It was bizarre. We were standing next to a swimming pool, overlooking St Paul’s Bay, and hearing how Christians are suffering for their faith – from a patriarch from Damascus, a sister from Lebanon and an archbishop from Nigeria. This could only happen in Malta. For here, on this island whose people’s faith is founded on St Paul, there is a deep feeling for the suffering of others.
Aid to the Church in Need hosted a major international conference on religious freedom at the Dolmen Hotel in May last year. Along with other important guests, we had the honour of having (then) Bishop Charles Scicluna chair a session and President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca speak about human rights and religious freedom. Have things got worse or better for Christians in the past year? There is good news and bad news.
In Malta, as a regular visitor, I have been vastly impressed by the engagement of people on this important topic. Bishop Mario Grech has spoken out on the persecution of Christians, as have many others, and the embryonic office of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Malta, directed by Stephen Axisa, has grown as a respected source and hub of information, raising up prayer and funds to help those suffering for following Christ today in the Middle East and elsewhere. That is the good and encouraging news.
On the other hand, the suffering of people who are persecuted because of their faith has grown in scale and nature. Could we have foreseen the horror of Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians being beheaded on the shores just across the water in Libya?
What did we get sent for Easter? Bombs and explosions!- Sr Annie in Aleppo
Could we have dreamt of the ‘Biblical exodus’ of ancient peoples and that 120,000 Christians, along with thousands of others, would have been driven from their homes in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains to northern Iraq? Not to mention, in detail, the horrors of attacks in Pakistan, Nigeria and other countries.
Sr Annie in Aleppo phoned us over Easter, just after one of our priests at ACN had visited her. With a crackling voice this nun, on the front line, asked: “What did we get sent for Easter? Bombs and explosions!” Many of the remaining Christians were fleeing – and Sr Annie started to cry. Yet, she is still there – with the ones who had not fled or could not flee. It is her witness and the examples of Sr Hanan in Lebanon, or Patriarch Gregorius in Damascus, or Archbishop Kaigama in Jos, Nigeria – who said “Boko Haram know where I am” – that encourages us all to stand firm in faith, hope and charity.
The Maltese people have taken the needs of our persecuted brothers and sisters to their hearts – in prayer and with deep compassion.
Aid to the Church in Need in Malta was launched and baptised that sunny May day in St Paul’s Bay in order to be a channel of love to those suffering for witnessing to Christ.
As Pope Francis said on April 21, 2015: “Let us think about our brothers who were slaughtered on the shores of Libya; let us think about that young boy burned alive by his companions because he was Christian; let us think about those migrants on the high seas who are thrown into the sea by others, because they are Christians; let us think about those Ethiopians, murdered because they were Christians… and so many others that we do not know about, who suffer in prisons because they are Christians. Today, the Church is a Church of Martyrs: they suffer, they give their lives and we receive a blessing from God for their witness.”
Neville Kyrke-Smith is the national director of Aid to the Church in Need UK.