c. 2006 Religion News Service
Ford Praised for Steady Hand, Support for Jews
(RNS) Religious leaders are lauding former President Gerald Ford, who died Tuesday (Dec. 26) at age 93, praising his common decency, his steady hand in turbulent times and his support for Jews living in the former Soviet Union.
Evangelist Billy Graham called him “one of the closest friends I have had in the political world.”
Ford became president after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 under the weight of the Watergate scandal. Ford soon pardoned Nixon and declared the end of “our long national nightmare.”
“President Ford was a great healer, and brought us together,” Graham said. “We owe a great debt to him for how he put principle over politics at a crucial time in the life of our nation.”
Funeral services for Ford, who was an Episcopalian, will be held at three Episcopal churches _ St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, Calif., near where he retired; Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he was raised; and the Washington National Cathedral.
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori praised Ford’s “care-filled ministry.”
“We give thanks for his life of service in government as well as in the several parishes to which he belonged,” Jefferts Schori said.
The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, was a newly elected, 31-year-old Democratic congressman when he met the former president. Though he vigorously disagreed with Ford, a Republican, on the Nixon pardon and the Vietnam War, Edgar said that the former president was a “genetically nice person” who worked with politicians on both sides of the aisle.
“The best remembrance of Ford reminds us of a time when Democrats and Republicans worked collaboratively for the common good of the nation and not just for political ideology _ and for that he should be honored.”
Jewish groups _ including the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and the Anti-Defamation League _ praised Ford’s signing of the Helsinki Accords, which pressured the former Soviet Union to respect the rights of Jews within its borders.
“For the Jewish people he remained a stalwart friend,” the Orthodox Union said in a statement.
_ Daniel Burke
Vatican Condemns Saddam Death Sentence
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A senior Vatican official on Thursday condemned the death sentence facing Saddam Hussein as a “crime,” reaffirming the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to capital punishment.
In an interview published Thursday (Dec. 28) in La Repubblica of Rome, Cardinal Renato Martino, who heads the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, urged Iraqi authorities not to carry out the sentence, which was upheld by Iraq’s highest court on Tuesday.
“I hope a crime will not be compensated with another crime,” Martino was quoted as saying.
Saddam was convicted for the killing of of 148 people in Dujail, Iraq, in 1982. In its ruling on Tuesday, the court ordered Saddam to be hanged within 30 days. For the execution to go forward, however, it must be formally approved by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani who has recently come under pressure from opponents of capital punishment, including Martino.
“The death penalty is not a natural death. And no one can give death, not even the State,” he said.
Martino’s comments came one day after Saddam Hussein issued an open letter, in which the former Iraqi president struck a pious tone, describing his impending execution as a sacrifice to God.
“Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice,” Saddam wrote in a letter that was posted on a Web site under his name.
He also called on Iraqis “not to hate the peoples of the other countries that attacked us and differentiate between the decision-makers and people.”
_ Stacy Meichtry
Muslims Again Divided Over Moon Sightings
(RNS) A ruling by Saudi Arabian religious authorities has again split Muslims, including those in America, over when to celebrate Eid Al-Adha, one of two major Islamic holidays.
Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Judicial Council announced on Dec. 21 that a new crescent moon _ which marks the start of a new month on the Islamic lunar calendar, and thus determines when major holidays fall _ had been spotted the night before.
But the Saudi ruling came four weeks after the North American Fiqh Council, a group of Islamic scholars, had set Dec. 31 as the date, based on astronomical calculations. The decision was backed by the Indianapolis-based Islamic Society of North America, but many mosques in the United States have decided to follow the Saudi lead.
As a result, many congregations in the same city will celebrate Eid Al-Adha, or the festival of sacrifice, on different days.
Congregations inclined to take their cue from religious authorities in Mecca _ like the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., and the Islamic Society of Boston _ will celebrate Saturday (Dec. 30), joining Muslims in the Middle East Gulf states and Nigeria. Congregations inclined to follow the North American Fiqh Council _ like the All Dulles Area Muslim Society in northern Virginia and the Islamic Institute of Boston _ will celebrate Eid Al-Adha on Sunday (Dec. 31), joining Muslims in Morocco, Turkey, South Africa and Indonesia, among other countries. Islamic authorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh, meanwhile, have decided on Jan. 1.
Several mosques in California, citing the Saudi decision and the need for “unity,” changed their Eid Al-Adha events from Sunday to Saturday _ but not without some exasperation.
The Saudi decision “contradicts the scientific verdicts from within Saudi Arabia and outside,” read a statement attributed to a council of California imams that was posted on the Web site of the Islamic Center of Orange County.
The center’s imam, Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, is president of the North American Fiqh Council and supported the decision to follow astronomical calculations rather than Saudi moon sightings. The imams, said the statement, will demand an explanation from Saudi Arabia and inform them of the “damaging effect their uninformed decisions” have on Muslims.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a collection of more than 50 mainly Muslim countries, has also criticized the failure of Muslim authorities to settle on a date.
Louay Safi, an ISNA official, said Muslim unity on the holiday issue would be nice, but there is also an upside to celebrating on different days.
“It shows that people feel they can follow their own conscience, and not celebrating Eid on a certain day because a central authority forces people to celebrate on a certain day. Still, it would be nice if we came to the same conclusion.”
_ Omar Sacirbey
Court Says it Has No Power to Force Gay Marriage Vote in Legislature
BOSTON (RNS) The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday (Dec. 27) unanimously ruled that the constitution requires legislators to vote on a proposal to ban gay marriage, but said it has no power to force the politicians to act.
Gov. W. Mitt Romney and 10 private citizens filed a lawsuit after the House and Senate voted 109-87 to recess on Nov. 9 before voting on a citizens petition for a ballot question to ban gay marriage. The lawsuit asked the court to tell legislators they have a constitutional duty to vote on the proposal. Legislators will meet again on Jan. 2 before their session expires.
Associate Justice John M. Greaney wrote that legislators would be avoiding their “lawful obligations” if they refuse to vote on the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. But Greaney said there is no way for the court to force a vote.
“Beyond resorting to aspirational language that relies on the good faith of elected representatives, there is no presently articulated judicial remedy for the Legislature’s indifference to, or defiance of, its constitutional duties,” Greaney wrote.
The court, the same one that legalized gay marriage in 2003, dismissed the lawsuit by the governor.
Legislators are scheduled to take up the proposed amendment again when they meet on Jan. 2, the last day of the 2005-2006 session.
The proposal needs the votes of at least 50 legislators that day and then at least another 50 votes in the 2007-2008 session to move to the November 2008 ballot. If approved by voters, the proposal would ban future gay marriages but allow about 8,000 that have already taken place.
It’s unclear what legislators will do when they convene again on Tuesday. Many expect lawmakers to vote to adjourn, or mount a filibuster until the session ends at midnight, before taking the vote on gay marriage.
Lee Swislow, executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, urged legislators to follow their conscience.
“This is a discriminatory amendment,” Swislow said in a statement. “Our democracy has always sought to protect the rights of the minority from the ”tyranny of the majority.” It is never fair to vote on those rights.”
_ Dan Ring
Quote of the Day: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
(RNS) “Dear faithful people, I say goodbye to you, but I will be with the merciful God who helps those who take refuge in him and who will never disappoint any faithful, honest believer.”
_ Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in a farewell letter to the Iraqi people that was posted on a Web site Wednesday (Dec. 27) ahead of Saddam’s court-approved execution.
KRE/JL END RNS
