================================================================
Religion News Report - March 19, 2001 (Vol. 5, Issue 337)
================================================================

=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Aum Doomsday Cult Shadows Japan
2. Key Members of the Aum Cult

=== Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
3. Uganda Cult Mass Murder Anniversary
4. Up in smoke or into thin air? Uganda's killer cult leaders a year on

=== Ho-no-hana Sanpogyo
5. Taxman sinks boot into foot cult
6. Bureaus put foot down over Honohana taxes
7. Foot cult leader failed to declare 750 million yen in income

=== Falun Gong
8. Girl Set Ablaze in Tiananmen Dies
9. Exhibition Targeting Falun Gong Begins in Hong Kong
10. Falun Gong puts spotlight on HK civil servants
11. Analysis: US, China still clash on Falun Gong

=== Scientology
12. Threat of Scientologists' Legal Wrath Prompts Slashdot to Censor a Posting
13. Scientologists Force Comment Off Slashdot
14. Slashdot buckles to Scientology loonies
15. Xenu Do, But Not on Slashdot
16. Holy? Or wholly without grounds

=== Buddhism
17. 'Buddha's hair' found in China

=== Islam
18. 400 Afghan clerics decided to destroy statues: Minister
19. Taliban Ways Under Question

=== Catholicism
20. Italy threatens to silence Vatican [Radio]
21. Few confessions

=== Mormonism
22. SLOC and the LDS Church downplay the church's involvement in the Olympics
23. From SLOC Leadership to Liquor, Church Has Long Had a Powerful Olympic Voice
24. Special Treatment for the Church?
25. Non-LDS Religious Leaders Cite Minimal Input
26. Courting Controversy
27. Sex change worshipper sues the Mormons

=== Hate Groups
28. Bertollini sues Coeur d'Alene newspaper
29. Parade foes to put best foot forward
30. Report Links Putin to Anti-Semitism
31. Estee Lauder's latest tangle
32. What's in a Name?

=== False Memory Syndrome
33. Jury awards family millions

=== Faith Healing
34. Senate Panel Backs Faith-Healing Ban When Kids At Risk
35. Mandatory medical aid for sick kids gets committee OK

=== Other News
36. Atheist leader's remains found on Texas ranch
37. China Extends Cult Crackdown to Protestants, Says Rights Group
38. Sect Not Allowed to Build Cult Hall [Universal Church of the Kingdom of God]
39. Man Shot Dead As Bulletproof Magic Fails
40. Moscow police make arrest in multiple murder
41. Poles rethink anti-sect moves after minority church complaints
42. Appeals court says Ohio motto is acceptable

=== Faith-Based & Community Initiatives
43. Conservatives call for ouster of director of faith-based charities


=== Catholicism

20. Italy threatens to silence Vatican
BBC, Mar. 16, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Italy has threatened to cut off electricity supplies to the Vatican's radio station because it says the station's transmitters are causing magnetic pollution.

People living near the radio station have complained of a series of health problems, including cases of leukaemia.

The Vatican has been ordered to reduce the magnetic fields from 18 volts per metre to six per metre in accordance with Italian law - even though the radio station is on land considered to be international territory.

When the 440 hectare (960 acre) opened in 1951, the area was sparsely populated - but now, about 100,000 people live nearby.
(...)

Mr Bordon said electric lights in homes near the site come on by themselves, and if someone opens a refrigerator, or the doorbell rings, they hear a Vatican Radio broadcast.
(...)

The Vatican has argued that the radio station does not have to comply with Italian law because of the 1929 pact with Italy that established Vatican City as an independent city-state. But Mr Bordon said it was legally possible to take action against the station because local people were at risk.

The Vatican has denied any scientifically proven link between electro-magnetic waves and illness.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Few confessions
Indianapolis Star, Mar. 17, 2001
http://starnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
There's no way around it. Catholics are abandoning confession: the simple, seemingly ageless practice of recalling one's sins, asking God's forgiveness and seeking the blessing of a priest.

Consider this: A century ago, the faithful lined up in droves each week waiting to enter telephone booth-like confessionals for weekly confession, keeping priests busy for hours. Today in many parishes the practice has slowed to a trickle.

Only 4 percent of Catholics take the sacrament each week, according to surveys taken during the 1990s by the U.S. Catholic Conference; 17 percent take it every two to three months; 55 percent say they go to confession just once a year; 19 percent say they never go.

Some bishops and priests and even Pope John Paul II say the problem is sin.
People no longer relate to the concept that they sin and therefore need to seek forgiveness. And that's the heart of the sacrament -- people make mistakes that hurt others and themselves and they need to seek forgiveness and try to sin no more.

But others say the practice of confession, which is roughly nine centuries old, is not working in its current form. Catholics have abandoned it for other practices they perceive to be more spiritually fulfilling and have turned away from a theology based on sin for one rooted in God's redemptive love.

Also, since the '60s, Catholics have been allowed to worship in their own language instead of Latin. So prayers of penance said during Mass are more meaningful, according to James O'Toole, a Boston College historian writing a history of American Catholic practices.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]
» Back to menu