Pray for the Persecuted Church

Pope Benedict XVI says that Christians’ religious freedom is coming under renewed attack and compared the attackers to Nazis and Bolsheviks. He told members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences that religious freedom was among the rights that underwent a “systematic denial by atheistic regimes of the twentieth century” such as the Soviets and…

As the world reacts to the news of the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces, Christians minorities in Muslim countries are fearful that they will be the targets of reprisal attacks for the killing, reports International Christian Concern. In Pakistan, the Christian community has been apprehensive after an Islamic radical group, Tehreek-Taliban…

A trusting Ethiopian pastor who responded to a request to come pray for a sick friend was lured to his death, according to International Christian Concern. Evangelist Abraham Abera had felt the Holy Spirit’s call to minister at Kale Hiwot Church in Worabe, Ethiopia, an area that is 97 percent Muslim. Around 9:30 p.m. on April, four Muslim…

A father and daughter who fled Egypt to Syria after spending two and a half years in hiding for becoming Christians have arrived in France and have applied for asylum there, human rights advocates said. Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary, 58, had become the target of Islamic ill will in Egypt after he tried to change…

How can we rejoice? In Egypt, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in China … our Christian brothers and sisters are being tortured, imprisoned and killed because of their faith. How can we rejoice? The Disciples felt that same way that Sunday morning. Trembling with fear for their lives, they huddled in the Upper Room, unsure what would happen…

Will you pray for Aasia Bibi? She’s been in jail for more than a year. What is her crime? The Christian mother of five said to a fellow Pakistani co-worker, “Jesus saved me. What has Mohammed ever done for you?” Speaking against Islam, the Koran, Mohammed or Allah is punishable by death in Pakistan. Two national politicians who took…

Egyptian Christians are facing intensified persecution — with open attacks by Muslim hardliners. “Due to a lack of police protection during all of the commotion surrounding the demonstrations in January and February,” reports Michael Terheyden, reporting for Catholic Online, “some Coptic monasteries were forced to protect themselves from gangs and thieves. They did this not with guns…

More than 150 Christians were released Tuesday by Chinese authorities, but their pastor and his wife remain under house arrest after police raided a church service scheduled to take place in a public plaza. “Almost all of the more than 150 Christians rounded up in Beijing when they tried to pray outdoors have been released,”…

Two Salvation Army volunteers were killed when young gunmen opened fire on the 30th anniversary celebration of a church in Hurr Camp, a working-class colony in Hyderabad, Pakistan. Problems started when a group of Muslim youths gathered outside the building and started playing music loudly on their cell phones. They started yelling insults to Christian women arriving for the celebration. The…

Here is a video that will perhaps stir you to pray for some truly needy brothers and sisters. It is provided by Voice of the Martyrs, which was founded by a remarkable giant of the faith, the late Rev. Richard Wurmbrand, the compassionate author of the  bestseller Tortured for Christ, which told of his suffering at…

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