IS POPE FRANCIS DOING TOO MUCH WITH ISLAM?
In Ur in Iraq, presumed birthplace of Abraham, Pope Francis prays in the presence of religious dignitaries Vatican news
One of the paradoxes of the Pope's trip to Iraq will remain
its dominant Muslim
although the head of the Catholic Church has also visited this country to pay attention and assistance to
deeply persecuted Christians whose number has dropped by three in twenty years.
.
No dysmetria, however, in François.
It is not because this passionate about dialogue and meeting, placed at the rank of theological imperative, observes situations 360 ° and often beyond with his concern for the "
peripheries
", that he would abandon the Catholic microcosm. .
But
he doesn't like microcosms at
all.
For him, Catholic rhymes with universal brotherhood, the heart of his last encyclical “Fratelli Tutti”.
This method and approach to questions worry certain currents in the Church.
But
François does not want to defend the
Catholic
“
shop
”
in the narrow sense
.
He harasses her with criticisms, denouncing her miseries.
Those who would wait for another orientation will have to make up their minds.
At 84, François will not change.
He has just demonstrated it with this trip to Iraq.
He believes that the best promotion of the Church is not the defense of the meadow but an exit from the trenches, without bayonets, with bare hands, outstretched hand.
Sometimes bordering on injustice.
As in his important speech in Ur, on Saturday March 6, in front of many Muslims, land which would have given birth to Abraham and where he presided over an interfaith ceremony.
Referring to the persecution of Iraqi Christians by the massacres of Daesh, he gave the impression of minimizing the damage.
He will balance his remarks the next day to Erbil and to Qaraqosh !!!
CHECK !!!
but he asserted that these abuses were partly repaired by Muslims: “
Terrorism, when it invaded the north of this dear country, barbarically destroyed part of its wonderful religious heritage, including churches, monasteries and places of worship of various communities.
But, even during this dark moment, stars shone.
I think of the young Muslim volunteers in Mosul who helped redevelop churches and monasteries by building fraternal friendships on the rubble of hatred, and of the Christians and Muslims who together are now restoring mosques and churches.
"
Hence its conclusion for the future: “
Peace requires neither winners nor losers, but brothers and sisters who, despite the misunderstandings and wounds of the past, move from conflict to unity
.
"
"
Francis believes that the best promotion of the Church is not the defense of the meadow but an exit from the trenches, without bayonets, with bare hands, outstretched hand
"
François did not pronounce either - as usual - the word "
Islamist" but that of "terrorist
" to designate the attackers.
This is for him a
considered position
that he had explained at length on July 31, 2016, on the return of WYD from Krakow and in the wake of the attack which had cost the life of Father Hamel.
All his thoughts on the subject were, moreover, contained in his response, which was a little startled at the time: "
I don't like to talk about Islamic violence, because while leafing through the newspapers I see every day that violence, even in Italy: the one who kills his fiancée, another who kills his mother-in-law, and another… and these are baptized Catholics!
They are violent Catholics.
If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence.
No, not all Muslims are violent, not all Catholics are violent.
It's like in Macedonia, there is everything… There are violent people of this religion…
”
He added on fundamentalism: “
One thing is true: I believe that there is almost always in all religions a small group of fundamentalists.
We have some.
When fundamentalism manages to kill.
".
And to conclude: “I believe that it is not right to identify Islam with violence, it is not right and it is not true.
I had a long dialogue with the great Iman of Al-Azhar University and I know what they are thinking.
They are looking for peace, for a meeting
. "
in Cairo, April 28, 2017, the Pope symbolically kisses the Grand Imam of Al Azhar University Osservatore Romano
Evoking Africa, he hammered about Muslims: “
They are brothers!
When I went to the Central African Republic, I went to see them and the iman also rode the popemobile.
We can live well together
. ”
And returning to the situation in the Middle East, he concluded “
Yes, we can say that the so-called ISIS is an Islamic state which presents itself as violent.
But one cannot say, it is not true and it is not right, that Islam is terrorist.
There are small fundamentalist groups.
And I wonder, it's a question: how many young people, we Europeans, have left, empty of ideal, who have no work, approach drugs, alcohol?
They go there and they enlist in fundamentalist groups
. ”
At that time, Francis had visited only four countries with a Muslim majority
, Jordan, Palestine, Albania, Turkey.
Still in the series of Muslim-majority countries, he then went to Azerbaijan and Egypt in 2017.
This Egyptian trip marked a turning point as the Pope went to Al-Azhar University to meet the one who has since become his friend, Imam Al Tayeb
.
The latter had however been one of the most virulent, against Pope Benedict XVI during the crisis of the Regensburg speech on September 12, 2006 where he had indirectly mentioned “violence” in Islam.
The Vatican took a long time to renew this dialogue.
The French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, was the architect, under Benedict XVI, then under François.
Then, among other trips, there was the visit to Bangladesh, a Muslim country, then,
in 2019, two key trips, in quick succession, February and March, to the United Arab Emirates and Morocco
.
Year in which Pope Francis' Muslim policy was sealed
with the signing in Abu Dhabi, with several Muslim authorities, of the joint "declaration" with the Catholic Church "on human fraternity, for world peace and common coexistence".
In 2020, François was also due to travel to Indonesia, the world's first Muslim country, if the epidemic had not postponed this travel plan.
See you soon 8 years of pontificate on March 13, 2021, the data is therefore very clear.
The outstretched hand of Pope Francis to Islam, confirmed in Iraq with his visit
to the country's highest Shiite dignitary, Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, will remain as a dominant of his pontificate because
no pope has ever been so far in matter
.
Even though the 90-year-old Ayatollah seems unwilling to hear about the "joint declaration" the Pope hoped to get him to sign.
meeting with Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani in Nadjaf, March 6, 2021 Vatican News
But is
Francis doing too much with Islam
?
No one will blame
this world religious leader for having put the brake on the “
temptation of revenge
” as he said when he arrived in Iraq.
In difficult times it is a question of world responsibility before history to preserve civil peace.
No one will object to him
either, especially after tens of centuries of experience in the Middle East, and the more recent example of Lebanon, that conviviality is "possible".
Even if history also shows that majority Islam rather demands submission from those who do not share this faith.
But
the secret boot of this Muslim policy of the Catholic Church is not in Francis' big smiles
on Muslims but on
a demand already made by John Paul II, raised as never before with Benedict XV
I and maintained as an urgent demand. by the Argentinian Pope to the Muslim regimes, that of
granting an egalitarian "status of citizen" from all points of view, to non-Muslims, and therefore to Christians.
"
The secret boot of this slow dialogue is the demand to grant citizenship status to Christians in Muslim countries
"
The Church will never give up on this point.
She considers that
this civil and political status is one of the keys to the future of the presence of Christians
in the land where Christianity is born and developed.
Basically,
the policy of the relations of Francis and the Catholic Church with Islam can be summed up in these two words
:
fraternity
for the current relations of life and
respect
by an egalitarian status of citizen granted to Christians.
Some
will cry out for naivety
, illusion, others will see
the right path.
It remains to be seen whether the outstretched hand alone will make it possible to obtain such a result which is not theologically thinkable
in good Muslim theology.
It could be granted in the context of international pressure and for Muslim countries which would agree not to bind citizenship to the Islamic faith.
The waters of the
Tigris and Euphrates
, the two major rivers of Iraq and ancient Mesopotamia, will therefore flow for a long time before this happens.
They saw civilization rise 6000 years ago.
The patience of religions is long.