Pope Francis continues to argue for two interrelated points that, while seemingly humane, compromise Western nations and expose their citizens to danger.
He reiterated his first point earlier this month when he said, “I appeal not to create walls but to build bridges.” Francis has made this appeal frequently, both figuratively (when imploring Western nations not to close their doors against more incoming Muslim migrants) and literally (for instance by characterizing Donald Trump’s proposal to build a U.S.-Mexico wall as “not Christian”).
Francis reiterated his second point a few days ago when he said, “Muslim terrorism does not exist.” His logic is that, because there are Christians who engage in criminal and violent activities—and yet no one blames Christianity for their behavior—so too should Islam not be blamed when Muslims engage in criminal and violent activities.
In this, the Catholic pope appears unable or unwilling to make the pivotal distinction between violence committed in accordance with Islamic teachings, and violence committed in contradiction of Christian teachings.
But there’s another relevant and often overlooked irony: every morning Francis wakes up in the Vatican and looks out his window he sees a very large and concrete reminder that gives the lie to both his argument against walls and his argument in defense of Islam. I speak of the great walls surrounding Vatican City, more specifically the Leonine Walls.
Context: A couple of years after Islamic prophet Muhammad died in 632, his followers erupted out of Arabia and conquered surrounding non-Muslim lands in the name of Islam. In a few decades, they had annexed two-thirds of what was in the 7th century Christendom. They took all of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain, until they were finally stopped at Tours in central France (732). By the late 9th century, jihadi incursions had transformed the Mediterranean Sea into a Muslim lake; the major islands—Sicily, Crete, Rhodes, Malta, Cyprus—were conquered, and the European coast was habitually raided for booty and slaves.
According to the most authoritative and contemporary Muslim chroniclers—al-Waqidi, al-Baladhuri, al-Tabari, al-Maqrizi, etc.—all this was done because Islam commands Muslims to subjugate and humiliate non-Muslims.
It was in this context that, in 846, Muslim fleets from North Africa landed near Rome. Unable to breach the walls of the Eternal City, they sacked and despoiled the surrounding countryside, including—to the consternation of Christendom—the venerated and centuries-old basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul. The Muslim invaders desecrated the tombs of the revered apostles and stripped them of all their treasures. Pope Leo IV (847-855) responded by building large walls and fortifications along the right bank of the Tiber to protect the sacred sites from further Muslim raids. Completed by 852, the walls were in places 40 feet high and 12 feet thick.
Further anticipating the crusades against Islam by over two centuries—and thus showing how they were a long time coming—Pope Leo decreed that any Christian who died fighting Muslim invaders would enter heaven. After him and for the same reasons, Pope John VIII offered remission of sins for those who died fighting Islamic invaders. Such was the existential and ongoing danger Muslims caused for Christian Europe—more than two centuries before Pope Urban’s call for the First Crusade in 1095.
Today, many Muslims, not just of the ISIS-variety, continue to boast that Islam will conquer Rome, the only of five apostolic sees—the other four being Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople—never to have been subjugated by jihad. Similarly, Muslims all throughout Europe continue exhibiting the same hostility and contempt for all things and persons non-Islamic, whether by going on church vandalizing sprees and breaking crosses, or by raping “infidel” women as theirs by right.
In short, Pope Leo’s walls prove Pope Francis wrong on both counts: yes, walls are sometimes necessary to preserve civilization; and yes, Islam does promote violence and intolerance for the other—far more than any other religion. This fact is easily discerned by examining the past and present words and deeds of Muslims, all of which evince a remarkable and unwavering continuity of hostility against “infidels.”
Perhaps most ironic of all, had it not been for Pope Leo’s walls—and so many other Christian walls, such as Constantinople’s, which kept Islam out of Europe for centuries, and Vienna’s, which stopped a full-blown jihad as recent as 1683—there might not be a pope today to pontificate about how terrible walls are and how misunderstood Islam is. And when Francis accuses those who build walls of not being Christian, as he did of Trump, he essentially accuses men like Pope Leo IV—who did so much to protect and preserve Christendom at a time when Islam was swallowing up the world—of being no Christians at all.
I honestly don’t think this pope is a true Christian. He has left his most vulnerable flock to die (Christians from Iraq).
he’s not a christian; see my comment above
I equate Pope Francis to Roman Catholicism as what Obama was to the Presidency and America.
C.I.A.= Catholics In Action
I disagree, Pope Francis has been schooled in the History, Traditions, Teachings, and many other subjects relative to his position. He is acting in spite of this knowledge and giving and causing scandal. I seriously wonder about his raising the possibility of women priests; by any measure this last must be Anathema Sit with all its ramifications.
Pope Francis needs to take in a few hundreds of thousands Muslims and settle them in Vatican City. Pope Francis needs to demonstrate to the world how peaceful Muslims are.
More a man of the Left in his historical “knowledge;” his “wisdom” certainly doesn’t come from God on this one. The “plank” in his own eye must add a rose hue to the “speck” in Islams
It’s baffling how the Pope can make these statements in the face of such physical reminders of past Islamist hostilities.
it’s cuz he has his own agenda at play; see my comment above
I never expect pope francis to be logical or to speak according to reality and/or history, cuz his main goal is to diffuse christianity or at least catholicism to such a point that he will be able to blend it in with islam and all other religions of the world so as to form a one-world religion, at which he will be the head. The reason for this is his cooperation with globalists/satanists, who want to rule the world and force everyone to worship the beast and the antichrist. As a jesuit, francis is part of the evil cabal that currently control much of our social institutions/agencies, etc. for satan’s purposes.
He’s either a complete idiot or he’s hell bent on destroying both the Catholic church and the civilized West in general. Maybe he’s both.
Nope, he’s very intelligent. His JOB is to do as you mentioned in the latter. Religion is just the tool his masters use to control the weak minded who embrace the deadliest vile to ever come to these shores, and that’s the brainwashing book called the Bible.
Christians, as Islamist s are the nicest people who you could ever meet and talk to, until you tell them you disagree with their thought process. The two religions, or cults, have murdered in the name of a deity, more men, women and children, and have destroyed people and cities all because someone disagreed with them.
Religion is poison to any society. Believing in God is the foundation of a strong and prosperous society. Thus, why every government from city to state to federal do everything they can to remove GOD from their sight.
I believe Pope Francis is heretic and a danger to his own flock. The College of Cardinals must take steps to impeach this fake Pope.
Pope Francis? You mean St, (Satan) Francis? This God hating, Jesus denier pile of Jesuit garbage is a sick pedophile. Islam is poison and death to the world, and this Jesuit criminal wants the world to allow this diseased rape and death cult to be embraced, only to be killed.
We have devolved to a point of pure sadness.
Pedophile? Where did that come from? It’s outrageous to blithely make an accusation like that without backing it up.
Is the Pope Catholic? That joke doesn’t work nowadays because we are not so sure with Pope Francis…
Is the Pope Catholic? That joke doesn’t work nowadays because we are not so sure with Pope Francis…
I hate this anti-Pope with the fire of 10,000 suns.
I was raised Catholic. However, I no longer attend ANY Catholic church services. Being “female”, I got real tired of being a “second class citizen”, d/t my gender! What many do not understand, Apparently including this Pope, is that according to Catholic Doctrine, the POPE is ONLY considered “infallible” on matters concerning the Catholic Church- NOT on International relations; NOT on WHAT the definition of TERRORISM is; NOT on WHAT other people in the world, who are NOT Catholic, are to do with their LIVES! I heard at one time, and as far as I know it’s true, Vatican City takes in NO Refugees, NO “immigrants”, etc. IF the Pope, really Believes what he is espousing, then HE needs to put HIS money where HIS mouth is!
When it comes to Islam, Pope Francis is a fool… but that just makes him just like 90 percent of the leaders of the Western world, sad to say.
Definitely anti-pope. This man hates Catholicism.
Pope Francis is a liberation theologist. Liberation theology accepts the Marxist demand for social justice and gives it priority over the Great Commision of Matthew 28:19-20a. Since social justice comes first, the oppressed have all the rights and the non-oppressed along with the oppressors have none. It is possible in this type of Christianity for Christians to be declared non-Christians and non-Christians to be declared true Christians. This may be why Pope Francis gives all of his support to Mohammedans in preference to his own flock. All today’s cool Marxists agree that Mohammedans are the most oppressed of the oppressed. Mohammedans agree vehemently. If that is so, then in Pope Francis’s liberation theology mind, the Mohammedans are the true Christians and Iraqi Christians have no rights whatsoever.
I remember the trump ‘wall’ comment. Set off media frenzy, but the pope’s comments were taken out of context. He said, ‘those who build walls and not bridges are not christian’, or something extremely close. Media misrepresented it, saying that he said ‘those who build walls are not christian’, framing the pope’s comments as an attack on trumps border wall plan. His comments shouldn’t have been taken literally. If so, was the pope suggesting we build a bridge between the US and Mexico? Maybe across the Rio Grande? no. His comments should have been taken metaphorically, not literally.
That crap grinds my gears.
God bless you Mr. Ibrahim…unless the west embraces the fact that Islam…not radical Islam…is hostile to us..we are headed for sharia in the near future.
God bless you Mr. Ibrahim…unless the west embraces the fact that Islam…not radical Islam…is hostile to us..we are headed for sharia in the near future.
The pope is most certainly NOT a follower of Jesus Christ.