Apology for the Crusades?

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The only thing wrong with the Crusades was that their initial success did not last because of rivalry and jealousy among “Christian” rulers. Hillaire Belloc’s book on the Crusades explains how Islam could have been stopped in its tracks had the Christian countries of Europe united and contributed the resources needed to conquer Damascus and split the Moslem empire. It took the Church 400 years to adequately respond to the violent aggression of Islam.
 
I think the only apology necessary is for the fact that Christendom didn’t finish the job.
 
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Lilyofthevalley:
Why is that Gilliam?
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See Matt’s post above on the conference going on in Egypt right now.
 
The Apostolic letter Tertio Millenio Adveniente says vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_10111994_tertio-millennio-adveniente_en.html
  1. Another painful chapter of history to which the sons and daughters of the Church must return with a spirit of repentance is that of the acquiescence given, especially in certain centuries, to *intolerance and even the use of violence *in the service of truth.
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It is true that an accurate historical judgment cannot prescind from careful study of the cultural conditioning of the times, as a result of which many people may have held in good faith that an authentic witness to the truth could include suppressing the opinions of others or at least paying no attention to them. Many factors frequently converged to create assumptions which justified intolerance and fostered an emotional climate from which only great spirits, truly free and filled with God, were in some way able to break free. Yet the consideration of mitigating factors does not exonerate the Church from the obligation to express profound regret for the weaknesses of so many of her sons and daughters who sullied her face, preventing her from fully mirroring the image of her crucified Lord, the supreme witness of patient love and of humble meekness. From these painful moments of the past a lesson can be drawn for the future, leading all Christians to adhere fully to the sublime principle stated by the Council:** “The truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it wins over the mind with both gentleness and power”**
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The Apostolic Letter Reconciliation and Penance says vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_02121984_reconciliatio-et-paenitentia_en.html
My predecessors constantly preached reconciliation and invited to reconciliation the whole of humanity and every section and portion of the human community that they saw wounded and divided. And I myself, by an interior impulse which-I am certain-was obeying both an inspiration from on high and the appeals of humanity, decided to emphasize the subject of reconciliation
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…the message of reconciliation has also been entrusted to the whole community of believers, to the whole fabric of the church, that is to say, the task of doing everything possible to witness to reconciliation and to bring it about in the world.
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It can be said that the Second Vatican Council too, in defining the church as a “sacrament-a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all people,” and in indicating as the church’s function that of obtaining “full unity in Christ” for the “people of the present day…drawn ever more closely together by social, technical and cultural bonds,”(34) recognized that the church must strive above all to bring all people to full reconciliation.
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In intimate connection with Christ’s mission, one can therefore sum up the church’s mission, rich and complex as it is, as being her central task of reconciling people: with God, with themselves, with neighbor, with the whole of creation; and this in a permanent manner since, as I said on another occasion, “the church is also by her nature always reconciling.”(35)
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The church is reconciling inasmuch as she proclaims the message of reconciliation as she has always done throughout her history, from the apostolic Council of Jerusalem(36) down to the latest synod and the recent jubilee of the redemption. The originality of this proclamation is in the fact that for the church reconciliation is closely linked with conversion of heart: This is the necessary path to understanding among human beings.
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Yes, I guess we’ll reconcile with the Muslims, since all religions have “one origin”, “one message and that is obedience to God”.

Well, the devil is in the details, the most important being what constitutes “obedience to God”.

I guess we can split the difference and every man could be allowed to have up to two wives. Won’t that be rosy.
 
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StJeanneDArc:
Yes, I guess we’ll reconcile with the Muslims, since all religions have “one origin”, “one message and that is obedience to God”…
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Don’t fool yourselves, guys, we will never be in full reconciliation with the Muslims. For one thing, there is nothing to reconcile. We are two divergently different religions with different goals who have never been united in friendship. Remember, the Muslims really, really, really believe in their religion and believe everyone should be Muslim, even us. How can you have reconciliation when this point will never be yielded by the Muslims.
 
Can you believe this?

Highest Sunni authority sends official request to Vatican
March 19, 2005

The world’s highest Sunni Muslim authority has demanded an official apology from the pope for the medieval Christian crusades.
  1. The “highest” Sunni Authority??? Who says so?
  2. This is PURELY a Political ploy. Trying to get the Pope tp apologise to him…trying to look like a “big boy”.
 
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