c. 2004 Religion News Service

Poll: Catholics Ambivalent on Stem Cells, Presidential Candidates

(RNS) Most American Catholics don’t approve of President Bush but they are even less convinced that his opponent, Sen. John Kerry, would make a good president, according to a new poll.

The poll by Le Moyne College and Zogby International shows Catholics to be ambivalent on social issues, split on stem cell research and continuing to lose confidence in the leadership of their bishops.

Support for Bush among Catholics has fallen considerably. In the fall of 2001, 78 percent said that he was doing an “excellent” or “good” job. By the spring of 2004 that had fallen to 44 percent.

About 41 percent said that Bush deserves re-election, but 51 percent said it is time for a change. Only 31 percent of American Catholics, however, said they thought Kerry _ who is Catholic _ would make a “good” or “excellent” president.

If the election were held today, Bush would win the support of 44 percent of Catholics, with Kerry at 40 percent. Eight percent said they were undecided and 3 percent said they would vote for Ralph Nader.

“Although more Catholics are saying they don’t want to vote for Bush, Kerry hasn’t given them a reason to vote for him,” said Susan Behuniak, a professor of political science at Le Moyne College.

“Bush is losing support, but it isn’t helping Kerry.”

In other findings, 73 percent of American Catholics said they support adult stem cell research, but just 40 percent said they approve of federal or corporate funding for embryonic stem cell research. The church hierarchy has denounced research based on embryonic stem cells because it requires the destruction of embryos.

Still, 45 percent said they would accept medical treatment that was based on embryonic stem cells.

“American Catholics seem to judge the merits of stem cell research more on the basis of the source of the stem cells than on the therapy itself,” said Theresa Beaty, an associate professor of chemistry and physics at Le Moyne College.

“In that regard, they’re not that different than the general public, whose support is overall stronger for adult stem cell research.”

Although a majority of Catholics _ 58 percent _ approve of the bishops’ leadership of the church, that is the lowest approval rating since the sexual abuse scandal broke in early 2002.

The poll of 1,380 Catholics, released Wednesday (July 7), has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. Questions were posed in the first two weeks of May.

_ Daniel Burke

Vatican Advised Bishops to Nix Communion for Pro-Abortion Politicians

VATICAN CITY (RNS) America’s Roman Catholic bishops apparently ignored a ruling by the Vatican’s highest authority on doctrine when they decided in June that politicians who support abortion rights may receive Communion.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, advised the bishops in early June that because the church considers abortion “a grave sin,” persistently pro-choice politicians must be denied the Eucharist.

The issue has come under heated debate in the United States because Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, is Catholic and supports abortion rights. A handful of bishops, led by Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, have told Kerry that he may not receive Communion in their dioceses.

A Vatican source said Ratzinger spelled out his view in a “private communication” to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who is heading a task force on Catholic politicians, and Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The source said that Ratzinger intended his letter as “guidance to be used in any way they wanted.”

At their private retreat in Denver on June 18, the bishops said Catholic politicians who support abortion on demand are “cooperators in evil” and should be denied public honors by the church. However, the bishops decided they may still receive Communion.

In a six-point memo, Ratzinger called abortion a “grave sin” but said there may be “a legitimate diversity of opinion” among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty.

It is up to each Catholic to make a “conscious decision” in the light of church teachings as to whether to seek Communion, and it is also up to the minister of Communion to decide whether to administer the sacrament, he said.

Ratzinger said pastors should inform politicians who support abortion rights that they must bring “to an end the objective situation of sin” before they may receive the Eucharist, and they will be refused if they continue to maintain their views “with obstinate persistence.”

The cardinal also said Catholics who vote for a candidate “precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia” would be “guilty of formal cooperation in evil” and unworthy of Communion. But, he said, if the vote was for other reasons, “it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons.”

_ Peggy Polk

Pastor: Missionaries Stirring Trouble for Kuwaiti Christians

WASHINGTON (RNS) The senior pastor of Kuwait’s National Evangelical Church told American journalists Tuesday (July 6) that Christian missionaries from the West are making life more difficult for Kuwaiti Christians.

“Sometimes they are detrimental to us,” the Rev. Amanuel Ghareeb said. “Unfortunately, these Western missionaries, they don’t consider the consequences of their activities.”

Proselytizing by non-Muslim missionaries is illegal in Kuwait, though like many of its neighbors, the small Persian Gulf nation has laws protecting religious freedom. Ghareeb said when foreign missionaries proselytize in Kuwait, the government puts pressure on local churches.

“We tell our friends, `You are responsible about your activities, but please don’t hurt, jeopardize, the ministry of the local churches who are trying to nurture the faith of the Christians who are living and working in the Gulf states,”’ Ghareeb said.

Ghareeb attended the recent General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Richmond, Va., which ended Saturday (July 3). His church has 70 parishioners, he said, and there are 300,000 Christians _ mostly from other countries _ among Kuwait’s 2.3 million residents.

He said he believes Arab Christians could serve as a bridge between Muslims and Western nations, but disagreed with what he called the “Christian Zionism” of Western evangelical groups that see the Jewish state of Israel as a biblical prophecy come true.

“Our understanding of the Bible is that the state of Israel is not the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy. It’s just a political entity,” Ghareeb said. He said that for the most part, Christian churches in the Middle East support a separate, independent Palestinian state.

_ Jonah D. King

Judge Rules AmeriCorps Program With Religious Lessons Unconstitutional

(RNS) A U.S. district judge ruled Friday (July 2) that an AmeriCorps program that permitted teachers to lead religious lessons at sectarian schools is unconstitutional.

The American Jewish Congress sued the Corporation for National and Community Service in 2002, using the example of several participants in the AmeriCorps Education Awards Program who said they led students in prayer or conducted religious instruction during the school day.

Corporation officials, who run the AmeriCorps program, defended the $4,725 awards for work in religious schools, saying the religious instruction was separate from the AmeriCorps service of the program participants.

But U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler of Washington sided with the American Jewish Congress, finding that it was not possible to distinguish between the time AmeriCorps workers spent on religious versus non-religious activities.

“The line between the two has become completely blurred,” she ruled.

The American Jewish Congress welcomed the ruling.

“Judge Kessler’s decision should dispel the notion that government may fund religious activities if it also funds comparable secular ones,” said Carole E. Handler, chair of the congress’s Committee on Law and Social Justice, in a statement. “One can only hope that the corporation ends its stubborn defense of the constitutionally indefensible.”

Gina Talamona, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said the department is reviewing the decision and had not yet decided whether it would appeal it.

AmeriCorps is a network of national service programs created in 1993 that involve tens of thousands of Americans annually in efforts to enhance education, public safety, health and the environment.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Kerry Outlines His Version of a Faith-Based Initiative

(RNS) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry said he supports government funding of faith-based initiatives as long as they respect the separation of church and state and do not allow discrimination in hiring.

“I invite churches and faith-based institutions to continue to play the role they have always played _ as leaders, teachers and guides in our communities,” Kerry told attendees of the African Methodist Episcopal Church General Conference in Indianapolis on Tuesday (July 6).

According to a prepared text of his speech, Kerry differs with those who think government should have no role in supporting faith-based groups.

“I know there are some who say that the First Amendment means faith-based organizations can’t help government,” he said. “I think they are wrong. I want to offer support for your efforts, including financial support, in a way that supports our Constitution and civil rights laws and values the role of faith in inspiring countless acts of justice and mercy across our land.”

Kerry’s campaign released an outline of how government and faith-based organizations would relate if he were president.

His proposal calls for enabling faith-based organizations to compete on an “equal footing” with other private groups for federal funds and would create a program to provide training and technical assistance to help faith-based and other groups apply for such grants.

It would establish an advisory group of religious leaders, legal experts and social service providers that would tackle constitutional questions. It also would prevent tax dollars from being spent to purchase Bibles or build churches.

“Government money should not support religious proselytizing or other religious activity and should not finance discrimination,” the campaign statement read.

President Bush made government support of faith-based initiatives a major theme of his 2000 campaign, but major legislation intended to foster increased cooperation with religious groups has stalled in Congress.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Elizabeth Cavendish, Interim President of NARAL Pro-Choice America

(RNS) “If the president is going to use a public employee to foment activism against women’s rights, we should at least have the right to know what he is up to.”

_ Elizabeth Cavendish, interim president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, in a statement about her organization’s request under the Freedom of Information Act to learn details of President Bush’s adviser Tim Goeglein, who it said has made anti-abortion statements in the past.

KRE/MO END RNS