News

Catholic Church leader apologizes for misleading figures

October 9, 2018 5:38 am

The leader of the Catholic Church in Fiji, Archbishop Peter Loy Chong, has apologized for giving factually wrong and misleading figures which was highlighted in the church’s newsletter ‘Proclaimer’ last Sunday.

According to Archbishop Loy Chong the statistics provided was based on Warden Narsey’s study on poverty in 2008 hence it was outdated.

He also confirmed he got it wrong and imparted the wrong details to the Roman Catholic congregation.

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“Unfortunately I made a mistake in using a little bit outdated information otherwise what we did there is what the church will should be doing and that is to inform the people of what the church teaches on social issues and an important part of social issues is economic strength.”

Archbishop Loy Chong adds he is not taking sides and his statement has nothing to do with any political party.

Economy Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says it’s unfortunate that the archbishop has chosen to make comments in perhaps areas that are not his expertise.

“It’s unfortunate that he has done that because it is really misleading the public using outdated figures way back I think in 2007 or 2008 and obviously there has been new surveys that are being carried out but we will give out the figures tomorrow.”

Sayed-Khaiyum says Fiji is in a far better position than what Archbishop Loy Chong was saying.