Saturday, July 28, 2007

Hate is "an attack on all of us".


Clergy call for passage of Matthew Shepard Act

More than 1,300 sign letter directed at Senate


by Christopher Johnson

WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 1,300 faith leaders have signed onto a letter urging the U.S. Senate to pass the Matthew Shepard Act (S.B. 1105), a bill which would update the current hate crimes law. Additionally, a new full-page print ad appeared in a recent edition of Roll Call that highlights the broad support of black clergy and civil rights leaders voicing support for hate crimes legislation. The new ad is sponsored by a coalition that includes the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the National Black Justice Coalition.


The letter was released by HRC, along with a coalition of organizations that include the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Interfaith Alliance, and the Religious Action Center. The 1,385 faith leaders signing the letter represent a broad spectrum of religious voices urging passage of a hate crimes bill that is expected for a Senate vote in the near future.

The letter states, “We would not support a bill that did not contain ample protections for free speech, including preaching and statements of religious belief. This law does not criminalize or impede upon religious expression in any way.” Read the complete letter at www.clergyagainsthate.org.

In addition to the letter, the ad features a theologically diverse group of black clergy representing tens of thousands of Americans speaking out in support of proposed hate crimes legislation.

The ad states, “As leaders in the black clergy community, we want to voice our strong support for the Matthew Shepard Act. Our faith tells us that an act of hate upon one member of our community — whether because of race, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability — is an attack on all of us.”

The Matthew Shepard Act would update the current hate crimes statute, enacted in 1964, to include more Americans and provide increased protections for those groups already covered under existing law. Nothing in the legislation prohibits the lawful expression of one’s deeply held religious beliefs. Neither the current hate crimes law nor the expanded measures criminalize thoughts or speech; they only criminalize violent acts.

During the House Judiciary Committee’s consideration of the bill, committee members explicitly noted that point. To further ensure that there was no ambiguity, an additional amendment offered by Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) was adopted at markup. The amendment unequivocally stated that conduct protected under the First Amendment’s free expression and free exercise clauses was not subject to prosecution.

On May 3, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1592), by a strong margin of 237 to 180 — with more than 20 Republicans voting in support.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Catholic adoption agency closes rather than accept gay couples


27th July 2007 16:05
PinkNews.co.uk writer

A Roman Catholic adoption charity is to turn away children in care because it refuses to accept the government's gay rights laws.

Catholic Care will end its 100-year-old adoption service, which places 20 children with new families every year, because it does not want to help same-sex couples adopt.

The Sexual Orientation Regulations, passed earlier this year, protect gay, lesbian and bisexual people from discrimination when accessing goods and services.

Now all adoption agencies have to accept same-sex couples as possible parents.

The charity is one of seven Catholic leader Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor threatened to close because of the laws. They receive a total of £10 million a year from local councils.

The government briefly considered an opt out for Roman Catholic adoption agencies.

After meeting with MPs and the Cabinet in January, former Prime Minister Tony Blair bowed to strong criticism from his own party over the exemption.

Ben Summerskill, who as head of gay equality organisation Stonewall spearheaded oppoosition to an exemption for Roman Catholic-run adoption agencies, told PinkNews.co.uk:

"Our clear view is that if you run a public service then you have to abide by the health and safety legislation, and equality legislation too.

"That applies to adoption agencies just as it does to anyone else - no one is above the law

"It is not entirely clear that this is the only reason that Catholic adoption agencies are considering closing.

"Because of the way that social services are now contracted out, a number of smaller agencies have been closing in recent years.

"It would be utterly reprehensible if the Catholic Church were to use closures that were going to take place anyway as an excuse for alarmist claims about important new legislation that supports equality."

Catholic Care decided to stop finding families for children after a vote by its trustees, led by the Bishop of Leeds.

In a statement, the charity said it had reconsidered its work in light of the new Government legislation, according to the Daily Mail.

The charity finds couples and individuals – both Catholic and non-Catholic – willing to adopt, pairs them with children and helps them through the adoption process.

Over the last 20 years, 13 of the 720 adopted children placed by Catholic charities have been with same-sex single people. The Vatican believes gay adoptions are "gravely immoral."

A permanent family is considered the best way to ensure a better life for the 60, 000 children living in care homes and with foster parents.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

"Delivered from their darkness"


Jewish leaders and community groups criticised Pope Benedict XVI strongly yesterday after the head of the Roman Catholic Church formally removed restrictions on celebrating an old form of the Latin Mass which includes prayers calling for the Jews to "be delivered from their darkness" and converted to Catholicism.

In a highly controversial concession to traditionalist Catholics, Pope Benedict said he had decided to allow parish priests to celebrate the Latin Tridentine Mass if a "stable group of faithful" request it.

But he stressed that he was in no way undoing the reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council which allowed the Mass to be said in vernacular languages for the first time.

"What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful," Benedict wrote.

But the older rite's prayers calling on God to "lift the veil from the eyes" of the Jews and end "the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ" have sparked outrage.

Yesterday the Anti-Defamation League, the American-based Jewish advocacy group, called the papal decision a "body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations".

"We are extremely disappointed and deeply offended that nearly 40 years after the Vatican rightly removed insulting anti-Jewish language from the Good Friday Mass, it would now permit Catholics to utter such hurtful and insulting words by praying for Jews to be converted," said Abraham Foxman, the group's national director, in Rome.

"It is the wrong decision at the wrong time. It appears the Vatican has chosen to satisfy a right-wing faction in the church that rejects change and reconciliation."

Some bishops in France as well as liberal clergy and Catholics elsewhere have expressed concerns that allowing freer use of the Tridentine liturgy would imply a negation of Vatican II, the 1962-65 meetings that modernised the Roman Catholic Church.

They also feared it could create divisions in parishes, since two different liturgies would be celebrated.

The liberal French Catholic magazine Temoignage Chretien published an editorial in Latin explaining that it was not concerned about the language in which the Mass was celebrated but by "the view of the outside world held by most supporters of the traditional rite ... of a church that sees itself as the sole holder of the truth. Forty years after the Second Vatican Council, this stand is untenable".

Benedict has told bishops that such fears are "unfounded" as the Mass celebrated in the vernacular remained the "normal" form while the older version was an "extraordinary" one that would probably be sought by only relatively few Catholics.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said the new rules did not "impose any return to the past, nor any weakening of the authority of the council, nor the authority and responsibility of bishops".

Benedict was acting in a bid to reach out to the followers of a French ultra-traditionalist, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who split with the Vatican over the introduction of the new Mass and other Vatican II reforms. He was excommunicated in 1988 after he consecrated four bishops without Rome's consent. The bishops were excommunicated as well.

The group has expressed rejoicing and thanked Benedict for the move.

In one small village in western France, a church was recently occupied by Catholic traditionalists demanding a Mass in Latin.

A new priest, replacing a conservative who led the parish for 40 years, had been ordered by the local bishop to end the unauthorised but previously tolerated older rites.

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