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Santeria priest files federal appeal against ban on animal sacrifice

EULESS, Texas—A Santeria priest has filed an appeal in federal court after he lost his religious-freedom challenge to a city ban on animal slaughter.

The Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed an appeal Tuesday on behalf of Jose Merced to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

“The First Amendment was written to protect the ability of all faiths to worship in their own homes and in their own way,” Kevin “Seamus” Hasson, president of the Becket Fund, said in a statement. “People of all faiths should be concerned when the government says someone cannot practice their religion in their own home.”

Merced — an Oba, or priest — said animal sacrifices are an essential devotion in Santeria, a religion that emerged in Cuba when Yoruba slaves fused elements of Roman Catholicism with their religious traditions from Africa.

Merced sought a permit from Euless officials but was denied permission to sacrifice goats as part of a religious ceremony. For the rite, a 4-inch blade is used to sever an animal’s carotid artery, letting blood fall on a shrine. The animal is then prepared and eaten.

Euless officials have insisted in court that local sanitation ordinances prohibit the slaughter of certain kinds of animals inside city limits. Officials could not discuss the case because the city does not comment on pending litigation, said Euless spokeswoman Betsy Deck.

U.S. District Judge John McBryde ruled in favor of the city of Euless last month, saying Merced could perform his animal sacrifices elsewhere, but not in the Fort Worth suburb.

In 1993, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye in Hialeah, Fla., and issued an opinion protecting the rights of Santeria practitioners to ritually slaughter animals.

Indiana religious order giving up its monastery

INDIANAPOLIS—The shrinking number of women called to Roman Catholic religious vocations has caught up with the Carmelite Sisters of Indianapolis. They’re giving up their monastery and moving in with another order 60 miles away.

The Carmelites, who’ve maintained a presence on Indianapolis’ northwest side for 75 years, are moving this summer to the southeastern Indiana town of Oldenburg to live alongside the Sisters of St. Francis.

The Carmelites’ numbers have fallen off to just nine sisters from 12 four years ago, and their average age has grown to the mid-70s. Meanwhile, efforts in recent years to recruit new members have produced few takers.

“We feel we will have quite a few more years to live our life the way it is supposed to be lived. Then we will die out. There is no question about that,” said Sister Jean Alice McGoff, prioress of the monastery and a resident for 59 years.

It’s a fate other religious orders for women also face, said Patricia Ann Wittberg, a sociologist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

The Sisters of Providence based at St. Mary-of-the-Woods in western Indiana have declined from 1,000 sisters in the 1960s to about 450 today. The Sisters of St. Francis in Oldenburg, where the Carmelites are headed, have dropped from a peak of 850 to about 290.

Social forces have worked against religious communities, Wittberg said.

Catholic neighborhoods of the early 20th century were more “encapsulated” than they are now, she said. Nuns were highly visible in schools, and their service was revered. Life as a nun also offered women education and career opportunities unavailable elsewhere. Women today have broader opportunities.

Pastor-congressman will take diminished role

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat who is also a Methodist minister, says he will be taking a smaller role at the church he has led for more than 35 years.

Cleaver said April 6 that the Rev. Emanuel Cleaver III, will become co-pastor at the St. James United Methodist Church on July 1. The younger Cleaver is expected to become senior pastor in two years.

Cleaver, a first-term congressman, has tried to balance serving as pastor and lawmaker, but said the congregation needs a full-time pastor.

“You deserve somebody who is going to be here all the time,” he said.

The congregation says it has more than 2,000 members and holds services in a 1,000-person sanctuary. Cleaver, 63, was a two-term Kansas City mayor and earned a master’s degree in 1974 from St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City.

Metro pulls YouTube video showing bobblehead pope

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority has voluntarily pulled a promotional video from YouTube after the Archdiocese of Washington complained about the star — a Pope Benedict XVI bobblehead doll.

The video was intended to encourage people to use public transportation to next week’s papal Mass at Nationals Park, but the archdiocese says the bobblehead pontiff was not wearing authentic attire. Archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs adds that many people would not have been comfortable with the video.

The video shows the bobblehead riding a Green Line train and buying a special one-day Metro pass for the Mass. The Metro media relations director, Lisa Farbstein, came up with the idea and bought the bobblehead on eBay.

Farbstein says no offense was intended.

Teacher reaches settlement over anti-Islam speaker

RALEIGH, N.C.—A former Wake County high school teacher has reached an agreement with officials after he was punished for inviting an anti-Islamic speaker to talk to his students.

Attorney Billy Strickland said he couldn’t immediately disclose terms of the deal reached Monday with Robert Escamilla. Strickland said that the agreement was contingent upon the school district performing some actions that he couldn’t reveal.

Escamilla was suspended in February 2007 after he invited an Egyptian-born Christian evangelist to speak at Enloe High School. Complaints arose over how the speaker denounced Islam and warned female students not to marry Muslim men.

Escamilla was reprimanded and sent to work at an alternative school. The school board also released negative parts of his personnel file to justify its decision not to return Escamilla to Enloe.

The teacher filed a lawsuit alleging that his due process rights had been violated.