c. 2003 Religion News Service
Churches Voice Support for Middle East `Road Map’
WASHINGTON (RNS) An alliance of Catholics and mainline Protestants has written to President Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas voicing support for the “road map” for Middle East peace.
Churches for Middle East Peace, a coalition of the National Council of Churches, mainline denominations and male Catholic religious orders, said the Bush plan offers the best chance for peace after 31 months of violence that have killed more than 760 Israelis and 2,300 Palestinians.
“Your bold leadership is required, now more than ever, for this to happen,” the churches told Sharon and Abbas in a joint May 14 letter.
The plan, unveiled April 30, lays out a series of steps by both sides that would eventually lead to an independent Palestinian state in 2005. The process, if successful, would be overseen by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
For its part, Israel must dismantle new settlements and cease military invasions in Palestinian territories. The Palestinians are called to an immediate cease fire, renounced violence against Israel and democratic reforms.
The churches called for “nothing short of a transformation” in both Israeli and Palestinian societies and said that “the rejection of violence by both sides _ in word and in deed _ is essential.”
Some have criticized the plan as unworkable, and Israeli officials have voiced some skepticism about the Palestinians’ abilities to cease violence. The churches urged both Bush and members of Congress to not be “dissuaded” by the plan’s critics.
“The leadership of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority are being asked to take great political risks for the sake of peace,” the church said. “We cannot ask less of you.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Bishops’ Estimate 1,400 Priests Accused of Abuse
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Even if a Catholic Church-sponsored study of priests’ sexual abuse of children fails to uncover every crime, the comprehensive monitoring of bishops can lead to positive change in the church, Kathleen McChesney told Voice of the Faithful at a packed church hall in Little Falls, N.J., on Tuesday (May 13).
McChesney, a former FBI official hired by U.S. bishops to assess reform efforts after last year’s sex abuse scandal, told the crowd of 230 at Our Lady of Holy Angels Church that her office does not yet know the exact scope of the scandal.
“Many people have been victims, but the truth is, we don’t really know (how many), not yet,” she said. “What we have really are estimates” _ 350 priests nationwide who have resigned, 1,400 who have been accused, and more than 4,000 victims.
“I’m not here to tell you that everything is going to change. All I can tell you is that it’s important to try to do what I’m going to try to do, and that I’m going to do it. I ask you all to be patient. We have six, eight months to do the audit and get some of this information to you. It’s a long process,” she said.
McChesney’s decision to appear at a Voice of the Faithful meeting caused controversy after the group made public a letter written by Newark Archbishop John J. Myers criticizing McChesney, saying her office’s decisions had perplexed a number of bishops.
Specifically, Myers was troubled by McChesney’s decision to meet with Voice of the Faithful, a lay reform group that Myers has called “anti-Catholic” and has banned from meeting on church property in the archdiocese.
McChesney’s role as the first executive director of the church’s Office of Youth and Child Protection includes monitoring bishops’ compliance with the charter they adopted after the scandal broke, to bar sexually abusive priests from ministry. She also will oversee an academic study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York to assess the history of sex abuse in the church.
She said a team of auditors _ she estimated 50 _ will assess reforms in the 195 Catholic dioceses in the United States.
She said the bishops’ charter, adopted last year in Dallas, includes pledges to provide safe environments for children, to hold priests accountable and to work toward healing and reconciliation.
Some Voice of the Faithful members doubted that McChesney’s audit will receive accurate data from church leaders, who they said were long used to cultures of secrecy.
“I’m sensing a lot of us feel your heart is really in the right place, but I think we also feel your hands are really tied,” said Maria Cleary, head of the northern New Jersey chapter of Voice of the Faithful.
McChesney has no formal power over the bishops, though her office can publicly release reports that may embarrass them.
“There are dioceses around the country, I can tell you this, that have done some commendable things, and some that have not,” McChesney said. “I’m going to report it as I see it. That’s what I was hired to do.”
_ Jeff Diamant
Evangelicals Caution Bush on Korean Policy
WASHINGTON (RNS) Religious conservatives warned President Bush not to allow South Korea to soften U.S. relations with the communist government of North Korea.
In a letter to Bush on the same day he met with new South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun, the 32 religious leaders said the United States must continue to confront the human rights abuses and nuclear program of North Korea.
“We believe that silence toward the Pyongyang regime’s vast system of gulags, toward the death sentences it imposes on dissidents and religious believers, and toward the mass starvation it imposes on all but its favored elites is neither an honorable nor a prudent option,” said a letter to Bush spearheaded by the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative Washington think tank.
Roh has voiced concern that a continued hard line against North Korea could damage his economy and provoke North Korea into a nuclear confrontation. Before his visit to Washington, Roh said he had “concerns” about U.S. policy on the Korean peninsula.
After a meeting at the White House, Bush said the two countries had made “good progress” on the North Korea problem. Roh told reporters he had “gotten rid of all my concerns” after meeting with Bush.
Diane Knippers, president of the IRD, said at a Washington press conference that “it is tempting for the world to turn a blind eye _ ignore a small nation and its blustery leader. But we cannot ignore the plight of 22 million souls, created in the image of God, created to exercise and enjoy responsible freedom.”
The letter included one prominent liberal, Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and several evangelical leaders from the Salvation Army, Southern Baptist Convention, National Association of Evangelicals, Christian Coalition of America, Christianity Today magazine and other groups.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
South African Bishop to Lead All Africa Conference of Churches
(RNS) The top Methodist bishop in South Africa has been tapped to lead the All Africa Conference of Churches.
Bishop Mvume Dandala, presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, will lead the Nairobi, Kenya-based coalition of 168 Protestant, Orthodox and independent churches. The group represents 120 million Christians in 39 African countries, according to Ecumenical News International.
Dandala, 51, was briefly jailed in 1985 for his opposition to apartheid, and from 1978 to 1982 he was the country’s first black pastor of a multiracial church, in Empangeni.
Dandala was one of 33 religious leaders who met with South African President Thabo Mbeki to discuss religion’s role in the country. “The matter of rebuilding the nation should not be looked at by government only, but as a matter of all the people of South Africa,” he said, according to ENI.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee
(RNS) “I found that my pastoral background has helped me through more than anything else because that’s really what people need at that particular point _ comfort. They don’t need a 27-page booklet on how to apply for federal aid or for a grant after a disaster. First they need some hope, some assurance, encouragement.”
_ Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, speaking in an interview with Baptist Press about how his former work as a pastor trained him to respond to victims of natural disasters.
DEA END RNS
