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.
Is that the same nypost who supports obama hussein?
way back when ,in the late 90s, LongIslandCity HS set up a prayer room in the auditorium during ramadam, gave them excused lateness due to THIER prayer time and had the qur’an set up in the main lobby’s trophy breakfront on display...
when I spoke with the pricipal, I was told the usual response,”you’re the only one complaining...”,and I was NOT complaining,only asking how this is possible as in this school there was no room for the Bible on display,excused lateness for our Holy Days of obligation etc.
This is the same scatology as when in my district,community board 1 appropriated 2 entire city blocks for a mosque’s PARKING lot forbidding any other parking on 2 muslim holy days. Now this is in an area where resident’s parking is next to nonexistent and the mosque is in a location with 2 municipal lots,one subway station and 2 bus lines a 3 minute walk away. When the community board was questioned as to who gave them the right to tell the local people where we can or cannot park our cars under PENALTY ($$) of law for a religious observance, I was told “this was required”. When they were asked as to what nyc requirememnt and why we never had any Christian requirements such as Easter/Christmas to allow the families to double/triple park to celebrate-—i was told that Cristmas etc.,were NOT a requirement and “did I attend community board 1’s meeting the night they appropriated those streets ?”
we got that nonsense stopped.
I don’t know what the present situation is in LIC HS as the last one graduated in 2003 and i haven’t paid them a visit since.
Unfortunately I didn’t think to take any pictures.
We’ve got to stop being bullied and stand up...our kids school here in Georgia was threatened by the Ga. ACLU if they didn’t remove the word “Christmas” from the Dec. 25th space on the school calendar...too offensive!
A FEDERAL holiday!
www.thomasmore.org
www.aclj.org
A treaty? Have you read the koran?
Coming soon to the US.
“Religiously aggravated assault”?!?! Are they friggin’ kidding? What the bloody he-double-hockey-sticks has happened to Britian?
This story has me infuriated. What an utter outrage. England is a Christian nation, the Queen is "Defender of the Faith"!!!
I hear you. Way back in the early 90s ;) at my HS, we were allowed to go to Mass during holy days of obligation during school time (we were excused from class completely for the duration of the service.) This was a public HS, but people were just *slightly* more reasonable then. It’s funny how now it’s OK for an extreme minority to be granted such a boon, but if you’re in the Christian majority, well, to hell with you.
I’m all for letting the federal employees and congress work on Christmas Day if they want to take this idiocy to it’s logical conclusion.
It is irresponsible, however, if the parents are not providing and caring for their own children; and if they are simply expecting society's publicly-funded structures to do it for them, it is exploitative as well.
The child-rich preferences of other cultures would not bother us so much, I think, if we ourselves were not stuck on steriliy. Looking at my own family tree:
>England is a Christian nation, the Queen is “Defender of the Faith”!!!<
England was a Christian nation, the Queen was “Defender of the Faith”!!!
Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, Contracepting and Sterilizing itself out of existence.
I call it the “ABCS of Cultural Suicide”.
The future belongs to those who procreate.
I must say I am skeptical of this claim. If the Jews had such overwhelming global influence, Israel would not be stranded with scarcely an ally in the world.
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