3300 Connecting the dots...Sandor...Mission... Sunday...Church in Need
austraLasia #3300
Connecting the dots...Sandor...Mission
Sunday...Church in Need
WORLD:
19 October
2013
-- We
rejoice as Brother Stephen Sandor is beatified in Budapest's
Cathedral
today, as a Martyr for the Faith. We can also note Pope
Francis'
comment in his letter for World Mission Day (celebrated on 3rd
Sunday
in October since it was instituted in 1926):
I wish to say a word about
those
Christians who, in various parts of the world, experience
difficulty in
openly professing their faith and in enjoying the legal
right to
practice it in a worthy manner. They are our brothers
and sisters,
courageous witnesses - even more numerous than the martyrs
of the early
centuries - who endure with apostolic perseverance many
contemporary
forms of persecution. Quite a few also risk their lives to
remain
faithful to the Gospel of Christ. I wish to reaffirm my
closeness in
prayer to individuals, families and communities who suffer
violence and
intolerance, and I repeat to them the consoling words of
Jesus: "Take
courage, I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33).
It helps connect the dots between our Brother Sandor who
suffered for the faith and todays' courageous witnesses. The Aid to the Church in Need Report
for
the period 2011-2103 has just been published (you can get it
from one
of the above links) goes a step further in helping us fill in
the dots
in this case. It is a lengthy report, so here we can provide
jsut a few
indicators, especially of how it differes from the last report
(2009-2011).
The
Report names 30 countries around the world demonstrating how
Christianity is "the most persecuted religion in the world",
with an
estimated 100 million Christians (Catholic, Orthodox,
Protestant) under
some form of persecution. Of these, seven countries within EAO
are
named. In the previous report there were eight - one has been
removed
(Philippines). Of the seven, it is interesting that just one
of these
(Laos) is indicated as having a slightly improved situation.
The Report
also cites the US Commission on International Religious
Freedom as
saying that "North Korea remains one of the world’s most
repressive
regimes, where severe religious freedom abuses continue",
following
that up with the comment that there is no permanent Catholic
cleric in
the country.
Each
country named is provided with a set of facts and figures as
background
to the analysis, which includes incident reports and a number
of
criteria by which they judge that Christians in that country
are
'persecuted or fogotten' (which they leave as a question mark,
pointing
out that they cannot provide a comprehensive survey nor
therefore a
comprehensive answer). These criteria include such things as
evidence
of anti-Christian violence (churches, homes, businesses),
court cases
(e.g. blasphemy laws), political developments (e.g. Decree 92
Vietnam),
and social changes (e.g. access to education, health).
They summarise the main issues under five key headings: Arab Spring-Christian Winter
where for the first time in history it is possible that
Christianity could virtually disappear from certain
countries; Militant
Islamism (with a shifted focus to Africa); Majority Religion targetting
Minority Religion (they name Buddhism), Communist vs Christianity,
and Socialist State - signs
of hope and signs of hopelessness
(Laos is maybe the one sign of hope). In fact it is the last
three of
these that touch on the seven named countries in our region.
The Report is worth reading through in detail. For most of the
named
countries in our region it is a case of a 'mixed bag' - good
signs and
bad ones, some shifts in the right direction, but continuation
and even
worsening of earlier conditions in some cases. Militant
Islamism might
have once seemed largely confined to certain areas, but it is
now named
as "an inter-continental threat', and does touch our region.
