Real Catholic Blog

One of the most under reported international stories is the continued persecution of Christians in the Middle East and in other Muslim countries as well as their continued persecution in communist countries. Sunday, following his Angelus, Pope Benedict XVI spoke out about this horrendous violation of human and religious rights, and individual freedom.

Pope Benedict expressed his special concern over the recent killings of Christians in Mosul, Iraq. The targeted killings in a once thriving Christian community that got along with their Muslim neighbors is especially disturbing.

Yesterday was the Feast of two great saints. One, Saint John of the Cross (see DoctorsoftheCatholicChurch.com) is better known and it was his feast celebrated on the Latin Rite calendar. Also, yesterday, celebrated in the Eastern Rite, specifically, the Maronite Rite (see MaroniteMonks.org), was the feast of my ancestor, Saint Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini (Hardini.org), a Lebanese Maronite monk who was the mentor to the best known Lebanese Maronite Saint, Saint Charbel, whose Feast is celebrated in the Latin Rite in July (see Catholic Online).

Saint Nimatullah (1808-1858) was known for many things (see Eparchy of Saint Maron). He was an efficient administrator, a scholarly teacher and a devout priest. He was especially noted for his love of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Blessed Sacrament (see Vatican biography). He spent many hours in Eucharistic Adoration, often at the expense of sleep, kneeling in the chapel, arms raised cross-like and eyes trained on the tabernacle (see LebaneseSaints.com). Although there are photographs of him, the image below is the most famous one, and was used at his canonization, and honors his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

There is volumes of information on Saint Nimatullah and other Maronite Saints. He lived an extradordinary life as a monk and was widely regarded from the Middle East to Rome, and was given great responsibilities. However, when the opportunity came to move to safer quarters at the outset of war, he remained, to look after those in need.

I could go on, but who better than John Paul The Great to speak of him? Saint Nimatullah was one in the last group of saints canonized by John Paul, on May 16, 2004.

Said the His Holiness about Saint Nimatullah:

A man of prayer, in love with the Eucharist which he adored for long periods, Saint Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini is an example for the monks of the Order of Lebanese Maronites as he is for his Lebanese brothers and sisters and all Christians of the world. He gave himself completely to the Lord in a life full of great sacrifices, showing that God’s love is the only true source of joy and happiness for man. He committed himself to searching for and following Christ, his Master and Lord.

Welcoming his brothers, he reassured and healed many wounds in the hearts of his contemporaries, witnessing to God’s mercy. May his example enlighten our journey and bring forth, especially in young people, a true desire for God and for holiness to proclaim to our world the light of the Gospel!

Devout to the Blessed Sacrament, in his love for the Lord and for the Church, Saint Nimatullah is a role model in many respects.

One of the most difficult aspects of explaining the Church to Catholics, much less non-Catholics, is that there are different Rites within the Church Universal. When I tell people I was baptised and confirmed Maronite Catholic, some look blankly or confused, while others take a stab at what that means — usually asking if it is a disconnected offshoot of what they understand as Catholicism (i.e., the Latin Rite) and that I must have converted at some point.

Not at all. As John Paul The Great once said, “The Church breathes with two lungs, the Eastern Church and the Western Church.”

The Church is made up of several Rites, or Churches within the Church, the largest of which is the Latin Rite. Each Rite has a patriarch, the head of that Church. The Pope is the patriarch of the Latin Rite as well as the head of the Church Universal. A kind of first among equals.

We don’t quite need an organizational chart, but this is a topic we will write about often here, as it is underserved, and one in which Brother John and I both have some background and expertise. But the reason it comes up today is because last week Pope Benedict heeded a plea from the Middle Eastern bishops to convene them at the Vatican and announced that he is calling a special Assembly of the Synod of Eastern Bishops dedicated to the Middle East, October 10-24, 2010. The theme of the Synod will be, “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Testimony: The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul (At 4,32).”

Pope Benedict added:

On other occasions you have asked for a more regular contact with the Bishop of Rome to enforce the communion of your churches with the successor of St.Peter and to examine together any problems of significant importance.

This proposal has been renewed even in the last Plenary Congregation for the Eastern churches and in the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

The Eastern Patriarchs want to address four points critical to Catholics in the Middle East (from Asia News via CatholicOnline): the growth of fundamentalism and the restlessness of the Christians, the importance of Muslim-Christian dialogue, the position of the Oriental Catholic patriarch in the Universal Church, and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Kuwait and in the Gulf countries. Iraqi Bishop Louis Sako made the proposal for the special assembly of the synod for the Middle East to Pope Benedict last January.

This is an exciting development for the Church as it will bring to light certain and unique difficulties of the Church in a region dominated by Muslims, and also help Roman Catholics better understand the Church Universal. We look forward to reporting on it.

Despite the promises of the ”new face of communism” in countries such as China and Vietnam, where freedoms allegedly are granted and the societies gradually gain freedom, communism remains the same ideological dictatorship as it ever was, no matter the country, no matter the so-called modernization of it. Deacon Keith Fournier, of the Diocese of Richmond, Va., has written a piece for Catholic Online (Catholic.org)  that documents the absolute oppression of Catholic priests in Vietnam — physical attacks, arrests and mock trials leading to imprisonment or worse. Yet, our government and the international community does nothing, and even warms up relations with this dictatorship.

Deacon Fournier writes that this hostility is the “New Vietnam War,” but that this “Christianphobia” manifests itself in the West as well — including America — in the anti-life and anti-family movements, as well as in physically dangerous situations in the Middle East and Asia:

“Christianophobia” is a word coined by the Holy See to explain this growing anti-Christian sentiment in our age. It is spreading in the European community, in America and throughout the entire world. It is now showing its violent propensities in Vietnam. …

Over the last few years we have witnessed the evil inflicted against Christians in Iraq, the anti-Christian hostility spreading throughout the entire Middle East, the attacks against Christians in Asia and, in particular, the deadly violence in India. We have seen this evil “Christianophobia” spread into countless other places through the less blatant but still insidious anti-Christian ideology fueling so much of the anti-life, anti-family and anti- freedom ideologies of the declining West.

Sadly, we did not rise up the way we could or should when our brethren were attacked in Iraq. Nor did we act when they killed our brethren in India! We have done little to truly expose the dangers faced by Christians in the land where Jesus walked. In short, we Christians have failed in our watch.

We have another chance now. Ironically it comes in the Nation which so many of us, particularly Americans, still remember with regret, no matter which “side” of the failed Vietnam War we stood on, the Nation of Vietnam. That was then and this is now. There is a new Vietnam War being waged. They are attacking Catholic priests and seeking to silence the voice of authentic liberation, the Catholic Church. We must not fail this time.

Indeed, fail we must not. Pray we must. We also must not be afraid to educate our fellow citizens, Catholic and otherwise, including our elected representatives in Washington, to stand up to this persecution of priests in Vietnam.