c. 2003 Religion News Service

House Passes Global AIDS Bill; Conservatives Win Concessions

WASHINGTON (RNS) The House on Thursday (May 1) approved a $15 billion plan to fight global AIDS, including two provisions pushed by religious groups that promote abstinence programs and allow exemptions for churches opposed to condoms.

The plan, approved on a 375-41 vote, would funnel about $3 billion a year over the next five years to 14 African and Caribbean nations hardest-hit by the AIDS epidemic. More than half of the money will go toward treatment.

“So much of what we do is really unimportant and trivial, but not today,” said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the House International Relations Committee and a lead sponsor of the bill.

Conservatives won two major concessions in the final bill. One change, offered by Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., mandates that at least one-third of the 20 percent used for prevention be designated for abstinence programs. That amendment was approved 220-197.

Pitts and others pointed to successful programs in Uganda that emphasized abstinence. “It’s important that we not just send them money, but we send them values that work,” said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., offered an amendment that allows groups opposed to condoms _ such as the Roman Catholic Church _ to still receive funding to fight AIDS. The amendment passed on a voice vote.

President Bush, who hosted a White House rally for the bill on Tuesday, praised the House action and called the bill “a moral imperative.” The bill now moves to the Senate, where Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has promised swift approval.

Religious groups, including World Vision and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, praised the bill. World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, however, warned that money for children’s health programs was at risk to pay for the AIDS bill.

“In our fight against AIDS, we must not forget that every day thousands of young children are dying from preventable or curable diseases like dehydration, malaria and pneumonia,” said World Relief President Clive Calver. “If we fail to teach mothers how to protect their children, more innocent lives will be lost.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Religion News Service Wins Six Associated Church Press Awards

(RNS) Religion News Service and its national correspondent Kevin Eckstrom won a total of six awards in the annual contest of Associated Church Press.

Eckstrom won five awards for his coverage of Catholic and ecumenical issues and the Washington-based wire service won an Award of Merit in the “Best in Class” news service category.

Eckstrom earned Awards of Excellence for coverage of the Catholic sex abuse scandal in feature article, in-depth coverage and convention coverage categories. He received an Award of Excellence for a biographical profile of the president of Catholic Charities USA and an Award of Merit for a news story about ecumenical relations.

The awards were announced Tuesday (April 29) during the annual meeting of the organization in Indianapolis. Associated Church Press is believed to be the oldest religious press association in North America, with almost 200 members.

Top winners of the 2002 awards in the “Best in Class” include:

Regional newspaper: The Anglican Advance, a publication of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.

National or international newspaper: The Anglican Journal, national newspaper of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Denominational magazine: The Banner, a publication of the Christian Reformed Church.

General interest magazine: The Other Side, published by The Other Side, a Philadelphia-based independent Christian organization.

Special interest magazine: Image: A Journal of the Arts & Religion, a publication of the Center for Religious Humanism.

Newsletter: Seeds for the Parish, a publication of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

News Service: ELCA News Service, provided by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Web site: USCatholic.org, the Web site of U.S. Catholic magazine, a publication of the Claretians religious order.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Brooklyn Bishop Rescinds Ban on Voice of the Faithful

(RNS) The Roman Catholic bishop of Brooklyn has decided to allow a group of lay reformers to meet in his diocese, six months after he banned the group from gathering on church property.

Bishop Thomas Daily said the Boston-based Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) movement may now meet in churches, but said the decision is up to local pastors, whom he asked to monitor meetings.

Daily is the first of eight bishops who banned Voice of the Faithful to change his mind. Across New York Harbor in New Jersey, Archbishop John Myers of Newark stood by his ban and refused to attend a VOTF meeting that will feature Kathleen McChesney, head of the sex abuse office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Voice of the Faithful, which now claims about 40,000 members, started a year ago in a church basement as the sex abuse scandal began to erupt in the Archdiocese of Boston.

Daily said he has examined the group’s beliefs and found them to be “in accord with the teachings of the church.” Daily said he had been concerned that the group might try to promote agendas that are “contrary to the teachings and discipline of the church.”

The bishop said discussions between his office and local VOTF leaders have been “marked on both sides by openness, communication and, most of all, the spirit of charity and a deep love for the church.”

“Hopefully, this will serve as a model for all to witness, and will allay the fears of our critics, proving that we are who we say we are,” said Steve Krueger, executive director of the group.

Mary Keirnan, a parishioner at St. Rose of Lima parish in Rockaway Beach, Queens, said her chapter was forced to meet in an American Legion Hall, not her “spiritual home.” “Not being able to meet in that parish, which I support both financially and as a volunteer, and not being able to meet freely with the people with whom I worship, has been very painful.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Warning of Terrorism Risk, Pope Urges Regulation of Globalization

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Warning that globalization without a social conscience can feed religious fanaticism and lead to terrorism, Pope John Paul II called Friday (May 2) for international regulation of worldwide trade and technology.

The Roman Catholic pontiff addressed members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, who were opening a five-day meeting on “The Governance of Globalization.” Participants included Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank.

“It is disturbing to witness a globalization that exacerbates the conditions of the needy, that does not sufficiently contribute to resolving situations of hunger, poverty and social inequality, that fails to safeguard the natural environment,” John Paul said.

“These aspects of globalization can give rise to extreme reactions,” he warned, “leading to excessive nationalism, religious fanaticism and even acts of terrorism.”

But, the pope said, the problem is not globalization in itself but rather the difficulties that “arise from the lack of effective mechanisms for giving it proper direction.”

John Paul urged guidelines to establish “an ethically responsible globalization capable of treating all peoples as equal partners and not as passive instruments.”

“The true success of globalization will be measured by the extent that it enables every person to enjoy the basic goods of food and housing, of education and employment, of peace and social progress, of economic development and justice,” the pope said.

“This goal,” he said, “cannot be achieved without guidance from the international community and adequate regulation on the part of the worldwide political establishment.”

_ Peggy Polk

First Pastor From Gay Denomination Prays in Congress

WASHINGTON (RNS) For the first time, a pastor affiliated with the nation’s largest primarily gay denomination has offered the opening prayer in the House of Representatives.

The Rev. Steven Torrance, a police chaplain in Key West, Fla., and a pastor in the Metropolitan Community Church, offered the prayer on Thursday (May 1), which was also designated the National Day of Prayer.

“Help us to secure justice and equality for every human being; help us bring an end to division, and continue to build our country on peace and love,” Torrance prayed in the House chambers.

The Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the 35-year-old denomination, said the prayer was a milestone for his church.

“Rev. Torrance’s prayer before the U.S. House of Representatives marks yet another significant milestone in MCC’s ongoing quest for equal rights for gays and lesbians at every level of the government,” Perry said in a statement.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Update: Death From Arsenic in Church Coffee Ruled a Homicide

(RNS) The fatal arsenic poisoning at a small Lutheran church in New Sweden, Maine, has been ruled a homicide, state investigators said Thursday (May 1).

Walter Reid Morrill, an elderly church usher, died Monday and at least 15 people were hospitalized after drinking coffee Sunday at Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church.

“We were looking for ways it could be an accidental introduction _ an old bottle in the cupboard, rodent poisoning near the coffee _ but there’s nothing there that makes us think it’s accidental,” Lt. Dennis Appleton, the lead investigator, told The New York Times.

“Along with our interviewing and the levels of arsenic we found, we don’t see how we can call this anything but a homicide.”

Detectives said the arsenic was not found in the water, sugar or coffee can. Church members said they used an old coffee urn to make the coffee after Sunday services.

The 50-member church is now sealed off with yellow crime scene tape and local residents are trying to figure out why someone would put poison in church coffee. The man who made the coffee also became ill.

“Before, when everyone was saying it was an accident, you could accept it more easily,” nearby resident Robert Ouellette told The Boston Globe. Ouellette was a longtime friend of Morrill. “Now that it’s a homicide, it’s hitting harder, because there’s a lot of speculation, and everyone’s looking at everyone else.”

Quote of the Day: The late Episcopal Bishop Paul Moore Jr.

(RNS) “I think it’s strange the whole world _ literally millions of people, little children, people in the jungle, people in the city, people outside here, you _ that your fate will be determined on the power of millions of people of all faiths against the war, and one solitary Texas politician being alone with Jesus. … This has to do with two different kinds of religion, it seems to me. The religion that says `I talk to Jesus and therefore I am right,’ and millions and millions of people of all faiths who disagree.”

_ The late Bishop Paul Moore Jr., who died Thursday (May 1) after a long illness, speaking to an Evensong for Peace in New York on March 23. Moore was the assistant Episcopal bishop of Washington in the 1960s and bishop of New York from 1972 to 1989.

DEA END RNS