What happened?
Pope Francis made what has been widely seen as a successful visit to Egypt on April 28 and 29.
His meeting with Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb was reported with a headline in the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reading “We reject violence under the name of God”.
At the Church of Ss Peter and Paul in Cairo, the Pope touched a wall stained by the blood of murdered Copts, and media reported that Francis was “visibly moved”.
What Middle Eastern media said
Halim Shebaya, a Beirut-based analyst writing for Al-Jazeera, praised Pope Francis as “a strong voice against Islamophobia”, pointing out that he has repeatedly refused to link Islam to terrorism. As a result, Shebaya wrote, “he brings with him the best of Christianity and a Muslim-friendly demeanour, defying images of the Christian ‘other’ or the Crusader or the proselytising missionary”. Shebaya also praised Francis for raising the abuse of minorities’ rights in Muslim-majority countries.
Egypt’s state-owned newspaper Akhbar Al-Youm, meanwhile, called Pope Francis “the messenger of peace”, and Egypt Independent reported tourism minister Yehia Rashed saying that his ministry would take advantage of videos and photos of Pope Francis’s visit to encourage tourism to the country.
What the vaticanisti are saying
John Allen at Crux said that although it is “often difficult to know in real time when something historic is unfolding”, Pope Francis’s visit to Egypt might come to be seen as “one of those ‘big deal’ moments”. Francis and Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar and Egypt’s most important Muslim cleric, “hugged enthusiastically on Friday, and … Tayeb seemed visibly moved when Francis referred to him as ‘my brother’ ”.
Gerard O’Connell, in America magazine, said that several Egyptians had told him how respected Francis was in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. “His frequent references to Muslims as ‘brothers’, his concern for Syrian immigrants and his decision to take Syrian Muslim refugees back to the Vatican [from Lesbos, Greece] have endeared him to everyday Muslims.”
✣ Christian governor ousted after alleged blasphemy
What happened?
Worshippers at an Easter Vigil outside a church in Asso village, near Kaduna, northern Nigeria, were attacked by Islamist Fulani herdsmen. At least 10 Catholics were shot dead, and many more injured. The Fulani are a widely dispersed Muslim ethnic group in west Africa. The herdsmen raise cattle and are semi-nomadic.
Why was it under-reported?
Nigerian authorities are blamed for failing to stop these attacks and so have little reason to draw attention to them. Last week Bishop Joseph Bagobiri of Kafanchan accused the Kaduna state government of long-standing “complicity and bias” against the victims of the violence. “Given the sophisticated nature of the weapons used in the [Islamists’] operations, it is suspected that their kin in government and the military are able to supply these arms to them,” he said, claiming that the state governor “unabashedly takes sides with the armed herdsmen”.
What will happen next?
This was not the first such attack and it will not be the last. According to the Church, more than 800 people have been killed in recent years in the Diocese of Kafanchan alone (the Nigerian government disputes the figure).
The Open Doors charity, which monitors religiously motivated violence and discrimination, says that there were 4,028 recorded killings of Christians due to their faith in northern Nigeria in 2015, which is more than in the rest of the world put together, where the figure is 3,072.
✣The week ahead
Hundreds of churches across the world will celebrate Mass on Monday to mark the birthday of televangelist Archbishop Fulton Sheen. The Masses are not only to celebrate the archbishop’s life, ministry and legacy but also to “storm heaven” with prayers for his canonisation, said Lo Anne Mayer, a Catholic from New Jersey who is one of the organisers of the initiative.
The National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima (pictured) has started a nationwide tour. It will be in Cardiff Cathedral on Saturday and Sunday, Belmont Abbey next Wednesday, and Southwark Cath-edral next weekend.
The final round of the French presidential elections will take place on Sunday. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon has said that the campaign was his country’s “worst ever” and that voters felt “totally lost”. He urged Christians to stop democracy from “losing its sense”. “It seems we’re dealing with a democracy gone mad,” he said.
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