c. 2008 Religion News Service
Watchdog panel issues religious freedom recommendations
WASHINGTON (RNS) A federal watchdog panel said Friday (May 2) that 11 countries should be named “countries of particular concern” for their records on religious freedom, including three that are not currently on the State Department’s list.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the inclusion of Vietnam _ which was removed from the State Department’s list in 2006 _ and Pakistan and Turkmenistan.
Commissioners who traveled to Vietnam in 2007 found “very uneven” progress on the improvement of conditions for religious freedom, said commission Chair Michael Cromartie in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “Arrests, detentions, discrimination, and other restrictions continue,” he said.
Cromartie also cited continuing “religiously motivated violence” in Pakistan and “official harassment of religious adherents” in Turkmenistan.
The other countries recommended for the designation of “countries of particular concern” are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan, which have been on the State Department’s list since 2006.
“Developments of the past decade have strengthened the importance of freedom of religion or belief, as the U.S. government navigates a world threatened by religion-based extremism and religion-imbued conflict,” Cromartie said in a statement that accompanied the release of the commission’s annual recommendations.
The commission also cited countries on its “Watch List” that require monitoring because of religious freedom violations permitted or implemented by the governments: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria.
Commissioners say they continue to be “seriously concerned” about religious freedom in Iraq, which was on their 2007 Watch List, and will be traveling to the region in May. They plan to issue a report on Iraq after the trip.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Father Damien moves one step closer to sainthood
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The unofficial patron saint of those with HIV/AIDS is on the verge of canonization, after Vatican officials attributed a second miracle to his intercession.
The Rev. Damien de Veuster, a Belgian priest known as “Father Damien” who spent more than 15 years caring for lepers on the island of Molokai, Hawaii, died there of leprosy in 1889.
Pope John Paul II declared Damien “Blessed” in 1995, after recognizing as miraculous the cure of a French nun who had prayed to the late priest only a few years after his death. A second miracle, occurring after beatification, is required for canonization as a saint.
On Tuesday (April 29), Honolulu Bishop Clarence (Larry) Silva confirmed that theologians advising the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints had recognized as miraculous a Hawaiian woman’s recovery from lung cancer after she prayed for Damien’s intercession. The case was the subject of an article in the Hawaii Medical Journal in 2000.
Damien’s canonization still requires the approval of the congregation and of Pope Benedict XVI.
Statues of Damien, who is also considered the patron of the State of Hawaii, stand in both the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu.
_ Francis X. Rocca
Quote of the Day: Roman Catholic Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing, Mich.
(RNS) “It leaves me feeling a bit bereft. We are bound to one another. Now I will have new brothers. Count on me as your brother and father in life.”
_ Bishop Earl Boyea, new leader of the Lansing Catholic Diocese in Michigan, speaking with emotion about leaving his fellow priests in Detroit and committing to work with diocesan priests in Lansing in his new post. He was quoted by The Jackson Citizen Patriot.
KRE DS END RNS
