Wouldn’t it be nice if a pope stood up for Christians, instead of Muslims.
Instead, Pope Leo is following in the footsteps of Pope Francis by refusing to discuss Christian genocide in Africa, while remaining obsessed with importing Muslims into Christian countries and creating a Muslim terrorist state inside Israel.
Whom does that help? Certainly not Christians.
Driving that point home, Pope Leo has been visiting Muslim countries that were once Christian.
Pope Leo XIV has made his first visit to a mosque since his election, and while he removed his shoes as a sign of respect, he did not appear to pray.
On Saturday, Leo went to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, a 17th-century place of worship considered an Ottoman-era architectural masterpiece, with turquoise ceramic tiles adorning its walls and dome.
Leo, accompanied by local Muslim leaders, walked through the mosque’s courtyard and, after taking off his shoes, was shown around the interior in his white socks. The first American pope, who is a keen Chicago White Sox baseball fan, recently joked that he always wears “white socks.”
Aşgın Tunca, a Muezzin, said Leo had been invited to pray during his visit
There was further confusion when the Vatican press office sent out a statement after the visit saying Leo had prayed at the mosque and that he had been welcomed by the head of Turkey’s state-run religious body, despite neither event occurring. The Vatican later said the statement, which referred to Leo observing “a brief moment of prayer,” had been sent in error and taken from the booklet produced before the trip.
Did he pray? Didn’t he pray? More relevantly, did he mention the status of the Islamic hijacking of the Hagia Sophia?
Pope Leo’s Muslim handlers certainly know the history of the Blue Mosque which was built to appeal to Allah after their failure to capture Vienna. Does Pope Leo? Past popes would have known Europe’s history of conflicts with Islam. I’m skeptical he does.
The irony hit harder when Pope Leo visited Lebanon: a formerly Christian state.
The Rev. Issam Ibrahim remembers when citrus orchards surrounded Mar Youssef Maronite church in the southern suburbs of this city, where generations of Catholic families celebrated baptisms, first communions, confession and confirmations.
Then, the transformation came.
Beginning with the Lebanese civil war, and the decades of conflict and economic strife that followed, the area south of Lebanon’s capital underwent sweeping demographic change. Amid violence perpetrated by all sides, the pews of Mar Youssef emptied as Christians left and Lebanese Shiites, a core base of support for Hezbollah, the sprawling political and military group, moved in.
Violence was “perpetrated by all sides”, yet the Christians fled and Islam took over.
And when parishioners enter the church hall, they’re greeted not only by a photo of Pope Leo XIV but also, through a window, by a giant mosaic of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor.
As a result, during his three days in Lebanon, Leo is expected to echo a litany of previous popes who have delivered a singular message to Christians in the Middle East: Please stay. “The darker the hour, the more faith shines like the sun,” he said in an address ahead of his trip.
Stay for what? Does the Catholic Church have more meaningful support to offer than stay and stay silent about Muslim persecution?
Pope Leo has nothing to say about the Islamic persecution of Christians, but he did declare that “the Holy See, for many years, has publicly supported the proposal of a two-state solution. We all know that in this moment Israel still does not accept this solution, but we see it as the only solution that could offer a solution to a conflict that is continuously live”.
Because the one thing Christians in the Middle East (never mind Jews and everybody else) needs is another Muslim terrorist state.
If Pope Leo is going to call for a two-state solution anywhere, how about in Lebanon?
