ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996               TAG: 9604010039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 

IN THE WORLD

BOGOTA, Colombia - A leader of the Cali drug cartel surrendered to authorities Friday, becoming the second member of a younger generation of Cali bosses to give himself up this month.

Juan Carlos Ortiz, 33, turned himself in to prosecutors in Cali, 185 miles southwest of the capital, Bogota, and home to the world's largest drug organization.

Ortiz, known as ``The Razor,'' was arrested in 1994 on charges of murder, kidnapping and extortion, but was later released for unknown reasons, RCN radio reported.

The only formal charge against him is for illegal possession of a weapon, the prosecutor's office said. - Associated Press Paraplegic can't be wed in the Church

BRASILIA, Brazil - A Roman Catholic bishop has prohibited the marriage of a paraplegic man because he would not be able to have sex with his future wife and father children.

Bishop Joao Bosco de Faria rejected a request last week to marry Elzimar de Lourdes Serafim and Edir Antonio de Brito, 44, a paraplegic who lives in Patrocinio in southeastern Minas Gerais state.

In a March 21 letter, the bishop said a religious wedding was impossible because the couple would not be able to have their own children - which the Catholic Church considers a primary reason for marriage.

Archbishop Lucas Moreira Neves, head of the powerful National Bishops Council, said Friday he supported Farias' decision.

``There can be no marriage without the sexual union of the partners,'' Neves said. ``If a partner is incapacitated after the marriage, then there is no problem.''

Brito, paralyzed from the waist down for 29 years, said he was ``disappointed and hurt.''

The couple has decided to get married in the Orthodox Church, he said. - Associated Press Vatican denounces gay `wedding' rites

VATICAN CITY - Citing the pope's statement that same-sex marriages create ``moral disorder,'' the Vatican on Wednesday denounced a ceremony in San Francisco this week at which gay couples were symbolically wed.

The Vatican's latest condemnation of same-sex marriages, contained in a commentary in its official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, also appealed to voters not to support candidates who back homosexual unions. - Associated Press

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