c. 1996 Religion News Service
Doctors: Religious belief contributes to healing
(RNS) A national survey of U.S. family physicians found that 99 percent of those polled believe religious belief contributes to the healing of their patients.
An equally high percentage also believe spiritual or religious practices, such as personal prayer and meditation, can speed or help the medical treatment of those who are ill.
The results of the survey, taken by Yankelovich Partners of Norwalk, Conn., were released Monday (Dec. 16) during a continuing education course on spirituality and medicine at Harvard Medical School.”Through the ages physicians have witnessed recoveries they can’t attribute solely to medical procedures,”said Dr. Herbert Benson, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.”Now many physicians are beginning to hold that belief can have a profound influence on health and well-being and they see it as an integral part of their traditional treatment plan.” In the survey, 95 percent of the respondents said they had had patients who believed prayer or meditation had helped improve their medical condition. Sixty-eight percent said they had prayed or meditated while treating themselves for an illness.
When the doctors were asked, at a patient’s request, if they should join a patient in prayer that seeks spiritual assistance for medical treatment, 71 percent said yes, 26 percent said no, and 3 percent said they were not sure or did not know.
Asked if God or a higher power sometimes intervenes to improve a seriously ill person’s medical condition, 79 percent said yes and 21 percent said no.
In another finding, 44 percent of the doctors surveyed said they were taught relaxation or meditation techniques during their formal medical training, and 80 percent said such techniques should be a standard part of medical training.
The survey of 269 family physicians was conducted in October at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.
Former Vatican ambassadors accuse current envoy of partisan politicking
(RNS) Three former U.S. ambassadors to the Vatican are urging President Clinton to avoid partisan politics when he appoints someone to replace current envoy Raymond Flynn, who plans to resign.
In a sharply worded letter to Clinton, the three assert that Flynn has”clouded the integrity of the U.S. diplomatic mission”to the Holy See by advocating for Clinton administration domestic policies and becoming involved in international situations outside the Vatican.
The former ambassadors called on Clinton to”avoid the appearance that the post is a political toy”and”return the mission to its traditional role of bilateral, quiet, professional diplomacy.” The letter, which was obtained by the Washington Times, was written by Thomas Melady, who served at the Vatican from 1989 to 1993; Frank Shakespeare, who served from 1986 to 1989; and William Wilson, who was the first ambassador from 1984 to 1986 after President Ronald Reagan established full diplomatic ties with the Vatican.
Clinton appointed Flynn, the former mayor of Boston, as ambassador to the Vatican in 1993.
Flynn also was reprimanded by Secretary of State Warren Christopher for writing a letter to U.S. citizens about welfare reform in which he accused Congress of”waging a war on the poor.” Flynn did not respond to the Washington Times’ request for comments on the letter.
Mission-minded American who was released from North Korea found dead
(RNS) Evan C. Hunziker, the mission-minded American who was recently released from North Korea, was found dead Wednesday (Dec. 18) in an apparent suicide. His body was found in a Tacoma, Wash., motel room, the Associated Press reported.
Hunziker, who was 26, was freed just before Thanksgiving after being held three months in North Korea on spy charges. He denied he was a spy.
His body was found about 6:30 a.m. at the Olympus Motel, said police spokesman Jim Mattheis. He had been shot once. Suicide was suspected, but no note was found, police said.
Hunziker was detained in late August when he illegally entered communist North Korea from China. North Korean officials charged him with spying for capitalist rival South Korea.
Hunziker’s relatives said he discovered Christianity while serving a jail sentence in Alaska for drunk driving last year and went to Asia to spread the Gospel. His ex-wife and mother are South Korean and he spoke Korean.
Hunziker said he traveled to North Korea without a visa or other documents”out of curiosity and to preach the Gospel.” U.S. Rep. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., negotiated Hunziker’s release.”I think he is a peaceful human being who made a mistake,”Richardson said after Hunziker’s release.”He’s not a spy.”
Update: Death-row inmate supported by pope wins temporary review
(RNS) A death-row inmate in Virginia, whose execution had been scheduled for Wednesday (Dec. 18) and who had received support from Pope John Paul II, has won a temporary reprieve.
The pope and other death penalty opponents had called for clemency in the case of Joseph Roger O’Dell III, who has been convicted of murdering 44-year-old secretary Helen Schartner.
Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay Tuesday in the case of O’Dell, 55, pending a review of his formal appeal. The review is not likely to occur until January.
The pope’s protest marked the third time this year that the pontiff had sought to intercede in U.S. executions, said George Lingua, secretary of the Vatican Embassy in Washington. Since 1983, at least two other Vatican requests for mercy had been made.”When we can do anything to help save a human life even if he’s guilty, we are happy,”Lingua said Tuesday.
The pope made a personal appeal to Virginia Gov. George Allen to spare O’Dell’s life. Allen said Monday the pope’s request would have little effect on his eventual decision on whether to grant clemency.
In addition to the pope’s protest, Sister Helen Prejean, the Louisiana anti-death penalty activist who wrote”Dead Man Walking,”also called attention to O’Dell’s case.
O’Dell’s supporters claim that DNA tests three years after his conviction showed blood found on his shirt did not match that of Schartner. But prosecutor Albert Alberi claims that the DNA tests showed that blood on his coat did match the victim’s.
Religious leaders appeal to Clinton for clemency for 15 Puerto Ricans
(RNS) Religious leaders are appealing to President Clinton this week to release 15 Puerto Ricans they say are being held as political prisoners.
A Tuesday (Dec. 17) advertisement in The Washington Post signed by 34 U.S. and Puerto Rican religious officials asks the president to grant amnesty to the prisoners, who sought Puerto Rican independence.”As people of faith, we are not united about the status of Puerto Rico, nor about the means employed by these 15 women and men in their quest for an independent Puerto Rico,”the ad reads.”Given the long years in prison these men and women have already served, however _ years longer than time served by persons convicted of murder _ we are united in our compassion and our commitment to their release.” The prisoners are former members of the National Liberation Armed Forces, a guerrilla organization that gained prominence in the 1970s and 1980s for its use of violence in seeking Puerto Rican independence from the United States. The 15 were imprisoned for violent activities against U.S. military installations in Puerto Rico and corporate targets on the mainland. They were convicted of conspiracy charges in 1981.
Religious leaders who signed the ad include Bishop Richard O. Bass Sr., ecumenical officer of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal Church; the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; Bishop William Boyd Grove, ecumenical officer of the United Methodist Church; the Most Rev. Enrique Hernandez of the Catholic Diocese of Caguas, Puerto Rico; the Rev. Tyrone Pitts, general secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention; the Rev. Moises Rosa Ramos, executive secretary of the Evangelical Council of Churches, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico; and Bishop McKinley Young, president of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Council of Bishops.
A second ad, signed by Nobel laureates such as Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Rigoberta Menchu Tum, a goodwill ambassador of UNESCO, is scheduled to appear in The Washington Post on Friday. That same day, a Puerto Rican delegation plans to deliver 75,000 petitions to the White House. A vigil outside the White House also is planned on Friday.
Harry Kemelman, 88, author of Rabbi Small mysteries, dies
(RNS) Harry Kemelman, the author of the Rabbi Small mysteries, died Sunday (Dec. 15) in Marblehead, Mass. He was 88.
Kemelman died of renal failure, The Washington Post reported.
He wrote 12 popular mysteries featuring Rabbi David Small, a sleuth who also lead a congregation in Barnard’s Crossing, a small-town Jewish community.
Proving that the mysteries appealed not only to Jews, Kemelman liked to point out that some of his best-selling translations were those into Japanese and Finnish.
Born in Boston, the son of immigrant East European Jews, Kemelman taught English at Boston State College from 1963 until he became a full-time writer in 1970.
Quote of the Day: Craig Bird, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
(RNS) Craig Bird, public relations director at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, participated in Southern Baptist relief and medical work with orphans in the refugee camp in Goma, Zaire, in December 1994. From that perspective, Bird shared his thoughts with Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, about Christmas in light of worldwide suffering:”In 1996, Satan celebrates Christmas in fury with genocide in Zaire; raises toasts to the Christians being martyred for their devotion to that Jesus child; smiles at America’s homeless sleeping in alleys as holiday lights reflect on their faces; embraces the corrupt officials, the drug dealers, the child abuser; warms in the flames of racial hatred; and rejoices when Christians live as if the Christmas story ended with Mary wrapping newborn Jesus and laying him in a cattle feed trough.”
MJP END RNS
