c. 2008 Religion News Service

Muslim leaders affirm Saudi king’s interfaith effort

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (RNS) Hundreds of Muslim leaders from around the world have endorsed Saudi King Abdullah’s recent call for intensified interfaith dialogue in order to dampen global conflict and demonstrate Islam’s commitment to solving world problems.

The declaration came on Friday (June 6) at the close of a three-day conference in Islam’s holy city of Mecca to discuss Abdullah’s surprise announcement in March that he wants to launch a new dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews.

The lengthy declaration affirmed dialogue as an Islamic value, and cited the need to refute those who promote “clash of civilization” theories and “claims that Islam is an enemy of contemporary civilization.

”Needless to say … the world is facing numerous challenges that pose (a) threat mankind’s future,” including “moral and social as well as environmental catastrophes,” the document said. “A profound dialogue aimed at exploring the human commonalities (among people of different faiths), is essential.”

Conference participant Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations, said there was a “realization … that people have to reach out and understand others in order to be understood …

“We can easily say these things in the West, but to have them being said in the Middle East is important.”

Abdullah’s proposal drew headlines because Saudi Arabia’s exclusivist version of Islam tends to view non-Muslims as “infidels” unworthy of engaging in dialogue. Non-Muslims cannot openly practice their faith in the kingdom.

His initiative, and this week’s relatively quick follow-up, are widely seen as an effort to discredit extremist views and reverse Islam’s image as a violent faith.

Friday’s declaration did not specifically mention Christians and Jews, referring instead to “followers of the previous divine messages.” (Muslims regard Judaism and Christianity as precursor religions to Islam.) It also urged dialogue with adherents of “man-made philosophies,” an apparent reference to Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs.

The estimated 500 conference participants from 50 countries said “a specialized team” should be formed to create an “international Dialogue commission.” Topics for discussion should include “the phenomena and causes of terrorism,” “aggression against the environment” and “collapse of the established family system.”

_ Caryle Murphy

South Carolina gets `I Believe’ license plates

(RNS) Without the approval of the governor, the state of South Carolina will now permit drivers to put “I Believe” license plates on their vehicles.

The legislation, which passed unanimously by the General Assembly on May 22, calls for the plate to contain the words “I Believe” as well as a cross superimposed on a stained glass window.

Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, said in a Thursday (June 5) letter that he allowed the bill to become law without his signature, which is permitted under the state constitution.

“While I do, in fact, `believe’ _ it is my personal view that the largest proclamation of one’s faith ought to be in how one lives one’s life,” the governor wrote in a letter to Glenn McConnell, president pro tem of the South Carolina Senate.

He also said he thought the state’s General Assembly should not be in the “license plate creation business.”

Marc Stern, general counsel for the American Jewish Congress, wrote Sanford on May 20, arguing that the bill is unconstitutional: “The Establishment Clause’s most basic precept is that the states may not favor one faith over another.”

State Sen. Lawrence K. Grooms, who co-sponsored the bill, said he didn’t think the bill caused constitutional problems, The New York Times reported.

“We have other plates with religious symbols on them and phrases like `In God We Trust,”’ said Grooms, a Republican who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee. “Just because it’s a cross, some very closed-minded people don’t believe it should be on a plate.”

The Times reported that the American Jewish Congress and the American Civil Liberties Union are considering suing South Carolina over the issue.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Jesuits promise `creative fidelity’ to pope

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Responding to explicit requests from Pope Benedict XVI, leaders of the Jesuits declared their fidelity to the papacy and church doctrine, while stressing their need for “freedom” and “creativity” in carrying out their work.

The statements appear in a set of decrees approved by the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus (popularly known as the Jesuits), which is the largest religious order in the Catholic Church.

The meeting of Jesuit representatives from around the world took place in Rome from Jan. 7 to March 6, though the final versions of its decrees were not published until Friday (June 6).

The pope had earlier has asked participants to reaffirm their “total adherence to Catholic doctrine, especially to its key points, under severe attack today by the secular culture, such as, for example, the relationship between Christ and religions, certain aspects of liberation theology,” marriage and homosexuality.

In response, one decree asks each Jesuit priest to “examine his own way of living and working” for harmony with church teaching in most of the areas mentioned by the pope, and to “acknowledge humbly (any) mistakes and faults.”

Jesuits take a unique vow of obedience to the pontiff, which over the centuries has earned them the nickname of the “pope’s light cavalry.” But in recent years, the Vatican has censured several Jesuit theologians for deviations from orthodoxy.

Two weeks before the Jesuits adjourned, Benedict personally enjoined them to “rediscover the fullest sense” of their vow of obedience. That vow, the pope said, “does not imply only the readiness to be sent on mission to distant lands, but also … to `love and serve’ the Vicar of Christ of Earth.”

Yet one decree insists, with a quotation from the order’s constitutions, that the “entire purport” of the vow in question “was and is with regard to missions … for having the members dispersed throughout the various parts of the world.”

The decree’s authors add, however, that love for the pontiff as Christ’s representative inspires Jesuits to go beyond their obligations to “offer the service asked of us by the pope.”

The same decree stipulates that the distinctive Jesuit form of obedience is marked by “discernment, freedom and creativity in seeking the will of God,” and that “obedience in the Society has rightly been described as an exercise in creative fidelity.”

_ Francis X. Rocca

Ohio court says autopsy remains need not be returned

(RNS) Tissue, organs, blood or other body parts removed during an autopsy for testing do not have to be returned to families, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday (June 5).

The 6-1 decision was hailed by an attorney representing county officials who worried they would face multimillion-dollar lawsuits for withheld organs.

“It means that coroners get to answer the question about why we die,” said Mark Landes, who represented nearly all Ohio counties and numerous state associations. “They need to be able to take and retain specimens just like any other scientist so they can answer questions. This lets them do it without fear of lawyers and litigation.”

John Metz, an attorney for a Cincinnati-area couple who filed the lawsuit after they learned their son’s brain had not been returned, said the family will continue to pursue the case in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.

“This gives the coroner complete carte blanche whether to leave you with anything of your loved one to bury,” he said of the Supreme Court decision. “You have no say-so.”

Mark and Diane Albrecht sued the coroner of Clermont County in 2006 in federal court after learning the brain of their son was removed during an autopsy and not put back. Christopher Albrecht, 30, died in a car accident.

The Albrechts want to start class actions against 87 of Ohio’s 88 counties based on what occurred between 1991 and 2005. An Ohio law passed in 2006 allows coroners to retain and dispose of autopsy specimens.

U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott, at the request of lawyers representing coroners, asked the Ohio Supreme Court to decide whether state law gives the next of kin property interest in autopsied organs.

“We are mindful of the right of a decedent’s next of kin to attend to the proper burial or cremation of the body,” Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton wrote for the majority. “But nothing in the United States Constitution, Ohio statutes or common law establish a protected right in autopsy specimens in Ohio.”

The justices said state lawmakers should address the issue if they disagree.

_ Karen Farkas

Quote of the Day: Archbishop of York John Sentamu

(RNS) “Pray for me.”

_ Archbishop of York John Sentamu, the No. 2 official in the Church of England, speaking to a team of parachutists before he jumped out of plane Friday at 12,500 feet in a jump to raise funds for a military charity.

KRE DS END RNS