Catholic World News News Feature

The power of martyrdom: Synod hears dramatic testimony from Iraq October 14, 2008

During the 12th general assembly of the Synod of Bishops on October 14, participants heard dramatic testimony about the witness of Christians who live under the constant threat of martyrdom, as well as a remarkable story about the powerful witness of martyrs from the past.

In an emotional address to the Synod, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly of Babylon spoke about the suffering of the Christian minority in Iraq today. "We have tried everything to obtain peace and serenity for the country," said the Chaldean patriarch. "Life is a Calvary; peace and security are lacking, just as the fundamental elements in daily life." He continued:

To live the Word of God means to us to bear witness to it to the cost of our own lives, as has occurred and still occurs till now with the sacrifice of the bishops, priests and faithful. ... Because of this, I beg of you to pray the Lord Jesus, the Word of God, for us and with us, and share our concern, our hopes and the suffering of our wounded, so that the Word of God made flesh stay in His Church and with us as good news and as support.

With that account of contemporary martyrdom still fresh in their minds, the Synod fathers heard from Bishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Link of Thanh Hoa, Vietnam, who told about "the mass conversion of thousands of members of ethnic minorities shortly after the canonization of 117 Vietnamese martyrs in 1988." What made that story so remarkable, he observed, is that the new converts heard about the canonization from a radio report, broadcast by a Protestant station in the Philippines. "Thus the Protestants sow and the Catholics reap," the Vietnamese bishop said. "The Word of God, ringing out from afar and reaching their ears, became a source of hope for these people, who live among the mountains deprived of everything and without a future."

The 12th general assembly of the Synod also heard interventions from two leaders of important lay movements in the Church, whose very different perspectives converged on a similar point. Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the St. Egidio community, stressed the need for evangelists to rely on the power of the Spirit rather than human techniques. "At a time of a whirlwind of words, the Word matures in Silence," Riccardi said. "At times the Word is chained by projects, protagonists, and ideological readings. ... To evangelize is not a technique, but to overflow with the Word."

Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez, the prelate of Opus Dei, agreed. That a prayerful reading of the Word of God should produce "a radical existential change." He recommended that confessors recommend such prayerful reading to penitents in the sacrament of reconciliation. "We must all, priests and lay persons, seek to have a profound thirst for Jesus Christ, living every scene from the Gospel as one character among the others," he said.