Hey guess what, when you meet the Pope you have to check your weapons at the door.
Sikh representatives will not participate in an interfaith meeting with Pope Benedict XVI during his U.S. visit next month because the Secret Service won’t allow them to wear a ceremonial dagger that members of the Eastern religion must carry, says the AP.
Sikhs had been invited to join other religious leaders for a 45-minute meeting with Benedict on April 17 in Washington to express a shared commitment to peace. But the Secret Service would not allow the Sikhs to carry a kirpaan, which resembles a small sword or dagger.
So they’re upset they can’t bring a knife to the peace meeting? Look there’s some rough players out there in the world who don’t want to play nice with the Pope. So they can fire off their press releases bemoaning how upset and dissapointed they are but is anyone who claims sanity really suprised at this?
The kirpaan “represents the Sikh commitment to resist oppression and injustice” and is to be carried “only in a defensive posture and never to initiate confrontation,” according to the World Sikh Council-America Region.
“We have to respect the sanctity of the kirpaan, especially in such interreligious gatherings,” Anahat Kaur, secretary general of the Sikh Council, said in a statement. “We cannot undermine the rights and freedoms of religion in the name of security.”
Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, said: “We understand the kirpaan is a sanctified religious object. But by definition, it’s still a weapon. We apply our security policy consistently and fairly.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Sikh leaders have engaged in interfaith dialogue for the last few years. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the conference, said the bishops “feel very sad” that the security concerns could not be resolved.
March 6, 2008 at 7:11 am
Just to be clear when a grad student I knew in college flew back to India for visits, he understood he had to pack his kirpaan in the luggage he checked for the flight which took several hours…
Leaving them at the door to meet the Pope for 45 min is a problem?
March 6, 2008 at 1:19 pm
It just shows how intolerant us Catholics are of other religions. 😉
March 6, 2008 at 4:00 pm
When I first read about this topic, the article (I can’t remember where it was now) mentioned that Sikhs have met the Pope at the Vatican without having to remove their kirpan.
If that’s true, then it makes me think it’s more classic American paranoia than a legitimate concern. But I could have misread it…can anyone confirm/deny?
March 6, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I too have read that the Sikhs who met the Holy Father at the Vatican still had their kirpans in the meeting. All well & good if that is what Vatican security called for…
“If that’s true, then it makes me think it’s more classic American paranoia than a legitimate concern. But I could have misread it…can anyone confirm/deny?”
On our turf, our rules… And if it can be removed for flights, seems only reasonable it can be removed for a 45 minute audience.
March 7, 2008 at 1:21 am
It seems to me that Catholic leaders generally show much more respect for those of other faiths, than they ever do of us. To this day, the things said about Christ in the Talmud have not been revised. I’d like five minutes alone with the next rabbi who shoots his mouth off about how we pray for him.