Vatican displaying Dead Sea Scrolls
THE ANCHOR-Diocese of Fall River-Fri., July 22, 1994
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In an unprecedented collaborative effort between Israel and the Vatican, the Dead Sea Scrolls are on display in a major e:xhibit at the Vatican Library. The showing of the scrolls, which include the earliest known fragments of biblical texts, followed a breakthrough diplomatic agreement last year. At that time, Israel and the Vatican also pledged closer cultural cooperation. "We thought this would be a good place for the scrolls to be exhibited, since tht:y touch the , '. ~ roots of both Christianity and Judaism," AmiI' Drori, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said at the show's opening. Drori suggested t.hat the Vatican might want to reciprocate by sending some of its Judaism-related antiquities - mostly medieval manuscripts - to Israel for a showing. Vatican Library Prefect Father Leonard Boyle said there would be "no problem at all" with such an exchange. The Vatican exhibit displays 12 scroll fragments out. of more than 1,000 discovered in caves of the Dead Sea area in the J udean desert between 1947 and 1956. The exhibit recently ended a U.S. tour, CNS/ N BC photo and when Israeli authorities offered CARYL KRISTENSEN it to the Vatican, the Vatican eagerly agreed to host the manuscripts, Father Boyle said. The exhibit occupies a library showroom near the Vatican Museum. Israeli officials said they 'hope as many as 400,000 visitors will view it before its return to WASHlNGTON(CNS)-Caryl "but what I get out of religion Israel Oct. 2. Kristensen, one of ''The Mommies" and hopefully for my children - is The scrolls are di!;played against of the NBC sitcoQ1, has plenty of some sort of spiritual guidepost, giant photographs of the Dead good things to say about her own and how to be a good human Sea sites and are a<:companied by mommy -- a tea~her at Rosary being." written explanations and a CD- High School in Fullerton, Calif. Looking back on her own, albeit ROM - an interactive computer "My mother is the closest thing temporary, rejection of Catholiprogram for visitors - specially to being a nun you qm get and still cism, she said, "I would like to give developed for the c:vent. Also on have II children," said the comic my children something they could display are artifacts discovered in actress, who was t~e ninth in mom reject rather than nothing at all." the area and several of the Vati- Claire McKellogg's brood of six "The Mommies," which airs Satcan's Hebrew manuscripts. girls and five boys. urdays, 8:30-9 p.m. EDT on NBC, The show's inauguration saw Mrs. Kristensen made the com- is a TV-friendly version of a standVatican officials poring over the ments in· a telephone interview up comedy act she performs with scrolls while Israeli antiquity ex- with Catholic News Service from Marilyn Kentz. perts enthused over some' of the her home in Los Angeles. She also It was canceled after mediocre Vatican manuscripts, particularly talked about her own Catholic ratings this season, but NBC recona rare ninth-century rabbinic com- faith and her return to it after an sidered and ordered 13 episodes as mentary on Leviticus and an equal- extended spiritual quest. a midseason replacement. ly unusual edition of the JerusaThe resolve to form a comedy Her mother, Mrs. McKellogg, lem Talmud. who is approaching age 70, started act with another new mother may One of the longer Dead Sea teaching at all-girl~ Rosary 20 years have come from Ms. Kristensen's texts on display at the Vatican ago after her youngest turned 5 girls' school background. includes parts of 4 ~ psalms. It was years old. "I had her (as a teacher) "When you're in the middle of discovered in 1956, and when ex- . as a sophomore in religion class adolescence, you're self-conscious perts unrolled it in 1961 they read -'Growth in Christ,'" Ms. Kristensen about everything," she said. In the in Hebrew a psalm of praise to said. "I think I got an 'A.'" boy-free atmosphere of Rosary, God: "The living lcan praise you, Her mother made everyone feel she added, "you were free to be even those who stumble can raud at home, Ms. Kristensen said. So who you were." When she was a you. In revealing your kindness to much so, she noted, "all my friends senior, she became student body them and by righteousness you would stay around the house to president. enlighten them. For in your hand talk to her instead of doing stuff is the soul of every living thing." with me." Mrs. McKellogg, her daughter added, "definitely 'walks her talk.' CHICAGO(CNS) - LayCathAnd you can't argue with her. She olics need to challenge society inWASHINGTON (CNS) - The absolutely puts her money where stead of blending in, Newsweek magazine senior writer Kenneth rate of drinking among college her mouth is." Ms. Kristensen said she's not a Woodward told a Chicago audience students is increasing sharply, with especially adverse <:onsequences for carbon copy of her mom. She has at the Catholic Theological Union women students, according to a two boys, ages II and 8, and says annual dinner. "We are so eager to new study on college drinking, economics - and ravenous appe- please, many of us Catholics, so eager to be nice, to be like evewhich showed that the number of tites during her pregnancies kept her from having more. ryone else, that we have forgotten college women who drink to get And after 13 years of Catholic that Christ told us to be a sign of drunk has more than tripled in the past 15 years, from 10 percent to schooling, "I thought I couldn't contradiction," Woodward said bear it anymore/, she said of her "We are· not called to be nice, as 35 percent. Catholic religion. She went on an C.S. Lewis pointed out. Nice is not "All substance abuse, but most especially alcohol on college cam- extended spiritual quest to find found in the Bible," he added Woodward received the 1994 Dispuses, is inhibiting the intellectual, something more satisfying. social and spiritual development "But every time I went back, I tinguished Service Award from of our students," said Holy Cross went back to the Catholic Church," Chicago Theological Union, the Ms. Kristensen said. "You could largest seminary and graduate Father Edward A. Malloy, comget petty about doctrine," she said, school of theology in the country. mission chairman.
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One of TV's "Mommies" praises her own mom
Nice not in Bible
More drinking
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AIDS kills, shortens lives of Third World children The worldwide AIDS epidemic will reverse several decades of hard-won improvements in child survival rates in many developing countries, according to "World Population Profile: 1994" a report recently released by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. The primary cause of children contracting AIDS is mother-child transmission, the report states. Adult AIDS deaths occur among relatively young adults; thus the impact of AIDS on life expectancy is considerable worldwide. The report shows that levels of infant and child mortality, measured in a recent survey in Zambia, were 15 percent higher than 10 years ago because of the impact of AIDS. Over 20 percent of pregnant women in Lusaka, Zambia, tested positive for HIV in 1990. Studies show similar patterns in the capital cities of Uganda and Malawi. In 13 sub-Saharan African countries, AIDS is expected to double the number of deaths that would have occurred without AIDS during the period from 1985 to 2010. AIDS will also significantly increase the death rate in Brazil, Haiti, and Thailand. By 2010, it will nearly double Haiti's death rate, and in Thailand the death rate will more than triple. Additionally, Peter Way, an author of the report, said that "by the year 2010, average life expectancy in Haiti will fall to 44 years. Without AIDS .it would be 59 years. In Uganda, expectation of life at birth will plummet to 32 years, whereas without AIDS it would be 59 years. AIDS has increased the U.S. death rate in the U.S. in the 199293 period by only 1.5 percent, nor do public health officials predict the widespread growth of HIV infection throughout the population in coming years. Nevertheless, in 1992 HIV infection became the leading cause of death among men aged 25-44 years. . Generally, HlV infections among adults are manifested in the period of peak sexual activity: late teens to age 35. Because of the 7- to 10year incubation period for AIDS, and about a 1- year survival from the onset of full-blown AIDS, greatly increased mortality is expected among persons aged 30 to 45.
and is expected to increase to about 7.9 billion by the year 2020. Of those 2.3 billion additional persons, more than 9 out of 10 will live in developing regions, more .than one billion in Asia alone. The developing world is on average younger than the developed world. Half of all persons in developing countries are under age 23, while in the developed world, half of all, persons are under age 35. But overall, the world will get older by 2020. At present, children 4 years old and younger outnumber the elderly(those 60 and older.) By the year 2020, the number of elderly will exceed the number of young children. The fastest population increase is projected to take place in subSaharan Africa, despite the increased mortality resulting from AIDS. Mainland China's population will continue to be the largest in Asia, though its share of developing Asia's total population will decrease from 39 percent in 1994 to 34 percent in 2020. The Asian developing countries outside mainland China are expected to comprise 36 percent of the world's population by 2020. Throughout the world, women live longer than men. The average disparity is two years in Asia, while in Russia women live an average 10 years longer. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest life expectancy of anywhere in the world. On average, an inhabitant ofthis region can expect to live only 51 years. The area also has the highest proportion of infant deaths; nearly 29 percent of all the deaths are of infants. In general, European and North American men and women live the longest. Men live an average 73 years in both regions, while North American women average 80 years, and European women 79 years. "World Population Profile: • 1994" contains statistics for the world's 225 countries and territories. The chapter on AIDS includes statistics from both the World Health Organization and the U.S. Census Bureau's Center for International Research.
Population Changes Other report findings deal with population changes and general life expectancy. The world's population reached about 5.6 billion persons in 1994
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