c. 2000 Religion News Service

Coalition of Faith Leaders Seeks Clemency for Drug Offenders

WASHINGTON (RNS) Hundreds of religious leaders have joined to ask President Clinton to commute the sentences of low-level, nonviolent federal drug offenders before the end of his presidential term.

“Presidential action is urgent because it is unlikely that the opportunity to free significant numbers of deserving prisoners will arise again for four or eight years as the political risk involved will likely be avoided in a charged political atmosphere,” said Chad Thevenot, coordinator of the Coalition for Jubilee Clemency, in a statement.

The coalition’s letter, dated Nov. 20 but released this week, asked Clinton to consider the cases of those who have been imprisoned for drug offenses for periods of time they consider out of proportion for the severity of their crimes.

“As faith leaders who cherish divine justice and mercy for all persons, we ask you to grant clemency to and to release on supervised parole those federal prisoners who have served at least five years for low-level, nonviolent involvement in drug cases,” coalition members wrote.

“By exercising your executive power to forgive these men and women, you help heal the devastating effects of race and class disparities in our criminal justice system. Commuting the sentences of low-level, nonviolent drug offenders will begin to restore much-needed public confidence in our criminal justice system.”

More than 600 faith leaders have endorsed the letter. Signers include Bishop Frederick H. Borsch of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles; the Rev. Robert F. Drinan, a Georgetown University law professor and former congressman; the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches and a former congressman; Rabia Terri Harris, coordinator of the Muslim Peace Fellowship; Rabbi Charles A. Kroloff, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis; and African Methodist Episcopal Zion Bishop George W. Walker of Farmington, Conn.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Interfaith Coalition Asks N.J. Governor for Death Penalty Moratorium

(RNS) An interfaith coalition of religious leaders has asked New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman to impose a two-year moratorium on the death penalty in the state, even though New Jersey has not executed an inmate since 1963.

A delegation led by Roman Catholic Bishop John Smith of Trenton and United Methodist Bishop Alfred Johnson met with Whitman on Monday (Dec. 11) to ask for her help in moving along a moratorium bill stalled in the state Legislature.

Whitman, however, is a strong supporter of the death penalty and is not likely to move on the bill. Still, the religious leaders said Whitman received them warmly.

“The governor listened very compassionately, very intently,” Johnson said, according to United Methodist News Service. “We believe we got a very, very good hearing.”

The delegation also included members of the Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths. The religious leaders say that even though support for the death penalty is increasingly on shaky ground, they know they have an uphill climb.

“The assembly speaker won’t bring it up for a vote,” Johnson said. “It’s too much of a hot potato.”

The current campaign for a temporary halt to capital punishment was started almost a year ago by Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who halted all state executions to examine possible flaws in the system. Since then, scores of religious leaders have sought moratoriums on both the state and federal levels.

President Clinton has been cool to the idea of a federal moratorium, despite the frequent pleas of religious leaders. Clinton did, however, postpone the scheduled execution of the first federal inmate since 1963 so that he could review the case of Juan Raul Garza. Clinton’s action leaves the decision in the hands of President-elect George W. Bush, a strong supporter of capital punishment.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

China Stepping Up Crackdown on Religion

(RNS) The Chinese government has justified as “protecting religious freedom” its new new crackdown on unauthorized religious activity in Wenzhou city in Zhejiang province.

Reports, confirmed by the government, said hundreds of temples and churches in the southeastern region were destroyed.

“It is clear that China has been carrying out a policy of protecting religious freedom,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told Reuters on Thursday (Dec. 14).

A spokesperson for Wenzhou city’s propaganda department told the Associated Press the government has destroyed about 450 buildings since early December, but the Hong Kong-based International Center for Human Rights reports that 1,200 buildings have been destroyed with dynamite.

Wenzhou is known for its thriving religious community, which includes several small Christian churches established by Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries.

“In rural areas, religious superstition is still very rampant,” said a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Office in Wenzhou. “The government’s goal is to demolish those illegal buildings as well as correct those decadent rural lifestyles.”

Among those targeted in China’s crackdown on nongovernment-sanctioned religious activities has been the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Falun Gong was banned by authorities in July of 1999 as a threat to public order. It is a blend of traditional Chinese exercises and Buddhist and Taoist principles.

On Tuesday (Dec. 12), Chinese authorities for the first time jailed a Falun Gong follower with permanent U.S. residency. Teng Chunyan, who is married to a U.S. citizen but still holds Chinese citizenship, was given a three-year sentence for “spying for overseas organizations and illegally providing intelligence on the state.”

The United States has asked China to release Teng, who used her Chinese passport to return to China in the spring. She had hoped to document the treatment of Falun Gong followers in a mental hospital in Beijing, the International Center said.

_ Shelvia Dancy

In Message to Muslims, Vatican Urges `Education for Dialogue’

VATICAN CITY (RNS) In a message to Muslims marking the close of Ramadan, the Vatican on Friday (Dec. 15) urged “education for dialogue” to prepare people of different religions and cultures to live peacefully together in a pluralistic society.

“Education for dialogue means nurturing the hope that conflict situations can be resolved through personal and collective commitment,” Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said in his annual message for the Muslim feast of Id al-Fitr.

Noting that the United Nations has proclaimed 2001 as the International Year of Dialogue between Civilizations, Arinze said all religions must promote dialogue “as a way of bringing about appreciation of other cultures and religion.”

“In accompanying young people along the highways of life, attention has to be given to the preparation required for living in a society marked by ethnic, cultural and religious plurality,” the Nigerian-born prelate said.

But, he said, “education for dialogue is not just for children and young people, it is also important for adults. For true dialogue is an ongoing process.

“Such education implies, first of all, that we broaden our vision to an ever wider horizon, become capable of looking beyond our own country, our own ethnic group, our own cultural tradition, so that we can see humanity as a single family in both its diversity and its common aspirations,” Arinze said.

_ Peggy Polk

Church of Pakistan Ordains Two Women as Deacons

(RNS) The Church of Pakistan has set two women on the path toward priesthood, ordaining them as deacons on Nov. 21.

“The church has taken a very bold step, particularly in our Islamic context, in ordaining women,” one of the women, Kushnud Azariahs, told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news service. “The gender barrier has been broken.”

Her husband, Bishop Samuel Azariahs, moderator of the 800,000-member Church of Pakistan, said the church had “gone ahead with what we believe is right. We have made our commitment to it.”

The Church of Pakistan, a member of the World Council of Churches, is composed of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans and other Protestants.

Retired army major Timotheus Nasir, moderator-secretary of the United Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, however, charged the ordinations will lead to “apostasy and heresy.”

“Women’s ordination is not authorized by the Bible,” said Nasir, who is trying to block the ordinations in civil court. He vowed that his church “will keep the fight on till the bishop repents and the court gives him due punishment under the law.”

“We want him to be taken to task for violating the national law and biblical law,” said Nasir. Pakistan is a largely Muslim nation that restricts the role women may play in religion.

The bishop denied Nasir’s claims a court had served him a “contempt of court” notice for proceeding with the ordinations.

“We have committed no contempt of court as the ordination took place before the court intervened,” said Azariahs, adding that “The court is not the authority to tell the church who is to be ordained and who is not to be ordained. There is a clear mandate in the Bible for including women in the ministry of the church.”

_ Shelvia Dancy

Out of the Ashes _ A New School and Parish Buildings

HOLYOKE, Mass. (RNS) A new Roman Catholic high school and two new parish buildings are soon to rise from the ashes of a devastating 1999 fire, thanks to an $18 million insurance settlement.

At first, hopes crumbled with the walls of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Holyoke when the work of two juvenile arsonists destroyed it in August of last year.

But now the Diocese of Springfield has dedicated about $6 million to enhance a pre-planned parish merger with Sacred Heart Church in Holyoke by adding renovations, a new rectory and a new parish center.

What’s more, the settlement also frees up $9 million to spread beyond the damaged parish in a complete replacement of the aging Holyoke Catholic High School.

The new high school “will be a living memorial to the generosity of the people of Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish,” said Bishop Thomas Dupre. “It is my hope that from the ashes of this tragedy will come a revitalized spiritual community and renewed educational opportunities for our children for generations to come.”

Fifteen months of negotiations laid the groundwork for the diocese’s settlement with a consortium of insurance companies. The $18 million figure reflects compensation above and beyond the costs incurred while cleaning up the fire site and providing temporary accommodations for students from Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, which the church operates.

Other money from the settlement will help shore up Catholic education in the Holyoke area. Immaculate Conception parish will receive $1 million for property maintenance, and a local scholarship program for Catholic elementary education could inherit a $2 million endowment.

“Our hope is to reinvest these insurance monies entirely back into the Church of Holyoke after a consultative process,” Dupre said.”… This settlement will benefit the spiritual and educational needs which were set forth even before the tragic fire.”

_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Metropolitan Silas, First Bishop of New Jersey, Dies at 80

(RNS) Metropolitan Silas, the first Greek Orthodox bishop of New Jersey, died Tuesday (Dec. 12) of a heart attack following surgery for a broken hip. He was 80.

Born in Greece, Silas was educated in Athens and arrived in the United States in 1946. He served as pastor of parishes from Massachusetts to New Mexico and taught at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in the 1950s.

In 1960, he was appointed to the new diocese in New Orleans and in 1965 was appointed to serve in New York for the First Archdiocesan District. In 1979, Silas was named the first bishop of New Jersey and was elevated to Titular Metropolitan of New Jersey a year later. In 1987, he was named president of the Hellenic College/Holy Cross School of Theology, a position he held until 1989.

Archbishop Demetrios, leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, said Silas was a widely respected theologian and clung to the traditions of the Orthodox faith.

“Beloved by thousands of Orthodox faithful, he will be remembered with everlasting gratitude as a model of benevolence, kindness and reconciliation,” Demetrios said in a statement.

Silas’ body was scheduled to lie in state at the Cathedral of St. John the Theologian in Tenafly, N.J., on Thursday and Friday (Dec. 14-15), followed by a funeral on Saturday (Dec. 16).

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Quote of the Day: Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.

(RNS) “Today, as some of us weep for what could have been, we look to the future with faith that on another morning, joy will surely come.”

_ Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., citing Psalm 30, in a Dec. 14 speech on the Senate floor after he and presidential running mate Al Gore had conceded.

DEA END RNS