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Catholics Massacred in Nigeria: Pope Silent
Reconciliation with Communists, Not with Catholics
In September 2018, Card. Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, announced a provisional Vatican–China agreement on the appointment of bishops in China.
Parts of his statement follow:
«For the first time today, all bishops in China are in communion with the Holy Father, with the Pope, with Peter's successor ... A new push is needed, as well as having good bishops, who are recognized by the Pope, by Peter's successor and by the legitimate authorities ...
«The Holy Father addresses the entire Catholic community: bishops, priests religious men and women, the faithful, asking them to make concrete gestures of reconciliation between brothers, overcoming the misunderstandings of the past ... In this way they can announce and witness the Gospel, which is the role, the main task of the Church, and, at the same time, contribute to the building of a just and harmonious society and manifest genuine love for their country. » Source: elpaís.com September 22, 2018
These words of the Vatican Secretary of State could not be better for the Chinese communists. Even Card. Joseph Zen, archbishop emeritus of Hong Kong, who had approved Benedict XVI’s letter, which paved the way for Francis’ accord with the communists, has called this agreement a betrayal.
On December 31, 2019, more than one year after this accord, Pope Francis was grabbed by the hand of a Chinese lady.
The incident was presented by the media as the over-enthusiasm of a fan. Now, however, we know that the Chinese lady told the Pope, "Wait, wait! Take care of the Chinese people. They are losing faith!" This is what motivated then angry papal reaction.
On this occasion, that lady, a Chinese citizen, did not receive any "concrete gesture of reconciliation" from the Pope, contrary to the advice of Parolin who had told Chinese Catholics that the Pope wished them to treat Chinese communists in this way.
Given this unjust behavior of Pope Francis, it seems that a secret clause of the Vatican-China agreement is that the Vatican will not allow dissonance by Catholics.
Patricio Padilla, Ecuador
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State Education vs Home-schooling
The United States of America prior to President Trump was rapidly evolving into the Socialist States of America (some would argue that i long ago reached the status of an SSA) because of the state-imposed religion of Secular Humanism being forced upon the citizenry by the liberal encouragement of an activist judiciary. President Trump is attempting to put the brakes on that with his court picks being the prime evidence.
Do the deaths of all of the people who fought in America's wars still mean something? Will our children and grandchildren still recognize our country as being founded under God? The answer will be a resounding NO if we continue to be paralyzed by an apathy that puts a priority on the natural over the supernatural, and let radical extremists intimidate us into silence instead of speaking out for the Truth that is a Someone, not a something.
The decision is ours. Eternity is at stake, which is a truth that Catholic philosophy must underscore.
One might ask a simple question. If avoidance of death is our highest end, the summum bonum of materialism, of Secular Humanism, why should anyone sacrifice; why be a soldier or policeman?
Dawson in The Crisis of Western Education comments on religion being OK as a “narcotic for the masses,” i.e., as long as it does not have the unmitigated gall to actually expect society to believe its moral tenets. Thus, what we are hypocritically left with is the amoral state religion of Secular Humanism, given that a religion can be any belief system to include belief in everything, which ultimately reduces to believing in nothing.
The State cries foul when Catholics attempt to educate their children in the Faith by sending them to what is left of orthodox parochial schools or homeschooling them and puts every kind of constraint possible on their efforts. Witness the increasingly restrictive homeschooling laws that are popping up all over the country. The state cannot stand the fact that there are children slipping through the cracks of the Deweyan propaganda machine, children that might actually be able to differentiate between right and wrong.
Gary Morella
Posted January 9, 2020
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The opinions expressed in this section - What People Are Commenting - do not necessarily express those of TIA
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 Special Edition |
I thought you would be interested in this important article posted on Gatestoneinstitute.org. More than 900 churches in northern Nigeria have been destroyed by Boko Haram. At least 16,000 Christians have been killed there since 2015.
As you can see, it is not just the Chinese Catholics who are being ignored by the Pope and Vatican authorities. So much hue and cry for Muslim immigrants but silence and slaps – real and symbolic – for the persecuted faithful Catholics.
P.H., Brazil
the West Goes Back to Sleep
Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio
A burned African temple in Jos, Nigeria
On the scale of Nigeria's anti-Christian persecution, Martha was less fortunate than another abducted girl, Leah Sharibu, who has now been in captivity nearly two years and just spent her second Christmas in the hands of Boko Haram. The reason? Leah refused to convert to Islam and deny her Christianity. Nigerian Christian leaders are also protesting the "continuous abduction of under-aged Christian girls by Muslim youths...". These girls "are forcefully converted to Islam and taken in for marriage without the consent of their parents".
Nigeria is experiencing an Islamist war of the extermination of Christians. So far, 900 churches in northern Nigeria have been destroyed by Boko Haram. U.S. President Donald J. Trump was informed that at least 16,000 Christians have been killed there since 2015. In one single Nigerian Catholic diocese, Maiduguri, 5,000 Christians were murdered. How much bigger and more extended must this war on Christians become before the West considers it a "genocide" and acts to prevent it?
The day after Christians were beheaded in Nigeria, Pope Francis admonished Western society. About beheaded Christians? No. "Put down your phones, talk during meals", the Pope said. He did not speak a single word about the horrific execution of his Christian brothers and sisters. A few days before that, Pope Francis hung a cross encircled by a life jacket in memory of migrants who lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea. Last September, the Pope unveiled a monument to migrants in St. Peter's Square, but he did not commemorate the lives of Christians killed by Islamic extremists with even a mention.
Cardinal Robert Sarah, one of the very few Catholic Church leaders who mentioned the Islamic character of this massacre, wrote: "In Nigeria, the murder of 11 Christians by mad Islamists is a reminder of how many of my African brothers in Christ live faith at the risk of their own lives."
It is not only the Vatican that is silent. Not a single Western government found time to express horror and indignation at the beheading of Christians. "Where is the moral revulsion at this tragedy?" asked Nigerian Bishop Matthew Kukah after the Christmas massacre. "This is part of a much wider drama we are living with on a daily basis". ..
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that her priority will be fighting climate change. She did not mention persecuted Christians. French President Emmanuel Macron in his mid-winter speech was not even able to say " Merry Christmas."
Meanwhile, The Economist wrote that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a passionate defender of persecuted Christians, politically "exploits" the issue.
At the beginning of December, another African bishop, Justin Kientega of Burkina Faso, said: "Nobody is listening to us. Evidently, the West is more concerned with protecting their own interests". ...
There has been no outrage in the West about cutting off Christian heads, only silence, interrupted by "Allahu Akbar", gunshots and bombs. The history books of the future will not look kindly this Western betrayal -- depending on who writes them. The end of the Christians of the East will be a disaster for the Church in the West. They will no longer have anyone living in their own cradle of civilization.
Read whole article here.