Dutch priest threatens Madonna with bomb

[pacific breeze]

From: CBC News Online <nwonline@toronto.cbc.ca>
Date: Fri Sep 8, 2006 5:43:59 PM US/Pacific_________________________
DUTCH PRIEST ADMITS TO PHONING IN BOMB THREAT TO MADONNA
WebPosted Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:51:39

---Prosecutors in the Netherlands say a priest has confessed to phoning
in a fake bomb threat to a Madonna concert in Amsterdam to try to prevent
the singer from performing her crucifixion act.

"He was hoping to stop her," Robert Meulenbroek, a spokesman from the
prosecutor's office, said Friday.

In her latest concert tour, the 48-year-old pop star is pinned against a
giant glass cross, her attempt to re-enact the crucifixion of Christ.
The performance offended some Christians in earlier concerts in Italy
and Germany.

Meulenbroek said the priest was arrested almost immediately after making
the threats on Sunday. From his home, he phoned the emergency services
number where the call was traced right away.

The priest appeared before a judge Friday and has been released
pending judgment.

"We take bomb threats seriously, but in this case, it was clear very
quickly it was not real," said Meulenbroek, who said prosecutors would
likely ask for a punishment of community service because it was the
priest's first offence.

Publicity stunt 'reprehensible'

Christian groups had been urging the government to stop Madonna's
concerts. Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner rejected a call by
a Christian party to halt the singer from carrying out that portion
of her act.

Donner said Madonna's publicity-grabbing ploy was "reprehensible" but he
didn't think hurting the feelings of Christians constituted blasphemy.

The two concerts in Amsterdam went ahead on Sunday and Monday.

Religious leaders in Rome also condemned the pop star for her
crucifixion routine while German prosecutors monitored her concert in
Duesseldorf in mid-August. They did not launch criminal charges, as they
had threatened to do.

Madonna, who was raised a Roman Catholic, has made a career out of
provocative performances. Her representatives have said the scene is not
disrespectful to the church.

Copyright (C) 2006 CBC. All rights reserved.

[sweetrebel]

Sad but he thought he was doing a good thing maybe?
It is true that making your opinion clear and trying to stop something that you don't agree with seems to be like spitting in the wind.

[cynic]

Yah, but I would think that it would have been more appropriate had the man put it in his Sunday sermon and not in a bomb threat to the police?

Community service? That's his job.....how about a couple of days in jail to think about it?