Fearing a genocide of Christians, the Vatican has given its approval to US military air strikes in Iraq — a rare exception to its policy of peaceful conflict resolution.
Permanent Observer of Holy See to the UN in Geneva Silvano Tomasi last weekend supported US air strikes aimed at halting the advance of Islamic State militants, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, calling for “intervention now, before it is too late.”
“Military action might be necessary,” he said.
While the Vatican vocally disapproved of the US-led campaign in Iraq in 2003 and last year’s plan for air strikes on Syria — fearing both might make the situations worse for Christians on the ground — fears of ethnic cleansing by Islamists has forced a policy change.
Tomasi’s appeal followed warnings from church leaders in Iraq that the persecution is becoming a genocide, with urgent help needed to protect Christians and Yezidis in the north of the country, where tens of thousands have been forced to flee for their lives.
Military support was needed “to stop the wolf getting to the flock to kill, eat, destroy,” Rabban al-Qas, the Chaldean bishop of Amadiyah, told Vatican radio.
“Those supplying arms and funds to the fundamentalists, [and] the countries tacitly supporting them, must be revealed,” Tomasi said, while Qas pointed the finger at Saudi Arabia.
Others, such as the Iraq-based leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Louis Sako, called for wider intervention, saying the US strikes offer little hope the jihadists would be defeated.
“The position of the American President [Barack] Obama only to give military assistance to protect Erbil is disappointing,” said Sako, who has been trying to persuade his flock to resist attempts to drive them out of Iraq.
The Vatican had been accused of being slow to react, with Pope Francis limiting himself to calls for a peaceful resolution, expressing on Sunday his “dismay and disbelief” over the violence and calling for an “effective political solution.”
The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue on Tuesday called for Muslim leaders to denounce the brutality of Islamic State militants, saying there was no possible justification for their “unspeakable crimes.”
The council said Islamic State militants were guilty of the “heinous practice of decapitation, crucifixion and stringing up bodies in public places,” insisting that “no reason, certainly not religion, could justify such barbarism.”
Religious watchers said Tomasi’s support for air strikes did not mean a change in Vatican policy on war spearheaded by Francis.
“There has been no change in thinking. The Vatican’s take is that the reality now is apocalyptic and there is no alternative,” said Vatican expert John Allen, who writes for the Boston Globe.
“They believed overthrowing [then-Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein in 2003 or [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad in 2013 would make things worse for Christians. In 2014, what could be worse for them than the Islamic State’s victory?” he said.
The Catholic Church’s catechism defines the concept of a “just war,” which includes the prevention of genocide among other war crimes.
For Sandro Magister, who writes for La Stampa’s Vatican Insider, the crisis should have elicited a stronger stance from the pope: “His timid response has been very surprising. He talks about the persecution of Christians in Iraq as if it was some sort of natural disaster.”
He used to preside over Latin America’s largest country and its 214 million people. Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro now lives in a small Florida town and eats alone in a fast-food restaurant. Bolsonaro, 67, has found an unusual refuge in the US, where he arrived in late December last year, several days before his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia in an attempt to overturn the election victory of his rival, Brazilain President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. At home, Bolsonaro is being investigated over his alleged involvement in the unrest, which he denies. From the lavish presidential palace, Bolsonaro, a political
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) yesterday unveiled a promotion campaign that would include 500,000 free flights to lure back visitors, businesses and investors to the financial hub after more than three years of tough COVID-19 curbs. The “Hello Hong Kong” campaign was launched with dancers and flashing neon lights in the territory’s main convention center, next to its famous harbor, with a backdrop bearing the slogan in various languages including Russian and Spanish. Lee, speaking in English, said the campaign would show that the territory was open for tourism, and was aimed at boosting business and investment in the Chinese
There could be some relief to 150,000 commuters who endure hours-long waits to cross the road border between Malaysia and Singapore, Malaysian newspaper The Star reported. The Malaysian government has proposed a “single clearance system” to ease traffic along the Johor-Singapore Causeway, the report said. Such waits often require cross-border workers on the Malaysian side to wake up as early as 4am to get to work on time in Singapore. The proposal, still in its initial stages, would involve Malaysian immigration officials being stationed on the Singapore side of the causeway, with Singaporean officials stationed on the Malaysian side, in the southern
‘HONOR KILLING’: These ‘horrific murders’ are likely to continue unless the Iraqi authorities adopt robust legislation to protect women and girls, a rights group said The death of a young YouTube star at the hands of her father has sparked outrage in Iraq, where so-called “honor killings” continue to take place in the conservative country. Tiba al-Ali, 22, was killed by her father on Tuesday last week in the southern province of Diwaniya, Iraqi Ministry of Interior spokesman Saad Maan wrote on Twitter on Friday. Police had attempted to mediate between Ali — who resided in Turkey and was visiting Iraq — and her relatives to “resolve the family dispute in a definitive manner,” Maan said. Unverified recordings of conversations between Ali and her father appeared to indicate
RSS