c. 2007 Religion News Service

Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund Aids More Than 1,000 Congregations

(RNS) More than 1,000 houses of worship will receive grants from the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help recover from 2005 hurricane damage on the Gulf Coast.

Fund spokesman Bill Pierce said the number of applications far exceeded expectations. Officials originally expected between 500 and 700 applications.

A total of $25 million of the fund’s $130 million will be distributed to houses of worship, Pierce said.

He said between 70 percent and 75 percent of the houses of worship have received their funds and the rest should receive them soon.

“Clearly this was overwhelmingly successful in terms of the outreach and the education that was done,” he said Thursday (Jan. 4).

The fund’s work with religious groups became controversial last summer when the co-chairs of its religious advisory committee resigned after questioning the fund’s financial oversight. Bishop T.D. Jakes, a Dallas megachurch pastor, and the Rev. William H. Gray III, the former president of the United Negro College Fund, said checks were distributed without their knowledge.

Most grants have been for $35,000 or $20,000 for physical repairs ranging from water damage to ruined steeples.

Churches were the predominant recipients of the grants but Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist congregations also received funding.

The fund is co-chaired by former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and aims to help meet long-term recovery needs along the Gulf Coast.

_ Adelle M. Banks

New Archbishop of Warsaw Was Communist Spy, Newspaper Says

(RNS) Days before the ceremony to celebrate his appointment as Roman Catholic archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus is facing allegations that he willingly cooperated with the communist-run Polish secret service.

The allegations were first published by Polish anti-communist magazine Gazeta Polska, shortly after Pope Benedict XVI appointed Wielgus archbishop of Warsaw on Dec. 6. The Warsaw post is the most important position in Poland’s Catholic hierarchy.

At the time, the allegations were largely ignored. But when mainstream publications printed the allegations, quoting from Wielgus’ secret service file, questions were raised about whether the appointment ceremony should proceed.

“In deciding to nominate the new metropolitan archbishop of Warsaw, the Holy See took into consideration all the circumstances of his life, including those regarding his past,” the Vatican said in a Dec. 21 statement.

Polish papers reported that Wielgus cooperated regularly with agents of the SB, the Polish secret service, from 1968 to 1973, using the cover name “Grey.”

The reports also allege that Wielgus traveled to Germany in 1973 at the suggestion of the Polish secret service, which hoped he would report on the Polish exile community in Germany and Radio Free Europe’s Poland division.

Documentation about Wielgus’ activities has been verified by a government-backed historian and a church council, according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a German newspaper. The church has made no further comment on the documents. The historian, Andrzej Paczkowski, says the files do not indicate the consequences of Wielgus’ cooperation.

_ Niels Sorrells

Spokane Catholic Diocese Will Pay $48 Million to Sex Abuse Victims

SPOKANE, Wash. _ The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane will pay at least $48 million to victims of clergy abuse as part of a deal to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a federal mediator announced Thursday (Jan. 4).

The plan must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams and the victims of the sexual abuse, who are considered creditors. The Spokane diocese is among four nationwide to file for bankruptcy protection because of abuse claims.

Six insurance carriers will pay $20 million of the settlement; $18 million will come from the sale of the bishop’s office building and other assets and contributions from Catholic entities; $10 million will come from the diocese’s 82 parishes, according to Federal Bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive.

The settlement requires Spokane Bishop William Skylstad to publicly support eliminating statutes of limitations on child-sex crimes and visit each parish where children were abused to urge parishioners to come forward with claims of abuse, according to court documents.

Skylstad will also be required to send letters of apology to victims or their immediate families, to publish the names of all known abusers, as well as allow people to publicly address the parishes where they were sexually abused and publish their stories in the diocesan newspaper.

Spokesman Eric Meisfjord said the diocese had no immediate comment.

Mike Ross, an officer of the Spokane chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national organization of clergy abuse victims, said the settlement is bittersweet.

“I think we’re satisfied that every party tried to find some consensus, but the victims are not thrilled with this deal. There are going to be many victims who will never see their day in court, and that’s truly what they wanted,” Ross said. “Without that, we will never have the satisfaction that justice was served.”

The settlement does not include specific numbers of victims or individual amounts to be paid, but establishes a process for distributing the $48 million once the reorganization plan is approved, as well as a means for paying people who have not yet filed claims, Zive said.

_ John K. Wiley

Quote of the Day: Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.

“Just as the biblical Esther was called to save the nation, I cast my vote for another woman called for such times as these.”

_ Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., on voting to elect Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaker of the House of Representatives. Pelosi is the first woman to hold the post. Rush was quoted by The Washington Post (Jan. 5).

DSB/PH END RNS