Leading cardinal urges Iraq constitution change

[ECH1969]

LONDON – A leading Roman Catholic cardinal has urged Britain to help remove a clause from Iraq's draft constitution he says would deny Christians and other minorities their basic rights as citizens.

Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who is Archbishop of Westminster, warned British Foreign Minister Jack Straw last week the clause could have 'devastating consequences' for Iraq's Christian minority. His office gave some details of his letter on Monday.

Determining the role of Islam in Iraq has been one factor stalling the drafting of a new constitution. A draft submitted last month will now be put to a referendum in October although some fine tuning is still taking place.

One clause in the draft states that 'no law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam', according to the statement from the cardinal's office.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20050905-1259-iraq-constitution-religion.html

[SpiralHawk]

1. The Pope gets his 2 cents in via a surrogate

Just what the Islamic World wants -- the Pope and BushCo telling them how to be "free" and "spiritual"

[Mairead]

2. Pity he isn't as caring of the majority: women

But that's the RC church hierarchy for ya.

[VegasWolf]

7. Women don't matter to the Catholic Church, they are diseased such

that they cannot stand on the altar of christ and perform mass even in the most dire of circumstances.

[CatholicEdHead]

9. Yes they do,

Only a few isolated areas think that.

Iraq's Christian Community has a LONG, LONG history. They do not follow every whim from Rome and is mixed with other communities (e.g. Orthodox).

[VegasWolf]

13. Wrong! Your Catholicism needs touching up! Start with the Council

of Nicea and move forward. Lack of respect of women has been core throughout all western religions. Maybe read little Bertrand Russel while you are at it. Have you had any serious Catholic training?

[sueh]

3. Yeah, but even Sadaam didn't outlaw Christianity. n/t

[BootinUp]

4. We better start bombing again

The Church is not happy with the Iraq consitution.

:sarcasm:

[snot]

5. I hope someone's publicizing the current Iraq Const. to *'s base!!! nt

[QC]

6. The knees are jerking fast and furious around here, aren't they?

I guess we're supposed to like Shi'ite theocracies now, since a Catholic has spoken out against the very same constitution that many of us here have been condeming.

[VegasWolf]

8. Huh? nt

[BootinUp]

10. That wasn't my point.

The constitution is a disaster. Just saying its a result of the invasion, and there is no changing it now.

Maybe its a silly point to make.

[sonicx]

11. "I guess we're supposed to like Shi'ite theocracies now"

Iraq is a "democracy" now. Britian or US can't do anything, no matter how much they don't like it.

[countmyvote4real]

12. Iraq's theocracy will be the model for ours.

Once Roberts is installed as Chief Justice of the SCOTUS we will worship corporations as the gods they intend to be. Throw in some fundie mayhem and poof... the entire US will take a journey from Fallugia (sic) to New Orleans and back again.

[VegasWolf]

14. I for one, don't give a flying xxx about ANY theocracy!! nt

[Strelnikov_]

15. Couldn't We Get A Little Freedom Of Religion For Our $1T Spent? n/t

[1932]

16. They should be more worried about turning planned economy to free-market

economy overnight.

It's shock therapy and it's not going to work, just like it hasn't worked anywhere else in the world.

[htuttle]

17. You misunderstand the intent of neo-liberal 'market reform'

They were never intended to improve the economy and standard of living of those it's applied to. It's intended to facilitate the looting of a country by foreign capital, and on that measure, it seems to work pretty well.