c. 2003 Religion News Service

Milwaukee-Area Priests Sign Letter for Married Priesthood

(RNS) More than 160 Milwaukee-area priests have signed a letter calling for married men to be permitted to enter the priesthood.

“We join our voices to those of so many others at this time, voices urging that (the) diocesan priesthood now be open to married men as well as to celibate men,” said the letter circulated in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Copies of the letter were mailed to 442 active and retired diocesan priests and 128, or 29 percent, returned signed copies, the organizers said. Another 35 priests in religious orders signed copies, the Associated Press reported.

They hope the letter will spark dialogue on the issue of optional celibacy due to the shortage of priests, said the Rev. Tom Suriano, pastor of St. Patrick Church in Whitewater, Wis.

Catholic priests are required to take a vow of celibacy and are forbidden to be married.

The Rev. Robert Silva, president of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils, said he would ask that the letter be discussed by the Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry, which is a subcommittee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Silva said Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan will chair that committee starting in November.

“Given the present context of the scandals of the last several years, many see optional celibacy as something that needs to be discussed,” Silva said. “It opens up the pool of candidates for the priesthood.”

Jerry Topczewski, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said Dolan did not try to stop the priests from distributing the letter. Topczewski did not expect there to be any fallout for priests who signed the document.

Colombia’s Protestant Churches Still Face Persecution

(RNS) Colombia’s Protestant churches continue to experience persecution in what Colombian church leaders call an intensification of the nation’s nearly 40-year-old civil war.

In a report issued to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the August 2002 inauguration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Colombia’s Protestant churches said Uribe’s commitment to expanding the war against leftist rebel factions has worsened a cycle of violence that may be difficult to contain.

As part of that escalation, 38 Protestant pastors, church leaders or church members were assassinated in the first six months of this year, the report said.

“The social conflict grows and the war heats up: 30,000 violent deaths each year, 3 million people in conditions of internal displacement,” said the report, written by Ricardo Esquivia, a well-known Mennonite peace activist and director of Justapaz, the Mennonite Christian Center for Justice, Peace and Nonviolent Action.

“The Protestant churches, as part of the civilian population, are not exempt from this situation and have been greatly affected by this wave of injustice, violence and intensification of war,” said Esquivia, who is also the president of the Human Rights and Peace Commission of the Evangelical Council of Colombian Churches, a coalition of Protestant churches in Colombia.

The current report is not only something of a “report card” on the U.S.-backed Uribe’s first year in office but also a follow-up to a 2002 report which detailed the ways in which violence in Colombia was affecting small, independent churches in rural areas _ the locale of much of Colombia’s war-related violence.

Like the 2002 report, this year’s report is an admittedly incomplete picture of the threats facing Colombia churches, since Colombia is an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country. Still, the current report details the ways in which Colombia’s civil war is affecting the day-to-day life of poor civilians, who make up the overwhelming number of those killed in the conflict.

And, like the earlier report, the 2003 report _ written as a letter to the worldwide Christian community _ is striking in part because those killed are apolitical pastors or leaders assassinated by either left-wing or right-wing groups. Often churches, church leaders and members are targeted not for political reasons but for simply offering assistance to members of a community living in an area controlled by a different armed group.

In one of the most egregious acts of violence, a 9-year-old child, Orgando Ropero, who attended the United Pentecostal of Fortul Church in Arauca, was killed April 17 when a leftist guerrilla reportedly tricked the child and offered him 1,000 pesos, roughly 35 cents, to ride a bike and leave a bomb in front of a police station. The boy was killed when the bomb exploded.

_ Chris Herlinger

Muslim Charity Leader Sentenced to 11 Years

CHICAGO (RNS) Enaam Arnaout, leader of a Muslim charity accused of having ties to Osama bin Laden, was sentenced Monday (Aug. 18) to more than 11 years in prison for racketeering.

In February, Arnaout, head of the Palos Heights, Ill.-based Benevolence International Foundation, pleaded guilty to diverting $196,653 from the charity to purchase boots, uniforms and an ambulance for Chechen Islamic rebels, and boots, tents and blankets for Islamic fighters in Bosnia.

Arnaout, 46, was sentenced to 11 years and four months in prison. He was originally charged with diverting funds to terrorist groups and supporting al-Qaida, but those charges were dropped after he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors investigating links between terrorists and Islamic charities in the United States.

Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Suzanne B. Conlon to sentence Arnaout to more than 20 years in prison, claiming he had refused to cooperate with their investigation and that he had ties to terrorists. Arnaout has admitted meeting bin Laden in the past, but denied he or his organization supported the terrorist. On July 17, Conlon rejected prosecutors’ request that Arnaout’s sentence be increased because of ties to terrorists.

“Arnaout does not stand convicted of a terrorist offense,” she wrote in her opinion. “Nor does the record reflect that he attempted, participated in or conspired to commit any act of terrorism.”

According to The Associated Press, Conlon also ordered Arnaout, a Syrian-born U.S. citizen, to pay $315,624 in restitution, saying he deprived needy refugees of important aid by diverting funds to military groups.

During his sentencing, Arnaout maintained his innocence, claiming he was “kidnapped by the government.”

“I came to this country to enjoy freedom and justice,” The Associated Press quoted Arnaout. “I came to have a peaceful life.”

_ Bob Smietana

The Citadel Moves From Prayer to Moment of Silence Before Meals

(RNS) The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, S.C., has started having a moment of silence instead of spoken prayers before meals in response to a recent appeals court decision.

On Aug. 13, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reconsider an April decision by a three-judge panel that declared dinnertime prayers at the Virginia Military Institute to be unconstitutional.

As a result, Maj. Gen. John Grinalds, president of the Citadel, announced that his college will observe a moment of silence before meals in the mess hall.

“This moment of silence will allow you to express your individual beliefs in your own way,” Grinalds told a gathering of cadet leaders two days after the decision. “While the 4th Circuit Court ruling will create some changes here, the college will abide by the law.”

The school, which falls under the jurisdiction of the appeals court, said in a news release that cadets can meditate, pray or simply be quiet during the moment of silence.

Virginia Attorney Jerry W. Kilgore has said he will appeal the VMI case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Bush Makes Appointments to International Religious Freedom Panel

WASHINGTON (RNS) President Bush has reappointed a Southern Baptist and named a Roman Catholic bishop and a Muslim academic to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The nine-member commission is a worldwide watchdog for religious liberty. It counsels Congress, the president and the secretary of state on how to sponsor and uphold religious freedom and tolerance.

“If the United States does not insist that religious liberty be part of the agenda, no one else will,” said Southern Baptist Richard Land.

The panel is composed of a nonvoting ambassador-at-large and nine voting members, three of whom are appointed by the president and the rest by congressional party leaders.

Land is president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and is the first commissioner to be reappointed since the establishment of the independent federal agency in 1998.

Bush also named Archbishop Charles Chaput, head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, and professor Khaled Abou El Fadl of Los Angeles.

When Chaput was named the Roman Catholic archbishop of Denver in 1995, he became the first American Indian archbishop in the history of the country. Before going to Colorado, he was bishop of Rapid City, S.D.

Abou El Fadl specializes in Islamic law. He teaches law at UCLA and is a visiting professor at Yale Law School. His doctorate in Islamic studies came from Princeton and his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

_ Emily Dagostino

Quote of the Day: Dave Kulow, member of Apostles Lutheran Church, Brandon, Fla.

(RNS) “Vandalism on a house, or vandalism on a business, that’s one thing. But vandalism on a church? That’s purely the work of Satan.”

_ Dave Kulow, a member of Apostles Lutheran Church in Brandon, Fla., where vandals started a fire and shattered stained glass late Aug. 15 or early Aug. 16. He was quoted by the St. Petersburg Times.

DEA END RNS