c. 1999 Religion News Service
Vatican confirms intervening in Pinochet extradition case
(RNS) The Vatican confirmed Friday (Feb. 19) that it has intervened with the British government on behalf of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator who is fighting extradition from England to Spain.”I can confirm that there has been a diplomatic intervention by the Holy See with the English government as declared yesterday in the House of Lords in London by Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean of the Foreign office,”Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters in the Vatican Press Office.
Navarro-Valls refused to disclose any details of the Vatican’s message but noted that the Roman Catholic Church strongly supports the process of national reconciliation in Chile.
Pinochet, 83, who led the military junta that overturned President Salvador Allende’s leftist government in 1973, was arrested Oct. 16 while undergoing medical treatment in London. Britain acted at the request of a Spanish magistrate seeking his extradition on charges of murder, torture and hostage-taking of Spanish citizens in Chile.
Chile opposes a foreign trial for the former dictator who is accused of being responsible for the deaths and disappearances of thousands of Chileans as well as citizens of other nations, including Spain and the United States, during his 17-year reign.
Human rights activists, including a number of religious leaders, fear that if Pinochet is returned to Chile he will not stand trial.
The House of Lords, Britain’s highest court, has reserved judgment in the case.”The intervention of the Holy See was carried out on a confidential basis and will be published at an opportune time in agreement with the government of the United Kingdom according to international practice,”Navarro-Valls said.”The interest of the Apostolic See originated with the request from the present Chilean government, composed of a Christian Democratic-Socialist coalition, which claimed sovereignty in international forums, including the juridical field,”the Vatican spokesman said.
He said Chile made the request a month ago.
In November, the Vatican’s foreign minister Archbishop Jean Louis Tauran said the Holy See had no immediate plans to intervene in the case.
The Foreign Office said in London earlier Friday that it had received a message from”high Vatican officials but not from the pope himself.” The London Daily Telegraph reported that the message was sent Thursday (Feb. 18) and contained a request for clemency for humanitarian reasons and to further national reconciliation. The newspaper said the Vatican also argued that Pinochet could not be prosecuted because he is a former head of state.
ADL says Illinois white supremacist should get law license
(RNS) The Anti-Defamation says an Illinois man should receive a law license despite his”abhorrent”racist and anti-Semitic views because denying him one would set a”dangerous precedent.” An Illinois panel that evaluates the”character and fitness”of potential attorneys has rejected 27-year-old Matthew Hale’s application for a law license because of his views.
Hale, who has completed law school and passed the Illinois bar exam, leads a white supremacist group called the World Church of the Creator that advocates a”racial holy war”against all”mud races.” At his home office in East Peoria, Ill., an Israeli flag serves as a doormat and swastikas adorn the walls. His group’s Web site, which he maintains, contends Hitler was wrong only in not advocating the supremacy of all whites and not just Germans.
Despite that, the ADL, a New York-based Jewish group organized to fight anti-Semitism, said denying Hale a law license because of his views was a”very slippery slope.” In a statement, the ADL said:”At another time, in another place, we could envision a circumstance in which another Committee on Character and Fitness could follow this lead to reject a candidate because that candidate has expressed support for abortion, opposition to school prayer or other moral views contrary to the majority of his or her community.” In a related development, Hale was said to be seeking the help of prominent Jewish attorney Alan Dershowitz, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news agency reported Thursday (Feb. 18).
Dershowitz said he was considering taking the case if he was satisfied that Hale had not encouraged or supported violence in any way. The attorney said that if he does take the case, any fees earned would be donated to groups that fight racism.”Character committees should not become thought police,”Dershowitz said.
Asked how he felt about the Jewish support, Hale said both the ADL and Dershowitz”realize that if I am denied my law license today, potentially a Jew might be denied their license tomorrow, and other people for that matter.” Hale has been arrested a number of times for publicly burning Israeli flags and other such minor offenses, but there is no proof he has encouraged or engaged in violent activities, JTA said. However, a member of Hale’s group is in prison for the 1991 murder of a black Persian Gulf War veteran.
Faith-healing parents sentenced to probation in child’s death
(RNS) The faith-healing parents of a hemophiliac child have been sentenced to probation for letting their son bleed to death.
Dean and Susan Heilman were sentenced to 17 years of probation on Thursday (Feb. 18) in a Philadelphia court. They pleaded no contest in October to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment charges.
Their son, Dean Michael, died in 1997.
Judge Carolyn Engel Temin ordered the Heilmans to immediately find a licensed pediatrician for their other two children, ages 1 and 5, and to get them medical insurance, the Associated Press reported. They also were fined $2,000 each.
Mr. Heilman, 34, left the courtroom holding his wife’s hand and carrying a Bible in the other. Their lawyer, Tom McGill, said they would comply with the probation guidelines.
Dean Michael had cut his toe on a piece of glass when he was playing in the family’s back yard. His parents, who were both raised as members of the Faith Tabernacle Congregation Church, bandaged his foot, rocked the boy and prayed.
When the child appeared listless and weak the next morning, the parents requested that their pastor anoint him with oil, their traditional faith-healing practice.
Dean Michael stopped breathing 20 hours after he was injured, but his parents did not give him any treatment or call for assistance, authorities said. Doctors testified that the child’s injuries were treatable.
The judge said there was no malice by the parents.”The court is appalled that this little child bled to death for no reason,”said Temin.”And nothing I do is meant to condone that kind of treatment. … But the perpetrators are also the victims here.”
Update: Co-defendant denies romantic link to Baptist leader
(RNS) The co-defendant in the Florida trial of Baptist leader Henry J. Lyons testified Friday (Feb. 19) that they were not romantically involved but she was”like a little kid in a candy store”when she purchased a home with him.
Bernice Edwards said she never spent any money she didn’t believe she had earned, the Associated Press reported.
Edwards, testifying in her and Lyons’ racketeering trial, also said she and the married minister were friends, not lovers.”It has been a professional relationship only, and friends,”said Edwards, the former public relations director for the National Baptist Convention, USA. Lyons is president of the predominantly African-American denomination.
Lyons and Edwards are accused by the state of swindling more than $4 million from companies seeking to market products to members of the denomination. Prosecutors said they deceived the companies with the pledge of a nonexistent mailing list of 8.5 million members.
Edwards testified that she was not involved in marketing deals with the Loewen Group, a funeral home company, or Globe Life Insurance Co. But she said she worked at a later date with company executives to compile a list of convention members.”The ministers didn’t want to give their lists,”she said of a 1995 effort to solicit rosters from pastors of churches affiliated with the denomination.”They felt first that it’s private and second … someone would take their members.” Edwards said executives of the insurance company were aware there was no membership list at that point and sought her help in compiling one so they could market products to members of the denomination. She testified that she received between $350,000 and $400,000 from Globe, money she said was to pay her for her work and reimburse her expenses.”That was a good payday for you?”asked defense attorney Paul Sisco.”Absolutely,”she replied.
Edwards testified that she spent the money on jewelry, a $700,000 waterfront home she bought with Lyons and other pricey items.”I bought these things because I worked hard to earn that money. It was my chance to buy some things I always wanted,”she said.”I was like a little kid in a candy store.” Edwards’ testimony began Thursday after Lyons decided not to take the witness stand.
Lyons made that decision in part because he faces a federal trial in April on charges of fraud, money laundering and extortion.
Dissident Canadian Presbyterian church `ordains’ its gay minister
(RNS) A dissident Presbyterian congregation in Montreal has”ordained”its homosexual minister.
Clergy from four other denominations joined with governing elders of the congregation Monday (Feb. 15) in”blessing”the ministry of Darryl Macdonald at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, where he has ministered since 1995.
The congregation left the Presbyterian Church of Canada last June, after receiving an ultimatum from the denominations’ national office telling it not to ordain active homosexuals.
The Presbyterian Church of Canada is one of Canada’s smaller Protestant denominations, with about 40,000 members.
One of the clergy taking part in Macdonald’s ordination was Rev. Paul Evans of the United Church of Canada, an 800,000-member denomination that voted to ordain homosexuals in 1988. The United Church was formed in a 1925 merger of most members of the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregationalist denominations.
The Presbyterian Church of Canada said two years ago that Macdonald would not be a suitable minister. But Macdonald’s congregation decided to stand by him. It has about 80 members.
Church of Scotland speaks on genetically altered food
(RNS) The Church of Scotland has stepped into the controversy raging in Great Britain over the issue of genetically modified foodstuffs.
Donald Bruce, director of the Presbyterian denomination’s Society, Religion and Technology Project, took issue with the hysteria generated by the debate but also warned of the injustice being inflicted on consumers.
The dispute has centered on the British government’s refusal to implement a moratorium on the commercial growing of genetically modified crops and the failure of present food labeling rules to require clearly which processed foods include such genetically modified foodstuffs as soya and maize.”Fears about the risks of genetically modified food are being exaggerated in an irresponsible way, so that we may end up throwing the baby out with the bath water,”Bruce said.
Noting that the regulatory system must err on the side of caution where there are”significant”uncertainties, Bruce said it was”misguided”to jump straight into a call for a complete moratorium on all genetically modified food on the basis of recently publicized experiments showing negative consequences.
Still, Bruce said, society has an obligation to provide a choice for those who object to genetically modified foods by labeling all foods which had involved genetic modification in their production.”The present European Union regulations are unjust and undemocratic,”Bruce said,”because they make labeling mandatory only if foreign DNA or the relevant protein can actually be detected.”This completely fails to meet the concerns of the large numbers of people for whom the problem is not literally eating strange genes but a basic objection to the use of genetic modification in food at all.” Bruce said a forthcoming report to the denomination’s general assembly from his project will call on the British government and the European Union for”urgent changes”in labeling regulations.”At present it is impossible for anyone with a fundamental objection to genetic modification to know whether they are eating genetically modified food or not,”he said.”This is simply unjust.”
Quote of the day: The Rev. Rex Horne, President Clinton’s pastor
(RNS)”For any president, there is such a great weight placed upon him. They know things they cannot tell anybody _ so many national secrets, so many crises. That is one reason you see presidents aging so much during their terms. They all need our prayers.” _ The Rev. Rex Horne, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., in an interview with Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.
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