To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Infobeat News items (4/21/00)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 12:43:09 -0400

*** Dutch cops publish 'Red Light Guide'

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - City police said Friday they are
publishing a guide to help foreign tourists flocking to the Dutch
capital for sex and drugs do it safely. The English-language "Police
Red Light Guide," will be released in time for this summer's peak
tourist season, said police spokesman Arie van Zandbergen. The
leaflet, written by agent Wim Schild, a 12-year veteran of the red
light district beat, gives pointers to tourists who come to take
advantage of permissive policies on drug use and prostitution. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2565895808-85e

*** Priest to preach to prostitutes

CHICAGO (AP) - Armed with two-way radios, envelopes filled with $10s
and $20s and a prayer, a small group of men prepares to hit the dimly
lit streets in search of prostitutes and drug dealers. They are not
cops, nor are they looking to break the law. They are an earnest
group of Catholics - among them attorneys, a city worker, former drug
dealers, a courier and a priest - who want to spread the word of God.
And they're willing to pay those they encounter for the time to do
it. "We go not to judge or condemn," the Rev. Michael Pfleger says,
closing his eyes and holding hands in a prayer circle before what
have become routine late-night outings at St. Sabina church. The men
nod and hug before dividing into groups of two and three and piling
into cars to cruise the streets in the heart of Chicago's South Side.
See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2565892105-076
*** Also: Faith being brought to prisoners, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2565892642-3dc

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - 11 nailed to crosses in bizarre Philippine ritual
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 12:34:00 -0500

11 nailed to crosses in bizarre Philippine ritual

http://www.voila.co.uk/News/afp/people/000421110535.8fddgvdc.html

SAN FERNANDO, Philippines (AFP) - - Ten men and a woman
were nailed to wooden crosses here on Good Friday in a
bizarre ritual held annually despite the disapproval of the
mainstream Roman Catholic church.

Several hundred local and foreign tourists watched under a
hot sun as the 10 men, clad in white loincloths, and a
woman in a white robe reenacted what the Bible describes as
the crucifixion of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago.

The 11 staggered into a fenced-in knoll where neighbors
dressed as Roman centurions awaited with wooden crosses,
hammers and four-inch (10-centimetre) nails.

Bus driver Chito Sangalang grimaced as the nails were
driven into his palms and feet as he was nailed to a cross.
The cross was hoisted aloft for the crowd to see before
Sangalang was taken down.

"It's amazing to see people sacrificing themselves for
their sins," said American tourist Rey New, 40.

It was the 14th year Sangalang has been nailed to a cross.
His brother Arnel was crucified for a seventh time along
with eight other penitents.

Woman penitent Amparo Santos was crucified last.

Chito Sangalang told journalists that he was taking part
in the annual crucifixion ritual to thank God for curing
his mother of tuberculosis.

"I promised to do this for 15 years. This is my 14th
year," he said.

The annual spectacle began when Sangalang was "arrested"
by fellow worshippers dressed as Roman soldiers and brought
before a man playing the role of Pontius Pilate, the Roman
governor who authorized Jesus's death.

Accompanied by horse-riding "guards", he walked a dusty
one-kilometer (0.6-miles) to the man-made knoll where he
was nailed to the cross. Guards pretended to pierce his
side with a spear.

The nails, soaked in alcohol beforehand, were pulled out
after a few minutes.

Aside from the crucifixions, dozens of penitents walked
barefoot in the village of San Pedro Cutud, beating their
bare backs bloody with sticks laced with broken glass.

The Roman Catholic church has frowned upon such
expressions of fealty, but penitents reenact them annually
to seek special favors from God such as the healing of a
sick relative or the meeting of a financial need.

"Faith is important, but let's not go to the extremes,"
Cardinal Jaime Sin, the highest-ranking church leader in
the Philippines, has said.

Spain brought Catholicism to this southeast Asian
archipelago with the sword of colonial conquest in 1521,
and the Philippines remains the lone major Catholic outpost
in Asia with more than 50 million Catholics.

The faith supplanted animism and Islam, which had arrived
two centuries earlier, in all but a few areas in the large
southern island of Mindanao.

In the Mindanao city of Zamboanga, large numbers of Roman
Catholics stayed away from churches on Good Friday amid
bomb threats attributed to Muslim extremists, residents said.

Soldiers and police armed with assault rifles guarded
churches for afternoon masses following threats by the
radical Islamic group Abu Sayyaf to attack Christian targets.

"We are afraid because there are threats of terrorists
bombing churches here," said businesswoman Marites
Fernandez, 27.

She, her husband and seven children broke tradition and
avoided attending mass and a religious procession
afterwards through the city, where 90 percent of the
500,000-strong population are Christians.

Fernandez's neighbours in Zamboanga's Tetuan district also
stayed at home, most of them glued to television or radio
sets where masses and Jesus's "Seven Last Words" while on
the cross were aired live.

"Even my sister who has a statue of a saint did not attend
the procession. It's very scary, we are just being
careful," Fernandez told AFP.

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Pokemon Earns Papal Blessing
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 12:46:41 -0500

POKEMON EARNS PAPAL BLESSING
By DEVLIN BARRETT

Worried parents may think the Pokémon kiddie-card craze is
the work of the devil, but the pope has reportedly decided
the game is good for children.

The Vatican gave its blessing to the game just as its
popularity is soaring in Italy, where "Pokémon: The First
Movie" opens this week, the Times of London reported
yesterday.

The trading-card and computer game is "full of inventive
imagination," said Sat2000, a satellite TV station run by
the Vatican.

The game did not have "any harmful moral side effects" and
was based on "ties of intense friendship," the station said.

Pokémon pushes its pint-sized players to think creatively
to conquer challenges without violence, said the station,
which is run by the Italian Bishops' Conference.

Sat2000 said the game told simple stories which allowed
children "to enter directly into the story" through role-
playing adventures.

Italian children have shown almost a religious devotion to
Pikachu and Co., spending loads of lire to snap up every
available Pokémon card and sticker.

But officials fear the Mafia will strong-arm its way into
the craze, flooding the streets with counterfeit cards
because the real ones are now almost impossible to find in
stores.

Italian children already have bought 50 million packets of
the cards in just over a month.

The same hysteria earlier this year left American parents
and educators wondering if the game was a sinful temptation.

Some parents complained their children were breaking their
piggy banks to buy cards and that ugly schoolyard fights
were sparked over them.

Italian opinion-makers have generally endorsed the game.

The Catholic Church's public blessing of Pokémon seems
part of an effort by ailing Pope John Paul II to reach out
to young people.

The 79-year-old pontiff also is set to host a pop concert
next month featuring Lou Reed and the Eurythmics, and a
World Youth Festival during the summer.

http://www.nypostonline.com/news/2630.htm

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