c. 2005 Religion News Service

Religion Writers Rank Biggest Stories of 2005

(RNS) Religion writers deemed Pope John Paul II’s death and the naming of his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, the top two religion stories of 2005.

An end-of-life dispute, faith-based disaster relief and the ordination of gay clergy also made the list, released by the Religion Newswriters Association on Tuesday (Dec. 13).

One hundred of its journalist members ranked 28 religious events in an online survey Dec. 7-12.

Terri Schiavo captured the No. 3 spot in the poll. Her death in a Florida hospice center after her feeding tube was removed under court order sparked heated debates in Congress and among religious groups.

Faith-based organizations’ massive mobilization to help victims of natural disasters was voted the No. 4 news story of the year. Hurricane Katrina’s devastating blow to the Gulf Coast and an earthquake in Pakistan also spurred discussions about God’s role in cataclysmic events and the morality of racial inequalities in America.

The ordination of gay clergy continued to roil mainline Protestant groups, making it the No. 5 story. The Episcopal Church and Canadian Anglicans remained firm in their decision to ordain gays and lesbians, despite objections from bishops and others in the worldwide Anglican Communion. United Methodist courts supported the banning of gay clergy and even parishioners, despite the protests of many congregants.

In addition to ranking religious news events, 68 percent of voting reporters said John Paul II was the biggest newsmaker of the year.

Other ranked stories were the debate over intelligent design as an alternative theory to evolution, faith-based groups’ response to Supreme Court nominees, megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s book sales and AIDS relief work, and the Rev. Billy Graham’s farewell evangelism tour in New York City.

A complete list of the top 20 stories can be found at http://www.rna.org.

_ Nicole LaRosa

$20 Million Donations Boost Islamic Studies at Harvard, Georgetown

(RNS) Harvard University plans to use a $20 million donation from a Saudi prince to increase its focus on contemporary Islamic thought and Islam in South and Southeast Asia.

“The majority of Muslims live east of Karachi. Not as much attention has been given to those areas,” said Roy Mottahedeh, a history professor at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. “There’s a great deal of intellectual fervency in the Islamic world.”

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, whom Forbes Magazine ranked last year as the fourth richest person in the world, also donated $20 million to Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. The Washington-based center plans to endow three faculty positions and rename the center for the prince, a nephew of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.

John Esposito, head of Georgetown’s center, said the donation allows it to meet the challenges of a post-Sept. 11 world.

The center’s “needs expanded exponentially after 9/11, but we haven’t had sufficient resources,” Esposito said. “This gift endows the center for perpetuity.”

He said the center plans to add one faculty position and “enhance the think-tank side” of its work, such as holding more workshops on Muslim-Western understanding, traveling to Muslim countries and publishing more white papers and translating them into Arabic.

The Harvard donation took six months to negotiate and is among the 25 biggest the university has ever received. The school said it plans to hire four new Islamic studies professors.

Harvard currently has 13 senior professors and 16 junior and visiting professors teaching Islamic studies classes. The money will also be used to digitize many of the more than 150,000 Islam-related texts Harvard has in its library and make them available online, as well as increase the number of Islamic studies graduate students through additional scholarships and financial aid.

The Saudi prince has also given to other causes. Earlier this year Bin Talal gave $20 million to the Louvre Museum in Paris to create an Islamic art wing. He has also donated money to help victims of the South Asian tsunami and Pakistan earthquake.

_ Omar Sacirbey

Post-Hurricane Donations Most Generous Outpouring in Nation’s History

(RNS) The outpouring of private charity to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina and two sister storms now ranks as the most generous in American history, surpassing donations after Sept. 11, according to researchers who track philanthropy.

Americans have donated about $2.97 billion to families affected by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, said Patrick Rooney, director of research with the University of Indiana’s Center on Philanthropy.

That surpasses the $2.8 billion donated after the terrorist attacks of 2001, he said.

Moreover, the center’s estimate of storm-giving is certainly low, Rooney said. The center based its estimate on a survey of more than 175 organizations that report storm-related collections and distributions. As a result, it missed the uncountable value of off-radar gifts. Examples include the value of thousands of volunteer laborers and truckloads of supplies sent into the storm zone by independent churches, the value of private convoys and other relief efforts organized by families with relatives in the storm zones, and the value of private homeowners opening homes to displaced families, the center said.

The center included aid for hurricanes Rita and Wilma in its research because that’s how most agencies solicited help, Rooney said.

Americans’ response after the hurricanes was remarkable in another way, Rooney said: It poured in at a furious rate.

Americans contributed $1 billion in just three weeks after Katrina. By contrast, it took eight weeks to reach that level after the terrorist attacks four years ago, he said.

“The rapidity of the growth in donations to hurricane relief is really quite astonishing,” he said. “We think it was a combination of so many people affected, the incredible media coverage … the permanence of the damage, and also the clear evidence of the disproportionate impact on the poor.”

In addition, Americans are growing ever more comfortable going to their computers and giving money over the Internet, he said.

The slow and relatively ineffective governmental response probably also had an effect, he said.

“I think a lot of people must have said, `We’d better give some money because they’re screwing this thing up,”’ Rooney said. “Just about everybody I know felt the need or desire to do something.”

The American Red Cross was far and away the greatest resource, according to the center’s figures. By mid-November it had already given away or committed almost $1.6 billion.

The next-largest donors were the Salvation Army, giving $270 million by late October; Catholic Charities USA, which committed $105 million; and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, which reported $100 million in mid-November, Rooney said.

_ Bruce Nolan

Pennsylvania Bill Would Require Sale of Emergency Contraception

(RNS) As pharmacists gain more attention for refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception for personal or religious reasons, lawmakers are seeking to curb the practice in Pennsylvania.

Rep. Dan Frankel, a Democrat, has introduced a bill that would require pharmacies to dispense medication it has in stock when a valid prescription is presented. If a pharmacist refused, the store would be required to have another pharmacist fill it or immediately transfer the prescription to another pharmacy.

It also would bar pharmacists from harassing, humiliating or intentionally violating the confidentiality of customers who seek to fill prescriptions. It calls for a penalty of up to $5,000 per day of violation, up to $500,000.

Frankel’s bill does not focus solely on prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraceptives.

But he said he finds it “extremely troubling” when pharmacists refuse to fill prescriptions for Plan B, or the “morning-after pill,” as it is called. He said the pill must be taken within 120 hours of having sex to be effective.

Preliminary results from a statewide survey of 833 pharmacists conducted by Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates found 21 who refused to fill a Plan B prescription.

“While this may not sound like a large number, think about the woman whose birth control may have failed or worse, the woman who is a victim of sexual assault,” said Patrick Hopkins, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates.

“In no case should a woman be denied medication because an individual pharmacist has decided to allow his or her own personal beliefs to intrude on the relationship between the woman and her doctor.”

Hopkins spoke of a pharmacist who participated in the survey from a rural part of the state who said he would refuse to fill a prescription if a customer came in more than twice for emergency contraception. The Planned Parenthood survey showed that 43 percent of pharmacies in a survey did not stock emergency contraception.

Target Corp. recently came under attack by Planned Parenthood Federation of America for permitting pharmacists to allow religious beliefs to stand in the way of filling prescriptions.

_ Jan Murphy

Quote of the Day: Banner outside Without Walls International Church

(RNS) “To HELL With Happy Holidays.”

_ Banner outside Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla., a megachurch co-pastored by Paula and Randy White.

MO/PH END RNS