That is what Father Peter J. Daly, pastor of St John Vianney Parish in Prince Frederick MD, displayed in his article in the September 2nd issue of the Catholic Standard. Unfortunately (maybe deliberately??) that article is not on the Standard's website. It's on page 12 is entitled "The Mosque Controversy". The gist of the article is that Catholics who oppose this mosque should know better, since we were victims of persecution earlier in this country's history.
He cites examples of our churches being burned and/or opposed. Herein lays his first logical flaw. Catholics in this country were never implicated in acts of terrorism that resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocents. I point out that in Ireland, from which my ancestors hail, saw some terrorist acts by Catholics affiliated with the Irish Republican Army - by and large, though, such acts have been denounced by Catholic Church hierarchy. Where have been the "moderate" imams who should have denounced loudly those terrorist acts (and subsequent ones)?
Is Father aware that the imam of this mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, has ties with Hamas? Mr. Rauf is presdient of the Cordoba Initiative. Does Father understand the symbolic significance of the word "Cordoba" in Muslim culture? I urge one and all (Father particularly!) to study this last link, as it does a very good job of pointing out that Islam isn't just about a person's "relationship with Allah", but also an entire cultural imperative that all the world be subject to this false god and Sharia law or face extinction. The article also reminds us of the significance in the Islamic culture of building mosques in "conquered territory". Might that not be at play here? If not, then why, oh why, is the opening slated for September 11, 2011??
I now must object to Father's objections about "sensitivity". Ad infinitum, ad naseum, the American citizenry at large is badgered into being "sensitive" to this minority or that special interest group. Catholics at large have also been called upon for such "sensitivity", and have often complied (rightly or wrongly). For example, how many remember the controversy about the Carmelite convent very close to the Auschwitz Nazi death camps in Poland? The Jews were outraged. Pope John Paul II relocated that convent - out of respect to the Jews who did lose loved ones at the camp.
Now when some consideration is being asked on behalf of the families of those killed in the 9/11 attacks, Father pooh-poohs that request. That said, I think there are larger issues at stake here, issues that Father ignores.
A reminder.. One reason for the existence of this blog, and of the earlier website, was that I found puzzling the Standard's cessation of its "letters to the editor" feature. It ended at the time that Cardinal McCarrick made plain that he would not adhere to Canon 915. I know for a fact (yes, inside information!) that hundreds of letters poured into the Standard's offices (mine being amongst them) - yet not one saw print. I cannot believe that I'm the only one aghast by Father's article. If anyone would like to write a "letter to the editor" for the Standard, please feel free to do so in the comment section here. They do read this blog!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
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This priest's columns have a wider circulation than DC Catholic Standard and usually you can find them even when they disappear from the standard. This one can only be found on his website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sjvc.us/ParishDiary/aaaParishDiaryIndex.htm
After Bishop Wuerl's trumpeting of the "new" evengelization, I was surprised by the moral equivalence given to church & mosque, priest & Iman, the Islamic holy book (the Koran) & the Bible.
Neither Jesus Christ nor His Father is mentioned in the column, but "faith" communities live in peace.
Considering the state of war that exists and has existed since I can remember going back to the gasoline shortages that were provoked by the U.S. defending Israel during the Yom Kippur War, through the hostage crisis that wrecked Jimmy Carter's presidency, not to mention one of my earliest memories being the 1968 Olympics and massacre of Jewish athletes by Muslim terrorists, it is hard to understand what Fr. Daly calls "peace".
He says the Iman is a doctor, apparently forgetting the Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Hasan, charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, Nov 5, 2009.
He calls the Iman a "gentleman",apparently forgetting the notorious "southern gentleman."
He calls the Iman "friend" apparently not knowing that friends tell each other the truth. Who does the Iman say Jesus is? Who does Fr. Peter say He is? Or doesn't Fr. Peter say? Does Peter hide the light under a bushel basket and keep the good news to himself? What a friend both Jesus and the Iman have in Fr. Peter.
Perhaps Fr. Peter is a shill for his fairy godfather McCarrick, the champion of Muslims and advisor to Obama and Pelosi.
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/signs.cfm?signid=494
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=muslims+mccarrick&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
Thank you for the links; they're very helpful.
ReplyDeleteTo jog some memories: In 2005, Cardinal McCarrick addressed the King of Jordan when he visited. This address took place at Catholic University. In this address, the Cardinal invoked "allah" 3 times, while invoking Jesus Christ not once. The text of the address was pulled from the CU website. Somehow I knew they would do that, so I cached it and posted it to the website. Here's that link: http://www.restore-dc-catholicism.com/Cardinal%20invokes%20allah.htm. You have to read it to believe it.
RDCC,
ReplyDeleteAllah and God the Father are the same. Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God. Jews trace their lineage to Abraham through Isaac and worship the God of Abraham. Muslims trace their lineage to Abraham through Ishmael and worship the God of Abraham. Similarly, we Christians worship the God of Abraham. Allah=God the Father.
The fact that there are radical Muslims who espouse violent jihad does not mean that all adherents to Islam espouse the same violence; in fact, the majority of Muslims do not.
Folks need to stop deluding themselves into believing that Islam and Christianity worship the same Deity. They do not. We Christians worship the Triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Why the denial of two of the three Persons of the Trinity?
ReplyDeleteWhether or not some Muslims oppose violence has nothing to do with the Ground Zero Mosque. The tentative imam of the thing has Hamas ties - thus ties to radical jihad. I will not let that point be obfuscated.
Thanks much for pointing out the naivete of Father Daly. You make an excellent point regarding Catholics not ever having been implicated in terrorist plots.
ReplyDeleteI would add that the right to construct a place of worship is not an absolute one. Zoning laws come into play here and one simply doesn't have the right to build a mosque or a church wherever you want. I think the news that one of the mosque's supporters has funded terrorists probably came out after he went to press with his article.
I agree that it is unfortunate that the Catholic Standard did not choose to publish Fr. Daly's column on "The mosque controversy" online - since it is a piece well worth reading. Fr. Daly recalls the persecution faced by Catholics in the United States in years past - and points out the very striking similarities between the arguments used against Catholics in the 19th century and the arguments used today against the "Ground Zero Mosque".
ReplyDeleteBut I am puzzled why you would use the Restore DC Catholicism Blog as the forum to air your disagreement Fr. Daly's column. I did not notice that Fr. Daly contained even any hint that Catholicism and Islam are equally good, or that Muslims should be admitted to receive Holy Communion, or any other heresy or contradiction of the Church's teaching. Instead, Fr. Daly is proposing that we adopt a position of tolerance toward Muslims in this country - which I think is in keeping with the best of both the Catholic and American traditions of religious freedom.
As pro-lifers, we should recall that Muslims have often been our natural allies in the fight against abortion - which violates the sanctity of human life - and contraception - which violates the sanctity of marriage. To be sure, Muslims may have a long way to go in recognizing the proper dignity of women, but should we wish to influence them for the better on this issue - I hardly think that will be accomplished by denying Muslims in this country the rights that are supposedly guaranteed to them by our Constitution - or by sending our armed forces half-way around the globe to occupy, bomb, and pillage Muslim countries.
These days it seems that there are all too many people eager to lend a hand at the Devil's work of sowing enmity between Christians and Muslims. I pray that you not be among them.
Anonymous from a few minutes ago, you miss many points. No one argues the constitutional right for this mosque to be built. The question is whether or not it is DECENT for them to do so. Lest we forget, the Twin Towers were destroyed by Muslims, who killed several thousand people that day. Do you understand that this tentative imam has Hamas ties? Have you been following the funding questions regarding this thing? Do you understand the cultural significance to Islam that builing a mosque in "conquered terriroty" entails? Now, most importantly, do the foregoing questions MATTER to you (and Father Daly)? As far as I'm concerned, it is absolutely immoral to ignore these matters. Yes, enmity is being sown, but not by Yours Truly and those who raise honest objections to the mosque. It is being sown by those who kill en masse, by the so-called "moderates" who do not denounce publicly and by name the terrorists, and by those who insist on wearing the rose-colored glasses of so-called "tolerance" so that they don't have to state truth and pay the price for doing so.
ReplyDeleteDear Restore-DC-Catholicism:
ReplyDeleteFeisal Abdul Rauf, the Sufi imam leading the "Park51" project (a.k.a. "Ground Zero Mosque") has publicly condemned the 9/11 terrorist attacks as "un-Islamic". Rauf has founded two non-profit organizations whose stated missions are to enhance the discourse on Islam in society. He has worked to build bridges between American society, the American Muslim community and the wider Muslim world.
I suppose that the only thing that would satisfy his critics would be if Rauf and his congregation were to renounce Islam altogether.
You write of "decency". But was it decent for the United States to goad Saddam Hussein into a war against Iran - a war that cost the Iran upwards of 500,000 casualties and Iraq 300,000? Was it decent for U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Madeline Albright to say "we think the price is worth it" when informed in 1996 that half a million Iraqi children have died as a result of U.S.-imposed sanctions?
Is it decent for the U.S. to be supporting the Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza - a collective punishment for the audacity of the Palestinians to choose Hamas in free parliamentary elections in January 2006? Was it decent for the U.S. in March 2003 to invade and occupy Iraq - a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 terrorist attacks and neither had issued any not posed any threat to the U.S? That war has thus far caused over 100,000 civilian deaths. Is it decent for the U.S. to continue its occupation and bombing of Afghanistan?
So while Gaza starves and Iraq and Afghanistan bleed - per U.S. government policy, you demand that the Muslims be sensitive and decent. Where are the condemnations of the atrocities committed in our name against Muslim populations?
It seems to me that your complaint against Fr. Daly and the Catholic Standard is merely that they do not share your particular selective indignation.
Sincerely,
Leszek Syski
(For the record, the 9/5, 4:32 p.m. comment is also mine.)
Dear Leszek-
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your compassion. But it is truly misguided. I too know many lovely Muslims. I might suggest that you do some research on the Islamic religion. Read the Quran. Please understand that you and I are considered "infidels" by the Islamic "religion" and either we need to convert to the Islamic
religion or have our heads cut off. This is Sharia Law. Sharia Law is supposed to be taught at the ground zero mosque. Do you know about Sharia Law ? Please look into what Sharia Law is. It is already here. For instance, in Minnenapolis the Muslims that work in grocery stores will not check out bacon or beer.
This is not a peaceful loving religion. Their founder was a murderer and a pedophile. He married a 6 year old. He cut off numerous heads of people he considered infidels. Randall Terry is doing a series you might want to look at. Again I would suggest you read the Quran and read history.
Take a close look at the front page article of the August 9th Time Magazine. If you are on Facebook I put the picture on there or you can go on line. I must say that the real Time magazine cover because of its size, is so sickening that grown men are strongly effected by seeing this deformed young woman's picture.
This beautiful 18 year old pictured was sold into marriage, the family abused her, she ran away and was hunted down by her husband and other men. When caught they cut her ears off and her nose leaving her for dead. She is now in hiding. That is Sharia Law. Learn about it. The women are the ones that are treated less than human. The women are forced to wear burkas. Beaten and raped if one's husband wants to, and sold into marriage between 6 and 9 years old. Again, look on my Facebook and see the video of 467 little girls ages 6 years
old to 9 wearing wedding gowns with makeup on having been sold into marriage by their fathers for $500 to grown men that will have sex with them by the time they are 9 years of age. How sick is that? Listen to the interview about when a child will be ready to have sex and the leading expert in Sharia Law says between 7 and 9 years old.
The purpose of the Ground Zero Mosque is to show the world the Islamic victory with 9-11. Study history. This is exactly what the Islamic religion has historically done: build where they have been victorious. They feel the attack was a victory for them. We are bound to repeat history if we don't study it.
The amount of ignorance about this violent religion is overwhelming. For all of our sakes please find out about this religion founded to do away with Christians and Jews.
RDCC,
ReplyDeleteYou are incorrect when you say that Islam considers Catholics "infidels" who "either need to convert to Islam or have our heads cut off." Jews and Christians are considered People of the Book. Islam does not mandate that Christians and Jews, as protected people, must convert or be killed. In fact, Jews and Christians may continue to practice their religion if they submit to Islamic governance and agree to pay a higher tax. This does not appeal to me in the slightest, but it is important to be accurate.
Dear Leszek Syski,
ReplyDeleteYour name is Polish, yes?
Ok for Nazis to have built a memorial to their evil next to the concentration camps?
You seem ignorant of history, sir, and confused. Seek the truth.