c. 2006 Religion News Service

Democrats Unveil Bill to Reduce Abortions

WASHINGTON (RNS) Led by two Catholic lawmakers, Democrats on opposing sides of the abortion debate came together to introduce legislation Thursday (Sept. 14) aimed at reducing the number of abortions in the U.S.

The Reducing Abortion and Supporting Pregnant Women Act, which was introduced by Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., would increase government funding for contraceptives and family planning, expand the adoption tax credit and restore Medicaid coverage to Family Planning Services.

Ryan and DeLauro are both members of the Roman Catholic Church, which opposes abortion and the use of contraceptives.

“Despite so much rancor and divisiveness in our society and in our politics … surrounding abortion today, this bill reflects common ground on the goal of reducing the number of abortions in America while still protecting the privacy of women and families,” DeLauro said.

Introduced eight weeks before the fall elections, the legislation was seen by some as a Democratic attempt to reach out to anti-abortion voters and people of faith.

Ryan, who is anti-abortion, said the Democrats conferred with anti-abortion advocacy groups but failed to gain their support because the bill would increase funding for contraceptives.

“That was the major hurdle,” Ryan said.

Because of the contraception funding, one such group, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, supported the bill’s intentions but not all of its means, according to Executive Director Alexia Kelley.

Kelley and Sister Sharon Dillon, executive director of the Franciscan Federation of the U.S., both attended a press conference announcing the legislation.

Although the bill is “an honest and promising attempt to reduce the actual occurrence of abortions … as Catholics we cannot support all of the provisions,” Dillon said.

Deirdre McQuade, a spokesperson for the U.S. Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Secretariat, said that she had not seen the legislation and could not comment.

_ Daniel Burke

Germany Ordains First Rabbis Since World War II

BERLIN (RNS) For the first time since the end of World War II, rabbis have been ordained in Germany.

The three graduates of Potsdam’s Abraham Geiger College were officially ordained in Dresden’s New Synagogue on Thursday (Sept. 14) under heavy security and with an audience of about 200, including dignitaries such as German President Horst Koehler and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The new rabbis are set to start work soon. Newly ordained Rabbi David Alter of Germany, 47, will work in Oldenburg; Czech Rabbi Tomas Kucera, 35, will be assigned to a congregation in Munich; and Rabbi Malcolm Mattitani, 35, will head to Cape Town in his native South Africa.

The ceremony was emotional for the country that was home to the Holocaust. Many dignitaries gave speeches highlighting how this event marked a historic change. The graduates were from the first rabbinical school to open in Germany after the Holocaust, and the Dresden synagogue was the first to open in eastern Germany after the fall of communism.

German Jews said they were thrilled by the ceremony. High Rabbi Walter Jacob of Munich, who performed the ordination ceremony, called it “a wonderful day.”

Other Jewish leaders said there is still much work to do in Germany, where a neo-Nazi party is expected to win seats in a state election Sunday.

“We can’t let the ground slip out from under us,” said Dieter Graumann, vice president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper. He said the ordination is just a start, since congregations in Germany are “starving for rabbis.” He estimated the country needs almost 100 more _ there are only about 30 rabbis for 105 congregations.

Graumann said it will be two to three more generations before relations normalize between gentile and Jewish Germans.

_ Niels Sorrells

Presbyterian Pastor Charged in Same-Sex Wedding Case

(RNS) A Presbyterian minister was charged Tuesday (Sept. 12) with violating a ban against same-sex weddings when she presided over the marriage of two women in June 2005.

Rev. Janet Edwards, an ordained minister for 29 years, could face a range of penalties if found guilty, from rebuke to defrocking.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) allows the blessing of same-sex unions as long as they are not equated with heterosexual marriage. Ministers may not use marriage rites in blessing same-sex ceremonies.

“For me, Scripture teaches me that the heart of marriage is the love and commitment of the partners,” Edwards said in an interview. “And my experience in life has shown me that love and commitment can be easily displayed over a lifetime by a gay couple.”

Edwards presided at the wedding of Presbyterian Nancy McConn and Buddhist Brenda Cole at an event hall in Pittsburgh. Several days later during their honeymoon, the couple had a state-sanctioned marriage in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The case has been turned over to a court in the Pittsburgh Presbytery, the local governing body for the church. Edwards said the court has not yet decided whether Edwards will be tried.

Officials for the Pittsburgh Presbytery refused to comment on the case to the Presbyterian News Service and did not return phone calls.

“I am confident that if this moves forward to trial, then my point of view, which is shared by many in the church, will be compelling,” Edwards said.

The minister said she would appeal the case if found guilty. She serves as an unpaid parish associate at the inter-denominational Community of Reconciliation Church in Pittsburgh.

She is the great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Jonathan Edwards, the famous Puritan preacher who delivered the scathing “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon in 1741.

_ Kat Glass

Widow Wins Fight to Have Wiccan Symbol for Fallen Soldier

(RNS) A memorial plaque for an American soldier will be displayed with a symbol for his Wiccan faith, despite the federal government’s refusal to display the marker.

Sgt. Patrick Stewart, the posthumous recipient of the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, was killed in Afghanistan in September 2005. Stewart’s spot on the memorial wall at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, Nev., has stayed empty, because his widow, Roberta Stewart, was not allowed to include a Wiccan symbol on the plaque.

The Wiccan faith _ which involves nature worship and belief in magical powers _ is not on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ list of 38 approved religions.

But the Nevada attorney general informed the state Office of Veterans Services that the state has the authority to put up the marker in the state cemetery.

The Nevada agency will pay for the bronze plaque and put it on the memorial wall. The plaque will feature the Wiccan symbolic pentacle: a five-pointed star contained in a circle, representing earth, wind, fire, water and spirit.

“I’m honored and ecstatic,” Roberta Stewart, who is also a Wiccan, told the Associated Press. “I’ve been waiting a year for this.”

Tim Tetz, executive director of the Nevada Office of Veterans Services, did not have an estimate on the cost of the plaque or a timeline for when it would be erected.

“I am pleased we are able to recognize Sgt. Stewart’s sacrifice and the ideals for which he stood,” Tetz said in a statement.

_ Kat Glass

Quote of the Day: Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline

(RNS) “Goal is to walk away with contact information, money and volunteers and a committee in each church.”

_ Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, who is running for re-election this fall, in a memo to his campaign staff. He was quoted by the Lawrence Journal-World in Kansas.

KRE/RB END RNS