Will the Vatican finally adopt a more realistic posture toward Islam?From the great Sandro Magister in Chiesa, with thanks to Anthony:
ROMA — At the end of his general audience on Wednesday, October 27, John Paul II said in regard to Iraq and in particular for the Christians who live there:
“Each day I accompany in prayer the dear Iraqi population, which is intent on reconstructing the institutions of their country. At the same time, I encourage the Christians to continue to offer with generosity their own crucial contribution toward heartfelt reconciliation. Finally, I express my deep sympathy for the pain of the victims” families and for the suffering of the hostages and all the innocent people struck by the blind barbarity of terrorism.”
“L’Osservatore Romano” gave great emphasis to these words from the pope on its front page, in the October 28 edition.
The words contain the Holy See’s full support for the process now taking place in Iraq to construct a free, democratic, and safe country.
But there is also encouragement for the Iraqi Christians to collaborate in the reconstruction of the country, not to flee, to resist the “barbarity.”
Because, in effect, the Iraqi Christians are also under direct attack from the Islamist terrorists. It is an attack composed of killings, kidnappings, and destruction.
On October 16, the online news agency “Fides” — an instrument of the Vatican congregation “De Propaganda Fide” headed by Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe — published a “list of horror” with the names, places, and dates of the “local Christians killed by Islamic fanatics.”
“Since 2003 at least 88 Christians have been killed,” writes “Fides.” “The most recent victim was a little Chaldean Christian girl brutally murdered by a group of Islamic terrorists in Baghdad. The group kidnapped the child and demanded ransom money for her release, but the distraught parents were unable to pay the sum. On October the 14 the lifeless body was delivered to the parents home.”