Pope Canonizes Saints, Reporter Gets the Vapors (UPDATED)

from Stand Firm by David Fischler http://reformedpastor.wordpress.com

NBC News today provides a wonderful example pf why the mainstream media should not be trusted with religion stories. Seems Pope Francis held a canonization Sunday as the Roman Catholic Church recognized 800 new saints, the largest such mass canonization ever. The 800 were martyrs from the 15th century, and they were killed by–whisper it–Muslims:

Pope Francis canonized more than 800 Catholics in Saint Peter’s Square Sunday – the largest number to be elevated to sainthood at once in the history of the Catholic Church.
The choice of some of the new saints was also striking, touching on the already-fragile relationship between Christianity and Islam.

The new saints included hundreds of laymen from the southern Italian port town of Otranto who were slain in the 15th century by the invading Ottoman Turkish army after they refused to convert to Islam.

In 1480, after conquering Constantinople – modern day Istanbul - the Ottoman Sultan Mohammed II planned to invade Rome, and Otranto became his army’s port of entrance into Italy.

The local population fought back in a week-long siege, putting up a brave but hopeless resistance. When Ottoman soldiers finally overrun the town, they were ordered to kill every man over the age of 15 who refused to convert to Islam.

More than 800 resisted, locking themselves up into the town’s Cathedral. Their ringleader, local shoemaker Antonio Primaldo, was first to be beheaded. According to local legend, his headless body remained standing until the last of his fellow townspeople was killed.

Since then, Primaldo and his townsfolk, who chose to die rather than betray their Catholic faith, have been hailed as martyrs. Their bones and skulls – proudly on display behind glass walls in the Cathedral of Otranto – are well-known Catholic relics and a popular pilgrimage destination.
But the choice to highlight their sacrifice may put a strain on the already fragile relationship between the Catholic Church and Islam.

Ever since his election, Pope Francis has called for greater dialogue between Christianity and other religions, in particular Islam. And so far, he has acted on that promise. He washed the feet of a young Muslim woman jailed in a juvenile prison on Holy Thursday, and reached out to the many “Muslim brothers and sisters” during his first Good Friday procession.

So why risk creating yet another inter-faith row with a celebration which some in the Muslim world may be [sic] seen as a provocation?

Please note: no where in this article is there any evidence that anyone in the Muslim world even knows about this ceremony, much less takes it as a “provocation.” That is purely the imagination of the reporter, Claudio Lavanga, at work. It’s almost like the reporter wants to see demonstrations, riots, and who knows, maybe even a scattered assault on an American consulate to protest this latest outrage by the West.

The answer is that it wasn’t Pope Francis’ choice in the first place. The decision to canonize the hundreds of Otranto martyrs was rubber-stamped by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, on Feb. 11 - the same day he announced his resignation.

It was an uncomfortable parting gift for his successor, who now faces an uphill struggle to rekindle ties with Islam.

And here the reporter demonstrates that he doesn’t understand the canonization process. He apparently thinks it’s some kind of political show, so that the Vatican can send subtle diplomatic messages to the home countries (or in this case, killers) of the saints. The recognition of saints in the RC church isn’t about politics, it’s about acknowledging that certain individuals are now in heaven. You can approve of that process and conclusion or not (and certainly I disagree with the theology behind it), but it is about theology, not who may or may not like it (just ask Jews about the canonization of Edith Stein if you doubt me).

Tell you what, NBC. I’m not Catholic, so no one could question my essential objectivity. How about sending meto Rome to cover the Vatican? I understand the Catholic Church, and could report on their activities and pronouncements on their own terms, instead of seeing everything through the lens of politics. I certainly couldn’t do any worse than your man in Italy.

UPDATE: Right after posting this, I had another thought (unlike the reporter). Do you suppose it ever occurred to Lavanga to wonder why Muslims might consider this a “provocation”? After all, Muslims have been flogging their grievances about the Crusades for centuries. Here’s an example of a historically verified act of Muslim atrocity, undertaken in the course of a war of aggression. The Catholic Church has chosen to recognize, not a political statement, but an act of religious faithfulness on the part of some of its own members in an incident that took place over 500 years ago. Why should Muslims have a problem with that? Or why, if they do, should it not be pointed out to them that this is in small part a matter of balancing the historical scales a bit? Or why not just tell them to suck it up and get over it? Instead, Lavanga is worried that “some” Muslims might get their panties in a bunch over something that, at its heart, doesn’t concern them. Why is that even worth speculating about?