c. 2006 Religion News Service

Pope Presses Chavez on Religious Freedom in Venezuela

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI met Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for the first time on Thursday (May 11) and expressed concern that the South American leader’s rule was encroaching on the rights of the Roman Catholic Church to operate in his country.

Chavez’s meeting with Benedict was part of a visit to Europe and North Africa that is being closely watched in light of the leftist leader’s push to tighten government control of Venezuelan industries, such as oil production, and his strident criticism of the United States.

Tension has also been high between Chavez and Catholic leaders in predominantly Catholic Venezuela who have publicly clashed with the leader over his growing power.

In a strongly worded statement released after the meeting, papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Benedict told Chavez he was concerned about proposed education reform that, the Vatican says, will stop religion from being taught in public schools.

Benedict underscored the need for Venezuela’s Catholic media to remain independent of government control and reiterated his right to name bishops _ an issue that has recently rankled relations with China and other countries with communist governments.

Church officials in Venezuela have frequently accused Chavez of stoking class hatred in an effort to drive the country toward Cuban-style communism.

Chavez has dismissed the criticism, describing himself as a socialist and a devout Christian. He has accused church leaders in his country of being elitist and “out of touch with reality.” Chavez’s supporters have called for the removal of Archbishop Baltazar Porras of Merida, one of the most outspoken Chavez critics.

The Vatican statement said Chavez “assured the pope of his commitment to overcoming every tension with respect to the rights of all.”

_ Stacy Meichtry

Muslim Scholar, Banned from U.S., Says He Has No Desire to Visit

PARIS (RNS) Two years after being barred from traveling to the United States, controversial Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan said he would not contemplate moving across the Atlantic anytime soon, citing a worrying climate of intolerance.

“In the States today I think there is a real problem of freedom of expression and of being critical of the government _ especially if you are Muslim,” Ramadan said during a dinner-debate on free speech in Paris Tuesday (May 9).

“I will never confuse the current state of affairs in the States with Americans and with American traditions,” he added, “but maybe I need to wait for some better time to go there.”

A prominent European theologian, Ramadan has been barred from traveling to the U.S. since July 2004, for reasons that remain unclear. The State Department revoked his visa after he was interviewed by U.S. consular officials in Geneva.

The Bush administration initially appeared to have revoked a visa for Ramadan to teach at the University of Notre Dame on a U.S. Patriot Act clause, which bans foreigners endorsing or espousing terrorist activity.

But government papers presented at a U.S. District Court hearing in Manhattan last month suggest Ramadan’s visa was revoked for reasons other than the Patriot Act clause.

The hearing responds to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and academics who claim their First Amendment rights have been violated because they cannot invite Ramadan to the U.S. to lecture.

In Paris, Ramadan continued to defend views he ostensibly aired during his Geneva interview _ namely that the war in Iraq had been wrong, and that resistance to the U.S.-led intervention was justified, although not through violent means.

“I’ve always said this in public,” Ramadan said. “So there is nothing hidden about this.”

_ Elizabeth Bryant

Parents Angry After Muslim Girls Get Private Swim Class

MONTREAL (RNS) The decision to close a high school pool so three Muslim girls could take a private swimming class has reignited debate over the place of faith in Quebec’s public institutions.

According to The Toronto Star, the school board argued it was simply respecting the principles of a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling that approved the wearing of Sikh kirpans (ceremonial daggers) in classrooms.

But parents said the decision by the Commission Scolaire Marie-Victorin school board, with more that 40,000 students in 80 schools, risks encouraging “segregation in the name of religion.”

At issue is the principle known as “reasonable accommodation” for religious views, one that’s increasingly common in a city that’s home to most of Quebec’s immigrants.

The most recent chapter centers on a request from three Muslim students at Antoine-Brossard High School in the suburb of Brossard, who asked to be excused from swimming class because their religion forbids sharing a pool with men.

The board declined, but said the students could take the test, needed to pass the physical education class, under special circumstances.

The pool was closed to all other students on May 5 and tables were placed in front of the windows so the three girls would be shielded from view. A female teacher administered the test, aided by another female school employee.

Despite complaints from parents, some of them Muslim, school board Executive Director Francois Houde told La Presse, a Montreal daily, “This issue is closed,” noting the board is constrained by Canada’s Charter of Rights and court rulings that oblige public institutions to find “a reasonable accommodation” of religious views.

This is the latest incident illustrating Quebec’s recent struggles to reconcile constitutionally guaranteed religious freedoms _ especially for minorities _ with the increasing secularization of the province’s once dominant Roman Catholic society.

_ Ron Csillag

Panel Suggests Norway Cut Ties to Lutheran Church

(RNS) A commission appointed by the Norwegian government in 2003 to study the country’s state support of the Lutheran Church system has recommended that the centuries-old bond be broken.

Eighteen of the body’s 20 members supported cutting the ties, created in 1537, between the Church of Norway and the government, according to a report submitted earlier this year to Norway’s minister of culture and church affairs.

Two members opted to keep the status quo with the reigning king and the government having the last word in church affairs, the local paper Vart Land reported.

The commission was comprised of representatives from major political parties, the church and various denominations and religions.

However, 14 of those favoring abolition do not want the tie to be completely broken, instead calling for it to be loosened. A Muslim member of the commission is one of those favoring relaxation.

“I hope that our report will be of help when politicians shall discuss the matter,” commission chairman Kare Gjonnes said at a press conference in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

The commission noted that the (Evangelical Lutheran) Church of Norway, which counts 86 percent of the country’s 4.5 million inhabitants as members, should no longer be based on the constitution of the country. Instead, the commission said it should be based on a parliamentary act.

The commission also proposed that the church’s general synod should hold the power to appoint bishops and clergy. Currently, that power is held by the king and the government.

Recent polls have indicated that a majority of Norwegians wants to break the tie between church and state. Many believe that the increase in the number of faiths in recent years encourages the call to do away with the structure.

Once a report is submitted to parliament next year, no formal change would occur until at least 2013. Neighboring Sweden broke its state-church tie in 2000.

_ Simon Reeves

Quote of the Day: Child Psychologist Lee Schneyer of Bethesda, Md.

(RNS) “Most kids at some point will have the experience of someone asking, `What are you?’ as in, `Are you Christian, Jewish, Muslim?’ It doesn’t feel very good to say, `I don’t know,’ or `Nothing.’ It’s difficult for a child to say `I’m agnostic.”’

_ Lee Schneyer, a Bethesda, Md., psychologist who specializes in children and adolescents, speaking to The Washington Post about how religious affiliation can cut confusion and solidify identity for kids.

KRE/JL END RNS