It is the pleasure of Aid to the Church in Need (Malta) to welcome you all in Malta  where St. Paul was shipwrecked in AD 60. This is recorded in Chapter 28 of the Acts of the Apostles.

The leaders of Aid to the Church in Need International, with the full cooperation of Aid to the Church in Need in Malta, chose Malta for this International Conference – Can Christianity Survive Persecution ?- because,  as the late Pope, now St John Paul II, had told the Maltese people when he visited Malta in 2001 “Malta has a unique vocation to be the builder of bridges between the peoples of the Mediterranean basin, and a bridge between Africa and Europe.”

He then added “The future of peace in the world depends on strengthening dialogue and understanding between cultures and religions.”

Then he exhorted the Maltese people, and I quote, “for a renewal of faith, to defend life, and to promote respect for the dignity of every human being; … to safeguard the family and work….and to continue the national and international commitment of the Maltese people for the promotion of freedom, justice and peace.

These are the bridges of values on which Aid to Church in Need, since 1947, has been striving to accomplish.

During this Conference we will hear, and have first hand information on this mission from prominent and leading Christian leaders…and witnesses from Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Nigeria and Algiers.

Sisters Mary Euphrasia, Founder of the Good Shepherd Sisters said:

“One person is more valuable than the world”… because every person was created in the image and likeness of God… with dignity.

Thus every person has the right to work, form a family and to live in peace.

Aid to the Church in Need, together with the support of its benefactors, works in favour of persecuted and oppressed Christians who are continually suffering for their Faith in various countries with thousands of them having to flee their own country… with others facing certain death.

The loss of values leads to many forms of violence. This is a problem which is being experienced in many parts of the world.  It is a modern syndrome.

Notwithstanding this development Lord Jonathan Sacks, the eminent British and Commonwealth scholar says “There ARE values which we share and which bindus together as a society” but, as we know, society is losing some of its fundamental values.

God gave the great gift of life to all, irrespective of class, race and religion.

Every man should be respected… without any prejudice… in order to be able to live his life with dignity. I am sure that Aid to the Church in Need will continue with its noble mission to help all in times of difficulty.

My appeal goes to all here today and to all people of goodwill to work assiduously to help all those who are in need, especially persecuted and oppressed Christians in  so many parts of the world.

For this purpose all of us have to pray more, create awareness and work, both on national and international level, in favour of our brothers and sisters and help them in their essential needs. We have to work for an international order built on genuine respect for the rule of law, on dialogue and solidarity.

I wish to thank His Excellency Mgr. Aldo Cavalli, Apostolic Nuncio to Malta, for his full cooperation and assistance in the preparation of this International Conference in Malta.

In your folder you will find a copy of the message sent by Ms. Irina Bokova, Director – General of UNESCO.

We greatly appreciate her message and wish to thank her for it. Surely the points she madeare food for thought for all of us.

May I take the opportunity to thank His Eminence Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, President of ACN International; the Maltese Ecclesiastical Authorities; Baron Johannes Freiherr Heereman, Executive President of ACN; all ACN Executive Committee members and  Neville Kyrke Smith, ACN UK Director, for their trust in me, and my colleagues in Malta, to be part of the ACN Foundation.

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Uganda where I spent a year in Kampala at a Franciscan mission hospital was another Country at Civil war unfortunately. I was practically 12 hours daily in operating theatre dealing with war wounds and emergency obstetrics. The patients were poor mostly and I noticed the children were in rags. So when the Sisters received a container full of beautiful girls’ dresses from Anotnia I was looking forward to seeing them worn. When 2 weeks passed and nothing happened I asked the Sisters why and the answer was “We cannot give them out as some would kill the girl for the dress”. So they were negotiating to have the dresses sold and buying material for the little girls. This was a big lesson for me to pray about when, hour, where to give things and donations in all circumstances. If I am really passionately in love with Jesus I have to consult Him every moment of my life and His Spirit will always guide me in the best way to love Him in others.

While in Honduras, Central America whenever I had time outside hospital I accompanied a Peruvian Sister on her prison visits. I came to know the prisoners wished to have a guitar. I asked around, found an ex-prisoner who made one for 40 Lempiras (20.00USD). When I went to deliver it I was surprised that the head prisoner offered me 12 Lempiras they had collected towards it instead of keeping mum about it. This honest gesture emphasized my need never to judge anymore. Later a patient gave me 40 Lempiras for her surgery as a ‘thank you’ gift. Wherever I have been I found people are 70% good. We have to work on the 30%. God made us in His Image. We are His adopted children. He is always there to help us when we fall and rejoices when we are back in His loving embrace.

In 1985 I was cofounder of voluntary Lay Missionaries group under Pontifical Missions here in Malta. We help by talks and preparations for a mission experience besides financial help. I find it is important that lay missionaries have a close relationship with Jesus, are reasonably good in their trade or profession, can entertain themselves and ask them to leave something of what they know behind after a period of at least one year in the developing country. My mission experience in Malta and overseas has been and is a preparation for my final test when I pray Jesus will tell me that I sorted Him out well when I saw Him hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, sick and in prison.

2 Quotations I live by: “Niente domando, niente rifuto” St. John XXIII and “Be kind, kind, kind and you will soon be saints.”

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On 10 December, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, enshrining the fundamental freedoms that are essential for the equality and dignity of every woman and man.
The Declaration is one of the most inspiring, humanist texts ever written — it is also a call to action for people and Governments to join forces in order to enforce human rights and ensure that they are exercised in full. As stated in the 2001 UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, “No one may invoke cultural diversity to infringe upon human rights guaranteed by international law, nor to limit their scope.” The protection of all human rights, including respect of religions and beliefs, is essential for human dignity.
UNESCO is acting across the world to promote the rights and freedoms that fall within its fields of competence — notably, the right to education, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right to participate in cultural life, and the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications.
With its partners, UNESCO is committed to making the standards and principles of international human rights law understood as widely as possible, including through human rights education. We need stronger joint efforts to disseminate the values of tolerance and dialogue, to increase knowledge of other cultures and to foster respect for the dignity of all irrespective of religion, culture or occupation, age, sex, and origin. These are foundations for building the defences of peace in the minds of men and women, which is UNESCO’s core mission.
The basic right to express oneself through language, culture and creed is inscribed in the core freedoms of every woman and man. Differences must never be a reason for division. Each of us has a responsibility to prevent and fight against discrimination, and this includes making the most of all existing normative instruments.

Intercultural and interreligious dialogue is essential at this time of deep change, when all societies are transforming quickly. In this context, I believe it is more important than ever to recognize that people increasingly perceive themselves as having multiple identities and affiliations. This is the result of social transformation, the rise of new technologies and flows of migration. This calls on us to build new bridges of dialogue and to fight against all forms of discrimination. These goals guide all UNESCO’s work to promote tolerance, respect and mutual understanding between cultures and peoples, including those of different faiths.
UNESCO takes this agenda forward at many levels — through education for human rights, through the safeguarding of cultural heritage and through the promotion of cultural diversity as a source of strength for all societies to share. I am convinced that all of this holds the key to more inclusive, more peaceful and stable, more tolerant and stronger societies, to which we all aspire.

Irina Bokova

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“What, are you still here? Don’t you know that you were supposed to leave for Manila an hour ago?” That was the beginning of a divine adventure by the God of Surprises!  A first YES to God who is Love – a YES that implies a long chain of other Yeses.

I never ever thought of going to the Philippines. Once I said YES to God to follow Him as a priest I was convinced that missionary work was part and parcel of my choice. Brazil was my dream. Like so many other seminarians of my time. Yet God of Surprises had other plans for me…

I was eating dinner with a group of friends at Scuola Internazionale di Formazione of the Opera di Maria in an old dilapidated Capuchins’ convent in Frascati, Italy. Frascati, for me, was not only famous for its wine. For us these were the first adventures as foreign students visiting Italy as part of our ‘cultural love’ for the Italian language (of course, everything paid by the University authorities).  I remember the first time we visited Frascati, a group of adventurous seminarians, our main concern was how to enjoy the delicacies of Frascati. I never thought that Frascati was to be the jumping plank to Manila!

I went to Frascati School for six months –  after I was ordained a priest. I had my own dreams for my future. Hoping they coincided with what I thought was God’s loving Plan for me (I did think that God, in my case, would need a little prodding).  My plans were to go to Oxford, read an MSc degree in Applied Social Sciences and then return to continue my assignment with Mgr Charles Vella of Cana Movement. All that had to change. I don’t know why, really. But I did believe that was God’s plan for me.

I postponed my dream to attend a six-month course in Frascati – which then became twelve months and then two years. There I learned, not so easily, to put God first in my life, even before my priesthood. I became aware that as a priest I could choose to do the things of God and not the God of things. Toni Weber, the Swiss director of the School, fascinated me. He talked to my heart and answered the deepest needs in my mind and heart. Therefore it was not a big deal to leave for a far-away-place, practically without notice, while you are eating spaghetti and Frascati wine! He presented me the tickets for Manila, the capital of the Philippines. I only asked one question: but where is Manila in Brazil?

It was January – the coldest season in the Philippines.  When I went out of the Cathay Pacific airlines, around eight o’clock in the evening, I thought I was going to chill. I felt the air outside reaching my feet then liquefy on my head – and I stopped breathing. It was the first impact with the ‘rainy season’ in Manila International Airport. I did not want to imagine what would it be like during the long hot summer months.

I did not sleep that night. The Italian friends that housed us had to come to my rescue during that first night. They encouraged me a lot: ‘if you continue like this better that you return to Europe’ as they administered, not the last sacraments, but a quarter of a pill they called “valium”.  The following day they took me to Tagaytay, where the weather was mild and the panorama included a lake with a volcano in it and a lake within the volcano. That gave me hope I could survive the climate.

The Philippine Divine adventure had many protagonists each contributing his or her character like an experienced hand weaving a tapestry – you could appreciate its worth when you look at the back of the textile to see the interlacing strands or strips of the material used. God works like this. Very often I could not understand the Yes I have to say … only after a long time that I begin to realize His unfolding Plan.

Without the support of a living community around me I would not have made it. With Fr Victor, whose mother Maria Agius, died recently, we tried to give each other support and a community with other priests, local and not, and a spirituality grounded on Christ’s last command – unity in diversity, inclusion, integration, love the person in front of you – these are notions lived not from textbooks but from life.

Not only the weather is difficult to accept but more so the Pilipino culture. I had to learn a new language, (Tagolog is the official language (28.1% of Filipinos are Tagalog, 13.1% Cebuano, 9% Ilocano, 7.6% Bisaya/Binisaya, 7.5% Hiligaynon, 6% Bikol, 3.4% Waray, and 25.3% as “others”). I had to learn new ways of doing things, new vision of life; I had to change my scale of values based on a European civilization, to face the “Filipino values” which were supposed to make me a Pilipino. But I think I have failed.

“Unless you eat ‘balut’ you are not a Filipino” – A balut or balot is a fertilized duck embryo that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It is commonly sold as street food. When I eat it I am supposed to become a real man, a real Filipino. I never succeeded.

As also I failed to grasp some aspects of Filipino religiosity. Indeed, they say, ‘the Philippines have been 500 years in a convent and 50 years in Hollywood’. It is the only catholic country in Asia. When John Paul II came to the Philippines he encouraged us to go beyond the “Santo Niño” cult.  Devotion to the Little Child is found throughout the Philippines and practically in every home. In an adult world little children are the beginning towards the Christian adulthood.

My impression of the Seminary formation throughout the archipelago is lacking – or shall we say their standards are very different from ours? Part of our work was to give retreats and follow vocations throughout the three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Vocations seem to be thriving. Many congregations that are dying in Europe come to the Philippines to find their resurrection. In our Parish, Mary Immaculate Parish, Luzon, Las Pinas, Metro-Manila, near the Bamboo Organ Church run by Belgian priests, we had the joy of hosting one of these Italian congregations. Those were really good times as the first Parish Priest of the newly-formed parish. I met them also in Italy and was so happy to see many Filipinos populating their Roman convents.

When you go to your home and you find no food anymore because the numerous brothers and sisters arrive before you do, then it becomes a great opportunity to enter Houses of Religious Formation to follow a vocation – and also to find a meal, a chance to study, and also, hopefully, you meet The Lord.

Saturdays and Sundays were particularly taxing throughout the subdivisions, barangays. Reaching the new Parish’s catholic population was impossible. Mary Immaculate Parish prides around 50,000  parishioners – (I never even tried to count them). My successor, an Italian priest, don Pierino, transformed it into the “Nature Church”; now a well-known reference point. How could I forget? The celebration of 8 masses each (4 on Saturday and 4 on Sunday); mass marriages, with their children lovingly (and noisily) running around during the marriage rite of their parents; baptisms in large groups with parents eager to present them to the priest to hug them. The more the population grows the more priests have to learn to survive.  With a population of more than 97 million people, the Philippines are the seventh most populated Asian country. An additional 12 million Filipinos live overseas. As they do here in Malta the Filipino community is very well-tight together and their singing and smile are contagious. I miss those moments.

Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila spiraled The People Power Revolution, where sisters, priests, lay people; catholic fraternities wore the yellow colour as a protest movement to bring down the dictatorship of Marcos.   I understood that in certain realities to combat injustice the Church has to organize the people to stand up and be counted. The film “Mission” was always a concrete challenge to me. Marcos was removed by the power of the Church. Aquino, the Leader of the Opposition, was killed on the airplane at the very moment when he set foot outside the aircraft – in spite of a spate of journalists he brought with him to ensure safety.  Soldiers in the Parish told me about the well-planned assassination, the corruption, the political maneuverings, and the corrupt judges. The rest is history.

I am my relationships. Filipinos taught me what real friendship is, the “utang ng loob” (gratefulness to the extreme),  bigyan ng kahihiyan (a sense of shame that makes you aware of the sin around us). Such Filipino values I will continue to cherish in my mind and my heart.

One moment I will always remember is the moment when I received the news that my father, Tarcisio, collapsed near Sarria Church in Floriana. They asked me to leave the Philippines immediately otherwise I would not reach him alive. I took two days travelling to arrive at Malta International Airport. When I arrived the tears in my brother’s eyes told me what happened.

I do not remember days, I remember moments – moments of deep friendship, love and a sense of life that is worthy. When you are so happy, it is so easy to be a witness of the love of Jesus…and the story continues.

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Algeria

The church in Algeria did not suffer persecution in the strict sense, but it was severely attacked during the years of Islamic terrorism (1991-1999). We shall try to explain the sense of this attack and to show why and how our church was able to live through this difficult period and to rediscover its vitality beyond the times of violence, answering the query “Can Christianity Survive Persecution?”

The Church in Algeria Caught in the Algerian Islamist Crisis (1991-1999)

On 27 December 1991 the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) the Islamist Algerian Party, obtained in the first round of the legislative elections,187 seats while the Fln (National Freedom Front ) which had been in power since independence (1962) only acquired 19 seats. Encouraged by a big meeting of the ‘liberals” (2 January 1992) the army interrupted the electoral process on 11 January  1992 and created a “high state committee” (14 January  1992)”.  This new structure and the army were to lead the fight against the Islamic Salvation Front, the party which was dissolved.  This decision led to violent conflict between the forces of order and the islamists between 1992 and 1999, profusing between 150,000 and 200,000  deaths. Initially the Christians were not affected by these troubles,  but on 29 October 1993, a part of the Armed Islamic Group (gia) condemned to death all foreigners (plus all the Christians and Jews) who would not have left the country by 1 December of that year, 1993.

Attacks Against Our Church (1993-1996)

On 14 December 1993 a unit of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) attacked  a workplace of Croatian workers in their camp put up a few kilometres from the Monastery of Tibherrine, killing twelve of them saving those who said they were Muslims. on the following 8 May (1994) in Algiers, the first two religious were murdered in the Kasbah of Algiers, a marist brother  and a sister of the Assumption.  The commmunique of the Gia which explained their assassination declared that the unit responsible for the crime had brought to an end  to the activities of the “two crosses which had spent long years sowing evil in algeria”.  Actually they ran a library in a poor quarter of the Kasbah frequented by 1200 Algerian high school students.

Two other murders hit first two Spanish Augustinian missionaries at Bab el oued (Algiers) on 23 October of the same year, followed by four White Fathers at Tizi Ouzou on 27 December 1994. Two other attacks took place in 1995. The first on 3 september, against two religious of Our Lady of the Apostles, the second on 10 November on two sisters of the Sacred Heart. Finally during 1996, on 21 May the seven monks of Thiberrine had their throats cut and on 1 August Mgr Claverie, Bishop of Oran was the victim of the same violence following the explosion of a bomb placed against the door of the bishopric.

Other assassination attempts were made during the same period, but unsuccessfuly, against the White Fathers of Ghardaia (January 1995) and the other against a priest from the Algiers diocese. Two other Catholic Algerians were shot at, and though wounded, escaped death. Two brothers of Jesus were attacked by an armed group which pillaged their convent but sparing their lives. During this period all the Christians, as well as many Algerian Muslims, lived under the threats of the Islamists sometimes through letters, or phone calls.  Several offshoots attacked the church and Christians claiming that Algeria, a Muslim land did not have space for non-muslims.
The Church in Algeria, a Church Invited to Disappear (1991-1999)

Between the years 1993 and 1999, the Church in Algeria was therefore caught in the conflict between on the one hand the State and the forces of order, and on the other hand by the armed islamist groups. In this context, most foreign Christian families, who constituted the majority of the 20,000 Catholics in the country, left Algeria between 1991 and 1993, as did most of the members of a small group of Algerian Catholics who had become Muslims. The church had to fall back on the small nucleus of priests, male and female religious, and lay missionaries. In the diocese of Algiers, 19 priests and religious were killed between 1994 and 1996, that is ten per cent of our group, apart from the murdered bishop of Oran and the assassinated seven monks of Thiberrine.
In the Algiers diocese, half of the religious communities had to quit their houses as situations got worse around them. For two years the Holy See hesitated to name a new bishop of Oran to replace the murdered Mgr Claverie.
We could have asked ourselves then if this societal crisis did not imply the death warrant of the new Algerian church, this small community of 20,000 Catholics which had reconstituted itself, after the country’s independence in1962, following the departure of 900,000 Christians living in the  country during the period of French colonisation (1830-1962). The embassies were meanwhile urging their nationals to leave the country. Even Algerians friendly to the Church, worried about our security, urged us to leave until the security crisis was over. Some leaders   living overseas of congregations of religious working in Algeria took a similar position. In Algeria, bishops and religious superiors left the members of the diocese or of a religious community to decide freely whether to remain or leave.
But at the same time the bishops, and especially Mgr. Claverie, Bishop of Oran, proclaimed loudly: “persons are free to decide, but the Church will not leave“.
This crisis could have brought on, if not the disappearance of the church in Algeria, its contraction to a chaplaincy for foreigners, protected by embassies and deprived of its  centuries-old  relationship with the Algerian people (White Fathers, spiritual families of Foucauld).  The faith of those working permanently in our Church’s mission and their courage allowed our church to remain true to its vocation to ensure the life of the Catholic Church for the Algerian people, a people that is of course Muslim but used, at least in parts of the country to a real relationship with the Catholic church and with Christians.
We would now like to give two types of witness that explain how our church was able to withstand this serious crisis and to rediscover its place in the Algerian city, after the grave security situation and this “persecution”.

Christian Witnesses Giving Their Reasons to Confront the Risks They Ran

If our Church has been able to have a new life after this perilous period, it is primarily due to the apostolic courage of Christians who had decided to face this violence, remaining faithful to their vocation and to their mission in this country. Their death does not cry for vengeance against those who murdered them.  On the contrary, it expresses an offering of their life for their brothers and sisters who embrace the Muslim creed retaining their trust without identifying them to the assassins.  The time of persecution is hence one to manifest the love of the martyrs themselves for those who persecute them and their people, thus preparing a future of reconciliation when the period of persecution is over.

The testament of Fr. Christian de Chergé expresses magnificently these convictions of faith confronted by these threats but also the sentiments of the members of his monastic community. Many Algerian Christians have found themselves in the certitude of the faith they expressed. Here is the text, now well-known, of his spiritual will, drawn up when the threats of death became more pronounced against our community (1 December 1993).

“When an A-Dieu is envisaged…If it should happen one day – and it could be to-day – that I should be a victim of the terrorism which now seems to want to embrace all foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my church, my family, to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country…I would like, when the times comes, to have a moment of lucidity which will allow me to ask pardon of God an of my fellow human being , while at the same time to pardon with  all my heart the person would strike me down.

I could never wish for such a death; it is important for me to state this. I don’t see how I could in fact rejoice that this people, whom I love, should be accused indiscriminately of my murder. It is too high a price to pay for what will perhaps be called the « grace of martydom », to owe it to an Algerian, whoever he may be, especially if he claims to be acting out of fidelity to what he believes to be Islam.

I know the contempt with which Algerians in general have been treated. I know also the caricatures of Islam which a certain type of Islamism encourages. It is too easy to salve one’s conscience by identifying this religious way with the fundamentalist beliefs of its extremists. Algerian and Islam are for me something else; they are a body and soul. I have proclaim this enough, I think, considering what I have received from them , finding there so often that straight guideline of the Gospel learnt at my mother’s knees, my very first church, as it is so happens in Algeria and already at that time respectful of Muslim  believers.

My death will of course prove right those who has dismissed me as naive and idealistic: « Let him tell us now what it thinks about it » But those people must know that at last my most burning curiosity will be satisfied. I’ll now be able, should it please God, to immerse my gaze in that of the father in order to contemplate with him his children of Islam as he sees them, completely illuminate by Christ’s glory, fruit of his passion, fill by the gift of the Spirit whose secret joy it will always be to establish communion and to re-establish likeness, while playing with the differences.

For this life lost, totally mine and totally theirs, I give thanks to God who seems to have willed it entirely for that special JOY, against and in spite of all odds. In this THANK YOU in which all of my life is now said, i include, of course, you, friends of yesterday an to-day , and you, O my friends of this place, alongside my mother and my father, my sisters and my brothers and their families, the hundredfold granted as it was promised.

And you also, friend of the last moment, who will not have known what you were doing. Yes, for you, also, I want to say THANK YOU and this A-DIEU to you in whom God’s face can be  contemplated. And may be lucky enough to meet again, happy good thieves, in paradise, should it please God, the Father of both of us. Amen! In cha’allah!”

This magnificent testimonial expresses at the same time the spiritual quality of its author as well as the sentiments embraced by all those Christians who had chosen to remain in Algeria during the times of terror.  We can also find very similar sentiments in the testimony of faith in the diary written by the youngest monk of the community of Trappist monks of Tibhrine, Fr. Christopher.  One finds in him, as in Fr. Christian, the same attitude to risk one’s life through love for the brothers of the Muslim confession. The passages below from his diary so prove.

“August, 1, 1993: “One Pentecost day I signed the official form with your declaration: “I love you”. What’s happening here is a hidden story; it’s a game of love or nothing at all”.

August 22, 1993: “Assassinations in Algiers. After so many others. This note-book cannot remain sheltered from this violence, which pierces me.”

December 31, 1993: “Lord give us the grace to die without hatred in our hearts.”

February, 12, 1994: “What a joy to meet Mohamed, Ali, or Moussa. In them the mystery can be glimpsed simply, purely. It’s a quality of presence: peaceful, gentle, nourishing”

October 24, 1994: “At the door of the church, at the time of the Eucharist which they truly celebrated, two Spanish sisters were assassinated in Bab el Oued…Our church is in  tears but her mourning is turned into joy.”

July 25, 1995: “I ask of you to-day the grace to become a servant and to give my life here as a ransom for peace, as a ransom for life …Jesus draw me into your joy of crucified love.”

Testimonials of Muslim Friends of The Church Expressing their Attachment to The Christian Presence in their Country and their Condemnation ff Violence Against Christians

After every murder of our brothers or sisters, we received dozens of testimonials from Algerians who felt it necessary to show us their solidarity during these troubles. As an example of these reactions, I would like to evoke two testimonials. They will allow us to understand that these acts of violence were not the work of the Muslim people, but of extremist groups disavowed by the majority of their co-believers.

This attestation of homage was sent to us after the assassination of the Marist priest, Fr Henri Verges on 8 May 1994 :

“We, A.B. journalist, and M. M., a university teacher, would like to manifest our friendship and fraternity with you in this drama which affects all of us to-day. As for us never forget you are for ever our brothers and sisters. Whatever our differences of dogma , we bellieve that we have the same God . And let’s be clear about it, we love you and that concerns no one else. Once more, contrary to the assassins, we say to you: you are at home here , we love you and we pray beside of you for the repose of the soul of those who have been slaughtered in a cowardly fashion. We dare to remind you that in Notre Dame d‘Afrique, there is inscribed above the black Virgin, “ Pray for us and for Muslims”.

Nous trouvons un témoignage semblable reçu après l’assassinat du P. Jean Chevillars, P. Blanc de Tizi Ouzou, le 27 décembre 1994 : “ Father Jean did not make me a Christian but he led me to God without taking me by the hand, without speaking to me in the language used by religious people. It whas enough for me to watch him live and to meditate on his conduct to be convinced that God’s banner is one, whatever the color which people,  here or there, may give it, and I was able to exorcise the evil which possessed me. My reason and my youthful heart gave way before this uprightness and this extreme goodness which I didn’t think that existed among the others. For all this last thirty years , his luminous and all peaceful gaze has never been far from my mind.”

Conclusion

Our Church in Algeria went through a serious crisis between 1991 and 1999. It could have fallen under during this crisis or reduced to a chaplaincy protected by foreign embassies.  It was able to withstand this crisis because persons voluntarily decided to remain in their post through fidelity to that very particular vocation to be the Christian community of a Muslim people.  It was able to survive also because our Church has always differentiated between those who attack it in the name of an extremist reading of Islam, and the Algerian people, themselves Muslim, which wanted to defend the Church in the name of the same Islam. It wanted to be the Church of these people although Islamic.

It was also able to go through thus grave societal crisis because many Algerian Muslims sustained it during that crisis, and assisted it to regain its place once the crisis was over.

In fact the faithfulness of those permanently working for Church to their vocation during this violent period gave forth a strong sign of Christian solidarity with muslim Algerian society. Thus our Church, in spite of its small numbers, signalled its solidarity with Algerian society in the hour of need.  It thus gained a new credibility, notwithstanding the attacks and the calumnies of the extremists.  A period of persecution can cause the disappearance of a Church or its contraction in numbers within society. But it could also be the occasion, through the signs given, of a new credibility within the fold of a people, even if they are not Christian.

In 1994, I had to repatriate to France the body of a White Father killed in Algeria. His family greeted me at the airport of Lyon. At the bottom of the steps leading down from the plane, the representative of Air Algerie knelt in homage to him who was the victim of violence. She approached me and she whispered the famous phrase of Tertullian, the North African theologian: Sanguis martyrum,semen christianorum.

It is possible for a Church to survive a time of persecution, even to the extent of gaining a new dynamism.  That at least is what we have experienced.

Malta 12 May 2014

Henri Teissier

Archbishop Emeritus of Algiers

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Can Christianity survive persecution?

As Christians, our first thought would be to say: yes, of course! Christianity will never disappear. Look at the history of the Church! All the Apostles except John were martyrized, we went through three centuries of persecution and then the persecution continued in the Middle East and in Asia and then there was the twentieth century which is said to have been the worst time in history concerning Christian persecution… and we are still here!

We are in Malta, look at the order of Malta. Chased from the Holy Land and then from Rhodes, it survived. Look at Saint Paul, he was also in Malta. I don’t know if any other Christian has had to go through so much persecution: in 2 Corinthians 11 (24;26), he witnesses : “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers”. Well, he finally did die but it was a long process!

But we have even stronger: Christ himself says in Matthew 16,18: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it”. So, of course, Christianity can – and will – survive persecution! That’s great!

But then, Christ also says in Luke 18,8: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” And actually, the Church has disappeared from certain regions. Think of the Arabic peninsula or North Africa: it was covered by monasteries and churches! And then, everything disappeared. So the Church can disappear from a specific region! Sometimes, when I travel in rural areas in France, I wonder if the Church could also simply disappear from France… but I don’t believe it. Anyway, that means that there is no guarantee! Christianity can really, it’s a possibility, not be able to survive persecution!

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I have been asked to focus on the Middle East. I would like to propose three sections. First, what is the situation? Second, who is responsable? Third, is there any hope?

I/ What is the situation?

Many books have been written on the subject, with titles like The Christians in the Middle East will they disappear? Well, the answer is nearly in the question. Everyday, we hear of new attacks against Christians either in Iraq or Syria or Egypt. They are being killed, they are leaving. The whole picture is clear: it seems to be the end! Remember the little film we have just seen, just a few quotations: “there is no hope and the easy solution is to emigrate”. “It would be a sad reality to have the Holy land without living stones”, which means this reality is now close. “They should remain here” which means they don’t. “They should feel the solidarity of the rest of the world” which means they don’t neither. “They need not feel alone or in danger” which of course means that they are in danger!

Let’s look at some figures. They perfectly illustrate the word evanescence, which means the process of disappearing gradually, vanishing, fading away… Lebanon: decline of 30% or more of the number of Christians since 1983 (that is 1% every year since 30 years). Iran: decline of two-thirds since 1979, that is 66% less, but please be patient: the following figures are even more impressive! Bethlehem, a nice 86% drop since 1948 where the Christians were 85% of the town, now only 12% (2010). Iraq: they were still 1.4 million in 1987, and now? Every single person I know gives a different number, but I have read that they could be reduced to 150.000. In that case, it would be a stunning 90% decrease in 25 years, that means in just one generation. Jerusalem: Christians were 53% in 1922 and 1.2% now: that’s 98% less. Finally, Turkey, which still wants to enter the European Union: the Christians were 25% exactly one century ago and now 0.1%. That’s an amazing 99.6% collapse.

Is that all? No, things are continuing! In Egypt last year, on August 14th, 39 churches were ransacked, entirely burnt or bombed while 23 other churches were besieged and attacked by stones, bullets, Molotov cocktails. Convents and Christian schools were also attacked not to mention houses, shops and cars belonging to Christians. The constitution, which had been revised by the Salafists and Muslim Brothers and which came into force in November 2012, led to a significant worsening in the situation of the Christians in the country.

In Syria, certainly one of the worst places on earth to be a Christian today, nobody can perceive the end of the nightmare. In the beginning, it was not a war against Christians and we can even say that, except Lebanon which has a special status in the Middle East, Syria was certainly one of the best places to be a Christian in the whole region until three years ago. The country was not a democracy but there was a real economic prosperity (9% annual growth) and Christians were not discriminated. Actually, at the beginning of the crisis, there were even several examples of protection of the Christians by Syrian Muslims. But, as the war continued and with the arrival of a huge crowd of foreign mercenaries who are violent jihadists, the exactions against the Christians started to spread.

A few examples: in November last year, the town of Sadat, which is close to Homs and whose population is mainly Syrian Orthodox, was taken by Islamist rebels and became the scene of “the worst massacre of Christians to have taken place in Syria in the past two and a half years” according to a Syrian Orthodox Archbishop. 45 people, including children, were murdered and thrown into mass graves, while 1.500 families were used by the rebels as a human shield.

In early December, after the Christian town of Maloula was captured by the rebels, twelve Greek Orthodox nuns were abducted from their convent. Three Christians were also murdered for refusing to renounce their Faith. The Melchite Patriarch Gregory III Laham has compiled a list of Christian martyrs which, by the end of the year 2013, already had 215 names on it. Unfortunately, the list isn’t near to be closed.

Of course, all the Syrian population is suffering. 2.5 million Syrians have now fled abroad, while at least 7 million people have been uprooted within the country. More than 120.000 people have been killed, including a horrific number (about 10%) of children, several hundred of them deliberately targeted by snipers, the purpose being to rob the parents of all hope and will to live, so that they become unresisting and easy to defeat.

But there now is also an apparent goal of cleaning the country of its’ Christians. Is this a repetition of the Iraqi scenario? Is there a wider strategy of obtaining a Christian-free Middle East? At one point, we have to consider that possibility!

II/ Who is responsable?

Well, there is an obvious responsibility of the local governments and / or population and these countries happen to be essentially Muslim, but before trying to understand if Islam today is an explanation for this situation, why not look in our own backyard first?

What has the West – and in particular the United States – managed to achieve in the Middle East in the last decades? With the glittering excuse of bringing democracy, we have completely ruined Iraq and this has ignited a time bomb which is continuously exploding into concentric waves, now destroying Syria. What next? Lebanon? Why did we absolutely want to bomb Syria beginning of September? The official reason was to help the Syrian population which seems indeed very logical! What other reasons could there be?

Three theories which are as many keys may help to understand the apparent unanimity, Russia and China aside, in the decision to destroy Syria. First, there seems to be an Israeli- American plan to remodel the Middle East. To put an end to existing countries which have the strength to go against decisions imposed to them – and that is very clear with Syria, these countries are able to resist – the plan consists in tearing apart the country into small regions with a mono-ethnic or mono-religious status: a Kurdish province, a Shiite region, a Sunni area…

These micro-states would obviously not have the resources to maintain a real army and would be dependent for their safety to the United States. There was Iraq and now we are dealing with Syria.

Second theory, in the fierce struggle today between the two main branches of Islam, Sunni and Shia, the annihilation of Syria helps to break the Shiite arc that goes from Iran to Lebanon with the Hezbollah, stretching through Iraq, where most of the population is Shiite and Syria, where the majority of the population is Sunni but where the power is at the hands of the Alawites, a Shiite sect.

Largely financed by the Sunni monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula, in particular Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the Syrian rebellion, overwhelmingly composed once again of foreign jihadist mercenaries, would help win a decisive round in this confrontation.

Finally, and in a more prosaic way, third theory, it always comes back to oil! It seems that the oil reserves belonging to Syria have been underestimated: they actually would be equivalent to 2.5 billion barrels, that is to say, more important than all the surrounding countries with the exception of Iraq.

It also seems that the Syrian decision to oppose the oil and gas pipelines transit through its territory, from the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean for the European market, has somehow upset the big oil companies from the West and de facto the Arabian monarchies. Probably approved to be faithful to its Russian ally, the Syrian decision simply meant a death sentence: in this world, you are actually allowed to be a dictator but you definitely cannot oppose the kings of oil.

Besides these disappointing stories of Western greed, there also is a definite abandonment by the West of the Christians in the Middle-East. I mean, except us, who cares?

Now, let’s come back to the local responsibility, even if this has already been mentioned. The war inside Islam between Sunnis and Shiites is not new, it actually started right from the beginning, but has now reached an unprecedented paroxysm. Most of the victims of this war are in fact Muslims, either Sunnis killed by Shiites or the contrary, as we can see every day in Iraq for example. Of course, this is also very sad and we point out this fact in our Religious Freedom Report which is published every two years. But proportionally, this war has had dramatic side-effects on the Christians, involuntary victims of this explosion of violence.

But the violence inside the Muslim world today is not only the result of this confrontation. We also have this violence in Nigeria, Pakistan or Indonesia. Why? Some will say that violence is inherent to Islam because both the life of Mohamed and the Koran are full of violence, which is true, but not all Muslims are violent and Muslim countries have not always been violent, so why now?

It might seem paradoxical, because usually we Westerners are supposed to be afraid of Islam but I believe the main reason of this violence inside the Muslim community today is fear, and more precisely, the fear of three phenomenons.

First, the fear of globalization, which is something quite common today in most cultures and which usually leads to isolationism and the focus on identity. The biggest part of the world thinks that Western civilisation, and especially the American way of life, is invading everywhere, which is also true, and they are scared to lose their specificity, which we can understand. When this “cultural” invasion is dubbed with aggressive strategies motivated by greed, as we have already seen, then at one stage, we can understand the emergence of some sort of resentment.

Second phenomenon: some kind of incapacity to adapt to modernity. Just try to find a recent invention or achievement coming from the Muslim world in any field: technology, medicine, culture, literature, … There’s nothing much, and they know it. This feeling is made even more painful today because of the creativity of Islam in the beginning. It’s as if they were trapped in a dead-end, in front of a wall. Violence seems to be the solution suggested by the Islamists, who dream of the glorious old times of the expansion of Islam. This dream goes very far since the Salafists (from the word salaf which means predecessor or ancestor, designing the companions of Mohamed) try to imitate the first Muslims by dressing like them, wearing a beard, not using toothpaste, etc…

Finally, third phenomenon, which explains why they specifically target the Christians: they realize something that we Westerners cannot see anymore: the strong attraction of Christianity. Christianity is spreading today everywhere, except in Europe, and Christ is attracting more and more people, including Muslims. This attraction is so powerful that their only response is to separate Muslims from Christians by chasing them from the Middle East. But this attraction is already the beginning of my last part: Is there any hope?

III/ Is there any hope?

A Christian is supposed to practice both the cardinal and the theological virtues, faith, hope and charity, so officially, we can never lose hope. This hope is already nourished by the big number of conversions from Muslims to Christianity. A Saudi Arabian imam said – and he was horrified when saying this – that there were six million conversions each year in Africa. In the Arabian Peninsula, there are also conversions even if it is impossible to count them, for the simple reason that most of them are completely anonymous for security reasons.

Even if conversion is before all a grace of God, it seems that this grace usually borrows two channels, the media and something more surprising, dreams. Concerning the media, there now is a very wide proposal of information on Christianity in Arabic, Farsi, Turk, etc… through Internet, television and radio broadcasts. Most of the people discover Christianity and are attracted to it, through this channel, but in each of my trips to this area, I always hear stories of people suddenly, without any human mediation, being attracted to Christ after having dreamt of Him. I personally know an Iranian woman who has experienced this. I have never heard about such experiences in the West, so I actually am a little bit jealous about God’s intervention in the Middle East. Why doesn’t he do that in France?

Anther reason of hope is positive steps towards unity among Christians. In Egypt for example, the new Orthodox Pope and the new Catholic Patriarch (they were elected more or less at the same time a bit more than one year ago) are much closer than what their predecessors were experiencing. If the unity of the Church could be a fruit of all this turmoil, then maybe all this suffering would have been worth it.

Still another reason to hope: the exponential increase of foreign Christians living in the Middle East. Of course, these newcomers cannot replace the original Christians with their long heritage of local culture and furthermore, these foreigners are not meant to stay (they are there for work and leave as soon as their contract is finished) but, in spite of this, the result is quite astonishing: in some countries of the Arabian peninsula, there are actually more Christians than Muslims! The Catholics were 200.000 thirty years ago and now 3.1 million. That is fifteen times more, which means an average of 50% increase each year! That’s a world record! What should we understand by this? What is the plan of the providence in this area?

Finally, what happened in Egypt can also be a sign of hope. After having experienced the Muslim Brotherhood, there was a massive rejection of radical Islam by the Egyptian population, most of them being Muslim. The new constitution is much more respectful of the religious minorities including the Christians which appear much more hopeful than just one year ago.

As the Coptic Pope Tewadros II told me two months ago in Cairo, “all the countries of the world are in the hands of God but Egypt is in the heart of God!” Let’s hope that that is true and that all our brothers living in this area are also close to the heart of God. Thank you very much.

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