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Daily briefs of the top news stories impacting Christians around the world.

 

In today's edition:

Robertson Apologizes for Saying Stroke Was a Divine Punishment

 

Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson has sent a letter of apology for suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment, the AP reports. Robertson's comments that God had smitten Sharon for pulling Israel out of the Gaza Strip (the pullout was seen by many evangelical groups as a retreat from a biblical prophecy of Jewish sovereignty over the area) drew condemnation from other Christian leaders, President Bush, and Israeli officials. In a letter dated Wednesday and marked for hand delivery to Sharon's son Omri, Robertson called the prime minister a ''kind, gracious, and gentle man" who was ''carrying an almost insurmountable burden of making decisions for his nation. My concern for the future safety of your nation led me to make remarks which I can now view in retrospect as inappropriate and insensitive in light of a national grief. I ask your forgiveness and the forgiveness of the people of Israel," Robertson wrote. Despite the apology, it was doubtful that Robertson would be brought back into the fold of the proposed Christian Heritage Center in the northern Galilee region.

 

Judas Merely Part of God’s Plan for the World, Vatican Scholars Claim

 

According to a story in the Irish Examiner, the name and reputation of Judas Iscariot will never be quite the same again. For 2,000 years, the disciple’s name has been hurled at traitors and turncoats, but now, a group of Catholic scholars is trying to portray a more sympathetic image of Judas, who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. The scholars believe that Judas was not deliberately evil but was just fulfilling his part in God’s plan for the world. The campaign to reassess Judas is being led by Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science. Writer Vittorio Messori said the rehabilitation of Judas would “resolve the problem of an apparent lack of mercy by Jesus towards one of his closest collaborators.” The possible revision comes after the discovery of ancient texts written by early Christians, which reflect the belief in the early church that Judas was fulfilling a divine mission which resulted in the crucifixion of Jesus and the salvation of man. The drive to re-establish Judas’s reputation has not won everyone’s support, however. Theologian Monsignor Giovanni D’Ercole has said that such a move would create confusion among believers.