Pope, religious freedom advocates lament Egyptian violence

Vatican City, Aug 15, 2013 / 04:53 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis joined proponents of religious liberty in voicing grief at the “painful news” of more than 600 deaths and numerous attacks on Christian churches in a recent wave of violence in Egypt.

“I wish to ensure my prayers for all the victims and their families, the injured and all those who are suffering,” the Pope said before the Angelus prayer Aug. 15. “Let us pray together for peace, dialogue and reconciliation in that dear nation and throughout the world.”

On Aug. 14, Egyptian security forces broke up the camps of protesters allied with the Muslim Brotherhood. The protesters were demanding the restoration to power of President Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted by the military last month.

Over 200 protesters were killed, as were several dozen policemen.

The death toll rose to at least 638 people in violence across Egypt on Aug. 15, as hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members responded by setting fire to a government building near Cairo, the BBC reports.

Much of Egypt has been placed under curfew and Christian churches have come under attack.

In Suez, a convent of the Congregation of the Good Shepherd and the adjacent school and hospital were robbed and set on fire. A Franciscan church was also set ablaze, the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria reported.

In the northeastern city of Minya, there was another attack on the Coptic Catholic church Mar Guirgis, which had previously been attacked by the Muslim Brotherhood. There were fires at a Jesuit church, the Coptic Catholic Church of St. Mark, and a convent and school of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

In the north central city of Beni Souef on the Nile River, there was a fire at the Franciscan Convent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

In the central Egypt city of Asyut, there was a fire at the Franciscan Church of St. Therese and at a convent of Franciscan sisters.

At Cairo’s Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima, attackers threw stones and assaulted the doors of the church but failed to enter.

More than 25 other attacks targeted Orthodox and Evangelical churches, the patriarchate reports.

Pope Francis addressed the violence in his remarks after the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption. He sought the intercession of the Virgin Mary.

“Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us,” he told crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Aug. 15. “Let's all say it, Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us.”

One Christian leader, speaking anonymously to the evangelical Christian group Open Doors USA, lamented in particular the death of 10-year-old Jessica Boulos, who was murdered last week while returning home from her Bible study at a Cairo evangelical church.

The Christian leader said her death by “a fanatic Muslim gunman” is “unbearable” and “continues to throw its shadows of pain on her broken family and the entire Christian community of Egypt.”

“In all of this mess, the loss of church buildings is great, but not to be compared with the loss of the many souls, the pains of the wounds and the fear and anxiety that have filled the hearts of all that can yet happen in Egypt today and the days to come. Buildings can eventually be re-built, but when lost, souls can never be restored.”

Nina Shea, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, wrote in an article for National Review Online that the U.S. has shown an alarming indifference to the plight of Christians in Egypt.

“The Copts are not part of the military assault against Muslim Brotherhood protesters in two of Cairo’s squares, and were but one of many factions of Egyptian society that supported the military’s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi,” Shea observed.

However, she charged, “the Copts have been scapegoated by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists since the beginning of the July 3 military intervention.”

She criticized the U.S. government for failing to take stronger action against the violent targeting of religious sites, property and houses of worship.

When U.S. State Department spokesperson Marie Harf was questioned about the attacks at a recent press conference, Shea asserted, she simply said that the government is “concerned” and will “continue speaking out against this” in an effort towards “moving forward with a democratic process.”

“Beyond the general aim of ‘moving forward with a democratic process,’ the Obama administration apparently has no policy specifically directed to help this religious minority,” Shea said.

Mary is with us in our struggles, Pope Francis teaches

Vatican City, Aug 15, 2013 / 11:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his homily for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Francis said that this feast helps us reflect on the Christian themes of struggle, resurrection, and hope.

“Mary … has of course already entered, once and for all, into heavenly glory. But this does not mean that she is distant or detached from us,” the Pope preached Aug. 15 during a Mass said at the Piazza of Liberty in Castel Gandolfo.

“Rather Mary accompanies us, struggles with us, sustains Christians in their fight against the forces of evil.”

While pontiffs have customarily spent August in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Francis has remained in Rome this month, traveling this morning to the resort town by helicopter to say Mass for today's holy day of obligation.

He began his homily by reflecting on “Lumen Gentium,” Vatican II's Constitution on the Church, which refers twice to Mary's assumption, body and soul, into heaven.

The first of the themes found in “Lumen Gentium” is Mary's solidarity with our struggles, which was found also in the Mass' first reading, from Revelation, of a struggle between a woman and a dragon.

“The figure of the woman, representing the Church, is, on the one hand, glorious and triumphant and yet, on the other, still in travail,” the Pope noted.

The Church, whose “dual condition” Mary shares, is both “already associated in some way” with Christ's glory in heaven and still living “the trials and challenges” of the conflict between God and Satan.

This struggle is faced by every Christian disciple, and “Mary does not leave them alone,” Pope Francis said. “The Mother of Christ and of the Church is always with us. She walks with us always, she is with us.”

The Pope recommended the rosary as a prayer with Mary that “has this 'suffering' dimension, that is, of struggle, a sustaining prayer in the battle against the evil one and his accomplices. The Rosary also sustains us in the battle.”

He chided his listeners to pray the rosary daily, saying: “Do you pray the Rosary every day? But I'm not sure you do … Really?”

Mary's assumption also shows her solidarity with the resurrection of the dead and with Christ's resurrection, the event and “fundamental truth” that is the basis of Christian faith.

In his resurrection, Christ “entered into eternal life with all the humanity he had drawn from Mary; and she, the Mother, who followed him faithfully throughout her life, followed him with her heart, and entered with him into eternal life, which we also call heaven.”

In her solidarity with her son in the “martyrdom of the Cross,” Mary lived the Passion “to the depths of her soul” and so was given “the gift of resurrection.”

“Christ is the first fruits from the dead and Mary is the first of the redeemed, the first of 'those who are in Christ.'”

“She is our Mother, but we can also say that she is our representative, our sister, our eldest sister, she is the first of the redeemed, who has arrived in heaven.”

The final theme of the assumption, Pope Francis taught, is hope: the hope of those who live the struggle between good and evil and who believe in Christ's resurrection.

The Magnificat, Mary's song of praise at the Visitation, he said, is “the song of hope,” which is also “the song of many saints … some famous, and very many others unknown to us but known to God: moms, dads, catechists, missionaries, priests, sisters, young people, even children and grandparents.”

“These have faced the struggle of life while carrying in their heart the hope of the little and the humble.”

The Pope linked hope to persecution and the Cross, saying the Magnificat is “particularly strong” in the places “where the Body of Christ is suffering the Passion.”

“If there is no hope, we are not Christian. That is why I like to say: do not allow yourselves to be robbed of hope.”

He exhorted his listeners, “may we not be robbed of hope, because this strength is a grace, a gift from God which carries us forward with our eyes fixed on heaven.”

He concluded by encouraging Christians to pray the Magnificat with Mary, who accompanies and suffers with us.

“With all our heart let us too unite ourselves to this song of patience and victory, of struggle and joy, that unites the triumphant Church with the pilgrim one, earth with heaven, and that joins our lives to the eternity towards which we journey.”

Human life should be protected as gift from God, Pope says

Vatican City, Aug 13, 2013 / 12:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Human life – including the lives of unborn children – must be defended as a gift from God, underscored Pope Francis in a recent message. 

Especially in today's throw-away culture that devalues the human person, parents “are called to teach their children to defend life always, beginning with life in the womb, and see it as a gift from God and a guarantee of the future of humanity,” the Pope said.

In a message for the National Week of the Family, which began Aug. 11 in Brazil, he encouraged parents in their “noble and demanding mission to be the first collaborators with God” in educating their children.

Through both their words and their actions, parents are called to pass on fundamental truths about life to future generations, he said in his message, according to Vatican Radio.

He also stressed the need to cultivate shared family practices of faith, in order to help children mature in their spiritual lives.

In addition, Pope Francis noted the importance of caring for the elderly, especially grandparents, whom he described as the living memory of a people, able to pass on the wisdom of life.

The Holy Father concluded by invoking the intercession of Our Lady of Aparecida and praying that families would be “convincing witnesses of the beauty of life sustained by faith.”