c. 1999 Religion News Service

House votes again to bar federal funding of abortion-inducing drugs

(RNS) For the second consecutive year, the House of Representatives has voted to ban the government from approving abortion-inducing drugs like the French RU-486 pill.

Despite the 217-214 vote Tuesday (June 8) in favor of the ban, the chances for the bill to become law this year are slim. When the House voted on the same prohibition last year, the Senate did not approve it, the Associated Press reported.”Another baby pesticide that kills babies,”said Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., a lawmaker known for his anti-abortion stance.”Come up with drugs that heal.” Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., agreed.”There is something terribly wrong”when the Food and Drug Administration uses taxpayers’ money for”drugs that are designed to kill unborn children,”said Coburn, a sponsor of the bill.

During the sometimes emotional debate, opponents called the restriction another try at limiting abortion rights.”We have our Flat Earth Society days around here, and this appears to be one of them,”said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.”Science, not politics, should determine what drugs are approved,”said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.

Vatican updates rules for cloistered nuns in the information age

(RNS) The Vatican has issued new, up-to-date rules to govern the lives of cloistered nuns in the information age, frowning on too much radio and television but giving qualified approval to cell telephones, faxes and the Internet.”The cloistral desert is a great help in the conquest of pureness of heart because it limits occasions of contact with the external world to essentials so that they do not burst in on the convent in various ways, disturbing the climate of peace and of holy unity with the one Lord and with the sisters,”the Vatican document said.

The document”Verbi Sponsa,”signed by Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Religious Life, advises nuns to guard against shattering the silence of the cloister”with noise, news and words”that make”spiritual meditation more difficult.””In this way, seclusion eliminates in great part the dispersion, coming from so many unnecessary contacts, of a multiplicity of images, often sources of profane ideas and vain desires, of information and of emotions that distract from the one message and dissipate the unity of the interior,”the document said.

Listening to the radio or watching television should be limited to rare occasions, such as a papal visit, the Vatican said.”The use of radio and television can be permitted in particular circumstances of religious character,”it said.”The possible use of other modern means of communication, such as fax, cellular telephone and Internet, for work or information, can be allowed in the convent.” Although it advised”prudent discernment”as to how fax, phone and Internet are put to use, the Vatican already has recruited cloistered nuns to help design its Web pages containing information about next year’s celebration of the”Great Jubilee.” The new rules limit visitors to cloistered convents to cardinals, apostolic delegates, nuncios and bishops _ and only”for just cause.”Priests, doctors and workmen also may enter with the mother superior’s approval.

With the permission of the superior, nuns may leave the convent for up to one week for reasons of health or to carry out their civic duties. They need the permission of their bishop to remain away for up to three months and of the Vatican for longer absences.

Update: Albright says arrests of Jews could hurt U.S.-Iran relations

(RNS) U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Wednesday (June 9) that Iran’s decision to charge 13 Jews with spying for the United States and Israel could hurt fledgling attempts at rapprochement.

Both Israel and United States have denied the allegations, and Albright said continuing to hold the 13 was”unacceptable.” An American Jewish group said those arrested were rabbis, teachers and community leaders from the cities of Shiraz and Isfahan. The arrests reportedly took place almost three months ago, although the charges against the 13 were not made public until this week.

The spy charges carry the death penalty.

Since the 1997 election of moderate Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, the United States and Iran have taken tentative steps to better relations, which have been mostly negative since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

Attack on missionaries’ home nets Jerusalem man 18-month prison term

(RNS) An ultra-Orthodox Jew has been sentenced in Jerusalem to 18 months in prison for vandalizing the apartment of two Swiss Christian missionaries who allegedly sought to convert Jews.

Aharon Kornblit was among a crowd of about 500 ultra-Orthodox Jews who attacked the missionaries’ apartment in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood. The crowd formed after word spread through the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood that the Swiss women were intent on converting Jews to Christianity.

The women denied the allegation.

In a decision read Tuesday (June 8) over Israeli radio, Judge Ruth Or said she imposed the tough sentence to send a message.”If such vandalism had been done to Jewish homes in a Christian country, the entire Jewish world would demand the vandals be punished, and justly,”Or said, according to the Associated Press.

Kornblit was one of three men arrested in connection with the incident. One of the others has already completed an eight-month prison sentence.

“Choose Life”an option for Florida license plates

(RNS) Florida drivers will be able to proclaim”Choose Life”_ a controversial stand in the abortion debate _ on their license plates under a bill signed Tuesday (June 8) by Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.

Profits from sales of the $20 specialty plate will support groups that serve pregnant women who intend to put their babies up for adoption. The plate bears a crayon drawing of children.

The idea had been vetoed last year by the late Gov. Lawton Chiles, a Democrat. Bush, however, had promised to sign it into law.”This shows the complete difference in leadership we have here,”said Matt Ozolnieks, vice president of Florida Right to Life, a lobbying group that supported the bill.”This is a real good opportunity for those concerned for women in crisis pregnancies to offer help and hope.” Opponents argue that the plate bears a political message that is divisive, and a potential object of road rage.”You don’t put a political slogan on a license plate,”said Democratic state Sen. Howard Forman.”Now the taxpayers are paying for a political slogan with the imprimatur of the state of Florida.”

British Church of Scientology pays fine in libel case

(RNS) The Church of Scientology in Britain has agreed to pay a former member $88,000 and apologize for calling her a”hate campaigner.” After American-born Bonnie Woods left the controversial church in 1991, she and her husband began offering advice about Scientology to families and friends of members.

In 1993, the church, which has a reputation for trying to quiet critics, produced a leaflet that had a photograph of Woods above the words”Hate Campaigner Comes to Town.” Woods sued, and the decision was announced Tuesday (June 8) in London, Reuters reported.

Scientology attorney Patrick Moloney said the church regretted its action. Although recognized as a religion in the United States for tax purposes, Scientology enjoys no such legal status in Britain.

Hong Kong Buddhists upset with Christian appeal on sin

(RNS) Hong Kong Buddhist leaders are privately telling Christian leaders they are very unhappy about a Christian appeal issued last month calling on church members to”confess the Hong Kong people’s sin of worshipping the Buddha.” The appeal was timed to coincide with preparations for Hong Kong’s May 22 first public holiday to celebrate the Buddha’s birthday, said Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious publisher.

When Britain handed the territory over to China in 1997, the authorities in Hong Kong decided that because it had more than 800,000 Buddhists, the event should become a public holiday.

To honor the birthday, a special relic _ claimed to be a tooth of the Buddha _ was flown from Beijing to Hong Kong.

At the same time, two Christian groups _ Asian Outreach Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Church Renewal Movement _ called a training meeting of church workers to counter Buddhism. A poster advertising the session referred to the Buddha’s birthday, declaring”while many people are finding their religion, Satan takes the opportunity of stealing souls.” It pointed out that the Buddha’s birthday fell one day before the Christian celebration of Pentecost and described the difference between the two as”spiritual warfare.”

Jackson: Kosovo could be a new Korea

(RNS) The Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking to reporters before addressing the graduating class at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said Kosovo could turn into another South Korea, with American troops stationed in the Yugoslav province for decades to come.”We will be there for as long as we have been in South Korea,”Jackson said.

Jackson, who led an interfaith delegation to Belgrade in a successful effort to free three U.S. prisoners, also accused President Clinton of not telling the American people the truth about the cost of the war and warned U.S. troops could be caught in the cross-fire of Serb military forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army, which is seeking to free the province of Serb control.

He said the KLA would see U.S. ground troops, to be inserted into Kosovo to protect returning ethnic Albanian refugees,”as interfering with the quest for independence, and the Serbs (will) see them (U.S. troops) as occupying forces.”Thus, they will be in the cross-fire of a very expensive, volatile situation,”he said.

Pope names new bishop for Camden, N.J.

(RNS) _ Pope John Paul II has named Monsignor Nicholas A. DiMarzio, an expert on problems of refugees and migrants, to fill the vacant post of bishop of Camden, N.J., the Vatican said Wednesday (June 9).

DiMarzio, 55, presently is an auxiliary bishop of Newark, N.J., and president of the Commission for Migrations of the U.S. National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A native of Newark, he studied philosophy at the Immaculate Conception Seminary of Seton Hall University in Mahwah, N.J. He received a degree in public administration from Rutgers University.

Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Newark in 1970, he was assistant priest in St. Nicholas Parish in Jersey City until 1976 and assistant director of the Newark Archdiocese Office for Immigrants from 1976 to 1984.

After serving as priest of Holy Rosary Parish in Jersey City from 1984 to 1986, DiMarzio became executive director of the Office for Assistance of Refugees and Immigrants of the national bishops’ conference in Washington.

Returning to Newark in 1991, he served as vicar for human services in the archdiocese until 1993 and director of Catholic Community Services from 1993 to 1996. The pope named him auxiliary bishop of Newark in September 1996.

Quote of the day: Dave Ganger, Fort Myers, Fla., parent.

(RNS)”My son said he wanted me to take him to Wal-Mart to buy him a dress or he wouldn’t go to school. I think it’s the wrong direction to morally steer the students.” _ Fort Myers, Fla., parent Dave Ganger complaining to the Associated Press on Tuesday (June 8) about a role-reversal day, which kids called cross-dressing day. It was planned as part of a fun-themed week with such days as pajamas day and school spirit day, celebrating the end of testing at Cypress Lake Middle School.

DEA END RNS