Soldier who said no: Resistance an act of penitence
A soldier who fled to Canada rather than return to Iraq surrendered October 4 to
military officials. Specialist Darrell Anderson, 24, said he deserted the Army
last year rather than fight in what he believes is an illegal war. “I feel that by resisting I made up for the sins I committed in Iraq,” Anderson said during a
press briefing shortly before he turned himself in at nearby Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Anderson risked facing a charge of desertion, but it is anticipated that he will
be given a discharge other than honorable. At that point, he should be free
from his military commitment and face no other charges, according to one
source.
Anderson joined the Army in January 2003 and went to Iraq a year later with
the 1st Armored Division. He was wounded and received a Purple Heart in
A large majority of Iraqis want US-led military forces to immediately withdraw
from the country, saying their departure would make Iraq more secure and de-
crease sectarian violence, according to polls commissioned by the State Depart-
ment and independent researchers. The results were released by The Washington
Post.
In Baghdad, nearly three-quarters of residents polled said they would feel
safer if US and other foreign forces left Iraq, with 65 percent of those asked
favoring an immediate pullout.
Another poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the Univer-
sity of Maryland, found that 71 percent of Iraqis questioned want the
Iraqi government to ask foreign forces to depart within a
year. By large margins, though, Iraqis believed that
the US government would refuse the request, with 77
percent of those polled saying the United States intends to
keep permanent military bases in the country.
“Majorities in all regions except Kurdish areas state that
the Multi-National Force-Iraq should withdraw immediately, adding
that the [military] departure would make them feel safer and decrease
violence,” concludes the 20-page State Department report.
The report was based on 1,870 face-to-face interviews.
“I really don’t like the Americans who patrol on the street. They should all
go away,” said a young boy as he swept up hair in a barber shop. “But I do like
the one who guards my church. He
should stay!”
Lebanese Christians took in Muslims
The word went out that there was refuge in a Christian village and thousands
came. In a pilgrimage of fear, Shiite Muslims from the most ravaged towns
along the Lebanese border fled for Rmeish, a hilltop hamlet along a road
where Israeli shells were steadily falling, at times every 15 seconds. Once in
Rmeish, they escaped to a church, and at the church, a basement lit by soft shafts
of sunlight.
In it were the wretched of this war: children with dirty feet and a pregnant
woman who feared giving birth in squalor, an 85-year-old man whose donkey,
his sole possession, was killed by a bomb, and hundreds of others among the
at least 10,000 who arrived in Rmeish, some drinking from a fetid pool and
walking the streets in search of food and goodwill.
“The safety of God,” said Heidar Issa, one of those here. “That’s what we
were counting on.”
In a country fractured by faith, torn asunder by 15 years of civil war, they
found refuge among the Lebanese Christians they once fought.
Their politics often diverged, but they shared a plight. And in a common misery
wrought by war, less than a mile from the Israeli border, there was fleeting
coexistence rather than talk of strife. “Everyone is opening their doors to
anyone who comes,” said Tannous Alem, a 43-year-old Christian resident of
Rmeish, who had brought 120 people into his home over 12 days. “We’re all
the same in times like these.” “They welcomed us with 100 hellos,”
said Issa, who arrived 10 days ago with 26 people in his truck. “Bless them.” His
friend, Hussein Rahmi, nodded. “It’s safer with the Christians,” he said.
Metropolitan Philip decries Israel’s methods in Lebanon
On July 31, Metropolitan Philip, head of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of
North America, issued a statement opposing Israel’s offensive in Lebanon.
“Indiscriminate killing is against the Geneva Convention, the UN Charter and
all laws of civilized nations,” he said. “This savage war is between Israel and
Hezbollah. Lebanon has no air force, no navy and no large military force. As a
matter of fact, the Lebanese army is not involved in this war at all….
“Why is Israel bombing Lebanese cities, villages, bridges, roads and killing
innocent men, women and children – in the south and north, east and west of
Lebanon? According to UN statistics, more than 800 civilians have been killed,
many of them children, and more then 800,000 Lebanese have been made refu-
gees in their own country. Israel knows “We deplore the kill- ing and destruction on
both sides. We know that Hezbollah has weapons which are causing some
unfortunate killing and destruction in Israel. But Hezbollah does not have
American weapons such as F-16s, F-15s, Apaches and smart bombs, etc.
“When I saw the Leb- anese Red Cross retrieving the tender dead bodies of little chil-
dren from underneath the rubble and I looked at their innocent faces and iconic
eyes, I wept. I was indeed ashamed to see the extent of the cruelty and barba-
rism of our world. This morning, when the Lebanese Broadcasting Company
showed pictures of the city of B’int-Jbeil which was completely leveled by the
Israeli air force, I was reminded of the destruction of Stalingrad and Berlin
during the Second World War. We and the whole world, with the exception of
the United States, Great Britain, and Israel, are calling for an immediate cease
fire. If we allow the law of the jungle to prevail, and if we allow our moral princi-
ples to be trodden on by barbarian feet, what will be left of our civilization?”
Russian Orthodox relations with Rome improving
The Russian Orthodox Church leader in charge of inter-denominational contacts
has said relations with the Roman Catholic Church have steadily improved since
the ascent of Pope Benedict XVI.
“After the election of Pope Benedict XVI our dialogue became more inten-
sive,” Metropolitan Kirill, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of
External Church Relations, said in August. “And that’s why I have a much
more positive attitude to the level of
Orthodox tensions come to fore at meeting with Catholics
An international gathering of Orthodox and Roman Catholic leaders held in
Belgrade offered signs of stabilizing Orthodox-Catholic relations than previ-
ously,” Kirill said. Kirill met Pope Benedict at the Vati-
can in May and spoke warmly of the pontiff in July at the World Summit of
Religious Leaders in Moscow. Pope Benedict did not attend that event, but
Cardinal Walter Kasper led a large Vati-
can delegation.
Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, spoke repeatedly of his dream to visit
Russia, but met resistance from the Moscow Patriarchate, which accused the
Vatican of seeking converts and infringing on its jurisdiction by creating Roman
Catholic dioceses in Russia.
Kirill said the two churches had much in common in counteracting “the policy
of pushing religion out of public life.” But he appeared restrained about pros-
pects for a speedy meeting between the church’s leaders, despite the improved
relations. “We will develop them and see what this realistically will bring to our
churches, and then we’ll decide when, where and how the primates of our chur-
ches should meet.”
Orthodox tensions come to fore at meeting with Catholics
An international gathering of Orthodox and Roman Catholic leaders held in
Belgrade offered signs of stabilizing relations between the two traditions but
also showcased intra-Orthodox tension between Moscow and Constantinople,
participants at the gathering report.
The Orthodox and Catholic leaders gathered in Serbia from 18 to 25 Septem-
ber to restart a dialogue that broke off in 2000 because of post-communist ten-
sions in Eastern Europe over “uniatism,” or the role of Greek-Catholic churches
that are in communion with Rome.
While no major breakthroughs were reported, the 30 leaders from each side
discussed a document on the nature of the Church dating back to 1990, which
was “carefully examined in a shared spirit of genuine commitment to the
search for unity,” a joint statement on the web site of the Serbian Orthodox Church
noted. A committee was set up to bring a revised text back to another meeting in
2007.
The joint commission was established in 1979 when Pope John Paul II visited
Istanbul, once the Byzantine Christian capital of Constantinople, and which is
the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Bartholomeos.
But after the collapse of communism, meetings of the commission were mark-
ed by tensions between Orthodox and Catholics in Eastern Europe and the
former USSR.
Those conflicts are said to have eased markedly under Pope Benedict XVI, and
the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate, which oversees the world’s largest
Orthodox population, now emphasize common goals. Still, the meeting was marked by
tension between the Orthodox patriarchates of Moscow and Constantinople,
which are in an increasing tug-of-war for dominance in the post-Soviet Orthodox
world.
Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria lodged an official
complaint to Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican’s top official for church unity
who is the commission’s Catholic co-president, the Interfax news agency re-
ported.
Hilarion objected to the document’s definition of the status of Rome and the
of Constantinople. He also rejected an amended text that had been suggested to
try and take account of his objections. But when Cardinal Kasper proposed
that an amended text be put to the vote, most Orthodox churches sided against
Moscow and voted for the amendment.
[Sonia Kishkovsky/ENI]
ROCOR clergyman backs communion with Moscow.
The signing of the Act of Canonical Communion will ensure the future of the
self-governing Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and place it on “a solid
canonical foundation,” according to Fr. Rev. Alexander Lebedev, secretary of the
ROCOR Commission on the talks with the Moscow Patriarchate.
In an article published in November on the ROCOR website, he noted that the
earlier grounds for the ROCOR inde- pendent existence can no longer be justi-
fied, now that the Church in Russia is free.
Rejection of the Act, he said, “would mean the total break of the Russian Or-
thodox Church Outside of Russia with all the Local Orthodox Churches, which will
then have every reason to deem us schismatics.”
If this occurs, he continued, “the Serbian Orthodox Church, our last link
with the fullness of canonical Orthodoxy, will doubtless refuse communion with
us,” while the Church of Jerusalem may withdraw the blessing for our bishops
and priests to serve in the Holy Land.
Rejecting the Act would make us, in the eyes of the Russian Orthodox
Church, schismatics, “and will exclude the possibility of participating in
the church life of our homeland.”
If the act is not signed, he said, “not only the Moscow Patriarchate, but the
entire Orthodox world would thereby be convinced that we cannot be dealt with
seriously, that we ourselves prefer to be essentially sectarians, torn from the full-
ness of universal Orthodoxy, and do not wish to be united with our much-suffer-
ing Church in the Fatherland and with canonical Orthodoxy.”
“Adoption of the Act will serve to end the sorrowful division of the Russian
Orthodox people.
“The participation of our clergymen and faithful in the work of the spiritual
rebirth of the Russian people will rise to an entirely new level.”
One in eight Americans living in poverty
In the world’s biggest economy, one in eight Americans and almost one in four
blacks lived in poverty in 2005, the US Census Bureau said in August, a figure
virtually unchanged from 2004. The survey also showed 15.9 percent of the
population, or 46.6 million, had no health insurance, up from 15.6 percent in 2004
and the fifth increase in a row.
It was the first year since President Bush took office that the poverty rate did
not increase. As in past years, the figures showed poverty especially concentrated
among blacks and Hispanics. an entirely new level. In all, some 37 million Americans lived below the poverty line, defined as having an annual income below around $10,000 for an individual or $20,000 for a family of four.
Patriarch Bartholomew welcomes Pope’s visit to Turkey
Pope Benedict XVI’s November trip to Turkey will help calm recent tensions
with Islam and advance his church’s struggle for religious rights, predicts
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul in October, Bartholomew said the visit also
would underline the pope’s commitment to ecumenical dialogue at a time when
Catholic-Orthodox theological talks are resuming. “It’s an opportunity to cultivate dia
logue and to remove misunderstandings. The circumstances at this moment make
this visit more interesting, more necessary and more important than at any
other moment,” he said.
“The pope always underlines the principles of religious freedom and hu-
man rights … which are valid principles for democratic societies. So I think the
pope in his sermon here will speak not only in favor of Catholics but in favor of
all religious minorities,”
Russia: take the afternoon off and make a baby
The governor of a Russian province gave workers an afternoon off and told them
to go home and multiply in the most direct attempt yet by officials seeking to
tackle the country’s growing depopulation crisis.
Politicians have been dreaming up imaginative schemes to help reverse the
trend ever since President Vladimir Putin identified Russia’s demographic crisis,
caused in part by soaring levels of alcoholism, as the country’s biggest threat.
But few have been quite as blunt as Sergey Morozov, the governor of Ulya-
novsk, a depressed region on the Volga.
In exchange for an afternoon of state-sponsored passion, his “give birth to a
patriot” campaign, launched in September, offers parents who give birth next
year on June 12, Russia’s Independence Day, a range of incentives from a fridge
or washing machine to a four-wheel-drive vehicle, depending on how many
children the couple already has. President Putin has promised to give £5,000
to every mother who gives birth to a second child.
Ten-year window to act on climate warming
A leading US climate researcher said in September that the world has a 10-year
window of opportunity to take decisive action on global warming and avert a
weather catastrophe. NASA scientist James Hansen, as dean of American
climate researchers, said governments must adopt an alternative scenario to
keep carbon dioxide emission growth in check and limit the increase in global
temperatures to 1.8 degrees F.
“I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate
change… no longer than a decade, at the most,” Hansen said at the Climate
Change Research Conference in Sacramento, California.
If the world continues with a “business as usual” scenario, he said tempera-
tures will rise by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 7.2 degrees F) and “we will be
producing a different planet.”
On that warmer planet, ice sheets would melt quickly, causing a rise in sea
levels that would put most of Manhattan and many other cities and towns under
water.
Study Sees ‘Global Collapse’ of Fish Species
If fishing around the world continues at its present pace, more and more species
will vanish, marine ecosystems will unravel and there will be “global col-
lapse” of all species currently fished, possibly as soon as midcentury, fisheries
experts and ecologists are predicting.
The scientists, who report their findngs today in the journal Science, say it
is not too late to turn the situation around. As long as marine ecosystems
are still biologically diverse, they can recover quickly once overfishing and
other threats are reduced, the researchers say.
But improvements must come quickly, said Boris Worm of Dalhousie Uni-
versity in Nova Scotia, who led the work. Otherwise, he said, “we are seeing the
bottom of the barrel.”
The researchers drew their conclusion after analyzing dozens of studies, along
with fishing data collected by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organiza-
tion and other sources. They acknowledge that much of what they are report-
ing amounts to correlation, rather than proven cause and effect. And the F.A.O.
data have come under criticism from researchers who doubt the reliability of
some nations’ reporting practices, Dr. Worm said.
Twelve scientists from the United States, Canada, Sweden and Panama
contributed to the work reported in Science today.
“We extracted all data on fish and invertebrate catches from 1950 to 2003
within all 64 large marine ecosystems worldwide,” they wrote. “Collectively,
these areas produced 83 percent of global fisheries yields over the past 50 years.”
