Bishop Eleganti: Catholicism and Islam cannot peacefully coexist

The retired Swiss bishop issued a scathing critique of contemporary efforts to downplay what he perceives as the great threat of Islam.

(Pelican+) — “I’m not so naive to think that water and fire can coexist.” With this simple phrase, Bishop Marian Eleganti OSB excoriated the argument that Catholics and Muslims can develop a long-lasting peaceful co-existence.

Muslims, he opined, “want the dominance of Islam in the whole world, that’s clear, and they try to implement it.”

Eleganti’s comments came during a long-form interview conducted recently with this correspondent for Pelican+ in Rome, and which will be released in successive parts for Pelican readers. Eleganti served as auxiliary bishop of the Swiss Diocese of Chur from 2009 through 2021. He has emerged as a prominent critic of modernist ideologies within the Church, and events such as the Synod on Synodality.

Conducted in light of Pope Leo’s visit to Turkey and Lebanon, the interview touched on the question of relations between Muslims and Catholics, and whether they can peacefully co-exist as the Pope suggested during his in-flight interview.

Elegenti was skeptical: “From the very beginning Islam itself is intolerant and anti-Christian,” he stated.

He also highlighted the influence of Islam in Christian persecution – a subject very topical currently due to the Islamic attacks on Nigerian Christians. “Most Christian martyrs nowadays are killed by Islamic hands. That’s evident, it’s evident,” he said.

The first part of the interview between this correspondent and Bishop Eleganti, conducted exclusively for Pelican+, is found at this link. Readers interested to subscribe and follow this correspondent’ Vatican reporting for Pelican can do so here with the discount code “HAYNES.”