Although much fuss is made on sites like ours when Christians, or other innocent people, are slaughtered by Muslims (the sort of event that the main stream media outlets relegate to the inside pages if they bother to report them at all) we seldom bother to report what happens next and what the affected organisations such as the Church say and do after the event.
The murder of the Roman Catholic Christian government Minister in Pakistan, Shahbaz Bhatti, is a case in point. Obviously, his death has caused a huge loss to his community and highlighted the parlous state of affairs for Christians in Pakistan. Father Federico Lombardi, Director of the Vatican Press Office, pointed out just last week that standing up against the Blasphemy Laws was always going to be fatal in today’s Pakistan for either Muslim or Christian and he recalled the murder of Governor SalmanTaseer.
"Both were killed for the same reason," Father Lombardi said, "because they opposed the blasphemy law, a law that is itself truly a blasphemy..."
"...Both," he added, "knew well that they were risking their lives, because they were explicitly threatened with death. Nevertheless they did not give up their struggle for religious liberty, against violent fanaticism, and they paid with their blood the highest price."
It should be remembered at this juncture that in Pope Benedict XVI's address on religious liberty to the Diplomatic Corps back in January, the Pontiff praised the courageous sacrifice of the Muslim, Governor Taseer.
Father Lombardi went on to remind us of the words spoken by Minister Bhatti a few short weeks before he was so cruelly murdered, "Pray for me. I am a man who has burned his bridges behind him: I cannot and I do not want to go back on this commitment of mine. I will combat extremism and I will fight in defence of Christians even unto death."
The Pakistani bishops are considering the submission of a formal request to the Holy See to officially recognize Shahbaz Bhatti as a martyr. Truly, Shahbaz Bhatti was a martyr and I for one fully support moves to have him recognised as such.
Aid to the Church in Need reported to us all in its
AD2010 report that
out of every 100 people killed because of religious hatred at least 75 are Christians. In the opinion of many people around the world the figure for the deaths of Christians is likely to be higher than 75% but that figure is the one that
Aid to the Church in Need can substantiate in its report and as such it is valuable.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the U.N. offices in Geneva, brought that figure to the attention of the XVI Ordinary Session of the Human Rights Council on Religious Freedom on March 2nd. As well as repeatedly and elegantly, but with force and conviction, making the point that any State must promulgate freedom of religion as one of its core values the Archbishop first said, "A recent survey shows that out of 100 people killed because of religious hatred, 75 are Christian. That concentration of religious discrimination should cause concern to all of us. But the Holy See's purpose in this intervention is to reaffirm the importance of the right to freedom of religion for all individuals, for all communities of faith, and for every society, in all parts of the world."
There is much in the Archbishop's address to the Ordinary Session that is germane to the issue of tolerance and he makes it very obvious indeed just which States are being referred to without actually naming any particular country. There can be no doubt about the countries he was referring to when he also said, near the end of his address, “The right to adopt, and to change, a religion is based on respect for human dignity: the State must allow each person to freely search for the truth.”
In order to protect other people Prelates of the Church often have to use coded language or particular ways of saying things in order to draw out the inference they intend us to take from their words, but others who occupy prominent, but less sensitive, positions can be more free to be blunt (
see here):
The UK director of Aid to the Church in Need has hit out at the announcement that British aid to Pakistan will be increased – as killings linked to the blasphemy laws continue in the country.
Neville Kyrke-Smith raised serious concerns about overseas aid packages that do not include assurances of respect for human rights and religious freedom.
The announcement that government aid to Pakistan would increase broke shortly after news that Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s minister for religious minorities, had been killed by gunmen in Islamabad.
Expressing outrage at the murder, Mr Kyrke-Smith asked: “How can the British government be planning to increase aid to the Pakistan government when religious freedom is not upheld and those who are against the infamous blasphemy laws are not protected and just gunned down?”
The UK’s International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, has indicated that overseas aid could more than double, exceeding £445 million a year.
Mr Kyrke-Smith continued: “Pressure should be put on the Pakistan government to ensure religious freedom – you cannot provide aid without commitment to human rights.”
Noting the various attacks on Christians which have occurred he said that conditions should be attached to any aid payment, including a definite commitment to protection for Christians and other religious minorities – including Shia Muslims – who may experience attacks following accusations of blasphemy.
Mr Kyrke-Smith said: “As a democratic country we should be encouraging religious freedom and human rights in those countries we are giving aid to.”
However, the last word in this posting must go to the Archbishop of Lahore speaking from his Sacred Heart Cathedral in Lahore (under police guard with cameras, cement barriers, sandbags and perimeter walls raised by three feet and looking something like Fort Knox) after the murder of Minister Bhatti:
“Who will defend us now?” he asked. Who Indeed!
Posted on 03/07/2011 10:21 PM by John M. Joyce
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