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October 24, 2008 £1 (Republic of Ireland €1.50)

Global persecution of Church intensifies

Cardinal says report on the global rise in anti-Christian violence makes ‘very disturbing reading’

BYEDWEST

THEPERSECUTIONof Christians is on the increase around the world, a leading overseas charity has said, with some Christian minorities at risk of being “extinguished”. Aid to the Church in Need’s Index of Persecution document, released this week, states that persecution has worsened in 17 of 29 countries the group monitors since 2006, among them India, Iraq, Algeria and Egypt. The document was published on the day that a British Christian aid worker was murdered by the Taliban and in the month that up to 15,000 Iraqi Christians were forced to flee from Islamist gunmen in Mosul and 100 of the faithful were killed by mobs in Orissa, India. Cardinal Cormac MurphyO’Connor, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, called the report “very disturbing reading” and said it “shows clearly and concisely what it is that Christians endure for their beliefs”. John Pontifex, spokesman for Aid to the Church in Need, said: “Religious extremism is being linked to national identity and Christianity is perceived as a threat to the emergence of that new national identity. The extremists see the identity of Orissa being linked to the Hindu religion, and so the presence of Christians is seen as a provocation.” The index is based on the recently issued Persecuted and Forgotten?, the charity’s annual report on Christians oppressed for their faith. Mr Pontifex said the reports from their contacts in the countries affected suggested that persecution and intolerance were increasing. “The anecdotal evidence suggests only one conclusion: the situation is getting manifestly worse,” he said. “Christians in areas where they have lived for donkey’s years are now threatened with being forced to leave, with the possible conclusion that they could be extinguished.” Aid to the Church in Need was founded in 1947 by Werenfried van Straaten, a Dutch priest, to help German refugees. But while it once operated mostly in Communist Eastern Europe, in recent years the majority of its work has come to be in the Islamic world, where anti-Christian violence is widespread. On Monday the Taliban killed a British Christian aid worker in

IRAQ:EXODUS

INDIA:MOBRAMPAGE

PAKISTAN:REPRESSION

CHINA:CLAMPDOWN

ZIMBABWE:BEATINGS

CUBA:GETTINGBETTER

The Aid to the Church in Need report, centre, identifies the world’s worst places to be a Christian, including Iraq, India, Pakistan, China and Zimbabwe CNS

Afghanistan for “spreading her religion”. Gayle Williams, 34, worked with handicapped, blind and deaf Afghans for the nondenominational Christian charity Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises (SERVE). A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said an assassin killed Miss Williams on her way to work in Kabul “because she was working for an organisation which was preaching Christianity”. Converting from Islam to Christianity carries the death sentence in Afghanistan. Friends and colleagues of the aid worker said that the organisation had a strict policy against proselytising. Afghanistan is one of many Islamic countries where conver

sion to Christianity carries severe punishments. In Sudan apostasy carries the death penalty and in Pakistan blasphemy laws are used to oppress religious minorities and there has also been a dramatic increase in the number of antiChristian attacks. In other countries instability or anarchy has led to increased persecution. Several thousand Iraqi Christians remain displaced after two weeks of violence in the city of Mosul that left at least 13 Christians dead. A church was firebombed in the city last Tuesday as the country’s leading Shia cleric condemned the ongoing attacks. Some 800 Christians have been murdered since the US-led inva

sion in 2003 and half the country’s 800,000 faithful have fled the country. Last week Iraq’s leading Catholic churchman, the Chaldean patriarch Cardinal EmmanuelKarim Delly of Baghdad, described the “disastrous and tragic” situation in his country at the Synod of Bishops on the Bible in Rome, saying life in Iraq was like the Way of the Cross for many people. “Peace and security are lacking, just as the basic elements for daily life are lacking,” he said, drawing applause from more than 200 bishops. Although most of the countries on the index are majority Muslim, India has seen some of the worst

violence. Even before the recent Orissa massacre the Global Council of Indian Christians collected evidence of 500 cases of anti-Christian violence between January 2006 and November 2007. In Orissa, in the east of the country, more than 100 Christians have been killed in the past month and 25,000 displaced after violence triggered by the assassination of a Hindu nationalist by Communists. Over 4,400 houses and 151 churches or chapels were destroyed by mobs and more than 18,000 people injured. Mr Pontifex said it was all part of a growing trend. “A common theme among these countries – and other serial offenders such as

Egypt and northern Nigeria and Saudi Arabia –is the rise of religious fundamentalism, Islamist but also Hindu and Buddhist,” he said. “In the majority of the countries included there are strong signs that the situation for Christians has worsened, in some cases markedly so –even in the last two years. Algeria, Eritrea, Iraq and Pakistan stand out very strongly. Now the situation is so grave that one must ask: ‘What, if any, future is there for Christians in these countries?” In Algeria 30 churches were forcibly closed in the first half of 2008 and new laws against proselytising were introduced, and against the distribution of religious literature that could “shake the

faith of a Muslim”. There have also been dramatic increases in extremist violence in West Java, Indonesia, while in Iran “modesty patrols” enforce strict rules against everyone, including non-Muslims. One area of particular concern is Turkey, the officially secular Muslim majority state which has seen a marked increase in antiChristian attacks. Atheist regimes such as North Korea and Belarus continue to oppress the faithful. In North Korea some 300,000 Christians have disappeared since 1953 and some 80,000 are thought to be in labour camps. However, some small improvements have been made, with Christian aid workers now allowed into the country. In China at least 12 Catholic bishops remain behind bars “or in some way prevented from carrying out their ministry”, said the report. The day before the close of the Olympics 73-year-old Bishop Julius Jia Zhigou was arrested for the 12th time in four years. But the situation is improving in some countries, such as Cuba and Vietnam. Outside the former Communist world, however, all evidence points to growing “religious extremism linked to national identity with the aim of extinguishing the Christian community”, Mr Pontifex said. “The acts of intimidation are demonstrably more serious,” he added. “Their objective is clearer – to get Christians to leave or convert. We ourselves are a minority group in parts of the world and we have the right to stand up for ourselves. And the wider media should pay attention. We like to think that the right to religious liberty can be taken for granted in the 21st century. The research presented in these reports shows it cannot, and that unless we take up the struggle on their behalf, many Christians will continue to be denied the right to freely practise their faith.” Aid to the Church in Need’s Index of Persecutionand the book Persecuted and Forgotten? are available for download on www.acnuk.org. For a hard-copy version of Persecuted and Forgotten? 2007/2008, please contact Aid to the Church in Need, 12-14 Benhill Avenue, Sutton, Surrey SM1 4DA (Tel 020 8642 8668). A donation to help cover costs would be appreciated.

Editorial comment: Page 11

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BYANNAARCO

ADOCUMENTARYabout Pope John Paul II has revealed that the late pontiff was injured by a knife-wielding former priest during a 1982 attack. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul II’s private secretary, said the late pope was visiting the shrine at Fatima in Portugal in 1982 to give thanks for surviving the 1981 assassination attempt in St Peter’s Square when he was attacked again.

Juan Fernandez y Krohn, a Spanish traditionalist, attacked Pope John Paul with a dagger during an evening ceremony and drew blood, although this was not reported to the media at the time. Krohn lunged at the Pope and was beaten to the ground by police before being arrested. He spent several years in a Portuguese prison before being released and expelled from the country. At the time, the Vatican said that John Paul was unharmed. After the attack he carried on

with the scheduled prayer service and his schedule at Fatima. Cardinal Dziwisz said: “It was only when we returned to his room that I saw blood on his vestments.” In 1981 Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot the pope as he was circling St Peter’s Square in the open Popemobile, wounding him in the abdomen, left hand and right arm. John Paul later forgave Agca. Cardinal Dziwisz made his

comments in a film, entitled Testimony,based on his memoir, A Life with Karol. Cardinal Dziwisz was Pope John Paul II’s personal secretary for 39 years until the pope’s death in 2005. He is now the Archbishop of Krakow. The 90-minute documentary contains interviews, historical footage, photographs, re-enacted sections of John Paul II’s life and is narrated by Michael York, the English actor.

Vatican approves new Mass endings

BYSTAFFREPORTER

THE VATICANhas prepared a choice of three new endings for the priest’s words of dismissal at Mass, to emphasise the missionary spirit of the liturgy. Pope Benedict XVI personally chose the three options from suggestions presented to him after a two-year study, Cardinal Francis Arinze told the Synod of Bishops. The Vatican newspaper,

L’Osservatore Romano, quoted Cardinal Arinze, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, as saying that along with “Ite, missa est”, the Latin phrase now translated as “Mass is ended, go in peace”, the new options are “Ite ad Evangelium Domini annuntiandum” (Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord); “Ite in pace, glorificando vita vestra Dominum” (Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life), and “Ite in pace” (Go in peace). The idea for new words at the end of Mass was raised at the 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist.

US lists Dominican Sisters as ‘terrorists’

BYSTAFFREPORTER

TWODOMINICANnuns were shocked to discover that they were listed as suspected terrorists in the United States. Peace activists Sister Carol Gilbert, 60, and Sister Ardeth Platte, 72, were shocked after police informed them they had been listed as suspected terrorists. They returned to Baltimore, Maryland, after a twoweek trip

to find letters from the police saying they had been incorrectly placed on the list of names put into the database, which is shared among law enforcement agencies. Sister Carol said such a policy only “promotes fear in ordinary citizens” who would in future be scared to speak up on anissue orattend a meeting.

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