
In PJ Media, I discuss a good opportunity for “Muslim-Christian dialogue”:
Let’s put the pope’s Muslim-Christian “dialogue” policy to the test. Here’s the perfect destination for the next papal trip: Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State’s caliphate.
Last Sunday, Pope Francis called for the release of Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim (the Syriac Orthodox archbishop of Aleppo), Boulos Yazigi (the Greek Orthodox bishop of Aleppo), and Italian Jesuit priest Paolo Dall’Oglio, who — if they are still alive — have all been held captive for two years now by Islamic jihadists in Syria. Said the pope:
I hope for a renewed commitment by the competent local and international authorities, so that these, our brothers, will soon be restored to freedom.
He must know that the “competent local and international authorities,” if there are any, aren’t going to do a thing to free these clerics.
If the pope wants it done right, he is going to have to do it himself – and in doing so, he can prove the value of the Church’s insistence and dependence upon “Muslim-Christian dialogue.”
The pope should go to Raqqa and appeal personally to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State’s Caliph Ibrahim, for the release of Ibrahim, Yazigi, and Dall’Oglio. Pope Francis has said that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence,” and he has assiduously called for “dialogue” and denounced violence in virtually every situation. So he should go there, and display the correctness of his recommendations by initiating an in-person “dialogue” with the caliph or other appropriate Islamic State representatives, during which he can explain to them how they are misunderstanding the Qur’an and Islam.
This will fix everything: not only will the Islamic State forthwith release the bishops and the priest, but they will lay down their arms, and distribute flowers to all the children. The power of “dialogue” over all forms of violence will be abundantly established before the eyes of a world struck with awe, yet again, at the wisdom of this pope and the compelling power of his humble, saintly personality.
As he prepares for this “dialogue” trip, however, the pope may face resistance from his own bishops.
Robert McManus, the bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, two years ago (ironically not long before Ibrahim, Yazigi, and Dall’Oglio were abducted) summed up the prevailing view of the U.S. Catholic bishops:
Talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that they have perpetrated globally might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims.
So what is Pope Francis doing even talking about these abducted clerics? He should keep quiet about such matters, so as to preserve the “dialogue.” Will Bishop McManus and the other American bishops, recognizing the dignity but also the limitations of his positions, humbly but unmistakably call him on the carpet and “oppose him to his face, because he stood condemned,” as St. Paul did to Francis’ first predecessor, St. Peter (Galatians 2:11)?
Of course they will say nothing, and Pope Francis will not go to Raqqa, because in both cases the concerned parties probably know full well that the sham of the “dialogue” policy would be exposed to the world.
The contemporary Catholic Church, especially in the West, has confused niceness with charity.
It may be nice to avoid unpleasant matters and to enjoy delicious hummus and pita down at the mosque, but it is not charitable to confirm Muslims in their bullying and supremacism by kowtowing to their wishes.
It is not charitable to keep silent about the atrocities they commit in the name of their religion and in accord with its teachings….
Read the rest here.
Stephanie says
Cause, “… may Allah DESTROY them” Jews_and_Christian_hater#1, Q9:30
The Pope is afraid of the PURE Islam of devout IS
http://192.96.206.71/child-execution.html [ AVAST: FAKE VIRUS WARNING !! ]
(graphic video) July 2015: Islamic State (ISIS/L) Child Execution of a Pilot—so-called ‘Spy’
… to 2:(190-)194 “… And one who attacketh you, attack him in like manner as he attacked you”
Paddy says
The Catholic armies of 1683 that defeated Islam at Vienna are no more. The EU is run by Marxists of the most vile breed. Western Civilization is ankle deep in abortion blood. In France, alone, 2500 Catholic churches are empty. The enemy within is Marxism, not the Pope. Let’s talk about that. Who excited this Islamic tribalism sweeping the Ummah? Who started the unjust wars that created the vacuums? It wasn’t the Pope, was it?
umbra says
It is true that the present pope did not create the power vacuum that led to the unrest in the middle east today, nor did he excite the islamic tribalism that is sweeping many parts of the world today. However, one should understand that islam is islam. It does not need any external excuse to conduct its violent expansion. It has all the reasons it need within itself, the koran. islam seeks (and has always sought) to dominate the world world regardless of whether or not non-islamic nations or non-believing people are in conflict with it. It is perpetually in conflict (violently when possible and/or necessary) with non-believers, apostates, heretics, hypocrites, etc (the list goes on).
It is also true that the 2003 gulf war 2 that ended with removal of saddam hussein led to a continual instability in iraq. However, it is important to note that the present instability in the arab world extends far beyond iraq (syria, yemen, libya and increasingly tunisia along with egypt while bahrain still under the watchful eyes of saudis). All these other states, with the exception of libya, experienced their respective upheavals without any western military intervention. Their present instability has been caused primarily by the absence of strong (and unfortunately brutally oppressive) or the progressive weakening governments. This of course was precipitated by actions of a certain nobel peace laureate.
The appearance of isis (undeniably the most brutal example of islamic tribalism, presently) was not caused solely by the destruction of saddam’s iraq, but also by the weakening of the assad government by other sunni states. These sunni states support opposition to assad not because they wish to see a democratic syria – when most of these sunni states aren’t even democratic themselves. They did so to re-adjust the sunni-shia composition in the middle east. When iraq fell into the shia sphere, it was natural that recompense mush be made, in the eyes of sunni states. And so, syria was targeted. The arab spring (which ironically was supposed to bring about a democratic change to the arab world, but missed much of the arab world that is lacking in democracy – saudi arabia, qatar, uae, oman, jordan, kuwait, morocco, sudan and algeria) was just the excuse to put the operation against the alawite controlled government of syria into action. In the end, the destruction afflicting much of the arab world today was (and continues to be) caused by islam and its followers.
Peggy says
Agree, the Pope did not create any of this but he is enabling it today. He should speak the truth to the people since nobody else will.
Why is he lying to the people instead? Why is he saying that Islam is a religion of peace when it’s obvious to even Blind Freddy that it is not?
He is guilty of not telling the truth and we know that lying is a sin. By not telling the truth he is putting Catholics in danger and aiding Islam.
So yes, he did not start this but he is allowing it to continue.
Peggy says
No he didn’t start it but he is enabling it to go unchallenged.
He could start being helpful by allowing the truth to be spread to millions of his followers.
By being in the way of that he is helping the other side so he bears a lot of blame too.
duh_swami says
The pope should go to Raqqa and appeal personally to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Haha…’Welcome to my home said the spider to the fly’….I think it’s not in the best interests of the Pope
to go to Raqqa, or Baltimore…It would be better to send Joe Biden…he could tell the Caliph a thing or two about Islam…
Oliver says
I personally would prefer sending a trio– Obama; Shillery Clinton and Warren of Mass.
And, (possibly, a fourth) Michelle Obama.
And, they could stay there.
Linda Rivera says
You forgot to add TRAITORS Angela Merkel, Hollande, Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Brown and Cameron.
Oliver says
I had mentioned this before–regarding Cameron. I have an acquaintance who is English, and has family there. Before the election (not the recent one, the prior one) they said that Cameron was the lesser of the two evils. This past election was even more so- considering that the Labour leader was a Marxist, (although Jewish) was anti-Bibi, and had (from what I read) pro-Palestinian.
So, the British- their own fault, in my view, have really bad leaders for their parties.
Lookmann says
”to go to Raqqa, or Baltimore…It would be better to send Joe Biden…he could tell the Caliph a thing or two about Islam’…
I would rather pick John Kerry, the Islam scholar to meet the caliph.
Angemon says
Let’s add Cameron and call them “The Three Schmucks”.
Lookmann says
Bro,
Biden is harmless, though useless..Cameron deserves a place. After Kerry and Cameron the third slot should go to Bishop Mcmanus , the inter-faith dialogue specialist.
William says
The Pope could emulate another Francis, Saint Francis of Assisi. As St. Francis visited the Caliph of Egypt to show the errors of that Caliph’s religion, so too should the Pope visit Al Baghdadi. I suspect the Pope is not as fervent in his faith and won’t be up to that labor.
abad says
For the same reason Obama won’t go to Syria.
Cecilia Ellis says
Pope Francis has an absolute responsibility to demand that Christian leaders around the world do something to stop Christian persecution in the Middle East, as well as in other areas. As it is, killing Christians has become a competitive sport for Muslims and the world is silent. There should be at least one prominent leader to speak out against these atrocities, and that responsibility falls to the head of the only 100%-Catholic country in the world: Vatican City. As a Head of State and as the leader of the world’s largest Christian sect, Pope Francis can not delegate this responsibility to any other. Yet, while he is concerned with global warming and evangelization, the world is on fire with killing in the name of Islam and the eradication of those who are already “evangelized.”
For American Bishops to be concerned more for Muslim-Catholic dialogue achievements than for the daily massacre of Christians causes one to question just what more Muslims could do. They are already beheading, drowning, shooting, burning alive, burying alive, stoning, hanging, cutting off feet and hands, crucifying, gouging out eyes, throwing people from tall buildings, torturing, raping, selling captives, confiscating homes and land, destroying churches, incarcerating Christians for blasphemy, training young children to kill, and using young children as human improvised explosive devices, just to name a few atrocities.
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church is culpable for its silence. As one of its prominent saints, Thomas More, stated shortly before he was beheaded, “He who keeps silence seems to consent.” In previous times, there have been those courageous few Christians who have refused to remain silent in the face of evil, but Pope Francis is no Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Maximilian Kolbe. His silence is deadly, as is that of the American bishops; they all need to be evangelized.
nicu says
catholic church always arranged with the evil for its own interests !
The Pope prayed for Lampedusa ” refugees ” and Quaran was read in Vatican …
He surrendered to Muslims ! Catholic Church loved Medieval age !
No Fear says
Authentic Nazism and the proper reading of Mein Kampf are opposed to every form of violence,
Michael says
Robert, you are quite good at irony and satire. I can discern a note of bitterness in this posting. The main question for me about this pope is whether he really believes that drivel about the true Islam being peaceful, or whether he’s acting like a slimy politician and just simply lying.
I think he really believes that stuff he has said and written, so his integrity seems in tact, but his abilty to discern, judge and evaluate is horrible. The question for me then becomes how long he’ll be able to continue living in this delusion and inflicting the rest of us with it.
I don’t like this pope, but I am determined, now that I shot off my cyber-mouth here, to say less about him and to pray for him. The job he has is far too big for him anyhow. It’s way over his head.
Peggy says
They don’t appoint an idiot for a Pope so I don’t think he doesn’t know what Islam is all about. I am quite sure he has advisers as well and has access to the latest news,
He is a politician, that much is obvious.
Now what his reason for lying to us all is not clear. Perhaps it’s fear that they will blow up The Vatican.
He really should allow his clergy to tell the truth to their parishioners.
Michael says
Peggy,
You might be right, but I have had short, intensive periods of contact with Catholics engaged in interreligious dialogue, and their need for harmony is so strong that they are willing to overlook the real unpleasant facts and take the word of 1.) Islamic propagandists and 2.) Moslems who cannot (yet) cope with the clear evidence of the depravity in their religion and thus find ways of excusing the numerous evils.
Both the interreligious dialogue people and the Moslems of the second category have an extreme form of wishful thinking. It wouldn’t surprise me if the pope is also one of these wishful thinkers, and they just don’t want to hear counter-arguments. If their house-of-cards viewpoint collapses, they are left with a very big problem which could require of them courageous and dangerous decisions.
And by the way, I’m not sure that this pope is so smart.
Peggy says
Maybe he’s not so smart but I am sure he is surrounded by people who are and who give him information and advice.
Do you suppose he is just a puppet of the elites like the rest of them?
Surely he has access to his bishops from those countries and they must be informing him.
James Foard says
The Pope recently invited Oprah Winfrey to the Vatican. I thought that was such a nice gesture. What a nice man. This is the same idiot who said he wanted to be known as the “Che Guevara” of the Palistinians.
Che Guevara, among other things, was a communist mass murderer who killed Catholics. Maybe the Pope has him confused with someone else, Che Guevara is a common name isn’t it?
kay says
Re: “The Pope … said he wanted to be known as the “Che Guevara” of the Palistinians.”
Huh?? What? ? This is an extraordinary statement. It can only be based in complete delusion.
Che Guevara was a complete sociopath and psychopath who really supported global nuclear war.
as a tool for destroying capitalist society so that socialism would naturally arise from the ashes.
Che Guevara was psychopathic in practice. At one point he machine gunned a group of women and children ( from wealthy landowner families ). That was his idea of agrarian reform.
How is Christian support for Che Guevara possible? Che Guevara actively worked to bring about nuclear confrontation and he slaughtered innocents. See the book Exposing the Real Che Guevara:
“If the nuclear missiles had remained, we would have used them against the very heart of America, including New York City…even if it costs millions of atomic victims.”
This is genocidal psychopathy. Che Guevara was never a populist leader. He was a Stalinist. He never led working class people; he was a brutal totalitarian Party hardliner.
So here is the quote, from http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/177110
Rabbi Sergio Bergman, a member of the Argentinian parliament and close friend of Pope Francis, claimed the pope intends to define himself as the “Che Guevera of the Palestinians” and support their “struggle and rights.”
Well, that would translate to the program of Pope Francis making war on Israel as an illegitimate ruling elite, machine gun in hand. What we get is that Pope Francis is anti-Charlie Hebdo / anti free speech and MILITANTLY pro-Palestinian. By calling upon Che Guevara, Pope Francis literally calls for revolutionary struggle and Total War against Israel. This works strongly against Christian-Jewish solidarity.
The Pope cannot parade around as pro-Palestinian and expect anything in return from Salafist jihadis. They are still supremacists and the Pope is still kuffar, just like the abducted archbishop, the bishop and the Jesuit priest he wants to free. As kuffars, these men have no Sharia rights in time of war. Pope Francis claims that Muslims are co-religionists, but the Muslims reject that in principle and in fact.
Islamic State could accept ransom, but only at astronomical cost. As noncombatants the three men should be free to go under international law. But the Amended Geneva Convention etc. are man-made and therefore unacceptable to Islamic State. There is no negotiation or leverage here.
What works best politically for Islamic State is to keep the captives. The captors hold all the cards here. Christian communities have not come together to demand release of these hostages, and I do not think the United Nations ( UNHCR ) will help. There is no real dialogue.
All Salafist actions are a disaster for Middle Eastern Christian communities ( etc. ) and the global Christian communities have no effective response. I see no actual Christian leadership on these issues. Due to leadership failure from without, hope for Christians in conflict areas is now a major casualty.
Angemon says
kay posted:
“Che Guevara was psychopathic in practice. At one point he machine gunned a group of women and children ( from wealthy landowner families ). That was his idea of agrarian reform.”
Which was why Fidel sent him to die in Bolivia.
Oliver says
I can see why the Pope likes Palestinians. Wasn’t he the person in Argentina who transferred the pedophiles? And was silent during the government’s murdering of civilians who dared to disagree.?
The Palestinians do the same. And Che did the same. As do almost all, if not all, tyrants.
Sam says
Here is what I say. This joker who call himself pope is not even Christian. He is another clueless politician like Obama.
Uncle Vladdi says
This “pope” embodies and exemplifies the banality of evil.
Matthieu Baudin says
Pope Francis would do well to take the road to Damascus.
Peggy says
Seeing how he would not do anything so dangerous proves that he is lying to us.
He knows how dangerous Islam is.