Scottish Catholic Observer

For the second consecutive January, The Scottish Catholic Observer has had the sad task of beginning the year by reporting the violent persecution of Christians abroad. In January 2011, Pope Benedict XVI condemned the New Year’s Day car bomb blast outside a Christian church in Egypt that killed 23 people. In this, our first January edition this year we report the condemnation by the Holy Father—and Cardinal Keith O’Brien and Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow—of Christmas Day car bomb attacks near Catholic churches in Nigeria that killed close to 50 people.

As was the case in Egypt, the threat of danger remains clear and present for Nigerian Catholics. The militant group which claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day bombs warned Christians this week that they had three days to leave the north of Nigeria or face further violence. While the threats have been dismissed by Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathon declared a state of emergency in the wake of the recent attacks.

Both Cardinal O’Brien and Archbishop Conti have strong connections with Nigeria, as have their archdioceses St Andrews and Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively, which made the news of the recent bombings all the more painful and poignant.

“Such events would be tragic at any time—but are even more so when we celebrate the great feast of Christmas and recall the coming of Christ, the Prince of Peace, on earth,” Cardinal O’Brien, who visited Nigeria last year Episcopal Ordination of Bishop Malachy John Goltok, Bishop of Bauchi, said.

Several priests from Minna Diocese, where the recent attacks in Nigeria took place, have served in Glasgow Archdiocese, which brought the matter home to Archbishop Conti. “We have been in touch to offer the solidarity of our prayers and sympathy,” the archbishop said, adding that he intended to make a contribution from the Archdiocesan Justice and Peace fund ‘to the needs of our Nigerian fellow Catholics.’

This Sunday, on the feast of the Epiphany, President of Scottish Justice and Peace Commission Bishop Emeritus Peter Moran is asking Scottish Catholics to be generous in our support of Justice and Peace in 2012.

“True charity is rooted in justice—giving people their due,” Bishop Moran said. “Without that justice there is no true peace. Charity then is the measure of our responsibility as mature Christians.”

There can be little doubt that the world is in need of Justice and Peace, that it is crying out for the protection of religious freedom both at home—where rampant secularism poses a serious threat—and abroad.

Let us hope and pray that our own actions and donations this year can contribute to ensuring that next year is not heralded in by news of the persecution of Christians.