AP-Religion Roundup

Update on the latest in religion news:

Pope-US Departure
    
Departing pope: "May God Bless America!"

     
NEW YORK (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI has completed his U.S. visit with an appeal to "continue bearing joyful witness to Christ our Hope."
     
In his final words before boarding the plane back to Rome, the pontiff told a cheering crowd, "May God bless America!"
     
On his final day in the United States, the pope visited ground zero and celebrated Mass for 57,000 people at Yankee Stadium.
     
At the departure ceremony, Vice President Cheney called Benedict "a herald of the gospel of Jesus Christ" and assured the pope that he would "always be welcome" in America.

Pope-Impact
     
Pope's remorse prompts more abuse victims to come forward

     
CHICAGO (AP) - SNAP -- the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests -- says dozens of new people have come forward in the last few days to say they were molested as children.
     
Many told SNAP they were moved by Pope Benedict's emphasis on the church's shame and the need to help victims heal, which he demonstrated by meeting and praying with 5 abuse victims in Washington.
     
Benedict addressed many other issues during his U.S. visit. But a Vatican spokesman says the pope made the abuse scandal a core theme of the trip "to give hope to the church in the United States."
     
SNAP leaders note, however, that gestures alone won't protect children from abuse in the future.

Box Office-"Expelled"
     
Documentary challenging evolution opens in Top 10

     
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A documentary showing what happens to scientists and academics who question the theory of evolution has cracked the Top 10 at the weekend box office.
     
"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" debuted at Number 9 with 3.1 million dollars in ticket sales.
     
The film features Ben Stein as he challenges the Darwinian orthodoxy in academic circles and suggests that life could have emerged through intelligent design.
     
Advocates of intelligent design contend that life and the universe are too complex and finely-tuned to have emerged by accident, but opponents say it's religion posing as science.

Christian Music-BMI Awards
     
"Made to Worship" named song of the year at BMI's Christian Music Awards

     
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - "Made to Worship" has been named song of the year at BMI's 2008 Christian Music Awards.
     
Broadcast Music Incorporated, a performing rights organization, recognizes the writers and publishers of the most-performed songs on Christian radio and television during the previous year.
     
Awards were presented Saturday in five categories: Christian rock, contemporary Christian, inspirational, urban gospel and Southern gospel.
     
Ed Cash won the songwriter of the year award for "Made to Worship," "Holding Onto You" and "How Can I Keep from
Singing."
     
The night's other big winners included Jars of Clay, tobyMac, Aaron Shust, Mark Hall of Casting Crowns, Jasen Rauch of the Christian rock band Red and urban gospel star Kirk Franklin.

Israel-Clergy Fight
     
Orthodox Palm Sunday marred by melee in Jerusalem shrine

     
JERUSALEM (AP) - For Orthodox Christians on the old Julian calendar, this is the Holy Week before Easter, but it got off to an inauspicious start in Jerusalem.
     
Dozens of Greek and Armenian priests and worshippers exchanged blows in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Palm Sunday, and pummeled police with palm fronds when they tried to break up the brawl.
     
The fight reflects a growing rivalry over religious rights at the church built over the site where tradition says Jesus was buried and resurrected. It erupted when Armenian clergy ejected a Greek priest from their midst, pushed him to the ground and kicked him, according to witnesses.
     
Two Armenian worshippers were briefly detained by Israeli police.

Pastor-Murder Plot
     
Former pastor's murder trial to begin in May

     
HICKMAN, Calif. (AP) - Lawyers say the murder trial of a California pastor accused of killing an elderly rancher will start on May 12th.
     
Howard Douglas Porter, a former pastor at Hickman Community Church, is charged with murdering Frank Craig in a scheme to inherit the farmer's trust fund. Porter also faces counts of attempted murder, embezzlement and elder abuse.
     
The 85-year-old Craig had entrusted his fortune to Porter, whom he hoped would help him build a farm-themed museum. But the pastor was behind the wheel when the pair got into two wrecks on rural roads.
     
Craig died in the second crash in April 2004.
     
Porter has been held without bail since his arrest in November, 2006.

Dalai Lama
     
Dalai Lama says people can change religions

     
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - The Dalai Lama says freedom of religion gives individuals the right to convert if they're dissatisfied with their faith.
     
But in weekend lectures at the University of Michigan, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader suggested that he saw little need for conversion, since -- in his view -- all religions "have the same potential to bring inner peace."
     
Expressing his "genuine admiration and respect" for Islam, Christianity and Judaism, the Dalai Lama encouraged people to preserve their own religious traditions while respecting others.
     
Outside the basketball arena where he spoke, hundreds of pro-Chinese demonstrators held signs and waved Chinese flags.

Obit-Lopez Trujillo
     
Vatican cardinal who led campaign against abortion dies

     
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, who helped lead the Vatican's campaign against abortion, has died in Rome at the age of 72, according to church officials.
     
Vatican Radio said the cardinal had been hospitalized with "grave health problems."
     
Last year, Lopez Trujillo launched the church's campaign against plans to legalize abortion in Mexico City, but lawmakers still legalized it in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The law is being appealed.
     
Lopez Trujillo also made headlines in 2003 for saying that condoms do not prevent HIV transmission. He contended that condoms may even help spread the virus by creating a false sense of security.
     
The World Health Organization responded that condoms are 90 percent effective when used correctly.
     
Priests for Life, an organization that seeks to end abortion and euthanasia, hailed Lopez Trujillo as "one of the Church's strongest advocates for the dignity of the human person and the family."

Passover-Syrian Jews
     
Jewish remnant celebrates Passover in Syria

     
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - A handful of Syrian Jews have celebrated the start of the Jewish Passover holiday with prayers at Damascus' only synagogue.
     
A leader of Syria's tiny Jewish community says there are only about 100 Jews left in the entire country since the late President Hafez Assad permitted Jews to leave Syria in 1992. In the past 16 years, some 3,700 Jews have left Syria for Israel and the United States.
     
But those who gathered in Damascus on Sunday said they feel free to openly practice their religion just as Muslims and Christians do.

     
     
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
     
AP-NY-04-21-08 0355EDT