CATHOLICS AND RASTAFARIANS IN ST. LUCIA WORSHIP SEPARATELY AFTER ATTACK

VIEUX FORT, St. Lucia -- Roman Catholics lined up for Holy Communion
while Rastafarians smoked marijuana in separate worship Sunday, both
groups urging peace and tolerance in St. Lucia one week after two men
claiming to be Rastas killed a nun and attacked worshippers during
Mass. To the beat of African drums, dozens of Rastafarians gathered
at a small camp of wooden shelters in the town of Vieux Fort, on the
Caribbean island's southern tip, to celebrate what they call
Ethiopian Christmas, recognizing the birth of Christ according to a
non-European calendar.

"We're a peaceful gathering," said Ras Imani, a man with a graying
beard who described himself as a Rasta priest. "We all sing and chant
and dance, and praise Haile Selassie the most high."

Rastafarians worship Haile Selassie, the late Ethiopian emperor, as a
manifestation of God. But despite differences with Christians over
theology, Imani said true Rastafarians wouldn't beat worshippers or
set them on fire, as two men allegedly did in the Dec. 31 attack.

The two suspects arrested allegedly told police they were Rasta
"prophets" on a mission to combat corruption in the Roman Catholic
Church, heightening tensions between the Roman Catholic majority and
Rastafarians on this tiny island of 156,000 people.

But the Rastafarians have denounced the violence, saying it violates
their belief in peaceful coexistence.

"Humanity must love one another, for we are the same people," Imani
said, while other men with dreadlocks lay in hammocks nearby,
chatting and smoking fat joints.

One of the central tenets of Rastafarianism -- which emerged in
Jamaica in the 1930s out of anger among blacks over colonial powers'
oppression -- is that marijuana encourages the calm necessary for
religious meditation. One man at the Rastafarian tabernacle, Yeakin
Alban Herman, likened marijuana to a radio.

"When you smoke marijuana, you tune into the most high," he said.

Across the island in the port city of Castries, more than 500 people
attended Sunday Mass in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception,
where the attack occurred.

One parishioner, 25-year-old David McLennon, asked the worshippers to
remember in their prayers the slain Irish nun, Sister Theresa Egan,
who was buried Saturday, and the 13 people injured. McLennon urged
the Catholics to forgive.

"We have every right to be angry, but we are Christian people," he
said. "We must not allow our anger to lead us to sin."