Showing posts with label Pope Francis I. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope Francis I. Show all posts

Sunday 5 April 2020

Catholics facing a totally different Holy Week

For Pope Francis at the Vatican, and for Catholics worldwide from churches large and small, this will be an Easter like none other, like for real Christians this week shall be one of isolation whilst otherwise so busy with meeting and sharing the Good News.

The joyous message of Christ’s resurrection will be delivered to empty pews in the Christian world.
Bible students all over the world, who normally gather on 14 Nisan to have their Memorial Meal shall not be able to gather in this time of lockdown.
Also the Jews shall not be able to invite friends and poor people to their seder and shall have to celebrate the Passover meal on their own.

For the Catholics and many protestants, the world seems to come to a stand still, having no mass or worship services in public any more. Some protestant churches already spoke of a devil (Satan) making sure there would come an end to people serving and worshipping God.

Worries about the coronavirus outbreak have triggered widespread cancellations of Holy Week processions and in-person services. Many priests and pastors will preach on TV or online, tailoring sermons to account for the pandemic.
Many extended families will reunite via Face Time and Zoom rather than around a communal table laden with a Pesach Memorial Meal on Wednesday the 8th of April or an Easter feast on April 12.

Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, will be celebrating Mass for Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Easter in a near-empty St. Peter’s Basilica, instead of in the huge square outside filled with Catholic faithful.

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Find also to read:
  1. Making deeper cuts than some terrorist attacks of the near past
  2.  The unseen enemy
  3. Coronavirus on March 11 declared a global pandemic on March 31 affecting more than 177 countries
  4. Europe in Chaos for a Pandemic
  5. No idea yet for 14 Nisan or April the 8th in 2020 Corona crisis time
  6. Only a few days left before 14 Nisan
  7. Even in Corona time You are called on to have the seder
  8. A meal as a mitzvah so that every generation would remember
  9. A night different from all other nights and days to remember
  10. First time since Nazi time no public gathering
  11. Hosting a Virtual Seder During a Pandemic
  12. Love in the Time of Corona
  13. Christian Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Monday 15 July 2019

Vincent Lambert died on Thursday at 8.24am

Michel Houellebecq and Pope Francis are two names seldom found in the same sentence. Yet they are united in decrying the death of Vincent Lambert, the disabled French nurse who died this week after having his food and water removed.

Vincent Lambert, the brain-damaged French man who was in a state of impaired consciousness for 11 years while his family fought over his medical care, died on Thursday at 8.24am. After getting approval from a court, doctors stopped giving him food and water. It took him nine days to die.

Although his wife claimed that Lambert had said that he would not wish to live in such an impaired state, there were no written instructions with his end-of-life wishes.
French media have reported that his parents plan to sue his medical team. While euthanasia is illegal in France, doctors are allowed to put terminally ill patients into deep sedation until death. Lambert’s parents have argued that, while severely handicapped, their son was not “terminally ill”.


Being the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis’s views are, and are supposed to be, predictable, this can not be said about France’s most acclaimed and controversial novelist, Michel Houellebecq. He wrote

"Vincent Lambert was in no way prey to unbearable suffering, he was not suffering any pain at all (...) He was not even at the end of life. He lived in a particular mental state, the most honest of which would be to say that we know almost nothing …

It was strange when we saw pictures of that man laying in his be, seeing him react on words, we can wonder in what way he would be conscious or to be considered alive?

In how far can we go into a human's mind and go to decide for him or her? In a certain way the doctors and his wife decided to allow nature to take its course. But should they have kept feeding him?


Like America’s Terri Schiavo case, this has provoked controversy around the world. Thousands upon thousands of people in “vegetative states” in nursing homes could be at risk of having their hydration and nutrition withdrawn if doctors and courts accept the reasoning behind the decision to allow Lambert to die.

Reactions to his death show that France is as divided as ever.
 “It is a real relief for us,” 
said François Lambert, Lambert’s nephew.
 “Vincent had been the victim of irrational medicine for years. It had to stop.”
Unsurprisingly, Pope Francis tweeted:
 “May God the Father welcome Vincent Lambert in His arms. Let us not build a civilization that discards persons those whose lives we no longer consider to be worthy of living: every life is valuable, always.”

Surprisingly, Michel Houellebecq, the controversial and internationally acclaimed nihilist novelist, agreed with the Pope. He was scathing in his criticism of how Lambert’s death had come about. In an op-ed in Le Monde, he attacked the French Minister for Health, Dr Agnès Buzyn, for using Lambert as a symbolic battering ram to open a breach in attitudes towards the severely disabled.
“I admit that when the Minister of ‘Solidarity and health’ had appealed in to the high court, I was stunned. I was sure that the government in this case would remain neutral. After all, [President] Emmanuel Macron had declared, not long before, that he did not wish to interfere; I thought, stupidly, that his ministers would be on the same line.
"Vincent Lambert was in no way prey to unbearable suffering, he was not suffering any pain at all (...) He was not even at the end of life. He lived in a particular mental state, the most honest of which would be to say that we know almost nothing …
"Dignity cannot be (altered) by a deterioration, as catastrophic as it may be, in one’s state of health. Or is it that there has been, indeed, a 'change in attitude'. I do not think there is any reason to rejoice, "

Monday 20 May 2019

Pastoral discipline and dissent from papal teaching


Controversial Pope + Catholics attacking their own so called infallible pope continued

Normally the Roman Catholic Church requires assent to all her teaching, whether that teaching comes from the universal episcopate of all the bishops or from the head of the bishops, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome.
With regard to papal teaching, the Catholics must adhere to all of it according to the Pope’s intention in giving it to the people, his “manifest mind and will.”

Can. 754 All the Christian faithful are obliged to observe the constitutions and decrees which the legitimate authority of the Church issues in order to propose doctrine and to proscribe erroneous opinions, particularly those which the Roman Pontiff or the college of bishops puts forth.
 Throughout history, there have always been Catholics who have wanted to dissent from the teaching of the popes. Anytime a cleric was accused and proved of heresy, it necessarily resulted in the break of communion, excommunication, deposition, or at least the removal of one’s name from the sacred diptychs. In the past new denominations came to life because of those not agreeing with the pope of Rome, getting followers behind them and as such creating a new 'church'.

Today, we can find theological “liberals” who do not like some of the “old fashioned” teaching of the Church, particular with regard to sexual matters, but at the same time we can find very conservatives who find there is too much liberty now and do not agree with a lots of sayings of this present pope, Francis I.
Some people find that the pope said wrong or even distasteful things with regard to pastoral discipline for those in irregular “marriage” unions as well as his recent teaching on the death penalty.  Some theologians have argued that dissent from papal teaching in certain circumstances is allowed by the Church. One of the main magisterial documents they have appealed to is a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith called Donum Veritatis (“On the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian”)

Throughout history the Roman pontiff has passed more than ones judgement on scientists, bishops and on people who had other ideas than him. Several popes went so far to call others to kill those who did not agree with the Roman Catholic church or did not want to accept the Roman popes power.

Those who were accused of heresy could fear the 'army' of the Catholic Church.

It is impossible to think popes are infallible when they agreed to have crusades and inquisitions as tools to gather power  and material treasures. 

Bishop Athanasius Schneider is saying that the Pope of Rome is untouchable, however much we can disagree with him, and that formal judgments and anathemas on a heretical Pope would have to be left to successors of future Ecumenical Councils (themselves ratified by the Pope).

The Roman Catholic teaching is said to rest on theological conclusion that Christ founded his church, not on himself, but on Peter; that Peter was the first pope of the Catholic Church. Though nowhere can they proof that Peter would have been infallible and that his (so called ) authority and infallibility would be passed from Peter to successors. That early tradition and Church history support the claim in principle; that these conclusions are confirmed by this terrible sanction imposed by the Church:
“All who refuse to assent to her teaching are threatened with eternal damnation.”
This way the Roman catholic church could have power and control over a lot of people.

The dogma of infallibility was proclaimed by the Vatican Council in 1870 over violent opposition from within the ranks of the Hierarchy itself. Prior to the assembly no less than 162 bishops signified they were opposed to the proclaiming of such a dogma, and after the assembly was called more than two months were consumed with heated debates over the issue.
 “Scarcely in any parliament have important matters ever been subjected to as much discussion as was the question of papal infallibility in the Vatican Council.”
Today, more than half a century after the second Vatican council, announced by Pope John XXIII on Jan. 25, 1959, as a means of spiritual renewal for the church and as an occasion for Christians separated from Rome to join in search for reunion, the world saw first the newer popes breaking away what Pope John XXIII had established as a progressive pope. After Pope Benedict XVI wanted to step down the conservative bishops had hope the South American bishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio would continue the conservative direction.

The year 2013 was annus mirabilis (a “wonderful year”) for the Roman Catholic Church. On February 28, 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI, in a decision that stunned the world, resigned from the papacy. On March 13, following the conclave of 115 cardinals who gathered in the Sistine Chapel and elected Benedict XVI’s successor, a bespectacled and smiling Jorge Bergoglio, S.J., cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, appeared before the cheering crowd in the square outside St. Peter’s Basilica to be presented to the world by his new name: Pope Francis. The moment marked four historic firsts: the first papal resignation in modern history, the first non-European pope in 1,272 years and the first ever from the Americas, the first of the 266 popes in history to take the name Francis (after St. Francis of Assisi), and the first pope from the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). {Encyc. Britannica}
Francis first maintained the traditional views of the Church regarding abortion, marriage, ordination of women, and clerical celibacy, but left some opening for Anglican ministers who where married to come into the Catholic church to work there as a priest too.

Opposing consumerism and overdevelopment, he wanted to show he too was willing to live abstemious, having St. Francis as his example.

Since 2016, Francis has faced increasingly open criticism, particularly from theological conservatives, on the question of admitting civilly divorced and remarried Catholics to Communion with the publication of Amoris laetitia and on the question of the alleged cover-up of clergy sexual abuse

Voices are growing wanting others to believe the world would have a heretical pope during the term of his office.

to be continued

Indulgence still offered by roman Catholic Church

Centuries ago Luther opposed the rulings about indulgences, but today they are still going strong by the Roman Catholics.

Pope Francis 02
No, Pope Francis won’t get you out of Hell for following him on Twitter.

The Vatican “jumped” on the heretical bandwagon in 2013 by offering “indulgences” to reduce time in “purgatory”, to those who follow Pope Francis on “Twitter” during World Youth Day.

Also in 2019 Pope Francis has granted a "plenary indulgence" for those taking partat the World Meeting of Families in August. Even those following events on TV and radio could achieve a partial indulgence as long as they recited the Our Father, the Creed and other devout prayers. 
The Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican body dealing with forgiveness of sins, said pilgrims would have to attend confession and Mass, pray for the Pope's intentions and participate in some function during the five-day event.

As foolish as this sounds to “intelligent” people, we must wonder if Catholics will ever “wake up” and realize their religion teaches a “false and fatal” gospel that leads them on the broad “road to destruction?”
is said by many protestants.
 
How many more “blatantly” false teachings must come out of the Vatican before Catholics realize they have been “deceived” about life’s most critical issue, the “salvation of their soul?”

Catholics, who believe a “purifying” fire will purge away their sins, are “deluded” victims of a “fatal” fabrication.
Pope Francis 04

The “diabolical” invention of a place for the purification of sins called “Purgatory” is not only a flagrant “denial” of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, but also a “blasphemous” rejection of his precious blood as the only “purification” for sin. furthermore it continues thinking in the line that God would be a horrible tirrant wishing or loving to have His children tortured in hellfire or purgatory fire.

Pope Francis 03The “concept” of Purgatory became a Catholic “doctrine” around 600 C.E. due to the “fanaticism” of Pope Gregory the Great.
He “developed” the doctrine through “visions” of a purifying fire.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Pope Gregory said Catholics
 “will expiate their faults by purgatorial flames,”
and
“the pain is more intolerable than anyone can suffer in this life.”
Centuries later, at the Council of Florence in 1431, Purgatory was pronounced an “infallible dogma.”

Over the centuries, “billions” of dollars have been paid to Roman Catholic priests to obtain “relief” from sufferings in Purgatory’s fire.
The Catholic clergy has taught that purchasing “indulgences, novenas and Mass cards” can shorten the period of “suffering” in Purgatory.

There have been Catholics who have “willed” their entire “estates” to their religion so that “perpetual masses” could be offered for them “after” they die.
It is no “wonder” that the Catholic religion has become the “richest” institution in the world.
The “buying and selling” of God’s forgiveness has been a very “lucrative” business for the Vatican.

In 2014, the pope mentioned hell when calling the Mafia to conversion. In 2016, he said that people who do not open their hearts to Christ will end up condemning themselves to hell. The same year, he referred to hell as "the truth" and described it as being
 "far away from the Lord for eternity."
 In 2018 social media went crazy with reports that Pope Francis had denied the existence of hell.

The most extensive papal explanation of hell came in response to a 2015 question from a female scout who asked,
"If God forgives everyone, why does hell exist?"
 Francis acknowledged that this was a "good and difficult question."
The pope spoke of a very proud angel who was envious of God, reports Catholic News Service.

"He wanted God's place,"
 said Francis.
"And God wanted to forgive him, but he said, 'I don't need your forgiveness. I am good enough!'"
"This is hell,"
 explained the pope.
"It is telling God, 'You take care of yourself because I'll take care of myself.' They don't send you to hell, you go there because you choose to be there. Hell is wanting to be distant from God because I do not want God's love. This is hell."
Most contemporary theologians would agree with the pope. Hell is not about fire and brimstone; it is about our freedom to say no to God, our freedom to reject love and choose loneliness. If you believe in freedom, you have to believe in hell.

When we close our hearts and tell the world to go to hell, we are in fact choosing hell for ourselves. Hell is the absence of love, companionship, communion. We are not sent there; we choose it.
God did not create hell; we did.

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Find also to read
  1. Pope Francis grants indulgences for Dublin participants
  2. Pope to grant indulgences at Dublin World Meeting of Families
  3. Pope Francis Grants Indulgence to the Faithful during the 50th Anniversary of the Diocese of St. Petersburg



Controversial Pope



Lots of bishops having to chose the new pope thought to be on the save side by going for a simple humble South American Bishop.


It turned completely against their expectations, now having a pope who dares to say other things than lots of conservative bishops want to have the people hear.

Pope Francis is “turning” out to be one of the most “controversial” popes in modern history since his “election” to the papacy on March 13, 2013.

Some of his saying are called contradictory to Catholic teachings and even to his own sayings. 
For example:
  • The day he was elected pope he said he would “pray to Mary” for the protection of Rome.
  • Later he appeared to “contradict” himself by saying, “He who doesn’t pray to the Lord, prays to the devil.”
Concerning the salvation there seems a battle of thought by Catholics and Protestants, people saying by the death of Christ salvation is given to all. Though when the pope said everyone, “even atheists,” are redeemed with the “Blood of Christ” this was considered by many Catholic priests a heresy.
To enhance his “progressive” reputation, Pope Francis has written a long, open letter to the founder of La Repubblica newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari, stating that non-believers would be forgiven by God if they followed their consciences.

Worse was the pope his questioning who he was to judge for example gay people.
  “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Pope Francis “faulted” again the Roman Catholic church, according many Catholic clergy for focusing too much on “gays, abortion and contraception”, saying the church has become “obsessed” with those issues to the detriment of its larger mission to be “home for all”.

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Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, Cardinal Blase Cupich, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Bishop Gustavo Óscar Zanchetta, Bishop Juan Barros, and Father James Martin, SJ., find lots of harm is caused by Pope Francis’s words and actions over several years, which have given rise to one of the worst crises in the history of the Catholic Church.

They wrote a letter following the 2017 “Filial Correction of Pope Francis,” which claimed that the pope Francis had
 “effectively upheld 7 heretical positions about marriage, the moral life, and the reception of the sacraments, and has caused these heretical opinions to spread in the Catholic Church.”
Four cardinals subsequently issued public demands for clarification to Francis. Francis did not “reply” to either request, prompting a group of  62 Catholic priests, theologians, and academics to issue a “filial correction” formally accusing him of “propagating” seven heretical positions and urging him to “correct” those positions.

Catholics attacking their own so called infallible pope

The Roman Catholics always say the Bishop of Rome is the true leader of the Roman Catholic Church who as Peter's heir to the throne is the infallible pope.

After Easter several letters found the light wherein Catholic clergy and scholars, have accused Pope Francis of “heresy”.


The pope’s “theological orthodoxy”, particularly after the publication of his 2016 post-synodal apostolic exhortation on “marriage, divorce and Holy Communion” in the Latin title “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love) and what they see as his inappropriate handling of the “sex abuse” crisis is considered according them constituting heresy.

A letter, dated “Easter Week", exhorts bishops to “investigate” the claims of heresy against Francis and, if they find them “valid”, to admonish him to “renounce” those heresies or “remove” him from the papacy.
“Taken together, the words and actions of Pope Francis amount to a comprehensive rejection of Catholic teaching on marriage and sexual activity, on the moral law, and on grace and the forgiveness of sins,” the open letter states.

The letter’s authors “clarified” that there is a demonstrable link between Francis’ “rejection of Catholic teaching” and what they see as his preferential “treatment” of clergy friendly to his views who have been accused of “sexual” misconduct.

The 20-page letter lays out its intentions in the very first line:
“first, to accuse Pope Francis of the canonical delict of heresy, and second, to request that the bishops take the steps necessary to deal with the grave situation of a heretical pope.”

The letter writers base their “accusation” on the pope’s alleged embrace of positions “contrary” to the Catholic faith as well as his overt “support” for prelates who have shown “disrespect” for the Church’s “faith and morals.”

Much of the material offered as evidence of heresy comes from “Amoris Laetitia”, and deals with “sexual ethics and sacramental theology”, while a large section of the letter is devoted to showing the pope’s misconduct by
 “praising clerics and laity who advance these heresies, or by naming them to influential posts, or by protecting clerics of this kind from punishment or demotion when they have committed gravely immoral and criminal acts.”

Thursday 2 November 2017

A special anniversary for the Church where Catholics and Protestants find common ground

Luther Before the Diet of Worms, photogravure ...
Luther Before the Diet of Worms, photogravure after the historicist painting by Anton von Werner (1843-1915) in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
500 years ago 95 theses where posted at the door of the cloister church of Wittenberg, which became to serve as the catalyst for one of the world’s largest religious splits, as thousands broke off from the Roman Catholic Church.
Martin Luther his legacy, 500 years later, is 560 million Protestants across the globe, making up more than a third of the world’s Christians.

Religiously speaking, the Reformation led to the translation of the Bible into languages other than Latin, allowing many people to engage with scripture for the first time. It also brought an end to the controversial sale of "indulgences" — payments the Church said reduced punishment for sins after death, which Luther regarded as corrupt.

Universal education for girls and boys is one of the legacy which is not wiped out, but some of the early protestant teachings seem by many forgotten.

For the special anniversary Chancellor Angela Merkel, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor, has encouraged German churches to promote a narrative of unity over division in their celebrations. that unity which was not present 500 years ago seems to be very close.

Many protestants today are not any more exited or more interested in reading the bible than Roman Catholics. In several countries they also are not any more interested to go regularly to services. concerning doing good a big change entered in the vision of many. In Luther’s home country of Germany, 61 percent of Protestants believe good deeds are needed for salvation. In John Calvin’s Switzerland, 57 percent agree, as do 47 percent in Abraham Kuyper’s Holland.

In the united States we can find conservative protestants and fundamentalist protestants who think whatever they do wrong they shall be saved and going to heaven when they are baptised or so called 'reborn'. Half of American Protestants say that both good deeds and faith in God are needed to get into heaven (52%).

Lots of Americans are convinced they need pastors and churches. Some even believe how bigger the church how closer it is to the 'truth'. From those American protestants 52% believe that in addition to the Bible, we need guidance from church teachings and traditions, according to two studies released at the end of August by the Pew Research Center.

Pope Francis I considers this anniversary an
"opportunity to mend a critical moment of our history by moving beyond the controversies and disagreements that have often prevented us from understanding one another.”

Not long after Francis’ address, the Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury in England expressed remorse for the violence committed there in the name of the Reformation. Hundreds of churches and monasteries were demolished in the 1500s, and many people gruesomely killed, during England’s pained transition from Catholicism to Protestantism.

Since the 16th century and the tumultuous times that followed Protestant and Catholic relations have improved dramatically. At regular intervals we also can see protestants and Catholics bringing an ecumenical service. when we look at several protestant churches today we also find many which also have statues and paintings in the church depicting persons they call god or saints.

When in the 16th and 17th century so many tried to read the Bible and wanted to find the biblical Truth, today there are not many protestants really interested to examine certain dogma's or sayings by theologians. Most of them hold strongly to their denominational teachings, not giving it much thought.

Not many probably would mind if their church comes closer to other churches of the Protestant or Catholic Faith as long as they can keep to their traditions.

From that perspective the attitude of the general public has become passive not to say the least. And those who are still active in church, most often do not want to think to examine the things they are taught by their denomination.

Whilst 500 years ago many where pleased to spend a lot of time reading the Bible, today there are not so much people really interested and that reflects also in protestant services where is less given time  for the word of God and where is spend more time and attention to the entertainment factor of the service.

Today we can use some preachers who are willing to take up the task given by Jesus, to proclaim the Kingdom of God. We can use a new awakening.

Read more about it:
  1. Followers, protestors and reformers
  2. A New Reformation
  3. Trying to Get Rid of Holy Days for a Long Time
  4. 8 Reasons Christian Holidays Should Not Be Observed
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  1. Hoogdag voor vele protestanten
  2. Zijn Beelden een Gevaar of de Redding voor het Geloof?
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Wednesday 16 August 2017

The Vatican really doesn't want Belgian Catholics to perform euthanasia

In May the Broeders van Liefde (Brothers of Charity) in Boechout by Antwerp, announced it would allow doctors to perform euthanasia at its 15 psychiatric hospitals in Belgium, one of only two countries — along with the Netherlands — where doctors are legally allowed to kill people with mental health problems, at their request.
In reaction to that proposed idea Pope Francis I ordered them stop offering euthanasia in its psychiatric hospitals and warned them if they wanted to continue their idea they would be expelled from the Roman Catholic Church.

The Christian brothers would not offer euthanasia so easily but would have it only performed if there would be “no reasonable treatment alternatives” and that such requests would be considered with “the greatest caution.” for the first time it is that Catholic brethren express euthanasia to be an ordinary medical practice that falls under the physician’s therapeutic freedom and that the people running a hospital, psychiatric or medical centrum should listen to the medics.

But it seems that the Belgian charity’s administrative headquarters in Rome are not pleased with their Belgian confraters. They issued already a statement in May, arguing that allowing euthanasia “goes against the basic principles” of the Catholic Church, but it looks like the brethren in Belgium want to put foot.
Some weeks further now we still do not know what the the Belgium charity is going to do.

Mattias De Vriendt, a spokesman for the Belgium charity, said the charity’s hospitals had received requests from patients seeking euthanasia recently but could not say whether any procedures had been performed.

The vast majority of patients seeking euthanasia in Belgium have a fatal illness like cancer or a degenerative disease. While the number of people euthanized for psychiatric reasons accounts for only about 3 per cent of Belgium’s yearly 4,000 euthanasia deaths, there has been a threefold increase in the past decade.

Critics have previously raised concerns about Belgium’s liberal approach to euthanasia while advocates say that people with mental health illnesses should be granted the same autonomy as those with physical diseases.

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Wednesday 18 November 2015

Trump brand of migrant demonization #2

English: The Ethnic composition of Muslims in ...
English: The Ethnic composition of Muslims in the United States, according to the United States Department of State based on the publication of Being Muslim in America as of March 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The so called Christian American politicians John Kasich, Bobby Jindal, Rick Scott,
Rick Snyder, John Kasich, but also democrat Maggie Hassan have made declarations to refuse refugees, to see the South rising up to keep brown-skinned people out instead of in, not because they are overwhelmed by the refugee influx and find resources stretched to the limit.

These governors’ objections to the Obama administration’s resettlement plans revolve around the belief that Syrian refugees, the majority of whom are Muslim, have not been properly “vetted.”  So some of them could be ISIS operatives trying to sneak into America to launch terrorist attacks and weaken the country. (Ridiculously some wants American citizens to believe the black president is also a 'Hussein' Obama Islamic mole.) 

Many Americans do not seem to know or to believe that most of the plotters and attackers involved in the Paris slaughter were (so called) Muslims of French and Belgium origin. They did not come from an influx of people who tried to escape just the sort of violence which struck Paris last weekend.

Also the faith issue seems to have deeper wounds, because it is a matter of frustrated boys who did not find a place in our society but also not in the present Muslim communities. Whatever radicalisation they underwent has deeper roots in the societies of France and Belgium, where most of them lived. Will this have to mean that America is also going to stop any Belgian or Frenchman entering Belgium? Or are they prepared to stop anyone with a passport from a European country from coming into the United States of America?

The pope may look at those American politicians who try to create division between people who want to worship God. They want to let the Americans believe that all refugees are Muslim, which they are not, and that they are all extremists and dangerous for our society, which is not true. 

On Thursday September 24 in a historic address to Congress the pope had already called to open the hearts to new generations of immigrants.

Pope Francis’s passionate call for
 “as many young people as possible [to] inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream”
comes amid a fierce national debate over how to handle an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the US.

“In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom,”
Francis told hundreds of lawmakers, cabinet members and supreme court justices in a packed joint session of Congress. It was the first time in history a pope had addressed the legislative body.
“We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners,”
 added Francis, who was born in Argentina to Italian parents.
 “I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants.”
What is also so contradictory is that most of those complaining about emigrating people to the United States are children of descendants from people who also emigrated from their country to look for better pastures. they too were people looking for a nicer place to stay. But often they were not fleeing such horror as those immigrants and refugees of war zones are today.

Perhaps it is good to remember those words spoken by the pope wo months ago:
“We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation,” he said.
“To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal,”
 added Francis.
 “We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’”
Speaking during Sunday Mass, November 15, the Pope expressing his
 "deep sorrow for the terrorist attacks that bloodied France late on Friday, causing many casualties."
condemned the Paris terror attacks, calling it "blasphemy" to use the name of God to justify "violence and hatred."
"We wonder how can it come to the heart of man to conceive and carry out of such horrible events",
 he said.
"The road of violence and hatred does not resolve humanity's problems. And using the name of God to justify this road is blasphemy."
Reading from Sunday's scripture, the Pope spoke of Jesus' preaching on the end of the world containing
"apocalyptic elements, like war, famine, and cosmic catastrophes."
Although he acknowledged these signs, he highlighted that they are not the most important things. Rather,
 "our final goal is the meeting with the resurrected Lord."
Rather than focusing on when or how the end will come, Francis compelled his audience to
 "live in the present."
For him we all should have the same goal, to meet the returned Messiah, who is a bringer of peace.
"This is our goal: this meeting. We do not expect a time or a place, but we encounter a person: Jesus."
At the end of the world, Francis said,
"Jesus' triumph will be the triumph of the cross, the demonstration that the sacrifice of oneself out of love for one's neighbour, in imitation of Christ, is the only victorious power and the only stable point in the midst of the upheavals and tragedies of the world."
This time imams in France and Belgium came out to tell the public those people are not real Muslims. They also wanted to warn their Muslim brothers that the violent reaction France took will not solve the problem but if some Muslims in turn would like to go to Syria they better think twice.  It is good that the public could see and hear the open public warning for the members of their community in France and Belgium that joining the jihadist group will only drag them to their death,
"to hellfire, because suicide and slaughter are not permitted in Islam."
Based from information shared by the French interior ministry, French nationals comprise the biggest number of European jihadis in Iraq and Syria with at least 570 of them fighting for ISIS.

Abdalali Mamoun, an imam at a southern Paris mosque, was one of 20 Muslim clerics who came to lay flowers near the Bataclan theatre where four terrorists wearing explosive vests killed more than 80 people during a rock concert. He urged young French Muslims to stay away from ISIS.
Another imam
Yasser Laouti, spokesman for the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, said
"As French citizens, and as human beings, we have been wounded by this attack."
and made it clear that those terrorists were not afraid to kill Christians, Muslims and Jews indiscriminately.

However, the French Muslim leaders said that although they sympathise with the families of the terror attack victims, they do not support the French airstrikes in the ISIS capital of Raqqa, in Syria.
"I saw that yesterday, after what happened, Francois Hollande decided to bomb Raqqa,"
 human rights activist Samia Hathroubi said.
 "Do we really think that bombing a city of 200,000 people will help us combat terrorism in our own country?"
also Belgian imams expressed their concern for such actions which could bring more oil unto the fire.

On the different television channels everywhere comes up the same story of people who live here in our own regions but did not feel at their place because they seemed to be a stranger here but also in the land of their ancestors. Several have problems that though they are born in Belgium or in France they are still considered Moroccan, Turk, Tunisian, but never accepted as Belgian or French, though they often speak the dialects of the region where they live at.

The youngsters still do feel discrimination and often are a victim of poverty, political and economic marginalisation. This are some of the reasons why so many young Belgian and French Muslims are joining ISIS.

Americans like others should recognise that Muslim leaders throughout the world strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Paris.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sent a message of condolences to Hollande on Saturday, informing him Iran was offering its thoughts and prayers to the French people. Iran and its allies, Hezbollah and the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have been fighting ISIS.

Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo also condemned the violence that took place in Paris, as he called for international cooperation against terrorism, according to the Jakarta Post. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world.

The leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt also denounced the attacks just hours after the attacks late Friday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the United States, also joined in the condemnation, saying:
"These savage and despicable attacks on civilians, whether they occur in Paris, Beirut or any other city, are outrageous and without justification."
In YouTube video that became viral, one Moroccan Muslim named Wafi Abdouss blasted the ISIS terrorists, saying
 "these so-called jihadists only represent themselves."


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Please do read also:
Cowardly governors give ISIS a propaganda victory: Refusing refugees is a moral outrage & a strategic blunder

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Preceding article: Trump brand of migrant demonization

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Additional reading
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  2. Refugee crisis, terrorist attacks and created fear
  3. Are people willing to take the responsibility for others
  4. If Europe fails on the question of refugees, then it won’t be the Europe we wished for
  5. State of Europe 2015 – Addressing Europe’s crises
  6. Schengen area and Freedom for Europeans being put to the test as never before
  7. The New gulf of migration and seed for far right parties
  8. Asylum seekers crisis and Europe’s paralysis
  9. Can We Pay The Price To Free Humanity?
  10. What we don’t say about the refugee crisis?
  11. Human tragedy need to be addressed at source
  12. Poster: Please help the refugees
  13. Real progress leaves nobody behind
  14. Swallowed in the Sea but belonging to earth
  15. The natural beauties of life
  16. How to make sustainable, green habits second nature
  17. Vatican meeting of mayors talking about global warming, human trafficking and modern-day slavery
  18. Republican member of Congress from Arizona to boycott pope’s address over climate change
  19. Vatican against Opponents of immigration 
  20. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #12 Conclusion

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