3 days ago
Catholic Church voices opposition to PNG's Christian nation declaration
Christianity will now be reflected in the Fifth Goal of the Constitution, and the Bible will be recognised as a national symbol.
Photo:
RNZ Pacific
The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea is telling the government it was wrong to declare PNG a Christian country.
Earlier this year, the PNG parliament
passed a constitutional amendment
formally recognising the nation as a Christian country.
Prime Minister James Marape declared he was happy to see this written into the country's constitution
The
Post-Courier
reports the Rabaul Archbishop Rochal Tamutai
warning
that this threatens constitutional freedoms and risks damaging the country's future.
He told a parliamentary committee that the "claim that PNG is a Christian country is not supported by law."
He said the Catholic Church disagrees with the government's move, saying adding it conflicts with the constitution's guarantee of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.
The archbishop's remarks cam amid a broader presentation on the influence of evolving technology on church authority, but he took the opportunity to confront what he called one of the major topics in PNG today.
His concerns centres on the legal, social, and theological implications of attempting to legislate
Christianity into state law.
The archbishop said politicians are not theologians and risk entering spiritual territory without the understanding to handle it responsibly.
And he asked "if we declare PNG a Christian nation," he asked, "whose version of Christianity are we referring to? We're not all the same."
He warned of a future where attending church could become a legal obligation, not a matter of faith.
"If PNG is supposedly a Christian nation, police could walk into your village and tell you: it's not just a sin to skip church on Sunday it's illegal and get you arrested.' That's how dangerous this path could be."
