From one pope to another: Middle East synod comes awfully late | National Catholic Reporter: "

Pope Shenouda III (Wikipedia)

"His Holiness Pope Shenouda III entrusted me with the mission to attend the Synod as his representative, and to express his warm gratitude to His Holiness for extending an invitation to partake in the Synodal works. He entrusted me with delivering a tribute of fraternal love to Your Holiness and to all the members of the Synod, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying and hoping that God will let the Synod bear its desired fruits for the good and consideration of the Christians of the Middle East.

Allow me to say that this Synod comes at a very late stage, as the conflicts and persecutions that our region suffers from have multiplied and turned into lamentation and suffering, resulting in the migration of a large number of the finest young Christians, leaving their homelands behind. I also mean leaving their hearts behind, with their history, authentic culture and tradition, in order to live and take refuge in another country, whose traditions and way of life are strange to them, not in line with their nature, but, compared to what they went through, still more secure and safer, providing them and their children with the hope of a better future.

The title of this Synod on communion and witness takes on a new meaning and significance with regard to the suffering and challenges faced by the Christians of the Middle East, due to precarious and complex political conflicts, particularly the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as the wars this region has witnessed and still is enduring; wars that have caused an upsurge in Middle Eastern problems, where, as a reaction, anti-Jewish and anti-Christian Salafist movements alike were launched, while the spirit of hatred, rejection of the other and isolationism were felt on the other side in response to the psychological pressure and persecution. That, to the point of martyrdom, marginalization and the feeling of being “non-native” citizens enduring discrimination at work and in political institutions and parliamentary and local councils.

They are carrying slogans like "Shariah for the Vatican", "Jesus is not God" and "God curse the Pope". But there was more:

Muslim demonstrators sang “Pope Benedict, you will pay, Islam is on its way”, “Sharia is on its way”, “Justice is on its way” (a lot is coming our way, it seems) and threatened that Sharia would be “declared” against all who insult Muhammad. They shouted to the Pope, “Watch your back,” swore that he will “burn in hell” and claimed that he “deserves the death penalty.”

As always, we see respect for other religions, good wishes for everyone and no intentions of dominating other people.

Just kidding...

The Conservative Monster has more on this.

Related:
Muslim against Crusades - new Islamist group springs up.

Spero News:

Obama, in an evident "lead-up" to the meeting, met on Thursday in Washington with several Catholic journalists, answering their questions and making clear his own positions. One revealing thing that he said at that July 2 meeting: that Obama has been profoundly influenced by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, whom he came to know when he was a community organizer in a project partially funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
(...) But despite all of the possible areas in which Obama and the Pope can agree, there is at least one area where their disagreement is profound.
Abortion. Obama believes it should be kept legal; the Pope feels it is a violation of the human right to life, and so should not be legal. Obama knows he and the Pope differ on this.
He told the eight reporters that he sees "an irreducible difference... on the abortion issue... The best we can do is suggest that people of good will can be on either side, but you can't wish those differences away."

Reuters.com has more, pointing also to another difference: stem cell research.