National religion writing awards announced

The largest religion writing contests in the country recently announced the winners of the 2002 contest.

The Amy Foundation Awards awarded $34,000 in cash prizes to 15 writers.

Alan Cochrum of The Forth Worth Star-Telegram in Texas took the top award, a $10,000 cash prize, for his winning essay, "Praying for Terrorists: A Scandalous Side to Mercy," which was published on Sept. 22, 2002.

More than 1,000 entries were handled by the Amy Foundation. All entries must have originally appeared in the secular print media the previous year.

The Amy Awards program encourages writers to apply biblical principles to contemporary issues, organizers said.

Articles considered for awards must not only appear in secular print media, but also contain at least one Bible quotation.

Copies of the winning entries are available from the Amy Foundation upon request.

Their Web site is www.amyfound.org.

The foundation has been hosting the awards competition for the last 18 years.

Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston named

Bishop Sean Patrick O'Malley, 59, has been appointed Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston, the Vatican announced last week.

O'Malley replaces Bishop Richard G. Lennon, who has been administrator of the Diocese of Boston since Cardinal Bernard F. Law resigned in December over his failure to remove abusive priests from ministry, The Boston Globe reported.

Lennon will continue to serve as administrator until O'Malley is installed, likely in the next two months.

"As the church is wracked by scandal and crisis, the stakes are very high," O'Malley said on his first day as archbishop-elect.

"I appeal to all Catholics to help the church to be a wounded healer by healing the divisions in our own ranks, so that we can be a leaven for good in the society in which we live," O'Malley said.

O'Malley has repeatedly apologized for the hurt caused by clergy who sexually abused children, and promised to settle the lawsuits pending against the diocese, according to the Globe, saying that "people's lives are more important than money."

American Bible Society

reducing publishing work

The American Bible Society is reducing its publishing work and shifting its focus to youth.

The change occurred as ABS eliminated about 80 jobs this spring, leaving the society with about 200 employees, according to Religion News Service.

The 188-year-old ABS will continue to distribute Bibles to some extent, said Denise London, associate vice president for communications. The group also hopes to reach out to young people in different ways. "We felt there are a lot of underserved youth in the United States," London said. "They're underserved and unchurched."

The ABS recently sponsored a Christian hip-hop concert in Indianapolis, RNS reported, and is considering producing Scripture-based compact discs and video games.

The shift is partly a result of economic factors that "every nonprofit has experienced," London told RNS. "We tried to ramp down so that we had positions that could actually be applied to our new direction. I guess you could say that the biggest hit came in publishing."

Nuns trying to patent

Mother Theresa name and logo

Nuns who belong to the order that Mother Teresa founded, the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, want to copyright her name and the logo of their order, which she designed, so no one will use them without permission.

"In her lifetime, Mother Teresa expressed on a number of occasions her wish that her name not be used by any other individual or organization without her permission or, after her death, the permission of her successor," Sister M. Nirmala, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, said last week.

"Respecting her wish, we have made the same request many times since her death in 1997 and shall continue to do so," Nirmala said.

Mother Teresa died at age 87 after a lifetime of service to the poor, for which she received the Nobel Peace Prize and worldwide recognition.