c. 2008 Religion News Service

Vatican orders Quebec priest to drop political job

TORONTO (RNS) The Vatican has ordered an outspoken Canadian member of parliament to quit his seat and return to his job as a Roman Catholic priest.

The Rev. Raymond Gravel, a member of the separatist Bloc Quebecois party, blamed his comments on abortion, which he said were “misinterpreted,” but said he had no choice but to follow his original calling.

“My first mission in life is to be a priest, not to be in politics,” he told Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper.

Gravel, 55, is a former prostitute who became a priest in his mid-20s. He was known for working on behalf of the poor and the elderly after being elected to the House of Commons in 2006.

He said he recently received a letter from Cardinals Claudio Hummes and William Levada, the Vatican officials responsible for the church’s clergy and doctrine, instructing him to quit politics. The Vatican included letters and articles _ mostly in English _ condemning Gravel’s stand on issues such as abortion and homosexuality.

Gravel first made national headlines as a priest in 2003, when he attacked the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage. As an member of Parliament, he spoke out against a proposed bill that would have made it a crime to abort a fetus.

“I am against abortion, but I am not in favor of the pro-life campaign that condemns all women who get an abortion,” he said last week.

Gravel’s plight stands in contrast to that of Fernando Lugo, who became the president of Paraguay last month. A former bishop and Catholic priest, Lugo received an unprecedented dispensation to retire from the church, which the Vatican said was “for the good of Paraguay.”

_ Ron Csillag

Survey: Alaskans less religious than most Americans

WASHINGTON (RNS) While Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s staunch evangelical conservatism may appeal to her party’s Christian base, the Alaska governor’s home state ranks among the nation’s least religious.

According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Alaskans are less likely to believe in God, pray, or attend religious services than the national average, and most residents share a libertarian view that the government should be less involved in issues of morality.

Just 37 percent of Alaskans say religion is “very important” in their lives, compared to 56 percent of Americans nationwide. Only 22 percent of the state’s respondents attend religious services at least once a week _ 17 points lower than the national average. Nearly half, 47 percent, of Alaskans say they “seldom” or “never” attend religious services.

Only residents of New Hampshire and Vermont (36 percent each) said religion was less important.

Pew’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, which was released last spring, surveyed 200 Alaskans and more than 35,000 Americans nationwide. Alaska’s results did have a relatively high margin of error of plus or minus 7.5 percentage points, however, due to the small sample size.

The study’s findings place Alaska in line with other states in the Pacific Northwest, including Washington and Oregon, which both boast high numbers of unaffiliated residents.

Mark Silk, a professor of religion in public life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., said the high numbers of unaffiliated Alaskans reflect the region’s “frontier” mentality.

“All of these areas are places with lots of wilderness, and essentially people headed into them not only leaving behind, but wanting to leave behind, prior associations,” said Silk, who co-authored a book about religion and public life in the Northwest.

Evangelical Protestantism is the state’s most popular affiliation, with 26 percent of the population identifying themselves as such. Just 14 percent of Alaskans are Catholic.

Alaskans do agree with the rest of the country when it comes to issues such as abortion and homosexuality, but are less inclined to view them as political causes. Sixty-two percent of Alaskans “worry the government is too involved” in issues of morality, compared to 52 percent of Americans nationwide.

_ Tim Murphy

Acting director named to White House faith-based office

WASHINGTON (RNS) With the departure of its third director, the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives will be led by its former deputy director through the end of President Bush’s term in office.

Jedd Medefind, 34, became acting director of the office on Sept. 2, succeeding Jay Hein, who resigned Aug. 29 to care for his ill father in Indianapolis.

“He is well-prepared to lead the federal effort to support America’s armies of compassion,” Hein said in an announcement.

On his last day, Hein spoke at one of the monthly gatherings he has convened since January 2007 to highlight ways that nonprofits can partner with the government.

“Our work isn’t done,” he said. “Human need is just all too present.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Southern Baptist leader Richard Land

(RNS) “They have expanded and gilded the cage in which people of religious faith operate in the People’s Republic of China, but it’s still a cage. …”

_ Richard Land, a Southern Baptist executive who serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, about the relative increase in religious expression in China. He was quoted by Baptist Press.

KRE/LF END RNS