c. 2005 Religion News Service Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a photo of Archbishop Iakovos to accompany this story. Iakovos, Greek Orthodox Church Leader, Dead at 93 (RNS) Archbishop Iakovos, who served as the spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox Christians in the Americas for 37 years, died Sunday (April 10) after a brief illness. Iakovos suffered from a pulmonary ailment and died at Stamford Hospital in Stamford, Conn. He was 93. As the leader of Greek Orthodox Christians in North and South America from 1959 to 1996, Iakovos was known most for his efforts to help Greek Orthodox find their place in America and to relate to people of a variety of faiths. “He started all these dialogues with Catholics, Jews,” said Nikki Stephanopoulos, spokeswoman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, in an interview. “That was his heart and soul, really.” The archbishop, a native of Imvros, Turkey, served nine years as president of the World Council of Churches. “Ecumenism,” he once said, “is the hope for international understanding, for humanitarian allegiance, for true peace based on justice and dignity, and for God’s continued presence and involvement in modern history.” Iakovos, who became a U.S. citizen in 1950, met nine presidents and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom _ the nation’s highest civilian honor _ from President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, said in a statement that he was privileged to know Iakovos for more than five decades. “He has been a superb archbishop who offered to the church an intense, continuous, multifaceted and creative pastoral activity,” said Demetrios. Iakovos was ordained to the priesthood in 1940 and enthroned as archbishop in 1959. Shortly after his enthronement, he met with Pope John XXIII, marking the first time a Greek Orthodox archbishop had met with a Roman Catholic prelate in 350 years. He also met with Pope John Paul II more than once. The Greek Orthodox leader was known for reaching across racial as well as religious lines. He made the cover of Life magazine when he joined the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a civil rights march in Selma, Ala., in 1965 and cheered the passage of civil rights legislation. Iakovos led about 1.9 million members of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, which included residents of North America, Canada and Central America. Shortly after his retirement, the archdiocese was divided into three archdioceses. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America now has about 1.5 million members. Iakovos’ funeral is scheduled for Thursday and his body will be interred on the grounds of the Holy Cross Chapel at Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Mass. _ Adelle Banks High Vatican Official Says John Paul II Could Be Beatified by October VATICAN CITY (RNS) With the approval of his successor, Pope John Paul II could be proclaimed blessed, the step before sainthood, as early as October, a high Vatican official said Monday (April 11). Such speed would be unprecedented in modern times. John Paul, who created a record 483 saints and 1,339 blesseds in his 26-year reign, put Mother Teresa on the fast track to sainthood, but her beatification came six years after she died. John Paul died April 2. Archbishop Edward Nowak, secretary and now acting head of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, told the newspaper Corriere della Sera that six months should be enough time to collect “adequate documentation” on the pope’s holiness and miracles expected to be attributed to his intervention. “Next October, the Synod of Bishops meets in Rome and that, for example, could be the right occasion for such a proclamation,” Nowak said. Nowak told the newspaper that the prolonged applause, banners and shouts of “santo subito (saint immediately)” at John Paul’s funeral on Friday were sufficient popular support to trigger the process leading to sainthood. “I wasn’t expecting it, but I find it fantastic,” he said. “It recalls the acclamations of saints in the early church. Today the rules are different, but the substance is always the same. It is not the church that canonizes, neither yesterday nor today, but the people, who recognize and attest to the holiness of a person. The first initiative is always popular.” Until Pope Sextus V centralized and reformed the process for canonization in 1588, saints were created by the acclamation of their followers. Today the process can take decades, even centuries, to complete and involves proof that two miracles occurred after prayers to the candidate, the first miracle after the candidate’s death and the second after beatification. In the case of Mother Teresa, John Paul waived the five-year waiting period between the death of a candidate and the beginning of the process. She died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003 during celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the pope’s election. _ Peggy Polk Police Prevent Riot at the Temple Mount JERUSALEM (RNS) Thousands of Israeli police managed to stave off an all-out riot at the Temple Mount on Sunday (April 10) by preventing Jewish extremists from holding a demonstration atop the mount, which Muslims call Haram al-Sharif. Despite fears that thousands of Jewish ultra-nationalists would storm the mount, only about 100 arrived at the site, which is adjacent to the Western Wall. By the end of the day, police had arrested 31 Jews and eight Palestinians for violent behavior. Although the mount _ which Muslim authorities closed to non-Muslims at the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000 _ is now officially open to people of all faiths, the police feared that the presence of thousands of ultra-nationalist Jews would provoke violent demonstrations by Muslims. The mount, the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, has been the scene of numerous violent clashes between Jews and Muslims over the years. The four-year-old uprising is called the “Al Aqsa Intifada” because it was here that the sparks of Palestinian discontent with the Israeli occupation first caught the imagination of the Palestinian public. Palestinians blame the September 2000 visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, then the leader of the opposition Likud Party, to the mount for starting the uprising. While many Jews concur that Sharon’s visit was an unnecessary provocation, others believe it was justified, stating that Jews have as much of a right to pray atop the mount as Muslims. Between 1948 and 1967, Jordan, which controlled East Jerusalem, did not allow Jews to pray at the mount or the Western Wall. _ Michele Chabin Editors: Search the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a file photo of Klimkewicz to accompany the following story. Update: Seventh-day Adventist Marine Released Early From Brig

(RNS) A Seventh-day Adventist U.S. Marine has been released from the brig at Camp Lejeune, N.C., after serving half of his sentence for refusing to participate in combat-related activities.

Joel David Klimkewicz, 24, was demoted from corporal to private and given a bad conduct discharge in December after a one-day trial. He received a seven-month sentence.

Lt. Barry Edwards, a spokesman for the Second Marine Division at Camp LeJeune, said Klimkewicz was released Wednesday (April 6).

“The convening authority has made a decision to suspend the remaining portion” of his sentence, Edwards said in an interview.

Seventh-day Adventist Church officials, who previously called the imprisonment “extremely” unusual, had hoped Klimkewicz’s sentence and charge would be reconsidered. Despite his early release, the bad conduct discharge remains on his record.

“This is an encouraging sign,” said Mark Kellner, a spokesman for the church, whose headquarters are in Silver Spring, Md.

“However, there is still work that needs to be done. He needs to have his conviction overturned and his name cleared.”

At the time of Klimkewicz’s imprisonment, church attorney Mitchell Tyner said he was not aware of a similar punishment since World War II.

While Adventist officials said military leaders rejected the Marine’s religious reasons for not taking part in combat-related activities, the Marines said he was imprisoned for disobeying an order.

Klimkewicz was described by Tyner as a convert who learned after he applied for re-enlistment about the Seventh-day Adventist recommendation that one should not be involved in combat.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Celebration of French Scientist-Priest Ends in New New Trial Ordered for Former Catholic Priest (RNS) A Maryland judge has ordered a new trial for a former Roman Catholic priest who was convicted earlier this year of sexually abusing an altar boy who later shot him. Circuit Court Judge Stuart R. Berger of Baltimore ruled that the victim, Dontee Stokes, and two police investigators improperly cited “other victims” in their testimony in the case of Maurice Blackwell, The Washington Post reported. The judge ordered the jury to disregard those statements, which prompted objections from Blackwell’s lawyer. But Berger said in his ruling: “Regrettably, the bell had been rung by the repeated references to other victims. … This court finds it difficult _ if not impossible _ to unring that bell ….” Blackwell was found guilty in February of three counts of sexual child abuse that took place in the 1990s. Warren A. Brown, the lawyer for Stokes, now 29, said his client is disappointed but “undaunted” and ready to return to the witness stand. Blackwell’s lawyer told the Associated Press that “he was always convinced that the judge would do the right thing in the end.” Stokes was acquitted of attempted murder in 2002 after shooting Blackwell. The former priest was defrocked by the Vatican in 2004. Quote of the Day: President Bush (RNS) “I think a walk in faith constantly confronts doubt, as faith becomes more mature. … My faith is strong. The Bible talks about, you’ve got to constantly stay in touch with the word of God in order to help you on the walk. But the Lord works in mysterious ways, and during all our life’s journeys we’re enabled to see the Lord at work if our eyes are open and our hearts are open.” _ President Bush speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Waco, Texas, from Rome on Friday (April 8). MO/PH END RNS