c. 1996 Religion News Service
A pope-Castro meeting? It’s possible
(RNS) Fidel Castro may not be welcome on U.S. soil, but the Cuban communist leader could find a warmer reception at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II.
The possibility of Castro meeting with the pope _ which has not formally been requested by either party _ was raised Tuesday (July 16) by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. He told reporters in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains where the pope is vacationing that”if the request (from Cuba) arrives we will consider it.” Castro has been invited to attend a worldwide conference on hunger scheduled for September in Rome by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
The Cuban embassy to the Vatican said Wednesday (July 17) that no decision had been made as to whether Castro would attend the gathering or, if he did, whether a session with the pope would be requested.
The pontiff has expressed a strong desire to visit Cuba, and a papal meeting with Castro would suggest such a pilgrimage is likely.
Talk of a possible meeting between Castro and the pope comes at a delicate political moment for the United States and President Clinton, who is not unmindful of the Cuban exile vote in Florida.
On Tuesday (July 16) Clinton vowed to stick with tough sanctions on the Cuban government. But he bowed to European pressure by delaying for six months any legal action against foreign companies that now own or operate the property of U.S. citizens that was seized by Cuba after the 1959 communist revolution.
A Castro meeting with the pontiff would not be free of risk for the Cuban leader either. While the pope has consistently opposed sanctions, saying they harm the most vulnerable citizens, he has called on the Cuban government to improve human rights and religious freedom.
Churches urge U.S. action on environment
(RNS) The National Council of Churches and a dozen Protestant and Orthodox bodies called Tuesday (July 16) for greater U.S. leadership in reducing the emission of “greenhouse gases” that many scientists believe are changing the Earth’s climate.
“These are profound issues of global justice,” the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches told a Washington news conference.
“While we will all suffer from the consequences of climate change, it is the poor in the United States and in other nations who will be most severely affected and who will have the least recourse.”
Climate change, or global warming, is caused by the emission of so-called greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, which are released into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil in electricity generation, heating and automobiles.
Many experts believe the climate changes will increase the volatility of weather patterns, which could disrupt agriculture and magnify the effects of storms and floods. Some climate changes can cause micro-organism proliferation, and in turn, health problems. It could also affect forest ecosystems and raise sea levels, which would impact low-lying coastal areas.
At the United Nations-sponsored Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the United States, along with other governments, signed the Convention on Climate Change in which the countries agreed, as a first step, to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions at their 1990 level by the year 2000.
However, Campbell said the United States is not acting aggressively enough to meet its commitment.
“We have met with members of the administration and members of Congress on this issue to express our dissatisfaction with the United States’ slow progress on limiting the release of gases that cause global warming into the atmosphere,” she said. “We have concluded that our government is just not hearing enough from people who care about the future of God’s good creation.”
In response, the NCC and the other church agencies are mounting a petition campaign to urge the government to meet the Earth Summit obligation and to “support, not resist adopting a binding international agreement … to achieve greater reductions … after the year 2000.”
The petition campaign is part of an international effort spearheaded by the World Council of Churches.
Signers of the Convention on Climate Change are currently meeting in Geneva to draw up an agreement that would set reduced levels of greenhouse gas emissions for the period after 2000.
“The threat of climate change touches the religious mind in a special way,” the Rev. Sam Kobia, director of the World Council of Churches’ Justice, Peace and Creation Unit told the international meeting in Geneva on July 12.
“It reminds us of our fundamental dependence upon creation,” he said in testimony before the U.N.-sponsored meeting. “Nature, we believe, is a gift of God. It must not and cannot be dealt with as if it were our property.”
World Council officials said they expect petitions to be circulating in 15 industrialized nations by September.
Anglicans: church halls, not sanctuaries, okay for non-Christian worship
(RNS) The general synod of the Church of England has decided that Anglican churches may allow non-Christian faiths to use their church halls _ but not their sanctuaries _ for worship services.
Leicester Bishop Tom Butler said Monday (July 15) the decision was a step toward what he called “missionary hospitality.”
Under terms of the statement adopted by the synod, which is holding its annual summer meeting, the renting of space to non-Christian groups should take place within the framework of interfaith dialogue and the space should not be used for making explicit attacks on the Christian faith.
England has a large immigrant population _ including sizable communities of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs _ in need of places to meet and worship.
Church of England properties are controlled by the Church Commissioners, a national panel that oversees the denomination’s finances, rather than by the local congregation.
A second part of the report recommending the principle of “missionary hospitality” raised the question of whether so-called “redundant” _ empty or unused _ churches could be sold to another faith.
According to the report, the Church of England has some 1,520 unused churches whose care and responsibility belongs to the Church Commissioners.
In the past, these churches have met a number of fates _ some have been preserved as historic sites, while others have been demolished, used for secular purposes such as a museum, or sold for commercial use. A few have been sold to other Christian bodies.
But according to the report, only one _ St. Luke’s in Southampton, England _ has been sold to another faith group. It has been a Sikh temple since the early 1980s. The Church Commissioners have turned down two other such requests.
In one of those cases the local Muslim community sought to purchase a church for use as a mosque. Instead, the commissioners decided to demolish the building.
The report recommended that the commissioners, in responding to such requests, should bear in mind the desires of the entire local community and not just the members of the affected parish, the effect of the decision on Christian relations with other faiths in England, and the possible impact on Christian churches overseas.
World Council of Churches faces severe financial crisis
(RNS) The World Council of Churches (WCC) is facing severe financial difficulties and only”drastic action”on the part of the international ecumenical agency’s 330 member churches can end the crisis, the Rev. Konrad Raiser, WCC general secretary, has told members.”By the end of this year, despite strict expenditure control and savings, the general funds and reserves available will have been used up,”Raiser said in a July 1 letter to WCC member churches.”Income is no longer sufficient to pay for the present activities in which the Council is engaged,”he said.
Raiser said that a year ago, the council thought it was in”one of those periodic fluctuations, which would correct itself before long. We believed that our reserves were sufficient to tide us over the difficulty.”You will see from the enclosed report that such a belief was over-optimistic, the decline in income has been greater and lasted longer than anticipated, and shows no sign of improvement,”he said.
In response to the financial woes, Raiser said a 16 percent reduction in WCC staff is planned. The reduction will cut 42 members from the current staff of 276 through layoffs, retirements and the elimination of some currently vacant posts. Raiser said it will cost about $1.6 million to provide a”just and adequate separation package”for those whose jobs are being eliminated.
Raiser said the new round of reductions leaves the Geneva-based agency’s staff size a third smaller than it was in 1991.
The 1995 Financial Report of the WCC, released along with Raiser’s letter, showed that the agency had an income of about $64.3 million last year, down $7.4 million from 1994. Its expenditures in 1995 were about $81 million, compared with $91 million in 1994.
The council’s income comes from a variety of sources, including member church dues and contributions, investments and grants.
A major problem for the council is the lack of contributions by its members. According to council figures, only 156 of the 330 churches paid any membership dues to the WCC last year, despite a decision by the council’s Central Committee to set a minimum contribution of $800 for each church.
It also has been hard hit by lower currency exchange rates. The council operates with Swiss francs.
Interfaith Alliance to seek”civility”pledges from candidates
(RNS) The Interfaith Alliance, a coalition of mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic church officials, said Monday (July 15) it will ask local, state and federal political candidates across the country to sign a”pledge of civility”promising to repudiate”the use of religion as a weapon”in the public arena.
The coalition, formed two years ago to do battle with politically active religious conservatives, also said it would ask voters to sign a pledge to support policies”which strengthen our families, ensure equal opportunity for all our citizens, and honor the freedom that comes from meaningful political participation.” The two pledges were unveiled at a Washington news conference at Foundry United Methodist Church, the congregation most often attended by President Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton. The Rev. J. Philip Wogaman, the church’s pastor, is the alliance’s first vice president.
At the news conference, the group, which claims 30,000 members in 109 local chapters, announced a”Road to Renewal”campaign of voter education and mobilization aimed at challenging what it called”religious political extremists.” Terry Anderson, a former journalist who was held for seven years as a hostage by Muslim radicals in Lebanon, said at the news conference that he is a Christian but also”a political progressive”and”those people (Christian conservatives) do not represent me, neither in faith nor in politics. And they do not represent millions of other people of faith in this country _ Christians, Jews, Muslims and others.”Like those conservatives in the Christian Coalition, our religious beliefs lead directly to our political beliefs,”Anderson said.”But they lead us in an entirely different direction.” The”civility pledge”urges candidates to repudiate the use of religion”to demonize those whose religious or political beliefs are different from mine”and to”challenge anyone or any organization asserting that a particular candidate is sanctioned by God.” It also asks the candidate to promise to refuse campaign contributions”from organizations or individuals who practice or advocate exclusion or intolerance.”
House passes bill to make food donations for hungry easier
(RNS) The House on Friday (July 12) passed legislation designed to make it easier for corporations to donate food to soup kitchens, food pantries and other groups helping the hungry and homeless.
The legislation, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, was named in honor of the late Rep. Bill Emerson, a Missouri Republican and longtime champion of helping to feed the hungry. Emerson died June 28.
The unanimous voice vote was taken just an hour before the House gathered in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall for a memorial service for Emerson.
The bill would, if enacted, establish a uniform national law to protect organizations and individuals from liability when they donate food in good faith to help the hungry.”A business should not have to hire a legal team to interpret numerous state laws so that it feels comfortable in contributing to the hungry,”said Rep. Pat Danner, D-Mo., chief architect of the legislation.
She noted that because of the maze of liability laws, companies were refusing to donate excess food to charities.
She cited as an example Project Hunger, the annual summer food drive in Kansas City, which ran out of food because corporate suppliers did not donate as expected.”This year,”she said,”the contributions were only one-third of the amount collected last year.” Danner said the federal government has estimated that some 14 billion pounds of food are discarded each year by businesses.
During the brief debate on the proposed legislation, Danner praised Emerson as”a student of the Scripture and a tireless advocate in the war against hunger.”Three of the most important interests in Bill Emerson’s life were family, religion and feeding the hungry,”she said. “I know that all here will agree with me that there is no more fitting tribute memory than the passage of this legislation that will provide, by some estimates, 50 million pounds of food annually to the hungry.”
Quote of the Week: Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on the Bible.
(RNS) On Monday (July 15), Mike Huckabee became the new governor of Arkansas. Huckabee, a Republican, replaces Democrat Jim Guy Tucker, who resigned in the wake of his conviction on charges stemming from his role in the Whitewater real estate development scandal. Huckabee, in an interview with World magazine, spoke about his Bible reading habits:”I have long depended on Scripture not only as a refuge but also for direction. Since I was 18 I’ve read a chapter in Proverbs every morning, getting through the whole book each month. For me, that’s a source of daily inspiration and guidance. I really believe most good, sound management decisions can be gleaned from principles you’ll find in the book of Proverbs and in other passages, such as the Sermon on the Mount.”
END RNS
