we wll respond with prayers

1st dec. 2006 had been declared by our bishop as a day of prayer, fast and penance in response to the mob gathering at the church of our lady of lourdes, silibin, ipoh. yes, we respond with prayers and not demonstration. though the leaders of the demonstrators had refused to apologise, it’s ok. we’ll respond in the way we always do – prayers (dialogue, or talk, like in the case of the da vinci code movie). we will pray for peace in our country, peace among all the religions and let there be no extremists among all religions.
the letter from the bishop is up on the penang diocese website.

it starts with:

Calling all Catholics & people of goodwill to fasting, penance and prayer on 1st dec. 2006.

My dear Priests, Religious, Laity and People of good-will,

Since 5^th November 2006 (5/11), when a Malay Muslim group demonstrated at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Ipoh, responding to a false SMS about the conversion of Muslims to Christianity, there had been several responses regarding this incident:

visit the website to read the full letter. all churches in the diocese of penang are urged to hold a day of prayer service for the well-being of all catholics, especially the catholics in silibin, ipoh.

note: the letter from mr bernard bhar, chairman of the catholic lawyers’ society. (this was mentioned in point no. 3 of the bishop’s letter).

note 2: it appears that this message of the bishop appears in the star and malaysiakini today too (edited!) but i don’t seem to see them yet. will update the link later when i came across them.