Thursday, January 21, 2016

ACN News - In wake of bombings, Jesuit calls on Indonesian Muslims to fight Islamic terrorism



By Marta Petrosillo


“This attack should serve as an alarm bell for all Indonesians, and above all for Muslims. They need to recognize the danger of terrorism,” said a Jesuit based in the world’s largest Muslim country.

Father Franz Magnis-Suseno, a Jesuit and lecturer in philosophy at the University of Jakarta spoke with international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) about the terrorist attack Jan. 14, 2016 in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, which left seven people dead, including five of the attackers. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Jesuit said the violence had nothing to do with tensions between Christians and Muslims in the country, which has been long known for its moderate and tolerant form of Islam. The priest speculated that the target of the violence were not Christians or other religious minorities, and that the attack were meant to send a message to the West, just like recent ISIS-inspired or sponsored terror operations in Istanbul and Egypt.

However, research by ACN has confirmed that Indonesia’s tradition of religious pluralism and harmony is increasingly coming under threat; there has been a significant rise in religious intolerance, driven by radical Islamism. Attacks against churches are on the rise, as demonstrated by the recent violence in the province of Aceh; a growing number of churches are being forced to close.

Other religious communities, such as the Ahmadiyya and Shia sects within Islam, as well as Buddhists, Hindus, adherents of indigenous traditional religions and progressive Sunni Muslims—who speak out against intolerance—are also facing increasing harassment and violence.

Acts of violence are perpetrated by radical Islamist organizations such as the Front Pembela Islam (FPI) or “Islamic Defenders Front,” which routinely carry out attacks on churches, Ahmadi mosques, and Shia communities with impunity. Islamist propaganda is gaining ground on university campuses and in mosques and pesantren, Islamic boarding schools.

Islamist ideas are largely imported from the Middle East, particularly through funding for scholarships allowing students to takes courses in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and financial support for the publishing and distribution of Islamist literature.

“The authorities are confident of being able to depend on a strong anti-terrorist strategy, which has been in operation since 1988,” Father Magnis-Suseno said, adding that he nonetheless is concerned about the presence of numerous terrorist groups in the country.

“In reality these groups are very much divided among themselves and cannot be lumped together or form a common front. The majority of these groups condemn ISIS, but two groups in particular indirectly support the idea of the caliphate: the Jemaah Islamiah and the East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT).”

Father Magnis-Suseno does not think the growth in the number of supporters of Islamic State poses an immediate danger to Indonesia, but much will depend upon the political and economic development of the country, he stressed.

“If the government succeeds, as it seems to be doing, in offering real prospects of a better future and reining in the rampant corruption, then young Indonesians will not go looking for alternatives such as ISIS,” the Jesuit said.


Father Magnis-Suseno (© ACN)


Editor’s Notes:




Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org

Blessed Jacob Gapp, S.M. - A MODERN MARTYR CHAMPIONED THE CATHOLIC PRESS


Picture source

Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.


          Blessed Jacob Gapp, S.M., may well be considered another patron of the Catholic press as well as a patron of justice and peace advocates.  Because the Gestapo condemned him for his unwavering adherence to the Catholic faith and his unabashed denunciation of National Socialism (Nazism), Father Jacob Gapp was guillotined by the Nazis in Berlin at the Ploetzensee Prison on August 13, 1943.  Pope John Paul II beatified him in1996.

          Before entering the Society of Mary in his native Austria, this intrepid Marianist priest had served in the Austrian army in World War I, was wounded and decorated for valor, and suffered as a prisoner of war in northern Italy.  This experience taught him to loathe war, selfishness and greed, arrogant pride, political and social injustice.  As a young Marianist religious and teacher of religion he was unstinting as a militant advocate for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.

          This action made Father Gapp a serious irritant to the Nazis after they annexed Austria in 1938.  For his own safety and for the welfare of the Marianist school where he was teaching in Graz, his superiors moved him from place to place for parish work.  The Nazi regime forbade him to teach.  Some pupils in the Tyrol told a school inspector in October 1938 that Father Gapp explained to them the Gospel message of brotherly love and their obligation to love and respect “Frenchmen, Czechs, Jews, and communists alike, as they were all human beings.”  He insisted, “God is your God, not Adolf Hitler.”

          Realizing that the spoken word and the printed word clearly possessed a power lacking in the sword of militarism, he employed the Catholic press as a weapon of choice.  And he read avidly to study the thorny problem of National Socialism and all its ramifications.

          Imbued with the message of Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge and the statements of the Austrian bishops, Jacob Gapp had formed a lucid and sound judgment about the utter incompatibility of National Socialism and Christianity.  In his preaching he emphasized this truth fearlessly, and he taught the uncompromising law of love for all people without reference to nationality or religion. 

          In a fateful sermon in his home parish of St. Lawrence at Wattens in the Tyrol on December 11, 1938, this seasoned Marianist priest staunchly defended Pope Pius XI against the attacks of the Nazis, knowing that his words were being monitored by the Gestapo.  He urged the faithful to read Catholic literature rather than Nazi propaganda, and to follow the lead of the Catholic press.  This bold move forced him to leave his native country and escape to France.  A few months later his anti-Nazi audacity required that he flee Bordeaux and enter Spain, where he assisted in several  schools and parishes served by the Marianists.   He was adamant in his rejection of the Nazi diatribe.  His zeal for the cause he so fervently espoused was not diminished.

          In the summer of 1942 the beleaguered Father Jacob Gapp visited the British consulate in Valencia to inquire about a visa to England.  He also wanted to learn what was really happening in Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe, especially concerning the Church.  The consulate staff gave him a stack of newspapers and magazines.   Among them were copies of The Tablet, a weekly journal edited by Catholic laity in London.  The Tablet provided reports about the persecution of the Church, internment camps, pastoral letters like that of the Bishop of Calahorra in Spain criticizing the Nazi ideology, and objective reports from the war fronts.  Shunning the biased propaganda material, Father Jacob began to distribute The Tablet, returning regularly to the consulate for new copies.

          Shadowed by the Nazis over the years, he was arrested through a deceptive trap that lured him across the border into occupied France, where the Gestapo arrested him and hustled him to prison in Berlin.  He was deceived by a certain Father Lange, a German priest in whom he had confided, but who was secretly a Gestapo agent. In January 1943, for two long and intense days he was interrogated nonstop by the Gestapo.  Jacob Gapp welcomed the opportunity to present his case.  The Gestapo interrogators were particularly interested in his visits to the British consulate in Valencia, and in the “subversive propaganda against the Fatherland” he had repeatedly collected there and distributed.  Calmly and firmly the prisoner explained that The Tablet was not propaganda: “It is a good, Catholic journal.  The writing is sound, and I even intended to subscribe.”

          Willingly and vigorously the martyr-to-be not only admitted he consistently opposed the Nazi regime and all it represented, but explained when and why he had done so.  He virtually flew in the face of the interrogators.  His reasoning and candor stunned the Nazi agents.  First and foremost he was a Marianist religious and Catholic priest, conscience-bound to place God before Caesar.  Since the Nazis were bent on destroying the Church, he was convinced it was his duty to blaze a trail of resistance and opposition, to educate with truth, and to be a role model of fidelity.

          For his honesty and integrity Father Jacob Gapp was sentenced to death for treason and guillotined.    His body was destroyed because the Gestapo feared the people would revere him as a martyr.  Reportedly Heinrich Himmler, the cunning manipulator of the Nazi leadership, expressed the opinion that Germany would win World War II without difficulty if there were a million party members as committed as Jacob Gapp.  Even the enemy admired his tenacious and unstinting adherence to conviction.

          Today we honor Blessed Jacob Gapp as a modern-day champion of the Catholic press, which strives to be a source of truthful reporting. Because he respected the Catholic press as the vehicle the Church employs to reveal the Good News for our day, we are invited to call on him to help us to appreciate and promote a more effective Catholic press – print and electronic -- with a wider readership, and to use the Catholic press as he did for the cause of truth and justice. 

          As the Church regards St. Francis de Sales as patron of the Catholic press, who intercedes for writers and publishers, we can call on Blessed Jacob Gapp as a patron for readers of the Catholic press. We can request him to assist all who turn to the Catholic press for a reliable source of information.  




Tuesday, January 19, 2016

ACN-USA News - New round of ACN funding to aid Middle East Christians

International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has announced the funding of a series of extra emergency aid packages for Christians in Syria and Iraq escaping persecution and grappling with the onset of winter. The organization is rolling out 19 relief programs in Syria and a further 11 in Iraq—providing food, medicine, shelter and pastoral support.

The projects include extra support for families who fled ISIS in northern Iraq:

  • For Christians who took refuge in Erbil, Kurdish northern Iraq, ACN is helping to provide a nursery school for 125 toddlers

  • For 175 families in the Father Werenfried Village in Erbil, ACN is funding showers, wash basins and toilets

  • For Christians at a displacement camp in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, ACN is providing electricity, food and water

  • Also at the Baghdad displacement camp, ACN is constructing a chapel

  • For 182 Christian displaced families in the Archdiocese of Kirkuk and Sulaimanya, ACN is providing financial aid to help cover the cost of living

For Syria, ACN’s emergency and project help include:

  • A car for the Sisters who run a hospital in Damascus

  • Six-months funding for schools in the Valley of Christians and Marmarita,  including teachers’ salaries and scholarships for first and second grade students as well as college students

  • Heaters and fuel for families displaced from Alqariatin to safe areas in Homs, Fairozah and Zaidal

  • Food and other basic needs for 4,500 families in Homs.

The charity has been asked not to give details of amounts of aid given in case recipients are targeted.

Since 2011, ACN has given more than $13 million for projects in Iraq and more than $10 million for help in Syria.

ACN’s Middle East projects coordinator Father Andrzej Halemba said: “The help ACN is providing for Christians in countries such as Iraq is urgently needed. The governmental institutions are not doing what is necessary to help these communities who are struggling so much at this time.”

“We need to remember how much Christians have contributed to society over generations and indeed centuries and now in their time of need they have been abandoned.”

Reports suggest that altogether 12.2 million people are in desperate need of aid in war-torn Syria and an estimated 7.6 million are thought to be internally displaced by the conflict.

Since the civil war in Syria began in 2011, the Christian population has declined by almost two-thirds and fewer than 250,000 Christians remain in Syria today. Approx. 250,000 Christians remain in Iraq, down from a million in 2003.


Editor’s Notes:



Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.


For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org