wfn.org | ALC Noticias June 26 2005 Brazil Argentina Colombia Mexico Peru

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

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

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CONTENT

BRAZIL: Bishop Cavalcanti does not accept decision by Anglican Episcopal
Church to remove him
ARGENTINA: Annulment of impunity law does not end battle against genocidal
soldiers
COLOMBIA: Only since the XVII century have masculine references been used
to refer to both men and women
MEXICO: Evangelical leaders to formulate "Christian Project for the Nation"
PERU: Six million new cases of HIV/AIDS in 2004

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BRAZIL
Bishop Cavalcanti does not accept decision by Anglican Episcopal Church to
remove him

By Edelberto Behs

RECIFE, June 20 (alc). "I will go to the end, because I have a commitment
with history," said Bishop Robinson de Barros Cavalcanti of the diocese of
Recife, commenting on a decision made by Primate Bishop of the Anglican
Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB), Orlando Santos de Oliveira, to remove!
his right to exercise the ordained ministry of the Church.

The deposed Anglican Bishop spoke with ALC by telephone on Saturday
afternoon when he traveled to João Pessoa where he ordained five deacons
and confirmed 98 new members of the Espirito Santo Church in Jaboatao.
According to the bisho! p, the Anglican authorities are acting out of envy.

The Superior Church Tribunal of the IEAB unanimously ruled that Cavalcanti
was guilty of the charges against him. The IEAB decision means that all
canonic, sacramental, pastoral and liturgical ties for the Bishop cease and
he also loses the rights and prerogatives of ministry in the Church.

The Chamber of Bishops held an extraordinary meeting in Porto Alegre June
10. However, the decision to strip the Bishop of Recife of his ministerial
functions was not made public until June 17. The IEAB Ecclesiastic Tribunal
considered that Robinson Cavalcanti had broken the Church's Canon Law when
he failed to fulfills vows made at his ordination.

He was accused of proclaiming the autonomy of the diocese of Recife, under
his pastoral responsibility and he even filed a civil suit against the IEAB
to preserve his rights to remain in charge of the diocese "without the
Provincial of Brazil having taking any initiative to remove those rights."

The suit, according to a note from the primate bishop was judged
inadmissible by the courts, according to a sentence dated April 15.
Robinson Cavalcanti also wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Rowan Williams and the primate bishops requesting that the diocese of
Recife be separated from the Brazilian province.

The Bishop of Recife was accused of holding a diocesan council at the end
of 2004, disregarding a prohibition on the part of the primate bishop and
for attitudes of serious indiscipline for not responding to convocations
from the Province and for the public use of offensive language against
Orlando Santos de Oliveira and the Chamber of Bishops.

Robinson told ALC that the Diocesan Council of the Diocese of Recife
confirmed him in his position, despite the primate's decision. The
conviction was foreseeable he said because the IEAB is controlled by old
liberals from the Church itself and by new liberals who come from the
Evangelical movement, aligned with the Episcopal Church of the United
States (ECUSA).

The conflict between Cavalcanti, the IEAB and the bishop primate dates back
to Cavalcanti's participation in a service to confirm 110 young people held
in 2003 in the Orthodox Church of Ohio by five retired Anglican bishops
without the consent of the local diocesan bishop.

The celebration was requested by the young people who did not agree with
the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson, a declared homosexual, by ECUSA.
Cavalcanti participated in the Ohio celebration without the consent of IEAB
leadership.

Bishop Cavalcanti believes that the entire process against him is
"political and personal." He said that he leadership of the Province
avoided the debate about human sexuality, that the diocese of Recife has
solidarity from a good part of the international Anglican communion and
that he is accompanied in the diocese by 40 pastors from 35 Churches.

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ARGENTINA
Annulment of impunity law does not end battle against genocidal soldiers

BUENOS AIRES, June 21 (alc).  The coordinator of the Ecumenical Movement
for Human Rights (MEDH) Jose de Luca said that overruling the Final Point
and Due Obedience Law does not put an end to the struggle to bring crimes
committed during the Argentina military dictatorship to justice.

"The pardons for the soldiers still stand" that were conceded in 1989 under
the Carlos Menem government and should be left without effect by the
Supreme Court, said the human rights activist.

Methodist Pastor De Luca said that many of these cases were reopened in
various provinces "so that those responsible for the abhorrent acts of
State terrorism did not remain unpunished."

On June 14 the Supreme Court annulled the Final Point and Due Obedience
laws, decreed during the Raul Alfonsin government. The ruling came after a
long struggle on the part of Argentine social organizations and two years
after the Congress voted in favor of overturning the law.

According to De Luca, the task is now to "begin the trials of the ringer
masters, who used the soldiers like cannon fodder." The soldiers, he added
acted like "gods who could have the life our people at their disposal and
who adopted a messianic sense in their actions."

According to the human rights activist, the crimes of the military
dictatorship were inscribed in the thesis of the national security doctrine
practiced in the continent when the military carried out a systematic plan
of repression."

He said that under the "total warfare" concept the armed forces "made
thousands of people disappear, created clandestine detention centers, took
babies born in captivity, used the so-called death flights, tortured and
psycho-physically harassed friends, relatives and companions, infusing
terror in all the people."

He said that the military committed genocide and applied "State terrorism
in order to annihilate the Argentine people's struggle for better living
conditions. He said this was done to pave the way for an economic model
that led us to extreme poverty."

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COLOMBIA
Only since the XVII century have masculine references been used to refer to
both men and women

By Amparo Beltrán

BOGOTA, June 23 (alc).	The use of masculine references to refer to both
men and women has not always existed. It was only in the XVII Century when
French grammar expert Vaguelas declared that the masculine form had
preponderance over the feminine that this use of language was imposed on
others.

This information was included in a statement from the Workshop Against
Sexist Language that took place in this city on June 18 with the
participation of 75 delegates from diverse Colombian Churches meeting for
the Sorority, Ecumenism and Democracy Collective.

Participants in the workshop demanded the creation of a new language, as
part of the search for democracy and equality among genders so that the
"right to be named is made visible, something hiding for millenniums."

They stated that the communication media is an excellent field to introduce
these changes as they are "the power".	If the media "recognize and name us
it would be major progress toward the construction of a more equal society."

The text of the statement emphasizes the capacity of language to construct
realities to the point where "what is not named, does not exist." Based on
language, according to the statement, "ethical values are constructed that
lead us to recognize differences. The creation of new languages leads to
the construction of a more inclusive democracy."

According to participants the supposed superiority of men over women that
exists in people's minds was introduced by culture. God's aim was to make
men and women equal in dignity, with sexual differences that should not be
the cause of superiority of men over women," they affirmed.

On June 21, the International Day for a Non Sexist Language was celebrated.
The Colombian event was attended by women from 11 Churches, including
Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Assemblies
of God and the Pentecostal Church. The event took place in the Baptist Church.

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MEXICO
Evangelical leaders to formulate "Christian Project for the Nation"

MEXICO,  jun 23 (alc).	Sectors of Mexican Evangelical Churches this week
expressed their willingness to actively participate in the upcoming 2006
electoral period and to not remain on the sidelines of political life or
allow themselves to be divided by the different political parties.

A press bulletin from the Pastors Alliance of Puebla, Mexico announced the
creation of a "Christian Project for the nation" in which they invite
leaders from Christian Churches to a meeting June 24 - 25 in the city of
Cuernavaca, Morelos.

Participants belong to the following Churches: Apostolic Faith in Christ,
Baptist Church of Mexico, the Methodist Church, the Seventh Day Adventist
Church, Church of the Nazarene, Pentecost, Presbyterian, Assemblies of God
and charismatic Christian communities.

The Evangelicals, according to the press statement, seek to strengthen the
lay nature of the state, weakened during the Vicente Fox government,
respect for the rule of law and a vision based on Biblical values.

The central issue on the agenda is to elaborate a Christian project for the
nation based on the following: social pastoral mission, urban and rural
mission, conservation of economic, public health, social policy and
educational results, formation of leaders, family, participation of lay
people in politics, human rights, public policies and communication media.

The organizers, including Alberto Montalvo, Adoniram Gaxiola and Abner
López, hope that at least 300 pastors and the most representative lay
leaders at a national level will attend.

On the other hand, on Wednesday the daily La Jornada published an article
written by journalist and Evangelical historian Carlos Martinez under the
title "The Evangelicals and the temptation of power" which questions the
meeting convened by the Evangelicals.

He said that some of its leaders "think that it is time to reap political
and electoral positions so that once the electoral positions are won they
can impel ethical principles characteristic of their churches."

The acid response to the invitation indicates that despite the fact that
the Evangelicals were in favor of the Church - State separation "today
Evangelicals seem to be leaning toward the Catholic position and consider
the state and its apparatus as a means to extend, without imposing, certain
particular beliefs to the population as a whole."

The text, which openly criticizes the Evangelical position, indicates that
apparently the leader are no longer interested in the "path of service" but
rather find the "reflectors of public opinion" more attractive.

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PERU
Six million new cases of HIV/AIDS in 2004

LIMA, June 24 (ALC). The number of people with HIV/AIDS increased by more
than 6 milion people in 2004, putting the development of people's at risk,
said Dr. Eduardo Campaña, coordinator of the Latin American Council of
Churches' (CLAI) Health Programme.

The majority of new cases emerge in low and middle income countries. There
are nearly 18,000 new cases a day and 50 percent of those are young people.
Therefore it is possible that in the near future a significant sector of
the young productive force is affected by the pandemic, said Campaña.

"It will be a true generational cataclysm, in particular in Africa, which
has the highest number of carriers, as well as a real threat to the
development of nations," said Campaña on June 21 during a seminar convened
by the Evangelical Network to battle AIDS, sponsored by the National
Evangelical Council.

He lamented the fact that the governments do not demonstrate political will
to frontally address the AIDs pandemic and the fact that the international
response is slow. According to Campaña, in 2002 the epidemiologists
affirmed that HIV was the main fatal infection in the world and that if the
current rhythm continues by 2020 more than 70 million will have died from AIDS.

He called on governments and organizations from civil society to develop
educational campaigns about HIV/AIDS, as the fear, the prejudice and
ignorance conspire against efforts to decelerate the expansion of the pandemic.

He also warned about the growing number of women with AIDs. Previously for
every 70 men there was one infected woman. Today women represent 50 percent
of those who are carrying the virus.

They are more vulnerable to HIV infection despite the fact that it is less
likely that they adopt high risk behaviors.

Churches should contribute to preventing the illness and providing
spiritual care for those who have HIV, overcoming prejudice and stigmatism,
he said. Campaña recognized that it is still difficult for many families
and Churches to naturally address the issue of human sexuality and even
more everything related to AIDs.

He said that AIDs is still seen in some Churches as a sin and God's
punishment and therefore many people are afraid to publicly admit they are
infected as they are exposed to being "disciplined" by Church leaders. Some
pastors have even refused to officiate the funerals of AIDs victims, he said.
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