| Subject: Lusa: RC church leaders behaving
like 'opposition party', says PM
East Timor: RC church leaders behaving like 'opposition party', says PM
Dili, April 13 (Lusa) - Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has accused
leaders of East Timor's Roman Catholic Church of attempting to play the
role of political opposition in its recent criticism of a government pilot
scheme to end compulsory religious education in schools.
In a statement released Tuesday, Alkatiri responded to charges made
this week by Timor's two Catholic bishops that he had caused "great
offense" to the country's dominant church in comments he made earlier
about the prelate's reaction to plans to change the system of religious
instruction in schools.
Alkatiri said the communiqué from the Bishops of Dili and Baucau,
Alberto da Silva and Basilio do Nascimento respectively, would go down in
Timor's history as the "date the Catholic hierarchy transformed into
a political party".
Dili's head of government invited the bishops to join a commission that
is overseeing a pilot scheme in 32 schools to make religious education an
optional subject.
"Without descending to the same level as the bishops` last
statement, we limit ourselves to reaffirming that the decision to change
religion classes to a non-compulsory subject is an experiment ÓWe will
study the results of this trial to decide if it will be applied to the
whole country or not", Alkatiri's communiqué said.
EL/CJB.
Lusa
Back to April menu
March
World Leaders Contact List
Main Postings Menu
|
