Catholic News 2

Caritas is assessing an emergency situation in northeastern Bangladesh which is affected by  a long period of heavy rain from 29 March to 07 April and has destroyed  crops and other means of livelihood.

Speaking to ucanews, Daniel Dhritu Snal, project officer of disaster management at Caritas Sylhet said the agency is evaluating damage done by floods that have submerged vast areas in the haor wetland region which covers seven districts. Most of the evaluations are being done in Sunamganj district in Sylhet division, which has been the hardest hit area.

"We will offer people food items, which they need most, as well as money if they need it. Where necessary, we will give them medicine because various waterborne diseases hit affected communities after flooding," said Snal. 

"We will help people as much as we can but we have also designed a project to make communities able to fight disasters like flooding and drought effectively in the long run," he said.

Caritas will collaborate government and other NGOs to determine most needy communities, he said.

Sunamganj district lies in the haor area where people rely on winter rice plantations for a yearlong supply of their staple food as well as fishing and duck farming. A haor is a bowl-shaped tectonic depression in the floodplains. It receives surface runoff water from rivers and canals, and becomes an extensive, turbulent water body in the monsoon season only to dry up in the post-monsoon period.

A problem since late March, the current flooding has been caused by a combination of unseasonal heavy rains and an onrush of water from upstream rivers in neighboring India.

Bangladesh is among the most disaster-prone and climate vulnerable countries in the world, and is frequently hit by floods, drought, and tropical cyclones, with significant losses of lives and substantial costs to the economy. 

The country’s Department of Disaster Management reported that 102,875 people have been affected. 125,885 hectares of crops, chiefly rice, were damaged. (UCAN)

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In a unique gesture, police in the Indian state of West Bengal are going beyond the call of duty by raising funds for the women they rescue from sex traffickers to help them get back on track.  "The girls are hardly literate, have no access to bank loans, and government schemes are not enough to sustain them in the long run," said police officer Chandra Sekhar Bardhan, who is spearheading the programme in eastern India.  "We had to do something, even though it did not fall in the realm of our duties,"  he told Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The scheme - the first of its kind - began this month, with 22 rescued women singled out for rehabilitation.  Police then hope to reach out to 100 more women and create a model to replicate across the region.  Police tailor the aid to the individual women, asking firms to fund their needs as an act of corporate social responsibility.  One of the first group wants to set up a sewing business, another to drive her own taxi - anything rather than return to a life of poverty and unemployment.

Green pastures 

Of an estimated 20 million commercial sex workers in India, campaigners estimate that 16 million women and girls are the victims of sex trafficking. They are mostly trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced labour and child marriage. The South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal where the project began has seen a steady rise in crime against women, with police recording a jump of more than 80 percent in the number of kidnaps and abductions between 2010 and 2013.

"Due to poverty and backwardness, the area has always been a green pasture for traffickers," said Subhasree Raptan, coordinator of nonprofit Gorabbose Gram Bikas Kendra, which helps trafficked victims and is supporting the pilot project.  Raptan said the problem grew far worse after cyclone Aila in 2009, displacing more than a million people in the region.

No job, no chance

When victims are rescued from traffickers, they usually return to poverty, a dysfunctional family life and no job.  Work is key to a new life and the first group of women include aspiring seamstresses, two women who want to run a stationary shop and another who wants to drive her own taxi.  "I did not know anything about the extent of human trafficking until I was posted to this region and came across the case of a 14-year-old victim, who had been trafficked, abused and dumped in a hospital," said Bardhan, the policeman leading the project.  "Now the programme will run as long as the problem persists."  (Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation)

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Sex workers in Mumbai's red light district are being lured and even forced to sell their babies, campaigners say, sparking fears that traffickers are looking for new ways to buy children in response to tighter adoption rules.  The anti-trafficking charity Prerana - which runs a night shelter for the children of sex workers - has recorded four baby sales in the last seven months and is documenting each incident to see if a pattern emerges.  "Such cases were rare earlier. Pregnancies were controlled by brothel keepers - the madams - who allowed sex workers to keep their pregnancies in most cases, hoping for a girl child," said Pravin Patkar, co-founder of Prerana.  Babies were kept away from the mother, though were not sold.  "But pimps have emerged as more powerful now and act as mediators for buyers. There is an underground network looking for areas where there are unprotected children."  Campaigners say the long waiting list for adoption is at the heart of baby trafficking rackets being reported in the country. 

New tactic

The focus on red light areas is new. Traffickers had previously mostly targeted poor, unmarried mothers or stolen babies from hospitals with inside help, campaigners said.  "This was my first case of a baby being sold in (the red light district of) Kamathipura," said police sub inspector Vasant Jadhav, who rescued a seven-day-old baby last October.  "The deal had been finalized even before the child's delivery and the buyer was a childless woman."  Police arrested both women and put the child into a state-run shelter. Nobody bailed out the sex worker, but the buyer got bail soon after her arrest, Jadhav said.  "The court will now decide the sex worker's fate." 

In January, the police rescued a year-old baby who was being sold for 20,000 Indian rupees ($309.81). A month later, Prerana officials kept a sex worker's child in their shelter after discovering that discussions were underway in her brothel to sell the baby. In the process, the officials said they found another baby facing a similar risk. 

The Indian government has made adoption rules stricter, a move that has streamlined the adoption process, but made the wait for a child longer.  Last December, Mumbai police arrested six people for selling babies to childless couples for 200,000 to 400,000 rupees ($3,000-6,000).  The case in Mumbai surfaced within a month of a major trafficking bust in the eastern state of West Bengal.   (Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation)

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(Vatican Radio)  The Holy See has expressed deep concern over the current situation in the Middle East and reiterated its support for a two-state solution in Palestine.

Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, made the comments in an address to the Security Council.

Citing the “resent use of chemical agents in Syria” and the “Palm Sunday terrorist bombings in Egypt”, Archbishop Auza said, “The Holy See is deeply concerned with the current situation in the Middle East.”

He lauded Lebanon for “heroically” hosting millions of refugees from neighboring countries and territories in conflict.

In addition to this burden, he said Lebanon is also facing the threat of militias and armed groups operating within its territories.

Turning to the situation in Palestine, Archbishop Auza said, “Since 1947, the Holy See has constantly supported the two-state solution for the State of Israel and a Palestinian State to exist side by side in peace. The Holy See wishes to reiterate its belief that the peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians can move forward only if it is directly negotiated between the Parties, with the strong and effective support of the international community.”

He warned against “unilateral decisions, acts of violence and inflammatory rhetoric” and said, “Pope Francis calls on both parties to listen to the voices of dialogue, show goodwill and extend gestures of encounter to give their peoples that peace for which their hearts deeply long.”

Please find below the full text of Archbishop Auza’s address:

Statement of H.E. Archbishop Bernardito Auza

Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations

Security Council Open Debate on "The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question"

20 April 2017

Madam President,

Some heinous acts of late have plunged some areas of the Middle East further into violent chaos and new lows of barbarism. The recent use of chemical agents in Syria once again constitutes a gross violation of international humanitarian law and the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Palm Sunday terrorist bombings in Egypt and the attack on fleeing refugees were abominable attacks against innocent civilians gathered in prayer in sacred places or trying to escape violence and as such were attacks against the very foundation of human dignity and rights. My Delegation extends its sincere condolences to the families of those whose loved ones have been slaughtered and offers prayerful good wishes to those who survived the attacks and their families.

Madam President,

The Holy See is deeply concerned with the current situation in the Middle East. Lebanon is heroically bearing the burden of hosting millions of refugees from neighboring countries and territories in conflict. In addition to the impacts of this heavy burden, its stability is also threatened by armed groups. In order to stabilize Lebanon, the Security Council adopted resolutions 1559, 1680 and 1701, calling for the disarming of all armed non-state actors. Yet militias and groups armed and funded by outside sources remain active beyond the control of the Lebanese authorities. Parallel situations exist in neighboring territories and countries, where terrorist groups and other armed non-state actors operate, plunging the region deeper into un-governability, persecuting ethnic and religious minority groups and trampling fundamental human rights.

Madam President,

Since 1947, the Holy See has constantly supported the two-state solution for the State of Israel and a Palestinian State to exist side by side in peace. The Holy See wishes to reiterate its belief that the peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians can move forward only if it is directly negotiated between the Parties, with the strong and effective support of the international community. Only sustained negotiations in good faith will resolve differences and bring peace to the peoples of Israel and Palestine. Leaders and citizens on both sides must have the foresight and courage to make fair concessions, because an agreement would be impossible as long as mutually excluding and impossible demands remain. There is no alternative to a negotiated settlement, if both Israel and Palestine are to enjoy security, prosperity and peaceful co-existence, side by side with internationally recognized borders.

Pope Francis assures all of his efforts and prayers that the deep wounds dividing Israelis and Palestinians may experience healing. Unilateral decisions, acts of violence and inflammatory rhetoric can only further deepen wounds, intensify hatred and widen divisions, making negotiations more difficult and reconciliation more distant. Pope Francis calls on both parties to listen to the voices of dialogue, show goodwill and extend gestures of encounter to give their peoples that peace for which their hearts deeply long.

Madam President,

Twisted religious claims mixed with irredentist ideologies contribute to the bloodshed in the Region. Unimaginably barbaric acts are being perpetrated supposedly in the name of God or religion. Ethnic and religious minority groups who for millennia have peacefully coexisted with the Muslim majority communities have been targeted by extremists. Their cultural and historical patrimony has been destroyed, threatening to annihilate every trace of their long-standing presence in the Region. The Holy See urges the International Community, through the Security Council, not to forget them and to intensify efforts to spare them from the genocidal scourge of violent terrorist groups and other non-state actors.

The Holy See urges religious leaders to speak out forcefully against such terror and to act to control effectively their followers who are reprehensibly claiming to act in God’s name by means of terror. No religious leader should tolerate using religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman, above all, the right to life and the right of everyone to religious freedom. In this regard, in February this year Al-Azhar and the Holy See held a discussion in Cairo on countering the phenomena of fanaticism, extremism and violence in the name of religion.

Moreover, the Holy See calls upon the arms suppliers to act in accord with internationally agreed upon norms for weapons sales. The blood of innocent civilians cries out against the unchecked flow of arms in the Region. The Holy See cannot stress enough how much the disregard of treaties that regulate arms trade and transfer contributes to armed conflict, crime, acts of terrorism and the displacement of people, which, in turn, undermine peace and security, stability and sustainable development. It cannot underline strongly enough that the vast majority of persons adversely affected by armed conflict and other forms of armed violence are civilians and cannot ignore how often these weapons are used to attack civilian infrastructure like schools and hospitals, water and food facilities.

Madam President,

My delegation wishes to close its remarks with the prayer of Pope Francis after recent attacks in Egypt and Syria: “May the Lord convert the hearts of the people who are sowing terror, violence and death” and “may he grant the leaders of nations the courage they need to prevent the spread of conflicts and to put a halt to the arms trade”. Pope Francis’s scheduled visit to Egypt on April 28 and 29 would like to stress once again that there is no greater antidote to violence and hatred than dialogue and encounter.

Thank you, Madam President.

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Cambodia launched a crackdown on bogus orphanages on Thursday, many of which are set up to attract donations from tourists, with the aim of returning about 3,500 children who were not orphans to their families, a government minister said.  About 17 percent of Cambodians live below a national poverty line and some families who are too poor to look after their children send them to orphanages in the hope they will be taken care of and given an education.  Many orphanages have opened over recent years, some unlicensed, unsafe and with few real orphans, raising concerns about neglect and abuse. The boom has matched a surge in foreign tourists to the Southeast Asian country, one of the world's poorest.  Some social workers have appealed to tourists to stay away from orphanages saying that so-called orphanage tourism enables child exploitation.

"There are many abuses inside orphanages," Minister of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation Vong Sauth said in a speech on April 20 at the launch of the plan.   A recent government survey found 16,579 orphans living in 406 orphanages across Cambodia, far more than expected, officials said, adding that 38 percent of the orphanages had never been inspected. Vong Sauth said 80 percent of the 16,579 children in orphanages were not actual orphans and under the government plan, 3,500 of them would be returned to their families by next year.

Sar Bunthoeun, director of Cambodian Children's House of Peace, an orphanage in Siem Reap in northwest Cambodia, said he supported the government plan, adding that problems were common in orphanages, but he denied any abuses at his. 

The United nations children's agency UNICEF, which is working with the government to reunite children with their families, said poverty should not be a justification for the removal of a child from parental care.  "Children living in un-regulated and uninspected institutions are more at risk of neglect, as well as physical and sexual abuse and trafficking," said Debora Comini, UNICEF representative to Cambodia. She urged tourists to be wary of appeals for donations from orphanages.  (Source: Reuters)

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The High Court of central India’s Madhya Pradesh state has given clean chit to a Catholic bishop and five others in a nine-year-old religious conversion case.  There is “no sufficient evidence to frame the charges against the petitioners,” says the order by the principal bench headed by Justice S K Gangele.  The April 11 order was released to the media on April 20. The court based at Jabalpur acquitted Bishop Mathew Vaniakizhakkel of Satna, two priests, a nun and two others who work in the eastern rite Syro-Malabar Catholic diocese.  The six were accused of converting a Hindu woman to Christianity and then marrying her off to a Christian man in May 2009.

The case was filed after a Catholic, Christopher Pavy, complained to the police and sought action against the Church people.  Madhya Pradesh is among the Indian states with stringent anti-conversion laws.  Such conversions, without proper approval of the government agency, are a punishable offence.  Although the police’s preliminary probe could not find evidence to support the allegation, they registered the case allegedly under political pressure.

Father Jolly Father Jolly Kannukodan, one of the accused priests, said despite many hurdles they managed to defend their innocence at every level. “We were sure that the truth will triumph one day,” the priest told Matters India.  The other accused were vicar general George Mangalapally, Sacred Heart Sister Pauly, principal of Christ Jyoti Senior Secondary School, Thomas Varghese, a teacher, and Monica Moses, who allegedly converted to Christianity after marriage.

As the trial progressed in the trial court, the prosecution failed to prove the alleged conversion charge. But still the prosecution tried to “prosecute us for another alleged offences of conspiracy and disturbing communal harmony,” Father Kannukodan said.  The accused then moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking direction to quash the charges against them. Finally the appellate court allowed their petition and discharged them from all the charges, the priest said. 

The High Court said further in its order, “The trial court and revisional court did not consider the evidence produced by the prosecution properly. Consequently the petition is allowed. The charges framed against the petitioners are hereby quashed. The criminal prosecution of the petitioners for commission of offence 120-B and 295 –A is also hereby quashed.”

The prelate and others were on bail after they were all booked under the non-bailable Sections of the anti-conversion law.  “We are grateful to the Almighty and the court for upholding the truth,” Father Kannukodan said with a deep sigh. The bishop had taken voluntary retirement on health reasons in August 2014.  At the time of filing the case the bishop told the media that the case was “totally fabricated” as part of “a motivated campaign to discredit the Church for helping the disadvantaged sections in society.” 

Rajesh Chand, the prelate’s lawyer, told Matters India on April 21 that the bishop and others have the legal right to institute a defamation suit against the complainant for implicating them in a totally false case.  However, the Church leaders said they did want any further legal battle. “We don’t want revenge,” Father Kannukodan added.  (Source: Matters India)

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A Child Protection activist in Malawi, Sister Agnes Jonas of the Teresian Sisters, has challenged Children Animators in the Church to safeguard and protect children from all forms of abuses including physical and emotional ill-treatment; sexual abuse; neglect or negligent treatment of children. She said the Church could also advocate against commercial interests that harm children.

Sr. Jonas spoke about the importance of protecting children during a presentation on Child Protection to 96 Animators under the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM).

“This includes exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust and power,” said Sr. Jonas.

According to Sr. Jonas, the Church is crucial in ensuring that it assists victims of abuse. This support to victims encompasses cooperating with civil authorities and offering Counselling to victims.

“It is also our responsibility as a Church to offer proper formation to future priests and religious men and women so that they are well conversant with child protection issues. Educating the community on the protection of minors is also one other aspect we ought to consider as a Church,” she said.

National PMS Director, Fr. Vincent Mwakhwawa said the workshop among other things was aimed at empowering Holy Childhood Animators in each Diocese of Malawi with effective Catechetical missionary instruction methods.

“We also organised this workshop to improve the understanding of Holy Childhood Animators on the importance of early child Catholic missionary development in children," said Fr. Mwakhwawa.

He said Children Animators are critical in the Church because they give sound Christian foundation to children by teaching them Catholic values.

The three-days’ workshop drew participants from all the eight dioceses in Malawi. 

(Prince Henderson in Lilongwe, Malawi)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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Jefferson City, Mo., Apr 21, 2017 / 08:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Stronger medical standards for abortion clinics were thrown out in Missouri by a federal judge who cited a Supreme Court decision on a similar law in Texas.

The Missouri law required abortion clinics to have the same standards as similar outpatient surgical centers. The clinics’ doctors were also required to have hospital privileges.

U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs of the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City said April 19 that “relief should be prompt, given the needs of women seeking abortions and the need for available clinics to serve their needs.” He cited the 5-3 ruling of the 2016 Supreme Court decision Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley said he would appeal the decision, the St. Louis Dispatch reports.

“Today a federal court struck down large portions of Missouri law that protect the health and safety of women who seek to obtain an abortion,” he said. “Missouri has an obligation to do everything possible to ensure the health and safety of women undergoing medical procedures in state-licensed medical facilities.”

The surgical center standards, implemented for abortion clinics in 2007, include wide halls and doorways that can accommodate emergency personnel and equipment; separate male and female changing rooms for personnel; and a recovery room with space for at least four beds with sufficient clearance around each bed.

The law was credited for closing some abortion clinics in the state that could not meet the surgical standards.

There had been only one abortion provider in the state before the judge’s decision.

Now, Planned Parenthood has said it would start to restore abortion services in Columbia and Kansas City. It plans to begin performing the procedures in Joplin and Springfield.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 ruling said that the Texas law under consideration placed an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to an abortion and posed a “substantial obstacle” to that right without showing the benefit of regulation.

At the time of the decision, Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, said the court “rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety.”

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IMAGE: CNS/Nancy Wiechec

By Chaz Muth

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- American Catholics will have an opportunity to become modern-day missionaries during the weekend of April 29-30 by simply dropping money in a collection plate.

That is the weekend the Catholic Home Missions Appeal is being conducted as a second collection in many parishes throughout the U.S. The money raised from it will help bring the religion to people throughout the country.

Contributing to that collection really is a way for Catholics to do missionary work without ever leaving their home or parish, said Richard Coll, director of Catholic Home Missions in the U.S. bishops' Office of National Collections.

The annual Catholic Home Missions Appeal helps support more than 40 percent of the dioceses and eparchies in the United States and its territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.

These dioceses tend to be rural with enormous territories within their borders.

Without the subsidies that come from the annual appeal established by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 1998, it would be difficult or impossible to support many of the religious programs in these regions or even some basic pastoral functions.

It's why they are called mission dioceses, because they depend on missionary efforts to help bring Catholicism to these populations in a meaningful way.

The theme of the appeal this year is "Strengthening the Church at Home," Coll told Catholic News Service during an April interview.

The U.S. Catholic Church has a long history of sending missionaries to serve people in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania, said Bishop Peter F. Christensen of Boise, Idaho, which is a mission diocese.

Home mission dioceses in the U.S. need the same kind of care, which is why the grants that come from the annual appeal are so vital to Catholics in the mission dioceses, which also include Gallup, New Mexico, and Little Rock, Arkansas, Bishop Christensen said.

"For many dioceses, it is challenging to support ministries because of fragile financial situations or isolated communities," said Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Anchorage, Alaska, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions. "It is through the Catholic Home Missions Appeal that we can make a difference here at home and help our mission dioceses offer places for people to encounter the loving and merciful Christ." 

The Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions in 2016 allocated more than $9 million to 84 dioceses for programs of evangelization, Hispanic ministry, seminary education, lay ministry formation and other essential pastoral ministries.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops defines a home mission as a "diocese or parish that can't provide the basic pastoral services to Catholics without outside help."

Those basic pastoral services include Mass, the sacraments, religious education, and ministry training for lay ministers, deacons, religious sisters and priests.

So, Catholics who support this collection end up contributing to the pastoral outreach in the mission dioceses in places such as Alaska, New Mexico, Idaho, the Marshall Islands, Puerto Rico and parts of Texas.

Here's an example to put the struggles of a mission diocese into context.

Salt Lake City, one of the U.S. mission dioceses, consists of 85,000 square miles, which is the entire state of Utah, and some of the Eastern Catholic eparchies, which also are considered Catholic home missions, cover the entire U.S. and consist of millions of square miles.

Bishops, priests, deacons, religious sisters and dedicated lay ministers can put 50,000 miles a year on their cars just to reach the Catholics they are charged with providing pastoral care to, Bishop Christensen said.

The ministry of Father Adrian Vazquez, a priest in his diocese, illustrates the situation. He is charged with the pastoral care of four Catholic communities in eastern Idaho, a parish in St. Anthony and three mission stations located in Rexburg, Driggs and Island Park.

He divides his time between all those locations, driving hundreds of miles a week.

Sometimes the priest relies on the kindness of his parishioners in Driggs and Island Park to put him up for the night, since his residence is at the rectory in far off St. Anthony.

"The travel can be a real challenge, especially in the winter when there is a lot of snow," said Father Vazquez, a native of Mexico. "My parishioners have to be patient with me sometimes if I'm running behind and we just start when I arrive."

The Diocese of Juneau, Alaska, has a total of 10 priests who serve a geographic region that is about the size of the state of Florida, said Bishop Edward J. Burns, then head of the Diocese of Juneau and now the bishop of Dallas.

"The communities are small," Bishop Burns told CNS during an interview in Juneau. "We can have just a handful of people who gather for Mass at the kitchen table, because we don't have a chapel or church in some of our villages."

The priests, deacons, religious sisters and lay ministers say it's important to get into the small communities in the far reaches of these mission dioceses, not only to bring them the sacraments, but to help them prepare for marriage, strengthen their relationships, sometimes cope with poverty, mourn the dead and become positive models for their children, he said.

The U.S. mission church of the 21st century faces some of the same challenges 18th-century missionaries encountered in that the faith remains poorly established in several parts of the country, including the Rocky Mountain states, the South, areas along the Mexican border and in the Pacific islands, Bishop Christensen said.

Along with evangelization efforts, mission dioceses receive money for programs involving faith formation, cultural diversity, strengthening marriage, repairs to churches, prison outreach, as well as priestly and religious vocations.

In recent years, the mission dioceses have seen an increase in religious vocations, which is desperately needed, but that too brings its own set of challenges for financially strapped institutions in those areas.

"To educate a seminarian today costs an average of $37,000," Bishop Christensen said. "That's not small change for a diocese that can't support that.

"There's a (mission) diocese in Texas that has 23 seminarians," he said. "Multiply that out by $37,000 and that gets into some pretty amazing figures."

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Follow Muth on Twitter: @Chazmaniandevyl.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller

By Mark Pattison

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With religious persecution against Christians on the rise worldwide, it is important for other Christians to stand in solidarity with them, said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.

Christians in the United States and elsewhere must raise their voices on behalf of "the millions who are suffering," he said April 20 during a symposium held in connection with the release of "In Response to Persecution, Findings of the Under Caesar's Sword Project on Global Christian Communities," a report detailing the nature of persecution against Christians in different nations across the globe. 

"Make it difficult for others to ignore," the cardinal said.

Doing so, Cardinal Wuerl noted, may require Christians "to be aware" of the persecution their fellow believers face on different continents.

He suggested one response should be to "continue to support the flow of material assistance" to persecuted Christians through aid agencies like Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international aid agency; Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican umbrella agency for different nations' Catholic relief organizations; or their counterparts run by other Christian denominations and organizations.

"And we must, of course, continue to pray," said Cardinal Wuerl, who has just had a new book published, "To the Martyrs: A Reflection on the Supreme Christian Witness."

He lamented the rise of intolerance in the Middle East. In Egypt, the cardinal said, "all found a way, until recently, to live together. Under the rise of ISIS ... things have just continued to get worse." He added he believes that, despite last year's declaration by then-Secretary of State John Kerry that the Islamic State group had been responsible for genocide in the regions it controlled in Iraq and Syria, most Americans are not aware of it.

"This is not a Christian crisis of concern only to Christians," Cardinal Wuerl said. "This is a human crisis."

Daniel Philpott, a professor of political science and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame and the principal author of the report, expressed surprise that few persecuted Christians resort to violence. He said there were limited instances of Christian groups forming militias to protect their people and property and, given the situations they face, that reaction may be "understandable and justifiable."

Philpott outlined five contexts in which persecution exists: Islamic persecution, such as applying Shariah law to Christians; communist persecution such as that found in China, Vietnam and North Korea; state-supported persecution, such as in Turkey; religious hostility such as that seen in India; and the West's reaction to a secularizing influence. Philpott quoted Pope Francis, who called the secularization "polite persecution."

Beyond these, there are nongovernmental actors like Islamic State; Philpott called them "Little Caesars" who persecute Christians.

Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore, Pakistan, a country where 3 percent of the country's 120 million people are Christians, said working together with the Muslim majority is the best course of action.

While Pakistan's blasphemy law has resulted in the deaths of many Christians, Archbishop Shaw said he does not want to have the law repealed, but he wants it modified so mob justice is eliminated.

He told the story of a poor Christian couple working in indentured servitude at a brick kiln in the country. Somehow, a rumor spread that the couple had blasphemed Allah. Word got to the local imam, and "within 20 minutes there were 4,000 people" ready to exact their own justice against the couple, who had two children. Soon, both were thrown into the kiln furnace and "within five, seven minutes, they were both burned to death," the archbishop said.

Later, officials discovered that the Christian woman was pregnant, and that both husband and wife were illiterate and could not have committed the blasphemy of which they were accused. "They did not have a Quran in their home," Archbishop Shaw said. "They didn't even have a Bible in their home."

The archbishop said he gives the "two-F" instruction to his Catholics: "Don't fear. Jesus said, 'Do not be afraid,'" he told his audience. "The second F is do not fight, do not fight. No fear, no fight." He said he encourages Catholics to "know your purpose. You were born in Pakistan" for a reason, Archbishop Shaw added. "Know your religion and your religious values, and express them in your life."

The symposium also featured a 27-minute documentary, "Under Caesar's Sword," which explored religious restrictions and violence in Turkey and in India, along with glimpses of situations in Myanmar, Pakistan, Eritrea, Iraq and Syria.

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Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison.

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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