Mags Gargan
The Primate of All Ireland has described the extent of Christian persecution worldwide as “shocking”, while calling on Irish Catholics not to be afraid to witness to the Faith in an “aggressively secular culture”.
Speaking at the annual festival of St Oliver Plunkett in Drogheda, Archbishop Eamon Martin said the persecution of Christians “remains widespread and often unreported in many parts of the world”.
“It is shocking to think that in 2017 thousands of Christians are still being displaced or expelled, tortured, discriminated and murdered simply because they are Christian,” he said, continuing that many Christians in Ireland “remain unaware or ignorant of the horrors and extent of persecution that our sisters and brothers in Christ have to suffer.”
Archbishop Eamon said he was thankful for the “freedom to believe and worship that we enjoy in Ireland today”, but conceded that even in this country Christians “need the gift of courage to stay faithful to the teachings of the Gospel”.
The archbishop said we are living in an “aggressively secular culture”, where some people seek to caricature people of faith or expel them “from public discourse and debate”.
He called on Catholics not to be afraid “to witness to our Christian faith in public”, and to speak “courageously” on issues like the “dignity of all human life”.