c. 2007 Religion News Service

Sick Sacred Hindu Bull in Wales is Slaughtered

LONDON (RNS) After a prolonged dispute with the authorities, Shambo, the sacred bull revered by Hindus in Wales that tested positive for bovine tuberculosis, has at last been slaughtered.

The Court of Appeals on Monday (July 23) overturned an earlier court victory for the monks of Skanda Vale, the Hindu monastery in Wales that numbered Shambo among its herd of cattle.

When officials arrived Thursday morning to kill the bull, they found the gates barred and locked, with more than 100 monks and sympathizers holding a religious service outside the temple precinct in which Shambo was housed.

Officials had to obtain a warrant from magistrates. At 2 p.m. they returned, accompanied by four van-loads of police.

Just before 7:30 p.m., after police had removed protesters blocking access to his pen, Shambo was led away.

“The Welsh Assembly government has committed the most violent and ignorant act of desecration of our temple and destroyed an innocent life,” said Brother Michael of Skanda Vale.

The secretary general of the Hindu Forum of Britain, Ramesh Kallidai, said: “This act has caused great sorrow and grief to Hindus all round the world, and the Welsh government has told the world that they do not care about desecration of a world religion but only about a policy that by its nature is faulty anyway.”

The Hindu Forum will seek a meeting with the cabinet minister responsible for agricultural affairs “to check how agricultural law can cater to the needs of sacred animals in Hindu temples in Britain,” Kallidai added.

A post-mortem examination of Shambo conducted Friday showed “lesions typical of TB,” according to the Welsh Assembly government.

_ Robert Nowell

Mother Angelica Still Brightens the Days With Humor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ The worldwide Catholic television network founded in Alabama by a witty, genial nun-turned-media magnate now runs without her, but Mother Angelica still watches.

With a small television in her room at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, she can watch reruns of the “Mother Angelica Live!” talk show that made her famous and helped turn the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) into one of the largest religious networks in the world.

“She never liked to see herself on TV,” said Sister Mary Catherine, who as mother vicar runs the monastery Mother Angelica founded.

These days, debilitated by a stroke, Mother Angelica tunes in to her old show from time to time.

“She watches herself and laughs,” Sister Mary Catherine said. “She’s got a jovial laugh.”

Mother Angelica, 84, suffered a second major stroke on Christmas Eve 2001 that left her with partial paralysis and impaired speech. The 44 nuns who live at the monastery have watched Mother Angelica struggle since then. “She told me, `You don’t know how hard it is, not being able to communicate,”’ Sister Mary Catherine said.

“I guess it’s hard because of her calling as a communicator,” said Birmingham Bishop David Foley, who visited Mother Angelica last month and gave her an anointing of the sick, which she receives several times a year because of her advanced age and condition. “She was in very good spirits. She’s a wonderful person and has done such good work. She expresses with her eyes and gestures. She’s very upbeat and joyful.”

Although she’s able to speak on occasion, Mother Angelica has been mostly silent.

“If she needs to say something, she’ll say it,” Sister Mary Catherine said. “She makes us laugh.”

Earlier this week (July 22) the nuns dressed Mother Angelica in her Poor Clare nun’s habit and pushed her wheelchair into the visitors’ parlor where she could meet her fans.

“Many of them were crying,” Sister Mary Catherine said. “So many people were in town because of the EWTN Family Celebration.”

“Mother wanted EWTN to be a big family,” said Sister Mary Catherine, who left the cloistered monastery to attend the event.

_ Greg Garrison

Gay, Straight Fans of Tammy Faye Messner Honor Her Online

(RNS) Gay fans and other supporters of the late Tammy Faye Messner have deluged the Internet with messages honoring the ex-wife of disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker in the week after her death.

Messner, who died July 20, was known for her ties to the now-defunct Praise the Lord ministry, which she ran with Bakker before he was embroiled in a sex and money scandal. But she also became prominent in gay circles for her support of people with AIDS that dated to the 1980s.

Gay.com, a Web site of PlanetOut Inc., announced Tuesday (July 24) that it will send its online book of condolences to Messner’s family. It has collected about 24 pages of condolences, but an additional 150 pages were posted after the site announced May 9 that she was seriously ill.

One Gay.com member wrote: “If other Christians followed your example, there would be love not hate in this world. You were a very special lady and a class act. Happy journeys.”

In an interview, Jenny Stewart, Gay.com’s entertainment editor, said she was proud that her site was able to show the spiritual side of its members, with some speaking of Messner’s faith and others of their own.

“I was inspired to find that so many of our members were so spiritual,” said Stewart, who is United Methodist.

More than a thousand fans of the late Tammy Faye Messner _ Christian, non-Christian, gay and straight _ have also filled her Web site, http://www.tammyfaye.com,with condolences in the week since her death. They remembered the songs she sang, her co-hosting of the PTL program and her TV visits with CNN’s Larry King.

“Her lashes may have been fake, but there was nothing else fake about that lovely, tiny, dynamic lady,” said a writer from Wisconsin. “I may not have believed as she did, but I have never before nor … shall ever again witness such sincerity.”

The Web site tammyfaye.com says a memorial expressing her “love, acceptance and forgiveness” will eventually be built to honor Messner.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Pope Benedict XVI

(RNS) “This clash (between evolution and creationism) is an absurdity because on the one hand there is much scientific proof in favor of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such.”

_ Pope Benedict XVI on the debate between creationism and evolution. The pope went on to say that evolution falls short of answering “the great philosophical question `where does everything come from?”’ He was quoted by the Reuters News Agency (July 26).

DSB/PH END RNS