Posted on 03/29/2006 5:37:15 AM PST by marshmallow
One of the rare Belgian churches that is packed every weekend is the church of Saint Anthony of Padova in Montignies-sur-Sambre, one of the poorest suburbs of Charleroi, a derelict rust belt area to the south of Brussels. Holy Mass in Montignies is conducted in Latin and lasts up to four hours. Yesterday over 2,000 people attended the service by Father Samuel (Père Samuel). The priest’s sermon dealt with his persecution. The Belgian authorities are bringing the popular priest to court on charges of racism.
Father Samuel has been prosecuted for “incitement to racist hatred” by the Belgian government’s inquisition agency, the so-called Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR), because of a remark he made in a 2002 television interview when he said:
“Every thoroughly islamized Muslim child that is born in Europe is a time bomb for Western children in the future. The latter will be persecuted when they have become a minority.”
Last Thursday the Belgian judiciary decided that the priest will have to stand trial before the penal court in Charleroi. He reacted by repeating his time bomb statement and added that he would be honoured if he had to go to jail for speaking his mind. He added that Jesus, too, had been convicted. During yesterday’s sermon he called upon the faithful to accompany him to court. “We will turn this into an excursion, driving there in full buses.”
Father Samuel’s passport gives his name as Charles-Clément Boniface. That is not entirely correct. He was born in 1942 in Midyat, Turkey, as Samuel Ozdemir. The latter is a surname the priest dislikes because, he explains, it was imposed on his family by the Turks. Samuel was a Christian: “At home we spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus.” The Aramaics are a Catholic minority in Syria and Turkey. They speak an old Semitic language, which Jesus and the apostles used and which Mel Gibson had his actors use in his movie The Passion of the Christ.
Young Samuel became a Catholic priest. In the mid-1970s he fled to Belgium, claiming that the Aramaic Christians were being persecuted in Turkey. He became a Belgian and adopted the surname of Boniface – “he who does good things.” He was appointed to the diocese of Tournai, but soon became caught up in the culture war between Christians and secularists. Tournai is a thoroughly secularised, modernist diocese. Father Samuel clashed with the bishop, who suspended him in 2001. He then bought the St-Antoine-de-Padoue church in Montignies-sur-Sambre. There he conducts the Mass according to the traditional rites of the Catholic Church.
Hundreds of faithful from all over the country and even from the north of France attend Sunday Mass in Montignies-sur-Sambre. The congregation includes African immigrants, a large number of young people and many young families with small children. In his sermons and on his website Father Samuel speaks out against secularism, but also fights on another front of the three-way culture war, warning against “the islamic invasion” of the West. He says he has witnessed in Turkey what the future has in store for Europe. He claims Muslims are invading Europe and warns for an impending civil war. According to Father Samuel “so-called moderate Muslims do not exist.”
NO SH*T!
Saudi Arabia - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death. Bibles are illegal. Churches are illegal.
Yemen - Bans proselytizing by non-Muslims and forbids conversions. The Government does not allow the building of new non-Muslim places of worship.
Kuwait - Registration and licensing of religious groups. Members of religions not sanctioned in the Koran may not build places of worship. Prohibits organized religious education for religions other than Islam.
Egypt - Islam is the official state religion and primary source of legislation. Accordingly, religious practices that conflict with Islamic law are prohibited. Muslims may face legal problems if they convert to another faith. Requires non-Muslims to obtain what is now a presidential decree to build a place of worship.
Algeria - The law prohibits public assembly for purposes of practicing a faith other than Islam. Non-Islamic proselytizing is illegal, and the Government restricts the importation of non-Islamic literature for distribution.
Jordan - Has the death penalty for any Muslim selling land to a Jew.
Sudan - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death.
Pakistan - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death. Bans proselytizing by non-Muslims. Christians regularly put in prison for charges of blasphemy.
Qatar - Islamic instruction is compulsory in public schools. The government regulates the publication, importation, and distribution of non-Islamic religious literature. The government continues to prohibit proselytizing of Muslims by non-Muslims.
Malayasia - Under Malaysian law, any convert to Christianity must apply to a shariah (Muslim law) court to legally renounce Islam. Many Christians prefer to remain silent converts rather than take their battle to the shariah courts, where apostasy or conversion out of Islam is punishable by whipping, fines, imprisonment and--in the most extreme application--death.
Hmmmm . . . he's a schismatic. A shame, we could use him in the Church.
Schismatic ? No. He is Eastern Rite Catholic.
And history repeats itself, as the so-called freedoms in old Europe were never there as NO one has freedom of speech except for the left-wing fascist and the Islamic radicals. As the Christians were persecuted under Roman law so now we have history repeating itself. As the 30 years and 100 years wars were fought and ethnic cleansing was going on all over Old Europe it would seem that again the pendulum is swinging back to those times. I am all for the Flemish in the North of Belgium to cut off the water supply from the French in the South as they did in the 1970s (to get their second TV station) which might bring some freedoms back: But I doubt it.
(1) He celebrates Mass in Latin, so by definition he is not an Eastern Rite Catholic regardless of his birthplace or native tongue.
(2) The article clearly states that he was suspended by his bishop in 2001 and that he personally purchased and runs his church, not the diocese.
He's a schismatic.
Unfortunately, the Bishop who suspended him is the one deserving of the title "schismatic". Obviously, this isn't the whole, in-depth story, but the good Father appears to be in the right, as far as I can tell.
Whatever he is, he is right on about Islamics and IMO has a right to say what he believes.
I just hope we never lose that right in this country
what race is islam?
My grandparents stopped returning to their birthplace in Ghent back in the 60s because they said "We can't take it anymore, they're all communists". Now it appears they have become fascists as well.
"And history repeats itself..."
Indeed. Thanks for the post.
We can can discuss who deserves what, but as a matter of plain fact the local ordinary of Brussels is in communion with the Holy See and this priest isn't.
Absolutely.
But his ministry would be more effective and he would have more resources for his self-defense and for spreading his message if he was not a schismatic.
Hence my statement that it is a shame that he is in schism. I would like it very much if he were welcomed by the Brussels diocese into full communion.
islam isn't a race. It's a deviant cult of total control over every facet of its adherents' lives. Body, mind and spirit belong to the murderous allah and mo-ham-head (pig poop be upon them both).
Therefore, the racism charge is bogus. Case dismissed.
tell us how you really feel :p
Much better now that I said that. Gosh, I said that?
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This is ridiculous. Thank God for our First Amendment jurisprudence. I hope our judges will hold the line against the ridiculous restrictions on free speech increasingly current in Europe and Canada and in our universities. No one has a right not to be offended by the speech of others.
I guess we can call this a "truth crime."
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