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| A cross is carried to the altar during an ecumenical prayer service during the In Defense of Christians summit in Washington. Christian patriarchs from the Middle East, along with lawmakers and international human rights activists, attended the three-day gathering on the persecution of Middle Eastern minorities. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn) |
The
following excerpts are from Catholic
News Service:
WASHINGTON
-- A Catholic bishop criticized Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for
politicizing a conference of diverse political and church leaders
working on behalf of Christians and other minorities in the Middle
East.
"When
you come to a hard political stance on anything, it's going to cause
a flare-up, and that's what happened last night," Maronite
Bishop Gregory J. Mansour of Brooklyn, New York, told Catholic News
Service Sept. 11.
Cruz
was a keynote speaker at the gala solidarity dinner at the inaugural
summit of In Defense of Christians, a new organization with the aim
of shaping policy and heightening awareness of Christians in the
Middle East.
The
conference brought together more than 500 politicians, church leaders
-- including Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs flown in from the
Middle East -- and Christians in the diaspora. The patriarchs
emphasized that their differences did not preclude unity on behalf of
all minorities in the Middle East.
Cruz,
touted as a potential Republican candidate for president in 2016,
left the stage after he was booed for saying that Christians have no
better ally than Israel.
In
a statement posted on his website, Cruz said: "After just a few
minutes, I had no choice. I told them that if you will not stand with
Israel, if you will not stand with the Jews, then I will not stand
with you. And then I walked off the stage."
Bishop
Mansour said he felt Cruz "had a litmus test for us: If we don't
stand with Israel, then he won't stand with us. Well, that's not an
approach that is viable for a Christian.
"Christians
don't ally themselves to any state," said Bishop Mansour. "We
are not allied to the state -- to the United States or to Iraq, or to
Syria. Christians must be free to engage their society, to build up
what is beautiful in it, and to critique what is not."
Jesuit
Father Drew Christiansen, distinguished professor of ethics and
global development at Georgetown University, attended the conference
but was not at the gala.
In
a blog for ncronline.org, scheduled for publication Sept. 15, Father
Christiansen contrasted the unanimity of the patriarchs' message on
Christians with Cruz's remarks, which he called "divisive."
"Members
of the audience responded that calls made by Cruz and other speakers
for respect for Jews and their inclusion in a pluralist Middle East
had met with wide approval," wrote Father Christiansen, who has
spent years advocating for Mideast Christians in his work as a policy
adviser for the U.S. bishops' conference and as editor of America
magazine.
"It
was Cruz's assertion that Israel was an ally of Middle Eastern
Christians to which they objected," he wrote. "They felt
that their effort to build a coalition had been hijacked for the sake
of Cruz's own political ambitions and the ultra-Zionist cause."
Bishop
Mansour, who said he liked Cruz personally, told CNS: "I ran
after him, and I saw him, face to face, as you and I are talking. He
was very upset."
But
he pointed out that many in the audience at the gala dinner were
Palestinian Christians.
"Come
on, you have to talk to your audience, you have to talk to the people
who are here. I felt that showed a great insensitivity on his part,"
said Bishop Mansour, whose comments were echoed by others in
attendance.
"We've
been very careful, all the organizers and everybody involved,"
said Bishop Mansour. "The only one who was not very careful was
Sen. Cruz."
"He
made it very clear about defense of Jews and defense of Christians,
but he did not mention defense of Muslims," said Bishop Mansour.
He said everyone at the conference had been "very careful to
defend the best of the Muslim tradition and to condemn the worst in
it."
The
bishop noted that 18 congressmen and senators had had talks with the
Christian leaders on Capitol Hill without any kind of animosity.
Read
more by clicking below:
Bishop Criticizes Senator for Politicizing Summit on Mideast Christians
