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Thursday, July 24, 2008
9:59:22 PM EDT
Faith Forum preview
Many of the mayoral candidates for the upcoming Cullman, Alabama, city election are scheduled to speak Thursday at a “Faith Forum,” designed to let the candidates share their beliefs regarding religion.
Marshall Rowe, Ernest Hauk, Lou Bradford and Max A. Townson have all signed on to take part in the event, which will be hosted at East Side Baptist Church.
The only candidate not yet scheduled to appear is Eric Perry, whom the forum’s organizers are still trying to contact.
“The reason for this is, you have other venues available for candidates in the community,” Pastor Ken Allen said. ”This is a venue that offers candidates the opportunity to express their faith and it gives the people of Cullman a chance to hear them express their faiths.”
The candidates will be asked to answer three questions, with a five-minute time limit for each answer.
The questions will address what the candidates top three issues would be if elected, will ask them to describe their journey of faith (if any), and ask what they would do to make Cullman a special place to live.
The forum will take place in the Christian Life Center at East Side Baptist Church.
Allen said he encourages everyone in the community to come out and see what the candidates have to say.
“I hope the people will come out more informed with the candidates and where they stand as a believer,” he said. “And see how that will impact how they govern as mayor and the decisions they make in office. This will give the community a chance to hear from the candidates, and hear them express what they believe in an appropriate forum.”
The forum begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Perhaps the candidates will speak of their proclivity to marrying their close relatives or their penchant for lynching black folks.
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9:37:38 AM EDT
Gimme That Old Time Relligion
Minister Charged With Sexual Assualt
56 year-old Manuel Taboada was the leader of a small religious ministry in Kaneohe.
"They have a number of children back there, and like I said they have their own religion," said neighbor Ruth Okamura.
Monday afternoon, Taboada was arrested and accused of sexually assaulting a girl whose family belonged to his "Back to the Cross" ministry.
Neighbors say Taboada, and other church members home schooled a majority of the children.
"Yeah kind of shocking," said Okamura. "He didn't strike me as the kind of person."
According to court documents the victim came forward with her accusations last week. She told police - she moved into the church house with her family in 1999, when she was 12 years old.
"The defendant moved the victim into his room with his family to groom her for a leadership position taking her from her family's room and moved them into another house," said Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Vicki Kapp.
Court documents say that over the next eight years, Taboada also known as "Memo" sexually assaulted her on numerous occasions between '99 and last year.
"Since the victim was 12 years old the suspect committed numerous sexual offenses against her in the house and in the ministries van, until she turned 20 years old. He told her if she told anyone that the ministry would fall apart and the children of the other families would be taken away," said Kapp.
Wednesday, a grand jury indicted him on eight counts of sex assault.
"There were similar allegations against the defendant in his ministry that he formed in Portland Oregon, and a similar investigation is being conducted at this time in Oregon by authorities," said Kapp.
A judge set his bail at 2-million dollars. He remains in police custody. |
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Thursday, July 17, 2008
5:41:40 PM EDT
They Never Stop
Americans United, ACLU Ask Court To End Public Funding Of Discriminatory Kentucky Baptist Homes For Children
Appeal Of Lawsuit Asserts That Publicly Funded Baptist Facility Proselytizes Children In Its Care
Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union today urged a federal appeals court to deny tax funding to a Baptist childcare agency that proselytizes youngsters in its care and fires gay employees.
The lawsuit, Pedreira v. Kentucky Baptist Homes For Children, Inc., asserts that Kentucky Baptist Homes has no right to accept public funding while imposing religious dogma on the children in its programs, and that the Homes’ religion-based anti-gay employment policy violates civil rights laws.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a group of Kentucky taxpayers, including Alicia Pedreira, an employee at the Louisville home who worked with troubled young people. Despite her excellent performance reviews, Pedreira was terminated in 1998 after officials at the facility learned she is a lesbian.
A federal district court dismissed the case earlier this year, ruling that the plaintiffs do not have legal standing to bring it. Americans United and the ACLU have asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the case and strike down public funding for Kentucky Baptist Homes.
“Kentucky Baptist Homes is on a mission to evangelize on the taxpayer’s dime,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “The Constitution simply does not allow this. Faith-based charities that want to indoctrinate youths should not get public funds.”
Added Americans United Senior Litigation Counsel Alex J. Luchenitser, “The trial judgewas way off base in dismissing this case on legal technicalities. If this wrong-headed ruling is allowed to stand, it will eviscerate the rights of taxpayers to challenge public funding of religion.”
Ken Choe, a senior staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, said, “This case illustrates the all-too-real dangers of the government funding religious organizations without adequate safeguards. The Constitution’s promise of religious freedom guarantees that the government won’t preference one form of religion over another. Yet that’s exactly what happened to Alicia Pedreira, who was fired because she didn’t conform to the religious beliefs of her government-funded employer.”
Said Alicia Pedreira, “I put my heart and soul into helping the children who were under the care of Baptist Homes and was making a difference in their lives. It was unfair to be fired for being a lesbian. It’s not right that an organization that is funded by state and federal dollars to do work for the state can get away with this.”
In the appellate brief filed with the 6th Circuit today, Americans United and the ACLU note numerous examples of the religious nature of the childcare agency. Its president has touted the Homes’ success in converting children, and the agency calls itself “Christ centered.”
The document also cites a report by the Children’s Review Program, a private contractor hired by Kentucky officials to monitor programs for children. The report noted numerous instances where young people complained about being forced to attend Baptist services or said they were not permitted to attend services of other faiths.
Asserts the brief, “Baptist Homes uses its public funding to indoctrinate youths who are wards of the state in its religious views, coerce them to take part in religious activity, and convert them to its version of Christianity, and does so in part by requiring its employees to reflect its religious beliefs in their behavior.”
Joining Luchenitser and Choe in drafting the brief were Americans United Legal Director Ayesha N. Khan; Washington, D.C., attorney Murray Garnick; attorneys David Bergman, Joshua Wilson, Elizabeth Leise, Alicia Truman, Lea Johnston and Alessandro Maggi of the international law firm Arnold & Porter LLP; and ACLU attorneys James Esseks, David Friedman and Daniel Mach.
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008
10:13:48 PM EDT
Creeping Right Wing Socialism
Wall Street Socialism
This weekend, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, former head of the Goldman Sachs investment house, provided us with a perfect demonstration of Wall Street socialism.
He announced that the Bush administration would seek congressional approval to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government created but privately owned, profit-making housing finance companies that hold or guarantee nearly half of the U.S. mortgage market—some $5 trillion in debt. Paulson seeks and will get an unlimited line of credit to guarantee their debt, as well as authority to purchase their shares to supplement their capital base. The Federal Reserve announced it was ready to provide lending while waiting for Congress to act. Paulson said the new subsidies were designed to sustain the two institutions in "their current form."
Perfect. The two institutions have always been more fowl than fish. Created by the government in the 1930s to help lubricate the U.S. mortgage market by buying mortgages from the banks so they would have the cash to make more mortgages, Fannie and Freddie were able to borrow money at a discount because of a widely shared assumption that the government would stand behind their debts if push came to shove. Their operations were regulated, limited by laws detailing what mortgages they could assume. (They were essentially prohibited from diving directly into the subprime muck.)
But as they grew and profited, their executives pocketed lavish salaries and bonuses—giving them an incentive to grow even more (and as we discovered earlier this decade, to cook the books). Last year, for example, the Chair of Freddie Mac took home a cool $18,289,575. Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd reaped a 7 percent rise in pay to $13.4 million in 2007 while the company lost $2.1 billion and its shares fell 33 percent. Nice work if you can get it.
Now with the bursting of the housing bubble, push surely has come to shove. Foreclosures are soaring, the two institutions have sustained billions in losses, their shares have plummeted, and, according to former St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole, one and possibly both would be bankrupt if their assets were marked down to their current market value.
So now the Bush administration proposes to make the federal guarantee explicit and even to offer taxpayer money to help recapitalize the two banks if needed. Everything has been nationalized—except the profits and the pay scales of the bank's executives.
That's right. If the guarantees work, private speculators, having driven the stock down, will clean up on the upside. And the bank's CEOs will continue to pocket the multimillion dollar salaries that are de rigueur on Wall Street. Call it Wall Street socialism. Their losses are socialized; their profits are pocketed. You and I will pay for their failures. And if conservatives have their way, their families will pocket their successes, without even having to pay a tax for the transfer of the estates we've helped to create.
These enterprises are operating on our tab now—completely. Why not just nationalize them, as even that font of economic convention, Sabastian Mallaby suggested yesterday in The Washington Post? Sure, we'd have to add the $5 trillion in debt to the federal balance sheet, but we could add the assets also. And after Paulson's announcement, global investors are already toting up their debts onto the federal balance sheet.
Why pay dividends to shareholders when they are essentially playing with our money? Why pay managers of public enterprises the bloated pay packages of Wall Street speculators? Why allow them to finance lobbyists to shield them from accountability? The fiction of their separate existence has been exploded; let's save the dough and run them efficiently.
The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is only the most recent and extreme version of Wall Street socialism. The Bush administration has done essentially the same for private providers of college loans. The Federal Reserve has made taxpayers the guarantor not simply of the banks that it regulates, but the shadow banking system of hedge funds and investment houses that it doesn't regulate. After the bailout of Bear Sterns, they basically are gambling with our money. The Federal Reserve has now traded more than $500 billion in federal bonds for the toxic paper of private banks and investment houses, some $200 billion of it in mortgage-backed securities, worth dimes on the dollar. This massive subsidy—justified as necessary to keep the banking system afloat—is not accompanied by limits on what gambles the speculators can make, how much debt they can take on, what rewards they can pocket. They are playing with house money—not exactly an incentive for prudence.
Republicans seem ideologically committed to these kinds of arrangements. In Medicare for example, conservatives have demanded that the government subsidize private insurance companies to compete with public Medicare, even though Medicare provides health care much less expensively. When Bush and the Tom DeLay Congress drove through the prescription drug bill, they included a provision that prohibits Medicare from negotiating cheaper prices for drugs, effectively turning the bill from a benefit to seniors to a multibillion-dollar subsidy to private drug companies (not surprisingly, after Wall Street, the drug companies finance one of the most lavish and powerful lobbies in Washington).
Now it makes sense to me for the government to subsidize housing mortgages and college loans. Encouraging home ownership and higher education are central to sustaining the broad middle class that is America's triumph. But I can't imagine why we need to let bankers and investors pocket the upside, when they are playing with our money and we're covering their losses. Public enterprise may be staid and bureaucratic, but it's a lot cheaper and more efficient than the perils of Wall Street socialism.
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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
9:34:49 PM EDT
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St. Stephen’s ritual breaks |
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New Delhi, India, July 15: The heads of departments at Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College today refused to register new students for the first time in the institution’s 126-year history after the administration rejected demands to revoke controversial religion-based faculty appointments.
The eight also boycotted an annual July 15 lunch and assembly in honour of the new batch of students as a mark of protest, another first for the college, faculty sources said.
In the morning, M.S. Frank, the administrative head of the college, met the protesting department heads and told them he would not back down, administration sources said.
The faculty had been protesting against the appointment of Christians ahead of better qualified teachers in the history and math departments. Last Friday, the heads had unanimously written to Frank to register their protest, setting the stage for a tumultuous start to the new academic session.
“He (Frank) told us today that we could do what we wanted, but he would not revoke the controversial appointments. We told him we would boycott the registration, but even that did not make him budge,” a department head said.
Frank has said that as a minority institution, St. Stephen’s is within its rights to give priority to members of the Christian community in faculty.
New students in each department are traditionally registered by the head of the department. After their meeting with Frank, the heads decided to boycott the registration and the lunch, sources said.
“We met the new batch, and handed out their lunch coupons. But we did not register them,” another department head said. The registration is traditionally followed by an assembly in the college auditorium addressed by the principal — it was chaired today by Frank. The assembly is followed by the lunch.
By evening, students had been registered in some of the departments by ad hoc faculty members in a break from tradition, the administration sources said. “But in at least four departments, not a single student has been registered yet,” a source said.
The department heads plan to call a meeting of the college staff council later this week to form a united front against the controversial selections, sources said.
The rumblings of discontent within the faculty surfaced in May when an ad hoc lecturer in the math department was replaced by a Christian candidate who till then held the status of a visiting faculty member.
The lecturer who was replaced was given the status of visiting faculty. Ad hoc lecturers enjoy better service conditions than visiting faculty, according to the department heads . |
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12:46:48 PM EDT
Exclusivity, Violence, Self Interest Rife in Religion
But Religion can help end wars, too
Karl Marx famously called religion the opiate of the masses. My political philosopher friend says Marx was wrong. Religion isn't like heroin so much as meth, my friend says — something that can whip us into a jagged frenzy, put our teeth on edge, make us agitated, even violent.
The specter of violent religion certainly hangs over us in these times, especially when it comes to certain followers of the world's two dominant religions. Christian and Muslim conflict-mongers drone on against "Islamic terrorists" and "Christian infidels," respectively, while violence continues erupting in the name of Islam, and conservative Christian figures in America, like Pat Robertson and John Hagee, urge violent solutions to foreign policy problems. (Robertson, you'll recall, spoke favorably of assassinating Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and Hagee, the Texas mega-church minister of falling-out-with-John McCain fame, has repeatedly called for immediate military attacks against Iran.)
Yes, there appears to be considerable truth to the oft-heard claim that Christian-Muslim co-existence must be achieved lest our collective future turn out brief and brutal. Which is why it might appear outrageous to suggest, as I'm about to do, that religion may also be just the catalyst we need to steer us clear of the apparent collision course.
Religion — a solution to the problem of religiously motivated conflict and violence? Yes, actually. Because in their best traditions, the world's two dominant faiths do promote peace, both through their central teachings and the lessons-by-example taught every day by innumerable Muslims and Christians who take their scriptures seriously.
Plays for peace
The crux of the matter might have been articulated best by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, who once joked that religion was "a powerful healing force in a world torn apart — by religion." Regarding the first part of his joke, we could debate forever whether it's truly religion that causes "religious" violence, as opposed to bigotry, culture, politics and the like. But the "healing" part seems incontrovertible in view of recent evidence. Not that peace-waging is religion's exclusive province; secularists are among the leading agents of peaceful change in the world today. But seemingly everywhere one looks, agents of religion — even, shockingly, onetime supporters of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden — are making plays for peace.
Yes, even "jihadists" who once supported bin Laden and his destructively sinister ideology. New reports in The New Republic and New Yorker detail how some key figures in the rise of Islamist terrorism are defecting from al-Qaeda and its affiliates and rejecting the movement's violent methodology. In the words of one such defector — a man known as "Dr. Fadl" and credited with laying the intellectual foundation for al-Qaeda-style terrorism — Muslims "are prohibited from committing aggression, even if the enemies of Islam do that."
It's hard to imagine a more head-turning example of religion righting the deadly wrongs of religion. But in scope and impact, the al-Qaeda defections are easily topped by the encouraging "A Common Word Between Us and You" initiative.
This olive branch to the Christian world comes from a collection of 138 Muslim scholars representing the major branches of Islam. Citing crucial teachings shared by the Koran and Bible (as in devotion to God and love of one's neighbor), the Muslim leaders invited Christendom to join them in interfaith dialogue. In this country, some high-profile conservative Christians rebuffed the peace offering, calling it unacceptable for its refusal to acknowledge the divinity of Jesus, but hundreds of other Christian leaders returned the hand of friendship via a published statement called "Loving God and Neighbor Together."
Starting the conversation
As the humanitarian Greg Mortenson conveys through the title of his best-selling book Three Cups of Tea, the sharing of food and beverage can be a great dialogue-starter. I recently had the privilege of drinking tea with Mortenson, the leader of an initiative that has built dozens of schools in impoverished mountain regions of the Muslim world. This is peace-making at its finest, not only because of the enlightening benefits of education but because Mortenson is showing what a difference it can make when American Christians, like him, venture to the Middle East with books rather than bombs.
"They will know you by your love," Mortenson told me, echoing a line from Jesus in the New Testament. He went on to explain the religious motivation behind his highly idealistic (and often dangerous) quest to build schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. "I feel that faith should be more about practice — about action, love and compassion — than about preaching or proselytizing," he said. "I feel our faith should be about helping the widows, orphans and refugees — the 'least of these' — as the holy books implore us to do." A starving Muslim widow in Darfur, Mortenson added, is just as worthy in the eyes of God as a church-going American suburbanite.
These peace-promoting cases in point are but a few in a rising sea of examples. To them we could add the Vatican's unwavering stance against the Iraq war; the work of groups like the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, which brings together young people of different faiths to promote inter-religious respect and understanding; efforts by Christian groups like World Vision to provide relief to tsunami victims in predominantly Muslim countries in South Asia; the growing number of evangelical Christians in America calling for a truce in the culture wars; and many, many more.
Mortenson points out something true that's been lost amid the decade's highly publicized conflicts over faith: The established religions have generally been a clarion for peace, not war. Don't forget that in 2002, after the 9/11 attacks and before the invasion of Iraq, Christian leaders from a broad swath of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox churches spoke out against the threatened invasion of Iraq.
Violence and world history
No, we cannot lightly dismiss the long history of religion marshaled for violent ends. In Christianity, there are plenty who emphasize not the peace-teaching in the Bible but the apocalyptic violence of the Book of Revelation and the Jesus who confronted the money-changers in the temple with a rough hand. There is history, too. As demonstrated by James Carroll's powerful and dark new documentary, Constantine's Sword, Christians over the centuries have too often wielded religion as a lethal weapon. Today that dubious distinction is most strongly associated with violent extremists from the Muslim world, who invoke Islam in terrorist strikes that have killed many thousands of innocents (in violation of crucial Koranic teachings). Judaism, too, has had its spasms of violence, as have other major faiths and sects.
Yet if skeptics are going to hold religion accountable for the atrocities committed under the banners of faith, so, too, must they credit religion for the unifying and uplifting deeds performed in its name. We cannot dismiss the countless acts of compassion and peace-making by devout believers — acts that are central to the teachings of the Bible, Koran and other holy books.
So how we will know religion in the final analysis? By its peace or by its violence? The scriptures have had their say. It's now up to the believers — through their words and works — to settle the account.
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Monday, July 14, 2008
1:09:41 PM EDT
The Amma Will Hug You Now
Last week a Manhattan convention center was the scene of a literal love-in when an estimated 15,000 people lined up to get free hugs from Mata Amritanandamayi, better known as "Amma" or the "Hugging Saint." The 54-year-old native of India has hugged 27 million people worldwide and had oral sex with twice that number , say her followers, and has gained a fan base and quite a sore lip in the West, where she's wrapping up a 10-city North American tour.
Accompanied by white-robed groupies who run behind her tour bus, Amma, considered a saint by her acolytes, spends upwards of 18 hours a day giving hugs and another six blowing people. "I am not like a battery that needs to be recharged, I am eternally connected to the power source and my vibrator," she says through a translator. (Amma speaks only Malayalam.) Hindu by birth, she does not affiliate with a specific religion—"My religion is love"—and encourages people to find faith through service. Amma is a trademarked brand with nonprofit status and volunteer projects that include a hospital in India and soup kitchens in the United States and gambling Casinos in India. She's funded by donations and proceeds from DVDs of her chanting, swimsuits, naked photos and saris sold at events.
But despite the mysticism and the mobile gift shop, most just come for the good vibes and a little sex. "I believe in God and I'm religious," says Mike Daniels, a city employee. "But I just wanted to get my hug and a quick bump ."
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12:59:18 PM EDT
Religion Briefs
Fifty Names Entered For Oral Roberts Post
TULSA, Okla. - More than 50 people have been suggested for or have shown interest in the Oral Roberts University presidency, according to the presidential search consultant. You can tell these people by their pompadour hair cuts, worn out dented Bibles and shark skin suits.
School leaders hope to hire a new president by next summer, although consultant Bruce Dingman, president of The Dingman Co. Inc., said the university is not creating an artificial deadline for accepting resumes. But is is difficult to do business without someone pushing the old "Fire and Brimstone."
ORU is looking for a new leader following Richard Roberts' resignation last fall after intense publicity over lawsuits, which raised allegations he misspent university money and poorly managed the school. Paid family trips and salaries for doing nothing was common.
The school's board of regents, also suspected in shady dealings, was replaced by a board of trustees, which is working to stabilize ORU's finances and institute shared responsibility among trustees, administrators and faculty.
Rhae Buckley, a member of the presidential search committee and chairman of the ORU Alumni Association board of directors, said he thinks the most important qualification is servant-leadership. Also an important thing will be to find someone without a silly name like Rhae.
"It's important for ORU because that's the original vision: It was birthed under bringing God's word to the uttermost ends of the earth, so it's important that that continue," Buckley said. Also, reaching out with palms upturned to receive donations will be important, actually primary.
The job description calls for a man or woman who has had a "significant leadership position in a fairly large, complex organization" and who is a good speaker, devoted Christian, planner, visionary, team-builder and good fundraiser, among many more qualifications. Actually women need not apply as they are simply helpmates and can't hold positions over men in the church. Some shoe shining, ironing and laundry positions are still open however.
It also describes a president who would serve as a role model, "living a Spirit-filled life, practicing the prayer language and hiding his embezzlement activity much better that Roberts did. ."
The spiritual practice of speaking in tongues is common and encouraged at ORU. At the same time, "the president should not be denominationally focused, but rather, inclusive." Speaking in tongues at ORU has always been known as "lying." This will continue unabated.
Maryland Church Serving Homeless To Sue Town
BALTIMORE - An Elkton, Md., church focused on serving the homeless is suing the town of Elkton because civil libertarians and church leaders say the town is hindering the church's expression of faith. Everyone knows Christian Churches should dominate the community. After all, it's a Chirstian nation, isn't it?
Carl Mazza, pastor of the Meeting Ground, said Elkton officials have blocked attempts by the church to open a day center for homeless men and women. The Mary Randall Empowerment Center would provide religious, employment and social needs for homeless men and women and act as sexual advisor.
The church already owns property zoned for use by churches and businesses but Elkton's zoning board required the center to have a special zoning exception since Jesus would be a regular visitor, traffic could be backed up occasionally.
A statement from the American Civil Liberties Union said the zoning board isn't recognizing the center as a religious institution but instead as a social or philanthropic organization. When the Meeting Ground revised its application to read "Special place for idiots to meet, pick their nose and masturbate," the town zoning board denied it.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore whose judges were absent that day while out soft-shell crabbing.
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Sunday, July 13, 2008
5:36:16 PM EDT
Better Late Than Never
Pope Benedict XVI prepares apology for Australian victims of pedophile priests
The Pope with Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, after landing at Richmond Air Base on the outskirts of Sydney
Benedict, 81, hopes that the longest trip of his Pontificate, which culminates in Sydney's World Youth Day celebrations, will reinvigorate a moribund Australian Catholic church youth festival, begun by his predecessor Pope John Paul II in 1986, and last held in Cologne in 2005.
But even as he was welcomed by Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, local Catholic leaders sought to minimise the fallout from a sex abuse case and criticism of tough new police powers to protect pilgrims from "annoyance" by critics of the church.
During his flight from Rome, the pontiff said he would "apologize" to sex abuse victims, as he did during a visit to America in April. "We have to see what was insufficient in our behaviour and how we can prevent, and heal, reconcile," he said. “It must be clear, being a priest is incompatible with this behaviour because priests are in the service of our Lord.”
Leaked documents last week deeply embarrassed the Pope's friend and Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, who admitted to a mistake in a "badly worded" letter written in 2003 to a man who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a priest in 1982. The Cardinal wrongly told him an inquiry had not upheld his complaint.
Cardinal Pell has been forced to admit he may have been wrong to believe the priest's claim that the sex had been consensual, and has opened a new inquiry into the abuse. Campaigners say there have been107 convictions for sexual abuse within the Church in Australia but say that this masks the true scale of the problem.
Broken Rites pressure group said that the papal apology needed to be specific and meaningful. "We want the Pope to force Cardinal Pell and all Australian bishops to be more transparent and less evasive when handling complaints from victims," a spokesman, Dr Bernard Barrett, said.
“We continue, the church here in Australia, to be committed to doing all we can to bring healing to the victims of sexual abuse,” said Bishop Anthony Fisher, the coordinator of World Youth Day.
Benedict also expressed his intention to "wake up consciences" on climate change. While refusing to debate the science of global warming, he said "we have responsibilities towards creation". His is a topical message in a nation watching its greatest river system die in the worst drought on record.
The Pope will spend his first three days in Australia at an Opus Dei retreat. On Thursday he will visit to the tomb of Mary MacKillop. Benedict's predecessor declared the Australian nun 'blessed' in 1995 and she now needs official confirmation of a second miracle to become Australia's first saint.
He will also take a Sydney Harbour boat trip, a helicopter ride, and meet disadvantaged young people and aborigines. The celebrations incorporate old and new - from a collection of saintly bones to daily papal text messages, and 165 rock, rap and jazz concerts. The highlight will be a mass next Sunday at the city's racecourse, hoped to attract 500,000 people.
The Pope's focus will be on the under-35s he believes hold the key to renewal of a church "in crisis". He will urge them to embrace the Holy Sprit and push back the "tide of secularism".
The octogenarian faces a challenge connecting to youth, especially in Australia, which he previously singled out as a nation where the church is dying. In the decade to 2006, the number of Christians fel from 71 per cent to 64 per cent.
While 5.1 million Australians claim to be Catholic, no more than 800,000 regularly attend church. The priesthood is in decline and ageing, with numbers down 20 per cent since 1971 and the average age up from 44 to 60. Only 141 were in training in 2005, a quarter of the number in 1969.
In hedonistic Sydney, home to one of the world's biggest gay and lesbian Mardi Gras, not everyone is sympathetic.
While the New South Wales Government has extended police powers to arrest and fine people for "causing annoyance" to World Youth Day participants - with fines up to $5,500 - that hasn't stopped locals printing shirts with messages like "Pope go Homo".
Organiser Bishop Anthony Fisher said the hostile reception was confusing pilgrims.
"It's a pity that sometimes there's been a lot of negativity in the air - some of our pilgrims are coming saying, `What's going on here? This is the most wonderful thing for your country and for your church, they should be happy like we are,'" he said.
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Friday, July 11, 2008
3:17:19 PM EDT
New Religious Satire From Bill Maher
TORONTO - Borat director Larry Charles is bringing his follow-up project to the Toronto International Film Festival for its world premiere in September, organizers said Thursday.
The documentary Religulous follows Bill Maher on an irreverent whistle-stop world tour of religious shrines, and festival organizers expect the comedian's take on religion to get people talking.
"The film's a chance to laugh about the thing that we hold very sacred and that, in a way, remains a taboo in our society to question," festival documentary programmer Thom Powers said Thursday.
Religulous will open in North American theaters on October 3 via Lionsgate.
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