wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Catholics offended,

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Note #8815 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05387
July 19, 2005

Rioting is Order of the day

Catholics offended, provoked by Northern Irish Protestants' parades

by Ray McMenamin 
Ecumenical News International 
      
DUBLIN - During July, the sound of marching drummers and flutes in Northern
Ireland towns is music to the ears of some residents and a detestable
provocation to others.	 
       
      People from the Roman Catholic community in Ardoyne, north of Belfast,
attacked police on July 12 with grenades, gasoline bombs and other weapons to
express fury over marches organized by the Orange Order, a Protestant group
that holds parades across Northern Ireland. 

	Similar riots have taken place in years past when the Orange Order
sponsored marches.

      In July, marching men wearing bowler hats, white gloves and orange
sashes can invoke the ire of the Catholic community in the
British-administered part of Ireland.	
       
      The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, was
formed in 1795 and has religious, cultural and political dimensions. It
describes itself as a "fundamentally Christian organization" whose members
are "pledged to uphold Protestant faith and liberty under the law."    
       
      The movement is a fraternity with members around the world, primarily
in Commonwealth countries. The institution believes that "civil and religious
liberty (should be) maintained in Ulster (in northern Ireland), that the
Christian faith, reformed and Protestant, be preached and taught." It also
believes that Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom, and
says it is "at the forefront of preserving and promoting the unique culture
of our people."  
       
      It takes its name from William III, a onetime Prince of Orange (a title
still held by the heir-apparent to the Dutch crown) who later was King of
England. The commemoration of King William's victory over his uncle (and
father-in-law) and predecessor as monarch, Catholic King James II, at the
River Boyne in Ireland in July 1690, is the most important event in its
calendar. Events from this era redefined the relationship between the
monarchy and its subjects and barred any future Roman Catholic succession to
the British throne.  
       
      The order outlines its religious basis this way: "Our trust is in God
and our faith and dependence is in Jesus Christ. ... Our purpose is to
maintain the Christian faith by word and deed, to propagate and defend that
faith which we have received from the church of the New Testament through the
faithfulness of the Protestant reformers. The Orange Institution is set for
the defense of Protestantism."	
       
      Citing its reasons for the parade, the Orange Order says: "The founding
fathers decided that parades were an appropriate medium to witness for their
faith and to celebrate their cultural heritage. The parades are a glorious
display of pageantry."	
       
      But that's not how it looks to political representatives of the
Catholic community. They feel that parades commemorating events of 315 years
ago are triumphalist and offensive. Gerry Kelly, a spokesperson for the Sinn
Fein, a political movement that supports a united Ireland, contends that
parades amount to "unionist and loyalist demands to dominate nationalist
neighborhoods by forcing unwanted sectarian anti-Catholic parades through
them."

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