CHURCH OF IRELAND CLOSES TO HEAR

ROMAN PRIEST PREACH IN

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Each January there is a week set-aside for Prayer for Christian Unity. The ecumenical agenda is well illustrated by this section from the Order of Service given out in Bangor Abbey on Sunday 9 January - "Good morning and welcome as you join us for worship at the Abbey, St Columba's or Clandeboye Chapel ... There will be no Evening Prayer tonight, instead you are invited to join with other churches at First Bangor Presbyterian Church at 7.00pm to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The preacher will be Father Gerry Patton.

We can do no better than quote the words of the Apostle Paul writing to the Galatians:-

"BUT THOUGH WE OR AN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN PREACH ANY OTHER GOSPEL UNTO YOU THAN THAT YE HAVE RECEIVED LET HIM BE ACCURSED"

Galatians Chapter 1:9

DO YOU WANT THIS TO BE THE FACE OF THE NEW ULSTER?

meets the Pope before a private audience with his Holiness

Spiritual compromise results in political surrender. Far better that the doors of Stormont be shut forever and we have direct rule from London, with all its faults, than to be governed bv Romanist politicians whose spiritual home is the Vatican.

THE NOT SO POPULAR POPE

If we were to believe the mass media, they would have us think that everyone in the world loved the Pope except a handful of bigoted Ulster Protestants. The following recent reports prove that this is not the case.

ISRAELI ANGER AT VATICAN'S 'INTERVENTION' ON JERUSALEM

by Alain Philips in Jerusalem

The vatican and the Palestinians signed an agreement calling for Jerusalem to have a "special status" guaranteed by international treaty. It prompted an immediate protest from Israel.

The agreement, signed during a visit to the Vatican by Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, also said that any unilateral decisions made by Israel on the Holy City would be "morally and legally unacceptable".

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was summoning the Vatican's ambassador, the Papal Nuncio, Pietro Sambi, to protest at what it called the Holy See's "regrettable intervention" in the final status talks with the Palestinians, which are to decide on the fate of Jerusalem. "Jerusalem was, is and shall remain the capital of the State of Israel, and no agreement or declaration by these or any other parties will change this fact," a ministry statement said. Israel has declared the whole of Jerusalem to be its "eternal and undivided capital".

From Ramit Plushnick-Masti, in Jerusalem

POSTERS plastered throughout an ultra-Orthodox Jewish Neighbourhood of Jerusalem have called Pope John Paul "the evil one" and promised that his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, this month would not pass peacefully.

The posters in the Geula district were signed by "the headquarters for the cancellation of the Pope's visit, cursed be he, in the Holy Land". They assailed the alleged desecration of the Jewish sabbath which they said the Pope's plan to celebrate Mass on March 25th, a Saturday, would cause.

The planned Mass in Nazareth, the home town of Christ, has enraged ultra-Orthodox Jews. They object because it means that many Jewish police will have to work on Saturday, the Jewish day of rest.

The walls of the Jerusalem office of Israel's Chief Rabbi were sprayed on Sunday with protests saying "No to meeting the Pope", "No to desecration of the sabbath", and "Blessed be he who uproots idol worship". The slogans, signed by the outlawed ultra-nationalist Jewish Kach group, had been removed by Monday.

The Pope's visit to the Holy Land is part of his plan to walk in the footsteps of the biblical prophets and Jesus at the start of the third millennium.  Recently he visited Mount Sinai, where God is said to have given the Ten Commandments to Moses.

The Pope will be in Israel and Palestinian-ruled areas from March 21st to 26th. After Mass in Nazareth he will arrive in the Old City of Jerusalem on saturday evening before the end of the Jewish sabbath.

Jerusalem is sacred to the world's three monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The Israeli Chief Rabbi, Dr Yisrael Meir Lau, condemned the graffiti opposing the Pope's visit. "We have to welcome the Pope with the respect he deserves. The current Pope is a friend of Israel and it is not wise to turn him into an enemy."

By Rahul Bedi in New Delhi and Bruce Johnston in Rome

A GROUP of Hindu extremists recently demonstrated in New Delhi against the Pope, who was arriving for a three day tour. They had made a 950 mile protest journey across India ahead of the Pontiffs arrival.

At a public rally in the centre of the capital, the activists from the World Hindu god's chariot, demanded that the Pope apologise for mass killings and forced conversions in the former Portuguese colony 400 years ago.

The demonstration came as police and paramilitary personnel threw a security cordon around the city after several Hindu fundamentalist organisations threatened to disrupt the visit. Earlier, police arrested leaders of an extremist Hindu party who had given warning of disruption unless he accepted their demands. The activists, all allies of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Jnata Party-led coalition, accuse the Roman Catholic Church of converting Hindus through "trickery" and by using money and inducements offered by Western Christian organisations.

Fears of violence have led police to advise that at Sunday's open air mass the Pope officiates behind bullet proof glass, a precaution which the Vatican has rejected.

After a meeting with Indian dignitaries, followed by a visit to the Rajghat, where the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi are kept, the Pope is to meet Asian bishops to mark the official conclusion of a synod which took place in Rome last year. On Sunday, there was a mass in the Jawarharial Nehru Stadium, followed by a meeting with representatives of other religions, which Hindu fundamentalists see as the major event of the trip. Hindu extremists are particularly angry that one of the main points of the visit is to lend a "new impetus" to Catholicism and Catholic missionary work in India. India's 23 million Christians form 2.43 per cent of the predominantly Hindu population of more than one billion. Of these, 16 million are Catholic.

Although the government has said it would do everything to ensure the Pope's visit was a success, it has refused permission to Vice President Krishna Kant to attend a multi-faith function presided over by the Pontiff.

Jaswant Singh, the foreign minister, also obliquely endorsed Hindu fundamentalist organisation demands for an apology from the Pope over Goa's conversions when he told parliament that "repentance was a part of Christian ethics".

Last week protesters belonging to various Hindu organisations burned an effigy of the Pontiff and staged protests outside the Vatican embassy in New Delhi accusing Christian missionaries of forcibly converting poor Indians.

ROME'S 'HOLY FATHERS'!!!

LOVE-RAT PRIEST WEDS MUM OF FOUR

Laura O'Shea and Father Frank Meehan tied the knot in a dawn civil ceremony in Belfast and then flew to Manchester for a service with 80 guests at a hotel in Cheshire, said the News of the World.

The bride, 26, from Hattersley, Greater Manchester, jilted boyfriend of 12 years Carl Varey before their September wedding and moved in with Fr Meehan.

They had known each other for two years, since Fr Meehan, 36, became parish priest in Hattersley.

After the relationship became public, Fr Meehan resigned from the priesthood and moved to north Wales with Laura and her four children, Carl 10, Kelly 8, Rachael 6 and 2 year old Emma.

Their wedding was conducted by maverick Catholic clergyman Bishop Pat Buckley, who was unavailable to discuss the arrangements.

The groom, who reportedly now plans to become a teacher, said: "Once we knew how deeply we felt about each other we just wanted to marry as soon as possible."

ABBOT JAILED FOR RAPE

Abbot Jean-Lucien,Maurel, 71, was jailed for 10 years in Toulouse recently for raping and sexually abusing three boys, then aged 10 to 13, in 1994-96, when he was head of a school in Aveyron. He denied the charges. His conviction was the latest blow to the Roman Catholic Church in France, where assault charges against its priests have risen sharply in recent years. "We are dealing with a leader, a liar, a head who preyed on fragile, defenceless victims." said Oliver Decout, prosecuting. He asked for a 12-year sentence.

Reuters, Toulouse

PRIEST POISONED BY SPIKED WINE

A PARISH priest in Sicily was in a critical condition in  hospital after sipping sacramental wine spiked with herbicide. His sacristan was under arrest. According to a police spokesman, the Rev Alflo Pappalardo (66) collapsed at the altar after sipping the Eucharist wine from a chalice as he celebrated Mass at the Basilica of Pedara near Catania.  He said the 53-year-old sacristan was arrested a few hours later after police found a bottle of herbicide at his home. The wine had been spiked with the same kind of  herbicide, the spokesman said.   The priest and the sacristan, who had tended the church  for more than 20 years, had been involved in a bitter dispute over the sacristan's benefits, the spokesman added.

  PRIEST OF 74 IS JAILED FOR 36 YEARS

By a Daily Telegraph Correspondent

A JAIL sentence of 36 years was imposed yesterday on a 74 year-old member of a religious order who recently assaulted young boys in his care. Jarnes Kelly, known within the Brothers of Charity Order as Brother Ambrose, committed the offences against disadvantaged boys at a home where he worked in Cork. Kelly pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to offences dating back nearly 40 years against three boys, then aged between 8 and 18 years.Judge A G Murphy told Kelly that his victims had been "rendered with a life a little short of crucifixion" by the evil he had perpetrated. Kelly's term of imprisonment was made up of 18 two-year sentences, all to be served consecutively. After the case, the Brothers of Charity issued a statement expressing their "deep regret and sorrow" to Kelly's victims. The jail term was a record in the Irish Republic for sex abuse.

CATHOLICS SPEND $1 BILLION IN SEXUAL MISCONDUCT CASES

Three times in a little over a year, sex scandals have driven high-ranking members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy from office, costing U.S. dioceses and estimated $1 billion in payments to victims (Proclaiming the Gospel).

A Santa Rosa, CA, bishop (1999) became the eighth of his rank or higher to leave office in the last decade over sexual misconduct. Others were a Santa Fe, NM, archbishop (1993) and an Austrian cardinal (1998).

YET ROME TELLS US

"The Catholic Church, then, is the ground and pillar of truth, as the Bible tells us, and in this Church we find both our mother and our teacher." Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz at the 1999 Marian Congress, June 12, Alexandria, S.D. Wanderer, July 15, 1999

IDOLATRY - U.S.A. !!

The Dallas Morning News, September 18,1999

Touring statue recalls apparitions at Fatima

She arrives on a litter borne by four men. She is clothed in satin and lace with a golden crown. She comes to spread the message of peace. A statue of Our Lady of Fatima is touring the Roman Catholic diocese of Fort Worth. The figure one of two carved by sculptor Jose Thedim in 1947 is taken around the world for the faithful to adore and reconsecrate themselves to her Immaculate Heart. Apostolatus Uniti, a diocesan organization, is sponsoring the local visits.

The statue commemorates the Virgin's six appearances to three children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. She reportedly told them she was sent with a message that heaven would grant peace to the world if her requests for prayer, reparation and consecration were obeyed. Followers were urged to pray the rosary daily, wear the brown scapular of Mount Carmel and perform acts of reparation and sacrifice. Our Lady of Fatima also asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.

The church endorsed the Fatima message in 1930 as 'worthy of belief,' and Pope Pius XII wrote in an encyclical that "in this doctrine and devotion of Our Lady's Queenship lies the world's greatest hope." Since the statue, known as the Pilgrim Virgin, began its worldwide journey in 1947, miracles and cures reportedly have followed it. More than 30 times it is said to have wept. When the statue was in Moscow in 1992 Our Lady reportedly appeared over Red Square. During the local visits, the Rev. Charles Faso, custodian of the statue, will speak about its significance.

CATHOLICS 'SHUN CONFESSION'

Roman Catholics are losing "the sense of sin" and are no longer going to confession, the Vatican, has been told.

Many Catholics who have "violated God's commandments in a grave manner" are receiving Holy Communion without any qualms, the Vatican's senior Church law official complained.

Archbishop Julian Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for the interpretation of Legislative Texts, raised the alarm in the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

Describing the trend as "distressing and worrying", he said even worshippers in Catholic countries, who frequently received Communion, neglected the sacrament of penance.

PRIEST SHORTAGE IN CANADA MAY FORCE LARGE-SCALE CHURCH CLOSINGS

(RNS)-A shortage of priests in the Canadian Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton may force the archdiocese to close almost half of its parishes.

The archdiocese, which covers much of the province of Alberta, is one of the Canadian church's largest geographical units and has about 300,000 Catholics.

"I think this is a phenomenon that is hitting every diocese in North America and Western Europe" said John Acheson, author of a 110-page report, "Faithful Into the Future," which recommends closing almost half of the archdiocese's churches because of the priest shortage.

The archdiocese currently has 79 priests serving 166 parishes. In many parishes, Mass is said only once a month or so because of the lack of a priest.

The plan to close or consolidate 78 parishes has been accepted in principle by Archbishop Joseph MacNeill, Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency reported. "The plan is to move ahead with the recommendations," Acheson said.

"At the same time," he added, "this is not to be seen as a crisis for us. I think society is changing, so our church has to change."

ORTHODOX CLERGY

BOYCOTT POPE

Clergy from Georgia's Orthodox Church boycotted a mass said by the Pope before 10,000 people in Tbilisi. The country's president, Edward Shevardnadze, also attended, but the Orthodox Church hierarchy, suspicious of what it fears is Catholic expansion into its territory, stayed away.

Marcus Warren, Moscow

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