Latest Asian Christian Martyrs

AsiaNews has another disturbing report from Vietnam. On July 26th, in the northern city of Vinh, Father Peter Nguyen The Bin was savagely beaten by police and gangs acting on their orders. The priest was beaten into a coma, then defenestrated -- thrown from a hospital window.

On the same day, Father Paul Nguyen Dinh Phu was taken to a hospital in Dong Hoi with broken ribs and head injuries. A statement from the Diocese of Vinh denounces police and gangs of thugs for their savage attacks on anyone who dares to do as little as wear a cross or other Catholic religious symbol. When we say "anyone", we mean even women and children. In one gruesome incident, thugs savagely beat a woman, Nguyen Thi Yen and her child, aged only 9 years.

TESTIMONY OF AN EYE-WITNESS -- Read Sister Emily Nguyen's report from Vinh diocese, Catholic World News feature story.

Meanwhile, in North Korea, a female member of an evangelical Protestant sect has been executed for the heinous crime of distributing Bibles.

Let it be remembered that Vietnam and North Korea are both totalitarian communist regimes. It is communist policy -- thus the policy of the governments of those and other communist countries -- to destroy Christianity. And they are doing it "one Christian at a time".

Dept. of Dubious Tributes

Nexus, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law alumni magazine, remembers former Prof. Irwin Koziebrocki:
He spent his last day on the beach with his wife. They relaxed, drank, ate, read, and enjoyed being togther. Then, suddenly he died. He lived his last day the way he lived every day of his life.
... Except for the last little bit. Walt.

Steve didn't pocket the Host...but one sin is as bad as another

The New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal has issued an apologize to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen "Call me Steve" Stephen Harper for reporting that he had slipped a communion wafer in his jacket pocket at the funeral mass for the late Romeo LeBlanc. The paper -- owned by the Irving family (big oil in N.B.) -- says the story was “inaccurate and should not have been published.”

It is dogma that through the action of the priest, the wafer of unleavened bread, literally, the body of Jesus Christ, to be received in communion only by those who so believe. That excludes Steve and all other Protestants, heretics and non-believers.

It is an extremely grave sin for them (and for Catholics who are not in a state of grace) to receive the Sacred Host. That is the real problem with what Mr. Harper did. Even if he put the Host in his mouth, he ought not to have presented himself to receive communion in the first place. If he didn't know that, he is more than a little ignorant of the faith of the majority of Canada's (nominally) Christian people.

Half a million Vietnamese Catholics march against Communist persecution

China is not the only country where even today, in the Year of Our Lord 2009, there are Christian martyrs. (See Walt's blog, July 15th.) China's "good neighbour" Vietnam, also a Communist dictatorship, has suffered in like measure as the Chinese. Church lands and buildings have been seized, religious and lay Catholics have been arrested, tortured, imprisoned and even killed for their persistence in keeping the Faith.

AsiaNews reports that on Sunday, while millions of good western Catholics showed their gratitude to God and His Blessed Mother by staying in bed or playing a round of golf, over 500,000 Vietnamese Catholics took to the streets of their cities to protest against police violence and the July 20th attack on hundreds of faithful at the ruins of Tam Toa church.

About 170 priests and 420 religious led the peaceful protests that took place simultaneously in yesterday morning, at various locations in the provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh. They demanded the immediate release of the faithful who were beaten and arrested by Communist security forces at Tam Toa.

Although police ordered people not to take part in the procession, the faithful marched on, creating an event that some people are calling the greatest religious demonstrations ever to take place in Vietnam.

Good Catholic friends, please keep in your prayers the faithful of these seemingly faraway places. Our Lady of Fatima warned us 92 years ago that the errors of Communism would spread throughout the world if Her Message was not heeded, and we see in our own time the fulfillment of Her prophecy.

The carnival of Walt

Yesterday Walt took his cute little granddaughter to a "carnival" organized by the Lions Club of a village somewhere in North America. It was a pretty good carnival -- better than expected, in fact -- and put me in mind of the midway at a county fair as remembered from half a century ago.

There were thrill rides, not too high-tech compared with Disney's Space Mountain or the like. You would have to consider a merry-go-round and a ferris wheel thrilling. And you know what? They were fifty years ago and still are!

And there were games of chance, wheels of fortune and skill contests. I missed the one where you hit a pad with a sledgehammer and tried to ring a bell about 200 feet up in the air. The most popular game seemed to be the old standby -- bingo.

I noticed one big difference between today's carnival and the fairs of yesteryear. That's the cost! For one ride on the ferris wheel, for self and grandkid, Walt shelled out $9. That's nine dollars! OK, call me cheap, but that seemed a lot for about 5 minutes of mild excitement. (You are cheap! And you've paid a lot more for 5 minutes of excitement! ed.)

I can remember going to the country fair with $5 in my pocket and being able to make it last the whole afternoon. 50 years later, prices seem to have inceased ten-fold. Where would a kid today get that kind of money? Last I heard, they're still paying minimum wage at McD's, so the Simpsons' pimply-faced teenager could easily spend a day's wage on cotton candy and being spun round and round until he pukes. Some fun.

But there's always a ray of sunshine. The bingo was still 25 cents a card, just as I remember it. And you still sat on a rough bench under a tent, with straw bedding under your feet, just as I remember it.

OK, the outing cost a lot more than it used to -- what doesn't -- but was still fun, even for a jaded old geezer like Walt.

although

Comments

Agent 2 has received a (constructive) complaint from a friend that it's not easy to make comments on Walt's blog. Are you being asked to turn in the name of a friend (or 10 friends) before you can say something? Walt will look into that, but in the meantime, you're welcome to e-mail walt at walt.whiteman@yahoo.com.

Here's a comment on the honour killings and "cultural accommodation" articles, passed along by Agent 2 from one Cordelia Weatherbee: I have always thought that a simple, easy-to-read copy of the Ten Commandments & The Golden Rule should be included in immigration application packages. At the personal interview stage, it should be mandatory to recite and explain them word for word. No exceptions.

Walt agrees! But dear Cordelia, I'm afraid we could wind up being accused by the Human Rights Commission of wanting to impose our Christian values on the Muslims, Hindus and what-have-you streaming through the floodgates. But let us keep voicing these old-fashioned ideas...while we still speak for the majority!

More on honour killings: "It's no accident victims were female"

Anyone who thinks Walt is being a bit harsh on the Shafia family and Muslims should read Christie Blatchford's column in todays Globe and Mail. Crusty often descends to the depths of bathos (yes, I spelled it correctly) but she takes a calm and rational view of this situation. Read it!