LITTLE ROCK — D.C. cathedral aid
draws criticism
WASHINGTON - A bid by the mayor of Washington to secure federal aid for the earthquake-damaged Washington National Cathedral is drawing criticism from those who say the state can’t favor any one religion.
Mayor Vincent C. Gray is seeking $15 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for repairs to the Episcopal cathedral, which was damaged in the 5.8 temblor Aug. 23.
Gray said the privately owned edifice is a “national treasure” that draws half a million visitors a year. It has been the site of state funerals and presidential prayer services.
But Americans United for Separation of Church and State spokesman Joseph L. Conn wrote that “asking the taxpayers to pick up the tab sets a very bad precedent and jeopardizes ... the wall of separation between church and state.”
The Episcopal Church, with nearly 2 million members, had income of nearly $2.1 billion and its congregations had investments of nearly $3.8 billion in 2010, according to episcopalchurch.org.
- Los Angeles Times
Vatican seeks global
economy oversight
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Monday called for an overhaul of the world’s financial systems and once again proposed the establishment of a supranational authority to oversee the global economy, saying it was needed to bring more democratic and Christian principles to a marketplace run amok.
In a report issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Vatican argued that existing institutions like the International Monetary Fund have not been responding adequately to global economic problems.
“The time has come to conceive of institutions with universal competence, now that vital goods shared by the entire human family are at stake, goods which the individual states cannot promote and protect by themselves,” Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the president of the pontifical council, said as he presented the report Monday. “That is what pushed us.” - The New York Times
Farrakhan attacks
critics of Gadhafi
CHICAGO - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan told a radio station Tuesday that those rejoicing in the death of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will come to sorrow.
Farrakhan, who considered Gadhafi a friend, said NATO powers helped assassinate Gadhafi to gain access to Libya’s oil.
Calling the United Nations “a pawn of the Western world,” Farrakhan told WVON-AM in Chicago that “No nation will give up their weapons of mass destruction like Gadhafi did, because it is the only protection they have against the wicked witches of the West.”
Farrakhan said he became acquainted with Gadhafi in the 1970s and 1980s, and noted that Gadhafi lent his organization $5 million over the years. Farrakhan said Gadhafi had also lent Elijah Muhammad, his predecessor as head of the Nation of Islam, $3 million to convert a Greek Orthodox church in Chicago into the Mosque Maryam.
- The Associated Press
Religion, Pages 14 on 10/29/2011