Jesus can go to 7th grade

TEMPE – Deborah Chambers thought it would be no big deal to display a picture of Jesus on her notebook at the Chandler charter school where she is a seventh-grader.

She didn’t think the image of a bloodied Christ on the cross was all that different from a Muslim head scarf or a Phoenix Suns logo.

“It’s important to me because that’s what Jesus did for me,” Chambers said.

She said that in October a teacher sent her to the principal’s office after a fellow student complained about the notebook, and the principal told her she could no longer bring the notebook to school.

Her mother, Rebecca Chambers, sought help from the Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative think tank, and she said the principal acquiesced after she presented information such as court precedents defending religious expression in schools.

That case has inspired a bill in which Rep. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa, attempts to bring together a series of state laws and court decisions banning censorship in schools based on religion.

HB 2357 would bar all forms of religious discrimination in schools and would specify that students are allowed to wear religious clothing, jewelry and apparel on campus. Crandall said spelling out these rights clearly would help prevent misunderstandings that can wind up in court.

“In their efforts to be so conservative, to avoid any appearance of favoring one or the other, they accidentally make a mistake and cross the line and break the Constitution,” said Crandall, chairman of the House Education Committee.

The House approved the bill May 6 on a 37-23 vote that sent it to the Senate.

The Center for Arizona Policy asked Crandall to sponsor the legislation.

“We see the bill as a winner all around,” said Deborah Sheasby, a litigator who has represented the group in legislative hearings on the bill.

Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said she supports the basic premise of the bill but said it should comprehensively cover all forms of expression.

“We vigorously support all kinds of expression, religious included,” she said. “Our concern is government treating religious speech differently from other kinds of speech.”

Michael Smith, a legislative consultant with the Arizona School Administrators Association, said that he understands the ACLU’s position but thinks the bill is a step in the right direction.

“If you try to address something that prescribes all potential forms of free expression, you’re gonna walk into a nightmare,” Smith said. “If they’d like to introduce a bill to cover all possible circumstances of free expression, they’re welcome to do that.”

Deborah Chambers still brings the binder to her school, Dobson Academy, and said she hasn’t been bothered about it since. She and her mother said the school’s principal, George Ellis, was responsive and understanding about the issue.

Ellis didn’t return a telephone call seeking comment on the case.

Rebecca Chambers, Deborah’s mother, said the main benefit of the bill is protecting students’ First Amendment rights.

“Freedom of speech doesn’t stop when you enter the school gates,” she said.

———

House Bill 2357

• Public schools are not to discriminate against any student or parent on the basis of religion.

• Students may wear clothing, jewelry and other apparel showing religious symbols. However, administrators could bar these items, religious and otherwise, that are worn solely to cause disruption or convey gang affiliation.

• A grade received on a school assignment cannot be raised or lowered simply because the assignment presents a religious viewpoint.

• Parents who feel their children have been unfairly censored by school officials for religious reasons may follow a process for filing complaints. Lawsuits wouldn’t be allowed until this step has been resolved.

A woman takes a copy of "Sex as you don't know it: For married couples who love God," a new book by the Rev. Ksawery Knotz, from a bookstore in Warsaw, Poland. Knotz's book provides a theological and practical guide for Catholics that have little in common with the dour view of sex traditionally associated with the Roman Catholic Church. The main message is that sex is an important way for a man and wife to express their love and grow closer to God.

WARSAW, Poland – The Rev. Ksawery Knotz has a message for all married Catholic couples out there: there’s nothing wrong with a steamy sex life.

In fact, it’s a good thing.

In his new book “Sex as you don’t know it: For married couples who love God,” the Polish friar provides a theological and practical guide for Catholics that has little in common with the strait-laced attitudes often associated with the Roman Catholic Church.

“Some people, when they hear about the holiness of married sex, immediately imagine that such sex has to be deprived of joy, frivolous play, fantasy and attractive positions,” Knotz writes. “(They think) it has to be sad like a traditional church hymn.”

But Knotz, a Franciscan friar from a monastery outside Krakow in southern Poland, wants to change all that. His book aims to sweep away the taboos and assure Catholic couples that good sex is part of a good marriage.

“The most important message is that sexuality does not deviate at all from religiousness and the Catholic faith, and that we can connect spirituality and a search for God with a happy sex life,” Knotz told The Associated Press by telephone.

Much of the book stems from questions that Knotz encountered while counseling married couples.

“I talk with a lot of married couples and I listen to them, so these problems just kind of sit in my mind,” he said. “I would like for them to be happier with their sex life, and for them to understand the Church’s teachings so there won’t be unnecessary tension or a sense of guilt.”

Clergymen, including Knotz’s countryman Pope John Paul II and his successor Pope Benedict XVI, have written about the ethics of love, marriage and sexuality before, and laymen have penned steamy sex guides for married Catholic couples.

But few if any priests have taken Knotz’s explicit approach to sex — including everything from the theological to the practical, from oral sex to contraception and the number of children a Catholic couple should have.

“Every act — a type of caress, a sexual position — with the goal of arousal is permitted and pleases God,” Knotz writes. “During sexual intercourse, married couples can show their love in every way, can offer one another the most sought after caresses. They can employ manual and oral stimulation.”

The book falls squarely within the commonly held view of the Church’s teaching on sex: Knotz discourages the use of condoms or birth control pills, and says they “lead a married couple outside of Catholic culture and into a completely different lifestyle.”

But some Poles have been surprised by the overriding message of the book: sex is an important way for a man and wife to express their love and grow closer to God.

“Married couples celebrate their sacrament, their life with Christ also during sex,” Knotz writes.

“Calling sex a celebration of the marriage sacrament raises its dignity in an exceptional way. Such a statement shocks people who learned to look at sexuality in a bad way. It is difficult for them to understand that God is also interested in their happy sex life and in this way gives them his gift.”

The book received the necessary approval from Poland’s church authorities that it is theologically in line with Catholic teachings. There also has been no sign of a backlash in the heavily Catholic and conservative homeland of the late Pope John Paul II.

Still, Knotz acknowledges that a priest writing a book about sex “is in and of itself a bit of a sensation.”

The book hit stores across Poland last month. The Sw. Pawel publishing house has ordered a reprint after readers quickly snapped up the first 5,000 copies.

The publisher said it is in talks about possible English, Italian and Slovakian translations of the Polish-language book.

A new poll from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants surveyed believe that torture is often or sometimes justified. The poll also found that 44 percent of all regular churchgoers – regardless of race or denomination – believe that torture is often or sometimes justified.

David Gushee, a Baptist ethicist at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., said the poll is a sign of moral failure. He believes the war on terror has made Christians ignore the Bible.

Jesus, he said, told his followers to love their enemies. That makes torture unacceptable.

“It’s almost like we’ve got post-traumatic moral syndrome,” Gushee said. “We are giving the terrorists too much power if we say that they are so scary, we have to set aside 200 years of U.S. law to defeat them.”

For years, Gushee and other leaders of the National Campaign Against Torture have tried to change the United States policy on torture and interrogation. They were pleased with President Barack Obama’s executive order banning waterboarding and other interrogation techniques.

But that’s not enough, said Linda Gustitus, president of the campaign. She wants churchgoers and other citizens to reject torture completely.

“We cannot be confident that the United States will never use torture again unless the American people, including people of faith, believe it is wrong to do so – under all circumstances,” Gustitus said.

Americans have traditionally taken that approach. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington warned his soldiers not to mistreat prisoners.

“Treat them with humanity,” he wrote, “and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British Army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren who have fallen into their hands.”

Gushee said that aside from not being Christian-like, torture is ineffective.

“People being tortured are in pain and will lie to stop the torture,” he said.

In most cases, he said, torture is used to intimidate or punish prisoners, not gain useful information.

That should concern Christians in the United States, he said, because many of their fellow believers are tortured for their faith around the world. And totalitarian governments use torture to wipe out any political dissent.

“Torture means to crush a human body and a human spirit,” he said.

Politics skew results?

So, why do so many evangelicals support torture?

Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Conventions, said one reason is theological. Conservative Christians tend to have a pessimistic view of human nature. They are willing to justify torture if it can save lives.

“They believe in the innate sinfulness of human beings,” he said. “So they believe that sometimes you have to choose between doing a greater evil and a lesser evil.”

Political affiliation also plays a role. Pew researchers found that 64 percent of Republicans said that torture is often or sometimes justified, as opposed to 36 percent of Democrats.

Since evangelicals and regular churchgoers are more likely to be Republicans, that may skew the results.

Cutie

MIAMI – A popular Miami priest and media personality said Monday he is thinking about leaving the Roman Catholic Church for a woman he loves after a magazine ran pictures of the couple kissing and hugging.

Rev. Alberto Cutie (KOO’-tee-ay) told the CBS “Early Show” on Monday he supports the church’s stand that priests should be celibate and said he does not want to become the “anti-celibacy priest.”

“I think it’s a debate that’s going on in our society, and now I’ve become kind of a poster boy for it. But I don’t want to be that. I believe that celibacy is good, and that it’s a good commitment to God,” Cutie said.

Cutie was removed last week as head of the Miami archdiocese’s international radio network and as head of his parish after the Spanish-language magazine TVnotas ran photos of Cutie embracing a woman at a bar and at a beach.

Cutie headed the archdiocese’s Radio Paz and Radio Peace broadcasts, heard throughout the Americas and in Spain, and earned the nickname “Father Oprah” for his relationship advice.

The Cuban-American priest was born in Puerto Rico and previously hosted shows on Telemundo. He is also a syndicated Spanish-language columnist and author of the book “Real Life, Real Love: 7 Paths to a Strong, Lasting Relationship.”

Cutie told CBS he has been romantically involved with the woman in the photos for about two years after being friends for much longer. He said he is still deciding whether to leave the clergy and get married.

“I’m now in the process of thinking about all those things, of making decisions,” Cutie said. “And my bishop has given me the time to think about it. This is a difficult time. It’s a time of transition, it’s a time of thinking about the future.”

“I believe that I’ve fallen in love and I believe that I’ve struggled with that, between my love for God, and my love for the Church and my love for service,” Cutie said.

He appeared on CBS wearing a suit jacket and white shirt, not his priest collar.

Last week, more than one hundred people gathered outside St. Francis de Sales parish in Miami Beach, waving posters and chanting their forgiveness for Cutie.

“I think we all have ideals and we have ways of living,” Cutie said on CBS. “We want to do things right, but sometimes we fall short. And I fell short.”

A local church will hold a 10-mile walk/run Saturday to raise money for a mobile health clinic to serve the area’s needy population.

The event, organized by the Victory Worship Center and its student ministry, Elevate Youth Church, will take place on the University of Arizona Mall. Registration begins at 6 a.m. The run begins at 7 a.m.

The church’s aim is to raise $250,000 to buy the clinic and diagnostic equipment. The clinic would provide services at the church, 2561 W. Ruthrauff Road, and at other sites throughout town, according to a news release.

For more information about the fundraiser, go to www.elevate10mile.org or call the Victory Worship Center at 293-6386.

Khalifa

Nearly two decades of mystery and intrigue may be drawing to a close with the arrest of a man suspected of killing a local imam.

Calgary Police Services in Canada arrested Glen Cusford Francis, a 52-year-old citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, on Tuesday on suspicion of killing 55-year-old Rashad Khalifa, according to a news release issued by the Tucson Police Department.

On Jan. 31, 1990, Khalifa was found stabbed to death in the kitchen of the Masjid of Tucson, the mosque where he worked. The mosque is at East Sixth Street and North Euclid Avenue.

Khalifa had gained international attention for his computer analysis of the Koran and his claims that two verses were written by Satan, not God.

Police say Khalifa had been receiving death threats in the months leading up to his killing because of his controversial interpretation, and authorities in Colorado uncovered a plot to kill him.

According to Tucson Citizen archives, seven people were indicted in Colorado on charges of conspiracy to kill Khalifa.

All seven were believed to be members of FUQRA, a Muslim extremist group that had been tied to terrorist activities.

The plot was uncovered by police in Colorado Springs when they found explosives in a locker in 1989 while investigating a burglary.

Notes on how to kill Khalifa, diagrams and photos of the mosque, as well as planned escape routes, were found by detectives, archives show.

Authorities told Khalifa of the plot but four months later he was found dead in Tucson.

At least six of the seven men were convicted of charges related to the conspiracy.

The seventh, Edward Flinton, a citizen of Pakistan, fled before being arrested in 1996, according to Citizen archives.

It is not clear if Flinton was convicted and none of the men is believed to have actually stabbed Khalifa.

TPD spokesman Sgt. Fabian Pacheco said he was unaware of the Colorado arrests but would speak to homicide detectives about it.

Investigators in Tucson learned that a man calling himself Benjamin Phillips arrived at the mosque in January 1990 to study Islam under Khalifa, the TPD news release said.

It said local detectives used information obtained from family members in Georgia and in Canada, along with fingerprints found in Phillips’ Tucson apartment, to confirm that Phillips and Francis were the same man.

Francis was not seen in Tucson following the slaying and authorities learned that he fled the country the following year before returning in 1994, the news release said.

The FBI interviewed Francis in 1994 in Texas where he went by the name of Joseph Wall and denied ever being in Tucson, the news release said.

TPD’s cold case unit began working on the case in 2006 and in December last year, was able to use DNA testing on forensic evidence from the crime scene to tie Francis to the killing, the news release said.

TPD investigators worked with the Pima County Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Marshals Service and Canadian authorities to obtain a provisional arrest warrant for first-degree murder with a $1 million bond for Francis.

Francis

More than half of all Americans have switched religions at least once, according to an in-depth survey released Monday.

And that may still be “a conservative estimate,” said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Pew’s new Faith in Flux survey is based on re-contacting 2,800 people from its U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, released last year, which surveyed 35,000 people.

Key findings:

• The reasons people give for changing their religion – or leaving religion altogether – differ widely depending on the origin and destination of the convert: 71 percent of Catholics and nearly 60 percent of Protestants who switched to another religion didn’t think their spiritual needs were being met or they just liked another faith more, or they changed their views on religious or moral beliefs.

• Life circumstances, not religious doctrinal differences, prompt most Protestants who switch denominations.

• Among the 16 percent of Americans who say they are now unaffiliated with any religion, most are former Protestants and Catholics who say they didn’t quit in a huff or get lured away by science or by atheist philosophy.

“Combined with the 44 percent of the public that currently espouses a religion different than their childhood faith, this means that roughly half of the U.S. adult population has changed religion at some point in their life,” the report said.

Taking into account the margin of error in both the original and the current survey, the Pew researchers conclude that more than half of Americans are religious switchers.

PHOENIX — Catholic bishops are urging Gov. Jan Brewer and top legislative leaders to solve the state’s budget problems in a way that doesn’t put an entire generation of children at risk.

Bishops Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix and Gerald Kicanas of Tucson say in a joint letter that “creative solutions” are needed to preserve funding for education and programs for vulnerable children and adults.

The bishops don’t provide specific recommendations but urge the leaders to seek solutions through collaboration.

They say a solution can be gleaned by “asking the people and the private and public institutions of Arizona to step up with ideas and step up with resources.”

The state faces a shortfall of roughly $3 billion in its next budget based on $11 billion of spending.

Dedication May 31 for community facility honoring Monsignor Carrillo

Joe Hernandez, of Adobe Anvil Iron Works, talks about how he made the metal flowers for the stage and bandshell for the new Monsignor Arsenio S. Carrillo Placita.

A 22-foot-tall, steel lattice band shell with decorative floral details now graces the St. Augustine Cathedral grounds, the signature piece for the Monsignor Arsenio S. Carrillo Placita and Hall.

The placita’s dedication is set for 1 p.m. May 31, said John Shaheen, property director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson.

Work on the placita, at 192 S. Stone Ave., will continue until mid-May.

“The idea behind it was, this would be a community space, not just for the parish,” Shaheen said. “The whole placita area is designed to handle craft fairs, farmers markets and such.”

The placita can seat 600 for concerts and 300 for sit-down dinners, he said.

The band shell covers a 1,600-square-foot stage.

The shell is decorated with more than 300 steel flowers;1,000 steel leaves and branches; 18 steel butterflies; and a half-dozen steel birds, all crafted by blacksmith Joe Hernandez and two people he hired for the four-month forging job. Hernandez also supervised the installation of his floral work during the past four weeks.

“I just came up with a design (for the flowers),” said Hernandez, who owns Adobe Anvil Iron Works. “Each flower is about seven pieces.”

The flowers range from 24 inches to 12 inches wide. They were airbrushed with color by Fernando Holguin and Chris Andrews.

The placita is a 4-year quest of Tony S. Carrillo to honor his brother, Monsignor Arsenio S. Carrillo, who was the cathedral’s rector for 40 years. Tony Carrillo chaired the 31-person placita committee that has raised about $1 million. It still needs about $150,000 to pay for the sound and lighting systems.

“It’s very exciting to be able to have a facility that is going to be open to the public that can be used for weddings and quinceañeras,” Tony Carrillo said. “The fact that it will spur interest in further development downtown is also important to me and the bishop.”

The placita has been taking shape since last April, as crews transformed the cathedral’s long-neglected space at Stone Avenue and Ochoa Street into a dedicated gathering place.

About 1,200 paver bricks will make up the placita surface, and new restrooms were attached to the exterior of the former cathedral hall. A small grotto in honor of the monsignor is being built at Stone and Ochoa.

Groups wishing to use the placita can call Shaheen at 792-3410.

Joe Hernandez of Adobe Anvil Iron Works explains how he made the metal flowers for the stage and band shell.

Francisco Merancio (left) and Manny De Loreto of Escalante Concrete prepare forms for the steps to the stage and band shell.

Dozens of Tucsonans are expected to make the 40th annual Procession of Holy Friday up “A” Mountain this week.

The public event commemorates Jesus’ walk to his death by crucifixion on Mount Calvary nearly 2,000 years ago.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson will lead the procession as participants carry a 16-foot cross and pray the Stations of the Cross, which mark Jesus’ final hours.

Participants will gather at 3 p.m. Friday in the parking lot at the base of the mountain for the procession, slated to begin at 5.

The cross will remain on the mountain until an Easter sunrise Mass is celebrated at 6:15 a.m. Sunday.

Tucsonan David Herrera started Los Dorados/Orphan League, which conducts the procession, 40 years ago to connect barrio families to their faith.

Israelis wrapped in prayer shawls and phylacteries participate in the special "Blessing of the Sun" prayer on the rooftop of the Azrieli commercial center in Tel Aviv, on Wednesday. Devout Jews around the world on Wednesday observed a ritual performed only once every 28 years, saying their morning prayers under the open sky in the "blessing of the sun."

JERUSALEM – Devout Jews around the world on Wednesday observed a ritual performed only once every 28 years, saying their morning prayers under the open sky in a ceremony called the “blessing of the sun.”

Tens of thousands of worshippers stood next to the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s walled Old City, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Hundreds headed to the ancient desert fortress of Masada, while others prayed on the roof of a Tel Aviv high-rise and congregated on road sides.

“God created the world in seven days,” said Yona Vogel, one of the estimated 50,000 who attended the Western Wall prayers. “On the fourth day he put the sun into orbit and every 28 years it returns to the original place that it stood when God created the world.”

The special blessing — called the Birkat Hachamah in Hebrew — was marked in many time zones, starting with members of the small Jewish community in New Zealand. In hundreds of places, from Israel and Italy to New Zealand and Kyrgyzstan, observant Jews rose before dawn for outdoor prayers and dancing.

The prayer came on the eve of the weeklong Passover festival, in which Jews commemorate the exodus from slavery in Egypt. The timing was coincidental, but added to the joyous feeling felt by many worshippers.

In New York City, a rabbi was to lead a morning gathering near the United Nations. Another group was to pray on the deck of a 17th-story penthouse near ground zero, the site of the demolished World Trade Center.

A Birkat Hachamah ceremony in 1981 was held on the 107th-story observation deck of the World Trade Center’s South Tower, and the rabbi was dedicating Wednesday’s blessing to the memory of those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Organizers of a ceremony on the boardwalk in Long Beach, New York, on Long Island, said they would distribute sunglasses to worshippers. But they might go unused; the forecast was for a cloudy morning.

The Orthodox Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch movement scheduled live Webcasts from seven locations as the sun moved across the Earth, starting at 8 a.m. local time in Christchurch, New Zealand, followed by events in Brisbane, Australia; Jerusalem; London; New York; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Honolulu.

An especially colorful ceremony was reported by The New York Times in 1897, when a rabbi was arrested for presiding over the ritual as hundreds of Jews assembled without a permit in a city park. He and another rabbi tried to explain what they were doing to a police officer.

“The attempt of a foreign citizen to explain to an American Irishman an astronomical situation and a tradition of the Talmud was a dismal failure,” the Times reported, adding that the officer, wondering “whether some new infection of lunacy had broken out … seized the rabbi by the neck and took him to Essex Market Police Court.”

Devout Jews emphasize that they are not worshipping the sun, but rather paying homage to God.

“We make a special blessing on this day to remember the day that God created the world and put the sun into orbit. It’s as though he is creating the world anew,” Vogel said.

Modern science may have overtaken the astronomy of the scriptures, but scholars say the blessing still has symbolic value as acknowledgment of the divine role in the universe.

AP writer Verena Dobnik, in New York, contributed to this report.

Obama

ANKARA, Turkey – Barack Obama, making his first visit to a Muslim nation as president, declared Monday the United States “is not and will never be at war with Islam.”

Urging a greater partnership with the Islamic world in an address to the Turkish parliament, Obama called the country an important U.S. ally in many areas, including the fight against terrorism. He devoted much of his speech to urging a greater bond between Americans and Muslims, portraying terrorist groups such as al Qaida as extremists who do not represent the vast majority of Muslims.

“Let me say this as clearly as I can,” Obama said. “The United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical … in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject.”

The U.S. president is trying to mend fences with a Muslim world that felt it had been blamed by America for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

At a news conference earlier with Prime Minister Abdullah Gul, Obama dealt gingerly with the issue of alleged genocide committed by Turks against Armenians during World War I. He urged Turks and Armenians to continue a process “that works through the past in a way that is honest, open and constructive.”

Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyia, two of the biggest Arabic satellite channels, carried Obama’s speech live.

“America’s relationship with the Muslim world cannot and will not be based on opposition to al Qaida,” the president said. “We seek broad engagement based upon mutual interests and mutual respect.”

“We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better, including my own country,” Obama said.

The president spoke for about 25 minutes from a small white-marble-and-teak rostrum in the well of a vast, airy chamber packed with Turkish lawmakers in orange leather chairs.

Except for a few instances of polite applause, the room was quiet during his speech. There was a more hearty ovation toward the end when Obama said the U.S. supports the Turkish government’s battle against PKK, which both nations consider a terrorist group, and again when he said America was not at war with Islam. Lawmakers also applauded when Obama said the United States supports Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.

Earlier, Obama said he stood by his 2008 assertion that Ottoman Turks had carried out widespread killings of Armenians early in the 20th century, but he stopped short of repeating the word “genocide.”

Gul said many Turkish Muslims were killed during the same period. Historians, not politicians, Gul said, should decide how to label the events of those times.

In his 2008 campaign, Obama said “the Armenian genocide is not an allegation,” but rather “a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence.”

Now that he is president, the genocide question may not be Obama’s best issue for taking a tough stand that antagonizes a key ally. It is important in U.S. communities with large numbers of Armenian-Americans, but it has a low profile elsewhere.

In his speech to the parliament Monday, Obama said the United States strongly supports the full normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia. He also noted that the United States “still struggles with the legacy of our past treatment of Native Americans.”

And the president also urged Turkey to help Israel and Palestine live “side by side in peace and security.”

Obama’s visit is being closely watched by an Islamic world that harbored deep distrust of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

In talks with Gul, and Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Obama hoped to sell his strategy for melding U.S. troop increases with civilian efforts to better the lives of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Obama recognized past tensions in the U.S.-Turkey relationship, but said things were on the right track now because both countries share common interests and are diverse nations. “We don’t consider ourselves Christian, Jewish, Muslim. We consider ourselves a nation bound by a set of ideals and values,” Obama said of the United States. “Turkey has similar principles.”

Obama’s trip to Turkey, his final scheduled country visit, ties together themes of earlier stops. He attended the Group of 20 economic summit in London, celebrated NATO’s 60th anniversary in Strasbourg, France, and on Saturday visited the Czech Republic, which included a summit of European Union leaders in Prague.

Turkey has the largest army in NATO after the United States. It and tiny Albania, recently admitted, are the only predominantly Muslim members of NATO.

Turkey opposed the war in Iraq in 2003 and U.S. forces were not allowed to go through Turkey to attack Iraq. Now, however, since Obama is withdrawing troops, Turkey has become more cooperative. It will be a key country after the U.S. withdrawal in maintaining stability, although it has long had problems with Kurdish militants in north Iraq.

Turkey maintains a small military force in Afghanistan, part of the NATO contingent working with U.S. troops to beat back the resurgent Taliban and deny al-Qaida a safe haven along the largely lawless territory that straddles Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. Turkey’s participation in fighting Islamic extremism carries enormous symbolic importance to the Muslim world, and Turkey has diplomatic leverage with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The public is invited to bring pets for a four-hour Blessing of the Animals and Fair.

The event, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Francis in the Foothills, 4625 E. River Road, includes animal adoptions by the Humane Society of Southern Arizona and the Sheriff’s Mounted Posse. Food and refreshments also available.

Admission is free.

For more information, contact Sara Morri at whimsis@aol.com or call 299-9063.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Jimmy Carter came to Notre Dame in 1977. So did Ronald Reagan in 1981 and George W. Bush in 2001.

The University of Notre Dame has a tradition of inviting new presidents to speak at graduation. But this year’s selection of President Barack Obama has been met by a barrage of criticism that has left some students fearing their commencement ceremony will turn into a circus.

Many Catholics are angered by Obama’s planned appearance at the May 17 ceremony because of his decisions to provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and international family planning groups that provide abortions or educate about the procedure.

The consensus Thursday on the campus of the nation’s most-prominent Catholic university was that any president should be welcomed at Notre Dame.

“People are definitely entitled to their outrage, but I think the main thing is to see that it’s an honor to have the president of the United States come to speak here whether you agree with him or not,” said Katie Woodward, a political science junior from Philadelphia.

Justin Mack, a senior film major from Dallas, agreed.

“I didn’t vote for him and there are a lot of things I don’t agree with him or support. But I feel like for this event people need to put that aside,” said Mack, a senior film major from Dallas. “My hope is that doesn’t distract too much from what the weekend is about, which is the graduation.”

But the distractions have been mounting, including sharply worded letters from two bishops. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of the Phoenix Diocese on Wednesday called Obama’s selection a “public act of disobedience” and “a grave mistake.” On Tuesday, Bishop John D’Arcy of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, which includes Notre Dame, said he would not attend the ceremony because of Obama’s policies.

Hundreds of people on both sides of the issue have sent letters to the student newspaper, and a coalition of conservative student groups has announced its opposition.

University spokesman Dennis Brown says Notre Dame does not plan to rescind the invitation. Anyone associated with the university can recommend a commencement speaker, he said, and the president consults with university officers to see who would be most appropriate.

Notre Dame President the Rev. John Jenkins has said the university does not condone all of Obama’s policies but that it’s important to engage in conversation.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Obama believes everyone has the right to express their opinion, saying the president met last week with Chicago Cardinal Francis George and others to discuss topics Obama and the Catholic church are interested in.

“He looks forward to continuing that dialogue in the leadup to the commencement, and looks forward to delivering the address in May,” Gibbs said.

Bob Reish, the student body president and a graduating senior, said there is a “general excitement” about Obama’s visit, although he is aware there are people on both sides of the issue.

As of 2 p.m. Thursday, The Observer, the student newspaper, had received 612 letters about Obama’s appearance — 313 from alumni and 299 from current students.

Seventy percent of the alumni letters opposed having Obama giving the speech, while 73 percent of student letters supported his appearance. Among the 95 seniors who wrote letters, 97 percent supported the president’s invitation.

Sophomore Kelsey Fletcher, a Japanese major from nearby Elkhart, said she doesn’t think the university should have invited Obama to speak.

“He shouldn’t be giving the commencement address because of his policies, but once you invite him you can’t disinvite him,” she said. “That would be rude.”

Others noted that Obama is only speaking at three universities this year.

“We can’t just forgive his viewpoints, we can’t just let it go without expressing our thoughts on it,” said Thomas Heitker, a freshman biology major from Columbus, Ohio. “But he’s only speaking at three universities this year and to be one out of so many is something we should be proud about.”

Chris Carrington, a political science major from the Chicago area, said he doesn’t see how Obama’s appearance at Notre Dame contradicts Catholic values.

“To not allow someone here because of their beliefs seems a little hypocritical and contradictory to what the mission of the university and church should be,” he said.

Martha Chavez of Trinity Bookstore helps longtime customer Libby Grabert with religious cards.

Dena Ruggiero walked into Fr Kino’s Corner looking for a job and a little spiritual reinforcement.

“I think that the way the economy is, people are losing hope, losing faith. Places like this make me feel inspired,” she said.

Religious store owners in Tucson have noticed an increase in people coming in who have lost jobs, houses, financial stability and faith. Ruggiero, 43, and others struggling because of the economy are looking to religious stores for answers.

Ruggiero is a single mother of three young children. She had to move her family into a smaller home near Fr Kino’s Corner and thought she’d look for a job close to home.

“I would love to work in an environment like this. It would restore my faith and my hope.”

Andy Corder, 52, owner of Fr Kino’s Corner, 2716 S. Kolb Road, told Ruggiero he had no available jobs.

“A lot of people that have been away from the church for years are coming back because they are turning to the church to help with this time,” Corder said.

Many people are stepping into these stores for the first time and buying Bibles.

At Fr Kino’s Corner, Bibles are being spoken for before they get to the store.

Colleen Bridges, 46, has been working at Gospel Supplies Parable Christian Store, 5611 E. Speedway Blvd., since 2001.

Bible sales for the store have increased in the last six to eight months.

Out of every 10 transactions, about eight include a Bible, Bridges said. They are “helping people come back to the center, come back to what’s important in life.”

Although sales of expensive items have stalled, less expensive items are in high demand.

“As far as what we’ve seen in a shift of products, we see a lot more of the basics of the faith, the basic prayers, people grabbing back onto their faith at the basic level,” Corder said.

Popular items are rosaries, prayer books, prayer cards and candles.

At Fr Kino’s Corner, a book called “Pray the Rosary with Scripture Readings” costs $1.75 and is flying off the shelves.

Martha Chavez, 60, an employee at Trinity Bookstore, 3801 E. Fort Lowell Road, said that St. Joseph products are hard to keep in stock.

It is believed that burying a statue of the saint can help you sell your home. St. Joseph home-selling kits are increasingly popular.

At Casa De Inspiracion, 2536 E. Sixth St., co-owner Angie Lopez has noticed the increased popularity of other saints.

St. Martin de Porres is known for his charity for the poor and images of St. Hedwig show her holding a small house.

People are also stepping into religious stores to simply share their stories and find a place to pray.

“People will come in and sit down and just share. They find this very comforting because of all the saints,” Lopez said.

Lopez has noticed days when she is busy attending to people, but at the end of the day the money doesn’t add up.

Prayer requests are also pouring in, and Trinity Bookstore designated a prayer corner about eight months ago where people can leave slips of paper with their requests.

At Fr Kino’s Corner there is a prayer request box and the prayer corner has couches. “A lot of them are for employment and economic relief,” Corder said of the prayer requests.

Chavez has noticed that many people come in not to buy, but to look at statues, read books and listen to the religious music that plays throughout the store.

People say, “I love your store because it’s so peaceful in here,” Chavez said.

“If your world is falling apart the last thing you have is hope – hope and faith.”

A St. Joseph kit to help homeowners sell their home.

———

On the Web

Fr Kino’s Corner

www.frkinoscorner.com/

Parable Christian Stores

www.parable.com/parable/

Trinity Bookstore

www.trinitybookstoretucson.com/