Ahhhh....the missing link in your posts for which I was grasping. That helps me a lot.
Thanks.
The Vatican's stance regarding the tinderbox in the Middle East is indeed worthy of discussion but my aims on this thread were rather more limited and specific; i.e. to show that this article was a cheap hit piece without getting into the wider question.
Since you raise it, however, you can be sure that the fate of Christians in the Middle East is extremely important to the Vatican. Not too many people care about this; neither the secularists in the West, nor the Muslims and while Israel generally tolerates their presence, I doubt they'd shed too many tears if Christians disappeared. With this in mind, the Vatican is painfully aware that any violence in the Middle East usually results in Christians being the suffering innocents caught in the crossfire and this is certainly an overriding concern.
Who speaks for them, if not the Vatican?
My concluding remarks on this thread are that you should factor this in when considering any official Vatican pronouncement on the Middle East. To repeat a point I made up thread, this was undoubtedly a major consideration for Pope John Paul II when he warned us to stay out of Iraq. His good intentions were completely misinterpreted, however, and he was accused of being in bed with Saddam.
Things aren't always what they appear on the superficial, Freeper level.
Thank you very much for this reasoned response, especially the point of your last sentence.
Consider that with this post you spoke also for me.
(I am not as articulate as I would like to be).
You're welcome. It is no secret and I have never tried to hide it - not here nor in any other threads in which I add my thoughts. I've been a FReeper since 2005 and my posting history is replete with my personal testimony of my conversion to faith in Jesus Christ. If this was the "missing link" for which you were "grasping", all you had to do was ask.
WRT the Vatican being the only one "speaking for" all the Christians in the Middle East, I disagree. There are numerous denominations involved with missionary work in that part of the world that are not Roman Catholic. Christians have many organizations speaking for them and the Christians in the United States support them financially as do others around the world. Just because the countries are predominantly Muslim, there is no shortage of brave, Christ-loving people who are willing and able to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to them - including the Catholic Church.