“The Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, told a congregation gathered in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the Austrian capital that the priest had been crucified….However, members of Father Tom’s order have denied that he is due to be crucified, saying they have no information on his health or whereabouts.” So the situation is a bit unclear. But if the Islamic State has crucified Father Tom, they would have been acting in a completely Islamic manner, based on this Qur’an verse: “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment” (5:33).
They probably believe that Father Tom waged war against Allah and his messenger and strove upon earth corruption. Did he draw Muhammad? Did he hurt Muslims’ feelings? No, almost certainly not. Father Tom most likely made war against Allah and his messenger and strove upon earth corruption simply by virtue of being a Christian priest in a Muslim land. They might have thought he was proselytizing, even indirectly.
In any case, he is probably dead now, and all his Western counterparts, all the comfortable, willfully ignorant, affable Father Toms in the U.S. in their lushly appointed suburban rectories, wouldn’t dream of saying a word about what happened to him or to so many other Christians in Muslim lands. To do so would harm the “dialogue” — the Muslim-Christian dialogue in service of which they have moved to silence all those who tell the truth about Muslim persecution of Christians, but which has not saved a single Christian from persecution, or a single church from destruction by jihadis. This “dialogue” has never accomplished a single actual thing, but the Father Toms of the world are staking the future of the Church and the free world upon it nonetheless. They no doubt imagine that by being silent about the persecution, and appeasing the persecutors, they will escape the fate of Fr. Thomas Uzhunnalil. But they won’t. They are all Father Toms.
“ISIS carries out Good Friday crucifixion of Indian Catholic priest in Yemen after he was kidnapped three weeks ago in attack on old people’s home where four nuns were shot,” by Sara Malm, MailOnline, March 28, 2016:
The Indian Catholic priest kidnapped by ISIS-linked terrorists in Yemen earlier this month was crucified on Good Friday, it has been claimed.
Father Thomas Uzhunnalil, 56, was taken by Islamist gunmen, reportedly linked to ISIS, who attacked an old people’s home in Aden, southern Yemen, killing at least 15 people, on March 4.
It was reported last week that several religious groups had received threats that Father Thomas would be crucified on Good Friday, but this was denied by his church in hometown of Bangalore.
However, the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, told a congregation gathered in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the Austrian capital that the priest had been crucified.
It is not known how the Archbishop became aware of Father Thomas’ alleged fate, but his confirmation of the crucifixion during Easter Vigil Mass was reported in Austrian media.
Yemeni authorities have blamed ISIS for the March 4 attack on the refuge for the elderly operated by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in main southern city Aden.
Four gunmen posing as relatives of one of the guests at the home burst inside, killing four Indian nuns, two Yemeni female staff members, eight elderly residents and a guard.
‘According to our information, the extremists who attacked the elderly care home in Aden have kidnapped priest Tom Uzhunnalil, a 56-year-old Indian, who was taken to an unknown location,’ a Yemeni security official said.
‘We are aware that no group has yet claimed the criminal attack… but information points to the involvement of Daesh,’ said the source, who asked to remain anonymous, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
However, members of Father Tom’s order have denied that he is due to be crucified, saying they have no information on his health or whereabouts.
We have absolutely no information on Fr Tom,’ Father Mathew Valarkot, spokesman for the Salesians’ Bangalore province, told UCANews.
‘But even today we do not know who has taken him and what their motives are because no one has claimed responsibility.’
The Vatican’s Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said earlier this month that Pope Francis ‘was shocked and profoundly saddened’ to learn of ‘this act of senseless and diabolical violence.’…