c. 1997 Religion News Service
Donations to aging nuns’ retirement needs hit $26 million in 1996
(RNS) An annual nationwide collection to support aging Roman Catholic nuns and priests took in more than $26 million last year, the second highest total ever.
The Retirement Fund for Religious supports sisters, brothers and priests who have dedicated their lives to serving the church. Members of religious orders were not allowed into the nation’s Social Security system until the 1970s.
The need for a additional money to help cover their $7.9 billion unfunded retirement liability became evident as health care costs skyrocketed in the 1970s and ’80s and many members of religious orders approached retirement.
Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), said in a report released Friday (April 25) that the amount of money donated by parishioners was encouraging.”It reflects well on people’s sense of regard for the religious,”he said.”I know of no other collection in our church which has been supported as consistently and as generously as this one.” Most of the money comes from an annual collection taken in parishes during the second week of Advent, the four-week period preceding Christmas.
NCCB General Secretary Dennis Schnurr said the Retirement Fund is the most successful Catholic fundraising effort in the United States because members of religious orders have touched the lives of many people.”These religious built hospitals and schools instead of bank accounts. Any extra funds they had went into their ministries, everything from pre-schools and universities to inner-city clinics and hospital systems,”he said.
Since it began in 1988, the fund has collected $225 million. Nationwide, 167 of the country’s 193 dioceses participate in the Retirement Fund for Religious collection.
Robertson used Operation Blessing planes for diamond mining
(RNS) Zaire-bound airplanes sent by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson’s tax-exempt organization were used primarily for his diamond mining business, according to pilots on those flights.
Three planes were flown by Operation Blessing to Zaire in September 1994. But chief pilot Robert Hinkle said only one or two of the approximately 40 flights made during his six months in the country could be termed humanitarian.
The rest of the flights were related to mining, the Virginia-Pilot, a Norfolk, Va., newspaper reported Sunday (April 27).
Robertson’s spokesman at first denied the accounts by Hinkle, of Chandler, Ariz., and co-pilot Tahir Brohi, of England. But later, Gene Kapp, vice president for public relations at Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, said the planes proved to be unsuitable for medical relief and the broadcaster reimbursed Operation Blessing for the use of the aircraft.”Without Mr. Robertson’s generous overture, Operation Blessing would have incurred further expenses with its aircraft,”Kapp said.
Hinkle told the newspaper he expected the flights would be of a humanitarian nature.”We hauled medical supplies one time,”he said.”It might have been about 500 pounds at the most. It was a very minimal amount.” The planes could carry about 7,000 pounds of material, he said.
Robertson is president and sole shareholder of African Development Co., which is based in Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire. The company had been seeking to dredge diamonds from a remote jungle riverbed.
African Development Co., has lost millions of dollars and is in the middle of a lawsuit in which Robertson is attempting to recover some of his losses from a mining equipment manufacturer.
Afghanistan denies it intends to destroy statutes of Buddha
(RNS) Leaders of the Taliban movement, the militant Muslim organization fighting for control of Afghanistan, have denied reports they intend to destroy two giant 4th century statues of Buddha.”I contacted the Taliban leadership and it has categorically refuted the news, terming it false, fabricated and part of a propaganda campaign against the Taliban government,”Raja Zafaril Haq, secretary general of the World Muslim Congress, said Friday (April 25).
Sri Lanka appealed to the international community to pressure the Taliban leadership in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to affirm their commitment to preserving the statues. The call came after a Taliban field commander told reporters,”We will destroy them because Islam has forbidden statues.” The 1,500-year-old statues _ one 125 feet tall and the other, 180 feet tall and believed to the largest statue of a standing Buddha _ were carved out of a sandstone cliff in central Afghanistan that is now a contested area between forces of the Taliban movement and rival militias struggling to control the country.
Haq told Reuters he had contacted the Taliban leadership on behalf of Muslim communities in such Buddhist-dominated nations as Sri Lanka. India, the birthplace of Buddhism, also expressed concern.
The threat has also prompted United Nations officials to appeal to military commanders in the disputed region to ensure that no harm come to the statues, the faces of which were destroyed centuries ago when Islam first swept through Afghanistan.
Islam forbids the representation of Allah (God), Mohammed or other religious prophets.
Baptists appeal for religious freedom in Saudi Arabia
(RNS) The Baptist World Alliance has asked the governments of the United States and Great Britain to do what they can to help Christians win religious freedom in Saudi Arabia.
The appeal to the two governments was made by Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), following a visit to Lebanon during which Lebanese Christians told him they were concerned about the fate of Christians in Saudi Arabia.
Baptist Press, the official news agency of the Southern Baptist Convention, quoted BWA officials as saying that Christians in Saudi Arabia are barred from having church building and harassed when they meet in a private home. In addition, they said, it is against the law to own a Bible.”On behalf of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world, we plead with you to work with the Saudi government and other countries in the Middle East to assure religious freedom for all people,”Lotz said in a letter to Clinton dated April 17. Lotz sent a similar letter to British Prime Minister John Major.
Quote of the day: Ben Chavis Muhammad
(RNS) Ben Chavis Muhammad, the civil rights activist stripped Thursday (April 24) of his standing as a member of the clergy of the United Church of Christ because of his membership in the Nation of Islam, defended his desire to be a member of both groups:”The God who called me to the Christian ministry is the same God who called me to the ministry of Islam. There is only one God. The God of Judaism and the God of Christianity and the God of Islam is the same God.”
DEA END RNS
