Author:
Publication: Woodtv.com
Date: February 12, 2004
URL: http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1639990&nav=0RceKkhq
(Grand Rapids, February 11, 2004,
7:01 p.m.) It was a religious confrontation that has inspired anger and
confusion.
24 Hour News 8 spent Wednesday finding
more about the scores of people who disrupted a Buddhist worship service
Tuesday night at a Grand Rapids Catholic Church.
About 150 demonstrators from St.
Margaret Mary Church in Allendale gathered inside St. Adalbert's Basilica
in Grand Rapids. The police were called in when the demonstrators' loud
prayers disrupted the event. The group was upset that Tibetan monks were
allowed to perform inside a Catholic basilica.
One person described the incident
as a civil war between churches. You have places like St. Adalbert's, and
then you have St. Margaret Mary in Allendale, which broke away from the
Roman Catholic Church in the late 1960's. There are a lot of similarities
between the churches as well as a lot of differences.
Some people call Tuesday night's
incident praying, while others say it was a downright rude interruption.
Either way, the sound was so loud and so distracting, the Tibetan monks
didn't get to perform at the altar. "It's the idea it was being done in
a Catholic basilica," said Debbie Underhill, one of the demonstrators.
A Christian Reformed church or university
setting, says Underhill, wouldn't have bugged her a bit. But the fact is,
the monks don't worship her God. Plus, as a member of St. Margaret Mary
Catholic Church, she says her priest wouldn't be allowed to hold service
at the basilica because they aren't recognized by some people as a Catholic
church.
"The differences are getting bigger
and bigger," Underhill told 24 Hour News 8. She says St. Margaret stands
apart because it's much stricter and traditional.
"Most of it is Latin," Underhill
said. "The priest faces the altar, not the people," she continued.
And the differences don't stop there.
St. Margaret Mary is affiliated
with the Society of Saint Pius X, which was founded in 1970 by French Bishop
Marcel Lefebvre, after splitting with the current Roman Catholic Church.
At a performance at Grand Valley
State University Wednesday, the monks tell 24 Hour News 8 they've performed
at churches before with no problem. "Our message was not to create disharmony,
but to create harmony, so they are sorry things happened that way," said
Tsering Mullens, a translator for the Tibetan monks.
Or rather, just the wrong place,
wrong time, in a crossfire of differing beliefs. "Our motives were not
to hurt anyone, it was in defense of the faith," said Underhill.
24 Hour News 8's reports on Tuesday
night's demonstration and the follow-up Wednesday have gained a lot of
attention. We received more than a dozen e-mails and numerous phone calls
from people expressing their thoughts and concerns, primarily talking about
the distinction between these churches.
24 Hour News 8 was able to find
some information on the Society of St. Pius X, which is the group the parishioners
at St. Margaret Mary's belong to. The Society's United States headquarters
are in Kansas City, Missouri. There are 850 Third Order members in the
U.S. with more than 100 chapels and 50 priests nationwide.
Grand Rapids Bishop Kevin Britt
released a statement about allowing the monks into St. Adalbert's basilica,
saying "In Pope John P II's commitment to peace and justice, the Holy Father
has championed ecumenical and interreligious dialogue."
The diocese also made clear that
St. Margaret Mary is not part of the Roman Catholic Church or the Diocese
of Grand Rapids.
