Muslim Gadfly Sues Vatican

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 28 — Self-appointed Italian Muslim activist Adel Smith — whose actions are frequently condemned by local Islamic clerics — has taken the provocative step of suing Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and other Church officials.

Smith's claim? That their proclamations of Christianity as the one true faith violate Italy's constitution.

Italy once enshrined Catholicism as the state religion, but this provision was dropped at the request of Pope Paul VI. Smith said he sought no monetary damages but did hope for a judicial condemnation of the Vatican statements.

Smith, who heads the small Muslim Union of Italy, has previously captured headlines by pressing to have crucifixes torn down in Italy's schools.

He pointed to passages in books by John Paul and Cardinal Ratzinger, such as one in Crossing the Threshold of Hope where the Pope says the “richness of God's self-revelation” in the biblical testaments has been “set aside” in Islam.

Another offending passage came from a statement by Cardinal Ratzinger, who wrote in a 2000 document that believers in other religions were in a “gravely deficient situation” compared with Catholics.

The Vatican has not responded to the charges.

Cardinal Visits Slum Scheduled for Demolition

CATHOLIC INFORMATION SERVICE AFRICA, Feb. 4 — On a visit to Nairobi, Kenya, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, slogged through the muddy streets of Kibera, the largest slum on the continent, Catholic Information Service Africa reported.

Cardinal Martino called for respect for the slum's inhabitants, who were scheduled to be evicted a few days later when parts of the vast neighborhood were to be demolished.

“We must not sit idle and do nothing; we must engage everyone to respect the dignity of every human being,” said the cardinal, who was accompanied by the apostolic nuncio to Kenya, Archbishop Giovanni Tonucci, and local clergy.

The government seeks to displace residents who live near electrical power lines, on land reserved for roads and near railway lines, and has promised in return to upgrade all slums in the city and build 150,000 low-income homes each year.

Vatican Is For Fertility, Not Test-Tube Conception

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Feb. 25 — Archbishop Elio Sgreccia, who heads the Pontifical Academy for Life, reiterated the Church's principled support for responsible research in promoting human fertility and its firm opposition to high-tech tamperings such as in-vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood, according to Agence France-Presse.

“It is urgent to create alternative methods to artificial procreation in order to encourage, once again, natural insemination,” said the archbishop, speaking to the missionary news agency Fides and pointing to recently reported drops in fertility — and in sperm counts — found in the developed world.

He noted that a dangerous decline in the birthrate in many countries had resulted from “numerous factors including … marriages at an advanced age … as well as environmental pollution.”

Archbishop Sgreccia's comments augmented an address by Pope John Paul II to delegates from the Pontifical Academy for Life, in which the Pope called artificial insemination a “dangerous manipulation.”