c. 2005 Religion News Service Pope Tells African Bishops Only Fidelity and Chastity Can Prevent AIDS VATICAN CITY (RNS) Upholding the Catholic Church’s opposition to the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, Pope Benedict XVI told African bishops Friday (June 10) that the only “fail-safe” methods are fidelity and chastity. The pope addressed bishops from the southern African countries of South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia and Lesotho, which have been hard-hit by AIDS. The bishops were at the Vatican to meet with church officials on the visit all prelates are required to make every five years. “Brother bishops, I share your deep concern over the devastation caused by AIDS and related diseases,” the pope said. He also deplored divorce, abortion, prostitution, human trafficking and a contraceptive mentality, which he said threaten “the fabric of African life” and “contribute to a breakdown in sexual morality.” Benedict urged the bishops to continue their efforts to fight the HIV/AIDS virus, “which not only kills but seriously threatens the economic and social stability of the continent.” “The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only fail-safe way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS,” he said. “For this reason, the companionship, joy, happiness and peace which Christian marriage and fidelity provide, and the safeguard which chastity gives, must be continuously presented to the faithful, particularly the young.” _ Peggy Polk Church Known for Anti-Muslim Sign Withdraws From Southern Baptists (RNS) The North Carolina church that gained national attention for its now-removed sign that said the Quran “needs to be flushed” has withdrawn from the Southern Baptist Convention. Members of Danieltown Baptist Church in Forest City, N.C., voted Sunday (June 5) to become an independent Baptist church, reported the Biblical Recorder, a news journal for North Carolina Baptists. Creighton Lovelace, pastor of the church, said the vote was unanimous and prompted by a number of reasons, some of which were factors before the recent controversy. The president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee was among those who expressed disapproval in late May after Lovelace posted a message on a church sign that read “The Koran Needs to Be Flushed.” Lovelace later apologized for his actions, which also were condemned by Muslim leaders. “I apologize for posting that message and deeply regret that it has offended so many in the Muslim community,” he said. Lovelace said some church members had wanted their congregation to become independent before the sign issue arose. Others voiced concerns that the controversy could endanger Southern Baptist missionaries. _ Adelle M. Banks Supporters Say Ten Commandments Case Shows Pryor Is No `Extremist’ WASHINGTON (RNS) Supporters of a controversial new federal judge said his refusal to defend former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument shows he is no “religious extremist.” Bill Pryor, the former Alabama attorney general who prosecuted the case against Moore, was confirmed to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by the Senate on Thursday (June 9) in a 53-45 vote. Pryor was one of President Bush’s most controversial judicial nominees, but was allowed a confirmation vote by the Senate after 14 senators forged a compromise on three of Bush’s nominees. Pryor’s backers said he frequently supported laws he disagreed with, even when it cost him politically. A popular example was when Pryor refused to defend Moore for defying a court order to remove the monument from the state judicial building. Pryor did not oppose the display but he argued the case against Moore, who was removed from office. “They’ve said that he’s some sort of religious extremist, and it’s just not so,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. “He’s committed … to what the law says.” Pryor’s advocates have called his prosecution of Moore a “profile in courage,” but Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., was not convinced. “I call it doing your job,” he said. Either way, conservatives hailed Pryor’s confirmation, which came two years after Bush initially nominated him. “Hopefully the Democrats have learned that their devious attacks on Judge Pryor’s `deeply held beliefs’ were exposed as a mean-spirited attempt to impose an unconstitutional religious test on a public official,” said Jan La Rue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America. “The `No Judges of Faith Need Apply’ mentality should never rear its discriminatory head again in the U.S. Senate.” But the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said Pryor was the latest example of an “inbalance” in the federal courts that are “becoming increasingly tilted toward the far right.” “Pryor, like a disturbing number of recent judicial appointments, has revealed a desire to seriously undercut the protection of many of our nation’s most cherished fundamental freedoms,” said Lynn. _ Mary Orndorff and Heather Horiuchi Update: Ky. Judge Rejects Landmark $120 Million Abuse Settlement
BURLINGTON, Ky. (RNS) As a Kentucky judge rejected a record-setting, $120 million sexual abuse settlement between victims and the Diocese of Covington, Ky., one of the nation’s largest insurers of Catholic dioceses complained that it had been given no role in the settlement process.
The $120 million deal _ to date the nation’s largest _ is nothing more than a “sound bite,” Circuit Judge John Potter ruled Thursday (June 9). He said the actual money available to victims is only the $40 million offered by the church.
An additional $80 million would be made available for victims compensation only if a lawsuit filed by church leaders May 26 against three insurance carriers netted that amount of payment.
When it announced the settlement June 3, the diocese agreed to pay one-third of the total settlement for an undisclosed number of victims, with the insurers picking up the balance of the tab. The settlement established a compensation range of $5,000 to $450,000 per victim, with payments decided based on the severity of abuse.
The insurers are American Insurance Co. of Novato, Calif.; Catholic Relief Insurance Co. of America and the Catholic Mutual Relief Society, both based in Omaha, Neb.
The Catholic Mutual Group _ headed by Omaha Archbishop Elden F. Curtiss _ criticized the deal Thursday, noting that it was “saddened that the diocese has chosen to sue the church’s self-insurance fund without prior notification or consultation.”
_ Dennis P. O’Connor
Anti-Semitic Writing Stalls Potential Sainthood of French Priest
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has suspended plans to beatify the founder of the Dehonian order of priests to allow investigation of anti-Semitic views he expressed in newly published writing.
The French newspapers Le Figaro and Le Monde said Thursday (June 9) that the Vatican acted at the request of French bishops, who feared that raising the Rev. Leon Dehon to within one step of sainthood would strain Catholic-Jewish dialogue.
Dehon (1843-1925) had been scheduled to be declared blessed by Pope John Paul II during a Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 24. The ceremony was not rescheduled after John Paul’s death on April 2.
In Rome, an official of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the order known as the Dehonians founded by Dehon in 1878, confirmed that publication of Dehon’s writing had caused “a complication.”
“The Jews thirst for gold and have Christ as an enemy,” Dehon wrote, as reported by Le Figaro. He said that the Jews’ passion for riches is “a racial instinct” and described Jews as “cosmopolitans who ruin the unity of nations.”
Asserting that the views simply reflected “the widespread climate of the time,” the official said, “All of us hope that they will not compromise the beatification.”
When Le Figaro published the anti-Semitic excerpts from Dehon’s 1898 social catechism several months ago, the French bishops consulted the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI. The newspaper quoted sources close to the bishops’ conference as saying that Ratzinger was “profoundly shocked.”
The case is reportedly under review by a Vatican-appointed committee of theologians and historians, which will present its findings to the pope for his final decision.
Rabbi David Rosen, international director for interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee and a member of a Jewish delegation that met with Benedict on Thursday, said it was not up to the Jewish community to dictate choices of saints to the Catholic Church.
“But,” he told reporters, “if the church says that relations of reciprocal respect are necessary, it is to be expected that the church is sensitive to our positions.”
_ Peggy Polk
Bolivian Protestants Urge Democratic Solution to Political Crisis
(RNS) As their country teeters on the brink of anarchy and, some fear, civil war, Bolivia’s Protestant leaders have issued a pastoral letter affirming support for the democratic process as the best possible means of resolving the political crisis.
The letter, signed by leaders of the Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and Pentecostal churches, said, “Despite its great limitations, it (the democratic process) is preferable to any authoritarian solution.”
The Protestant leaders issued the letter Thursday (June 9), two days after President Carlos Mesa offered to step down and as huge demonstrations in La Paz paralyzed much of the country.
The Bolivian Congress, meeting in Sucre, accepted Mesa’s resignation Thursday and, after two congressional leaders next in line for the presidency declined the job, named the head of the Supreme Court, Eduardo Rodriguez, as president.
Rodriguez promised to call early elections and to work with lawmakers to implement reforms aimed at ending the anger that brought tens of thousands of Bolivia’s poor _ indigenous Indians, miners, workers, cocoa farmers and peasants _ into the streets for more than two weeks of sustained protests.
Bolivia is Latin America’s poorest nation, with 65 percent of its 8.8 million people living in poverty. The demonstrators are demanding nationalization of Bolivia’s natural gas and oil reserves and greater government control over foreign investment.
In their letter, the Protestant leaders voiced support for the naming of a new constituent assembly as “likely the best opportunity to forge a new social contract and coexistence among diverse” political, social and economic forces.
At the same time, the Protestant leaders rejected any radical change that could prompt a civil war, as some of the protest leaders have demanded, reported Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.
“We are convinced that there are no conditions for a radical transformation in our society,” the pastoral letter said, according to ENI.
“Whoever claims such conditions exist and are eager to lead the most helpless people to fruitless sacrifices, should be made responsible for the lives of the people,” it said.
_ David E. Anderson
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Steve Powers of Bishop, Ga.
“At this point, we’re more interested in letting him know that God will forgive him than having him arrested or finding the instruments. That’s for the sheriff’s department to worry about. We’re more interested in where he’s going to spend eternity than finding the instruments.”
_ The Rev. Steve Powers, pastor of Oconee Baptist Church in Bishop, Ga., after the burglary of $3,000 worth of music equipment. The church started posting messages on its bulletin board telling the thief they forgave him. Powers was quoted by the Associated Press.
KRE/PH END RNS