January 7, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 3, 1423

BERLIN, Jan 6: Germany’s television licence fee agency apologized on Monday for sending an angry letter demanding payment from an eighth century saint.

“This was quite embarrassing,” said Eckhard Ohliger, an official at the Cologne-based GEZ fee collection headquarters, which collects 6.8 billion dollars per year from viewers. “But unfortunately mistakes happen.”

Father Karl Terhorst said the agency had sent letters demanding payment of the monthly 16 dollars fee to a woman named “Frau Walburga St.” at the address of the Roman Catholic Church in Ramsdorf, 120kms east of Cologne.

“At first I just ignored the letters,” Terhorst said. “But after the last letter demanding payment threatened the saint with ‘legal action’ and a 1,000-euro (dollars) fine, I figured it was time to write back.”

Terhorst informed the GEZ that St. Walburga, born in 710 in England, was an abbess and missionary who played an important role in St. Boniface’s organization of the Frankish church. She headed a monastery, and was later made a saint in 880.—Reuters