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Showing posts with the label Persecution

Not persecution... yet

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Fr Z comments on the "unhinged hate speech" found in an article on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website. A tale of two battles is filled with the now customary collection of splenetic and spurious allegations against the Holy Father. However, Bob Ellis goes further than most. He thinks that the Catholic Church should be outlawed, that the Pope is a "criminal mastermind", that the same tactics as have been applied in Afghanistan should be applied to the Catholic Church, and that we should "bomb the Vatican, and (going well beyond any current rules of engagement in Afghanistan) riddle the Pope with bullets as he staggers out of the flames." I agree with those commentators who say "Hold on!" when there is talk of persecution. Having nasty articles written in the papers in not pleasant but it is not quite the same as having your limbs torn apart on the rack, being roasted on a gridiron, being eaten by lions, hanged drawn and quartere...

That "Adam and Steve" apology

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The Telegraph reported today: Priest apologises for joking that marriage is not for 'Adam and Steve' . (He is not in fact a priest but a Deacon - as the report mentions in the first line. Slightly annoying in a quality paper but ho-hum.) Rev Frank Wainwright mentioned civil partnerships in his sermon at St Gregory's, Cheltenham, on Sunday and said that marriage is between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Apparently five members of the congregation have complained and the deacon has been branded as a homophobe by lesbian and gay groups. So let's have a look at the "Adam and Steve" thing. In 2001, openly gay playwright Paul Rudnick wrote a play called " The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told ". this was a parody of the bible in which Adam wakes up and realises that he is gay - then gets together with his boyfriend Steve. There was a 2005 film about a gay couple called " Adam and Steve ", and there is a gay dating agency called ... Adam and St...

Crusading elephants?

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Last July, as you may remember, Christians in the Indian state of Orissa were subjected to severe persecution . A 22 year old nun was burnt to death, an orphanage in Khuntpali village was burnt down by a mob, another nun was gang raped in Kandhamal, mobs attacked churches, torched vehicles, and destroyed the houses of Christians. Fr Thomas Chellen, director of the pastoral centre that was destroyed with a bomb, had a narrow escape after a Hindu mob nearly set him on fire. All together, more than 500 Christians were murdered, and thousands of others were injured. In an extraordinary development, a herd of elephants has travelled some 300Km to attack villages that were the worst persecutors of the Christians, leaving Christian homes untouched. See: Elephants attack in Orissa exactly one year after persecutions

State interference in funeral of Chinese Bishop

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UCANEWS has a report on the funeral of Bishop James Lin Xili of Wenzhou which took place last Saturday. (See: Members of 'open' and 'underground' communities attend bishop's funeral ) Bishop Lin was ordained clandestinely and therefore a member of the "underground Church". In China, as I understand, Catholics try hard to prevent the communist government from driving a wedge between the "official" and the "underground" Church. The funeral of Bishop Lin was an example of this determined co-operation with more than 20,000 people attending - from both communities (along with 1,000 police.) Although the funeral was held in relative freedom, there was still some petty state interference. As UCANEWS reports: The sources also said local government officials forbade the use of the term zhujiao (bishop) on banners and wreaths, but a compromise was reached with the use of "Lin mu" (shepherd Lin). However, officials allowed the verbal use...

Columban priest abducted in Philippines

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Fr Sean Cole of Bangor to Bobbio sends the disturbing news that Columban Father Michael Sinnott was on Sunday evening from the Columban house in Pagadian City by six armed men while he was walking in the garden. Fr Sinnott will be 80 in December, had a heart bypass four years ago, and has regular medication. Please say a prayer for his safe return to the community in the Philippines where he has served local people for decades. For further information, see Fr Sean's posts: Columban priest abducted in Pagadian City, Philippines Update on kidnapped Fr Michael Sinnott

Sacked for expressing Christian views

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The Voice carries the story of Denise Haye who was sacked from her job at Lewisham Council's legal services department after posting her Christian views on homosexuality on the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement website. She filled in an enquiry form which invited readers to give an opinion. See: Sacked christian to sue council Denise Haye is bringing an action for unfair dismissal, supported by the Christian Legal Centre .

Solidarity with Vietnamese blogger

A catechumen of the Archdiocese of Hanoi, Bui Thanh Hieu, who writes under the pen name Nguoi Buon Gio, which means “Wind Trader” has been arrested and detained for criticising the Vietnamese government's distortion of the Pope's speech to the Vietnamese Bishops at their Ad Limina visit. I humbly encourage bloggers to post on this injustice. The Wind Trader needs our support and the Vietnamese government needs to know that its distortion of the Holy Father's message is open to scrutiny from the rest of the world. VietCatholic news: Pope's speech distorted, catechumen, dissident bloggers arrested See also the CNA article Vietnamese blogger arrested for challenging media distortions of Pope's speech

Street preacher threatened by police for reading bible

Miguel Hayworth and his father, John, have been preaching on the street in Manchester for five years but have now been told by the Police that handing out tracts is harrassment and that reading out passages from the Bible was inciting hatred. The Police action was initiated after complaints were received from two members of the public. Although the men were threatened, they were not actually arrested.(See: Preacher threatened with arrest for reading out extracts from the Bible in public ) Miguel Hayworth's case has been taken up by the Christian Legal Centre which has written to complain to the Police.

Latest case of absurd secular intolerance

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Duke Amachree, a homelessness worker for Wandsworth Council, was suspended from his job in January because he had suggested to a woman with an incurable illness who was being evicted from her home that she might try putting her faith in God. He was told in an investigatory interview in March that "God had to be kept out of the workplace". He asked whether it would be appropriate to say "God bless" and was told that it would not. On Monday he was sacked. See the full story at the Christian Legal Centre: Wandsworth Council have today sacked London Homelessness Prevention Officer after previously threatening "say 'God Bless' and we'll sack you" . The Christian Legal Centre is representing Mr Amchree who is taking Wandsworth Council to an employment tribunal. This is the latest in a series of recent cases. Some may be won, some lost, who knows? The effect of them on ordinary employers and employees will be one of intimidation. Whatever the legal o...

Beyond parody?

Mounted police, white van, three officers in body armour, follow-up visit by the hate crimes unit... for distributing an invitation to Easter services. It is going to be more and more difficult for Private Eye to parody this stuff. H/T Christian Concern for our Nation

"They caught me on my knees adoring Jesus Christ!"

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There's a new blog that deserves to be given a heads-up. Kneeling Catholic looks as though it is going to be making a most useful contribution to Catholic blogdom. Have a look at today's post " They caught me on my knees adoring Jesus " which has a poem by Vicente Fernandez, in tribute to the Mexican Cristeros of the rebellion between 1926 and 1929.

Cardinal Zen opposes compromise

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Many thanks to Rorate Caeli for the link to the article from the Union of Catholic Asian News: Cardinal Zen Calls On Mainland Bishops To Act Wisely At Pivotal Moment . Cardinal Zen, the Bishop of Hong Kong, was writing in his diocesan Chinese language weekly newspaper, Kung Kao Po. Here is the original Chinese . Google will translate this after a fashion but if anyone who knows Chinese wants to do a proper English translation, I'm sure it would be warmly welcomed in the Catholic blogosphere. Cardinal Zen criticises the participation of some Chinese Bishops in the government sponsored celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). He points out that forcing Catholics to do something against their conscience, such as the ordination of Bishops without the approval of the Holy See, is not a cause for celebration. The article gives an interesting insight into the arguments used by those in the CCPA, alleging that it is futile ...

10,000 attend Chinese priest's funeral

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Last Tuesday, 10,000 Chinese Catholics attended the funeral of Father Joseph Jia Fuqian, uncle of “underground” Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding. Fr Jia died on 26 December, aged 88. In 1940, he took his first vows in the St Paul’s Congregation of the Zhengding diocese. When the Catholic Patriotic Association was established in 1958, he refused to join and was sentenced to twenty years of "reform-through-labour", a sentence he served in full. In 1981, three years after his release, now 61 years old, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Peter Joseph Fan Xueyan of Baoding. Bishop Fan was himself a prominent underground Church leader in Hebei, and died in detention in 1992. Fr Jia's funeral was celebrated by his uncle, Bishop Jia at Christ the King Cathedral in Wuqiu village in the Hebei province. The Bishop lives at the Cathedral watched by public security officers. About 60 priests of Zhengding concelebrated at the Mass but it is thought that many other priests from ou...

Christians in Iraq, the unfashionable minority

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Many thanks to Jane Teresa at My heart was restless for this important article on the general Silence on Iraqi Christians . On Tuesday, Edward Leigh MP managed to get a slot for a debate in the House of Commons on the plight of the beleaguered and persecuted Christians in Iraq: a plight contemptuously ignored by the mainstream media. In his opening remarks, Mr Leigh explained the importance of the question: It is important because we are talking about a massive humanitarian disaster and the fate of the Christian population in Iraq. It is one of the oldest Christian populations in the world, having been settled there for 2,000 years, and is descended in great measure from the ancient Assyrians, who had been there for thousands of years. It is an historic, settled population. Just five years ago there were 1.2 million Christians in Iraq, and now there are only 600,000 left. There has been a massive flight of Christians from Iraq and it is reckoned that although the Christian population ...

Thoughts on the Cogman case

It seems that quite a lot of reaction is building up concerning the case of PC Cogman who has been sacked from Norfolk Police for using the internal email system to express his Christian belief that homosexual acts are sinful. This is clearly a case of one right being allowed to "trump" another. Some observers have said that he should not be allowed to use his employer's email system to express his views; but the occasion for him doing so was the use of his employer's facilities in order to express a strong pro-gay view by heavily promoting "Gay History Month" and putting pressure on officers to wear a pink ribbon. According to the law as it now stands, it is an offence to discriminate against homosexual people by refusing to provide goods and services. While it is only to be expected that the Police Service will enforce this, the law does not require the Police Service to issue pink ribbons and "Gay History Month" literature any more than it requi...

Policing standards

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PC Cogman, whom I wrote about yesterday ( A policeman's lot is not an 'appy one ) has now been sacked by Norfolk Police. Cogman was found guilty of two charges: one of failing to comply with a lawful order over the use of police computers and another of failing to treat a colleague with politeness and tolerance. The truth, as both the BBC and Pink News agree in their reports, is that he was sacked for suggesting that gay sex was sinful. I would like to award the "laugh or cry" to the remark of Deputy Chief Constable Ian Learmonth, who said: "This officer's behaviour fell well below what we expect of our people."

A policeman's lot is not an 'appy one

I have only just heard about the story of PC Graham Cogman who has taken Norfolk Police to an employment tribunal on grounds of harassment because of his traditional Christian values. During Gay History Month, gay liaison officers at the Great Yarmouth HQ put pressure on colleagues to wear a pink ribbon. PC Cogman sent an email round to state his Christian views and remind other officers that Christians, and other members of society, whom they serve as officers, believed homosexual acts to be wrong in God’s eyes. For this, he was banned from using the internal email system. When the same thing happened a year later, he was summoned to a disciplinary hearing. Advised by his lawyers, and fearing to lose his job, he pleaded guilty to a breach of the police code of practice and was fined the maximum, £1,200. After putting a christian text on his computer screen saver, he was questioned again and now faces the possibility of losing his job. Hence his action for harrassment. Thanks to the Ch...

CPS incitement to disorder?

Baltic Flour Mills Visual Arts Trust put up a statue of Our Blessed Lord with an erect penis. The statue is a modified traditional statue of the Sacred Heart as I discover from the Guardian website which sees fit to include a picture of it.  Emily Mapfuwa, a Christian from Essex, took out a private prosecution on the grounds that the statue outraged public decency. The Baltic Flour Mills people were bracing themselves for a trial by jury but then the Crown Prosecution Service intervened and ruled that there was no case to answer. Their statement included the following: "We have taken into account all the circumstances, including the fact that there was no public disorder relating to the exhibition and that there was a warning at the entrance to the gallery about the nature of the work on display. The case has therefore been discontinued." The CPS press release  includes a statement from the Chief Crown Prosecutor Nicola Reasbeck, in which she says, "Under the Prosecution...

Petition demanding protection for Iraqi Christians

Ed West is organising a petition to 10 Downing Street to demand protection for Iraqi Christians. It reads: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to demand from the Iraqi Government protection for Iraq's Christians, especially those who have recently fled the city of Mosul. We also ask for assistance for those who have fled, measures to ensure the safety of those who wish to return, and a full investigation into who is responsible for the murders. More details Further information: At least 13 Christians have been murdered in the city of Mosul in the last two weeks, and around 10,000 Christians have fled the city. These are just the latest attacks: since the 2003 invasion up to half of Iraq's 800,000 Christians have fled persecution, kidnappings and murder. According to the UN High Commission on Refugees the Christians, just 3 per cent of the pre-war population, account for over a third of overseas refugees. Without protection Iraq's ancient minority, who have been ...

Cry for help from Iraqi Christians

Iraqi Christians in Need (ICIN) is a charity set up to help needy Iraqi Christians who have been suffering, displaced, destitute or persecuted as a result of the war. The other day, the Times reported on the " religious cleansing " that has recently escalted in the country. ICIN reports that the crisis in Mosul (Nineveh) is becoming increasingly desperate and that During the past few days, many Christians have been killed in Mosul, just because they are Christians. Several thousands have fled their houses and took refuge in Churches in the city and nearby mountains. In response, ICIN has made a substantial donation from its reserve and will send this, together with what is received from the “Crisis in Mosul Fund”, directly to those in Mosul who are taking care of the displaced. If you would like to support this appeal, here is a link to donate by credit card . Dr Suha Rassam, one of the founders of the charity, recently received a "Catholic Woman of the Year" award...

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