More about The Religion of Peace from Jihad Watch:
Nigeria: Islamic jihadists murder at least 62 people, including 22 at church service
Shhh! “Talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that they have perpetrated globally might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims.” — Robert McManus, Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, February 8, 2013
“UPDATE 2-Gunmen kill at least 62 in Nigeria, including in church,” by Imma Ande for Reuters, January 27 (thanks to Filip):
YOLA, Nigeria, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Suspected insurgents armed with guns and explosives killed at least 62 people in northeast Nigeria, including at a church service, in a region where Islamist sect Boko Haram is resisting a military crackdown, witnesses said on Monday.
They killed 22 people by setting off bombs and firing into the congregation in the Catholic church in Waga Chakawa village in Adamawa state on Sunday, before burning houses and taking residents hostage during a four-hour siege, witnesses said.
[…]
Boko Haram, which wants to impose sharia law on a country split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims, has killed thousands over the past four and a half years and is considered the biggest security risk in Africa’s top oil exporter and second largest economy after South Africa.
Its fighters’ favourite targets have traditionally been security forces, politicians who oppose them and Christian minorities in the largely Muslim north.
The spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Yola, Reverend Father Raymond Danbouye, confirmed 22 people killed in the church were buried at a funeral on Monday.
[…]
Read the gruesome rest there.
Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.
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The silence of our own clergy and the silence of the media seems like a trade-off in conspiracy to ignore the growing, huge persecution of Catholics through Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East.
Why the silence?
Do you know if anyone is actively surveying and thinking about the actual current status and the possibilities for organized self-defence around the world, for new military religious orders, and for practical ecumenism in this context (the last, with St. Charles Lwanga and the Ugandan martyrs in the back of my mind, some of whom were in communion with the Holy Father, some with the Archbishop of Canterbury)?
Do we know the context of Bishop McManus’ comments quoted here? Dear Lord, let someone please tell me that the bishop was being sarcastic.
And the Pope says…?
Robert Spencer has some great articles dating back to Pope Francis’ rather naïve statements (“naïve” is putting a good spin on it) from November 2013.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/11/pope-francis-authentic-islam-and-the-proper-reading-of-the-koran-are-opposed-to-every-form-of-violence
Basically, both clerical and secular elites say that we poor, ignorant, benighted souls being targeted by Islam don’t “really” understand the “true peaceful” nature of Islam. Who ya gonna believe me or your lying eyes and ears as the bombs go off?
Pursue the link and go to Spencer’s website for other poor, ignorant fools who manage to misunderstand Islam while being blown to bits, gunned down, or burned out of church and home.
The Pope recently told a girl to follow her Koran like a good Muslim. Maybe if she serves Allah and Muhammad his prophet extra good, he’ll wash her feet next Holy Thursday Mass. Meanwhile, the Holy Father implores poor Italians to open the gates and let Muslims into Italy by the thousands and millions.
Don’t you worry. In a couple of decades, what we see in Nigeria will be happening in Italy.
zama202 asks, “And the Pope says…?” In general, recently, “Faced with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for true followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalisations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence” (Evangelii Gaudium, 253, last sentence), among other things. But also (in the preceding sentence), ” I ask and I humbly entreat those countries [“of Islamic tradition”] to grant Christians freedom to worship and to practice their faith, in light of the freedom which followers of Islam enjoy in Western countries!”
In answer to Orthodox Chick’s question, Robert Spenser wrote, “Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts canceled my scheduled address to this Catholic Men’s Conference on March 16 after pressure from an Islamic supremacist who is an open “friend and supporter” of a convicted jihad terrorist. In the letter below, he justifies his action” – from which this quotation comes. Mr. Spenser also notes, “Nota bene: He never asked me not to speak. He never communicated with me at all, except for that wrong number call.” See further Mr. Spenser’s post at Jihad Watch, February 9, 2013.
Venerator Sti Lot,
Ugh. Not the answer I was hoping for. I did go to Jihad Watch and read Mr. Spencer’s full comments on the matter. Thank you for alerting me to that. Obviously, I’ve never been to a men’s conference, but I have been to a couple of women’s conferences. What I’m about to say is not meant to be a defense of how Bishop McManus handled this because it seems to me that if he had concerns about the content of the talk, all he would have had to do is call Mr. Spencer and discuss the content before making a decision as to whether or not to cancel him as a speaker. However, if the men’s conference is nothing more than the guys’ version of the women’s conference, I can see why the bishop would feel the whole topic of Islam wouldn’t fit in.
You have to go to one of these things up in these parts to know what I’m getting at, but basically, the whole thing is just Steubenville East for grown-ups. They’re a weird blend of charismatic-speak about “The Spirit” combined with Proestant-style praise music, Mass, and Adoration. It doesn’t sound like Mr. Spencer’s talk would have fit that framework at all.
It might be better to find a more orthodox Catholic conference to attend (one not put on directly by the Diocese) and request that the organizers of that conference invite Mr. Spencer to speak. Or start our own if none such exists yet.
That should be “Protestant”. And they usually also offer the Sacrament of Confession at those conferences, should you ever find yourself at one.
On this twelve-hundredth anniversary of the ‘dies natalis’ of Charlemagne (where- and however that is observed), this, with your permission, Fr. Z, might be a good place to recall, from Thomas Shahan and Ewan Macpherson’s 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia article, “it was to Charles alone that the Christians of the East were now [c. AD 797] crying out for succour against the threatening advance of the Moslem Caliph Haroun al Raschid.” And, “It is of interest to note that just before his coronation at Rome Charles received three messengers from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, bearing to the King of the Franks the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and the banner of Jerusalem, ‘a recognition that the holiest place in Christendom was under the protection of the great monarch of the West’ (Hodgkin). Shortly after this event, the Caliph Haroun al Raschid sent an embassy to Charles, who continued to take a deep interest in the Holy Sepulchre, and built Latin monasteries at Jerusalem, also a hospital for pilgrims.”
From his sequence, we might recall the verses,
Hic est Christi miles fortis,
hic invicte dux cohortis
ducum sternit milia.
Terram purgit lolio,
atque metit gladio
ex messe zizania.
And
O rex mundi triumphator,
Jhesu Christi conregnator,
sis pro nobis exorator,
sancte pater Karole,
Emundati a peccatis
ut in regno claritatis
nos plebs tua cum beatis
caeli simus incole.
(Verses for whatever reason not sung in the “Karlsamt Frankfurt – Antwortgesang – Karlssequenz – 29.01.2011” happily posted on YouTube.)
OrthodoxChick,
I remember seeing news items related to Mr. Spenser’s upcoming – then, suddenly, no longer upcoming – talk, at the time, but without any clear sense of the (probable or likely) nature of the Conference (nor have I acquired such a sense, since, to enable me intelligently to compare or contrast it with your experience!).
I am afraid “Steubenville East” is, as it were, “speculum in aenigmate” (1 Corinthians 13:12) to me. ‘Steubenville’ makes me think of Scott Hahn, whose works I have read with interest when the opportunities arose, but that is likely nothing to your point!
Venerator Sti Lot,
Nope I wasn’t thinking of the actual speakers per se. I was talking more about the whole “vibe” at a Steubie conference. They are revered up here in the Northeast. Many, many parishes are now raising funds to send their Confirmation students to Steubie and that counts as their retreat to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.
And because these parishes send young adult and parent chaperones to keep an eye on the teens, the adults have exported a grown-up version of the format. Now, the vibe has been carried over to the adult men’s and women’s conferences being sponsored by and in the local Dioceses up here. Steubie East is held every summer at URI (Univ. of RI) in the Diocese of Providence so thousands of people from the surrounding Dioceses attend every year.
This should give you a general taste of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adeve3bvySY
Islam is just one head of the hydra of satan. Other heads are communism, secularism, feminism, the homosexual movement……… You ever notice that the feminists very rarely go after the muslims or vice versa? These groups all have one thing in common, they all hate the Catholic Church. If they ever defeated us, which they never, ever will, especially since the shedding of our blood only strengthens us, these heads would destroy one another.
OrthodoxChick,
Thank you for the link. Would ‘oy, veh!’ be an uncharitable response? A rather perplexing presentation – or ‘version’ – of Solemn Benediction (if that is what it was)!
The Canadian political philosopher (and old Oxford Socratic Club member), George Grant, encouraged considering not only ‘secularized Calvinism’ but ‘Calvinized secularism’ – something that came to mind in teying to think about ‘Charismatic’ and ‘Protestant’ together. ‘Protestantized Charismaticism’? ‘Charismaticized Protestantism’?
Again, I have no idea how analogous or not a (Worcester) Men’s Conference may (or may not) be, to this.
Yet I can see the point in someone well-informed and thoughtful talking – in just such a ‘venue’- clearly about the real dangers of how lots of people who seem to think themselves the most faithful Muslims think it is incumbent upon them to behave (that is, slaughterously). If this is where a sort of ‘illiteracy’ or (historical – and contemporary) ignorance may be combatted, let it be combatted here (as a starting place and point, for many hearers).
Venerator Sti Lot,
As to your last paragraph – absolutely. And don’t get me wrong, they actually do get some really good speakers at that conference. Actually, the men’s conference in Worcester looks like it had better speakers in the last 2 years than the women’s conference did. Even in the Steubie link, I really like Fr. Leo. I watch him on EWTN. What I’m trying to explain is not easily explainable, I guess, but there’s an air about these conferences that is very different. Something about the crowd or the atmosphere is off somehow. It’s more noticeable with the lesser known speakers, I think, but it’s almost like some of these speakers get up to present and instead, they feel compelled to turn into entertainers. That’s when what could have been a reverent, thought-provoking, and stimulating afternoon can descend into something strange, if that makes any sense at all.
I can’t stand it anymore. If we had a different Imperator, I would say, bring back imperialism.
God help them. No other nation is… I pray these Christians band together and recognize the Muslim menace and take steps to protect themselves accordingly.
I do pray the Holy Father speaks of this, as well as the menace also faced by the Copts and Syrian Christians from Islam. May He send Europe another Charles Martel, because they’re going to need it soon.
Uxixu,
You’re right. It’s awful that our fellow Christians are being preyed upon so openly and viciously while the western world turns a bling eye. Absolutely shameful.
Christians in Nigeria need our support and prayers.
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Uxixu, definitely agree with you.