ISIS Terrorists Slit Priest's Throat in France Church Attack

News Staff : Jul 26, 2016 : http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/07/26/priest-murdered-duri ng-mass-in-terror-attack-on-catholic-church-in-france.h tml - Fox News

Two knife-wielding attackers who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, shouting "Allahu Akbar," slit the throat of an 84-year-old priest and critically wounded at least one other person during a Tuesday morning terror attack on a Catholic church near the Normandy city of Rouen... Click http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/07/26/priest-murdered-duri ng-mass-in-terror-attack-on-catholic-church-in-france.h tml - here to read. (Photo: via The Sun.co.uk)

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/07/26/priest-murdered-duri ng-mass-in-terror-attack-on-catholic-church-in-france.h tml - Read Full Story...

Source: http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/ - www.breakingchristiannews.com/

French priest killed; first IS attack in Western church

PUBLISHED ON 28 July, 2016 BY https://www.mnnonline.org/author/julie/" title="Posts by Julie Bourdon" rel="author - Julie Bourdon

France (MNN) — The murder of the 84-year-old priest earlier this week in France has raised this question: are Christians to be the next target in the West?

As reported by BBC News, two men entered the Church during morning mass.

Emily Fuentes of https://www.mnnonline.org/mission_groups/open-door s-with-brother-andrew/ - Open Doors USA says, “Some attackers came and held the people hostage and eventually ended up attacking and slaying the priest who was there, with a knife.”

The assailants were killed. Shortly after, Islamic State claimed responsibility.

“What makes this event especially notable,” Fuentes says, “is this was the first time really that an attack by the Islamic State […] was actually carried out in a Western Church.”

A history of persecution

Photo by Mary Crandall via Flickr: https://flicp/dE635T

(Photo courtesy of Mary Crandall via Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/dE635T)

According to Open Doors, global persecution of Christians has been increasing in the last few years. Through the World Watch List, they have been able to record nations with the most persecution year after year.

But even as this begins to spread to the West, it seems as though it will be harder to determine which nations are most under attack.

Fuentes says we have a lot to learn from nations where persecution has been the norm for Christian communities for a long time.

“I think we need to be holding onto the lessons we can learn from our persecuted brothers and sisters who’ve been facing this for a long, long time and not give into a spirit of fear.”

The example of Nigeria

“An average of five churches are attacked every single Sunday in Nigeria. Yet, believers are still brave enough to go to church and stand firm and are inviting their neighbors to come to church and reaching out to others with the Gospel.”

Pray for the persecuted Church in Nigeria, where the Gospel is flourishing. (Photo courtesy of Open Doors).

Fuentes says that over the last two to three years, the ministry has witnessed and recorded unprecedented levels of persecution. And now, it seems that it is spreading into the West. But, there is a silver lining.

“It’s interesting that while the Church is facing persecution, […] the countries where maybe there’s the most persecution, the Gospel is thriving the most. Persecution causes people to draw closer to God and causes them to have braveness really about them even to reach out to their persecutors with the Gospel.”

Lessons from the persecuted Church

In areas where Islamic Extremism has been plaguing Christians with violence for a while, we discover that for some extremist groups, Christianity and Western Civilization are the same thing. That is why Christians are so often targeted in the Middle East.

Knowing this can help us understand why fear spreads so quickly in countries like France. BBC says the major religion in France is Christianity; however the CIA World Factbook reveals the number of evangelic Christians is rather low.

“Everyone’s fearful just because everyone’s Western in that country. But now it’s honing in the attack even more and specifically going after peaceful people who are completely vulnerable in a church setting instead of large crowds.”

Fuentes says the country must reflect on why IS is targeting Christian groups now. “I think for those who don’t know Christ it’s dismal and can seem overwhelming.”

She encourages us to cling to the lessons we can learn from our persecuted brothers and sisters: refuse a spirit of fear, and reach out to neighbors with the Gospel.

Take action

(Image courtesy of Open Doors)

In light of the presidential race in the United States, there are a lot of agendas being pushed. The subject of terrorism has circulated through debates and speeches. However, the topic of fighting Christian persecution hasn’t really even hit the radar.

That’s why Open Doors encourages you to sign a petition for your candidate. The petition is asking both candidates how they will respond to religious persecution.

https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stor ies/tag-blog-post/ask-donald-trump-and-hillary-clint 11;n-how-they-will-respond-to-persecution/ - You can find that petition here.

And, of course, pray. Pray for Christians to remain strong in the face of violence — to not give in to their fear. Pray that more people would come to know Christ in these dark times.

Source: http://www.mnnonline.org/ -

Roberto de Mattei

Opinion Catholic Church, FaithThu Jul 28, 2016 - 9:54 am EST

Catholics pray for their enemies, but sometimes we also have a duty to fight them

July 27, 2016 ( http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/ - Rorate Caeli ) -- The first martyr in European territory at the hands of Islam, Father Jacques Hamel, was murdered while celebrating Holy Mass on July 26th in the parish church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy. Two Muslims praising Islam, burst into the church, and after taking some of the faithful hostage, cut the priest’s throat, at the same time critically wounding another faithful present. There are no doubts about the identity of the aggressors and the anti-Christian hatred that motivated them. Through the press agency Amaq, the Islamic State called the assailants “our soldiers”.

The name of Jaques Hamel is added to that of thousands of Christians who are burnt, crucified and decapitated everyday in hatred of their faith. However, the July 26th massacre marks a turning point since it is the first time it has happened in Europe, casting a shadow of fear and alarm over our continent.

It is certainly not possible to guard 50,000 religious buildings in France, and a similar number of churches, parishes and sanctuaries in Italy and other countries. Every priest is the object of possible attacks, destined to increase, owing to the emulation effect that follows these crimes.

“How many deaths are needed, how many heads decapitated, for the European governments to understand the situation the West finds itself in?” asked Cardinal Robert Sarah.

What is it going to take, we add, for Cardinal Sarah’s confreres in the College of Cardinals, starting with the Supreme Head, the Pope himself, to understand the terrifying situation in which not only the West finds itself in, but the entire Universal Church? What makes this situation so terrible are the politics of do-goodism and false mercy with regard to Islam and all of the Church’s enemies. Certainly, Catholics must pray for their enemies, but they also have to be aware that they have them, and they mustn’t limit themselves to praying for them, but have the duty to fight them. It is the Catechism of the Catholic Church which teaches this in n.2266, when it says that legitimate defence may also be a grave duty for those responsible for the lives of others: “Preserving the common good of society requires rendering the aggressor unable to inflict harm.”

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Pope Francis was said to be “especially upset by this act of violence which took place in a church during the liturgy of the Mass and implored the peace of God for the world”, once again refusing to call the assassins by name. Pope Bergoglio’s silence is parallel to that of Muslims from all over the globe who don’t denounce forcefully and in an unanimous, collective manner, the crimes committed in Allah’s name by their co-religionists. Yet, even the President of the French Republic, Francois Hollande, in his discourse to the nation on Tuesday evening, spoke of France’s open war against ISIS.

During his pontificate, the Pope has beatified with super-rapid procedures some 20th century figures, like Oscar Arnulfo Romero and Don Pino Puglisi* who were certainly not killed in hatred of the Catholic faith. Yet on May 12th 2013, he also canonized in St. Peter’s Square, the eight hundred martyrs of Otranto, massacred on August 11th 1480 by the Turks for not renouncing their faith.

If Pope Francis announced the start of the process for Father Hamel’s beatification, he would give the world a peaceful but strong and eloquent sign of the will of the Church to defend its identity. If, on the other hand, he continues to be under the illusion about a possible ecumenical agreement with Islam, he will repeat the same errors of those wretched politics which sacrificed the victims of the Communist persecution on the altars of Ostpolitik. However, the altar of politics is different from the holy altar in which the unbloody Sacrifice of Christ is celebrated. Father Jacques Hamel received the grace of uniting himself to this sacrifice, offering his own blood, on July 26th.

* Killed by the Mafia in Palermo in 1993

Translated from Il Tempo by Francesca Romana, and reprinted with permission from http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/07/de-mattei-legitimat e-defense-may-also.html - Rorate Caeli .