PROTESTANT PUPIL WITHDRAWN IN
"ASH WEDNESDAY" UPROAR
AN IRATE father has accused Carrick's Ulidia Integrated College of attempting to indoctrinate Protestant children in the ways of the Catholic faith.
The Larne man felt so strongly over a school assembly on Ash Wednesday that he has now taken his son from the school.
"We sent our son to Ulidia in the first place as we believed there would be no intervention of religion of any sort.
But, on Ash Wednesday the children were taken from Ulidia College to the Acorn Integrated Primary for a service. A priest was there and children were invited to go forward and receive the ashes.
When you consider that just 27 per-cent of the pupils at Ulidia are Catholics, I don't see why it was necessary.
Catholic churches would have been open that day anyway and any children who would have wanted to receive the ashes could have done so there.
Parents were not asked beforehand if they wished their children to attend.
I'm quite easy going and can get on with anybody but I feel this is just too much. I'm an Orangeman and it is not on for me or a member of family to be put in this position. There are other Protestant parents who are angry about this and we have heard of at least one other couple who have taken their child away from the school because of it.
The more I think of it the more I think the school is becoming more Catholic orientated. It has been a big upheaval for my son to move to another school and it's not a decision we have taken lightly.
I heard that the school held a similar service last year. I wasn't aware of that at the time, but if I had been I would have taken my son out of the school then. I don't think it's right.
I am quite prepared to accept the Catholic tradition but I don't believe children should be indoctrinated," the father said.
The Principal of Ulidia Integrated College, Mr. Eugene Martin, explained that part of the aims of integrated education is to respect the traditions of others. "Throughout the year there's a variety of events to which members of the college are invited.
When we held an Ash Wednesday service we were concerned that some parents may have felt it was one-sided, so we invited both a priest and Rev. Fred Bradley, a local Presbyterian minister to take part".
The above article, extracted from the Carrick Times newspaper of 23rd March, poses a number of questions:
Are integrated schools really ecumenical schools
with a "church unity agenda?"
Are integrated schools suitable for children
whose families have strong Protestant convictions?
Can you imagine the public out-cry if Roman
Catholic school children had been taken to a Fundamentalist Protestant Church Service, or
to see an Orange Parade, just to widen their cross-community horizons?
What kind of Presbyterian minister takes part in
such an event, considering the Presbyterian Westminster Confession of Faith brands the
Papacy as Anti-Christ?
WHAT
STRANGE DAYS WE LIVE IN - TIME FOR PROTESTANTS TO AWAKEN!
INTRODUCING SOME OF ROME'S
"HOLY FATHERS"
1) THE ROBBER PRIEST
This "Father" Pat Maloney aged 68 and
originally from Limerick in the Irish Republic. He was recently released after serving a
seven year jail term in the U.S.A., for his part in a £5 million armoured car heist in
Rochester New York. According to the 'News of the World' February 27th 2000, he has never
been defrocked by the Roman Church and newspaper claims he is prominently involved in
fundraising for dissident Republicans who plan a new terrorist offensive against
Protestant Ulster.
2) "FATHER" DENNIS/DENISE, THE SEX CHANGE PRIEST
It's hard to know what to say to a 65
year old man who has decided he wants to be a woman. And, when that man is a
priest, the son of a former TD,
and someone who has served his parishioners with his greatest care and love for over 30
years, we are still left dumbfounded. Fr Dennis Brennan, son of Joe the former Donegal TD,
who has lived and worked most of his life in the United States, is now calling himself
Denise Brennan. The sex change operation, which he intends to have in a year's time, will
not be covered by the church, warn his superiors - even though he remains covered by his
diocesan health plan.
3) "NAUGHTY" JESUIT PRIESTS Court Reinstates Sexual Harassment Suit Against California Jesuits
(RNS) - A federal appeals court in San Francisco has reinstated a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former seminarian against the California Province of the Society of Jesuits. The three-judge 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled unanimously Wednesday (December 1) that constitutional guarantees of religious freedom do not protect religious groups from such suits. "There is no danger that, by allowing this suit to proceed, we will thrust the secular courts into the constitutionally untenable position of passing judgment on questions of religious faith or doctrine," Judge William Fletcher wrote in his opinion. The suit was filed by John Bollard, now 33, who said that after he entered the Jesuits' Berkeley, California, seminary in 1988 he was given unwanted homosexual pornography and invited to gay bars by a dozen priests in the five and a half years he attended the seminary.
4) THE PRIEST FOUND IN BED WITH THE TWO BOYS
A PRIEST who admitted indecently assaulting five boys in counties Sligo, Dublin and Louth, had been found in bed with two of the youngsters, a court heard yesterday.Dundalk Circuit Court was told the first complaint about Patrick Maguire (63), of Dalgan Park, Navan, Co. Meath was made in the North but gardai in Louth became aware of it.
Sgt. Beggy said, the 10 charges related to dates from January 1972 to June 1980. One of the victims said, he and his brother were alone with the priest when an assault occurred.
The victims include two sets of brothers and in relation to the Dublin charges, the priest was found in bed with two children by their mother.
The assaults took the form of touching. On two occasions the priest had been invited by the family to stay the night.
Judge Raymond Groarke said because of the nature of the offences, he required victim impact reports.
He was told the priest had obeyed his bail requirements and remanded him for sentencing in March.
This account is taken from the 'Irish Independent' 26.01.2000
5) THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IS TAKING DRASTIC MEASURES TO FIGHT A RISING TIDE OF ALCOHOLISM, WRITES FRANCIS HARRIS IN KOWALEW
THE Roman Catholic Church is setting up a chain of drying out clinics in Poland for its clergy, in a last-ditch effort to tackle an increase in alcoholism. Special units are being built because the current unofficial network of four or five clinics cannot cope with the demand, say church officials. Father Wieslaw Kondratowicz 50, a reformed alcoholic who has worked with afflicted clergy for 15 years, estimates that 2,000 of the country's 25,000 priests are alcoholics and that another 2,000 are at risk. Fr Kondratowicz, who will be opening one of the first new clinics in Poznan next month says "The key to this is that alcoholism is a horrible illness. We have to tell those affected, 'Look what you have done to yourself and look at what you could do if you were sober'."
Father Kondratowicz
The new clinics will run formal programmes lasting up to three months for each priest. Eventually each of Poland's 43 dioceses should have a clinic. Priests are exposed to alcohol at work, especially at weddings, confirmations and funerals. According to Fr Kondratowicz, "You can't give the Holy Word without being accepted and you often can't be accepted without taking a drink." The obvious remedy for those troubled by drink is to seek help from God. Fr Kondratowicz said, "The first thing they do is pray. I lay on the floor of the church and asked God to give me a miracle. Nothing happened. The miracle only happened when I went to Alcoholics Anonymous." The work of Fr Kondratowicz and a handful of other pioneering priests has begun to wear down long standing attempts by senior churchmen to play down the scale of alcoholism. The hierarchy was worried that publicising the problem could provide ammunition for the Church's enemies in the communist party. Marxists were keen to blacken the Church's name in Pope John Paul's homeland, although tales of priests staggering drunk into wedding ceremonies or lying prostrate after confirmation parties are common in rural Poland. Fr Bogdann Swoinski, 42, one of Fr Kondratowicz's clients, spelled out the Church's past attitude. "This problem was hidden because the priest was a man of status in the community and of course, the Pope is Polish," he said. "A lot of things were hidden in the past in the Polish church, I think that's changing now." Fr Swoinski finally realised the depth of his drink problem when a colleague branded him an alcoholic. He recalled; "I was very angry, I wanted to beat him, I only knew I had reached the bottom when I woke one morning and couldn't remember how I'd reached by bed." Fr Swoinski says he realised that in previous assignments in South Africa and Poland he was sifting social and professional invitations according to the likely availability of alcohol. "I even used to go looking for anglers by the lake in my last parish because they always had alcohol on them. I'd sit down and chat with one and they'd offer me something." Like most of the 24 priests sent to Fr Kondratowicz's clinic in the past four years, Fr Swoinski was referred by a concerned superior. They stay for weeks or months in the "clinic", a grim brick-built former Sunday school on the edge of a field. But the building accommodates only three. For every priest drying out, one or two more are waiting for a place. There is also a shortage of therapists such as Fr Kondratowicz. Those clergymen with experience of alcohol abuse reject suggestions that it is linked to the vow of celibacy. They point out that alcoholism is common to all professions and classes. But the incidence of abuse is much higher than average, in a country which already has a high consumption of alcohol. Fr Kondratowicz says that 8% of priests are alcoholics, compared with 5% among the rest of the Polish population. The task is made greater by the response of parishioners. Although some are keen to see their pastor return as a reformed alcoholic, many revel in the news that their priest is drinking. According to Fr Kondratowicz "For most people, it's a gossip sensation, the behaviour of the sinful priest. Some of them laugh and some use it to justify their own drinking." Despite the size of the task, unsympathetic public attitudes and the mixed feelings of the church hierarchy, Fr Kondratowicz remains enthusiastic about his mission to spread the "gospel of sobriety" to priests and parishioners alike. He relies on the old fashioned way to get the message across, saying: "Drinkers must face the truth - God helps those who helps themselves."
6) THE PRESIDENTIAL PRIEST Catholic priest will be candidate in Czech presidential election.Warsaw (ENI). A prominent Roman Catholic priest has agreed to run for the post of head of state in the Czech Republic, after gaining approval from the Czech Bishops' Conference and personal support from President Vaclav Havel. "Although I'm happy in my current position, I would be ready to meet such a need if called upon," said Thomas Halik, chairman of the Czech Christian Academy in Prague, the Czech capital.
PAPAL HELIPAD ATTACK IN ISRAEL
Swastikas and slogans such as 'Pope Out' and 'Where were you during the Holocaust?' were spray-painted on the helipad's paved surface.
The Vatican flag was defaced with red paint and eight lights were smashed, a police spokesman said.
The helipad is located on Mount Scopus, overlooking the walled old City, where the pope will visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall.
The Pope arrives in Jordan tomorrow, beginning a six-day visit to the region. Police suspect that the vandalism was the work of rightwing Jewish extremists.
Although polls indicate a generally high level of public support in Israel for the papal visit, some extremist groups. have expressed opposition to the visit and called for demonstrations while it is taking place.
Mainstream Jewish groups are critical of the Vatican for the failure of Pope Pius XII to condemn the Nazi regime during the second world war while the Holocaust was taking place.
However, Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, himself a Holocaust survivor, is to meet the Pope and has urged Israelis to wel- come him.
Pope John Paul last week apologised for the persecution of the Jews by Christians in the past.
He has also made a number of statements promoting reconciliation between the two faiths.
FALSE SIGNS - LYING WONDERS IN USA
VISITOR REPORTS VISION OF VIRGIN MARY AFTER SKY FLASH
By
Greg Garrison c. 1999 Religion News Service
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - About 3,000 people gathered to see visionary Marija Lunetti on Wednesday in a rural field where she said the Virgin Mary appeared to her three days after nearby residents reported an unexplained flash of light had streaked across the sky. Caritas of Birmingham, which promotes the visions that started in 1981 with six children in Lunetti's home-town of Medugorje in the old Yugoslavia announced to the crowd that the mysterious flash of light was a sign from the Virgin Mary. "We really felt very strongly this is Our Lady" said Joan McDonald, a staff member of Caritas of Birmingham which invited Lunetti to Alabama. The Caritas staff, which prays in the vision every day at 5a.m. prayed at 3a.m. Sunday because they had stayed up late preparing for Lunetti's visit and wanted to pray and then get some sleep. At 4a.m. some of the staff saw what McDonald described as a comet lighting up the sky for about five seconds followed by a loud boom. "We prayed that Our Lady would be our light, that there would be no darkness," McDonald said. Terry Colafrancesco, who founded Caritas in 1986 to promote the Medugorje visions, said, the Caritas staff was not alone in interpreting it as a divine sign. "We got calls from all over the country," Colafrancesco said. "A couple from California said it best. They heard the news there was a flash of light in Shelby County and they said it must be Our Lady." Lunetti, answering a question in halting English, was not ready to say the meteor or flash was the Virgin Mary. "Terry told me about it," Lunetti said. "If it's Our Lady, it's Our Lady. If not, then not. Everyone has their own explanation." Scientists said recently that the flash of light was a meteor. Lunetti, whose hometown is now in Bosnia-Herzegovina, arrived in Birmingham on Tuesday and prayed the rosary with pilgrims from all over the country Wednesday. At 10.43 am she stopped praying in Croatian and had a vision that lasted about 80 seconds. She knelt on the ground in front of a pile of stones and a concrete statue of the Virgin Mary. The statue marked the spot where she had a vision on Thanksgiving day in 1988, when she first visited Birmingham to donate a kidney for her brother, Andrija Pavlovic, at a Birmingham hospital. During the apparitions, Lunetti whispers questions in Croatian and the Virgin Mary speaks to her in Croatian, said Cyril Auboyneau, who translated for Lunetti's 1988 visit and came from Paris to be at the field Wednesday. Then Lunetti stood and began telling translator Kathleen Martin the message in Croatian. The translator asked her to give her the message in Italian instead, and Lunetti gave the message in that language. "When Our Lady appeared, she came all dressed in gold. I recommended each of you to every intention of your hearts. Our Lady extended her hands over all of us and prayed over us for a long time. I asked Our lady to bless each and every one of us and to bless all the religious objects that you brought. Our Lady then smiled at all of us and prayed a moment and then she raised her arm and blessed us with the sign of the cross. I then asked Our lady if she had something that she wanted to tell us. Our Lady then looked at me and smiled and said: "Do not forget that I am your mother and that I love you." Our Lady then raised her hand again and blessed us and then left." Lunetti then added some comments about the Virgin Mary's daily appearances to her. "She comes as the queen of peace and asks us to pray for peace." Lunetti said through Martin. "Real true peace is a gift of God and it comes only through prayer. She asks us to pray for families."
THE SECRET RAPTURE - IS IT SCRIPTURAL?
THE PRIEST, THE WOMAN AND THE CONFESSIONAL
