c. 1998 Religion News Service

Catholic bishop kills himself to protest Pakistani blasphemy case

(RNS) A leading Pakistani Roman Catholic bishop fatally shot himself to protest a death sentence given a Christian accused of blaspheming Islam by speaking favorably of author Salman Rushdie.

Bishop John Joseph shot himself in the head Wednesday (May 6) in the same courthouse in the city of Sahiwal where 26-year-old Ayub Massih was convicted and sentenced to death April 27. Pakistani law requires death for anyone convicted of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

Joseph, 66, was chairman of the Pakistani Catholic Bishops Conference’s human rights commission. At the Vatican, where Catholic bishops from Asia were meeting, a moment of silence was observed Thursday in his honor.

Joseph had addressed a prayer meeting in Sahiwal, some 400 miles from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, earlier Wednesday. He also met with members of Massih’s family, which is Catholic.

Joseph had said the charges against Massih were false and lodged to force 15 Christian families to drop a local land dispute.

Human Rights Without Frontiers, a Brussels-based organization, noted in a statement the that 15 families left their possessions behind when they were forced to evacuate the village of Arifwala the day Massih was accused.

Massih’s brother, Samsoon Massih, was also taken into custody but later released. Human Rights Without Frontiers said both brothers were tortured.

Ayub Massih remains in custody pending an appeal of his case. His problems began in October 1996 when a Muslim neighbor accused him of saying,”If you want to know the truth about Islam, then read Salman Rushdie.” Rushdie is the British author of”The Satanic Verses,”which many Muslims consider blasphemous. Iranian religious leaders have called for Rushdie’s death.

Massih’s case is the latest in a series of conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Pakistan. Just 2-million Pakistanis are Christian, while 140 million are Muslim. Several Pakistani Christians have been sentenced to death in previous blasphemy cases, although those convictions have been overturned.

In February 1997, Muslims destroyed 15,000 Christian homes in the town of Shantinagar after Muslim leaders charged local Christians with commiting blasphemous acts.

Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., called for U.S. government intervention to aid Massih.”If Pakistan allows this death sentence to be carried out, the U.S. should take immediate steps to block loans (to Pakistan) from the U.S. and international lending institutions,”she said.

At the State Department, spokesman James Foley said”we deplore and condemn the imposition of a sentence of death on an individual for the peaceful expression of his beliefs. In the past, we have repeatedly called upon the government of Pakistan to repeal the blasphemy law, which contributes to a climate of religious intolerance.”

Berkeley officials take away Scouts free docking privileges

(RNS) City officials in Berkeley, Calif., have voted to stop giving free dock space to the local Sea Scouts sailing program because of the Boy Scouts of America’s policy of banning gays and atheists from membership.”If we continue to give them the berths rent-free, it means the government is sanctioning discrimination,”Berkeley Councilman Kriss Worthington said before the Tuesday (May 5) vote.”We’re not kicking the Scouts out of Berkeley or off the marina. They should just pay for their berths like everyone else.” The vote on the proposal was 8-1. Under the new rules, the local Scouts will have to come up with about $12,000 if they want to continue docking their boats at the Berkeley Marina.

The Boy Scouts of America have been involved in highly visible lawsuits in California as a result of their policy denying membership to gays and atheists. It has argued that because it is a private organization it is not subject to anti-bias laws.

Supporters of the Berkeley Sea Scouts said the mission statement of the local group says sexual orientation”is a private matter”and neither parents nor youths are asked to divulge information about sexual orientation, the Associated Press reported.

They also noted they receive no money from the national Boy Scouts of America.

Report: North Korea allowing more food monitoring

(RNS) A top South Korean Red Cross official says famine-stricken North Korea has agreed to allow expanded monitoring of the distribution of food aid in some areas of the country.”I received a promise from them for allowing the monitoring of food aid by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in certain regions where they were having difficulties,”Lee Byong-Woong, secretary general of South Korea’s Red Cross told Reuters Thursday (May 7).

A host of religious, non-governmental and international agencies are involved in providing food and other aid to North Korea, which is in the third year of a famine spawned by floods, drought and a breakdown of the country’s agricultural system.

In New York, three North Korean government officials told the National Council of Churches that food supplies have run out and food shortages are expected to last for no more than another three years.”We are a land-limited country, yet in the past we have been able to meet our food needs through our own production,”Kim Su Man told the NCC officials during a May 1 meeting.

Kim and two other officials are visiting U.S. religious and other private relief agencies to thank them for previous assistance and to outline future needs.

Church World Service, the NCC’s relief arm, has provided $2.4-million worth of rice, corn, barley, beef, antibiotics, blankets and clothing to help alleviate famine-related suffering.

Kim said food aid remains the country’s number one priority, but that medicine and livestock are also needed.

Estimates by some private relief groups have suggested as many as 1 million people have died as a result of the famine, but the figures are disputed.

The United Nations’ World Food Program is seeking $378 million to provide food aid to 7.5 million North Koreans over the next 12 months. It said more than 5 million of those needing help are children.

Last month, WFP officials said its food monitors _ charged to see that donated aid gets to its target population rather than being siphoned off to feed the military _ were unable to gain access to certain areas because of what the North Koreans termed”military sensitivities.”

Lutheran leader gives backing to Third World debt cancellation movement

(RNS) Bishop Christian Krause, president of the Lutheran World Federation, has given his support to an international, church-backed campaigned aimed pressuring international financial institutions to cancel poor nations’ debts during the year 2000.

The campaign, the Jubilee Year 2000 program, has widespread support among Protestant and Roman Catholic groups in North America and Europe. They argue the millennium should be marked not only with festivities but with the implementation of the biblical jubilee year, an ancient practice in which debts were forgiven every 50 years as a means of ensuring a rough social equality.”Everyone should collaborate so that the incoming millennium is not only celebrated with fireworks, but with actions that favor the excluded,”Krause said in a speech in Managua, Nicaragua, reported Lutheran World Information, the LWF’s Geneva-based news arm.

Meanwhile, representatives from South and Central American churches, ecumenical agencies, labor unions and nongovernmental organizations met in Buenos Aries, Argentina in late April to begin a Latin American version of the jubilee campaign.

In a statement, participants said they were convinced the burden of foreign debt is a”violation of basic human rights, such as the right to a dignified job and salary, food and health, housing and a healthy environment,”the Lima-based and church-related Latin American and Caribbean Communications Agency reported.

Anglican diocese in England bars convicted pedophile from some worship

(RNS) A Church of England diocese has taken the unprecedented step of barring a convicted pedophile from attending church services where children might be present.

The man was identified by newspapers as 49-year-old Michael Cope, who in 1995 was jailed for 18 months for sexually assaulting a boy. In 1988, Cope was also jailed for nine months for sexually assaulting three choirboys, according to news reports.

Cope, who has lived in Sheffield, England, the past 20 years, has become a regular worshipper at Sheffield cathedral. The diocese has circulated details of his crimes and a photograph to clergy. A spokesman for the diocese said if its ban does not work if will be forced to go to court to obtain an injunction against the man.

While the diocese does not want to exclude anyone from church, it also must safeguard children, the spokesman said.”It is a question of balancing pastoral care for the convicted pedophile with the protection of children,”the spokesman said.

Cope was quoted by newspapers as describing the diocese’s action as”phobia and hysteria”unrelated to his actions.”There is a general climate _ not helped by the press,”he said.”I have spent so many years regretting that this happened and that people were upset. I do accept that I broke the law; I am not claiming otherwise.” Quote of the day: U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan

(RNS)”Restoring … trust is perhaps the greatest challenge facing your nation today. No one imagines that it can be restored easily or quickly. No one imagines that it can be restored without a degree of atonement and forgiveness that few peoples have ever had to find within themselves.” _ United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a speech to Rwanda’s parliament May 7, in which he urged the country’s Hutu and Tutsi communities to begin building a new Rwanda.

END RNS