c. 2004 Religion News Service
Pope Blames Fear of Future for Falling Birth Rate in the West
VATICAN CITY (RNS)_ Pope John Paul II on Wednesday (Oct. 6) blamed fear of the future for the falling birthrate in the West and offered a special prayer for “new lives” in Spain where the Socialist government is seeking to legalize gay marriage.
The 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff raised the issue of low birthrates in an address to 13,000 pilgrims attending his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Referring to the 45th Psalm, which he described as a “serene and joyous nuptial song,” the pope said that “fecundity” is an integral part of marriage. “The future, not only of the dynasty but of humanity, is realized because couples offer new babies to the world,” he said.
“This is a theme relevant to our days in the West often incapable of entrusting its own existence to the future through the generation and care of new babies, who would continue the civilization of peoples and realize the history of salvation,” John Paul said.
At his general audiences, the pope normally delivers his main address in Italian and then speaks more briefly on the topic in five other languages. In Spanish, he said that he prayed for married couples “to offer new lives” to the world.
John Paul’s words were taken as an indirect reference to the approval given Friday (Oct. 1) by the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to a proposed law to legalize same-sex marriages.
The Spanish Conference of Catholic Bishops warned that the law would mean that “the family is destroyed” and urged Spanish society not to “remain indifferent to this attack” on traditional values.”
_ Peggy Polk
Vatican Urges International `Cooperation Rather than Competition’
VATICAN CITY _ The Vatican has called on members of the United Nations to base reform of the world organization on the principle of “cooperation rather than competition among states.”
Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s permanent observer at the United Nations, stressed the need for “effective multilateralism” in a speech to the General Assembly on Monday (Oct. 4). The Vatican issued the text Wednesday.
“Strengthening the United Nations system implies the acknowledgment that this is a system founded on cooperation rather than on competition among states and actively nourished by constructive will, trust, keeping of commitments and collaboration among equal and reciprocally responsible partners,” Migliore said.
“Making these founding principles irreversible is a primary task,” he said.
Pope John Paul II has repeatedly underlined the need for a strong international body capable of tackling complex issues arising from the phenomenon of globalization and the struggle against terrorism.
Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, who acts as the Vatican’s foreign minister, also addressed the issue in a speech to the General Assembly last week.
“The bottom line is the recognition of the principle that all states are by nature equal in dignity,” Migliore said.
The prelate said that the “essential criteria” for reform are structures providing “representation and inclusiveness” and procedures that ensure “impartiality, efficiency and efficacy” to ensure an outcome of “accountability and responsiveness.”
_ Peggy Polk
Congress Told Saudi Religious Restrictions Foster Extremism, Hatred
WASHINGTON (RNS) Experts on international religious freedom told a House committee Wednesday (Oct. 6) that broad religious restrictions in Saudi Arabia discriminate against many Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and help foster an extreme interpretation of Islam around the world.
“In Saudi Arabia, the government rigidly mandates religious conformity,” John V. Hanford III, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom for the State Department, told the House International Relations Committee.
Hanford said that non-Muslims and “Non-Wahhabi Sunni, Shi’a, and Sufi Muslims face discrimination and sometimes severe restrictions on the practice of their faith.”
Saudi Arabia last month was included for the first time in an annual report by the Commission on International Religious Freedom as a “country of particular concern.” Hanford defined “CPCs” as countries with the worst records “where people still suffer persecution, torture, and imprisonment for their faith.”
Preeta D. Basnal, chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said that she welcomed Hanford’s participation in drafting the report that included Saudi Arabia among the offending nations.
Basnal said “the U.S. government should be highly concerned” about credible allegations that the Saudi government and members of the royal family, directly and indirectly, fund the global propagation of Wahhabism, an exclusionary religious ideology. Wahhabis, she said, allegedly promote hatred, intolerance, and other human rights abuses, including violence, against non-Muslims and disfavored Muslims.
The director of the information office at the Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately return phone calls seeking reaction.
Hanford also raised concerns about restrictions on religious freedom in China, Vietnam, Iran and Sudan.
Although the commission’s report did not include Iraq this year, Paul Marshall, senior fellow at Freedom House, said the human rights policy organization is particularly concerned about ethnic cleansing and mass exodus of members of the ChaldoAssyrian community, the native Iraqi Christians.
_ Itir Yakar
Nigerian Archbishop Unveils Plan for New American Diocese
FAIRFAX, Va. (RNS) The Anglican archbishop of Nigeria, who has spearheaded global opposition to the Episcopal Church, on Tuesday (Oct. 5) unveiled plans for a parallel province to offer shelter for Nigerian Christians living in the United States.
Archbishop Peter Akinola said an estimated 10 percent of the 5 million Nigerians living in the United States are Anglicans, and said they have “drifted” out of the Episcopal Church because of its growing acceptance of homosexuality.
“We have no choice but to come out and rescue our people,” he told reporters during a visit to Truro Episcopal Church here. “A good number have already left.”
Akinola leads the world’s largest Anglican church with 17 million members, and his plan would give him a foothold in the U.S. church, which he has been quick to criticize for allowing an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire.
Akinola said his plan mirrors a decades-old American diocese that is headquartered in Paris for Episcopalians living in Europe. He claimed to have the support of the archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church as its U.S. branch.
“We are merely following or copying what they have already put in place,” said Akinola, who presumably would appoint a Nigerian bishop to shepherd the U.S. convocation. “We are not creating anything new.”
Akinola said dissident Episcopal churches would be welcome to join his Nigerian federation, but insisted he did not plan to lure Episcopalians away. “They are absolutely free to join us if they so desire,” he said.
Jim Naughton, a spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, questioned the need for a Nigerian province. He said the 500-700 Nigerians in three churches in his diocese have not expressed a desire for a new bishop.
“It may be that the archbishop is attempting to meet a real need, but it may also be that this is a solution in search of a problem,” he said.
A statement from the Rev. Jonathan Jennings, press secretary for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, said the needs of Nigerians were addressed in meetings but Akinola’s plan was never given official approval.
“Whilst the issue and its presenting difficulties were discussed … the possibility of a Nigerian convocation in the United States and of the Nigerian House of Bishops commending, recommending or choosing a bishop was not raised and formed no part of these discussions,” he said in a statement relayed by Naughton.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a photo of Akinola to accompany the above item.
State Judge Nullifies Same-Sex Marriage Ban in Louisiana
BATON ROUGE, La. (RNS) Louisiana’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was thrown out Tuesday (Oct. 5) by a state judge who said lawmakers improperly passed the measure last spring.
An appeal of East Baton Rouge Parish District Judge William Morvant’s ruling is expected to be filed with the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal in Baton Rouge by Monday. Seventy-eight percent of the state’s voters approved the amendment Sept. 18.
Morvant, a Republican, said the amendment is flawed because, while the state Constitution prevents a law or constitutional amendment from having more than one purpose or objective, it contains two “objects”:
_ Defining what a legal marriage is by specifying that it can exist only between one man and one woman while constitutionally prohibiting same-sex marriages.
_ Preventing the state from recognizing “a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for any unmarried individuals.”
As adopted, Morvant said, the measure would prevent civil unions, domestic partnerships and other relationships between gay or straight couples _ a measure that should have been addressed in a separate constitutional amendment.
“The issue here is whether the issue was properly put to the voters,” he said, not one of gay or lesbian rights. “It is not about public support or public morality. It is about compliance with the Constitution. . . . Emotion has no impact and no effect on this case. This is a matter of law.”
Morvant ordered the election results set aside and nullified the amendment, rendering it illegal.
The judge said his ruling “in no way prohibits the state from introducing a same-sex marriage ban” and a ban on other unions _ as long as they are covered in separate constitutional amendments.
Michael Johnson, a Shreveport, La. attorney for several lawmakers who support the legislation and two conservative groups, said they will appeal the ruling.
Johnson said he expects the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal in Baton Rouge to hear arguments in the case Tuesday or Oct. 13.
_ Ed Anderson
Quote of the Day: Law professor Jonathan Turley.
(RNS) “I personally detest polygamy. Yet if we yield to our impulse and single out one hated minority, the First Amendment becomes little more than hype and we become little more than hypocrites. For my part, I would rather have a neighbor with different spouses than a country with different standards for its citizens.”
_ Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University Law School, writing in USA Today that polygamists should be allowed to have multiple spouses for religious reasons. Conservative groups denounced Turley’s op-ed.
MO/JL END RNS
