(Grand Rapids, February 11, 2004, 7:01 p.m.) It was a religious confrontation that has inspired anger and confusion.
24 Hour News 8 spent Wednesday finding more about the scores of people who disrupted a Buddhist worship service Tuesday night at a Grand Rapids Catholic Church.
About 150 demonstrators from St. Margaret Mary Church in Allendale gathered inside St. Adalbert's Basilica in Grand Rapids. The police were called in when the demonstrators' loud prayers disrupted the event. The group was upset that Tibetan monks were allowed to perform inside a Catholic basilica.
One person described the incident as a civil war between churches. You have places like St. Adalbert's, and then you have St. Margaret Mary in Allendale, which broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in the late 1960's. There are a lot of similarities between the churches as well as a lot of differences.
Some people call Tuesday night's incident praying, while others say it was a downright rude interruption. Either way, the sound was so loud and so distracting, the Tibetan monks didn't get to perform at the altar. "It's the idea it was being done in a Catholic basilica," said Debbie Underhill, one of the demonstrators.
A Christian Reformed church or university setting, says Underhill, wouldn't have bugged her a bit. But the fact is, the monks don't worship her God. Plus, as a member of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, she says her priest wouldn't be allowed to hold service at the basilica because they aren't recognized by some people as a Catholic church.
"The differences are getting bigger and bigger," Underhill told 24 Hour News 8. She says St. Margaret stands apart because it's much stricter and traditional.
"Most of it is Latin," Underhill said. "The priest faces the altar, not the people," she continued.
And the differences don't stop there.
St. Margaret Mary is affiliated with the Society of Saint Pius X, which was founded in 1970 by French Bishop Marcel Lefebvre, after splitting with the current Roman Catholic Church.
At a performance at Grand Valley State University Wednesday, the monks tell 24 Hour News 8 they've performed at churches before with no problem. "Our message was not to create disharmony, but to create harmony, so they are sorry things happened that way," said Tsering Mullens, a translator for the Tibetan monks.
Or rather, just the wrong place, wrong time, in a crossfire of differing beliefs. "Our motives were not to hurt anyone, it was in defense of the faith," said Underhill.
24 Hour News 8's reports on Tuesday night's demonstration and the follow-up Wednesday have gained a lot of attention. We received more than a dozen e-mails and numerous phone calls from people expressing their thoughts and concerns, primarily talking about the distinction between these churches.
24 Hour News 8 was able to find some information on the Society of St. Pius X, which is the group the parishioners at St. Margaret Mary's belong to. The Society's United States headquarters are in Kansas City, Missouri. There are 850 Third Order members in the U.S. with more than 100 chapels and 50 priests nationwide.
Grand Rapids Bishop Kevin Britt released a statement about allowing the monks into St. Adalbert's basilica, saying "In Pope John P II's commitment to peace and justice, the Holy Father has championed ecumenical and interreligious dialogue."
The diocese also made clear that St. Margaret Mary is not part of the Roman Catholic Church or the Diocese of Grand Rapids.
Funny because it's true.
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