ROBERTSON-2010 PREDICTIONS
Pat Robertson: U.S. under God's wrath, going bankrupt
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — The Rev. Pat Robertson says God has told him that the U.S. is under a cloud of divine wrath and is headed for financial ruin.
The Christian broadcaster announced his 2010 predictions on Monday's broadcast of "The 700 Club."
Robertson said God won't bless an America that institutionalizes gay rights and abortion while prohibiting prayer and Bible reading in public schools.
He said God told him the U.S. is on a "decline to insolvency" and will ultimately go bankrupt.
Robertson reveals what he says God has shown him at the beginning of each year. Three years ago, he predicted a terrorist attack that could kill millions of Americans in the second half of 2007.
Sound:
<<CUT …347 (01/04/10)>> 00:04 "of how soon"
The Reverend Pat Robertson
The Reverend Pat Robertson says the U.S. is in a decline to financial ruin. COURTESY: CBN News ((Mandatory on-air credit))
<<CUT …346 (01/04/10)>> 00:13 "of how fast"
The Reverend Pat Robertson
The Reverend Pat Robertson says God has told him what threatens America in 2010. COURTESY: CBN News ((Mandatory on-air credit))
<<CUT …345 (01/04/10)>> 00:12 "taken from children"
The Reverend Pat Robertson
The Reverend Pat Robertson says the U.S. is under God's wrath for institutionalizing gay rights and abortion. COURTESY: CBN News ((Mandatory on-air credit))
<<CUT …344 (01/04/10)>> 00:10 "million babies slaughtered"
The Reverend Pat Robertson
The Reverend Pat Robertson says God won't bless an America where abortion is legal. COURTESY: CBN News ((Mandatory on-air credit))
TIGER WOODS-RELIGIOUS ADVICE
Brit Hume: Tiger Woods should become a Christian
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fox News analyst Brit Hume says Tiger Woods should become a Christian.
On a Fox News Sunday segment featuring predictions for 2010, Hume said he expects Woods to resume his golfing career, but added that faith will likely determine "whether he can recover as a person."
Woods is taking a hiatus from golf after admitting he was unfaithful to his wife.
Hume said Woods will probably lose his wife and children, but can still find redemption and "a total recovery" if he becomes a Christian.
Hume said, "He's said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith."
Sound:
<<CUT …349 (01/04/10)>> 00:19 "to the world"
Brit Hume
Brit Hume says Tiger Woods should become a Christian. COURTESY: Fox News Sunday ((mandatory on-air credit))
<<CUT …348 (01/04/10)>> 00:13 "with his children"
Brit Hume
Brit Hume predicts a partial recovery for golfer Tiger Woods in 2010. COURTESY: Fox News Sunday ((mandatory on-air credit))
MILWAUKEE ARCHBISHOP
Listecki takes over Milwaukee archdiocese
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Wisconsin has a new Roman Catholic archbishop.
Jerome Listecki is the new archbishop of Milwaukee. He replaces Timothy Dolan, who was installed last April as archbishop of New York.
At Monday's installation ceremony in downtown Milwaukee, the 60-year-old Listecki stressed the need to protect marriage and family life. He said church teachings on human dignity "embrace life from the moment of conception to natural death."
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has some 640,000 parishioners in southeastern Wisconsin.
Listecki had led the La Crosse diocese in western Wisconsin since 2005.
The Chicago native is also a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves.
CHURCH SAFE STOLEN
Police find chalices stolen from Indiana church
NORTH VERNON, Ind. (AP) — Investigators have found golden chalices and other items that were inside a safe stolen from a southern Indiana church.
The pastor of St. Anne's Catholic Church near North Vernon says the chalices dating to the parish's founding nearly 170 years ago were badly damaged. The Rev. Jonathan Meyer says police told him that a person bought the items for $14, then sold them to a jewelry store for $70.
The Jennings County Sheriff's Department says the 700-pound safe was broken into, then thrown off a bridge in a remote area of Scott County. The department says it will seek arrest warrants for those believed responsible for the theft that was discovered Dec. 28.
GAY MARRIAGE-NJ
NJ gay marriage advocates want lawmakers to vote
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — About 150 clergy of various faiths have sent New Jersey lawmakers a letter asking them to legalize gay marriage before Democratic Gov. John Corzine leaves office this month.
Social conservatives, including the New Jersey Catholic Conference and Orthodox Jewish rabbis who usually avoid statewide political issues, have led the opposition to the bill.
Corzine has said he would sign a bill to legalize gay marriage. But he's to be replaced on Jan. 19 by Gov.-elect Chris Christie, a Republican who says he'd veto the bill.
Last month, the legislation's Senate sponsor, sensing he didn't have enough support from colleagues to pass it, asked the Assembly to pass it first, but the Assembly speaker deferred back to the Senate.
New Jersey has a civil unions law, which gives couples the benefits of marriage but not the title.
LESBIAN CUSTODY
Legal fight in lesbian custody dispute ratchets up
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont woman locked in a child custody battle with her former lesbian partner has asked a judge to hold her ex in contempt for failing to surrender their 7-year-old daughter.
Janet Jenkins' motion also seeks the assistance of law enforcement in locating Lisa Miller.
Vermont Family Court Judge William Cohen had ordered Lisa Miller to turn over daughter Isabella to Jenkins by 1 p.m. on New Year's Day.
Miller and Jenkins were joined in a Vermont civil union in 2000. Isabella was born to Miller through artificial insemination in 2002. The couple broke up in 2003, and Miller moved to Virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian.
Courts in Virginia and Vermont have ruled in favor of Jenkins, even though she is not the biological mother. Miller's attorney, Mat Staver, said last week that appeals are pending in both states.
OBIT-YAO
Chinese underground bishop Yao dies at 87
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Catholics say Leon Yao Liang, a bishop in China's underground church who was imprisoned for more than 28 years under the communists, has died at the age of 87.
The U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation says Yao died on Wednesday in a northern township where he had been auxiliary bishop since 2002. Yao held the position in defiance of the government-sanctioned Patriotic Catholic Association, which has no official relations with the Vatican and does not recognize the pope's right to appoint bishops.
Yao's death was also noted on blogs maintained by Chinese Catholics.
The Kung foundation said Yao's death was being kept secret by authorities and said it had no information on funeral arrangements. A man who answered the phone at the government's local religious affairs bureau said he had no information about the bishop's death.
GERMANY-POLICE-CHURCH
German policeman suspended for sex in church
BERLIN (AP) — Police in southern Germany say an officer has been suspended from duty after allegedly having sex in a Catholic church during a service.
Regional police spokesman Hans-Peter Kammerer told the German news agency DAPD that the 26-year-old could face disciplinary measures and a criminal complaint for allegedly disturbing religious activities.
He said a visitor discovered the officer with a woman in the church in Bavaria during an early-morning service last Thursday. The couple then fled, but a church employee recognized the officer.
The man was suspended the following day. Disturbing religious activities can carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.
WIND FARM RULING
Feds side with tribes in Cape Cod wind farm case
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials have agreed to a request by two Indian tribes for special protections for Nantucket Sound, a move that could delay construction of a wind farm off Cape Cod.
The National Park Service said the Sound is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as a significant traditional cultural, historic and archaeological property.
The Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribes say the designation, which would come with new regulations for activity on the sound, is needed to preserve the tribe's sacred rituals.
The Wampanoag say their rituals, including dancing and chanting, require an unblocked view of the sunrise. That view won't exist if the Cape Wind project's 130 turbines, each over 400 feet tall, are built several miles from the Cape Cod shore across a 25-square-mile swath of federal waters.
The tribes also say their ancestors are buried on Horseshoe Shoal, where the turbines would be built.
