I am no fan of the Vatican or post-Schism Latinism, but will refrain from speculating as to whom or what the current bishop of Rome serves.
However, in the West there is a neat piece of 'spin' or PR, e.g. Islam equates with Peace. Islam actually means submission. And the message from those exponents of Islam in the Punjab illustrates this beautifully. Submit or else!
To be honest the quote used by the Pope which caused such offence had it exactly right.
A wanderer, trying to discern truth from falsehood
... my deep respect for great religions.
I guess this means that if the "LAUGHING REVIVAL CHURCH" became more successful, and became "Great", the pope would have a "deep respect" for it. But this is the mentality of many people, if it is big and well recognized, it has a foundation in God, even if its the pagan Hindu god of the wind.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Attacks on an ancient Orthodox church in the
Gaza Strip following the pope's recent comments about Islam have shaken the
area's now tiny [Orthodox] Christian minority, bringing to the surface
long-simmering tensions and raising new questions about how long the
community can survive.
Gaza Christians say recent outbursts of violence have left them worried
about their fragile status in this conservative Muslim society.
Fearing for their safety, few worshippers attended Sunday services at one of
the main churches, which was repeatedly attacked with homemade explosives
Friday, and some parents kept their children home from school. In a
reflection of the sensitive situation, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the
Holy Land criticized the pope's comments as hurtful - a rare criticism of
the Vatican.
Violence has also hit the West Bank, where there is a much larger Christian
population. Two churches were attacked Sunday, including a 170-year-old
stone structure in Tulkarem whose entire inside was destroyed. A day
earlier, attackers hurled firebombs and opened fire at five churches in the
West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of the Islamic Hamas group,
called on Palestinians on Sunday to refrain from sectarian strife.
"All Palestinian citizens must prevent all harm to all Christian churches on
Palestinian land. Our Christian brothers are citizens of Palestine. They are
Palestinians," he said.
The violence began last week after Pope Benedict XVI, in a talk rejecting
religious motivation for violence, cited the words of a Byzantine emperor
who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil
and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."
Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry
reaction to his remarks.
Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the top Catholic official in the region,
traveled to the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday to try to calm tensions.
In rare criticism of the Vatican by a church official, Sabbah said he
wished the pope had used different language.
"Making this remark was hurtful to Islam and to the prophet. I wish he had
not said it but he did," Sabbah told a crowd of about 250 Muslims and
Christians in a damaged Catholic church.
Christians are believed to number about 50,000 people in the West Bank, Gaza
and east Jerusalem, or about 2 percent of the Palestinian population there.
Gaza's tiny Christian community - estimated at several thousand people -
lives among 1.4 million mostly conservative Muslims.
Interfaith relations are generally good - though tensions periodically
flare.
The recent outbreak of violence scared Esther Najjar, a Catholic Palestinian
from Gaza who kept her two youngest girls home from school Saturday.
"I was afraid. First they attacked the church, and then there was that
protest against the pope," she said. "Some of the protesters tried to come
down this street, and we were terrified they'd attack the houses. But our
Muslim neighbors stopped the protesters."
Bishop Alexious of St. Perfidious church, a 1,700-year-old Greek Orthodox
Church in Gaza City, said most worshippers stayed home from Sunday services
after the church was repeatedly hit by homemade explosives on Friday.
Bishop Alexious said he feared for the existence of his tiny flock.
The attacks on the church were the first in recent memory, residents said.
The main concern for Gaza's Christians remained keeping their dwindling
community from disappearing through emigration, said Constantine Sabbagh,
the coordinator of the Middle East Council of Churches in Gaza, a secular
organization that runs development projects.
"We are Arab Palestinians who belong to the Christian faith," he said.
"There must be respect of the other, and we are not going to hide in
houses, or in ghettos. The Muslims we mix with accept us, but there's a lot
of ignorance out there."
Rosette Sayyegh said she was publicly insulted Saturday while shopping in
Gaza when she wore a knee-high blue skirt, a matching blue shirt and a large
golden cross.
"An old, bearded, respectable looking man wearing a white robe stood in
front of me and said, 'I spit on your cross!' What was I to do?" she
asked. "I'm not going to hide my cross, and I'm not going to cover my hair."
But she said many others covered their hair to avoid being recognized as
Christians.
"It's not the first time," Sayyegh said. "It's been like this for years.
But I'm not going anywhere. -- I'm an Arab and Palestinian."
The Associated Press MMVI
