c. 2008 Religion News Service
Catholic bishops end funding for ACORN
BALTIMORE (RNS) The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will cease funding the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) after allegations of embezzlement and voter registration fraud were raised against the New Orleans-based group in the 2008 election, church leaders said Tuesday (Nov. 11).
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an anti-poverty branch of the bishops’ conference, had been giving ACORN about $1 million each year through grants to 40 local affiliates, according to Bishop Roger Morin of New Orleans.
CCHD first suspended funding in June, according to Morin, after officials learned that an ACORN official had embezzled about $1 million from the group.
Morin said Tuesday the suspension will continue in the future because “we simply had too many questions about these serious matters to continue any funding of ACORN groups.”
A call to ACORN for comment was not immediately returned. The group has 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 cities nationwide, according to its Web site.
Forensic accountants hired by the bishops have thus far not found any evidence that CCHD grants were embezzled by ACORN, Morin said, but the investigation continues.
ACORN was also accused of voter fraud during the 2008 presidential campaign. Because its community organizers often canvass in poor neighborhoods, where many voters are expected to vote Democratic, ACORN has often been accused of partisanship.
“These allegations and controversies raise serious and legitimate concerns,” Morin wrote to fellow bishops in October.
Such accusations grew louder this year because of President-elect Obama’s ties to the group as a young community organizer and attorney in Chicago.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., said “there’s a history of problems with ACORN in St. Louis that goes back 10 years _ not with malfeasance, but with partisanship.”
The CCHD’s $10 million annual budget is funded mainly through parish collections on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
_ Daniel Burke
Obama makes first phone call to pope
ROME (RNS) President-elect Barack Obama made his first telephone call to Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday (Nov. 11), thanking the pontiff for sending a personal message of good will for his election victory, the Vatican confirmed.
“Mr. Obama made a call to the Holy Father in response to the congratulatory message the pope had sent to him upon his election. He wanted to call him, evidently, to thank him,” Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said by telephone. He gave no further details about the conversation.
Obama’s staff said that the president-elect had made similar calls of thanks to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, King Abdullah II of Jordan and President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya.
Benedict sent a telegram to Obama on Nov. 5, congratulating him on the “historic occasion” and promising his prayers that God would help the new president with the “high responsibilities to the nation and to the international community” and in his efforts “to build a world of peace, solidarity and justice.”
The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano greeted Obama’s victory with an editorial that praised America as “truly the country of the new frontier … able to overcome fractures and divisions that until only recently seemed incurable.”
Yet concerns about the Democrat and his positions on ethical issues like abortion and stem cell research are, not surprisingly, already coming to the surface. With regard to claims by Obama’s staff that loosening up President Bush’s restriction on the use of embryonic stem cells for research will be among the first things on the new president’s to-do list, Vatican leaders have staked their ground.
On Tuesday, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, reiterated the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to using embryos for scientific purposes, and said that view “applies to everyone” when asked about Obama’s reported plans.
Another top Vatican prelate, Cardinal Julian Herranz, president of the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia, said in an interview in the Italian daily La Stampa that “after the sensitivity of Bush on this issue, the opposite signal is coming from America, that is that all is legitimate in the laboratory, as long as it is for therapeutic purposes.” He said in the article, “We say to Obama that life must be respected in all of its phases, from conception to a natural end.”
_ Sarah Delaney
Slaughterhouse problems create kosher meat shortage
NEW YORK (RNS) Kosher meat is getting more expensive and harder to find, due to production stoppages at three of America’s largest kosher slaughterhouses.
The Iowa and Nebraska slaughterhouses owned by Agriprocessors suspended production last month as the company struggles to survive foreclosure proceedings and charges of employing thousands of underage and illegal workers at its headquarters in Postville, Iowa.
Agriprocessors produces more than half the kosher meat sold in America, under the labels Aaron’s Best, Rubashkin and Supreme Kosher.
Due to an unrelated fire, North Star Beef, a Minnesota-based company that sells meat under the Alle label, also suspended operations for several weeks.
The resulting shortage, combined with the overall economic downturn and rising price of food, has Jewish grocery shoppers and restaurant patrons justifiably worried, said Elie Rosenfeld, a spokesman for Empire Kosher, a poultry producer. His company and other North American meat and poultry producers are now trying to increase production, but it could take months to make a significant difference.
“There’s been greater demand, but there’s no way to make up for that entire void,” he explained, adding that the impact will be felt most in the Midwest and other parts of the country that do not have as many kosher suppliers as the New York City region and other urban areas.
Jews may begin to explore more vegetarian menu options in the meantime, he added.
As a vegetarian for more than 30 years, Rabbi Morris Allen, head of Hekhsher Tzedek, a Conservative Jewish project aiming to create a system to certify kosher food as the products of ethical workplaces, said he has noticed fewer offerings and higher prices in Minnesota.
Although some critics are concerned that his initiative would exacerbate the situation by creating additional production costs for participating companies, he said Hekhsher Tzedek will continue testing its certification standards next year.
In the five months between now and Passover, when family holiday meals create a major demand for kosher meat, he is confident that other companies will expand and move into the market.
“There clearly are going to be challenges, but I believe the Jewish community will rise to the situation,” he said.
_ Nicole Neroulias
Methodist bishops say lesbian ordination not valid
(RNS) The United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops said it will not recognize the ordinations of two women, including a lesbian, by the unofficial Church Within a Church movement, according to a statement released on Nov. 7.
The ordination service of the two women, one a lesbian and one a gay rights activist, “was not approved by any United Methodist annual conference, board of ordained ministry or cabinet,” the United Methodist News Service (UMNS) reported.
While the United Methodist Church welcomes gays and lesbians as members, it considers homosexual activity “incompatible with Christian teaching” and bars non-celibate gays and lesbians from the pulpit.
The Church Within a Church, the organization that ordained the women, is made up of Methodists who are “dedicated to being the inclusive church.” One of its goals is to change church policy on homosexuality. It has been operating for six years, but has no official affiliation with the United Methodist Church.
The two women, Annie Britton and Jenna Zirbel, were ordained Oct. 19 at a United Methodist church in Baltimore. Britton married her lesbian partner in Massachusetts and Zirbel said she was previously barred from ordination because she voiced support for “gay equality” during her application process.
Although some are unhappy with the church’s stance on homosexuality, bishops do not foresee a church split.
“The United Methodist Church is strong and it is going to see its way through any controversies and any issues because in the end, it is not our church, it is God’s church and God is going to have God’s way,” said Indiana Bishop Michael Coyner.
_ Ashley Gipson
