Issued by the Catholic Center for Studies and Media - Jordan. Editor-in-chief Fr. Rif'at Bader - موقع أبونا abouna.org

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Published on Monday, 7 May 2018
"Where Christians Die", a book on world’s persecuted Christians

cmc-terrasanta.org :

Unknown faces hide an experience of faith: Men, women, and children, born in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Kenya, devastated by war. Beyond differing causes are accounts of those able to survive. Monsignor Luigi Ginami, President of the Italian Santina Foundation, visited these areas, and decided to relate what he saw in a book titled, "Where Christians Die" .

Monsignor Luigi Ginami says: "It is a book which echoes the cry of many persecuted Christians as well as others who suffer insane violence often inspired by attitudes to religion." He also relates the story of the massacre at Gariss in Kenya, three years ago, in which 148 university students lost their lives. One of them, Janet, left a vivid account on her cell phone.

He adds: "Before dying, she wrote to her boyfriend in poetic phrases, also saying, ‘God have mercy! Pray for us. Oh God!’ This was a great profession of faith, and it is possible that she and others are among the martyrs of our day."

Monsignor Ginami continues: "War correspondents give us figures, political causes and clarifications. Nobody seems to care if a child dies, and so many are dying in Syria. Who can describe the suffering of a child? Who can enable us to see all this through the eyes of the suffering? This book is a cry that gives voice to a voiceless people."

The Christians are among those who suffer most in these war-torn countries. The annual report of a Pontifical pastoral aid organization, known in English as, ‘Aid to the Church in Need’, confirms that Christians are persecuted more than those of any other religious community. In Syria, for example, they have been reduced from about one million two hundred thousand to a mere five hundred thousand today. In Aleppo alone they have decreased, reports say, by as much as 75 per cent. Iraq, we learn, lost 75,000 and Christians in fewer numbers than two years ago. Surely, these are men, women and children who have given their lives in the name of their collective faith. As Pope Francis says, “There are even more martyrs in the Church today than there were in Christianity’s first centuries.” This is a story that needs to be told.