Colorado Catholics forgive Mormon missionaries during Holy Week
Denver, Mar 24, 2008 / 10:00 am (CNA).- An investigation that likely
would have led to criminal charges against four Mormon missionaries
who desecrated a Catholic shrine in 2006, has been stopped by local
authorities following a request made during Holy Week by the Catholic
community of Costilla County, in the Diocese of Pueblo, Colorado.
Cpl. Scott Powell, the investigating officer in charge of the case,
confirmed on Good Friday that the Costilla County Sheriff's Office
will not continue looking into the actions of four missionaries who
allegedly mocked the Catholic Church and vandalized a holy shrine in
San Luis, Colorado's oldest town.
Photographs taken in August 2006 and discovered on the Internet by a
Sangre de Cristo pari****oner earlier this month, show the Mormon
missionaries preaching behind a church altar while waving a Book of
Mormon, pretending to sacrifice one another and holding the head of a
statue of a Mexican martyr, whom the missionary shown in the picture
claimed to have decapitated. The mocking took place at All Saints
Chapel and the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs in San Luis.
Officials with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have
publicly apologized to the San Luis community for the actions of the
three young men in the photos and announced that all of them have been
disciplined.
In an Easter letter released to "The Pueblo Chieftain" last Tuesday,
Bishop Tafoya wrote asking that "we as Catholics, who believe in the
forgiveness of Christ, will ourselves forgive, and pray for the young
men who showed such a lack of tolerance and understanding."
"I especially ask the members of the San Luis community to help the
healing process by removing any anger that exists in their hearts.
This is the time that we can show our love of Christ by forgiving and
loving our neighbors," he wrote.
"To go to heaven -the Bishop added, - we must believe in our Lord
Jesus Christ and to do what he has asked us to do. One of the things
that he has asked is that we forgive those who have sinned against
us."
In response to the Bishop's request, the parish council took a vote
and recommended on Thursday afternoon, before celebrating the Mass of
the Institution of the Eucharist, that no charges be filed against the
young men.
Cpl. Powell said that based on what he was discovering in his
investigation, charges "very easily could have been brought" against
the young men.
"It's moot at this point," he said. "When that recommendation came
from the church, everything stopped."
"We are very, very grateful," said Robert Fotheringham, who is in
charge of the Mormon church's missionary program in a four state
region that includes the San Luis Valley.
"The people we dealt with are big-spirited, and I'm frankly not
surprised," he added.
http://www.truthandgrace.com/Mormon.htm
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