Posted on 02/02/2008 7:28:55 AM PST by NYer
A HOSPITAL porter has been sacked after a row over a crucifix being covered up in a prayer room.
Joseph Protano, 54, was suspended four days after the incident last month at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Pendlebury.
He has now been dismissed for gross misconduct, but intends to appeal.
Police quizzed him for four hours last month, on suspicion of religiously aggravated assault, but he was released without charge.
He denies the allegations and must wait to see if police take any action.
The row centres on a prayer room available to staff and visitors of all faiths at the hospital, which contains a Virgin Mary statue and a crucifix.
Mr Protano, a Roman Catholic who has worked two years at the hospital, entered the room when three Muslims were using it - two patients and a doctor.
An argument broke out after he asked them to remove a cloth covering the crucifix and statue and to turn a picture of the Virgin Mary face up.
He said he was unable to comment on his sacking as the police probe and his plans to appeal were ongoing.
But a friend said: "He was very shocked at the decision.
"He thinks he has been treated terribly.
"He loves his job and doesn't do it for the money - until recently, his employers were paying just £5.88 an hour.
"They are saying he should not have gone into the prayer room and it is alleged he used racist language, which he totally refutes.
"His pay has been stopped, even though he intends to appeal, and he has had to sign on for benefits."
The friend said Mr Protano went into the prayer room about six times a day to check the statue and crucifix were not left covered.
He said as a Christian, he felt it could be upsetting for visiting parents to find them covered up.
The case has angered many hospital staff, who think he has been treated unfairly.
Police said a file had been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide on any further action.
The future looks like me! (Big feet and poodle hair, sorry ...)
Angela might have been thinking of the fact that many generations of first-cousin (or closer) marriages in some Moslem cultures have led to catastrophic levels of genetic defects. For example, Pakistanis living in Britain have over half the children born with birth defects in the country.
The solution to the mobs-of-immigrants-on-welfare problem is to eliminate welfare, but it won’t happen unless the voters demand it.
The thing I don’t understand is that if the Crucifix and the image of Our Lady meant nothing to the Muslims, then they could have just ignored them.
Yet they covered them and turned them away — so even Muslims believe they mean something...which actually places them a notch above atheists in my book.
The Amish, however, are outstanding for providing for their own families without government largesse. They also have founded some woodcraft/carpentry industries which specialize in making adaptive toys and furniture for children and adults with various disabilities, this benefiting people far beyond their own communities.
Interesting information about the Amish. I hadn’t thought of consanguineity’s being an issue there, although it seems obvious now that you bring it up.
Therefore the cross is not, for them, neutral or irrelevant. It is directly provocative and sacrilegious.
Fr. Mark Gruber, an American Catholic priest, told me about an incident5 maybe 15 years ago, when he was visiting Egypt. He was by the shore of the Mediterranean and saw some children playing, making a kind of sand castle. He joined them and they had a nice time, laughing building this structure, decorating with with twigs and pebbles, etc.
After awhile, he made a little cross from two twigs and stuck it on the "steeple" he had made. The children looked at him in fear and horror. One of them started screaming and screaming, and the child's father (or some adult) came over. The man looked at the cross, and came at Fr. Gruber menacingly, and Fr. Gruber got out of there in a hurry, truly fearing for his life.
You are absolutely correct. That reminds me of a story I read last year. On a street corner in London, two men met. One was a Muslim Imam; the other was an Anglican rector. During the course of the conversation, the Imam swung his arm in a semi circle indicating the neighborhood in which they stood. He said to the Anglican recotor - "Do you see all these churches? Within a hundred years, they will all be mosques because we are reproducing and you are not.
There is no longer enough time for the west to match the growth rate of the Muslim communities.
That is not so long ago ... 10 years? My how the situation has changed downstate.
community board 1 appropriated 2 entire city blocks for a mosque’s PARKING lot forbidding any other parking on 2 muslim holy days.
Not good. There was a similar situation in Hamtranck MI which boasts a large Arabic speaking population. When the Muslim population reached a certain point, they appealed to the City Board for permission to install loudspeakers on their mosques to call the faithful to prayer 5 times a day. Permission was granted. Meanwhile, Catholic Churches were told to stop ringing their bells on Sundays as it 'disturbed' the local area residents. BTW - Hamtranck is also home to many Arabic speaking Chaldean and Maronite Catholic refugees from the Middle East.
Not far from where I reside in Albany NY, construction is now underway for a 2 minaret mosque. Ironically, it is adjacent to a Knights of Columbus Hall. Up until now, the only mosques here were store front operations. One of them was shut down when Federal Marshalls arrested the imam for attempted sale of weapons. The media have thrown their sympathy behind the imam and his congregation.
That rather seems to be the crux of the matter, doesn't it?
Oh, yes, I think so.
One can only bend so far. I find this sort of story provokes the need to discern the true meaning of Christian charity.
I have to walk around these barbarians on the sidewalk when they toss down their oriental rugs in the direction of mecca during the day. But if were to walk through one of their cities praying a Rosary...what do you think would happen?
That said, I have been an admirer of Chesterton, who if I remember right had no children, since I was in college. He said: "Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions."
I wouldn't bet on it if I were you. This happened in England, right now Europe is in the throes of Muslim expansion that does not show any signs of slowing down.
But what Chesterton said about large families, even though he had no children of his own, was that Capitalism (the way it is practiced) does not allow for one man and one woman to have 10 children and be able to afford them. He said that this situation was created by the Captains of Industry/Capitalism who wanted to promote abortion, divorce and contraception.
The modern superstition that it is irresponsible to have many children is unchristian and as repugnant as having multiple wives, a practice that divorce and remarriage actually effectuates.
I previously lived roughly 2 blocks from that Muslim meeting place that was shut down. It was shut down after I moved away from Albany, but it was still kind of freaky. I used to walk by that place to eat lunch at Subway, and to go to church at St. Patrick’s on Central Ave.
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