MUNICH, Germany (Catholic Online) – Europe is facing its increasing Islamization and national leaders need to ensure that the continent’s Christian roots not be ignored, said the private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI.
In comments made in an interview with the respected German weekly Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazin based here in an article released July 26, Msgr. Georg Ganswein decried misplaced political correctness toward Islam and called the pontiff’s controversial speech in Germany last September “prophetic.”
"Attempts to Islamize the West cannot be denied," Msgr. Ganswein was quoted as saying, making it clear that Europe’s Christian roots are under threat from a surging Islam.
"The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it,” he said, “should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness."
The private secretary’s remarks were published as the German-born pope was concluding his July 9 – 27 vacation in northern Italy.
In defending the pope’s speech in Regensburg, Germany, which led to Muslim protests and violence throughout the world, Msgr. Ganswein said the holy father’s focus on the connection between Islam and violence had been an attempt to "act against a certain naivety."
In the September speech, Pope Benedict quoted Manuel II Paleologus, a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, who said: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
“I believe that the speech in Regensburg,” he said, “is prophetic.” He added that the pope wrote his own speeches and that those remarks had not been edited.
The papal secretary said that the “harsh reactions” to the speech was “a big surprise, also to the pope.”
"The huge fuss that arose was because of newspaper reports that took a certain quote out of context and presented it as the pope’s personal opinion," he said.
The pope sought to speak to the fact that “no such thing” specifically defines Islam, Msgr. Ganswein said. “It does not have a voice that is obligatory and binding to all Muslims.”
"Under this term,” he said of Islam, “many different groups are put together that are partially hostile to each other, some even extremist, who refer their doings to the Quran and who use rifles for their goals.”
Msgr. Ganswein said that besides engagement with Islam, dialogue between Orthodox and Catholic churches must continue and must overcome its divisions.
"On the institutional level, the Holy See tries to make contacts and conduct talks in conjunction with papal advice to create interreligious dialogue and ties."
"The restoration of full unity in the faith is certainly a great goal,” he said, calling divisions among Christians a scandal.
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