Pope Francis calls ISIS slaughter of Christians a ‘barbaric assassination’

'Be they Catholic, Orthodox, Copts, Lutherans, it doesn't matter: They're Christians!' the Pope said of the 21 Egyptian members of the Coptic Orthodox Church who were decapitated by ISIS in a gruesome video.
Natalya Mihailova | 17 February 2015
Pope Francis denounced Monday the slaughter of 21 Coptic Christians by ISIS, calling it a “barbaric assassination.”
Pope Francis calls ISIS slaughter of Christians a ‘barbaric assassination’
-/AFP/Getty Images

“They only said, ‘Jesus help me.’ The blood of our Christian brothers is testimony that cries out. Be they Catholic, Orthodox, Copts, Lutherans, it doesn’t matter: They’re Christian!” Francis said during an audience with a Scottish ecumenical delegation.

The Pope (right) also phoned the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros, to “express his profound participation with the pain of the Coptic Church for the recent barbaric assassination of Coptic Christians by Islamic fundamentalists,” the Vatican spokesman said.

His condemnation came one day after the blood-lusting militants released a video showing the decapitation of the 21 Egyptians.

The video included a menacing message to “the people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church.”

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