Along with Pope Francis and so many others, I was deeply saddened to learn of the latest violence by fanatics who see anybody who disagrees with them as their enemy.
These attacks threaten civilization itself.
Whether it's a massacre in Paris, Indonesia, Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Iran, India or now in Libya and Egypt, we keep saying, "How much worse can it get?"
And then we woke up Monday morning to see that it did get worse, with this brutal massacre of these young Egyptian Christians in Libya.
They were beheaded for nothing less than their religious convictions. It moves me to prayers. It moves me to tears, yes, as a Christian, but also as an American, who recognizes religious freedom as "our first and most cherished liberty."
No denying it: There is an orchestrated phobia of Christianity throughout the world today, a coordinated effort on behalf of fanatics to see that true religion which stands for friendship, peace, the dignity of the human person and the sacredness of human life, is stamped out.
These aren't sporadic attacks. This is part of an orchestrated fanaticism, an ideology that sees Christianity, Judaism and any religion of peace as the enemy.
Fanatics want to take over, and we can't let that happen. They threaten civilization, everything that is decent and noble about humanity. It is a worldwide crisis that cannot, must not, be ignored.
As the Holy Father has stated, we now see an "ecumenism of blood" as men and women of all true creeds — Jewish, Christian and Islamic — unite in abhorrence of these horrors.
I would like to believe these fanatics are a small group that is well-orchestrated and well-choreographed.
But what we have to do is echo the appeal of Pope Francis. We believe that Islam is — at its root — a religion of peace.
Now we encourage the majority of Islam to speak up and condemn these attacks, like Jordan is doing.
Catholic bishops in Ireland bravely stood up 40 years ago to say the church did not support car bombings and attacks against civilians by the Irish Republican Army, which perversely identified itself as "Catholic."
And now we have peace in Northern Ireland.
We need Islamic religious leaders to stand up and say, "This is not Islam. This is a perversion of our faith."
Simply because these Christians make the sign of the cross, there is a price on their head.
We cannot ignore their cries and cannot let their blood be spilled without it moving us to tears and without saying, "This must stop."
On Wednesday, Lent, our season of deep prayer, penance and solidarity with those oppressed and suffering, begins.
This massacre leaves us not only with ashes on our foreheads, but with tears in our eyes, a lump in our throat and a burning in our heart.
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