I think, before we ask whether the secular press or Evangelical power brokers care whether Catholics are being persecuted, we should ask whether Catholics care.
Tom | Homepage | 05.29.07 - 4:53 pm | #

I think, before we ask whether the secular press or Evangelical power brokers care whether Catholics are being persecuted, we should ask whether Catholics care.

They do. That is why you find the Vatican trying to remind people that Palestinian Christians are being persecuted in the Holy Land. But then the Vatican gets accused of coddling terrorists and not caring enough about Israel.
Mia Storm | 05.29.07 - 5:34 pm | #

Lord, have mercy.

Is there a Catholic charity we can donate to, to aid the suffering Church?
Louise | Homepage | 05.30.07 - 8:28 am | #

Aid to the Church in Need, Peter's Pence, the Good Friday collection for the Holy Land, the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, etc.
Kathryn | 05.30.07 - 10:33 am | #

The Catholic Church persecutes its own. It should clean up its own closets first.

Those of us who are divorced to keep the annulment mills running would be a good place to start.

God knows, the clergy and the bishops don't give a darn and will do nothing in the face off facts.
Karl | 05.30.07 - 11:22 am | #

Please don't feed the troll.
Seamus | 05.30.07 - 11:35 am | #

I don't think Karl's a troll. I think he's a guy who's been deeply wounded. I have a friend who went through a nasty divorce. One of the cruelest experiences I've ever been witness to. And I think Bai MacFarlane has been treated despicably. That said, I know little about the annulment process and even less about civil divorce, which is why I don't write about them. Those with expertise should discuss it, not ignoramuses like me.
Mark Shea | Homepage | 05.30.07 - 12:28 pm | #

Huh. So American Protestants don't care about persecuted Christians in other countries, because they're not Protestants? That's a nice bit of insult wrapped in uninformed speculation!

Several years ago, long before the press picked up on the persecution of Christians in the Sudan, I was hearing about it on a regular basis from fellow American Protestants at my SCV meetings. And almost exclusively from them.

I read accounts of Christian martyrs in China and North Korea in Protestant newsletters and Sunday Schools. Recommendations from my Protestant pastor on how to find Christian agencies helping to smuggle Bibles into countries that persecute Christians. I hear firsthand accounts of the status of Christians in Moslem countries from Protestant missionaries (working there in secret) speaking to my church.

The Methodist church has worldwide missionary work and a relief agency, and we don't limit ourselves to "Protestant countries."

When those Palestinian terrorists holed up in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the outcry was widespread and was covered by the media, and I still don't know which quarter that church is in--the Orthodox, Catholic, or Armenian Quarter. Nor do I care, because the important thing is that it's Christian, not what denomination it is.

Don't go looking for a Vast Evangelical Protestant Conspiracy to hush up the persecution of Catholics. This isn't a matter of competing tribal loyalties at play. Ongoing tragedies tend to be less exciting to news agencies as a rule, and there's your best explanation.
Tim H | Homepage | 05.30.07 - 12:30 pm | #

I think it was the Church of The Nativity the terrorists took over.
Tim F. | 05.30.07 - 12:50 pm | #

Tim F.--"I think it was the Church of The Nativity the terrorists took over."

Oh, was it? Thanks for correcting me.

My ignorance also applies as to the denomination of the Church of the Nativity.
Tim H | Homepage | 05.30.07 - 1:18 pm | #

Incidentally, there are Christians being persecuted in Nigeria by Moslems. Nigeria's Christians are largely Anglican.

I'm not sure which denomination the martyrs in North Korea are, but South Korean Christians are very often Presbyterian.

Are they receiving more attention in the press than the Arab Christians in Bethlehem or Iraq, whom are presumably Catholic?

And the persecuted Christians we hear the most about in the news (aside from the Sudanese--which denomination are they? Who cares?) are the Coptic Christians of Egypt. They're Orthodox, not Protestant. I met a Coptic monk in Sam's Club last weekend and had a nice talk with him, incidentally.
Tim H | Homepage | 05.30.07 - 1:43 pm | #

What are you talking about Mark? You're completely off your rocker on this one.
Ross | 05.30.07 - 4:02 pm | #

Sorry to belabor this point, but I just thought of another example. I don't know if, when Mark says "in America, "Christians" are largely recognized as such if they fit the Evangelical template," he means that this is only a current-decade phenomenon. I assume so, since I figure the "Evangelical template" was probably even stronger 20 years ago.

Anyway, twenty years ago, who were the persecuted Christians we heard about? Well, the quintessential examples I knew of at the time were those in the Soviet Union. Orthodox, not Evangelical Protestant. Their priests grew beards and spoke Russian and didn't look a *thing* like Jerry Falwell.

And yet, my Methodist church was packing boxes of Russian Bibles to be smuggled into the USSR (I assume they were smuggled; they were certainly prohibited from importation).

And my cousin's Methodist church choir was on a Soviet tour and quietly met up with Christians. Even going so far as to be told how to avoid letting the bugs hear their conversations.

Funny, though. I just can't imagine now why we did those things. You see, those "Christians" were Orthodox and used incense and had priests and spoke a funny language and all kinds of things that didn't fit the Evangelical mold. So I just can't figure out how we or the larger culture ever recognized them as "Christians" or paid attention to them.

So do people think we only pay attention to those who belong to our own denomination? To drive in this point once more, the only people I heard complaining about the goings-on in the Sudan in the late '90s were friends at my Sons of Confederate Veterans meetings: white (well, one or two are black), Protestant, Confederates. These were the only ones I heard wanting us to stand up for the black (non-Protestant, possibly?) Christians being turned into slaves in the Sudan. Why would they do that, if we only recognize fellowship with people who look and act and worship like us?
Tim H. | Homepage | 05.30.07 - 11:25 pm | #

Tim, I think some it has to do with American evangelical efforts to convert such pagan nations as the Philippines and Poland.
Ed the Roman | 05.31.07 - 1:21 pm | #

I think Shea mainly has in mind the right-wing Catholic types who back the war in Iraq, and ignore complaints about Israel's behavior towards Palestine.

Concerning the news article: gorsh, I didn't know "Muslims" were particularly persecuted. In fact, my impression about Muslims is that they're doin' pretty well for themselves in the religion department.


Histor
Histor | Homepage | 06.02.07 - 4:24 pm | #