From the Pastor - 'The Witness of Martyrs'

A weekly column by Father George Rutler

During the millennium celebrations of 2000, Pope John Paul II went to the Colosseum in Rome and remembered Christ’s martyrs: “In the century and the millennium just begun, may the memory of these brothers and sisters of ours remain always vivid. Indeed, may it grow still stronger! Let it be passed on from generation to generation, so that from it there may blossom a profound Christian renewal!” He cited the eight principal groups of modern martyrs: victims of Soviet totalitarianism, of communism in other countries, of Nazism, of Islamic ultra-fundamentalism, of violent religious nationalism in Asia, of tribal and anti-missionary hatred, of aggressive secularism, and of organized crime.

Chesterton said: “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.” A recent example was Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuan of Vietnam, who died in 2002. He became Coadjutor Archbishop of Saigon in 1975 and was imprisoned for 13 years, nine of those in solitary confinement. His serene witness seemed to have converted some of his guards. Those who are persecuted by those who hate the faith (“odium fidei”) have great power from Heaven to strengthen the Church on earth. In 2009, a seminarian named Joseph Nguyen, whose parents had immigrated to the United States and had personally known Cardinal Nguyên Van Thuan, contracted pneumonia complicated by swine flu. He lay in a coma for 32 days, after his heartbeat had dropped nearly beyond recovery and his brain activity ceased. His parents prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Nguyên Van Thu?n. The young man regained consciousness and said that while in the coma, he had two visions of the cardinal. He is now well and back in seminary.

Father Marek Rybinski

The courage of Christ’s witnesses is an embarrassment to those for whom Christ is not a holy mystery but just an enigma. This past week, the media cast a blind eye on the murder by jihadists of a 33-year-old Polish priest, Father Marek Rybinski, who ran a Salesian school in Tunisia. In Kabul, Afghanistan, after six years of torture and deprivation in prison, Said Musa was sentenced to public execution under sharia law for converting from Islam to Christianity. The father of six children, one disabled, had been working with the Red Cross since losing a leg to a landmine while serving in the Afghan army. Save for the Wall Street Journal, our newspapers have been uninterested in this. In 2006, the intervention of President Bush saved another convert, but there has been no similar executive appeal so far in the instance of Said Musa. Indeed, the post of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom still remains vacant in the present administration.

The courage of those who suffer far outweighs the weakness of those who do nothing, and it greatly strengthens the Church. "For me, to live is Christ, to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Cardinal Bertone: 'Christians the Most Persecuted Religious Group in the World'

'We die, we die, okay. But the cross lives'

From Catholic Online
By Deacon Keith Fournier

The fourth Gospel contains a stirring "promise" of the Bible. It is rarely recounted by some contemporary preachers who often refer to the "promises" of the Bible in a manner that seems to imply we can all be "healthy, wealthy and wise" if we simply "claim" them. However, this promise is found in all of the Gospel accounts and comes right from the mouth of the Lord Himself:

"If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you." (John 15:18-20)

Most of our readers know that I write often about the growing persecution faced by our brothers and sisters throughout the world. Just yesterday we published a stunning account from a survivor of the evil attack on Catholics during Holy Mass at Our Lady of Salvation (Deliverance) in Iraq. Here is an excerpt:

"It was a Sunday and evening mass had just begun. Shortly after the Gospel reading, about 17.15, we heard the sound of gunfire outside the church. Father Tha'er, who was celebrating the liturgy, tried to calm everyone down, telling us to pray together. The noise became louder, then we heard a loud explosion and the terrorists entered the Church - five or six in all - and started shooting everywhere.."

"I saw the injured girl. I decided to go and get her to try and bring her to safety. I took her on my shoulders, but one of the terrorists saw me and threw a grenade at us: the girl died and I was on the ground wounded. I pretended to be dead.

"While I was on the ground I saw Father Tha'er trying to defend the altar servers: he embraced them and covered them with his cassock, to protect them, as if he wanted to hide them. One of the men attacked him, trying to beat him to his knees, but he resisted and remained standing, in the end the terrorist killed him. I could hear the cries of the people in the church, terribly afraid, when at one point I heard a voice, I do not know who he was shouting to the terrorists: 'We die, we die, okay. But the cross lives. Whoever it was, was immediately killed."

In recent articles I have covered the plight of Asia Bibi, a Christian wife and mother in Pakistan whose "crime" is her love for Jesus Christ in a hostile Islamic State. She is scheduled for execution because she stood up for her faith in the midst of a crowd of angry persecutors. I have written about the horrid persecution against Catholics and other Christians in Mumbai India at the hands of Extremist Hindus and the continuous assault against Catholics and other Christians in Vietnam and China.

These are not isolated incidents. Sadly, they represent an ominous trend.

Those who live in the West have not had to face the kind of persecution that ends in the shedding of our blood - at least not yet. Instead, we are being squeezed out of the public square. We are facing the brunt of selective discrimination, verbal denigration and being increasingly marginalized; all of which is a sign of the intolerance of what Pope Benedict rightly labeled the "Dictatorship of Relativism." However, this too is a part of the same ominous trend.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone is representing the Holy See this week at an international gathering occurring under the auspices of the "Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe" in Astana, Kazakhstan. The organization has 56 member countries which include the United States and Canada. It claims to be the world's largest intergovernmental organization dedicated to security and central to its claim is its expressed support for human rights.

This meeting had an agenda to cover terrorism, human trafficking, unrest in Kyrgyzstan and the ongoing tensions in Afghanistan. The Cardinal gave a strong address in which he addressed those concerns. However, what was most striking in his address was his explanation of the Holy See's concern that all Nations respect "that human dignity which unites the entire human family."

He insisted that "this unity is rooted in four fundamental principles: the centrality of the human person, of solidarity, of subsidiarity and of the common good. These principles harmonize well with the overall concept of security, which is the foundation of our organization, and are a constant reminder which the political community must bear in mind".

The Cardinal reminded the leaders "the CSCE and the OSCE have always had the promotion and protection of human rights in their respective agendas" and that "These fundamental freedoms include the right to religious freedom". He affirmed "Developments of recent years and the progress made in drafting the various texts adopted by the OSCE show, with increasingly clarity, that religious freedom can exist in different social systems".

He continued, "closely related to the denial of religious freedom is religiously-motivated intolerance and discrimination, especially against Christians. It is well documented that Christians are the most discriminated and persecuted religious group. Over 200 million of them, belonging to different denominations, live in difficult conditions because of legal and cultural structures".

It was that line, "It is well documented that Christians are the most discriminated and persecuted religious group" which caught most of the headlines around the world. Rightly so, because the Cardinal is absolutely correct. We are living in a new missionary age. The promise of the Lord is being fulfilled "If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you."

I am grateful for the efforts of Church leaders like Cardinal Bertone. I am encouraged by the witness of heroes like Father Tha'er in Iraq who covered the altar servers with his cassock in an effort to protect them. However, in the midst of this ominous trend I am inspired by the anonymous martyr in that same Church who spoke the truth while staring down the barrel of a gun, "We die, we die, okay. But the cross lives!" Christians are the most persecuted group in the world.