| Editor: Brother Bruno Bonnet-Eymard | N° 95 – August 2010 |
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THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS
« THE PRICE TO BE PAID »
« Quandaries in Rome, doubts in the small Turkish Christian community (100,000 people). The day after the funeral at Iskenderun of Mgr Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, who was assassinated on 3 June by his Turkish chauffeur, questions on the exact circumstances of this death are multiplying. The only thing that is certain is that the official version, hastily given in the first hours, of a murder committed by a mentally disturbed person acting alone can no longer be asserted. » (La Croix, Thursday, 10 June)
En fact, « since the murder of Fr. Andrea Santoro, who was killed in his church in February 2006, the thesis of a disturbed individual acting alone is always put forward by the authorities […]. “That is beginning to make lots of lone madmen who attack Christians in Turkey”, sighs a religious. »
« The fact that the assassination took place on the day before Benedict XVI’s arrival in Cyprus also raises questions: “If he is mad, he is no less a shrewd politician”, observed a Christian. » Moreover, he is not mad. The missionary Asia-News agency, which belongs to the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, specifies that Mgr Luigi Padevese received several stabs from his chauffeur, a « nice boy », well known in Christian circles, not at all « disturbed », that he then ritually slit his throat, then he claimed responsibility for the murder by shouting from the roof of his house: « I killed the great Satan, Allah akbar (“God is great”). »
Yet, the Pope does not want to know it: the day after the murder he declared that this crime had nothing to do with Turkey, not even with Islam. « “Our position was identical after the death of Fr. Santoro”, explained a diplomat from the Holy See in Rome: “We must continue to enter into dialogue, to educate. Ignorance is always at the root of these acts. To use force is a sign of weakness: we must prepare arguments rather than munitions and weapons.” »
What good is a diplomacy that is not supported by the force of weapons? The Holy Father’s blindness is so flagrant that even La Croix wonders: « How must the Pope’s taking a stand so rapidly be interpreted? » Here is the answer of the late Abbé de Nantes, our Father and founder, quoting Pope Paul VI, who imposed on the Council religious freedom thus defined: « “Let no one be coerced, let no one be hindered.” One may as well say: let no one be coerced to set the house on fire, and likewise let no one be hindered from doing it freely on his own responsibility! Admit that it marks a milestone in history! » (Auto-da-fe, p. 163)
« THE PRICE TO BE PAID »
An Iraqi relates how he converted from Islam to Christianity at the peril of his life (Joseph Fadelle, The Price to be Paid, editions L’œuvre, 2010).
It all began by a “dialogue”, yes, between two soldiers from Saddam Hussein’s army at war against Iran (beginning of 1987). Joseph, a Muslim “aristocrat”, took it into his head to convert Massoud, a Catholic farmer, to Islam.
« Tell me, Massoud, do Christians have a book like the Qur’an? »
« In my mind, Joseph confides, if the answer is no, the man will be easier to convert since he has nothing to oppose to the Qur’an, Allah’s revelation to Mohammed. » In fact, this is where the whole question lies. If God speaks, there is no religious freedom possible. He must be heard and obeyed!
« Of course, we Christians have the Bible, Massoud replied, which even includes two books, the Old and the New Testament. » He merely contented himself with adding:
« For the moment, I am not going to bring you the Bible, in any case not immediately. First I am going to ask you a question, only one, and you are going to answer me frankly: have you read the Qur’an?
– Of course! Do you think that I am a non-believer, a bad Muslim?
– But have you really read it?
– I tell you that I have read it, and I even read it in full every year during Ramadan! There are thirty parts in the Qur’an and Ramadan lasts thirty days…
– And did you understand the meaning of every word, of every verse? »
This is where the shoe pinches: « Because the Imams have always taught me that it is the reading of the Qur’an from cover to cover that will be rewarded on Judgement Day, much more than understanding the text. Thus the deciphering of a single letter allows you to advance in piety, to earn ten indulgences, even if you do not know the meaning of the entire word. »
Then Massoud makes him the most intelligent proposal possible: « If you want me to bring you the Gospel, all right, but I am still going to lay down one little condition: first you are going to re-read the Qur’an by trying to decipher its meaning with your intelligence, and be honest with yourself, do not cheat… »
Joseph agreed, entirely absorbed in his idea of converting Massoud to Islam.
« This is where my troubles started. »
It is amusing to see him grappling with the second Sura, known as the Sura of the Cow, or £al-baqara, the object of our first volume (Bruno Bonnet-Eymard, The Qur’an, Translation and Systematic Commentary, Vol. 1, Sura 1: The Blessing; Sura 2: God of deliverances, 340 pages): « I come up against a difficulty at almost every verse; I am completely perplexed, and my reading is made extremely difficult and slow. »
He consulted an ayatollah. The latter told him to plunge into the life of Mohammed. The result: « After a few days of intense reflection, the behaviour and the life of the Prophet became a source of shame for me […]. How can this man be a man of God? »
THE VOCATION
(May 1987)
It was then that Joseph Fadelle, like Joseph of the Old Testament, son of Rachel, and like Joseph of the New Testament, spouse of Mary, had a dream. He saw himself « on the bank of a stream not very wide, barely a metre ». On the other side, a man of great handsomeness said to him: « In order to cross the stream, you must eat the Bread of Life. »
When he awoke, he was filled with an « almost childlike » joy, for having had such a beautiful dream. He did not seek to understand and already no longer thought about it when Massoud, on his return from furlough, handed him the Gospel. He opened… and undertook to read the Gospel of St. John, despite Massoud’s having advised him to begin with something « easier »:
« When I arrived at Chapter 6, I came to a dead stop in my reading in the middle of a sentence, stunned. My mind was bubbling over with excitement. For a second, I thought that I was the victim of a hallucination, and plunged my eyes back into the book at the precise place where I had stopped. There was no doubt; I did not make a mistake… I do not know by what wonder, I had just read a second ago exactly these words, “the Bread of life”, the very words that I had heard a few hours previously in my dream. » (p. 35)
« From that moment on, the spirit of conquest and the will to convert Massoud entirely subsided. I no longer had any desire but to be able one day also to eat this “Bread of Live”, even if I did not understand really what it is. » (p. 37)
There follows the suspenseful account of this quest, obstinately pursued despite all the obstacles, beginning with the one that Massoud himself raised! When Joseph told him about his intention to announce his new faith to his family: « You can’t be serious! he exploded. They will kill you… »
It is in fact what they attempted to do. Who were “they”? His brothers and even his mother! His father had him picked up by Saddam’s secret service. They tortured him to make him supply the names of the Christians of whom he had asked Baptism… and Communion in the « Bread of Life ».
We understand why, under such a regime of terror, these Christians did not welcome him! This book bears witness to the true condition of Christians in the land of Islam, even under the “secularist” regime that Saddam had established, even in Jordan, where Joseph would succeed in fleeing with his wife – who also converted – and his children – who had been catechised. « “When someone is Christian, he remains Christian, and the same goes for Islam!” I was told coldly when I announced my intention to ask for Baptism. » (p. 49)
No “religious freedom” is possible!
The Patriarch of Iraqi Christians to whom he succeeded in sending his request sent him the reply: « There is no question of sacrificing the whole flock in order to save a single sheep… »
Is there a better demonstration of the need to go on a crusade to deliver « the whole flock » from the servitude in which Islam keeps it? To proclaim religious freedom, on the other hand, while sitting around idly, is certainly the most scandalous acts of cowardice of which Christians are guilty, like the renegades in the times of the incursions of the Barbary States.
The first fruit of this book is to cast light on the aberration of the new dogma of “religious freedom” that the Second Vatican Council proclaimed, which leads to apostasy more surely than Islam itself! Persecution, on the other hand, is fruitful: « Everything that I encountered, refusals, rejection and persecution, finally came to strengthen my faith and confirm for me that I am on the right road. In my extreme desire to meet Christ, I almost felt a certain joy in suffering in this way because of Him. » (p. 53)
This fine perseverance would not fail during six years of rebuffs until the day that he discovered « a little icon of the Virgin Mary, hanging on the wall behind a salesman » in a store in Baghdad. Encouraged by this rare and courageous, « conspicuous sign of being Christian », he confided in this man, who took him to Mass and put him in contact with a priest. We see here the universal import of the promise that Our Lady of Fatima made to Lucy: « My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. »