April 26, 2003

Saturday, April 26, 2003 I'm

Saturday, April 26, 2003


I'm sorry there wasn't a chance to post anything on Good Friday yesterday (for you Western Church folk out there, our Holy Week is a week after yours this year). I wish I could say it was because of all the services we were attending. Alas, here in the hinterlands of Herefordshire that wasn't the case. Instead there were many personal matters to attend to.

Today, I don't have a lot to write about. But this is one story I just couldn't miss, and it happened just a few miles from here:

Julian Evans from Monmouth was convicted before Merthyr Tydfil magistrates with sending nuisance e-mails. He had been sending malicious messages to one of the main mobile phone networks, T-Mobile, because they had refused to hire him. In his quest for a character reference to encourage leniency from the court, Julian produced a letter from the Pope. In letter read:

"My dear friends in Christ, I regret that we have been unable to protect the Church from this scandal in the case of Julian Evans.

"We are obliged to support Julian Evans and we have done throughout these troubled times. Julian has given an immense amount of spiritual, human and social good for the welfare of the Church and humanity.

"Yours in Christ, Pope John Paul."

Call them sceptical, but the Mertyr magistrates weren't entirely convinced the letter was genuine. After what was probably not a long investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service discovered that the letter had been purchased off the internet for £50. The amazing thing to me is that someone was willing to pay £50 for something like this. Why didn't the bloke just type something up himself?

Two Good Articles

I'm not a regular reader of The Atlantic Monthy, or even of their website Atlantic Online. However, a received the link to a good article in this month's issue about the clash of Christian and Muslim civilizations, which I encourage you to read if you have a bit of spare time: "I'm Right, You're Wrong, Go To Hell".

While read that article, I saw links to other articles about religion that have appeared recently in The Atlantic Monthly. I clicked through to an even longer, but very good article by Philip Jenkins on the explosion of conservative Christianity in the developing world: The Next Christianity.

If it is after midnight Saturday/Sunday where you are... Christ is Risen!

Posted by david at April 26, 2003 11:09 PM
Comments

Sorry, you have as most people in the media, got the story wholly wrong. The CPS did not find out that I had bought the reference off the internet in regard to the Holy Father, John Paul 11. It was NEVER bought off the internet. The CPS and the Police could not find where the document, which was in Italian came from, bearing the Holy See Seal of Vatican 11. I know where it came from, but refused to tell the Court.

Perhaps in future, you may wish to be in Her Majesty's Court's to fully relay to your readers the turth of a story.

Julian Evans. BA.Th.

Posted by: julian evans at September 27, 2003 11:49 PM