C
Christiano
Guest
I’ve just read an article on www.saci.org.br and I’d like to know your opinion about it.
Muriel Elisa Távora Niess Pokk is the mother of a girl with down syndrome called Rita de Cássia Niess Pokk. Rita de Cássia was dating a man called Ariel, also with down syndrome, and when they decided to get married, the girl’s mother started facing resistance in the church. The girl is Catholic and the man is Jewish.
Many priests were refusing to celebrate the wedding. One of the priests “kindly” offered himself to celebrate the wedding, but inside closed doors, with no witnesses.
So Muriel decided to talk with the people responsible for the Metropolitan Curia of São Paulo, since she thought they weren’t aware of what she thought was prejudice against her daughter and the fiancé.
She called the Curia on April 6, 2003, and talked to Monsignor Cosmo Maestri. He told her to wait for a week because he needed to talk to some people. She waited, but he didn’t call back with an answer.
On May 6, 2003, she called Mr. Maestri again. Once more, he told her to wait for a week because he didn’t have an answer yet. This continued on every call she made. After 4 months, she called demanding an answer.
So, Monsignor Maestri told her, “You’re doing all of this because your a fustrated mother who wants to have your unfullfilled dreams come true through your daughter, because she doesn’t even know what’s happening herself”.
Muriel then told him this wasn’t true, because she had already married in the church and that her daughter’s dream was to get married on their religion, because the fiancé was Jewish.
Mr. Maestri, without even knowing the couple, went on to say, “We don’t marry retards, retards don’t get married. They don’t know what they are doing.”
She then asked him where in the Bible this was written, but he didn’t answer. She says this isn’t written anywhere in the Bible because, before God, we are all equal.
Muriel got very upset and told Mr. Maestri she was going to get an evangelical minister to get her daughter married since God is only one. She also said she would get a reporter to make a report about the wedding and, before the ceremony, she would take the microphone and say, “From now on, my family and I are no longer Catholice, since Monsignor Cosmo Maestri said the Catholic Church doesn’t perform marriages between retards.”
And he hung up on him. The telephone rang and it was Mr. Maestri on the other side. First he verbally attacked her and then asked her to get in touch with Father Boim at the Church of Our Lady of Hope in the Moema neighborhood.
Muriel was hurt by the attacks but the was happy because she thought everything was solved.
She called the church and said, “Father, the Monsignor told me to talk to you to arrange the marriage. Is everything okay? When can I go there.”
He said, “There’s nothing okay. First, I need to see what kind of people you are.”
They went there and, finally, everything was arranged.
The marriage wasn’t celebrated in a church because it was an ecumenical marriage.
According to Muriel, the rabbi said many beautiful things and performed a very beautiful weding, but the Catholic priest only read a poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and a small part of a Psalm. He didn’t even bless the couple.
According to another website, Rita de Cássia and Ariel, are both 29 years old now.
Here’s a picture of Rita de Cássia (left), along with Lú Alckmin, wife of former governor of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin.
img242.imageshack.us/img242/4773/70404854.jpg
Muriel Elisa Távora Niess Pokk is the mother of a girl with down syndrome called Rita de Cássia Niess Pokk. Rita de Cássia was dating a man called Ariel, also with down syndrome, and when they decided to get married, the girl’s mother started facing resistance in the church. The girl is Catholic and the man is Jewish.
Many priests were refusing to celebrate the wedding. One of the priests “kindly” offered himself to celebrate the wedding, but inside closed doors, with no witnesses.
So Muriel decided to talk with the people responsible for the Metropolitan Curia of São Paulo, since she thought they weren’t aware of what she thought was prejudice against her daughter and the fiancé.
She called the Curia on April 6, 2003, and talked to Monsignor Cosmo Maestri. He told her to wait for a week because he needed to talk to some people. She waited, but he didn’t call back with an answer.
On May 6, 2003, she called Mr. Maestri again. Once more, he told her to wait for a week because he didn’t have an answer yet. This continued on every call she made. After 4 months, she called demanding an answer.
So, Monsignor Maestri told her, “You’re doing all of this because your a fustrated mother who wants to have your unfullfilled dreams come true through your daughter, because she doesn’t even know what’s happening herself”.
Muriel then told him this wasn’t true, because she had already married in the church and that her daughter’s dream was to get married on their religion, because the fiancé was Jewish.
Mr. Maestri, without even knowing the couple, went on to say, “We don’t marry retards, retards don’t get married. They don’t know what they are doing.”
She then asked him where in the Bible this was written, but he didn’t answer. She says this isn’t written anywhere in the Bible because, before God, we are all equal.
Muriel got very upset and told Mr. Maestri she was going to get an evangelical minister to get her daughter married since God is only one. She also said she would get a reporter to make a report about the wedding and, before the ceremony, she would take the microphone and say, “From now on, my family and I are no longer Catholice, since Monsignor Cosmo Maestri said the Catholic Church doesn’t perform marriages between retards.”
And he hung up on him. The telephone rang and it was Mr. Maestri on the other side. First he verbally attacked her and then asked her to get in touch with Father Boim at the Church of Our Lady of Hope in the Moema neighborhood.
Muriel was hurt by the attacks but the was happy because she thought everything was solved.
She called the church and said, “Father, the Monsignor told me to talk to you to arrange the marriage. Is everything okay? When can I go there.”
He said, “There’s nothing okay. First, I need to see what kind of people you are.”
They went there and, finally, everything was arranged.
The marriage wasn’t celebrated in a church because it was an ecumenical marriage.
According to Muriel, the rabbi said many beautiful things and performed a very beautiful weding, but the Catholic priest only read a poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and a small part of a Psalm. He didn’t even bless the couple.
According to another website, Rita de Cássia and Ariel, are both 29 years old now.
Here’s a picture of Rita de Cássia (left), along with Lú Alckmin, wife of former governor of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin.
img242.imageshack.us/img242/4773/70404854.jpg
