c. 2007 Religion News Service

Trappist monks to halt egg production after PETA protests

(RNS) A Trappist abbey in South Carolina said Wednesday (Dec. 19) that it will end its egg production business after accusations of animal cruelty by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“While the monks are sad to give up work that has sustained them for many years … the pressure from PETA has made it difficult for them to live their quiet life of prayer, work and sacred reading,” said the Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, S.C., in a statement.

PETA had accused the monks of mistreating chickens on their egg farm and had sent an investigator, posing as a retreatant at the abbey, who found evidence of “shocking cruelty” to the hens.

In February, the abbey said the monks had followed guidelines of the United Egg Producers to ensure the hens were treated well. At that time, a spokeswoman for the group confirmed that an earlier audit found the abbey to be in compliance with the guidelines.

The Rev. Stan Gumula, abbot of Mepkin Abbey, said the monks will phase out egg production over the next 18 months and seek a new industry that will aid them in meeting their expenses. The monks follow a tradition of agricultural work as a basic component of monastic life.

PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich welcomed the abbey’s decision.

“Bravo to the monks at Mepkin Abbey for doing the right thing and agreeing to stop supporting the horrible cruelty of the egg industry,” Friedrich said. “PETA will be the first in line to buy a case of whatever cruelty-free product the abbey decides to sell instead.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Left-leaning Roman Catholics issue voter guide for presidential race

(RNS) Catholics United, a group of left-leaning lay Roman Catholics, is distributing 30,000 voter guides for the presidential primaries, focusing on early voting states and listing eight issues they say affect human dignity and the “common good.”

Major cities in Iowa, which holds bipartisan caucuses Jan. 3, and New Hampshire, home to the nation’s first primaries later that month, will receive most of the guides, according to Catholics United.

The group says it independently researched the candidates’ positions on eight issues, which it lists in the following order: the Iraq war, poverty, abortion, the death penalty, health care, immigration, care for the Earth, and foreign relations. Each candidate’s stance is explained in a paragraph.

“This guide will be a useful tool because it shows the candidates’ moral convictions as demonstrated by past actions, and it provides an indicator of how they will govern as the next president,” said James Salt of Catholics United.

Joseph Wright, a political scientist and Catholics United board member, said Catholics “will play a pivotal role in determining the outcome of the election given their large share of the electorate in Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire and Nevada.”

The U.S. Catholic bishops have discouraged Catholics from consulting voting guides not produced by the bishops themselves, or by their state’s Catholic conferences.

_ Daniel Burke

Fearing drunks, British Catholic churches move up midnight Mass

LONDON (RNS) Some Roman Catholic churches in Britain have rescheduled their traditional Midnight Mass for an earlier time this Christmas Eve _ some as early as 6 p.m. _ to avoid invasions from neighborhood drunks.

The services with carols and candles usually start between 11 and 11:30 p.m. Church leaders and the police say they are worried that the Masses coincide with the normal closing time for most pubs.

Priests are increasingly concerned about the threat posed to parishioners by drunken revelers, violence in the streets, and drug- or alcohol-impaired drivers, according to a survey by The Tablet, a Catholic journal published in England.

Father Dennis Connor of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus church in Liverpool announced that his usual midnight service will start this year at 6 p.m. He said that “in this area, there has been a lot of trouble with gun crime” and that, as a result, “people won’t come out any later than that.”

The Tablet reported that “some priests have been advised by the police not to hold Mass late at night, while others decided it is too dangerous for parishioners to be out on inner city streets or are worried about Mass being interrupted as the pubs empty.”

“Gun crime, rowdy crowds leaving pubs and dangerous drivers have forced many churches to celebrate their first Mass of Christmas Day in the early evening of Christmas Eve,” the journal said.

Father James O’Keefe said that in his experience at St. Bede’s church in Denton, Newcastle upon Tyne, “a lot of people, having been disgorged from the pub, were attracted to the light and music (at his church) and used to disrupt proceedings.”

O’Keefe has now shifted the start of his Mass to 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

_ Al Webb

Quote of the Day: Bread for the World president, the Rev. David Beckmann

(RNS) “It’s the most wonderful time of the year for the farm lobby. When is Christmas going to come for hungry and poor people?”

_ The Rev. David Beckmann, president of Christian anti-hunger group Bread for the World, on the 2007 Farm Bill.

DSB/LF END RNS