Libya burns out some Priests and Nuns

More cartoon nonsense

The Feb. 20 attacks against the two religious properties forced the apostolic vicar of Benghazi, the rest of his Franciscan community, and the religious men and women who lived and worked in the diocese to be evacuated to the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

Everything inside the church and friary was destroyed; "everything that could be set on fire was set on fire," he said.

Bishop Giovanni Martinelli of Tripoli said all religious communities in Benghazi had been evacuated and transferred to Tripoli. Besides the Franciscans, these included the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of Ivrea and a community of Polish Sacred Heart nuns.

The fires in Benghazi, he said, were caused "by a fanatic fringe, by fundamentalism that emerged in order to condemn" the publication of the offensive cartoons and their display by Calderoli.

Demonstrators were condemning a recent incident in which an Italian government minister had unbuttoned his shirt on Italian television to display a T-shirt bearing an image of one of the Danish cartoons that have sparked condemnations and demonstrations in many Muslim communities.

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