The Church in the Middle East

Where to begin? John Allen brings us news about the Holy Land Coordination, a Vatican sponsored initiative aimed at raising awareness among the lands of the free Church about the true depth of problems confronting Middle Eastern Christians:

Given those oft-grim realities, a cherished Vatican dream is to mobilize Catholics in the world's centers of power, above all the United States and Europe, to accomplish two things:

• Pressuring Western political leaders to engineer a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, premised on the "two-state solution." Benedict XVI most recently reiterated his support for both Israeli and Palestinian sovereignty in his annual address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See on Monday.
• Finding concrete ways to support the Christians of the Holy Land. It's a long-standing lament in some circles that while Jews around the world are famously supportive of Israel, and Muslim charities and Arab states direct significant resources to the Palestinians, there isn't always a similar commitment in the Christian world to supporting the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

More needs to be done, and quickly, if the Christians of the Middle East are to survive. Allen goes into detail with Bishop Kicanas, vice president of the USCCB, on what the bishops saw on their visit and the nature of the situation. The conclusions of the most recent visit of the Holy Land Coordination have been announced:

At the conclusion of a five-day visit to the Holy Land, a group of European and North American bishops-- including Bishop Gerald Kicanas, vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops-- lamented the “deteriorating situation” there. “There is a growing distance between Israelis and Palestinians,” they note, and “a lack of human contact that undermines trust and dialogue. Violence, insecurity, home demolitions, permit and visa problems, the route of the wall, expropriation of lands and other policies threaten both a two-state solution and the Christian presence.”

In related, though geographically distant, news, the Church in Malaysia continues to suffer:

A tenth church has been vandalized in Malaysia following a court decision that permitted a Catholic publication to use the word “Allah” to refer to God. In all, eight churches have been firebombed, and two have been splashed with paint.

In addition, the offices of the lawyers who represented the Catholic publication were ransacked, and stones were thrown at a Sikh temple-- apparently because Sikhs also refer to “Allah.”

The nation of 27.7 million is 60% Muslim, 19% Buddhist, 6% Hindu, 6% Protestant, and 3% Catholic.

And in Egypt, the Copts continue to suffer:

Egyptian State Security has intensified its intimidation of the Coptic Church and Christians in Nag Hammadi, and neighboring Bahgoura, by carrying out random arrests of Christian youth. The campaign against Christians started on Friday January 7, 2010 and is continuing; multiple members of families have been arrested without warrants. Most arrests are being carried at dawn. More than one hundred Christian youth have been arrested without charge.

Arrests of Copts after every sedition is the usual scenario as a pressure card in the hands of State Security to force the church and Copts to accept "reconciliation", in which Coptic victims give up all criminal and civil charges against the perpetrators. Because of the reaction in Egypt and worldwide to the shootings and the role of the State Security, Bishop Kyrollos was asked issue statements downplaying the negligence of State Security. It is believed the arrests of the Coptic youth is a pressure tactic to force him to recant his accusations.

Pray for them. Support organizations such as Aid to the Church in Need. Read books such as Fr. Samir Khalil Samir's 111 Questions on Islam, George Weigel's Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism, and Thomas Madden's The New Concise History of the Crusades.