c. 1996 Religion News Service

U.N.’s”city summit”opens in Istanbul; right to shelter at issue

(RNS)-The United Nations'”city summit”opened in Istanbul, Turkey, Monday (June 3) with representatives from the developing world, backed by the Vatican, arguing that housing must be declared a human right.”The right to adequate housing should be a fundamental part of our principles and actions to address the problems of all those lacking minimum living conditions,”Fabio Giraldo of Colombia told the opening session of the U.N.’s Habitat II conference on human shelter.

The June 3-14 meeting, the last major U.N.-sponsored global conference of the century, is expected to draw as many as 20,000 participants from national, state and local governments, non-profit groups and business organizations. It is being led by Wally N’Dow, a Nigerian diplomat.

It comes at a time when experts are predicting that in the next 30 years, two thirds of the world’s population of 7.5 billion people will live in cities and that by 2015 at least seven cities will have populations of more than 20 million people.

According to the United Nations, of the world’s current population of 5.7 billion people, 2.4 billion are living in cities and at least 600 million of them, including 300 million children, are living in housing conditions that are health- or life-threatening. It estimates 100 million people, mostly women and children, are homeless.”The crises of urban development are crises of all nations, rich and poor,”U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali told the opening session.”These challenges, however, are most severe in developing countries. Inner city dwellers … the inhabitants of insalubrious slums, marginalized favelas, the ghettos and barrios, share in the misery, dangers to their health and a vision of hopeless unemployment and marginalization,”he said.

Two sets of issues are considered likely to dominate the meeting. First is housing as a fundamental human right, as argued by Giraldo on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries.

That stance has the support of the Vatican. In a news release issued shortly before the conference began, the Vatican said it intends to argue for”the right of the person to housing.” That right, however, is opposed by the United States, Great Britain and some other developed nations, which argue adequate housing is a goal, not a right.

The United States, whose delegation is headed by Henry Cisneros, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, also objects to the conference’s draft plan of action that emphasizes government-provided housing.

N’Dow, however, thinks the two sides can reach a compromise.”As long as the protagonists in either camp accept shelter … as a basic ingredient for survival … I think with their best efforts they can arrive at a consensus,”he said.

The second set of issues is one that has plagued the three previous U.N. conferences on population, development and women: abortion and population programs, guaranteed education, and the rights and needs of children. Some women’s groups have said they will lobby to make sure such issues are included in the conference’s final document.”We have to work very hard to make sure that the hard-won gains and victories that we got in these conferences are reaffirmed,”Bella Abzug, president of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, a group that lobbies in the international arena on behalf of women’s rights, told the Associated Press.

The Vatican, in its statement, said it intends to argue that”non-pertinent issues should not be dealt with.” N’Dow expressed concern that the conference could bog down on those issues.

Gay rights law marks”Americanization”of Europe, church leader says

(RNS)-Bishop Lorant Hegedus, head of the Reformed Church in Hungary, says legislation adopted by the Hungarian Parliament to give legal recognition to homosexual partnerships is at odds with Christian principles.”Although we are committed to the tolerance enshrined in the Christian faith, we cannot agree with this,”Hegedus said.”The measure represents a declaration of libertinism, against biblical truth,”the bishop added.”It is another sign of the Americanization of attitudes and lifestyle which is gathering pace throughout Eastern Europe.” On May 21, the Hungarian Parliament, by a vote of 207 to 73, with five abstentions, approved a measure changing the country’s Civil Code deleting the code’s stipulation that common law marriages must be between persons of different genders, and extending to gay couples who live together the joint property, pension and inheritance rights held by heterosexuals.

Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, said that Hungary’s Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference had not yet made a formal statement on the change in the law.”But it is clear that neither Christian nor human principles can allow equality (between) heterosexual and homosexual partnerships,”said the Rev. Laszlo Lukacs, general secretary of the Catholic bishops’ conference.

Salt Lake high school choir director didn’t promote religion, judge rules

(RNS)-A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that there is no evidence that a choir director of a Salt Lake City high school promoted religion to his students by having them sing religious songs.

In a ruling issued Thursday (May 30), Judge J. Thomas Greene denied new claims in a lawsuit filed by Rachel Bauchman, a Jewish student at West High School, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Bauchman filed a lawsuit against the school, the district and choir director Richard Torgerson in 1995 claiming that by having the students sing Christian songs, Torgerson’s teaching created a hostile environment for students who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that he impermissibly promoted religion.

Bauchman, a member of the school choir, said her constitutional rights were violated.

The issue came to a widely publicized head after a federal appeals court barred the choir from singing Christian songs at 1995 graduation ceremonies. Many of the students, however, on their own sang the song”Friends”in a show of civil disobedience.

Bauchman’s original suit was ultimately dismissed but her attorney asked to amend the lawsuit. Greene’s May 30 ruling rejected the new claims.”On review of the evidence, it does not appear to this court that individually or in toto the acts and conduct of (Torgerson) amounted to the endorsement of religion from the standpoint of a reasonable objective observer,”Greene wrote.

Edward Harris, Bauchman’s New York attorney, said the new decision will be appealed.

Dan Larsen of the Utah Attorney General’s Office said,”We are pleased”with the ruling, which included Greene’s rejection of the notion that religious songs cannot be sung in a high school.”This court reiterates its opinion and ruling that choir singing of religious music does not automatically equate with praying,”Greene wrote.

The judge also ruled that Bauchman’s claims against district officials should be dismissed.

Presbyterian church leader in Guatemala released by kidnappers

(RNS)-The Rev. Samuel Merida, moderator of the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Guatemala, has been released after being held five days by kidnappers, Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, reported.

Merida was kidnapped May 24 and his abductors demanded his family pay $17,000 in ransom. The family had not paid the ransom at the time of his release.

ENI also reported that the kidnappers told Merida he would not have to pay the ransom if he resigned as moderator of the church and ended all activity in the denomination.

Those demands have led to speculation that Merida was kidnapped by church members angry at his support for Guatemala’s indigenous people. Some conservative, land-owning church members believe the denomination’s leadership has been overzealous in support of the rights of indigenous people.

The denomination has called on the government to investigate the kidnapping.

Superior general of the Little Sisters of the Poor dies

(RNS)-Mother Marie Antoinette de la Trinite, the superior general of the Little Sisters of the Poor, has died in Paris.

She was instrumental in expanding the order’s presence worldwide, the Associated Press reported.

The order said Mother de la Trinite, 76, died Wednesday (May 29). It gave no cause of death.

Mother de la Trinite joined the order in 1942-instead of following her father’s wishes that she attend medical school-and took her final vows seven years later.

She was named provincial superior in Brittany in western France in 1957. She became the order’s secretary general seven years later and held that post until her death.

Mother de la Trinite helped open 32 missions around the world. Today, the order has 3,700 members in 30 countries, including the United States.

Leon-Etienne Duval, retired archbishop of Algiers, dies

(RNS)-Leon-Etienne Duval, a Roman Catholic archbishop who championed Algeria’s right to independence, died Thursday (May 30) in Algiers at age 92.

The cause of death was not reported.

At age 23, Duval was ordained a priest in Annecy, France, the Washington Post reported.

After World War II, he was named bishop of Constantine, a northeastern Algerian town. He later served as archbishop of Algiers for 34 years, retiring in 1988.

Duval was considered one of the first French public figures to recognize Algeria’s right to independence. He worked to persuade France to free its colony.

After Algeria gained independence in 1962, he became a dual citizen of Algeria and France.

Quote of the day: Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on making peace in the Middle East.

(RNS)-Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, defeated May 29 in his bid for re-election as head of Israel’s government, spoke Sunday (June 2) at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Peres’ speech was a political testament to his vision of achieving peace in the Middle East and the need to include Palestinians and Israel’s Arab neighbors in the peace process:”For peace one must remember, as a bird cannot fly with one wing, as a man cannot applaud with one hand, so a country cannot make peace with just one side, with itself. For peace we need the two of us. We have to put the responsibility for human life, a responsibility for their (Palestinian and Arab) dignity, as the highest order of our time.”

MJP END