wfn.org | ALC Noticias Aug 21 2005 Nicaragua Cuba Brazil Peru France

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ALC NEWS SERVICE
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org

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CONTENT

CUBA: No authority will impede the Pastors for Peace from traveling to Cuba
said Walker
PERU: Peace and Hope: former pastor accused of abusing girls deserves
exemplary sanction
FRANCE: Taize Founder Brother Roger murdered
BRAZIL: Study reveals that 24 percent of Brazilians have changed religion
NICARAGUA: Christian Alternative Party: We will not use religion for
political purposes

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CUBA
No authority will impede the Pastors for Peace from traveling to Cuba said
Walker

By Enrique López Oliva

Havana, August 19 (ALC).   Lucius Walker, executive director of the
Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organization and the Pastors for
Peace Movement said that no US government measure would stop them from
continuing to travel to Cuba to show their solidarity with the Cuban people.

Walter arrived in this capital accompanied by 15 young Americans who will
begin studies at the Latin American School of Medicine and will attend the
graduation of the first US student as a doctor of Medicine from this school.

The Baptist pastor announced that his organization has begun a campaign in
the United States to lobby for the return of a shipment of computers,
confiscated by US authorities last July 22 on the border with Mexico. The
computers were for handicapped Cuban children.

He said that under the slogan "Release the computers," the Pastors for
Peace caravan will head for Washington shortly. He said that "in the United
States there is a growing awareness of the cruelty, the injustice and the
stupidity of the US blockade against Cuba."

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PERU
Peace and Hope: former pastor accused of abusing girls deserves exemplary
sanction

Lima, August 18 (ALC). An Evangelical pastor accused of pedophilia was
harshly condemned by the Christian human rights defense organization Peace
and Hope, which said it would lobby for an exemplary sanction for the man
who ran a shelter for children at risk.

Ruth Céspedes, director of the Lima Peace and Hope office told ALC that
despite the fact that Peru is marked by a "culture of non-reporting" when
it comes to abuse cases and that pastors prefer to avoid this type of
denouncements because it affects the image of the Church, the organization
filed an accusation against former Pastor Luiz Guizada Diaz. His arrest and
imprisonment was ordered Monday.

"It hurts us to denounce a member of the Evangelical community but we
cannot overlook this type of act, in particular because it was perpetrated
by a person who ran an institution to protect children at risk," she said.

The former Evangelical pastor was detained in the Education and Spiritual
and Psychological Development House (CEDES) that shelters more than 20
girls age 3-14, accused of raping a 14-year-old called Diana.

Guizada was coordinator of the Eirene Pastoral Family Center and one of the
leaders of the Evangelical Peruvian Church in the city of Cuzco. When he
moved to Lima to avoid a disciplinary sanction from the church, he joined
the Evangelistic Missionary Movement. In Lima he created the Family
Counseling School (ESCONFA) and the CEDES house in the district of San Juan
de Lurigancho. He received financial support from the Assemblies of God
Mission of Australia.

Guizada also faces another charge of sexual harassment against a girl who
lived in CEDES, formulated by Bredegt Perez, an Australian missionary who
came to work as a volunteer in the institution last April. The Ministry of
Women and Social Development has assumed the defense of the minor.

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FRANCE
Taize Founder Brother Roger murdered

By Onell A. Soto

Taizé, August 17 (ALC). Brother Roger, founder of the Taize community was
stabbed to death at an evening prayer service attended by some 2,500 people
Sunday.

A 36-year-old Rumanian woman has been detained for stabbing the 90-year-old
brother to death. To date, the reasons for the murder are not known. The
police have said that the accused does not appear to be mentally disturbed.

The population of Taize, close to Cluny, is located 240 miles southeast of
Paris. President Jacques Chirac said that the community is an example of
"respect and tolerance" and that Brother Roger was one of the best loved
Christians in the world and will be remembered with love and gratitude.

Brother Roger founded the international ecumenical Taize community in 1940
as a safe haven for war refugees and it has been a center of peace and
reconciliation ever since.  It currently has 100 brothers from 25 different
countries who are both Roman Catholic and Protestant.

The community developed a type of liturgy based on meditation, prayer and
silence that is used around the world. Its songs, that generally used words
taken from the psalms or the Gospel, have been a source of inspiration for
millions of Christians.

Following the Benedictine tradition, the brothers work to maintain the
simple installations and to prepare food for thousands of pilgrims who
arrive here every year.

An interest in young people led Brother Roger to organize huge meetings of
young people each year between December 28 and January 1 in the main
European cities since 1978.

Brother Roger, whose name was Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche, began his
ministry as a Protestant pastor in Switzerland and won the respect and
admiration of Christians around the world.

Pope John Paul II met Brother Roger in 1962 and visited the community in 1986.

Pope Benedicto XVI said he was deeply saddened by the news. The Archbishop
of Canterbury Rowan Williams said it was an "indescribable shock" and a
tragedy that a many who fought so hard for peace would die this way.

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BRAZIL
Study reveals that 24 percent of Brazilians have changed religion

Sao Paulo, August 16 (ALC). An unpublished investigation carried out by the
Center for Religious Statistics and Social Investigations (CERIS) revealed
that 24 percent of Brazilians have changed religion at some point in their
lives while 69.3 percent have remained faithful to their religion. Of those
surveyed, 8.2 percent did not provide any information

The survey about Religious Mobility in Brazil was presented by CERIS during
the 43rd General Assembly of the National Bishops' Conference (CNBB) that
met in Itaici, Sao Paulo from August 9 - 17. CERIS surveyed 2,870 people
over the age of 17 in 50 Brazilian municipalities in 23 capitals.

According to the research, religious mobility is strongest among people
aged 46-55 (27percent) and 36-45 (26.3 percent) and the percentage of men
who change religion (23.9 percent) is slightly higher than women (23.1
percent).

One surprising conclusion is the academic level of the so-called "religious
migrants." Those who have complete secondary school tend to switch to other
religions (37.4 percent) although the phenomenon is also observed, to a
lesser degree, among less educated people and those who have different
academic levels.

Divorced people (52.2 percent), or those who legally separated (35.5
percent), present enormous religious mobility. According to the study, this
could indicate that some of these religions offer a welcoming haven for
people who are in the midst of a sentimental crisis.

The study also separated those who change religions by group of origin.
Those with the greatest mobility (89.3 percent) are those who belong to
religions with a minority presence in Brazil, the so-called "other
religions" category. These are followed by Evangelical Pentecostals (84.6
percent).

The CERIS study emphasizes the circulation of Pentecostal Evangelicals who
tend to move among Pentecostal and historic Evangelical Churches, something
the CERIS study called intra-Evangelical mobility.

Another interesting element in the study is that 26.9 percent of those who
previously belonged to a branch of historic Protestantism are now Catholics
and 18.7 percent who were in a Pentecostal Church migrated to Catholicism.
However, it is the faithful who form part of the "other religions" who have
the highest tendency to turn to the Roman Catholic Church (47.4 percent).

The CERIS study, which will be published at the end of 2005 also addressed
the reason why people tend to choose one religion or another. The two main
reasons were related to wellbeing and a personal relationship with God.

What was evident is that people are increasingly using religion to address
subjective needs. The search for help in difficult moments in life was
mentioned by 18.7 percent of Catholics and 30.5 percent of those who belong
to "other religions." An approach to God was indicated by 20.2 percent of
Catholics and 26 percent of Pentecostal Evangelicals.

Another important reason is the search for a religion as an ethical space,
something indicated by 38.1 percent of Catholics and 15.2 percent of
historic Evangelicals. The two groups stand out for indicating that the
reason for their current choice is the search for a "serious" religion.

The main reason, however, is related to doctrinal discrepancies. Of those
who abandoned Catholicism, 35 percent did so for this reason, which was
also valid for 13.9 percent of those who abandoned Pentecostal Churches and
33.3 percent of other religions.

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NICARAGUA
Christian Alternative Party: We will not use religion for political purposes

Managua, August 15 (ALC). "We will not make the mistake of using religion
for political ends," said the president of the Christian Alternative Party
(AC) Orlando Tardecilla who Sunday announced that the former mayor of
Managua Herty Lewites would be the party's presidential candidate for 2006
elections.

Tardellia, an independent legislator and Evangelical lay person pulled back
from other local Evangelical political groups that are vying for power.
Christian Alternative, he said, is not a confessional political
organization that seeks power but rather is a group of Catholics and
Evangelicals who seek to change the country inspired by Christian principles.

Lewites was acclaimed by close to 2000 participants in a party convention
held this weekend. His designation challenges fears that he could
eventually be barred from running due to the sale of some land when he was
mayor.

Tardencilla ruled out any resolution on the part of the Comptroller General
against Lewites. According to the Nuevo Diaro de Manaugua "the comptrollers
would not dare as they would bring to light the excessive ambition of the
Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) and the National Liberation
Sandinista Front (FSLN)."

After his nomination, Lewites, a politician expelled from the FSLN last
February, told the press that magistrates from the Supreme Electoral Court
would not "dare" to impede his candidacy as a decision of this nature would
strip the electoral process of credibility and would earn the repudiation
of Nicaraguans and criticism on the part of international bodies.

"My inhibition would be the greatest absurdity because there would no
longer be elections next year," said the candidate who added that
international bodies who are monitoring the elections have demanded
transparency "from now until the end." To the contrary, he said, things
would be very difficult for the two parties (PLC and FSLN) that want a
monopoly in Nicaragua."
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