Bishop John Adams celebrated the initiative at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit last Sunday, 3 November, to show solidarity with persecuted Christians suffering increasing violence, persecution and human rights abuses worldwide.

Adams' support involved flooding the Cathedral with red light and celebrating all weekend Masses for the persecuted faithful. His homilies focused on the need to recall and pray for the suffering Church.

Joining in Red November

Over half New Zealand and Australia's dioceses are taking part in Red November, with participation more than twice last year's count.

Thousands of people will be taking a moment to remember, pray for and support Christians suffering persecution around the world.

In addition, 24 cathedrals in Australia and New Zealand are lighting up in red, holding Masses and prayer gatherings and sharing the testimonies of persecuted people.

All five Eastern Catholic Eparchies are participating, those whose communities include many who have been affected by persecution.

This year's national focus is on supporting Christians in the Holy Land.

About Red November

Red November aims to shed light on the suffering of Christians and advocate for faith and freedom.

Bernard Toutounji, National Director of Aid to the Church in Need in Australia and New Zealand, says the increasing support shows growing awareness and concern for Christian persecution. It is an important wake-up call to the West not to take their faith for granted, he says.

"Red November is a time to acknowledge the terrible extent to which martyrdoms, massacres and the mass exodus of Christians from their homelands are happening today due to worsening Christian persecution worldwide" he says.

"Commemorating Red November is a sign of solidarity - the universality of our Church demands that we do not let our brothers and sisters suffer in silence.

"The crimson red reminds us of blood-stained martyrs and burned-down churches. Their testimony and witness of faith challenges and inspires us to treasure and live out our own more deeply."

ACN Australia and New Zealand is inviting all parishes to participate in Red November by holding a dedicated Mass, prayer event, collection or showing a video about the challenges faced by Christians in the Holy Land.

Almost 340 million Christians - or one in seven - live in a country where they suffer some form of persecution says Pew Research.

Source

• Supplied - Aid to the Church in Need

"I admire and greatly respect all those of you who find it in your hearts to pray for those who persecute you and, following the example of Christ, seek forgiveness for your enemies," he said.

The Prince's message was inspired by his recent meetings with Christian Church leaders from the Middle East.

The meetings were facilitated by the international charity Aid to the Church in Need.

His message forms part of his ongoing dialogue with Church leaders in the United Kingdom.

The Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols responded, saying:

"We should deplore the persecution of any human being. And he [Charles] is right to draw attention to the fate of Christians, especially in the Middle East.

"It's also worth remembering today that people will walk through villages like Qaraqosh (in Iraq) which were destroyed by Daesh [IS] and they will celebrate again the Easter mysteries."

Charles is a longtime advocate for persecuted Christians.

He said he has "met many who have had to flee for their faith and for their life - or have somehow endured the terrifying consequences of remaining in their country".

Their plight moves and humbles him because of their "truly remarkable courage and by their selfless capacity for forgiveness, despite all that they have suffered.

"I have also heard that in the darkness there are small shafts of light, signs of resurrection and of hope that slowly but surely Christians who have had to flee from their homelands are beginning to return and to rebuild their shattered homes."

According to the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee, 37,031 Christians have returned to the Nineveh Plains over the last 12 months.

However, about four times as many are still in the Kurdish areas in northern Iraq.

They fled there after IS took over the Niniveh Plains area in 2014.

Source

• Crux Now
• The Tablet
• Image: Abouna

"Our people feel it keenly when religious freedom is denied to anyone anywhere," said Reagan boldly in the heart of Communist oppression.

"And hope with you that soon all the many Soviet religious communities that are now prevented from registering, or are banned altogether … will soon be able to practice their religion freely and openly and instruct their children in and outside the home in the fundamentals of their faith."

That historic moment occurred in the waning days of a dying Soviet empire. But to date, no American president, Republican or Democrat, has replicated it in the other regions of the world where religious repression is commonplace.

Clearly, President Obama has not taken up the torch, as he has shown little, if any, interest in international religious liberty.

His first State Department ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom wasn't confirmed until April 2011 — 27 months into his first term.

This disinterest is reflected in the administration's disregard for the religious nature of much of international terror:

• When ISIS beheaded 21 men on a Libyan beach, the White House said in a statement, "The United States condemns the despicable and cowardly murder of twenty-one Egyptian citizens in Libya."
  "Citizens," not Christians whose faith led to their death.
• When a Taliban faction deliberately targeted Christians in an Easter attack in Pakistan, a spokesman for the president's National Security Council said, "The United States condemns in the strongest terms today's appalling terrorist attack in Lahore, Pakistan."
  An attack on whom is unclear. Not to the Taliban: They issued a statement saying they specifically had aimed at killing Christians. Continue reading

Sources

• Religion News Service, from an article by Tony Perkins and Frank Wolf.
• Image: Copts United

The Fathers expressed fraternal sorrow for families forced to flee their homes, and gratitude for those nations that have welcomed refugee families with generosity.

To better understand the the difficulties endured, Catholic World Report recently interviewed the Titular Bishop of Tarsus of the Maronites, Antoine Nabil Andari, Vicaire Patriarcal Maronite de Jounieh, Lebanon.

CWR: Can you please describe the political and spiritual situation in the Middle East?

Bishop Andari: You know, in Lebanon and in the Middle East, it's been many years now that we've been living in a situation that is not normal, an instability in part from the lack of security, economic, and social.

This began in Lebanon following the 1975 War, and continues in Syria, Iraq and other Middle-Eastern countries. And this has repercussions on the residents, on both the civil and ecclesial societies, and in a special way on the family.

Families are chased from their homes, they are displaced, and therefore there are repercussions to this, sometimes breakups, or else there is emigration which is in large part that of persecuted Christians because of their faith.

For this reason these families must be supported, not only locally but also internationally, whether political or by the Church. In the current Synod on the Family, this approach is taken.

We speak of the challenges. In terms of social, cultural and anthropological challenges, we speak of the refugees, the persecuted, everyone. Yet how does one realize, implement this support? For it demands a welcoming, an assistance, a solidarity.

Therefore these three essential points—how do we realize them on the ground? For this, we need support from everyone. Society and the Church can do something. But not only the Church alone.

Diplomatic support is also required, by disseminating information, supporting the Christian presence in the Middle East which, without Christ, without Christians, is not the cradle of Christianity. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report, from an interview by Mary Jo Anderson, a Catholic journalist and speaker whose articles and commentaries on politics, religion, and culture appear in a variety of publications.
• Image: CDN

Christian groups and those supporting other religious groups who have been brutally attacked by the Islamic State, are calling on the Iraqi community in New Zealand and others to take part in the peaceful march.

Auckland's Catholic Bishop Patrick Dunn, and Anglican Bishop Ross Bay, as well as other Iraqi Christian leaders, will take part.

The Parish Priest of St Addai Chaldean Catholic Church, Father Fawzi Hanna, says people in Auckland are very concerned.

"There is a big Iraqi community in New Zealand, especially in Auckland, and we are all terrified for our friends and family in Iraq."

The march will follow a meeting that will take place from 2-4pm at St Patrick's Cathedral, 43 Wyndham St.

The event also happens to coincide with a similar march organised by Assyrian youths, from Civic Square to Parliament in Wellington.

For those who cannot attend but would still like to show their support, donations can be made to the "Hope for Iraq Fund" - ASB 12-3026-0469396-51.

Source

• Scoop.co.nz
• Image: CatholicSun.org

Additional information: Confirmed with Bishop of Auckland's office that the march is on Saturday 30 August.

Reports said many Christian women and children in Northern Sudan are separated from their families and endure increased persecution from an increasing Mulslim population.

The Barnabas Fund, an international aid agency, said it has already helped about 5,000 Christians leave the country.

The Christians will be taken to South Sudan, a smaller nation formed in 2011.

"We launched this as major global initiative, and have had such a tremendous response from the Christian community," Julian Dobbs, a bishop and honorary director for the Barnabas Fund, told FoxNews.com.

"The situation for Christians who have remained behind has proven to create hardships for them, especially for women and children."

The Barnabas Fund's airlifting project began in August 2012, but only recently has the organization secured funds for a second phase.

Sources

Fox News

Christian News

Christian Today

Image: Barnabas Fund/Fox News

The problem of Christian discrimination and persecution by Muslims is in fact two problems. Like unpunished crimes' victims who suffer twice, for the crime and for the injustice of the criminal's going scot-free, while the atrocities committed against Christians are unbearable enough on their own, the total indifference of the rest of the world adds to the pain.

Floods, earthquakes, natural calamities and man-induced ones like the recent collapse of a factory in Bangladesh attract lots of media coverage and offers of foreign aid, but this does not happen with what Raymond Ibrahim has rightly called "arguably the world's greatest humanitarian crisis" and Andrew McCarthy "the great unspoken civil rights issue.. [and] scandal of our day".

How much Western governments care about the plight of the Christians living in Muslim-majority countries can be seen by how indifferent they were to the systematic discrimination of which Pakistani Christians, during that country's 2010 devastating floods, were victims in the distribution of aid - essential to survival - ironically donated by those very same historically Christian Western countries.

The Vatican, to its credit, was one of the few to highlight that injustice. I have never heard of a Western government - or any other, for that matter - giving aid to Pakistan on that occasion only on condition that a fair and equal distribution was guaranteed.

In Islam "charity" has a different meaning from the Christian one, being a duty extended only to other Muslims. Continue reading

Sources

• Enza Ferreri's Blog
• Image: The Persecuted Church

Enza Ferreri is an Italian-born, London-based Philosophy graduate, author and journalist.