✣Islam isn’t a violent religion, says Pope after priest’s murder
What happened?
Speaking to journalists on his return flight from World Youth Day in Kraków, Pope Francis said: “I do not like to speak of Islamic violence because every day when I look through the papers, I see violence here in Italy. And they are baptised Catholics. There are violent Catholics.”
The Pope was speaking a few days after the murder of Fr Jacques Hamel, for which ISIS claimed responsibility. Pope Francis had said: “All religions want peace; it’s the others who want war.”
What the British media said
It’s one thing to say ISIS is “repugnant to the great majority of Muslims”, wrote Melanie McDonagh in the Eve-ning Standard, but “quite another not to acknowledge it is grounded in a particularly unpleasant Islamic ideology.”
The Observer’s leading article was also sceptical about the distinction drawn by the Pope: “to claim that the current, intensifying global battle for new, viable credos for the new century is not, in part, a religious and spiritual struggle, too, is surely delusional”.
In the Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore said we have to be honest about the killers’ motives, and that it is not Islamophobic “to want to maintain our historic amalgam of Athens, Rome and Jerusalem, our civilisation based on the Bible and the Enlightenment and the tense, but productive conversation between the two.”
What the blogosphere said
At crisismagazine.com, Sean Fitzpatrick said that the murder, though appalling, was a chance to be grateful for Christian faith. “Though atrocities such as the ones perpetrated in Normandy are meant to be terrifying while glorifying the God of Islam, they actually serve to give Christians warning and a greater cause to rejoice in the true God, finding solace in his Nature which is life-giving and not death-dealing. This is the Catholic peace that can and should arise out of the duress of Islamic terrorism.”
At firstthings.com, Jordan Zajac said he and his fellow seminarians “admit that we ponder precisely the scenario in which Fr. Hamel found himself yesterday morning: what if attackers entered the church while we were celebrating Mass? Would we display the same fortitude?”
The most overlooked story of the week
✣All charges dropped against pro-lifer
What happened?
A Texas judge dismissed the last charge against David Daleiden, the pro-life activist whose uncover videos revealed that abortion provider Planned Parenthood sold baby body parts. Daleiden said: “Planned Parenthood tried to collude with public officials to manipulate the legal process to their own benefit, and they failed.”
Why was it under-reported?
Mainstream news outlets in Britain and America are overwhelmingly pro-abortion. Large sections of the media initially ignored Daleiden’s undercover scoops. When that became impossible they attacked him, claiming that the videos were selectively edited. They applauded when he was indicted by a Texas grand jury in January on a felony count of tampering with governmental records. Having implied that Daleiden was a law-breaker who faced up to 22 years in prison if convicted, they were reluctant to devote too much coverage to his acquittal.
What will happen next?
Daleiden’s legal troubles are not yet over. The state of California is investigating charges against him and fellow activist Sandra Merritt, who was acquitted alongside him in Texas. According to LifeSiteNews, “the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and a handful of Planned Parenthood affiliates have filed a civil lawsuit over covert footage of the NAF’s 2014 annual convention in California, as well”. But at just 27, Daleiden is likely to be a thorn in the abortion industry’s side for decades to come.
✣The week ahead
A young Scottish nun who is two steps from canonisation will be the star of a one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe, starting tomorrow. The Venerable Margaret Sinclair, born in 1900, became Sister Mary Frances and died of TB aged 25. Pope St John Paul II called her “one of God’s little ones”. Coincidentally she is played by 25-year-old Maryfrances Jennow.
French-born Dom Xavier Perrin will be installed tomorrow as the new Abbot of Quarr Abbey (right), the Benedictine Abbey on the Isle of Wight. The Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Philip Egan in the Abbey Church at 12 noon.
The first-ever National Marriage and Family Life Pilgrimage weekend will be hosted at the Basilica of Our Lady of Walsingham starting next Friday. The event aims to celebrate, support and promote marriage and the family. The shrine will provide a place to camp and a general schedule for activities, workshops and liturgical celebration.
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