Apparently the Vatican has chosen to join the Islamic world, the UN and the EU in condemning Israel for defending itself from attack.
according to al-Reuters, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano said Pope Benedict and his aides were very worried that the developments in the Middle East risked degenerating into "a conflict with international repercussions."
"In particular, the Holy See deplores right now the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign nation, and assures its closeness to these people who already have suffered so much to defend their independence," he told Vatican Radio.
Sodano said the Vatican condemned both "terroristic attacks" and military reprisals.
Sure they do.
Sodano ended by throwing another bomb at the Jewish state:
"The right of defence on the part of a state does not exempt it from its responsibility to respect international law, particularly regarding the safeguarding of civilian populations," he said.
Perhaps the Vatican is reacting to Muslim threats against Catholics and Church property in the Middle East. The Vatican did not have relations with Israel or recognize it as a State until the 1960's.
In any event, it is not only morally despicable, but counterproductive; it is aid and assistance to Islamists who despise the Church and will happily destroy it once they finish with the Jews.
This surprised and saddened me. In view of some of his previous remarks, I thought Pope Benedict was made of different stuff, especially when it came to recognizing a common enemy.
2 comments:
speaking as a practicing catholic.
it sound like the holy father is dazed and confused. must be the italian alp air he's vacationing in.
to start with, i find the context of the word "degenerating" strange in describing the events of the last few days.
it has had international repercussions for what, the last 60 years.
jeebus cripes.
i also can't understand the use of the terms "invasion" and "free & sovereign" when referencing lebanon.
the analogy i use is on 6june1944 the USA did not invade france. we attacked an occupying force entrenched along the normandy coast. you can call that spin if you wish. the same analogy applies to lebanon.
they are neither free nor sovereign.
i saw on another site that this sadano is supposedly anti-israel. don't know for sure.
all they should say was:
we abhor violence in all its forms and manifestations.
with that said, the backpedaling begins here:
this reminds me of the dhimmitude that was first displayed during the mo-toons. i think ff is close on the church property thing, but not just in the m/e. italy also has it's islamists. they may not want an al italia jet aimed at the vatican.
they almost lost one pope to an islamic whack job. whatever his motivations. i don't think they want to go through that again. they aren't worried about a militant jewish threat to the vatican.
dhimmitude.
however, i can't see benedict coming out with a gimma "J", gimma an "E", gimma a "W" routine either.
as memory serves me, there may be an attempt to keep a group called the christian philangists out of this, if they still exist.
the backpedaling ends here:
comments/statements such as this are just that. they have no standing as teaching of the church. in other blogs i have seen, catholics, i believe by a large margin, stand with israel.
as do i.
I am relieved that Pope condemned the vicious attacks on Lebanon - the westernized country with 40% Christian population. I lived in Croatia when Serbia attacked us with a fraction of force that is being used by Israel and it was devistating to us. I am still in shock that this sort of inhumanity is possible and tolerated by us - the citizens of the world. Yes, I heard many theories and excuses, but we all must start with condemning the violence or we will all eventually (or our childern) be reduced to nothing.
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