c. 2003 Religion News Service
Democrats Say Vote Against Pryor Is Not Anti-Catholic
WASHINGTON (RNS) Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee blistered at accusations of anti-Catholic bias as they voted to reject the nomination of Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor to a federal appeals court.
The committee voted 10-9 on Wednesday (July 23) to send Pryor’s nomination to the full Senate. All nine Democrats voted to reject Pryor’s bid for a seat on the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Pryor, a Catholic, has denounced the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion and has also supported Alabama Supreme Court Judge Roy Moore’s fight to display the 10 Commandments in his courthouse. Pryor has said his religious views would not influence his court rulings.
Democrats accused Republicans of supporting an ad campaign sponsored by the Committee for Justice, a lobby group pushing for President Bush’s judicial nominees, that showed a locked courthouse door with a sign reading, “Catholics need not apply,” according to The New York Times.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called the ads “tawdry and diabolical.” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said his party’s concerns were now being mislabeled as anti-Catholic. “This is crazy, absolutely crazy,” he told The Washington Post.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, accused Democrats of crafting a policy in which “traditional pro-life Catholics cannot serve on the federal bench.” William Donohue, the conservative head of the Catholic League, said Pryor is a victim of “religious profiling by pro-abortion Democrats.”
The Rev. Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, opposes Pryor’s nomination and accused his supporters of a “disgraceful” attempt to “distract attention from his dangerous views by raising baseless allegations of religious bigotry.”
Pryor’s nomination now heads to the full Senate, where Democrats have threatened to kill it with a filibuster. The American Center for Law and Justice, a law firm founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, called on the Senate not to stall on Pryor’s nomination.
Others, however, vowed to fight the Pryor nomination. “Our constitutional freedoms are in jeopardy if nominees like Bill Pryor sit on the federal bench,” said Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Boston Report: 250 Priests, Church Officials Involved in Abuse
BOSTON (RNS) Boston’s Roman Catholics found themselves awash once again in outrage, frustration and fresh resolve for reform Wednesday as Massachusetts’ attorney general reported that area priests likely had abused more than 1,000 victims since 1940.
In a report capping a 16-month investigation, Attorney General Thomas Reilly said 789 minors had accused at least 237 priests and 13 other church workers of sexual molestation over six decades. The actual number of victims may be much higher, Reilly said, since not all victims come forward with complaints.
As expected, Reilly issued no indictments against church supervisors since Massachusetts law proved insufficient for mounting a child endangerment case. Nevertheless, he berated the church for failing “to demonstrate an appropriate sense of urgency for attacking the problem of child sexual abuse or for changing its culture to remove the risk to children.”
“The facts learned over the past 18 months describe one of the greatest tragedies to befall children in this Commonwealth,” Attorney General Reilly said. “The sexual abuse of children of such staggering magnitude and over several decades is nothing less than a complete failure of leadership. Even after knowing the scope of the abuse, top officials of the archdiocese chose to protect their own priests and the reputation of the institution rather than protecting children.”
Spokespersons for the Archdiocese of Boston said the 76-page report would require “a serious and thorough reading before any substantive response can be made.” Their statement added, however, that the church “will treat sexual abuse of a child as a criminal matter” and “will end any culture of secrecy in the handling of such matters.”
Response to the report from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests summed up frustration felt by public protesters outside the attorney general’s office this week.
“We had really hoped that Reilly would have dug deeper, tried harder and been more innovative in pursuing possible criminal action,” said Bill Gately, co-coordinator of SNAP for New England. “Overall, we are disappointed that his report did not include more specific recommendations on how to hold molesters and those who shield them accountable in the future and on how to prevent future abuse.”
Voice of the Faithful, a lay reform group founded last year in response to the clergy abuse crisis, thanked Reilly for exposing among church leaders “a dreadful lack of a moral compass revealed in their deeds.” While SNAP emphasized the need for legislative remedies, Voice of the Faithful concentrated on how the church should respond internally.
“It is morally unacceptable that the protectors of predators continue to hold positions of administrative leadership in our church,” said Voice of the Faithful President James Post. He called for a “thorough examination of conscience” to be followed by resignations.
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Arafat Tells Israelis to Curtail Visits to Temple Mount
JERUSALEM (RNS) Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has issued a stiff new warning to the Israeli government saying it should stop facilitating low-profile visits by Jews to Jerusalem’s ancient Temple Mount area, known to Muslims as Al Haram Al Sharif or Al Aksa Mosque.
The area, which is the third holiest site in Islamic tradition and the holiest in Judaism, had been officially closed by Islamic authorities to all non-Muslim visitors since September 2000, when Ariel Sharon, now Israeli Prime Minister, made a now famous _ and provocative _ visit. Sharon’s visit touched off a wave of violent Palestinian protests that snowballed into a mass uprising that continued until the recent “road map” to peace eased the violence.
But during the recent period of relative calm, Israeli police, who have security access to the sacred area, have been escorting small groups of Jewish worshippers to the Mount. The visits are apparently part of a new government attempt to gradually reopen the area to tourists and pilgrims but they go against the will of Muslim authorities who say the time is not ripe to renew non-Muslim visits to the area.
Arafat, speaking in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday (July 22) to diplomats and, separately, a group of of Palestinian summer camp children warned of grave consequences if the visits by Jews continue.
“This is a big crime which cannot be ignored,” he was quoted as saying in the English language Jerusalem Post. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, on a visit to Egypt, also called the Israeli-organized visits “provocative” in a press conference with Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa.
Prior to the 2000 riots, the Mount was open to visits by tourists of all religious streams. However even then Islamic officials who control day-to-day affairs around the Al Aksa Mosque, which has graced the site for centuries, prohibited both Christians and Jews from performing any kind of religious rituals or even uttering prayers aloud. Underlying the conflict over the visits is the conflicting Jewish and Muslim claims of exclusive rights to the area. Muslims also fear efforts by Jewish extremist groups to stage prayers and religious rituals are part of a strategy aimed at the expulsion of Muslims from the area, the destruction of the mosques and the rebuilding of a third Jewish Temple.
_ Elaine Ruth Fletcher
Court Says Presbyterian Churches Can’t Be Forced to Give Money
(RNS) The highest court in the Presbyterian Church (USA) has ruled that local churches cannot be forced to give money to the denomination, but cautioned that withholding funds in protest is a “serious breach of trust and love.”
The 2.5 million-member church funds most of its programs with “per capita” funds, or dues, sent by local churches. That money is funneled into 189 regional districts called presbyteries, which then send the money to church headquarters in Louisville, Ky.
The July 12 decision by the church’s Permanent Judicial Commission overturned a policy adopted by the Scioto Valley Presbytery in central Ohio, which said churches had a responsibility to help fund the larger denomination.
The court ruled that payments are voluntary, but said church members are “bound together … through our union to God Almighty in Jesus through the Holy Spirit,” and have “a high moral obligation based on the grace and call of God to participate fully in the covenant community,” according to Presbyterian News Service.
Several conservative groups, upset with a perceived leftward drift of the denomination, have advocated withholding money in protest.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Lutheran Youth Vote to Become Gay-Friendly
(RNS) The official youth office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has voted overwhelmingly to accept gay and lesbian members, even as the church remains divided on its policies on human sexuality.
More than 300 delegates to the Lutheran Youth Organization voted by a 91 percent margin on Wednesday (July 23) to welcome people of all sexual orientations and to be listed as a “Reconciling in Christ” organization with Lutheran Concerned, an independent group of gay Lutherans.
“I am deeply thankful to the Lutheran youth for speaking out so strongly to make gay, lesbian and bisexual people of faith welcome in their organization,” Bob Gibeling, program executive for Lutherans Concerned, said in a press release. “This is a clear indication of the youth leading the church to be more inclusive and welcoming.”
Lutherans Concerned says there are about 300 “Reconciling in Christ” congregations, synods or organizations.
The vote came during LYO’s convention in Atlanta, which was sandwiched between two larger gatherings sponsored by the church July 16-20 and July 23-27. The two sessions of the triennial ELCA Youth Gathering drew almost 40,000 youths and adults to Atlanta. The two massive rallies at the Georgia Dome were not legislative meetings.
The ELCA, which will meet next month in Milwaukee for its Churchwide Assembly, is in the middle of a four-year study on human sexuality. The church currently does not ordain actively gay pastors or bless same-sex unions, but allows celibate homosexuals to serve as clergy.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister
(RNS) “Our ministry must be not only to comfort, but to challenge the state, community and church. Not just to attend to the pain, but to advocate for change; to be not just a vision, but a voice; not simply to care for the victims of the world, but also to change the institutions that victimize them.”
_ Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, an outspoken advocate of reform in all Christian churches, speaking to the 2003 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women in Louisville, Ky. She was quoted by Presbyterian News Service.
DEA END RNS
