MIRROR NO MERE CHRISTIANS Bearing Witness to the Truth We proclaim Your Death, O Lord, and profess Your Resurrection, until You come again. Contents No mere Christians but Martyrs Dr. Michael Kinsella 2 4 Death does not have the Last Word Pakistan 4 The Resurrection of Al-Tahira Iraq 6 6 Helping them to Bear their Cross Burkina Faso 8 Deeds of Love in Aleppo Syria 10 12 ‘So that We may Raise up Others’ Nigeria 11 Despite all the Assaults on the Faith Latin America 12 14 Pope Francis Remembers the Martyrs of Nagasaki Hannah Brockhaus 14 Nagasaki’s Unworthy Witness to the Truth Robert Corzine 16 16 A Young Boy Bears Witness to the Truth Meg Hunter-Kilmer 20 A Mother Bears Witness to the Holiness of her Son 20 Bree A. Dail 24 Editor: Dr. Michael Kinsella. Design: Ronan Lynch. Publisher: ACN Ireland, 151 St. Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9. Printed in Ireland. www.acnireland.org BEARING WITNESS TO THE TRUTH 1 No Mere Christians But Martyrs DR. MICHAEL KINSELLA Dear Friends, the first 20 years of this 21st Century. To this day, Christians around the World continue od invites us to ‘do the Right Thing’, to shed their blood for the Love of Truth, to choose Life over Death, Light over for the Love of God. Darkness. G In the Post-Christian West, core Christian He invites us to always bear witness in Charity Truths are constantly being undermined and to the Truth that are widely violated. Christianity is increasingly regarded as outdated and unwanted. And the • Christ Has Died Church, no longer a significant societal pres- • Christ Is Risen ence, is merely regarded as a political pressure • Christ Will Come Again group like so many others. Today this Truth of Christ, this Mystery of So it is that in the ‘Spiritual deserts’ of the our Faith, is being denied, ridiculed and Post-Christian West, Christians endure chronic oppressed all over the World. So it is that in (and sometimes intense) cultural oppression. these times the Church of Christ is very much To faithfully live as a Christian in such strange a Church of Martyrs (i.e. Witnesses) and in lands in these strange times is to endure a form need of our Witness. of ‘White Martyrdom’. (Historically the Church referred to such witnesses, who suffered for the In many parts of the world this Witness mani- Faith but were not required to shed their blood, fests itself in the physical shedding of blood as ‘Confessors’. ) (‘Red Martyrdom’). Professor Robert Royal’s ‘The Catholic Martyrs of the 20th Century: A Com- We are not being ‘mere’ Christians when in prehensive World History’1, documents how our World of today we profess the incon- the number of Martyrs dying for Christ in the 20 venient Truth of Christ by our words and Century dwarfed those of all Martyrdoms prior by our deeds, whether as ‘White’ or as ‘Red’ to 1900. This situation has not improved during Martyrs. On the contrary we are following in the 1 Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, 2000. Pp 415. 2 NO MERE CHRISTIANS footsteps of the Lord, along the Via Dolorosa, ability, condition of life, is required to be an ‘the Way of the Cross’, we are living Holy Week. authentic Witness to the Truth, (i.e. a Martyr), We are ascending the Cross in the full knowl- a Saint. Each of us, without exception, is called edge that ‘the Cross comes before the Crown’.2 upon to share the Mystery of our Faith within Indeed the Cross must come before the Crown. our families, among our friends and with the world at large. Quite simply sharing the Joy of Dear Friends, death will come to us all and we the Gospel is ‘the Right Thing to Do’. will be judged. And we will be judged as to how we have lived and witnessed to the Truth of In all of this let us remember that none of us are Christ. Profiled herein is Paul Takashi Nagai ‘mere’ Christians. Our Witness is needed and (1908-1951) and Carlo Acutis (1991-2006), two we need to help others bear Witness to the outstanding Confessors who bore magnifi- Truth. The reward for doing so is ever-lasting cent Witness until death to the Truth of Christ. both for us and for them. These were no mere Christians: they took the opportunities they were given to radiate God’s Your Brother in Christ, Light in the World. As fellow Christians, we are similarly called to bear Witness to the Gospel Truth whenever 3 and wherever we are given the opportunity. Dr. Michael Kinsella Every true follower of Christ, irrespective of age, DIRECTOR, ACN IRELAND ‘ The root of all good works is the Hope of Resurrection.’ St. Cyril of Jerusalem 2 C. S. Lewis ‘The Weight of Glory’ Sermon given University Church of St. Mary, Oxford June 8, 1941. 3 ‘Who best bears their mild yoke, they serve Him best’ – John Milton Sonnet, ‘On His Blindness’. BEARING WITNESS TO THE TRUTH 3 Death Does Not Have The Last Word PAKISTAN ope Francis was praying the Way of the him back, saying ‘You’re not getting through, Cross with the young people in Rio de even if I have to die for it.’ Those were his last PJaneiro. At the second Station (Jesus words; the killer detonated his bomb. That receives the Cross) he said: ‘With Christ, evil, was during Lent five years ago. For the young suffering, and death do not have the last people of Lahore diocese Akash Bashir is a word, because He gives us Hope and Life: hero. They will never forget him. Many of them He has transformed the Cross from being an have decided to volunteer as security guards instrument of hate, defeat and death to being outside their churches. They are ready to give a sign of love, victory, triumph and life.’ their lives for Christ, just as Bashir did. The same is true in other dioceses of Pakistan. This is exactly what the Martyrs do, in imita- tion of Christ. In Lahore, young Akash Bashir And there is the ever-present possibility knew that the Islamist extremist wearing a that Christians in Pakistan will suffer suicide belt was trying to get into St. John’s harassment, or even lose their lives, Church and that he was the only person who because of their Faith. They face the stood between the killer and the 2,000 people constant threat of Islamist attacks on their praying inside at Sunday Mass. So he held Churches, or of being arbitrarily thrown into prison if they are accused of blasphemy. And yet these young people are happy to be able to serve the Church, even in this hostile anti- Christian environment. According to Bishop Joseph Arshad, the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, the level of vocations to the Priesthood and Religious life is at a high level. In his own diocese of Islamabad- Rawalpindi alone, there are currently over Pakistan: The youth programme is for 30 seminarians. The blood of the Martyrs is everyone, also and especially for girls. indeed the seed of the Church. 4 NO MERE CHRISTIANS The Catholic Church in Pakistan is a It also covers such things as cyber bullying, youthful Church. The great majority of those social networks, and relations with Islam. attending Mass are young adults, adoles- During weekend courses, summer camps and cents and children. That is why the Church in workshops young people will be made aware Pakistan has proclaimed the year 2020 as the of the potential dangers of the Internet, learn Year of Youth. One of the Church’s greatest more about their own faith and that of their challenges is educating young people. Muslim neighbours, and discover the impor- tance of the human and Christian virtues. ACN Akash Bashir attended the Salesian school. is supporting the programme, with €7,150. He was one of the lucky ones. For most Christian children and teenagers attending ‘The future lies with the young’, said Father school is no more than a dream. There are Khalid Mukhtar, the coordinator of the too few of schools and their parents can’t programme. And it was for this future afford the fees. However, the Diocese of likewise that Akash Bashir gave his life. Faisalabad has organised a programme for Because, as Pope Francis said in Rio, ‘The all the young people, in order to help them Cross gives us a treasure that no one else to find answers to the social and religious can give: the certainty of the faithful Love issues facing them. which God has for us.’ PAKISTAN: The joy of serving the Church and living the Faith: Akash Bashir is an inspiration for these young Christians too. BEARING WITNESS TO THE TRUTH 5 The Resurrection of Al-Tahira IRAQ n the Third Station of his Way of the Cross remained suffered, many were murdered (Jesus falls for the first time), Pope Saint or enslaved, their homes were set fire to, IJohn Paul II begins his contemplation in 11 Christian Churches and 70 other Church- these words: ‘Jesus falls beneath the burden Iraq owned buildings were systematically of the Cross. He falls to the ground. He does not torched, and all the Christian religious seek refuge in His supernatural powers, does symbols were destroyed. not call on the strength of the Angels.’ Even the largest Christian Church in Iraq, There was no power to help the Christians in Al-Tahira Cathedral – dedicated to the Iraq, when in August 2014 they were forced Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin to flee the town of Qaraqosh, then the largest Mary – was desecrated and torched.