Plot to Kill African Cardinal Uncovered

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 3 — The government of Ivory Coast discovered a plan to assassinate the leading Catholic bishop in the country, Cardinal Bernard Agre, along with a list of other civic and Church leaders, according to the Associated Press.

The plotters had hoped through the murders to discredit the government of President Laurent Gbagbo, who has negotiated a settlement with Islamic rebels in that west African country. Minister of Security Martin Bleou said the plotters were “trying to plunge Ivory Coast into chaos. The government demands that these individuals regain their self-control and abandon this project.”

No arrests have yet been announced, but heavily armed police have fanned out around Cardinal Agre's residence at St. Paul's Cathedral in Abidjan. The country is still bitterly divided between the mostly Christian and animist south, and the predominantly Muslim north.

Ivory Coast is home to one of the largest Catholic churches in the world, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Afghan Constitution Will Found ‘Islamic Republic’

BBC, Nov. 3 — According to the recently released draft of a new constitution for Afghanistan, which was wrenched from the extremist Taliban by the United States and coalition forces in 2001, the country's unity will be anchored on its Islamic identity, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The draft constitution acknowledges its debt to Islamic principles and declares that no law may be passed which contravenes the teachings of the Koran. It's unclear whether this will mean that abortion and other practices contrary to Islam will be prohibited.

The constitution makes no mention of Shariah, the comprehensive, theocratic system of laws that have been imposed in other Islamic nations with religious governments. The country will be renamed “The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.”

Western sponsors of the new Afghan government have stressed that the regime must protect the rights of religious minorities and offer Afghan women far more freedom than previous Islamist fundamentalist regimes have done.

Bishops of Europe Call Christianity a Force for Unity

INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS, Nov. 3 — Continuing the Vatican-sponsored initiative to insist that some reference to Europe's Christian heritage be made in any new constitution for the burgeoning European Union, the bishops’ conference for that region met in Brussels from Oct. 30-31. The prelates issued a statement reminding Europeans that the Christian faith had helped unite a fractious Europe over the centuries and could serve the same purpose in the future, according to Independent Catholic News.

The European bishops stressed the fact that mentioning Christianity in particular would not imply the exclusion of other faiths that have historically or currently exist in Europe or violate the separation of church and state enshrined in many of the member nations’ individual constitutions.

“The role of Christianity in the formation of Europe is an undeniable historical fact,” said Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Brussels. “Anyone who denies this role must be doing it for ideological reasons. Even if all the values we share in common are not exclusively Christian, they have all passed through the mold of Christianity.”