Post by rieom on Dec 3, 2019 17:22:39 GMT
Note: Outrageous as usual but now has pulled Christians into his focus of hate.
BY: THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.
Pope Francis blasted religious fundamentalism Monday, telling an Argentinian interreligious dialogue group that fundamentalism is a “plague.”
“Beware of the fundamentalist groups: everyone has his own. In Argentina too there is a little fundamentalist corner,” the pope told his hearers. “And let us try, with fraternity, to go forward. Fundamentalism is a scourge and all religions have some kind of fundamentalist first cousin there, which forms a group.”
The pope took pains to show that it is not just Muslim extremists who practice violent fanaticism, citing historical instances of Christian fanaticism and religiously motivated violence, such as the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre and a scene of forced conversion from the Chanson de Roland.
“It is important to demonstrate that we believers are a factor of peace for human societies, and that we will thus respond to those who unjustly accuse religions of fomenting hatred and being the cause of violence,” he said.
In his address, the pope repeated his 2016 assertion that all religions are equally prone to violence and that Islam and Christianity are much the same in this regard.
When asked by a reporter about the “barbarous assassination” of Fr. Jacques Hamel who was clearly “killed in the name of Islam” by two radicalized Muslims in northern France, the pope answered that he doesn’t like speaking about Islamic violence because there is plenty of Christian violence as well.