Islamic jihadists “have killed more than 100, burned down the Cathedral of Mary Help of Christians, and are holding hostage Father Teresito Suganub, the vicar general, along with a dozen or more staff members from the cathedral. To date, some 12,500 families have been displaced by the violence.”
Bishop Edwin dela Peña is worried that “some of the natural biases that Christians have against Muslims will be stirred up again. Interfaith dialogue is a very fragile process and these incidents can destroy the foundation that we have built. Some people are fueling these anti-Muslim sentiments.”
About anti-Christian sentiments among Muslims, the wise bishop was silent.
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
“Filipino Bishop Worries About Setback in Christian-Muslim Relations,” Zenit, June 9, 2017:
In an interview with international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Edwin dela Peña, who heads the Prelature of Marawi in the Philippines, discussed the situation in Marawi City where Muslim extremists have killed more than 100, burned down the Cathedral of Mary Help of Christians, and are holding hostage Father Teresito Suganub, the vicar general, along with a dozen or more staff members from the cathedral. To date, some 12,500 families have been displaced by the violence as the army is clashing with the militants….
How will this situation affect Christian-Muslim relations in Marawi?
Unavoidably, some of the natural biases that Christians have against Muslims will be stirred up again. Interfaith dialogue is a very fragile process and these incidents can destroy the foundation that we have built. Some people are fueling these anti-Muslim sentiments—just as we’ve made a very good headway improving the relationship between Muslims and Christians in Marawi. In fact, comparing our relationship with Muslim-Christian relations elsewhere in the country, I can safely say that ours is the best. For example, our schools—which have been operating for decades—have always been dear to our Muslim brothers and Christians alike. These institutions have trained the city’s professional class, building up a kind of patronage and loyalty to our schools among the Muslim population.
Dave Flang says
Another example of brain washing.
What has been happening in the public schools and universities for over three generations
A lost man that has more wisdom then most Christians today.
Joost Meerloo, a Dutch psychiatrist, was an early leading proponent of the concept of brainwashing. (“Menticide” is a neologism coined by him meaning: “killing of the mind.”) Meerloo’s view was influenced by his experiences during the German occupation of his country and his work with the Dutch government and the American military in the interrogation of accused Nazi war criminals. He later emigrated to the United States and taught at Columbia University.[31] His best-selling 1956 book, The Rape of the Mind, concludes by saying:
The modern techniques of brainwashing and menticide—those perversions of psychology—can bring almost any man into submission and surrender. Many of the victims of thought control, brainwashing, and menticide that we have talked about were strong men whose minds and wills were broken and degraded. But although the totalitarians use their knowledge of the mind for vicious and unscrupulous purposes, our democratic society can and must use its knowledge to help man to grow, to guard his freedom, and to understand himself. [32]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing
Jan Aage Jeppesen says
“Joost Meerloo, a Dutch psychiatrist, was an early leading proponent of the concept of brainwashing. (“Menticide” is a neologism coined by him meaning: “killing of the mind.”) ”
Was Bishop Edwin dela Peña brainwashed by his belief in Jesus Christ?
According to Matthew (5:44) the founder of Christianity said: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”
You cant blame a man for taking his faith seriously, now can you?
Michael says
Bishop Edwin dela Peña is worried that “some of the natural biases that Christians have against Muslims will be stirred up again.”
I have a natural bias against having sex with animals. So shouldn’t I have a natural bias against this blasphemous cult.
Stan Lee says
Does the Bishop mean biases such as Islam directs in its koran against any and all persons who are not Muslims?
If any resistence to understanding of what drives Muslims and their cruelty is an issue for the Bishop, he should acknowledge a recount of Muslim cruelties and murders of innocent non-Muslims whose innocent feelings and peacefulness were not considered when Muslim crimes overtook them.
mortimer says
Agree with Stan Lee: Islam contains an ‘ESSENTIAL DOCTRINE’ of HATRED directed towards the dirty KUFAA … The doctrine is called ‘AL WALAA WAL BARAA’.
Look it up. Google it. Master it. Quote to everyone who is GULLIBLE about Islam. The doctrine of AL WALAA WAL BARAA is a CENTRAL, COMPULSORY doctrine of Islam that MANDATES HATRED against non-Muslim KAFIRS.
Maxie says
This comment by the bishop is yet another in the long history of the Catholic Church working against the faithful and shielding criminals as it did with nazis, As a Catholic I put these comments to one side as I do with much of the social utterances of the present pope, they are not ex cathedra. These spokesmen seem to be in some sort of delusional phase of continually apologising or excusing for the terrible wrongs done by islamists as some sort of abberation of the long time ,since its creation, anti-infidel nature of islam. The reluctance generally of public identities such as the Catholic Church to speak out along with too many governments encourages the islamists to the righteousness of their actions is itself a notable syndrome, certainly not the counsel of wisdom as they too often seek to portray.
CelticToTheBone says
It is becoming increasingly clear to me, after considerable confusion, why Christian and Jewish Religious “Leaders” do not declare against islam, mad m0hamhead and allah.
I believe they are aware, that if they actively participated in the necessary elimination of the death cult that is islam, their own religions would not be far behind. In an increasingly secular, Technology & Science aware world; religion itself is increasingly facing risk of extinction.
Frank and his lads behind the Vatican walls, and the imams and Rabbis are acutely aware of this. Minds, un-indoctrinated religiously, from an early age, become a tougher proposition for indoctrination as they mature
Tenure and job security are threatened.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”
Truth 101 says
The Catholic Church — Pope Pius XII in particular — is credited with saving more than 800,000 Jews from Nazi extermination. Stop spreading anti-Catholic propaganda.
Maxie says
And also many of the nazis who bolted to South America
Patricia F Koenig says
I am very proud of Pope Pius XII, who saved many Jews and converted the Chief Rabbi of Rome, who stayed with Pope Pius XII, ion his personal apartments. What we are witnessing today is the foretold grievous apostasy, which includes bishops and priest, as well as laity. I will always stay Catholic.
somehistory says
Jesus said to “beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing”…this is a Divine command to have a “natural bias” against moslums who serve satan the devil and are worse than the animal wolf who pretends nothing.
Creep. He should know what the One Whom he pretends to serve said about such people pretending to be sheep like.
StacyGirl says
Yes. Today the wolves are also our clergy whose real job is to shepherd the faithful. Instead he worries about the poor wolves.
Eric says
My thoughts exactly Stacygirl. If people become alert to the abuses done by muslims, then people may become alert to the abuses done by Catholic priest.
In my life experience if people tell me to not to be aware of dangers they are also telling me not to notice their hand going into my pocket.
Eric
Patricia F Koenig says
The theology of Islam, in the Koran and Haddith, commands Muslims to deceive, kill or subjugate all non-Muslims. For 1400 years, that is what Islamic nations have done. Islam spread by the sword. The clergy are aiding and abetting anti-Christian groups.
A European says
This is mental water-boarding, 1984 at its best, many greetings from George Orwell, Big Brother, we love you so much. Are there any relatives of yours among those staff members of the cathedral who are being hold hostage by islamic terrorists, bishop? Do you fear for their lives? That’s why you are still talking about interfaith dialogue while your own people- Christians- are being massacred, right? This is an all-out war,bishop. Take the lead or step back.
Mockingjay says
– No doubt the bishop is a loyal follower of pope Francis.
John A. Marre says
This is how the left thinks. (Most Catholic clergy has a leftist mindset.)
The terrorist attacks are nothing, but what’s really important is whether Christians put strips of bacon on the sidewalk near mosques. Now that’s a real crime. The murders are not.
Jean Terry says
He should go to where the priest and others are being held and try to help them. That would be a real example of Christianity. It would be hard to trust people who have some who want to destroy you as it would be impossible to determine who it is. We should love the Muslims but not put up with violence perpetrated by them. And pray for them of course.
Kepha says
I’d like to know more about the context of the Bishop’s statement. Generally, in the Far East, most Christians, whether clerical or lay, have an Evangelistic rather than “dialogic” stance towards other religions. That’s a polite way of saying their theology is a lot more conservative, and in their hearts of hearts, geared towards the conversion of their neighbors than towards some great pan-religious syncretism.
Does Bp, Dela Pena worry that the conflict may make meaningful Christian witness to Muslims difficult as Christians follow the “natural” (could he mean “sinful”?) reaction of hating their Muslim neighbors? Or, has he succumbed to the Western syncretistic disease?
Certainly my sympathies are with the victims of Muslim violence in the Philippines. I hold no candle for Islam, since as a traditional “fundamental” Protestant Christian I cannot but see it as false. I freely own myself one who learned a lot more about Islam than he originally wished to in the time since 9/11/01, and very freely recognize that organized violence does seem to be an important part of Islam, and certainly sanctioned by Qur’an, Sunna, and Hadith rather than merely part of the sinful nature of men (and Christ came to save and change us, not bless our sinfulness). As someone who stands in the Reformed (“Calvinistic”) tradition, I believe that war (and even rebellion against government) is sometimes justified (even if a truly last resort).
But at the same time, I am greatly cheered and humbled by reports that in recent years, Evangelistic work has borne some surprising fruit among Muslim peoples. Many missions leaders express both pleasure and surprise at the response that they have seen. Even where I teach, I have seen some immigrant Muslim families from Africa having members turning towards Christ. For me, this rather than piling up the skulls of the other guy’s people where their populous cities once stood is the real and God-pleasing victory in the struggle with Islam. It is when hearts change and people turn to God as he is revealed in Jesus Christ that we take part in the warfare of the Conquering Lion of Judah (Jesus Christ), and see the Holy Spirit’s blessing on Christ’s final commission to His church (Mt. 28:19-20).
After all, Christians worship a God who has said this, in one of the most supposedly “harsh” portions of the Scriptures (at least in the minds of people who haven’t really wrestled with it): Have
I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? (Ezekiel 18:23).
As I look at the Qur’an and Hadith, I do not find the same note.
Maxie says
I would like the Bishop to outline “some of the natural biases that Christians have against Muslims”
Our underlying bases of faith in the nominal christian stream, so much as I am aware, do not include killing infidels or other non believers and a range of other faith based atrocities, so what are there ‘ bases’ he mentions?
My concern with the more recent islamic worldwide criminality is that big business and big government in the west generally has been complicit in reigniting the embedded hatred that is islam’s nature. It challenges our imagination to identify a turn back on this phenomena but it does not mean we tolerate it in our homeland or excuse it in our churches. Maybe Spain was right to expel the muslims before it was too late.
gravenimage says
Kepha wrote:
Even where I teach, I have seen some immigrant Muslim families from Africa having members turning towards Christ. For me, this rather than piling up the skulls of the other guy’s people where their populous cities once stood is the real and God-pleasing victory in the struggle with Islam.
…………………..
Kepha–with the greatest respect–the idea that Christians and other Infidels want to ‘pile up the skulls’ of Muslims when they take issue with Muslims raping and murdering us is just calumny.
Muslims are slaughtering Infidels–there is no such slaughter aimed at them.
Tony Blair says
Kraphead reminds me of the gender confused, probably abused in childhood, types that had difficulty fitting in during childhood. The type that had few friends and was weird enough looking that respectable, decent looking babes, avoided like the plague.
The type that joins the military or foreign service or become teachers (coz they ain’t capable of much else) to meet foreign females that don’t realize how creepy these types are considered in their local domiciles
Bang your head against the wall a few times for a reset Kraphead.
Maxie says
Muslims turning to Christ? Met an Anglican minister in a North England Church used by my ancestors. He said more than a few of his flock were almost certainly muslims; they were ‘refugees’ but he also said it was not uncommon as a means of establishing refugee status.
Kepha says
Some of the ones I know from West Africa came via ordinary immigration (family reunification or skills-based).
Santa Voorhees says
So, warfare is enraging in the streets, people are getting killed, churches burned down, and all he worries about is “anti-muslim sentiments on the rise”?!?
Seriously, if he gets killed (i hope not), humanity would regain 30 points of IQ.
Not that our leaders are any better… sadly.
gravenimage says
All grimly true, Santa.
mortimer says
Does Bishop Edwin dela Peña have a CLUE about the JIHAD DOCTRINE, SUPREMACY DOCTRINE or TAQIYYA DOCTRINE of Islam? Or is his idea of Islam 99% KUMBYA?
The bishop is clueless about jihad! ALL Muslims practice verbal jihad, i.e. lying about the meaning, motive and method of jihad, while at the same time promoting jihad behind the scenes.
100 JIHADISTS burned down the Cathedral of Mary Help of Christians. Mary will have to help Christians KEEP BREATHING, because the church’s BISHOPS are working for the JIHADISTS by stopping churchmen from asking questions about the JIHAD DOCTRINE.
Patricia F Koenig says
Well said! If only the bishops would educate themselves. However the clergy have been infiltrated by Communists and atheists, with the plan to destroy the Catholic Church from within. This infiltration is explained by a former Communist Party attorney, named Bella Dodd, who was brought back into the Catholic Church by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. You can view her testimony before Congress on YouTube. Also a French Emergency Room nurse, named Marie Carrre, wrote a biography titled “AA-1025,” available from TAN Publishers, about the 1025th Anti-Apostle, who was recruited by the Communist Party, to become priests, without having any interest in a vocation, in order to destroy the Catholic Church from the inside.
James says
Four words: “Interfaith dialogue” be damned. Moham’s orcs do not to come to “dialogue”; they come to kill. Just like Tolkien’s Uruk-hai. How strange that a 1950s epic romance about an invented world should have so much to say about the cowardice of the West in face of the Muslim hordes 60 years later.
You can’t dialogue when you are being:
shot
raped
beheaded
stabbed
burned alive
kidnapped
crucified
stoned
hung from a crane
drowned
blown up
sodomised
or otherwise treated like pig-faeces by the religion of sex-obsessed monsters.
Dan says
As a practicing Catholic who really, really, really has to work on my temper…
At the risk of immortal soul, the clergy better get their head out of their arses.
Fortunately, (Or unfortunately) our Priest came from a Vietnamese/Communist taken over background, and he’s seen first hand what butchers do.
And ain’t part of the brainwashed “Mass”es.
Charli Main says
Dan, I’m not a Catholic but I, and I’m sure most other non Catholics are fully aware that the Catholic hierarchy and the morons in the Vatican DO NOT REPRESENT THE FAITHFUL BODY OF PRACTICING CATHOLICS.
Diane Harvey says
“About anti-Christian sentiments among Muslims, the wise bishop [Peña] was silent.”
Apparently he just got off the phone with Bishop McManus.
McManus may, or may not have been, sober.
James says
“Some people are fueling these anti-Muslim sentiments—just as we’ve made a very good headway improving the relationship between Muslims and Christians in Marawi. In fact, comparing our relationship with Muslim-Christian relations elsewhere in the country, I can safely say that ours is the best. For example, our schools—which have been operating for decades—have always been dear to our Muslim brothers and Christians alike. These institutions have trained the city’s professional class, building up a kind of patronage and loyalty to our schools among the Muslim population.”
How is it possible to parody this ? By this standard, relations between Jews and Nazis must have been marvellous. Doubtless this refugee from a funny farm would like to tell us all about the unbounded respect in which Hitler is held by the Jews. This is so brain-destroyingly moronic, it must be a Poe.
gravenimage says
Yes–this *is* a parody. And Muslim-majority Marawi was *already* under Shari’ah–I doubt things were good for Christians there even before the invasion of ISIS.
Maxie says
Tolerance of sharia law is antithetical to law and order in non musllim controlled countries and they seek to impose it wherever they live including north England as part of the judicial. Why Indonesia tolerates Aceh is another question. Even turning the hypothetical ‘blind eye’ to it is treasonous. Is what you say re Marawi true or hearsay? If its true the Philippines is in serious trouble.
Voytek Gagalka says
How secure and potentially beneficial in contemporary world is to be worry about potential backlash of “Islamophobia” while ignoring dangers of real jihad and notorious “Christian-phobia” (not to mention Judeo-phobia) coming from Mohammedans! It is VERY secure and beneficial and thus it is the only reason for its existence in today’s world. To speak against jihad is to suffer instant backlash and widespread denunciation; to speak against “Islamophobia” is to expect to be REWARDED with “everlasting glory” and potential next Noble Peace Prize.
Tom says
Yes appeasers come in all sizes, shapes, colors, ethnicities, religions (except in Islam) and political stripes.
I suggest that they let loose the dogs of war on the radicals and let the cards fall where they may. Despite the bleating heart sheeple like this supposed “man of the cloth”.
utis says
Virtually the first words out of the mouths of authorities is “backlash.” Where is this backlash? If muslims were assaulted or murdered after some jihadi act, CNN and the like would be all over the place about it. I am truly amazed that nothing has been reported by a half-credible source. As an atheist, I have the right to believe nothing without verifiable evidence. As of now, I believe in Santa Claus more than in any mob with pitchforks and torches coming after muslims.
Lydia says
Funny how that works!
You kill people, rape people, and set off bombs.
Then you find you have worn out your welcome
and they don’t like you anymore.
I wonder what went wrong….?!
‘Was it something I said?’
Duh.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
Duterte needs to find the good bishop and explain to him, by hand, that he is misguided in his opinion.
Mark A says
Another totally clueless Catholic Bishop who has never read the Koran and its exhortations to kill “infidels.”
A little anti_Muslim sentiment is exactly what we need in the face of jihadi attacks.
gravenimage says
Philippines: Catholic bishop worries that jihad massacres will stir up “anti-Muslim sentiment”
…………………
I’m afraid you don’t just find this suicidal insanity in the West…
Maxie says
Maybe he can offer himself in substitution for the hostages? Got be a sainthood in it
Vyx says
So, in this guys world, jihadi’s killing Christians should make Christians feel… OK about jihadis? Is that what he’s saying?
Should Christians just lay down and let the jihadi’s get down to the business of murdering them? Should all Christians just resign themselves to being martyrs?
And when there are only Muslims left, what then? Is surrender to Islam the official world doctrine now?
TH says
Accepting reality is a sign of mental health. One wonders about the sanity of this bishop. Does he really think that Catholics in the Philippines will go out and celebrate the fact that the savages have destroyed their churches and killed 100 people?
Fortunately, the President of the Philippines has no such illusions. Besides getting arms from the U.S. he also went to Moscow to ask Putin for some more arms.
Crusades Were Right! says
Turning the other cheek can be a bit tricky when one’s head is not attached to one’s body!
FYI says
He must belong to the Kumbaya order of Saint Dhimwit.
The great leader of the Kumbaya sect,Ayatollah Bergoglio, will be so pleased.
What,with his(ahem) boner for islam.
Do you know how excited francis was when he went to meet his muslim friend in Egypt recently calling him “brother” and all?
Well francis didn’t show the same respect and love for the Copts, did he?
As I said pope francis(Ayatollah Bergoglio)has a boner for islam.
I don’t wish to sound crude but I believe it is an apposite metaphor for fraudulent frankie’s behavior.
p says
Thats a muslim town, like Dearborn MI.
Jim Conch says
Don’t know what this guy has for breakfast everyday, but he for sure takes his stupid pills then. ‘Interfaith dialogue’ with a muslim, he must be kidding.
Ric says
Here we go again, another, a priest no less, worried about the backlash on Muslims after a murderous rampage, not the victims. This is one reason I have chosen to reject so-called organized religion or if preferred corporate religion. It is not solely Roman Catholicism that finds itself Islamist apologists but others who have taken up the cause of Islam while demonizing Judaism, Christianity or other faiths. These foolish corraborators, perhaps collaborators, are content in their intent to exonerate Islam’s barbarity; however, audaciously condemn those bent on the preservation of Western Civilization and its Judeo/Christian principles.
Interfaith dialogue, how does one engage with Islam whose so-called principles are devoid of tolerance of diversity? This is a rhetorical question, of course. The mass-murder of innocent Christians apparently holds no water whether Holy or otherwise. A head honcho, of the Met in London, was gratified when it was observed that the victims of the London slaughter were diverse.
To Quote the late cartoonist, Al Capp, “We have found the enemy and it is us.”
Unfortunately, Capp’s quote befits the insanity of many misled, inculcated Western Democracies today, from the Overlords to everyday citizens.
Christian Nelson says
Just arrange a hostage exchange: Bishop Edwin de la Peña for Suganub and then walk away and forget about the idiot de la Pena.
Matthieu Baudin says
They live in their own ecumenical fantasy bubble.