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PopeWatch: Martyrs

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Don Lond
Don Lond
Tuesday, April 7, AD 2015 6:07am

Good for Pope Francis. I pray that he’d bring this stuff before the UN instead of that leftist “climate change” agenda….

Paul W Primavera
Tuesday, April 7, AD 2015 6:15am

If we used overwhelming unremitting force to defeat the Islamic terrorists – and that is what it would take to protect Christians in the Mideast – then would the Pope wail about Western arms dealers and Western militaries?

Stephen E Dalton
Tuesday, April 7, AD 2015 8:56am

I hope the Pope’s increasing concern for the martyr’s in the Mid-East pushes him to become more orthodox in belief and practice.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Tuesday, April 7, AD 2015 10:25am

This is not a high bar. Pope Francis is far better on the issue than your POTUS.
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At an Easter prayer breakfast, reportedly, Obama said that he has concerns about some Christians making less than loving expressions – “but that’s a topic for another day.” You cannot make up this stuff.
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I cannot blame Obama. I blame the worst electorate in the History of Creation that twice voted POTUS this ignorant, inexperienced loser.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Tuesday, April 7, AD 2015 11:46am

Good. We cannot follow a path of non-intervention.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Tuesday, April 7, AD 2015 5:44pm

. The Pope in a plane interview though served notice in the Sinjar Mt. incident that he wanted ISIS stopped but not bombed. He says things that lack realism and gravitas..and I’m not sure world leaders admire that quirkiness. Francis is entering a labyrinth far removed from his theories and makeup. He should not forget mentioning the Yazidis either since estimates are that 3000 of their women are getting raped weekly by the murderers of their husbands even after 900 others were bought away to freedom with the help of Kurds in northern Iraq.
In the NY Times, I was reading tonight that in this fall of Tikrit, there are no captured ISIS fighters….none. They are shot while surrendering one soldier said on the premise that they will blow themselves up as they surrender. That I could understand ….though the Vatican would denounce it I’m sure. But it’s darker than that. One Iraqi soldier said that they had captured two Afghan men, one Afghan woman and one Moroccan fighting as ISIS. He said after questioning them, they killed them…totally against International Law and way beyond Francis’ imaginings of capturing them but not sentencing them to life. The apposite international court is so backlogged ( I was reading elsewhere) that international law may be something Iraqi forces and apparently the Syrian government feel free to ignore… year after year in the Syrian case. This is the matrix the Pope is wandering into.
I’m wondering if Rome is confused on martyrdom versus self defense. Early Christians were martyred by their own huge empire and like Christ, they acquiesed…just as one requirement of just war is that victory is possible. Ergo just like a small entity like Tibet should not quixotically fight China, Christians who are vastly outnumbered should be patient under martyrdom.
But here we are talking about criminal roving bands of jihadhists within states and Rome should be urging Christians in Kenya and in Nigeria where jihadists are lightly armed…. to all get weapons for every adult and make murder a much harder task for Boko Haram etc. Will this Pope say such things? I think it goes against his paradigm and image of said paradigm to say such things. Religious people hold onto their paradigm ..their version of Church …very tightly…very tightly. I wish African Bishops would ask the US for tons of small arms for every adult vulnerable to African light armed jihadists.
ISIS in Syria and Iraq is different. Whether locals can dislodge them from Mosul is the big test.

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