{"id":105049,"date":"2015-04-04T05:59:37","date_gmt":"2015-04-04T05:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=105049"},"modified":"2015-04-04T05:59:37","modified_gmt":"2015-04-04T05:59:37","slug":"pope-francis-decries-persecution-of-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=105049","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis decries persecution of Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Pope Francis has condemned the &#8220;complicit silence&#8221; about the killing of Christians during a Good Friday service in Rome.<\/p>\n<p>Tens of thousands of pilgrims joined him for the Way of the Cross ceremony, recalling Jesus&#8217; crucifixion.<\/p>\n<p>Among the cross bearers were Syrian and Iraqi refugees, and Nigerians who had escaped Boko Haram persecution.<\/p>\n<p>The service came a day after almost 150 people were killed in an al-Shabab attack on a Kenyan university.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We still see today our persecuted brothers, decapitated and crucified for their faith in you [Jesus], before our eyes and often with our complicit silence,&#8221; Pope Francis said, presiding over the ceremony at the Colosseum.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape full-width has-caption\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/625\/media\/images\/82119000\/jpg\/_82119250_026609364-1.jpg\" alt=\"A general view of the atmosphere as Pope Francis leads the Way of The Cross at the Colosseum on April 3, 2015 in Rome, Italy\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"media-caption__text\">It is the third time the Pope Francis has attended the ceremony as pontiff<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape full-width has-caption\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/625\/media\/images\/82119000\/jpg\/_82119252_026606848-1.jpg\" alt=\"Pope Francis prays face down, on the floor of St. Peter's Basilica during the Celebration of Lord's Passion on Good Friday on April 3, 2015 in Vatican\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"media-caption__text\">In St Peter&#8217;s Basilica, the Pope prayed prostrated on the floor<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Earlier, he condemned the attack in Kenya, where Christians were singled out and shot, as an act of &#8220;senseless brutality&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In another Good Friday ceremony, Pope Francis listened as the Vatican&#8217;s official preacher Raniero Cantalamessa denounced the &#8220;disturbing indifference of world institutions in the face of all this killing of Christians&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He too mentioned the Kenya attack, as well as the beheading of 22 Egyptian Coptic Christians by Islamic State (IS) militants in Libya in February.<\/p>\n<p>Pope Francis has spoken out against the persecution of Christians before, saying that the world would be justified using military force to combat the &#8220;unjust aggression&#8221; by IS.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape full-width has-caption\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/625\/media\/images\/82119000\/jpg\/_82119258_026610026-1.jpg\" alt=\"Nuns hold the cross during a station of the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) torchlight procession celebrated by Pope Francis in front of the Colosseum on Good Friday, in Rome\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"media-caption__text\">Tens of thousands of pilgrims attended the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) ceremony in Rome<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Francis has condemned the &#8220;complicit silence&#8221; about the killing of Christians during a Good Friday service in Rome. Tens of thousands of pilgrims joined him for the Way of the Cross ceremony, recalling Jesus&#8217; crucifixion. Among the cross bearers were Syrian and Iraqi refugees, and Nigerians who had escaped Boko Haram persecution. The service [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":105050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-105049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/105050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}