Death of Sri Lanka: a further link in the violence against Christians – 21/04/2019

Sri Lanka it became this Easter Sunday – the most important day of the Christian liturgical calendar – in a new scenario of cruelty to Christians, who have long been the most persecuted religious community in the world. Attacks in two Catholic churches and an evangelical – in addition to three hotels – during the religious service in which believers commemorate the resurrection of Christ, which left a number of dozens of dead among the faithful, testify to the current religious drama with more followers on the planet: about 2,000 million Catholics, Orthodox and Evangelical.

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The Open Doors USA NGO recently quantified the situation experienced by Christians in 2018. The survey shows that one in ten Christians has suffered some degree of persecution in a hundred countries: 4,136 people were killed for their faith (eleven per day, including 10 missionaries); 2,625 were imprisoned and 1,266 churches and religious sites were attacked. North Korea is the country where the situation of Christians is the worst, followed by Afghanistan, Somalia and Libya. In addition to sites with particularly serious situations as in Nigeria.

In the case of North Korea and, to a lesser extent, China, the oppression comes from part of their states, from clandestine regimes who see Christianity as an "imperialist" threat to their power and traditions of their nations. In addition, civil wars such as those in Syria have caused and caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Christians. Like the long conflict in Israel, where the Christian presence was minimized even as Jesus preached, died and arose, according to the conviction of his faithful.

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But in most cases, the persecution comes from fanatics who call themselves Muslims, in the first place ISIS – who is withdrawing now – with its sinister cruelty. This circumstance, which hurts true and overwhelming Islam, has led in recent months to the fact that dad Francisco perform a series of gestures with the leaders of the religion of the Prophet Muhammad to strive for coexistence and a common commitment to freedom of religion and the most categorical refusal to use religion to commit acts of violence.

The most important event was the historic declaration that Francisco signed in February with the great Imam of the Al Azhar Mosque (the world leader of the Sunni, Islamic mainstream), Ahmed al Tayyeb, during his visit to the Arab Emirates. united, the first of a pontiff to the Arabian Peninsula. There, they asked "that they stop instrumentalizing religions to incite hatred, violence, extremism and blind fanaticism and to use the name of God to justify deeds." of murder, exile, terrorism and oppression ".

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At the end of March, Francisco went to Morocco and, with the king Mohamed VI, they produced gestures and declarations going in the same direction. But Christians also suffer the persecution of Hindu nationalists in India. In addition, restrictions exist, sometimes very severe, in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, as well as mbadacres of priests by drug traffickers in Mexico to silence their complaints.

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The prospects for Christians are therefore very unfavorable in many parts of the world. The awareness of his seriousness will surely be the first step to start eradicating this tragedy.