Deliberately Misdirected Sermon.

by Steven Shamrak

Pope Benedict XVI has used his traditional Christmas Midnight Mass to call for an end to "hatred and violence" in the Middle East, implying that it is all Israel's fault by saying "hearts will be opened, so borders will be opened". 

He said nothing about the fact that Christians living in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip are holding only small, quiet Christmas celebrations after local leaders received warnings from Muslim groups against any public display of Christianity this holiday season. He was silent about the fact that Bethlehem has become a Muslim city because Christians have been driven away by Muslim violence and intimidation, which has dramatically increased since the PA took over Judea. He also forgot to pray for the Christmas who have been killed in Iraq and are persecuted through all Islamic world.

For perverse reasons, based of two millennium history, Israel - the Holy Land which the Pope is in no hurry to visit, while playing all sort of political mind games - is the highest concern of the Church and his Holiness! He has said nothing about the suffering of the Jews, especially the children of Sderot, from Islamic terror. There was no attempt to make confession for the past demonic deeds the Church has inflicted upon Jews. The Church made Apologies: to Australian aborigines; to Africans for slavery, which the Catholic Church made legal; to the victims of abuse by priests and nuns. But a whole-hearted and unadulterated apology to Jews is not in the mind of the Church. So much for the Christmas time. Reconciliation for all but not for Jews!

This article is written not as an anti-Catholic or anti-Christian statement. It is a call for true reconciliation and partnership. We are facing a global threat from expansionism. We are all in their target list - Israel is the first entry! Most Jews feel that the word "reconciliation", which has become so fashionable now in the Vatican, is not meant for Jews. Please, prove us wrong!

Vatican Denies Pope's Deathbed Prayer. The Vatican denied that Pope John XXIII wrote a deathbed "prayer for the Jews" in which he asked God's forgiveness for Christian anti-Jewish persecution over the centuries. Rev. Lombardi, the director of Vatican Radio, said that "historical truth is more than sufficient" to appreciate this without resorting to fiction. (The "Historical truth" of the Vatican attitude toward Jews is ugly! What about Catholic tradition of confession of sins? Well, it is not applicable when Jews are concerned!)