The Monthly Note
January 2011
Peace be with you! (John 20, 21)
by Jacques Sylvestre, O.P.
In his message for the new year, Benedict XVI started by saying : « At the beginning of the new year I offer good wishes to each and all for serenity and prosperity, but especially for peace. Sadly, the year now ending has again been marked by persecution, discrimination, terrible acts of violence and religious intolerance. My thoughts turn in a special way to the beloved country of Iraq, which continues to be a theatre of violence and strife as it makes its way towards a future of stability and reconciliation. I think of the recent sufferings of the Christian community, and in particular the reprehensible attack on the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Baghdad, where on 31 October two priests and over fifty faithful were killed as they gathered for the celebration of Holy Mass. In other areas we see more subtle and sophisticated forms of prejudice and hostility towards believers and religious symbols. At present, Christians are the religious group which suffers most from persecution on account of its faith. This situation is unacceptable, since it represents an insult to God and to human dignity; furthermore, it is a threat to security and peace, and an obstacle to the achievement of authentic and integral human development. »
In our catholic province of Quebec, where religion and faith are an integral part of culture and identity, we do not cease to see a progressive decline in religious practice and in the vanishing of the symbols of faith. More liberty is given to faithful of other religions. The difference is that they manifest, bear witness, organize and practice that in which they believe in; the numbers of their faithful does not cease to rise and their temples, mosques continue to multiply while we put our churches for sale because of a lack of churchgoers.
Instead of deploring, in the name of our faith, a situation that aggravates itself each day, when will we make ourselves be heard? It’s an entire generation that is losing its identity. Here it is not a question of language or independence, but of faithfulness to what has built our country: faith.
Saint-Jude Apostolic Works, a place of faith and spirituality, and its personnel wishes to you all, in this hopeless situation, a living faith, anxious to bear witness and to proclaim that God is living and that Christ gave His life for all. May Mary, the Virgin of the Rosary, the one that, by her Yes gave the world a Saviour, help us in this continuing prayer, this thanksgiving for the faith we have received from our ancestors and the desire to revive the flame of faith in our homes.
In this manner, in 2011, will we build around us a little piece of peace and love.
