Lifesitenews Faith and Reason Podcast Episode 16: Threats of Violence over Dobbs Decision, Is Pope Francis Retiring? Christian Persecution and Genocide in Nigeria
SHOW NOTES/ LINKS TO STORIES
A. IS POPE BERGOGLIO RETIRING?
Reading the signs of possible retirement: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/3-signs-pope-francis-might-be-preparing-to-resign/ar-AAYaRTQ
2.Visit to Pope Celestine V grave
https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-benedict-xvi-religion-2186d6d10d27c67d5154197e50fc590e
3. Radical appointments to the Curia: Like Biden,
https://www.gloria.tv/post/4zYP9PaUo47XCBsjqvfwAdoF4
4.Changing face of the College of Cardinals: Like Biden
https://www.ncregister.com/cna/why-this-august-s-extraordinary-consistory-of-cardinals-is-significant
5. Radical Cardinal appointments:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-appoints-pro-lgbt-anti-latin-mass-cardinals-to-congregation-for-divine-worship/
6. Crackdown on traditional Orders in
France. Vatican bans ordinations:
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/rome-bans-ordinations-in-toulon/
7. Archbishop of Toulouse, Msgr. De Kerimel informed the seminarians.
No wearing of Cassocks.At the same time as the suspension of ordinations in Toulon was made public, another decision—apparently anecdotal—also aroused the indignation of some French Catholics. Archbishop of Toulouse, Mgr. de Kerimel, just informed the seminarians of his diocese that they are henceforth forbidden to wear the cassock.
https://www.lesalonbeige.fr/mgr-de-kerimel-a-peur-de-la-soutane/
6. Bishop McElroy’s horrifying record on homosexuality and abortion.
B. UPTICK OF VIOLENCE AGAINST THE SUPREME COURT AND PRO LIFE CENTERS AND CATHOLIC CHURCHES
Breaking ARmed man arrested at l:30 a.m. near Cavanaughs home threatening Kavanaugh, wanted to kill him. He also had burglar tools. THE LEFT WANTS VIOLENCE.
COLORADO BISHOPS ISSUED A DIRECTIVE TYELLING PRO ABORT STATE LAWMAKERS NOT TO RECEIVE COMMNIONS UNLESS THEY REPENT OF THEIR MORTAL SIN AGAINST UNBORN BABIES.
TOPLESS PROTEST AT WNBA GAME TO STOP ROE REVERSAL. ABORTION ON DEMAND WITHOUT APOLOGY PLANNED AT BARCLAY CENTER IN NYC. “SHUT THE COUNTRY DOWN.” THEY EVEN HAVE THEIR OWN COLOR WEAR GREEN.
Jane’s Revenge
3. Kamala Harris threats on Pro Life Dobbs Decision: “Our collective charge at this moment is to fight.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/kamala-activates-leftist-shock-troops-upcoming-abortion-ruling-collective-charge-moment-fight-everything-got-video/
4. Rod Dreyer tweet re: warning to Catholic Church.
https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1532590905605214208?s=20&t=8BLqvj5_FLN-ndqULUoK8Q
5. Left threatens to Shut down the SCOTUS
https://freebeacon.com/courts/shut-it-down-radical-leftwing-group-plans-to-blockade-supreme-court/
6. Joe Biden invites Abortion Activists to White House.
7. Radical Abortion Activists Invade Church Service
C. ISLAMIC PERSECUTION AND GENOCIDE AGAINST NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS AND CATHOLICS
C.Nigeria Massacre at Pentecost Mass
Chibok girls 2014
Amnesty International estimated in 2015 that at least 2,000 women and girls had been abducted by the Islamic terrorist group since 2014, many of whom had been forced into sexual slavery.[1
Population of Nigeria is 216,000,000
20 million catholics.
Religion in Nigeria (the most populous African country with a population of over 200 million in 2018) is diverse.[3] Nigeria's constitution ensures freedom of religion[4] and the country is home to some of the world's largest Muslim and Christian populations, simultaneously.[5] Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Muslims, who live mostly in the north, and Christians, who live mostly in the south; indigenous religions, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities, are in the minority.[6] The Christian share of Nigeria's population is on decline due to lower fertility rate compared to Muslims in the north.[7]
Religion in Nigeria (est. 2018)[1]
Muslim (53.5%)
Christian (45.9%)
Other (0.6%)
According to a 2018 estimate in The World Factbook by the CIA, the population is estimated to be 53.5% Muslim, 45.9% Christian (10.6% Roman Catholic and 35.3% other Christian), and 0.6% as other.[1] In a 2019 report released by Pew Research Center in 2015 the Muslim population was estimated to be 50% while the Christian population was estimated to be 48.1%.[19]
Nigeria has the largest Christian population in Africa though Christians are about 48% of the population.[48] According to a 2011 Pew report, over 80 million Nigerians are Christians. Among Christians, about a quarter are Catholic, three quarters are Protestant, and about 750,000 belong to other Christian denominations and a few of them are Orthodox Christians.[49][1]
1.Nigeria Bloodbath on Pentecost
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251458/nigeria-catholic-church-attack
https://www.catholicleague.org/news-of-catholic-massacre-in-nigeria-is-tainted/
2. The genocidal war against Christians in Nigeria
Pope Francis and the Nigerian bishops are refusing to name Muslim Fulani herdsmen as the gunmen who slaughtered over 70 Catholics in St. Francis Xavier Church, Ondo, on Pentecost Sunday.
The pontiff's second-in-command, Cdl. Pietro Parolin, told Bp. Jude Arogundade of Ondo in a telegram sent Monday that Francis was praying for "the conversion of those blinded by hatred and violence so that they will choose instead the path of peace and righteousness."
Episcopal Fudge
Arogundade's office issued a public statement hours after the slaughter, calling the attackers "unknown gunmen" and stating that "the identity of the perpetrators remains unknown," even though eyewitnesses identified the four assailants as Fulani herdsmen.
On Monday, Cdl. John Onaiyekan, former archbishop of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, told Vatican Radio, "We should avoid saying this is foolhardy Muslims killing Catholic Christians" in order to avoid "profiling."
While the cardinal acknowledged that eyewitnesses had confirmed the perpetrators were Muslim herdsmen, he cautioned that "civil and government authorities have said that we should not rush to conclusions" but "should wait for their investigation."
The cardinal admitted it was impossible to prevent people from "having a sense of feeling that they are attacked because they are Christians" when an attack is perpetrated against a church on a Sunday.
Speaking to Church Militant, international consultant on Islamic persecution of Christians Dr. Martin Parsons confirmed that the attack had all "the hallmarks of a major Islamist inspired attack — including specific targeting of churches during prominent Christian festivals."
"While it is unusual for such attacks to take place in the southwest of Nigeria," observed Parsons, "suspicion inevitably falls on Fulani and Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province jihadists."
Since 2018, the Fulani have been killing more people than Boko Haram — once the world's deadliest terrorist organization. Whilst Western media outlets continue to claim that this is a conflict between nomadic herders (Fulani) and settled farmers (the Middle Belt villages), the truth is somewhat more disturbing.
The overwhelming majority of victims are Christians and adherents of African traditional religions; the overwhelming majority of perpetrators are Fulani Muslims. Even before northern Nigeria was annexed by the British in 1900–1903, Fulani Muslims would go on slave-raiding jihads to places even further in the southwest than Owo.
Damage to Dialogue
Robert Spencer, historian of Islam and author of 23 books on Islam and the Middle East, told Church Militant that "the pope and the Vatican are afraid to name the perpetrators of the church massacre because to do so would interfere with the false narrative they have been propagating regarding Islam."
Francis has claimed that "authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Qur'an reject every form of violence." When Muslims commit acts of violence in the name of Islam and in accord with its authentic teachings, the pope is backed into a corner.
He has to ignore the theological root causes of the massacre and obfuscate the identity of the perpetrators or admit that his rosy view of Islam, the basis for his entire enterprise of "dialogue," is based on false premises.
https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/2020/02/28/Stop-the-Christian-Genocide-in-Nigeria
3. Ngo’s working in Nigeria:
InternationalChristianConcern.org
https://www.persecution.org/2022/06/05/dozens-killed-sunday-church-attack-nigeria/
ChristianPersecution.com
Aid to the Church in Need
Open Doors
Enada, a Nigerian Christian who fled to the U.S. several years ago after his cousin was killed, warned that violence occurring across multiple regions in the country, including the rise of terrorist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast, is impacting millions.
He said, "religiously motivated killings are ongoing and millions of people are displaced, and teenage girls are sold as sex slaves by the religious extremists."
"The issue of terrorism and other militant activities that have engulfed Nigeria in the past 10 years is as a result of state failure and lack of accountability," he argues.
Nina Shea, the director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, told CP in an email that "the State Department has missed the big picture of vulnerable Christian minorities of northern Nigeria being repeatedly attacked and driven from their villages by Muslim extremists and their agents who act with complete impunity."
"Authorities fail to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of these large-scale atrocities, and moreover prosecute and threaten local journalists who report on them," she stated.
"There's an incomprehensible gap between the State Department's reporting and what desperate Christians on the ground are reporting to religious freedom advocates here. This gap reflects State's overreliance on sources that it and [United States Agency for International Development] funds, which in turn push a political narrative favored by State. That narrative says that northern violence is driven by a conflict over a scarcity of resources as a result of climate change."
Sam Brownback, who served as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom in the Trump administration and is the former governor of Kansas, was one of the first religious freedom advocates who condemned Nigeria's removal from the CPC list last fall.
"The sudden removal of Nigeria from the CPC list is a serious blow to religious freedom in both Nigeria and across the region," he said. "Just when we should be doing everything possible to stop the relentless violence that's targeting Christians and others, we do the opposite."
"This rewards the Nigerian government for tolerating severe religious freedom violations and sends a message to extremists that their actions will continue to go unpunished," he added. "People of faith in Nigeria will bear the fallout of this decision, and that's unacceptable."
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan panel tasked with advising the State Department and Congress about religious freedom matters, was critical of Nigeria's removal from the CPC list.
"USCIRF is especially displeased with the removal of Nigeria from its CPC designation, where it was rightfully placed [in 2020]," USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza said at the time.
The State Department's report offered praise to the Nigerian government for its response to the religious violence in the country.
"President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo regularly condemned attacks on places of worship and those attempting to exploit religious differences," the report reads. "Buhari regularly consulted with key Muslim and Christian leaders and celebrated both official Christian and Muslim holidays."
The report pointed to a Feb. 15 statement from Buhari asking religious leaders and government officials to "join hands with the Federal Government to ensure that communities in their domain are not splintered along ethnic and other primordial lines" as evidence of the government's support for religious freedom. Additionally, Buhari vowed that his "government will protect all … religious groups, whether majority or minority, in line with its responsibility under the constitution."
The report also commented on Nigeria's removal from the CPC list, saying that Blinken "determined that Nigeria did not meet the criteria" to remain on the list or be even added to the State Department's second-tier "Special Watch List."
Open Doors USA, an organization that monitors persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Nigeria as the seventh worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution. The religious freedom advocacy group Release International included Nigeria on a list of countries where Christian persecution was expected to worsen in 2022.
A newly-launched joint report by the International Committee on Nigeria and the International Organisation for Peace Building and Social Justice has asserted that Nigeria is currently experiencing genocide, describing the nation as “a failed state.”
The report, titled, “Nigeria’s Silent Slaughter,” stated that no fewer than 43,242 Nigerians have been killed by Boko Haram and Islamic State insurgents while 18,834 others lost their lives in the hands of killer Fulani herdsmen over a 20-year period.
It added that 34,233 other Nigerians met their deaths through extrajudicial killings by other actors, including the police, military and others.
According to Punch, the report lamented what it described as the “breakdown of the rule of law, spiraling violence, atrocities against targeted religious groups and innocent civilians and the apparent impunity of the perpetrators” in Nigeria.
According to the report, the combination of these factors contributed to transform Nigeria into “largely a failed state and regional epicentre for terrorism.”
The authors of the report added that their assertion found support in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide.
“There is strong evidence and a compelling legal argument that over the past decade or so, and increasingly under the current Fulani Muslim-dominated Nigerian government of Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria is experiencing what could be seen as targeted religious genocide, or what, at the very least, is widespread and often coordinated religious persecution campaigns being conducted against Christians,” the report stated in its introduction overview signed by the Executive President of ICON, Stephen Enada, and Executive Director, PSI, Dr Richard Ikiebe.
In its foreword, the report published a November 24, 2019 letter by a member of the House of Lords, United Kingdom, Baroness Caroline Cox, calling on the international community to recognise the crisis in Nigeria as typical genocide, while accusing the Nigerian government of pampering killer Fulani herdsmen.
“While the Nigerian administration has taken steps to counter Boko Haram insurgency, it has not demonstrated the same commitment to tackle the escalating violence perpetrated by Fulani militants.
“Finally, given the Nigerian government’s apparent complicity in the persecution of Christians, international aid should be curtailed until they protect and provide for their own citizens of any belief.”
Also in the foreword, a retired American congressman, Frank Wolf, urged the world to pay attention to Nigeria, noting that Boko Haram insurgents, in their decade-long Jihadist campaign, had killed over 27,000 civilians. A figure, he said, was more than the number killed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria combined.”
Wolf expressed the fear that Nigeria could implode with dire consequences for neighbouring nations and the world.
“An implosion would destabilise the surrounding countries and send millions of refugees into Europe and beyond.
“Nigeria, with a population of 195 million, is the largest country in Africa. I believe that so goes Nigeria, so goes western Africa,” Wolf said.
Similarly, the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Jos, Rev A.B. Kwashi, in the foreword, said the report captured the details of atrocities and abuse in Nigeria, describing it as timely.
Kwashi said, “Incidents of violence towards Christians, many of whom are farmers, by Islamic militants have been allowed to continue for too long.
“It is a common development and an everyday occurrence across Nigeria to kill Christians, meanwhile offenders are not being prosecuted and the leaders are unresponsive.”
The report, titled, “Nigeria’s Silent Slaughter,” stated that no fewer than 43,242 Nigerians have been killed by Boko Haram and Islamic State insurgents while 18,834 others lost their lives in the hands of killer Fulani herdsmen over a 20-year period.
It added that 34,233 other Nigerians met their deaths through extrajudicial killings by other actors, including the police, military and others.
The report lamented what it described as the “breakdown of the rule of law, spiraling violence, atrocities against targeted religious groups and innocent civilians and the apparent impunity of the perpetrators” in Nigeria.
According to the report, the combination of these factors contributed to transform Nigeria into “largely a failed state and regional epicentre for terrorism.”
The authors of the report added that their assertion found support in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide.
“There is strong evidence and a compelling legal argument that over the past decade or so, and increasingly under the current Fulani Muslim-dominated Nigerian government of Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria is experiencing what could be seen as targeted religious genocide, or what, at the very least, is widespread and often coordinated religious persecution campaigns being conducted against Christians,” the report stated in its introduction overview signed by the Executive President of ICON, Stephen Enada, and Executive Director, PSI, Dr Richard Ikiebe.
In its foreword, the report published a November 24, 2019 letter by a member of the House of Lords, United Kingdom, Baroness Caroline Cox, calling on the international community to recognise the crisis in Nigeria as typical genocide, while accusing the Nigerian government of pampering killer Fulani herdsmen.
Cox wrote, “While the underlying causes of violence are complex, the asymmetry and escalation of attacks by well-armed Fulani militia upon predominantly Christian communities is stark and must be acknowledged.
“While the Nigerian administration has taken steps to counter Boko Haram insurgency, it has not demonstrated the same commitment to tackle the escalating violence perpetrated by Fulani militants.
“Finally, given the Nigerian government’s apparent complicity in the persecution of Christians, international aid should be curtailed until they protect and provide for their own citizens of any belief.”
Also in the foreword, a retired American congressman, Frank Wolf, urged the world to pay attention to Nigeria, noting that Boko Haram insurgents, in their decade-long Jihadist campaign, had killed over 27,000 civilians. A figure, he said, was more than the number killed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria combined.”
Wolf expressed the fear that Nigeria could implode with dire consequences for neighbouring nations and the world.
“An implosion would destabilise the surrounding countries and send millions of refugees into Europe and beyond.