The Western Isles Council´s registrars have received hate mail and death threats because they refused, on moral grounds, to conduct civil partnership ceremonies. The registrars said that same sex unions would be conducted in fulfilment of the law, but no wedding-alike ceremony would be provided. Gay groups fired back indicating they would follow a human rights suit against the council to ensure gay couples on the Isles the same „rights“ as those elsewhere.
The La Favorita restaurant in Madrid has been fined 12,000 € by the City Hall for refusing to serve a gay wedding party, according to the El Mundo newspaper. The council considers that the owners have committed a ‘serious infraction’ and is guilty of discrimination.
The bishop of Montpellier, Mgr Thomazeau, was celebrating midnight Christmas Mass in his cathedral when he was interrupted by ten individuals who entered uttering insults, yelling, and manifesting in various ways their hostility to the Christian faith; some were naked to accentuate the provocation. The police had to intervene in order to drive them out. The mayor showed great indignation and the faithful were very shocked by such behavior.
The priest Andrei Nikolaev, his wife and three children have died after their house was set on fire in the village Pryamukhino, Tver region. This was not the first time someone tried to disserve the family or the church. Several months before the accident, the priest informed police and asked for help and protection. He even addressed the media for help but nobody answered. The killer doused the house with gasoline and set on fire.
The Odemis Love Protestant Church in Odemis, near Izmir, was attacked with Molotov cocktails. The church, where the pastor and his family lived, had been the target of stone-throwing and harassment in the months prior to the event.
The Catholic School Monte Tabor was vandalized just a few days before its inauguration in September 2006. Early in the morning, wearing gloves, four youths broke into the school and caused significant damage to the establishment, estimated in the amount of 20,000 Euro. Doors, windows, desks, and chairs were destroyed, and the walls painted with anti-Catholic expressions, as well as attacks to the PP, the PSOE political opponents.
Gay Police Association places ad in The Independent with a photograph of a bible next to a pool of blood.
According to the reports of www.kath.net, the business manager of the Office of Tourism in the municipality of Schruns/Tschagguns in Southern Tyrol, Manuel Bitschnau, asked landlords of 300 holiday apartments to remove religious symbols. This was done in the course of a program of “improvement” in the tourism sector. The reason he gave: people of religions other than Christian could feel offended.
The official seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate suffered an attack in Istanbul on October 6th and was damaged by a grenade.
Wolfgang Baake, general secretary of Christian Media Association (Christlichen Medienverbundes KEP) Germany, calls the reporting and public discussion of evolution vs. intelligent design vs. creationism “defamation” of Christians.