Denial is a river in Buenos Aires:
"I don't think it is right to equate Islam with violence," he told journalists during his return from a trip to Poland [on July 31].Pope Francis defended his decision not to name Islam when condemning the brutal jihadist murder of a Catholic priest in France in the latest of a string of recent attacks in Europe claimed by Islamic State (or Isil)."In almost every religion there is always a small group of fundamentalists. We have them too," he said."If I have to talk about Islamic violence I have to talk about Christian violence. Every day in the newspapers I see violence in Italy, someone kills his girlfriend, another kills his mother in law, and these are baptised Catholics." [Source]
That's right... Common crime by Catholics is the same as an Islamic Human Sacrifice of a Catholic Priest during Mass... Exactly... This is more than being merely disingenuous, this is outright deception.
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In the meantime, today Muslims were invited to churches all over Italy in "solidarity" with the martyrdom of Fr. Jacques Hamel. In 1999, the Catholic Archbishop of Smyrna, Giuseppe Germano Bernardini, explained in a forceful letter to the Pope and the Cardinals why Muslims cannot be invited to pray at churches: there are legal consequences in the Muslim mind to such an action.
Piero La Porta
‘Il Timone’
July 31, 2016
Abp. Germano Bernardini, Archbishop of Smirne in Turkey, gave this address at the Second Synod of European Bishops on October 13th 1999. The written text on the problem of Islam was given to the Synod Secretary. Here is the entire text.
“Holy Father, Your Eminences,I have been living for 42 years in Turkey, a 99.9% Muslim country and have been Archbishop of Izmir – Asia Minor – for 16. The subject of my intervention is therefore expected: the problem of Islam in Europe at present and in the near future. I thank Bp. Palatre and those who have already spoken about the subject at this prestigious gathering, so there is no need of long explanations and related interpretations on my part.My intervention is above all to make a humble request to the Holy Father. To be brief and clear, first I will refer to three cases, which, given their source, actually happened.1) During an official meeting on Islamic-Christian dialogue, an authoritative Muslim figure [according to reliable sources it was Anwar Sadat (1918-1981), President of the Egyptian Republic after the death of Nasser in 1970], who turning to the Christians, at a certain point, said calmly and confidently: “Thanks to your democratic laws, we will invade you; thanks to our religious laws we will dominate you.”We can believe this as the “dominion” has already begun with the petrodollars, being used not to create work for the poor countries in North Africa and the Middle-East, but to build mosques and cultural centres in the Christian countries of Islamic immigration, including Rome, the centre of Christianity. How can we not see in all of this a clear programme of expansion and reconquest?
2) On the occasion of another Islamic-Christian meeting, as usual organised by the Christians, a Christian participant publically asked the Muslims present why they had never organized at least once, a meeting of that type. The unfailing authoritative Muslim present answered verbatim: “Why should we? You have nothing to teach us and we have nothing to learn.”A dialogue among the deaf?It is a fact that terms like “dialogue” “justice” “reciprocity” , or concepts such as “the rights of man” and “democracy”, have a completely different meaning for Muslims than they do for us. But I think this is by now, acknowledged and admitted by everyone.3) In a Catholic monastery in Jerusalem, there was – and perhaps there still is – an Arab-Muslim servant. An honest and kind person, he was highly regarded by the religious and he thought the same of them. One day, looking sad, he said to them: Our leaders have met and have decided that all of the 'infidels' must be killed, but you don’t need to be afraid, as I’ll kill you all without making you suffer.”We all know that we have to make a distinction between the fanatic and violent minority and the honest, peaceful majority, but this majority, at an order given in the name of Allah or the Koran, will always march compactly and without hesitation. Anyway, history teaches us that the determined minority are always able to impose themselves on the silently defeatist majority.It would be naive to underestimate, or worse still, smile at these three examples I have referred to; it seems to me that their dramatic teaching should be reflected upon seriously.I am not being pessimistic, despite the evidence. A Christian cannot be a pessimist as Christ is risen and alive; He is God, unlike any other prophet or suchlike claim. The final victory will be Christ’s, yet God’s times can be very long, and usually they are. He is patient and waits for the conversion of sinners: in the meantime, I invite the Church even so to organize and work for the hastening of the advent of His Kingdom.And now I would like to make a serious proposal to the Holy Father: to organize as quickly as possible, if not a Synod, at least a Symposium of bishops and pastoral workers among the immigrants, with particular reference to Muslims, expanding it to representatives of the reformed church and the Orthodox. Its organization could be entrusted to the European Council of Episcopal Conferences, which has long and tested experience in this matter, along with the collaboration of the European Conference of Churches.The Symposium should serve to study in depth the problem of Muslims in Christian countries and find a common strategy to face and resolve the problem in a Christian and objective manner. It is indispensible to be in agreement on principles, even if their application will vary from place to place and peoples. Nothing is as harmful as disagreement on principles!I’ll end with an exhortation which comes from my experience: Muslims must never be allowed to pray in a Catholic Church, as this in their eyes is the certain proof of our apostasy. Thank you.”
Abp. Germano Bernardini returned to Smyrna after the Synod. At the age of 75 he retired to a private life.
[Source. Translation: Francesca Romana]
