Archbishop Miller asks for prayers for Christians

Priests killed in attack on Baghdad Catholic church

In recognition of the dire circumstances in which many Christians live worldwide, Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller is asking the faithful to pray for Christians who are suffering persecution for their faith throughout the world.

The same concern has been running through Pope Benedict XVI's addresses of late: Christians are under attack, and the world is in dire need of religious freedom.

All the following took place in recent weeks:

• The Pope condemned the al-Qaeda attack on a Baghdad Catholic church in which scores of worshippers were killed.
• In the Pope's World Day of Prayer address, he focused on the persecution of Christians worldwide.
• He condemned the killing of 21 people in a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt.
• He announced that he would hold an interreligious meeting in October in Assisi, Italy.
• In a meeting with diplomats he said religious freedom and religious diversity are not threats to society and should not be a source of conflict.

Intolerance and violence against adherents of religious faiths, particularly against Christians, remains one of the least known and most widely practised forms of persecution in the world. A new report by the U.S.-based First Freedom Center documents the situation worldwide in its report Minority Religious Communities at Risk.