“Relations are normally very good” — aside from that priest with his throat slit, that is. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
“The head of a religious order in Co Down who knew slain Father Jacques Hamel has revealed that Church land beside the scene of the murder was given by Catholic authorities to Muslims to build a mosque.” Those Catholic authorities no doubt assumed that their gesture of good will would make for harmony and good relations between Christians and Muslims. Catholic authorities steadfastly refuse to believe in the existence of imperatives in the Qur’an and Sunnah that call upon Muslims to wage war against and subjugate Christians, without any exceptions for Christians who are kind to Muslims. Catholic Church leaders such as Pope Francis and Patriarch Gregory III, and bishops such as Robert McManus, Kevin Farrell and Jaime Soto will probably refuse to believe that such a thing could be true right up to the point at which the blade starts slicing through their own throat.
“Normandy horror attack priest’s church donated land to build mosque, reveals Down monk who knew Fr Jacques Hamel,” by Una Brankin, Belfast Telegraph, July 28, 2016:
The head of a religious order in Co Down who knew slain Father Jacques Hamel has revealed that Church land beside the scene of the murder was given by Catholic authorities to Muslims to build a mosque.
Father Mark Ephrem Nolan (58), Prior of the Benedictine Monastery of the Holy Cross near Rostrevor, said such attacks could happen anywhere, and confirmed Fr Hamel had good relations with those of the Islamic faith in the local area.
Belfast-born Fr Nolan, who met Fr Hamel (86) through his work in a neighbouring parish in Normandy, added: “I spoke to a Sister there this morning who is a close friend of the Sister who escaped from the church and raised the alarm.
“She normally goes to Pere Jacques’ Mass in that church every morning, but had to go to her work as a prison chaplain on Monday. She is very shocked.
“The shock is worse now the news has had time to sink in. Fr Jacques was a quiet, holy man who worked all his life for people in impoverished areas, much in the mould of Pope Francis.
“He led a pure, simple life, with an emphasis on building friendships. Church authorities facilitated the giving of land beside his church to local Muslims to build a mosque, and they were given use of the parish hall and other facilities during Ramadan.”
Fr Nolan revealed his order included a monk who had been a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Rouen, where Fr Hamel was brutally killed by extremists in his church in an act Islamic State has claimed responsibility for.
Despite the attack, the cleric said Catholics and Muslims in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, the town in Normandy where Fr Hamel died, got on well with one another.
“There is a large Muslim population there, and relations are normally very good between the communities,” said Fr Nolan, who was born in 1958, the year Fr Hamel was ordained.
“Efforts have been made by the Christian community to be welcoming to Muslims.
“The Sisters even give reading lessons to Muslim kids in tower blocks.
“IS is trying to destroy those good relations. They target those areas, and Fr Hamel was very aware of that.
“I don’t think that there is an immediate threat here, because we don’t have a strong inter-faith connection – which is a shame – but no one thought it would have happened in Normandy on Monday. If it could happen there, then it can happen anywhere.
“IS activists are out to heighten tension and jeopardise good relationships where they exist.”…