Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Sun 06/08/2025 View Sat 06/07/2025 View Fri 06/06/2025 View Thu 06/05/2025 View Wed 06/04/2025 View Tue 06/03/2025 View Mon 06/02/2025
2022-04-07 Olde Tyme Religion
457 years after the Great Siege of Malta, Pope Francis surrenders to Islam
[American Thinker] Pope Francis, despite being the head of worldwide Catholicism, always seems to be apologizing for the faith. In Malta, that apology extended to hiding the cross from illegal Muslim immigrants. This act of Christian cowardice was more poignant than usual, given that Malta, in the mid-16th century, was the site of one of the Catholic world’s bravest and most successful stands against Islam’s push to take over Europe.

The Republic of Malta is a tiny island located southwest of both the toe of the Italian boot and the island of Sicily. Travel further west from Malta and you will find yourself heading to Tunisia, in North Africa. Alternatively, if you head east from Malta, after passing from the Mediterranean Sea into the Aegean Sea, you will find yourself at the Bosporus, and the country known as Turkey today, but that was once home to the powerful Ottoman Empire.

In the mid-15th century, the Ottoman Turks emerged from the east to conquer Constantinople, the last remnant of the great Roman empire. They converted the magnificent Church of the Hagia Sophia into the Grand Mosque of the Hagia Sophia, renamed the city Istanbul. From Istanbul, they continued their conquests.

The Ottoman Empire didn’t stop there. It gradually conquered most of the Balkans (and helped give rise to the story of Dracula, since Vlad the Impaler fought against the Turks), and acquired large swaths of the Middle East, including Egypt and other parts of North Africa, the Holy Land, Baghdad, Mesopotamia, parts of the Caucasus region (which eventually were incorporated into the Soviet Union), some of the former Venetian empire, and more. The Ottomans seemed unstoppable.

However, by the mid-16th century, Europeans began to fight back. One of the most famous battles between Catholic Europe and the Muslim Ottomans occurred at the Great Siege of Malta. The Knights Hospitaller, whom the Ottomans had driven from Rhodes, had their headquarters there and, when the Ottomans attacked, they refused to yield. Instead, they and the citizens of Malta withstood a devastating siege that lasted nearly four months.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-04-07 05:44|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ]  Top

#1 
Luckily, the Vatican is included in all between Vladivostok and Lisbon.
Posted by Dron66046 2022-04-07 10:10||   2022-04-07 10:10|| Front Page Top

#2 
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-04-07 10:12||   2022-04-07 10:12|| Front Page Top

#3 
The vicar's pope-ing
while secretly toking.
They send 'im their
best from Herat.

'Dope - for the Pope',
say the crates nuns unload,
while they blaspheme
just out of earshot.

Posted by Dron66046 2022-04-07 11:53||   2022-04-07 11:53|| Front Page Top

#4 The church just needs to finally admit it is nearly dead. Attending numbers are in free fall and sliding up next to wokism where all the cool kids on Twitter where have only accelerated the issue.

Declare victory, disband the Vatican and fade into history.
Posted by DarthVader 2022-04-07 12:18||   2022-04-07 12:18|| Front Page Top

#5 I understand the Orthodox church in Russia is undergoing a resurgence. One might even call it a resurrection, he said putting on his Putinist vestments.
Posted by SteveS 2022-04-07 13:51||   2022-04-07 13:51|| Front Page Top

#6 The Papacy may be moribund, but The Faith springs anew in fertile ground. We buried my mom last weekend. Her last months were spent in the care of Marta Lovejoy's Greenhouse RCFE. Martha hails from Zimbabwe, and hers is an amazing story. For those interested, Martha's book, My Mother's Daughter is a brief yet fortifying read.
Posted by Rex Mundi 2022-04-07 16:34||   2022-04-07 16:34|| Front Page Top

#7 Historical correction: Martha Lovejoy was actually born in Rhodesia. Important as this is why she was able to 1st escape to UK. My bad.
Posted by Rex Mundi 2022-04-07 16:44||   2022-04-07 16:44|| Front Page Top

#8 You mean the Poop?
Posted by Woodrow 2022-04-07 18:33||   2022-04-07 18:33|| Front Page Top

#9 Back in the day, some forms of potent marijuana were referred to as pooph...
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-04-07 18:37||   2022-04-07 18:37|| Front Page Top

#10 Re #4. Spirituality lies within the self. You don't need to go brick n mortar to get it.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-04-07 18:40||   2022-04-07 18:40|| Front Page Top

05:16 Skidmark
05:12 Skidmark
05:07 Skidmark
05:03 Skidmark
04:53 Skidmark
04:20 Grom the Reflective
03:27 trailing wife
03:26 trailing wife
02:47 Grom the Reflective
02:39 Seeking Cure For Ignorance
02:37 Grom the Reflective
02:34 Grom the Reflective
02:27 Seeking Cure For Ignorance
01:17 3dc
01:16 Frank G
00:30 Pancho Poodle8452
00:01 Skidmark









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com