In connection with this story I was reading at Rorate Caeli about the EU’s denial of special visa preference to Christians desirous of leaving Iraq, I thought that these comments from our regular correspondent in Turkey were interesting:

Last Sunday at Mass, I met another Iraqi family traveling through Turkey - this time on their way to the USA. I’ve met and had occasion to talk to a few dozen now. Each time I feel slightly awkward - especially when I’m inevitably asked what my profession is — wondering if they harbor any resentment. I’ve yet to come across one family with any resentment or anger toward the USA. And I don’t think they are just being polite. This particular family from last Sunday were on their way to either California or Michigan (not surprising since those are where most of the Chaldean churches are within the USA). I’ve not thought it appropriate in these situations to talk politics or inquire about their feelings. But this is a region where people have an opinion on everything and aren’t shy to share it with you. So it’s my estimation that even given all that’s happened to their communities, they don’t blame America. As the EU continues to play the politically correct game of not showing any special preference to the plight of Christian refugees over Muslim refugees, I’m glad to see the US State Department continue to expand their visa program for the Christians (predominantly Catholics) feeling Iraq.

Having posted a few words on feminine modesty yesterday, I thought I might add another little thought that I had concerning feminine modesty and Islam. This occurred to me the other day when the Doctor and I were walking in a local park. We passed two Muslim women, fully covered except for their hands and faces, and a little girl of around eight years old. Presumably she was the daughter of one of the women. She was wearing jeans, a sweater, and sneakers — perfectly standard attire for an American child. Having lived in Islamic societies a couple of times in my life, I know that this is a fairly common practice. Women are expected to cover themselves almost entirely, but there is very little concern about the attire of prepubescent girls, who may wear whatever is comfortable or convenient. The day a girl reaches puberty marks a dramatic break in her life. Thenceforth she must always clothe herself as a woman.

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When you have to turn to the Muslims to explain traditional Christian liturgical seasons. But that’s what’s happened in the Netherlands, where the Catholic charity Vastenaktie is has taken to branding Lent the “Christian Ramadan.” Noting that only a tiny minority of the 400,000 Catholics in the Netherlands still fast during Lent, they decided to turn to the more familiar concept of Ramadan to illustrate what the Lenten season is really about.

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This looks like a promising book from TAN - does someone have it and if so, could he offer a review? The advertisement from TAN reads: “St. Francis of Assisi accompanied the Crusaders to Egypt on the Fifth Crusade, and boldly walked right into the Muslim camp in a spectacular attempt to preach Christianity to the Sultan and his followers. The author shows that St. Francis was a supporter of the armed Crusade, and his goal was the conversion of the Muslims, rather than simply “dialoging” as an end in itself, as some revisionists have purported. He made such an impact with his preaching, that the sultan rebuffed some of his own religious advisors, the imams, who were insisting that Islamic law required that St. Francis must be beheaded.”

From our friend and regular correspondent in Turkey - a very interesting report from this Wednesday, the Feast of the Assumption:

We visited Meryemana Evi (Mary’s House) for the Feast of the Assumption. About 200 to 300 people attended the Mass, along with one archbishop and a dozen or so priests. We arrive before the start of the Mass. The line going into Mary’s house was longer than normal. People from all over the world travel here – most as part of some larger group tour. Incidentally, probably a third of the visitors are Muslim Turks who view this as a sacred place. A good number of the ladies cover their heads before entering the house. However, it was sort of comical to see these European women wearing short-shorts and tank tops (some even bikini tops) covering their heads with scarves – I didn’t quite understand the point.

Prior to the start of Mass, the archbishop, the priests, the altar boy and the requisite altar girl gaggled by the side of Mary’s House in the usual Novus Ordo informal style – fidgeting around, small talk, etc. – which always stands in stark contrast to the demeanor of traditional priests and altar boys cueing up before a Mass.

The Mass was a mix of Italian (the archbishop’s native language) and Turkish. By the way, the Turkish Novus Ordo Mass refers to God as Allah throughout the entire Mass – including using the term Allah in place of the word Father, which is not the Turkish word for father.

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Another reason to love World Youth Day:

Islamic leaders in Australia may encourage participation in the 2008 World Youth Day celebration, in exchange for a promise from Catholic leaders that there will be no effort to convert young people of other faiths, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

This summary is from CWNews - in the SMH’s own words:

The Catholic Church has given a commitment that it will not try to convert members of other religious denominations taking part in inter-faith forums and volunteering facilities.

The headline of the article speaks of a “truce”, presumably between Muslims and Catholics. I guess that for World Youth Day we’re allowed to abandon the call to preach the Gospel to all nations. Does that seem a little bit ironic to anyone else?

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The latest good word from “Tiny” Muskens:

The Dutch bishop admitted that his suggestion was not likely to gain widespread acceptance. But he predicted that within a century or two, Dutch Catholics would be addressing prayers to “Allah.”

Given the demographics of Holland, I heartily concur! Wait - there are Catholics in Holland?

This thought struck Diogenes when he saw the story:

Look at it this way: If Dutch Christians catch the bishop’s enthusiasm for condoms, pretty soon everyone in the country will be praying to Allah.

This I say today (8/16):

“A survey in the Netherlands’ biggest-selling newspaper De Telegraaf on Wednesday found 92 percent of the more than 4,000 people polled disagreed with the bishop’s view, which also drew ridicule.

“Sure. Lets call God Allah. Lets then call a church a mosque and pray five times a day. Ramadan sounds like fun,” Welmoet Koppenhol wrote in a letter to the newspaper.

Don’t we have a certain sympathy with the ideology of radical Islam? I don’t mean in the way of earning virgins with a suicide belt or in advancing the cause of a desert loon named Mohammed, but in a desire to promote public decency in dress and morals, especially between the sexes. Maybe this is too much to ask of folks; maybe if the government doesn’t allow immodesty between the sexes, fallen human nature will break out in unnatural lusts, as seems to have happened in places such as Saudi Arabia.

But it still frustrates me when I read conservative authors, with whose views generally I otherwise agree, making sport of radical Mohammedans for their loathing of Western mores. Of course, some of them profess to loathe these behaviors while they enjoy a fair share of them on their way to martyrdom - you know, getting a foretaste of their Heaven and all that. Yet I imagine that some others of them are really in earnest when they express offense at the lewdness of our young women and our depraved notions of sexuality.

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The Cornell Society for a Good Time is very grateful to our friend, Simplex Sacerdos, who has given most generously of his time in granting us a lengthy interview. For those of you who do not know Simplex Sacerdos, he has asked me to introduce him as a Navy Chaplain who has served with the Marine Corps in Iraq.

The questions in this interview are wide ranging. Tobias Petrus, Iacobus, and one other besides myself supplied the questions. The first part of this interview will cover the questions we had for Simplex Sacerdos about the current war in Iraq. Part 2 will address Simplex Sacerdos’ ministry in Iraq and Part 3 will include questions about Catholics and the U.S. military culture generally.

CSGT: What is your reaction to the Pope’s position that the initial invasion of Iraq did not meet the criteria for a just war? Specifically, what is the morality of a preemptive strike? If it can be moral in certain circumstances, did those circumstances exist for Gulf War II? If a preemptive strike cannot be moral, is Gulf War II justifiable on other grounds?

Simplex Sacerdos: I preface my answer by saying that in treating this question, I intend to analyze it as a theologian and not, specifically, as a military chaplain. I would further disclose that my theological education was of the strictly Thomistic, and therefore necessarily Aristotelian, school, including the sound tradition of St. Thomas’s commentators. Also, I should say that I did my best to read the Holy Father’s own words in speaking about the war in Iraq (and Afghanistan, for that matter), that is, both those of the present Holy Father and of his predecessor.

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Patrick O’Donnell relates that he had two main aims in writing this book: to give Americans back home a better feel for the heroism of our men who are fighting in Iraq and to do this by telling the story of the Marines in 1st Platoon of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, who suffered heavy causulties in the Battle of Fallujah. I picked up the book to learn more about what the fighting in Iraq has been like, specifically in this most intense of battles, the battle for Fallujah. While we can read about Iraq every day in the papers, newspaper reporting rarely gives one a sense either for the men who are fighting or for the specific tactics used and the dangers faced.

In regard to the reasons I had in reading the book, I was fairly satisfied by the close of it. There were, however, a few things by the book’s end which I didn’t quite understand or, perhaps better, couldn’t quite picture. But this probably wasn’t a failing of the author so much as a general difficulty of portraying some of the events recounted in print.

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