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• Groups offer info on sexual assault | Bryan Loewen of the Red Lodge Ministerial Association knows anyone can be a victim of sexual assault. "As I'm studying all this and learning it through our Coordinated Community Response Team, I know there's a pretty good chance some ladies in our church have been abused," he said. "Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but that's statistically speaking." (Billings Gazette, Montana)
  
  

Catholicism:

• Appeals judge describes changing church | Many people view the Catholic Church as dominated by unchanging tradition, but it is an institution willing to change, Judge John T. Noonan Jr. said. (Yale Daily News)
  
  
• Incarnate Word decides to drop 'Crusaders' | The University of the Incarnate Word will begin the next school year with a new mascot for its athletic teams after administrators decided Crusaders is offensive to Muslims and inappropriate for a Catholic institution with a multicultural mission. (San Antonio Express)
  
  
• Fear of Muslim anger put off Pope synagogue trip: officials | Fears of repercussions in the Muslim world or attacks against Christians played a major role in Pope John Paul's decision to decline an invitation to visit Rome's Synagogue again , Catholic sources said on Thursday. (Hi Pakistan)
  
  
• Mexico invites Pope to October meeting | The government has formally invited Pope John Paul II to make a sixth visit to Mexico to attend the World Eucharistic Congress in October. (Associated Press)
  
  
• Chaldean Church mediating in release of Iraq hostages | Baghdad Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni says the Chaldean Church is trying to mediate in the release of the three Italian hostages who remain after the last week's killing of fellow hostage Fabrizio Quattrocchi. (Catholic News, Australia)
  
  

The Passion :

• Friars petition Gibson to make St Francis Film | Franciscan friars in New York loved Mel Gibson's hit movie "The Passion of The Christ," so much they are petitioning him to follow-up with a film biography of the order's founder, Saint Francis of Assisi. (Reuters)
  
  
• Franciscan friars petition Gibson | Franciscan friars have asked Passion of the Christ director Mel Gibson to make a movie biography of the founder of their order, St Francis of Assisi. (BBC)
  
  
• Israeli theater to show 'Passion' | An Israeli movie theater has decided to screen Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," a decision likely to raise an uproar in the Jewish state over accusations the movie is anti-Semitic. (Associated Press)
  
  

Religion & politics:

• The Liberals make religion 'divisive' | I do find it curious, though, that someone who wishes to forbid abortions is deemed to be "imposing his beliefs" on the rest of us, but that someone who taxes us to pay for somebody else's abortions is never accused of it. (National Post, Canada)
  
  
• Accusations fly over e-mails of 'Pastor Randy' | E-mails from "Pastor Randy" have been the subject of stories in several N.C. newspapers as well as Washington's The Hill. Most of the e-mails have been strongly critical of Tabor, who has appealed to Christian conservatives. (Charlotte Observer)
  
  
• 'Withdrawal will cause anti-Semitism' | An Israeli withdrawal from the territories could lead to an anti-Semitic backlash among evangelical Christians who are today among Israel's strongest US supporters, said Herbert Zweibon, an American Jewish activist with close ties to the evangelical community. (Jerusalem Post)
  
  
• Church to take on the BNP | Religious groups across Wakefield are joining forces to encourage voters not to vote for the British National Party in June's local elections. (Wakefield Today, UK)
  
  

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April (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48