Editorial

MODERN MARTYRDOM

Comments, suggestions, opinions?

Contact the editor

Comboni Mission Center

P.O. Box 8290 - PCPO

1700 Parañaque City, MM

Philippines.

Vol. XVIII x No. 4

APRIL-MAY 2006

World Mission Home

Editorial

Back to Contents

by Jose Rebelo

Twenty-seven Catholic missionaries were murdered around the world last year. Hundreds of other Christians had the same fate. Persecution is their lot daily, either due to ideology or to religious fundamentalism. They are most at risk and their rights are regularly violated – in some countries, by law – in North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, the Arab Emirates, Maldives, Bhutan, Yemen, Vietnam, Laos, Somalia, Turkey and China.

In the first three months of this year, some missionaries have already been added to the long martyrs’ list. Persecution of Christians and killing of missionaries have been happening since the earliest days of the Church. But the motives are changing. Is there a single reason behind today’s aggressions and assassinations? It seems not. Often it is just because, in their words and activities, missionaries challenge the status quo, denounce human rights abuses or the injustice perpetrated against the people they serve.

By living closely with the people, sometimes in violent situations, a missionary takes on their troubles as his or her own. They can speak out more freely than the people with whom they live. They get the lot of vengeance and punishment inflicted upon the populations by authorities or rebel groups. Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, used to say: "To worry is when a priest is not killed alongside his people."

In very poor regions, as in Africa, missionaries are also being targeted by criminals: as soon as robbers see a car or a better house, they assume there is prosperity; in a quagmire of misery, anything – a car, a computer, a kitchen gadget, a camera – can inspire greed.

But there are other reasons to be careful of: there’s “a worrying tendency” for missionaries to be victims of the resentment of many Muslim fundamentalists toward Westerners, which is manipulated with ease by radical leaders and regimes. There is a dangerously growing tension between East and West and there are many fanatics ready to take recourse to violence at the least provocation. It is a hatred born from a feeling of profound humiliation which has its roots in recent history and in the injustices of the present.

Persecution and martyrdom were announced by Jesus Himself in the Gospel: “They persecuted me and they'll persecute you.” To be faithful to God and to serve the people imply that missionaries do not run away whenever there is trouble, even if they have to pay the ultimate price. Martyrdom – giving oneself fully everyday up to the point of supreme sacrifice – is part of the Christian and missionary vocation. It is redemptive when it nourishes people’s hope and resistance and is a life-giving-act, like the one of Christ we are going to celebrate in a few days. <WM