c. 1997 Religion News Service

Catholic bishops urge U.S. leadership in effort to ban land mines

(RNS) U.S. Roman Catholic bishops have told President Clinton the United States must exert”unambiguous and convincing”leadership in the campaign for a global ban on anti-personnel land mines.

Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a Jan. 14 letter to Clinton said he was pleased with the”limited steps”the U.S. government has taken but urged it to go beyond those actions.

The United States has imposed a moratorium on land mine exports, has imposed a one-year moratorium on its own use of land mines and has sponsored a United Nations resolution calling for an eventual ban.

But the administration is under increased pressure from the religious community and land mine abolitionists to join the so-called Ottawa Process, a Canadian-led effort to convene like-minded nations to sign a treaty in December 1997 banning land mines.

High-ranking administration officials have held a number of meetings with religious leaders and activists from the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines to explore administration options.

While Clinton has called for an”eventual”ban on the weapon, the administration is thought to be leaning toward negotiations carried out through the United Nations rather than by the legally binding treaty called for by the Ottawa Process.

Pilla told Clinton that the U.S. decision on whether or not to join the Ottawa Process”offers a critical opportunity for the United States to take serious steps toward its (U.S.) stated commitment to negotiate an effective and verifiable ban without unnecessary delay.”We urge you to join with other nations committed to a global ban to press ahead in international efforts to advance this objective,”Pilla said.

Catholic group `satisfied’ with Reed statement on book endorsement

(RNS) A Catholic rights group that had raised concerns about Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed’s endorsement of a controversial end-times prophecy book now says it is satisfied with Reed’s explanation.

In December, the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights expressed concern over a promotional blurb by Reed on a book that warned that a”satanically empowered”Vatican could support the Antichrist in the end times.

The book,”Earth’s Two-Minute Warning: Today’s Bible-predicted Signs of the End Times,”said there is”some legitimate cause for concern that the Vatican may one day run amok.”It was written by John Wheeler Jr., founding editor of the Christian Coalition’s Christian American magazine.

In a statement printed on the back cover, Reed called the book”a compelling look at the controversial subject of the end times”and”an important contribution to this vital discussion.” The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights called the book”Catholic-baiting”and asked Reed to explain his statement.

On Jan. 2, Reed released a public statement saying that he”provided the blurb as a personal favor to a former employee without reading the book in its entirety.” Reed emphasized that he disagreed”with many of the conclusions of the book, including those regarding the Catholic Church and its purported role in any end-time scenario.” Reed denounced anti-Catholic bigotry and said his own”consistent record has been one of respect, honor and cooperation with Catholics.” Catholic League President William Donohue said he is now convinced that Reed”never intentionally sought to disparage Catholicism”by providing a promotional blurb for Wheeler’s book.”He erred, as authors often do, by providing a blurb for a book that he had not familiarized himself with sufficiently,”Donohue said, adding that Reed’s clarification”effectively ends our concerns.” Donohue also criticized”the eagerness of Reed’s critics to exploit this incident for political purposes.”

Mother Crouch, leader of COGIC women’s group, dies

(RNS) Mother Emma F. Crouch, the international supervisor of the Women’s Department of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), died Jan. 6. She was 85.

Bishop J. Neaul Haynes, second assistant presiding bishop of the denomination, described Crouch as”probably one of the most astute leaders, either male or female, that the Church of God in Christ or any other religious organization has had in the hierarchy of its leadership.” Crouch, who was the great aunt of gospel singer Andrae Crouch, was a member of Haynes’ church, Saintsville Church of God in Christ in Dallas. In addition to her work in the women’s department, Crouch also served her denomination in a variety of Texas and national positions.

Haynes said Crouch was instrumental in increasing the amount of money her department raised for the denomination, which is the largest predominantly African-American Pentecostal group in the world. The Women’s Department contributed $1 million to COGIC’s budget last year, he said.”She was a very astute organizer and completely abreast of the times and what the church’s mission was and what her part of that mission was,”said Haynes.

Update: Director withdraws support for letter in support of Scientology

(RNS) Film director Constantin Costa-Gavras has said he mistakenly signed an open letter to Chancellor Helmut Kohl that compared Germany’s opposition to the Church of Scientology to that nation’s persecution of Jews during the Nazi era.

Last week, Costa-Gavras was one of more than 30 entertainment industry figures who signed the letter published in the Paris-based International Herald-Tribune. The letter urged Kohl to halt his government’s attacks on Scientology before they turn violent, just as Nazi persecution of Jews turned into the Holocaust.

This week, Costa-Gavras said he had not read the letter carefully before signing it. Now that he had, he said, he was offended by the comparison to the Holocaust.

German Jewish leaders have also criticized the letter’s comparison with the Holocaust. Kohl dismissed it as”rubbish.” The letter, which cost $62,000 to publish, was placed by Los Angeles attorney Bertram Fields, who represents actor Tom Cruise. Cruise’s work has been the object of boycotts in Germany because he is a Scientologist. Germany’s labor minister has suggested that Scientologists be barred from holding any government job.

Various German officials have charged that Scientology is more a money-making scheme than a true religion, and that it seeks to undermine German democracy.

On Thursday (Jan. 16), the U.S. State Department criticized both the German government and the Church of Scientology for their handling of the dispute.”We believe that the members of the Church of Scientology have a right to practice their religion in Germany and in all other countries,”said department spokesman Nicholas Burns.

But Burns also said it is”simply outrageous”to compare current German leadership to the Nazi era leadership.”We have advised the Scientology community not to run those ads,”he said.

Update: Mother Teresa’s nuns begin deliberations on her successor

(RNS) The electoral college of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity went into a private retreat Thursday (Jan. 16) at the order’s Calcutta headquarters to begin preparations to elect her successor.”The retreat is beginning this evening when sisters will be busy in praying,”Sister Priscilla Lewis, the order’s spokeswoman, told the Associated Press.

The more than 100 nuns are expected to elect Feb. 2 a new superior general to lead the order’s 4,000 nuns.

Mother Teresa, 86, has been weakened by heart trouble and osteoporosis. She has sought to step down from her post in the past but was dissuaded by other sisters. Recent set-backs in her health, however, have made her even more adamant about retiring from her leadership role.

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 to serve the poor and dying in India. Over the years, the order has expanded to 517 orphanages, homes for the poor, AIDS hospices and other charity centers around the world.

Quote of the Day: author Art Toalston

(RNS) Art Toalston, editor of Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, has compiled the favorite Bible verses of Christian leaders from a variety of fields in a new book,”Lamp Unto My Feet: A Verse-A-Day Devotional.”In his introduction, he wrote:”What if, someone once asked me, one of these people falls into some sort of disgrace? My answer is this: That person’s Bible verse reflection should become a reminder to us to extend prayer and grace to that individual, a reminder that `there but for the grace of God, go I.’ Whatever other thoughts might come to mind regarding that person, there’s no better way to utilize those moments than in prayer.”

MJP END RNS