Saturday, November 04, 2006

Pagans attacked in Glastonbury by Catholic youth

Not sure what the whole story is. Apparently some Catholic youth on a retreat got a little carried away and taunted some neo-pagan citizens. ::UPDATE:: More at Open Book. Bad vibes in Glastonbury after Catholics against pagans - Britain - Times Online
She said: “It was as if we had returned to the dark ages. They told me they wanted to cleanse Glastonbury of paganism. They said they had lighters and were going to come back and burn us down. When the police asked them to apologise, they refused.”

She said there were no plans to put a curse on the Christians. “But we are doing protection for ourselves and the shop and the town. We are working magic for the healing and the damage they very nearly did between us and the local Roman Catholic church.”

She said that the town’s witches had begun to work their magic, starting the protective circle on Samhein, the Celtic new year, last Tuesday, and planning to finish it using the “high energy” of tonight’s full moon.

Dreow Bennett, the Archdruid of Glastonbury and leader of the pagan movement, said: “To call the behaviour of some of their members medieval would be an understatement. I witnessed a pagan being called a ‘bloody witch’ and being told, ‘You will burn in hell’.

“Apparently this man was not a diligent follower of the teachings of Christ. It was my understanding that Christ taught compassion and tolerance rather than hatred and ignorance.”

Father Kevin Knox-Lecky, the Catholic parish priest at Glastonbury, said: “I was utterly appalled by the disgraceful behaviour, language and threats that were apparently made to members of the local pagan community by a small fringe group that attached itself to the Youth 2000 retreat last weekend in Glastonbury.” He said the militants were “unChristian and unrepresentative” of the majority of the 350 young people at the festival.

He had since met Mrs Pinder and Mr Bennett. The conversation ended in “mutual embrace”. He said: “We have agreed to keep in touch with each other and to support each other in the event of negative attention from any extremists from whichever faith. I have frequently found evidence of rites performed on my church steps.”
Surely not the best way to evangelize in today's world, eh? Personally, I find it a little difficult to take neo-pagans very seriously, but that's just me.

Here's a pagan blogger's perspective ... it showed up in my Google Alerts. Of course, it's all Pope Benedict's fault. Didn't know neo-paganism was this common in the UK. Interestingly, (Anglican) Bishop Tom Wright isn't too pleased about the rise of neo-paganism in the modern UK. I'll dig some quotes up.

And I wonder how St. Paul's smashing of the statues of Artemis in Ephesus would have played out in today's world?

1 comment:

Jason Pitzl-Waters said...

"Of course, it's all Pope Benedict's fault."

I didn't say that, I said that perhaps there was a new Catholic radicalism brewing and part of that could be influenced by Pope Benedict's rhetoric concerning "pagans", secular Europe, and interfaith activities (I also framed that comment as a question not a statement.). I even hoped it was an isolated incident. Hardly me "blaming" the Pope.

Then again, you don't take us very seriously, so why should I expect you to fairly portray my comments?