THE POPE SHOULD HAVE THE 300 CHRISTIANS AND THEIR BISHOP IN TRIPOLI EVACUATED TO SAVE THEM FROM BEING SLAUGHTEREDWe need to look at those 21 young Christians in the face. Rather than deny Christ they underwent martyrdom in Libya and before having their throat cut by ISIS – in reading their lips (which was done) – they were continuously pronouncing the name of Jesus. Like the martyrs of old
THE NAME OF JESUSTheir Bishop says: “That name whispered at the last instant was akin to the sealing of their martyrdom.” Coptic Christians are strong people, tempered by 1400 centuries of Islamic persecutions. They are heirs to that St. Athanasius of Alessandria, who saved the true Catholic Faith from the Arian heresy, held by most of the bishops [at that time]. They are tough Christians, not like the spineless, tepid-Catholics we are here in the West.
Here’s what real strength is: it’s not what hates and kills the defenseless (even children) and crucifies those who have a different faith, rapes the women – waving a black flag, faces hidden.
The real strength is the one of the defenseless who accept even martyrdom rather than deny their own dignity – that is to say, their faith – giving witness to the wonders of “ the Beautiful Love” as an ancient definition of the Son of God names Him.
A wonderful testimony. These are the true martyrs: the Christians. Not those who go around slaughtering defenseless innocents.
This is the glory of Christians: to follow a God who saved the world by having Himself killed, not by killing others, like all the leaders, ringleaders and ideologues (or revolutionaries) of this world [have done] and that are so exalted in history books.
THE LESSON
This is a great lesson to the West drunk with being “politically correct”, like the disastrous Obama who does his best not to mention even the word “Islam” and “Muslims” when speaking about the massacres In North Iraq, Paris and Libya over these past months. A nihilistic West which is ashamed of its Christian roots and never misses a chance to show contempt for them.
It’s a painful lesson, ultimately, and most of all, for the Church: for a Church that is no longer a witness to the ardent fire of the Faith.
It’s a painful lesson for the Church of Bergoglio, who defines the Christian proclamation and proselytism as “solemn nonsense” – while men and women are giving their lives for Christ; for the Church of Bergoglio , who makes an act of adoration in a Mosque – while Christians are being persecuted and massacred in the entire Muslim world, and who follows the dominant ideology of Obama, by carefully avoiding the pronunciation of the word “Islam” except in laudatory terms. (On the other hand, his spokesman in Buenos Aires attacked Benedict XVI for his discourse on Islam at Regensburg).
Furthermore and most of all, a Pope Bergoglio, who says that the great emergency at present for the Church is not the Faith, but the environment; then, the acceptance of the new (type) of couple and Communion for the divorced and remarried.
It’s all a bit like Benigni’s film where they say that the real, big problem in Palermo [center of the Mafia] – “is the traffic.”
The situation is such, that soon we will have the Bergoglian encyclical on ecology and the merits of differentiated rubbish, in place of a loving cry to God in this world with no faith and hope. We will have an appeal against pollution instead of a condemnation of the anti-Christian hatred now spread all over the entire planet. (In any case, even at his installation Mass, he spoke about the environment and also in his speech to the Expo 2015 in Milan – instead of speaking about Christ).
It ‘s Pope Bergoglio who receives and addresses the Social Centers of the Leoncavallo type, but not the Christians who are heroically and peacefully fighting as witnesses of salvation, suffering the contempt and accusations of the world.
It’s Pope Bergoglio who chooses new cardinals on the basis of his own ideology (and shows that if he wants to he can even decide to make a cardinal – like the Bishop of Ancona, for example) instead of giving the red hat– a sign of martyrdom – to those Bishops in these precise days, who are concretely and heroically living with their threatened communities and truly risking their lives with them.
SAVE THOSE CHRISTIANS
This is the situation of the Bishop of Tripoli, Father Martinelli, the Bishop, (practically the only one at the time, but with the support of Benedict XVI) who protested every day against the war in 2011, explaining that Pandora’s Box would be opened, which then unfailingly happened. A tragedy for which we must thank the “Nobel Peace Prize” – of Obama and Sarkozy.
Further – while today, in Italy and abroad, those who applaud that war feign ignorance (an example -Maurizio Belpietro and “Libero” yesterday), while today Libya risks becoming a base for ISIS, Bishop Martinelli has decided to stay there, exposing himself to death: “I saw the decapitated heads – he relates – and thought to myself that I could end up like that. And if God wills that I end up having my head cut off, then so be it […] Being able to give witness is a precious thing. I thank Our Lord for allowing me to do it, even with martyrdom. I don’t know where this road will take me. If it brings me death, I will say that God has chosen this for me…I will not budge from here. And I’m not afraid.”
He doesn’t want to abandon his small community made up of around three hundred Philippine workers who are understandably terrified. The Bishop is the only Italian left in Tripoli, with some non-Italian nuns and religious.Up until yesterday evening, no telephone call had arrived from Pope Bergoglio, usually so lavish in his phone calls (he even called [Radical Party leader Marco] Pannella, as well as his friend [Repubblica founder Eugenio] Scalfari, several times). Perhaps, seeing the pressure of the media, he’ll call him before long.
Still, facts are needed more than words.
I’d like to propose something to the Pope. With the help of the Italian government, the Vatican could ask for a humanitarian bridge, a lightening rescue operation for the Christians left there with their Bishop. There are only three hundred of them and they’re risking their lives for their faith. The Vatican could give hospitality to them and then they’ll decide whether to return to the Philippines.
This is something possible. Why not do it?
This is my plea to Pope Bergoglio – to save an entire Christian community and their pastor from being slaughtered. This would really be something worthy of the Holy See. Not that climate of witch hunts and purges that have been circulating in the Vatican establishment for some time now against those “great cardinals” (Ratzinger) who, in fidelity to the Church, dared oppose Kasper in the Synod last October. It would indeed, be incredible if the Vatican devoted itself to purges while Christians are being martyred all over the world.
[Rorate translation by Contributor Francesca Romana]
