c. 2004 Religion News Service

Official Says Faith-Based Initiative _ and Suits _ to Continue

WASHINGTON (RNS) The director of the White House office dealing with faith-based initiatives said President Bush remains committed to supporting government funding of religious social service programs even as the administration fends off lawsuits against its efforts.

“The president will continue to look at what … executive actions he can take to further the faith-based initiative to make sure that equal treatment takes place not only in Washington but at the state and local level,” Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said in an address to the annual conference of the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy on Thursday (Dec. 9).

But as administration officials make plans to continue to work with Congress on the issue, Towey predicted opposition to their efforts would not end.

“I think that’s because there’s a continued cry from the secular extremists who view any presence of religion or faith in the public square as anathema to them,” he said.

Towey said the administration is faced with a “handful” of lawsuits but believes it is on “solid constitutional ground.”

He noted that a significant part of a suit against his office by the Freedom From Religion Foundation was dismissed in November. The Wisconsin-based foundation had argued that the initiative’s actions unconstitutionally favored religious organizations.

In a report released at the roundtable, law professors Ira Lupu and Robert Tuttle of George Washington University said that case “now has been reduced to a small thorn in the initiative’s side rather than the large threat it initially appeared to be.”

Towey said the Justice Department has appealed a July district court ruling that an AmeriCorps program permitting teachers to lead religious lessons at sectarian schools is unconstitutional.

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, who has criticized aspects of the president’s initiative, told conference attendees that he was disturbed by Towey’s “secular extremist” language, drawing some applause.

“This issue is too important for either side or any side to fall back into the temptation of name-calling,” he said.

Edwards predicted that the battles on Capitol Hill will go only so far, in part because of concerns about provisions that would permit government-funded faith-based groups to discriminate in their hiring of staff.

“I think we will not have the votes to kill the president’s initiatives in the House but I think even in the new Senate there could be enough votes to stop it,” Edwards said.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Pope Praises U.S. Bishops for Dealing With Pedophilia Scandal

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II praised U.S. bishops on Friday (Dec. 10) for their attempts to deal “fairly and forthrightly” with a clergy sexual abuse scandal, and said recovery must start with their own “spiritual renewal.”

The pope addressed bishops from Minnesota and North and South Dakota, the last group of U.S. prelates making the visit to the Vatican required of all bishops every five years.

Summing up the “series of reflections” he has offered to the U.S. bishops over the last nine months, the pope spoke with sympathy of the scandal of abusive priests and the bishops who protected them, which rocked the American church in 2002.

“I have shared the deep pain which you and your people have experienced in these last years, and I have witnessed your determination to deal fairly and forthrightly with the serious pastoral issues which have been raised as a result,” he said.

One member of the delegation was Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis, who has guided the abuse reforms as president of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse.

The pope told the bishops that rebuilding the church “must necessarily begin with your own spiritual renewal.” He urged them to adopt a lifestyle of “evangelical poverty,” which he called essential for a fruitful ministry.

John Paul gave the bishops two charges: preserving the Catholic identity and evangelizing.

The pope said that the bishops’ “most difficult and delicate challenge” is to ensure that each individual and institution belonging to the church “expresses in every aspect of its life a clear Catholic identity.”

“If the events of the past few years have necessarily focused your attention on the interior life of the church, this should in no way distract you from lifting your eyes to the great task of the new evangelization and the need for a new apostolic outreach,” he added.

All diocesan bishops are required to travel to Rome every five years to make a visit “ad limina apostolorum,” a Latin reference to the threshold of the apostles’ tombs, to report directly to the pope and Vatican officials and hear their counsel.

_ Peggy Polk

Relief Group Criticizes Rich Nations for Failing to Meet Promises

(RNS) Oxfam, the British relief and development group, says some 45 million children around the world will die over the next decade because rich countries like the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Japan have failed to meet their aid promises.

“The world’s poorest children are paying for rich countries’ policies on aid and debt with their lives,” Barbara Stocking, the aid group’s director, said in releasing a new report, “Paying the Price.”

In 1970, the so-called G-8 countries _ the major industrialized nations _ pledged to make available 0.7 percent of their gross national income (GNI) for aid.

“Thirty-four years on, none of the G-8 members have reached this target and many have not even set a timetable,” the report said.

In addition, the report said the aid budgets of rich nations are half of what they were in 1960, while poor countries are having to pay $100 million a day in debt repayments.

“For rich countries, this is not about charity _ it is about justice,” Stocking said. “As rich countries get richer, they’re giving less and less. This is a scandal that must stop.”

Oxfam said the United States is giving just 0.14 percent of GNI in aid _ one-tenth of what was spent on the Iraq invasion, Reuters reported.

Ekklesia, the British theological think tank, said Britain spends 0.34 percent of its GNI on aid but the government has set a target of reaching the 0.7 percent figure by 2013.

_ David E. Anderson

Poll: Most Americans Believe in Virgin Birth of Jesus

(RNS) A majority of Americans _ and a larger percentage of Christians _ believe Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary and did not have a human father, a new Newsweek poll shows.

Seventy-nine percent of Americans and 87 percent of Christians said that was their belief. Fifteen percent of Americans and 8 percent of Christians said they did not share that belief.

Results of the poll on beliefs about Jesus are included in a Dec. 13 Newsweek cover story on “The Birth of Jesus.”

Researchers with Princeton Survey Research Associates found that 93 percent of Americans think Jesus Christ actually lived and 82 percent think he was God or the son of God. Fifty-two percent of respondents said they believe Jesus will return to Earth in the next millennium, and 15 percent said they believe he will return in their lifetime.

In several cases, a majority of those surveyed felt Jesus had influenced the world in dramatic ways. Asked if there would be more or less kindness if there had never been a Jesus or a Christian faith, 61 percent of respondents said there would be less, 7 percent said there would be more and 23 percent said there would be about the same amount. Asked the same question about tolerance, 58 percent said there would be less, 9 percent said more and 21 percent said about the same. And asked about whether there would be more or less war, 47 percent said more, 16 percent said less and 26 percent said about the same amount.

Pollsters also found that 55 percent of Americans believe the Bible is literally accurate while 38 percent said they did not believe that, while 7 percent said they didn’t know.

“The clash between literalism and a more historical view of faith is also playing out in theaters and bookstores,” writes Jon Meacham, the magazine’s managing editor, in the cover story. He referred to interest in the movie “The Passion of the Christ” and Dan Brown’s religious thriller “The Da Vinci Code.”

The telephone poll of 1,009 adults was conducted Dec. 2-3 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: President Bush

(RNS) “The Talmud teaches that the menorah lights should perform no function other than to proclaim the miracle of a just and loving God. Every generation since Judah Maccabee has looked on these candles and recalled the sacrifices that are made for freedom. And in every generation, these lights have warmed the hearts of those not yet free.”

_ President Bush, speaking at a Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony at the White House on Thursday (Dec. 9).

KRE/PH END RNS