Malaysian Catholics' Lawyers Offices Are Ransacked

Image by amos1766 via Flickr

By JAMES HOOKWAY

Intruders ransacked the offices of the legal team that's defending a Malaysian Roman Catholic newspaper's right to use the word Allah in its Malay-language pages, church officials said, marking a fresh escalation of the bitter dispute.

The Rev. Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Catholic Herald, said legal staff found door-locks forced open and papers scattered across the floor when they arrived for work on Thursday morning. Derek Fernandez, the main lawyer acting for the newspaper, said closed circuit television cameras were vandalized to prevent them recording the incident, and that a lap-top computer was missing.

"My first impression is that the break-in is related to the Allah case," Mr. Fernandez said. "It is designed to intimidate us in the case we are handling for the Herald."

The Associated Press quoted Arjunaidi Mohamed, the police chief of the Kuala Lumpur suburb where the break-in occurred, as saying it was too early to link the raid to the recent spate of church attacks.

The ransacking comes amid rising religious tensions in Malaysia after the country's High Court on Dec. 31 ruled that Christians can use the Arabic word Allah in their Malay-language publications. Many Muslims were angered over the ruling, saying the word should be exclusive to Muslims, who could be tricked into following Christianity if non-Muslims are permitted to use the term.

Image by lloydi via Flickr

Since the ruling, which the government is appealing, 10 churches have been attacked in various parts of the country with Molotov cocktails or defaced with paint. Arsonists razed the administrative office of one to the ground. A Sikh temple was also attacked with stones late on Wednesday, possibly because Sikhs also use the term "Allah" in some scriptures.

The Catholic Church, meanwhile, argues that the Arabic word is the only acceptable translation for God in the Malay language, and that Malaysian churches attending to indigenous, Malay-speaking tribes have been using the term for decades.

The dispute presents an awkward problem for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who must call an election by 2013. Political analysts say he needs to retain the support of the country's Muslim majority while winning back votes from the large ethnic-Chinese and Indian minorities, many of whom backed an opposition coalition in the last elections in 2008.

Some economists, meanwhile, worry that Muslim anger over the Dec. 31 court ruling could dissuade Mr. Najib from pushing for further reforms of Malaysia's race-based affirmative action program.

Known as the New Economic Policy, the decades-old initiative was designed to give a boost to the country's Muslim Malay majority and help them catch up economically with their ethnic-Chinese compatriots. Mr. Najib and other government leaders – as well as many business leaders – argue that Malaysia needs to provide a more level playing field to stimulate economic growth, but analysts say carrying out reforms will be politically difficult.

—Celine Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this article.

Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• Karim Raslan: Will Najib Razak Reform Malaysia? (online.wsj.com)
• Fifth Malaysian church attacked in Allah feud (msnbc.msn.com)
• Churches Attacked in Malaysia (online.wsj.com)

Catholics Burke, O'Malley Split Over Pro-Choice Politics - TIME

Image via Wikipedia

by Amy Sullivan

The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church traditionally couch even the harshest disagreements in decorous, ecclesiastical language. But it didn't take a decoder ring to figure out what Rome-based Archbishop Raymond Burke meant in a late-September address when he charged Boston Cardinal Seán O'Malley with being under the influence of Satan, "the father of lies."

Burke's broadside at O'Malley was inspired by the Cardinal's decision to permit and preside over a funeral Mass for the late Senator Ted Kennedy. And it has set the Catholic world abuzz. Even more than protests over the University of Notre Dame's decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak, disputes over the Kennedy funeral have brought into the open an argument that has been roiling within American Catholicism. The debate nominally centers on the question of how to deal with politicians who support abortion rights. Burke and others who believe a Catholic's position on abortion trumps all other teachings have faced off against those who take a more holistic view of the faith. But at the core, the divide is over who decides what it means to be Catholic. (See pictures of Pope Benedict XVI visiting America.)

A Bull in a China Shop
It strikes no one as surprising that the 61-year-old Burke is at the center of the current fight. The former Archbishop of St. Louis made national headlines in 2004 when he became the first Catholic leader to say he would deny the Eucharist to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. He led an unsuccessful drive to bar Communion for politicians who support abortion rights. And as Election Day approached in 2004, Burke issued a warning to Catholics in the key swing state of Missouri that they should not present themselves for Communion if they voted for pro-choice candidates.

The Archbishop's outspoken comments did not go unnoticed in Rome. In June 2008, Burke was unexpectedly transferred to the Vatican. The move was widely interpreted as a way to put some distance between Burke and the political contest in the States. "It was not unrelated to issues of political timing," observes Mark Silk, a professor of religion at Trinity College.

Burke's new assignment came with an impressive title: Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura — essentially chief justice of the Vatican's highest court. But the job, which involves hearing appeals of lower-canon-court rulings on issues like annulment requests, did not stop him from commenting on American politics. In January he charged that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was responsible for Obama's victory because it overwhelmingly approved a document suggesting that Catholics could consider issues besides abortion when deciding how to vote. The conference's in-house news service, he added, failed to highlight Obama's moral failings in its campaign coverage. And he called Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a pro-choice Catholic, a "source of deepest embarrassment to Catholics." (See the top 10 unfortunate political one-liners.)

Burke's confrontational approach doesn't always mesh with the more discreet diplomacy favored by his Italian colleagues. "He's seen as a bull in a china shop," says an American priest and longtime Rome resident. "I've seen Italian bishops roll their eyes."

In retrospect, it should have been obvious that the funeral plans for Kennedy would reignite a lingering dispute within the church. The question of whether the Senator should even be described as a Catholic because of his support for abortion rights and his checkered life history was hotly debated on Catholic blogs and religion websites like Beliefnet.com. Right-wing Catholics lobbied the Boston archdiocese to refuse the Kennedy family a church funeral. Robert Royal of the Faith & Reason Institute called O'Malley's decision to go ahead with the Mass a "grave scandal" on a par with the sexual-abuse crisis.

But it's one thing for partisans and bloggers to disparage a Mass for a dead Senator; it's quite another for a Vatican official to do so. Even some leading conservative Catholics may find they cannot support Burke's latest salvo. When told of the Archbishop's assertion that pro-choice Catholics should not be permitted funeral rites, Princeton professor Robert George was taken aback: "That's a very different, and obviously graver, claim than that with which I would have sympathy. I haven't heard before any bishop say that pro-abortion politicians should not be given a Catholic funeral."

See pictures of Obama meeting Pope Benedict XVI.

See pictures of John 3:16 in pop culture.

CardinalSeansBlog.org
Friends of O'Malley's say the cardinal was stunned by the criticism. The 65-year-old O'Malley is temperamentally Burke's opposite, a shy man who dislikes celebrity and shuns politics — a major reason he was appointed to the sensitive post in Boston. With his full beard and preference for wearing the brown robe of a Capuchin friar, the man who goes by "Cardinal Sean" is not easily identified as a Prince of the Church. When O'Malley received his red hat in 2006, he persuaded some friends to go out for a late-night snack in Rome after a long day of ceremonies. But he ran into some trouble when he tried to return to his quarters. The Vatican guards didn't believe that the casually attired man who smelled of pizza was a newly minted Cardinal.

Though he has presided over the difficult task of closing parishes and schools within the archdiocese, O'Malley is well liked in Boston and the broader Catholic community. He celebrated his inaugural Mass in Boston at a Spanish service, and he once joked that his scarlet Cardinal's robes would come in handy if Dick Cheney ever invited him to go hunting. O'Malley, however, should not be mistaken for a liberal member of the hierarchy. He is a conservative on matters of doctrine, and for the past few years, he has been the face of the church's opposition to Massachusetts' gay-marriage law. (See pictures of the gay-rights movement.)

But O'Malley did not hesitate to push back against the uproar that surrounded the Kennedy funeral. In a Sept. 2 post on CardinalSeansBlog.org — he is the only Cardinal with a blog — O'Malley wrote, "In the strongest terms I disagree" with those who believe Kennedy did not deserve a funeral Mass. "We will not change hearts by turning away from people in their time of need and when they are experiencing grief," he continued. "At times, even in the Church, zeal can lead people to issue harsh judgments and impute the worst motives to one another. These attitudes and practices do irreparable damage to the communion of the Church."

It was the first time a Cardinal had directly and publicly challenged the Burke position. O'Malley's statement was followed by another from Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wis., who lamented that "the death of Senator Kennedy has called forth at least an apparent rejection of mercy on the part of not a few Catholics." It was inevitable that Burke would emerge to fire back. At a Sept. 18 dinner in Washington sponsored by the conservative media outlet Inside Catholic, Burke declared that "neither Holy Communion nor funeral rites should be administered to [pro-choice] politicians." The audience gave Burke a prolonged standing ovation. (See the top 10 Jesus films of all time.)

Silence from Rome
The American hierarchy has been divided before, most recently in the 1990s by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's argument that abortion is not the only issue in the "seamless garment of life" that Catholics are called to promote. But the current debate, which is expected to surface again when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) holds its general meeting later this month, is the bitterest yet. A minority faction of bishops had hoped Pope Benedict XVI would lead the way in punishing those who dissent from church teaching. His preference for avoiding the political fray has both frustrated them and emboldened them to act on their own.

The question now is whether the Vatican will move again to muzzle Burke. When he criticized Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl last spring during a videotaped interview, he was forced to apologize less than 24 hours after the video aired. In early September, the bishop of Scranton, Pa. — a Burke protégé — abruptly resigned after a stormy tenure and was not reassigned. Veteran Vatican watchers took it as a sign that some Burkean antics — such as threatening to refuse Vice President Joe Biden Communion and disparaging the USCCB — would not be tolerated.

Rome has been silent about Burke's most recent public statements. In late September, O'Malley was named to the Pontifical Council for the Family, a minor and expected appointment, but also a reminder that the Boston Cardinal has friends in high places. "From the point of view of doctrine, Benedict has absolute firmness," says a Vatican insider. "But he does not want to see it play out in a confrontational way."

There are other signs that the word has gone forth, at least for now. In years past, the annual Red Mass held the Sunday before the U.S. Supreme Court's term opens has been so heavily steeped in pro-life rhetoric that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now declines to attend. This year's service, however, featured a homily by the new chair of the bishop's pro-life committee that included only the subtlest of references to abortion. More striking was the image of Biden taking Communion without incident.

— With reporting by Jeff Israely / Rome

BBC - Greek Church acts on crucifix ban

Image via Wikipedia

By Malcolm Brabant
BBC News, Athens

The Greek Orthodox Church is urging Christians across Europe to unite in an appeal against a ban on crucifixes in classrooms in Italy.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled last week that the presence of crucifixes violated a child's right to freedom of religion.

Greece's Orthodox Church fears the Italian case will set a precedent.

It has called an emergency Holy Synod meeting for next week to devise an action plan.

Although the Greek Orthodox Church has been at odds with Roman Catholicism for 1,000 years, the judicial threat to Christian symbols has acted as a unifying force.

The European Court of Human Rights found that the compulsory display of crucifixes violated parents' rights to educate their children as they saw fit and restricted the right of children to believe or not to believe.

'Worthy symbols'

The head of the Greek Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, shares Catholic complaints that the court is ignoring the role of Christianity in forming Europe's identity.

It is not only minorities that have rights but majorities as well, said the archbishop.

One of his subordinates, Bishop Nicholas from central Greece, lamented that at this rate youngsters will not have any worthy symbols at all to inspire and protect them.

Football and pop idols are very poor substitutes, he said.

The Greek Church has ostensibly intervened in this case in response to an appeal by a Greek mother whose son is studying in Italy.

But without doubt it is concerned that its omnipotence in Greece is under threat.

A human rights group called Helsinki Monitor is seeking to use the Italian case as a precedent.

It has demanded that Greek courts remove icons of Jesus Christ from above the judge's bench and that the gospel no longer be used for swearing oaths in the witness box.

Helsinki Monitor is urging trade unions to challenge the presence of religious symbols in Greek schools.

The socialist government here is also considering imposing new taxes on the Church's vast fortune, but at the same time is urging it to do more to help immigrants and poor Greeks.

Rep. Kennedy and Bishop in Bitter Rift on Abortion - NYTimes.com

Image via Wikipedia

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island was to meet Thursday with Thomas J. Tobin, the Roman Catholic bishop of Providence, and perhaps start healing a bitter rift over whether health care legislation now before Congress should restrict abortion coverage.

Instead, they postponed the meeting, and Bishop Tobin stepped up his public rebuke of Mr. Kennedy, accusing him Wednesday of “false advertising” for describing himself as a Catholic and saying he should not receive holy communion because he supports using taxpayer money for abortions.

“If you freely choose to be a Catholic, it means you believe certain things, you do certain things,” Bishop Tobin said on WPRO, a Providence radio station. “If you cannot do all that in conscience, then you should perhaps feel free to go somewhere else.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has lobbied forcefully against including federal financing for abortion in the health care legislation, and Bishop Tobin, who has led the Catholic Church in Rhode Island since 2005, has been a vocal participant.

His conflict with Mr. Kennedy — an unusually personal example of the pressure Catholic bishops are bringing to bear on the health care debate — started last month, when Mr. Kennedy, a Democrat in his eighth term, questioned why the church had vowed to fight any health care bill that did not explicitly ban the use of public money for abortions.

In an interview with Cybercast News Service on Oct. 21, Mr. Kennedy said he could not understand “how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of our time,” adding that its stance was fanning “flames of dissent and discord.”

The next day, Bishop Tobin called the comments “irresponsible and ignorant of the facts” and Mr. Kennedy “a disappointment” to the church.

Mr. Kennedy, a son of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, then agreed to meet with the bishop, but said his discord with the church hierarchy “does not make me any less of a Catholic.”

When the House approved its version of the legislation last Saturday, Mr. Kennedy voted for the bill but opposed an amendment, ultimately adopted, that restricted abortion coverage.

Bishop Tobin, in a letter publicly released Monday, called Mr. Kennedy’s support of abortion rights “a deliberate and obstinate act of the will” that was “unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members.”

“It’s not too late for you to repair your relationship with the Church,” he wrote, “redeem your public image, and emerge as an authentic ‘profile in courage,’ especially by defending the sanctity of human life for all people, including unborn children.”

Mr. Kennedy declined an interview request, and on Tuesday he told reporters in Providence that he would not comment on the bishop’s letter.

“I had initially agreed to a meeting with him,” Mr. Kennedy said, “provided we would not debate this in public in terms of my personal faith. But unfortunately he hasn’t kept to that agreement, and that’s very disconcerting to me.”

The battle is being waged nearly three months after Mr. Kennedy’s father died of brain cancer and received a Catholic funeral despite his longtime conflict with the church over abortion rights and other issues. After the senator’s death, his family made public a letter he had written to Pope Benedict XVI. “I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic,” he wrote.

In Wednesday’s radio interview, Bishop Tobin said he still hoped to have a private conversation with Representative Kennedy, who, he said, has a chance to win the church’s acceptance.

“It’s not too late for the congressman to redeem his image,” the bishop said, “and to embrace the church and the teachings of the church.”

37 U.S. Senators Urge Vietnam to Free Imprisoned Priest

37 U.S. Senators Urge Vietnam to Free Imprisoned Priest
By REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A group of United States senators urged Vietnam’s president on Wednesday to free a Roman Catholic priest as human rights groups said that his imprisonment justified putting Vietnam on a religious freedom blacklist.

The priest, the Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, was sentenced to eight years in prison in March 2007 after being charged with spreading propaganda against Vietnam’s Communist government. He had previously served 16 years in prison for activities in which he advocated for human rights.

The group of 37 senators, who were led by Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, and Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, urged President Nguyen Minh Triet of Vietnam to free Father Ly, calling his trial “seriously flawed.”

“We request that you facilitate Father Ly’s immediate and unconditional release from prison, and allow him to return to his home and work without restrictions on his right to freedom of expression, association and movement,” the senators said in a letter.

“Father Ly’s longstanding nonviolent activities to promote religious freedom and democracy in Vietnam are well known in the United States,” wrote the senators, who included Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Washington did not confirm receipt of the letter or issue a comment.

During Father Ly’s four-hour trial in 2007, he was denied access to a lawyer and was silenced by security guards when he tried to speak, said the human rights group Freedom Now.

Maran Turner, the executive director of Freedom Now, said Father Ly’s case and similar ones involving other religious figures should mean that Vietnam was placed on a United States government list of “countries of particular concern” for violations of religious freedom.

The United States, which put Vietnam on that list in 2004, lifted the designation before President George W. Bush visited Hanoi in November 2006.

Michael Cromartie, vice chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, was permitted to visit Father Ly in prison in May. Father Ly was “in solitary confinement for reasons that are not clear,” Mr. Cromartie said.