c. 1998 Religion News Service
Catholic prelate: Cloning is disrespect for life
(RNS) Cardinal William Keeler, archbishop of Baltimore, told Congress on Thursday (Feb. 12) that the cloning of human beings shows disrespect rather than respect for human life.”Cloning is not wrong because cloned human beings lack human dignity _ it is wrong because they have human dignity, and deserve to come into the world in ways that respect this dignity,”he said.
Keeler made his comments in testimony to the House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health and the Environment on behalf of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities.”Cloning completely divorces human reproduction from the context of a loving union between man and woman, producing children with no `parents’ in the ordinary sense,”Keeler said.”Here human life does not arise from an act of love, but is manufactured to predetermined specifications.” The committee is holding hearings on proposed legislation to ban human cloning. It came one day after the Senate rejected a broadly written proposed bill objected to by scientists who said it would interfere with research.
In written testimony to the House committee, Dr. Harold Varmus, director of the National Institutes of Health, said researchers are”focused on the idea of creating cells and tissues for transplantation research, not cloning humans”and such research could be useful in treating and curing genetic diseases, cancers, spinal cord injuries and infertility.
But Keeler objected to even that level of research.”To claim one is banning `human cloning’ by simply banning the nurture or live birth of human embryos already produced by cloning is to distort language and common sense,”he said.
Holocaust Museum film called unfair to Christians
(RNS) A 14-minute film on the roots of anti-Semitism shown at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington has been labeled anti-Christian.
Ironically, the charge was leveled not by Christians, but by a group of politically conservative Jews who work closely with conservative Christians on various religious and political issues.
The group has sent a letter to the museum urging it to re-evaluate the film. In response, the museum has affirmed the appropriateness of the film, according to the Feb. 12 issue of the Washington Jewish Week.
Among the letter signers are Michael Horowitz, director of Washington’s Hudson Institute; Elliot Abrams of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center; and film critic Michael Medved. Horowitz is credited by many as the prime mover behind the current campaign to aid Christians who reportedly face religious persecution in China, some Muslim nations and elsewhere.
The letter alleged that the film portrays”Christianity and the Christian leaders (as) the initial causes of anti-Semitism and have at all times been its major proponents. Indeed, the film clearly implies that Christianity was the proximate cause of the Holocaust itself.” Peggy Obrecht, the museum’s director of church relations, said the film was produced with the aid of Christian scholars and”at this juncture there is no reason for us to do anything to change the film.” Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president of the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, told the Washington Jewish Week he believes the film to be fair.
Dan Napolitano, who teaches a course on the Holocaust at Washington’s Georgetown Preparatory School, a Roman Catholic institution, was quoted as saying:”My feeling is the film is hard hitting, but in light of the history, it’s fair.”
Bishops: Cuba prisoner release deserves `reciprocal’ U.S. action
(RNS) U.S. Roman Catholic bishops have urged”reciprocal action”on the part of the United States in response to Cuba’s announcement that it would free scores of prisoners, but a U.S. State Department official Friday (Feb. 13) rejected any such move.
Cuba announced Thursday that it would release dozens of prisoners in line with a request made by Pope John Paul II during his recent visit to the communist Caribbean-island nation. Among those to be released were an unknown number of political prisoners.
Reuters reported Friday that the first 19 of about 300 prisoners to be freed have already been released. Among those released was Hector Palacios, a well-known dissident, the news agency said.
Palacios was jailed for describing Cuban President Fidel Castro as”crazy”in an interview he gave to a German magazine. He had been serving an 18-month sentence and was due to be released in July.
In a statement by Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark, N.J., the bishops’ spokesman on international issues, the Roman Catholic prelates said the prisoner release”represented one of those `practical steps’ that clearly call for some reciprocal action on the part of the United States government.” The bishops, as does the pope, oppose the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, saying it hurts that nation’s most vulnerable individuals. They have repeatedly urged Washington to modify the embargo.
However, James P. Rubin, a State Department spokesman, said”until we have further information on the scope and conditions of these releases, we cannot assess their significance.”He expressed concern that those released may be forced into exile.
Meanwhile, Cuba said Friday it has ruled out immediate pardons for 70 of the hundreds of prisoners whose freedom was requested by the pope. Cuba’s official Prensa Latina news service called the 70″counterrevolutionaries”who could not be released for”reasons of national security, dangerousness or the gravity of the crimes committed.” Human rights groups say Cuba is holding more than 500 political prisoners.
The pope presented the Cuban government with a list of several hundred individuals, including political prisoners. He asked that all be released.
The Havana government said the announced releases were an”act of clemency and good will in memory”of John Paul’s historic January visit.
L.A. cardinal bars city’s mayor from Holy Communion over wedding
(RNS) Cardinal Roger Mahony has told his friend Mayor Richard Riordan that the mayor’s scheduled Valentine’s Day wedding means he and his new wife will not be able to take Holy Communion in the Roman Catholic Church.
At the same time, Mahony said Riordan and his fiancee, Nancy Daly, should continue to attend church.
The Feb. 14 marriage will be Riordan’s third. His first was annulled under church rules but his second marriage ended in divorce as did Daly’s 30-year marriage _ both without church-approved annulments.”I am saddened by their decision to wed civilly,”Mahony said in his brief but terse statement.”Although they remain members of the Catholic Church, their action compromises their ability to participate fully in the church’s sacramental life.”I urge them, as I would all other Catholics in the archdiocese of Los Angeles who find themselves in similar circumstances, to continue to attend Mass regularly and to share in the life and the mission of the church,”Mahony said.
Riordan is a devout Catholic. The Los Angeles Times reported that he has a private chapel on the grounds of his Brentwood estate and goes to Mass regularly.”He’s sad that he won’t be able to receive Communion, but he will still remain active in the church,”the Times quoted the mayor’s press secretary as saying.
United Methodists report increase in giving
(RNS) United Methodists gave almost $5 million more to churchwide causes in 1997 than in 1998, the denomination reported Friday (Feb. 13).
Total giving to the church in 1997 was $136.8 million, according to a report by the denomination’s General Council on Finance and Administration.
The report said giving to the church’s World Service Fund _ the denomination’s basic benevolence fund _ and seven other apportionments, or outreach and administration funds, totaled $104.5 million compared with some $100.4 in 1996.
The increase in giving runs counter to the denomination’s continued decline in U.S. membership over the last several decades. Although no figures are yet available for 1997, the church had an estimated loss of 42,000 members in 1996, leaving the denomination with about 8.5 million members in the United States.
Rushdie death sentence upheld
(RNS) Salman Rushdie’s death sentence for allegedly insulting the founder of Islam has been reaffirmed by Iran’s chief prosecutor.
Speaking Friday (Feb. 13), Morteze Moqtadaie said”the shedding of (Rushdie’s) blood is obligatory”because of his perceived insult of the Prophet Mohammed in Rushdie’s novel”The Satanic Verses,”the Associated Press reported.
The fatwa, or religious ruling, ordering Rushdie’s death was issued in 1989 by the late Iranian religious and political leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Rushdie, a non-practicing Muslim, has been in hiding ever since, emerging every so often to try and rally public support to his side.
Moqtadaie, who is also a senior Muslim official, said”amy Muslim who hears an insult to the prophet must kill the person who commits the insult. Moqtadaie noted the Propher Mohammed is said to have ordered the death of a man who insulted him.
Lutheran, Episcopal seminaries sign agreement to work for unity
(RNS) Two seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church have signed a historic covenant pledging expanded cooperation and efforts to remove obstacles to full communion between their parent bodies.
The covenant, signed Jan. 12 in New York, listed 13 areas in which the two seminaries _ Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and General Theological Seminary in New York _ will cooperate.”The covenant is a giant step forward in the evolving relationship between two fine theological schools,”said Robert Hughes, president of the Lutheran school.”The objectives articulated _ theological unity, mutual enrichment and mission _ are both commendable and essential in this challenging time.” Leaders of the two mainline churches had recommended the two denominations adopt a Concordat of Agreement that would have established full communion _ mutual recognition and exchangeability of priests and pastors, increased sharing of sacraments and more cooperation in other ministries.
Although the Concordat was approved by a large margin at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention last July, delegates to the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly fell six votes short of mustering the required two-thirds vote.
A writing team with three members from each church is currently rewriting the Concordat in an effort to win Lutheran approval without losing support among Episcopalians.
Samaritan leader dies
(RNS) Joseph Cohen, leader of the Samaritan religious sect, died in his sleep Friday (Feb. 13). He was 79.
Samaritans are descendants of a group that broke with mainstream Judaism more than 2,000 years ago by rejecting the authority of Jewish tradition other than that contained in the Hebrew Bible. Today, just about 600 survive in two communities in Israel and the West Bank.
Samaritans are best known to Christians through the Gospel of Luke’s Parable of the Good Samaritan, in which a Samaritan is said to have taken pity on a man left for dead by robbers and who was ignored by supposedly pious religious leaders.
Cohen lived in the West Bank town of Nablus and worked as a religious teacher prior to being chosen the Samaritan’s high priest in 1987.
The exact cause of death was not reported, according to the Associated Press.
Quote of the Day: Religious broadcaster James Dobson
(RNS)”I want to tell you all something from my heart: There is no tent big enough for me and the people who will do that.” _ James Dobson of Focus on the Family, speaking Feb. 7 about Republican Party leaders who, in the interest of broadening the GOP’s appeal, have refused to deny campaign-funding support to candidates who do not oppose the late-term abortion procedure known as partial-birth abortion.
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