarta’s declaration of East Timor as its 27th province.

Parents of abortion opponent seek investigation of his death

(RNS) The parents of abortion opponent John C. Salvi III, who was convicted of murdering two abortion clinic workers, have asked for independent federal and state investigations into his death at a Massachusetts prison.

Salvi, 24, was found dead Friday (Nov. 29) in his prison cell with a plastic trash bag covering his head, the Associated Press reported. His death was ruled an apparent suicide.

But Salvi’s family claims that prison officials lied when they said they had no warnings that Salvi was suicidal.”He was nonfunctional in society and he was nonfunctional in prison,”Salvi’s mother, Ann Marie Salvi, said Monday (Dec. 2).

Her son was sentenced in March to two consecutive life terms for killing two women in daytime shootings at two abortion clinics in Brookline, Mass. The jury rejected claims that he was insane.

Department of Correction officials said Salvi, who was sent to a maximum security prison in Walpole, Mass., showed no signs he required psychiatric help. Corrections spokesman Tony Carnevale said Salvi’s mother had told officials that her son should be in a mental health facility, but never gave specific”evidence that he might harm himself or act inappropriately.” J.W. Carney Jr., Salvi’s trial attorney, questioned whether Salvi’s death was a suicide. Salvi was found with his hands and feet tied and his mouth gagged, Carney said.

Carnevale said the department stands behind the suicide ruling and added that Salvi’s method was”not unheard of.” In another matter related to abortion clinic protests, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday (Dec. 2) rejected a challenge to the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). Marilyn R. Hatch had appealed to the court after being convicted of blocking access to a clinic in Milwaukee in 1994.

Diocese employee pleads guilty to larceny, avoids prison

(RNS) An employee of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has admitted to stealing more than $1 million in a plea deal that will allow her to avoid prison time.

Vincenza Bologna, 53, former pension office manager of the diocese, agreed to a plea bargain that will give her five years’ probation, the Associated Press reported.

Frank DeRosa, diocesan spokesman, said Bishop Thomas V. Daily had expressed a desire”that Mrs. Bologna not be sentenced to time in prison.” District Attorney Charles J. Hynes agreed because it was Bologna’s first offense.”The hope is that this entire experience will help rehabilitate her,”DeRosa said.

Hynes said Monday (Dec. 2) that Bologna pleaded guilty to second-degree larceny with the understanding that she would get no prison time at her sentencing, scheduled for Jan. 13.

Prosecutors said Bologna, who was an employee of the diocese for 32 years, had spent the money on cars, boats, her sons’ college education, and vacations to such places as Las Vegas.

Bologna, who could have been sentenced to five to 15 years in prison, agreed to pay back the church at least $239,724 and perform 1,000 hours of community service. The balance of the loss to the church was covered by insurance.

Archbishop of Seattle ill, hospitalized

(RNS) Seattle’s Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy was hospitalized Sunday (Dec. 1) after experiencing flu-like symptoms for a couple of weeks, said diocese spokesman Jim Britt.

Murphy, 64, is the spiritual leader of more than 350,000 Roman Catholics in western Washington state.

Although the exact nature of Murphy’s illness is not known, Britt said, the preliminary diagnosis is leukemia, a cancer of the blood. Test results are pending and Murphy is in guarded condition, he said.

Murphy became coadjutor archbishop of Seattle in 1987, after the Vatican removed and then restored the authority of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, who was disciplined for actions the Vatican considered too liberal. Murphy became archbishop in 1991 when Hunthausen retired.

Quote of the Day: Opera singer Jessye Norman

(RNS) Opera star Jessye Norman is producing a star-studded event Wednesday (Dec. 4) at Riverside Church in New York City to raise money for Balm in Gilead, a New York-based organization that works to mobilize black churches to fight against AIDS. In an interview Tuesday (Dec. 3) with USA Today, Norman said black churches need to overcome their discomfort with the gay and drug-using communities that are most affected by AIDS:”We haven’t addressed it properly. We’ve managed to make it a disease that you shouldn’t talk about. It’s so self-defeating. It’s hardly bearable to say. … Black churches are traditionally a place where people can address social and political issues. It’s the community center. The churches have to assume this responsibility again as we did in the 1960s with the civil rights movement. … We don’t have time for prejudices.”

MJP END RNS