From Catholic News Service

Church works to improve relations with Muslims

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) -- The president of a Catholic university in Budapest, Hungary, told a seminar on "Confronting Islamophobia" that his institution and the Catholic Church as a whole had taken steps to improve relations with Islam, but had not found a comparable response from the Islamic side. In relation to theology, Father Gyorgy Fodor of Peter Pazmany Catholic University said Catholics acknowledged that Paradise would be open to Muslims who followed the principles of their faith, but that standard Muslim books called Christians polytheists who would go to hell. He recalled that on a visit to Damascus, Syria, Pope John Paul II apologized for crimes committed by Christians against Muslims in past centuries, but the priest said "a similar gesture from the other side" never came. Following up on an earlier seminar on anti-Semitism, a day of discussion focusing on the relatively new term Islamophobia was held Dec. 7 at U.N. headquarters in New York under the sponsorship of the world body's Department of Public Information.

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Pope says diverse cultures should be able to thrive

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians must help create an open and harmonious world where diverse cultures can thrive side by side, said Pope John Paul II. The faithful must "foster, with active commitment, prospects of hope that will herald the dawn of a more open and supportive society," the pope said in his annual message for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees. The text for the 2005 message was released during a Dec. 9 press conference at the Vatican. The annual event is held on different days in different countries. In the United States, National Migration Week will be celebrated Jan. 2-8. While the Christian community must still "listen for the cry of help that comes from a multitude of migrants and refugees," the faithful must reach out with sincere respect and curiosity in learning about the culture and beliefs of others, said the pope.

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Chileans consider  torture commission proposals

SANTIAGO, Chile (CNS) -- The Chilean Congress will consider recommendations from a national commission on torture, including a proposal to grant torture victims preferential treatment in educational, health and housing services. The proposal, already accepted by the Chilean administration, would create a national institute for human rights and provide torture victims with a small monthly pension that would cost the state about $70 million a year. The proposal will be introduced in Congress Dec. 14 and is expected to become law by Jan. 31. The recommendations were contained in a government-commissioned report outlining the methods, places and victims of torture during the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The National Commission on Political Prisoners and Torture, which issued the report, was headed by Bishop Sergio Valech Aldunate, the 77-year-old retired auxiliary of Santiago who has extensive human rights experience. The report is an unprecedented effort to register the scope of torture in Chile and offer public moral acknowledgment to torture victims, estimated to total nearly 100,000.

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Philippine Priest killed while rescuing others

QUEZON CITY, Philippines (CNS) -- When villagers found the bloated body of Father Charlito Colendres Nov. 30, a rope he used to steady himself as he rescued villagers from rising floodwater was still tied around his waist. Father Colendres, 48, chancellor of the Infanta Territorial Prelature, was one of hundreds of victims of a typhoon and a tropical storm that blew through the Philippines' northeast provinces, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. At least 740 people have been reported dead; more than 750 remain missing, The Associated Press reported in early December. More than 200,000 people have been displaced by the storms. Father Colendres died in the village of Pilaway, where he went Nov. 29 to rescue people in danger from the storms.

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Surrenders indicate Ugandan war's end may be near

KAMPALA, Uganda (CNS) -- More than 1,000 Ugandan rebels have laid down their arms and sought reintegration into Ugandan society in 2004, a tangible sign that the end of the country's 18-year war is near, church leaders said. "It is something totally unexpected, especially (since) the first months of this year witnessed one of the worst massacres this conflict has ever witnessed," said Comboni Father Carlos Rodriguez Soto, secretary of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative. "Almost every week or two weeks we have had a lot of attacks on displaced camps, but all of a sudden rebels began surrendering," Father Rodriguez said. Rebels started surrendering in January, he added. "What started as a trickle soon became a flow and a trend," he said. Many rebels have been resettled after being issued amnesty certificates from the government; others have been integrated into the Ugandan army. Uganda passed an amnesty law in 2000, pardoning all rebels who surrender. However, many rebels in the bush feared the amnesty program was government propaganda; rumors spread among rebel camps that they would be executed or poisoned if they returned home. Some rebels feared retribution from residents of the villages they once pillaged. Radio programs across Uganda have urged rebels to turn in their weapons and rejoin society. Among the stations was the "Karibu" or "Welcome" program on the rebuilt Catholic-run Radio Wa, a station rebels burned in 2002. As part of the program, reintegrated rebels broadcast messages to their former colleagues, urging them to leave the guerrillas and return to their families.

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