Sunday, June 1, 2014

Pakistan: Illiterate Christian couple sentenced to die for “blasphemous” texts

By on May 31, 2014                

pakistanblasphemyThe Pakistani blasphemy laws are a tool for the persecution of Christians and an ongoing human rights abuse. But the International “human rights community” is indifferent — after all, no “Islamophobia” is being committed, so all is well.
“Illiterate Christian Couple Sentenced to Death in Pakistan for ‘Blasphemous’ Texts,” by Leah Marianne Klett, Gospel Herald, May 30, 2014:
A Christian couple was sentenced to death in Pakistan for committing “blasphemy” via text messages. However, lawyers say this will appeal the ruling, as both the man and woman are illiterate.
“We are seriously concerned. Cases like these are common and cause great suffering. We continue to pray, while the issue remains unresolved,” Fr. Aloysius Roy, Superior of the Pakistani province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, told Fides News Agency in a report on Monday.
“We express our solidarity, but Christians keep a low profile, because life is full of difficulties and dangers, and for us the first commandment is to survive. Christians are afraid and they move with extreme caution.”
Shafqat Emmanuel is reportedly disabled, and his wife, Shagufta Kausar works as a waitress and is unable to read. Both were arrested in July of last year and sentenced to death last month.
Fr. Roy stated, “From the government we expect respect for the law, the rule of law and freedom of worship provided for in the Constitution.”
The couple’s lawyer say that the Sim card from the phone containing the messages was not registered in the couples name. While the contents of the texts have not been released, lawyers argue that the couple could not possibly have sent the messages, as the couple is illiterate.
William Stark, International Christian Concern’s regional manager for South Asia, told the Christian Post that Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws make criticizing Islam punishable by death.
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“Since the blasphemy laws were enacted in 1986, Christians and other religious minorities have been disproportionately accused and convicted of blasphemy. In 2013, 36 individuals were accused of blasphemy in Pakistan,” he stated.
“Of that 36, 30 were religious minorities, 12 of which were Christians. Given that Christians only make up 2% of Pakistan’s population, the fact that one third of blasphemy accusations made in 2013 were leveled against Christians is telling.”
Humanitarian group World Vision in Progress said that it will look after the couple’s four minor children.
“If a bold step would not be taken from the Christian community soon then it would become impossible for them to live in Pakistan,” the organization has said….

 http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/05/pakistan-illiterate-christian-couple-sentenced-to-die-for-blasphemous-texts

Young Catholics will be taught objective error at the Roman Forum meeting this month

 
Young Catholics in England are being taught to interpret all magisteral texts including Vatican Council II with an irrational premise and two of these young people are being offered two bursaries of £500 Sterling each towards the cost of attending the June 30, 2014 Symposium of the Roman Forum in Italy where  Dr.John Rao and the Roman Forum speakers will also interpret Nostra Aetate 2 as a break with the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.


 
 Dr. John Rao, the Chairman of the Roman Forum, like Joseph Shaw the Chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales will not proclaim as a Catholic  that :

1. All need to enter the Catholic Church in England in 2014 with faith and baptism for salvation and there are no known exceptions.
2.There are no known exceptions mentioned in Vatican Council II to the traditional interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus, those of the Church Councils and popes.
 
According to the LMS website:
For twenty-one years, for two weeks in the summer, a small Italian resort, Gardone Riviera, on Lake Garda, the largest and most beautiful lake in Italy, is literally transformed into an international Catholic village, with daily traditional masses, lectures, camaraderie, superb food and wine, and day trips to surrounding sites, such as Venice and Trent. For participants, many of whom come back year after year and feel like family, it is a rare and wonderful opportunity to experience Catholic life on the continent where Catholic culture first fully came to flower. The Summer Symposium hosts a large international faculty, which has included Dale Ahlquist (G.K. Chesterton Society of America), Patrick Brennan (U. of Villanova), Christopher Ferrara (American Catholic Lawyers Association),(who interprets Vatican Council II with the false premise) Fr. Brian Harrison (Catholic U. of Puerto Rico, Emeritus),( he interprets the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 and Vatican Council II with the false premise and when pointed out to him repeatedly, he does not issue a confirmation or denial.He has stopped writing on extra ecclesiam nulla salus) James Kalb (author of The Tyranny of Liberalism), Michael Matt (editor of The Remnant)( he also uses the irrational premise), Brian McCall (U. of Oklahoma)( he does not respond to e-mails pointing out this common problem.Perhaps he sees it as a threat to his academic career), John Médaille (U. of Dallas), Fr. Richard Munkelt (Roman Forum), Fr. Gregory Prendergraft (FSSP)(, Duncan Stroik (Notre Dame U.), Alice von Hildebrand (Hunter College, Emeritus)(None of the Hildebrands corrected the error of Cardinal Richard Cushing), David White (US Naval Academy, Emeritus), and myself from the United States; Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula (Human Life International, Rome)( Interprets Vatican Council II and the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 with the false premise) and Danilo Castellano (U. of Udine) from Italy; James Bogle (President, Una Voce International; Catholic lawyer, activist, and writer) ( No comment from him regarding the critical reports on the FIUV and its use of the false premise in the interpretation of Vatican Council ) from the United Kingdom; Miguel Ayuso-Torres (U. of Madrid) from Spain; Thomas Stark (Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule, St. Pölten) and Gregor Hochreiter (Oekonomika Institute, Vienna) from Austria; David Berlinski (Discovery Institute) and Bernard Dumont (editor of Catholica) from France; and Taivo Niitvaagi (Hereditas Foundation) from Estonia. The late, prolific, traditionalist author Michael Davies, from the UK( along with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre he made a factual error in the interpretation of the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 and Vatican Council II. They both used the false premise of being able to see the dead who are exceptions to Tradition), and my predecessor as chairman of the Roman Forum, the late William Marra (Fordham U.), were honored speakers for many years. Faculty and students are served spiritually by a large number of secular and religious clergy. 2010-2013 Summer Symposium lectures are available through The Remnant Newspaper (www.remnantnewspaper.com). Most of the other Summer Symposia lectures can be downloaded to your computer or purchased on audiotape at Keep the Faith.(Emphasis added)
I do not like to be critical but it is obvious that the speakers at the Roman Forum, good Catholics, are making an innocent mistake. They will pass on this mistake to the young Catholics from England who attend the meeting this June.

None of the speakers who have been informed,want to interpret Vatican Council II as being in harmony with extra ecclesiam nulla salus. They will not admit that the baptism of desire was not an exception to the traditonal interpretation of the dogma by Fr.Leonard Feeney. Some of them are prudently protecting their career and permitting a lie to being used.

 

 
Dr.John Rao, like Fr.Hunwicke and Prof. Roberto de Mattei who will be speakers are not addressing this issue or answering the basic TWO QUESTIONS.
-Lionel Andrades
 
 http://www.romanforum.org/from-the-director/