c. 2006 Religion News Service
Three College Students Arrested for String of Alabama Church Burnings
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Two students at Birmingham-Southern College and another from the University of Alabama-Birmingham were charged Wednesday (March 8) in connection with a string of church burnings in rural Alabama.
A witness said the fires started as a joke that got out of hand, court records show.
Two of the three suspects, Russell Lee DeBusk Jr., 19, and Benjamin Nathan Moseley, 19, both Birmingham-Southern students, are being held in federal custody without bond after an appearance Wednesday morning before a federal magistrate judge. The third suspect, UAB student Matthew Lee Cloyd, was arrested Wednesday afternoon and awaited an initial appearance before a judge.
“I feel great for Alabama and relief for America,” said Jim Cavanaugh, regional director for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He made the comment at a news conference with other elated law enforcement officials.
The three students are charged in a two-count federal complaint with conspiracy and burning Ashby Baptist Church in Bibb County. DeBusk and Moseley will return to federal court at 3 p.m. Friday for a detention hearing. The three face five to 20 years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine.
Speaking at the Wednesday news conference, Alabama Attorney General Troy King praised law enforcement authorities for “just good old-fashioned police work” that ended a “reign of terror.”
The church arson spree started Feb. 3 when the first of five Baptist churches were found burned in Bibb County; three of them were destroyed. The second group of fires came Feb. 7, when four more churches were destroyed. The 10th occurred Feb. 11 in Lamar County.
Moseley admitted to federal agents Tuesday that he, Cloyd and DeBusk went to Bibb County in Cloyd’s green Toyota 4Runner and set fire to five churches, according to an affidavit filed this morning in Birmingham’s federal court.
“Moseley said that after they set fire to the first two churches, they saw firetrucks driving by,” the affidavit said. “Moseley said that after that, burning the other three churches become too spontaneous.”
Moseley told agents that he and Cloyd went to west Alabama and burned four more churches as an attempt to throw off investigators.
“Moseley said the diversion obviously did not work,” the affidavit said.
An unnamed witness quoted Cloyd as saying Moseley “did it as a joke, and it got out of hand,” according to the affidavit signed by ATF agent Walker Johnson.
_ Val Walton and Mark O’Keefe
Gay Bishop Back on the Job After Treatment for Alcoholism
(RNS) Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the openly gay New Hampshire prelate who checked himself into rehab on Feb. 1 for alcoholism, is back at work and reports he is in “a very good place indeed.”
Robinson left the Caron Foundation treatment center in Wernersville, Pa., March 2 and returned to his office Tuesday morning (March 7), according to a letter he posted on his Web site.
Robinson, 58, said he will be attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings _ some at churches in his diocese _ and will be meeting regularly with an “addiction coach” to monitor his recovery.
“I return to you in a very good place indeed _ refreshed, refocused and happy,” Robinson said.
Robinson said the follow-up therapy will take some time from his schedule, and while he’s happy to discuss his struggles, he said he will not be able to counsel others about alcoholism. “My own sobriety needs to be my focus for now,” he said.
Robinson spent four weeks at the facility after he voluntarily sought treatment when he and his family noticed his “increasing dependence on alcohol.” During his stay, he had the support of church leaders.
Robinson’s 2003 election as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church set off a global crisis within the larger Anglican Communion as conservatives threatened to break away from the U.S. church.
Robinson said he approached his treatment with the same candor and openness that surrounded his election and the subsequent controversy.
“I knew it was central to my own recovery to be honest about this with you and with the world,” Robinson said. “So much of my life and ministry has been served well by that kind of openness, it would have seemed inconsistent to attempt to hide it.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Same-Sex Adoptions Pose Problem for Catholic Charities in Massachusetts
(RNS) Massachusetts’ four Roman Catholic bishops are seeking the state’s permission to limit the church’s adoption services to heterosexual couples, but all they’ve received so far is controversy.
Eight board members resigned their duties at Catholic Charities of Massachusetts on March 1 and March 2 in protest of the bishops’ position. Meanwhile, the issue has driven a wedge between Gov. Mitt Romney, who says he’s exploring a way to exempt the church from state laws prohibiting discrimination, and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healy, a fellow Republican and gubernatorial candidate who says the church should help gays adopt.
Disgruntled members of the 42-person board applauded the staff of Catholic Charities, but said they felt obliged to step down.
“The course the bishops have charted threatens the very essence of our Christian mission,” seven board members said in a signed statement. “The proposed policy undermines our moral priority of helping vulnerable children find loving homes.”
The bishops took their stand at the conclusion of a three-month study to investigate whether facilitating gay adoptions could be reconciled with church teaching on the sinfulness of homosexuality.
“We face a serious pastoral problem in which our religious freedom is challenged,” the bishops said in a Feb. 28 statement. “We are asking the commonwealth to respect the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom and allow the Catholic Church to continue serving children in need of adoption without violating the tenets of our faith.”
Romney has suggested the sought-after exemption might require new legislation. But lawmakers, many of whom are Roman Catholics with constituents still hurting from the 2002 clergy sex abuse scandal, have suggested any such proposal stands little chance of passing.
Catholic Charities depends on donations to fulfill its outreach services, and its largest donor said Tuesday that it has no plans to change course.
“If the state gives an exemption, then the board would need to discuss what to do next,” said United Way of Massachusetts Bay spokesperson Jeff Bellows.
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
La. Archdiocese to Reopen Catholic School Flooded by Hurricane
NEWS ORLEANS (RNS) The Archdiocese of New Orleans says it will reopen a heavily damaged elementary school in eastern New Orleans in time for summer camp, providing a spark of vitality in a hard-hit corner of the city.
Resurrection of Our Lord School will serve as one of six new “central schools” designed to house students from surrounding Catholic schools now closed by flooding from Hurricane Katrina.
The decision to reopen Resurrection of Our Lord was announced Tuesday (March 7). The school, which last year held 389 students, continues the archdiocese’s policy of reopening schools as quickly as possible to attract returning families and help revitalize damaged neighborhoods.
Under a city planning process just getting started, the hardest-hit areas of the city will work with professional planners to demonstrate their viability. Under standards not yet announced, some areas may not be able to show sufficient potential for rebirth. Public buyouts would encourage those property owners to relocate in an area that is easier to service.
Resurrection of Our Lord’s eastern New Orleans neighborhood faces daunting challenges. But the Rev. William Maestri, superintendent of Catholic schools, said the archdiocese wants to restore the school even in the face of the area’s uncertainty.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as a gamble. I’d characterize it as leadership in which the archdiocese is looking for ways to provide leadership through education. … That school is important for what it says to the overall community,” he said.
The parish, formed in 1963, is among those the archdiocese reopened after the storm. It offers regular weekend Masses.
Resurrection of Our Lord took five to seven feet of water and also sustained extensive roof damage to many of its buildings, he said. Repairs are under way.
_ Bruce Nolan
Quote of the Day: Evangelical Fellowship of India
(RNS) “Shedding the blood of innocent children, women and men is motivated by hateful ideology that does not care to desecrate the faith of others. The motive is also to instigate communal strife and break the harmony between communities.”
_ Evangelical Fellowship of India, commenting on the terrorist bomb attacks on a Hindu temple and a train station in Varanasi, India, on Tuesday (March 7).
MO/RB END RNS
