BRIEFS: USA & WORLD

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops has endorsed a state senate bill that would ban cockfighting. “The [state’s] bishops recognize that cockfighting is abusive of God’s good creation,” Allen Sanchez, conference executive director, said in a statement.

Proponents of cockfights have argued that it’s part of traditional Hispanic culture, but the bishops declared, “It is not a cultural treasure.”

State Senator Mary Jane Garcia, the bill’s sponsor, said she was delighted with the church’s position. “It seems appropriate that in a state whose patron is St. Francis, the patron saint of animals, the church should take a stance against this cruelty,” she said.

Sanchez said he hopes the ban will pass, so that the legislature can address “more important” issues, including the church’s call for an end to the death penalty and its opposition to Gov. Bill Richardson’s proposal for stem-cell research.

TULSA, Okla. -- As Oklahoma enters its centennial year, two dozen churches from several denominations here have joined together to pray for the state and the city around the clock for the entire year.

The Rev. Mark McAdow, pastor of prayer and evangelism at Asbury United Methodist Church, called the prayer project “a rare opportunity for us to cross denominational lines and be united in prayer.”

The 24-7 prayer started at midnight New Year’s Eve at Believers Church. Earlier that day, a torch was lit that will be carried each week to the participating churches. Each will schedule people to pray in one-hour slots around the clock for one week.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. -- Bishop Daniel F. Walsh announced last month that the diocese has finished restoring to its parishes, cemeteries and schools the funds that were lost in a 1999 financial collapse.

The Santa Rosa diocese also has repaid emergency loans it received from other dioceses across the country, with the exception of the loans from other dioceses in California, said diocesan finance officer Michael Urick, a permanent deacon.

“We still have a few goals” to meet, he said, including full restoration of the priests’ pension fund and setting aside scholarship money for students in Catholic schools.

A news release from the diocese said that the diocesan capital campaign to recover from the 1999 crisis has raised pledges totaling $18.6 million so far. Its target is $20 million.

The financial crisis in the diocese was uncovered shortly after Santa Rosa Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann resigned in July 1999 amid revelations that he had been involved in sexual relations with one of his priests. It was discovered that the diocese faced a $15 million debt.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A state appeals court has dismissed a $20 million lawsuit brought by two former Jehovah’s Witnesses who charged the religious body with wrongful expulsion after one of them questioned Jehovah’s Witnesses’ handling of child sexual abuse claims.

Barbara Anderson, a former employee at the international headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Brooklyn, N.Y., and her husband, A. Joseph Anderson, a former elder of the religious group, were members of the Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Manchester, Tenn., before they were “disfellowshipped.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses officials argued that the complaint was an “intrachurch dispute” and the secular court should not interfere. The appeals court agreed.

The Andersons had asked the court to determine if their dismissal on religious grounds was really a pretext for secular reasons. But the court said making such a determination would result in “excessive inquiry into ecclesiastical matters” and violate the First Amendment.

-- CNS/Reuters

No place to call home
Children stand in the compound of a relative’s house in Irbil, Iraq, Jan. 19 after their families fled from Baghdad. Tens of thousands of people have left the violence-ridden Iraqi capital. One in every eight Iraqis -- some 3 million people -- are displaced. About 1.6 million are displaced within the country; the rest have fled to other countries, and between 2,000 and 3,000 people are leaving the country every day. In the January issue of Forced Migration Review, the coordinator of the Iraq unit of the U.N. refugee agency Andrew Harper writes, “Iraq is hemorrhaging with no end in sight.” For the full article, “Iraq’s neglected humanitarian crisis,” visit: www.fmreview.org.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- When clashes broke out during a nationwide strike in Lebanon, some of the worst fighting rocked Christian areas, where rival factions live cheek by jowl.

Some Lebanese Christians support Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslilm movement backed by Syria, whose strike aimed to topple the country’s U.S.-supported cabinet. Others have aligned themselves with the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a Sunni Muslim.

On Jan. 22, the day before the strike, all main arteries into the capital and its airport were blocked. Scores of Hezbollah-allied protesters milled around each blockade, the Christians among them easily identifiable from their bright orange scarves and hats that signify the Free Patriotic Movement. They said they were exercising their democratic right to protest against a cabinet that has lost its legitimacy.

But the leader of the predominantly Christian Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, said Jan. 24: “This has nothing to do with democracy or freedom. This has been transformed into a coup d’état. It is a revolt in every sense of the word.”

VATICAN CITY -- A donation to the Vatican by a U.S. businessman enabled Pope Benedict XVI to study a few pages of the oldest existing copy of the Gospel of St. Luke and one of the oldest copies of the Gospel of St. John.

Atlanta-based Catholic businessman, Frank J. Hanna III, and his family were present in the pope’s library Jan. 22 when Pope Benedict got his first look at pages from the famous Bodmer Papyrus XIV-XV. The manuscript contains about half of each of the Gospels of Luke and John, handwritten in Greek around the year 200.

The new acquisition includes the oldest existing copy of the Lord’s Prayer, which is found in Luke 11:1-4. The manuscript joins the Bodmer Papyrus VIII, a copy of the First and Second Letters of St. Peter, which were given to Pope Paul VI in 1969.

LONDON -- The Anglican Communion’s top advisory panel said the U.S. Episcopal church should clarify its policy on women’s ordination and emphasize that dioceses may elect bishops who will not ordain women.

The Panel of Reference is a 13-member international body appointed to settle theological disputes, though it does not have the power to enforce its decisions.

The Episcopal church decided to permit women’s ordination in 1976. In 1997, it decided that “no one shall be denied access to the ordination process ... on account of his or her sex.”

The Fort Worth, Texas, diocese asked the panel if the 1997 policy could mean their next bishop would have to accept women’s ordination. The Panel of Reference recommended changing the law “to make it absolutely clear” that women’s ordination is permitted, but not mandatory.

National Catholic Reporter uses the following news services: AsiaNews, Catholic News Service, Latinamerica Press, New America Media, Religion News Service, and UCA News.