Paris (ENI). Church leaders in France are expressing concern about the emergence of the leader of the far right, Jean-Marie Le Pen, as one of the two candidates in the second round of the country's presidential elections scheduled for 5 May. It is the first time that a far-right leader has made it to the second round of a presidential election. Although not giving any explicit voting recommendations, both Protestant and Catholic leaders have made it clear that they reject the policies of Le Pen's National Front party. "We are distressed to see such large numbers of fellow citizens support a candidate who rejects republican values," said the Protestant Federation of France (FPF) in a statement, although they acknowledged the legitimacy of the voter's free choice. "We understand the anxiety [of the voters] but we reject the hatred." [765 words, ENI-02-0128]

29 April 2002

Amsterdam (ENI). Aiming to inject a sense of urgency into a long-running church unification process, officials of three Dutch denominations have set a target date for their merger into one church. The officials named 2004 as the provisional deadline for completing the merger of the three denominations: the Netherlands Reformed Church (NHK), the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKN) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The three denominations are currently linked together in a federation called the Uniting Protestant Churches in the Netherlands (UPCN), but the merger will create a single, 2.7-million-member Protestant church. [439 words, ENI-02-0127]

26 April 2002

Vancouver (ENI). A Canadian ecumenical campaign is targeting one of Canada's biggest oil companies which is opposed to a major United Nations' agreement on climate change. Representatives of the campaign, including Lois Wilson, a former president of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and former moderator of the United Church of Canada (UCC), took part this week in the shareholders' meeting of Imperial Oil, one of Canada's biggest integrated petroleum companies. Wilson, who has just retired as a Canadian senator and has had national assignments on energy-related matters, questioned the policies of Imperial Oil with regard to climate change and future energy options. [659 words, ENI-02-0126]

25 April 2002

Moscow (ENI). In one of the latest events in a series described by the Roman Catholic Church in Russia as an "organised campaign" against it, a Catholic bishop was turned back at Moscow's international airport as he was trying to return from Poland to his diocese in eastern Siberia. On 19 April, border guards cancelled without explanation Catholic Bishop Jerzy Mazur's visa for Russia. Two days after Mazur was barred from entering Russia, his cathedral in Irkutsk was picketed during Sunday mass by about 100 Orthodox protesters denouncing Catholic "expansion" in Russia. [791 words, ENI-02-0124]

US cardinals return home amid criticism of child abuse stance

Rome and New York (ENI). US cardinals summoned to the Vatican by Pope John Paul II because of a growing sexual abuse scandal have returned to the United States amid claims that they have failed to deal decisively with the issue. Bishop Wilton Gregory, head of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, told reporters in Rome that there was a "growing consensus" in the church that a priest who had committed child sexual abuse should not be reassigned to another parish. However, the unprecedented summit from 23 to 24 April, called in an attempt to stem the crisis in the US Catholic church, saved a final decision on policy as well as procedures for dealing with paedophile clergy for a June meeting of US bishops in Dallas. [944 words, ENI-02-0125]

24 April 2002

Brazzaville (ENI). The abduction of Jean Guth, a French Catholic priest and missionary, three weeks ago by "Ninja" rebel fighters has marked a new stage in the recent clashes which have erupted between rebels and government troops in the Pool region of Congo near Brazzaville. Ninja is the name of a group of militiamen who oppose President Denis Sassou Nguesso and who refused to sign a peace agreement in 1999 ending the country's civil war. [392 words, ENI-02-0122]

US church leaders arrive in Holy Land on 'peace mission'

New York (ENI). A top-level delegation of US church leaders has arrived in Jerusalem on the final leg of a two-week-long trip to the Middle East to show solidarity with the Middle East Christian community and highlight the urgent need for peace in the region. The 14-member delegation is led by the two senior officials of the National Council of Churches (NCC), the biggest ecumenical organisation in the United States. It has visited church and political leaders in Istanbul, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, but faces its most difficult task in visiting Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. [581 words, ENI-02-0123]

23 April 2002

Jerusalem (ENI). A meeting between Israeli and Palestinian officials over the stand-off at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem got underway today, as reports emerged of the growing distress of clerics inside the sanctuary. Three Armenian monks managed to escape from the shrine, where Palestinian gunmen remain barricaded, along with priests and nuns, after almost three weeks. Israeli troops have surrounded the church, built over the spot where tradition holds that Jesus was born. [306 words, ENI-02-0121]

Criticism leads Canadian Jewish Congress to pull out of interfaith group

Vancouver (ENI). Canada's most prominent Jewish organisation has withdrawn its participation of 30 years in an interfaith consultation following the appearance of a website message critical of Israeli policy written by a church dialogue partner. The Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) announced on 10 April that it was pulling out of the inter-religious Canadian Christian Jewish Consultation (CCJC). A message on the Anglican Church of Canada's website was "the straw that broke the camel's back", said Manuel Prutschi, the CJC's national director of community relations, who accused the Anglican church and the United Church of Canada of being "one-sided". [683 words, ENI-02-0120]

22 April 2002

London (ENI). The world's churches have "barely begun" to respond to the theological challenges of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, a meeting called by three mission organisations in association with the World Council of Churches (WCC) was told. "We need to treat HIV/AIDS as a world-wide disease that brings grief, pain and death not exclusively to Africa or the 'South'," the consultation report declared. The consultation on mission was held in London from 14 to 19 April. It was attended by more than 50 delegates and guests linked with the British-based Council for World Mission (CWM); United Evangelical Mission (UEM), headquartered in Germany; and Cevaa-Community of Churches in Mission, based in France, together with the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the WCC, in Geneva. [663 words, ENI-02-0119]

19 April 2002

Warsaw (ENI). Minority church leaders in Slovakia have welcomed an agreement with the government guaranteeing their freedom and independence and state financial support for their activities. "This will help bring real confessional peace here," said Igor Kiss, a Slovak Lutheran theologian who helped negotiate the accord. Kiss was speaking following the 11 April signing ceremony for the Agreement between the Slovak Republic and Registered Churches and Religious Societies, held in a chapel at Bratislava's presidential palace. He said the accord would open the way to greater "ecumenical coexistence" as well as give 11 signatory denominations the same rights as those that had been guaranteed to Slovakia's predominant Roman Catholic Church in a December 2000 Slovak-Vatican treaty. [742 words, ENI-02-0118]

The French government wants to boost school education in religion

Paris (ENI). A new European institute of religious sciences could soon be created in France to strengthen the teaching of religion in schools. Jack Lang, the French minister of education, announced the decision following the presentation last month of a government-commissioned report on the subject by French writer and intellectual Régis Debray. Over the past 12 years, a number of observers have noticed a lessening of knowledge of religion in France and in its transmission. The Debray report, written in a style more literary than administrative, stresses the need for better school education in religion. [609 words, ENI-02-0117]

Anglican primates outline plan to help churches combat AIDS

London (ENI). Financial aid is expected to be made available to churches engaged with the HIV/AIDS crisis in the developing world, Anglican leaders have said. In a statement on 17 April after a primates' meeting held in Canterbury, the leaders declared that "HIV/AIDS is not a punishment from God". The statement, one of several issued at the end of a seven-day closed meeting attended by 35 of the Anglican Communion's 38 primates (presiding bishops of provinces), indicated how it was hoped to raise money to help churches with their HIV/AIDS programmes. [618 words, ENI-02-0116]

19 April 2002

London (ENI). Financial aid is expected to be made available to churches engaged with the HIV/AIDS crisis in the developing world, Anglican leaders have said. In a statement on 17 April after a primates' meeting held in Canterbury, the leaders declared that "HIV/AIDS is not a punishment from God". The statement, one of several issued at the end of a seven-day closed meeting attended by 35 of the Anglican Communion's 38 primates (presiding bishops of provinces), indicated how it was hoped to raise money to help churches with their HIV/AIDS programmes. [618 words, ENI-02-0116]

17 April 2002

New York and Rome (ENI)--Pope John Paul II has summoned US cardinals to the Vatican for an emergency meeting to discuss the burgeoning sexual abuse scandal within the US Catholic Church. In calling the meeting - and thus reversing a previous position that the problem was best left to US church authorities - the Vatican clearly signalled that the issue had become a potential crisis for the wider church. Church observers said the sudden meeting was unprecedented and a sign that the US Catholic Church faces a grave problem. [1175 words, ENI-02-0115]

16 April 2002

New Delhi (ENI). India's Supreme Court is holding a marathon hearing into the rights of Christians and other minority groups to administer schools and other educational institutions. Christians believe that the court's ruling could have wide ramifications for their rights in a country where they make up no more than 3 per cent of the population. The hearing began on 2 April before a special 11-member bench of the Supreme Court - the biggest bench in 30 years. [470 words, ENI-02-0114]

15 April 2002

Guatemala City (ENI). Guatemala's civil war came to an end just over five years ago, but the country has yet to enjoy the peace that most hoped would follow in the wake of the 36-year armed conflict. Political parties are weak, civil society remains fragmented, and the government appears incapable of meeting society's basic needs or of extending democratic reforms. "The peace process has stalled because there is no political will for it to prosper, because there are sectors of the powerful who are addicted to unjust economic and political structures, and they don't want to see things change," the Rev. José Pilar Alvarez, a Lutheran pastor in the eastern Guatemalan city of Zacapa, told ENI. [936 words, ENI-02-0112]

Church agencies demand EU sanctions against Israel

Geneva (ENI). As European Union foreign ministers discuss the crisis in the Middle East at a meeting in Luxembourg, church organisations are demanding that the EU impose sanctions against Israel. The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Konrad Raiser, has called on the EU ministers to suspend an agreement that gives privileged trade status to Israel. Similar calls have come from Christian Aid, the church aid agency in Britain and Ireland, and from Aprodev, an association of 15 European Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox development agencies. Last week the European Parliament voted to suspend the trade agreement with Israel, but the vote is not binding on EU foreign ministers. [585 words, ENI-02-0113]

12 April 2002

Guatemala City (ENI). Five years after international church leaders helped end Guatemala's bloody civil war, an ecumenical delegation returned to the troubled Central American country to inject new life into a languishing peace process. The delegation spent three days with local church and government officials and a wide spectrum of civil society leaders before meeting on 11 April with the country's vice president, Francisco Reyes. The group expressed concern for what it described as the "crisis" in Guatemala. [1043 words, ENI-02-0111]

11 April 2002

Moscow (ENI). Amid continuing reports that the United States is considering military action against Iraq, a Russian Orthodox official who has just returned from an unprecedented visit to the Arab country has cautioned against such a step. "We consider such an approach unacceptable," said Nikolai Balashov, the Moscow Patriarchate's secretary for relations with other Orthodox Churches. He warned that an attack against Iraq could not be targeted against the country's ruling elite but would affect the population as a whole. [576 words, ENI-02-0110]

10 April 2002

Manila (ENI). Church leaders in the Philippines have condemned plans to increase the number of United States troops in the country. The Philippine church leaders claim that the escalation of the US war against terrorism here may lead to greater antagonism between Filipino Muslims and Christians and the further erosion of Philippine sovereignty. [683 words, ENI-02-0109]

Anglican bishop supports easing the law against cannabis

London (ENI). A senior Church of England bishop, John Oliver, has added his voice to a growing movement in Britain to relax the law against using cannabis. Oliver, the bishop of Hereford, said the law against the use of cannabis had become unenforceable and police energies would be better directed to the fight against hard drugs. Oliver called for more education to persuade cannabis users not to switch to harder drugs. [547 words, ENI-02-0108]

9 April 2002

Sydney (ENI). Australian church leaders have expressed disappointment and dismay at a plan by the prime minister, John Howard, to legalise the destruction of human embryos for research into stem cells. The Council of Australian Governments, made up of Howard and all state premiers, last week endorsed a plan that will legalise the use of existing embryos left-over from IVF procedures, but ban all forms of human cloning and the creation of embryos for research purposes. Howard consulted church leaders, including Sydney's Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen and Catholic Archbishop Dr George Pell, before proposing his plan, but pushed ahead despite their strong opposition. He said nobody had convinced him there was a significant moral difference between embryos being destroyed during research, and their being allowed to die naturally. [747 words, ENI-02-0107]

8 April 2002

New Delhi (ENI). Christian activists say they are sceptical about promises by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to restore peace to the troubled western state of Gujarat. The prime minister's announcement followed a visit last week to the state which has been plagued by sporadic violence since communal riots five weeks ago left more than 700 people dead, most of them Muslims. Prime Minister Vajpayee said he was "ashamed" about the events in Gujarat and about the fact that many people "had become refugees in their own country", in an address to Muslim victims of the riots at the Shah Alam refugee camp in Ahmedabad. [575 words, ENI-02-0106]

5 April 2002

Amsterdam (ENI). The Dutch government and military could have prevented the 1995 massacre at the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, according to a hard-hitting report published by a Dutch ecumenical body. About 7000 Muslim men and boys are believed to have been executed after Bosnian Serb forces overran the Srebrenica enclave on 11 July 1995, leading to what has been described as the worst single atrocity in Europe since the Second World War. The report published last week by the Interchurch Peace Council (IKV), a Dutch non-governmental organisation based in The Hague, calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the massacre. [672 words, ENI-02-0105]

The next pope should come from Africa, senior Vatican official says

Rome (ENI). One of the Vatican's most influential figures has reopened the debate about the succession to Pope John Paul II by saying he hopes the next pope will come from Africa. The remarks by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in an interview this week with the German newspaper Die Welt come at a time of increasing speculation that the Pope may be forced to step down because of ill health. Ratzinger said the election of an African pope "would be a positive sign for the whole of Christendom". [603 words, ENI-02-0104]

4 April 2002

Warsaw (ENI). Pope John Paul II has accepted the resignation of a Polish Roman Catholic archbishop after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against the archbishop in a leading Polish newspaper. The archbishop, who has maintained his innocence throughout the affair, announced that he had asked the pope to "release" him from his duties to bring "unity and peace" to his diocese. The pope accepted his request on 28 March, according to reports. [429 words, ENI-02-0102]

Zimbabwean Anglican bishop banned in US

Harare (ENI). The Anglican bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, has been named in a list of Zimbabweans banned from the United States. The list, which includes high-level military and government officials, was leaked to the news media earlier this week. In addition to the entry prohibition, those listed will find their assets in the US frozen. Immediate family members are also affected by the ban. [555 words, ENI-02-0103]

3 April 2002

Jerusalem (ENI). About 100 Palestinian militants and police as well as civilians have taken refuge inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the place where tradition holds that Jesus was born. The Palestinians are hiding from Israeli troops, who have launched an offensive against Bethlehem and other towns in the West Bank. [743 words, ENI-02-0100]

US must act to promote Middle East cease-fire, say religious leaders

New York/Geneva (ENI). Religious leaders in the United States have called on US President George Bush to send Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East to try to negotiate a cease-fire in the region. The appeal, made at a press conference in New York on 2 April, came as the heads of all Christian churches in Jerusalem also called for action from Bush, saying that the US president was "the only one who can stop this tragedy immediately". [1069 words, ENI-02-0101]

2 April 2002

Oxford (ENI). Senior leaders of Europe's Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths have set up an inter-religious council to work for peace and promote collaboration among religious communities. The European Religious Leaders Council intends to co-operate with political decision-makers on a continent that is becoming increasingly multi-religious and multicultural. "We aim to build a harmonious, cohesive Europe and to ensure that all faiths exert an appropriate influence," said Jehangir Sarosh, a British-based member of the council's executive committee, calling the council "the first advisory body of its kind". [530 words, ENI-02-0099]

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