c. 1997 Religion News Service

Bishop: food aid to North Korea a moral obligation

(RNS) Christians have a moral obligation to respond to the famine in North Korea where”people already are dying of starvation,”according to United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert of San Francisco.

Talbert, who is also president of the National Council of Churches, recently led a 10-member delegation of church leaders to North Korea to assess the famine. The group returned to the United States Jan. 28.

He told United Methodist News Service, the news agency of the United Methodist Church, that the group, despite being controlled by the secretive North Korean government in where it could go and what it could see, received enough independent information that”we can say that the famine is real.” On Monday (Feb. 3), the North Korean government, for the first time, acknowledged that it has only half the grain it needs to feed its people and appealed to world governments for help.

The plea came as the United Nations World Food Program is preparing to issue another appeal _ the third since last year _ for large-scale food aid to the isolated communist country, the Associated Press reported.

According to Talbert, food rationing in North Korea is down to 200 to 400 grams a day, even though 450 grams is the minimum needed to maintain nutrition.

Church World Services, the NCC relief arm, launched a new $500,000 appeal for North Korean aid in January and is the lead agency in an international church effort to fight the Korean famine.”As people of faith, we need to remember that when brothers and sisters are in need, we dare not limit our response to those who think like us religiously or politically,”Talbert said.

Talbert also said the group had a chance to meet with representatives of North Korea’s tiny Christian community, the Korean Christian Federation.”They aren’t strong, but they are growing. They are beginning to exert their influence,”he said.

Catholic leader calls for defeat of family planning funding

(RNS) Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, head of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-life Activities, has called on Congress to defeat a Clinton administration proposal to provide $123 million for international family planning programs.

Law, in his Jan. 30 letter, said the administration’s argument that the funds would help make abortion rare is a”ploy”and that the money would be used by family planning groups that”promote”abortion.

The fight over the family planning portion of the U.S. foreign aid program is shaping up to be the first significant clash between President Clinton and the Republican-controlled House and Senate in the new Congress.”Congress will have an opportunity in February to expose this (administration) ploy, by defeating the … proposal and insisting that integrity be restored to the foreign aid program,”Law said.

Law said the church wants Congress to retain or strengthen restrictions on government funding of international family planning efforts to insure than none of the funds go to groups that either support or provide information about abortion.

In his letter, Law also urged members of Congress to vote again to ban a controversial late-term abortion procedure, called by its opponents”partial-birth abortion,”and to pass legislation that denies federal funding for any program that permits or encourages doctor-assisted suicides.

Pope and Netanyahu hold first meeting

(RNS) Pope John Paul II and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met briefly at the Vatican Monday (Feb. 3), with the Israeli leader reiterating the Jewish state’s desire to have the Roman Catholic Church’s top official visit Jerusalem.

The pope made no public commitment to Netanyahu, the Associated Press reported. However, John Paul did say,”God bless Israel.” The 20-minute private meeting was the first between the pontiff and Netanyahu.

The pope long has expressed a desire to visit Jerusalem, and Israeli leaders have just as long sought to have him visit. However, Middle East politics have prevented the trip.

The Vatican has called for Jerusalem to become a neutral city in which Christians, Jews and Muslims all have equal rights. But Israel claims the entire city as its capital, while Palestinians want the eastern portion of the city to be the capital of their hoped for future state.

Norwegian bishop asks airlines not to fly over funerals

(RNS) A Norwegian Lutheran bishop believes respect for the dead should come before airline schedules.

Bishop Even Fougner, who heads the Church of Norway’s Borg diocese, has asked that all air traffic at Oslo’s Gardermoen airport be halted while funerals are conducted at the seven churches that are below the airport’s flight paths. Gardermoen is scheduled to become Oslo’s principal airport in October 1998.

Fougner said noise from overhead aircraft detracts from the dignity of funerals.”It would be sad if we were forced to stop the age-old tradition of bearing the coffin to the grave,”Fougner told the Aftenposten newspaper, according to the Associated Press.”It must be possible to ground all air traffic a few times a week.” Not really, replied Johan Borchgrevink, planning chief for Norway’s National Aviation Board. Borchgrevink said the frequency of takeoffs and landings _ about one every other minute _ would preclude the airport from complying with Fougner’s request.

Quote of the day: editor Irving Kristol

(RNS) Irving Kristol, a leading conservative intellectual and co-editor of The Public Interest magazine, wrote about what he called the spiritual crisis of the welfare state in Monday’s (Feb. 3) Wall Street Journal. In his article, Kristol drew a distinction between religion and spirituality:”Spirituality is indeed an integral part of all religions _ but a minor part, and it cannot substitute for the whole. Religion is not some kind of psychic exercise that occasionally offers a transcendental experience. It either shapes one’s life _ all of one’s life _ or it vanishes, leaving behind anxious empty souls that no psychotherapy can reach.”

MJP END RNS