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Christians in the Holy Land were Australia’s focus of the annual Red Wednesday commemoration on 20 November, held by Aid to the Church in Need to highlight global religious persecution.  

St Mary’s Cathedral was among the record number of cathedrals across Australia and New Zealand participating this year, lighting up in blood-red to symbolise persecuted and martyred Christians, and holding Masses or other prayer gatherings and presentations. 

Five Eastern Catholic eparchies participated across the two countries, many whose communities have suffered on account of their faith in their homelands. 

That included a dedicated Divine Liturgy on 6 November at St John the Beloved Melkite Catholic church in Greenacre, with services also held by Maronite and Chaldean Catholics across Sydney. 

Not Forgotten

“I call on all the Christian faithful to storm at all times heaven with their urgent prayers for their persecuted brethren, wherever they might be,” Melkite Bishop Robert Rabbat told The Catholic Weekly. 

“We ought to tell these persecuted brethren of ours by words and by deeds that they are not forgotten, and they are not children of a lesser God. 

“What purpose is there to this life for Christians if, on the Last Day, the Shepherd King cannot say to us: ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it for Me’?” (Matthew 25:40)

Chaldean Archbishop Amel Nona said that living one’s faith without fear, rather than geographical location, is what makes for belonging for Christians. 

However, as Middle Eastern Christians, “we pray for peace and religious freedom and harmony in that geographic and historical land, so our people can live a practice our faith with no fears or suffering,” he added. 

Fr Danny Nouh, dean of Our Lady of Lebanon co-cathedral, said in his Red Wednesday homily that the place of worship was bathed in red, “not as a mere symbol, but as a statement of our willingness to identify with those who have shed their blood for the love of Christ.” 

“Red is the colour of those who have given their lives in the most extreme act of witness to their faith. It is a reminder of the price of discipleship, the cost of following Christ in a world that often rejects him.” 

Heightened Awareness

Overall, participation across Australia and New Zealand more than doubled since last year — an indication of the heightened awareness and concern for the plight of suffering Christians. 

The month opened with the release of Aid to the Church in Need’s latest report on violence against Christians, Persecuted and Forgotten?  

It showed that between August 2022 and June 2024, the increase in religiously motivated harassment against Christians is higher than it has ever been, covering “everything from verbal abuse to murder” in 160 countries. 

“Around the world, Christians are finding themselves subject to increased risk of harassment, arrest and violence — churches are burnt, Christian women are abducted and raped, and the faithful are killed for their beliefs,” said Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, in the report’s introduction. 

“It is vital that [governments or others with influence] act on early warnings to prevent what happened to us in Iraq taking place elsewhere.” 

Read the full report here. 

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Republished with thanks to The Catholic Weekly.

Featured image — left to right: Lukas Rajnoch, Fr Don Richardson, Jemimah McMurray, Peter Harrop.
Fr Don with staff from Aid to the Church in Need outside the red-lit St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, symbolising the blood of today’s martyrs. Photo: Alphonsus Fok.