(NEWS) Pope: I’ll Fight Anti-Semitism

"Pope Benedict XVI told a delegation from the Anti-Defamation League that he would continue to fight anti-Semitism.

At a meeting Wednesday the pope thanked the ADL delegation, saying, according to an ADL statement issued after the meeting, 'It is very important what you do.'

When asked if he would continue to condemn anti-Semitism, the Pope replied: 'I will, you know I will,' according to the statement."

(NEWS) Holocaust Survivors Ask EU To Probe Vatican On Looted Assets

"Vatican rep declines to say whether the Holy See intends to meet December 31 deadline for implementing relevant EU legislation.

Holocaust survivors from the former Yugoslavia accused the Vatican of helping allies of Nazi Germany launder their stolen valuables, and have asked the European Commission to investigate their claims.

'We are requesting the commission open an inquiry into allegations of money-laundering of Holocaust victim assets by financial organs associated with or which are agencies of the Vatican City State,' Jonathan Levy, a Washington-based attorney for the survivors and their heirs, wrote in a letter dated October 20 to Olli Rehn, the European Union’s economic and monetary affairs commissioner. Levy provided the letter to Bloomberg."

(NEWS) Vatican Body Asks UN To 'End Israeli Occupation'

"In final statement of two-week conference, bishops' synod says Biblical concept of 'promised land' cannot be used to justify settlements.

Israel cannot use the Biblical concept of a promised land or a chosen people to justify new "settlements" in Jerusalem or territorial claims, a Vatican synod on the Middle East said on Saturday.

In its concluding message after two weeks of meetings, the synod of bishops from the Middle East also said it hoped a two-state solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians could be lifted from dream to reality and called for peaceful conditions that would stop a Christian exodus from the region."





Related Article:

• A Christian Response to Synod Declaration on the Chosen People

(NEWS) Vatican Just Can't Help Bashing Israel

"Pope Benedict XVI on Monday opened a synod, or working meeting, at the Vatican to address the growing violence against and intimidation of Christian communities in the Middle East.

But the gathered Catholic leaders just couldn’t help spending most of the day bashing Israel over its preliminary approval of a new law that would require prospective new citizens to pledge loyalty to Israel as 'a Jewish and democratic state.'



'You cannot announce, publish and affirm to be a democratic state and a civil democracy then at the same time say ‘in our democracy we require such things,’' declared Antonios Naguib, Coptic Catholic patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, who chaired the opening day discussions. 'I see it is a flagrant contradiction.'

While they were busy skewering Israel for daring to define itself as 'Jewish,' and requiring potential new Christian citizens to do the same, the Catholics naturally did not broach the fact that were a Christian to define any other Middle East country as anything but Muslim, he or she would likely be killed.

Benedict also toed the line of political correctness.

The pope did open the session by stating that 'terrorist ideologies' based on 'false gods' were behind the region’s troubles, and must be unmasked. However, he did not once identify these terrorist ideologies as being part of or branches of Islam.

The fact is that Christian communities across the Middle East have been under assault, physical and otherwise, for decades, and are rapidly shrinking.

Towns like Bethlehem that are so central to the Christian faith are today home to huge Muslim majorities after much of the Christian population sought asylum in the West. The flight of Christians from places like Bethlehem and Iraq is often the result of physical attacks and social intimidation.

Unfortunately, with the Vatican playing footsie with the 'moderate' Muslims and spending the bulk of its time wailing about a minor Israeli legal amendment that hasn’t even yet been voted on, it is unlikely that the synod will bring about any positive change for Christians in the Middle East." (source)