Title IV complaint for ‘misguided mischief’
A TITLE IV complaint filed against Bishop of Massachusetts, the Rt Revd Alan M. Gates, after he removed the clerical collar of a priest, the Revd Tamra Tucker, during the Easter vigil, is to be referred to conciliation, the diocese said in a statement last week. A video of the service in St Paul’s, Boston, shows her momentarily forgetting the form of words at the distribution of holy communion. After she joked about having recently returned from a three-month sabbatical, Bishop Gates snatched the white tab collar from her neck and placed it on the altar. He could be heard saying “Just kidding!” to the priest, who was visibly surprised. The Bishop has apologised for the incident, which he described as “misguided mischief”.
Pakistani Christian dies after mob attack
“EVERY single Pakistani should be weighed by grief,” the Moderator of the Church of Pakistan, the Rt Revd Azad Marshall, has said, at the news that a 73-year-old Pakistani Christian, Lazar (Nazir) Masih, died in hospital on Monday, a week after he was violently attacked by an extremist mob. Mr Masih and his son were accused of having burnt pages of the Qur’an with their rubbish, and were attacked by a mob that burned their shops and homes (News, 31 May). Bishop Marshall posted on social media that it was not a question of “‘Where will this stop?’ because beyond the devastation of homes and lives, beyond the brutal killing of a hardworking man, beyond the devastation of a community and the grief of a family, we have already come too far!” It was a question of justice, he said. The Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) said that the incident underscored an urgent need for legal and societal reforms.
Pope decries ‘mismanaged globalisation’
“A NEW international financial architecture that is both daring and creative” is needed to cancel or reduce the debt owed by low-income countries, Pope Francis said on Wednesday during a conference on the debt crisis in the global South, organised by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. “After a mismanaged globalisation, after pandemics and wars, we are now faced with a debt crisis that mainly affects the countries of the global South, generating misery and distress.” This situation, he said, was depriving “millions of people of the possibility of a decent future”. A “multinational mechanism” was needed to manage debt between countries.