Pope Speaks for Religious Freedom

Pope Benedict XVI has called on Pakistan to repeal its blasphemy laws, which can carry a death sentence for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

He said the laws served as a pretext for acts of injustice and violence against religious minorities.

The Pope referred to Pakistani governor Salman Taseer, whose assassination last week was blamed on his support for changes to the blasphemy laws.

A bodyguard of Mr Taseer has confessed in court to his killing.

Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri told the Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi that he had acted alone in the attack.

The Pope made his remarks in a new year address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican.

"I once more encourage the leaders of that country [Pakistan] to take the necessary steps to abrogate that law," he said.

"The tragic murder of the governor of Punjab shows the urgent need to make progress in this direction," he added.

The Pope also condemned anti-Christian attacks in Egypt and Iraq, saying they showed "the urgent need for governments of the region to adopt... effective measures for the protection of religious minorities".

The BBC's David Willey in Rome says it was one of the Pope's most robust defences yet of religious freedom.
Source:BBC

Pope Calls for Repeal of Islamic Blasphemy Laws

The Pope has called for a ban on the brutal and inhumane sharia. he seeks a ban on the blasphemy laws (know as "islamophobia" in the West.) Christians are being slaughtered, ethnically cleansed, in Muslim countries under the guise of "dont not insult Islam."

After last week's assassination of Pakistan's Governor Salaam Taseer critical of Islamic blasphemy laws, the jihadi was showered with rose petals. Taseer had spoke out in defense of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy and calling for the law to be struck down. Muslims went berserk. His assassin, Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri, has been hailed as a hero by many in Pakistan.

Tens of thousands of Muslims marched in Pakistan's largest city in support of Islamic law, support for blasphemy laws. Death for blasphemers is Islamic law and cannot be changed. That is Islamic law. Any attempt to reinterpret or reform Islam is "hypocrisy" ...... also punishable by death. Last month, five Christians were murdered in a week under Pakistan's blasphemy law.

Islamic countries have used blasphemy laws to oppress, annihilate and subjugate non-Muslims for centuries. A Muslim only has to make the accusation. Last month, a Doctor was charged with blasphemy merely for throwing out a business card of a man who shares the name of Islam's prophet, Muhammad.Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, was sentenced to death last month for insulting Islam. The law is often used to settle grudges, persecute minorities and fan the Islamic devout.

Salman Taseer's daughter Sara: "This is a message to every liberal to shut up or be shot"
Atlas Shrugs

UK Update: Six Muslims Arrested on Pope Assassination Plot

UK: Police arrest five Misunderstanders of Islam in plot to kill Pope

They no doubt want to kill him because of his Regensberg address, in which he quoted the 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologos: "He said, I quote, `Show me just what (Islamic Prophet) Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'" And so to prove that Muhammad didn't bring what was evil and inhuman, they want to murder the Pope.

That'll show us, all right.

"Pope visit: Five suspected Islamist terrorists arrested over assassination plot," by Duncan Gardham in the Telegraph, September 17 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):
Police have arrested five suspected Islamist terrorists planning to assassinate the Pope.

The men were arrested during raids at 5.45am at a business premises in central London based on an intelligence tip off received overnight.

The suspects, aged 26, 27, 36, 40 and 50 were arrested by officers from Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

They are said to be from a variety of nationalities including a number of Algerian origin.

The men have been taken to a central London police station where they will be interviewed by detectives.

Searches are being carried out under the Terrorism Act 2000 at the business premises and at residential premises in north and east London....

Child Abuse Scandal Comes Closer to the Pope

The latest allegation is of abuse in the 1970s at a school near Mainz. At an elite Benedictine school in Ettal, in Bavaria, in the 1960s “absolute terror reigned”, says one victim. At a children’s home in Berlin, the perpetrator was a nun, claims a 60-year-old woman. Other scandals have surfaced in Austria and the Netherlands.

The Regensburg allegations come near Pope Benedict XVI. His brother, Georg Ratzinger, led the “cathedral sparrows” for 30 years from 1964. He has confessed to slapping children but said he knew nothing of sexual abuse. Mr Wittenbrink finds this claim “inexplicable”.
Source: The Economist

Pope Confers with Abuse Victims from Boston

Pope Meets Abuse Victims from Boston

Michael Paulson, Boston.com

WASHINGTON - Pope Benedict XVI, in a dramatic and unprecedented move, held an emotional meeting yesterday with five people from Boston who had been sexually abused by priests.

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The 25-minute gathering, in a small chapel at the Embassy Row mansion that is the home of the pope's US ambassador, came toward the close of the third straight day that the 81-year-old pontiff, on his first visit to the United States, spoke out about the sexual abuse crisis that has roiled the Catholic Church in this country.

The private session, described last night by several people who were present, was punctuated by frequent emotion. Many of the participants cried. They all prayed. And one by one, each of the victims spoke alone with the pope, holding his hands, whispering in his ears, and telling him their stories of wounded bodies and broken faith.

Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, who pushed for the meeting after the pope decided not to include Bos ton in his US itinerary, gave the pope an oversize hand-sewn book made of color-washed paper in which a calligrapher had written the names of nearly 1,500 men and women from the Boston area who have reported being sexually abused by priests over the last six decades.

"I asked him to forgive me for hating his church and hating him," said Olan Horne, 48, of Lowell, who gave the pope a picture of himself as a 9-year-old boy, just before the Rev. Joseph E. Birmingham started molesting him. "He said, 'My English isn't good, but I want you to know that I can understand you, and I think I can understand your sorrow.' "

The meeting between a pope and abuse victims, which was first reported yesterday by the Globe on Boston.com and later confirmed by the Vatican, is a historic development, not only in the three-year-old pontificate of Benedict, but also in the clergy sexual abuse crisis that has roiled the Catholic Church since 2002, when the Globe began publishing a series of stories about the church's handling of abuse by priests. Immediately after yesterday's meeting, the tone of the reaction to Benedict began to shift.

"It certainly feels good to know that the leader of our church finally has acknowledged responsibility in such a personal way," said James E. Post, a former president of Voice of the Faithful, an organization headquartered in Newton, Mass., advocating change in the church. "Now, every bishop in America has a model to follow. There are many steps yet to be taken, and much to be done to obtain justice for every survivor, but an important step was taken today."