The decision by the leader of the largest Protestant church in NI not to shake the Pope's hand has been described as "unfortunate" by the person overseeing the papal visit to the UK, according to a report on the BBC news web site on Sept 15.
The report consinues:The Presbyterian Moderator, Dr Norman Hamilton, has turned down an opportunity to meet the Pope after a service at Westminster on Friday, but insists his decision is not a snub to Catholics or Pope Benedict XVI.
Lord Patten said Dr Hamilton had to "explain himself".
"I am strongly of the view that the Christian churches should work together and should shake one another's hand rather than behave as though we were living in the depths of the 16th century," he said.
"But perhaps some people are more comfortable in the 16th century than they are living in the 21st."
The Guardian reports that:One of the pope's top advisers on his visit to England and Scotland has dropped out of his entourage following the publication of an interview in which he said that arriving in Britain "you sometimes think you've landed in a third world country".
Benedict XVI's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, told the Guardian, however, that Cardinal Walter Kasper had withdrawn "for health reasons". He said the 77-year-old prelate's absence from the from the papal party, which lands in Edinburgh tomorrow at the start of a four-day visit, "had absolutely nothing to do with anything else".
Kasper, the Vatican's leading expert on relations with the Church of England, made his remark after noting that Britain was a "secular, pluralistic" country. Asked by the German news magazine, Focus, whether Christians were discriminated against in Britain, he replied: "Yes. Above all, an aggressive new atheism has spread through Britain. If, for example, you wear a cross on British Airways, you are discriminated against."
His comment on the airline is bound to revive questions about why, in a departure from the normal practice, the pope will not return to Rome aboard a plane of the country he has visited, normally that country's nationalised flag carrier. At a briefing for correspondents last week, Father Lombardi said the decision to fly there and back with the Italian airline, Alitalia, had been taken for reasons of "simplicity".
He added: "In any case, British Airways is no longer state-owned". Alitalia was itself, however, privatised two years ago.
The last-minute withdrawal of the German cardinal has led to a flurry of activity in the Vatican, because he was to have played a central role in the ecumenical aspects of the pope's visit. Until July, Kasper was the head of the department that deals with relations with other Christian denominations, where he had worked since 1999.
The Belfast-based, Newsletter, on Spetember 14, reported that:
Presbyterian moderator Dr Norman Hamilton has come under fire from within his church after accepting invitations to two events in honour of Pope Benedict XVI.
The Rev Mark Neilly of Buckna Presbyterian Church in Broughshane expressed his "great disgust, frustration and hurt" at the news that Dr Hamilton will attend a service in Westminster Abbey on Friday at which the pope will be present.
Rev Neilly said yesterday that the issue of ecumenism between the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI] and the Roman Catholic Church had caused "massive debate" in the PCI in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
"It finished with the Presbyterian Church coming out of the World Council of Churches (of which the Roman Catholic Church is a member] and I think that is why this is so hurtful," he said.
"We had already taken this decision not to have any formal engagement with the Roman Catholic Church. Members of my own congregation have already come forward to raise their concerns about this visit by the moderator.
"The pope has made clear his views that all other denominations are not churches – he said this in 2000 in the 'Dominus Iesus' document and he reaffirmed it last year."
Rev Neilly said the Presbyterian Westminster Confession of Faith was at explicit odds with the teachings of the Catholic church on the doctrine of salvation.
"This is what the Reformation was all about," he said. "The Protestant churches, based on scripture, teach that people are saved by asking Christ to forgive our sins and believing He has.
"In contrast, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that good works
play an equal part in salvation. But if we go down that route we can end up thinking that living a decent life will get us into heaven, and that is the wrong path. The Apostle James says that good works are only evidence of salvation."
He added that Presbyterian ministers sign the Westminster Confession of Faith, which he said describes the pope as "that antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition".
A PCI spokesman said Dr Hamilton had turned down an invitation to meet the pope but has received two invitations connected with the visit.
Based on reports from the BBC, The Guardian and The Newsletter
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