The Vatican: Is The City Under Threat Of Invasion By The ISIS?

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The Vatican City

This article was first published on the Eidolon site by Jay Reef

ISIS often airs its threats to conquer Rome and convert St. Peter’s, above, into a mosque. These aspirations go all the way back to the early years of Islam, when Constantinople — the capital of the Eastern Roman empire and bulwark of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean and West Asia, was an early target of Arab ambitions..

In October 2014, an arresting image appeared on the cover of Dabiq, the slickly produced, English-language magazine of ISIS (the “Islamic State in Syria,” also known as the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” among other names). 

The magazine features — as Robert Evans has detailed in an article of the “I read it so you don’t have to” variety — interviews with jihadis and photos of their brutally slain victims, together with other material calculated to entice the devout to join the cause of world domination.

The Photoshop job in question shows the ISIS flag flying in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, hoisted atop the Egyptian obelisk that marks the center of the piazza. 

The accompanying headline, ‘The Failed Crusade, ’ imagines a reversal of the West’s medieval crusades, launched against the Muslim world from the Holy See. 

It also reverses the West’s more recent dispensations in the Middle East, from the divisions of the former Ottoman provinces after World War I to the results of the 2003 Iraq War.

ISIS is an expert at representing its aspirations in prankish, media-friendly terms. Its black and white flag, inspired by ancient descriptions of Mohammed’s own banners, also coincides in color and general design with the Jolly Roger. 

It flutters in the image like a skull-and-crossbones raised over a captured vessel, the flagship of Western Christendom reduced to pirates’ booty.

The Italian daily Corriere Della Sera was quick to take notice of the image, while in the International Business Umberto Bacchi pointed to the gloss provided by ISIS spokesperson Mohammed al-Adnani: “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah, the Exalted.”

On one level, he is trolling us with a cartoonish Orientalist stereotype (like Boris Karloff’s Fu Manchu urging his Asiatic hordes to “kill the white man and take his women!”) with the phallic obelisk mischievously restored to Eastern ownership. But al-Adnani is also quite serious.

THE VATICAN CITY Has Disappointed Its Followers And God, Above All

The Vatican City


In recent years, sexual abuse scandals involving the Catholic Church have been an ugly situation that no apology or remedy could heal the victims who are scarred for life.

Last year, the Catholic Church was under severe pressure over the complaints of victims that allegedly have been sexually abused by the church for several years while services to the church. 

The Vatican City has nothing to cover up the accusations but to apologize. The apology has been made, but new accusations keep appearing every day from many parts of the world.

In Kenya, the authorities are now looking for much evidence to prosecute a retired Dutch Roman Catholic bishop, Cornelius Schilder, for the sexual abuse of an underage boy, eighteen years ago.

The Deetman Commission investigating abuses within the Catholic Church alerted the Dutch authorities to the case. Unfortunately, since the victim did not report the case to the police, the commission is now facing problems in its investigations to prosecute Bishop Schilder.

Bishop Schilder, who is now in the Netherlands, has refused to talk to the press about the case. His lawyer has denied any abuse by the Bishop.

In 2005, the 32 alleged victim, Michael Ole Uka, was treated for the injuries relating to the abuse. He claimed to have been abused by several priests serving the Mill-Hill Missionary, for a very long period, including Bishop Schilder in 1993. 

The missionary paid for his medical treatment but failed to report the case to the Kenyan police, because that type of case, classified as homosexuality, is a crime.

It was, however, reported to the Vatican in Rome, but it took them three years and repeated requests to finally force the Bishop to retire.

As a matter of fact, the Vatican City and all those accused of such crime have totally disappointed God (the Holy Mary) whom they serve, and the followers of the Catholic Church. 

Instead of an apology, they must make sure such a crime shouldn't be repeated. An invisible cloud of shame hangs over the Vatican City now.