Posted on 11/01/2010 5:53:37 AM PDT by tcg
They gathered in Our Lady of Salvation Catholic Church for an evening Mass. They are members of an increasingly besieged and forgotten minority in Iraq, Catholic Christians. Their herosm and love for the Lord has inspired them to continue to practice the ancient faith in the midst of what is a steadily deteriorating situation for them in this land they have called home for centuries.
Our Lady of Salvation Church is no stranger to violence. Churches have been bombed before in Iraq, including Our Lady of Salvation. The Christian faithful have had to contend with an increasingly hostile culture. However, never before have they experienced the horror of what happened this past Sunday when terrorists invaded a Church as the Holy Mass was set to begin, killed the priest and held the worshippers hostage for four hours. It ended with at least 52 dead, others injued, and our brothers and sisters in Iraq devastated.
Reports confirm that 120 of the faithful had gathered to hear the Gospel proclaimed, participate in the Liturgy, and receive the Holy Eucharist. There were women, men and children. One eyewitness who had been inside the Church when the terrorists entered the sanctuary told European news sources that the armed terrorists "came into the prayer hall and immediately killed the priest". Out of fear the witness would not identify himself. However, he also attested to the brutality of the terrorists. He indicated that they beat the worshippers and then herded them into an inner hall...
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
Just what do you propose that they DO about this?
Haven't you ever heard of the Vatican Swiss Guards' Special Forces? /sarc
Nothing good can come from this. Such a terrible thing to happen.
Yet these savages want a mosque at or near Ground Zero.If that mosque were built at least the Christians and Jews would allow it to stand.
Armed guards on the outside, and armed escorts to and from Mass?
But, more importantly, the local government and people there are going to have to make it clear by force that they are willing to defend to the death a religion they don’t themselves practice. (I know, that may not happen.)
Of course, all those Catholics could be refugees and leave for the US, but Obama wants to accept Muslim refugees instead.
52 Catholics are dead in a horrific terrorist attack getting ready to attend Holy Mass and the thread turns into a Catholic Church bash-fest. Unbelievable.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The MSM is silent. Surprise anyone ?
The Priest and worshipers who died practicing our faith are siting with Jesus this morning and will enjoy the paradise of Heaven forever.
“Extremist Muslims”
****
Redundant.
How can this be? George Bush told me Islam was a religion of peace!
These were "Good" muslims.
They would kill "bad" muslims just as soon as Jews and Christians...not to mention atheists, packers, and munchers.
I believe it. Sometimes ‘Christians’ are their own worst enemies. You know the saying that we must hang together or we will surely hang separately? I think some would rather hang separately than next to a Catholic.
They’re too busy being “ecumenical” (ignoring the fact that this word covers only other Christian churches and not Muslims) and left-wing.
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We discussed this in our Sunday School class yesterday. You’re absolutely right: ecumenical has come to mean saying every religion is equally valid and true. ‘Tain’t so, due to the fact that to be true to Christianity, we MUST say that all other gods are false gods.
Gee, I wonder how many of the 80,000 ‘immigrants’ Odumbo is letting into the US are Christians from muzzie countries?
A reorganized Knights Templar is the only practical answer.
+1
I am not Catholic, but whatever our doctrinal differences (which at times can seem large) we should be able to agree on one point: the persecution of christains is unacceptable.
These people were killed because they proclaimed the name of Jesus Christ—period. That should be an affront to anyone that calls themselves a christian (Protestant, Catholic, independent Baptist, etc...)
Anyone that can brush off the massacre of a group of christians, because “they weren’t members or my denomination and we disagree too much on christian doctrine” needs to reexamine their christian beliefs now (because I gurantee there will come a day when you’ll be asked to give an account of that belief before God, and the “they weren’t members of OUR churc” excuse won’t cut it).
Probably none. Obama specifically said that he wanted to encourage Muslim immigration.
Bush tried to get Christians from Muslim territories admitted as refugees, but of course that was turned down.
Alas, that takes some spine among the leadership. They're into happy-talk, and in addition, a lot of them are in that mushy liberal land where they prefer not to think about difficult subjects.
Oh well. The disciples all ran away and left Jesus, so I suppose there's historic precedent...
Prayers for our martyred Catholic brothers and sisters ping.
Agreed. Actually, the Pope and local bishops in areas where atrocities against Catholic and Protestant Christians have happened have spoken out against it and defended the other churches, too, and they have spoken out against the atrocities committed in Africa against Evangelical groups.
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