A Christian street preacher was arrested and locked in a cell for telling a passer-by that homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God.

Dale McAlpine was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships.

The 42-year-old Baptist, who has preached Christianity in Workington, Cumbria for years, said he did not mention homosexuality while delivering a sermon from the top of a stepladder, but admitted telling a passing shopper that he believed it went against the word of God.

Police officers are alleging that he made the remark in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others and have charged him with using abusive or insulting language, contrary to the Public Order Act.

Mr McAlpine, who was taken to the police station in the back of a marked van and locked in a cell for seven hours on April 20, said the incident was among the worst experiences of his life.

“I felt deeply shocked and humiliated that I had been arrested in my own town and treated like a common criminal in front of people I know, » he said.

“My freedom was taken away on the hearsay of someone who disliked what I said, and I was charged under a law that doesn’t apply.”

Christian campaigners have expressed alarm that the Public Order Act, introduced in 1986 to tackle violent rioters and football hooligans, is being used to curb religious free speech.

Sam Webster, a solicitor-advocate for the Christian Institute, which is supporting Mr McAlpine, said it is not a crime to express the belief that homosexual conduct is a sin.

“The police have a duty to maintain public order but they also have a duty to defend the lawful free speech of citizens,” he said.

“Case law has ruled that the orthodox Christian belief that homosexual conduct is sinful is a belief worthy of respect in a democratic society. »

Mr McAlpine was handing out leaflets explaining the Ten Commandments or offering a “ticket to heaven” with a church colleague on April 20, when a woman came up and engaged him in a debate about his faith.

During the exchange, he says he quietly listed homosexuality among a number of sins referred to in 1 Corinthians, including blasphemy, fornication, adultery and drunkenness.

After the woman walked away, she was approached by a PCSO who spoke with her briefly and then walked over to Mr McAlpine and told him a complaint had been made, and that he could be arrested for using racist or homophobic language.

The street preacher said he told the PCSO: “I am not homophobic but sometimes I do say that the Bible says homosexuality is a crime against the Creator”.

He claims that the PCSO then said he was homosexual and identified himself as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender liaison officer for Cumbria police. Mr McAlpine replied: “It’s still a sin.”

The preacher then began a 20 minute sermon, in which he says he mentioned drunkenness and adultery, but not homosexuality. Three regular uniformed police officers arrived during the address, arrested Mr McAlpine and put him in the back of a police van.

At the station, he was told to empty his pockets and his mobile telephone, belt and shoes were confiscated. Police took fingerprints, a palm print, a retina scan and a DNA swab.

He was later interviewed, charged under Sections 5 (1) and (6) of the Public Order Act and released on bail on the condition that he did not preach in public.

Mr McAlpine pleaded not guilty at a preliminary hearing on Friday at Wokingham magistrates court and is now awaiting a trial date.

The Public Order Act, which outlaws the unreasonable use of abusive language likely to cause distress, has been used to arrest religious people in a number of similar cases.

Harry Hammond, a pensioner, was convicted under Section 5 of the Act in 2002 for holding up a sign saying “Stop immorality. Stop Homosexuality. Stop Lesbianism. Jesus is Lord” while preaching in Bournemouth.

Stephen Green, a Christian campaigner, was arrested and charged in 2006 for handing out religious leaflets at a Gay Pride festival in Cardiff. The case against him was later dropped.

Cumbria police said last night that no one was available to comment on Mr McAlpine’s case.

Heidi Blake
Telegraph

TURIN, ITALY (CNN) – The shroud of Turin, which some Christians believe is Jesus Christ’s burial cloth, went on public display Saturday for the first time since it was restored in 2002.

About two million people – including Pope Benedict XVI – are expected to view the shroud while it’s on view at the Turin Cathedral for the next six weeks.

The shroud, which bears the image of a face that some Christians say is Jesus’, was restored eight years ago to remove a patchwork repair done by 16th-century nuns after the cloth was damaged in a fire.

Many scholars contest the shroud’s authenticity, saying it dates to the Middle Ages, when purported biblical relics – like splinters from Jesus’ cross – surfaced across Europe.

« The shroud owner said it in 1355 … the local bishop said it was a forgery and even the pope of that time said it was a fake, » said Antonio Lombatti, a church historian.

The Catholic Church’s official position regarding the shroud – Christianity’s most famous relic – is that it’s an important tool for faith regardless of its authenticity.

The archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Severino Poletto, tells visitors to view the shroud with their hearts rather than their minds.

« It is a man who’s had this horrible set of injuries, lying in death, but the face has a kind of transcendental quality about it, » said David Rolfe, a filmmaker whose latest project argues for the shroud’s authenticity, in describing the relic.

Rolfe’s film, « Shroud, » was made at the Catholic Church’s invitation to coincide with the relic’s exhibition.

The pope will fly to Turin to visit the shroud May 2, according to the Catholic News Agency.

SOURCE (video)

RICHARD DAWKINS, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity”.

Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.

The Pope was embroiled in new controversy this weekend over a letter he signed arguing that the “good of the universal church” should be considered against the defrocking of an American priest who committed sex offences against two boys. It was dated 1985, when he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases.

Benedict will be in Britain between September 16 and 19, visiting London, Glasgow and Coventry, where he will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th-century theologian.

Dawkins and Hitchens believe the Pope would be unable to claim diplomatic immunity from arrest because, although his tour is categorised as a state visit, he is not the head of a state recognised by the United Nations.

They have commissioned the barrister Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens, a solicitor, to present a justification for legal action.

The lawyers believe they can ask the Crown Prosecution Service to initiate criminal proceedings against the Pope, launch their own civil action against him or refer his case to the International Criminal Court.

Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, said: “This is a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence.”

Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, said: “This man is not above or outside the law. The institutionalised concealment of child rape is a crime under any law and demands not private ceremonies of repentance or church-funded payoffs, but justice and punishment”.

Last year pro-Palestinian activists persuaded a British judge to issue an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the Israeli politician, for offences allegedly committed during the 2008-09 conflict in Gaza. The warrant was withdrawn after Livni cancelled her planned trip to the UK.

“There is every possibility of legal action against the Pope occurring,” said Stephens. “Geoffrey and I have both come to the view that the Vatican is not actually a state in international law. It is not recognised by the UN, it does not have borders that are policed and its relations are not of a full diplomatic nature.”

Marc Horne
Times online

Le Vatican s’apprête à publier sur son site internet les «lignes directrices» de la lutte contre la pédophilie au sein de l’Église catholique, a indiqué vendredi l’agence italienne Ansa citant des sources vaticanes.

La publication de ces principes sur le web (www.vatican.va) est prévue «dans un très proche avenir»; ceux-ci pourraient être disponibles sur le site «probablement lundi», a ajouté l’agence.

Cette information n’avait pu être confirmée vendredi soir auprès du Vatican.

La gestion des cas de prêtres pédophiles au sein de l’Église catholique se base sur le droit canon en général et un «motu proprio» (décret) de 2001.

En 2001, Jean Paul II a publié ce décret sur «les crimes graves» à partir d’un document de la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la foi, alors présidée par le cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Le Vatican enjoignait notamment les évêques de l’informer des cas de prêtres pédophiles, qui devaient être éloignés immédiatement de tout contact avec les jeunes.

L’Église est secouée ces dernières semaines par une série de scandales pédophiles, accusée d’avoir gardé le silence sur des abus commis par des prêtres ou des religieux. Le pape Benoît XVI a été lui-même mis en cause pour avoir refusé de sanctionner un prêtre pédophile américain, alors qu’il était préfet de la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la Foi.

Agence France-Presse (Rome)
Cyberpresse

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