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Christian persecution continues worldwide

15 Jan 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

On his way to becoming a prophet, young Samuel learned how to hear and respond to the call of God, we learn in Sunday’s first reading. In many countries, Christians who dare to do the same openly risk persecution. The international Christian organization Open Doors released its annual World Watch List this week, naming the 50 countries where it says Christians face the worst persecution--and the situation is not improving. For the tenth year running North Korea topped the list. Christianity has been driven so far underground in North Korea, Open Doors said, that parents wait until their children are old enough to understand the dangers of practicing their faith before teaching them about it. The organization also estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 Christian are currently interned in labor camps in North Korea. For the first time in the 20 years the list has been compiled, the situation for Christians did not improve last year in any country, Open Doors said. Christians also are under attack in Nigeria, where the radical Muslim Boko Haram sect killed 44 people after it promised to murder Christians living in the predominately Muslim north of the country. Speaking Saturday to journalists, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, vowed the group's members would adequately protect themselves from the sect. He declined to offer specifics, raising concerns about retaliation. "We have decided to work out means to defend ourselves against these senseless killings," Oritsejafor said. He added: "We cannot sit back and watch people being slaughtered like animals every day, going to the church, shooting people, killing them. This is unacceptable." In Egypt, Coptic Orthodox Christians last weekend celebrated their first Christmas since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak and an escalation in violence associated with the growing power of Islamists. Celebrations of Orthodox Christmas began amid tight security and a show of national unity. Mass at Cairo's main cathedral was attended by prominent figures from across Egypt's political spectrum, including leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group whose associated political party has won nearly half the seats in parliament. Members of the ruling military council that took power after Mubarak's Feb. 11 ouster also attended, as well as the visiting top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman. Coptic Pope Shenouda III commended their presence and appealed for national unity for "the sake of Egypt." The 88-year-old church leader said: "For the first time in the history of the cathedral, it is packed with all types of Islamist leaders in Egypt. They all agree . . . on the stability of this country and in loving it, and working for it and to work with the Copts as one hand for the sake of Egypt." Coptic Christians comprise an estimated 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 85 million. Sources: Articles by ENI News, ReligionClause.com,and Njadvara Musa and Sarah El Deeb for the Associated Press

egypt world watch list boko haram ayo oritsejafor christian association of nigeria muslim brotherhood pope shenouda iii coptic christians copts nigeria christians islamism persecution north korea open doors

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Christians, take cover

19 Jan 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday’s gospel tells of John the Baptist announcing the arrival on the scene of Jesus, “the Lamb of God.” Both John and Jesus would be executed for their faith—as were an alarming 2,123 Christians worldwide last year, nearly double the 1,201 martyred in 2012. More than half of those reported killings occurred in Syria, followed by Nigeria and Pakistan.North Korea, a nation of more than 24 million with an estimated 300,000 Christians, remains the most dangerous, where life-long imprisonment or execution is the sentence if caught in possession of a Bible. Somalia, Syria, and Iraq are also listed among the most dangerous nations by Open Doors, a nondenominational group tracking persecuted Christians worldwide.In North Korea the group reports that “like others in that country, Christians have to survive under one of the most oppressive regimes in contemporary times. . . . An estimated 50,000 to 70,000 Christians live in concentration camps, prisons, and prison-like circumstances under the regime of leader Kim Jong-Un.”Syria, which had not previously cracked the group’s list of top ten most oppressive places for Christians, ranked third last year. As in Somalia, Islamic extremism powers the persecution in Syria, according to Open Door officials, and many municipalities that previously had large populations of Christians have become ghost towns.When it comes to Catholic pastoral workers, Latin America is the most dangerous region of the world. In 2013, according to Vatican sources, 22 pastoral care workers were killed worldwide, mostly priests, almost double the 13 slain in 2012. Colombia was the most dangerous country, with 7 priests killed there in 2013.Homily hint: While some U.S. Christians worry about threats to their religious freedom, Christians in many other nations around the world have tasted the hard-line violent type of persecution. What can you and your community do to raise awareness and work for religious freedom around the world? Sources: Articles by Joshua Rhett Miller for Fox News and by Agenzia Fides

martyrs north korea persecution syria open doors

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Exploring the word

09 Sep 2018 - Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Like most people on the road, when it’s time for a meal, I start scanning the shop windows for signs of life. On such occasions, an “open” sign floods me with hope that a warm meal and a cold drink are within my grasp. A “closed” placard, on the other hand, dashes my spirits and sets me back to wandering. I realize it’s nothing personal, but when I’m really hungry, it can feel mighty personal, even when the sign politely reads, “Sorry, but we’re closed.” It’s still a shut door where I had hoped to be received. The brisk standardization of retail communication—you are, after all, either open or closed—made my stumbling upon an irregular sign one day an unexpected moment of hilarity. “Sorry,” the sign read, “but we’re open.” Was it an apology for the food? Or for the humility of the service that awaited me? No matter: The chutzpah of the place amused me, and I had to step inside. The spirit of open and closed is rarely so nuanced in our experience. We’re either welcome or not, in or out, one of the “haves” or the “have-nots.” In our dealings with others, and even in our relationship with God, we may find ourselves in a free-flowing exchange or apparently speaking to a brick wall. Some folks will tend toward fatalism if the brick-wall experience becomes prolonged. Nothing is going to change, we may sigh. Ill fortune is our lot. Suffering and death are inevitable. A desert will never produce a spring. And if we think this way, we are in for a surprise. To those whose hearts are frightened The prophet has a word for the timid: Be strong! Fear not! God comes to save. And what salvation means is quite concrete: senses restored, ability regained, hope renewed. In God’s plan, the lame man dances. And yes, the desert will produce a river. Any way that has been shut, God can open. Things are hardly as fixed as they may seem from where we sit in the cheap seats of the cosmos. For one who believes, there is no point when it is time to hang a closed sign on the human experience and say: No way. God always has a way. Whether or not we buy that idea is another thing entirely. We are accustomed to walking away from the neon sign flashing “Abandon Hope Ye Who Enter Here” in our needy faces. We see that sign around the bend when our children make choices that disappoint us, when rejection makes us doubt our worth, when injury brings new limitations to a life already bordered by mortality, and most of all when the angel of death first casts its shadow. We who are used to separating things into tidy categories of good and bad, rich and poor, worthy and unworthy, are ready to default with a quick judgment when we don’t get the response from life we were looking for. Is this new event in our day the signaling that a door has slammed shut or a new one is opening? If we are too quick to interpret and label our experience, we may never know. Be opened! Once upon a time Jesus met a man who couldn’t hear and therefore could scarcely speak well enough to be understood. After meeting Jesus, the man could hear and spoke plainly. Jesus said, “Don’t tell anyone.” But once a mouth has been opened, it’s hard to keep it shut. Pretty soon every mouth in the district of the Decapolis was opened and yammering about this event. “He has done all things well,” they said of Jesus. That was a pretty good assessment. Before that day, the man who had been brought to Jesus had not encountered much hope that things could be different. And suddenly everything was changed for him. All it took was a finger in his ear, a touch of spit, a groan toward heaven, and faith. We may want to add, “A whole lot of faith,” but actually that wouldn’t be true. Jesus said a mustard seed of faith would be plenty, enough to move a mountain—which is a whole lot bigger than a tongue and two ears. We may be tempted to exaggerate the complexity and difficulty of this miraculous event, but as Jesus also said, “With God all things are possible.” What makes a thing impossible, it would appear, is our insistence that it is. Applying the Word Opening the door on possibility Letting God be God is just about the hardest thing a human being can do. We are, historically and regrettably, control freaks—about the circumstances of our own lives most of all. The original and primordial sin remains the temptation to be gods ourselves, to take charge of the universe and make the rules about how it all goes. The sad thing is, God as much as gave us the power we seek in the stewardship of naming way back at the beginning of the story. What we call a thing, for better or for worse, is what it will be. A giraffe is a giraffe, so to speak, and a closed door is an immutable object. But what if we looked at the door and saw, instead of a barrier, a way out? Jesus didn’t call himself “the Way” for nothing. He, at least, had some respect for the power of naming. Miracles can happen. Peace is possible. Justice is always a decision away. Grace is available for the asking. We might think we’re damned (or in popular terminology, “screwed”), but that’s only a perception, one of many, and certainly not the most accurate one. Jesus is the one who does all things well, if we can trust the eyewitnesses. Far from being the lord of the damned, Jesus is the one who saves. A way has been opened for us, and all we have to do is walk through the door to get there. Related scripture links Be not afraid: Matt. 10:26, 28, 31; 14:27; 17:7; 28:10; Mark 5:36; 6:50; Luke 5:10; 8:50; 12:7, 32; John 6:20 Perfect love casts out fear: 1 John 4:18 With God all things are possible: Matt. 19:26; Mark 10:27 A mustard seed is enough: Matt. 13:31-32; 17:19-20; Luke 13:18-19; 17:5-6 I am the Way: John 14:6 The power of naming: Gen. 2:19 Catechism links Salvation: CCC 55; 121-125; 161; 169; 489; 1092-1095; 1168 Messiah work: CCC 1716-1724

Authors Alice Camille

Hope closed doors open doors deaf

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