✝ VATICAN
Pope says, ‘world is trying to hide’ wave of anti-Christian persecution Cindy Wooden
C
Catholic News Service
ondemning deadly terrorist attacks against a Catholic and an Anglican church in Pakistan, Pope Francis said, “the world is trying to hide” a wave of anti-Christian persecution in various parts of the globe. “With sadness, with much sadness, I learned of the terrorist attacks today against two churches in Lahore … provoking numerous deaths and injuries,” the pope said March 15 after reciting the Angelus with visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square. Suicide bombers that morning detonated themselves outside the churches, which are both in the same predominantly Christian neighborhood. Officials said 15 people were killed and more than four-dozen were injured by the blasts. Particularly with the persecution of Christians in Syria, Iraq and Nigeria, Pope Francis frequently
has denounced the growing wave of anti-Christian violence, a violence that is not simply a matter of restricting religious freedom, but a martyrdom of Christians. At a Mass in early February, when the Gospel reading recounted the killing of St. John the Baptist, Pope Francis said it made him “think of our martyrs, the martyrs of today, those men, women and children who are persecuted, hated, chased from their homes, tortured and massacred. This is not something from the past; it is happening today. Our martyrs are ending their
lives under the corrupt authority of people who hate Jesus Christ.” In Pakistan, Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi, president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, urged the government “to take strong measures for the protection of the churches and religious minorities in Pakistan.” “The government, political parties, religious leaders and every citizen of Pakistan (should) stand against extremist forces and with their Christian brothers and sisters,” the archbishop said in a statement, adding that “the whole nation should join hands and stand against terrorism.” He pleaded with federal and provincial governments “to take effective Pakistani Christians gather at a church March 16 to protest two suicide attacks on churches in Lahore. Rahat Dar, EPA, Catholic News Service
42 SOUTH TEXAS CATHOLIC | APRIL 2015