c. 2005 Religion News Service
Kidnapped and Released Iraqi Bishop Says Church Not a Target
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A Catholic archbishop held by kidnappers for 20 hours in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul said on his unharmed release Tuesday (Jan. 18) that no ransom was paid and he does not believe the church was a target.
“I think that my abduction was a coincidence,” Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of the Syrian Catholic Church told Vatican Radio. “It did not seem to me that they wanted to strike at the Church as such.”
Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly, the senior Catholic prelate in Iraq agreed with Casmoussa. “The true problem is that Iraq is in chaos,” he told the missionary news agency MISNA.
Archbishop Fernando Filoni, the Vatican’s envoy to Baghdad, linked the kidnapping to the “climate of pre-electoral tension in Iraq,” where voters will choose members of a transitional parliament on Jan. 30.
But Filoni said it also was part of “a strategy against the Syrian Catholic and Chaldean churches” and noted that last month shots were fired at the door of Casmoussa’s residence. Christian churches also have been bombed in Iraq.
The kidnappers, who seized Casmoussa, 66, late Monday, reportedly demanded $200,000 in ransom.
Kidnappings are frequent in Iraq for ransom or for political reasons. Islamic extremists are believed to have killed more than 40 foreign prisoners and currently hold another 34.
The Vatican denounced Casmoussa’s abduction and demanded his immediate release. Both the Syrian and the Chaldean Catholic Churches practice the Eastern Rite but are in union with the Roman Catholic Church.
“The Holy See deplores in the most firm manner such an ignoble terrorist act and asks that that worthy pastor be quickly restored unharmed to his ministry,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement Monday night.
The Vatican greeted the archbishop’s release “with great satisfaction,” the spokesman said Tuesday. “The Holy Father was immediately informed and thanked God for the happy outcome of this event,” he said.
Navarro-Valls also said that no ransom was paid. “The abduction caused great surprise because the archbishop was very well liked both by Christians and by Muslims,” he added.
Casmoussa said that he was treated well.
“The kidnappers were very kind to me. As soon as they knew that I was a bishop their attitude changed, and I was freed at midday, even before the hour fixed, without a ransom,” the prelate said.
_ Peggy Polk
Meeting With 160 Rabbis, Pope Urges Increased Understanding
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II, meeting with 160 rabbis and cantors on Tuesday (Jan. 18), urged Catholics and Jews to work together to build a world “based on respect for the divine image in every human being.”
The unusual audience was arranged by Gary Krupp, president and founder of the Foundation Pave the Way, which promotes better interfaith relations, to thank the Polish-born pope for his efforts to break down barriers of prejudice among religions.
John Paul greeted the rabbis “with affection” and noted that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Nostra Aetate, “which significantly contributed to the strengthening of Jewish-Catholic dialogue.”
The declaration asserts the “spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews,” condemns anti-Semitism and says that Christ’s crucifixion “cannot be charged against all Jews without distinction then alive, nor against the Jews of today.”
“May this be an occasion for renewed commitment to increased understanding and cooperation in the service of building a world ever more firmly based on respect for the divine image in every human being,” the pope told the rabbis.
John Paul ended his brief address by blessing the group and calling in Hebrew for peace. “Upon all of you, I invoke the abundant blessings of the Almighty and, in particular, the gift of peace,” he said. “Shalom aleichem.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you. Shalom, shalom, shalom,” Krupp said, and three rabbis recited a prayer in the pope’s honor.
_ Peggy Polk
Rabbinic Leaders Prohibit Jews From Setting Foot on Holy Site
JERUSALEM (RNS) A group of prominent rabbinic leaders, including Israel’s Chief Sephardic and Ashkenazi rabbis, announced Monday (Jan. 17) that Jews may not set foot on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site.
The formal rabbinic decree, spearheaded by Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz and signed by the current and former chief rabbis of Israel and other world-renowned rabbinic figures, reinstates a longstanding ban. It had been in effect for centuries but in recent years it has been reinterpreted by some rabbinic authorities.
Rabbis have deemed the mount, where the first and second biblical temples once stood, off limits out of fear that Jews might inadvertently tread on the Holy of Holies, considered too sacred for ordinary people. In biblical times, only priests or Jewish worshippers who had undergone a special purification ritual were permitted to set foot on special, sacred areas.
The Wakf, the Islamic trust that maintains the mount, has long tried to prevent non-Muslims from visiting the mount, which Muslims call Haram al Sharif. It fears that non-Muslim extremists will try to destroy the Al Aksa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest shrine, located atop the mount.
In recent years, many Jews called for the rabbis to permit Jewish visits, fearing that the dearth of Jewish visitors would strengthen Muslim claims to the disputed site. Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem, where the mount is located, to be the capital of their future state, have sometimes denied that the first and second temples existed.
In response to this effort to delegitimize Jewish claims to the mount, several rabbis decided to allow Jewish pilgrimages. During the past two years, tens of thousands of religious Jews from around the world have gone to the site, often accompanied by their rabbis.
The new ruling calls for an end to these pilgrimages. It states that “over the years we have lost the exact location of the Temple, and anyone entering the Mount could unwittingly enter the area of the Temple and the Holy of Holies. With this in mind, we reiterate our warning … that no man nor woman should set foot in the entire area of the Temple Mount, irrespective of which gate is used for this purpose.”
_ Michele Chabin
`Jane Roe’ Asks High Court to Overturn Landmark Abortion Decision
WASHINGTON (RNS) Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, said Tuesday (Jan. 18) that her faith has motivated her to petition the Supreme Court to reverse its 1973 decision legalizing abortion.
The petition, which includes testimonies from 1,000 women who regret their abortions, was delivered to the Supreme Court Tuesday, according to officials from The Justice Foundation, a San Antonio, Texas-based nonprofit law firm that is handling the case.
It’s unclear what impact, if any, the request will have, beyond drawing public attention to the issue of abortion days before the anniversary of the Jan. 22 landmark decision.
The court could take several months to decide whether to re-open the case, decline to hear it or order a lower court to hold a trial, according to Allan Parker, Justice Foundation president.
In a news conference on the steps of the Supreme Court, McCorvey said a religious experience changed her mind about abortion.
“In 1995, my conscience drove me into the arms of Jesus Christ, where I found forgiveness for my sins,” said McCorvey, flanked by 33 women wearing white ribbon armbands, signifying regret of their abortions.
“At times I have felt responsible for the deaths of millions of children,” McCorvey said. “But today I feel forgiven by Jesus. I feel loved.”
Parker said the 5,000-page petition is based on three legal arguments: that the Supreme Court has a duty to monitor whether conditions have changed related to constitutional issues it has ruled on; that the legal conditions underlying Roe v. Wade have changed materially since the 1973 ruling, making further application of it unjust; and that McCorvey was denied due process in the lower courts because she wasn’t given a hearing based on the evidence.
“It absolutely is not (a publicity stunt,)” Parker said in response to a question. “That’s why we filed 5,000 pages of evidence.”
When McCorvey was handed a copy of the petition at the news conference, members of the crowd standing in freezing temperatures clapped and called out “Amen” and “Praise God.”
_ Andrea James
Director of White House Faith-based Office Promoted
(RNS) The director of President Bush’s office dealing with faith-based initiatives is staying on for Bush’s second term _ with a promotion.
The White House announced Friday (Jan. 14) that Jim Towey has been named to be assistant to the president and director of the Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives. Since 2002, Towey has led the office and served as a deputy assistant.
“Jim Towey is helping to empower the armies of compassion in America to solve some of our nation’s most pressing problems,” the president said in a statement.
“He is a tireless servant for those in need, and I look forward to his continued counsel in a second term.”
Towey, who has served as a senior adviser to former U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Oregon, and the late Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, also was legal counsel to Mother Teresa for a dozen years.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Anti-Apartheid Activist Boesak Pardoned
(RNS) A former church leader in the South African anti-apartheid movement has been pardoned after being convicted of diverting donations from development agencies to his own bank account.
Allan Boesak, former president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, was pardoned by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Boesak, who left the ministry 14 years ago, is expected to be re-admitted to South Africa’s United Reforming Church, the BBC reported.
Along with now-retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Boesak was in the forefront of nonviolent resistance to apartheid and used the platform of the WARC presidency, which he held from 1982 to 1991, to drum international pressure to end South Africa’s system of racial separation.
But in 1999 he was convicted of fraud and theft for diverting $65,000 from Scandinavian church and development agencies _ DanChurchAid, the Swedish International Development Agency and the Church of Norway _ into his own bank account. He has consistently insisted he is innocent.
He was given a three-year sentence, of which he served one year and was paroled in 2001, the BBC reported.
Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town called the pardon, announced Jan. 15, “good news.”
“It will enable Allan to make a fresh start and enjoy the fruits of the struggle in which he played a big part,” Ndungane told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news service.
Despite Boesak’s legal difficulties, he remained highly popular in the now-ruling African National Congress. Before his conviction, he had been South Africa’s ambassador-designate to the United Nations in Geneva. There was speculation in South Africa that with his criminal record being expunged, a political role could again open up for him.
_ David E. Anderson
Quote of the Day: President Bush
(RNS) “Martin Luther King also knew that man’s right to be free is rooted in something far beyond the charters of the country. He believed and he knew that the image of God we share is a source of our dignity as human beings and the basis for our equality. He believed and he knew that the teachings of Jesus stand in eternal judgment of oppression. He believed and he knew that the God who made us for freedom will bring us to freedom.”
_ President Bush, speaking Monday (Jan. 17) on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
MO/JL RNS END
