Just a reminder

Persecution of the Christian Church by Communist authorities did not end with the Cold War and continues today. In places like Vietnam, China, North Korea, and Laos, et al.
Our Lady of Fatima pray for an end to all atheist regimes.

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as though in prison with them

Hebrews 13:3 full text: "Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body."

image source

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Christian Persecution

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Saints and Scripture Martyrs

"For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it."
--Matthew 16:25

The Church has been persecuted from the beginning. I've blogged before about St Ignatios of Antioch, the disciple of St John the Apostle who was thrown to the lions because of his Christian faith.
We all know about the persecution during by the Roman Empire, but how many us have given any thought to the persecutions suffered under the English, Vietnamese, Japanese and Koreans? How many of us knew that St Thomas was martyred in India?
How many of us have sat down and realized that persecution has been continuous since they crucified Jesus and stoned Stephen? As Christians we've even persecuted other parts of our Church.
In the 20th Century the leading cause of persecution and thus martyrdom was Communism. Today the leading source of persecution is Islamic governments and extremists, followed by Communists, and the third source is Hindu fundamentalists.
Keep the persecuted Church in your prayers. If you want to know what else to do, look here or here.
"Remember them that are in bonds, as if you were bound with them; and them that labour, as being yourselves also in the body."
--Hebrews 13:3

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Christians formerly hidden by Buddhist monks

I saw an article on UCAnews about Christians hiding inside a Buddhist temple in Japan. I found it really interesting, since you almost never hear about persecution outside of Europe or Communist countries. The Church has a different history everywhere you go.

Japanese Buddhist monks hid persecuted Christians in a secret room in their monastery. They then chanted sutras outside to drown out any incriminating noise, Catholics learnt during a Church program.

Sixty people, led by Father Makoto Onchi of Hagi Catholic Church in Yamaguchi Prefecture, visited the Houonji Buddhist monastery on July 4. The program was part of the church’s annual visit to sites associated with Christian persecution which occurred at various times from the early 1600s.

The monastery had discovered a secret room attached to its main hall, with a tunnel leading out to the fields behind the temple, chief Buddhist monk Venerable Toshiaki Namba told Father Onchi during an interreligious gathering.

read more...

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St Stephen, the First Martyr

The 26th of December is the feast day of St Stephen. He was the first Christian martyr and his death by stoning is described in the Acts of the Apostles.

He is not, by any means, the last martyr. Many, many, many more would also wear the martyr's crown. As a matter of fact Christians die for their faith on a daily basis. In Communist nations such as China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, and especially North Korea. Christians also die at the hands of religous extremists, mostly Muslim but also Hindu and other religions. Only Christ's return will ever stop the killings.
However, martyrdom only helps to spread the Gospel. It is a powerful testimony to persecutors and Christians alike. It means another soul is in Heaven praying for the continued conversion of souls.
Today being the feast day of St Stephen, Pope Benedict XVI said of martyrdom that it is "exclusively an act of love towards God and all mankind including persecutors". I couldn't have said it better.

Soviet Martyrs

Hat Tip to Per Christum
I found a web page that has a long list of Catholic men and women martyred by the Soviets in the Ukraine. These martyrs are all declared Blessed. Its impossible to tell how many more were martyred and not declared Blessed, how many others were martyred and we'll just never know, how many Orthodox and other Christians (and this only those in the Ukraine).
Two stories in particular really struck me:

Blessed Sr. Tarsykia Matskiv was born on 23 March 1919 in the village of
Khodoriv, Lviv District, baptized as Ol'ha. On 3 May 1938 she entered the Sister
Servants of Mary Immaculate. After professing her first vows on 5 November 1940,
she worked in her convent. Even prior to the Bolshevik arrival in Lviv, Sr.
Tarsykia made a private oath to her spiritual director, Fr. Volodymyr Kovalyk
O.S.B.M., that she would sacrifice her life for the conversion of Russia and for
the good of the Catholic Church. The Bolsheviks were determined to destroy the
monastery. On the morning of 17 July 1944 at 8 a.m., a Russian soldier rang the
convent door. When Sr. Taryskia answered the door she was shot without warning
and died.

All she did was answer the door.

Blessed Fr. Roman Lysko was born on 14 August 1914 in Horodok, Lviv Region. He
graduated from the Lviv Theological Academy. He and his wife worked very gladly
with the youth. On 28 August 1941 he was ordained to the priesthood by
Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts'kyi. On 9 September 1949, he was arrested by the
NKVD (KGB) and put into a prison on Lontskoho St in Lviv. The people of Liviv
reported to one another that after being tortured, the young Fr. Roman sang
psalms at the top of his voice. It was then reported that they had immured him
alive in the prison walls. His death is officially dated on 14 October 1949.

I didn't get it at first so I had to look up the word "immured". I found this at thefreedictionary.com:
im·mure:
tr.v. im·mured, im·mur·ing, im·mures
1. To confine within or as if within walls; imprison.
2. To build into a wall: immure a shrine.
3. To entomb in a wall
They built the wall around the priest. They were so afraid of him that they entombed him in their prison, where they felt he couldn't do them any more harm. How horrible would be to have the wall built all around you? Of course I also wonder, on a lighter note, why do we have a word dedicated to that specific purpose?

As an aside I recommend a book called Tortured for Christ. Its written by a Lutheran pastor about his experiences of persecution and imprisonment in Communist Eastern Europe. You can get a free copy here actually.

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Persecution of the Church will only end with the Second Coming. Please keep our persecuted brothers and sisters in your prayers.

Another Martyr Joins the Church Triumphant

An underground Christian in North Korea is set to be executed for his Christian belief. From the Catholic News Agency

For more than a year, Son Jong Nam, a former army officer turned underground evangelist, has been beaten, tortured and held in a bleak, North Korean death row basement jail in the capital city. He has been sentenced to public execution as an example to the North Korean people.

But executing him will hardly put an end to Christianity in North Korea, which actually had the larger Christian population of the Koreas before Communist forces took over. Now, despite the Communists's intentions Son Jong Nam will enter into Heaven and his eternal prayers before the Lord of Hosts will serve to hasten the end of Communism in North Korea and elsewhere around the world.
St Andrew Kim and all other Korean martyrs, pray for an end to communism.

persecution for His sake

HIstory classes teach us about the great persecutions of the Christian Church in the Ancient Roman Empire, but I find at least that I forget quite easily that the persecution of Christians continues to this day.
Its easy to forget in our daily lives that being a Christian can be difficult. It is always difficult to lead Christian lives, but we don't have persecution on top of it. In the US we might get hassled for being Christian (or unfortunately other Christians hassle us for being Catholic), but we have it easy. But as Hebrews 13:3 reminds us, we should remember the persecuted members of the Church.
Muslim persecution of Christians exists wherever Islam is the dominant religion. From Pakistan to Morocco Christians are persecuted for believing (and rightly so) that Christ is much, much more than merely a prophet.
In India, Christians are persecuted by hardline Hindus. Some Indian states have outlawed conversion to Christianity.
The Berlin Wall may have fallen, but Communist oppression of Christ's Body persist. There are over a billion people in China and about 6 billion in the world. That's right over 1/6th of the world remains under Commie oppression! They not only oppress the Church in China, but try to subvert it with the Catholic Patriotic Association.
Its great that we went across the globe to liberate the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan, but just 90 miles off of our shores the tyrrany of Communism remains. The Church remains persecuted in Cuba, China and other Marxist nations. Its speaks volumes when people would rather risk drowning, dehydration, storms and hunger to float 90 miles on an inner tube than stay at home.
But enough of the bad news though. We know who will eventually win. Christ has promised us the eternal victory.
But the battle is not over yet and there is much we can do to help our brothers and sisters that we so often forget are still persecuted and often martyred like so many saints before them, including our first Vicar of Christ, St. Peter.
There are many organizations such as the Voice of the Martyrs, the Bible Site, Aid to the Church in Need, and the Cardinal Kung Foundation actively working with the persecuted Church.
We can take comfort in the Church's triumphs over persecution in ancient Rome and the Eastern Bloc (thanks in no small part to our former Pope JPII), but as Our Lady of Fatima reminded us prayer is necessary to avoid even more horrible evils that may come of Communism.
Our Lady of Fatima and St Joseph the worker, pray for us!

Aid to the Church in Need

So sometime in my internet surfing I came across a group called Aid to the Church in Need. They have offices in 120 nations. I don't how many they actually work in.
They do stuff like help pay seminary cost in the third world, build Churches in India and Africa, give Bibles, etc.

Chinese underground bishop released

The Chinese government released a bishop from the underground Catholic Church which still remains faithful to Rome. Apparently, this is the eighth time he had been arrested. Thanks be to God.
from the Catholic News Agency, Cbr