Posted on 03/24/2008 10:16:51 AM PDT by NYer
ITALIAN editor and critic of Islamic extremism Magdi Allam, who converted to Catholicism from Islam and was baptised by Pope Benedict XVI, today branded his former faith as intrinsically violent.
"I had to do this (abandon Islam)", Allam wrote in a long letter to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
"Beyond ... the phenomenon of extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent to a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam," wrote the Egyptian-born journalist, who says he has received death threats and is under police protection.
One of seven adults baptised during an Easter vigil yesterday evening, Allam, 55, is an editorial writer and deputy editor at Corriere.
Regarding a combative tone that has made him famous in Italy, Allam wrote: "Over the years my spirit has been freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimises lies and deception, violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission to tyranny."
He described Catholicism as "an authentic religion of Truth, Life and Freedom".
By baptising Allam in the public ceremony, the Pope "sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a church that until now has been too cautious in the conversion of Muslims ... because of the fear of being unable to protect the converted who are condemned to death for apostasy," Allam said.
"Thousands of people in Italy have converted to Islam and practise their faith serenely," he wrote.
"But there are also thousands of Muslims who have converted to Christianity who are forced to hide their new faith out of fear of being killed by Islamist terrorists."
Allam adopted the Christian name of Cristiano (Christian), not a common name in Italy.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
The letter he has distributed about his conversion says that “Cristiano” is his Confirmation name. A quick search doesn’t show any canonized saints with this name, but the Catholic Encyclopedia at NewAdvent.org is 100 years behind on saints. It does list one Bishop Christian, first Bishop of Prussia.
I assume “Cristiano” is in the class of names with “Fatima,” “Lourdes,” “Guadalupe” and so on - not the individual name of a saint, but a holy title. One of the converts who was confirmed at my church on Saturday night took “Fatima” as her name.
You already made your point. You’re lonely and are trying to gain attention by being obnoxious.
Great post!
As you can see from this link, prayers referring to the Virgin Mary are optional in the mass.
It is encouraging to hear you attend masses with prayers to her included. Does your parish offer rosaries? Also does it ever include the Popes Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel (defend us in Armageddon)?
http://catholic-resources.org/ChurchDocs/Mass.htm
The practice of choosing the name of a saint has been abandoned for many years now. The current practice is to maintain one's own name, which is usually that of a saint. In Magdi Allam's situation, that was not the case. He went to the very top of the mountain and chose Christ. Bravo! My daughter chose 'Trinity' for her Confirmation name. I danced under the stars that night because she thought she had chosen the name of a character from the Matrix. After Confirmation, I filled her in on the true meaning of her new name :-) The Holy Spirit inspires us through whatever means possible.
I will never forget the pogroms, or the sacking of Constantinople.
Thank you all for your comments, they make things clearer.
Is Benedict XVI to radical Islam what John Paul II was to Communism?
> You already made your point.
Yes, and if he combs his hair properly nobody will notice.
> You’re lonely and are trying to gain attention by being obnoxious.
A wonderful thing has happened: a Damn’ed Sinner has seen the error of his ways and embraced Christ (in some form or another) via the Holy Roman Church.
Naturally, as a Christian of a slightly different persuasion, I would have been right ecstatic had this sinner embraced Christ in the flavor of Christianity to which I subscribe and am more comfortable with. He would have (in my World View and opinion) been slightly less damn’ed than the Pope Himself and infinitely more blessed than his heathen Muslim buddies...
...but Crikey! Let’s grab some perspective here: a wicked sinning Muslim has Chosen Light over Darkness, and has converted to Christianity!
Surely the niceties can be sorted out in the same manner as we sort out the age-old paradox of “how-many-Angels-may-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin?”
Saints be praised that a Sinner has repented! Alleluja that this man has embraced Christianity and eschewed Islam! I am in awe of his personal courage.
And how wonderful that the Pope Himself has seen fit to acknowledge this auto-de-fe. In public, on this most Holy of Days. I am in awe of his personal courage, too.
God be Thanked. ‘Tis surely a time for the Triumph of the Spirit over the wiles of evil.
All of this Catholic-bashing is unseemly and rude and unnecessary and wrong.
God won in this transaction.
That is what matters.
Other than the special (”Proper”) Mass prayers on Marian feasts, the Confiteor is the only Mass prayer that mentions Mary, and it is optional. Sometimes the priests makes do with just the Kyrie in the Penitential Rite, but most of the time my parish priests use it.
We have a Parish-sponsored Rosary Makers’ Guild and a Perpetual Adoration Society, both of which sponsor rosary recitation. The next one will be this Sunday, when we will also have an afternoon Divine Mercy observance.
What I WISH we had, is a Latin Schola. Our assistant Pastor is interested, so I should send him another e-mail and ask him if we can get a move on!
And I’ll never forget the muslim conquest and occupation of the Iberian peninsula and I’ll never forget the Siege of Vienna, so there.
I have in vain petitioned for the Hail Mary to be included in the mass. Here’s why:
From www.spiritdaily.com : 3-23-08
NEWS THAT PRESIDENT INVOKED MARY TO HALT WAR ACCENTS HIDDEN HIPSANIC VIRGINS
There it was in headlines. The president of Colombia — a national political leader — declaring that the Blessed Virgin Mary had interceded to halt an imminent military conflict.
Not since leaders in the Philippines pointed to her role in conflicts there had such a major leader made such a dramatic statement.
But there was President Alvaro Uribe stating (in a newspaper called El Tiempo) that earlier in March, when it looked like Ecuador and Venezuela would wage war on Colombia (for crossing borders to fight Marxist guerilla terrorists), he invoked Mary under her patroness titles for all three countries, which led, he believes, to a peaceful settlement.
It was a development rich with insight into the many possible disasters that could reach mankind but for her intercession. How many others have been stopped? How many knew that Ronald Reagan — a Protestant — had a statue of the Blessed Mother?
In the case of Venezuela — whose leader, Hugo Chavez, vowed to crush Colombia, and who has rattled sabers too against the United States — it was especially loaded with potential implications in that the late Maria Esperanza, Venezuela’s most famous mystic [see photo with Pope at bottom], once stated (obliquely, alluding to some future event) that “it will start here.”
Indeed, the patroness invoked for Venezuela, said president Uribe, was the Virgin of Coromoto [right], after whom Esperanza named one of her daughters. Meanwhile the patroness invoked for Colombia was Our Lady of Chiquinquirá [left] and that for Ecuador Our Lady of Mercy [as represented in Spain, top left, and also above right in South America].
Our Lady of Chiquinquirá has its miraculous origins as a painting by a Spanish artist that was damaged by exposure to the elements but was said to have self-healed. “On Friday 26 December 1586 the faded, damaged image was suddenly restored,” says an index of saints. “Its colors were bright, the canvas cleaner, the image clear and seemingly brand new. The healing of the image continued as small holes and tears in the canvas self-sealed. It still has traces of its former damage, the figures seem brighter and clearer from a distance than up close. For three hundred years the painting hung unprotected. Thousands of objects were touched against the frail cotton cloth by pilgrims. This rough treatment should have destroyed it, but it healed and survives. Pope Pius VII declared Our Lady of Chiquinquirá patroness of Colombia in 1829, and granted a special liturgy.”
Our Lady of Mercy also has its origins in Spain, during Muslim invasions. At that time, it is said, Mary appeared in a vision to a young nobleman and urged the formation of a military fraternity that would rescue prisoners by means of ransom. Our Lady of Mercy is specifically patron of Ecuador’s military.
And then there is Coromoto [see also below, left] in Venezuela.
In 1651 or 1652, it is said, Mary appeared to a Cospe Indian chief and his wife near a shallow ravine with a smooth-flowing stream as a beautiful woman gliding over the water. The mysterious female spoke to the chief in his own language and told him to go see the missionaries and be baptized.
The chief did not end up doing so and on September 8 he was resting in his hut when the lovely woman appeared there near the Guanare River, rebuked him for missing his baptism, and when the chief became angry — reaching for his bow — a flash of light temporarily blinded him. Mary disappeared but news of the event led to conversions in Venezuela.
Such are but a few instances of major apparitions and miracles attached to the Blessed Mother in South America — occurrences that are all but known to North America and yet have played a major role in the history of Western Christianity. In 2003, a statue of Coromoto allegedly wept oil.
As for president Uribe, quoting Fr. Julio Solórzano, Chaplain of Colombia’s Presidential Palace, El Tiempo revealed that on March 5, when the rhetoric and blames between the presidents was increasing tensions, President Uribe called for a Rosary to pray for the end of tensions.
I’m no liturgist, so I can’t say whether the Hail Mary “should” or “shouldn’t” be included in the Mass. But it seems to me that any bishop could make the ruling, if he were so inclined, that the priest should lead the congregation in a Hail Mary either directly before, or directly after Mass.
I myself would love to see March 25 (Annunciation) proclaimed a Holy Day of Obligation and observed with public rosaries for the cessation of the hideous practice of murdering live babies before birth, the conversion of Muslims, and peace on earth.
Sorry, I do not share your moral equivalence with islam. Absent the islamic conquests there’d have been no Crusades and no need to expel the muslims from Spain and Europe time and again. They started it. If your ancestor slaughtered muslims the only thing I can fault him for is not slaughtering enough of them.
Excuse me, but I am not a preacher for a denomination of any kind.
Jerome was not quite close enough to Christ, thank you. And Jerome, the poor fellow, had to work with corrupted copies that came out of the Alexandrian (Egypt) schools; Origen and all his ungodly friends.
“Jerome was not quite close enough to Christ, thank you.”
This is just silly and incorrect. If it weren’t for the translations of St.Jerome and the authority of the Catholic Church, the Protestants and non-denominationals wouldn’t have had a basis from which to alter the Bible they now read daily. Even Luther admitted this, any theologian would.
I didn’t use the term moral equivalence.
My point is “let he who is innocent, cast the first stone”.
“This baptism is hugely symbolic and is right up there with the Pope’s Regensburg address.”
This is supposed to be highly symbolic. Since nothing symbolic can save a man’s soul, I have been hunting to see if the former Islamist’s profession of faith in Jesus Christ is anywhere in print. I want to read and consider the man’s testimony in the light of the New Testament.
You see, if you are not real careful, you can confuse people so that they will come to the conclusion that joining the RCC itself is what makes a person a Christian.
Even our own presidential candidates get heavily criticized if they make too much of their faith. So, why should I really care about all of this symbolism with this Muslim having his pictures plastered all over the place partaking of the sacraments of the RCC?
“The Catholic Church still reverences angels, and it “worships” the Blessed Mother . . . “
If you didn't find the Gospel of Christ in Christ's Church, well, I don't know what to say.
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