Jesuit Priest Van der Lugt dragged outside and shot in Syria

News is circulating today about a Jesuit priest, Fr. Frans van der Lugt, S.J. is confirmed by his Dutch province to have been killed. The news reports make it a little unclear who killed him, though — the insurgents sent in by the West, or the other insurgents.

I don’t think we should say it was a Muslim vs. Christian thing, as Sister Miriam (who I reported on years ago before her American tour) has repeatedly cautioned that the violence being done in Syria isn’t religiously motivated, but is foreign interests tearing the country apart (as reported here last November). My take of her opinion is that she feels that the headlines are made out as religious motivated to cause public opinion of a religious war where the real war isn’t religious at all, but economic.

Her opinion is more trustworthy than that of the mass media. In fact, she’s said on more than one occasion that Americans in particular need to check the reports in American news because they weren’t true.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWhYud9bXNw

Fr. van der Lugt had been making youtube videos of the trouble in Syria, with pleas for peace. Fr. van der Lugt had started the Al-Ard Center which was known for stirring inter religious dialogue among Moslems and Christians in Syria. He lived in Syria over 48 years, and said he loved it there. So much that he stayed and wanted to be among the Christians in Syria until the end. Here’s how the U.S. news is presenting it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJPlwkDrlSc

It is a good report that pulls on your heartstrings and incites a desire to get those people that did this. But just who are those people?

The Vatican released a statement that said:

“[Father van der Lugt was] a man of peace, who with great courage, had wanted to remain faithful, in an extremely risky and difficult situation, to the Syrian people to whom he had dedicated, for a long time, his life and spiritual service.”

as Reported on Pravoslavie and The Wire.

Allegedly, Father was dragged outside and shot by a front group of al Quaeda that has been killing anyone perceived to be supporting Assad. While the Pentagon has been found to be paying Al Quaeda in the past, I’m sure no one here would be paying these rebels to eliminate Assad supporters, let alone Catholic priests, even if that is the outcome desired by past U.S. positions on Syria.

Besides, people said the United States destroyed the Christians in Serbia and Kosovo… U.S. cruise missiles targeted and destroyed over 300 Catholic parishes there in the late 90s, and the relief money sent after the destruction was not permitted to rebuild the churches, but Saudi money was used to construct 60 mosques in the place of the erstwhile parishes. Surely, this wouldn’t be happening again. Not in Ukraine, either. Not in Thailand, either… even though our news isn’t covering anything happening there, so most people in America think nothing is happening there.

The situation needs prayer. May God grant Father’s soul to rest in a place of just repose, and may God have mercy on us and the people of Syria.

This article, Jesuit Priest Van der Lugt dragged outside and shot in Syria is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/jesuit-priest-van-der-lugt-dragged-outside-and-shot-in-syria/
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