Priorities

Pope Francis arrived in the United States amid a world that is in chaos. Millions of refugees escaping from Islamic terror, a civil war in Syria, and failed states in Libya and Yemen have descended on Europe. In the same Middle East that spawned those refugees, a de facto genocide is occurring. The Washington Times reports:

Across broad stretches of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, Iraq and Syria, ISIS, Boko Haram and other Wahhabi-inspired murderers are displacing, enslaving and killing religious and ethnic minorities. We have all seen the footage of blindfolded prisoners, on their knees, mercilessly beheaded and shot, among many other atrocities. Some 2 million Christians lived in Iraq only two decades ago. Today the Iraqi Kurdistan Christianity Project estimates that only 300,000 to 450,000 remain, and nearly all of them have taken refuge in Kurdistan. Christians have lived and worshipped in Mosul (the ancient city of Nineveh) for over 2,000 years. Today, none are left.

A report released this spring by the United Nations Human Rights Commission reported “acts of violence perpetrated against civilians in Iraq and Syria because of their affiliation or perceived affiliation to an ethnic or religious group.” Its statement that “it is reasonable to conclude that some of these incidents may constitute genocide” only adds to the evidence that it is time to file formal genocide charges against ISIS and its supporters.

So, the Pope's fellow Christians are slaughtered, violently abused, enslaved, and displaced by Islamic groups bent on a Christian-free Muslim crescent. They are forced to flee their homeland or die at the hands of Muslim barbarians, and the Pope talks about climate change.

The Washington Post describes his White House speech:

WASHINGTON — Pope Francis quietly but forcefully made his priorities clear during his first full day in the United States on Wednesday, urging in a pair of speeches a renewed emphasis on tackling global poverty, confronting climate change, caring for migrants and providing a welcoming church that is pastoral rather than doctrinaire.

It's reasonable to expect that the Pope would have a number of different priorities, and it's perfectly okay for him to discuss them "quietly but forcefully." But it really is hard to understand why one of those priorities isn't the slow motion genocide being perpetrated by ISIS, Boko Harem and other Muslim extremist groups—all in the name of Islam and its Holy Book.

The Pope has a very big stage, given the near-obsessive coverage of his every move by the media in the United States. It's interesting and quite troubling that he doesn't "forcefully" call on Islamic leaders to speak out against the slaughter of Christians by Islamists in the Middle East.

Update (9/24/15)
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The Pope has a distinct opportunity to addres the Christian genocide perpetrated exclusively by Mulim extremist groups when he speaks at the UN tomorrow. Daniel Henninger comments:

In the past two years, the plight of Christians in the Middle East has gone from persecution to slaughter. Decades of Vatican diplomacy there for the world’s most at-risk Christians has produced very little. Soon there may be nothing left to protect. On Friday, the pope reportedly will address the U.N. about climate change. A jeremiad against Christian extermination would be welcome this week, too. 

My bet is that very little, if any, mention of the slaughter will occur. The big question is, Why?