{"id":2005,"date":"2012-11-07T09:15:07","date_gmt":"2012-11-07T14:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/thecc\/?p=2005"},"modified":"2012-11-08T08:01:27","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T13:01:27","slug":"john-allen-speaks-on-modern-christian-martyrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/2012\/11\/07\/john-allen-speaks-on-modern-christian-martyrs\/","title":{"rendered":"John Allen speaks of Modern Christian Martyrs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The ICL just finished hosting a conference exploring Modern Christian Martyrs entitled, “The Seed of the Church.”<\/a> \u00a0The conference was outstanding with many excellent talks<\/a> and engaging questions and discussion. \u00a0It was especially striking to attend the conference while much of the rest of the U.S. was focused on the presidential election as this conference sought to bring greater awareness to an issue that is so often overlooked today, especially by U.S. politicians and American Catholics.<\/p>\n

In his\u00a0talk on Monday<\/a> night, John Allen<\/a> noted that between 100,000 and 150,000 Christian martyrs are being created each year. \u00a0He suggested that this translated to 11 deaths during the period of his talk alone. \u00a0These are unbelievable numbers when we consider how little attention this issue has been given. \u00a0Allen highlighted that religious martyrdom is surely not solely a Christian experience, but noting secular figures collected by NGOs, the State department, and others highlighting that around 80% of the acts of persecution in our current era have been directed at Christians, he argued that it is currently a disproportionately \u00a0Christian experience.<\/p>\n

John Allen also highlighted some myths concerning this issue. \u00a0For instance, that it is all about Islam. \u00a0While Muslim extremism is an increasing concern for persecution of Christians, even if all such extremists disappeared and Muslim-Christian relations became conflict free, Christian martyrdom would still be occurring in extremely large numbers. \u00a0He also debunked the myth that this is a right-wing or a left-wing issue. \u00a0In fact, he ended his talk by arguing for the intense need for a unified response to this contemporary tragedy. \u00a0The scope and magnitude of the issue calls for going beyond the polarization or “tribalism” of Catholicism. \u00a0On the eve of an election in a closely divided US, the point came through loud and clear.<\/p>\n

If we cannot come together on behalf of martyrs for the faith around the world, what can possibly bring us together? \u00a0If their witness does not convict, what can?<\/p>\n

n.b. I will write more about the conference soon, but have to go to a meeting. \u00a0Also, the picture across the top is an Icon of the New Martyrs that is associated with the Sant’Egidio community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ICL just finished hosting a conference exploring Modern Christian Martyrs entitled, “The Seed of the Church.” \u00a0The conference was outstanding with many excellent talks and engaging questions and discussion. \u00a0It was especially striking to attend the conference while much … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":411,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/411"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2024,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions\/2024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}