c. 2008 Religion News Service
Pelosi counters Catholic prelates’ criticisms on abortion
(RNS) A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has struck back against criticism from prominent Catholic prelates who accused the California congresswoman of misrepresenting church teachings about abortion.
“While Catholic teaching is clear that life begins at conception, many Catholics do not ascribe to that view,” said Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly.
Pelosi, the nation’s highest-ranking Catholic elected official, said on “Meet the Press” Sunday (Aug. 24) that the question of when life begins is “an issue of controversy” within the church. Her comments drew rebukes from the archbishops of Denver, Washington and New York.
In a statement released Tuesday, Cardinal Justin F. Rigali and Bishop William E. Lori, both high-ranking officials in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Pelosi’s argument was inaccurate.
“The church’s moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development,” Rigali and Lori said.
Pelosi, who supports abortion rights, cited the work of St. Augustine, who wrote that life begins three months after conception. Church leaders say medieval teachings were “uninformed and inadequate” in light of modern science, and that the question of when life begins was firmly answered in the middle of the 19th century.
Daly reiterated Pelosi’s position, again citing St. Augustine, while stressing the need for Congress and the church to work together to reduce the number of abortions.
“The speaker is the mother of five children and seven grandchildren and fully appreciates the sanctity of family. She was raised in a devout Catholic family who often disagreed with her pro-choice views,” Daly said.
_ Tim Murphy
Dalai Lama suffering from exhaustion, cancels foreign trips
(RNS) The exiled leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, is suffering from exhaustion and is canceling trips while he undergoes medical tests, his office announced Wednesday (Aug. 27).
“His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been experiencing some discomfort in the past couple of days. His personal physicians attribute this to exhaustion,” the Tibetan leader’s office said in a statement.
The Dalai Lama began medical tests earlier this month in Mumbai, India, according to the statement. A spokesman told The Associated Press that the Buddhist leader has canceled events due to exhaustion before.
Revered by Tibetan Buddhists as a spiritual and temporal leader, but reviled by Chinese authorities as a “splittist,” the Dalai Lama heads Tibet’s government-in-exile from Dharamsala, India.
Tensions between Tibet and China have run high since Tibetans violently protested Chinese rule in March.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate keeps an active, itinerant schedule, speaking before international audiences about Buddhism and Tibet.
He just returned from an 11-day trip to France. Earlier this year, the Buddhist leader spoke before thousands in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
_ Daniel Burke
Pope expresses solidarity with Christian victims in India
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday (Aug. 27) condemned sectarian violence in India and voiced his “solidarity” with Christian victims there.
Benedict made his remarks during his weekly public audience at the Vatican.
Violence in the east Indian state of Orissa broke out last Saturday (Aug. 23), when gunmen killed Hindu leader Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati. Police have blamed the crime on Maoist rebels, but Hindu extremists have retaliated by attacking Christian neighborhoods, including an orphanage. The fighting has left 11 dead.
“While I firmly condemn all attacks against human life, the sacredness of which demands the respect of all, I express my spiritual closeness and solidarity to the brothers and sisters in the faith so hardly tried,” the pope said.
Benedict also appealed to “religious leaders and civil authorities to work together to restore … the peaceful coexistence and harmony which have always been the distinguishing mark of the Indian society.”
_ Francis X. Rocca
Decoded diary shines new light on Methodist pioneer
LONDON (RNS) A secret, coded diary kept by one of Methodism’s founding fathers for 20 years has been deciphered by an Anglican priest in Britain, illuminating historical efforts to keep Methodists in the Church of England.
The task of decoding Charles Wesley’s handwritten 1,000-page journal took the Rev. Kenneth Newport of Liverpool Hope University nine years, he told journalists.
Wesley’s brother, John, founded Methodism. Charles was a prolific hymn writer whose works include “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
Newport said Wesley’s complicated writing omitted vowels and abbreviated consonants in a style ascribed typical of a gentleman and preacher of the 1700s.
Wesley’s journal begins with his trip to America in 1736.
“Charles Wesley has always inspired me, and when I started to study his manuscripts, I kept coming across materials written in what looked like a code of some sort. I was determined to unlock it,” Newport said.
The journal offers an insight into Wesley’s determination to prevent the Methodist Societies from breaking away from the Church of England, according to the Times of London.
It also detailed “disagreements with his more influential brother” John over whether the movement should break with the Church of England.
The two volumes that Newport has translated make up what has been described as the first complete transcription of the text.
_ Al Webb
Christian charities say poverty should be priority for U.S. govt.
(RNS) Christian aid organizations are calling on the federal government to make fighting poverty a national priority, in response to new economic data from the Census Bureau.
According to the bureau’s report, released Tuesday (Aug. 26), the percentage of Americans living below the poverty level remained statistically unchanged from 2006 to 2007.
During that same 12-month period the median income increased and the number of Americans without health insurance declined.
The data not take into account the nation’s recent economic downturn.
The Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, called the current poverty level “unacceptable.”
“Let these troubling poverty statistics be a call to action for each of us,” said Snyder. “We must demand that our current and future leaders give a much higher priority to the needs of the poor in their policymaking decisions.”
The Rev. David Beckmann, president of the Christian anti-poverty organization Bread for the World, said the report fails to account for rising transportation and health care expenses.
“The current way we measure poverty in the U.S. is woefully out of date,” Beckmann said. “(It) fails to capture the true extent of the hardship experienced by American families.”
_ Tim Murphy
Quote of the Day: Megachurch pastor and author Rick Warren
(RNS) “A lot of people hear (about a broader agenda) and they think, `Oh, evangelicals are giving up on believing that life begins at conception.’ They’re not giving up on that at all. Not at all.”
_ Megachurch pastor Rick Warren, speaking to The Wall Street Journal about what he thinks is a misunderstanding by the news media.
DSB/RB END RNS
