Pope says Copts in Libya were murdered “for sole reason of being Christian,” blames arms traffickers

From Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch:

Maybe Pope Francis said something about the people who actually did kill these Christians, and why they did it, in some other part of his homily that isn’t reported here, but I couldn’t find any such reference in any news account. The jihad murderers who murdered these Christians declared: “And we will conquer Rome by Allah’s permission, the promise of our prophet, peace be upon him.”

In response, the Pope decries the evil in the heart of man, which is unarguably the root cause of all this, and apparently says nothing about Islamic jihadists or the doctrines of jihad that gave rise to these murders, but instead excoriates…arms traffickers. So apparently if we just had more restrictions on the sale of weaponry, there would be no jihad — since after all, as the Pope has explained, “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” A little gun control, and all will be well.

The idolatry of the papacy that afflicts the contemporary Roman Catholic Church has made these fatuous delusions into semi-official church policy. Then liberal bishops who don’t care about the Pope go along with the liberal zeitgeist, because that’s their true religion. Bishops in the United States routinely obfuscate and deny the root causes of Muslim persecution of Christians, and work to prevent any honest discussion of these issues in their churches and church organizations. They are abdicating their responsibility to tell the truth, make their people aware of what is happening, and prepare them for what is coming. Catholic publications (such as the hopeless Aleteia) tag along, spreading the fog of falsehood and deception and secure that in doing so, they’re obeying the Holy Father.

Another problem here is the prevailing tendency within the Church to confuse charity with niceness. Far too many people think they’re being charitable when they’re ignoring or glossing over unpleasant truths. But in reality it is never charitable, or worthwhile in any way, to deny the truth. Looking around at all the strictly enforced head-in-the-sand action, one could reasonably get the impression that “Islam is a Religion of Peace” is a new dogma of the Catholic Church, to be believed upon pain of excommunication. (As for me, as their old friend Martin L. once said, “Here I stand. I can do no other.”) This cult of flaccid niceness and denial is leading to a persecution of the Church on a scale never seen before, as Christians who were kept in ignorance and complacency by their leaders are led to the slaughter.

What if Islamic State jihadis do enter Rome and the Vatican? Is that so far-fetched, given that they’re in Libya now? And if they enter the Pope’s apartments, will he explain to them how they are misunderstanding Islam as they are leading him away to be beheaded?

“Pope celebrates Mass for the 21 Copts killed in Libya, ‘for sole reason of being Christian,’” Asia News, February 17, 2015 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – “We offer this Mass for our 21 Coptic brothers, whose throats were slit for the sole reason of being Christian”. This is how Pope Francis began his homily at Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta.

“Let us pray – he continued – for them; that the Lord welcome them as martyrs, for their families, for my brother Tawadros, who is suffering greatly.” A thought, the latter, which already yesterday afternoon had pushed Francis to call the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Tawadros II, to express its deep sympathy for the pain of the Coptic Church for this barbaric murder.

Continuing his reflection, the Pope returned to condemn the arms trade, “of death”. Francis was inspired by the biblical passage on the Great Flood to say that “man is capable of destroying all that God has done.” The Pope noted with regret that man, “seems to be more powerful than God”, because he is capable of destroying the good things that God has made.

Pope Francis pointed out that in the first chapters of the Bible we find many examples – Sodom and Gomorrah, the Tower of Babel – in which man reveals his wickedness. “An evil that lurks in the depths of the heart”.

The Pope noted some people would urge him not to be so negative, but – he continued – “this is the truth. We are also capable of destroying fraternity: Cain and Abel in the first pages of the Bible. They destroy fraternity. This is where wars begin. Jealousy, envy, so much greed for power, to have more power. Yes, this sounds negative, but it is realistic. You only have to pick up a newspaper, any newspaper – left-wing, center, right-ring … whatever. And you will see that more than 90% of the news is news of destruction. More than 90%. We see this every day”.

Pope Francis then asked the question: “What is happening in man’s heart?”. He said Jesus reminds us that “from within, out of the heart of man, comes evil.” Our “weak heart is wounded”. He observed that man always “desires autonomy”: “I do what I want and if I want to do something, I will! So, if I want to make war, I will!

“Why are we like this? Because we are capable of destruction, that’s the problem. There are wars, arms trafficking … ‘But, we are businessmen!’ Yes, but of what? Of death? And there are countries that sell weapons, are at war with one side but also selling weapons to them, so that the war continues. A capacity for destruction. It’s not coming from our neighbors: it’s coming from us! ‘Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually’. Everyone has this seed within, this possibility, but we also have the Holy Spirit who saves us! We must choose, in the little things”.

Pope Francis went on to warn against using gossip or slander against our neighbor: “Even in parishes and associations”, “jealousy” and “envy” can push people to go to their pastor to speak ill of others. He warned: “This is evil and we all have this ability to destroy”. As Lent begins, the Church “invites us to reflect on this”. Pointing to today’s Gospel where Jesus rebukes the disciples who are arguing among themselves about having forgotten to bring bread. The Lord tells them to “watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod”. He gives the example of two people: Herod who “is bad, a murderer, and the Pharisees who are hypocrites.” In doing so, Jesus reminds them of when he broke the five loaves and urges them to think of the Salvation, of what God has done for all of us. Pope Francis went on to note that “they did not understand, because their hearts were hardened by this passion, by this evil need to argue among each other and see who was guilty of having forgotten the bread”.

Pope Francis said we have to take the Lord’s message “seriously”. “There is nothing strange in this, these are not the words of a Martian”, “man is able to do so much good”, he continued citing the example of Mother Teresa, “a woman of our time”. All of us, he said, “are capable of doing good, but we are also all capable of destruction; destruction great and small and even within our own family. [We are capable of destroying] our children”, not allowing them to grow “in freedom, not helping them to mature; cancelling out our children”. We are capable of this and this means that we need to constantly “meditate, pray, discuss things with each other, so as not to fall into this evil that destroys everything”:

“And we have the strength, Jesus reminds us. Remember. He says to us today: ‘Remember. Remember Me, I shed my blood for you; remember Me, I have saved you, I have saved you all; Remember Me, I have the strength to accompany you on the journey of life, not on the path of evil, but on the path of goodness, of doing good to others; not the path of destruction, but the path that builds: builds a family, builds a city, builds a culture, builds a home and much, much more”.

The Pope concluded: “We ask the Lord, today, before the beginning of Lent for this grace: to always choose the right path with his help and not be misled by temptations down the wrong path.”

In related news:

papal protection

The current Poope is not only an Idolatrous cretin, but also a muslim-enabling criminal himself.

Islam can be easily studied and known in its entirety, by anyone. It will never change!

So, when Western people won’t educate them *selves* about islam because our culture defers all thinking to those “authorities” we PAY to do our thinking and research for us, while they secretly know full-well that the salesmen in charge will always sell us all out, they ARE CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT INFANTILE DELINQUENT TRAITORS TO RATIONALITY AND CIVILIZATION!

It should never be allowed by backwards people to be considered “illegal” to accuse these criminals (muslims) of their crimes, allegedly because the painful truth might offend them or hurt their feelings, and so “make” them commit even more crimes!

No problem was ever solved by ignoring it, and nobody is doing even these muslims any favours, by indulging their historic lies that islam is a “religion” (at all, much less one “of peace”) or a “race” (much less one of poor oppressed “People Of Colour”)!

Pretending there is NOT a Muslim problem but only a white racist problem accepting diversity, is criminally negligent TREASON.

Re:

“What if Islamic State jihadis do enter Rome and the Vatican? Is that so far-fetched, given that they’re in Libya now? And if they enter the Pope’s apartments, will he explain to them how they are misunderstanding Islam as they are leading him away to be beheaded?”

ONE CAN ONLY HOPE (“pray”) FOR THAT VERY RESULT TO OCCUR – SOON!