The occasional, often ill-considered thoughts of a Roman Catholic permanent deacon who is ever grateful to God for his existence. Despite the strangeness we encounter in this life, all the suffering we witness and endure, being is good, so good I am sometimes unable to contain my joy. Deo gratias!
Although I am an ordained deacon of the Catholic Church, the opinions expressed in this blog are my personal opinions. In offering these personal opinions I am not acting as a representative of the Church or any Church organization.
Bishop Luigi Padovese, the Bishop of Iskenderun, in Turkey, was murdered on June 3 by his driver and aide, a Muslim who had worked for the bishop. The accused killer, Murat Altun, 26, apparently stabbed the bishop repeatedly and was arrested by Turkish authorities several hours after the murder. Bishop Padovese, 63, was appointed Apostolic Vicar to Anatolia in 2004 and was also president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Turkey. Very much involved in ecumenical work, the bishop was not only working to revive Turkey's Christian communities, but also played an important role in the Church's dialogue with Islam. The bishop had met with Turkish authorities that very morning for a discussion on the problems faced by Turkey's Christian minorities and had planned to fly to Cyprus the next morning where he would meet with Pope Benedict XVI.
Threats and violence against Christians, and against Catholics in particular, have been on the rise in Turkey. In almost all cases of violence against Christians, the Turkish authorities have stated from the outset that the assaults and murders were "isolated acts" and the perpetrators were "insane" -- this despite the fact that many of the attackers had proven ties with ultra-nationalist and anti-Christian groups. Apparently in Turkey there is a form of "political correctness" that protects Islam from any and all accusations.
In addition to Bishop Padovese's murder, there have been other similar attacks on Catholic clerics. Among these so-called isolated acts by unbalanced people are the following:
The wounding of Fr Adriano Franchini, Italian Capuchin, Smyrna on December 16, 2007;
Fr. Roberto Ferrari, threatened with a kebab knife in the church in Mersin on 11 March 2006;
Fr. Pierre Brunissen stabbed in the side, 2 July 2006 outside his church in Samsun.
Fortunately, these three priests all survived the attacks. But until this week the most notable incident was the 2006 assassination of Fr. Andrea Santoro who was murdered while praying in the Santa Maria Church in Trabzon, Turkey. Fr. Santoro was killed by a young Muslim man who shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he shot the priest from behind. Interestingly, the Turkish police, for unexplained reasons, had tapped Fr. Santoro's phone and his murder was preceded by massive anti-Christian propaganda in the Turkish popular press. During the trial the young man's mother compared her son to Mehmet Ali Ağca, who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, and said that his deed "was committed in the name of Allah and was a gift to the state and the nation." Seems like a religious motive to me, but what do I know?
Below is a Catholic News Agency story on the bishop's murder...
Pray for our missionary priests and religious, especially those who labor doing God's work in Muslim nations. They are truly courageous disciples of Jesus Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment