Witness

Father Andrea Son­toro knelt down to pray. He had just fin­ished cel­e­brat­ing Mass in his church in Tra­b­zon, Turkey. A 16 year-​​old came into the church and approached him from behind. The young man pulled out a gun and shot Father Andrea in the back, cry­ing, “Allah (God) is great!” Fr. Andrea died instantly.

The young man was later caught by police and admit­ted that his action had been moti­vated by anger at a series of car­toons. The car­toons had appeared in a news­pa­per in Denmark. Many of us have heard of the car­toons about the prophet Mohamed and the vio­lent protests they gen­er­ated. Depict­ing the prophet Mohamed is strictly pro­hib­ited in the Mus­lim cul­ture. The car­toons which appeared in Den­mark in Sep­tem­ber 2005 did this. They also crit­i­cized some aspects of Islam, especially the use of the Mus­lim faith by extrem­ists to jus­tify terrorism.

Fr. Andrea had noth­ing to do with the cartoons, but he had always known that he lived in a dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion, a sit­u­a­tion where Chris­tians and Chris­tian­ity are often mis­un­der­stood. In this issue we will look at the coura­geous wit­ness of Fr. Andrea and the sit­u­a­tion of the Church in Mus­lim countries.

CALLED TO A MISSION

Fr. Andrea was a mis­sion­ary who was born and raised in Italy. He became a priest in the dio­cese of Rome and spent most of his priest­hood there, serving with ded­i­ca­tion and joy as a parish priest. He was very well liked by those he served. Yet a cer­tain rest­less­ness took hold of him. He began to feel a call to serve in a dif­fer­ent place. He espe­cially felt attracted to the Mid­dle East, the area of the world where the Chris­t­ian faith fi rst began to spread. Turkey is among the coun­tries of the Mid­dle East. Today there are very few Chris­tians in the Mid­dle East. Over the cen­turies, the spread of Islam has reduced their pres­ence dra­mat­i­cally. Turkey is one of the coun­tries where Chris­tians have become a tiny minority.

In 1993 Fr. Andrea made a pil­grim­age to Antioch, Turkey. Anti­och is men­tioned in the New Testament. It is the city where the fol­low­ers of the fol­low­ers of Jesus were fi rst called Chris­tians (Acts 11:26). St. Paul began his min­istry in Antioch. In Anti­och, Fr. Andrea met an Ortho­dox priest who “saw in him a pas­sion for Turkey’s Christians” and gave him a tiny piece of metal that is said to come from one of the nails used in the Cross of Christ. 

“It was Novem­ber 30, the Feast Day of Saint Andrew, and Father Andrea’s name-​​day. (“Andrea” means Andrew.) Deeply touched by the honor, he brought it with him to Rome. Like a nail embed­ded in his fl esh, his fas­ci­na­tion for the land never left him… Since then, he asked his supe­ri­ors to let him go back” as a mis­sion­ary priest.

AGREEMENT AND DIFFICULTIES

The Church does admire and respect many things in the Mus­lim faith and cul­ture. It espe­cially admires the Mus­lim faith in only one God, and agrees with Mus­lims on some of the basic qual­i­ties of God such as his omnipo­tence and mercy, etc.

The Church also admires the tremen­dous respect that Mus­lims show for God and their lack of fear in express­ing their faith in public. On the other hand the Church is very con­cerned about the ten­dency in many Mus­lim coun­tries towards vio­lence against those who believe in reli­gions other than Islam, and the restric­tions many Mus­lim coun­tries place on other reli­gions, effec­tively deny­ing the right of every human being to reli­gious free­dom.

Chris­tians in Mus­lim coun­tries fi nd them­selves in dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tions in each coun­try, accord­ing to the degree of tol­er­ance that is lived there, but in general, the sit­u­a­tion is very diffi cult. Chris­tians are often treated as third class cit­i­zens. It is espe­cially diffi cult in coun­tries where the Islamic law, Sharia, is applied as the legal sys­tem of the nation. An exam­ple of this is in Saudi Ara­bia and Pak­istan, but other coun­tries also deny many fun­da­men­tal rights to Chris­tians and non-​​Muslims. In Saudi Ara­bia, Chris­tians are not even allowed to meet in pri­vate homes to pray together. In both these coun­tries any effort to explain the Chris­t­ian faith to non-​​Christians is a very seri­ous crime. Even the sus­pi­cion of hav­ing done so has cost some Chris­tians their lives.

WHAT TO DO?

The Catholic Church can­not just protest and con­demn these abuses. This would put the Chris­tians liv­ing in these coun­tries in even greater dan­ger. But it does try to use a series of means to work towards greater freedom.

It asks Chris­tians to be exam­ples of peace and char­ity. Where allowed, the Church runs social insti­tu­tions of Chris­t­ian char­ity such as schools, hospitals, orphanages, etc. The Church tries to engage in dia­logue with Mus­lims about com­mon aspects of our faiths. On some occa­sions it also works with Mus­lim gov­ern­ments on an inter­na­tional level to pro­mote respect for the nat­ural insti­tu­tion of the fam­ily and respect for the right to life of the unborn child in the world.

When human rights are abused in Mus­lim coun­tries, the Church tries insist on respect for these rights through diplo­macy, and inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions such as the United Nations, cul­tural and polit­i­cal groups, etc.

The sit­u­a­tion of Chris­tians in Turkey is not as bad as in many other Mus­lim coun­tries, but it is still very dif­fi­cult. Car­di­nal Ratzinger, before he became Pope, expressed con­cern about Turkey becom­ing a mem­ber of the Euro­pean Union, because it did not rec­og­nize the rights of Chris­tians in many ways.

So, what do mis­sion­ar­ies and Chris­tians do in these sit­u­a­tions? They try to be wit­nesses. Only the wit­ness of a holy life truly con­vinces people. They are leaven and salt. The pres­ence of even a small group of con­vinced Chris­tians can make a place much better.

A WITNESS IN TURKEY

Fr. Andrea went to Turkey in 2000. He did not expect to change things sub­stan­tially. He knew the sit­u­a­tion was extremely dif­fi­cult. But he knew God’s love. He felt the love God has for all peo­ple, espe­cially those involved in dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions. He wanted to be a real sign of God’s faith­ful love for this region of the world.

He spent his time attend­ing the very small group of Catholics in his area. He tried to pro­mote good rela­tions between Mus­lims and Chris­tians. He spent long hours pray­ing. He tried to give a good exam­ple of peace and good­ness to those who lived near the church. It was not always easy, but he made small steps in the vic­tory of grace. He called it see­ing the “blade of grass and not just the desert.”

In a let­ter he wrote only a week before his death he men­tioned one of these small victories.

SMALL VICTORIES

“One day a large group of loud and bois­ter­ous teenagers came into church. I’m accus­tomed to this. In order to get them to be quiet and respect­ful you sim­ply have to approach them and remind them that the church, like the mosque, is a place of prayer that God loves. A small group of 4-​​5 boys and girls among them, about 14-​​15 years old, approached me and began to ask me ques­tions. ‘Why are you here? Did they make you come?’ ‘No, I came freely, willingly.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because I like Turkey. Because there was a church here and a group of Chris­tians who didn’t have a priest, so I made myself available. I did it to favor good rela­tions between Chris­tians and Mus­lims.’ ‘But, are you happy?’ ‘Of course I am happy. And now that I’ve met you I am even happier. I appre­ci­ate you.’ In that moment the eyes of one of the girls lit up. She looked at me deeply and said with strength, ‘We also appre­ci­ate you.’ To say ‘we appre­ci­ate you’ inside a church, between Chris­tians and Mus­lims has seemed like a ray of light to me. This in itself would have jus­ti­fied my coming here…”

MAKING CHRIST PRESENT

Two months before his death Father Andrea was talk­ing with some mis­sion­ary friends after a retreat. He com­mented: “Often I ask myself: What am I doing here? “I live among these peo­ple so that Jesus can live among them through me. In the Mid­dle East, Satan con­tin­ues to destroy, remem­ber­ing and loyal to the past. As it was at the time of Jesus, silence, humility, the sim­ple life, acts of faith, mir­a­cles of char­ity, clear and defense­less wit­ness, and the con­scious offer­ing of one’s life can reha­bil­i­tate the Mid­dle East.”

Fr. Andrea was a believer. He believed his hid­den prayer and sac­ri­fice would some­how count, would some­how bring many graces to this land.

QUIET FRUIT

It has already begun to do so. Many Muslims, including many young Mus­lims, have expressed their admi­ra­tion for this man of God and have con­demned his mur­der. The Chris­t­ian faith has been seen as a seed for peace, not for conflict. 

The Turk­ish gov­ern­ment has taken the occa­sion to renew its invi­ta­tion for Pope Bene­dict to visit Turkey this Novem­ber. Ortho­dox Chris­tians and Jews have also shown their respect for the exam­ple of Father Andrea. His death has reminded the world that love is still alive.

The exam­ple of Father Andrea reminds us, too, that we are called to be wit­nesses of good will. Perhaps we do not live in a sit­u­a­tion of iso­la­tion and dan­ger that he lived in, but each of us has to often go against the cur­rent in giv­ing exam­ple of Chris­t­ian lifestyle.

Prayer. Ser­vice. Wit­ness. The world today needs saints. We can learn from Fr. Andrea how to be one.

Bible Blurbs

Blessed are the peace­mak­ers, for they will be called chil­dren of God. (Matthew 5:8)

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neigh­bor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who per­se­cute you. (Matthew 5: 43-​​44)

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it pro­duces much fruit. (John 12:24)

It is urgently nec­es­sary that reli­gions and their sym­bols be respected and that believ­ers not be the object of provo­ca­tions that wound their out­look and reli­gious sentiments. (Benedict XVI, March 2, 2006)

How­ever, intol­er­ance and vio­lence as a response to offenses can never be justified, for this type of response is incom­pat­i­ble with the sacred prin­ci­ples of reli­gion. (Bene­dict XVI, March 2, 2006)

The fruit of faith in God is not dev­as­tat­ing antag­o­nisms, but the spirit of fra­ter­nity and col­lab­o­ra­tion in favor of the com­mon good. (Benedict XVI, Feb 26, 2006)

God, Cre­ator and Father of all, will call to an even more severe account all those who shed their brother’s blood in his name. (Benedict XVI, Feb 26, 2006)

CATECHISM TIPS

854 …Mis­sion­ary endeavor requires patience. … There will be times of defeat. “With regard to individuals, groups, and peo­ples it is only by degrees that [the Church] touches and pen­e­trates them and so receives them into a full­ness which is Catholic.”

841 “The plan of sal­va­tion also includes those who acknowl­edge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Mus­lims; these pro­fess to hold the faith of Abra­ham, and together with us they adore the one, mer­ci­ful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”

844 In their reli­gious behav­ior, however, men also dis­play the lim­its and errors that dis­fig­ure the image of God in them.

SAINTS AND HEROS

BLESSED CHARLES DE FOCAULT

Charles was born in Stras­bourg, France. By the time he was six, both his par­ents had died. He was raised by his grand­fa­ther. He lost his faith while he was a teenager. As an adult he accom­plished a pri­vate explo­ration of the Mus­lim coun­try of Morocco that was much pub­li­cized in France. After he returned to France he redis­cov­ered his faith through the help of one of his cousins and of a holy priest. He imme­di­ately felt a call­ing to live totally for God. Even­tu­ally he returned to Morocco and live as a soli­tary monk in an area where there were no Chris­tians. His desire was to “shout the Gospel with his life”. “I would like to be suf­fi­ciently good that peo­ple would say, “If such is the ser­vant, what must the Mas­ter be like?” He was well liked in the area for his kind­ness and hos­pi­tal­ity. How­ever on Decem­ber 1, 1916 a band of maraud­ers invaded his house and killed him. His exam­ple and writ­ings have inspired the foun­da­tion of sev­eral reli­gious institutes.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What made Fr. Andrea want to go to serve the Church in Turkey?
2. What are some of the dif­fi­cul­ties Chris­tians face in Mus­lim countries?
3. Do you think he knew that he was in such a dan­ger­ous situation?
4. What made him stay and per­se­vere in his witness?
5. Do you think his wit­ness has had an impact on those around him? On the world? If so, how?
6. What things does the Church admire in Mus­lim cul­ture? What things worry it? 
7. Do you think Fr. Andrea’s exam­ple will inspire oth­ers to serve in Mus­lim countries?
8. What does the Church do to try to cre­ate good will in Mus­lim cultures?

RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Inves­ti­gate some of the sim­i­lar­i­ties and dif­fer­ences between the Mus­lim and Chris­t­ian faith, espe­cially in rela­tion to:

1. For­give­ness and use of violence
2. Attrib­utes of God
3. Mary
4. Impor­tance of express­ing faith and wor­ship­ping God
5. Con­cept of the dig­nity of the human person
6. Rela­tion­ship between Church and State

FURTHER CHURCH TEACHING

“The Church regards with esteem also the Mus­lims. They adore the one God, liv­ing and sub­sist­ing in Him­self; mer­ci­ful and all-​​ powerful, the Cre­ator of heaven and earth, who has spo­ken to men; they take pains to sub­mit whole­heart­edly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abra­ham, with whom the faith of Islam takes plea­sure in link­ing itself, sub­mit­ted to God. Though they do not acknowl­edge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His vir­gin Mother; at times they even call on her with devo­tion. In addi­tion, they await the day of judg­ment when God will ren­der their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and wor­ship God espe­cially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

“Since in the course of cen­turies not a few quar­rels and hos­til­i­ties have arisen between Chris­tians and Mus­lims, this sacred synod urges all to for­get the past and to work sin­cerely for mutual under­stand­ing and to pre­serve as well as to pro­mote together for the ben­e­fit of all mankind social jus­tice and moral wel­fare, as well as peace and freedom.

(Vat­i­can II, Dec­la­ra­tion “Nos­tra Aetate”, num­ber 3)

FROM A LETTER OF FR. ANDREA (JANUARY 22, 2006)

“The rich­ness of the Mid­dle East is not oil, but its reli­gious fabric, its soul soaked in faith, its being “holy land” for Jews, Christians, and Mus­lims, its past marked by the “rev­e­la­tion” of God, besides its ele­vated civ­i­liza­tion. Even the com­plex­ity of the Mid­dle East is not tied to oil or to its strate­gic posi­tion, but to its reli­gious soul. The God who “reveals him­self” and who is “pas­sion­ately” served is a God who divides, a God who priv­i­leges one over another and autho­rizes one against another. In this heart at the same time lumi­nous, unique and sick of the Mid­dle East it is nec­es­sary to enter: on tip­toe, with humil­ity, but with courage. Clar­ity goes together with good­ness. The advan­tage that we Chris­tians have is an advan­tage that we should not lose. Our God is a God who is defense­less, a Christ who invites to loves one’s ene­mies, to serve in order to be “lords” of the house, to become the last in order to be first, in a Gospel that pro­hibits hatred, anger, judg­ment, dom­i­na­tion, a God who becomes a lamb and who allows him­self to be beaten in order to kill pride and hatred in him­self, a God who attracts with love and who does not dom­i­nate with power. It is an “advan­tage” that could seem “dis­ad­van­tage” and a waste in the eyes of the world, but is vic­to­ri­ous in the eyes of God and capa­ble of con­quer­ing the heart of the world. Saint John Chrisos­tom said, “Christ pas­tures lambs, not wolves. If we make our­selves lambs we will over­come, if we become wolves we will lose. It is not easy, nor is the cross of Christ when the temp­ta­tion of the sword is always there. Will there be some­one who wants to give the gift of this Christ to the world? Will there be some­one who will want to be present in this world of the Mid­dle East sim­ply as “Chris­t­ian,” salt in the food, leaven in the dough, light in the room, win­dow on the walls, bridge between oppo­site shores, offer­ing of reconciliation?

There are many, but many more are needed. Mine is an invi­ta­tion besides a reflection.Come!”

(From Zenit, Span­ish edi­tion, March 7, 2006, trans­la­tion by Our Faith In Action)

RESOURCES

■ Web search: www.catholic.com : “Islam”

■ Remem­ber­ing Father Andrea http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=84430

■ Priest killed in Turkey aMar­tyr, says Car­di­nal Ruini, http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=84298

■ Pope John Paul II, Cross­ing the Thresh­old of Hope, Mohamed? (pages 91-​​9)

■ Vat­i­can II, Dec­la­ra­tion Nos­tra Aetate, num­ber 3

■ Vat­i­can II, Apos­tolic Con­sti­tu­tion Lumen Gen­tium, num­ber 16

■ Thomas W. Lipp­man, Under­stand­ing Islam

■ DVD: Ignatius Press: Chris­tian­ity and Islam

■ DVD: Ignatius Press: The Bible and Islam