Nineteen priests and Religious killed by Islamists in Algeria in the 1990s will soon be recognised as martyrs, the postulator for their causes has said.
The group includes Bishop Pierre Claverie of Oran, Algeria, who was killed with his driver by a remote-controlled bomb at his residence, and seven Trappist monks kidnapped from the monastery of Tibhirine and beheaded by al-Qaeda-trained terrorists. The monks’ story was told in the film Of Gods and Men.
Postulator Fr Thomas Georgeon told Mondo e Missione (“World and Mission”), a monthly magazine and website run by the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, that the decree for their beatifications should be published this month.
A 10-year-long armed conflict between government forces and Islamist rebels left tens of thousands of people dead, making the deaths of the 19 Religious “a martyrdom in the midst of a sea of violence that devastated Algeria”, Fr Georgeon said.
“To pay homage to these 19 Christian martyrs means also paying homage to the memory of all those who gave their life in Algeria during those dark years,” he said.
The conflict began in 1992 when the army cancelled the general election that fundamentalist politicians looked likely to win, and cracked down on the Islamic Salvation Front political movement.
Human rights groups said at least 44,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the war. The monks of Tibhirine knew that they were in danger and were likely to be killed if they remained in Algeria.
Fr Christian de Chergé, the prior of the monastery, had written in a letter nearly three years before his death that he and the other monks would willingly offer themselves as a sacrifice for the people of Algeria.
Fr de Chergé wrote: “When the time comes, I would like to be able to have that stroke of lucidity which would permit me to ask forgiveness of God and of my brothers in humanity, forgiving wholeheartedly, at the same time, whoever my killer might be.”
He added: “May we meet each other again, happy thieves, in paradise, should it please God.”
Don’t stay silent on abortion, Irish archbishop tells faithful
Archbishop Eamon Martin, the Primate of All Ireland, has urged Catholics to overcome the “strong pressures to remain silent” about abortion.
In a pastoral letter to mark the new year, in which Ireland will vote on its abortion law, Archbishop Martin wrote: “All human life is precious. This is why the direct and intentional taking of innocent human life is always gravely wrong.”
The country is preparing for a referendum on repealing the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution. This states that the unborn child has a right to life which must be defended.
But campaigners are appealing to cases such as foetal disability and rape to say that the law is too restrictive.
A parliamentary committee has gone further, recommending that abortion be completely legalised up to 12 weeks.
Stressing the need to support pregnant women, Archbishop Martin said a new law would “leave unborn children defenceless” and that the law, if changed now, was likely to expand in future.
The archbishop encouraged his flock to become “missionaries for life” and to pray that Ireland “choose life”.
Beware false rights, says Francis
In a wide-ranging speech to diplomats last Monday, Pope Francis warned against “modern forms of ideological colonisation” flourishing in the “very name of human rights”.
Listing fundamental rights violated today, he cited innocent unborn children discarded because they were “ill or malformed, or as a result of the selfishness of adults”, and the elderly cast aside when they were infirm.
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