c. 1997 Religion News Service

Pope prays for the victims of Mexican village massacre

(RNS) Pope John Paul II prayed Friday (Dec. 26) for the 45 Mexican villagers slaughtered _ allegedly by paramilitary forces _ just three days before Christmas.

Many of the victims were in a church praying for peace in the volatile southern Mexico state of Chiapas.”The joy of this year’s Christmas festivities has been disturbed by a cruel event in a church of the diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexico,”the pope said in his traditional St. Stephen’s Day speech. The day commemorates the first Christian martyr _ Stephen, who died in about 35 A.D. _ whom the Bible describes as being stoned to death.”Many people collected in prayer were massacred just before Christmas Day,”Reuters reported the pope as saying.”With deep and profound sadness we pray for the suffering of the victims and implore the Lord to comfort their families and the Catholic community there.” The massacre, in the village of Acteal, was the worst single act of violence in volatile and poverty-stricken Chiapas since Jan. 1, 1994, when a peasant guerrilla movement, the Zapatista, began an uprising demanding land reform and better social services for the indigenous Indians.

Reuters reported 41 people have been detained as suspects.

Bishop Samuel Ruiz of the diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas has been a key figure in mediation efforts between the Mexican federal government and the Zapatista.”I hope solutions to the social problems afflicting Chiapas can be found through dialogue and brotherly solidarity,”John Paul said.

Cubans celebrate first `official’ Christmas since 1969

(RNS) For the first time in nearly three decades, Cubans officially celebrated Christmas this week, attending a packed midnight Mass at the Havana Catholic cathedral Christmas Eve and watching the pope’s holiday activities on television.

Cuban President Fidel Castro proclaimed this Christmas a state-sanctioned holiday for the first time since 1969, when he officially suspended its celebration because it interfered with Cuba’s annual sugar harvest.

This year’s celebration was allowed by Castro as a gesture to the Vatican in advance of Pope John Paul II’s scheduled Jan. 21-25 visit to the communist nation, the only Spanish-speaking country in the Americas the pontiff has not visited. Castro made it clear that Christmas would be an official holiday this year only.

Havana’s normally bustling streets were quiet Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

At the midnight Mass, attended by more than 1,000, Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega noted that Cubans celebrated Christmas even during the years it was not a public holiday.”Sometimes people made great sacrifices to celebrate,”he said.

Reuters news agency said the Mass celebrated by Ortega Christmas Day was far less crowded than the Christmas Eve Mass.

While Cuban television broadcast the pope’s holiday activities, including his traditional message to the world issued on Christmas day, it did not mention holiday celebrations that took place in Cuba itself.

New Jersey abortion law on hold

(RNS) A federal judge ruled Wednesday (Dec. 24) that New Jersey still cannot enforce its ban on the controversial late-term procedure its opponents call”partial-birth abortion.” U.S. District Court Judge Anne Thompson blocked the law from going into effect pending a full hearing on the ban’s constitutionality next June.

The law was enacted Dec. 15 when the Republican-controlled state Senate voted to ban the procedure, overriding an earlier veto by Republican Gov. Christine Whitman.

Whitman said she considers the law unconstitutional.

The law has been challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood Federation of New Jersey.

Third candidate enters Presbyterian moderator’s race

(RNS) The Rev. James E. Mead, Tacoma, Wash., has become the third announced candidate to be moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Mead has been pastor and head of the University Place Presbyterian Church, a 1,200-member congregation, for the past 16 years.

The moderator, who serves a one-year term, is the denomination’s chief public representative and spends much of the year on the road, visiting churches and building support for the denomination’s mission and evangelism efforts.

Mead has the endorsement of the Presbytery of Olympia. The election will be held at the denomination’s General Assembly, June 13-20, 1998 in Charlotte, N.C.

Other announced candidates include the Rev. Richard G. Hutchison, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne, Ind., and the Rev. Douglas W. Oldenburg, president of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga.”For the last 15 years, this church has been in a time of gigantic change, a time of real pain,”Mead said in an interview with Presbyterian News Service, the denomination’s official news agency.”But there are signs of renewal among us. In part, I bring a sense of renewal,”he said of his candidacy.

Saudi Arabia warns foreign works about violating Ramadan restrictions

(RNS) Saudi Arabia has warned foreign workers that if they are caught publicly eating, drinking or smoking in violation of Ramadan restrictions they will lose their jobs and be expelled from the conservative Muslim nation.

Ramadan, which will being in Saudi Arabia with the sighting of the new moon on Dec. 30 or Dec. 31, is a month during which observant Muslims fast and adhere to other austerities during daylight hours. Muslims believe Ramadan is the month during which God began to reveal the Koran, the Muslim sacred scripture, to the Prophet Muhammad.

About one-third Saudi Arabia’s 18 million people are foreign workers, many of whom are not Muslim.

Quote of the day: the Rev. Robert Smiley of the United Nations office of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

(RNS)”Sanctions can be an act of war. As soon as you try to apply the just-war doctrine, you have to look at sanctions under the same criteria. Is the cause just? Is it likely to be bring about the desired change? It is a moral dilemma _ whether what we do is helping or hurting. A rigid sanctions policy simply hurts people.” The Rev. Robert Smiley of the United Nations Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in an interview with Presbyterian News Service on the ethical dilemmas of sanctions against Iraq.

END RNS