DAILY CATHOLIC     WEDNESDAY     August 26, 1998     vol. 9, no. 167

NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

To print out entire text of Today's issue, go to SECTION ONE and SECTION TWO
          BOGOTA (CWNews.com) - A high-school teacher who professed belief in Gnosticism won a civil rights lawsuit on last week against a local priest who accused him on Satanism.

          Father Juan Carlos Jaramillio said he denounced Rube Giraldo in the small town of El Santuario last year because the teacher was teaching spells to his students and the children even tried to conjure spirits. Giraldo said he was not involved in the incidents and suggested that the priest denounced him because he believes in a religion long ago considered a heresy by Catholics. After townspeople began making death threats and started calling him "Satan's professor," Giraldo filed a civil rights lawsuit against the priest.

          Last week the country's highest court, the Constitutional Court, ruled in his favor in a surprise climax of what has become a national debate about the relationship between church and state. The Constitutional Court in recent years has struck down several laws favorable to the Catholic Church in Colombia including mandatory Catholic education in public schools, tax breaks for the Church, military service exemptions, and the requirement for a Church annulment in order to receive a civil divorce.


Articles provided through Catholic World News Service.
CWN is not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provides this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.

August 26, 1998       volume 9, no. 167
NEWS & VIEWS

DAILY CATHOLIC

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