Death threat to bishop

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33447, 31 January 1974, Page 17

Death threat to bishop

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) PERTH, Jan. 29. An Australian bishop has been threatened with death after his warning, in a week-end newspaper, about the dangers of black magic and witchcraft. The Rt Rev. Cecil Muschamp, a former Bishop of Kalgoorlie, received a telephone call on Sunday from a devil-worshipper who told him that he had only three months to live. The threat came after a Sunday newspaper article in which Bishop Muschamp and other Church spokesmen issued warnings about evidence of witchcraft which had been uncovered in Perth by a university anthropologist, Mr G. Tillett. Bishop Muschamp said that the man who telephoned him had said that he was a former Roman Catholic who had turned to the word of the devil, where he had found greater powers. The bishop, who estimated that there were about 50 devil-worshippers in Perth, said that they would probably not use physical violence, but would settle for diabolical curses. He warned journalists and others who might write about black magic not to use their names, because they could also be subject to threats.