There’s been a big to-do in diplomatic circles the last couple days over Pope Benedict’s omission of Israel in a list of places that have suffered terrorist attacks recently. Pope Benedict condemned recent terror attacks in in England, Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq.
That set off the Israeli government that said he “deliberately” failed to mention a suicide bombing on July 12 in Israel. The whole thing was over-the-top with Israel claiming the omission “grant[ed] legitimacy to terrorist attacks on Jews.” What? Is this just a thinly veiled reference to the Pope’s German background and the controversy over his putative membership in the Hitler Youth and brief stint in the German army?
The Vatican says that the attacks the Pope specifically mentioned had occurred within the previous 72 hours before his comments, while the Israel attack took place 12 days before. In fact, there are terrorist attacks all over the world all the time. The Pope didn’t mention recent attacks on Catholics in Northern Ireland, nor did he mention the murder of a priest in Colombia. Does this mean he’s granting legitimacy to attacks on Catholics? Of course not.
OK, I bought my 10 Tix today, and Jeanne is stopping by Peter’s house to pick up the tickets!
Who else is going?????
Oh, if you cannot go, why not buy tickets anyway. It is a great event to support.
If you show, we can play frisbee with the lethal “vocations office” frisbees.
Hey Dom: How about 2pm at the CatholictotheMax table? Joe
Joe,
I can’t make any promises. I’m going to be running around videotaping everything. Let’s try to do that. Otherwise, look for me in my Bettnet shirt.