Pope condemns Christmas Day violence

When is the press going to stop calling these people ‘radical’ or ‘extremist’? The issue is that they are Muslim and that is why they are doing this.

Eeyore

From The Telegraph:

The Pope has denounced Christmas Day violence telling worshippers that ‘once again the earth is stained by blood’ as he made his Angelus address at the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI delivers his blessing

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Pope Benedict XVI delivers his blessing during the Angelus noon prayer  Photo: AP
Aftermath of explosion in Nigeria

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The Pope told pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square that he was saddened by attacks on Christians in Nigeria that killed at least 38 people Photo: REUTERS
Aislinn Laing

By Aislinn Laing, Johannesburg 5:21PM GMT 26 Dec 2010

At least 38 people were killed in Nigeria and six wounded in the Philippines over the festive period in attacks targeting churches and Christmas shoppers.

Pope Benedict XVI, told pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square that he was saddened by the attacks on Christians and a suicide bomb attack in Peshawar, Pakistan which claimed 40 lives.

“I want to express my heartfelt sorrow for the victims of these absurd acts of violence and repeat an appeal to abandon the path of hate and seek instead peaceful solutions to conflicts, ” he said.

“The earth is once again stained with blood as we have seen in other parts of the world.”

A week ago, he said Christians are now the world’s most persecuted religious group and lamented that some had to risk their lives to practise their faith.

In one of two Christmas Eve attacks on churches in northern Nigeria, dozens of armed men dragged a pastor of out his home in the city of Maiduguri and shot him dead. Two male choir members rehearsing for a late-night carol service were also killed, along with two people passing the Victory Baptist Church, which was then set alight.

Danjuma Akawu, the church’s secretary, escaped by climbing over the fence.

“I cannot understand these attacks,” he said. “Why Christians? The police have failed to protect us.”

At the Church of Christ in Nigeria at the opposite end of Maiduguri, Rev Haskanda Jessu said three men attacked around an hour later, killing a 60-year-old security guard.

The attacks have been blamed on the radical Muslim sect Boko Haram, which has its headquarters in Maiduguri.

In Jos, central Nigeria, two bombs went off near a large market where people were doing last-minute Christmas shopping. A third hit a mainly Christian area of the city, while the fourth went off near the city’s main mosque.

Nigeria is almost evenly split between Muslims in the north and the predominantly Christian south. Religious violence has already left more than 500 people dead this year in Jos alone.

On Christmas Day on the southern Philippine island of Jolo – a known hotbed of Islamic extremism – six people were wounded when a bomb went off in a church during mass.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

6 Replies to “Pope condemns Christmas Day violence”

  1. The Pope is trying to balance between causing more violence by not speaking and causing more violence by speaking, since the Catholic Church hasn’t had the firepower to conduct wars since the 15th Century there isn’t much more he can do.

  2. word, richard, true. the bizzare fact about this is, that pope ratzinger knows a great deal about the true face of islam. he wrote a book – at that time he was still cardinal – published in 1996 or so, which contains, among other things unmisleading clear statements about the satanic cult calling itself a religion. amazing stuff, at least to me. he ain’t dumb, even if he is the head of a perverted institution an protects pedos.

  3. papa ratzi what the Pope is trying to do is to bring about a second reformation of the Catholic Church without destroying the Church, most of the excess and perversions are taking place among Priests that were educated and ordained out of “liberal” seminaries. I have read articles by non liberal Priests who say they were driven out of the “liberal” seminaries because they believed in God and the Bible and had to go to other seminaries to get an education and be ordained. This sad affair was created by the liberalization of the Catholic Church and the relaxing of the rules. I know many people who left the Catholic Church over the liberalization, they moved over to Protestant Churches that still preached the Bible.

  4. I almost forgot I also read some articles by some European Jesuits talking about how the Catholic Church needed to send out conservative missionaries to Europ0e since the conservative Protestant Churches were converting so many Catholics.

  5. Richard,

    A lot of Jews like myself stopped going to synagogue because of hearing too many sermons by rabbis trying to sound like Woody Allen making puns about lox and bagels.

    Only these days, have some rabbis reverted to fire and brimstone speeches. Most of the time, their sermons sound like something not too far from
    “koombayah”.

  6. The only Jews I know don’t go to a synagogue but that may be because the closest one is in a different town and they are elderly. But I take your point, all of the Judeo-Christian religions went PC to an extent and it drove a lot of faithful out of the Churches and synagogues. Most of those driven out still believe but don’t go to Church because of the way the message has been changed.