Good Friday, A.D. 2026 - The Crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Reading: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
according to St. John (18:1-40 and 19:1-42)

Thy Cross, O Lord, we venerate,
and praise and glorify Thy Holy Resurrection;
for behold, by this wood hath joy come into the whole world.

Happy Easter from Walt and everyone at WWW

VIDEO: "Credo" - this is what Catholics believe

A man who claims to be the Pope has been quoted as saying that all religions lead to God. He believes in Drawing All Faiths Together (DAFT) into his Church of the New World Order. This is the heresy of syncretism. It is not what Catholics believe. 

Here is the Credo (Creed) as sung (in English) by the faithful at the Ukrainian-Greco Catholic Church of Saint Elias the Prophet in Brampton ON in November of 2022.

In response to the heretical statement of the man mentioned above, Most Rev. Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan, has written this Profession of Faith, read at the Catholic Identity Conference 2024, at Pittsburgh PA, today.

Profession of Faith in Jesus Christ and His Church
as the only path to God and to eternal salvation 

We unshakably believe and profess what the ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Church has continuously and infallibly taught since the time of the Apostles, namely, 

That faith in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God and only Savior of mankind, is the only religion willed by God.

After the institution of the new and everlasting Covenant in Jesus Christ, no one may be saved by adherence to the teachings and practices of non-Christian religions. Because “the prayer, which is directed to God, must be linked with Christ, the Lord of all people, the one Mediator (1 Tm 2:5; Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24) through whom alone we have access to God (Rom 5:2; Eph 2:18; 3:12).” (General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, n. 6)

We firmly believe that “there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), except the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified, whom God hath raised from the dead (cf. Acts 4:10).

We believe that it is “contrary to the Catholic faith to consider the Church as one way of salvation alongside those constituted by the other religions, seen as complementary to the Church or substantially equivalent to her, even if these are said to be converging with the Church toward the eschatological kingdom of God” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Dominus Iesus, 21).

We furthermore hold that Divine Revelation, faithfully transmitted by the Church’s perennial Magisterium, forbids affirming:

That all religions are paths to God,

That the diversity of religious identities is a gift of God, and

That the diversity of religions is an expression of the wise will of God the Creator. 

We hold, therefore, that Christians are not simply “travelling companions” along with adherents of false religions — which God forbids.

We fervently implore the help of Divine grace for all those churchmen today who, by their words and deeds, contradict the Divinely revealed truth about Jesus Christ and His Church as the only path by which men can reach God and eternal salvation. With the help of divine grace, may these churchmen be enabled to offer a public retraction, required for the good of their own soul and the souls of others. For “not accepting Christ is the greatest danger for the world!” (St. Hilary of Poitiers, In Matth. 18).

By the prayers, tears and sacrifices of all the true sons and daughters of the Church, and especially of the “little ones” in the Church, may the Shepherds of the Church, and first and foremost Pope Francis, receive the grace to emulate the Apostles, countless Martyrs, numerous Holy Roman Pontiffs and a multitude of Saints, especially St. Francis of Assisi, who “was a Catholic and an entirely apostolic man, who set about personally and commanded his disciples to occupy themselves before everything else with the conversion of the heathen to the Faith and Law of Christ.” (Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Rite Expiatis, 37)

We believe and, with God’s grace, are ready to give our lives for this Divine truth pronounced by Jesus Christ: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). 

+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana,

with the Participants of the Catholic Identity Conference 2024, Pittsburgh, September 29, A.D. 2024

VIDEO: Father Roman explains the importance of Christian tradition

Jorge Bergoglio, the man who calls himself "Pope Francis", accuses us traditional Catholics of being rigid, of clinging to dogma which is no longer fashionable or relevant to modern times. We cannot pretend that the world has stood still since Vatican II, or that Holy Mother Church can turn back the hands of time, but we cannot cast into the dustbin of history the two millennia of Christian tradition. 

In this homily, given by Father Roman Galadza, the pastor of Saint Elias Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church, in Brampton ON, Father Roman points out that Catholic Tradition predates the New Testament. It is through the teachings of Our Lord, handed down orally by the Fathers of the Church, that our Christian Faith was given shape and substance. To turn our backs on Tradition is to turn our backs on the Faith.

   

Click here to see the entire Divine Liturgy offered on 17 July 2022. You can visit the Saint Elias Church website by clicking here.

Christus resurrexit! Vere resurrexit! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Walt [and Ed.]

wish all our readers

a

HAPPY AND HOLY EASTER

VIDEO: More on the meaning of the Notre Dame fire

This for all the non-Catholics out there who can't understand why Walt and others are making such a big fuss about the partial destructionby fire of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. In "Notre Dame in flames: part of the Great Chastisement?" (WWW 16/4/19) I saw the tragedy as evidence of God's displeasure with the modern Roman Catholic Church. A similar view was expressed by Michael Matt in "Notre Dame will rise again!" (WWW 17/4/19).

But Notre Dame was... still is... much more than a house of worship for Christians. The building itself embodies and symbolizes the history and culture of European civilization, for the history of Christianity is the history of Europe and the entire Western world. That stone truth is discussed in this video by Bill Whittle and the men of Right Angle. As far as I know, none of the 3 is Catholic is Catholic, and that's just the point.



Notre Dame is immensely important as a symbol of Western civilization. If it is not rebuilt, or if it is "modified" to make it "more modern" and "inclusive" -- say by putting an Islamic crescent at the top of a new spire -- that would represent the finality of the decline of the West. Now is the time to resurrect not just the cathedral but of the ideas and values that informed the building of the cathedral. God save Notre Dame... and God save us Christians!

25 worst places to be a Christian

The British newspaper The Guardian has published an overview of the persecution of Christians worldwide, accompanied by a list of the 25 worst places to be a Christian. "Christians are facing growing persecution around the world," they wrote, "fueled mainly by Islamic extremism and repressive governments, leading the Pope to warn of 'a form of genocide' and for campaigners to speak of 'religio-ethnic cleansing,'."

Click here to read The Grauniad's list, with their reasons. Walt's "Reader's Digest version" follows. The list is not in bad-worse-worst order because, well... I don't need to explain, do I?

North Korea - Asia, Communist dictatorship. Believers meet in secret "house churches", risking imprisonment, torture and martyrdom.
Somalia - Horn of Africa, officially Muslim, lawless and chaotic. Christians often executed on the spot.
Iraq - Middle East sandpit, officially Muslim, but which kind of Muslim? Shi'ites and Sunni Muslims are fighting it out in a Muslim civil war, in which the USA and its reluctant allies are meddling for no good reason.
Syria - Like Iraq, only worse.
Afghanistan - Like Syria, only worse.

Sudan - Northern Africa, officially Muslim, Sharia law. Converting to Christianity punishable by death. Blasphemy gets you the lash.
Iran - Middle East, officially Muslim. Safer for Christians than Iraq or Syria, and that's about all you can say.
Pakistan - Asia, officially Muslim. Christians are second-class citizens. Blasphemy (against the Prophet or the Holy Qu'ran) punishable by death.
Eritrea - Horn of Africa, pseudo-Communist dictatorship, Muslim majority. See North Korea.
Nigeria - Africa, divided between Muslim north and nominally Christian south. Sharia law in the north. Boko Haram abducts girls, kills Christians by the thousands.

Maldives - Never heard of it, right? Beautiful little islands in the Indian Ocean, southwest of India. Great tourist destination. Officially Muslim. Converting from Islam means forfeiting Maldivian citizenship, and owning a Bible is punishable by death. Churches are banned; Christian migrants and tourists also have to meet in secret and cannot own Bibles.
Saudi Arabia - Middle East, feudal kingdom. Officially Muslim and we're talking Wahabi, the most extreme branch of Sunni Islam. For their faith, Christians may be arrested, imprisoned, tortured and deported.
Libya - North Africa, officially Muslim. ISIS hotspot, going through a civil war following a pointless Western invasion. The new Somalia.
Yemen - Middle East, feudal, officially Muslim. Christians treated as in Saudi Arabia, and caught in the middle of a civil war, with Saudis intervening on the side of Islamic fundamentalists.
Uzbekistan - Central Asia, pseudo-Communist dictatorship. As in China [How did China get left off this list?! Ed.], all churches must be registered with the state. Converts from Islam face imprisonment, beatings and sometimes banishment.

Vietnam - Asia, Communist dictatorship. Not quite as bad as China, since the Roman Catholic Church still has a large following, the legacy of the colonial days. As in China and Uzbekistan, churches must be officially registered. As in China, many churches have been destroyed, and Christians attacked and imprisoned.
Central African Republic - Africa [Duh! Ed.], chaotic, lawless. The militant group Séléka, (= CAR rebels + Muslims from neighbouring countries), have raped, tortured and killed Christians throughout the country. Unlike in other countries on this fecal roster, defence groups made up of people claiming to be Christians are fighting back. Victims, Christian or Muslim, may be eaten.
Qatar - Middle East, Islamic kingdom. Converts to Christianity face banishment and death. Large population of migrant workers have to keep their faith to themselves.
Kenya - Africa. Like Nigeria but substitute Al Shabaab for Boko Haram. If you're a white, presumably Christian tourist, keep your head down.
Turkmenistan - Central Asia, quasi-dictatorship, officially Muslim. See Uzbekistan.

India - Asia. Officially a secular state but under the ruling BJP effectively "Hindustan". Like Pakistan, only with the persecutors being Hindus. In some states there are anti-conversion laws, and attacks on Christians and church buildings occur frequently. Indian Muslims are recommended to move to Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Ethiopia - Horn of Africa. I don't agree with The Guardian on this one, as the majority of Ethiopians are Coptic Christians. But there are Muslim-dominated areas, where Christians report harassment for their faith. The Grauniad says there were 60 violent incidents reported in 2014.
Egypt - Northern Africa, officially Muslim. There is a large(ish) minority of Coptic Christians who were largely left alone until the US-supported overthrow of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, which was followed by a sharp increase in anti-Christian violence, with 65 churches, convents, Christian bookshops and schools attacked. There are fears these attacks will increase as radical Islamist groups gain power in the region.
Djibouti - Horn of Africa, officially Muslim. You'll find it on the map next to Eritrea, which it greatly resembles. That's all you need to know.
Burma - Asia, quasi-dictatorship, officially Buddhists. Included in The Guardian's list (I guess) to show that it's not only the Islamists who have it in for Christians. There has been a rise in nationalist religious movements in the past few years, with nearly two dozen Christians killed in clashes with the army in 2014. Buddhist nationalist groups are putting pressure on the government to adopt laws that would make life harder for Christians, such as limiting conversions and restricting interfaith marriages.

So there you have it -- the 25 worst countries in which to be a Christian. OK, 26 if you count China, which you definitely should. And The Guardian says nothing of the persecution of believers in the True Faith by the secular humanists who have triumphed in post-Christian Europe and North America.

Dear Christian readers, please keep in your minds and hearts the words of St. Paul:
2 Timothy 3:12 - And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Romans 8:35/37 - Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or persecution, or sword? / But in all these things we overcome, because of Him that hath loved us.

Further reading: "Dying for Christianity: millions at risk amid rise in persecution across the globe" (Companion piece to The Guardian's list)

Why the Muslim became a Christian

Just a thought before we forget about the Resurrection until next Easter...

Somebody asked a Muslim why he became a Christian. He said, "Let's put it this way. You're on a journey, and you come to a fork in the road. You don't know which way to go. There are two men there - one dead, the other alive. Which one do you ask for directions?"

Thanks to Agent 9, and Happy Easter to all our readers.

Traditional Good Friday prayers

Good Catholic friends... If you attend the Good Friday Liturgy at a mainstream Roman Catholic church today, you will hear only a "reformed", politically correct version of the Solemn Prayers which were said in all our churches, on every Good Friday for centuries, until the disorientation caused by Vatican II. Here are the old prayers in a translation bearing the imprimatur of Francis Cardinal Spellman.

1. For Holy Church
Almighty and eternal God, who in Christ hast revealed They glory to all nations: preserve the works of Thy mercy; that Thy Church, spread abroad over the whole world, may with a steadfast faith persevere in the confession of Thy Name. Through the same our Lord...

2. For the Supreme Pontiff
Almighty and eternal God, by whose judgment all things are established, mercifully regard our prayers, and in Thy goodness preserve the Chief Bishop chosen to rule over us: that the Christian people who are governed by Thine authority, may under so great a Pontiff increase in the merits of their faith. Through our Lord...

3. For all orders and degrees of the faithful
Almighty and eternal God, by whose Spirit the w hole body of the Church is sanctified and governed, hear our supplications for all the orders thereof; that by the gift of Thy grace, they may all in their several degrees faithfully serve Thee. Through our Lord...

4. For the Rulers of the State
Almighty and eternal God, in whose hands is all power and authority: look with mercy on those who govern us, that Thy right hand protecting us, integrity of faith and security of country may be preserved. Through our Lord Jesus Christ...

5. For Catechumens
Almighty and eternal God, Who dost continually enrich Thy Church with a new offspring; increase the faith and understanding of our Catechumens; that being born again in the waters of Baptism, they may be joined to the children of Thine adoption. Through our Lord...

6. For the necessities of the faithful
Almighty and eternal God, the Comfort of the sorrowful, the Support of the weary, let the prayers of them reach Thee that cry to Thee in any affliction; that all may have reason to rejoice that in their need Thy mercy hath come to their aid. Through our Lord...

7. For the Unity of the Church
Almighty and eternal God, Who saves all men, and desirest not that any should perish: look down on such souls as are deceived by the wiles of the devil; that laying aside all heretical perverseness, the hearts of those who are in error may be converted, and may return to the unity of Thy truth. Through our Lord...

8. For the conversion of the Jews
Almighty and eternal God, Who art ready to extend Thy mercy even to the Jews, hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people; that by acknowledging the light of Thy truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same our Lord...

9. For the conversion of infidels
Almighty and eternal God, Who dost ever desire the life, and not the death, of sinners: mercifully receive our prayer, and deliver them from the worship of idols, and join them to the flock of Thy holy Church, for the praise and glory of Thy Name. Through our Lord...

The last Christian nation in Europe?

If a country's identity can be seen in its declared faith and morals, and if that identity is to be found in its constitution, there are virtually no nations on earth which self-identify as Christian. Phrases like "one nation under God" have been deleted from most supreme laws in the name of secularism and political correctness.

One or two European countries -- Britain and Sweden -- have "established" (official) churches. But overt expressions of a nation's belief in Christianity are discouraged by the European Union, lest people of other religious persuasions should feel excluded. Case in point: Slovakia, which last June was told by the EU to take the images of Sts Cyril and Methodius off its coins.

Happily there is one prominent exception. Italian journalist Alessandra Nucci, writing in Catholic World Report, characterizes the constitution and guiding principles of Hungary as "everything the EU has labored to abolish".

In sharp contrast to current EU policies, Sr Nucci writes, Hungary’s fundamental law includes:
* the recognition of Christianity as the religion of Hungary’s people
* the protection of the right to life from conception
* the definition of the family as a unit based on male-female marriage
* the acknowledgment of parents’ rights
* the duty of legislators before God
* the ban on eugenics, and
* the definition of the nation in ethnic terms (albeit with protection for minorities).

According to the article, Hungary’s new constitution begins, "God bless the Hungarians". It acknowledges St. Stephen as the founder of the Hungarian, or Magyar, state as “a part of Christian Europe.” The preamble further celebrates "the role of Christianity in preserving nationhood".

Good for the Hungarians, I say! And shame on all the European politicans who disregarded Pope John Paul II’s reiterated call to fight, for a mention of Europe’s Christian heritage in the European Constitution.

Had Europe’s historical Christian roots been acknowledged in the EU’s founding documents, there would now be a solid foundation on which to base resist media and political pressure to adopt laws that fly in the face of Europe’s identity and tradition.

Most British Christians see themselves as persecuted minority

Yesterday (Holy Saturday) brought depressing news from the Disunited Kingdom, a.k.a. Once-great Britain. A survey done by pollsters ComRes revealed that more than two-thirds of  British Christians feel they are now part of a "persecuted minority".

And guess who the persecutors are? Not Romans and Jews, as in the time of Jesus, or even Muslims, but the promoters of what the polling firm calls "aggressive secularism", which churchgoers increasingly feel threatens freedom of religion.

In the UK, even more than in the USA and Canada, court rulings against people who want to wear crosses at work, and legal action preventing prayers before council meetings, have combined with a persistent anti-religious bias in the press to make Christians feel marginalized.

Adding fuel to the flames of resentment is the British Government's decision to legalize "marriage", in spite of the opposition of the Church -- including, in a half-hearted way, the Church of England -- and a significant chunk of popular opinion.

According to the PressTV article on the poll, if the march of secularism continues unabated, by 2030 Britain will no longer be a Christian country. By that date, there will be more non-believers than Christians. Why, because immigrants from Asia keep their faiths, and "born Christians" (as opposed to "born-again Christians") don't.

In the past six years, the report says, the number of Muslims has surged by 37% to 2.6 million. Hindus have increased their numbers by 43%, and Buddhists by a massive 74 per cent. Meanwhile, people who choose to call themselves Christians declined in number by more than 4 million between the censuses of 2001 and 2011. In the latter census, fewer than 60% of all residents of the UK described themselves as Christian. That's down from 72% in 2001.

A former Archbishop of Canterbury -- head of the so-called Anglican Communion -- has a comment on the role of Britain's government in the decline of Christianity in his country. Walt will be posting a précis later today.

Holy Thursday

While they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke, and gave to his disciples and said: Take ye and eat. This is my body.

And taking the chalice, he gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of this. For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto the remission of sins.

Gospel of St. Matthew 26:26-28

Merry Christmas to all our followers and readers

Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.
St. Luke 2:14

Walt [and Ed.] wish you all a Happy and Holy Christmas.

Adoration of the Magi by Domenico di Ghirlandaio, 1488

Walt explains the connection between Communism, Islam and Fatima

Where's Walt? A little over four years ago, the answer was: somewhere in that crowd of pilgrims in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, at Fátima, Portugal. It was there that the Mother of God appeared to three shepherd children, Blesseds Jacinta and Francisco Marto and their cousin, Lúcia Santos, known as "Sister Lucy" after she became a nun.

For those (including, sadly, the majority of Catholics) who don't know what happened at Fátima, a brief explanation, then a thought which occurred to me as I read Mark Steyn's controversial book America Alone. The Mother of God appeared at Fátima in 1917 to warn us that we are in the last times predicted in the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine. (To non-Catholic Christians, that's the New Testament Book of Revelation.)

The apparitions -- the most famous of the 20th century -- gained particular fame due to their elements of prophecy and eschatology, particularly with regard to possible world war and the conversion of Soviet Russia. They were officially declared "worthy of belief" by the Catholic Church.

As I read America Alone, I was struck by the significance of the fact that Our Lady chose to appear at Fátima, a dusty little village in the middle of Portugal. Why there? There were thousands, millions of places in the world where She could have found poor shepherd children to show Herself to. Or why not Rome? Or Jerusalem? Why Fátima?

When I first heard the name "Fátima", I associated it with Islam. And indeed, Fátima was named after Fatimah,‎ a daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad from his first wife Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. Wikipedia tells us that after Khadijah, Muslims regard Fatimah as the most significant historical figure, considered to be the leader of all women in this world and in Paradise. She occupies an analogous position in Islam to that the Blessed Virgin Mary occupies in Christianity.


Now here's the connection. Throughout America Alone, Mark Steyn argues that the real enemy of the West is Islam. One of the goals of the Islamists is to reconquer and reestablish the Caliphate, the Muslim empire (shown above) which, in the 7th and 8th centuries AD, stretched from the Middle East all the way to the Iberian peninsula. Fatima is in the northwest corner of of this vast tract of land.

How will the Muslims reassert their dominance over Spain and Portugal, and spread their empire through all of Europe and beyond? Not by force of arms. According to Steyn, terrorism is the weapon of a weak enemy. If America (led by Hussein Obama) really wanted to, it could cut out the heart of Islam just ilke that.

But the Islamists don't have to conquer us by the sword. Steyn says, and Walt agrees, that the Muslims will defeat and occupy the West by force of demographics. They are breeding like rabbits -- little veiled and turbanned rabbits -- while we are killing our children before they are born, by birth control and abortion. The fact is, the formerly Christian peoples are not reproducing fast enough to maintain their populations. Our populations are actually shrinking, whereas those of the Islamic states are expanding -- expanding into the empty spaces in the cities, towns and villages of our countries.

Where did we Christians get the idea that "zero population growth" is a Good Thing, a goal to be embraced by all enlightened and progressive thinkers? From the Communists! Our Lady of Fatima warned us that if the "errors of Russia" were not resisted, and that poor nation converted, those errors would spread throughout the world, billions of souls would be lost and entire nations annihilated.

And that is exactly what's happening. Chief among the errors of Russia (i.e. the errors of Communism) is "family planning" and the notion of sex for its own sake, rather than for God's purpose of procreation. Although Communism has supposedly been defeated, in Russia and the former Communist states, 70% of pregnancies are "terminated". Communist China persists in its "one child policy", under which millions of babies are killed every year, not just before birth but after!

So that's how Communism, Islam and Fatima interconnect. The errors of Communism are causing the suicide of the West. And who benefits? The Muslims. Europe -- including Britain -- is already well down to the road to becoming what Steyn calls "Eurabia". Canada, which is closer to Europe than America in its social attitudes and policies, will be next. And then America.

The only thing that can save us -- save the West from being occupied and dominated by the Muslim hordes -- is a return, a conversion to the True Faith, the Faith of our Christian fathers.

Where religious persecution bites hardest

Economists love graphs and charts of this sort. So do writers and pundits, because at least 1000 words of text are required to interpret the picture to the average reader. Here's what this one means.
"Rising Restrictions on Religion", a worldwide survey published in August by the much-respected Pew Forum, shows an increase in restrictions on and violence directed against believers in religion. The top offenders are Egypt, Pakistan, and India. Among the Muslim countries, the only one going against the trend is Turkey. The most mistreated group is... wait for it... faithful Christians.

More than 2.2 billion people – nearly a third (32%) of the world’s total population of 6.9 billion – live in countries where either government restrictions on religion or social hostilities involving religion rose substantially between mid-2006 and mid-2009, the period covered by the study.

The survey was done before the "Arab spring" now causing turmoil in northern Africa and the Middle East. But it promises nothing good about future developments there. Even before the Islamists began fomenting rebellion, the indicators were signaling deterioration almost everywhere. In fact, Pew did a similar survey three years earlier, and the situation now shows a widespread increase of persecution, torture and killing of the faithful.

The graphic above focuses attention on countries with populations of more than 50 million inhabitants. That includes Pakistan and Nigeria, from where we get disturbingly regular reports of the execution of Christians and burning of churches. One has only to follow the RSS feeds from a site like Catholic World News (which Walt recommends highly) to see such stories virtually every day.

Then we come to the two giants -- India and China -- where the persecution of Christians just gets worse and worse. India remains the record holder for hostilities among religious groups, which are added to the already burdensome legal restrictions there. They even have laws against the conversion of non-Christians, which effectively prohibit not just foreign missionaries but local Catholic clergy who have been serving India for six centuries, from ministering to their communities. One might expect such laws in Islamist states such as Afghanistan and Iran, but according to its constitution, India is supposed to be a secular state. Ha!

China continues to hold the record – challenged only by Iran and Egypt – for political restrictions on the Roman Catholic Church and other religous groups such as the Falun Gong. (Falun Gong is a rather eclectic mixture of Buddhism, Taoism and taiji. It has the qualities of a religion -- a belief system and numerous adherents -- and was banned by the Communist government of China in 1999.)

Walt has written many times about the schismatic and heretical Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, the so-called "Catholic" church set up by the Communists after they seized power in 1949. In "Communist Chinese persecution of Catholic Church intensifies", I explained how the Chinese government is grinding the heels of its jackboots even more fiercely into the bodies of the faithful, in spite of the Vatican's misguided and now discredited attempts to make nice with the atheistic Communists.

More instances of the increased persecution -- and execution -- of Christians may be found in "No summer stop to Chinese repression", published September 2nd on the AsiaNews website, which I also read regularly.

Conclusion: If you're a Christian -- especially if you're a Catholic living in the Third World -- the Islamists, the Hindus and the Communists are out to get you! They have declared war on Holy Mother Church. How much longer must we turn the other cheek?

Christianophobia strikes again

It's getting so massacres of Christians in Muslim countries (Iraq, Pakistan, and now Egypt) or Hindu countries (India) barely make the front page.

If you didn't see it in your local birdcage-liner, 21 Coptic Orthodox Christians were killed in Egypt a couple of days ago as they left mass. Meanwhile, in Iraq, where hundreds of Catholics were murdered by Islamic fundamentalists, celebrations of the Christmas season feasts were held in private homes, rather than risk having another church desecrated and more martyrs sent to Heaven.

Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out against this obviously rising "Christianophobia", but the reaction of the lamestream media has been a big ho-hum. "Well," you can hear them saying, "he would say that, wouldn't he?"

So let's give credit to USA Today -- not usually known for incisive or in-depth coverage of hard news -- for an item in its "Faith & Reason" blog entitled "Does Egypt bomb blast signal rising 'Christianophobia?'"

Hello, blogger! The answer is YES! Isn't it obvious? While you're at it, why not ask if the Pope is Catholic?

But at least USA Today is asking the question. Other lamestream media outlets still haven't noticed!

Footnote: Walt followed a link in the blog to the map below. Here you can see for yourself where the state forbids or restricts the practice of Christianity (red) and those where violence against Christians is endemic (orange). Includes a lot of the world, doesn't it?

Test your RIQ (Religious Intelligence Quotient)

Here's a suitable Sunday exercise for you, courtesy of Agent 17, who has been much in touch in the last couple of weeks.

In "Test Your Savvy on Religion", New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof passes on the results of the Pew Research Center's Religious Knowledge Survey.
It turns out that most religious people are surprisingly uninformed about their own religions, not to mention others.

Almost half of Catholics didn’t understand the idea of Communion. Most Protestants didn’t know that Martin Luther started the Reformation. Almost half of Jews didn’t realize Maimonides was Jewish. And atheists were among the best informed about religion. Walt supposes agnostics weren't sure about anything.

Mr. Kristof provides us with a little pop quiz -- 13 questions to test your knowledge of what he calls the more extreme aspects of Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Walt just barely passed. How about you?