Category: Editorial

In the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East, Christians are enduring great hardships and the “little flock” they comprise is shrinking steadily. Squeezed between two extremisms – Jewish (Israel) and Islamic (Muslim countries) – and subject to religious and social discrimination, many Christians prefer to flee from their harsh reality of conflict and instability. Their woeful plight calls for our sympathy, spiritual support and solidarity. They belong to the countries of the Bible. The Holy land, in particular, is the cradle of Christianity. Jesus was born, lived and died there. His disciples were first called Christians at Antioch (Acts 11:26) in Syria. Persecution scattered them. On the way, they announced the Gospel to the non-Jews, hence starting the Church’s universal mission. Now, they are fleeing again to find peace and tranquility. While pilgrims from all over the world flock there to find their faith’s roots, native Christians move out because they feel they are foreigners in their homeland.  Their mass exodus will be one of the main issues of the special assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops that will gather in Rome from 10 to 24 October. Related issues to be discussed, according to the Instrumentem Laboris (the working document), are: widespread Islamization, lack of political and religious freedom, political instability, the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the need of peace founded on justice.  Invited to the synodal assembly are the Latin Church in the Middle East and the various Churches in communion with Rome, born from the divisions of the 5th century and the Great Schism at the beginning of the 11th century. They are different according to rite, geographic location or national allegiance. The Synod is an opportunity to foster their renewal and witness, overcome suspicions and misunderstandings, deepen their bonds of communion and affirm their specificities when compared to other faiths and societies among which they live.  The Middle East, being “a predominantly Muslim society, be it Arab, Turkish, Iranian or a Jewish society in the State of Israel,” interreligious dialogue is an unavoidable issue. It requires great friendship but, at the same time, great clarity. In Muslim countries, Christians are considered second-class citizens. There’s a growing demand for the application of the principle of reciprocity and to emphasize the urgency of implementing the freedom of religion and conscience, with the right to proclaim the gospel in Muslim countries in the same way that Muslims have the right to preach Islam. The Synod has relevance also for Christian immigrants, especially from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Sudan. They often have to endure gross human rights violations. Across the region, there are more than one million domestic workers, many of them Catholics, who are treated like slaves. In South Arabia alone, there are more than one million migrant Christians who are denied the right to their religion. It is simply unacceptable that a state known for exporting fundamentalist Islam and for paying for the construction of mosques everywhere behaves in

In the month of October, the Church focuses on mission – especially mission beyond the borders of one’s people and culture, called in Latin, Ad Gentes. The missionary impulse is a sign of the Church’s vitality. The Church exists as a result of God’s mission and for mission. The Church  learns and grows in mission, reaching out to others. A community closed to the perspective of mission is closed to God, to life and to the future.  What is the purpose of mission? Simply put, it is to make Jesus present – everywhere, among all peoples and cultures of the world. In his message for World Mission Sunday to be celebrated on the penultimate Sunday of the month, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that what people ask believers is “not only to ‘speak’ of Jesus, but to ‘make Jesus seen,’ to make the face of the Redeemer shine out in every corner of the earth before the generations of the new millennium…” The Gospel of Jesus we were entrusted with is Good News. The world needs it and expects it from us. People have the right to listen to it and to see it incarnated in our lives – in the love we live and irradiate. Our mission, like the mission of Jesus, is to do good and to liberate those afflicted by evil (cf. Acts 10:38). The Gospel is a leaven of freedom and progress. Hence, mission cannot but be a force of personal, social and cultural transformation for a better world – of peace and communion, solidarity and justice. The whole Church is the protagonist of mission. But not all the members of a community are called to leave their places and be sent wherever they are needed. Missionaries – priests, religious or lay people – are the ones the community sends out to “the ends of the world.” Fulfilling their vocation, they become bridges between Churches and peoples, religious traditions and cultural views. In their diversity, they are gifts to the communities and peoples they serve. They, themselves, as well as their peoples and communities of origin, are enriched in the encounter. Their presence is a sign of the Church’s concern and communion, of its unity and diversity. Theirs is not a personal enterprise because they do not come on personal behalf. They shouldn’t feel like strangers, even though, sometimes, they perceive that the local Churches would feel more comfortable without their presence challenging them to a further commitment to the proclamation of Jesus Christ. The missionaries’ presence is a reminder that we must acknowledge and go beyond our prejudices, fears and indifference, care for the world and become universal people. Pope Benedict XVI says it acutely in his message: “In a multiethnic society that is experiencing increasingly disturbing forms of loneliness and indifference, Christians must learn to offer signs of hope and to become universal brethren, cultivating the great ideals that transform history and, without false illusions or useless fears, must strive to make the planet a