Vatican – Pope Francis retracted an earlier statement calling Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “an angel of peace” and reportedly sent an email to a journalist stating that those who don’t recognize Israel are guilty of anti-Semitism.
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Portuguese-Israeli journalist Henrique Cymerman tweeted Thursday that the pope emailed him saying, “’In an email we got from Pope Francis: ‘Whoever does not recognize the Jewish People and the State of Israel falls in anti-Semitism,’” reports the Times of Israel (http://bit.ly/1KBzNR2).
The Pope states he recalls telling Abbas during their meeting earlier in the month that he hoped Abbas would one day in the future become an angel of peace. Those comments were sent to Cymerman and Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka – an interfaith colleague of the Pope’s – after his meeting with Abbas.
The Vatican then revised the comment to “a bit an angel of peace,” and apologized for unintentionally causing offense.
Abbas visited the Pope just days after the Vatican finalized a treaty with Palestine recognizing the Palestinian statehood.
Either way it wont stop the exodus of christians from the arab states.
So why can’t the Vatican coward say it directly and publicly, instead of through a 3rd party?
Thanks for the apology but how did you even come to make such a mistake, if not for being an anti-semite yourself. If you would have been pro /Israel/Jewish, you would never had sad something that could have been miss interpreted as saying a well known anti Israel is an angel of peace…these are two diametrically opposed things that could have never been put together, unless you are on the same side as the anti-Israel.
Nothing in his past indicates he is an anti Semite, but it’s clear with this man that the mouth and the brain are not too tightly connected. (Of course he is far from alone in that category).
Amazing – I don’t recall seeing this correction on the front page of the NY Times (where the original statement was placed.)