Islamic prayers to be held at the Vatican

Al Arabyia News ^ | June 6, 2004 | Staff writer

[ebb tide]

For the first time in history, Islamic prayers and readings from the Quran will be heard at the Vatican on Sunday, in a move by Pope Francis to usher in peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Francis issued the invitation to Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit last week to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas, Peres, and Francis will be joined by Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious leaders, a statement released by Peres’s spokesperson said, according to the Times of Israel.

Holy See officials on Friday said the evening prayers would be a “pause in politics” and had no political aim other than to rekindle the desire for Israeli-Palestinian peace at the political and popular level, according to the Associated Press.

Low expectations

The Vatican will broadcast a live feed of the event to viewers across the world.

However, expectations for the event should be kept low, according to Rev. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the custodian of Catholic Church property in the Holy Land.

[No-one should think] “peace will suddenly break out on Monday, or that peace is any closer,” AP reported him as saying.

On Friday, the Pope met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and discussed ways of promoting peace and stability in Asia the Vatican said in a statement.

[Mom MD]

There’s a difference between a church with stupid sinners in it and a church who’s absolute unquestioned unchallenged leader is engaging in apostasy. And yes, if I were in a church that the head of came out as gay, and he was not asked to step down, I would leave the church.

[Mom MD]

I never said that there will not be Catholics in heaven. I was responding to an individual who is claiming the Cathloic church is the only true church and there is not salvation outside of it. That individual is in for a big surprise. My salvation is bought with the Blood of Jesus, not a manmade institution.

[piusv]

It appears so, but I believe that the gates of Hell will not prevail against Christ’s Church.

[ealgeone]

If you’re Baptist, and the head of the Southern Baptist Convention comes out and announces he’s gay, are you going to stop being baptist? Of course not. If I try finding a church that doesn’t have any stupid sinners in it I’d be in trouble. And so would you so try coming down off that high horse.

I promise you he wouldn't be the head of the SBC very long if that scenario unfolded.

[ealgeone]

That's because he is the Vicar of Christ. Not my problem you're in rebellion from the True Church. He is infallible in the teaching of Faith and morals. I don't see an Ex Cathedra statement being promulgated here which means you don't know what you're talking about.

Well, the "vicar of Christ" has invited the muslims, a false religion, to pray at the Vatican where the "chair of Peter" is.

Here's the question: Would Christ Himself allow Satan to sit at the right hand of the Father and pray????

I look forward to your answer.

[skinkinthegrass]

Stupid PC'er Alert!

[ealgeone]

The Pope can change Catholic doctrine, just not all at once. He and his priests have to do it brick by brick, and it can take decades or centuries, but it happens. I believe either Mary’s “Immaculate Conception” or her “perpetual virginity” was established this way (or quite possibly both). First introduce the idea as possibility, speculate on it, and then many years later when people have grown used to the idea (that is, it’s taken root), then declare it dogma.

Next up is Mary as a co-redemtrix as official dogma.

In the early 1990s Professor Mark Miravalle of the Franciscan University of Steubenville and author of the book Mary: Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate launched a popular petition to urge Pope John Paul II to use Papal infallibility to declare Mary as Co-Redemptrix. More than six million signatures were gathered from 148 countries, including those of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Cardinal John O'Connor of New York, and 41 other cardinals and 550 bishops.

In August 1996, a Mariological Congress was held in Czestochowa, Poland, where a commission was established in response to a request of the Holy See. The congress sought the opinion of scholars present there regarding the possibility of proposing a fifth Marian dogma on Mary as Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate. The commission unanimously declared that it was not opportune, voting 23-0 against the proposed dogma.

By 1998 it was doubtful the Vatican was going to consider new Marian dogmas. The papal spokesman stated "This is not under study by the Holy Father nor by any Vatican congregation or commission". A leading Mariologist stated the petition was "theologically inadequate, historically a mistake, pastorally imprudent and ecumenically unacceptable". Pope John Paul II cautioned against "all false exaggeration", his teaching and devotion to Mary has strictly been "exalting Mary as the first among believers but concentrating all faith on the Triune God and giving primacy to Christ." When asked in an interview in 2000 whether the Church would go along with the desire to solemnly define Mary as Co-redemptrix, (the then) Cardinal Ratzinger responded that,

the formula “Co-redemptrix” departs to too great an extent from the language of Scripture and of the Fathers and therefore gives rise to misunderstandings...Everything comes from Him [Christ], as the Letter to the Ephesians and the Letter to the Colossians, in particular, tell us; Mary, too, is everything she is through Him. The word “Co-redemptrix” would obscure this origin. A correct intention being expressed in the wrong way.

[ealgeone]

You are right. Some “Christians” are actually calling God the father, the mother, the son and the Holy Spirit these days. I ran across it a couple days ago on a blog. It is insane.

then they're not Christians.

[RetiredArmy]

So, does the pope pray to Allah or our LORD Jesus Christ?

[EBH]

The pope, Peres and Abbas will read individual invocations for peace, shake hands and plant an olive tree in the gardens. Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of the Orthodox Church, will also attend.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/718706/muslims-jews-christians-to-pray-together-at-the-vatican/

Revelations 11:4? The two olive trees, the two lampstands, the two witnesses and they stand before the Lord of the earth?

Jeremiah 11:16
The LORD called you a thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form. But with the roar of a mighty storm he will set it on fire, and its branches will be broken

Zechariah 4

Pope Francis plants virtual olive tree to foster awareness of peace among children
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-plants-virtual-olive-tree-to-foster-a

[piusv]

According to VII theology, they are one and the same.

YWIA.

[RetiredArmy]

Well, I know nothing about VII theology. But, my LORD says only HE is the way to heaven and no where in His book does He call Himself, Allah.

[Lil Flower]

> e. My salvation is bought with the Blood of Jesus,<

So is mine. Christ is my Savior, not this pope or any other man. Christ is also the head of my Church, which is why I will not be leaving it. The Catholic Church has survived worse.

[dragonblustar]

Have the resident Catholics here start blaming the media on this one?

[BlessedBeGod]

Is not the pope the final arbiter of Catholic doctrine? Inerrant and all that? Sorry, but praying to satan is now official Catholic doctrine.

No, in order for the Pope to declare something official doctrine, the following would have to happen:

1) it would have to be something that had been believed by the Church since the very beginning, but was never actually declared "official" before, and for some reason the Pope wants to highlight it now. If that was true about praying to satan, all Protestants would believe it, too (which obviously they don't), since they were there at the beginning, too.

2) the Pope would have a document that he had written, spelling out the doctrine for everyone to read. It wouldn't be based on an action of his.

3) the Pope would have to declare in that document that he was speaking infallibly. Popes have only done that a few times throughout history. For example, Benedict never did it. JPII did it only once in 27 years as Pope.

So, we can rest assured that this is NOT official Catholic doctrine, and that maybe Francis is off his meds (again) instead, a sucky thought nevertheless.

[Springfield Reformer]

I happen to be Baptist and have fellowshipped among the Southern Baptist. If I were SBC, and the leadership decided en masse to capitulate to the normalization of homosexual perversion, I would leave that fellowship, in a heartbeat. Or if I thought there was a chance to successfully resist the collapse, then I would stay and fight.

But unlike the SBC leadership, the Pope purports to be the Vicar of Christ, and so is far more accountable for the error he propagates::

Matthew 18:6-7  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.  (7)  Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

And so, whether the SBC leadership is one day guilty of fostering sexual perversion, or the Papacy is used to give aid and comfort to the satanic hordes of Islam, or whether individual posters here on FR find their own uniques ways to lead precious souls astray from the simplicity of the Gospel of Grace in Christ Jesus, we will all be held accountable, according to our own degree of responsibility:

Luke 12:47-48  And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.  (48)  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

It is an extraordinary hubris to claim to be the sole Vicar of Christ, when in reality all we who believe are His earthly representatives:

1Peter 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

There is no warrant in Scripture for such a position in the body of Christ. Christ has His sole representative on earth in the Person of the Holy Spirit. A wise man would thus avoid the claim to such a title, as the price of failure would be incalculable personal loss:

Matthew 7:22-23  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  (23)  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

As for the church, yes, it will survive, though all the trappings of man come down around our ears.  No institution is safe in these evil days.  Not one.  But every heart that trusts Christ is nestled safely in His hands, from which no one can pluck him. But what of the church? Surely that one institution is guaranteed by Jesus Himself to endure to the end. But Jesus never promised the survival of any institution defined by lists of names on an earthly membership roll.  Only the survival of His church, His "ecclesia," His "called out ones," i.e., those who gather in His name:

Matthew 18:20  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

And in the end, the only membership roll that amount to anything is this one:

Revelation 21:27  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Peace,

SR

[ebb tide]

Papal infallibility is way overblown. It can only occur under very specific conditions.

[Gene Eric]

Islam is a war plan conceived by the blade.

[Fantasywriter]

Here is a five-star, amazingly excellent article on whether God & Allah are the same. [Spoiler, they couldn’t be more different.] It’s four pp long but fascinating. If you read it, you won’t regret it:

http://www.letusreason.org/Islam6.htm

[Iscool]

Do we have an anti-Pope or just a fool as Pope?

The Bible calls it the false prophet...He will clear and lead the way to the anti-Christ who will unite Jews, Catholics and muzlims in a unified religion in Jerusalem under a 'peace agreement'...