THE CATHOLIC Church is investigating a hoax letter purporting to be from the Bishop of Auckland, which criticised the actions of a priest who desecrated a memorial in an anti-war protest last week. The letter, published in the New Zealand Herald on Friday under Bishop Patrick Dunn's name, accused Father Gerard Burns of "irresponsible" and damaging behaviour, and called on him to apologise "to the New Zealand public, the Jewish community, and his colleagues in the Catholic clergy".
Father Burns, priest at Porirua's Te Ngakau Tapu parish, splattered red paint mixed with blood on a Wellington memorial to assassinated Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin on Tuesday, to protest the Gaza offensive.
But Catholic spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer said yesterday the letter was not written by Bishop Dunn, who "would not have commented on a matter which occurred in another diocese".
"It's a hoax," she said. "He's naturally very concerned that somebody used his name and particulars to make it seem like an authentic communication. It's a matter of trying to find the culprit."
The Archbishop of Wellington, John Dew, has apologised on Burns' behalf, saying he was acting on his own initiative.
The church's investigation comes as hundreds marched through Auckland's Queen St yesterday to protest Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza, which has claimed more than 800 lives and wounded 3330 since it began on December 27.
Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in attacks during "Operation Cast Lead", while the United Nations' calls for an immediate ceasefire have been ignored.
Chanting "Free Palestine" and "Intifada", protesters marched from Aotea Square to Customs St, where they pelted the United States consulate with dozens of shoes, mimicking the attack on US President George Bush by an Iraqi journalist last month.
Protesters also lay on the road in a minute-long "die-in" to commemorate the victims in Gaza, burned Israeli and US flags, and promoted a boycott of Israeli goods.
Organiser John Minto estimated there were at least 1500 in the crowd, saying it was "the biggest march New Zealand has seen on the issue in the last 60 years", although police estimates were lower.
Palestinian New Zealander Khaled Amlah, a 40-year-old engineer, said he was overwhelmed by the turnout, which reflected "how world opinion has changed".
There were no arrests, although tempers flared when a sole counter-demonstrator had her Israeli flag snatched by the marchers, to chants of "coward" and "terrorist" from the crowd.
Marchers then ripped the flag and a young woman tied the remnants to her shoe.
The counter-demonstrator, who was married to an Israeli, said she had turned up because "someone has to stand up against the lies".
Recently formed advocacy group Kiwi Friends of Israel, which had representatives monitoring the march, said it was concerned by the presence of swastikas on signs carried by some marchers.
"This sort of hate speech does nothing to promote relations between Israelis and Palestinians," said group spokesman Lee Waddingham.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: SSTNZ)