Posted on 04/27/2015 11:01:54 AM PDT by Dqban22
French Prime Minister: Attending Mass "Most Beautiful" Response to Terror Threat
Manuel Valls emphasizes Catholic culture of France and warns of division
By John Burger Aleteia 4/24/2015
http://www.aleteia.org/en/world/article/french-prime-minister-attending-mass-most-beautiful-response-to-terror-threat-5888467040993280
It’s not the kind of sentiment one would expect to hear from the leader of a nation that prides itself on its history of secularism.
But in the wake of a thwarted terrorist attack on churches in France this past weekend, Prime Minister Manuel Valls was clear: attending Mass is “the most beautiful and strongest" answer to terrorism.
Valls spoke to reporters while standing next to Bishop Michel Santier of Creteil, the diocese south of Paris where one or more churches were allegedly in the crosshairs of a 24-year-old Algerian national. The plot, foiled when the student accidentally shot himself and called for an ambulance, was, according to Valls, the fifth terrorist attack authorites thwarted since the Charlie Hebdo attack in January.
"What could have happened is a shock to everyone,” Valls said, adding that he wanted to meet with Church officials to express “our deep emotion and our total solidarity…. This time, it was the Christians, the Catholics of France, who were targeted for the first time. Two churches were in the viewfinder of the individual.”
Valls said that “specific protection” is being provided to 178 Catholic places of worship.
To attack a church is to attack “a symbol of France," the premier said. "The terrorists probably still wanted to hit the heart to divide and destroy. The answer is the gathering, is unity. That's democracy, it's the living together and that is the ability to respond as the French have done on January 11.
"The faithful of the Catholic religion,” he continued, “must be able to worship, go to Mass in perfect serenity. Moreover, it is the most beautiful and strongest of the answers we need to terrorism, which targets France to divide... . France has a great Christian heritage. Cathedrals, churches, chapels, attract tourists, pilgrims, thousands of the faithful around the world. This heritage must be protected, but must remain open, accessible.”
There is still hope for France, yet.
The mohammedans would kill us, burn our Bibles, raze our churches, if they could. It’s what they’re doing right now, today, in jihadistan.
Yes, publicly worshiping Our Lord Jesus Christ is something of a revolutionary act.
God grant us the grace to do it in spite of dungeon, fire and sword.
Problem is too many of our Jewish and Catholic American friends don’t want to defend those roots.
VERY HARD to get these people back. I myself have lost the faith several times and for several years in my life. IT is not an easy path.
He’s a socialist. Better person than the one we’re stuck with.
Good to read this article. Thank you!
Abandonment of Christian Victims of Genocide Today »
by Joseph Klein
Front Page Magazi8ne, 4/27/205
Obama leads the way in turning a blind eye.
The world is witnessing the horrific genocide of Christians, reminiscent of the genocide of Armenian Christians that began this month one hundred years ago. The Vatican has estimated that “more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed because of some relation to their faith every year.” Three Christians a minute are being murdered. As many as 100-150 million Christians are being persecuted.
Statistics alone do not tell the whole story of the toll of human suffering the Islamic genocide of Christians is exacting. The horrific killings include, for example, four Iraqi Christian children, who were beheaded for refusing to say that they would follow the Prophet Muhammad and for telling their ISIS captors that they will always “love” and “follow” Jesus.
The rest of the Article
St. John Vianney, pray for us.
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