The dynamics of digestion

The significance of human nourishment (or lack thereof).

Parish stages hunger strike to back priest
Members of a Spanish village parish have gone on hunger strike in protest at the transfer of their much-loved priest to another church, the newspaper El Pais reported Monday. Eighteen members of a parish in Albunol in the southern province of Granada have refused to eat in protest at the transfer of Gabriel Castillo, and 200 parishioners have locked themselves in the church in an attempt to keep him as their priest. But Castillo's transfer has been brought forward, El Pais said on its Web site, as the protests continue.

The youthful Castillo is popular with parishioners because he has involved himself with local social issues such as immigration and poverty. The protesters say Castillo is being transferred because his ideas clash with a group of local nuns, who since his arrival have been hearing mass in a nearby village. [source]


PNG apologises for eating Fiji missionaries
The descendants of cannibals who killed and ate four Fijian missionaries in 1878 have apologised for their forefathers' actions, the Australian Associated Press reported Thursday. Fiji's High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Ratu Isoa Tikoca, accepted the apologies at a reconciliation ceremony attended by thousands of people near Rabaul in East New Britain province on Wednesday. "We at this juncture are deeply touched and wish you the greatest joy of forgiveness as we finally end this record disagreement," Tikoca said. PNG's Governor-General Paulias Matane told the crowd he appreciated the work of the early Fijian missionaries in spreading Christianity, AAP said.

The ceremony marked 132 years since Methodist ministers and teachers from Fiji arrived in the New Guinea islands region in 1875 headed by Englishman George Brown. In April 1878, a Fijian minister and three teachers were killed and eaten by Tolai tribespeople on the Gazelle Peninsula. Brown directed and took part in a punitive expedition that resulted in a number of Tolais being killed and several villages burnt down. His actions caused a storm of protest in the Methodist Church in Australia and elsewhere. Official investigations by British colonial authorities in the Pacific cleared him of criminal charges. [source]




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