Reflecting by the shore

Rich people less likely to be honest says study

2012-02-29T16:06:00.006Z

People from wealthy backgrounds are more likely than poorer people to break laws while driving, take lollies from children, and lie for financial gain, a United States study says.

The seven-part study by psychologists at the University of California Berkeley and the University of Toronto analysed people's behaviour through a series of experiments.

For instance, drivers of expensive vehicles were observed to be more likely to break the rules at four-way intersections, and were more likely to cut off pedestrians trying to cross the street than drivers of cheaper cars.

In another test using a game of dice, given the opportunity to win a prize, people who self-reported high socio-economic status were more likely than the rest to lie and say that they had rolled higher numbers than they actually had.

People with higher status were also less likely to tell the truth in a hypothetical job negotiation in which they were the employer trying to hire someone for a job they knew was soon to be eliminated.

And when given a jar of lollies that they were told was for children in a nearby lab - though they could take some if they wanted - the richer people took more lollies than anyone else.

Also, in that particular study, researchers conditioned some of the subjects first to think of themselves as of a higher social rank by asking them to compare themselves to others with less.

The exercise showed that people could be trained to think more highly of themselves, and that they would in turn act with more greed and less ethicality, demonstrating that status drives greed.

'Culturally shared norms'

The study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, theorises that a series of factors "may give rise to a set of culturally shared norms among upper class individuals."

For instance, richer people are more independent from others and are therefore less concerned with what others think of their actions than poorer people, the authors suggested.

According to Dr Piff, people with more money tend to look more positively on greed and rely less on family and friend networks for support in times of need, and this elevated status tends to disconnect them from society.

"It is that very different level of privilege in your everyday life that gives rise to this independence from others, this reduced sensitivity to the impact of your behaviour on others' welfare, and the prioritisation of your self-interest," he said.

Certainly there are exceptions, said the study, pointing to famous upper-class whistleblowers at Worldcom and Enron; and wealthy philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Previous research linking poverty and violent crime also disproves the notion that all poor people are more ethical than the rich, it added.

However, self-interest is "a more fundamental motive among society's elite, and the increased want associated with greater wealth and status can promote wrongdoing," it said.

Although the study focused on US subjects, with each of the seven parts measuring between 100 and 200 participants, Dr Piff said the findings are likely to be relevant to societies outside America, too.

"These patterns are going to be particularly salient in societies where wealth is as unequally distributed as it is here," he said.

Source: ABC

Christians targetted in Syria

2012-01-19T06:03:00.011Z

The Christian community in Syria has been hit by a series of kidnappings and brutal murders; 100 Christians have now been killed since the anti-government unrest began.

A reliable source in the country, who cannot be identified for their own safety, told Barnabas Fund that children were being especially targeted by the kidnappers, who, if they do not receive the ransom demanded, kill the victim.

And the source provided detailed information – some of which cannot be made public for security reasons – about incidents that have taken place since Christmas. Two Christian men, one aged 28, the other a 37-year-old father with a pregnant wife, were kidnapped by the rebels in separate incidents and later found dead; the first was found hanged with numerous injuries, the second was cut into pieces and thrown in a river. Four more have been abducted, and their captors are threatening to kill them too.

On 15 January two Christians were killed as they waited for bread at a bakery. Another Christian, aged 40 with two young children, was shot dead by three armed attackers while he was driving a vehicle.

These latest reports are reminiscent of the anti-Christian attacks that have become commonplace in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion, and heighten concerns about the future for Christians in Syria as the anti-government protests there continue.

Syria pivotal in regional power battle

Several expert commentators are calling into question the narrative being spread by Western media about the nature of the unrest in Syria. They argue that it is not merely an internal conflict between the government and the rebels but has become an international battle for the balance of power in the Middle East.

Aisling Byrne, writing for Asia Times Online on 5 January, argues:

What we are seeing in Syria is a deliberate and calculated campaign to bring down the Assad government so as to replace it with a regime 'more compatible' with US interests in the region… Not for the first time are we seeing a close alliance between US/British neo-cons with Islamists (including, reports show, some with links to al-Qaeda) working together to bring about regime change in an 'enemy' state.

The battle for the regional balance of power pits an alliance of the US, Israel and the Sunni Muslim states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Gulf against the Shi’a regime in Iran and Hizbollah, the terrorist organisation that it sponsors. Syria is integral to Iran’s position, and, says Saudi King Abdullah, “Other than the collapse of the Islamic Republic itself, nothing would weaken Iran more than losing Syria”. Much of the conflict is being driven by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who are now repeating in Syria what they have done in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya to establish a Sunni Wahhabi Salafist entity, thus intensifying the pressure on Iran.

A Western-backed military campaign in alliance with the Syrian rebels against the Assad regime is looking increasingly likely, and this could be devastating for the Church in Syria. Christians in Syria have enjoyed a considerable measure of freedom and protection under President Assad; if he falls, there could be a repeat of the tragic near-extermination of the Church in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

On 6 January, 2012, the Council of Evangelical Churches in Baghdad was dissolved, signalling another nail in the coffin for Christianity in Iraq. The once sizeable Christian minority there has been reduced to no more than a few hundred thousand today.

Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, said:

The Christian community in Syria is already suffering as a result of the unrest there and this will surely only intensify in the event of Western-backed military intervention. Christians in the West should not stand by and allow their governments to destroy Syria – and the Syrian Church – in pursuit of their own political interests in the region. I urge Christians not to accept blindly all the mainstream media reports about this conflict but to read for themselves the carefully considered arguments of dissenting voices (links below). And we must pray that the Lord will protect His people in Syria from a repeat of what happened to the Church in Iraq following the illegal US-led war. When Barnabas Fund carried stories about the horrific anti-Christian violence in Iraq post-2003, there were many sceptics who did not believe us. Today, this is accepted reality.

Source: Barnabus Fund

Keeping Nigeria in our prayers

2012-01-07T13:42:00.025Z

Over the last few years Fr George from Nigeria has been a regular visitor to my local church. He usually covers for the parish priest, Fr Kevan, while he has a break in the summer. Fr George is a dedicated and learned man. He studied in Rome and has an impressive theological knowledge. His affable nature, dedication and piety have made him popular among parishioners.

Back in Nigeria, Fr George is the head of a seminary. Since he is still a young man this is quite an achievement. I’m pleased to say he has become a good family friend over the years. He has visited my house a few times and we have had interesting discussions. It’s always a pleasure to talk to someone who is intelligent, offers good advice and shows Christ-like compassion. I like to keep in contact with him via email.

Fr George is based in northern Nigeria, which is generally poorer the south. While the north is predominantly Muslim the south is mainly Christian. Over the Christmas period a number of churches were attacked by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram (“Western education is sin”). The group, which has suspected links to al Qaeda, is fighting to create an Islamic state ruled by Sharia; it exploits the differences within the country as well as the failings of the government.

Fortunately Fr George and his family members were not harmed in the church attacks. The situation, however, remains tense. Added to the sectarian tensions are economic woes. Nigeria should be a prosperous country because of it’s oil reserves, but corruption is so rampant that wealth stays in the hands of a small elite. In his latest email to me, Fr George said:

“On 1st January 2012, we woke up to the rude shock of the Federal government withdrawal of subsidy on petrol by 130% and immediately the cost of goods and services rose by that same percentage at the least. There is right now, proposed indefinite nationwide strike from next Monday. The strike will further paralyse the economy. The problem is the government is not ready to tackle corruption... Every goods in the market has doubled in price. There is serious outrage. If nothing is done immediately, I am afraid the military might come back to governance in the pretext of protecting the internal territorial integrity of the nation. Life is terribly bad for Nigerians.”

We will remember Fr George and Nigeria in our prayers. We hope and pray that things improve in Nigeria, peace returns and there is a reduction in corruption.

"I love Jesus"

2011-12-14T22:48:00.000Z

My wife asked our eight year old daughter what Christmas meant to her. She replied it meant the birth of Jesus. Since she liked drawing, my wife asked her to draw something to do with Jesus.

She thought of a petal. Puzzled by this idea my wife asked her, "Why a petal?"

"Because Jesus is perfect like a petal," she replied.

She drew some flowers on a piece of paper and coloured them in. Then in the middle of the paper she drew a heart and within that she wrote these words:

Jesus is like a delicate petal.
Everything He does is perfect.
How can anybody be bad to Him?
He is the light of the world.
I love him deep down in my heart.
He will lead us in the right path.

Don’t you think these are wonderful words to describe Jesus? They capture a child's innocent love for Him.

When my daughter asked my wife whether Jesus was proud of her, my wife replied "Yes". I’m sure He is, and so am I.

'Harry Potter and yoga are evil', says exorcist

2011-11-29T09:42:00.000Z

Father Gabriele Amorth, who for years was the Vatican’s chief exorcist and claims to have cleansed hundreds of people of evil spirits, said yoga is Satanic because it leads to a worship of Hinduism and “all eastern religions are based on a false belief in reincarnation”.

Reading JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books is no less dangerous, said the 86-year-old priest, who is the honorary president for life of the International Association of Exorcists, which he founded in 1990, and whose favourite film is the 1973 horror classic, The Exorcist.

The Harry Potter books, which have sold millions of copies worldwide, “seem innocuous” but in fact encourage children to believe in black magic and wizardry, Father Amorth said.

“Practising yoga is Satanic, it leads to evil just like reading Harry Potter,” he told a film festival in Umbria this week, where he was invited to introduce The Rite, a film about exorcism starring Sir Anthony Hopkins as a Jesuit priest.

“In Harry Potter the Devil acts in a crafty and covert manner, under the guise of extraordinary powers, magic spells and curses,” said the priest, who in 1986 was appointed the chief exorcist for the Diocese of Rome.

“Satan is always hidden and what he most wants is for us not to believe in his existence. He studies every one of us and our tendencies towards good and evil, and then he offers temptations.” Science was incapable of explaining evil, said Father Amorth, who has written two books on his experiences as an exorcist. “It’s not worth a jot. The scientist simply explores what God has already created.”

His views may seem extreme, but in fact reflect previous warnings by Pope Benedict XVI, when as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s enforcer of doctrinal orthodoxy.

In 1999, six years before he succeeded John Paul II as Pope, he issued a document which warned Roman Catholics of the dangers of yoga, Zen, transcendental meditation and other 'eastern’ practices.

They could “degenerate into a cult of the body” that debases Christian prayer, the document said.

Yoga poses could create a feeling of well-being in the body but it was erroneous to confuse that with “the authentic consolations of the Holy Spirit,” the document said.
...
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Father Amorth has previously said that people who are possessed by Satan vomit shards of glass and pieces of iron and have such superhuman strength that even children have to be held down by up to four people.

He has also claimed that the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Catholic Church in the US, Ireland, Germany and other countries was proof that the Anti-Christ is waging a war against the Holy See.

Source: The Telegraph

Libya now in the hands of Islamic extremists and foreign powers

2011-11-14T14:57:00.000Z

"Gaddafi was killed at the request of powers outside Libya, for whom it was convenient to silence the Rais. He was the black box of the whole country. He had too many wheelings and dealings with too many leaders in the world. With him, unfortunately, a lot of information is gone." So says Mahmoud Jibril, former Prime Minister of the NTC, who in an interview with Bloomberg points out the problems and risks for the new Libya. The leader explains that the country is in the grip of Islamic extremists and foreign powers particularly interested in energy and financial resources of the former regime, rather than the welfare of the Libyan people. This is despite the democratic claims made by NATO countries shortly after the summary execution of Gaddafi on 20 October.

According to Jibril, economic interests have divided Libya. "During the fight against Gaddafi – he notes - we were all together and we were fighting for a single purpose. Now things have changed." The former Prime Minister stresses that the country is without a state apparatus, and this has given free rein to foreign powers interested only in oil. "No one is excluded from this fight - he says - this is the game. This is politics. "

Shortly after the fall of Tripoli under the NATO bombs, oil companies like the Italian Eni and France's Total sent their men to sign economic contracts with the new establishment. This thanks to the protection of the NTC, which once in power moved quickly to ensure its allies a return to normal production of oil by the end of 2011. The hunger for crude oil is coupled with the Islamist ambitions of Qatar, a major funder and promoter of the mission against the Rais. The country has also trained and sent thousands of Islamic guerrillas to Libya. Led by Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a former member of al-Qaeda and the current military governor of the capital, they were the real stars of the capture of Tripoli and then the hunt for Gaddafi and his loyalists. Another important tool is the television channel Al-Jazeera. The satellite broadcaster was the first to spread the images of clashes between rebels and the army in Benghazi, legitimizing the UN resolution 1973 and the NATO bombing.

Source: AsiaNews

Blessed James Alberione

2011-11-06T10:26:00.000Z

Thanks to Philo Aunty for sending me a prayer card and medal of Blessed James Alberione. If only I could achieve a fraction of what this man achieved in his lifetime, I will feel satisfaction that I have honestly tried to propagate the Gospel using modern means of communication. Fr James Alberione is the founder of the Society of St Paul, which through books, magazines, journals, film, radio, television, video and the internet, aims to follow in the footsteps of St Paul, the great Apostle and missionary, in bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world. Here follows a short biography of Blessed James Alberione.

Biography

Blessed James Alberione was born in the little town of Alba, Piedmont, in northern Italy on 4 April 1884. From his devout Catholic family he learned the rudiments of faith and the importance of hard work.

On the night which divided the two centuries on 31 December 1900, as he was pondering what he could do for Christ while kneeling in the Cathedral of Alba where the Blessed Sacrament was solemnly exposed, a particular inspiration came to him. He felt a profound obligation to serve the church and the men of the new century. Earlier he had heard GiuseppeToniolo, a well-known sociologist, calling all the Catholics to unite: "Unite! If the enemy finds us disunited, he will defeat us one by one." He had also read the invitation of Pope Leo XII to pray for the new century. Both the sociologist and the Pope spoke of the need of the Church to convert the means of evil to means for good, to oppose the bad press with a good one, the bad organization with an organization of apostles, and the need to make the Gospel penetrate the masses.

While meditating on these signs, he suddenly sensed an unusual light from the Holy Host and understood better the invitations of the sociologist and the Pope. In his own words he said: "Una particolare luce venne dall" Ostia santa" (A singular light came from the Holy Host). Many years later on, he would tell his followers: 'You were born from the Host. The entire Pauline Family has one Eucharistic soul." True indeed, for it was during that adoration of the Blessed Sacrament that he got the idea of forming a new breed of apostles, who would use new means of apostolate. That idea was like a faint light which, with the passing of years of study and prayer, became brighter and clearer.

In 1907, James Alberione was ordained priest with a Vatican dispensation for his young age of 23. For a time he worked as assistant to the parish priest of Narzole and then was appointed by his bishop as the spiritual director of both minor and major seminarians. These assignments offered him a deeper knowledge of man; he came to realize that the press was making havoc among souls through its deceptive, distorted doctrines. That urged him to conceive a plan of battling the pernicious influence of the press.

On August 20, 1914, he founded the Society of St. Paul with only two boys as recruits. It was a small seed planted during a stormy period of European politics, for several months later World War I broke out. It is said, every beginning is difficult. The beginning of the Society of St. Paul was no exception. Fr. Alberione was branded as impractical. But with his undaunted determination he surmounted all obstacles, knowing where he was heading to. He knew that the world of the 20th century would be a world of rapid communication, a world that would become one village due to the mass media of communication. So he founded the congregation called the Society of St. Paul with the specific purpose of disseminating the message of salvation through the Press, Radio, Movie, TV, Records, Tapes and other means of communication to be furnished by human progress.

Today, the Society of St. Paul, composed of Priests and Brothers, is working in twenty-six different countries utilizing the modern media of communication to fulfil the command of Christ "Go and make disciples in all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this - I am with you always, even to the end of the World." (Mt. 28:18-20).

Fr. James Alberione founded 10 religious congregations and institutes comprising the Pauline Family: The Society of St. Paul; Daughters of St. Paul; Pious Disciples of the Divine Master; Sisters of Jesus Good Shepherd; Sisters of Mary Queen of the Apostles; Institute of Our Lady of the Annunciation; Institute of St. Gabriel, the Archangel; Institute of Jesus, Priest; Institute of the Holy Family; Union of Pauline Cooperators.

Source: Society of St. of Paul

The Miracle of the Sun in Fatima: symbolic of future nuclear destruction?

2011-10-19T12:51:00.000+01:00

13 October 2011 marked the 94th anniversary of the great Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, Portugal. Much has been written and discussed about this event, which continues to evoke much interest and curiosity. It occurred at a time when anti-clerical forces in Europe were in the ascendancy. In Portugal, Freemasons dominated the new republican government and in Russia the Bolsheviks were on the verge of seizing power in a bloody revolution. The Church was being assailed from all sides.

Yet Our Lady intervened to try and bring people back to God, and the miracle she gave us is redolent with symbolism. Not only did it demonstrate the power of God, it was probably a warning of what may lie ahead if man continues in his present ways. Why did the miracle involve the sun? In the Old Testament, Elijah asked God to send fire from heaven. It was to demonstrate to the people of Israel who was the true god, and it had the effect of turning the people away from apostasy which they had fallen into.

Could the sun also symbolise a coming catastrophe created by man himself? Pope Benedict XVI has said, "man himself, with his inventions, has forged the flaming sword," referring to nuclear weapons. Since the miracle in Fatima was both dramatic and frightening by all eyewitness accounts, could it symbolise a possible nuclear catastrophe? It seems a distinct possibility because a nuclear bomb replicates what the sun does through nuclear fusion. Therefore the miracle should be seen in apocalyptic terms.

I believe the apparitions in Fatima are related to those in Akita, Japan. In Akita, Our Lady said to Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa: "Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead." Again the imagery of these words seem to capture a nuclear explosion.

John Haffert in his book "Now, The Woman Shall Conquer" (1997) describes the significance of the miracle in Fatima very well:

"It had been raining heavily before the moment of the miracle. The great hollow of Fatima was a sea of water and mud. But immediately after the miracle (which lasted about 12 minutes) the sea of water and mud had vanished. It was like the miracle of the Red Sea.

The sun itself crashed down upon the earth. It was seen in a radius of 32 miles! It was like the miracle of the sun in the time of Joshua, when the fire of the sun appeared to act independently of the sun itself.

It was also like the miracle of Elias, who called fire from the sky so that all would believe that "God is God!"...and the fire consumed, not only the sacrifice offered by the prophet, but the water in the trench around it. Therefore this miracle of Fatima had the elments of the three greatest miracles of the Old Testament. What is more, NEVER BEFORE in history had God, "so that all may believe," performed a miracle at a PREDICTED TIME AND PLACE!

Perhaps the main reason why we feel compelled to look to Fatima as a mystical throne of the Queen of the World is because of the Miracle of the Sun. This unprecedented miracle recalls the description of Our Lady in the Apocalypse. Moreover, the essential power of the sun is atomic power, and the very "annihilation of nations" which Our Lady foretold in Her Fatima apparitions now threatens the world through nuclear weapons. Yet in demonstrating such power, in making such awesome prophecies at Fatima, our Queen could promise "an era of peace to mankind."

As Our Lady said in Fatima and Akita, the best defence we have from these dire prophecies is the Rosary.

Saudi Arabia executes eight Bangladeshi workers

2011-10-11T14:23:00.000+01:00

A Catholic bishop and prominent rights activist yesterday slammed Saudi Arabia for executing eight Bangladeshi workers.

They were found guilty of killing an Egyptian security guard and committing robbery four years ago.

Turning down the Bangladesh government’s repeated appeals for clemency and despite an outcry from national and international rights groups, the Saudi authorities last Friday publicly beheaded the eight men.

“I condemn this barbaric execution by the Saudi authorities. People in the modern and civilized world can’t accept beheading of eight people anyway. This is a sheer violation of human rights and dignity,” said Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi, Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace chairman.

He claimed the Saudi regime acts as stepmother to migrant workers while it treats Europeans and Americans well.

“They call workers from poor countries ‘beggars’ and don’t pay them well. So they commit crimes to survive. If charged with a crime they face capital punishments while nothing happens to workers from developed countries. KSA could have never executed any European or American on the same charges,” the Bishop said.

Faustina Pereira, director of human rights and legal aid services at the NGO BRAC, also condemned the executions.

“Beheading of Bangladeshi workers is a massive human rights violation. The legal procedure that convicted them to a death sentence was [unclear],” she said.

Dr. Pereira also blamed government for not doing enough to save the migrants.

“I’m completely disappointed with the government in the matter. Why didn’t it collect mass signatures from millions of Bangladeshi people to plead for clemency from the Saudi King? Why didn’t it organize mass demonstrations? Why did we hear about it just after beheadings took place? Government can’t escape the blame,” she said.

Remittances from millions of expats plays a vital role in Bangladesh’s economy. Middle East countries employ the highest number of migrants and Saudi Arabia alone has about two million Bangladeshi workers.

Source: UCAN

Anti-Wall Street protests spread across America

2011-10-04T16:15:00.000+01:00

What's changed in America since the Great Recession of 2008? Not much really. The bankers are still taking home big bonuses like they always have done, while with corporate profits have reached record levels. It's business as usual on Wall Street. However, real unemployment is now about nearly the same level as the Great Depression. With the US economy slowing down, it seems there's more pain in store for middle and lower class Americans.

It is therefore no surprise to learn about protests against Wall Street and corporate greed. The 'Occupy Wall Street' protests, which have received little attention so far in the mainstream US media, is gathering momentum across across the country. The Times of India reports:

The Occupy Wall Street protests entered their third week here with protesters dressed up as "corporate zombies" marching through Wall Street, the city's financial hub.

People used social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to spread their message and garner support for their cause.

Support groups like 'Occupy Boston', 'Occupy Philadelphia', 'Occupy Chicago' were also created online.

In a radio interview, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the protests should not target Wall Street officials, "who make USD 40,000 or USD 50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet. That is the bottom line. Those are the people who work on Wall Street or in the finance sector."

In Manhattan, hundreds of people responded to calls from organisers and came dressed up as zombies, walking around the financial institutions clutching fake money.

They held up signs that read 'Down with the World Bank', 'How to fix the deficit: End the war, tax the rich,' 'End corporate personhood,' and 'Say no to corporate America.'

People have camped out on the streets, sleeping on sidewalks. Some supporters of the protests have distributed blankets, sleeping bags and food items to demonstrators.

In Chicago, people gathered outside the Federal Reserve Bank while protesters camped out near City Hall in Los Angeles.

Similar marches against corporate America, greed on the Wall Street and government bailouts to financial giants during the economic crisis were held in downtown Boston.

The protests, which began with a handful of people camping in front of the New York Stock Exchange on September 17, got a philip and nationwide attention after over 700 protestors were arrested over the weekend by the police as they tried cross the Brooklyn Bridge.

Similar rallies are being planned in places like St Louis, Kansas City, Hawaii, Tennessee, Minneapolis and Baltimore, according to 'Occupy Together', the unofficial hub for all events springing up across the country in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The American elite love to praise protesters in other countries, especially those where they want to see regime change, but they have been silent on these protests at home. If the economic situation doesn't improve in America - and I don't see that happening for some time - these protests are likely to continue and spread. The Arab Spring seems to have arrived in America!

Are Evangelical Christians warmongers?

2011-09-29T21:27:00.000+01:00

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:44)

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. (Matthew 26:52)

It’s clear from reading the New Testament that Jesus didn’t like war. He advocated nonviolence and showing love to one another, even to enemies. Yet in recent times some of the biggest cheerleaders for war have been Evangelical/Fundamentalist Christians. I find this attitude appalling because it so clearly diverges from the teachings of Christ. Instead of being agents for peace, they often justify wars of aggression.

Chuck Baldwin has been an Evangelical Christian since childhood. He is now a pastor in Pensacola, Florida. He’s written an interesting post on his blog: Are Evangelical Christians Warmongers? He decries the warmongering attitude of many Evangelicals:

So, what has happened to turn the most peace-loving institution the world has ever known (the New Testament church) into the biggest cheerleaders for war? I’m talking about un-provoked, illegal, unconstitutional, unbiblical–even secret–wars of aggression. The biggest cheerleaders for the unprovoked, unconstitutional, pre-emptive attack and invasion of Iraq were evangelical Christians. Ditto for the war in Afghanistan, the bombing of Libya, the attacks in Yemen, etc. Who is calling for the bombing of Iran? Evangelical Christians. Who cheers for sending more and more troops all over the world to maim and kill more and more people (including innocents)? Evangelical Christians. Shoot (pun intended)! Most evangelical Christians didn’t even bat an eye when the federal government sent military and police personnel to murder American citizens, including old men, women, and children–Christian old men, women, and children, no less–outside Waco, Texas.

And where are today’s evangelical Christians giving a second thought regarding their fellow Christian brothers and sisters in many of these Middle Eastern countries that are being persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and killed by the puppet regimes being put in power by the US government–at US taxpayer (including Christian taxpayer) expense? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but more Christians have been persecuted under the US-imposed regime in Iraq than were ever persecuted when Saddam Hussein was in power. Oh! And don’t forget that it was the US government that was responsible for putting Saddam Hussein in power to begin with. The US government set up Osama bin Laden, too. But I digress.

In addition to the “white” wars (the ones everyone knows about), the US government authorizes some 70 black ops commando raids in some 120 countries EVERY DAY. In fact, the secret, black ops military of the US is so large today it now totals more personnel than the ENTIRE MILITARY OF CANADA!

A recent report noted, “In 120 countries across the globe, troops from Special Operations Command carry out their secret war of high-profile assassinations, low-level targeted killings, capture/kidnap operations, kick-down-the-door night raids, joint operations with foreign forces, and training missions with indigenous partners as part of a shadowy conflict unknown to most Americans. Once ‘special’ for being small, lean, outsider outfits, today they are special for their power, access, influence, and aura.”

To see the complete report of America’s secret wars, go to:
http://tinyurl.com/3q7s335

Yet, how much of this knowledge would even faze the average evangelical Christian today? All we hear from today’s “churches” is “bomb,” “attack,” “wipe them out,” etc. Then, at the same time, they get all emotional about sending missionaries to the same countries that they had just cheered-on the US military in raining down missiles of death and destruction upon (to bring salvation to the lucky ones that weren’t killed, I suppose).

And who are the ones that belittle and impugn Ron Paul? Evangelical Christians. Why? Because he tells the truth about America’s foreign policy being responsible for much of the hatred and bitterness erupting in foreign countries against us. I guarantee you that many of the “conservative” Republicans who booed Dr. Paul’s comments to this regard at the GOP Presidential debate this week would identify themselves as evangelical Christians.

See the report at:
http://tinyurl.com/3otfnzr

The disciples of our Lord were called “Christians” first by the Gentiles of Antioch, because of the manner in which the disciples reminded them of Christ’s nature and teachings. I never thought I would hear myself say what I’m about to say, but the truth is, the term “Christian” today means anything but Christ-like. To many people today, “Christian” refers to some warmongering, mean-spirited, throw-anyone-to-the-wolves-who-crosses-them person, who then has the audacity to look down their nose in contempt against anyone who disagrees with them for even the smallest reason. And the word “church” has the stigma of being simply an enclave of warmongers to many people today. And that, my friends, is one reason so many people are so turned off with today’s Christianity. And I can’t say that I blame them. I’m turned off too!

Baldwin is not a pacifist but he advocates a return to biblical principles of nonaggression. This is the best way to avoid people hating America and Christianity. Otherwise, Evangelicals run the risk of being used as minions of Satan to accomplish his evil deeds, all of which will bring about the New World Order.

Considering the warmongering I’ve heard from Evangelicals in recent years, this is like a breath of fresh air for me!

Jesus in the Vedas

2011-09-22T16:12:00.000+01:00

I recently read the story of a former orthodox Hindu Brahmin priest, Aravindaksha Menon, who converted to Catholicism. You can read it here. It’s really quite interesting how he made this journey of faith mainly by studying his own holy scriptures!

The Vedas are considered the official religious books of Hinduism; there are four of them: Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Adhara Veda. The other Hindu books – including the Ramayana, Mahabharatha and Bhagavath Gita – are simply epics or stories.

There is mention of only one God in the Rigveda. He is the creator of this universe; He is omnipresent; He is formless and bodiless. Nobody should make an idol of Him and worship the idol; it is worthless and useless.

As there are seventy three books in the (Catholic) bible, there are ten books (or mandalams) in the Rigveda. In the first to the ninth mandalam, it is clearly stated in several places who is the real God, who is man, why man should worship God and how he should worship Him. In the tenth mandalam there is mention about the first-born and only son of God, Prajapathy. ‘Praja’ means man, and ‘pathy’ means saviour.

Prajapathy comes to this world at the appropriate time. He travels around advising mankind, telling him what is sin and what is not sin, how he should live and how he should not. To those people who accept him and obey his commands, he offers help in this life and salvation after they die. At the end of his ministry, Prajapathy dies in a very similar way to Jesus - tied on a wooden cross. His death is both redemptive and sacrificial; it is described in verse 7 of chapter 90 of the 10th book of the Rigveda: “At the time of sacrifice, the son of God will be tightly tied to a wooden sacrificial post using iron nails by hands and legs, he will bleed to death and on the third day he will regain his life in a resurrection.”

There are other verses in the Rigveda that have striking similarities with passages in the bible.

Rig Veda X: 121:1

“Hiranyagarbha: samavarthaagre
Bhuuthasya jaatha: pathireka aaseeth
Sadaadhaara Prudhwivim dyaamuthemam
Kasmai devaaya havisha vidhemam.”

This translates to:

“In the beginning, God and his supreme spirit alone existed. From the supreme Spirit of the God proceeded Hiranya Garbha, alias Prajapathy, the first born of the God in the form of light. As soon as he was born, he became the saviour of all the worlds.”

This is similar to John 1:1-14: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”

Rig Veda X:90:2

“Purusha evedam sarvam
Yadbhutham yachabhavyam
Uthaamruthathwasya esaana
Ya daannenathirohathi”

This translates to:

“This man, the first-born of God is all that was, all that is and all that will be. And he comes to this world to give recompense to everybody as per his deeds.”

This compares favourably with:

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation 1:8)
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done.” (Revelation 22:12)

Rigveda X:90:7

“Tham yajnam barhishi proukshan
Purusham jaathamagratha
Thena deva ayajantha
Sadhya rushayaschaye”

This translates to:

“This man, the first born of the God, was tied to a wooden sacrificial post and the gods and the Kings along the Seers performed the sacrifice.”

All the four gospels say Jesus was crucified on a wooden cross by the rulers (Herod and Pilate) and the seers (Annas and Caiphas).

Rig Veda X:90:16

“Thamevam Vidwanamruthaiha bhavathy
Nanya pandha ayanaya vidyathe”

This translates to:

“This (sacrifice) is the only way of redemption and liberation of mankind. Those who meditate and attain this man, believe in heart and chant with the lips, get liberated in this world itself and there is no other way of salvation.”

This is similar to:

“If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

No coincidence

The uncanny similarities between Prajapathy in the Vedas and Jesus seem more than coincidental to me. It seems that Prajapthy refers to the person of Jesus. How this is so is a bit of a mystery to me, but a Brahmin guru whom Aravindaksha Menon consulted gave this explanation:

"Every ancient scripture was one and the same. Hindus, Christians and Islam were all categorized later, all man made. The word of God was one, because God is only one."

Flowers from my garden

2011-09-18T10:39:00.000+01:00

Here are photos of flowers from my garden. They bloomed at different periods during the year. Most of them I chose and planted myself.

It gives me much joy to see these flowers as they are so colourful and beautiful. I like them all but I am particularly proud of my dahlias.

Tulip (April)

Rose (June)

Lily (June - July)

Dahlia (July - September)

The dahlias always look spectacular because of their vigrant colours and distinctive petals.

Destabilization of Syria based on Libya Model

2011-09-04T17:16:00.000+01:00

The mainstream media are describing the events in Syria as a "revolution", but it is more like an armed insurrection than a genuine revolution. Definitely there are reasons for social unrest in Syria including an increase in unemployment in recent years, but the majority of Syria's population (including the opponents of the Al Assad government) do not support the "protest movement". The protests are of a sectarian nature and do not address broader issues of social inequality, civil rights and unemployment. There have been giant pro-government rallies in Syria, yet they have received little coverage in the mainstream media or falsely reported as anti-government protests.

What's happening in Syria is a process of destabliziation along the same lines as Libya, supported by the West, Turkey and the Saudis. There is evidence that trained gunmen and snipers have targeted the police, the armed forces as well as unarmed civilians. Yet the mainstream media narrative is that the government forces are violently cracking down on "peaceful protesters".

Syria represents the last remaining secular state in the Arab world. It has a composite culture in which Muslims, Christians and Druze has co-existed for centuries. Its populist, anti-Imperialist and secular base is derived from the dominant Baath party. It supports the struggle of the Palestinian people. The main objective of the US-Turkey-Israel-Saudi alliance is to destroy the Syrian secular state and replace it with an Arab sheikdom or a compliant pro-US "democracy".

It seems a NATO-led intervention in Syria is on the drawing board. According to Israeli intelligence sources:

"NATO headquarters in Brussels and the Turkish high command are meanwhile drawing up plans for their first military step in Syria, which is to arm the rebels with weapons for combating the tanks and helicopters spearheading the Assad regime's crackdown on dissent. Instead of repeating the Libyan model of air strikes, NATO strategists are thinking more in terms of pouring large quantities of anti-tank and anti-air rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns into the protest centers for beating back the government armored forces." (DEBKAfile, NATO to give rebels anti-tank weapons, August 14, 2011)

Turkey's military has undergone something of a major shift in recent months with General Necdet Ozel taking over as the Army and head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The shift favours the Muslim Brotherhood and greater support for the armed rebels in Syria. Military sources confirm Syrian rebels "have been training in the use of the new weapons with Turkish military officers at makeshift installations in Turkish bases near the Syrian border." This raises the possibility of direct involvement of Turkish troops in the future.

The use of Islamist proxies to fight in wars for NATO should be no surprise to anyone by now. They have a long history of working together from the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war to the recent conflict in Libya. The commander of the Libyan rebels is none other Abdel Hakim Belhadj, an Al Qaeda asset, who fought with the mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

BRIC countries such as Russia and China have so far resisted moves by NATO countries to get militarily involved in Syria. A lot depends how they will continue to support Syria as external pressures continue to grow. Syria is strategically important because of its location and its alliance with Iran. An attack on Syria could potentially plunge the country into a sectarian civil war and pave the way for an attack on Iran.

Papal Infallibility

2011-09-04T10:03:00.000+01:00

When Catholics say the Pope is infallible, what do they mean? To many non-Catholics this may seem a pompous and conceited claim. Surely popes are human beings and are thus capable of sinning like the rest of us? Indeed, there have been some popes who have behaved in less than exemplary manner. However, one must not confuse “infallibility” with “impeccability”.

Papal infallibility does not mean that a pope is sinless or he can never be wrong on matters of discipline. What it means is that when he is speaking ex cathedra in his capacity as successor of St Peter on matters of faith and morals, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, his teachings are without error.

Papal infallibility was debated at the First Vatican Council, summoned by Pius XI in 1869. At the time, when people were demanding greater democracy and freedom, few Catholics rejected out of hand the notion that the Pope might speak infallibly. The question was how, if at all, that should be defined. The text agreed by the cardinals, known as ‘The Roman Pontiff’ read:

“...when he speaks ex cathedra (Latin for ‘from his throne’), that is, when, exercising the office of pastor and teacher of all Christians, he defines...a doctrine concerning faith and morals to be held by the whole Church, through the divine assistance promised to him in Saint Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer wished his Church to be endowed...and therefore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church.”

This is a doctrine which was implicit in the early Church, but the Church's understanding of it developed and became more clearly understood over time. The doctrine is implicit in these Petrine texts: John 21:15–17 ("Feed my sheep . . . "), Luke 22:32 ("I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail"), and Matthew 16:18 ("You are Peter . . . ").

According to the text, there are limits imposed around papal infallibility. Routine papal teaching is not infallible. The pope has to be speaking in a particular and solemn form. No mention is made, however, as to how such a definition should be arrived at. These restrictions have meant that since 1870 only one papal statement has been deemed infallible – the definition of the Virgin Mary’s assumption, body and soul into heaven, made in 1950.

War propaganda about Libya

2011-08-23T16:16:00.000+01:00

If you haven't noticed, there's a very sophisticated media campaign against Gadhafi and Libya at the moment. The likes of BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera are all spreading lies. Pictures and videos are being carefully constructed to give as much bias in favour of NATO and its 'rebel' allies.

The scenes of jubilation in Tripoli's Green Square shown on tv channels yesterday, which allegedly took place after the 'fall' of Tripoli, did not come from Tripoli. They came from a set of Green Square constructed near Doha, Qatar, which is where Al Jazeera is based. Take a look at the picture below.

If you look closely, there are some slight differences between Al Jazeera's set on the top left and the actual square on the top right. Further evidence to support skulduggery can be seen in the picture below showing an Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from Green Square.

The lifting cranes that you see in the background do not exist in the real Green Square. The cranes were used for construction work at the false Tripoli complex near Doha.

Initial social media messages on twitter about Gadhafi attacking his own people have also proven to be false, yet they played a critical role in influencing public opinion and the UN Security Council at the start of this campaign.

It's not the first time such deceit has been used in wars. In all cases, the aim of course is to dupe the gullible public into giving their support for those waging war.

'Devil worshippers' attack church in Pune

2011-08-18T14:36:00.000+01:00

Suspected devil worshippers attacked St Mary’s Malankara Catholic Church in Pune’s Warje Malwadi neighbourhood on Monday. Father Varghese Valikodath, who is in charge of the church, said several people “broke into our church in Warje Malwadi in the small hours on Independence Day, vandalized the altar, burnt the tabernacle, as well as tearing up the bible and prayer books.”

Paintings of Jesus, Mary and other saints were defaced, and the words “Satan is God” were written on walls. Robbery is not thought to be a motive as collection money and valuables were not stolen.

According to Father Valikodath, it could be the work of “some devil-worshipping group”. This would not be the first time suspected devil worshippers have attacked a church in India. In 2006 they entered a church in Mizoram and burned bibles, urinated on the pulpit and tore up pictures of Jesus and Mary. They also sacrificed an animal and splattered its blood on the altar.

Such incidences are fuelling suspicion of a rise in Satan worship in some parts of India. According to faculty members of Theological College in Aizawl, Mizoram, youth who are influenced by drugs and inspired by films about the paranormal and the occult practice bizarre rituals.

This is, however, the first incident of its kind involving Pune’s Syro-Malankara community. The local Catholic community have condemned the act. They have also appealed to the state authorities to bring the culprits to justice.

According to AsiaNews, “more than 3,000 attacks have been recorded against Indian churches in the past few years. Last Saturday, the glass protecting an image of Christ in St Anthony’s Catholic Church in Vashicherry, Alapuzha, in Kerala, was also smashed, the second attack this month.”

UK riots: a sign of social decay

2011-08-11T09:49:00.000+01:00

The riots that we have seen in Britain over the last few days expose the decay of communities in many big cities across the country. Shocking as they are, they have had a long and steady gestation. All they needed was a spark, combined with a little coordination via social networking media, and they spread like wildfire across the country.

It is rather simplistic to blame the police; they deal with the problems of society, not solve them. Years of dysfunctional families in which the father is often absent, poor educational achievement, emotional and economic insecurity, as well as the constant drip feed of a crass materialistic and hedonistic culture have all had their destructive effects.

Although sanity has returned to the streets, we ignore the deep social problems that have manifested themselves at our peril. Do we really want to live in hermetically sealed communities, relying on an overstretched police force to protect us from the mob, or do we want a fairer and more peaceful society in which there is respect for one another? This is not a time for political point scoring, but to really reflect on what needs to be done to address the underlying problems. Otherwise we may well see a repeat of the wanton destruction and looting we have witnessed recently.

Our Lady of Siluva

2011-07-31T09:51:00.000+01:00

During the Reformation, a painting of the Virgin and Child, placed in the first chapel to be built in the Lithuanian town of Siluva in 1457, came under threat when local Calvinist authorities ordered the confiscation of all church property.

The parish priest had other ideas! He believed that Calvinism would be short-lived, so in 1532, he decided to protect their church’s possession and to wait things out. Helped by a parishioner, he hid the title deeds to the chapel site, the vestments, sacred vessels and painting of Our Lady within an iron-bound wooden box, which they buried near a large rock, planning to recover the precious items as soon as it was safe. Calvinism, however, proved to be of longer duration than the priest had anticipated. He died without having a chance to retrieve the precious articles. Eventually only his helper, blind and almost one hundred years old, remembered the little church’s existence.

Apparitions

One day in 1608, in the fields close to Siluva, small children played as their sheep grazed. Suddenly they heard crying. Looking towards a large rock, they saw a strange light surrounding a beautiful young woman and her baby. She sobbed brokenheartedly. As the puzzled children stared, the pair disappeared. The youngsters rushed home to tell the town’s Calvinist pastor and their families what had happened. The pastor accused them of lying, but the children’s parents and neighbours were unsure. They needed to investigate further.

Next morning, the townsfolk gathered around the rock where the children had seen the young woman. There was nothing there...except for one angry pastor. Accusing them of “Romish superstition” and of “following Satanic influences,” he scolded his parishioners – and then stopped in amazement. There, on the rock, just as the children had described, was the young woman with the baby.

The pastor spoke first. “Why are you crying?” he asked. “There was a time when my beloved son was worshipped by my people on this very spot. But now they have given this sacred soil over to the ploughman and the tiller and to the animals for grazing,” she replied, and vanished.

The townspeople decided that the woman and child were Mary and the infant Jesus, coming to recall them to their earlier faith. The site of the apparitions soon became a place of pilgrimage from across Eastern Europe, eventually requiring successively larger churches to accommodate the pilgrims. It is recorded that on the feast of Our Lady’s Birthday, 8 September 1618, more than 11,000 people received Holy Communion.

Rumours of the apparitions eventually reached the blind old man, who asked to be taken to the site. Immediately when he reached the rock his sight returned. He told his story to the amazed townsfolk. No longer blind, he pointed to where he and the priest had buried the wooden chest. The villagers dug and there it was, unharmed, with its contents intact, including the large paining of Our Lady and the Child.

Suppression and revival

In 1795, Russian forces occupied Lithuania and suppressed both religious freedom and the Lithuanian language. Restrictions were relaxed only after an uprising in 1904. Pilgrimages to Siluva resumed in 1905, and during that first year of freedom more than 30,000 people visited the shrine.

During the Communist era, pilgrimages were suppressed and the press forbidden to mention Siluva. Armed police blocked and patrolled the approach roads, banning cars within a radius of four miles of the shrine. The KGB followed vehicles travelling towards the town, fining or arresting their drivers and passengers. Pilgrims risked severe penalties. A Soviet monument replaced the statue of Our Lady in the town centre...and still the people kept coming.

On 8 September 1991, Lithuania was entrusted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Act of Entrustment is preserved at the shrine of Our Lady of Siluva, where on 7 September 1993, during his own pilgrimage, Pope John Paul II prayed.

Russia: government bans abortion ads that don't inform women of the risks

2011-07-06T11:23:00.000+01:00

Concerned by the continuing population decline that afflicts the world's largest country, the Duma (the lower house of parliament) has approved a bill according to which, all advertisements relating to practices of abortion must contain warnings about possible risks to the health of women. The draft has passed its third reading last July 1 and now awaits the green light from the Federation Council (Senate) and then its signing - virtually taken for granted – by President Dmitry Medvedev, who has always championed the values of life and family.

According to Russian press reports, it is an amendment to the law on advertising, which states that 10% of the space used to advertise abortion should also inform women about the possible negative consequences such as infertility. "The advertising for abortion should not contain statements on the safety of these health services," reads the text of the bill, released by news agencies. "These ads - said Viktor Zvagelsky, deputy of the ruling party United Russia – lead the young people to believe they will have no problems interrupting a pregnancy”, and he motivates the proposal of the new law with the "depressing" situation of abortions in Russia.

The Federation has one of the highest abortion rates in the world and for time now, experts have been speaking of "a demographic coma". According to figures published by the Duma website, in 2007, there were 1.5 million abortions. The Soviet Union was the first country to legalize abortion in 1920, banned again by Stalin (from 1936 until his death in 1954) interested in encouraging births. For the same purpose, the Communist Party also bestowed awards and money on the most prolific couples, but immediately after the collapse of the USSR the demographic decline has become unstoppable: from 1992 to 2008 the population fell by more than 12 million people to about 143 million. The United Nations estimates that by 2050, Russia will lose a fifth of its population, reaching 116 million. The phenomenon is due to a poor diet that causes heart problems, high rates of alcoholism among men, the spread of HIV / AIDS and the high number of violent deaths.

To combat what Moscow sees as a real war for survival, the government also supports the Orthodox Church which for years has asked for more stringent measures to reduce the number of abortions. According to data from the Russian Social University, the annual abortion rate is far higher than official figures, and in reality is around three to four million.

Source: AsiaNews

Libya: “Humanitarian war” is creating a humanitarian crisis

2011-07-03T11:15:00.000+01:00

The irony of this supposedly “humanitarian war” in Libya is that it is creating a humanitarian crisis. This is a farce which is happening with the servile complicity of the mainstream Western media. I am actually quite shocked at how our media and politicians can repeatedly lie to us about what is really happening. Do they expect us to believe that dropping hundreds of bombs will not kill any civilians? That defies logic no matter how accurate or sophisticated these NATO missiles are. Also, do they expect us to believe that Gadhafi has no support in his own country?

A sanitised version of events is clearly being presented by the Western media, as well as Qatar’s Al Jazeera, to keep this war going and justify its goals. NATO has already strayed well beyond its stated objectives of protecting the civilian population of Libya in accordance with UN resolution 1973. France recently admitted it has been secretly arming the Libyan rebels – clearly taking sides and supporting regime change when UN resolution 1973 forbids that. Stories of Gadhafi’s men using Viagra to gang rape women have been denied by Amnesty International.

What is going on is the complete plunder of Libya, a resource rich country that had higher living standards than some European countries before this conflict began. Billions of dollars of Libyan assets have already been seized illegally by the US and the European Union. NATO bombs have not only hit military targets, they have increasingly hit economic ones too like the Libyan Mint which prints dinars; and there has been collateral damage. According to the Libyan Ministry of Health, after the first 100 days of NATO bombing, 6,121 people were either killed or injured. The conflict is also creating a refugee crisis.

If NATO thought they will be seen as liberators by the Libyan people, nothing could be further from the truth. On Friday 17 June one million Libyans marched in Tripoli in support of Gadhafi. That’s a substantial number of people in a country of only 6 million people. Why wasn’t this news covered by the mainstream Western press? There is no national uprising against Gadhafi. Tripolitania - Western Libya - has rallied behind Gadhafi.

Who are the Libyan “rebels”?

So this begs the question, who are the Libyan “rebels” NATO is supporting? They are a motley crew of Al-Qaeda infested mercenaries who have long resented Gadhafi’s control over Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya). African American US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who recently visited Libya, was shocked to discover that these "racist" rebels were mercilessly killing and driving out black African migrants. Already gruesome videos of black Africans being lynched by the rebels are circulating on the internet, and yet there’s a silence in the mainstream media about these atrocities.

According to an Eritrean priest, Don Mussie Zerai, President of the Habeshia Agency for the Development Cooperation, 800 Africans were massacred in Misrata alone. He said black Libyans risk an ethnic cleansing action because of the determination against them by Libyans of Arab origin that sympathise with the rebels, who attack them as though they were Gaddafi's mercenaries. He decried the ongoing indifference to this carnage despite previous reports and warned that "hundreds of thousands of Darfur Sudanese," also trapped in Libya, risk "being crushed by this intolerance that is spreading in the territories occupied by the rebels."

Does the West really think the rebels can govern Libya? That would mean the subjugation of Tripolitania and a great deal of bloodshed. The best way out is a ceasefire and a demilitarisation of the conflict. That is what the African Union (AU) want. The AU has already said Gaddafi "can no longer lead Libya", but that does not mean that the AU - unlike NATO – wants regime change straight away. The BRICS prefer the AU approach of a negotiated settlement. NATO just seems to want to keep bombing.

Al Qaeda

As reported in the Telegraph in March, Al Qaeda then issued a call then to its supporters to back the Libyan rebellion. Now that NATO is supporting the Libyan rebels, the United States is allying itself with Al Qaeda linked elements despite spending over $1 trillion dollars trying to fight Al Qaeda over the last ten years – a case of our enemy’s enemy is our best friend. The danger of course is that in the long run such tactics are likely to backfire. I’m inclined to agree with Magdi Allam, a high profile Italian politician and convert to Catholicism, who says:

“The only real certainty is that the Islamists will win and that consequently, the populations of the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean will be increasingly submitted to shariah…an outcome exactly the opposite of the official proclamations of Sarkozy and Obama and their excessive use of catchphrases such as ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy.’”

Happy Ruby Anniversary

2011-06-19T10:27:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Mum and Dad! They celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary today – an historic milestone. They have always shown a strong loving commitment to one another, which has endured the test of time and helped them face the many trials that came their way. They have been good parents to me and my brother.

Over the weekend we had a small celebration to mark this occasion. Nithya, Anya and I presented Mum and Dad a special bottle of champagne with a personalised message, as well as a photo cake. My brother, his family, and two of my cousins were also there. Mum made my favourite dish – chicken biryani.

Mum and Dad are very different personalities: Dad is thoughtful, kind and gentle, while Mum is more practical, valiant and bubbly. The important thing is they complement each other well. Marriage is, after all, a partnership, which requires a lot of commitment, understanding, forgiveness and patience. The key elements are love and trust.

We would like to wish them many more years of happy married life together. We are proud of them.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." 1 Cor. 13:4-8

St Faustina's visions of hell, purgatory and heaven

2011-06-17T09:57:00.000+01:00

The following passages are taken from the Diary of St. Faustina and they refer to her visions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.

"I saw two roads. One was broad, covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People walked along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end without realizing it. And at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice; that is, the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And their number was so great that it was impossible to count them. And I saw the other road, or rather, a path, for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks; and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes, and all kinds of suffering befell them. Some fell down upon the rocks, but stood up immediately and went on. At the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness and all these souls entered there. At the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings" (Diary 153).

Hell

"Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one’s condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it, a terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger; the fifth torture is conditional darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of satan, the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings. There are special tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned. There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin. I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like. I, sister Faustina, by the order of God, have visited the abysses of hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence. I cannot speak about it now; but I have received a command from God to leave it in writing. The devils were full of hatred for me, but they had to obey me at the command of God. What I have written is but a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I noticed one thing: that most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell. When I came to, I could hardly recover from the fright. How terribly souls suffer there! Consequently, I pray even more fervently for the conversion of sinners. I incessantly plead God’s mercy upon them. O my Jesus, I would rather be in agony until the end of the world, amidst the greatest sufferings, then offend You by the least sin." (Diary 741).

Purgatory

"I saw my Guardian Angel, who ordered me to follow him. In a moment I was in a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls. They were praying fervently, but to no avail, for themselves; only we can come to their aid. The flames, which were burning them, did not touch me at all. My Guardian Angel did not leave me for an instant. I asked these souls what their greatest suffering was. They answered me in one voice that their greatest torment was longing for God. I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in Purgatory. The souls call Her “The Star of the Sea”. She brings them refreshment. I wanted to talk with them some more, but my Guardian Angel beckoned me to leave. We went out of that prison of suffering. [I heard an interior voice which said] ‘My mercy does not want this, but justice demands it. Since that time, I am in closer communion with the suffering souls.’” (Diary, 20)

Heaven

November 27, 1936 - "Today I was in heaven, in spirit, and I saw its inconceivable beauties and the happiness that awaits us after death. I saw how all creatures give ceaseless praise and glory to God. I saw how great is happiness in God, which spreads to all creatures, making them happy; and then all the glory and praise which springs from this happiness returns to its source; and they enter into the depths of God, contemplating the inner life of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, whom they will never comprehend or fathom. This source of happiness is unchanging in its essence, but it is always new, gushing forth happiness for all creatures. Now I understand Saint Paul, who said, “Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, not has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.” And God has given me to understand that there is but one thing that is of infinite value in His eyes, and that is love of God; love, love and once again, love; and nothing can compare with a single act of pure love of God. Oh, with what inconceivable favors God gifts a soul that loves Him sincerely! Oh, how happy is the soul who already here on earth enjoys His special favors! And of such are the little and humble souls. The sight of this great majesty of God, which I came to understand more profoundly and which is worshipped by the heavenly spirits according to their degree of grace and the hierarchies into which they are divided, did not cause my soul to be stricken with terror or fear; no, no, not at all! My soul was filled with peace and love, and the more I come to know the greatness of God, the more joyful I become that He is as He is. And I rejoice immensely in His greatness and am delighted that I am so little because, since I am little, He carries me in His arms and holds me close to His Heart. O my God, how I pity those people who do not believe in eternal life; how I pray for them that a ray of mercy would envelop them too, and that God would clasp them to His fatherly bosom." (Diary 777).

Syrian bishop says government must crush the uprising

2011-06-15T10:03:00.000+01:00

By John Pontifex

The Syrian government must resist the uprising – and has the people's backing in quelling forces seeking "destabilisation and Islamisation" – according to one of the country's most respected Catholic bishops.

In a strongly worded defence of President Bashar al-Assad's response to the protests and instability, Bishop Antoine Audo accused the media including the BBC and Al Jazeera of "unobjective" reporting, unfairly criticising the Syrian regime.

The Jesuit, who is the Chaldean Catholic Bishop of Aleppo, went on to warn that if Assad's government was overthrown, it would cause widespread instability, a breakdown of basic services such as electricity, increased poverty and a drive towards Islamisation.

Speaking from Aleppo in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Audo said: "The fanatics speak about freedom and democracy for Syria but this is not their goal.

"They want to divide the Arab countries, control them, seize petrol and sell arms. They seek destabilisation and Islamisation."

"Syria must resist – will resist. 80 percent of the people are behind the government, as are all the Christians."

Bishop Audo warned that if President Assad was ousted, Syria would suffer the problems of Iraq post Saddam Hussein with a widespread breakdown of law and order.

"We do not want to become like Iraq. We don't want insecurity and Islamisation and have the threat of Islamists coming to power."

"Syria has a secular orientation. There is freedom. We have a lot of positive things in our country."

The bishop was speaking after reports today (Monday, 13th June) of a third refugee camp being set up on the border between Turkey and Syria amid no sign of an end to the violence and instability dating back to the end of January.

The Syrian government has been strongly criticised for a hard-line military response to the uprising amid reports that the security forces have killed hundreds of protestors and injured many more.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Syria's armed retaliation against protestors as "unacceptable".

But the bishop stressed the scale of violence against Assad's regime, saying how more than 100 police were killed within a few days and added that the government had a right to defend itself.

He said: "In some media organisations, such as the BBC and Al Jazeera, there is an orchestration to deform the face of Syria to say the government does not respect human rights and so on."

"The government respects people who respect law and order. Syria has a lot of enemies and the government has to defend itself and the country."

"There is a war of information against Syria. The media reporting is unobjective. We have to defend the truth as Syrians and as Chaldeans."

Stressing how the violence was centred on the country's borders, especially in the north overlooking Turkey, he said that for most people in the Aleppo area, there was relative calm.

But he did warn of increasing poverty, transport and other communications problems and described growing unemployment.

He said: "Generally, life in Aleppo is very normal. Everything is continuing but there is less work and transportation is poor."

In a reference to the country's 1.5 million Christians, he said: "Our situation as Christian faithful is not really any different from other communities. We want peace and security."

"We do not want war and violence and we very much hope that in the next few weeks the situation will be better."

Aid to the Church in Need has worked with Bishop Audo to provide long-standing emergency aid for thousands of Christian refugees arriving in Syria from Iraq.

Source: Aid to the Church in Need

Syria's religious pluralism at stake

2011-06-11T08:33:00.000+01:00

Syria is in turmoil. Inspired by uprisings in other Arab countries, Syrian protestors have taken to the streets and denounced the autocratic rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Protests have spread to several cities, and it is estimated by the UN that at least 1,100 people have been killed by the security forces.

What is particularly sad about this is that Syria has for long been a beacon of religious pluralism and freedom in a largely intolerant region. Syria has many minorities. Arab Sunnis are the majority but other Muslim sects form a sizeable portion of the population. A further 8-10% of the people are Christian. In recent years many Iraqi Christian refugees have fled to Syria in the wake of bloody persecution in their homeland.

The government and security forces are dominated by the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam. This is largely a legacy of French colonial rule. In order to keep Sunni nationalism in check the French co-opted the services of the Alawite community, promoting them to high positions in government and the military. The Alawites went from being a despised downtrodden minority to rulers of their country – a fact deeply despised by the Sunni majority.

Although the Assad regime is authoritarian it has been good for the Christians and other minorities. The regime has kept in check the influence of militant Islamists. Christians are able to worship and practice their faith without much interference, although evangelisation among Muslims is strongly discouraged. A return to Sunni majority rule could lead to their violent suppression and, in the worst case, a sectarian bloodbath similar to that in Iraq. This is why many Christians in Syria have largely stayed away from protests. They are afraid of what may replace the secular Baathist regime.

In a letter to Western leaders, the Syria-based head of the Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, Patriarch Gregorios III, appealed for them to "ask the heads of state of Arab countries to work for real development... But don't encourage revolutions". He said:

“The situation has deteriorated into organised crime, robbery, fear, terror being spread, rumours of threats to churches... Fundamentalist groups are threatening citizens and wanting to create ‘Islamic Emirates'... Christians especially are very fragile in the face of crises and bloody revolutions! Christians will be the first victims of these revolutions, especially in Syria. A new wave of emigration will follow immediately.”

Thus far external powers have not called for regime change like they have in Libya. This is because by and large the main players – Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and America – prefer to see Assad remain in power than face the more destabilising consequences of regime change in a highly sensitive area. It is true that Syria has provided some support for terrorist groups such as Hizbullah and Hamas but, as Reva Bhalla of STRATFOR says, regime change could potentially lead to greater support for such groups:

“It is not a coincidence that Israel, with which Syria shares a strong and mutual antipathy, has been largely silent over the Syrian unrest. Already unnerved by what may be in store for Egypt’s political future, Israel has a deep fear of the unknown regarding the Syrians. How, for example, would a conservative Sunni government in Damascus conduct its foreign policy? The real virtue of the Syrian regime lies in its predictability: The al Assad government, highly conscious of its military inferiority to Israel, is far more interested in maintaining its hegemony in Lebanon than in picking fights with Israel. While the al Assad government is a significant patron to Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, among other groups it manages within its Islamist militant supply chain, its support for such groups is also to some extent negotiable, as illustrated most recently by the fruits of Turkey’s negotiations with Damascus in containing Palestinian militant activity and in Syria’s ongoing, albeit strained, negotiations with Saudi Arabia over keeping Hezbollah in check. Israel’s view of Syria is a classic example of the benefits of dealing with the devil you do know rather than the devil you don’t.”

The Assad regime is certainly coming under increasing strain, but for the time being it is holding together. Considering that Alawites were once second-class citizens less than a century ago, there is a deep-seated fear of a reversal of Alawite power. For that reason the Alawites are sticking together.

Only time will tell of course what will happen in Syria. My wife’s best friend is a Christian lady from Syria. She never fails to impress us with her strong religious faith and good Christian values. She is understandably worried about the safety of her family members and the fate of her homeland. Syria is a beautiful country steeped in history where the ruins of Crusader castles and citadels still dot the landscape. It would be a tragedy if the religious pluralism that has existed there for many years descends into sectarian violence. Please pray that this doesn’t happen and that all communities in Syria continue to live peacefully together.

India's unwanted girls

2011-06-03T22:38:00.000+01:00

India’s 2011 census shows a worrying trend in the number of girls under the age of 6. There are now 914 girls under the age of 6 to every 1,000 boys. This is worse than the figure ten years ago when the ratio was 927 to 1,000. The picture is varied across the country but the siutation in the north generally worse than in the south. Haryana is at the bottom with a ratio of 830 to 1,0000 followed by Punjab with 846 to 1000.

There are many reasons to explain this trend including female infanticide, abuse and neglect of girl children, but the main reason is sex selective abortions. A study in the British medical journal, The Lancet, estimates that up to 12.1 million girls were aborted in India over the last three decades. This happened despite a 1996 law banning the use of ultrasound screening or other testing for the sex of the unborn child.

Researchers found that wealthier or more educated women were more likely to abort girls because they could afford to pay for sex tests and abortions. They also found that families who already had one girl were more likely to abort a second child if they knew the unborn child was female. Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research, said the findings were “worrisome and threatening” because “we always believed when people are rich and educated they will be more socially aware but that is not the case.”

Cultural prejudice

The problem is not confined to Indians in India. Journalist and author Lady Kishwar Desai last year pointed to statistics from the University of Oxford that showed almost 100 baby girls were “disappearing” from British Indian families every year.

The statistics clearly point to a significant cultural preference among Indians for baby boys. Why is this the case? The main reason is dowry. Although outlawed by the Indian government in 1961 the practice remains rampant, affecting all religious communities, rich and poor alike. There are other reasons for having boys too: they are bread winners; they are expected to look after their parents in old age; they often inherit their parents’ property; they carry forward their parents’ family name; and in the case of Hindus, they are allowed to light their parents’ funeral pyres.

Lady Desai, who was born in Amabala in Northern India, said: “Jewellery, cash, cars, even houses – the value of the dowry an Indian girl’s family must pay to the family of her future husband can run to tens of thousands of pounds.”

“Marrying off one daughter can be expensive, but two, three… that can be ruinous”, she said.

She said that estimates varied as to how many Indian women are now ‘missing’ but “Female foeticide, gendercide – call it what you will – it’s a terrible and chilling statistic”. It is certainly is.

Worsening trend

Unless the deep cultural prejudice against having baby girls is dealt with I do not think the situation is likely to improve. We will inevitably see more and more female foetuses being aborted each year in India. Not only is this the wilful execution of unborn children but it is an affront to the value of a girl’s life. I have to agree with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who called this a “national shame”. Government laws by themselves will not solve the problem as they have thus far proved ineffective in dealing with the issue. What really needs to happen is social transformation, but the question is: is that really possible?

Bible study meeting: Matthew 25

2011-05-24T11:56:00.000+01:00

I belong to a bible study group connected with a local Catholic church. We meet every fortnight to discuss a particular chapter in the bible. We are currently making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Yesterday evening we met to discuss Matthew 25.

In this chapter Jesus explains what God expects from us and the final judgement using simple parables. Jesus is such a master storyteller. I love the way He explains difficult, obscure concepts in a simple way so that the lay people around Him understand.

The first parable in Matthew 25 involves ten bridesmaids, five of whom are wise and five of whom are foolish. The wise bridesmaids took oil for their lamps while the foolish ones did not. It was a custom in ancient Israel for the groom to come to get his bride at a time of his choosing. All the bridesmaids fell asleep because the groom was delayed, but when he did turn up the foolish bridesmaids were forced to go away and buy oil, only to return and find they had been locked out of the marriage feast. The lesson here is that we should never be complacent in our spiritual life; we must be vigilant and strive to grow in faith always, so that when the final judgement comes we prove worthy of being admitted to the heavenly banquet.

The second parable is about talents. A businessman leaves town and entrusts his money with his three workers. To each worker he gives different amounts depending on their ability. There are no strings attached, but this is clearly a test to see how well the workers use their master's money. Two of the workers, by industrious trading, doubled the amounts they each received. The third, a man who was very prudent, carefully hid his money and made no gain. When the master returns he rewards the first two for their enterprise, but the third is condemned for doing nothing. In a similar fashion, God gives us different talents and abilities that He expects us to make use of. Some people are obviously more gifted than others, but that is not important. We have all been given sufficient talents from God by which we can work together for our common good. The emphasis here is clearly on community.

Finally, the third parable is about helping others and the final judgement. When the time comes, the goat (the bad) will be separated from the sheep (the good). The good will be are richly rewarded while the bad will be punished for their misdeeds. God will judge us not only for the wrong we have done but also for what we have failed to do. It is important that we help others who are not so fortunate as us because that demonstrates real compassion.

We had a good discussion ably aided by Fr John who is a priest from Nigeria. It was my turn to moderate this time, which meant I had to select the opening hymn, the prayers and control the flow of the meeting. I finished with a closing prayer, which drew upon Matthew 25 as well as my own personal experiences. Here is my prayer:

Dear Lord,

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to meet today and reflect on the Word of God. Let your Word always be the guiding light in our lives. Help us to grow in faith, using the trials and tribulations that come our way to turn to God instead of turning away from Him. Thank you for the many talents you have given us Lord; let us make use of them wisely. Help us to lead holy lives, always striving to do good and helping others.

Amen.

Arab spring or Christian autumn?

2011-05-06T09:23:00.000+01:00

The dominant reaction in the West to the spread of revolution was one of enthusiasm; some commentators even spoke of an “Arab spring” in North Africa and the Middle East. It was widely believed that the resulting political changes would be for the better, leading to the establishment of real freedom for the region’s peoples – including its Christian minorities – and of Western-style democracy. An important reason for this optimism was the apparently secular character of the revolts: they appeared to have little or no religious dimension, and certainly not to be Islamic revolutions on the Iranian model.

If this were so, the uprisings would indeed be good news for the Christians of these nations. For years they have suffered discrimination in many areas of life, restrictions on their freedoms by the authorities, and outright violence from the Muslim majorities. If the twilight of the old regimes really did herald the dawn of freedom, Christians could hope at last to take their place as equal members of society and to practise and share their faith in peace and safety.

Sadly, however, the widespread positive response to recent events in misplaced, even naïve. North African and Middle Eastern concepts of freedom and democracy, shaped by centuries of Islamic domination, are simply not the same as Western ones. So, for example, when political leaders commit themselves to “support freedom,” they do not intend to include religious freedom in this, and their Muslim audiences do not understand them to do so.

Nor can religion be separated from politics in any Muslim context, where the two are inseparably connected. For most of the people involved in them, the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings are not “secular” revolutions; they are profoundly religious events, waiting to be led by the strongest religious players.

The best organised and funded groups among the rebels in Tunisia and Egypt are the Islamist movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, who are aiming to play a leading role in the future government of their countries. There is already significant evidence of their growing influence in the post-revolutionary fervour:

The return of Islamist leaders Rashid al-Ghannoushi and Yusuf al-Qaradawi to Tunisia and Egypt respectively, amidst great public enthusiasm; the latter led a million people in prayer in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

The appointment of an Islamist judge to head the committee drawing up Egypt’s new constitution.

The sudden and sharp upsurge in anti-Christian violence in Egypt, involving not only Islamist militants but also the Egyptian authorities.

The outcome of recent events in North Africa and the Middle East is impossible to predict with confidence at this stage. But the essentially religious character of political events in Tunisia and Egypt, and the presence there of powerful Islamist groups, raises grave concerns for the future of Christian communities in those countries. If Islamism does seize control of the various revolutions, whether slowly or suddenly, it will impose a much stricter Islamic character on politics and society, threatening the very survival of Christianity across the region.

Please pray that the Arab spring does not become a Christian autumn.

Source: Barnabus Fund

Trip to Portugal

2011-04-21T21:18:00.000+01:00

It was with some excitement that I travelled to Portugal in south western Europe with my wife and daughter last week. Our main purpose was to visit the famous Marian shrine of Fatima where, in 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to three Portuguese shepherd children and up to 70,000 people witnessed the famous Miracle of the Sun. After landing in Lisbon we travelled by bus to Fatima, about 110km north of Lisbon.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima was a beautiful neoclassical building with a tall spire, on top of which stood a golden crown and a cross. The crown of course symbolised the building’s Marian connection. On one side, in front of the basilica, was an open-air chapel called the Chapel of Apparitions, built on the site where the apparitions took place. A statue of the Virgin Mary, enclosed in a glass case, marked the exact spot where she appeared. There was a unique sense of peace and calm here. One could easily spend a long time sitting on one of the wooden benches quietly praying and meditating.

We attended the International Rosary and International Mass, much of which was said in Portuguese. Nevertheless, we were happy to join in these special celebrations that take place on the 13th day of every month. There must have been a few hundred people for the Rosary and even more for the mass. The mass was celebrated in the new Church of the Most Holy Trinity, a rather plain looking building with an enormous seating capacity of around 9,000. The majority of pilgrims seemed to be Portuguese.

In the heat of an afternoon sun, we walked the Stations of the Cross just outside Fatima. This took us to the village of Valinhos where the Angel of Peace appeared to the children and prepared them for their meeting with Mary. This place was quite wild, covered mainly by shrubs and trees. Then we walked into the small village of Aljustrel where the children lived. The children’s homes had been carefully preserved over the years, and we were struck by how small and simple they were. That three peasant children, from such an isolated and humble setting, could be chosen by God for His divine purpose demonstrated to us how very often the values of heaven are contrary to those on earth.

From Fatima we headed south, past some of Portugal’s renowned vineyards, to the bustling city of Santarem. From the main bus station, we cut across the gardens and walked along narrow cobbled roads to the Church of the Holy Miracle (Igreja do Santissimo Milagre), home to a 13th century eucharistic miracle. An elderly guide in the church took us behind the altar to view the blessed sacrament, carefully preserved since the 13th century. The story surrounding this miracle involving a spurned wife, an unfaithful husband and a Jewish sorceress is quite an interesting one. I had some questions to ask, but unfortunately our church guide knew little English; so I was unable to get the answers that I sought. Nevertheless I took comfort in the knowledge that I visited this famous pilgrimage site which St Francis Xavier also visited before he left for India.

Finally we toured Lisbon, Portugal’s capital city. Although not as big as London or Paris, we felt the lifestyles of people here were not much different to those in other Western European capitals. This was a totally different world from the little village of Aljustrel. Situated on hilly terrain, Lisbon has many tall coloured buildings, tree-lined streets, mosaic pavements, smart cafes, and bright yellow trams. A half day guided tour took us to the main attractions in the city including Belem Tower, Jeronimos Manastery, Monument to the Discoveries, the Coaches Musuem and Alfama. In the Jeronimos Manastery we saw the final resting place of Vasco da Gama, the famous Portuguese explorer, who in 1498 landed in Kappad near Calicut, India. We also visited St Anthony’s Church, built on the birthplace of the great saint, as well as Lisbon Cathedral.

We enjoyed our short visit to Portugal and in particular Fatima. Unlike that other famous Marian shrine, Lourdes, Fatima is not as commercialised. Here one does not feel overwhelmed by a multitude of shops, restaurants, cafés and hotels. The setting is actually quite prayerful. We were glad to partake in the celebrations as well as spend time quietly praying. I got the impression that the events in Fatima in 1917 had made a deep impact in the country, and because of that there was still some respect for religion in this overwhelmingly Catholic European nation.

Although relatively small, Portugal is a charming country where there is much to see and do. There is variation from north to south, the north being more green, hilly and industrious. The weather during our tour was gloriously sunny, sometimes a bit too sunny for our liking. We enjoyed tasting Portuguese food including a common type of egg pastry called pastel de Belém. We found the Portuguese people fairly mellow and well mannered; some were quite friendly. Unfortunately very few of them knew English, and as we knew little Portuguese, communication was sometimes a bit tricky. Fortunately everything went smoothly and we had no major problems.

Ultimately it was the message of Fatima that brought us to Portugal, a message that continues to spread around the world. I believe the purpose of the apparitions there was to help people grow more in faith, hope and love. And what better way to do this than imitate the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ?

It’s the oil, stupid

2011-03-19T06:46:00.000Z

Something Colonel Gadhafi said on Tuesday seemed to be tipping point for a Western push for military action in Libya. He said: “We do not trust their firms, they have conspired against us...Our oil contracts are going to Russian, Chinese and Indian firms.” In other words, if Gadhafi was to stay in power, Libyan oil would no longer go to Europe but to BRIC (Brazil, China, Russia, India) countries instead.

Currently no less than 85% of Libya’s oil is sold to European Union (EU) countries. Libya is the largest oil economy in Africa with at least 46.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. That is 3.5% of global output. It has the potential to dramatically increase its daily output of oil and cost of production is very low at roughly $1.00 per barrel. All of this makes Libyan oil extremely attractive.

It’s interesting to note which countries voted in favour of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution approving “all necessary measures,” including imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya. The resolution was passed with 10 members, including the US, France, the UK and Lebanon, voting in favour and five — Russia, China (both permanent members with veto rights), Brazil, Germany and India — abstaining. Brazil and Germany had voiced their scepticism about military action; but in the case of Russia, India and China other (energy) motivations may have been at play.

It seems pretty obvious to me that oil did play a major role in the decision for Western intervention in Libya. Added to this are concerns about Libya being a major gateway for African migrants to get into Europe. Then there are those US/EU arms firms who likely to profiteer too. But the case for war has been sold as a humanitarian mission to help the beleaguered people of Libya being oppressed by Gadhafi. What about military intervention in Bahrain where the current Sunni ruling elite, along with their Saudi allies, are brutally cracking down on the local Shia population? The difference is Bahrain is ruled by a pro-western Sunni regime, which is home to the US Fifth Fleet, while in Libya everything is up for grabs.

There are major risks associated with implementing a no-fly zone, and it has every chance of backfiring. The big unknown is what Gadhafi will do. His minister of defence has already warned that all aerial and naval traffic in the Mediterranean is at risk, and every civilian and military target is fair game.

STRATFOR, a leading global intelligence company based in the US, warned that “war as a humanitarian action should be undertaken only with the clear understanding that in the end it might cause more suffering than the civil war. It should also be undertaken with the clear understanding that the inhabitants might prove less than grateful, and the rest of the world would not applaud nearly as much as might be liked — and would be faster to condemn the occupier when things went wrong. Indeed, the recently formed opposition council based out of Benghazi — the same group that is leading the calls from eastern Libya for foreign airstrikes against Gadhafi’s air force — has explicitly warned against any military intervention involving troops on the ground.”

There’s something eerily reminiscent of Iraq here. What is ostensibly sold as a humanitarian mission has the underlying signs of strategic interests being the real issue. There is the possibility that things may not go according to plan, which could lead to civilian casualities and a very unstable situation in Libya – something the West may learn to rue.

Our Lady of Akita's dire warning

2011-03-15T21:04:00.000Z

The epicentre of the earthquake that hit Japan on 11 March is less than 90 miles away from Akita, where Our Lady is purported to have appeared to a Japanese religious sister, Sr Agnes Sasagawa, in 1973. In these apparitions, which received approval from the Catholic Church after many years of investigation, the Virgin Mary foretold a number of future events, including natural disasters even more severe than the latest one, if people do not repent and turn back to God. As Japanese authorities try desperately to avert a catastrophe at a nuclear power plant that was badly damaged by the earthquake and tsunami, I’ve been reviewing Our Lady’s messages to Sr Agnes.

Sr Agnes lost her hearing when she was working as a catechist in the church of Myoko-kogen. Doctors declared her condition as total deafness and incurable. Documents were issued for this reason permitting her state subsidy. Unable to continue working as a catechist, she joined the religious life at the Institute of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist in Akita. It is here she received the stigmata and three messages from the Virgin Mary.

First message

The first message was given on the morning of 6 July 1973 while Sr Agnes was praying in the chapel. She heard a beautiful voice coming from a statue of the Virgin Mary, carved from a single block of wood from a Katsura tree. This was the message Sr Agnes received:

“My daughter, my novice, you have obeyed me well in abandoning all to follow me. Is the infirmity of your ears painful? Your deafness will be healed, be sure. Does the wound of your hand cause you to suffer? Pray in reparation for the sins of men. Each person in this community is my irreplaceable daughter. Do you say well the prayer of the Handmaids of the Eucharist? Then, let us pray it together.”

“Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in Holy Eucharist, I consecrate my body and soul to be entirely one with Your Heart, being sacrificed at every instant on all the altars of the world and giving praise to the Father pleading for the coming of His Kingdom.”

“Please receive this humble offering of myself. Use me as You will for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls.”

“Most holy Mother of God, never let me be separated from Your Divine Son. Please defend and protect me as Your Special Child. Amen.”

When the prayer was finished, the heavenly voice said:

“Pray very much for the pope, bishops, and priests. Since your baptism you have always prayed faithfully for them. Continue to pray very much... very much. Tell your superior all that passed today and obey him in everything that he will tell you. Your superior is wholeheartedly seeking prayers now.”

Second message

The second message, like the first message, was given by the heavenly voice coming from the statue on 3 August 1973. This is the second message:

“My daughter, my novice, do you love the Lord? If you love the Lord, listen to what I have to say to you.”

“It is very important...You will convey it to your superior.”

“Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and ingrates.”

“In order that the world might know the wrath of the Heavenly Father towards today’s world, He is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With my Son, many times I have tried to appease the wrath of the Heavenly Father. I have prevented the coming of the chastisement by offering Him the sufferings of His Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and the compassionate souls who console the Heavenly Father…a cohort of victim souls overflowing with love.”

“Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father's anger. I desire this also from your community: please make much of poverty, deepen repentance, and pray amid your poverty in reparation for the ingratitude and insults toward the Lord by so many men. Recite the prayer of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist with awareness of its meaning; put it into practice; offer your life to God in reparation for sins. Let each one endeavour, by making much of one's ability and position, to offer oneself entirely to the Lord.”

“Even in a secular institute prayer is necessary. Already souls who wish to pray are on the way to being gathered together. Without attaching to much attention to the form, be faithful and fervent in prayer to console the Master.”

After a moment, the voice continued:

“Is what you think in your heart true? Are you truly prepared to become the rejected stone: My novice, you who wish to become the pure bride of the Lord. In order that you, the bride, become the spouse worthy of the Holy Bridegroom, make your vows with the hearty readiness to be fastened to the Cross with three nails. These three nails are honest poverty, chastity and obedience. Of the three obedience is the foundation. With total obedience follow your superior. Your superior will understand you well and guide you.”

Third message

The third and last message was also given by the voice coming from the statue on 13 October 1973. This is the third message:

“My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. And relay my messages to your superior.”

“As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Heavenly Father will inflict a great punishment on all humanity. It will definitely be a punishment greater than the Deluge, such as has never been seen before.”

“Fire will plunge from the sky and a large part of humanity will perish... The good as well as the bad will perish, sparing neither priests nor the faithful. The survivors will find themselves plunged into such terrible hardships that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the sign left by My Son (Eucharist).”

“Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary pray for the bishops and priests. The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church. One will see cardinals opposing other cardinals... and bishops confronting other bishops.”

“The priests who venerate me will be scorned and condemned by their confreres; churches and altars will be sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will tempt many priests and religious to leave the service of the Lord.”

“The demon is trying hard to influence souls consecrated to God. The thought of the perdition of so many souls is the cause of My sadness. If sins continue to be committed further, there will no longer be pardon for them.”

“With courage, convey these messages to your superior. He will tell each one of you to continue prayers and acts of reparations for sins steadfastly, while ordering all of you to pray fervently. Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to help you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their total confidence in Me will be given necessary help.”

Other extraordinary events

Nearly two years later, on 4 January 1975, the statue of the Virgin Mary began to weep. This happened 101 times until 15 September 1981, the Feast of Our Lady of the Seven Dolours. There were hundreds of eyewitnesses including Bishop John Shojiro. Scientific examination of the liquid from the statue proved that they were human tears. Other events related to the statue included the flowing of blood from the right hand and a sweet smelling perspiration which was so abundant that it had to be wiped away.

Sr Agnes was cured of her deafness during mass on the Feast of Pentecost on 30 May 1982. Doctors who had examined her nine years previously, when she became deaf, were completely amazed. There was no natural explanation although this was in keeping with Our Lady’s promise in her first message to Sr Agnes.

Chastisement

It is plainly clear from the messages given by Our Lady in Akita that we can expect to see corruption and disunity in the Church as well as further natural disasters if men do not repent and turn back to God. The image of fire falling from the sky, a chastisement greater than the Deluge and a large part of humanity perishing is indeed frightening. What can this allude to? An asteroid hitting earth? A nuclear war? The persecution of the Antichrist?

I do believe we are living in truly diabolical times. Avarice, materialism, false pride, sexual immorality, pornography, abortion, terrorism, dissent against the teachings of the Catholic Church as well as other evil practices are so rampant today that what we are experiencing seems to be nothing short of a moral tsunami, and the tsunami shows no sign of receding.

Can a responsible and loving father stand back and ignore the wickedness of his children? He would not be a good father if he did so. Likewise, the same applies to God. Remember He is more concerned about our eternal destiny than our relatively short temporal existence.

Pope John Paul II said:

“We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and for Christ. Through your prayers and mine, it is possible to alleviate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because it is only in this way that the Church can be effectively renewed. How many times, indeed, has the renewal of the Church been effected in blood? This time, again, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong, we must prepare ourselves, we must entrust ourselves to Christ and to His Mother, and we must be attentive, very attentive, to the prayer of the Rosary.”

For the simple fact that we reap what we sow, the only possible way we can alleviate some of the trials that lay ahead of us is by recognising our faults, doing penance, praying and living more faithfully to the Word. Recall that in the Old Testament, when Jonah warned the people of Nineveh that God was going to destroy their city if they did not amend their lives, they heeded his message and Nineveh was spared God’s wrath. Likewise Our Lady of Akita’s request for men to turn back to God needs to be taken seriously; otherwise I think it will be well-nigh impossible to avoid the chastisement that she has forewarned us about.

Our Lady of Akita pray for us.

Japan earthquake and tsunami

2011-03-13T06:22:00.001Z

We watch with horror at the scenes of destruction wrought by the devastating earthquake off the coast of Japan and the tsunami it triggered. The powerful waves that spread across the shores of Japan did so as effortlessly and destructively as ink dropped on a sheet of virgin paper. At least 1,300 people are known to have died but the final death toll is likely to be much higher. If it wasn’t for the fact that buildings in Japan are designed to withstand earthquakes, I’m sure the carnage would have been much greater.

We are reminded once again of our frailty in the face of nature. Despite our best efforts, which do seem impressive to our human eyes, we are still extremely vulnerable to the worst that nature can throw at us. We are reminded also how fragile and short our existence on this earth is. We may be alive one minute but dead the next without even a hint of the unexpected. The humanist sees in this the reason to live life enjoying the fleeting pleasures of the world; but for the god fearing man this is justification for why he should live for the glory of God each day, so that when the moment of death finally arrives he is as prepared as possible for his salvation.

Let us remember the people of Japan and stand united with them in this time of need. O Lord, give them strength to cope with this tragedy and rebuild their lives. We pray for aid workers, soldiers, medical personnel and governments; that they are able to work together and help the injured, the bereaved and the lost. Let this tragedy open new avenues for partnerships and peace. Finally, let this remind us the need to turn back to you O Lord.

Suffering

2011-03-01T15:21:00.001Z

"What mortal has ever looked at suffering, with its severe and sombre countenance, or squared up to it, without soon blessing it as a sweet gift from heaven? Just as the hardest metals soften and melt under the effect of fire, so it is that suffering transforms noble souls. It arouses in them a virtue that moves, restores, supernaturalizes, and soothes them.

Take, for instance, the poor man who has long suffered indigence and unhappiness. If he attains wealth, he will use it with wisdom and moderation. He has learned through hard experience how much it costs to be poor, to eat a seldom-found load of bread, and to live on earth wandering, sick, and ignored.

Look at the statesman, the mighty and respected prince. If, before being raised to the throne, he has endured the anguish and bitterness of exile, if he has drunk to the full the cup of ingratitude and opprobrious conduct, he will not let himself be dazzled as much as another man by the grandeur and glitter of his sovereignty. He will willingly cast a respectful and compassionate eye upon an obscure subject fallen into disgrace. He knows that nobility of thought and loftiness of soul can lie hidden under rags no less than under the dignity of kinship; he calls to mind that he, too, has long lived in banishment, a fugitive unknown and defamed.

Or look at the priest: when, by the melancholy of his eyes, the premature deterioration of his features, and the smile of resignation on his lips, people conclude that suffering has often visited his soul, he is held in greater respect and affection. Those who are forsaken will learn their grief-stricken souls more trustingly upon his, in the belief that remedy and consolation are bound to flow from his soul in a more paternal and merciful manner.

Lastly, is this man, tried by long and bloody misfortunes, an obscure, forsaken creature? Far from despising him, we see in his pain a glorious purification of his life. A secret feeling tells us that such a man is a privileged being, carefully prepared by the divine hand for a destiny more glorious than that of time. In him we admire a nobility more splendid than that of blood, the nobility of suffering unflinchingly borne."

By an ancient philosopher

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor visits India on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI

2011-02-22T16:50:00.000Z

The former head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, has returned from a visit to India. He was representing Pope Benedict XVI in events commemorating the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's historic visit to the country.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor visited many of the areas Pope John Paul II did. In Delhi he celebrated Mass in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart; in Ranchi he discussed the central role the Eucharist plays in the life of the Church; in Calcutta he spoke about works of charity; in Cochin he preached on the central role of the Family; and in Bombay he met with the city's Clergy and Religious as well as seminarians at the Goregaon Seminary.

Speaking on the BBC Sunday Programme, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said: "India is the most fascinating country. What struck me most was the respect for religion."

"John Paul's visit had a huge impact at the time. I spoke mostly on the themes he had spoken on himself. I spoke on the family; young people, tribal issues, the Holy Eucharist and inter-religious dialogue."

"What struck me was what an extraordinary brave and courageous man he was. I was in India for ten days and was very tired at the end of it. Pope John Paul went all over the world with huge crowds - proclaiming his belief in Jesus Christ - an apostle of the Gospel. I remember him saying that I want to be in every country; in every home. He was an extraordinary man. My visit made me reflect that he was also a man with enormous faith; enormous stamina to undergo these great visits, but also an apostle who wished to put his belief before the world."

"Twenty five years ago, Pope John Paul II said to the Indian Catholic Church - 'you are a very tiny minority, but you are important - you have a very special part to play in this country with its myriad number of religions.'"

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said that the Church in India today is "confident and vibrant." He praised the Indian Catholic Church's distinctive liturgy and customs. "Wherever I went I was garlanded and the crowds were enormously enthusiastic. It was very moving."

According to Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi, Pope Benedict XVI is also interested in coming to India, but he may not be able to visit as many places in the country as his predecessor.

"Whenever I meet the Pope, I talk to him about visiting India. Quite a number of Indians were his students when he was teaching before becoming the Pope. He is interested to come to India to see his students," Cardinal Toppo told a gathering of Catholic religious and lay workers in his Archdiocese.

"Maybe, if Mother Teresa is canonised in India, probably he can come here for the canonisation ceremony," Cardinal Toppo said.

I think the canonisation of Mother Teresa, whenever that happens, would be a great time for another papal visit to India. Not only would that be an opportunity to celebrate one of the greatest Catholic saints in modern times, but it would also give India’s small Catholic community a great boost. Living the Christian faith in a highly pluralistic and highly stratified society is a quite a challenge, and in recent times there have been attacks from Hindu extremists.

Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, who headed a recent Vatican delegation to India, encouraged the Church in India to foster “inculturated catechism." By this he means the Church should imbibe and assimilate local cultures, without of course impacting the doctrines of the faith, so that the Indian Church is fully Catholic and authentically Indian. I think that is the way to go. Insisting on Latin mass and other western traditions on the Church in India is really futile. What matters is people practice their faith in the most practical and appropriate manner.

Our Lady of Fatima – Part 2

2011-02-12T12:35:00.000Z

Continued from Our Lady of Fatima - Part 1

13 August 1917

On 13 August 1917 the children were unable to keep their appointment with Our Lady because they were kidnapped by the Mayor of Ourem, Artur de Oliveira Santos, who was a Freemason. As a member of the Leira Masonic Lodge he had founded a branch in Ourem, the administrative centre of the area which included Fatima. Duty bound to his beliefs, his Lodge, and his position, Artur saw it as his responsibility to quash the religious fervour that was breaking out in his territory.

The Mayor offered the children money and other blandishments to try and get them to disclose their secrets. When this didn’t work he became more intimidating. He threw them into the town’s public jail and threatened to kill them by boiling them in hot oil if they didn’t reveal him their secrets. The children bravely refused, determined they would rather die than disclose anything. Eventually the Mayor released the children and took them back to Fatima on 15 August, the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady.

19 August 1917

On 19 August 1917, while the children were grazing their flock in Valinhos, near Fatima, Our Lady appeared to them on another holm-oak tree.

Lucia asked the customary question, "What do you want of me?"

"I want you to continue going to the Cova da Iria on the 13th, and to continue praying the Rosary every day. In the last month, I will perform a miracle so that all may believe."

"What do you want done with the money the people leave in the Cova da Iria?"

"Have two litters made. One is to be carried by you and Jacinta and two other girls dressed in white; the other one is to be carried by Francisco and three other boys. The money from the litters is for the ‘festa’ of Our Lady of the Rosary, and what is left over will help to towards the construction of a chapel that is to be built here."

Lucia asked Our Lady if she could cure certain sick people. Our Lady replied she will cure some of them during the year. Then, looking very sad, she added, "Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them."

There was no light from Our Lady's hands during this Apparition, and she simply rose and disappeared towards the east.

13 September 1917

Between August and September, the children devised dozens of sacrifices to offer in reparation and for the conversion of sinners. Often these sacrifices caused them much suffering.

A crowd of around thirty thousand gathered in the Cova for the September Apparition. As the children arrived, people pleaded with them to ask Our Lady to cure ailments they or their loved ones were suffering. Members of the anti-religious press were there too, and one of them even had the audacity to snip off Lucia’s long plaits with a pair of scissors.

It wasn't long after the children arrived that Our Lady appeared to them, standing on the holm-oak tree. She said, "Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war. In October Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Dolours and Our Lady of Carmel. St Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world. God is pleased with your sacrifices. He does not want you to sleep with the rope on, but only wear it during the day time."

When Lucia asked Our Lady for various cures, she replied: "Yes, I will cure some, but not others. In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe." Then she simply rose, moved off to the east and disappeared.

13 October 1917

The news of an expected miracle had spread all around Portugal, and created a great deal of speculation, so that on 13 October 1917 a huge crowd of around 70,000 people, from many different parts of the country, assembled at the Cova. At a time when there was no television, radio, internet or mass transport this was all the more remarkable, and they had to contend with torrential rain.

The children had trouble getting through the crowd to the tree; but once they were there, Lucia, moved as she says by an interior impulse, asked the people to shut their umbrellas and say the Rosary. It wasn’t long before their heavenly visitor appeared in her usual position.

"What do you want of me?" Lucia asked.

"I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honour. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes."

Lucia asked Our Lady to cure various sick people, to which she replied, "Some yes, but not others. They must amend their lives and ask forgiveness for their sins." Then looking very sad, she added, “Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended.”

Then Our Lady began to rise towards the east, but while doing so she opened her hands and made them reflect on the sun. As she disappeared, her own light continued to be reflected on the sun. Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco did not see the famous "Miracle of the Sun" that followed; instead they saw various Apparitions of Our Lady, St Joseph and Jesus.

Miracle of the Sun

The vast crowd witnessed a spectacular miracle, which is well documented and will forever be associated with Fatima. Many eyewitnesses reported seeing the dark clouds part and the sun appearing as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky, which could be looked at without any discomfort. The sun cast multicoloured lights across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. Then it seemed to careen towards the earth in a zigzag pattern, frightening some of those present who thought it was the end of the world.

The journalist Avelino de Almeida, who had previously written a satirical article about the Apparitions in the anti-religious pro-government newspaper O Seculo, was forced to change his tune after the miracle. This is his description of what happened:

"From the road, where the vehicles were parked and where hundreds of people who had not dared to brave the mud were congregated, one could see the immense multitude turn toward the sun, which appeared free from clouds and in its zenith. It looked like a plaque of dull silver, and it was possible to look at it without the least discomfort. It might have been an eclipse which was taking place. But at that moment a great shout went up, and one could hear the spectators nearest at hand shouting: 'A miracle! A miracle!'

Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was biblical as they stood bareheaded, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws - the sun 'danced' according to the typical expression of the people.

Standing at the step of an omnibus was an old man. With his face turned to the sun, he recited the Credo in a loud voice. I asked who he was and was told Senhor Joao da Cunha Vasconcelos. I saw him afterwards going up to those around him who still had their hats on, and vehemently imploring them to uncover before such an extraordinary demonstration of the existence of God.

Identical scenes were repeated elsewhere, and in one place a woman cried out: 'How terrible! There are even men who do not uncover before such a stupendous miracle!'

People then began to ask each other what they had seen. The great majority admitted to having seen the trembling and the dancing of the sun; others affirmed that they saw the face of the Blessed Virgin; others, again, swore that the sun whirled on itself like a giant Catherine wheel and that it lowered itself to the earth as if to burn it in its rays. Some said they saw it change colours successively...."

The solar activity was also reported by people up to 18km from Fatima, ruling out the possibility of a mass hallucination. Some people, including believers, saw nothing at all. Another interesting but important fact is that the heat of the sun, as it descended on the people, had the effect of drying their clothes and the ground, so that they went from being completely soaked to being dry in ten minutes. Since there were no reports of unusual solar activity anywhere else, the only valid explanation is that the crowd in Fatima witnessed a true miracle.

Private Apparitions

Jacinta and Francisco were to depart from this world early just as Our Lady had indicated; both succumbed to the effects of the influenza epidemic that swept Europe as the Great War came to an end. Lucia became a religious sister; she joined the Dorothean Congregation initially but later joined the Carmelites. Although the 'public' Apparitions came to an end in October 1917, Our Lady did appear to the children privately, thus keeping her word that she would never abandon them.

On 10 December 1925, when Lucia was in her room on the second storey of the Dorothean Convent, she saw an Apparition of Our Lady with the Infant Jesus. Mary told Lucia to announce that she promised all the graces necessary for salvation to those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, confessed, received Holy Communion, recited five decades of the Rosary, and meditated on the Rosary for fifteen minutes, all with the intention of making reparation to her.

In another Apparition on 13 June 1929, Mary told Lucia to ask the Pope, in union with all the bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart that she had spoken of during the July 1917 Apparition.

In August 1931, Our Lord, in a private communication to Lucia, complained: "They have not chosen to heed my request...Like the King of France, they will regret it and then will do it, but it will be too late. Russia will already have spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions against the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer." The reference to the King of France is thought to be the failure of King Louis XIV to consecrate France to The Sacred Heart, as revealed by St Margaret Mary Alacoque, and the French Revolution was the outcome.

On 25 January 1938, a strange light was seen in the skies all over Europe. This was described as a brilliant display of the Aurora Borealis, but Sr Lucia realised it was the "unknown light" announced by Our Lady in the July Apparition. This meant punishment for the world was close, principally through the Second World War, because people had not turned back to God.

Consecration of Russia

On 31 October 1942 Pope Pius XII consecrated the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in a Portuguese language radio broadcast. Although he didn’t specifically mention Russia, because it would have been politically imprudent to do so, he referred to "those people separated by error and discord." Sr Lucia said that this did not fulfil Our Lady’s request because it lacked the participation of all the bishops.

Further attempts to consecrate Russia were made by Pope John XXIII in 1960 and Pope Paul VI in 1965, but again they did not properly fulfil the terms of Our Lady’s request. Finally on 25 March 1984 in Rome, on the feast of the Annunciation, Pope John II consecrated the whole world, "especially the peoples for which by reason of their situation you have particular love and solicitude," to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Although he didn’t specifically mention Russia, he meant Russia when he said "the peoples…" Sr Lucia said that this attempt, made in union with all the bishops of the world, fulfilled Our Lady’s request and was accepted in heaven.

In a private correspondence, Sr Lucia further revealed that the 1984 consecration of Russia prevented a nuclear war that would have taken place in 1985. Historical records show that the United States of America and Russia did indeed come very close to such a war in the mid 1980s.

Fatima today

In 1930 Bishop Correia of the Diocese of Leiria, which includes Fatima, after careful investigation of the events there, formally approved the Apparitions. The Catholic Church generally takes a very cautious line in approving any apparition. Despite hundreds of claims of purported apparitions in the twentieth century, just eight received Church approval. Only if there are clear signs that an apparition is of supernatural origin is it approved, and in the case of Fatima this was deemed to be the case.

The messages given by Our Lady, the characters involved and the famous Miracle of the Sun are what make Fatima such an important Marian shrine. At a time when regimes seemed determined to bury God and persecute the Church, Our Lady stepped in to start something of a counter-revolution in the hearts and minds of people, and she chose the most unlikely candidates to implement it. What this shows is that heaven’s values are opposite to ours, and God is ultimately in control.

The revolution Mary started in 1917 continues to the present day, for many millions of pilgrims still visit Fatima every year. A beautiful neoclassical basilica stands at the site of the Apparitions. Consecrated in October 1953, the basilica houses the tombs of the three children – Blessed Francisco Marto, Blessed Jacinta Marto and Sr Lucia dos Santos. Scenes of the Apparitions are shown in stained glass. A second larger basilica has recently been opened to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims. The message of Fatima has spread wide and continues to do so.

Our Lady of Fatima - Part 1

2011-02-04T14:08:00.000Z

In 1917, Portugal seemed destined to follow the path of other European countries and turn increasingly hostile toward religion. Anti-clerical forces had taken the reins of power in the country and the Church was represented as an outdated institution, full of superstition. The new thinking, emboldened by the Great War and an increasingly materialistic western outlook on life, was all for destroying the Church's influence; but the godless forces reckoned without the faith of the Portuguese peasantry and the concern of heaven.

As the Great War raged on, Russia was in a state of crisis by 1916 and this gave the communist revolutionaries under Lenin their chance to take power. Pope Benedict XV made repeated pleas for peace, but to no avail. Finally, in May 1917, he made a direct appeal to Mary to intercede for peace. The response was her first appearance at Fatima, Portugal, just over a week later to three illiterate peasant children – Lucia dos Santos, aged ten, and her two cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged eight and seven respectively. The children had been prepared for their meeting with Mary by an angel, who introduced himself as the "Angel of Peace".

13 May 1917

On 13 May 1917 the children took their flocks to an area called Cova da Iria (meaning "peaceful hollow" or "valley of peace"). After eating their lunch and saying the rosary, they suddenly saw a bright flash of something like lightning, followed quickly by another flash in the clear blue sky. Then appeared before them, standing on top of the branches of a young holm-oak tree, "a lady all dressed in white. She was more brilliant than the sun and radiated a light clearer and more intense than a crystal glass filled with sparkling water, when the rays of the burning sun shine through it."

Lucia asked, "Where are you from?" The lady pointed to the sky and said, "I am from heaven."

Lucia then asked what she wanted. The lady replied, "I have come to ask you to come here for six months on the 13th day of the month, at this same hour. Later on I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterwards I will return here yet a seventh time."

Lucia, curious as ever, then asked if they would go to heaven. The lady replied they would, but Francisco would have to say many more rosaries. Did this mean Francisco was a spiritual cut below the girls? Or was this a diplomatic way of stopping Lucia from asking if her relatives and neighbours were going to heaven too? Lucia's next question was on the same lines, though about a sixteen year old who had died recently.

"Is Maria das Neves in heaven?"

"Yes, she is."

"And Amelia?"

"She will be in purgatory until the end of the world."

Our Lady then asked the children, "Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?" The children could have refused her request at this point, but they willingly acquiesced.

"Then you are going to have much to suffer but the grace of God will be your comfort."

As Our Lady said this, she opened her hands and communicated a light on them, which penetrated their souls and allowed them to see themselves in God. This gesture of Our Lady was to be repeated at three subsequent Apparitions.

"Pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world, and the end of the war."

Then she began to rise serenely, going up towards the east, until she disappeared.

13 June 1917

Between May and June, the children thought of sacrifices to make for the reparation of sinners, as the Lady had requested, and prayed their Rosaries. For Lucia, the greatest sacrifice came at home where her mother insisted she was lying and tried to force her to recant. The reaction of the local people was also sceptical and even derisory. So just as the Lady had told them, the children had much to suffer.

The 13th of June is the feast of St Anthony, Portugal's patron saint, and the day is marked by festivities across the land. On this particular day, however, the children showed no interest in the activities associated with the saint. Instead, they went to the Cova da Iria and waited for their appointment with Our Lady and recited the Rosary. About fifty or so local people joined them.

Our Lady promptly appeared at midday in the same place, just as she had a month ago. Lucia asked, "What do you want of me?"

"I wish you to come here on the 13th of next month, to pray the Rosary every day, and to learn to read. Later I will tell you what I want."

Lucia then asked Our Lady to take them to heaven. She replied, "Yes. I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon. But you are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. I promise salvation to those who embrace it, and those souls will be loved by God like flowers placed by me to adorn his throne."

Lucia, sad at the first part of this reply, said: "Am I to stay here alone?" To which Our Lady replied, "No my daughter. Are you suffering a great deal? Don't lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God."

One of the witnesses to this Apparition, Maria Carreira, described how Lucia cried out and pointed as Mary departed. She herself heard a noise like "a rocket, a long way off," and saw a small cloud a few inches over the tree, rise, and move slowly toward the east until it disappeared.

13 July 1917

Between June and July, the children had to bear more taunts and insults about their alleged Apparitions. Lucia's mother was so opposed to her daughter's claims that she scolded, threatened and, at times, gave Lucia the silent treatment. Even the local parish priest was not convinced, and he suggested the visions, if they were genuine, could be of satanic origin. So distressed was Lucia that she decided not to go to the Cova on 13 July, and she held that stance until the last moment when she felt drawn by inn force.

Despite the disbelief and hostility shown to the children, word of the alleged Apparitions had spread outside the bounds of the Fatima parish and some three to four thousand people gathered at the Cova. As soon as the children arrived, they saw the flashes of light signalling the approach of their heavenly visitor. Then Our Lady appeared, standing on the little tree.

Lucia asked, "What do you want of me?"

"I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, to continue to pray the Rosary every day, in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you."

It is interesting to note here that Our Lady, who still hadn't told the children who she was, referred to herself as if she was someone else. Lucia then asked a question, which seemed carefully prepared: "I would like to ask you to tell us who you are, and to work a miracle so that everybody will believe that you are appearing to us."

"Continue to come here every month. In October I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe."

Various sick people had petitioned Lucia to ask Our Lady for cures. When Lucia asked for these favours, Our Lady replied that these people must pray the Rosary in order to obtain these graces during the year. She added, "Sacrifice yourself for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifices: 'O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.'"

Vision of hell

Our Lady then opened her hands to emit the light of God, but this time the light penetrated the earth to show a terrifying vision of hell. This is Lucia account in her words:

"The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succour, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly:

'You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.'

'To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved…'"

The vision of hell is known as the First Secret of Fatima. The Second Secret is the statement about World War I ending and another future war during the pontificate of Pius XI if men continue to offend God.

Third Secret of Fatima

Our Lady also showed the children a prophetic vision, which came to be known as the Third Secret of Fatima. Lucia wrote the secret down on 3rd January 1944 and, after a period of 83 years, it was announced by Cardinal Sodano that the secret would be released. Here is the text of the secret, which was published on 26 June 2000:

"I write in obedience to you, my God, who command me to do so through his Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and through your Most Holy Mother and mine."

"After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!' And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."

Cardinal Sodano explained that the secret was about the persecution of Christians in the 20th century by atheist regimes that culminated in the failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II on 13 May 1981. Pope John Paul II himself spoke of "a motherly hand which guided the bullet's path," enabling him to halt "at threshold of death." The assassination attempt took place on the anniversary of Our Lady's first appearance in Fatima.

Our Lady told Lucia not to reveal the secret at that stage to anyone. Then she continued, "When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: 'O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need.'" After assuring Lucia that there was nothing more she needed of her that day, she rose toward the east and disappeared.

Continued...

Vatican group looks at role of Indian theologians

2011-01-22T20:35:00.000Z

Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), is leading a Vatican delegation to India to discuss the role of Indian theologians in the context of global theology. A seven-day closed door colloquium began in Bangalore on January 16 with 28 bishops and 26 leading theologians from India, ucanews.com reports.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said, “We are discussing the role of the Indian theologians as responsible theologians.” The basis for the discussion is Donum Veritas, the 1990 Vatican instruction on the role of theologians in the Church. The cardinal said their discussions included topics such as inculturation and pluralism.

A theology professor, who is not attending the colloquium, says globalization of culture in the modern world has led to the emergence of a global theology. "The pluralistic theologians have begun to dilute Christianity as one of the many religions to go to God. In this context, such a colloquium could become an alerting occasion," he told ucanews.com on condition of anonymity.

Unfortunately, Indian theologians have earned a reputation for being some of the most dangerous in the world today. John L. Allen Jr., Senior Correspondent at National Catholic ~~Register~~ Reporter, says:

“India has acquired a reputation for some of the most adventurous theology in Catholicism today, especially in “religious pluralism.” Thinkers such as Michael Amaladoss, Felix Wilfred, Raimon Panikkar, Aloysius Pieris and Jacques Dupuis, all of whom are either Indian or influenced by India, have been controversial because of the various ways in which they try to give positive theological value to non-Christian religions. That’s a logical development given India’s religious diversity, but it has raised alarms in quarters of the Church identified with evangelical Catholicism. Catholic leaders will want to encourage theological exploration that can open up dialogue, but without transgressing doctrinal limits.”

Let’s hope the discussions go well. India is important to the Vatican because the country could potentially be an important player in Catholic affairs in the 21st century. If current growth rates continue, there could be almost 30 million Catholics in India by 2050 – not big by Indian standards but large by Catholic ones. Hence the need to root out doctrinal errors earlier rather than later.

Video: Britain's war on Christianity

2010-12-26T10:39:00.000Z

Merry Christmas

2010-12-19T15:32:00.000Z

Merry Christmas to all my readers. It's been a particularly harsh winter in Britain so far. Heavy snow has affected most of the country, causing travel chaos for many, many people. Roads, airports, train and other public services have all been severely affected. Normally snow hits my part of the country in January or February, but this year it has come early and with a vengeance. A few people have even died due to the effects of the weather. British people often dream of a white Christmas, but now that it has come and caused so much misery I wonder how many still feel this way!

We have put up the Christmas tree and decorations in our house, and we are eagerly counting down to the big day commemorating Christ's birth. Despite the commercialisation of Christmas in recent times, it is still a wonderful and joyous occasion. What is truly touching for me is that God chose to come into this world in the humblest of circumstances, in a lowly manger in Bethlehem, and lived among us. That shows He does not care for one's position in this world; He loves everyone.

In a dark and troubled world, Jesus offers divine light. This is what St John has to say about that:

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it...The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world...He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God...And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.

Thank God for the Light. Have a great Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

What do Wallace and Gromit have to do with Christmas?

2010-12-08T20:43:00.000Z

When I went to my local Post Office recently to buy a pack of Christmas stamps, I was rather disappointed to see the animation characters Wallace and Gromit adorning them. I do recall seeing Wallace and Gromit briefly on television, but they are neither widely known in Britain nor do they have any historic connection with Christmas. I later discovered that you have to specifically ask for religious Christmas stamps, otherwise you will be given Wallace and Gromit stamps by default. However, when my elderly next-door neighbour went to Sainsbury’s, a major supermarket here, and specifically asked for Christian stamps, she was told they didn’t have any. She wasn’t too happy.

In 2005, Royal Mail was involved in an unnecessary controversy with the Hindu Forum of Britain over a Christmas stamp that showed a man and a woman, with Hindu markings on their foreheads, with baby Jesus. Ramesh Kallidai, secretary for the umbrella network of British Hindus, declared that it was insensitive to use it at a time when the issue of conversions in India had been a subject of heated debate. Little did Kallidai know that the stamp was a reproduction of a famous Indian painting owned by Hindu nationalist hero Nana Phadnavis. The picture was a much-loved attraction in the Mumbai Municipal Museum for years. Ramesh Kallidai is one of a number of self-appointed religious leaders in this country who seek to speak for their communities despite holding views on the ultra-conservative end of their constituencies.

Today many Christians in Britain feel there have been attempts by secular campaigners and public authorities to downplay the Christian aspect of Christmas to appease non-Christians. The evidence I think is compelling, from local councils renaming Christmas as “Winterval” to discouragement of public carol-singing and nativity plays in schools, as well as some offices banning Christmas decorations. Yet these people encourage the celebration of non-Christian festivals like Eid and Diwali. For many Christians this special treatment for Hindu and Muslim festivals, while deliberately downplaying Christmas, smacks of double standards.

I do not believe Christians are persecuted in this country, but there have been a number of high profile cases in recent years that have made Christians feel they are victims of discrimination because of their faith. Here are a few examples:

BA check-in desk worker Nadia Eweida was suspended in November 2006 for refusing to remove her crucifix. The airline backed down after large-scale protests, but the 58-year-old lost a claim for compensation.
Islington Council registrar Lilian Ladele refused to conduct civil partneship ceremonies because she said they went against her beliefs. But the Appeal Court ruled the laws which prevent discrimination against homosexuals trumped her right to follow her conscience and she left her job.
Nurse Caroline Petrie, 45, offered to pray for a 79-year-old patient and was suspended by North Somerset Care Trust, even though the patient didn’t complain. After an outcry she was invited back to work.
A foster mother with ten years' experience was struck off after a Muslim girl she was looking after converted to Christianity. The Muslim girl was sixteen at the time and had decided by her own initiative to become a Christian.
All but one of the Roman Catholic adoption agencies have closed down because of equality laws that force them to consider same sex couples.

These cases show a growing intolerance to Christians who wish to pursue their faith publicly.

Wallace and Gromit Christmas stamps may not be a big deal, but it epitomises Britain’s shift away from its Judeo-Christian heritage. I do believe this will bring profound changes. An erosion of the country’s traditional values will also mean an erosion of the social, political and economic institutions that Christianity helped to shape. British values like politeness, honesty, tolerance and fair play, which are based on Christian values, may slowly become a thing of the past.

Although for historical reasons the church in Britain still enjoys privileges that other religions do not, its detractors are loud and determined. There is a secular elite in this country which is determined to marginalise Christianity in the public sphere, while treating other faiths much more sympathetically. Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, says Christians in the west must be alert to these trends:

“It is understandable that in the West - a bastion of freedom and tolerance - Christians tend to think that persecution is something that happens only to believers in far-flung places. But it is becoming increasingly apparent that we too need to steel ourselves for suffering if we are going to make a stand for Christ.”

Unless Christians in Britain are prepared to stand up for their beliefs, I do believe tough times lie ahead.

Wallace and Gromit are simply animation characters. You can make what you like of them, but they are not real. We have, however, good reasons to delight in the nativity story, which still manages to touch people in many different parts of the world. That to me will always be the true meaning of Christmas.

Why does God allow suffering?

2010-12-02T06:05:00.000Z

On 31 October 2010, Muslim extremists attacked Our Lady of Salvation Syrian Catholic Church in central Baghdad, Iraq. They killed 52 innocent people including three priests during mass. Among the dead was three years old Adam, pictured here. He witnessed the deaths of his own parents before being murdered himself a few hours later. The brutality of this massacre is truly shocking, and it will only force more Iraqi Christians, who are already feeling increasingly threatened, to flee their homeland.

A common question many people ask is: if God is good, why does He allow so much suffering to happen? It is a reasonable question. Atheists often ask the same question to challenge the very existence of God. However, you cannot seek a moral explanation without presupposing the universe is a moral system, i.e. governed by a moral being or moral law. I have to admit that in times of deep sorrow, one’s faith in God can be shaken and severely tested. It is easy to blame God or reject Him in such situations, but a deeper look at our scriptures can explain why God allows suffering to happen.

Non-Christian viewpoints

Let us briefly look at some non-Christian viewpoints first. In Hinduism suffering is considered to be just punishment for one’s sins, either in this life or in a previous one. This is the concept of karma, which is shared in other Indian religions like Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. In Buddhism suffering plays a central role: it teaches suffering is caused by attachment to transient things and the ignorance thereof. The way to avoid suffering is by gradual self-improvement and detachment in order to reach a state of nirvana (or enlightenment). In Islam suffering is the result of human imperfection and unbelief; it is necessary to test one’s faith and strengthen it. So suffering is the will of God – inshallah.

The problem I have with these viewpoints is how suffering seems to be built into the law of the cosmos. Clearly in many cases it isn’t deserved? If punishment is governed by a cosmic law, then is the amount of suffering also built in? Is it not right to try and alleviate suffering? According to the law of karma that would be wrong, akin to letting the guilty out of jail.

Christian viewpoint

It’s clear from the bible that God doesn’t like suffering, which results mainly from the misuse of our gift of free will. There was a time on this earth when there was no suffering. God wanted man to live in peace and harmony without ever having to experience sorrow. However, due to the Fall in the Garden of Eden suffering entered the world. We became separated from God and the consequences were death and sorrow. Paul says in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” We are all born with a sinful nature, which we inherit from Adam and Eve.

Although God does not like seeing people suffer He clearly allows it for various reasons. The main reason is simply to remind us that something is wrong. If everything were alright between man and God, there would be no sorrow and death because in the beginning there was none. The leper of Matthew 8:2 would never have come to Jesus if he had been in perfect health, nor the blind man of Luke 18:35. It’s clear from the bible that God reaches people through suffering.

In the Old Testament, God gave the people of Israel the responsibility to uphold His law. Whenever they disobeyed and became wicked, God allowed armies from neighbouring countries to attack Israel. This was His way of disciplining His people. Just like a responsible father sometimes scolds his child, God also disciplines His children. Hebrews 12:6-8 says, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” Paul in Corinthians 11:31-32 tells us we can avoid often God’s chastisement by judging ourselves instead of ignoring our sins, thus forcing God to judge us.

Of course, there are cases in the bible where suffering seemed overly harsh. Paul was faithful to Christ after his conversion, yet he had to endure much hardship. He said in this letters that suffering made him stronger and kept him humble. God allowed Satan to take Job’s oxen, his asses, his sheep, his camels, his servants, his children and even his health. Yet Job did not curse God and remained faithful, for which he was richly rewarded in the end. The lesson is that even the just may suffer, and their sufferings are a test of their fidelity. They will be rewarded in the end.

Jesus

We have to accept that in this world, where Satan uses all kinds of tricks to deceive us, suffering is an inherent part of life. We have to live with it, but try the best we can to cope and help others. Jesus did warn us that to follow Him will invite trouble (Mark 8:34): “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” In our times of distress we can look to Jesus, for He, who was without sin, was condemned and crucified on a cross but rose again on the third day.

In John 11:25-26 Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." So don’t be disheartened. Whatever you suffer on earth is nothing compared to eternal separation from God. Jesus has already paid for your sins by dying on the cross. Just believe in Him, trust Him, love Him and worship Him and you too can look forward to eternal happiness.

European economic woes

2010-11-20T22:10:00.000Z

The men in suits from the European Commission and the IMF have descended on Dublin. Ireland is in serious economic trouble. Its banks are virtually bust and its budget deficit (32%) is the worst in Europe. The Irish public are already enduring severe austerity measures including raised taxes and reduced salaries. The days when Ireland’s economy was known as the “Celtic Tiger” are truly over.

Ireland experienced a classic property boom from 2000 to 2006. During this time banks became reckless with their lending. Then when the bubble finally burst the loans turned bad, and the banks and the economy suffered. This has happened in other countries too. The problem for Ireland is that, being part of the single European currency (Euro), it doesn’t have the necessary tools, like devaluing its currency and lowering interest rates, to stimulate growth.

There are fears that the crisis in Ireland could spread to other European countries like Portugal and Spain. Hence the urgency to deal with the Irish crisis and avert a contagion that might result in another economic downturn. Unemployment within many European countries has increased and economic growth remains sluggish. Added to this are measures taken by governments to cut public spending in order to reduce their deficits. This is likely to slow economic growth further and result in more unemployment.

IMF

When the IMF gets involved, you know there are serious problems. This is an organisation which emerged at the end of World War II to assist the reconstruction of a devastated Europe. It was founded on the belief that markets often worked badly, and there is a need to put international pressure on countries to stop their economies going into a slump. Although the ideas and intentions behind it were good, the IMF has evolved into something very different today. It is now part of a new “Washington Consensus” – a consensus composed of itself, the World Bank and the US Treasury – that believes in market fundamentalism. It has made mistakes in all areas it has been involved: development, crisis management, and countries making the transition from communism to capitalism.

Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says about the IMF in his book “Globalization and its discontents”:

“The Fund believes it is fulfilling the tasks assigned to it: promoting global stability, helping developing countries in transition achieve not only stability but also growth. Until recently it debated whether it should be concerned with poverty – that was the responsibility of the World Bank – but today it has even taken that on board as well, at least rhetorically. I believe, however, that it has failed in its mission, that the failures are not just accidental but the consequences of how it has understood its mission.”

Social contexts

The problem with many of the technocrats in institutions like the IMF is that they are short-sighted about the effects of their policies. They’re driven by a blind faith in markets. They often do not know a country well, yet propose solutions for that country as though they know everything about it. Globalization can be beneficial for many people, but it can cause a lot of misery too. One has to be mindful of the social contexts within countries before implementing policies; if not, policies can be counterproductive.

Cuts in government spending will inevitably increase unemployment. This has the potential of increasing social tension. It is important that governments are wary of this as they pursue deficit reductions. In Europe, far right nationalist parties have made gains in recent elections. The rise of the Third Reich before World War II occurred under very depressed economic conditions. Such conditions, as well as wounded national pride, provided a perfect platform for the Nazis to take control of Germany. While Europe is still a long way from the levels of fascism that led to World War II, history has shown far right parties are capable of exploiting economic downturns for their political advantage.

It’s likely the whole of Europe will experience low growth as a result of cuts in many countries. Severe austerity measures could even push the region back into recession, which will have global implications. The people likely to suffer the most are the poor. It’s important governments do not destroy basic safety nets. It remains to be seen if contagion is avoided and the single European currency will survive. Many economists predict a new “normal” of higher unemployment rates, lower growth and lower levels of public services. For countries like Ireland, their economic woes are just beginning.

Thanks Joseph

2010-11-17T14:55:00.001Z

I would like to thank Joseph Pulikotil for giving me this blog award. It's truly an honour.

Joseph blogs here: A MAN ON THE MOVE

I find his blog extremely interesting and inspiring. Since Joseph comes from my native place - Kerala - it's always a pleasure to read his posts; they usually contain lovely photos from back home.

Blogging for me is a part-time activity that has to be balanced with work and family commitments. Personally, I like to read around my subject before I write about it. So it's as much a learning experience as it is a hobby.

I'm still trying to improve my blogging skills. I regard Joseph, however, as an accomplished blogger. His blog always attracts a regular stream of visitors from different parts of the world. Please do visit his blog.

Chinese characters bear the imprint of Genesis

2010-10-31T15:46:00.000Z

The Chinese language is a pictorial language, which has been used for more than 4,000 years. There are about 600 basic symbols, which are basic words. Other words are formed by combining these basic symbols to more complicated pictures. What I find fascinating is how the language seems to echo Genesis, the first book of the Bible. A look at some words will illustrate this.

Chinese characters

The word "creation" or "to create" is built from 4 signs - dust, breath (or mouth), alive and walking - the first three of which, placed together, mean "to talk".

In Genesis, the first man – Adam - was made out of the dust of the earth. God breathed with His mouth the breath of life into Adam's nostrils, and Adam became a living soul able to talk and walk.

The "garden" character is made from the sign "enclosure", divided in four parts.

In Genesis, the Garden of Eden had four rivers: Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates.

The character meaning "to warn" or "forbidden" consists of two characters for "tree" and one for "God".

In Genesis, God had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Life.

The character for "desire" or "covet" is formed of two trees on top and the character for "woman" below.

Compare this with Genesis 3:6 where the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

The character for "beginning" is made from "woman", "secretly" and "mouth" (also meaning "to eat").

This seems to reflect the beginning of original sin after Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

The character for "devil" is built from "alive" or "moving", "garden", "man", and "privately" or "secretly". So we find a secret man alive in the garden: the devil!

The character for "boat" is built from three signs: a vessel, eight and people. So eight people in a vessel makes a boat.

This is symbolic of the eight passengers on Noah’s Ark who survived the Great Flood.

Genesis

According to the biblical account, a united humanity, speaking a single language, existed after the Great Flood, which wandered for many years and eventually settled in the land of Shinar. When the people wanted to build a tower that reached into God’s sphere of heaven, effectively to ‘challenge heaven’, God was greatly offended. He decided to confuse them and they started to speak different languages. Unable to communicate with each other, they scattered around the world.

The people who climbed the mountains to the east and eventually settled when they reached the sea became the great nation of China. They took with them the pictorial language which had been in use until the time of Babel. They also took with them the knowledge of the events in Genesis 1-11. This was before Moses wrote them down centuries later. This shows that the Bible is not a Jewish invention but based on reality.

The people who first arrived in China believed in one God. It was only after Confucius and Buddha that they got involved in idolatry.

Hope Without Fear Event, Westminster

2010-10-23T19:43:00.000+01:00

On Saturday 16 October 2010 I went to Westminster Cathedral, the mother church of the Roman Catholic community in England and Wales, to attend Aid to the Church in Need’s annual mass and ‘Hope Without Fear’ event. I am a supporter of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which is an association connected with the Catholic Church that works for oppressed and persecuted Christians around the world. It was founded by a Dutch priest, Fr Werenfried van Straaten, on Christmas Day in 1947 to help refugees in the wake of the Second World War. Since then its mission has gradually expanded to help poor, forgotten and persecuted Christians in more than 140 countries.

Westminster Cathedral

This was my first visit to Westminster Cathedral, which is situated a short distance from Victoria Station. Constructed between 1895 and 1903, the cathedral has a neo-Byzantine style with large domes, balconies and a tall tower, all made from red brick and Portland stone. I loved the mosaic work both on the exterior and in the interior of the building.

The sung Latin mass was celebrated by Fr Edward Hiiboro Kussala from Sudan. Not so long ago, Pope Benedict XVI also celebrated sung Latin mass in the same cathedral during his papal visit to Britain. To be there, in such an august setting, and celebrate the Eucharist with fellow Catholics was a wonderful experience.

Hope without Fear

ACN’s Hope Without Fear Event was held in the Cathedral Hall after mass. The event was attended by at least three hundred people. Speakers included: Neville Kyrke-Smith, UK Director of ACN; Fr Martin Edwards, ACN UK’s Ecclesiastical Assistant; Fr Martin Edward Hiiboro Kussala; Fr Michael Shields from Magadan, Siberia; and John Pontifex, ACN’s UK Head of Press and Information. There was a reflection by Fr Martin Edwards on Pope Benedict XVI’s highly successful recent visit to Britain and the close relationship between ACN and the Holy Father. This was followed by reports on various ACN priority countries.

Sudan

Fr Edward Hiiboro Kussala talked about his native Sudan, which has been blighted by bloody internal conflict for many years. Fr Edward lost his own mother during a military raid when he was just two months old. Somehow his life was spared, and he was brought up by his grandmother who was a strong Christian woman.

Northern Sudan is predominantly Muslim while the southern part of the country has a sizeable Christian population. Over one and half million, predominantly Christian, people have been killed over the last two decades by government backed militia in Southern Sudan. Although some peace has prevailed since the signing of a peace agreement in 2005, tension is increasing again because people in Southern Sudan are due to vote in a referendum on self-determination soon. The president of Sudan has made it clear that he will not accept independence for Southern Sudan; and to complicate matters further, Southern Sudan has substantial oil deposits, which countries like China wish to exploit. Fr Edward expressed his gratefulness for the work of ACN in Sudan and for supporting his studies.

Magadan, Siberia

Alaskan-born Fr Michael Shields spoke about Magadan, Siberia, where some two million people, including many Catholics, perished in former communist gulags (labour camps). He told how his parish is involved with helping survivors of those gulags, who had previously been social outcastes. Things have certainly improved in the Russian Far-East since the end of the old Soviet regime, but there are some persistent social problems including alcoholism, unemployment and abortion. Russia has the highest abortion rate in the world with 13 terminations for every 10 live births. Fr Shields, with the help of ACN, is involved in pioneering pro-life work in Magadan.

Pakistan

John Pontifex began his talk about Pakistan by quoting the nation’s founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who wanted Pakistan to be a homeland for Muslims but not an Islamic state. The reality is that Pakistan has not turned out to be the tolerant, secular state Jinnah expected. Over time, minority ethnic and religious groups have faced more and more discrimination and persecution. According to Catholic bishops in Pakistan, the country today is experiencing a ‘Talibanisation’ of society due to the influence of extremists.

Pakistan has notorious blasphemy laws that are meant to protect Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, but they have frequently been used as a pretext to attack minorities. Innocent Christians can sometimes find themselves the victims of malicious accusations made by angry Muslim mobs. Although the current government is beginning to think again about the blasphemy laws, change is likely to be a slow process.

Despite the many adversities Christians face in Pakistan, many of them are willing to suffer and even lay down their lives for the sake of their faith. ACN continues to provide disaster relief in the wake of the devastating floods, as well as helping to repair damaged churches and building a new seminary outside Karachi.

Ukraine

Finally, Neville Kyrke-Smith gave a report on Ukraine. In this former Soviet state the Orthodox and Catholic churches faced widespread oppression under the communists, but today they are undergoing a major revival. The number of seminarians has picked up markedly since the Soviet Union imploded and church attendance is high among the population. Although the shadow of Russia is still there, the revival of the church’s fortunes in Ukraine gives hope for Christians in other countries where they face oppression. In Ukraine, ACN is supporting the training of priests in seminaries, catechetical education and construction of churches.

Final thoughts

I enjoyed this event which was well organised. All the talks were highly interesting and informative. It was clear the church faced some serious challenges in various countries like Sudan and Pakistan, but the revival of Christianity in states of the former Soviet Union showed that the church had incredible staying power despite severe persecution. That was the inspiring lesson for me.

ACN does some sterling work in many different countries throughout the world, helping to support persecuted Christians and fulfil the church’s missionary commission. All the speakers were grateful to ACN’s benefactors who made the organisation’s work possible, and rightly so. It was an event that made me feel proud to be a Catholic.

Boyhood dreams

2010-10-13T15:02:00.000+01:00

A boy once said to God, “I know what I want when I grow up.” He proceeded to give God his list: to live in a big house with two Saint Bernard's; to marry a tall, blue-eyed woman; to have three sons - one who will be a senator, one a scientist, and the other a quarterback. He also wanted to be a mountain climber and drive a red Ferrari.

As it turned out, the boy hurt his knee one-day while playing football. He could no longer climb trees, much less mountains. He married a beautiful and kind woman who was short with brown eyes. Because of his business, he lived in an apartment in the city and usually rode the subway. He had three loving daughters, and they adopted a fluffy cat.

One daughter became a nurse, one an artist and the third a music teacher. One morning the man awoke and remembered his boyhood dream. He became extremely depressed.

Heartbroken, he called out to God, “Remember when I was a boy and told You all the things I wanted? Why didn't You give me those things?”

“I could have,” said God, “but I wanted to make you happy.”

Author Unknown

Moral of the story

We often chase things that we think will make us happy: money, a beautiful woman, a big house, a fast car, success in our career and success in other areas. When we don't get these things, we can get down. Sometimes we even blame God for not answering our prayers. But how are we to know we would have been happier if we got these things? As Isaiah 55:8-9 says, God's wisdom and His ways are infinitely higher and better than ours can ever be:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Life is full of ups and downs, twists and turns. Rather than trying to achieve everything the way we want, we should trust God will allow things to happen in His perfect order. God yearns for each of us to build an intimate relationship with Him, and He knows what is best for each of us.

Life after death experience

2010-10-05T16:03:00.000+01:00

Father Jose Maniyangat is pastor of St Mary's Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Macclenny, Florida. In 1985 he had a life-after-death experience and this is his personal testimony:

I was born on July 16, 1949 in Kerala, India to my parents, Joseph and Theresa Maniyangat. I am the eldest of seven children: Jose, Mary, Theresa, Lissama, Zachariah, Valsa and Tom.

At the age of fourteen, I entered St. Mary’s minor seminary in Thiruvalla to begin my studies for the priesthood. Four years later I went to St. Joseph’s Pontifical Major Seminary in Alwaye, Kerala to continue my priestly formation. After completing seven years of Philosophy and Theology I was ordained a priest on January 1, 1975 to serve as a missionary at the Diocese of Thiruvalla.

In 1978 while teaching at the St. Thomas minor seminary in Bathery, I became an active member of the Charismatic Renewal movement and began conducting charismatic retreats and conferences in Kerala.

On Sunday April 14, 1985, the Feast of Divine Mercy, I was going to celebrate Mass at a mission church in the north part of Kerala, and I had a fatal accident. I was riding a motorcycle when I was hit head-on by a jeep driven by a man who was intoxicated after a Hindu festival. I was rushed to a hospital about 35 miles away. On the way my soul came out from my body and I experienced death. Immediately I met my Guardian angel. I saw my body and the people who were carrying me to the hospital. I heard them crying and praying for me. At this time my angel told me: “I am going to take you to Heaven, the Lord wants to meet you and speak with you”. He also said that on the way he wanted to show me hell and purgatory.

Hell

First, the angel escorted me to hell. It was an awful sight! I saw Satan and the devils, an unquenchable fire of about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, worms crawling, people screaming and fighting, others being tortured by demons. The angel told me all these sufferings were due to unrepented mortal sins. Then, I understood there are seven degrees of suffering or levels according to the number and kinds of mortal sins committed in their earthly lives. The souls looked very ugly, cruel and horrible. It was a fearful experience. I saw people whom I knew but I am not allowed to reveal their identities. The sins that convicted them were mainly abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, hatefulness, unforgiveness, sacrilege etc. The angel told me if they had repented they would have avoided hell and gone instead to purgatory. I also understood some people who repent from these sins might be purified on earth through their sufferings. This way they can avoid purgatory and go straight to heaven.

I was surprised when I saw in hell even Priests, Nuns and Bishops, some of whom I never expected to see. Many of them were there because they had misled the people with false teaching and bad example.

Purgatory

After the visit to hell, my Guardian angel escorted me to Purgatory. Here too, there are seven degrees of suffering and unquenchable fire. But it is far less intense than hell and there was neither quarreling nor fighting. The main suffering of these souls is their separation from God. Some of those who are in Purgatory committed numerous mortal sins; but they were reconciled with God before their death. Even though these souls are suffering, they enjoy peace and the knowledge that one day they will see God face to face.

I had a chance to communicate with the souls in Purgatory. They asked me to pray for them and to tell the people to pray for them as well, so they can go to heaven quickly. When we pray for these souls, we will receive their gratitude through their prayers and once they enter heaven their prayers become even more meritorious.

Heaven

Next, my angel escorted me to heaven passing through a big dazzling white tunnel. I never experienced this much peace and joy in my life. Then immediately heaven opened up and I heard the most delightful music, which I have never heard before. The angels were singing and praising God. I saw all the saints, especially the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, and many dedicated holy Bishops and Priests who were shining like stars. When I appeared before the Lord, Jesus told me: “I want you to go back to the world. In your second life you will be an instrument of peace and healing to my people. You will work in a foreign land and you will speak in a foreign tongue. Everything is possible for you with my grace.” After these words, the Blessed Mother told me: “Do whatever He tells you. I will help you in your ministries.”

Words cannot express the beauty of heaven. There we find so much peace and happiness, which exceed a million times our imagination. Our Lord is far more beautiful than any image can convey. His face is radiant and luminous and more beautiful than a thousand rising suns. The pictures we see in the world are only a shadow of His magnificence. The Blessed Mother was next to Jesus; she was so beautiful and radiant. None of the images we see in this world can compare with her real beauty. Heaven is our real home, we are all created to reach heaven and enjoy God forever. Then, I came back to the world with my angel.

Soul Returning To Body On Earth

While my body was at the hospital, the doctor completed all examinations and I was pronounced dead. The cause of death was bleeding. My family was notified and since they were far away, the hospital staff decided to move my dead body to the morgue. Because the hospital did not have air conditioners they were concerned that the body would decompose quickly. As they were moving my dead body to the morgue, my soul came back to the body. I felt excruciating pain because of so many wounds and broken bones. I began to scream and the people became frightened and ran away screaming. One of them approached the doctor and said: “the dead body is screaming.” The doctor came to examine the body and found that I was alive. So he said: “Father is alive, it is a miracle, take him back to the hospital.”

Now, back at the hospital, they gave me blood transfusions and I was taken to surgery to repair the broken bones. They worked on my lower jaw, ribs, pelvic bone, wrists, and right leg. After two months, I was released from the hospital, but my orthopedic doctor said that I would never walk again. I then said to him: “the Lord who gave me my life back and sent me back to the world will heal me.” Once at home we were all praying for a miracle. Still after a month at home and with the casts removed I was not able to move. But one day while praying I felt an extraordinary pain in my pelvic area. After a short while the pain disappeared completely and I heard a voice saying: “You are healed. Get up and walk.” I felt the peace and healing power on my body. I immediately got up and walked. I praised and thanked God for the miracle.

Conversion of the Doctor

I reached my doctor with the news of my healing and he was amazed. He said: “your God is the true God. I must follow your God.” The doctor was Hindu and he asked me to teach him about our Church. After studying the faith, I baptized him and he became Catholic.

Following the message from my Guardian angel, I came to the United States on November 10, 1986 as a missionary Priest…Since June 1999, I have been pastor of St. Mary's Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Macclenny, Florida.

A trick

2010-09-26T06:28:00.001+01:00

A young man, a student in one of our universities, was one day taking a walk with a professor, who was commonly called the students' friend, from his kindness to those who waited on his instructions.

As they went along, they saw lying in the path a pair of old shoes, which they supposed to belong to a poor man who was employed in a field close by, and who had nearly finished his day's work.

The student turned to the professor, saying: "Let us play the man a trick: we will hide his shoes, and conceal ourselves behind those bushes, and wait to see his perplexity when he cannot find them."

"My young friend," answered the professor, "we should never amuse ourselves at the expense of the poor. But you are rich, and may give yourself a much greater pleasure by means of the poor man. Put a coin into each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch how the discovery affects him."

The student did so, and they both placed themselves behind the bushes close by.

The poor man soon finished his work, and came across the field to the path where he had left his coat and shoes. While putting on his coat he slipped his foot into one of his shoes; but feeling something hard, he stooped down to feel what it was, and found the coin.

Astonishment and wonder were seen upon his countenance. He gazed upon the coin, turned it round, and looked at it again and again. He then looked around him on all sides, but no person was to be seen. He now put the money into his pocket, and proceeded to put on the other shoe; but his surprise was doubled on finding the other coin.

His feelings overcame him; he fell upon his knees, looked up to heaven and uttered aloud a fervent thanksgiving, in which he spoke of his wife, sick and helpless, and his children without bread, whom the timely bounty, from some unknown hand, would save from perishing.

The student stood there deeply affected, and his eyes filled with tears. "Now," said the professor, "are you not much better pleased than if you had played your intended trick?"

The youth replied, "You have taught me a lesson which I will never forget. I feel now the truth of those words, which I never understood before: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

-- Author Unknown

A glimpse of the Pope

2010-09-19T11:10:00.001+01:00

Today is the final day of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain. I was eager to catch a glimpse of him, so early this morning I drove to the Apostolic Nunciature, Wimbledon, where he was staying. He was due to leave the embassy of the Holy See at 8am and head to Birmingham for the final leg of his tour.

Apostolic Nunciature, Wimbledon

There was a moderate crowd of people already there when I arrived, waiting patiently. More people came as time passed. I saw the faces of people from many different parts of the world, and there wasn't a single protestor in sight - just the Catholic faithful.

Catholic faithful waiting to see the Pope

A small group of young ladies occasionally sang “We love you Benedict, we do. We love you Benedict, we do,” and “We love you Papa, we do. We love you Papa, we do.” Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh - Cardinal Keith O’Brien - and Archbishop of Westminster - Vincent Nichols - as well as a few other bishops arrived by car. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, was kind enough to say hello.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales

At 8.17am, slightly behind schedule, Pope Benedict finally emerged to the delight of the crowd. The Pope was dressed in his familiar white cassock, white zucchetto and red shoes. He raised his hands and greeted the faithful. There was a real buzz in the crowd who enthusiastically cheered, waved and sang even more.

Pope waving to people from his car

A couple of minutes later the Pope got into his car and was whisked away to Wimbledon Park, where he was due to travel by helicopter to Birmingham for the final leg of his tour. It's not often I get an opportunity to see the head of my church, so I was delighted. So were the other people who came to see him too.

9/11 overshadowed by controversy

2010-09-12T07:04:00.000+01:00

Nine years on an angry America, still reeling in the wake of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, mourned the victims of the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. This year the anniversary was overshadowed by two controversies: the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’, and Pastor Terry Jones’ threat to burn copies of the Koran. Fortunately Pastor Jones did not go ahead with his stunt and everybody breathed a sigh of relief. Emotions had been running very high in the Muslim world. There had been protests in a number of countries, and President Yudhoyono of Indonesia warned that the act could threaten “peace and international security.” General Petraeus warned the event would endanger the lives of American servicemen and women.

I heard on BBC Radio 4 how Muslims in America were increasingly feeling under siege. I can understand why they feel uncomfortable right now with the acrimonious debate about the Ground Zero Mosque still raging, but I question whether they are really ‘under siege’. Even after the 9/11 attacks American Muslims did not face any major acts of retribution. I think that will be the case this time too. Whatever their feelings of victimization, they are a far cry from the real discrimination many Christian minorities face in many Muslim majority countries.

James Corum, Dean of the Baltic Defence College in Estonia, writes in The Telegraph:

In many Islamic countries, Christian minorities – including the descendants of the earliest Christian communities in the Middle East – suffer under laws that make them second-class citizens. Not only do they have fewer legal rights, but the exercise of their faith is cruelly regulated by governments in the name of Sharia. In America, we criticise the plan to build a mosque near the 9/11 murder site even while agreeing that American law provides the clear right of Muslims to do such a thing. But in many Muslim nations no Christian can build or even repair a church without approval (usually not forthcoming) from a hostile government ministry.

Much worse, murder, kidnappings, forced conversions and attacks against Christians by radical Muslims are common in the Islamic world, especially in the Middle East and in Pakistan. Every year, hundreds of Christians are murdered by religious fanatics. Even when a Muslim government disapproves of such violence, officials and police often stand aside and allow the attacks rather than confront a politically powerful radical Islam.

In short, Christians are today living in one of the great eras of persecution. That persecution comes from a minority of Muslims – but an influential minority. Christians should use this day to educate the Western public about the suffering of fellow Christians, and to confront peacefully the rulers and populations of Muslim nations with their failure to maintain rights supposedly guaranteed by the UN Charter.

The suffering of Christian minorities in many Muslim majority countries is largely ignored by the mainstream media. Western leaders are even aware of the issue but stay silent on the matter lest they complicate relations with Muslim countries. The consequences of Pastor Jones' actions if he had gone ahead with them would have been extremely severe for Christians living in Muslim majority contexts. The Koran is regarded by Muslims as the literal word of God transmitted from heaven, so to destroy it is the ultimate sacrilege. I’m sure Christ would not have approved of deliberately offending and provoking others to the point of violence. But He probably would approve of Christians standing up for the basic human rights of their brothers and sisters in Christ.

It is surprising that the eccentric pastor of a very small Pentecostal church in Florida, known for previous public-seeking misadventures, managed to attract so much attention. Fuelled by the internet, 24 hour news and media sensationalism the story grew bigger and bigger until it became the main news of the day. Pastor Jones certainly didn’t speak for the vast majority of Christians or America. The event was condemned by all mainstream Christian churches, President Obama, Hillary Clinton as well as many ordinary Americans. Yet the media handed this man a megaphone to speak to the world. I’m sure there are some sections of the media that are secretly delighted a ‘Christian pastor’ could have made such a huge error of judgement. They have milked this story for it was worth.

Unfortunately I feel many Muslims throughout the world still feel Pastor Jones represents Christians and the west. This is what some of the more extreme elements within Islam want Muslims to believe. A sense of victimization and hurt only aids their agenda. For this the media must take some of the blame.

Persecution: Swaroopa's story

2010-09-03T18:57:00.000+01:00

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12)

In August 2008 the worst anti-Christian violence in the history of independent India broke out in the state of Orissa. More 50,000 people were forced to flee their homes. Many of their houses, churches and schools were destroyed, and more than 40 people were killed.

I would like to tell the true story of Swaroopa Naik (courtesy Barnabus Fund, a UK based charity working for persecuted Christians around the world).

Escape in the jungle

Swaroopa was brought up in a Christian home with her brother and two sisters. Her father, Sunil, is a farmer. On Monday 25 August 2008 the family was busy with the housework as usual while Swaroopa was having a bath. Suddenly she heard terrible noises outside, and running out of the house she saw her family rushing into the forest. Swaroopa ran too and was chased by the attackers, but she was quick enough to escape them.

Swaroopa eventually found her parents in the jungle. Taking shelter under a tree, they heard the dreadful sound of homes being destroyed and saw a plume of smoke rising into the sky. But Swaroopa says, "Both of my parents were consoled by the very thought that this tragic attack has been due to the fact that we believe in Jesus Christ and are Christians." "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 5:10)

After a while the family heard the attackers coming along the path they themselves had taken, so they ran and hid themselves in the bush. The sunny weather changed to cloudy skies, and they prayed that the Lord would send rain. And then - a heavy downpour! The pursuers called off the chase and went back the way they came. Swaroopa and her parents praised God.

The Lord who provides

When the rain stopped the family went back to their village. There they found that their house had been reduced to a pile of ashes and debris. No one in the village would take them in for the night, so they returned to the jungle to shelter under the trees. Early next day they set off to escape the pursuing assailants.

In the evening Swaroopa and her family reached Phulbani, a large township, where they felt safe enough to stay for two weeks. After this they moved on to Cuttack, the largest city in Orissa, where they stayed with a family member.

After the anti-Christian violence had subsided, Swaroopa's parents were able to return to their village to visit what was left of their house. They learned from their pastor about a ministry (supported by Barnabus Fund) that offers vocational training to young people displaced from Orissa by the violence. This is designed to equip them to return to the region later, not only to live there, but also to make a positive contribution to the community and to witness for Christ.

Swaroopa obtained a college place to study nursing and midwifery and is about to complete her first year of training. She writes, "We thanked and rejoiced in the Lord for having miraculously saved our lives and now for providing me with an opportunity to become a nurse. The Lord is really 'Jehovah Jirah' (the Lord who provides)."

Final thoughts

Swaroopa’s story is both touching and uplifting. It demonstrates the reality of persecution that Christians often have to suffer, particularly in non-Western countries, simply for their faith. Despite their hardship, Swaroopa and her family did not renounce their faith but trusted in the Lord. Their faith was rewarded, for in their darkest hours they saw the Lord guiding them. They came out of the experience with their faith strengthened, not weakened.

Anti-Christian hatred is nothing new. From New Testament times to the present day Christians have had to suffer for bearing witness to Christ. Jesus warned his disciples that this would be the case, but those who persevered would be rewarded in heaven. We too must heed this message. Do not cower and renounce your faith, even if you are persecuted, but boldly witness to Christ. That way you show your fidelity and love of Christ, for which you will be rewarded.

Visit to Hampton Court Palace

2010-08-31T18:48:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was a bank holiday in UK, and taking advantage of the sunny weather I visited Hampton Court Palace with my wife and daughter. The palace is only about five miles from where I live. It is on the banks of the River Thames in the London suburb of Hampton.

We didn't go inside the palace but wandered around the gardens. The gardens were pretty and immaculately well kept. The British have a love of gardens that date back to Roman times. On this particular day, we were fortunate to see a re-enactment of events in the sixteenth century with actors dressed in costumes of the time. There were a lot of people there who came to see it.

The palace was the residence of Henry VIII, the Tudor king who reigned in England from 1509 to 1547. He wanted a son in order to enable the Tudor family to rule England for a long time. Since his first wife failed to bear him a son he tried to annul his marriage but the Pope refused. Henry broke away from the Catholic Church, established the Church of England with him as the head and remarried.

Henry married six times in total. His wives were Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr. The following rhyme describe their fate:

"Divorced, Beheaded, Died

Divorced, Beheaded, Survived"

Although we did not have time to go into the palace, we enjoyed walking around the beautiful gardens.

Europe without Christianity: a dire prospect

2010-08-22T11:23:00.000+01:00

Europeans are turning away from Christianity in greater numbers than ever as Europe becomes more and more secular. It’s part of a trend that has been ongoing for over a hundred years. In 1900, more than 80% of Christians lived in Europe and America. Today 60% live in the developing world. In some countries like Portugal, Ireland and Spain there is still a sizeable practicing Christian community, but the overwhelming majority of Europeans are Christian in name only. More and more claim to atheists. As there’s a fine distinction between nonbelievers of various kinds - atheists, agnostics, sceptics and humanists – the majority of Europeans are practically atheists because they are not religious. This trend of secularism runs counter to the trends seen in other parts of world where religion is growing.

The atheist German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, claimed in many of his works that “God is dead”. Nietzsche hated religion, and most of all he hated Christianity. He felt Christianity was a “slave morality” designed for losers, which Nietzsche explained its immense popularity. Nietzsche condemned the Christian God for keeping a check on the strong men of this world and exalting the lowly. He developed the concept of übermensch (or “overman”), a type of superior human being, who through his “will to power” could bring down false ideals and moral codes of his day. His ideas had a big influence on Nazi ideology.

I’m reading a wonderful book by Dinesh D’Souza called “What’s So Great About Christianity”. In chapter seven he gives a warning about Europe’s future regarding its increasing secularization and abandonment of Christian beliefs:

The life of the West, Nietzsche said, is based on Christianity. The values of the West are based on Christianity. Some of these values seem to have taken a life of their own, and this gives us the illusion that we can get rid of Christianity and keep the values. This, Nietzsche says, is an illusion. Our Western values are what Nietzsche terms “shadows of gods”. Remove the Christian foundation, and the values go too.

True, values like equal dignity and equal rights will persist for a period out of sheer unthinking habit. But their influence will erode. Consider the example of secular Europe. Secularization has been occurring in Europe for well over a century, and for a while it seemed as if the decline of Christianity would have no effect on Western morality or Western social institutions. Yet if Nietzsche is right we would expect to see the decline of Christianity also result, over time, in the decline of one of the great legacies of Christianity, the nuclear family. We would expect to see high rates of divorce and births out of wedlock. And that is what we do see. Secular trends in America have produced the same results, which are not as advanced in America because Christianity has not eroded as much here as it has in Europe.

As secularism continues, Nietzsche forecasts that new values radically inconsistent with the Christian ones – the restoration of infanticide, demands for radical redefinition of the family, the revival of eugenic theories of human superiority – will begin to emerge. These, too, are evident in our day. And they are some of the motives for attacking Christianity and insisting that its values are outmoded and should be replaced.

Unfortunately for the critics of Christianity, even the values care about will, according to Nietzsche, eventually collapse. Consider our beliefs in human equality and the value of human life. We may say we believe in human equality, but why do we hold this belief? It is product of the Christian idea of the spiritual equality of souls. We may insist we believe that all human life has dignity and value, but this, too, is the outgrowth of a Christian tradition in which each person is the precious creation of God. There is no secular basis for these values, and when secular writers defend them they always employ unrecognized Christian assumptions.

In sum, the death of Christianity must also mean the gradual extinction of values such as human dignity, the right against torture, and the rights of equal treatment asserted by women, minorities, and the poor. Do we want to give these up also? If we cherish the distinctive ideals of Western Christianity, and believe as I do that they have enormously benefited our civilization and the world, then whatever our religious convictions, and even if we have none, we will not rashly try to hack at the religious roots from which they spring. On the contrary, we will not hesitate to acknowledge, not only privately but also publicly, the central role that Christianity has played and still plays in the things that matter to us.

I have to say I couldn’t agree more with D’Souza here. Europeans have been swayed by all sorts of different ideologies that are fundamentally contrary to Christian beliefs over the last century with disastrous consequences. If the current trend of secularization continues in Europe, I fear for its future. Europe will be a far worse place without Christianity.

Isle of Wight trip

2010-08-10T21:12:00.000+01:00

Last week I went with my wife, daughter, mum and dad for a holiday to the Isle of Wight, a small island off the south coast of England. Each day was spent visiting a different and we had a lovely time. Here’s a summary of what we did.

Monday 2 August 2010

Drove from London to Portsmouth and took the car ferry to Fishbourne. The crossing took around 40 minutes and was most comfortable. The ferry was called St Cecilia.

After reaching Fishbourne, in the north of the island, we headed to Carrisbrooke Castle near the town of Newport. The castle was built by the Normans following their conquest of England in 1066. Although parts of the structure have eroded over time much of it is still intact and wonderfully preserved. There are a number of buildings within the walls of the fortress. Going up to the top of the shell keep we got a great view of the surrounding countryside. The castle is a treat for people interested in English history for it has seen over 800 years of service. One of the castle’s most famous residents was King Charles I, who was imprisoned there after his defeat in the English Civil War.

From Carisbrooke Castle we headed to Shanklin, a town in the east of the island, and checked into our guesthouse. Shanklin has a sandy beach and is quite touristy. When we visited the beach in the evening there wasn’t much of a crowd. My daughter Anya made a sand castle. In the distance I saw ships crossing the English Channel.

Tuesday 3 August 2010

After breakfast we went to Robin Hill Park in Downend. The park is a great place for children, having lots of rides and other activities. Anya particularly enjoyed the Toboggan Run. I liked the falconry show, which featured a number of birds of prey including the European Eagle Owl, Harris Hawk and Saker Falcon. A ride on Colossus, a swinging galleon boat ride, really shook up the full English breakfast in my stomach. A few more swings on the ride and I could easily have thrown up on the person in front! We spent four hours in the park. It’s possible for children to spend the whole day there.

Our next stop was the Isle of Wight Zoo in Sandown, another seaside town not far from Shanklin. The zoo has a large collection of Indian tigers and African lions. We arrived in time to see the lions being fed. There was a white tiger called Zena and a white lion called Casper – two very rare species. I had never seen a white tiger or lion before, so this was quite exciting. Posters warned about the sad the plight of the tiger whose numbers are continuing to diminish worldwide.

Wednesday 4 August 2010

After breakfast we made our way to Needles Park on Alum Bay at the western extreme of the island. We passed along narrow roads under canopies of tall trees and across the countryside, past fields containing various crops, sheep and cattle. At Needles Park we saw glass being made and took the chairlift ride down to the beach. It is possible to go the edge of Alum Bay and see the Needles, which are a series of chalk stacks that protrude into the sea, but we didn’t do that as the weather was windy and rainy. In the Sand Shop, Anya created her own souvenir by filling in a plastic shape with different shades of Alum Bay sand. Like Robin Hill Park, Needles Park was full of children and their parents.

From Alum Bay we headed east again to Havenstreet Station and boarded the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. This really was a trip back to a bygone era when steam trains were the norm. The hissing of the engine and the smell of steam brought back memories of childhood train journeys in India. The staff, who were mostly volunteers, were friendly and helpful. The train went to Smallbrook Junction and back, and then to Wootton station and back. It was a pleasant ride across unspoiled, beautiful countryside.

Thursday 5 August 2010

After checking out of our guesthouse, we travelled to Osborne House in East Cowes. This 342 acres estate was Queen Victoria’s summer residence, and it certainly was befitting place for her and her family. There were beautiful sculptures, paintings and frescoes that adorned different rooms. I particularly liked the Indian style Durbar Room, which was a celebration of Queen Victoria’s role as

Empress of India. Here there were the finest works of art from India, presented to Victoria by Indian rulers. Complementing the house were lovely gardens, a summer house and the Swiss Cottage, originally built for the royal children for their education. This was a great place for adults with a love for history as well as antiques (like my parents).

In the afternoon we the caught ferry to Portsmouth. This ferry was called St Clare. After a short visit to Portsmouth Roman Catholic Cathedral we headed back home.

Final thoughts

What was clearly noticeable was the slower pace of life on the Isle of Wight. The island is heavily dependent on tourism although it does have a strong agricultural heritage. The beaches, the hills, the green countryside and quaint little towns, villages and churches were a joy to see. It was a refreshing break from the hustle and bustle of London. Fortunately the weather, always an unpredictable factor in any holiday in the UK, was good during our stay. Only on the third day did we experience some rain. Our guesthouse proprietors – Graham and Sally – did their best to make us feel welcome, for which we are very grateful. Anya so liked the place she wanted to stay longer. Being such a pleasant little island, I’m sure we’ll be visiting the island again sometime in the future.

Book review: "Holy Warriors: A Journey into the Heart of Indian Fundamentalism" by Edna Fernandes

2010-07-16T19:16:00.000+01:00

Not only is India home to all the major faiths, it is also host to virtually every type of religious fanatic. But what drives these “holy warriors” of various faiths? Their actions sometimes have tragic consequences. In this a fascinating, disturbing, brave and at times funny book, British Indian journalist Edna Fernandes explores the world of Indian fundamentalism. By travelling to areas of past conflicts and interviewing a number of key figures, she reveals an interesting picture of a country where the forces of fundamentalism are very much alive as in the past.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim majority state in India, Fernandes finds a region still suffering from the wounds of a violent insurgency that broke out in 1989. Between 40,000 and 100,000 people are thought to have been killed here. Both local Muslims and outside agitators supported by Pakistan have been involved in the militancy. Kashmir is the unfinished business of partition: for the militants and Pakistan it is a question of territory in the name of Islam, while for India it is a question of territory in the name of secularism. A fall out of the insurgency is that hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Brahmins have had to flee their ancestral homeland due to threats from militants, and their tragic plight is borne out in the book.

In the small, rural town of Deoband in the Hindu heartland of Uttar Pradesh, Fernandes visits a madrassa known as Darul-Uloom, the House of Knowldge. This is no ordinary school; it is the second most important Islamic academic institution in the world. Here the gates of ‘ijtihad’ (independent thinking) are firmly closed and a rigid, puritanical version of Islam is taught. Darul-Uloom was established soon after the Indian Mutiny in 1857 and since then thousands of Deoband-affiliated madrassas have been established worldwide, particularly in the tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although Muslim leaders in Darul-Uloom stress on the peaceful message of Islam, some of its sister schools teach a more radicalised version of it.

Fernandes is from a Goan Catholic background and there are some delightful reminisces about her childhood throughout the book. It was in Goa in the sixteenth century that St Francis Xavier, outraged by the licentiousness of the Portuguese colonialists as well as how Indian converts to Christianity continued their earlier religious practices, requested the Inquisition. The Inquisition only ended in 1812. Fernandes finds a Goa today that is changing fast. On the one hand, there’s a rising Hindu conscientiousness with the BJP party trying to rake up old history and undermine the church; and on the other, there’s a lot of external influences from Delhiites, foreigners and people from Mumbai. While old churches are razed to make way for new apartment blocks and hotels, criminal gangs from Russia bring prostitution and drugs.

The Protestant powers that came to India were initially slower than their Catholic counterparts to see the opportunity for missionary work, but eventually they too encouraged it. Despite their obvious contributions to education and healthcare, Christian missionaries in India remain controversial. They have been accused by Hindu hardliners of using forceful and fraudulent means to convert Hindus to Christianity. In recent years there have been attacks on Christians including priests, nuns and missionaries.

One area where Christian missionaries did have a big impact was the north-east. Here the overwhelming majority of the population is Christian. In the restive state of Nagaland, Fernandes encounters a people who have been fighting for a separate homeland. The Nagas are not Aryan or Dravidian but of Mongoloid stock. They were one-time tribal headhunters before they were converted by American Baptists in the nineteenth century. In terms of culture, language, race and religion they see little in common with other Indians. “Nagaland for Christ” is the call of the Naga nationalists, but Fernandes is sceptical of their chances of success as they have little support from powerful external allies.

In Punjab, Fernandes finds the situation is a lot calmer today than at the height of Sikh militancy in the eighties. The storming of the Golden Temple by the Indian Army to flush out armed militants, and the gunfight that ensued at Sikhism’s holiest shrine, led to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October 1984. In retaliation many Sikhs were openly butchered in Delhi and other parts of northern India, which only made calls for a separate Sikh nation, Khalistan, even louder. The man who led the crackdown on the Khalistan movement was K. P. S. Gill, former Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab, and there’s a fascinating interview with him in the book. By the mid-nineties there was little support left for Khalistan as the activities of the militants didn’t endear them well with the community. However, a sense of grievance felt by Sikhs remains because grave human rights abuses were committed and the guilty were not punished.

The final part of the book deals with Hindu nationalists. There’s a vivid account of the Gujarat riots in 2002 in which Muslim owned businesses, homes, apartments, vehicles and places of worship were systematically targeted and destroyed by Hindu fanatics. The violence left at least 2,000 people dead and up to 140,000 Muslims in refugee camps. Fernandes was able to get a good picture of what actually happened because she visited the area just a few weeks after the riots began. There was evidence that Narendra Modi’s hard-line BJP government was complicit in the violence, yet it was retuned to power in the state elections later that year. The irony was that this all happened in the same state where Mahatma Gandhi was born.

There are interviews with two firebrand Hindu nationalist leaders - Bal Thackeray and Praveen Togadia. Thackeray formed Shiv Sena in 1966 to stop south Indians coming to Bombay and taking the jobs of Marathis; but as the city became a melting pot of people from all over India he transformed the prejudices of his party to be more explicitly anti-Muslim. To Thackeray the Muslims in India are the enemy within and they should always know their place. Togadia, leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), is arguably more extreme. He has publicly defended the Gujarat riots and called Sonia Gandhi “that Italian bitch”. He believes India should drop a nuclear bomb on Pakistan to be rid of terrorism forever. There’s also an interview with Yukta Mookhey, former Miss India and Miss World, who campaigned for the BJP in 2004 general elections. Yukta is passionate about her country; she wants to help the common man and be remembered for more than beauty, but she naively thinks the BJP will help her fulfil all this.

There’s a glimpse into the world of the RSS, the mother of all Hindu nationalist organisations. At a RSS shakha in Delhi Fernandes finds men dressed in khaki shorts doing marches and exercises. They may look like boy scouts but their ideology is far from comical. Based on 1930s European fascist movements, RSS wants to create a theocratic Hindu state in which the minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians, are reduced to being second-class citizens. Central to the RSS ideology is the belief that Hindu submissiveness is to blame for India’s turbulent past in which the Hindu has been the constant victim. First, the Hindu was the victim of the Muslim invaders, and then the British imperialists. Today, he is the victim of the minorities and Pakistan.

This is an interesting book which I enjoyed reading just like the author’s other book “The Last Jews of Kerala”. It is well written and quite objective. Fernandes is a good observer, has an eye for detail and brings her characters to life. She is not shy to express some of her her own views. Where the book does fall short is seeing the bigger picture. How strong are the secular forces in India? To what extent do class and caste play in sectarian violence? How has bad governance played a role? What about expatriate Indians and their influence on fundamentalist groups? The book is not an extensive study, but it does give a valuable overview of the various sectarian fault lines in the country today.

Since the book was published in 2007 there have been more instances of terrorism and sectarian violence in India. This shows, as highlighted in the book, there are clearly some leaders who are willing to exploit and fan the flames of bigotry. Communalism is very rarely spontaneous and nearly always manufactured. One only hopes that with time things will improve. That of course remains to be seen.

Bono on Jesus

2010-06-12T09:03:00.000+01:00

Bono is the lead singer of the Irish rock band U2. He was born in Dublin as the son of a Catholic father and Protestant mother. U2 was one of the most successful bands in the 1980s and 1990s with hits like "Mysterious Ways," "Where The Streets Have No Name," and "Beautiful Day." There are few people in the music industry like Bono who have done so much for the poor and hungry in places like Africa. He was involved in Bob Geldof's Band Aid and Live Aid projects in the 1980s, and later helped Geldof organize Live 8 project in 2005. He has successfully enlisted the help of powerful leaders in a variety of spheres including government, philanthropic organizations, religious institutions, popular media, the business world, as well as spearheading new organizational networks himself, for global humanitarian relief. Another cause he has firmly believed in is racial equality. He wrote a song called “Silver and Gold” for Steve Van Zandt’s Artists Against Apartheid, and participated in Van Zandt’s anti-apartheid single "Sun City". Bono and his band-mate, The Edge, attended the Festival Against Racism in Hamburg, Germany, in 1993. He has received three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, and was deservedly awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006.

Once in an interview with French music journalist and novelist Michka Assayas, Bono was asked what he thought about Jesus. Many people, non-Christians as well as non-religious, believe Jesus was a great teacher and reformer but they are reluctant to call him the Son of God. This is what Bono had to say:

Assayas: Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that far-fetched?

Bono: No, it's not far-fetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate." And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You're a bit eccentric. We've had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don't mention the "M" word! Because, you know, we're gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you're expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he's gonna keep saying this. So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we've been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had "King of the Jews" on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I'm not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's far-fetched …

What Bono is saying here is that Jesus was either mad, like self-proclaimed messiahs like Charles Manson and David Koresh, or he was who he said he was. Given that a mad man wouldn’t have had such an impact or inspired as many followers as Jesus has done, we have good reasons to accept Jesus’ claims and centre our lives on him. The ultimate proof of his identity is, of course,the Resurrection for which there were many witnesses at the time. When we centre our lives on Jesus we become less self-centred and more self-giving. In an industry which is well known for its eccentric and narcissistic characters, Bono deserves credit for standing up for fine humanitarian causes.

Mangalore plane crash: lessons need to be learnt

2010-05-24T09:07:00.001+01:00

India had experienced a relatively safe period in civil aviation history over the last decade until the morning of Saturday 22 May 2010, when Air India Express flight IX 812 from Dubai overshot the runway at Bajpe Airport, Mangalore, and plunged into the valley below, killing almost everyone onboard. Air India Express is a low-cost subsidiary of India’s national carrier Air India, and most of the passengers on this flight would have been low-income expatriate workers in the Gulf. Only eight passengers managed to jump out of a gap in the fuselage and escape, while the remaining 158 passengers and crew were killed. Many of these people would have been looking forward to spending a short break with their family and friends. Sadly, apart from the lucky few, they met their end soon after their Boeing 737-800 aircraft touched down.

Already the suspicion is falling on the commander of the plane, Capt Zlatko Glusica, who was a British national of Serbian origin. Eyewitness reports suggest the plane landed some 2,000 feet past the touchdown zone. The plane then veered off the runway, after suffering a suspected tyre burst, and crashed through the airport perimeter wall to the valley below. Bajpe Airport has a reputation for being a difficult airport because it is located on a hilltop with a drop of 100 metres on all sides. Although the runway is sufficient in length for most small aircraft, such as the Boeing 737, the margin for error is small with little overshoot space. Pilots are required to undergo special training before they operate from Mangalore.

The “black boxes” and the cockpit flight recorder, which have been recovered from the crash site, will be crucial in piecing together exactly what went wrong. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India will be responsible for carrying out the investigation. However, one must bear in mind that the DGCA is an integral part of the government of India, and whatever its findings they will not be perceived to be truly independent. Previous investigations have tended to pin the blame on the pilot, even though other factors may have been involved, and an air of mystery still surrounds many past accidents. "To my knowledge in the last 50 years no inquiry report has been made public," Kapil Kaul, head of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation in South Asia, told Reuters.

The Indian aviation industry has enjoyed phenomenal growth over the past decade with a number of new private airlines starting operations and many Indians taking to the skies. India’s air safety record has been remarkably good during this time. A number of near misses in recent years at Indian airports, including Mumbai and Delhi, have, however, raised question marks about whether the infrastructure is keeping pace with the growth in air traffic in the country. From personal experience, I think there is a general problem with all types of infrastructure not keeping pace with economic progress in India. This adversely affects safety. "Safety standards in Indian aviation have been on the wane for the last six years. Efforts are being made to correct the drift, but the systematic rot is so deep ... we are not likely to see any improvement in safety unless drastic changes are made," A. Ranganathan, an airline safety consultant and pilot instructor, told Reuters.

I do hope the DGCA will conduct a proper investigation of this accident. They owe it to the victims, their families, and Indian air passengers in general. Apart from the obvious suspicion of pilot error were there other factors that could have contributed to the disaster? Was there any communication problem between the Serbian pilot and his Indian co-pilot? Were they sufficiently well trained? Was fatigue a factor? Was the runway dangerous? Did the airline’s procedures contribute in any way? Is Mangalore waiting to happen at other “table-top” airports in the country like Kozhikode? This would be a good time to carry out such a review. It is quite easy to blame the dead pilot for the crash, for he has no voice to defend himself. The attitude should be to do as thorough an investigation as possible and learn from the mistakes in order to avert the possibility of a similar accident in the future.

It has emerged that the Environment Support Group (ESG) had objected to the building of the second runway at Bajpe Airport on the grounds that the design simply did not conform to the most basic national and international standards of airport design. Twice it took the case to the Karnataka High Court, but the case was dismissed. Finally the ESG petitioned the Supreme Court, which too dismissed the plea while emphasising that laws and norms be followed while expanding the airport. Not heeding this direction, construction of the second runway began in 2004 without a techno-economic assessment, feasibility study, or even a comprehensive Environment Impact Assessment. "This was no accident, but apparently the failure of officials in ensuring proper construction of the second runway at the airport resulted in the tragedy," alleged Leo F Saldanha, coordinator of ESG. The ESG had previously suggested a more appropriate location for the second runway would have been towards north of the old runway. This option was not even considered, as the acquisition of such lands would displace about seventy large landholding families that were well connected politically.

I do have the highest regard for Indian pilots, who I believe can be matched to the best in the world. Having flown into some dicey Indian airports in the past, such as the old Cochin Airport, which offer very little room for error, I know that it was the skill of the pilot more than anything else that ensured nothing went wrong. But relying on the skills of the pilot alone without the support of the underlying infrastructure is risky, especially at a time when Indian aviation is experiencing high growth. In an industry in which safety is critical it is important that standards are not compromised. It is essential that proper investments be continuously made to ensure the highest levels of safety are always maintained. If India is serious about the safety of its air passengers, it must have an independent air safety board which is transparent and free of political manipulation.

Despite this tragic accident, air travel remains incredibly safe. It is statistically safer for you to travel on a commercial airliner than it is for you to cross the road. Improvements in technology and lessons learnt from past mistakes have made air travel safer. Air travel is increasing worldwide. However, the fact remains that since an aircraft is a machine and a human being is responsible for flying it, there is always the risk of something going wrong. The best we can do is to minimise that risk, which involves learning the lessons from accidents such as this one in Mangalore and taking safety seriously.

Greece: from empire to economic disaster

2010-05-03T18:12:00.000+01:00

The news coming out of Greece these days is not good. The country is in serious economic trouble, after racking up debt to the tune of around 115% of GDP, and the government has been forced to go cap in hand to the IMF and EU for a bailout. Riots have broken out in protest against severe austerity measures, and the crisis has sent shockwaves through global stock markets. What a contrast to the times of ancient Greece, when during just one century of splendour under King Philip and his son Alexander the Great, the country was at the centre of an empire that stretched all the way from Egypt to northern India. Although this period of greatness was brief, the intellectual and creative achievements of the Greeks had a profound influence on the history of mankind.

Greek Empire

Greece’s rise to prominence started after the defeat of the Persian Empire which attacked Athens in 480 BC. Then followed the Golden Age of Greece, in which there were great advances in the fields of government, art, philosophy, drama and literature. Great thinkers of that time included Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. A form of governance known as “democracy” became established in Athens and other city states. King Philip of Macedon, from the kindred kingdom just north of Greece which is today known as Macedonia, took control of all Greece following the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. He developed what is known as the Macedonian phalanx, an infantry formation which proved to be lethal on the battlefield. Philip had had a thoroughly good Greek education and he ensured his son Alexander also received the same. After his conquest of Greece, he set his sights on Persia but was assassinated. It’s rumoured his wife, Queen Olympias, was jealous Philip had married a second wife and secretly conspired to kill him.

Alexander ascended the throne, and in 334 BC crossed into Asia, defeated a not much bigger Persian army and captured a number of cities in Asia Minor. In 332 BC he took Egypt from the Persians and built great cities at Alexandretta and Alexandria. In 331 BC he marched into Babylon and at Arbela, near the ruins of Nineveh, he defeated the Persian emperor Darius III. Then Alexandar made a military parade of Central Asia, going all the way to northern India. There he fought a great battle on the Indus against the Indian King Porus. The Macedonian troops encountered war elephants, which terrified them, but eventually they emerged as victors.

Alexander was forced to head back west when his troops refused to go further into India. He sought to win over his new subjects and assumed the robes and tiara of a Persian king. He arranged a number of marriages between his Macedonian officers and Persian and Babylonian women - the famous "Marriage of East and West" meant to symbolize the new racial unity he was hoping to create. He did not achieve the integration he planned, and he died in 323 BC when a fever seized him after a drinking bout in Babylon. Immediately his vast dominion fell to pieces, and the heady days of Alexander came to an end.

Early Church

The result of Alexander’s conquests and his policies was that elements of Greek civilization combined, in various forms and degrees, with other elements taken from conquered civilisations. This was known as Hellenism. Although the nature of Hellenism varied from place to place, it did provide the Eastern Mediterranean with a certain degree of unity that opened the way to Roman conquest, and then the preaching of the gospel. Roman law and Hellenistic culture were the context in which the early church took shape.

The Romans were not great thinkers like the Greeks, but they were very pragmatic people. They built well paved and well guarded roads that connected distant provinces, and since trade flourished travel was constant. The circumstances in the first century favoured the spread of Christianity. In other aspects the circumstances were a threat to Christianity. To communicate their faith in the midst of this Hellenistic culture, Christians found two philosophical traditions particularly attractive and helpful: Platonism and Stoicism.

Platonism is the philosophy associated with Plato, who criticized the ancient gods and taught about a perfect and immutable supreme being. Plato believed in the immortality of the soul, and he affirmed that far above this world of fleeting things there was a higher world of abiding truth.

Stoicism is a school of philosophy founded by Zenon. It teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions; becoming a clear and unbiased thinker allows one to understand the universal reason (logos). A primary aspect of Stoicism involves improving one’s ethical and moral well-being.

Defence of the faith

The objection to Christianity on the part of many cultured pagans was not purely an intellectual matter, but it was deeply rooted in class prejudice. The majority of early Christian converts in the Roman World were from the lower sections of society. The cultured pagans could not conceive the possibility that this Christian rabble were more enlightened than them. To them Christianity was the religion of a peasant from Galilee. Jewish teachers had never risen to the level of Greek philosophers; so if anything good is found in Jewish Scripture, this was because the Jews copied the Greeks.

Some Christians, such as Tertullian, believed many of the heresies that circulated in their time were the result of mixing pagan philosophy with Christian doctrine, and they insisted on a radical opposition to pagan culture. Tertullian’s “Address to the Greeks” is an attack on everything the Greeks considered valuable, and a defence of the “barbaric” Christians. Since the writings of the Jewish prophets such as Moses are much older than those of Plato or Homer, any agreement between Greek philosophy and the religion of the Christian “barbarians” is because the Greeks derived their wisdom from the barbarians.

Other Christians took a different stance. On becoming a Christian, Justin Martyr did not cease being a philosopher, but rather took upon himself the task of doing “Christian philosophy”. He claimed that there were several points of contact between Christianity and pagan philosophy. For instance, Plato and Socrates believed in a Supreme Being and life after death. The partial agreement between the philosophers and Christianity could be explained by the doctrine of the Logos, a Greek word meaning “word” and “reason”. The Gospel of John affirms that in Jesus the logos or “word” was made flesh. Thus, according to Justin, what happened in the incarnation was that the underlying reason of the universe, the logos or Word of God, was made flesh. Other early Christian intellectuals such as Augustine and Origen also drew on Greek philosophy to explain and defend Christian doctrine. While accepting truths found in the philosophers, they insisted on the superiority of the Christian revelation.

Other Greek influences

All the New Testament gospels were written in Greek. The word “Christ” is the English translation of the Greek word Khristós meaning "the anointed one"; and “Christian” means “belonging to Christ”. The ancient Greek word “Ichthus” means "fish". It was used by early Christians as an acronym for "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior": I=Jesus, Ch=Christ, Th=Theou (God's), U=Uios (Son), S=Soter (Savior).

In the first few centuries after Christ, when the early Christians faced persecution in the Roman Empire, they used the fish symbol as a secret symbol to identify safe meeting places and tombs as well as a fellow believer in Christ:

"…when a Christian met a stranger in the road, the Christian sometimes drew one arc of the simple fish outline in the dirt. If the stranger drew the other arc, both believers knew they were in good company. Current bumper-sticker and business-card uses of the fish hearken back to this practice. The symbol is still used today to show that the bearer is a practicing Christian."

—Christianity Today, Elesha Coffman, "Ask the Editors".

Summary

Empires never last but their legacies often do. However miserable the situation is in Greece today, there’s no doubt that the creative output of its brief Golden Age of antiquity still endures with us. Probably the biggest contribution of ancient Greece to our modern world is democracy. Greek philosophy also had a profound influence on man and still continues to provoke intellectual thought. It was often used by pagans to attack Christianity, but many early Christians also embraced it to show that Christians too could do philosophy. Any shortcomings in Greek philosophy, they said, could be answered by the fullness and superiority of the Christian doctrine.

St Thomas Christians

2010-04-16T21:51:00.000+01:00

In the Southern Indian state of Kerala, where I originally come from, there is a very strong tradition that it was none other than Thomas, the apostle who famously doubted Jesus’ resurrection "until I have placed my hands in the holes left by the nails and the wound left by the spear," who came there in the first century and baptised their ancestors. For this reason they are known as St Thomas Christians. According to the tradition, St Thomas landed at the ancient port of Kodungallur, converted some of the local Brahmins with the aid of miracles and established seven churches. He then headed eastwards to the ancient temple town of Mylapore, on the outskirts of modern Chennai, where he was eventually martyred. His followers built a tomb and monastery over his grave which is today one of the principle pilgrimage centres in Southern India.

For the St Thomas Christians, this tradition is more than a myth. It is a belief, passed down from one generation to the next, which is central to their identity and place in Indian society. It is neither a recent tradition, for many travellers to Kerala, dating back to at least the sixth century, testify to it. I wish to examine here the St Thomas tradition, and what evidence there is to support it.

The Acts of Thomas

The "Acts of Thomas” is an apocryphal text that was not included in the New Testament because of its clearly mythical qualities. It is believed to be the work of a Syrian Gnostic romancer in the early third century. The text tells the story of how the apostles cast lots as to where they should go, and India fell to the lot of Thomas. As Thomas was very reluctant to go to India, Jesus appeared in a supernatural way to Abban, the envoy of an Indo-Parthian king called Gondophares, and sold Thomas to him to be his slave. After reaching the court of Gondophares, in northwestern India, Thomas was entrusted with the task of building a new palace for the king. The king gave him money to buy materials and hire workmen, but Thomas spent the money on the poor and needy. The king became angry and put Thomas in prison, but then his brother Gad died and miraculously returned to life. Upon his return he told Gondophares of the magnificent heavenly palace he had seen, which was being built through Thomas’ gifts to the poor. The king and his brother were converted and baptized, and Thomas moved on to other parts of India, eventually reaching the kingdom ruled by King Misdai. Here he converted Tertia, the wife of Misdai, and his son Vazan. After this he was condemned to death, led out of the city to a hill, and pierced through with spears by four soldiers.

Nineteenth century biblical scholars had dismissed the whole text as fictitious, for there was no record of Gondophares or any of the other details in the account. In the late nineteenth century, however, British archaeologists found coins that proved there was indeed a ruler by that name and that he had a brother called Gad. Further archaeological discoveries have confirmed many other details of the story, revealing that maritime contacts between the Roman world and India were much more extensive than previously thought. Therefore, it is difficult to dismiss the story categorically; it is possible that it contains a nucleus of truth, which may have become embellished with all kinds of legend. A. E. Medlycott concluded (1905), "It is impossible to resist the conclusion that the writer of the Acts must have had information based on contemporary history. For at no later date could a forger or legendary writer have known the name."

Early references to St Thomas

Apart from the Acts of Thomas there are many other early references to St Thomas. Here are just a few:

Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 340), quoting the theologian Origen says: “When the holy Apostles and disciples of our Saviour were scattered over all the world, Thomas, so the tradition has it, obtained as his portion Parthia….”
The Syriac document entitled “The Doctrine of the Apostles”, which dates back to the third century, contains the passage: “India and all its own countries and those bordering on it, even to the farthest sea, received the Apostles' Hand of Priesthood from Judas St. Thomas, who was Guide and Ruler in the Church which he built there and ministered there.”
St Ephrem composed many hymns that bear witness to the Edessan Church’s knowledge about St Thomas’ apostolate in India. In one hymn, the devil speaks of St Thomas as the “Apostle I slew in India”. In another hymn Ephrem speaks about Thomas’ mission: “The earth darkened with sacrifices’ fumes to illuminate”. “A land of dark people fell to thy lot”, “a tainted land Thomas has purified”; “India’s dark night” was “flooded with light” by Thomas.
St Jerome (342-420 AD): "He (Christ) dwelt in all places: with St. Thomas in India, Peter at Rome, with Paul in Illyricum."
St Paulinus of Nola (354-431 AD): "Parthia receives Mathew, India St. Thomas, Libya Thaddeus, and Phrygia Philip".
St Gregory of Tours (538-594 AD): “St. Thomas the Apostle, according to the narrative of his martyrdom is stated to have suffered in India. His holy remains (corpus), after a long interval of time, were removed to the city of Edessa in Syria and there interred. In that part of India where they first rested, stand a monastery and a church of striking dimensions, elaborately adorned and designed. This Theodore, who had been to the place, narrated to us.”
St Isidore of Seville, Spain (560- 630 AD): "This St. Thomas preached the Gospel of Christ to the Parthians, the Medes, the Persians, the Hyrcanians and the Bactrians, and to the Indians of the Oriental region and penetrating the innermost regions and sealing his preaching by his passion he died transfixed with a lance at Calamina...a city of India, and there was buried with honor".

These are not minor names; they include some of the eminent theologians and leaders of the early church. From a very early age, it seems, the major churches were unanimous in witnessing the tradition of St Thomas’ mission to India.

Tomb of St Thomas

It is believed that St Thomas was martyred and buried in Mylapore on the outskirts of Chennai. Beginning with the Acts of Thomas, there are statements about the existence of his tomb in India in almost every century. His body was later taken to Edessa. St Gregory of Tours, before 590AD, confirms this as well as the existence of a church over St. Thomas’ tomb: “His holy remains (corpus), after a long interval of time, were removed to the city of Edessa in Syria and there interred. In that part of India where they first rested, stand a monastery and a church of striking dimensions, elaborately adorned and designed. This Theodore, who had been to the place, narrated to us.”

The church in Edessa has a record of the arrival of the corpse. An early entry on the church’s ecclesiastical calendar reads: “3 July, St Thomas who was pierced with a lance in India. His body is at Urhai [ancient name for Edessa] having been brought there by the merchant Khabin. A great festival.” Today a beautiful church, called San Thome Basilica, stands over the site of St Thomas’ original tomb.

Nestorianism

A controversy to affect the early church was Nestorianism, which was a doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428 – 431 AD. He held the belief that in Jesus there were two distinct persons, one divine and one human, rather than one divine person. Nestorianism spread east to Persia, a traditional enemy of the Roman Empire, and across Asia. The church in Kerala, which was rather cut off from the rest of the Christian world, received bishops from Persia and was influenced by Nestorianism. However, with the arrival of the Portuguese in 1498 things took a different turn.

The Portuguese viewed all St Thomas Christians as heretics, and they felt it was their duty to bring the local Christians under Rome and purge them of their doctrinal errors. This foreign incursion into the internal affairs of the church was resisted by many St Thomas Christians and caused splits. Many of them did eventually did come into communion with the Roman Catholic Church but others did not. It is possible that the Portuguese, who only tolerated the supremacy of Rome and its Petrine apostolic tradition, may have destroyed any documentary evidence there was of St Thomas’ apostolate in India.

Upper caste origins

St Thomas would have sought out the Jews first in his ministry, for that was what Jesus had instructed his disciples to do, and then the Gentiles. At that time there were many Jews in Kodungallur, as well as some other parts of Kerala, who were involved in the vibrant sea trade between Kerala and the Mediterranean. It is highly likely that some of these Jews became the first Christian converts. The other converts are thought to have come mainly from the upper caste indigenous people.

If one accepts oral tradition, the Apostle received into the Christian fold only those who came forward willingly and out of conviction. Presumably it was the upper caste people who were more able to engage with the Apostle in debates and accepted the new faith. All this happened at a time before the Brahmin hegemony of Kerala when society was not as highly stratified as it later became. It is unlikely, therefore, that these converts had much to lose socially or economically.

Sceptics point out that Brahmins only arrived in Kerala in the seventh century. It is true that the major influx of Brahmins to Kerala happened then, but there were already small, sparsely scattered Brahmin settlements in the first century. Palayur in Thrissur District, where my paternal ancestors come from, was one such settlement. There was also a Jewish settlement here, and local tradition says St Thomas preached to the Jews first before the others. After the conversion of some Brahmin priests the rest of the Brahmins of Palayur left the village cursing the land. So this area came to be known as Shappakad (“cursed land”), and later as Chavakad. The temple in Palayur was converted to a Christian church. A palm leaf record kept by a Brahmin family in the nearby village of Venmanad, quoted by Fr Placid J Podipara, showed that in the Hindu kali era of 3158, a Christian sanyasi called Thomas came to the village and converted a few Brahmins by baptizing them in the temple pool, thereby desecrating the holy temple.

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI caused a bit of stir in Kerala when, in a speech at St Peter’s Square on 27 September 2006, he said, “Thomas first evangelised Syria and Persia and then penetrated as far as western India, from where Christianity reached also South India.” This seemed to imply that St Thomas did not visit South India at all, which was a departure from previous popes who on several occasions referred to St Thomas as the “Apostle of India”. The Vatican did subsequently amend the text of his speech, but there is nothing in the statement that denies the possibility St Thomas visited South India.

Conclusion

Although none of the evidence is conclusive proof of St Thomas’ visit to Kerala, the possibility he did go there cannot be dismissed out of hand. The more you study the evidence, including local traditions in Kerala, the more you are drawn to the conclusion he did go there. What is undeniable is the antiquity of the church in Kerala, which predates many churches in the west. No longer cut off from the rest of the Christian world, many St Thomas Christians are today in communion with the wider Catholic Church; and at a time when Christian worship in Europe is falling, the church is Kerala is thriving. Christians in Kerala are very much part of the fabric of society unlike some of their co-religionists in other parts of the country.

For the St Thomas Christians, that the Apostle came to their land and baptised their ancestors is a matter of faith, great pride and joy. Their memories of St Thomas are passed down in their songs and traditions from one generation to the next. The apostle who famously doubted Jesus’ resurrection and allegedly pleaded not to go to India has most definitely redeemed himself there.

In secular Europe Catholic bashing is fair game

2010-03-28T10:03:00.000+01:00

The last few weeks haven’t been a good time for Catholics. Almost on a daily basis, the media has been full of reports about child abusing priests, and allegations that the current pope, Benedict XVI, failed to act against known child abusers when he was Cardinal Ratzinger. Despite penning an unprecedented letter to Irish Catholics, in which the Pope acknowledged the wrongs done by wayward priests, the scandal continues unabated. As victims of child abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy have emerged in a number of countries including Ireland, America, Germany, Switzerland and Netherlands, the scandal does appear to be a global one rather than one confined to a particular country.

Some of the stories that have emerged are truly tragic and disgraceful, and my heart goes out to the victims. I can understand their anger. It is a kind of rage that probably will last for the whole of their lives however many apologies they receive. That the cases of child abuse reported happened a long time ago, during the 1960s and 1970s, when Benedict XVI wasn’t even pope is inconsequential to them. They want revenge and their target is the pope. However, as Cristina Odone, writes: “This Pope has done more than any other churchman to address the issue of priestly child abuse. He has stopped the practice of turning over priests accused of abuse to therapists, as we now know that therapy seldom helps a paedophile. He has fast-tracked the defrocking of priests found guilty of abuse. He has promoted co-operation, at a diocesan level, between church authorities responsible for canon law and police.”

Apart from a few Catholic columnists like Christina Odone and Damian Thompson, who have defended the pope, the tide is very much in the other direction. Too many journalists seem content joining the dots and accusing the pope of being complicit in the cover-up of child abuse. The impression one gets from the media is that most of the Catholic clergy are child abusers. This is simply not the case. Research in Ireland (SAVI Report, 2002) indicates that 3.2% of sexual abuse victims in Ireland were abused by clergy or religious orders. On the other hand, 80% of perpetrators were known by the victim, who included family members (cousins, uncles, brothers, fathers, stepfathers, etc), neighbours, teachers, babysitters, childcare workers, sports coaches, and youth leaders. 25% of child sexual abusers were children themselves. One has to remember that child abuse has occurred in many secular institutions too.

To be frank, the media never really warmed to Benedict XVI right from the start of his papacy. As a conservative, as a staunch defender of the Catholic faith, as a critic of homosexuality and moral relativism, as a German who was conscripted in the Hitler Youth, and lacking the unique charisma of his predecessor John Paul II this was, I suppose, inevitable. However, Pope Benedict XVI is not a bad man. He is far better many previous popes who were morally and intellectually lacking in comparison. We are simply living in a different age when the authority of the pope in its traditional heartland, Western Europe, continues to decline – a decline that has been underway since the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century.

In contemporary secular Europe, the role of the church is diminishing fast. Today only a small fraction of the population goes to church on a regular basis. Congregations are falling so much that the survival and maintenance of many churches are under threat. Christians are increasingly seen as misfits in society who are sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, sexually repressed, and generally out of touch. They believe in authority and an invisible God. To the modern liberal secularist, who prides in unfettered individualism above all things, Christianity is an anachronism. Yet the products of unfettered individual freedom are all too evident to see: the collapse of the institution of marriage such that nearly a quarter of all children now live in a single-parent family; around 200,000 abortions in UK alone every year; an increasingly unequal society in which class determines one’s chances in life; and rising levels of teenage alcoholism and drug abuse. Christianity is being hounded out of the public space like never before. Unfortunately Christians themselves are complicit in this surrender. As Dinesh D’Souza says in his book “What’s so great about Christianity”: “Instead of engaging this secular world, most Christians have taken the easy way out. They have retreated into a Christian subculture where they engage Christian concerns. Then they step back into secular society, where their Christianity is kept out of sight until the next church service. Without realizing it Christians have become postmodernists of a sort: they live by the gospel of the two truths. There is religious truth, reserved for Sundays and days of worship, and there is secular truth, which applies the rest of the time.”

Modern Europe more or less mirrors the largely decadent Greco-Roman world in which Christianity was born. Modern day European secularists look at other parts of the world and remark with horror about the growth of religious “fundamentalism”. Of course, the religious militants of this world are a grave menace, but what they fail to distinguish is the growth of traditional religion; and Christianity is doing better than other religions even in the most hostile countries. In 1900, there were about 10 million Christians in Africa, representing about 10% of the population. Today there are 360 million, nearly 50% the population. It is estimated that in China there are between 80 million to 100 million members of underground Christian churches, unapproved by the state. To these people Christianity means something; it’s a form of social liberation and emancipation just as it was in the Mediterranean world nearly two thousand years ago.

Some people have said that the latest crisis affecting the Catholic Church is the greatest challenge since the Protestant Reformation. I don’t see it that way. The Reformation was a reaction to the widespread simony and corruption within the medieval Catholic Church. It was an internal conflict among Christians themselves. This crisis is entirely different. Most of the people attacking the Catholic Church are from outside the church, with no genuine interest in it's welfare, so there is unlikely to be a split within the church. What is more likely to happen is that the trend in secularisation will simply continue with renewed vigour. The Catholic Church has to be seen as the institution it is, made up of fallible human beings, but trying to preserve the catholic or universal doctrine based on the witness of all the apostles. Benedict XVI can take credit that today in England and Wales child protection officers monitor every encounter between children and clergy - a fact the British media conveniently ignores. As Bishop of Rome he is successor to Simon Peter, the apostle Jesus entrusted to be the “rock” upon which he would build his church, which according to his words, “all the powers of hell shall not prevail against it.” In the meantime, Catholic bashing is fair game.

Vailankanni: The Lourdes of the East

2010-03-13T21:26:00.000Z

(Source: NRI America)

Some interesting points about Vailankanni:

Small town located on the south eastern coast of India in the state of Tamil Nadu, 12km south of Nagapattinam and 350km south of Chennai. It was once a trading port, which traded with Rome and Greece, that gradually lost its commercial importance to the larger Nagapattinam.
It is associated with two apparitions of Mary and the rescue of Portuguese sailors during a violent storm.
First appearance: Sometime in the sixteenth century, around 1560, Mary appeared with her infant son to a Hindu boy carrying milk to his master. He was resting under a banyan tree near a tank. She asked the boy for some milk for her son, and the boy gave it to her. On reaching his master’s house, the boy apologized for his lateness and the reduced amount of milk by relating the incident that occurred on his way. His master didn't believe him until the milk jar miraculously began to overflow with milk. Wanting to see the place where the apparition occurred, the man accompanied the boy to the place where Mary appeared. Our Lady appeared once again appeared to both of them. The tank where the apparition took place became known as "Matha Kulam" or Our Lady’s tank.
Second appearance: Towards the end of the sixteenth century, Mary appeared with her infant son to an invalid boy who sold buttermilk on the outskirts of Vailankanni. She asked him for a cup of buttermilk for her son, and the boy complied. Our Lady asked the boy to inform a certain wealthy Catholic man in the nearby town of Nagapattinam of her appearance. When the boy informed her he could not walk, she asked him to stand up. He was cured of his ailment, and he immediately went to see the gentleman. The man had a vision the previous night in which Our Lady asked him to build a chapel for her. Delighted to see the boy, the man went with him to the site of her appearance. Then Our Lady appeared again to both of them. The man erected a thatched chapel for Our Lady at the site of Her second appearance.
Rescue of Portuguese sailors: In the seventeenth century, a Portuguese merchant ship travelling from Macau to Sri Lanka encountered fierce storms in the Bay of Bengal. In desperation, they prayed to Mary and vowed to build a church in her honour wherever she led them, if she saved them. The storm calmed down and the sailors came ashore near Vailankanni on the on the feast of the Nativity of Mary (Sept. 8). Falling on their knees in thanksgiving, local fishermen recognized them as Catholics and directed them to the shrine of Our Lady. A few weeks later they started building the church which they had promised to build in her honour. On subsequent visits they improved on it, using rare porcelain plates and statues they acquired in China and elsewhere. The modest church the Portuguese built has been extended many times and transformed to the magnificent basilica it is today.
It draws around 20 million pilgrims each year - more than any other sacred shrine in India.
The feast of the Our Lady of Vailankanni or Our lady of Good Health is an annual festival which lasts for nine days, starting on 29 August and ending on 8 September. It draws more than a million and a half pilgrims.
The pilgrims include people of many faith backgrounds, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs as well as Christians.
Hundreds of miraculous cures are reported by pilgrims every year. Many of these favours are received by non-Christians.
The Asian Tsunami on 26 December 2004 wrought much destruction in Vailankanni, killing thousands, but miraculously the basilica and 2,000 pilgrims inside were spared of any damage. What makes this more extraordinary is that buildings on the same elevation, further inshore, were destroyed.

The Roman Empire and its lessons for Europe today

2010-02-18T06:57:00.000Z

“I came. I saw. I conquered.” Those are the words of Julius Caesar, a key ruler of the Roman Empire, but they could easily have been the motto of Roman generals for centuries. They were infamous for their excesses of greed, lust, and cruelty; but the empire lasted more than six hundred years, during which time Rome managed to conquer and rule over two million square miles, stretching from the Rhine River to Egypt and from Britain to Asia Minor. In subsequent years it has been the example of empire that European powers with imperial ambitions have tried and often failed to imitate.

Although the Romans provided a degree of freedom and stability to its conquered subjects, they were often brutal rulers. Slavery was endemic, accounting for about a quarter of the Roman population. Rebellious slaves and dissidents were tortured and killed in spectacular fashion, ranging from crucifixion to a form of entertainment in amphitheatres. There was little concept of human rights. Yet all this was tolerated for many years, provoking only isolated instances of rebellion.

Controlling a vast expanse of land, covering Europe, West Asia and North Africa, the Roman Empire pulled together very diverse geographical landscapes and cultures. The Romans borrowed much from the Greeks, including their art, philosophy and literature. Roman religion was polytheistic. They were good soldiers, administrators, lawyers and engineers. They built long straight roads, connecting different parts of their empire, as well as elaborate water systems and public baths. They invented concrete, made of lime and sand, and built tall buildings.

The Romans did not look kindly on Christians, who refused to worship the pagan gods and partake in emperor worship. They were seen as stubborn and subversive, and were often persecuted, sometimes severely. Things eventually changed when Constantine became emperor in 324 AD as he favoured Christianity, and set in motion the process whereby Christianity would become the state religion of Rome. He moved his capital to Byzantium, on the boundary between Europe and Asia, and built a “New Rome,” which became known as “Constantinople” or “city of Constantine”.

The legacies of the Romans still endure with us today. In addition to preserving and building upon the Greek ideas of arts and literature, democracy, philosophy, theatre and free speech, Rome made many contributions of its own. The language of the Romans, Latin, formed the common root for the Romance Languages - Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French – and also influenced the Germanic languages. Their road and water systems were tremendous improvements over previous civilizations. Our modern legal systems, based on trial with a judge, plaintiff and defendant, are derived from Roman law. The final legacy of the Roman Empire is Christianity, which marked a significant change from the classical age. Due to well-paved and well-guarded roads, as well as flourishing trade, the circumstances favoured the spread of the religion.

Rome fell in 410 AD to the barbarians. The pagans blamed the Christians for Rome’s fall, while Christians blamed the pagans. Europe was plunged into centuries of cultural and economic decline known as the Dark Ages, for the relative lamp of civilisation that Rome offered was extinguished. The eastern section of the empire, which came to be known as the Byzantine Empire, lasted more than a thousand years until that eventually fell to the Ottoman Turks.

Augustine of Hippo, probably the greatest theologian in the western church, wrote The City of God, in which he claims that there are two cities, each built on love. The city of God is built on love of God, while the earthly city is built on love of self. In human history, these two cities appear mingled together but in fact they are irreconcilably different from each other. In the end only the city of God will remain. Meanwhile, human history is filled with kingdoms and nations, all built on love of self, which will all wither away no matter how powerful they may be. In the case of Rome, Augustine says, God allowed her and her empire to flourish so that they could serve as a means for the spread of the Gospel; but now that this purpose has been fulfilled, God has let Rome follow the destiny of all human kingdoms, which is no more than punishment for their sins.

The lessons of Rome are equally pertinent today. What we are almost definitely witnessing is another period of cultural and economic decline in Western Europe. Nearly all of these countries are mired in high levels of national debt that will take possibly a generation to pay back, not helped by an ageing population. Economic growth will inevitably be slower than in the past. Meanwhile, other countries such as China, India, Russia and Brazil are growing rapidly. It remains to be seen how far these countries rise and how far Western Europe falls, but the trend seems set. Almost five hundred years of Western European hegemony in the economic and cultural spheres of this world is coming to an end. This is not to say that their legacies won’t last, for those of Rome still last today. They may rise again in the future. As human history shows, nothing is permanent. Empires and nations will continue to rise and fall unceasingly throughout time.

Britain and its immigrants

2010-01-18T21:38:00.000Z

With a general election not far away, British politicians are already busy announcing various election promises with the aim of wooing potential voters. The topic of immigration is always a hotly debated one, and politicians will no doubt be compelled to talk about their party’s immigration policies in the coming weeks. It’s a topic that is never very far from the headlines at any time, kept constantly on the boil by a willing media. In the last general election in 2005 the Tory leader, Michael Howard, decided to make immigration one of his prime election issues. “It's not racist to impose limits on immigration: are you thinking what we're thinking?” the Conservative Party’s election posters said. Howard’s populist campaign was one of the most anti-immigration ones for a long time, and in the end it was a loser. Howard employed Lynton Crosby, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s election strategist. Crosby’s dog-whistle type of politics may have worked in Australia, but it boomeranged in the UK. This is not to say immigration is a non-issue, for Britain’s antipathy toward foreigners is legendary, but a closer look at its history reveals a nation that has been shaped, and indeed enriched, by many waves of immigration over millennia. I have finished reading Robert Winder’s fascinating book “Bloody Foreigners”, which I thoroughly enjoyed, chronicling the achievements of Britain’s many immigrants over the years.

Britain was once connected to continental Europe thousands of years, and Homo sapiens from the south simply wandered here unchecked. Then around 7000BC melting ice caps raised the sea level and water broke through the fragile chalk bridge connecting Dover to the continent. Homo sapiens had advanced much more by then and would have continued to come to Britain. They were followed by the Beaker people from the Rhine Valley, the Celts from east of the Alps, the Romans, the Germanic tribes (Saxons, Angles and Jutes), and the Vikings. It was the Romans who introduced Christianity. A divided country – Saxon in the south and west, Danish in the north and east – it took a Danish monarch – King Cnut – in 1016 to unite the country. The Norman Conquest in 1066 was actually a war between two Danish tribes: the Normans of France and the Anglo-Danish heirs of Cnut. The Normans did a whole scale corporate takeover of Britain, laying the foundation of the British class system and erecting its chief pillar: the primacy of land ownership as the path to power. The lasting legacies of the Normans are the institutions: the government, the aristocracy, the church and the army. Many of the great castles and cathedrals in Britain were built by them.

During the centuries of Norman rule among the most significant of the new immigrants were the Jews. Due to the church’s insistence that usury was a sin, Jews were invited to perform this important service. Initially they were welcomed by the rulers, given special privileges and guarantees, and they prospered due to their near-monopoly position. They often charged high interest and the natives hated them because they were rich, but slowly the Jews’ growing wealth was plundered in a series of random and greedy taxes, or ‘tallages’. The crusades sharpened animosity toward them even further, as they were seen as infidels, and resentment of the Jews hardened to official disdain. In the thirteenth century Henry III not only plundered them but forced them of their land, which they had acquired in lieu of debts. There were some terrible atrocities, such as the murder of some four hundred Jews on Palm Sunday in 1263, in London, and up to a thousand Jews in 1264. Eventually in 1290, in an act that would resonate across Europe and be echoed by continental monarchs, Edward I expelled the Jews from Britain.

The Black Death in 1348 wiped out nearly one third of the English population. Immigration was encouraged in official circles in order to fill the gaping hole in the labour market. “But if the expert immigrants – the weavers, cobblers, glass blowers and brewers – were sponsored and welcomed by the authorities, they too faced resentment from those less advantageously placed on the social ladder.” The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 led to many attacks on foreigners. But medieval life was rough, and eruptions of violence were relatively brief, punctuated by long periods when no animosity is recorded. As a new Protestant nation, England attracted persecuted Protestants from Europe, mainly from the Low Countries. They were by definition self-reliant, industrious, and independent minded. Protestants rested only on Sundays, while Catholics took a two-day break each week. These qualities later became harnessed into one of the western world’s most powerful characteristics: the Protestants work ethic.

Religious liberty was the overriding reason why many Protestants came. The Jews also made a come-back, fleeing persecution on the continent. They were granted permission to pursue their religion, at first discreetly, but later in public. In 1663 Samuel Fortrey wrote a book in which he stated four reasons why migrants wanted to come to Britain: 1) it was an obliging and temperate land; 2) English law was relatively fair and provided some protection to the individual; 3) England gave newcomers the chance to make a fortune; 4) it offered religious sanctuary. The Huguenots, who fled Catholic France, were a vibrant addition to English life, and helped transform an agricultural economy into an industrial one.

When Queen Anne didn’t produce an heir, England’s leaders chose her closest living Protestant relative, the Elector of Hanover - George I - as her successor. Eighteenth century society received a fresh injection of new blood, in the form of George I’s inner circle as well as many German businessmen, bankers, scholars and artists. Later as Prussia expanded west and south, some two hundred thousand Germans left their war-ravaged country and fled, mainly to North America but also to Britain. They achieved prominent positions in business, finance and industry. Paul Reuter, the son of a Rabbi, started a company that became the leading supplier of international news, primarily financial information, to Britain’s newspapers. There were many German or German-descended bankers in the City: Barings, Grotes, Samuel Montagu, Rothschilds, and the mightiest of them all, Sir Ernest Cassel. Many of the Germans were actually Jews. “Under English law it was still necessary for everyone wishing to naturalise as British to take a Christian sacrament. For the devout this was intolerable, but for a large number of nineteenth-century immigrants it was no great deterrent.” Benjamin Disraeli was Britain’s first Jewish prime minister.

By the time the slave trade was abolished in 1807, “Britain had snatched and thrashed, bought and sold more than two and a half million men and women (mainly men) into the plantation infernos in eleven thousand ships.” The profits were enormous, without which it is unlikely Britain could have mustered the resources to invade and secure India, or power industrialisation. Slavery and racism enforced each other, and for the first time Britons came to think of themselves as ‘white’. Although slavery dwindled racism did not. Nevertheless, the abolition of the slave trade did boost Britain’s image as the “moral leader of the civilised world”. Political refugees, like Giuseppe Mazzini, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, unwelcome in Europe, found a shelter in Britain where there was more individual freedom. Marx and Engels’ historic work – from the Communist Manifesto to Das Kapitol – was to a large extent a critique of British capitalism, at a time when Britain was enjoying an explosion of industrial activity. In the nineteenth century there were other immigrants too from Italy and Ireland. Few immigrants have been less welcome than the Irish, and there were plenty of anti-Irish riots, but by the end of the nineteenth century they had more or less entered the mainstream of British life.

As the British Empire expanded so too did a feeling of British superiority. “Partly it was the very ease of the imperial conquest which confirmed in the minds of Britons the concept of inferior people.” At its largest, in 1914, the empire covered 12.7 million square miles, of which the UK itself accounted for less than 1%. Surely this ‘proved’ that white Europeans were born to rule, and dark natives born to serve? “Very few people knew what went on in the colonies. They were happy to go along with the contorted logic of racist thinking, which insisted that the subjugated populations were too dim for cerebral work, yet simultaneously capable of fearsome cunning.” Religion, science, philosophy and even poetry joined hands to encourage racist thought. A racial pecking order was developed with whites at the top and blacks at the bottom, just above the animals. These ideas flowed naturally from Darwin’s recently formulated theory of evolution. By the mid-nineteenth century, when the ‘lower orders’ had the audacity to rebel against their ‘superiors’, Britain reacted with righteous indignation. “The Indian Mutiny of 1857 was seen as the worst form of ingratitude against the civilising empire-builders. And a few years later in 1865, a similar uprising in Jamaica was put down with unprecedented savagery.” Nineteenth- century Britain was not a good place to be dark-skinned or foreign. “Foreigners” declared the Truth magazine in 1893, “are in fact deceitful, effeminate, irreligious, immoral, unclean and unwholesome.”

After the Suez Canal was cut in 1869, people from the east began filtering to England. The shipping companies were quite fond of their Asiatic Lascars and coolies as they worked harder, for less pay, and were not as keen on drunken brawls as their local counterparts. Nearly a third of men who fought for Britain in the First World War were from the colonies, mainly India, yet the war is remembered as an act of pure British sacrifice. After the war the Indian men were shooed off home. The passport came into use in 1915, which gave governments a new weapon to control migration. However, the number of African, Chinese and Indian men working for shipping companies continued to grow. Some Indian activists began to surface in public life: Uphadhaya, Shapuri Saklatava, and Krishna Menon.

Things got harder for Britain’s Jews as anti-Semitism grew all over Europe. There were marches and rallies, including one notable running fight along Cable Street in east London, but persecution on this scale was no deterrent to those fleeing the far worse oppressions in Nazi Germany. One third of Germany’s Jews managed to escape before the borders were closed, and inevitably this was the third most able to leave. Some of Britain’s well known shops were started by Jewish immigrants: Marks & Spencer, Moss Bros, Burton and Tesco. They started from very humble circumstances, just running a market stall or a rag-and-bone business, but successfully built up their businesses over time. With their growing clout in the higher echelons of power, Zionists such as Chaim Weizmann were able to lobby for a Jewish state.

As in the First World War Britain summoned its colonial subjects to arms in the Second World War. The Indian Army supplied three million men. Many Poles, squeezed between Hitler to the west and Stalin to the east, came to Britain. They fought valiantly for Britain, and this was recognised by Churchill who felt they were “a special case” and offered them settlement. This was the first time a major group of immigrants were formally welcomed, embraced and given assistance. After the war some 345,000 European nationals were recruited by the Foreign Labour Committee to rebuild a war ravaged country.

In the decades that followed many migrants, first from the Caribbean, then from partitioned India, Africa and Hong Kong made their way to Britain. The empire had been widely resented, but also –despite everything – admired. In Gandhi’s words Britain was “the land of philosophers and poets, the very centre of civilisation.” Nehru’s years in Harrow had left him with a keen regard for English manners. “In my likes and dislikes I was perhaps more an Englishman than an Indian,” he wrote. “I returned to India as prejudiced in favour of England and the English as it is possible.” It was financial hardship that prodded the newly liberated peoples to head for England. There was, however, no assistance given to the new arrivals as was forthcoming for the Poles, Czechs, European volunteers and even prisoners of war. Thrown into an unfriendly labour market and a tougher housing market, they inevitably clustered in certain locales.

Among the first Indians to come to Britain were the Eurasians or Anglo-Indians. They were followed by the Sikhs, fleeing a partitioned Punjab, and then people displaced by the construction of the Mangla Dam in Mirpur, Pakistan. Unlike the West Indians, who felt they were British before they came, the Indians and Pakistanis were keen to uphold their cultural traditions. Anti-immigrant feeling, particularly toward non-white immigrants, increased toward the end of the 1950s when the post-war reconstruction boom came to an end. There were ugly scenes in Nottingham, Shepherd’s Bush and Notting Hill. Politicians too easily succumbed to the idea that immigrants were to blame, with little concern for the bullying behaviour of the locals, and police were convinced that the best way to stop violence was to send them back home.

Britain did its best to deter expelled East African Asians, but in the end admitted many of them in anyway. Enoch Powell said Britain must be “mad, literally mad” to permit such an unhealthy influx. “Like the Roman,” he said, “I see the Tiger flowing with much blood.” It didn’t take long for the Indians and Pakistanis to effect sharp changes in the urban landscape and the national lifestyle. Asian owned corner shops sprang up everywhere. Many Asians became prosperous and prominent figures, but the most common experience was social exclusion. In the East End of London daily life for Bangladeshis and Pakistanis was torrid, with the far right National Front inciting much violence. There was also trouble in Southall, which climaxed in the election campaign of 1979 when the National Front organised a meeting in the town hall. The Chinese immigrants, who came mainly from Hong Kong, dispersed much more sparsely across the country, setting up takeaways and fish and chip shops, and faced much less hostility. There were also a large influx of Europeans, including Irish and Cypriots, but they were hardly noticed. At any other time, things could have been quite different.

On ‘World in Action’ Margaret Thatcher said, “Some people have felt swamped by immigrants.” “They’ve seen the whole character of their neighbourhoods change.” Soon after she came to power her government acted quickly to stop an influx of Boat People and a mass migration of Hong Kong citizens. The immigration rules were tightened even further so that only people of demonstrably “British descent” could be considered for settlement. Throughout the 1980s, like the decade before, racist incidents were so common that they “ceased to be news, until the determination of Stephen Lawrence’s parents provoked a front-page search for the murderers of their son (led by the Daily Mail, unusually) and pricked Britain’s conscience.” This was a turning point and there was a major bureaucratic effort to oppose racist violence in theory.

In 1986 the publication of Salman Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” made immigration again a national concern. Anti-racist politics had already made deep inroads into public life, and there were laws protecting the rights of immigrants, but the situation was the kind that opponents of multiculturalism had feared might come to pass. It highlighted there was a new element in the social landscape, one which had no desire to ‘blend in’ or adapt to British ways: fundamentalist Islam. This made people brood on a more literal definition of ‘tolerance’: the willingness to put up with things they did not necessarily like.

Throughout the 1990s the asylum system was so overwhelmed that the British public came to believe all migrants were false, none had a right to be here, and there was pressure on the government to get tough. The British National Party began agitating again. “These foreign spongers were given favourable treatment and precedence over honest Brits,” they declared. “They were stealing our houses, our birthright and our jobs.” In fact, asylum seekers amounted to only a fraction of the people coming to Britain. Thousands more travelled perfectly legally, on tourist, student or business visas, and then simply overstayed, drifting out of reach of law enforcement agencies. Given that these illegal immigrants have no access to either social services or healthcare, no employment rights and no leverage in the housing market, it is unlikely they are here to stay. According to some guesses the illegal economy is worth some eight billion pounds per year. Employers didn’t stop hiring; they just stopped declaring.

Today the general opinion about immigration is not much different than in the past, with renewed calls to tighten immigration rules even further. The long sequence of political reforms since 1962 has been nothing but a wholehearted attempt to restrict immigration, especially coloured immigration. It’s now extremely difficult for coloured immigrants to enter the UK legally. They are not generally taking other people’s jobs, but doing jobs in the so-called 3-D category: dirty, dangerous and difficult. Migrants have kept inflationary pressures down, being willing to tolerate low wages. With an increasingly aging population it will be hard for Britain to underwrite a solid pension system if the labour force is not replenished with younger workers. If it were true immigration is economically harmful then America would be minnow, not a superpower. Francis Walker, superintendent of the US census in 1880 and 1890, wrote a hundred years ago that it was time to halt the exodus from Europe. These people, he said, were “beaten men from beaten races, representing the worst failures in the struggle for existence.” This massive misjudgement is echoed in Britain today.

I do recognise that Britain cannot allow unlimited immigration. The country wouldn’t be able to cope. Strains on social services, social tension and also criminal activity have to be taken into account in deciding how many and what types of people are allowed in. Sometimes they are fleeing natural disasters, political oppression, religious persecution, failing crops or internal conflict. The tabloid newspapers, and an increasingly media savvy anti-immigrant lobby, are all too eager to view immigrants not as individuals but as numbers. The tabloids not only report discord but often sow it.

Looking at all the different immigrants who have come to Britain it’s clear some groups have clearly been more successful than others. The Jews, Huguenots, Indians and Chinese have done very well. Others like the Palantines and the Gypsies were not successful, mainly because they lacked the urban skills required to thrive in British society, and unfortunately for them they got deported. Ultimately it seems that those who bring with them the most useful skills and who can adapt quickly are the ones who thrive. Britain lends a certain degree of leeway and protection for them to do so. There are very few countries in the world that would provide a flat, a school, a hospital and some petty cash for refugees, but Britain does this. This is often more a source of shame than of pride. And I wholeheartedly agree with Winder’s statement that “immigration is, after all, a compliment, a tribute to our opportunity-rich economy, our humane (if overstretched) social services, our historic civil liberties, our rickety but ancient reputation for fairness and justice.”