Anglican Row Turns Violent

The Herald Online reports on more trouble in Mugabeland:

A Priest aligned to Bishop Chad Gandiya’s Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa was yesterday seriously injured after being struck with a brick by supporters of Archbishop Nolbert

Kunonga during an eviction at the Tafara Anglican Church in Harare. The attack comes amid calls by various church leaders for the feuding bishops to observe peace towards each other.

Police spokesman Superintendent Andrew Phiri said Reverend Naboth Manzongo sustained a deep cut on the forehead after being struck with brick during the eviction of Archbishop Kunonga’s Rev Teddy Mukariri.

Police said Rev Manzongo was rushed to Parirenyatwa Hospital for treatment. “No arrests have been made yet, but the assailants are known. We are still investigating the matter,” said Supt Phiri.

Five men aligned to Archbishop Kunonga reportedly manhandled the deputy sheriff during the eviction of a priest from an Anglican house.

Evictions resumed yesterday in various parts of Harare, despite ACPZ’s pending urgent chamber application.

An assistant to the deputy sheriff was pushed and shoved while carrying out his duties before being denied entry into Number 101 Central Avenue where Reverend Tendai Mutongomanye, a son-in-law to Archbishop Kunonga, stayed.

Rev Mutongomanye’s wife is the one who operated a crèche at the Anglican Cathedral. At the time of the eviction, Rev Mutongomanye was not present.

The gang locked up the gate and denied the deputy sheriff’s team access to the premises. This prompted the team to seek police reinforcement. When the police reaction group arrived, a group of violent youths jumped over the precast wall and fled.

Police scaled over the gate and caught up with the elderly Rev Mukariri who had remained inside the house.

There was drama at the house as the elderly reverend clashed with the police. He denied ever possessing keys to the gate and other rooms, despite relaxing alone in the house.

Rev Mukariri shouted at the police and refused to leave until they dragged him out. The priest refused to board the police van, prompting policemen to lift him up and throw him at the back of the vehicle.

Rev Mukariri, who was always on his mobile phone communicating to different people about the police actions, threatened to report the officers to their seniors.

“You cannot do that to me. I am a priest and again I am much older than you are. I am old enough to be your grandfather.

“I will report you to your bosses. You do not know me,” said Rev Mukariri. He remained in the truck under police guard until the process was completed.

The police later dropped him off along Samora Machel Avenue as they proceeded to another church property at Number 123 Kwame Nkrumah Avenue.

Evictions were effected in most parts of the city with limited resistance…

Read on here.

Romanian Church in Jerusalem Attacked

Police said unknown assailants on Monday threw stones, bottles and garbage at the door of a church in Jerusalem, in the third attack against Christian sites in Israel in recent weeks.

Police spokesperson Luba Samri told AFP nobody was injured in the attack on the Romanian Orthodox church, St George’s, but that the door was damaged. Police were investigating, she added.

The church is located near a Jewish ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.

Rest here.

 

Orthodox Priests Fighting In Church of the Nativity – A Personal Reflection by a Catholic Priest

[For a background on brawl between the Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests, click here]

Writes Msgr Charles Pope:

One of the more surprising, and personally saddest things I have encountered in my trips to the Holy Land, is the encounter with Orthodox clergy. While I had been trained to expect tensions between Jews and Arabs, my experience involving the Orthodox clergy was actually the most tense and shocking. It also surprised me since, speaking for myself, I have always had great admiration for the beautiful liturgies of the Orthodox.  And, while I know little of the internal realities of those Churches, I have always hoped for reunion. My experiences in the Holy Land showed me very clearly how difficult and unlikely such a reunion may be. A few personal stories.

1. Mass at the Calvary – On my last trip, two years ago I was given the magnificent privilege of celebrating Holy Mass with my parishioners right up on the Calvary, at the Latin Altar in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. (See photo at upper right). It remains one of the highlights of my entire life. There I was celebrating Mass just feet away from where the cross had once stood, and over the sight of the nailing.

I had reported to the Latin sacristy at 5:30 AM and vested for the 6:00 AM Mass. One of the Franciscan Friars spoke to me in a kind but firm way about the rules that must be observed. He warned me that under no circumstances was I to set foot outside of the sacristy once I had vested. To do so, he warned me, would likely provoke a violent response from the Orthodox clergy, standing twenty feet away near the entrance to the supulchre. When I smiled in stunned wonderment, he reiterated, “Father I am very serious, if you do so you will provoke an international incident.”

The only way we could get to the Calvary Altar at the other end of the Church was to be led there by an approved escort. Any singing was also forbidden during the Mass, a restriction that made sense given the need not to disturb other liturgies underway.

We were also warned severely not to stray from the Latin Chapel with while wearing our Roman vestments. During the Mass, which was a beautiful experience otherwise, the deacon with me strayed just a little too far to my left and the Orthodox priest standing guard at the Greek altar, wildly gestured that he must step back. Following the Mass, we clergy had, once again, to be carefully escorted back to the sacristy.

2. I do not claim to understand the hostility directed toward Roman clergy by the Orthodox priests of different nationalities. I am sure it is ancient and we are not likely innocent. But I also learned how hostile they are to one another.

Behind the Sepulchre is the Jacobite (Syrian Orthodox) chapel. In it, according to tradition, one can enter a cave said to be the burial chamber of Nicodemus (though it is empty). But the Chapel is scorched black, and in a ruinous state by a fire that happened back in the 1800s. It was explained to me by one of the docents that the chapel has never been repaired because no agreement could be reached among the Orthodox clergy on how to get supplies in to repair the chapel. “Amazing!” I said. “Its pretty normal for here,” said the docent.

3. These sorts of tensions also lead to the Church of the Nativity and the Holy Sepulchre having a cluttered, dingy, and unrepaired quality to them. Even pushing a broom requires delicate negotiations.

4. Cronyism – Over at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem similar tensions exist, as you can see in the video below.  When I was last there, the line to go down into the grotto of the nativity below the high altar,  came to a halt and did not move for almost an hour. Our tour guide discovered that the reason for this was that a Russian Orthodox priest was conducting a private tour for a group that had paid him to do so. That group had walked past the rest of us in line and the priest took them down and conducted a service and raised funds. The other tour guides finally had to summon the Palestinian police to force an end to the unscheduled and unpermitted  “fundraiser.”

Our tour guide told us she always felt the most tense going to the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, since the hostility and unpredictability of the the Orthodox clergy often led to complications. I can attest to that!

The rest of the sites in the Holy land, both in Jerusalem and up in Galilee, were largely overseen by the Franciscans of the Holy Land, and they are most agreeable and kind to people of every faith. They were true gentlemen everywhere we went and they do a splendid job maintaining the shrines too. God bless the Franciscans of the Holy Land and I would encourage you to be generous to them. They do good work in a difficult land.

All this leads to the video below: A sad and disturbing sight of dozens of orthodox and Armenian priests bashing each other with broom handles.

It reminds me of the great sadness I felt in Jerusalem as I was led by a guard to go and say Mass at the seat of mercy. What an odd juxtaposition, and yet what a strong reminder of how much we need the power of the Cross. As the guard led me out and up the steep steps to the Calvary Chapel,  I thought of Christ being led up the same hillside, not for his protection, but for my salvation.

And even to this day, at the two holy sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, it seems Satan still lurks and sulks. The video below shows that he is still able to lash out from time to time and, sadly, we connive in his plots.

Lord have mercy on us and grant us peace on earth.

…

And while I agree that the Franciscans do a fantastic job (which makes the Galilee a far more tranquil experience) some can be quite brusque when it comes to an erring tourist.

 

Muslim Extremists in Uganda Throw Acid on Bishop

This in via The Christian Post:

Uganda – Islamic extremists threw acid on a church leader on Christmas Eve shortly after a seven-day revival at his church, leaving him with severe burns that have blinded one eye and threaten sight in the other.

Bishop Umar Mulinde, 37, a sheikh (Islamic teacher) before his conversion to Christianity, was attacked on Saturday night (Dec. 24) outside his Gospel Life Church International building in Namasuba, about 10 kilometers (six miles) outside of Kampala. From his hospital bed in Kampala, he told Compass that he was on his way back to the site for a party with the entire congregation and hundreds of new converts to Christianity when a man who claimed to be a Christian approached him.

“I heard him say in a loud voice, ‘Pastor, pastor,’ and as I made a turn and looked at him, he poured the liquid onto my face as others poured more liquid on my back and then fled away shouting, ‘Allahu akbar [God is greater],’” Mulinde said, still visibly traumatized two days after the assault.

A neighbor and church members rushed him to a hospital in the Mengo area of Kampala, and he was then transferred to International Hospital Kampala.

“I have to continue fighting this pain – it is too much,” Mulinde said. “My entire body is in pain. Most of the night I miss sleep.”

His face, neck and arms bore deep black scars from the acid, and his lips were swollen.

“The burn caused by the acid is so severe that there is an urgent need for specialized treatment,” said area Christian Musa Baluku Symutsangira. “I suggest that he be flown outside the country as soon as possible; otherwise Mulinde might lose both of his eyes, coupled with the spread of the burns. The burns seemed to spread and go very deep. He might need some plastic surgery.”

A doctor told Compass that acid burns cover about 30 percent of his face and has cost him sight in one eye.

“We are doing all we can to save his other remaining eye and to contain the acid from spreading to other parts of the body,” the doctor said.

Mulinde’s shirt, tie and suit were in tatters after the attack…

Despicable! You can read more on the horrific attack here.

 

Clerics Fight in Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

Speaking of Church brawl, this time it’s between clergy in Bethlehem at the Church of the Nativity. Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic priests and monks who were armed with brooms got into it while cleaning the Church. Palestinian riot police were called in:

A Christmas cleaning of the Church of the Nativity turned into scuffles on Wednesday between rival Christian clerics zealously guarding denominational turf at the holy site.

Brooms and fists flew inside the church marking the birthplace of Jesus as some 100 priests and monks of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches brawled.

Palestinian police, bending their heads to squeeze through the church’s low “door of humility,” rushed in with batons flailing to restore order.

“It was a trivial problem that … occurs every year,” said police Lieutenant-Colonel Khaled al-Tamimi. “Everything is all right and things have returned to normal,” he said. “No one was arrested because all those involved were men of God.”

Administration of the 6th century Bethlehem church, the oldest in the Holy Land, is shared by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian clerics.

Any perceived encroachment of jurisdictional boundaries within the church can set off a row, especially during the annual cleaning for Orthodox Christmas celebrations, which will be held next week.

What a pathetic witness. See for yourself:

A Midnight Mass Brawl

Chairs fly and punches thrown as all hell breaks loose among 400-strong congregation.

It has to be: The Daily Mail.

A priest today described how he feared parishioners’ lives were in danger when a fight broke out in his church during midnight mass on Christmas Eve.

Monsignor Vincent Harvey said heavy chairs were thrown down an aisle at St Edmund’s Church, Southampton, during the fight in the middle of the service on Saturday night.

Police patrol cars and an ambulance raced to the historic church on The Avenue, Southampton, as other members of the congregation tried to break up the fight.

The priest managed to continue the mass to his shocked but uninjured congregation after police arrived to arrest those involved.

‘You often expect some drunken behaviour at the Christmas Midnight Mass but this was actually quite shocking,’ said Father Vincent Harvey.

‘But then about three or four minutes later, there were scuffles going on. Then it was obvious it was more than just a scuffle, there was actually a fight going on.’

‘I had to halt the Mass because the congregation were in considerable danger as chairs were being hurled down the aisle. Some of them were made of steel and could easily have injured people in the pews.’

He continued: ‘The person involved started throwing fairly heavy chairs down a side aisle, endangering people’s lives.

‘People were frightened that it was happening. If they’d hit anybody they could have been badly injured’…

‘Some of the congregation were worried about the statues in the church getting smashed but I told them not to be concerned about those, just to make sure they didn’t get injured themselves’…

Read more here.

The priest said: ‘I just asked people for a bit of silence so we could recollect ourselves and to pray for the person involved.

‘My sermon had been about how we are broken people, fragile people, and I said he is one of the very people I’m talking about.’

Ah, yes, Southampton…

 

Rare Documents Burned in Egypt Clash

Pretoria News:

Cairo – Volunteers in white laboratory coats, surgical gloves and masks stood on the back of a pickup truck on Monday along the banks of the Nile River in Cairo, rummaging through stacks of rare 200-year-old manuscripts that were little more than charcoal debris.

The volunteers, ranging from academic experts to appalled citizens, have spent the past two days trying to salvage what’s left of some 192 000 books, journals and writings, casualties of Egypt’s latest bout of violence.

Institute d’Egypte, a research centre set up by Napoleon Bonaparte during France’s invasion in the late 18th century, caught fire during clashes between protesters and Egypt’s military over the weekend. It was home to a treasure trove of writings, most notably the handwritten 24-volume Description de l’Egypte, compiled during the 1798-1801 French occupation.

The Description of Egypt, which French scientists began writing in 1798, is likely burned beyond repair. Its home, the two-story historic institute near Tahrir Square, is now in danger of collapsing after the roof caved in.

“The burning of such a rich building means a large part of Egyptian history has ended,” the director of the institute, Mohammed al-Sharbouni, told state television over the weekend.

He said most of the contents were destroyed in the fire that raged for over 12 hours on Saturday. Firefighters flooded the building with water, adding to the damage.

Burnt pages from books from the Scientific Institute lie in a pile near cabinet offices near Tahrir Square in Cairo.

The violence erupted in Cairo Friday, when military forces guarding the Cabinet building, near the institute, cracked down on a 3-week-old sit-in to demand the country’s ruling generals hand power to a civilian authority. At least 14 people have been killed…

… there is no way of knowing what has been lost for good at this stage, but the material was worth tens of millions of dollars – and in many ways simply priceless.

“I haven’t slept for two days, and I cried a lot yesterday. I do not like to see a book burned,” he said. “The whole of Egypt is crying.”

More here.

 

The Violence of the ‘Occupy’ Movement

Mapped:

This should open your eyes:

Click on the link above, and then scroll down the left hand column to read news reports of violence perpetrated by ‘Occupy’ protesters.

There are a lot…

Shocking.

 

‘Underwear Bomber’: Judge Me by the Quran

The Detroit Free Press reports:

The so-called underwear bombing suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas 2009, has a new request: Let me out of here.

In a court filing Thursday, Abdulmutallab asked a federal judge to release him from prison, claiming he’s being “unjustly detained” by the American government.

“(A)ll Muslims should only be ruled by the law of the Quran,” Abdulmutallab wrote.

In a separate, handwritten court filing, the Nigerian national also wrote that “excessive force” was used to restrain him Wednesday after he assaulted several officers from his cell “in defense of Muhammad.”

Abdulmutallab asked the court to order that no excessive force be used on him.

The requests are part of a growing list of complaints that Abdulmutallab has had with the justice system since he was arrested …

The case is set for trial Oct. 4.

Authorities have said that Abdulmutallab is an al-Qaida operative trained in Yemen for the suicide mission, which was foiled when a passenger subdued Abdulmutallab. He is facing numerous charges, including conspiracy to commit terrorism.

The ‘law of the Quran’… Terror and violence.

London Riots: Archbishop Calls for Prayers

The Archbishop of Westminster, Most Rev Vincent Nichols said in a statement today: “The scenes of the last few nights in parts of London and elsewhere are shocking. The criminal violence and theft that have been witnessed are to be condemned. They are a callous disregard for the common good of our society and show how easily basic principles of respect and honesty are cast aside. “

“I ask that Catholics pray especially for those directly affected by the violence, for those facing danger on the streets, for those whose livelihood has been ruined, for those whose lives are marked by fear, for those whose parents are worried about the behaviour of their youngsters and for those who, at this time, are being tempted into the ways of violence and theft.”

“In the face of these difficulties, a forthright common effort is needed to ensure that these times bring out the best in our society and not the worst. I am sure that, as Catholic citizens, we shall play our part with clear principles for living, both as individuals and as a society, with honesty, compassion and prayer.”

“May God grant us courage and determination to shape our lives with dignity, self respect and care for the common good.”

The above was here.

For live coverage  of the riots, click here.