c. 1998 Religion News Service

Pope, Yeltsin to meet in February

(RNS) Russian President Boris Yeltsin will meet with Pope John Paul II in Italy next month, apparently to see if the two leaders can improve the strained relations between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.

The announcement, made in Moscow, came as the two churches also said they would resume talks that broke off during the summer _ talks that could pave the way for a meeting between John Paul and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexii II.

Yeltsin, who first met John Paul in 1991, is scheduled to visit Italy from Feb. 9-11, the Associated Press reported Tuesday (Jan. 13).

Their discussions are likely to center on Russia’s new religion law, which enshrined Orthodoxy as Russia’s favored faith while curbing the rights of some other less historic or traditional religious groups. Yeltsin signed the bill over protests from religious groups abroad, including the Vatican.

The John Paul-Yeltsin meeting will come less than a month after the pope’s Jan. 21-25 trip to Cuba, one of the few remaining remnants of the former Soviet union’s communist empire and which has been undergoing economic hardship as a result of a continuing U.S. economic embargo and the withdrawal of financial aid from Moscow.

Alexii and John Paul were scheduled to meet last August, but the meeting was cancelled by Alexii because of disputes over church property and what the Orthodox leader considered Catholic missionary efforts among the Orthodox faithful.

Key GOP anti-abortion legislators oppose `litmus test’ for candidates

(RNS) Two key congressional opponents of abortion announced Monday (Jan. 12) their opposition to a proposal, backed by such faith-based advocacy groups as the Christian Coalition and the Catholic Alliance, to make potential Republican candidates vow to oppose a controversial late-term abortion procedure before receiving GOP campaign funds.

The proposal is being debated this week during a meeting of the National Republican Committee in Palm Springs, Calif.

Over the weekend, a letter from Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition, to Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson, was made public. In the letter, the coalition called the issue”a matter of principle over politics.””We understand the need for inclusion, but there are some issues of transcendent moral importance significance, such as partial-birth abortion, which should be strongly condemned by both word and deed,”the letter from Tate said.

But Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., a Roman Catholic and longtime leader of House abortion foes, called the proposal to deny funds to candidates on the abortion issue”a serious tactical error, and very unhelpful to our cause.” Hyde said his position had the support of Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., the sponsor of legislation that would outlaw the use of the controversial late-term abortion procedure.

The issue has sharply divided the Republican Party and some of its most prominent members, such as New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who support abortion rights.

Under terms of the proposal to be debated by the RNC, party money would be denied to any candidate who does not oppose the late-term procedure ban. The ban, which twice passed Congress, has been vetoed by President Clinton.

European nations agree to ban human cloning

(RNS) Officials from 19 European nations Monday (Jan. 12) signed an agreement banning human cloning.”At a time when occasional voices are being raised to assert the acceptability of human cloning and even to put it more rapidly into practice, it is important for Europe to solemnly declare its determination to defend human dignity against the abuse of scientific techniques,”said Daniel Tarchys, secretary general of the Council of Europe, which drew up the agreement.

The ban was prompted in part by last week’s announcement by independent scientist Richard Seed that he was ready to set up a clinic to clone human babies, Reuters reported.

Seed’s declaration has caused an uproar around the world, leading not only to the Council of Europe’s agreement but a call by President Clinton for a ban on human cloning. A number of members of Congress have said they will propose such a ban when Congress returns later this month.

The Council of Europe accord bars”any intervention seeking to create a human being genetically identical to another human being, whether living or dead.” It rules out any exception to the ban, even in the case of sterile couples. Seed has said he believes his project will be able to help such infertile couples by creating babies for them.

The Council of Europe agreement will become part of the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine.

Scottish cardinal makes clemency appeal for Ohio death row inmate

(RNS) Roman Catholic Cardinal Thomas Winning, archbishop of Glasgow, Scotland, has lent his weight to the campaign to save a 33-year-old Scot, Kenny Richey, who is awaiting possible execution in Ohio.

According to reports in British newspapers, Richey was sentenced to death in 1986 after being found guilty of the murder of 3-year-old Cynthia Collins. He was accused of starting a fire to frighten his former girlfriend and her new lover, who lived on the same block as Collins.

Richey’s lawyers claim fresh forensic evidence suggests the fire was started accidentally, but successive appeals have failed. The Ohio Supreme Court will hear arguments on the case sometime this spring.

Ohio is expected to resume executions later this year.

Richey has become something of a cause celebre in Britain. His case was the subject of a TV documentary on British television Monday (Jan. 12).

In his letter sent to the Ohio Supreme Court, the governor of Ohio, the state’s attorney general, and President Clinton, Winning expressed his”deep concern”about Richey’s possible execution.

He said he did not want to minimize the enormity of the crime Richey was accused of, but he urged those in authority to take various points into consideration.”I would strenuously urge those in a position to influence this case to re-examine the evidence,”the Scottish cardinal wrote.”In the case of the defendant once more being found guilty _ an outcome which must be at least be doubtful _ I would ask that clemency be shown and the death sentence commuted to one of life imprisonment. It seems deeply illogical that the state should consider the taking of life the most appropriate way to uphold the sanctity of life.” Quote of the day: gospel singer Shirley Caesar

(RNS)”I want the world to know that Shirley Caesar is pastoring in Raleigh, N.C. I believe that singing and preaching go together like ham and eggs.” _ Gospel singer Shirley Caesar on her career in an interview (Jan. 12) with USA Today.

MJP END RNS