c. 1999 Religion News Service

Vatican reports number of Roman Catholics has passed one billion mark

(RNS) The number of Roman Catholics worldwide has passed the 1 billion mark for the first time, according to Vatican statistics.

The information was contained in”Annuario Pontificio 1999,”the latest edition of the comprehensive Vatican yearbook, which was presented Saturday (Feb. 20) to Pope John Paul II at a Vatican ceremony.”First of all, baptized Catholics have exceeded 1 billion souls for the first time,”the Vatican reported. It said that as of Dec. 31, 1997, there were 1,005,000,000 Roman Catholics, making up 17.3 percent of the world’s population.

Regionally, Catholics are in the majority only in the Americas where they constitute 62.9 percent of the population, the Vatican said. Elsewhere, it said, Catholics make up 41.4 percent of the population in Europe, 27.5 percent in Oceania, 14.9 percent in Africa and 3 percent in Asia.

During 1998, the pope nominated 137 new bishops, and the Vatican established diplomatic relations with the Republic of Palau and the Republic of Yemen, bringing to 168 the number of states with which the Holy See exchanges envoys, the Vatican said.

As of the end of 1997 there were 4,420 bishops and 404,208 priests with 263,521 of the priests working in dioceses, the Vatican said. It said the number of priests was virtually unchanged from the previous year.

In addition, there were 24,407 permanent deacons, up 4.1 percent from the previous year, 58,210 members of religious orders who are not priests, 819,178 nuns, 31,197 members of secular institutes, 26,068 lay missionaries and 2,019,021 lay teachers of the catechism, the yearbook said.

The Vatican said the number of religious who are not priests and nuns fell by 1.3 percent, compared to 1996, but the number of new priestly vocations rose by 2.5 percent.

Presbyterians create team to monitor religious persecution abroad

(RNS) The General Assembly Council, the top decision-making structure of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) between General Assemblies, has created a team to monitor religious persecution and intolerance abroad.

The move came as a response to the national debate over religious persecution that last year saw Congress passing legislation making the issue a key element in U.S. foreign policy.

The new Presbyterian group, the Human Rights and Religious Freedom Abroad Initiative Team, will track issues of human rights and religious freedom by following reports of the State Department, other government agencies and other rights groups and independent organizations, the PCUSA said in a Feb. 19 statement.

The original federal legislation, sponsored by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., a Presbyterian, and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., was criticized by some mainline Protestant groups for singling out only Christians as cause for concern and for being too inflexible in imposing sanctions on governments found to commit religious persecution.

The groups also expressed concern that the legislation would lead to more persecution in countries targeted by the law.

Compromise legislation, sponsored by Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., was passed last fall and gives the president authority _ and flexibility _ to invoke a series of sanctions against countries. It also establishes a 10-member commission to advise Congress on ways to counter religious persecution.”Good intentions are not enough,”said the Rev. Marian McClure, director of the PCUSA’s Worldwide Ministries Division,”when the wrong approach can cause setbacks for the church and even increase persecution.” McClure said representatives of partner churches overseas where members may face persecution have urged policies that are tailored to individual situations.

Supreme Court acts on Hare Krishna, abortion cases

(RNS) The Supreme Court acted on two religion and ethics cases Monday (Feb. 22), limiting Hare Krishna solicitations in one, and, separately, upholding Virginia’s parental notification law for minors seeking abortions.

In the Hare Krishna case, the justices, without comment, rejected an appeal of a lower court ruling upholding restrictions on the group’s soliciting donations and selling religious literature at the Miami International Airport.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness had argued such restrictions violated their free speech rights.

Monday’s action was not a decision and sets no national precedent but does let stand a ruling that applies to all airports in three Southern states _ Florida, Alabama and Georgia.

In 1992, the Supreme Court had ruled that airports nationwide may bar groups from soliciting donations in terminals but must allow distribution of free literature.

The appeal rejected by the court asked the court to review the 1992 decision in the wake of the increasing commercialization of airport terminals since that ruling.

In the second action, the justices, also without comment, left intact Virginia’s law requiring doctors to notify a young girl’s parents before performing the abortion she seeks.

The justices turned away arguments that the law wrongly denies most mature girls under 18 the right to an abortion without parental involvement.

Again, the action was not a decision and, the Associated Press reported, does not preclude the possibility the court may review the Virginia law, or one similar to it, at some future date.

National Council of Churches concerned on militarization of East Timor

(RNS) The National Council of Churches has asked the United Nations and the Clinton administration to put pressure on Indonesia to stop supplying military weapons to paramilitary groups in East Timor.

In letters to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, NCC general secretary, said the 33-member ecumenical agency was pleased at the recent announcement by the Indonesian government that it may consider independence an option for East Timor, the largely Roman Catholic area the largely Muslim country annexed when Portugal ceded colonial control.”However,”she added,”reports that the Indonesian military has provided arms to residents of that territory and created paramilitary groups are completely at odds with the framework of governance being discussed under United Nations auspices.” She called for an end to the arming of civilians by the Indonesian armed forces and a”swift but orderly withdrawal”of Indonesian forces from Timor.”Given the record of human rights abuses by the Indonesian Armed Forces, we are convinced that their continued presence will extend the suffering of the East Timorese people,”she said.

Campbell also urged the United Nations to send an international monitoring force to East Timor”to oversee the disarming of the paramilitary and the withdrawal of troops as well as to provide protection to the population against human rights abuses.”

Quote of the day: Nobel peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu

(RNS)”As far as I know, no school grants a degree for being a maid.” _ Guatemalan Nobel peace prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu, author of the prize-winning book,”I, Rigoberta Menchu,”responding to attacks on her credibility by critics who charged that rather than being self-taught she”attended”elite schools. She made her remark during a Feb. 10 meeting at the National Council of Churches.

DEA END RNS