Latest news with #evangelism
Daily Mail
04-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Israel Folau slams cops for stunning act with man holding up a sign about Jesus - and says it wouldn't have happened if he was promoting gay pride
Israel Folau has criticised New South Wales Police officers after they appeared to tell a street preacher to leave an area surrounding the Sydney Opera House. Evangelist Mike McCarthy, 72, published a clip of himself being confronted by two police officers and multiple security guards outside the iconic Australian landmark. He was also seen holding a sign that read: 'Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no other way to the father but by me. John 14:6.' Police were heard urging Mr McCarthy to leave the area. They justified their instruction by claiming he was in violation of a set of bylaws. '[Security] have given you just a simple request to leave the sign over there. They do have bylaws here, governing this area,' one officer said. 'You've refused to comply with them and you've also failed to stop to speak with the security guard. Local evangelist Mike McCarthy filmed the moment five security guards and two NSW police officers confronted him over his sign 'Now since then, they've asked you multiple times, and as I understand, because I have dealt with him in the past, they've tried to be reasonable with you.' The video has gone viral on social media, with several outlets picking it up. Folau, a cross-code rugby player, who began his career in the NRL with the Melbourne Storm before switching over to play rugby union, took to Instagram to comment on a clip of the incident published on the social media platform by 2GB. The former Wallabies player wrote: 'Holding up a sign of any other religion and or a pride message would get a pass. 'They want to suppress everything about Jesus. 'Shows you he is the only way, truth and life.' The footy player is known to have deeply religious beliefs, having grown up as a Mormon and has previously held sermons at his local church. In recent years, Folau, 36, has been looking to make a move to get back into playing first-grade rugby in Australia and for the Wallabies, following his explosive sacking in 2019. It came after he had published an explosive social media meme on Instagram stating 'hell awaits' homosexuals. Rugby Australia determined he had breached it's player's code of conduct. Mr McCarthy fired back and asked the officer to explain what he has done wrong and which laws he retained violated. 'No, you're going to have to tell me what I'm doing wrong or I'm not going anywhere,' he said. 'This is Australia. The Constitution of Australia says I can preach religion anywhere within Australia. 'That's all I'm doing, and I'm not even doing that. I'm just walking around, looking at that.' The officer informed Mr McCarthy he was violating the bylaws governing the Opera House's premises. The bylaw prohibits a person from distributing or displaying 'by oral, visual written, electronic or other means, an advertisement, sign, bill, poster or other promotional material'. 'I'm not interested in bylaws. I'm interested in being free,' Mr McCarthy said. 'What are you going to do, are you going to arrest me?' In the 12-minute clip, shared to his YouTube channel 'Mike with a mic' , police urged Mr McCarthy to move away from the area as he was violating a set of bylaws The officer responded: 'I don't want to. I'm just asking you to leave.' Mr McCarthy replied: 'On principle I'm not going to leave, because I'm an Australian citizen. If I can't walk anywhere in Australia with this sign, there is a problem.' The confrontation ended peacefully after Mr McCarthy walked away with his sign to Circular Quay. NSW Police said no move-on direction was issued, however, Mr McCarthy told 2GB host Ben Fordham on Monday that such an order was 'threatened'. 'I wasn't trying to be difficult, I was just sticking up for my rights and I believe we all should,' he said. The Christian preacher cited the Australian Constitution section 116 outlining the freedom of religion and stipulates that the Commonwealth is prohibited from making laws which prohibit the free exercise of religion. Mr McCarthy believes the bylaws do not apply, as section 109 of the constitution stipulates federal law prevails when a conflict arises between federal and state government laws. He told Fordham he was not shocked that security had called the police as it 'happens to us frequently'. Police informed the 72-year-old he was violating a bylaw which stipulates signs are prohibited from being displayed on the Opera House's premises 'I was hassled about walking on state-owned land, which I believe it is, for just carrying a sign,' Mr McCarthy said. 'Well, a 72-year-old guy with a sign has got to be a clear and present danger, so we got to shut him down. It's just ridiculous. 'I walk around with this sign everyday. We go everyday out on the street and preach the word of God. We pray with people. That's all we do. 'I took it on principle. I'm not just going to stop. I believe I have a right to do this. I'm not contravening any law that I can see. I'm not stirring up people, I'm not creating havoc, I have no loud speaker. I just had a sign in my hand.' Social media users backed Mr McCarthy, with many questioning why police had stopped him but did nothing to stop a large crowd protesting against Israel's war in Gaza ers in the same place in 2023. Protesters, many carrying signs, gathered outside the Opera House when it was going to be lit-up in support of Israel following the Hamas attack in October. 'This man has every right to display his sign and is covered by his and everyone's right to religious expression and freedoms and when you impinge on his rights you are the one breaking the law,' one wrote. A second chimed in: 'What happened to freedom of expression?
Telegraph
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Pope Leo shows you don't need to be woke to stay relevant
What is the secret of Pope Leo's popularity? In less than a month, he seems to have brought something fresh to this most ancient of offices. He has reminded us that the timeless is always timely. In other words, you do not have to be woke to be relevant. Might other churches, in particular the Church of England, follow his example? Catholics ought not to lecture other denominations; heaven knows, there are more than enough motes and beams to go round. But Leo XIV does teach us a useful lesson about Christian ministry in the 21st century. The key to contemporary evangelism is not to tell people what they want to hear, still less to imitate the high priests of the secular world, but to speak with the voice of Jesus to Pontius Pilate: 'To this end was I born, for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.' No sooner had Leo been elected than he gave notice to the Caesars of our time. His clear-eyed support for 'martyred Ukraine' (in contrast to Francis's equivocation) was demonstrated by giving Zelensky priority over Trump's delegation in a private audience after his Inauguration Mass last Sunday. No less urgent is a new policy on China, where the Communist Party is appointing new state 'bishops' without consultation. Leo knows that if he abrogates the disgraceful concordat agreed by Cardinal Parolin under Pope Francis, Xi Jinping is ruthless enough to incarcerate Chinese Catholics en masse, as he has already done to their episcopate and to the Muslim Uyghurs. But St John Paul II showed how to handle one-party states and Leo has already echoed the Polish Pope's signature message: 'Be not afraid.' The BBC and others who take the obsolescence of a 2,000-year-old institution as axiomatic have been claiming that the new Pope will be 'continuity Francis'. Leo is an Augustinian friar who, having spent much of his life in Peru, will be no less zealous on behalf of the poor than the Argentinian Jesuit. His choice of name reminds us that the 'option for the poor' goes back to Leo XIII's social teaching and ultimately, of course, to the Sermon on the Mount. Yet Leo is cast in a different mould from Francis. As a mathematician, a canon lawyer and an intellectual, he believes in resolving disputes, not reopening them. He has fully absorbed the legacy of Benedict XVI, whose recognition as a Doctor of the Church he will doubtless champion. In one of his first homilies, he quoted Benedict: 'God loves us. This is the great truth of our life; it is what makes everything else meaningful.' For Leo, the mystery and beauty of the Catholic liturgy are integral to faith. That includes both forms of the Latin Mass and the various rites of the Eastern Churches. Anglicans should likewise treasure the Book of Common Prayer. Leo's inauguration Mass opened with the Sistine choir chanting the Laudes Regiae, the royal acclamations whose origins go back to Roman antiquity. The refrain – Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat! ('Christ conquers! Christ reigns! Christ commands!') – proclaims the ultimate triumph of Christ. Leo XIV exudes American confidence. His promises to be a long, significant and surprising pontificate. The Leonine revolution has only just begun.
