Don’t be like Pontius Pilate and ignore Christian persecution, Vatican warns
At the Vatican in Rome, Pope Francis listened during Good Friday services as a papal preacher decried how the world is ignoring the growing persecution of Christians.
"Christians are of course not the only victims of homicidal violence in the world, but we cannot ignore that in many countries they are the most frequently targeted victims, said Preacher of the Pontifical Household Raniero Cantalamessa, a day after the murder of 147 university students, most of them Christian, in eastern Kenya at the hands of Islamist gunmen.
"We risk, all of us, the institutions and the people of the Western world, to be Pontius Pilate who wash their hands of (these events)," he added.
Earlier the Pope sent a telegram of solidarity to the victims of the terror attack at Kenya's Garissa University in which he said, His Holiness condemns this act of senseless brutality and prays for a change of heart among its perpetrators.
Four Islamist gunmen separated Christian students from Muslims, freeing those who said they followed Islam, and executing the Christians on the spot. In Nairobi Friday, Kenyans attended Good Friday services, where there was outrage and sadness about the attack.
"As a ChristianI would like to challenge the Muslim community, even if it will be to call a conference and distance themselves from what is happening because it is a bit unfortunate that all terrorists are Muslims and I believe not all Muslims are terrorists," Haron Muratha, a Nairobi resident, told the Associated Press.
More than 80 percent of Kenyans are Christian.
Like the 270 Nigerian school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram a year ago, these students were targeted for their religion.
One of the ultimate goals of jihadists, Al Qaeda, ISIS and others is basically to create, to produce a civilization of war between an Islamic world that they would control and what they consider as a Christian, Judeo-Christian West, said Walid Phares, a Fox News Channel Middle East and terrorism expert.
The Kenya attack was just the latest in a recent string of attacks on Christians around the world.More than 140,000 Christians have been forced to leave their homes in Iraq since ISIS infiltrated the country in 2014.
An estimated 500,000 Christians have fled their homes in Syria for surrounding countries.
Other high profile attacks against Christians prior to the attack in Kenya include: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/04/04/dont-be-like-pontius-pilate-warns-vatican/
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