Forgiveness

Brother of slain Pakistani minister says he forgives murderers 
By Sara Angle, Catholic News Service
(CLICK HERE to read the story in it's entirety.)

ROME (CNS) --Paul Bhatti, brother of the former Pakistani minister for minorities who was murdered by Islamic extremists, said he and his family forgive his brother's assassins.

Shahbaz Bhatti, who spoke out against Pakistan's anti-blasphemy laws and encouraged religious freedom, was killed March 2.

Speaking to reporters in Rome April 5, Paul Bhatti said his family has forgiven Shahbaz's assassins, "because our faith teaches us to do this. Our brother Shahbaz was a Christian and the Christian faith tells us to forgive."

The assassinated minister's brother told the conference, "To obtain peace in the world we must all walk together ... (peace) is a universal responsibility."

He said his brother never compromised his faith-motivated work for social justice and, he said, Shahbaz Bhatti once said explicitly that he "left his life in the hands of Jesus."

Paul Bhatti asked for prayers and support to keep Shahbaz's life work going.

While he said he and his family have forgiven the assassins, he said there was a need to clarify what happened and find the perpetrators to prevent a similar crime from happening in the future.

"The person who killed him did not extinguish his light because we will continue his battle with strength and determination," he said.

Paul Bhatti recently assumed the position of the Pakistani president's "special adviser" for religious minorities and he told reporters his first priority is to promote the real integration of minorities into Pakistani society, "talking with Muslims and reducing sentiments of hatred."

Nothing destroys the power our enemies have over us than forgiveness. Paul Bhatti is a powerful example of how forgiveness frees us to continue the work that needs to be done in this world, no matter what the cost.

Tragedy in Pakistan

The current Zardari government has taken positive actions to promote religious tolerance. However, the government has failed to reverse the continuing erosion in the social and legal status of members of religious minority communities and in the ability of members of the majority Muslim community to discuss sensitive religious and social issues freely.
Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom May 2010, p 91. (To see this document CLICK HERE)

Barely a year after this document was published, the government itself is crumbling beneath the continuing erosion.

Yesterday Pakistan's minister for religious minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, was martyred for his part in "promoting religious tolerance". From a Catholic Culture article I read today: "The gunman who ambushed Bhatti's car and shot down the government leader left a note saying that Bhatti was killed 'for speaking out against the blasphemy law.'" (read the article by clicking HERE). To echo the article's headline, this is devastating.

Bhatti is the second Pakistani official assassinated for his commitment to reform of the nation's blasphemy laws. I found a very disturbing post on a Website called Jihad Watch. Apparently, the Pakistani government knew that Bhatti had a target on his back, but didn't protect him with the same vigor as they would other government officials. Most disturbing is the last sentence of the post: "The country's interior minister Rehman Malik went to the extent of saying he too would shoot anyone who commits blasphemy."  (Click here to read the article.)

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Here is a partial summary of the Pakistani blasphemy laws as found in the USCIRF 2009 Annual Report:

Prescribed criminal penalties for what is deemed to be blasphemy include life imprisonment and the death penalty. Blasphemy allegations, which are often false, result in the lengthy detention of, and sometimes violence against, Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus, and members of other religious minorities, as well as Muslims. Because the laws require no evidence to be presented after allegations are made and no proof of intent, and contain no penalty for leveling false allegations, they are commonly used by extremists to intimidate members of religious minorities and others with whom they disagree. They also are often used by the unscrupulous simply to carry out a vendetta or gain an advantage over another. Although the penalties were amended in October 2004 with the aim of reducing the more maliciously applied charges, the minor procedural changes have not had a significant effect on the way the blasphemy laws are exploited in Pakistan. The negative impact of the blasphemy laws is further compounded by the lack of due process involved in these proceedings. In addition, during blasphemy trials, Islamic militants often pack the courtroom and make public threats of violence as a consequence of an acquittal. Such threats have proven credible since they have sometimes been followed by violence. Although no one has yet been executed by the state under the blasphemy laws, individuals have been sentenced to death. Several of those accused under the blasphemy laws have been attacked, even killed, by violent extremists, including while in police custody. Those who escape official punishment or attacks by extremists are sometimes forced to flee the country.
Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
May 2009, p 68. (To see this document CLICK HERE)

The Faith of a Child

"This is the 3 year old boy, named Adam, who shouted against the extremists to stop shooting the people. As a result, the islamic extremist forced a gun into Adam's mouth and pulled the trigger." (from www.unheardcries.com)

I have no words.

Taking Risks

Right now my husband is getting the bike ready--checking the tires, loading the rain gear, giving all the mechanics a quick once-over before we take it out for the day. Oh, and one other thing, we're having the bike blessed at a local ceremony today. then we're riding up Rte. 11 to Lake Erie.

We met at a blessing of the bikes. Our priest (he was mine at the time) is a Harley rider, as are a few other priests in the diocese, and periodically they have motorcycle blessing ceremonies. I'll never forget Fr. Joe's homily that day. He talked about life being a celebration; about the need for taking risks. "Riding up Route 11 at 100 miles per hour might be overdoing it a bit, but if we don't take risks, how can we live the way God intended?"

Christianity today is the counterculture--though I think it's always been the counterculture. Even when it appeared that the Church was "in charge", it was really Church leaders willing to compromise their faith for the glory and riches of worldly power.

Look at the risks some of the saints took to uphold the true faith in the face of govenment powers: St. Thomas More; Maximillian Kolbe; the Jesuits of upstate New York; all but one of the first 34 Popes was killed by the Roman government.

More about this at a later date. We're going riding!

Chastity

She told him no. She told him it was a sin. She told him she'd rather die than submit to him. It was July 5, 1902 when Maria Goretti, sewing alone, was approached and threatened by Alessandro Serenelli. When he failed, he first choked her, and then stabbed her 14 times. She died the next day. Maria was an 11-year-old girl.

Maria Goretti was chaste to the very end of her life. She was declared a martyr because she died for her faith in Christ--that following Christ meant not sinning, and that death is preferable to letting someone use her body.

Chastity isn't just "practicing abstinence". Let me back up for a second. One of the errors of modern thought (which isn't so modern, considering the number of virgin martyrs besides Maria Goretti venerated by the Chruch over the last two millennia) is that we should be free to use our bodies to satisfy our drives and desires. Such a terrible misuse of our bodies has led to a vast array of social ills throughout history (a discussion far too off this topic to get into right now); but society at large isn't the only victim.

Such a view of the human body also creates a great chasm within the self. The body is not supposed to be at the service of the will; it's at the service of God: "In the divine image he created them." Gn 1:27 It's the human will which is out of synch, and usurps the body for its own. I believe that on a very simple level, Maria Goretti understood this. Living a chaste life means understanding that our bodies are created for God's purpose. As such, we should have the highest respect for our own bodies.

"Young people, look at Maria Goretti, don’t be tempted by the tempting atmosphere of our permissive society, which declares, everything is possible. Look to Maria Goretti, love, live, defend your chastity." (Pope John Paul II, September 1, 1979) It's good advice for adults, too.

To really understand the human body and it's place in our faith, read The Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II.

The Days Of The Harvest

Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of our Church. In that upper room, Jesus’ disciples were anointed by the Holy Spirit, and from that day went out into the world harvesting souls. All but one (St. John, who survived being dropped into boiling oil) was martyred.

Martyrdom is what initially caught St. Justin’s attention. As you’ve probably read in a dozen other blogs, today is his feast day. Justin is the patron of philosophers (hence the pic of The Thinker). He was a voracious student of Philosophy: Plato, Socrates and the like. Ultimately it was watching Christians clinging to their faith in Christ as they were sent to their deaths that led him to begin serious Christian study, and what changed his mindset from paganism to faith in Jesus. As he later wrote in his first apology, “…though we say the same as do the Greeks, we only are hated, because of the name of Christ.” (click here to read The First Apology of Justin.)

I’ve thought about the martyrs quite a lot as I continue along my walk, particularly on their feast days. I admire those courageous men and women being sentenced to their deaths in the name of the Lord, so much so that I took one, Joan of Arc, as my confirmation name. Today as I ruminate the work of Justin Martyr, and his consequential death, I can’t help but wonder: would I be able to stay on the path if death for my faith were laid before me?

I like to think I would walk to my death with a hymn on my lips. Fortunately for me, I live in 21st Century America, where Catholics are not presented with such a difficult choice.

Or are we?