c. 1997 Religion News Service

Catholic bishops regret U.S. rejection of land mines pact

(RNS) President Clinton’s decision to reject a treaty banning anti-personnel land mines is a”lost opportunity”for U.S. leadership in the world, according to a top U.S. Roman Catholic Church official.”I profoundly regret U.S. rejection of the proposed treaty to ban anti-personnel land mines agreed to in Oslo,”said Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J. McCarrick heads the international policy committee of the U.S. Catholic Conference.”I fear that our nation’s leadership has lost an important opportunity in the urgent struggle to effectively ban these indiscriminate killers,”McCarrick added in statement Friday (Sept. 19).

On Wednesday, the Clinton administration said it would not sign the treaty agreed to by nearly 90 countries. The treaty would be the first international agreement to ban a widely used weapons system since the end of World War I.”There is a line that I simply cannot cross, and that line is the safety and security of our men and women in uniform,”Clinton said in announcing that the United States would not submit the treaty for formal ratification.

Eighty-nine other countries gathered in Oslo did agree to the treaty and a formal signing ceremony is set for Ottawa, Canada, Dec. 2-4.

The United States objected to the treaty’s absolute ban on the weapons, which, according to U.S. government estimates, kill or maim some 25,000 people _ mostly civilians, often children _ each year. An estimated 100 million mines are strewn around the globe, left over from wars in such places as Cambodia, Bosnia, Angola, Laos and Mozambique.

The United States wanted an exception in the treaty that would allow it to continue deploying anti-personnel mines along the border between the two Koreas and to delay the effective date of the treaty.

McCarrick said the bishops acknowledged Clinton’s pledge to eventually shift U.S. policy and”to ban the use of these weapons in most circumstances.”But he said Clinton’s pledge”cannot substitute for active U.S. participation and leadership in bringing about a global ban on anti-personnel land mines without exception and without undue delay.”

Revised Russian religion bill gets first parliamentary OK

(RNS) The lower house of the Russian parliament Friday (Sept. 19) overwhelming approved a revised version of a controversial bill that would protect the Russian Orthodox Church by restricting the activities of other religious groups. The vote in the Duma was 358-6 in favor.

Passage is virtually assured in Parliament’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, which begins its fall session next week. Likewise, President Boris Yeltsin, who vetoed an earlier version of the bill, is expected to sign the new version into law.

The legislation is designed to protect the Russian Orthodox Church from the primarily western churches and Christian and non-Christian missionary groups that have made considerable gains at its expense since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Judaism, Islam and Buddhism are defined as”traditional”Russian faiths in the bill and would also receive full legal standing.

But the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Mormon churches, for example, would be classified as religious groups. They would need to establish a new official 15-year record of operations in Russia before they could distribute materials or invite foreign clergy or missionaries.

The bill’s earlier version was widely denounced by U.S. Christian groups as an anti-religion, anti-democratic throwback to the Soviet era. President Clinton asked Yeltsin to veto the measure and Congress threatened to halt economic aid to Moscow if the bill was approved.

But the revised version is little better than the original bill, according to Lawrence A. Uzzell, Moscow representative of the Keston Institute, a London-based group that monitors religious freedom in communist and former-communist nations.

Uzzell recently said the new version is”hostile to the idea of spreading religious faith to those who are not already believers”and”would virtually wipe out the complex of western churches’ missionaries and charitable activities.” That assessment appears to be just what the bill’s proponents want.”The law protects the traditional Russian religion, Orthodoxy, so we believe it undoubtedly must be adopted,”Viktor Zorkaltsev, chairman of the parliament’s committee on religion and public organizations, told the Associated Press.”It creates a barrier for totalitarian sects and limits the activity of foreign missionaries,”he said.

Update: Senate approves religious workers visa bill

(RNS) The Senate has approved a measure that would make permanent a provision in the U.S. immigration law allowing foreign religious workers to come to the country to engage in religious and charitable activities.

The bill, passed by voice vote Thursday (Sept. 18), must still be approved by the House.

Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., said at a hearing last week he was prompted to introduce the legislation because of a letter from Mother Teresa shortly before her death asking him to”Please, help us and our poor by extending the law.” Under the Immigration Act of 1990, as many as 5,000 visa slots were opened for nuns, priests, religious brothers, cantors, lay preachers, religious instructors and counselors, missionaries and others to work in this country at the request of U.S. based religious organizations.

The provision expires at the end of the month and a number of religious groups have said their activities could be harmed if the law is not extended.

Palestinians to meet the pope; WCC condemns Israel

(RNS) Palestinian authorities are to meet with Pope John Paul II on Monday (Sept. 22) in their quest to exert pressure on Israel to cease settlement construction and honor the Oslo peace accords.

The delegation, headed by Afif Safieh, the Palestinian ambassador to the Holy See, will also give the pope a letter from Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. Contents of the letter were not divulged. Arafat has met with the pope periodically in an attempt to enlist his support for the Palestinian cause.

The pope has regularly condemned violence in the Middle East and accused the Israelis of inflaming tensions by constructing settlements in Arab areas of east Jerusalem and elsewhere. He has also consistently said Jerusalem should be an”open city”in which the three monotheistic religions can coexist.

The four-member Palestinian delegation, which also included the mayor of Bethlehem and two members of the legislative council of the Palestinian National Authority, traveled to Geneva to meet with members of the World Council of Churches, the Christian ecumenical group, after meeting with Vatican officials on Friday (Sept. 19).”We came to raise the awareness of our concerns and to promote peace,”Safieh said at a news conference.

The WCC has a long history of sympathy toward the Palestinians, and demonstrated that on Friday by sending a letter to Christian churches in Jerusalem in which it accused Israel of”intransigent … policies”that have deadlocked the peace talks.”We strongly condemn the non-implementation and violation of the Oslo agreements as well as the deadlock of the peace negotiations which is a major cause of the continuing cycle of violence,”the letter said. It was approved by the WCC’s 156-member central committee, meeting in Geneva to prepare for its general assembly in Zimbabwe next year.

The letter did not condemn Palestinian terrorist attacks, which in recent months have claimed dozens of Israeli lives and contributed to the air of hopelessness about the peace process.

The Rev. Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the WCC, defended the omission, saying,”terrorism is not a common word used in the terminology of the World Council of Churches.” Raiser added,”There is no evidence brought forward from the Israeli government or from any other side that the Palestinian Authority supports terrorism.” Israel has accused Arafat of botching a crackdown on Islamic extremists who have orchestrated the attacks, saying the failure has dashed prospects for peace.

Quote of the day:

(RNS)”Through touch we are called to say, `We love you, we appreciate you … you are beautiful and precious to God.” Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche community of physically and mentally disabled people who are unable to communicate verbally, in a speech during a meeting of the World Council of Churches Central Committee.

MJP END RNS