Good question, but is it true and ...

...does it suggest something malevolent.

Why is Rome keeping schtum about Pastor Nadarkhani?

The blogger Archbishop Cranmer has done some excellent work drawing attention to the case of Pastor Nadarkhani, who is to be executed in Iran because he refuses to recant his Christian faith. One doesn’t have to be a martyrologist, or even a Christian, to recognise the Pastor’s courage. Three times he has been asked by the Iranian Supreme Court to renounce Christ, and three times, on pain of death, he has refused. Reports today suggest that the Iranian authorities are on the verge of acquitting Nardakhani, but Cranmer says that “the ‘people who know’ are treating these reports with great caution.”


Cranmer also says he has alerted the Foreign office, Lambeth Palace, and the Vatican about Nadarkhani’s situation. William Hague replied within an hour and the Archbishop of Canterbury expressed “deep concern”, but the Vatican has kept schtum. Cranmer is cross, “Iran views Evangelical Protestants as ‘corrupt and deviant’,” he writes. “Does His Holiness agree?”

Steady on. It’s possible, I suppose, that the Holy See is reluctant to intervene for fear of endangering Catholics in Iran. Or perhaps they are working behind the scenes. But I suspect the Vatican’s silence is more to do with bureaucracy and incompetence. Cranmer tends to think the worst of Rome (the clue is in his name). But he is absolutely right to say that the churches really should be united, clear and loud in response to this outrage, and they should speak out now.

Anyone who has read Pope Benedict XVI's writings knows that Cranmer is nuts.  B16 has gone on record repeatedly to denounce the irrationality and oppression of Islamic extremists.  Likewise, it has been no secret that Catholics are the ones who tend to catch it in the necks in most of the Middle East.

On which point, where is the Protestant denunciation of the many, many attacks on Catholics in the Mid-East?  I assume there are some, and I further assume that all Protestants are opposed to such attacks.  Finally, I assume that they have many other worthwhile things that divert their attention such that they don't have to keep repeating things we know they stand for.

Should the Vatican denounce this situation, if it hasn't already? Absolutely. But notice that the White House got around to denouncing it only last night. 

Bureaucracy is undoubtedly the answer here.