Another book attempting to document the scope of anti-Christian pressure around the world has rolled off the press, the latest in a handful of large-scale research efforts to be published in the past two years. At more than 800 pages, “The Black Book On The Condition of Christians In The World” covers a lot of territory — 30 countries or regions — and exhibits the different nature of persecution in different parts of the world. The principal authors are Mgr. Jean-Michel di Falco, the Bishop of Gap and Embrun in France; Rev. Timothy Radcliffe, former Master of the Dominican Order of Preachers; and Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay association in Rome devoted in part to dialog with other religions. Their work was coordinated by Samuel Lieven, a journalist at La Croix, a Paris-based Catholic newspaper.
The authors conclude that Christians are “in the front lines of victims of persecution in the world,” though the reasons vary widely. “The persecution of Christians does not lend itself to simplistic reduction or ideological instrumentalisation,” Riccardi writes.
In a commentary on the book, La Croix cautions against “adopting the logic of competitive victimisation.”
“To fight for the religious freedom of Christians is to fight for the freedom of all people, regardless of their faith or absence of faith,” La Croix said.
Source: Global Pulse