If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you.
An interesting social experiment.
Ask someone you know, religious or non religious, what they know about statistics on religious violence.
In particular, can they tell you which groups are persecuted the most, which religions are responsible for the most violence being perpetrated.
I have done this on occasion and the most common answer that I have been given is that Christians are surely the most violent and that Muslims or Jews are surely the most persecuted. That’s what a Netflix account and public education does to people.
A 10 year study published by the Pew Research Centre this week says something very different. Of the many striking results, one stands out.
Christians are the most persecuted religious group, with 143 countries experiencing significant government or social persecution.
Similarly, in a UK report on anti Christian violence, one statistic stands out.
80% of religious persecution in the world is committed against Christians.
Some recent stories have managed to draw brief glimpses of Western attention to the plight of these poor Christians, the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, the desperate efforts of Asia Bibi to find asylum after being persecuted in Pakistan as well as various mass murders taking place in Nigeria at the hands of Boko Haram.
So many are dying, so many are suffering and yet there is so much silence. Complicit, damning, indifferent silence from the Western media. That is to be expected, knowing the West’s growing resentment for its Christian heritage, but why so much silence and indifference from within the Church itself?
The Catholic Church in the West, and even Protestantism, has been in such a state of self wallowing pity for the past few decades that it seems completely incapable of looking outside of itself to the wider state of Christianity. Although the Church has its own (self created) problems, it seems to forget that the institutional failures of the clergy and hierarchy should not disable us from praying for our brothers and sisters in the Mystical Body. Unless Catholics in the West learns first to rouse themselves, they will not be able to stand up for the Christians having their churches burned to the ground, their daughters kidnapped and their priests killed. If the French people can not now even grow the self esteem and sense of duty to seek out the cessation of their beautiful history being burned to the ground, vandalised and desecrated alongside Sacred Hosts each week, then how can they be expected to see clearly enough to speak out about the sufferings in other countries?
In a very powerful video released earlier this year, a distraught Nigerian priest was recorded as he begged the United Nations, or anyone who would listen, to act against the violence being committed by Muslims against Christians in Nigeria. ‘Please please I’m begging you, stand for the helpless’, he cried with shaking firsts as a young woman lies dead beside him, being carried by her fellow villagers. His Cross is one which was recorded and given a face, but so many get lost in statistics.
One statistic that hides countless bloody and disgraceful stories behind it, is that of the collapse of Christianity in the Middle East. The numbers have dropped from 20% to 5%. Stories of slavery, bombings, rape, torture, forced conversions, murders of children, most of them by Islamists, these are the overwhelming behind the dehumanising statistics. Some of the images that emerged from Iraq under Isis were so graphic, it is incredible to believe that the world could find itself so unmoved by stories of children being beheaded, men being crucified and women being raped. Perhaps it was because to do so would be to acknowledge the role of Western politics in this violence. Had the Iraq war not happened and had a more responsible pair of presidents than Bush and Obama reigned, then it can be reasonably guesses that the horrific violence and now near extinction visited upon Christians in Iraq need not have happened.
But, we cannot change the past. We can only make our effort to pray, offer the Rosary and offer the Mass in the present moment for our brothers and sisters in the Middle East, Nigeria and also in China, where the real Catholics have been betrayed by an demonic deal made between the Vatican and the Communist Chinese authorities. By building up the faith in our own communities, where we have our challenges, both social and from state sources, we can offer ourselves as spiritual and organisational help to those in need once we are able. Getting too caught up in political issues in our own societies can sometimes blot our own perspectives, as with many Christians in the United States who view their foreign policy in terms of what serves their good without thinking upon the effects that it may have upon Christians in places like Syria, Iraq or Iran.
Bravery and fortitude are very Christian traits. He who endures to the end shall be saved.
In Ireland, we are trying to recover ourselves from the recent abortion referendum and from regular social media outbursts by people like Catherine Noone, who visit Marian Shrines and mock elderly priests, but this is little to worry about in comparison to the situation elsewhere.
With their intentions in mind, we can find renewed vigour in our own faith and in the beautiful Christian history that accompanies us every day. In our buildings, our words, our arts. The faith has a history of staring viciousness in the face, in Japan, in Ireland, in the former USSR. And thriving in the face of that aggression.
Violence, it can stand.
Indifference is a whole other story.
Like Peter, keep your eyes fixated upon Christ or else start to watch the water sink in around you.