Pope Francis demands ‘urgent’ action to protect civilians in Iraq

• In Vatican
• Inés San Martín
  March 29, 2017
  VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

ROME - Pope Francis said the protection of the civilian population in the “beloved Iraqi nation” is an “imperative and urgent obligation,” calling for the forces fighting in Mosul, including the United States, to protect them.

Speaking at the end of his weekly Wednesday audience, Francis also expressed “deep pain for the victims of the bloody conflict.”
The pontiff said that he was particularly concerned about the citizens trapped by recent fighting to take Mosul back from Islamic State group militants.
“My thoughts go to the civilian populations trapped in the western districts of Mosul and to the people displaced by war, to whom I feel united in suffering through prayer and spiritual closeness,” Francis said. “While expressing deep sorrow for the victims of the bloody conflict, I renew to all the appeal to engage fully with the civil protection forces, as an imperative and urgent obligation.”


Earlier in the day, the pontiff had met with a delegation of Iraqi superintendents representing Iraq’s different religious communities: Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Yazidis, and Sabeans/Mandaeans. The group was accompanied by French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.


His remarks in the audience held in St. Peter’s Square were addressed to this delegation from the Iraqi Supervisory Board.
“The richness of the dear Iraqi nation lies exactly in this mosaic, which represents unity in diversity, strength in union, and prosperity in harmony,” the pontiff said.


Francis’s appeal comes only a day after the papal international charity Aid to the Church in Need released a study showing an estimated 200 million dollars will be needed to repair and rebuild the 12,000 homes destroyed by ISIS in the Christian villages of the Nineveh Plains in recent years.


There are currently 90,000 Internally Displaced People living in Erbil, capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region. According to a survey conducted by the papal charity, close to half of them want to go back to their hometowns, after fleeing in the summer of 2014, when Islamic State militants invaded the region.


The Plains have since then been freed, but the fighting in Mosul is still ongoing. The New York Times reported on Monday that March 17 American-led airstrikes flattened an entire city bloc in the western part of the city. The death toll was estimated to be at least 200 civilians. Amnesty International has said that the recent spike in civilian casualties in Mosul suggests the  coalition is not taking adequate precautions as it helps Iraqi forces battle ISIS.




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Taken from: https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/03/29/pope-francis-demands-urgent-action-protect-civilians-iraq/

Pope to visit Egypt to meet imam, persecuted Copts

AFP on March 19, 2017, 5:15 am

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis is to visit Cairo next month for talks with the grand imam of the capital's famed Al-Azhar mosque, but also to show solidarity with Coptic Christians targeted by violence in Egypt.

The pontiff, co-invited by Egypt's president for the April 28-29 visit, had hosted Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb at the Vatican last May, in a landmark meeting with one of Islam's top clerics.
That encounter was the culmination of a steady improvement in a relationship that had broken down because of a series of spats under Francis's predecessor Benedict XVI.

 

Pope to visit Egypt to meet imam, persecuted Copts

The current pope has made interfaith dialogue and reconciliation a leading theme of his pontificate and has also overseen an improvement in relations with the Orthodox and Protestant wings of christianity.
The Argentine pope has a long-standing invitation to visit Egypt, issued by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi when he met Francis at the Vatican in 2014.
The pope will meet both the president and the grand imam, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
It added that "this important visit will contribute to reinforcing the message of peace as well as the spirit of tolerance and humanity's dialogue between all the religions and the rejection of... terrorism and fanaticism".
Francis will become the second Roman Catholic pope to visit Egypt, following John Paul II's historic trip there in February 2000.
Relations were derailed under Benedict after rows over a 2006 speech in which he was seen as having linked Islam to violence and 2011 comments condemning an attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria which Al-Azhar denounced as meddling in Egypt's affairs.
- Suicide attack -
Nearly 10 percent of Egypt's 92-million strong population belong to the Coptic community in a country where Sunni Muslims make up the vast majority.
A suicide bomb attack on December 11, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, killed 29 people in the Coptic church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
The church is next to the Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral -- the seat of Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II -- which Francis will visit during the trip.

President Sisi condemned the attack, calling it cowardly and declared three days of national mourning. The attack was the deadliest targeting the Coptic community since the January 1, 2011 suicide bombing which killed 23 people in Alexandria.Since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, the Sinai peninsula has been hit by almost daily jihadist attacks above all aimed at the police and army.
IS called in a December video for attacks on Coptic Christians in Sinai, in particular in the town of El-Arish in the north of the peninsula.
Seven Coptic Christians have been killed since, while dozens of families have fled the region.
The Cairo visit has been carefully organised by French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, an experience diplomat and energetic promoter of dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and Islam.
As head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, he participated in a February 22 joint seminary with Al-Azhar, the first since 2011.
The theme of the seminary was the role of the Al-Azhar mosque and the Vatican in fighting fanaticism, extremism and violence.
Egyptian Coptic Catholic bishops visited the Vatican in February and had extensive discussions with Francis about their community's concerns.

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Taken from: https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/34698864/pope-francis-to-visit-egypt-on-april-28-29-vatican/#page1

Egypt’s Coptic Christians flee Sinai after killings

Flight of families to Ismailia follows warning of attacks by ISIL and murders targeting community in El Arish.

26 Feb 2017 21:43 GMT

Hundreds of members of Egypt‘s Coptic Christian minority have fled the Sinai Peninsula to Ismailia city, 115km northeast of the capital Cairo, following a series of killings by a local armed group.
The assailants have shot and killed at least seven Christians in separate attacks in Sinai’s El Arish city in February.
At least 90 families have reached the Ismailia governorate, according to an official of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

FAULT LINES: The battle for the Sinai

“The government helped find housing for some families and we rented apartments for the rest,” Father Kyrillos Ibrahim told DPA news agency from Ismailia on Sunday.
Each of the 90 families includes on average five members, according to him.
“It is hard to estimate if there will be more families coming, it depends how bad the situation is. We hope this is a temporary situation,” Ibrahim said.

Arriving scared

Luggage, boxes of food and newly displaced people were arriving throughout Sunday at Ismailia’s main youth hostel where authorities have put up 45 families.
Many rights activists say the displacement is a clear sign the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has failed to provide a minimum of security for Sinai’s Coptic Christians.
The government only agreed to put up the fleeing Christians in government housing in Ismailia after pressure on social media, which they underline as another disturbing sign.
Nabil Shukrallah of Ismailia’s Evangelical Church said the families arrive scared and in need of supplies, which are being stockpiled at the church via donations from several parishes.

They are then transported to be housed in and around the city, in private homes and, now, also accommodation provided by the government.
“They’re exhausted, with urgent needs for food and children’s clothing,” he said, as one father carried off a sick infant to be evacuated by ambulance.
“They’re terrified of the violence and brutality of the terrorists.”
Largely desert, the Sinai Peninsula has seen repeated attacks from armed groups, mainly targeting security forces, since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.

ISIL video

The flight from Sinai has intensified after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group released a video last week threatening to carry out attacks against Christians in Egypt.
It described Christians as “infidels” empowering the West against Muslims.
The area’s few Christians had been trickling out but the departures picked up after fighters killed a Christian plumber at home in front of his family on Thursday in El Arish.

At least 90 Coptic families have reached the Ismailia governorate [Ahmed Aboulenein/Reuters]

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. But Egypt’s ISIL affiliate is based in north Sinai and in December carried out a suicide bombing against a Cairo church.
The Cairo church bombing and the recent killings point to a shift in ISIL’s tactics in Egypt, with the group now also attacking Christian targets that are less well protected than military installations.
Before Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising, about 5,000 Christians lived in northern Sinai, but the number has since dwindled to fewer than 1,000, say priests and residents.
Egypt does not keep official statistics on the number of Christians in cities or across the country.


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Taken from: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/02/egypt-coptic-christians-flee-sinai-ismailiya-170226154942356.html

Pope Francis: Jihadist attacks are 'homicidal madness'

 

Pope Francis has condemned as "homicidal madness" recent deadly "fundamentalist-inspired" attacks around the world.

In a speech to the Vatican diplomatic corps, the pontiff called on religious leaders to reaffirm that "one can never kill in God's name".

He also warned that poverty served as fertile ground for radicalisation.

Scores of people died in jihadist attacks in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas in 2016.

"We are dealing with a homicidal madness which misuses God's name in order to disseminate death, in a play for domination and power," the 80-year-old Argentine pontiff said on Monday.

"Hence I appeal to all religious authorities to join in reaffirming unequivocally that one can never kill in God's name.

"Fundamentalist terrorism is the fruit of a profound spiritual poverty, and often is linked to significant social poverty," the Pope said. "It can only be fully defeated with the joint contribution of religious and political leaders."

Image copyright AFP

Image caption On Sunday, a man drove a lorry on a group of Israeli soldiers in Israel, killing four people

Image copyright AP

Image caption In a similar attack on 19 December, 12 people were killed when a lorry smashed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin

In July, months after deadly assaults in France and Belgium, Pope Francis warned that jihadist attacks in Europe was proof that "the world is at war".

However, he stressed he did not mean a war of religions, but rather a conflict over "interests, money, resources".

In a wide-ranging speech on Monday, Pope Francis also said that:

• North Korea's threats to test ballistic missiles were "particular disturbing" and could spark a "new nuclear arms race"
• Europe was at a "decisive moment" in its history, and the "idea of Europe" should be based on a new humanism
• Stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians should resume
• International efforts to foster peace in a number of conflict-torn African countries must be intensified
• Environment must be protected, backing a global deal clinched in Paris in 2015

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Taken from: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38560416

Pope Francis smooths sainthood path for ISIS-slain Normandy priest

Published time: 3 Oct, 2016 12:55

Pope Francis is looking into elevating Reverend Jean Hamel, who was murdered in the name of Islamic State, to sainthood. The pontiff has authorized the French Church to start looking into the matter. Witness testimony will now be gathered.

   

Francis told reporters on Sunday he had spoken with the French authority, according to the AP.
Reverend Hamel, 85, was killed on July 26 in his parish in Normandy, while celebrating mass. The murder was carried out by two 19-year-old Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL)-inspired radicals, who slit his throat. IS then claimed responsibility for the assault, which also saw two nuns and an elderly couple held hostage.

After slitting priest’s throat, France church attackers smiled & talked peace and God – witnesses    

The pope gave a press conference on his flight back from Azerbaijan to Rome, where he told reporters he has sped up the canonization process. The pontiff had spoken to Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, and authorized the skipping of the usual five-year wait that must normally pass after a potential saint's death.
This means the next stage will now begin: the gathering of witness testimony to back Hamel's beatification.
“It is very important not to lose the testimonies,” he told attendees. “With time, someone may die, another forgets something,” he was quoted by the Catholic Herald as saying.


Beatification in Roman Catholicism is the declaration by the Pope that a deceased person has attained a state of bliss. This is considered the first step to canonization, and leads to the possibility of public veneration.
The five-year rule ensures that a person continues to keep their good reputation among the faithful, earning them the right to be beatified. However, it can be waived by the Supreme Pontiff. A series of formal steps are included before beatification takes place.
The most important steps concern proving that the deceased had accomplished a miracle. A scientific commission must also rule that the miracle has no natural scientific explanation. A theological commission must then rule if the miracle is a miracle in the strict sense of the word, i.e. that it could only have come from God.

‘It’s coming!’ Churches must prepare for ISIS attack, counter-terrorism experts warn

The proven miracle requirement can also be waived at the beatification step, if the person is ruled to have died a martyr in service of the faith, which will likely be the case with Rev. Hamel.
The next step to canonization, however, requires proof of a second miracle.


Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Reverend Hamel’s native Rouen had earlier on Sunday begun an investigation into Hamel’s beatification following consultations with the pope.
The archbishop spoke at a Mass marking the reopening of the church where Hamel was murdered.


Mayor Hubert Wulfrance said the priest’s memory “prevails over this so special moment, split between endless emotion and hope in the future.”
“We bear the tragedy of this July 26th, 2016, as an indelible scar on our common history, our national history,” he added.




The gathered crowd included a sizeable proportion of Muslims.




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Taken from: https://www.rt.com/news/361444-pope-francis-isis-saint/

US conniving with Islamic State?

 

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

 

 

Russia’s foreign ministry says it has “reached the terrifying conclusion”

that the US is conniving with the Islamic State.

 

 

 

 

Love of money is idolatry, according to Pope Francis in a sermon in which he bluntly stated that what really is at the root of warfare, its essential driving force, is a greedy lust for money.

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/10/19/pope_francis_love_of_money_is_idolatry/1180344 The Pope reminded the congregation at Mass in the Santa Marta chapel that we cannot serve two masters: either one serves God, or one serves wealth. Jesus, “is not against wealth as such,” but he warns against staking one’s safety in money – something he said risks, “turning religion into an insurance agency.” In addition, attachment to money is divisive, as illustrated by the Gospel tale of the “the two brothers arguing over the inheritance”:

 

“Let us consider how many families we know, whose members have fought, who are fighting, who don’t [even] say ‘Hello!’ to each other, who hate each other – all for an inheritance. This is just one of the cases: the love of family, love of children, siblings, parents – none of these is the most important thing – no, it’s money – and this destroys – even wars, wars that we see today: yes, sure there is an ideal [over which people fight], but behind that, there is money; money for arms dealers, the money of those who profit from the war. This, then, is [just] one family, but all of us, I’m sure, know at least one family so divided. Jesus is clear: ‘Be careful and stay away from all kinds of greed: it is dangerous.’ Greed: for, it gives us a security that is not true and it brings you to pray – yes, you can pray, go to church – but also have a heart that is attached [to material wealth], and that always ends badly.”

[End of quote]

 

 

World News | Sat Sep 17, 2016 | 4:31pm EDT

 

U.S.-led jets kill dozens of Syrian soldiers: Russia, monitor

 

BEIRUT U.S.-led coalition jets bombed a Syrian army position at Jebel Tharda near Deir al-Zor airport on Saturday, killing dozens of Syrian soldiers, Russia and a war monitor said, paving the way for Islamic State to briefly overrun it.

 

The U.S. military, in an apparent admission that it may have hit the position, said in a statement that coalition air strikes near Deir al-Zor had been halted when Russia told coalition officials they may have hit the Syrian army.

 

Syria's army general command said in a statement that the air strike was "conclusive evidence" of U.S. support for Islamic State, noting that the strike was "dangerous and blatant aggression".

Islamic State said in a statement on its Amaq news channel that it had gained "complete control" over Jebel Tharda but both Syrian state television and Russian state media said the positions lost to the militant group were later recaptured.

 

The defense ministry in Russia, which has been aiding Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war, said U.S. jets had killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers in four air strikes by two F-16s and two A-10s coming from the direction of Iraq.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-usa-idUSKCN11N0PT

 

 

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Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin responded by saying that the U.S. airstrike that struck Syrian government troops has put "a very big question mark" over the future of the U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire agreement in Syria adding that in his decades as a diplomat he had "never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness as we are witnessing today."

 

* * *

Update 3: Russia's foreign ministry says it has "reached the terrifying conclusion" that the US is conniving with the Islamic State. As ABC reports, Russia has called for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council over a U.S. air raid that it says struck Syrian troops battling the Islamic State group. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says Moscow is demanding "full and detailed explanations about whether this was deliberate support of the Islamic State or another mistake."

Zakharova was quoted by the state news agency Tass as saying that "after today's attack on the Syrian army, we come to the terrible conclusion that the White House is defending the Islamic State." 

 

The U.S. military says it halted an air raid against IS in eastern Syria after it was informed by Russia that it might have struck Syrian troops. If confirmed, it would be the first American strike on President Bashar Assad's forces in the five-year-old conflict. The allegations come as Moscow and Washington are already at loggerheads over a five-day-old Syrian cease-fire, with each accusing the other of failing to fully implement it.

 

It appears this major diplomatic scandal is only starting to play out. 

 

* * *

 

Update 2: it appears that Russia is angry, and has called a UN Security Council session, while reporting that Washington never announced any plans to conduct raids in the region in question.

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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-17/syria-accuses-us-airstrike-killing-62-soldiers-serious-and-blatant-aggression

 

 

Interesting, in light of all this, is that Pope Francis had earlier this year - in the ‘Meeting of the Millennium’ with the Russian Patriarch Kirill - turned to the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as the one best able to resolve the Syrian crisis and defend the persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

 

https://sputniknews.com/politics/20160209/1034451116/pope-francis-putin-christians.html

 

In an attempt to defend Christians in the Middle East and other parts of the world where they're being persecuted, Pope Francis wants to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin for help.

According to Pope Francis, Putin is "the only one with whom the Catholic Church can unite to defend Christians in the East." "It's important to join efforts [with Russia] to save Christianity in all regions [of the world] where it's oppressed," Russia's Metropolitan Hilarion said*. With the help of Putin, Pope Francis hopes to reach out to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani and even the Chinese government elite and work out a plan to help Christians in these regions.

 

 

 

“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows”.

 

1 Timothy 6:10

 

Pope Francis puts French priest murdered by Isil extremists on path to sainthood

 Nick Squires, Rome 

14 September 2016 • 3:50pm 

 

Pope Francis has described as “a martyr” the elderly French priest who was stabbed to death at his altar by Islamist extremists, strongly implying that he will one day be made a saint.
In a forthright homily in the chapel of the Vatican guesthouse where he lives, the Pope said that anyone who murders in the name of God is “satanic”.
The world should have “the courage to tell the truth: killing in the name of God is satanic," he said.
He repeatedly described the Rev Jacques Hamel, who was knifed to death in July in an attack that was claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), as a martyr.

A priest has throat slit in Normandy Play! 01:04

"He accepted his martyrdom there on the altar," the Pope said. "He is a martyr and martyrs are beatified."
The remarks strongly suggested that the Pope intends to make Father Hamel a saint. Beatification is the first major step in the path towards sainthood.
For a person to be beatified, the Catholic Church normally requires that a miracle be attributed to them.  But that condition appears to have been waived by the Pope, who has established a reputation for “jumping over procedural hurdles”, as one Vatican insider put it.

Pope Francis said that to murder in the name of God is a "satanic" act Credit: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP

The Argentinean pontiff spoke at a special Mass for around 80 Catholics from Rouen, where the 85-year-old was killed after two men barged their way into his church in the suburb of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray.
They forced him to kneel and then slit his throat, while chanting in Arabic at the altar. The two attackers were shot dead by police as they came out of the church.
The Pope said that before he was murdered, Father Hamel yelled at his attackers: “Satan, get out!” He added: “What a pleasure it would be if all religious confessions would say: 'To kill in the name of God is satanic'".

Hundreds gather to mourn murdered priest Father Jacques Hamel Play! 00:50

He said Father Hamel was just the latest in a long line of martyrs in the history of the Church. Throughout the world there were Christians "who are murdered, tortured, imprisoned, have their throats slit because they do not deny Jesus Christ,” he said.
After the Mass, Dominique Leburn, the archbishop of Rouen, said the Pope had told him that the French priest should from now on be “venerated” – a further indication that his path to sainthood is all but assured.

Pope Francis declares Mother Teresa a Saint Play! 00:34

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Taken from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/14/pope-francis-puts-french-priest-murdered-by-isil-extremists-on-p/