By Anthony Barich
Christians in the Western world are being martyred via “death by 1,000 cuts” in a war of ideology, the outgoing president of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania said at its four-yearly conference on 10 May.
“People of faith were once upon a time fed to the lions, decapitated, crucified and the like,” said Bishop Peter Ingham of Wollongong, Australia, in his homily during the 10 May Mass in Sydney to open the Oceania bishops’ conferences of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and the Pacific.
Bishop Ingham’s term as president ended at the conference, with Archbishop John Dew of Wellington, New Zealand elected as his successor.
“We instead find ourselves today subjected to what you could call ‘death by 1,000 cuts’ with the new mode of martyrdom coming in the form of ridicule, derision and character assassination, as opposed to being silenced through physical death.
“The torture of believers is to be found in the constant attempts to have them relegated to the sidelines, unable to contribute to the morals, laws and structures that make up the fabric of society without significant criticism.
“The new mode of martyrdom is not as bloody as forms of old, but its aim is ultimately the same and its methods no less cruel.
“We seem to be facing an ominous doctrine which attempts to build a society with no regard whatsoever for religion and which seeks to destroy the religious freedom of its citizens – an ideology hostile to Christian faith.
“It has become fashionable to be dismissive of all religion, particularly Christianity. This dismissiveness could be quite aptly described as the new modern method of martyrdom.”
Attempts to redefine marriage and to change traditional understandings about the sacredness of human life, he said, are assaults by “powerful secular forces in our society on truths that cannot be abandoned or compromised without seriously weakening our social framework”.
“Rather than calling for people of faith to remain silent or remove themselves from the realm of public policy and debate, our opinions and contribution should be eagerly sought,” he said.
The weight of evidence would suggest that from our long and rich tradition of Catholic faith and culture we might just have more than a little bit of wisdom to contribute to public debate.
“It is for this reason as much as any other that upholding and securing religious freedom is so vital for society as a whole, not just for believers.”
Bishop Ingham told The Record in a phone interview on 11 May that Pope Benedict XVI and, locally, Sydney Cardinal George Pell are two prime examples of “character assassination” by a secular media that has “publicly proclaimed their atheism in print”.
As an example, Bishop Ingham – who apologised in November 2009 for the abuse of an altar boy in his diocese in the 1970s – noted an 8 May front-page story in the Sydney Morning Herald saying an Irish sex abuse victims group had written to every member of the Irish lower house of parliament to protest any role Cardinal Pell might have in leading an apostolic visitation to help end pedophilia cover-ups within the clergy there. Bishop Ingham told The Record that Cardinal Pell is not going to Ireland, and the whole story was based on a “rumour”.
The Bishop also noted that the cardinal issued a statement on 8 May stating that “such rumors are completely unfounded and speculative” – yet the Herald did not print it.
The Herald also attacked the Cardinal’s credibility in handling sex abuse cases, but his 8 May statement noted that since becoming Archbishop of Sydney in 2001, he has continued to combat sexual abuse by clergy and to provide support and care for victims through the Australian bishops’ national Towards Healing protocol.
Under Towards Healing, abusers are permanently removed from ministry and victims are encouraged to take their complaints to the police.
In New South Wales, the Ombudsman has to approve the steps taken.
Bishop Ingham said that he also wrote a letter to the Herald two weeks prior, after they “vilified Christ” in a cartoon, but his letter was not printed either.
“He’s our Lord and Saviour … you wouldn’t do that to Muslims or Jews, and I’m sick of us (Christians) getting bashed,” the Bishop told The Record.