ON Tuesday, 05 April, 2005 Vol. 3 No. 291 Gangtok Rs. 3 05 April, 2005; NOW! 1 pg 2 SBI press CREDIT POPE SBI announces Xpress XCredit.XX Personal Loans for JOHN XXX PAUL II net monthly incomes of Rs. 2,500 onwards; 18-times the salary; at The Great 10.25% interest! contact PT Bhutia 9434357921, Unifier Chettri 94340 12824 or P Darnal 9434151288 “SIKKIM IS DOING VERY WELL” UNION HOME MINISTER RETURNS IMPRESSED WITH SIKKIM SUBASH RAI GANGTOK, 04 April: The Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, today expressed praise for the Army jawans posted in the frozen heights of Nathula at 14,000 ft. guarding the Indo- China border. “I feel relaxed by the thought that we have such brave and diligent soldiers keeping a watch for us,” he said while speaking to reporters at Nathula today. On the last day of his three- day visit to Sikkim, Mr. Patil, accompanied by his family and the Minister of State for Home, Manik Rao Ganit, was es- corted to the Indo-China bor- der Chief Minister Pawan Chamling and shown around by the GOC 17 Mountain Di- vision, Avadesh Prakash. Leaving early, the Union Home Minister’s entourage trav- elled by road to Nathula this morning. The entire stretch, from 3rd Mile onwards was swathed in fresh snow and reached The Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, takes a pony ride with his grand-daughter, from the road-head to Nathula pass on Monday Nathula at around 10 AM. While briefing the media working so efficiently here.” situation, he would deliver the issues like infrastructural devel- perience will certainly help in persons at Nathula, the Home On the opening of Indo- right information to the Prime opment,” he said. this regard. “We have developed Minister said, “I am very happy China border trade route, the Minister. “The issue relating to He further said that India a better friendship with China that I could see this wonderful Home Minister said that since he opening of the trade route is not wants to foster better relations over the years and we will try to land and also see our jawans has now personally assessed the as important right now as other with China and his border ex- turn to pg 5 iNSIDE HOME MINISTER PETITIONED TO ALLOW Cardinals set Friday for Pope’s funeral, finalise details KARMAPA TO SIKKIM VATICAN CITY, 04 April: of the forthcoming conclave to The men who will elect the declared to respect the Apos- ON pg 5 Catholic cardinals set Friday as elect the next Pope. next Pope and those cardinals tolic Constitution “Universi the day for Pope John Paul II’s As they began more than no longer allowed to participate dominici gregis”, a detailed ragtime by PANKAJ THAPA funeral as they convened for the two hours of deliberations in the vote meanwhile gathered document issued by John Paul first time since his death to ar- shortly before 10 AM [0800 in the nearby Bologna Hall. II in 1996 to prepare for the range their schedule until the GMT], mourners began to snake In the oath of secrecy they turn to pg 4 election of his successor. round the public area of the tiny They agreed the funeral Vatican state in readiness for would be held at 10 AM [0800 Pope John Paul II’s body to go SAREE SALE GMT] and confirmed that his on public view later in the day. body would be buried in the Inside the walls of the area at Vatican in line with tradition, off-limits to the general pub- rather than in his native Poland, lic, diplomats, Church offi- Vatican spokesman Joaquin cials, members of the Vatican MIMANI’S Navarro-Valls said. He said the staff and reporters bade fare- Pope had not left a will. well to the Pope at the sump- MG Marg, Gangtok The cardinals had opened tuous late 16th century Clem- their session by pronouncing an entine Hall where he has been ph: 202136 oath of secrecy in anticipation lying in state since Sunday. 2; NOW!; 05 April, 2005 ED-SPACE POPE JOHN PAUL II The Great Unifier spiritual rebirth of all the divergences that have found ex- by JAROSLAV PELIKAN churches of Slavic Europe, pression in their terminology of Dying Young vs. Living With Dignity n June 3, 1979, a few which is going on even as we formulating their doctrines” and months after Cardinal speak, is a major consequence expressing the shared “hope for What drives a 16-year-old to suicide? Her whole life ahead of her Karol Wojtyla became of that revolution. and commitment to recovery of and yet she decides to end it. Suicide is an aberration that returns O full communion between them.” the first Slavic pope, he set out With several Eastern to haunt Sikkim too often. Fathers, mothers, grandparents, even There have been several note- children; we have too many from too many age-groups deciding as the vision of his pontificate churches his vision of spiritual worthy expressions of mutual to give up and ending their lives. It is not enough to deduce that “that this Polish pope, this Slav unity has made significant people end their lives because of problems they can’t deal with pope, should at this precise mo- progress. With the Assyrian charity and respectful visits be- any more or due to pernicious poverty. Everyone has problems ment manifest the spiritual Church of the East, traditionally tween this pope and and many are poor, but only a few commit suicide. What is obvi- unity of Christian Europe,” Bartholomew, the ecumeni- ously happening is that the psychiatric help which keeps things in even though “there are two cal patriarch of Constantino- balance in one’s mind is not adequate in Sikkim. Contemplating great traditions, that of the ple, cordial enough to elicit suicide is one thing, to actually take the leap quite another. Obvi- West and that of the East,” criticism from isolationist el- ously, not everyone does it, but those whose mental make-up ements in the various Ortho- has been debilitated by an unnoticed and untreated ailment are with roots in Old Rome and “in the New Rome, at Con- dox churches. more wont to do it. Depression is rampant in Sikkim and although The least progress to- more people are coming forward nowadays than earlier to seek stantinople.” ward reconciliation has oc- medical help, there are too many who still don’t. Fact also re- He spoke these words at mains that of everyone who requires it, started seeking medical a time when all the Slavic curred in relations with the help, there simply won’t be enough psychiatrists around to attend peoples, whether Orthodox Orthodox Church of Russia. to anyone. And that is where paramedics, NGOs and social or- or Catholic [or Protestant] The end of Communist rule ganisations will have to fill in. With the comforting cushion of a were subject to the atheist has brought with it a rebirth large family gone and a demanding work schedule to contend tyranny of Marxism-Lenin- of the rivalry and mutual re- with, the pressures of modern lifestyles get the better of many ism, and one of his princi- crimination that have been and some snap under it. pal contributions to the re- tearing Slavic Europe apart All this said and done, there is also a need to re-evaluate ever since its conversion to the dignity we allow the younger generation. Not all children alization of that vision was, in his native Poland but with Christianity more than a mil- live with their parents. Many are employed as domestic helps lennium ago by St. Cyril and at houses all over the State and some are euphemistically said ripple effects throughout the St. Methodius of Thessalonica. to be helping out with domestic chores at home while their Soviet empire, to help set in referred to as the Nestorian masters ‘sponsor’ them to government schools! Many of these motion powerful impulses of Church, he signed a declaration The Venerable Bede gave the children are picked up from the bustees and some from out- the mind and spirit - and of the in 1994 in which it was agreed Gospel credit for unifying the side the State. Fact remains that they are still children. Some Spirit -that would bring down that “the controversies of the peoples of Britain, but we Slavs families might even be treating them well and some abusing the walls and topple the re- past led to anathemas” and that are the only people to have been them depending on personal traits of the masters. None, how- gimes. The relative importance “the divisions brought about in divided by the Gospel: whether ever, will be noticing the mental afflictions their “servants” could of that contribution in compari- this way were due in large part to follow Cyril and Methodius be suffering. Since the minors are as much their responsibility in their affiliation with Constan- as their helps, their physical and psychological well-being son with Mikhail Gorbachev’s to misunderstandings.” Two glasnost and Ronald Reagan’s years later, in 1996, he signed a tinople [and therefore a Slavonic should also be looked after. By banning child labour, we are liturgy and autonomous national just creating a situation like our income tax laws where we are defiance will continue to be similar declaration with churches], or to follow them in forced to ignore offenders because the law is so impractical. debated by historians. But he Catholicos Karekin I of the Ar- What we should do instead is frame enforceable rules and did manage, by a curious form menian Apostolic Orthodox their appeal to the authority of regulations monitoring the manner in which domestic servants of divine irony, to answer the Church, acknowledging that the bishop of Rome [and there- are treated and paid.