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"A couple of senators stood in the way," James Towey, director of the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, told the paper. "The agenda of some of these interest groups blinds them to the needs of the poor. This battle's not over."

The senators wanted to add amendments that would explicitly prohibit federally funded religious organizations from hiring decisions based on religious beliefs.

"The object here was not to kill the bill," said Durbin. "I'm sure we'll pick it up again at the first of the year. That is the only realistic timetable."

The Republican sponsor of the bill, Rick Santorum (Penn.), says he'll "get on it right away" in the new session, but an unnamed administration official said that "resurrecting the legislation still will need strong bipartisan support," even with a Republican majority.

Still, CARE wasn't that significant a bill, especially compared with the House's version. Perhaps next session the Senate might actually consider expanding the range of ministries eligible to compete for government funds.

Saint Mickey
Restoration work on a 700-year-old fresco in a Malta, Austria, church produced an astounding finding: Mickey Mouse. Or at least Mickey Weasel. The image shows the creature—who looks almost exactly like the Walt Disney character—kneeling by St. Christopher, who is often depicted surrounded by animals.

"The similarity to Mickey Mouse is so astounding that Disney could lose its world-wide copyright," the manager of the city's tourism office tells The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Interfaith relations:

• Powell criticizes Falwell, Robertson | "This kind of hatred must be rejected," says Secretary of State (Associated Press)
  
  
• Franklin Graham says terror war not 'against Islam' | "Any comments I have made on this subject were shaped by years of relief and development work in Islamic regimes around the world," says evangelist (Reuters)
  
  
• Religion promoted to unite, not divide | Interfaith summit time to talk, heal (Chicago Tribune)
  
  
• Scouts' honor shouldn't have to be faith based | Because the way I see it, the Scouts have every right to be as narrow-minded and foolish as they want. And boy do they want. (Paul Lukas, Newsday)

War:

• Bishops question grounds for war | Prelates fear scandal drowning out voice. (The Washington Post)
  
  
• Would this be a "just war"? | The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' statement on Iraq. (Salon)
  
  
• Moral jousting over war and peace | In weighing the morality of a possible attack on Iraq, both hawks and doves are saying they have all the support they need in the thought of a 4th-century African bishop. (The Christian Science Monitor)
  
  
• Leader of England's Catholics warns against Iraq war | "The need to avoid war is a cornerstone of Christian teaching," says Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster (BBC)
  
  
• Bishops on Iraq: No one's listening | There are those who might then ask how can bishops who turned the other way when confronted with an unspeakable evil right under their noses, right in their very parishes, be trusted to give advice on a matter dealing with an unspeakably evil tyrant halfway around the world (Editorial, Boston Herald)

Life ethics:

• NIH chief sidesteps stem-cell furor | Bush appointee in S.F. for convention of medical colleges (The San Francisco Chronicle)
  
  
• Embryo transfers for `adoption' give rise to controversy | Advocates for people dealing with infertility say embryo donation should be an option, but they worry that terming the process an adoption confers the same status to a microscopic one-to-eight-cell organism as that of a child already born, and that may lead to restrictions on certain infertility treatments (Knight Ridder Tribune)
  
  

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November (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46