The Catholic bishops have got it right
31 May 2021
GABRIEL KUMAN
| Lecturer, Divine Word University
“We believe that the democratic system of government established by the founding fathers of the nation is not to be renounced in favour of a theocratic one embodied in a confessional state. Instead the government could opt for a public declaration of renewed Christian commitment to promote cooperation between the churches and parliament” - Anton Bal, Archbishop of Madang, Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea
MADANG - Thank you Catholic Bishops Conference for speaking on behalf of more than one million Catholics and other citizens of Papua New Guinea as a whole.
Those so-called pastors of other Christian churches - that hid behind the scenes and advised the prime minister and other politicians to amend the Constitution - had ulterior motives.
Do not politicise the Christian faith for ulterior motives.
If it means stopping people of other faiths then it defeats the whole purpose of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the Freedom of Religion as has been echoed by the Catholic Bishops Conference.
Undeniably, we live in a changing globalised world where we often come into contact with and rub shoulders with people of other faiths almost every day.
Hence we can't do other than to respect and accept our differences and live with them.
Mutual understanding, respect, acceptance and dialogue are what we need to live with people of other faiths.
Once again, thank you, Catholic Bishops Conference, for speaking out the spirit of the Constitution that our founding fathers had envisioned for this beautiful nation of ours.
Comments