Pope meets with Sudanese Christian woman who faced death sentence for apostasy

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

Pope Francis met privately Thursday with Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman who faced a death sentence for refusing to renounce her faith, blessing the woman after she was flown to Italy on an Italian government jet.

 

The Vatican characterized the visit with Ibrahim, 27, her husband and their two small children as "very affectionate."

 

The 30-minute encounter took place just hours after the family landed at Rome's Ciampino airport, accompanied by an Italian diplomat who helped negotiate her release, and welcomed by Italy's premier, who hailed it as a "day of celebration."

 

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the pope "thanked her for her faith and courage, and she thanked him for his prayer and solidarity" during the half-hour meeting Thursday. Francis frequently calls attention to the suffering of those persecuted for their religious beliefs.

 

Lombardi said the presence of "their wonderful small children" added to the affectionate tone of the meeting. Ibrahim was presented with a rosary, a gift from the pope.

 

Ibrahim and her family are expected to spend a few days in Rome before heading to the United States.

 

Earlier Thursday, Reuters reported that Italian television broadcast images of Ibrahim and her family arriving in Rome with Italian politician Lapo Pistelli. Pistelli had posted a picture on his Facebook page depicting himself with Ibrahim and her two children. The caption, translated from Italian, read "With Meriam, Maya, Martin and [ibrahim's husband] Daniel, a few minutes from Rome. Mission accomplished."

 

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was among those who greeted the plane, calling it "a day of celebration."

 

Ibrahim had spent more than a month at the American Embassy in Khartoum after a previous attempt to leave Sudan was halted by that country's authorities. They said she had attempted to use false travel documents, a claim Ibrahim denied.

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Salvation run.

[Draggingtree]

7/25/2014

Meriam Ibrahim’s Release: Whom to Thank

Filed under: Current Events,General,Obama,Politics,Religion — JVW @ 10:24 am

[guest post by JVW]

 

Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman married to an American citizen, was flown to Rome from Khartoum yesterday, thus bringing to an end the saga of her death sentence handed down by a Sudanese Islamic court for alleged apostasy and adultery.

 

The trouble apparently began when Ms. Ibrahim traveled to Sudan on a Sudanese passport to visit her ailing mother. She brought her 18-month-old son, Martin, and was at the time in the second trimester of a pregnancy. Her Sudanese-American husband, Daniel Wani, is confined to a wheelchair due to MS and therefore remained in the couple’s New Hampshire home. The trouble in Khartoum began when Ms. Ibfahim’s Muslim half-brother, Al Semani Al Hadi, brought charges against her for allegedly abandoning the Islamic faith to marry a Christian man. Ms. Ibrahim contends that her mother is an Eastern Orthodox Christian and she has always practiced the Christian faith, but authorities declared that by having a Muslim father Ms. Ibrahim was obligated to follow the tenets of Islam, even though her father had left the family early in http://patterico.com/2014/07/25/meriam-ibrahims-release-whom-to-thank/

[Valin]

Pope Francis Meets Sudanese Christian Condemned to Death
7/25/14

This won’t go over well with Islamic fundamentalists: Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, the Sudanese Christian whose death sentence for apostasy sparked outrage in the West, met with the Pope this week. Ibrahim was raised Christian, but because her father was Muslim, she was considered Muslim under Sudan’s Sharia law. Her Christianity was thus seen as apostasy—a crime punishable by death. After international pressure on the Sudanese government led to her release and the withdrawal of the death sentence, she face a few more obstacles and criminal charges, was she eventually was able to leave the country for Italy. Now safe, she has had an audience with Pope Francis. The BBC has more:

 

(Snip)

 

The pope’s high profile greeting of this refugee from bigotry and fanaticism is as clear a challenge to the violent wing of Islam as the famously controversial Regensburg lecture by Pope Benedict. The evidence continues to accumulate that the Pope is Catholic. Sooner or later even the press will figure this out.