SHILLONG: Together with the closure of all Catholic Church run educational institutions, a special day of prayer was also held by the faithful of the Church here on Wednesday as “a protest” against unfounded malicious reports, appearing in a local vernacular daily, which sought to smear the good name of Pope Francis the universal head of the Roman Catholic Church.
In this regard, it may be recalled that Mawphor, a widely read vernacular daily, had on February 7 last, had brought out a report wherein it claimed that the UN Human Rights Committee in its report had revealed “filthy” and “immoral” deeds of the head of the Vatican which violated the human rights of thousands of children.
From the side of the Catholic Association of Khasi & Jaintia Hills, who have taken up the matter and legal action against the news paper has through its lawyers served the editor of the paper legal notice and also sought from it the source of the news.
Besides taking up the unfounded and unsubstantiated reports with the paper, the Catholic Association also decided to organise a one day closure of all educational institutions run by the Church, a signature campaign and a day of prayer for the Pontiff seeking divine strength for him to withstand the vicious and slanderous attacks on him . In Wednesday’s special day of prayer, the Cathedral Church of Mary Help of Christians was packed with the faithful who also spilled over to the open space within the premises of the church.
Speaking at the special day of prayer, former President of the Catholic Association, Dr S L Marbaniang, retired mathematics professor of NEHU, spoke out against the unfounded vicious attacks on the Pope.
He said the newspaper responsible for the offending and unsubstantiated news reports was oblivious of the fact that one of the leading international news magazines, TIME, had brought out cover stories on the Pope, including the one on December 23 last, in which he was declared “Man of the Year.”
“Nowhere in these two and other issues of the magazine was there any report which was as vile and malicious as the reports which appeared in the vernacular daily,” he said.
Since Archbishop Dominic Jala was out of station, the Bishop of Nongstoin Rev Victor Lyngdoh conducted the hour-long prayers at the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.