WORLD

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 5, 2001 by Teresa Malcolm

Peter "has several cuts all over the body and a very bad braise at the throat, after he was strangulated. Now he can breath more comfortably," Fernandes said.

Peter is assistant at the cathedral parish in Port Blair and chaplain of the Tamil Catholic community.

No arrests had been made as of Dec. 18, but some church officials suspected Hindu extremists.

After attacking the priest in his home, the assailants left a note warning Peter not to indulge in any conversions or celebrate Pongal, the harvest festival of Tamils celebrated by all communities in the area.

Fernandes said the cathedral parish held a major feast a year ago on the silver jubilee of Pongal celebrations on the island. "The huge success of Pongal evidently irked a few Hindus," he said, adding that three men stopped Peter, a native of Tamil Nadu state, a few days later and warned him that he had no business celebrating a "Hindu" festival.

Pakistan church set to ordain women

The Church of Pakistan has set two women on the path toward priesthood, ordaining them as deacons on Nov. 21.

"The church has taken a very bold step, particularly in our Islamic context, in ordaining women," said one of the women, Kushnud Azariahs. "The gender barrier has been broken."

The 800,000-member Church of Pakistan is composed of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans and other Protestants.

Kushnud Azariahs' husband, Bishop Samuel Azariahs, moderator of the church, said the church had "gone ahead with what we believe is right. We have made our commitment to it."

However, retired army major Timotheus Nasir, moderator-secretary of the United Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, charged the ordinations will lead to "apostasy and heresy."

"Women's ordination is not authorized by the Bible," said Nasir, who is trying to block the ordinations in civil court. He vowed that his church "will keep the fight on till the bishop repents and the court gives him due punishment under the law."

"We want him to be taken to task for violating the national law and biblical law," said Nasir. Pakistan is a largely Muslim nation that restricts the role women may play in religion.

The bishop denied Nasir's claims a court had served him a "contempt of court" notice for proceeding with the ordinations.

"We have committed no contempt of court as the ordination took place before the court intervened," said Bishop Azariahs, adding that "The court is not the authority to tell the church who is to be ordained and who is not to be ordained. There is a dear mandate in the Bible for including women in the ministry of the church."

Apostolic administrator named for Welsh diocese

The Vatican has stepped into a troubled Welsh archdiocese and appointed an apostolic administrator to run the affairs in the Cardiff archdiocese, where Catholics have called for the resignation of Archbishop John Aloysius Ward.

Soon after the appointment, the pope's representative in England called for a meeting of the diocesan clergy in January.

The archdiocese has been rocked by scandals involving pedophile priests. Ward has temporarily suspended his duties as he recovers from deep vein thrombosis.