Sign of Cross Banned at Soccer Matches?

BBC, Jan. 6—Members of the Scottish Parliament have suggested forbidding soccer fans from making the sign of the cross at games, seeing in the gesture a provocation by majority Catholic fans of the Celtic team toward majority Protestant fans of the rival Rangers.

The Catholic bishops of Scotland have condemned these proposals as “absurd and unworkable,” according to the British Broadcasting Corp. A Church spokesman said it could foresee no circumstances in which the religious gesture should ever be treated as a breach of the peace.

“These proposals strike at the heart of people's personal religious beliefs,” said the spokesman, who was unnamed in the report. “Under no circumstances would the Catholic Church allow this gesture to become illegal.”

A Liberal Democrat member of the Scottish Parliament, Donald Gorrie, one of the proponents of the cross ban, responded: “There are actions which are very praiseworthy in the right context, such as a Catholic crossing himself or singing a national anthem, but these can become very provocative if they are made in a very ‘in your face’ way to try to rile the other side.”

Gorrie said he had no intention of changing the law but simply wanted to let local police judge when a gesture was intended provocatively.

Christians Organize Aid for Cyclone Victims

FIDES, Jan. 3—After the violent cyclone that hit the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, the local Catholic Church began arranging food aid and shelter for thousands of victims on the islands most affected.

On Tikopia, Fataka and Anuta, a tidal wave submerged whole villages and destroyed all communications, leaving at least 2,000 feared dead. Local offices of the Pontifical Mission Societies told Fides, the Vatican missionary news service, that the government, with the aid of Australian teams, is trying to verify damage and count the victims.

Christian aid organizations have been somewhat delayed because they are waiting for government permission to proceed with collection of funds and distribution of emergency supplies.

The situation is complicated by political instability in the Solomon Islands, which came out of a civil war in 2000. There are still rebel groups that oppose the government there.

Poland and Malta Seek to Protect Unborn from EU

INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS, Jan. 6—The overwhelmingly Catholic nations of Poland and Malta are expected to join the European Union next year. But first they are seeking to retain their right to protect unborn life, according to Independent Catholic News, a U.K.-based online daily new service.

The primate of Poland, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, asked the European Union to make a specific constitutional allowance for Poland to set its own laws on abortion, as Ireland is currently permitted to do by Protocol 17 of the Treaty of Rome.

In December, the island nation of Malta negotiated a similar clause, safeguarding its ban on abortion.