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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 1997)
J ani ary 8. 1097 • T he P oru and O bserver P age B4 r* ‘Ihe Church of Scientology obtains official religious recognition in ‘Britain The British government hasotli- cially recognized the Church ol Scientology as a religion, more than 40 years alter the first Church was opened in Britain. This was made known by a spokesman tor the B rit ish Home Office this week in a statement published by the national newspaper, the Daily I elegraph, and other media in the United K ing dom Earlier this year, Scientology was already recognized as a religion by the B ritis h Arm ed Forces and B rita in ’ s Independent Television Commission which acknowledged Scientology’ s religious bona tides when it added the Church to the religious permitted to air T V spots I on British TV "W e are elated about this deci sion. The British government is showing commendable leadership in bringing religious Ireedom and pluralism to Europe which so tar has been dominated by a lew state churches.' said Heber C. Jentzsch. President o f the C hu rch o f S cientology In te rn a tio n a l, the mother church o f the religion. The news about this latest recog nition was announced at a New Year’ s Eve gathering o f over 7.000 Scientologists at the Shrine Audito rium in Los Angeles which satellited lo S c ie n to lo g y co ng re g a tio n s around the world. In Portland, more than 2(X) Scientologists saw this satellite transmission, receiving the news with cheers and a standing ovation. Other Scientol-ogists w ill gather in Portland to see a video tmm^g-ol the broadcasting later this week. SUt}9,s> entered the Church ot Scientology into its register o f rec ognized religions. The recognition not only reflects Scientology 's rapid growth in Asian nations, but is the first recognition by a government ol Tope to visit Cuba Vatican officials chose a symbolic place to announce Pope John Paul Il's first visit to Cuba next year: the Havana cathedral. Cardinal Jaime Ortega, head o f the Cuban Bishops' Conference, an nounced the January 1998 visit late Friday just before his Italian coun terpart offered Mass there lo cel ebrate W orld Peace Day. The holy father is desirous ot visitin g our co un try," Ortega said in a statement before he and Italian C ardinal C a m illo R uini celebrated Mass in the I 8th century stone ca thedral. R uini is head ot the Italian Bishop's Conference, w hich do nated medical equipm ent to the island. V a tica n spokesm an Joaquin Navarro-Valis confirmed today the pope would go to Cuba in the second half o f January 1998. He gave no other details. "He would have liked to do so before the end ot 1997. but the Christ mas holidays o f that time oblige him to postpone the trip until January of 1998," Ortega said Both Cuba and the Vatican had agreed to postpone the Cuban visit because o f the 76-year-old p o n tiff's fragile health, the Mexican news agency Notunex reported The o fficia l Cuban newspaper Granina said the Bishop o f Rome would be received “ w ith all the con sideration and respect that the su preme p o n tiff o f the Catholic Church and sovereign ot the state ot the Vatican C ity deserves." O fficials in the Vatican reiterated Friday that the trip reflected im prov ing relations w ith the Communist island, which were helped hy Castro s unprecedented visit to the Holy See in November. Among conditions for the papal visit, the Vatican has insisted on greater liberty for the church in Cuba, including permission for foreign priests to aid the island's 200clergy men D espite tensions o ve r the government’ s official rejection o f religion,Cuba has maintained diplo matic relations with the Vatican since 1935. I a predominantly Muslim country The Church has become well- known m the United States. Canada. Australia. Latin America, western Europe and Africa over the last lour decades, but il is not well know n that Scientology .nourishes also in areas such as Pakistan, Taiwan. Indonesia. India. Hong Kong. Roumania, Hun gary. Lithuania, Estonia. Polan. Latvia. Belarus, U kra in e , M oldo va , Uzbekistan. Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan, A ze rba ija n, A rm enia, Z aire, Botswana, Canary Islands. Slovakia and even Croatia. In the Common wealth o f Independent States alone there are 54 Scientology missions spread throughout twelve states. I he newest Scientology missions were es tablished Iasi week in Kathmandu. Nepal and three other Nepalese cities Assisting in the expansion was this year's release o f the Scientology websites on the World Wide Web At the launching ol the Internet sites last March 13. Scientology's site re ceived 33<).<X)O "hits'' per week on average. As 1996 comes to a close, the Scientology sites have increased this number to a remarkable 41 lO.IHKI "hits' per week. This is classed in die top ten percent on the Internet. As a comparison, in December ol 1995, the Vatican opened its own internet site. In its first year, that site attracted 1.5 m illion hits. The Scientology. site, in nine months, attracted I 2 m illion hits II has also been awarded over 30 Internet site awards, including the Top 5% ol A ll Websites Award from Starting Point, the EZ Connect Best o f the Net Award, the Quiet Revolt! lion W inning Site Live Star Awai;d. ta lk in g on the World Wide, Web Premiere Site, anil the Magellan Four- Star Site Award. As the Washington Post described the site: "The most elaborate reli gious site ol al I belongs to the C hut eh ol Scientology As a model o f the craft ol creating a web site, the Scientology site is one ol the best in existence today.” In commenting on the rapid inter national expansion, the President ol the Church o f Scientology Interna tional. Rev Heber Jentzsch staled. "Scientology is expanding as it rep resents the brightest hope lor man in die last 2.000 years by fu lfillin g people's most important needs. We keep growing because people can experience the b e n e fits ol Scientology in the here and now. The d a ily m iracles we see in Scientology are those that people have dreamed ol lor centuries. W ith die technologies ol Scientology we can not only repair broken mar riages, rehabilitate drug addicts, and restore literacy, but, very im por tantly, bring the individual to a ree ognition ol his own spiritual nature ami potential. I Ins is what religion is about, and. like all religions, we seek the belter world around us Scientology is an applied reli gious philosophy which recognizes that man is a spiritual being and offers a practical methodology us able by anyone to become happier and more able. Founded by author anil humanitarian. L. Ron Hubbard. Scientology provides exact prin ciples for improving spiritual aware ness. self-confidence, intelligence and ability. I he lust Church o l Scientology was founded in 1954 in Los Ange les. It lias grown to more than 3,000 churches, missions and groups in I 13 countries, w ith over 8 m illion members around the world. There are tw o Churches ot Scientology in Portland, including the Celebrity Centre, w hich is dedi cated lo assist in the field ol the ails. Both were started in the late 60’ s Church breads with Milosevic A l ter decades ot fo llo w in g C om munist rulers, leaders ot the Serbian Orthodox Church have broken their alliance w ith President Slobodan M ilosevic, shaking his rule and boosting their own standing w ith believers "M ilosevic must go it Serbia wants lo live," Father Sava, a priest in Belgrade's Bezaniska Church. said Monday, the eve o f Tuesday's O r thodox Christmas. Worshipers in the church held candles and prayed to a choir’ s velvet sound. Yugoslavia's Orthodox churches have joined the chorus o f protesters who have rallied against M ilosevic since he annulled Nov. 17 local elec tions won by the opposition. In their strongest attack ever, Serbian Orthodox Church leaders assailed M ilosevic last week tor "crushing the w ill o f the people' and fomenting c iv il strife. "He has already placed us against the whole world, and now he wants to set us against each other and trigger bloodshed just to preserve power." the leaders said in a statement. Sava said he once believed that M i losevic was the only one who could "save Serbia from evil powers." "Even though he is a Communist, I trusted him like he was my brother. I thought he was Serbia s savior against Western influence. Croats and all others.” Sava said. "B ut now I see lhal whatever he touched, he de stroyed. Like Satan. The church's alliance with Serbian Communists lollow ed W orld Wai II, when some priests openly sided with Communist partisans even as churches were shutdown and clergy men were ousted. Under Communist rule. Serbia o fficially was a lh c i^ ani|.churchgo ers could risk being fire d fro m their leaders fell in line behind then Com munist leaders. They earned the tacit support ot former Yugoslav Com munist strongman Josip Broz I ito. Tolerance o f religion increased in the 1980s when Milosevic switched to nationalism to retain power while communism crumbled elsewhere. Church leaders backed Milosevic when he instigated wars in neighbor ing Croatia and Bosnia: Some priests even rode atop Serbian tanks as they rolled into Croatia. They supported Bosnian Serb leaders, including war crimes sus pects Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko M ladic. Today, a large poster o f Karadzic still decorates a side entrance ot the Belgrade o il ice ol the church’ s leader, Patriarch Pavle. "The church has always been na tionalist in Serbia, as in most other B alkan states," said Zorana V la jk o v ic .o t Belgrade s Institute ol Sociology. "It didn't care too much about other nations, human and democratic rights — not to speak of elections. Now, something seems to be changing." Following the Bosnian war. O r thodox clergy split over what degree o f nationalism they wished to follow and Pavle struggled to tint! a balance between the two factions. Last week’ s statement indicated the faction supporting modern demo cratic reforms — and a more benign interpretation o f national interests — had won. It was a victory cheered by Serbian faithful — about 40 percent o f the population — as well as by opposi tion protesters. Along w ith signs ol discontent in Yugoslavia's army, the statement indicated that some ol M ilosevic’ s traditional pillars o f sup port may be crumbling. " There is no hope for M ilosevic if he doesn't take our statement seri ously," said Metropolitan Am filohije, head o f the church in the Yugoslav republic o f Montenegro. Cox Funeral Home 2736 N.E. Rodney, Portland, Oregon (503) 281-4891 “Before You Must Make a Decision” Inspect the Beautiful Cox Funeral Chapel “Planning your funeral is our first consideration. 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