NATION - NATO conflcit with Yugoslavia

by Matt Kantz

Refugee agency seeks sponsors for Albanians

Two days after the administration announced that 20,000 Kosovar refugees would be admitted to the U.S. mainland, resettlement agencies were actively seeking people who would offer them shelter -- and quickly.

Mark Franken, executive director of Migration and Refugee Services for the U.S. Catholic Conference, said April 23 that many diocesan refugee agencies would immediately start seeking U.S. relatives of Kosovar Albanians who have fled their home country.

"They'll be going to mosques and into Albanian communities around the country, reaching out to prospective sponsors or relatives," Franken said.

He expected that by the first couple days of May, the procedures for moving refugees from host countries to the United States would be in place. A team representing the conference's Migration and Refugee Services, the State Department, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the International Organization for Migration was preparing to travel to the region within a couple of days, Franken said.

"After that, they should begin coming here in 21 days, at the outside," he said. The United States planned to move about 400 people a day from Macedonia and other countries that have been housing refugees temporarily, in borrowed rooms, tents and sometimes in open fields.

Cleveland Orthodox parish revolts against archbishop

A major Greek Orthodox parish in Cleveland has voted to withhold its monthly contribution to the national church because it is upset with the leadership of Archbishop Spyridon, head of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese of America.

At a special assembly April 25, members of Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral voted 157 to 17, with two abstentions, to withhold its $4,000 monthly contribution to the archdiocese's Stewardship Fund beginning with its May payment. The money will be placed in escrow.

The congregation of about 320 member families is the largest contributor to the fund of the 50 parishes in the denomination's Pittsburgh diocese, said parish council president Richard Warren. The diocese covers all of Pennsylvania except the Philadelphia region, much of Ohio and West Virginia.

The Cleveland parish joins a handful of others around the nation that have moved to withhold all or part of their Stewardship contributions because of opposition to Spyridon's policies, which they characterize as antidemocratic, heavy-handed and financially irresponsible. Others are in Houston; Oakland, Calif.; Rutland, Vt., and Lewiston, Maine.

California Assembly passes assisted suicide bill

Despite the opposition of California's Catholic bishops and the state's Catholic hospitals, a California Assembly committee for the first time April 21 narrowly approved legislation that would legalize physician-assisted suicide in California.

Assemblywoman Dion Aroner's measure, which passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee by one vote, is patterned after the 1997 Oregon law, which allows physicians to prescribe life-ending drags to terminally ill patients.

Under the proposal, a patient 18 or older could be prescribed a fatal, $35 combination of barbiturates if the patient has a terminal disease that two doctors "reasonably determine" will cause death within six months; if the patient makes at least two oral and two written requests for the prescription, passes a mental competency exam if requested by the physician and can self-administer the medication.

Aroner, a Democrat from Berkeley and other proponents of the bill, AB 1592, claim it is fortified with safeguards to ensure that only the patient can request and decide on taking the life-ending medication.

In an April 19 letter of opposition to the Assembly Judiciary Committee, Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, the bishops' public policy arm, contended that Aroner's measure is bad public policy.

Threatened suicide, no matter the age or physical condition of the individual, is "a cry for help which must be heeded, not silenced," he said. "Medication for depression; counseling, adequate comfort care and a compassionate presence will usually meet the needs of the terminally ill person."

Tucson bishop stresses no tolerance of abuse

In a letter to clergy, religious and laity of his diocese, Tucson, Ariz., Bishop Manuel D. Moreno has expressed "great concern and sadness" about allegations that priests who served in a Tucson parish in the 1970s sexually abused children.

The bishop's letter, dated April 14, was in response to news media reports that a civil lawsuit filed in Pima County Superior Court April 12 names as defendants three priests, the diocese and Our Mother of Sorrows Parish and school, among others.

Plaintiffs in the suit were a Tucson couple who claim they have suffered severe emotional harm, distress and "loss of consortium" in their relationship with their son because of the alleged abuse. They allege abuse by Fr. William T. Byrne, former pastor of Our Mother of Sorrows who died in 1991, and by Msgr. Robert C. Trupia, who was in residence at the parish. Trupia and a third priest, whom the couple allege knew about the abuse, no longer minister in the diocese. No court date has been set for the case.

In his letter, Moreno called child abuse a "moral wrong" and stressed that it "will not be tolerated within our structure."

Ex-altar boy ordered to stay away from Mahony

An ex-altar boy allegedly abused by a priest has been ordered to stay at least 100 yards from Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony for the next three years.

Court officials said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard E. Denner issued the restraining order against Michael Patrick Falls, 35, of Azusa, Calif., April 19.

"The police advised the archdiocese to do this," said Fr. Gregory Coiro, Mahony's spokesman.

Court records say Falls told a staffer at a local hospital in March that he had psychiatric problems and wanted to assassinate the cardinal. During Easter week, a temporary restraining order was issued against Falls, who did not contest this week's permanent order.

Falls and eight other ex-altar boys unsuccessfully sued the archdiocese and Fr. Ted Llanos, alleging the priest molested at least 26 boys beginning in 1973. Llanos was removed from ministry by the archdiocese, which paid for victims' therapy but stopped when they filed a lawsuit. Mahony met with victims after the allegations surfaced in 1994. Llanos committed suicide in 1997.

In February, California's state Supreme Court rejected a consolidated civil lawsuit against the archdiocese saying the statute of limitations had expired. Previous municipal, superior and appellate cases against Llanos were dismissed for the same reason.

Presbyterian leaders reject plan to honor lesbian cleric

Leaders of the National Ministries Division of the Presbyterian church (U.S.A.) have overturned the selection of the Rev. Jane Spahr, an openly lesbian cleric, as one of three recipients of the prestigious Women of Faith awards for 1999.

Spahr has at times been a focus of controversy in the denomination for her outspoken and visible advocacy on behalf of the rights of gays and lesbians in the church. Presently she is employed by Downtown Presbyterian Church in Rochester, N.Y., where she works as a "lesbian evangelist" for "That All May Freely Serve," a ministry that reaches out to gay Christians.

"To recognize her would appear to endorse the position for which she's been advocating," said the Rev. Curtis Kearns Jr., national ministries director.

"The steering committee, after meeting by conference call, discussed its concerns with the selection committee," Kearns said. "When the selection committee decided to let its selections stand, the steering committee voted not to accept Spahr's selection."

Operation Rescue concludes campaign with new name

Operation Rescue, which finished a weeklong antiabortion campaign in Buffalo, N.Y., April 25, announced a change in name and focus.

The campaign was much quieter than a similar effort held seven years ago. Only some 200 to 250 abortion opponents were estimated to have participated in the peaceful protests outside abortion clinics, high schools, doctors' offices, bookstores and hospitals. That total was much smaller than the thousands who attended the 1992 Spring of Life abortion protests.