The Vatican is intentionally downplaying the threat against Pope Francis by the Islamic State (ISIS) partially because it doesn't want to "inflame" the religious tensions anymore than they are already, says Austen Ivereigh, co-founder of Catholic Voices.
"The reason that they are down playing it so much is for two reasons," Ivereigh told John Bachman and Francesca Page on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV Wednesday.
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"The first is they've been very keen not to inflame the religious dimension of this," he explained.
"They know that what ISIS wants more than anything is a crusade of some sort," he said. "That's how they see the world."
"Pope Francis does not want to fuel that," the author of
"The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope" contends.
"He's constantly expressed concern for all the victims of Islamic jihadists in Iraq and Syria whether they're Christian, Muslim or whoever they are," he added.
The other reason, according to the Catholic Voices co-founder, is that Pope Francis has never taken his security measures too seriously because he believes it prevents him from performing his duties as he would like.
"He is relaxed about security because he wants to be close to the people," Ivereigh explained, who said he has traveled extensively with the pope.
"He's not going to let security considerations isolate him from ordinary, faithful people," he said.
"That's been his constant message, and when he's been asked about it he's joked and said, 'I haven't got too long for this earth anyway, so why worry?'"
Pope Francis is scheduled to make a visit to Albania Sunday. The Iraqi ambassador to the Vatican,
Habeeb al Sadr told the Italian newspaper La Nazione that ISIS wants "to kill the Pope" and that "the threats against the Pope are credible." However, Sadr was unable to offer specific details, although he said that the Pope really isn't safe wherever he goes.
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