AmericanPapist Comments
The Iranian leaders have dmonstrated little efforts towards peace. The Holy See would send the strongest message turning the other cheek AND backs to them...
Pius XI snubbed Hitler.
What an idiot that 'man from the crazy house' is [that's what Ahmandinejad's last name means!]...
I hope the Holy Father snubs him, the way Pius XI snubbed Hitler.
"What an idiot that 'man from the crazy house' is [that's what Ahmandinejad's last name means!]..."
ROTFL! Are you serious?? Well I guess my nickname for him, Ima-nut-job, isn't so far from the truth!
The last thing the Pope should ever do is treat this emissary of the (non-existent) Madhi as any kind of equal. That would just play into the guy's delusions.
Jesus met and ate with the sinners. Why shouldn't the Pope follow Christ's example? Matthew the toll collector left his sinful life behind and followed Jesus after meeting the Christ. I believe in miracles. Maybe meeting with the vicar of Christ will have some sort of effect on Ahmadinejad as well.
There is no way in hell that Aquavelvajad wouldn't use such a meeting for progandistic fodder.
That said, maybe agree to meet with him in exchange for some real and public promises/actions by Iran on the humanitarian/religious freedom front.
True, Jesus met with sinners, but, as the Almighty, he could surely verify that good would come out of it. The Pope, in our present reality, must take into account the plethora of world-wide consequences such a meeting between the head of the Catholic Church and the leader of the world's preeminent jihadist nation. There is more at stake than the possible miraculous conversion of Ahmadinejad's soul...how the Pope would look in the eyes of the persecuted Christians in the middle east is one factor that comes to mind.
...would have.
There's an old Islamic custom of meeting the enemy and giving them one last chance to convert to Islam -- and then taking non-conversion as a license to kill. Obviously not a good thing for the Pope to allow, and Ahmadinejad keeps claiming to do this sort of thing. Since Ahmadinejad has some serious Mahdi (?) delusions, it becomes very important not to feed his sense of himself as the Mahdi's herald.
Also, by not meeting with Ahmadinejad, he does not acknowledge him as a legitimate leader, or provide his people with a sign that the outside world is okay with his tyranny and that of the current Iranian government.
Finally, by meeting with the Saudis and some others but not with Ahmadinejad, the Vatican can do some interesting diplomatic things.
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