CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC):
THE PENTECOSTAL Assemblies of the West Indies says it will not support a call for the St. Lucia Government to introduce legislation to deal with criticism against the Roman Catholic Church.
"While I admit we should have spoken out sooner, we are surprised that the Archbishop (Kelvin Felix) made such a statement, asking to legislate against the Protestant churches," said Bishop Thomas Eristhee.
Bishop Eristhee was speaking ahead of the 31st biennial general conference of the Pentecostal Assemblies that began on Sunday.
Last month, the Roman Catholic Archbishop called for the introduction of the legislation after surviving an assassination attempt.
Archbishop Felix said the attempt on his life was part of the attack by persons who took to the airwaves to lambaste the Roman Catholic Church.
"This should not be allowed to happen. If they are there to preach their religion, they should do so without consistently having to attack the Catholic Church and its leaders," Archbishop Felix said.
STUDENT TERRIFIED
The Archbishop said specific and strong legislation should be targeted, especially against those churches that were coming into the country and were debasing the Catholic Church.
But Bishop Eristhee said as a student of the Bible, he was "a little terrified" at the call made by the Roman Catholic Church.
"Not only the churches know about what the Catholic Church has done in the past, people go to school and learn about these things. To go and say we must legislate against these churches is going too far," he said.
