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Dalai Lama Tells AP: Exiles Must Press China Talks -

DHARMSALA, India - Years of negotiations with Beijing have achieved little for the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama said Friday, though he insisted that talks still needed to press ahead and that the Chinese leadership could - eventually - soften its stand on Tibet.

In an hour-long interview with The Associated Press, the Buddhist leader criticized Beijing for its policies in his Himalayan homeland while he held out the possibility that some type of accord could be reached.

"So far, dialogue failed, but that does not mean in future no possibility," the Dalai Lama said in his private compound in this Indian hill town where he has lived since fleeing Tibet more than five decades ago. While admitting he was deeply frustrated by the lack of progress during nine rounds of talks, he also said there were clear signs of progress in Beijing. "They are realistic," he said of the Chinese leadership. "They have the ability to act according to a new reality."

Among his reasons for hope: increasing sympathy for the Tibetan cause among Chinese intellectuals, the power of technology to bring news out of Tibet and vague signs from Beijing that some Chinese leaders might be ready to soften their stand on Tibet.

Some of the Beijing leadership believes that "policy regarding Tibet now should be more openly, more peacefully. I heard that," he said in his sometimes tangled English. "True or not? We'll have to wait."

And patience, he added, is something Tibetans understand.

It has been 51 years since he fled his homeland. "Another 10, 20 years we can wait," he said, breaking into laughter.

Talks between China and the Dalai Lama's envoys resumed in January for the first time in 15 months but made no apparent progress on the Tibetans' demands for more autonomy. Beijing refused to even talk about granting Tibet more latitude, limiting discussions to the future of the exiled spiritual leader.

As to his future, the 74-year-old Dalai Lama said some Chinese leaders were simply waiting for him to die, hoping the Tibet issue would fizzle once he is gone. In Tibetan Buddhism, each Dalai Lama is believed to be the reincarnation of his predecessor. Because of this, turmoil often surrounds the death of a Dalai Lama as religious elders look for mystical signs that point them to the next reincarnation.

The man demonized by Beijing, though, insists he is nowhere near death.

"Unfortunately, the demon - demon Dalai Lama - looks very healthy," he said, laughing loudly at his joke.

And, he noted, his death may make the situation worse for China, as angry young Tibetans - no longer held back by his steadfast demands for nonviolence - could take to the streets.

It is a possibility he fears deeply.

"If some kind of violence takes place, then the Tibetan will automatically be the victim," he said.

There was no immediate comment from Beijing, but Chinese officials have long accused the Dalai Lama of being a "splittist" intent on sowing trouble within Tibet. While the Dalai Lama insists he only wants some form of Tibetan autonomy, Chinese officials say he is secretly advocating for complete independence.

"The people understand more that splittism brings misfortune and ethnic unity brings happiness," Hao Peng, the Chinese vice governor of Tibet, told journalists visiting the region in March, during a tightly controlled visit.

Beijing, of course, doesn't need to be as diplomatic as the Dalai Lama.

While the Dalai Lama wields enormous spiritual influence across Tibet, where he is seen as both a living god and the Tibetan king, Beijing has near-absolute control of the region. China has thousands of soldiers stationed there, manages a vast intelligence network and is flooding Tibet with ethnic Han Chinese.

Since 2008, when demonstrations flared into riots in Tibetan communities across western China, Beijing has imposed smothering security on many Tibetan areas as it mixes government threats of further crackdowns with economic incentives to gain support.

The Dalai Lama fled his homeland in 1959, nine years after Communist troops marched into the Himalayan region. Beijing claims Tibet has been a Chinese territory for centuries, but many Tibetans say they were effectively independent for most of that time and that migration to the region and restrictions on Buddhism are threatening their culture.

Beijing denies all such accusations and Chinese President Hu Jintao has publicly made the creation of a "harmonious society" one of his top goals, trying to bridge the vast ethnic and economic divisions across the country.

The Dalai Lama scoffed at that.

"So far, in order to develop harmony, the main method is suppression!"

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

WASHINGTON - Atheists who oppose prayer and other religious elements in presidential inaugurations have lost a case in a federal appeals court.

A three-judge panel on Friday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to stop Barack Obama from using the words "so help me God" when he took the oath of office last year. Those who sued also wanted to stop ministers from saying prayers at Obama's inauguration and wanted the court to eliminate religion from future inaugurations.

Two judges said it is too late to act on Obama's inauguration and the court cannot block religious elements at future events when the participants are not yet known. The third judge says long-standing practices such as prayers and the oath of office are constitutional.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

(RNS) Somewhere in the Vatican, there is a thick file with the Rev. James Selvaraj's name on it. It's been there since 2006.

A native of southern India, Selvaraj was a guest priest in the Diocese of Trenton, N.J., when he was accused of endangering the welfare of a child in late 2005. Shortly thereafter, Trenton Bishop John Smith removed Selvaraj from ministry.

Within three months, a grand jury declined to indict the priest, citing insufficient evidence. New Jersey's attorney general expunged the charge from Selvaraj's record.

But more than four years after secular authorities exonerated Selvaraj, Smith and the Vatican have refused to restore his salary, priestly duties, or -- most importantly, Selvaraj says -- his reputation.

"I am really angry, really furious," said Selvaraj, a slight 50-year-old with a friendly demeanor. "This is what happens to an innocent priest?"

The Catholic Church has been castigated in recent months for moving slowly to remove abusers from the priesthood. Pope Benedict XVI himself, while he was a cardinal in charge of a Vatican office that handled abusive clergy, stalled for years before moving to defrock serial child molesters in the U.S., according to documents recently made public.

But the Vatican moves just as slowly, if not slower, to return innocent clergy to ministry, according to priests and canon lawyers.

Meanwhile, priests like Selvaraj live for years in a state of limbo, evicted from parishes and rectories, prohibited from presenting himself as a priest or administering sacraments, and branded all but guilty in the public eye.

As many as 300 American priests claim innocence and are waiting for the Vatican to restore them to duty, according to the Rev. Michael Sullivan, a Minnesota priest and member of Justice for Priests and Deacons, an independent group of canon lawyers who defend Catholic clergy.

Among such priests, Selvaraj is fortunate. Former parishioners have stood by him, raising $70,000 to pay living expenses and legal fees, offering him places to stay, and inviting him to perform occasional private Masses. The diocese pays his health and car insurance, Selvaraj says.

But other priests aren't so lucky, said Joe Maher, executive director of Opus Bono Sacerdotii, a Michigan-based support group for accused priests. "I know priests who are living out of hotels, eating one meal a day," he said.

Many priests say they recognize the difficulty of the Vatican's task-- most allegations concern decades-old events, making it hard to determine guilt or innocence, and the Vatican has relatively few employees to process the thousands of accusations that surfaced after the sex abuse scandal exploded in 2002. Meanwhile, no bishop wants a priest to abuse children on his watch.

But some priests say the get-tough rules approved by U.S. bishops in 2002 swing the pendulum too far in the other direction, trampling their rights to due process and good reputations. Where once abuse victims were silenced and sacrificed for the sake of the church, they say, now innocent priests are overlooked casualties of the crisis.

"The way the bishops once treated victims, that's the way they treat priests now," said the Rev. Michael Maginot, an Indiana priest and canon lawyer who is representing Selvaraj. "They are willing to throw any priest under the bus."

At the height of the crisis in 2002, U.S. bishops vowed to act quickly on "credible" accusations of abuse of a minor by immediately removing the priest from his parish and informing the public and local authorities of the charge.

Priests say an announcement that a priest has been suspended is often tantamount to a guilty verdict in the public and the pews.

Selvaraj's removal was front-page news in the local paper. "The media crucified me," he said. His father had to undergo heart surgery after he read the news in India, Selvaraj said.

Canon law says Catholics have the right to privacy and a good reputation. But the U.S. bishops and victims' advocates say the sex abuse guidelines are necessary to protect children and are no stricter than other occupations where employees are placed on temporary leave when a crime is suspected.

False accusations are rare, according to a 2004 study conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Just 1.5 percent of 5,681 sex abuse allegations lodged against Catholic priests from 1950-2002 were deemed false after investigations. Clergy advocates say bogus accusations ballooned after 2002, especially after secular courts began awarding huge settlements to victims.

If a priest is falsely accused, the bishops' guidelines say that every effort should be made to restore his reputation, said Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the U.S. bishops' abuse prevention office.

"It's nearly impossible," she said, like pouring out a pillow from the top of a mountain and trying to collect the feathers, "but it can be done."

For instance, the bishop could say Mass with the priest and use his homily to talk about how the allegation was unfounded, or he could meet with the local media to get the word out, Kettelkamp said. "Anything he can do to show his support for the priest."

After the grand jury exonerated Selvaraj, Smith did none of that, Selvaraj said. Instead, Smith tried to pack the priest off to India.

`We have nothing further to add'

Selvaraj was popular in Trenton, where he was sent by his Indian bishop to gain experience in 1999. He liked the diocese, and officials convinced him in May 2005 to apply to be "incardinated" -- formally accepted as a permanent priest, in Trenton.

Four months later, Selvaraj was visiting an after-school program run by his parish, St. Raphael-Holy Angels in Hamilton, N.J., when he took an 11-year-old girl's hand and helped her write her name in Tamil, his native language, on a blackboard.

An adult eyewitness -- a close friend of the girl and her mother -- swore in a deposition that she stood inches away and saw Selvaraj do nothing wrong. The girl's mother was "overprotective of the child," the witness said, and disgusted that the church "always brings us Puerto Ricans, blacks and Indians" as priests.

The mother accused Selvaraj of molesting her daughter. Diocesan attorneys encouraged the priest to make a deal with prosecutors and return to India, Selvaraj recalls.

Selvaraj decided to stay and fight. Hours before he was arraigned on Dec. 1, 2005, Smith told Selvaraj that he would never again be a priest in the Diocese of Trenton, the priest recalls. "My life was ruined," he said.

After the grand jury exonerated Selvaraj, Smith refused to take him back. Instead he wrote a letter telling parishioners at St. Raphael-Holy Angels that Selvaraj would be sent back to India. More than 650 parishioners signed a petition asking Smith to reinstate Selvaraj, said longtime parishioner Lou Monticchio. Smith refused.

In a letter to Selvaraj's canon lawyer, Smith said the priest had done nothing to warrant "even the preliminary investigation." The decision to send Selvaraj back to India was not a penalty, Smith said, but a precaution.

"Because of his overly friendly personality he has been warned on several occasions to be cautious concerning outward signs of friendship and affection toward young people," the bishop wrote. "Our contemporary national culture and particularly the present church situation demands such caution. Father James does not seem to fully understand these cautions and their implications."

Selvaraj said he was never warned about his conduct with young people. Asked for clarification about Smith's decision, diocesan spokeswoman Rayanne Bennett said, "We are confident that the process undertaken in this matter was appropriate and handled in a just and responsible way toward all parties involved. We have nothing further to add."

Priests have little recourse to challenge bishops' actions, clergy say.

Some priests have sued their bishops in civil courts for defamation, invasion of privacy or intentional affliction of emotional distress after they were removed from ministry. But citing church-state separation, secular judges have been wary of wading into clergy personnel matters.

Other priests, like Selvaraj, have turned to the Vatican for help, only to be frustrated by bureaucratic delays, ambiguous responses, and a lack of transparency about the appeal process.

Selvaraj began writing the Vatican in 2006, asking the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to force Smith to reinstate the priest's ministry, salary, and good name. "I want him to restore my dignity," the priest said, "so wherever I go this won't haunt me."

For nearly three years, Selvaraj got no response. Maginot, his canon lawyer, believes the CDF decided Selvaraj's case during that time, but only informed Smith of the ruling, which the bishop buried in a file.

"The problem is, they never communicate with us," Maginot said of the CDF. "If they gave us a copy of what they give the bishop, they could never get away with this."

Selvaraj and Maginot kept writing appeals -- to the CDF, the Vatican's supreme court -- and finally, to Benedict himself. A top Vatican secretary responded by telling Selvaraj to take the case "to the competent Roman dicastery" -- in other words, back to the CDF, the office that had failed to return his correspondence.

Finally, in December 2008, Smith sent Selvaraj a letter from the CDF saying that, because Selvaraj was not yet incardinated in Trenton, the bishop does not have to allow him to be a priest in his diocese.

According to a copy of the letter provided by Selvaraj, the CDF also said that, because the sex abuse charge was unfounded, there is nothing for them to review. The letter said nothing about restoring Selvaraj's name or salary.

Selvaraj has appealed again to the CDF. In the meantime, he dons a cleric's collar at private Masses or when counseling former parishioners, but he is not permitted to present himself publicly as a priest -- the only vocation he's ever known. Selvaraj says his faith in God remains strong, though his faith in the Catholic Church wavers.

"Before I started this case I had great hope and faith that Rome will take the side of truth and justice and produce a decision,"

Selvaraj said. "Now, I see the politics all around the church. There is no justice, no truth."

By DANIEL BURKE
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

JERUSALEM - Moshe Hirsch, an anti-Zionist rabbi and close associate of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, has died in Jerusalem, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group said Monday. He was 86.

Hirsch was a leading figure in Neturei Karta, a tiny ultra-Orthodox sect that opposes Israel's existence as a Jewish state and has embraced its enemies.

Arafat, who died in 2004, appointed Hirsch his adviser on Jewish affairs.

The group is known for its members' 2006 trip to Iran, where they embraced the President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a Holocaust-denying conference. It also supports Gaza's Hamas rulers and the Lebanese Hezbollah militants.

These alliances have drawn criticism even from other anti-Zionist Jewish groups, which believe that only the Messiah can establish a Jewish state.

Neturei Karta, which is Aramaic for "Guardians of the City," was founded some 70 years ago in Jerusalem by Jews who opposed the drive to establish the state of Israel. Estimates of the group's size range from a few hundred to a few thousand.

Eida Haredit, an umbrella group of anti-Zionist Jewish sects, confirmed Hirsch died on Sunday.

Hatem Abdel Qader, an adviser on Jerusalem affairs to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said he would take part in a Palestinian delegation to pay respects to the late rabbi.

"We consider Rabbi Hirsch a part of the Palestinian people," said Abdel Qader. "He is one of the Palestinian Jews whom we give all respect and this is to confirm that our problem is not with the Jews as a religion, it's with Zionism."

Hirsch, who was buried Sunday, is survived by three children and a brother.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

HAVANA - The Vatican's foreign minister is coming to Cuba next month to lead discussions on the island's economic challenges and the effects of emigration and the families torn apart by it.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Dominique Mamberti will mark Catholic Social Week June 12-20 by leading discussions among church leaders from around the island, as well as elders from other religions, said Orlando Marquez, spokesman for Havana's Conference of Bishops.

Topics debated will include "the necessity for dialogue and reconciliation among Cubans," specifically the divide between islanders and those who left for the United States and now form part of the outspoken Cuban-American exile community. Also on the agenda are "the challenges the nation's economy faces" and "the complexities of today's Cuban society," according to a statement from the Havana Archbishop's Office.

Mamberti is the first top Vatican official to come since Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state to Pope Benedict XVI, visited Cuba in February 2008.

Word of Mamberti's visit comes as the church has played an increasingly visible role in helping soothe tensions over Cuba's human rights record - while also raising concerns about economic woes.

Island authorities have pledged to allow a dissident group, the Damas de Blanco, to hold their traditional Sunday march for the rest of May after Cuba Cardinal Jaime Ortega negotiated an agreement. The march had been blocked, provoking ugly standoffs with government counter-protesters, the previous three weeks.

Ortega also made headlines April 19 when he said in an interview with the church's monthly magazine that Cuba is facing its worst crisis in years, and that its citizens are openly demanding political and social change.

Relations between the church and Cuba's government have often been strained. Tensions eased in the early 1990s when the government removed references to atheism in the constitution and allowed believers of all faiths to join the Communist Party. They warmed more when Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

(RNS) For years, the annual National Day of Prayer observances on Capitol Hill had become almost routine affairs as mostly conservative Christian groups bowed with legislators to pray for the soul of America.

But this year, after a federal judge ruled the law creating the day is unconstitutional, Thursday's (May 6) events took on an air of defiance as organizers accused nonbelievers of threatening their religious freedom.

"I think it is waking people up across this land," said evangelist Franklin Graham, the honorary chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, who was disinvited from Pentagon observances because of his remarks on Islam.

"I think people realize, many Christians, how we're losing our religious freedoms a little bit every day and if we don't stand up and exercise the freedoms that God has given us in this country, we will lose them."

Graham began the day praying on the sidewalk outside the Pentagon, after military officials withdrew his invitation to speak because his comments about Islam -- he's called it an "evil and wicked religion" -- were "problematic."

Across the country Thursday, organizers said more than 40,000 events were scheduled to be held at parks, churches and courthouse steps -- more than any other year and an increase of more than 15 percent from last year.

Shirley Dobson, leader of the task force and the wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, noted that the nationwide observances are voluntary.

"Citizens can choose to pray or not to pray," she said. "No one is required to participate, despite what the opponents of public prayer say."

She was thankful that the Obama administration is appealing the April 15 decision by Wisconsin federal judge Barbara Crabb -- who ruled observances could continue as her decision is appealed. Dobson said the Pentagon's rescinded invitation was "dishonoring" to Graham and his son, Edward, an Army captain now serving in Afghanistan.

"This situation that's come up the last several weeks serves as yet another indication of the relentless assaults against our religious liberty," she said.

After winning the first legal round, the Freedom from Religion Foundation urged mayors and governors not to endorse the National Day of Prayer this year. It also placed billboards in Colorado Springs, Colo., home to the prayer day task force's headquarters, declaring "God & Government a Dangerous Mix: Keep State & Church Separate."

In his keynote address at the Cannon House Office Building, Graham acknowledged that people "of other faiths" might hear his message but he could only speak as a "minister of the gospel."

"I don't want to be offensive to anyone," he said, "but I only know how to pray and I only know how to preach the way that the Bible instructs me."

Graham said the nation has "committed mass murder" through abortions and "taken God out of our schools." He predicted God's judgment on the country and its citizens for not living up to divine standards.

"I'm guilty; our nation is guilty," he said. "But our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ."

The printed program called for "executive branch remarks," but no representative of the White House spoke. The audience of about 400 prayed for the White House, turning in its direction down Pennsylvania Avenue and reaching out their hands in prayer.

"I thank you that President Obama has issued a proclamation, a powerful proclamation for this day of prayer," said Dave Butts, president of Harvest Prayer Ministries of Terre Haute, Ind. "I thank you, Lord, that he is instructing the Justice Department to take a stand against this judicial ruling that would declare this day unconstitutional."

While Obama issued a proclamation-- as he did last year -- he has not continued the tradition of his predecessor, George W. Bush, who held an observance at the White House with task force leaders during his presidency.

"Prayer has been a sustaining way for many Americans of diverse faiths to express their most cherished beliefs, and thus we have long deemed it fitting and proper to publicly recognize the importance of prayer on this day across the nation," Obama said in his proclamation.

The annual observance is personal for the Graham family. Ailing evangelist Billy Graham encouraged Congress to enact a law about the prayer day when he held a crusade in Washington in 1952. Congress passed the law later that year and, in 1988, made it more specific, calling for it to be marked on the first Thursday of May.

On Capitol Hill, some attendees said the court ruling made it more important for them to attend this year's observance.

"I think that a lot of people believe that our Christian heritage is under siege," said Barry Blenis, a banker and Baptist from Albany, N.Y.

"This country was established for freedom of religion, primarily Christian religion and now it's like the minority, 3 or 4 percent is saying `Well, I'm offended' so you can't do this or do that."

By ADELLE M. BANKS
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

(RNS) Following recent face-to-face meetings with Israeli officials in New York, leaders of North America's non-Orthodox Jewish movements said a bill aimed at easing Israeli conversion laws would marginalize non-Orthodox Jews who struggle for equality.

Representatives of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements said the bill will strengthen the ultra-Orthodox establishment's authority over Jewish matters at the expense of non-Orthodox Jews.

Throughout Israel's 62-year history, sole authority over all Jewish religious matters has been given to the Chief Rabbinate, an Orthodox body. As a result, marriages, divorces and conversions performed by non-Orthodox rabbis have no legal standing.

The bill, which was introduced by Knesset member David Rotem of the Yisrael Beiteinu political party, is an attempt at easing the arduous conversion process for hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish immigrants, who must pass muster with rabbis on the Orthodox Conversion Court.

The current system is exceedingly slow, and the conversion rabbis -- who are accountable only to the Chief Rabbinate -- require potential converts to live a strictly religiously lifestyle, even though the vast majority of Jewish Israelis are not themselves Orthodox.

Many Orthodox rabbis no longer automatically accept even Orthodox conversions performed outside Israel, and some have even revoked some conversions.

In a joint statement, the U.S. Jewish leaders lauded Rotem's attempts to "ameliorate the bottleneck" in the conversion process by empowering local rabbis to perform conversions, but asserted that a provision to codify the Chief Rabbinate's authority into law would have "devastating ramifications."

Such a move would make it all but impossible for non-Orthodox Jews to petition for equal rights through Israel's High Court of Justice, which they said "has been the single mechanism to counter religious discrimination in Israel."

In addition, the leaders said, the bill offers no alternative method of conversion via non-Orthodox streams.

" We -- and more importantly, our Israeli colleagues and their lawyers -- believe that this language, if adopted as written, would further marginalize and hamper the Masorti (Conservative) and Reform movements in Israel," the U.S. leaders said in a statement.

"This would be a tragic consequence as we offer vibrant religious alternatives to a nation of Jews religiously alienated by the increasingly extreme positions of a minority religious establishment."

Part of the dispute centers around Israel's Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to anyone who can prove one of their grandparents was Jewish. U.S. leaders said they were "troubled" by a clause that bars automatic citizenship to people who undergo an Israeli conversion if they were ineligible under the law prior to their conversion.

The Rabbinate does not recognize non-Orthodox conversions as Jewish, regardless of where they occurred. Israel's Interior Ministry permits such converts to immigrate, provided their conversions took place outside Israel.

While the leaders acknowledged Rotem's desire to prevent illegal immigrants from converting solely for the purpose of gaining citizenship, they said it unjustly "differentiates between those who are born Jewish and those who choose to be Jewish."

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Conservative Movement's Rabbinical Assembly, said from New York that she and other leaders reminded the Israelis that "85 percent of Diaspora Jewry is not Orthodox, and is largely represented by the Conservative and Reform streams."

Should the bill pass, Schonfeld said, "it could drive a wedge between Israel and the Diaspora."

Rabbi Seth Farber, director of ITIM, a Jerusalem-based organization that assists converts, said that a conversion law needs to be passed "because the immigrants represent a demographic time bomb and threaten the Jewish character of the State of Israel."

Even so, Farber has grave reservations about Rotem's bill because, in his view, the new pool of local rabbis "will be completely subservient to the political entity known as the Chief Rabbinate. If a rabbi wants to advance in the rabbinate but is viewed as liberal toward converts, he will never be promoted," Farber predicted.

Rotem's office declined requests for an interview, but he did tell the Jewish Week newspaper in New York that his bill "has nothing to do with American conversions. I think they are fighting a war for the wrong purpose."

"I don't like it when people tell me that their support for the State of Israel hangs on this. ... I don't like those kind of threats."

Although worried about the bill's implications, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of Reform Judaism, termed the dialogue between the U.S. and Israeli officials "a dramatic event."

"Rotem came and truly listened, for several days and learned about the Diaspora community," Yoffie said. "We're pleased about that."

By MICHELE CHABIN
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) When Pope Benedict XVI travels to Portugal next week (May 11-14), the primary purpose will be to worship at the world-famous shrine to the Virgin Mary at Fatima.

Yet the pope is also likely to use the four-day visit to address top-level concerns, including the Catholic Church's crisis over clerical sex abuse, and the growing secularization of European society.

The pope will preside over observances at Fatima on Thursday (May 13) to mark the 93rd anniversary of the first of six reported apparitions witnessed by three shepherd children who reportedly saw, and heard prophecies from, the Virgin Mary in 1917.

Before visiting Fatima, Benedict will meet in the capital city of Lisbon with distinguished figures from Portuguese culture, including Manoel de Oliveira, 101, the oldest active filmmaker in the world, whose latest movie will be released this year.

In the past, Benedict has chosen encounters with European scholars and artists to urge a rediscovery of the Christian roots of Western culture.

At a briefing for reporters on Tuesday (May 4), the Vatican's top spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, suggested the state and future of Europe could be a major theme of Benedict's remarks in Portugal.

During his visit, Benedict will also speak to Portuguese bishops, and to representatives of the country's clergy, religious sisters and social workers.

Particularly in his meetings with bishops and priests, the pope may refer to the international scandal over clerical sex abuse, even though the recent focus of that scandal has been on Benedict's native Germany and other northern European countries, not Portugal.

Even if Benedict chooses not to raise the subject of sex abuse, it could well come up on Tuesday (May 11), when the Vatican has said the pope will hold an in-flight press conference en route to Lisbon.

The outbound leg of an international trip is practically the only occasion when reporters can ask questions directly of the pope. On Benedict's last such trip, to Malta in April, he instead made a brief statement that described the church as "wounded by our sins."

In his news conference and during the ensuing visit, Benedict is likely to criticize Portugal's pending legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. Parliament voted in February to give same-sex couples all the rights of marriage except the right to adopt children; President Anibal Cavaco Silva, a practicing Catholic, has yet to sign the bill into law.

Portugal is 84.5 percent Catholic, according to the 2001 census, but a 2005 survey found that only 27 percent of Catholics there regularly attend Mass.

Even so, the Fatima shrine is Portugal's most famous export to the wider church. The shrine of Fatima, built on the site of the visions, is one of Catholicism's most visited sanctuaries, drawing up to 5 million pilgrims every year.

Pope John Paul II credited the Madonna of Fatima with saving his life after he was shot in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981 -- the 64th anniversary of the first reported apparition.

In the so-called Third Secret of Fatima, revealed in 2000, the Virgin reportedly prophesied about a bishop "clothed in white" who "falls to the ground apparently dead, under a burst of gunfire." One of the bullets that failed to kill John Paul is now at the shrine, inside a crown atop a statue of the Virgin.

In 2000, John Paul beatified two of the visionaries, the sister and brother Jacinta and Francisco Marto, placing them one step from sainthood.

Their cousin Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, who died in 2005 at age 97, is currently being considered for the same distinction. In 2008, Benedict exempted her from the usual five-year waiting period between a death and the start of the process toward beatification.

By FRANCIS X. ROCCA
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court says Orange County officials acted legally when they ordered a Muslim inmate in a courthouse holding cell to remove her headscarf.

The U.S. Court of Appeals said Monday that since Souhair Khatib was detained for only eight hours, the holding cell didn't qualify as a penal institution covered by federal law that protects inmates' religious practices.

The 2-1 decision upholds a lower court ruling. Orange County officials said they ordered the headscarf removed due to a fear that it could be used as a weapon.

Khatib was briefly detained while awaiting a probation violation hearing related to a welfare fraud conviction. Chief Justice Alex Kozinski dissented.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

(RNS) Nearly three-quarters of U.S. Catholics believe the Vatican tried to cover up clergy sex abuse, and a majority says Pope Benedict XVI has handled recent reports of past abuse poorly, according to a new poll, but less than 10 percent have considered leaving the Catholic Church over the issue.

The Vatican has been besieged by criticism in recent months that top officials, including the future pope, mishandled cases of clergy sex abuse, allowing abusers to work in parishes with children, or stalling for years before defrocking serial molesters.

More than half of U.S. Catholics -- 58 percent -- say the Vatican did a "poor job," of handing those reports, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published on Tuesday (May 4). Less than one in three gave the Vatican good marks on the scandal, and 74 percent said the Vatican tried to cover up the problem in the past.

Still, nearly 7 in 10 Catholics say the scandal has had no effect on their views of the church; a plurality -- 42 percent -- holds a favorable view of church leaders. One in four is undecided and 22 percent have an unfavorable view.

Only 17 percent view Benedict unfavorably, with 42 percent holding a favorable view. Eighty percent of American Catholics say their financial contributions to the church have stayed the same.

The poll was based on telephone interviews with 412 Catholics conducted April 28-May 2. The margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.

-- Daniel Burke
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

(RNS) Southern Baptist theologian Jim Hamilton doesn't write a lot of parables. But he recently posted an original one on his blog in a bid to delegitimize a popular author who Hamilton says is falsely advertising himself as an evangelical.

In the parable, author Brian McLaren transforms a Whole Foods Market into a McDonald's, yet misleadingly retains the "Whole Foods" name.

Hamilton says that's exactly what McLaren is doing in his new book, "A New Kind of Christianity."

In short, McLaren's refashioning Christianity into something altogether different, but still claiming the "Christian" name, while leading the unaware astray, Hamilton said.

McLaren's "is the same kind of `Christianity' that colluded, went along with, Hitler's program in Germany," says Hamilton, associate professor of biblical theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

"Leading theologians in that era of Germany regarded the Bible and history of the Christian faith in the same way as Brian McLaren does, which is: `This is outdated. Let's replace it with something up to date."'

In attempting to marginalize McLaren, Hamilton has plenty of company. In March, the flagship seminary took the rare step of convening a panel to debunk a single book: McLaren's.

Faculty members slammed McLaren, an English teacher-turned-pastor, for allegedly telling the God of the Bible, "you cannot be God."

Bloggers, meanwhile, have described McLaren's approach as "dangerous," "seductive" and "heretical."

In his book, McLaren, who says he comes out of a fundamentalist background, questions long-held assumptions of Christianity. He bristles at the notion of worshiping a God whose wrath sometimes appears unjustified. He engages the Bible as literature, in which God is a main character, rather than as an authoritative type of "constitution" for the church. And he suggests people need divine salvation from human evil, not from a sovereign God.

"There are a lot of people who can't -- for intellectual, ethical and other reasons of conscience -- accept a lot of the assumptions that (fundamentalist Christians) demand that we accept," McLaren said in an interview.

"I'm trying to be helpful to other people who will never fit in the conservative or fundamentalist framework."

To explain why he's so disliked, McLaren noted in a recent Huffington Post essay that his critics often share his views but won't openly admit it. His reason: "Their consciences are in conflict with their beloved religious authority figures (and) the best way to stay out of religious trouble is to keep your opinions private."

Observers, however, say the backlash to McLaren is about more than conservatives toeing the party line. In their view, there are big things at stake for theological conservatives, who fear McLaren might be just clever enough to lead a generation astray.

On one level, nothing short of the eternal destiny of souls hangs in the balance as conservatives fret about McLaren's emphasis on social justice and de-emphasis of traditional beliefs, according to Christian Smith, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame.

"In the end, it would be a matter of salvation (for concerned evangelicals), because you would have people in church for no good reason, who don't really believe in the gospel or Jesus," Smith says.

On another level, Smith adds, McLaren hits a sensitive nerve among conservatives who worry about consequences of eroding theological integrity. Always wary of encroachment from a hostile surrounding culture, these evangelicals fear that young Christians won't grasp the tenets that make Christianity distinct.

McLaren's formulation of a less doctrinal, more activist faith "is threatening because it's attractive to a lot of people, especially young people," Smith said. "What (McLaren's critics) really don't want to see is older evangelicals continue to be the kind of the people they are, and a new generation comes along and heads off in a different direction (with) very little clue that Christianity has content."

Concerned evangelicals are firing back at McLaren for what they see as an assault that originated within their own ranks. Though McLaren still claims the evangelical moniker, many of his evangelical foes insist he's no more evangelical than they are Catholic, Muslim or Jewish.

McLaren's opponents speak of "McLarenism" or "McLarianity" to distinguish his teachings from those of orthodox evangelicals. Among those unhappy with the advancement of "McLarenism" is Kevin DeYoung, a Michigan pastor who regards it as a "theological innovation" that abandons Christianity by disavowing original sin, divine sovereignty and other essential doctrines.

"One of the frustrating things with reading McLaren is he can be rhetorically manipulative," said DeYoung, pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Mich. "He paints himself as a martyr so that those who dare to disagree are just adding to his heroic defense of this new kind of Christianity."

Yet not all evangelicals are resisting McLaren, who ranks as a leading figure in the amorphous "Emerging Church" movement, which claims no specific beliefs or organizational structure. It was standing room only when he spoke last December at Fuller Theological Seminary, an evangelical school in Pasadena, Calif. While his theology may not have been entirely persuasive, his approach proved appealing, according to Kurt Fredrickson, associate dean of Fuller's doctor of ministry program.

"A lot of evangelicals who are now students have grown up in a situation where they were not allowed to question or to doubt,"

Frederickson said. McLaren "is saying, `I know you have questions about issues. The world is not as simple or black-and-white as people may have taught you growing up. ... I want to create a safe space for discussion about this.' And he's not saying this as a doubter or an atheist, but as a convicted follower of Jesus."

By G. JEFFREY MacDONALD
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

ATLANTA - A gay Atlanta pastor and his partner who have been at the center of a battle over the treatment of gay clergy by the nation's largest Lutheran denomination are being reinstated to the denomination's clergy roster, church officials announced Tuesday.

The Rev. Bradley Schmeling and his partner, the Rev. Darin Easler, have been approved for reinstatement, the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said in a news release. The approval came roughly eight months after the denomination voted to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, and just weeks after the ELCA's church council officially revised the church's policy on gay ministers.

"I'm grateful that this journey has come full circle and that the church has changed its policy," Schmeling said Tuesday.

The reinstatement will become effective "once the paperwork has been filed," which should happen in the coming days or weeks, he said.

At their biennial national convention in August, ELCA leaders called for revisions to ministry policy documents, making it possible for "eligible Lutherans in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships" to serve as clergy, the church said in the statement. The ELCA Church Council adopted those revisions April 10.

The candidacy committee of the ELCA Southeastern Synod in Atlanta met two weeks later and approved Schmeling's request for reinstatement.

Even though Schmeling had been removed from the ELCA clergy roster, he remained pastor at St. John's, putting the church in violation of ELCA guidelines, said the Rev. H. Julian Gordy, bishop of the ELCA Southeastern Synod.

"There are people in our church that believe that pastors in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships should not serve as pastors in this church," Gordy said in the church statement. "But the assembly said that while we were not in agreement on this, congregations could call persons in such relationship to serve as pastors, and St. John has chosen to do this." He added that Schmeling's reinstatement "will be very good news" for the members of his Atlanta church.

"This congregation has always been clear in its affirmation and support of our relationship," Schmeling said. "When I told them that I had met my partner for life, they threw us a party. When they heard that we were both reinstated to the clergy roster, there was a spontaneous standing ovation in church on Sunday."

Despite the opposition from some to the change in church policy, "I believe that we will learn to live in this new reality," Gordy said.

Easler left United Redeemer Lutheran Church in Zumbrota, Minn., in 2003 to serve as a chaplain. He and Schmeling met at a church conference in Minnesota in 2004, and he moved to Atlanta to be with Schmeling the following year.

Easler was removed from the clergy roster in 2006 after having been without a parish for three years, the church said in a statement. He transferred to the United Church of Christ, which is a full communion partner of the ELCA, and worked in hospice care as a bereavement coordinator.

He recently applied to the candidacy committee of the ELCA's Southeastern Minnesota Synod in Rochester and was approved April 30. He plans to continue his hospice work under the auspices of the ELCA.

"I just feel so grateful to be able to come back to my church home and church family, and I'm grateful to be able to share with the church both my love and my gifts for ministry but also the love for my partner," Easler said.

Schmeling said the reinstatement is good news for others as well.

"I'm happy for the many people who always hoped to be ordained as pastors now have an open pathway before them," he said.

Evangelical Lutheran Church of America: http://www.elca.org
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

JERUSALEM - Rabbi David Forman, founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, a prominent group defending Palestinians, has died, a colleague said Tuesday.

Forman was 65. He died Monday in a hospital in Dallas, Texas, where he was undergoing treatment, said Rabbi Arik Ascherman, current leader of the human rights group.

Forman founded Rabbis for Human Rights in 1988 and led it until 1992. He served as its chairman again from 2002-2003.

A Reform Jewish rabbi, he was director of the Israel office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform umbrella group. He moved to Israel in 1972.

"Rabbi Forman was a mentor and a moral compass for several generations of rabbis and Jews around the world" through his work in human rights, Ascherman told The Associated Press.

Rabbis for Human Rights leads regular protests against the demolition of Palestinian homes and uprooting of olive trees in the West Bank.

Forman is survived by his wife and four children. His funeral is set for Thursday in Israel.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

WASHINGTON (RNS) More than a decade after it was first introduced, an on-again off-again bill to protect employees' religious expression in the workplace is attracting renewed attention that could lead to action on Capitol Hill in coming weeks.

The Workplace Religious Freedom Act would revise and strengthen the existing requirements imposed on employers to accommodate the religious practices of their employees.

"The bill will be introduced to Congress soon in a fashion that will eliminate the concerns some folks had since its inception," said Richard Foltin, the director of national and legislative affairs for the American Jewish Committee.

Touted in certain circles as the "WRFA god," Foltin co-chairs an unusually broad coalition of almost 40 religious groups, from Sikhs to Seventh-Day Adventists to Southern Baptists, who support the bill's religious freedom expansions.

If passed, the now narrowly tailored legislation would require employers to make reasonable accommodation in the three areas where the vast majority of religious accommodation claims fall: religious clothing, grooming, and scheduling of religious holidays.

Previous versions of the bill had been criticized for being overly broad. The ACLU and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were concerned other employees might be forced to carry additional workloads to accommodate co-workers, and that it would allow religious viewpoints to interfere with a secular workplace.

Though supporters of the bill claim to have the ACLU on board this time, ACLU officials declined to publicly talk about their position.

Whitney Smith, a spokeswoman for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the bill's lead sponsor in the Senate, said organizers are confident that with "the broad coalition of religious and civil rights organizations they've organized, they can finally pass this legislation in this Congress."

Current standards require employers to accommodate an employee's request unless it imposes more than a "de minimus," or minimal, cost on the employer. Under that standard, courts have rejected a variety of employee claims, such as a police officer's request to refuse to protect an abortion clinic and a social worker's decision to incorporate Bible readings into counseling.

"I learned the first day of law school that `de minimus' means `ain't much,"' Foltin said, laughing. "The force of law is not strong enough to provide the protection people need."

The debate centers on when employees' requests become an "undue hardship" for managers. The proposed bill would place a larger burden of proof on the employer by raising the standard to a "significant difficulty" for the employer.

"The employer is going to have to jump a lot higher now," said Robert W. Tuttle, a church-state legal expert at George Washington University Law School.

The bill, introduced each Congress with great fanfare but little success, has garnered bipartisan support. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has joined Kerry as a co-sponsor in the Senate; Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., continues to lead the fight in the House.

"Federal law requires employers reasonably to accommodate employees'

religious belief and practice, but courts have weakened that protection," Hatch said. "WRFA will restore the level of protection that religious freedom deserves."

Added McCarthy: "In today's economy, people shouldn't have their jobs put at risk because they want to, say, wear a yarmulke, or have a long beard."

Many corporations maintain the Civil Rights Act of 1964 adequately protects employee rights, and argue the bill would confound an already convoluted set of rules.

Michael J. Eastman, executive director of labor law policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said areas of the bill, including scheduling, still give his group pause. "We are not in the habit of supporting bills that make it easier to sue our members," he said.

Even supporters concede the bill could complicate things for employers, but say the fight to religious expression is embedded in the First Amendment.

"Is it going to be a mess? Of course," said Tuttle. "But why should it be any different than other legal messes? The system can digest an awful lot."

The bill has taken on added urgency in an increasingly multicultural country, especially as minority faith groups like Muslims and Sikhs gain a higher public profile even as their traditions remain unfamiliar to many Americans.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, job discrimination complaints by Muslim women have more than doubled since 2001. The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations recently filed a complaint on behalf of a Muslim woman who was told she couldn't wear a headscarf on the job.

"Unless legislation is passed to correct the baseline, Muslims and Sikhs face an uphill battle," said Amardeep Singh, co-founder and legal director of the Sikh Coalition. "It's like we're fighting a battle with wiffle-ball bats."

Beyond the practical benefits to employees, supporters say the bill would send a strong message -- the "new beginning" that President Obama promised the Muslim world last year -- that America can accommodate religious minorities.

"WRFA would give us more tools," said Corey Saylor, director of government affairs for CAIR. "It would be a sign to the world that America's a land that accepts all people."

By LAUREN E. BOHN
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

TURIN, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI all but gave an outright endorsement of the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, calling the cloth that some believe is Christ's burial shroud an icon "written with the blood" of a crucified man.

During a visit Sunday to the Shroud in the northern Italian city of Turin, Benedict didn't raise the scientific questions that surround the linen and whether it might be a medieval forgery. Instead, he delivered a powerful meditation on the faith that holds that the Shroud is indeed Christ's burial cloth.

"This is a burial cloth that wrapped the remains of a crucified man in full correspondence with what the Gospels tell us of Jesus," Benedict said. He said the relic - one of the most important in Christianity - should be seen as a photographic document of the "darkest mystery of faith" - that of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.

The 14-foot-long, 3.5-foot-wide (4.3-meter-long, 1 meter-wide) cloth has gone on public display for the first time since the 2000 Millennium celebrations and a subsequent 2002 restoration. Kept in a bulletproof, climate-controlled case in Turin's cathedral, it has drawn nearly 2 million reservations from pilgrims and tourists eager to spend three to five minutes viewing it.

The Shroud bears the figure of a crucified man, complete with blood seeping from his hands and feet, and believers say Christ's image was recorded on the linen's fibers at the time of his resurrection.

Benedict focused in his meditation on the message that the blood stains conveyed, saying the Shroud was "an icon written in blood; the blood of a man who was whipped, crowned with thorns, crucified and injured on his right side.

"The image on the Shroud is that of a dead man, but the blood speaks of his life. Each trace of blood speaks of love and life," Benedict said.

The Vatican to date had tiptoed around the issue of just what the Shroud of Turin is, calling it a powerful symbol of Christ's suffering while making no claim to its authenticity.

Benedict's meditation - delivered after he prayed as if in a trance before the shroud - appeared to imply that in the end it doesn't matter what science says about its authenticity.

"The Shroud of Turin offers us the image of how his body lay in the tomb during that time (of death); time that was brief chronologically - about a day and a half - but was immense, infinite in its value and significance," Benedict said.

A Vatican researcher said late last year that faint writing on the linen, which she studied through computer-enhanced images, proves the cloth was used to wrap Jesus' body after his crucifixion.

But experts stand by carbon-dating of scraps of the cloth that determine the linen was made in the 13th or 14th century in a kind of medieval forgery. That testing didn't explain how the image on the Shroud - of a man with wounds similar to those suffered by Christ - was formed.

However, some have suggested the dating results might have been skewed by contamination and called for a larger sample to be analyzed.

When Pope John Paul II visited the Shroud during a 1998 public display, he said its mystery forces questions about faith and science and whether it really was Christ's burial shroud. But he said the church had "no specific competence to pronounce on these questions" and urged continuous study.

Benedict, who has made the interplay of faith and science a hallmark of his papacy, did not mention the role of science and reason in his remarks Sunday.

Benedict's visit to the holy relic marked a bit of a respite from the clerical sex abuse scandal that has convulsed the Vatican in recent weeks. In the past week, he has met with several bishops to discuss resignations from inside their ranks over sex abuse by priests of children and the bishops' failure to report it to civil authorities, and more meetings are planned.

On Sunday, a few hundred anti-Vatican demonstrators gathered in Turin to protest the pope's visit, the Vatican's handling of sex abuse cases and it's role in society in general. Demonstration organizer Maria Matteo said Vatican documents detailing how clerical abuse cases should be processed insisted on secrecy.

When the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "he clearly said that these problems shouldn't be spoken about. What more does there need to be (to blame him)?" she told Associated Press Television News.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.