Posted on 08/02/2013 8:05:08 PM PDT by marshmallow
Muslims and Christians must raise young people “to think and speak respectfully of other religions and their followers, and to avoid ridiculing or denigrating their convictions and practices”, Pope Francis has said.
In a personal message to the world’s Muslims to mark the end of Ramadan, the Pope said: “Turning to mutual respect in inter-religious relations, especially between Christians and Muslims, we are called to respect the religion of the other, its teachings, its symbols, its values. Particular respect is due to religious leaders and to places of worship. How painful are attacks on one or other of these!
“It is clear that, when we show respect for the religion of our neighbours or when we offer them our good wishes on the occasion of a religious celebration, we simply seek to share their joy, without making reference to the content of their religious convictions.
“Regarding the education of Muslim and Christian youth, we have to bring up our young people to think and speak respectfully of other religions and their followers, and to avoid ridiculing or denigrating their convictions and practices.
“We all know that mutual respect is fundamental in any human relationship, especially among people who profess religious belief. In this way, sincere and lasting friendship can grow.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.co.uk ...
Ummm, Pope St. Pius V led Europe's Catholics in a rosary crusade imploring God's assistance in what wold become the Battle of Lepanto (10/7/1571). The Catholic navy was slightly outnumbered but had superior artillery/cannons on board many of its ships. The Catholic naval forces (the Holy League) under the command of Don Juan of Austria, sank 210 ships of about 240 of the Turkish Muslims' fleet which went to the bottom of the Mediterranean along with any Muslim pretense of using naval forces to facilitate conquering Christian Europe. The Church established October 7 as the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and also began devotions to Our Lady of Victory.
You are apparently not Catholic. Ours is certainly, even now, a free country and you are free to disagree or to scoff as are Catholics to believe.
See also the 9/11-9/12/1683 lifting of the Muslim Siege of Vienna by mostly Polish forces under King Jan Sobieski in which the Muslims were routed. Their commander, Kara Mustafa, was executed thereafter (by formal strangulation) at Belgrade (12/25/1683) as a result of his loss. The Muslims were so shamed that they attack Western Civilization with some regularity on 9/11 of various years. Nonetheless, the Muslims have never made another significant military attempt against Europe by land.
It may well be that allowing Muslim immigration into Europe to replace the children that so many Europeans have been too self-centered or lazy to bear in their advancing apostasy from all forms of Christianity may accomplish for Islam what the Muslim military never could.
Christians need to unite in the face of such challenges rather than continuing the endless intramural food fight over religious differences among us. Instead, let's concentrate on the 95% on which there is agreement, concede that Jesus Christ's flock would not and probably will not be as one, but serve Him in all things according to our own insights and faiths. It is also, as always, a wise strategy to keep our powder dry and to be ready militarily to help ourselves with His help.
The power of intercessory prayer and God's assistance had much to do with these military successes. Perhaps you are not a believer at all. If so, thank the military commanders: Don Juan of Austria and King Jan Sobieski for your good fortune in not being up speaking Arabic or being oppressed by "Sharia Law."
AMEN.
He could be doing, Pope Francis what St. Francis of Assisi did, St. Francis preached to the Muslims if my memory served me correct.
On the Undead Thread, we don't say we have to respect other beliefs. We say we respect the people who hold other beliefs, and address differences in belief politely or not at all.
Look for Christians from the “global south” nations to go to the west, the same west that sent missionaries to the global south to bring the good news of the Gospel of Jesus back to the west.
I like many things about this pope: his simplicity, refusal to be attended by servants, self-reliance, emphasis on Gospel messages favoring service to the poor, re-emphasis of the truths of Catholic doctrine, ratification of the investigative report as to the rebellious American orders of aged nuns, etc. We Catholics owe him obedience in all things moral.
Pope Francis is nonetheless a man and a sinner and capable of prudential mistakes. Some self-discipline in dealing with the press/media should be his New Year's resolution and he should actually consider practicing it immediately. None of us, not even the pope, are perfect or lack opportunities for self-improvement.
Additionally, for those (not you) who imagine him to be an "idiot," I would like to see how they would do in competition with a Jesuit such as Francis (an old school Jesuit not the modern heretical or anarchist sort) who had to have not one, not two but THREE doctorates (theology, philosophy and another substantive subject to teach) and a thorough understanding of St. Thomas Aquinas and scholasticism before being ordained as a Jebbie priest. He probably has higher academic credentials than any modern pope and possibly more than any other pope. Credentials do not guarantee prudential wisdom but they ought not be scoffed at either.
Finally, I agree with you that Pope Francis is preaching as St. Francis of Assisi did to Muslims and the world at large, as commanded by Jesus Christ. As a Jesuit prep school alumnus of the era when Pope Francis was preparing for his ordination, I do always suspect that he is far more sophisticated in his understandings and strategies than we are tempted to believe.
My favorite popes have been John Paul I, Blessed John Paul II and Pius XII. They were very different men who agreed on doctrine but had different styles of leadership and public personalities. When a conclave is held to elect a pope, we pray for the sort of man that we individually hope to be elected. God, however, in His Wisdom, sends us the man we need. It took me a very long time to accept Paul VI and John XXIII, imagining that somehow it was my business to sit in judgment on popes. I almost left the Church over them (for Eastern Orthodoxy which retains solemn liturgy and generally sound doctrine without the cultural revolution and horrors of the Kumbaya era of 1963 to 1978) but I stayed and was sooooo glad that I was Catholic when JP I and JP II were popes and thereafter. As to the Kumbaya era, what does not kill me, makes me strong!
God bless you and yours and the Archdiocese of Hartford in which I lived most of my life and the Diocese of Rockford which is now my home!
Holy Father, you are not dealing with a real religion in mohammedism.
That made absolutely no sense, but thanks for playing.
The Orthodox Christian communities in the old Ottoman empire always considered Russia to be their protector. It is still true today and Putin has not shunned this historic role.
“Pope Francis is nonetheless a man and a sinner and capable of prudential mistakes. Some self-discipline in dealing with the press/media should be his New Year’s resolution and he should actually consider practicing it immediately. None of us, not even the pope, are perfect or lack opportunities for self-improvement.”
That part of your commentary was the best one. ALL OF US, I included, is a sinner and NEEDS all the time to REPENT of our sins. That also includes Pope Francis as well. Our Lord demands no less.
Having said that; it is VERY IMPORTANT of Pope Francis to know and to be prepared for what I call “tricky questions” that could cause him to stumble. Sensing that what happened this week took place while he was in flight back from Brazil and from a very tiring trip to that country for both WYD and to see a major Marian shrine Pope Francis should have just rested and not do any interviews until back in Rome.
My all time favorite Pope is Blessed John Paul II. Glad he is going to be declared a saint.
Overall Pope Francis needs to use tact in his interviews.
Muslims and Christians must raise young people "to think and speak respectfully of other religions and their followers, and to avoid ridiculing or denigrating their convictions and practices", Pope Francis has said.No, Islam has to be destroyed, period.
And yet this Pope is saying we should respect the religions too.
I’m sure certain posters will come in here and show me just how he didn’t really say that.
It’s probably the media’s fault again.
Should I judge all baptists by the actions of the Westboro Baptist church? How about all calvinists by his treatment of Michael Servectus? Etc......
Note the words “teachings” and “values”!
He was speaking TO the muslims, them them that THEY must accept.......
Over the time I have been here, I have arrived that the majority of protestants lack the theological acumen, or intellectual depth to fully understand Catholic teaching.
Many of them want to be their own popes and maintain the most superficial of relationships with the Godhead.
“Turning to mutual respect in inter-religious relations, especially between Christians and Muslims, we are called to respect the religion of the other, its teachings, its symbols, its values.
He was speaking to both Christians and Muslims.
Did the Lord tell Israel to respect the followers of Baal?
It was addressed to the muslims.
Doesn’t matter. He is saying that we are to respect the religion of the other.
Try reading with comprehension: he said “respect the religion of the other” implying reciprocity. Do you respect the teachings and values of Islam? Yes or No?
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