PRESS RELEASE
June 23, 2000

Contact: Atheists United Office: 323-666-4258;
Bobbie Kirkhart, Co-President: 213-482-5533

LOS ANGELES - At the end of May, 2000, the House of Representatives passed a bill honoring Pope John Paul II and authorizing $30,000 and a personal presentation by the House and Senate leaders to produce and award a Congressional Gold Medal to his Holiness. The bill is now in the Senate waiting for a floor vote.

AU decries the purpose of this bill and finds the content to include several offensive and inflammatory statements to the American atheist community. Such a bill is not only of questionable constitutionality due to its favoritism of religion over non-religion and the use of taxpayer funds to honor a religious figure, but it is also inherently divisive. The bill praises selective actions associated with the Catholic Church while ignoring its long line of abhorrent barbarisms and its lack of acceptance of responsibility of numerous Catholic sectarian aggressions even now being inflicted upon the world. One has only to look at Ireland, Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Sudan for the most recent examples. Wording in the declaration praising the Pope for his moral authority, promotion of peace and defense of justice mocks such obvious historical examples of

Even worse, the wording of the bill frequently implies that religion is superior to non-religion. Section 2, Paragraph (5) specifically praises Pope John Paul II for his alleged moral authority and his opposition to 'godless' totalitarian regimes. AU deplores the implied link between Totalitarianism and 'godlessness' and points out that many Totalitarian regimes, including the Holy Roman Empire, Nazi Germany, and many dictators in South American in recent times, had obligatory state religions.

Since there is nothing in recent news about the Pope having effected a major change in world poverty, crime, or general oppression and desperation anywhere, we must assume that the purpose of this bill is for the U.S. Congress to attempt to patch up the political damage it created when the House Leadership threw out the recommendation of an internal committee to appoint a Catholic as the next House Chaplain. Such cynical and transparent politics and disregard for the First Amendment only continues to sully our political leaders while offending millions of Americans and others around the world with its transparent religious partisanship.

AU urges that the Senate not take up this bill; or if it does, to consult the leaders of organizations who promote non-belief and seriously revamp the bill to show more sensitivity to non-religious worldviews and remove its defamatory language towards those who lead moral and productive lives without religion.

Pope John Paul II Congressional Gold Medal Act

106th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. R. 3544

AN ACT

To authorize a gold medal to be presented on behalf of the Congress to Pope John Paul II in recognition of his many and enduring contributions to peace and religious understanding, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Pope John Paul II Congressional Gold Medal Act'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds that Pope John Paul II--

(1) is the spiritual leader of more than one billion Catholic Christians around the world and millions of Catholic Christians in America and has led the Catholic Church into its third millennium;

(2) is recognized in the United States and abroad as a preeminent moral authority;

(3) has dedicated his Pontificate to the freedom and dignity of every individual human being and tirelessly traveled to the far reaches of the globe as an exemplar of faith;

(4) has brought hope to millions of people all over the world oppressed by poverty, hunger, illness, and despair;

(5) transcending temporal politics, has used his moral authority to hasten the fall of godless totalitarian regimes, symbolized in the collapse of the Berlin wall;

(6) has promoted the inner peace of man as well as peace among mankind through his faith-inspired defense of justice; and

(7) has thrown open the doors of the Catholic Church, reconciling differences within Christendom as well as reaching out to the world's other great religions.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED- The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of the Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design to Pope John Paul II in recognition of his many and enduring contributions to peace and religious understanding.

(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING- For the purpose of the presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (hereafter in this Act referred to as the `Secretary') shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3 under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, and at a price sufficient to cover the costs thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal.

SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDALS.

The medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.

(a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS- There is hereby authorized to be charged against the Numismatic Public Enterprise Fund an amount not to exceed $30,000 to pay for the cost of the medal authorized by this Act.

(b) PROCEEDS OF SALE- Amounts received from the sales of duplicate bronze medals under section 4 shall be deposited in the Numismatic Public Enterprise Fund.

Passed the House of Representatives May 23, 2000.

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