...are happening, there is a great awareness that this summer isn't an ordinary one, that deep and serious things are surging...Today the organising committee for a Catholic women's group gathered for its regular meeting in the comfortable crypt hall of a London church, with coffee brewed and plans and hopes and worries shared just as on so many previous occasions. We tackled an agenda with plans for projects for schools, an Autumn conference, a Spring a pilgrimage...you can't just spend time wringing hands and talking about martyrdom in Europe. But a priest has been martyred. And in France. This is our world, and we must take responsibility for coping with whatever new difficulties we all face year on year.
Like so many other Christians in Britain, I spent a lot of time in the 1970s and 80s trying to help Christians in lands where ghastly things were happening - random attacks on priests or groups of faithful were things we read about and remembered in our prayers. There was a feeling then that things in the West were bad because of family breakup, abortion, and also problems within the Church... but attacks from Islamic fanatics in European towns were not something that figured on our horizon...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment