Posted on 08/16/2005 7:25:17 AM PDT by vladimir998
Fight Breaks Out At Catholic Festival
Fights broke out during the annual Feast of the Assumption pilgrimage in Carey Sunday afternoon at the Our Lady of Consolation Shrine.
The religious event is supposed to bring thousands of people together to honor the Virgin Mary, which falls on every Aug. 15.
The annual event was interuppted after a group, known as the "Minister of Annoyance," told the numerous Catholics in attendance to not believe in God and disown their faith.
It sparked a fight between the group and a few teenagers. Carey police were called and arrested three teens and one adult.
One person was sent to an area hospital but refused treatment.
Police tell ONN affiliate WNWO that over the past two years street preachers have shown up to The Feast challenging those in attendance. Sunday, instead of staying in one place, the street preachers dispersed into the crowd and aruguments took place between 300-400 people.
The faithful chased the street preachers out of town says Rev. John Raphael, pastor of The Shrine.
"They show up with video cameras, send threatening faxes, and are there to cause problems," Rev. Raphael tells WNWO. "I instruct my staff and those faithful who show up to ignore them.
"They go to other places and do the same thing. I tell my staff to pray for them."
The Feast of the Assumption vigil still carried on after the brief dispute. This is the 130th year for the pilgrimage to the Our Lady of Consolation Shrine.
Anyone have any information on this? Who is this Minister of Annoyance guy?
ping
It looks like the persecutions are beginning anew.
Sounds like a Monty Python group.
So these 'ministers' of annoyance just started showing up and picking fights with people? How sad. Do people show up at their meetings to annoy them? And do they target groups other than religious groups? I'm glad these folks didn't just take the harassment.
I'd like to know if there's a Hazel Motes among them, announcing a world where the lame don't walk and the blind don't see and what's dead stays that way.
Yesterday at the Basilica of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio Catholic pilgrims were threatened and treated rudely by a group calling itself the "Ministry or Minister of Annoyance." This group is a radical Evangelical group that believes that all Catholics are going to hell unless they turn away from Catholicism. Yesterday in Carey while thousands of Catholic pilgrims were processing through this tiny town in northwest Ohio, for the Annual "Assumption Eve Procession" the "Ministry or Minister of Annoyance" marched with the pilgrims shouting that Catholic dogma about Mary and just about anything else that Catholics believe is wrong.
The simple message of the "Ministry of Annoyance" group was that unless Catholics turned away from their faith they were going to hell. While this hostile group was shouting several of their members had camcorders in hand ready to film any Catholic who retaliated. One can only wonder what they would do with the film footage.
The Carey police department did make some arrests and the group was chased out of town by the startled pilgrims and the police force. According to some, angry faxes were sent to the Basilica earlier warning Catholics of their damnation.
No major Evangelical leader backs such an angry group but the fact that this did happen and the fact that outside of the Ohio, Michigan and Indiana area no one heard about this incident is troubling. It is also troubling how many people may share the views of the "Ministry of Annoyance" about Catholics and their view of Mary, yet not exhibit the militancy of the "Ministry of Annoyance." It was rather bizarre that what few headlines did appear about the events in Carey on Sunday night stated that some fights broke out at a Catholic event. One might think a few drunken Catholics had a few too many beers at a parish festival from a headline such as that instead of Catholics being verbally assaulted. Had an incident such as this been directed towards African-Americans or Jewish-Americans what would the headlines be?
As mentioned in previous articles, I love the Basilica in Carey. I go there for the Assumption celebrations just about every year. I was thinking about going last night but went today instead. It was probably for the better, had I been there last night I might have done something foolish. I can't begin to tell you how angry some of the Catholic faithful were today. They implored me to write about what had happened. The Assumption Holy Day brings many different ethnic groups to the event in Carey. You would have thought you were in Mexico City, Rome, Krakow or Baghdad from the many people, especially the elderly, speaking Spanish, Italian, Polish or Arabic today.
Today, I almost openly chuckled as I listened in awe to the Mass in Aramaic, the language of Jesus. These Arab Christians have been Christians since the time of Jesus and here comes a group of angry Evangelicals telling them they are going to hell for believing what they do about Mary. Some of these Arab Christians could have had ancestors who met the Apostles, Mary or even Jesus for that matter. Yet a group of crazy people are telling them, your ancestors are wrong and the Assumption celebration you've been celebrating since the first century is also wrong.
The whole episode and the lack of media coverage just seems crazy. Yet the faithful remain defiant. If it were the intention of the the "Ministry of Annoyance" to spread doubt with the assembled Catholic faithful in Carey on Sunday night, they would be annoyed to know that Monday, the day of Assumption Holy Day, revealed a Catholic gathering more steadfast in their faith than when they arrived.
David Hartline
News headline for the Protties: Christianity was not invented in Arkanasas in 1890 nor in London in the 1500s. It's ties to Rome are a FACT: the see of St. Peter and the site of the matrydom of St Paul.
Maybe next year the Fourth Degree Knight of Coilumbus will care mace instead of swords ;-).
Revelation 22:8-10
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!"
Catholic ping!
Define "worship" and how it relates to the feast of the Assumption.
What is properly divine worship, which the Greeks call latria, and for which there is no word in Latin, both in doctrine and in practice, we give only to God. To this worship belongs the offering of sacrifices; as we see in the word idolatry, which means the giving of this worship to idols. Accordingly we never offer, or require any one to offer, sacrifice to a martyr, or to a holy soul, or to any angel. Any one falling into this error is instructed by doctrine, either in the way of correction or of caution. For holy beings themselves, whether saints or angels, refuse to accept what they know to be due to God alone. We see this in Paul and Barnabas, when the men of Lycaonia wished to sacrifice to them as gods, on account of the miracles they performed. They rent their clothes, and restrained the people, crying out to them, and persuading them that they were not gods. We see it also in the angels, as we read in the Apocalypse that an angel would not allow himself to be worshipped, and said to his worshipper, "I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethen." Those who claim this worship are proud spirits, the devil and his angels, as we see in all the temples and rites of the Gentiles. Some proud men, too, have copied their example; as is related of some kings of Babylon. Thus the holy Daniel was accused and persecuted, because when the king made a decree that no petition should be made to any god, but only to the king, he was found worshipping and praying to his own God, that is, the one true God. As for those who drink to excess at the feasts of the martyrs, we of course condemn their conduct; for to do so even in their own houses would be contrary to sound doctrine. But we must try to amend what is bad as well as prescribe what is good, and must of necessity bear for a time with some things that are not according to our teaching. The rules of Christian conduct are not to be taken from the indulgences of the intemperate or the infirmities of the weak. Still, even in this, the guilt of intemperance is much less than that of impiety. To sacrifice to the martyrs, even fasting, is worse than to go home intoxicated from their feast: to sacrifice to the martyrs, I say, which is a different thing from sacrificing to God in memory of the martyrs, as we do constantly, in the manner required since the revelation of the New Testament, for this belongs to the worship or latria which is due to God alone. But it is vain to try to make these heretics understand the full meaning of these words of the Psalmist: "He that offereth the sacrifice of praise glorifieth me, and in this way will I show him my salvation." Before the coming of Christ, the flesh and blood of this sacrifice were foreshadowed in the animals slain; in the passion of Christ the types were fulfilled by the true sacrifice; after the ascension of Christ, this sacrifice is commemorated in the sacrament.
St. Augustine, Reply to Faustus the Manichaean, XX, 21.
This group is a radical Evangelical group that believes that all Catholics are going to hell unless they turn away from Catholicism."We put the protest back in Protestant."
Do you know who these nutjobs are?
>>It is also troubling how many people may share the views of the "Ministry of Annoyance" about Catholics and their view of Mary, yet not exhibit the militancy of the "Ministry of Annoyance."<<
Some right here on FR!
>>Sounds like a Monty Python group<<
The Ministers of Annoyance marched with the Representatives of the Ministry of Silly Walks. ;-)
This veneration is a fine line that is too often crossed.
My interest in this article was the disruption of a religious event. I believe that a religious event/rite/service/funeral/wedding/etc is the wrong time to try and convert anyone. I don't care if you are Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, wiccan, Druid or whatever, you have the right to worship without outside disruption or agitators.
While I may agree with some of the points of the protesters, I strongly condemn the methodology they embrace. They conducted themselves in a very unchristian and unloving way, that is unacceptable to do to heathens or pagans, much less our Christian brethren.
I beg you to remember that on all sides of any debate there are extremists that do not know where civil discourse ends and persecution begins. Please remember that these extremist individuals are just that, individuals that do not reflect the ideologies of the whole, nor should we judge the whole on the actions of a few.
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