Readers Blog: Pope prevented violence by not referring to the Rohingya
When I heard that Pope Francis was told not to mention the word Rohingya during his trip to Myanmar last week, as it would incite violence and bloodshed, I wondered if anybody would be sufficiently small-minded to criticise him for adhering to this advice.
I did not have long to wait, as, under the heading, ‘Pope fails on the political stage’ (Irish Examiner, November 30), I was appalled to read a nasty, unfair, and ill-informed, but typical anti-Catholic Irish Examiner rant.
I am quite certain that the vast majority of the world’s 1bn Catholics do not accept that the Pope’s moral authority as leader has in anyway been diminished, but 31 people have been injured by gunfire in the West Bank and Gaza because US president, Donald Trump, ignored advice not to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
I shudder to think of the contents of your editorial if Pope Francis had ignored the advice and violence had followed.
When one considers the fate suffered by columnist Kevin Myers and broadcaster George Hook recently for violating standards of journalism, it highlights that the Catholic Church is fair game for any form of bile.
