On Sunday 12 January, the German Episcopal Conference launched its initiative: “Solidarity with persecuted and oppressed Christians”. “It cannot be ignored explained Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German bishops, at the press conference to present the initiative that it is dangerous in many places to declare oneself a Christian and to live as a Christian: it exacts a high price”. The Cardinal cited some countries as examples: “China, North Korea, Vietnam”, where the faithful “are often socially discriminated against, and sometimes openly persecuted”; “Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran”, “Saudi Arabia” and “Nigeria”, Islamic countries in which “the threat to the Churches and to Christians has grown in recent years”; “Colombia”, where the Christians who devote themselves courageously to the defence of human rights and seriously work for the “options for the poor” are exposed to mortal dangers”. Recalling the recent attacks against Christian churches in Pakistan, the Cardinal denounced the trend in many countries towards the “privatisation of violence” at the hands of “warlords, bandits and groups with ideological or religious motivations”: a category to which “international terrorism” also belongs. A further phenomenon is the committing of “acts of violence against Christian minorities”, as a vent for “hatred of the West”, since “Christians are increasingly seen as belonging to an aggressive and imperialist Western world”. In this regard Lehmann expressed “the fear that a possible war in Iraq might increase the dangers for the Christians living in Islamic states”.
