Posted on 06/06/2010 11:27:21 AM PDT by Steelfish
Vatican Says World Ignores Christians in Mideast
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON and MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
NICOSIA, Cyprus – The Vatican said Sunday that the international community is ignoring the plight of Christians in the Middle East, and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and political instability in Lebanon have forced thousands to flee the region.
A working paper released during Pope Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to Cyprus to prepare for a crisis summit of Middle East bishops in Rome in October also cites the "extremist current" unleashed by the rise of "political Islam" as a threat to Christians.
The paper said that the line between religion and politics is blurred in Muslim countries, "relegating Christians to the precarious position of being considered non-citizens, despite the fact that they were citizens of their countries long before the rise of Islam."
"The key to harmonious living between Christians and Muslims is to recognize religious freedom and human rights," it said. In his final Mass in Cyprus on Sunday, Benedict said he was praying that the October meeting will focus the attention of the international community "on the plight of those Christians in the Middle East who suffer for their beliefs." He appealed for an "urgent and concerted international effort to resolve the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, especially in the Holy Land, before such conflicts lead to greater bloodshed."
The Vatican considers mostly Greek Orthodox Cyprus as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East and invited bishops to come to the Mediterranean island to receive the working paper.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
To measure power, Stalin asked how many divisions the Vatican had. Today the question is how much political power does the Vatican have. Not too much in this country or anywhere in the world. Money talks, politicians listen.
I’m sure the Mufti of the WH press corps, Helen Thomas, will be writing about this.........../s
As further evidence of the Islamic turn taken by the Erdrogan government, it is giving the Greek Patriarch all kinds of trouble. But so indifferent are western governments to the needs of Eastern Christians that they turn a blind eye to what is happening to Christians in every single Muslim state. Maybe the pope should ask Putin to intervene.
Then maybe the Vatican should quit spending so much time and money promoting illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico and instead focus on protecting Christians in the Middle East.
About time the Pope spoke about this. It has been an issue the west as danced around for too long.
What has this issue of illegal immigration got to do with calls to the attention of the innocent blood being shed for the exercise of Christina religious beliefs?
He still doesn’t really talk about it.
What he needs to do is focus on specific cases that show what muslims are. Vague words about Christian suffering is just a lot of hot air - not even statistics. Actual cases like the kidnapping of Aneelah and Sabah Younas will appeal to people’s feelings and might actually make a difference if people were made aware of them.
The pope could learn a lot from how the muslims seize upon singular incidents (cartoons, that muslim killed in a German court etc) in their ongoing Jihad against the west.
They are not dancing around it. They shrug it off. They actively favor Muslims over Christians.
Everyday the Catholic Church shows that its priority is pushing amnesty in America.
THEY choose to spend their resources on AMNESTY, then complain about treatment of Christians in the Middle East. It’s like a drunk who spends money on liquor and when their electricity is cut off because they weren’t paying the bill, complains about the big, bad utility company.
If they want anyone to believe that the treatment of Christians is their priority, then they should quit getting drunk on the power of money that is generated by immigrants who come to America and break its laws. They need to prioritize the use of their resources to better match their rhetoric. Until then they are just a business which is not paying taxes.
True!!!!
“Pervert Pushers”- Now wouldn’t that include all other religions; public sector unions, and nearly all of society where sexual abuse of children have occurred?
Like under 2% of all Catholic Priests? Have you looked at the percentages of other denominations?
Oh, spare us the moronic catholic bashing.
Statistics show that there is no wave of Catholic pedophilia. The media is uding the inevitable cases that have happened since the 50s to slander Catholicism and Christianity as a whole.
wonder if they mentioned the one million overseas worker who are Christians living in Saudi Arabia who don’t have a church to worship in, and can be arrested if their house churches are raided?
Not just Filipinos, but Keralan Indians, Lebanese, and Africans.
It’s one of the least covered “human rights” stories in the world.
Right you are! Pope John Paul did little to nothing about Christians in the ME. Benedict has a stronger spine.
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