Papal envoy calls for ARMED RESPONSE to defend Christians from Genocide

Catholic Online ^ | August 11, 2014 | Staff

[2ndDivisionVet]

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)

Pope Francis has joined with Christians facing genocide in Iraq and Syria, calling upon the world to make an armed response to the Islamic State. He has asked the world to "stop these crimes" and his envoy called for the use of "a professional, well-equipped army."

You know a situation is bad when a pope or his envoy calls for an armed response. Pope Francis, widely appreciated as a practical and realistic man, is not just calling for a cease-fire or negotiations. Instead, he is inviting an armed response to the terrorism of the Islamic State.

Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, the Vatican's nuncio to Iraq, told Vatican Radio, "This is something that had to be done, otherwise [the Islamic State] could not be stopped."

Such a call is virtually unprecedented for a papal envoy in modern times, but our age is an extraordinary one and the Islamic State has no interest in a bargaining table. Instead, the Islamic State is bent on genocide and barbarism, ruthlessly exterminating anyone who opposes them.

On Sunday, Pope Francis said he held "dismay and disbelief" over what is happening in Iraq.

The Catholic He called the Islamic State fighters terrorists and said there was a need for "a professional, well-equipped army."

"The situation is going from bad to worse," he warned.

Meanwhile, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad said, "There is a need of international support and a professional, well-equipped army. The situation is going from bad to worse."(continued)

[2ndDivisionVet]

Explaining the Vatican’s surprising pro-US line on Iraq
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2014/08/11/explaining-vatican-surprising-pro-line-iraq/gPwU2wDzk94t2Orvr5gmsK/story.html?hootPostID=0ce093ed35741856f5d8349ffcc0e305

[don-o]

ping

And ping me to any other threads you find on this most interesting subject.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I agree with you, tomsbartoo, on the mission of the Church, so I'm not going to go mano-a-mano with you on that.

But I am getting aggravated by the two-step tango between dear Pope Francis and the headline-media, where His Holiness Tweets and it's thought to be a Motu Proprio, or Tweets Three Times and --- wow --- it's definition of doctrine. Next up, we get an off-the-cuff ex-cathedra to wit: "Violence solves nothing"?

Violence doesn't solve much. Honest to God, it doesn't. But it can stop a large Allah-Akhbar-shouting man with a big knife, approaching a downed child.

I feel kindly toward the Kurdish peshmerga, because they are laying down their lives to save their Chaldean Christian neighbors. May Jesus Christ strengthen them --- and reward them, I pray.

[vladimir998]

“Call me old fashioned, but I can remember a day when the singular mission of the Church was to lead all mankind to salvation.”

Primary mission certainly, but we have always fed the poor, cared for the sick and so on.