c. 2006 Religion News Service
Report: Niger Worst, Sweden Best, Place to be a Mother
(RNS) There is no worse place in the world to be a mom than in the West African nation of Niger.
So says Save the Children’s annual Mother’s Index, which ranks the status of mothers and children in 125 countries based on 10 health and education criteria.
On the other hand, moms and their kids in Scandinavia are leading the good life, with Sweden coming in as the best place for them to live, and Denmark and Finland following closely behind in second. The United States tied with the United Kingdom for 10th place on the list.
Burkina Faso was the second-worst country to be a mother; in fact, 10 of the bottom 11 countries _ Yemen being the exception _ were located in Africa. Mali was third from the bottom, and Chad was fourth.
The report showed a striking discrepancy between mothers in the top and bottom 10 regarding life expectancy and quality of life. A mother in the bottom 10 countries is 28 times more likely to see her child die before age 1 and more than 750 times more likely to die herself during pregnancy or childbirth.
The study found that women who are educated are more likely to postpone marriage and early childbirth, resulting in a higher level of health care accessibility and treatment for them and their families. Also, higher levels of birth-control use promotes healthier intervals for birthing, drastically lowering the number of women who die during childbirth, the report said.
“The Mothers’ Index illustrates the direct line between the status of mothers and the status of their children,” Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children, said in a statement. “In countries where mothers do well, children do well; in countries where mothers fare poorly, children fare poorly. If we are to improve the quality of life for children, we must start by investing in the health and well-being of their mothers.”
The rankings were based on six indicators of women’s well-being, including maternal mortality, and four indicators of their children’s health, such as the percentage of children under 5 suffering from nutritional wasting.
_ Nate Herpich
Vatican Marks 25th Anniversary of Assassination Attempt on John Paul
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Tens of thousands of pilgrims from across Italy are expected to descend on St. Peter’s Square on Saturday (May 13) to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the assassination attempt on the late Pope John Paul II.
To commemorate the event, a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, venerated by John Paul, will be flown by helicopter into Rome and carried in a procession from Castel Sant’Angelo, which overlooks the Tiber river, past the spot in St. Peter’s Square where Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca fired on the pontiff in 1981.
Authorities in Italy have long suspected that Agca was working in connection with the KGB, which targeted the pontiff for challenging Soviet communism’s grip on his native Poland. John Paul, however, viewed the attack as part of a broader struggle between good and evil.
Following the attack, John Paul credited his survival to the Virgin Mary’s intercession, drawing mystical connections from the fact that the shooting occurred on the same day that Mary reportedly appeared to children in Fatima, Portugal, 64 years earlier.
Traveling to Fatima one year later, John Paul placed the bullet dislodged from his abdomen in the crown of the statue of Mary, telling onlookers that “a motherly hand” guided the bullet millimeters away from vital blood vessels, halting him “at the threshold of death.”
John Paul also forgave Agca and visited his Rome prison cell for a highly publicized private meeting.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Pope Benedict’s vicar for Rome, will celebrate a Mass on Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica at the conclusion of the procession. Benedict’s participation has not been scheduled, but organizers expect him to address the pilgrims in attendance.
_ Stacy Meichtry
House Allows Military Chaplains to Pray According to Their `Conscience’
WASHINGTON (RNS) The House approved language on Thursday (May 11) that allows military chaplains to pray “according to the dictates of the chaplain’s own conscience” as part of a defense spending bill.
The vote comes as religious groups, church-state separationists and military officials have debated the appropriateness of sectarian prayers in settings outside worship services.
“Each chaplain shall have the prerogative to pray according to the dictates of the chaplain’s own conscience, except as must be limited by military necessity, with any such limitation being imposed in the least restrictive manner feasible,” reads a short section within the massive legislation.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative advocacy group, said Friday on his radio program that he was “very encouraged” and expects “major movement” on the bill later this summer.
A Navy policy issued in February urges chaplains to use inclusive prayers outside worship settings. Beyond chapel services, “religious elements for a command function, absent extraordinary circumstances, should be nonsectarian in nature,” the naval rules read.
Guidelines from the U.S. Air Force, released that same month, said chaplains “will not be required to participate in religious activities, including public prayer, inconsistent with their faiths” but also state that “nondenominational, inclusive prayer or a moment of silence may be appropriate for military ceremonies … when its primary purpose is not the advancement of religious beliefs.”
Critics have said the policies prevent chaplains from praying “in Jesus’ name” wherever they wish, while supporters say nonsectarian prayers are appropriate in a pluralistic setting.
Mikey Weinstein, president of the newly founded Military Religious Freedom Foundation, harshly criticized the House action.
“There is an inescapable irony here, that this bill, which purports to be a `defense authorization,’ not only flagrantly disregards military rules, but also strikes a serious blow to the constitutional oath that every soldier, airman, sailor and marine has sworn to uphold with their lives,” said Weinstein, an Air Force veteran based in Albuquerque, N.M.
_ Adelle M. Banks
AP Religion Writer Richard Ostling Wins Lifetime Achievement Award
(RNS) Richard N. Ostling, a religion reporter for the Associated Press, has been named the 2006 recipient of the Religion Newswriters Association’s lifetime achievement award.
Ostling, who will retire in July, was the unanimous choice of the association’s board of directors, the association announced Wednesday (May 10).
He will continue to write his weekly Bible column after his retirement.
Ostling played trombone in the National Guard band and wrote for Christianity Today magazine before joining the staff of Time magazine in 1969. He wrote 20 cover pieces for the news magazine and did some pioneering work in broadcast journalism by covering religion for CBS radio and working on PBS’ “MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour.” In 1998, he began working at AP, where he helped shape the wire service’s religion coverage.
A former president of the Religion Newswriters Association from 1974-76, Ostling has written or co-written three books, including “Mormon America.” He has been honored with religion newswriting prizes, including the association’s Supple Religion Writer of the Year and Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year awards.
He will receive the William A. Reed/Religion News Service lifetime Achievement Award from the association at its annual convention Sept. 7-10 in Salt Lake City. The prize is funded by Religion News Service and named for William A. Reed, a religion writer for the Tennessean in Nashville, Tenn., who was the association’s first black president.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Mark Kellner of Adventist News Network
(RNS) “Where I need the Ten Commandments is in my heart. It does no good for me to have it sitting in the Montgomery County Courthouse.”
_ Mark Kellner, assistant director of the Adventist News Network, based in Silver Spring, Md., commenting to The Washington Post about how the Seventh-day Adventist Church did not participate in events over the weekend of May 6-7 that protested the removal of the Ten Commandments from public places.
KRE/LF END RNS
