c. 2005 Religion News Service
Pope Cancels General Audience Amid Rising Fears for His Health
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II has canceled his weekly general audience scheduled for Wednesday (March 23) amid rising fears that his health, undermined by severe breathing problems and the progress of Parkinson’s disease, is not improving as expected.
“Pray for the pope because his condition is worsening,” the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero quoted his secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, as telling an unidentified fellow Polish priest.
Vatican technicians ran lines into the Apostolic Palace to permit John Paul to take part in Holy Week ceremonies by a television hookup without leaving his private apartments.
“John Paul II must let himself be seen. The doctors certainly advise him to take care of himself, but it is he who, before everything else, wants to have continued contact with the faithful,” Cardinal Pio Laghi told the news agency ADN Kronos.
The pope is scheduled to make only one appearance during Holy Week and Easter celebrations, the solemn ceremonies commemorating the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. The Vatican said he would deliver his traditional “urbi et orbi” blessing to the city of Rome and the world on Easter Sunday (March 27).
Italian newspapers quoted doctors as saying the health of the 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff is delicate and that his condition has not yet stabilized following a tracheotomy on Feb. 24 to ease his breathing. A narrow breathing tube that surgeons inserted remains in his throat to bypass his swollen larynx.
The pope was hospitalized twice in February for the breathing problems caused by influenza. His condition was complicated by Parkinson’s disease, a neurological ailment that has confined him to a wheelchair and makes it difficult for him to swallow and to speak clearly.
Doctors have said that the greatest risk to the pope at this point in his convalescence would be a bronchial infection.
For a second week, John Paul canceled his Wednesday general audience, but Vatican officials said it was possible that he would appear at his study window overlooking St. Peter’s Square to bless pilgrims.
“The pope could decide at the last minute tomorrow morning to let himself be seen at the window of his study,” an official said Tuesday.
_ Peggy Polk
Editors: Search the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a file photo of the Rev. Major L. Jemison, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, to accompany the following story.
Progressive National Baptist Convention Promotes Wellness Program
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Progressive National Baptist Convention has joined forces with the National Cancer Institute to encourage African-American church members to get involved in a wellness program that promotes healthy diets.
“We have all felt the devastating effects of disease in our families and have shared in the loss of many of our congregants who are struck down too soon,” said the Rev. Major L. Jemison, president of the predominantly black denomination at a Tuesday (March 22) event for pastors at the National Press Club.
“It is crucial that we talk about health whenever and wherever we gather, especially in the house of the Lord.”
The breakfast event _ featuring omelets with fresh vegetables and whole-grain muffins without butter _ introduced the “Body and Soul” program of the Bethesda, Md.-based institute to dozens of pastors, mostly from the Washington area. It includes a 50-page guide and training CD for churches and notes that African-Americans are at greater risk than others of developing some diet-related diseases.
Lenora Johnson, director of the Office of Education and Special Initiatives at the cancer institute, said the program was the result of focus groups with African-American pastors who often said the reason they improved their eating and exercise regimens was because “I almost died.”
“We have to figure out what it is that can motivate people so they won’t have a near-death experience,” she said, referring to strokes and heart attacks.
Some of the pastors in attendance said their churches already were offering more nutritious foods at receptions or classes to promote healthy living. But others said more attention is needed.
The Rev. Sarah Britt, “Body and Soul” coordinator for the Baptist denomination, said she used to munch on potato chips and drink Mountain Dew as she prepared her sermons. But Britt, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Deanwood in Washington and a breast cancer survivor, said she has altered her ways.
Institute staffers said about 35,000 copies of the “Body and Soul” guides have been distributed in the last year. Churches involved in the program include Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal and Catholic congregations.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Alleging `Hinduphobic’ Agenda, Foundation Will Launch Campaign
(RNS) Hindus angered by recent initiatives in Congress are protesting what they see as an effort to “systematically promote a Hinduphobic and anti-India agenda within the United States.”
The Hindu American Foundation said Monday (March 21) it will launch a campaign to educate the nation’s 2 million Hindus about risks posed by “a small minority … in the House of Representatives, Islamist groups and radical communist groups.”
In particular, the group is objecting to two initiatives targeting a Hindu-led province in India that has experienced religious violence.
On March 15, Reps. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa., and John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced a resolution condemning the conduct of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi “for condoning or inciting bigotry and intolerance against any religious group in India, including people of the Christian and Islamic faiths.” Three days later, the U.S. State Department revoked Modi’s visa on the eve of a visit to the United States, labeling him a foreign official “believed to have responsibility for serious violations of religious freedom.”
About 2,500 Muslims were killed in the Gujarat riots of 2002 after several dozen Hindus died in a train disaster, which some blamed on a Muslim crowd.
“Mr. Modi has attacked Muslims and Christians with vile venom, and according to both India’s highest court and many international human rights groups, has condoned terrible, violent religious hate crimes, all the while shielding those said to have committed them,” Conyers said last week. “Such actions by high-ranking government officials of any religion are unacceptable and must not be tolerated.”
Some American Hindus, however, see a pattern of selective condemnation in which their faith is unfairly singled out.
“The heinous tragedy that befell Gujarati Muslims in riots after the murder of 58 Hindus burned alive on a train by terrorists must be denounced,” said Mihir Meghani, president of the Hindu American Foundation.
Meghani alleged that congressmen targeting Hindus are ignoring violations of religious freedom in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state, where “thousands have been massacred, and where religio-ethnic cleansing by Islamist extremists supported by Pakistan has resulted in an exodus of 400,000 Hindus, Sikhs and Indian Muslims from their ancestral homes.”
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Surveys: Canada’s Muslim Women Face Discrimination, Political Isolation
TORONTO (RNS) Muslim women are more likely to experience discrimination than Canadian women in other faith groups and are less likely to participate in the country’s political life, according to two studies released Monday (March 21) by the Canadian Council of Muslim Women.
The first report, “Triple Jeopardy: Muslim Women’s Experience of Discrimination,” argues that Muslim women in Canada have three strikes against them:
_ 84 percent are members of visible minorities.
_ They are subject to gender discrimination within their own community.
_ They continue to face post-Sept. 11 bias.
The study, based on a national ethnic and diversity survey conducted by Statistics Canada, found that nearly one-third of Muslim women reported having experienced one or more episodes of discrimination or unfair treatment. The Jewish community followed next, with 23 percent reporting similar experiences.
Most Canadians _ 80 percent _ agreed that Muslims are the main target of discrimination.
At the same time, the study revealed an overall tolerant attitude toward Muslims:
_ 84 percent of Canadians said they would be comfortable with a Muslim teaching at their children’s school.
_ 86 percent had no problem with a Muslim boss.
_ 61 percent said they would be at ease if their child married a Muslim.
The second report, on civic participation, found that Muslim women are the least likely among faith community groups to vote. Only 43 percent are estimated to have cast ballots in the 2004 federal election, compared to 50 percent of Muslim males. Muslims overall are one-third less likely to vote than Hindus and Sikhs, and 40 percent less likely to cast ballots than Jews.
“These reports paint a disturbing picture for Muslim women in Canada,” said Razia Jaffer, president of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women.
The council’s earlier research revealed that Muslim women have the highest under-employment and unemployment rates of any Canadian women, Jaffer added.
Results of the report on discrimination mirror a 2002 study that found Muslim women face discrimination in Toronto’s job market if they wear the hijab, the traditional head scarf, when applying for work.
_ Ron Csillag
Boston Globe Religion Reporter to Receive Third Straight Wilbur Award
(RNS) Boston Globe reporter Michael Paulson continues an award-winning streak by capturing his third consecutive Wilbur Award for major market newspaper coverage of religion.
Paulson will be honored April 9 in Nashville, Tenn., for his 2004 coverage of the closings of Roman Catholic parishes. Paulson’s coverage of the ordination of gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003 and the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in 2002 also won The Globe Wilbur Awards in the same category.
Paulson and other Wilbur winners will receive stained-glass trophies at the Religion Communicators Council awards dinner at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The Wilbur Awards, named for the late religious public relations manager Marvin Wilbur, are presented by the council to honor recipients in 18 categories for communicating religious values.
“So often, the media is accused of burlesquing religion,” said the Rev. Eric Shafer, chair of the Wilbur Awards. “These awards show that media can get the story right. That doesn’t mean that the story is always wonderful in religion.”
Other winners include:
_ The PBS newsmagazine program “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly,” hosted by Bob Abernethy, winning the national television news award for “Father Joe: Slum Priest,” which profiles a missionary in Bangkok, Thailand. The show has won two Wilbur awards in the past.
_ The Dallas Morning News, and religion editor Bruce Tomaso, who won best newspaper religion section, also for the third year in a row. The newspaper prints a section with six to eight pages of religion coverage each Saturday, according to Shafer, plus features during the week.
_ The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., and writer Peter Smith, who won an award for coverage of “Empty Pulpits.”
The best film comedy award will go to “Raising Helen,” which stars Kate Hudson and Joan Cusack.
“It’s unique that we have a film comedy get an award,” Shafer said. “As they say in the business, comedy is hard. Religion comedy is even harder.”
Founded in 1929, the Religion Communicators Council is an international association of religion communicators.
_ Andrea James
Quote of the Day: Lancaster, Pa., Peace Vigil Participant Suzanne Schaudel
(RNS) “How do I react to other people who are of the same faith but think they are doing God’s will by fighting this war?”
_ Suzanne Schaudel, a member of the Lancaster Church of the Brethren, one of more than 500 people who attended a vigil Saturday (March 19) in Lancaster, Pa., to bring troops home from Iraq. She was quoted by the Lancaster New Era.
MO/PH END RNS
