{
\nThe Vatican\u2019s top diplomat says \u2018an urgent and effective response\u2019 to Boko Haram is required.}<\/p>\n
In his strongest statement yet, the Vatican\u2019s man in Geneva endorses decisive military action against terror groups, effectively declaring war on extremists.<\/p>\n
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican\u2019s top diplomat in Geneva, is not a man to mince his words. For nearly a year now, he has been channeling Pope Francis\u2019 cries for peace by edging closer and closer to endorsing war. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, at an address to the 23rd Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the Situation of Human Rights in Nigeria \u2013 Boko Haram, he bit the bullet and endorsed military action against Boko Haram and ISIS in no uncertain terms. \u201cThe ongoing violence, persecution and murder at the hands of the Boko Haram group especially in Nigeria, but also in Cameroon, Benin, Chad and Niger, present serious transgressions under international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity which require an urgent and effective response from the involved States, together with the solidarity of the international community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the merciless acts of this terrorist group, we are witnessing the continued development and dissemination of a radical and ruthless type of extremism inspired by an ideology which attempts to justify its crimes in the name of religion,\u201d he said, according to a statement released by the Vatican \u201cOne cannot be blind to the fact that such extremists groups are growing like a cancer, spreading to other parts of the world and even attracting foreign militants to fight in their ranks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tomasi\u2019s statement, disseminated by the Holy See in Rome, is the most concrete endorsement of military action yet under Pope Francis. In March, in an interview with The Boston Globe\u2019s Vatican expert John Allen, Tomasi hinted that the Pope was losing his patience. \u201cWe have to stop this kind of genocide,\u201d Tomasi told Allen. \u201cOtherwise we\u2019ll be crying out in the future about why we didn\u2019t so something, why we allowed such a terrible tragedy to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a common human dignity we all share,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it should be protected at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fighting words amount to a change in long-standing policy for the Holy See, which has traditionally come down hard on military action, especially in previous conflicts. In 2003, Pope John Paul II harshly criticized the American-led buildup in the Persian Gulf ahead of the invasion in Iraq. \u201cWar is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity,” John Paul II told Vatican diplomats at the time. \u201cWar is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations.\u201d\u201cThe ongoing violence, persecution and murder at the hands of the Boko Haram group [presents] serious transgressions under international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity which require an urgent and effective response from the involved States, together with the solidarity of the international community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last July, as the world seemed to be exploding with conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Iraq and Syria, Pope Francis seemed to stay on message. \u201cNever war, never war,\u201d he said at his Sunday Angelus on July 27 \u201cI am thinking, above all, of children who are deprived of the hope of a worthwhile life, a future. Dead children, wounded children, mutilated children, orphaned children, children whose toys are things left over from war, children who don\u2019t know how to smile. Please stop. I ask you with all my heart, it\u2019s time to stop. Stop, please!\u201d<\/p>\n
But a few weeks later, he told journalists onboard the Papal plane from South Korea that the killing had to be stopped. \u201cWhere there is an unjust aggression I can only say that it is legitimate to stop the unjust aggressor,\u201d he told reporters on the plane. \u201cI underscore the verb \u2018to stop\u2019. I am not saying \u2018bomb\u2019 or \u2018make war,\u2019 but \u2018stop him.\u2019 The means by which he can be stopped must be evaluated. Stopping the aggressor is legitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the 28th Session of the Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion on March 11, Tomasi laid the groundwork for this week\u2019s endorsement of military action. \u201cThe appeal to religion in order to murder people and destroy the evidence of human creativity developed in the course of history makes the on-going atrocities even more revulsive and damnable,\u201d he said. \u201cAn adequate response from the International Community, that should finally put aside sectoral interests and save lives, is a moral imperative.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan we make fun of the cultural identity of a person, of the color of his skin, of the belief of his heart? A \u2018right to offend\u2019 does not exist,\u201d Tomasi said. \u201cCriticism can produce good results if it takes into account that persons are more important than their convictions or their belief and that they have, simply because they are human beings, an innate right to be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n
{{The Daily Beast}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{ The Vatican\u2019s top diplomat says \u2018an urgent and effective response\u2019 to Boko Haram is required.} In his strongest statement yet, the Vatican\u2019s man in Geneva endorses decisive military action against terror groups, effectively declaring war on extremists. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican\u2019s top diplomat in Geneva, is not a man to mince his words. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000068205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-19145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000068205,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19145.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19145.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19145.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19145.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19145.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19145.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000068205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19145"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=19145"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=19145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}