c. 2003 Religion News Service

Phoenix Bishop Charged in Fatal Hit-and-Run Accident

(RNS) The Roman Catholic bishop of Phoenix was arrested Monday (June 16) in connection with a deadly hit-and-run accident after police found his Buick’s windshield caved in and said he tried to have it replaced.

Bishop Thomas O’Brien, who two weeks ago signed an agreement with prosecutors that avoided criminal charges for his handling of the clergy sex abuse scandal, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, a felony. O’Brien was booked and released on $45,000 bail.

Police said Jim L. Reed, 43, was killed Saturday night while jaywalking across Glendale Avenue in Northwest Phoenix. O’Brien admitted to police that he was driving in the area on his way home from a confirmation Mass and did not stop after the collision. O’Brien said he thought someone had thrown a rock at his car or he had hit an animal, according to the Arizona Republic.

Witnesses got a partial license plate number and the car was traced to O’Brien’s house. When police arrived Monday morning, they found the passenger’s side of the windshield shattered and caved in.

During questioning, O’Brien was briefly admitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center when his blood pressure got dangerously high. A judge ordered O’Brien to turn in his passport and not leave the state. The judge denied O’Brien’s request to attend the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting this week in St. Louis.

Police spokesman Sgt. Randy Force told The New York Times that harsher charges were not filed because the accident was not O’Brien’s fault. “The pedestrian is the party at fault for the collision,” he said. “He was crossing mid-block and it’s a pedestrian’s obligation to stop for traffic.”

Monsignor Richard Moyer, the diocese’s chief of staff, issued a short statement. “I sincerely regret reports I have received about Bishop O’Brien being involved in a fatal accident. The sympathy of all of us in the Diocese of Phoenix as well as our prayerful support goes out to the victim’s family.”

Under the deal reached with prosecutors, O’Brien agreed to cede much of his authority in exchange for avoiding criminal prosecution. O’Brien’s handling of abusive priests prompted numerous calls for his resignation. Many church observers said O’Brien will now likely resign or be removed by Pope John Paul II.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Presbyterian Pastor Ousted for Marrying Gay Couples

(RNS) A Presbyterian pastor who defiantly married gay couples in violation of church policy was removed from his Cincinnati church and the Presbyterian Church (USA) on Monday.

The Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken, pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, was ousted after a 119-45 vote by members of the regional Cincinnati Presbytery.

Van Kuiken refused to abide by a church policy that allows the blessing of same-sex unions as long as they are not equated with marriages. A Mount Auburn policy adopted in 2001 said “our policy of inclusion implies and requires equality in terms of consideration and entitlement in society, and that marriage between two persons, man and woman, man and a man, or woman and woman, is the same …” in the eyes of the church.

“I am grieving right now,” Van Kuiken said after the vote, according to the Associated Press. “And part of this grieving is over the forced separation from my congregation. I love them, and my heart will always be with them.”

Last April, Van Kuiken was found guilty and rebuked by a church court for marrying gay couples, but was acquitted on a technicality on charges that he ordained sexually active gay clergy. Van Kuiken’s appeal in that case is now moot.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Study: Number of New York Jews Dips Below 1 Million

(RNS) The number of Jews living in New York City has dropped below 1 million for first time in a century, a new study has found.

“The Jewish Community Study of 2002,” released June 16 by the UJA-Federation of New York, reported that 972,000 Jews lived in the five boroughs of New York in 2002, a 6 percent dip from the last count, which was conducted in 1991.

The population of the greater New York area, which includes the five boroughs plus Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties, has remained stable, the study reported, at 1.4 million Jews.

But in the city itself, the population has fallen, with many financially successful Jews continuing the decades-old trend of moving to the suburbs.

While the number of Jewish households in Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties has increased by 24 percent, the number of city Jewish households has decreased by 6 percent, the study said.

The study also found that the poverty level among New York Jews has more than doubled since 1991, due to factors including a downturned economy, an aging population and an influx of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

One in five Jewish families is poor, according to the report.

For the study, 4,533 telephone interviews were conducted between March and September of 2002. The survey identified “Jewish households” to call based on a household containing at least one person older than 18 that self-identified as Jewish. The margin of error varied for different parts of the survey from 1.8 to 2.7 percentage points.

The organizers of the study said they believe the full report, which will be released in the fall along with a separate report on the poverty issue, will help Jewish organizations understand their communities better.

“The true test of the study’s effectiveness will be the extent to which these findings enhance our ability to meet the emerging communal needs,” said John S. Ruskay, UJA-Federation’s executive vice president and CEO.

The National Jewish Population Survey, which investigates trends for the American Jewish community as a whole, is widely anticipated and may be released in the coming months after some methodological issues held it back last fall.

_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Catholic Relief Group Urges Changes in Africa Oil Policy

WASHINGTON (RNS) After more than a year of intensive study of oil development in Africa, Catholic Relief Services released a report Tuesday (June 17) urging critical changes in the way sub-Saharan African nations manage their oil revenues.

As foreign oil companies invest billions of dollars for petroleum production into the region, African governments should seize the opportunity to alleviate poverty.

The study, conducted by Ian Gary, CRS strategic issues adviser for Africa, and Terry Lynn Karl, professor of political science at Stanford University, estimates that the sub-Saharan oil industry will make more than $200 billion over the next 10 years, enabling governments to invest in education, health, water and other vital social programs.

But according to the report, most oil-exporting countries fail to improve the lives of ordinary citizens despite the economic boom. In Nigeria, where oil revenues over the last 25 years topped $300 billion, the average daily income is still less than a dollar. Such failures suggest that mismanaged oil revenues can exacerbate poverty, the report says.

To prevent a Nigeria-like scenario from unfolding in other oil-rich nations, CRS, which supports church and civil society programs in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Congo and Angola, is pushing for greater financial transparency and government accountability.

The report also urges the U.S. and international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to change the way they do business with African oil suppliers by demanding public disclosure of revenues.

Africa, already a key oil supplier to the United States, is likely to export even more oil to America in the coming years. By the end of the decade, the United States, which already imports 17 percent of its oil from Africa, will get nearly a quarter of its oil from the region. Major U.S. companies like ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil have announced they expect to spend up to $25 billion in African oil investments in the next decade.

_ Alexandra Alter

Ugandan Rebels Said to Target Catholic Missions, Workers

(RNS) The rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, known for kidnapping and inducting children into its army, has identified Catholic priests, nuns and missions as targets in its attacks on the civilian population of the north.

The LRA, which is fighting to replace Uganda’s current government with a theocracy based on the biblical Ten Commandments, announced its plans to attack Catholic missions after church leaders sought to mediate a ceasefire between the rebels and the government, the BBC reported Tuesday (June 17).

LRA leader Joseph Kony ordered the attacks over a radio network used by missions in the north.

“Catholic missions must be destroyed, priests and missionaries killed in cold blood and nuns beaten black and blue,” Kony said, according to the Vatican-based Missionary News Service.

Archbishop John Baptist Odama of the northern Ugandan town of Gulu told the BBC he was surprised to see the war, which has been largely political, taking a religious turn.

Previously, the LRA said it was willing to work with religious leaders seeking a peaceful resolution to the central African nation’s 17-year civil war. Catholic priests of the Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative said they were confused by Kony’s orders but believed them to be authentic.

“We have no reason to doubt the message was authentic,” missionary leader Father Carlos Rodriguez told BBC reporters. “In the last five weeks LRA has burned, bombed and desecrated churches on nine occasions.”

Besides supplying most of the health and education services in the north, churches have provided refuge to thousands of people seeking protection from the ongoing violence. Attacks on civilians have intensified since the Ugandan army stormed the rebels’ bases in neighboring Sudan last year.

_ Alexandra Alter

Quote of the Day: Pastor Glenn Plummer, Chairman of the National Religious Broadcasters

(RNS) “If there is anything that ought to unify us, it should be Jesus Christ. If my allegiance to my blackness supersedes my allegiance to my Savior and God, that is idolatry.”

Pastor Glenn Plummer, chairman and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters, addressing a National Summit on Racism and the Church in Fairfield, Ohio. He was quoted by the Cincinnati Inquirer.

DEA END RNS