http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2094
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1269 leaders have been excluded from an upcoming interfaith meeting with Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the United States because their ceremonial daggers were forbidden by the Secret Service, the Washington Times reports.
The April 17 meeting is scheduled to take place at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center near Catholic University in Washington. The meeting originally included Sikhs along with http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3365, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist guests. A list released on Tuesday by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops substituted followers of another India-based religion, the Jains, in place of the Sikhs.
Ten to 15 Sikhs were to attend the papal meeting. Most of them were veterans of a Catholic-Sikh dialogue begun in 2006.
Sikh leaders say that the Secret Service had forbidden them to wear the “kirpan,” a dagger that all Sikhs are required to wear. Sikhs have compared its importance to their faith with the Orthodox Jewish requirement that men wear a yarmulke.
Anahat Kaur, secretary general of the World Sikh Council, America Region, said that Pope John Paul II met with kirpan-bearing Sikhs at the Vatican in January 2002.”We were pretty disappointed,” Kaur said, speaking about the prohibition of the kirpan. “At an event meant to promote understanding between faiths, we would have had to renounce a fundamental tenet of our faith to attend.”
Kaur said that the Secret Service had the opportunity to investigate the guests and evaluate their safety. “We thought that would be enough,” she said.
“We have to respect the sanctity of the kirpan, especially in such inter-religious gatherings,” Kaur said in a separate press release. “We cannot undermine the rights and freedoms of religion in the name of security.”
Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said that no weapon could be allowed within striking distance of a head of state.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11988
An estimated fifteen Popes have been assassinated, and Benedict’s predecessor John Paul II was of course targeted by a member of the Turkish nationalist http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2301), to uphold its weapons policy. For Sikhs to act as if they are being insulted is simple arrogance borne out of how political correctness rewards whining from protected classes.
The murdered Popes:
John VIII (872-882): Poisoned and clubbed to death
Adrian III, St. (884-885): Rumored poisoned
Stephen VI (896-897): Strangled
Leo V (903): Murdered
John X (914-928): Suffocated under a pillow
Stephen VII (VIII) (928-931): Possibly murdered
Stephen VIII (IX) (939-942): Mutilated and died from injuries
John XII (955-964): Suffered a stroke while with a mistress
or murdered by an outraged husband
Benedict VI (973-974): Strangled by a priest
John XIV (983-984): Starved to death or poisoned
Gregory V (996-999): Rumored poisoned, probably malaria
Sergius IV (1009-1012): Possibly murdered
Clement II (1046-1047): Rumored poisoned
Damasus II (1048): Rumored murdered
Boniface VIII (1294-1303): Died from abuse received while a
captive of the French in Anagni