Church Caught Unprepared to Deal with Islam, Says Bishop Gassis

By Michael F. Flach
HERALD Editor
(From the issue of 10/26/00)

ARLINGTON —"The Church was caught unprepared to deal with the threat of Islam in Africa and Europe," said Sudanese Bishop Macram Max Gassis.

"Fundamentalism is another challenge to the free world," he said. "I am not against Islam, but Islamic fundamentalism is using religion as leverage to kill, oppress and starve the people."

The present regime in Khartoum was not elected to power, the bishop said, but rather took it by brute force.

"They have trampled the dignity of the people by denying them their human rights. It is a political system that is vicious, wrong and diabolic. No one can rob us of the God-given right to life.

"It is the mission of the Church to defend these rights," Bishop Gassis said. "A shepherd must defend his flock, even if it costs his life. The hope of the people is the Church."

Bishop Gassis joined Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More Oct. 22 to celebrate Mass for the Brent Society.

"Being missionary is at the heart of the Church and the heart of Christian life," Bishop Loverde said during his homily. "We are called to proclaim Christ in our workplace, in the political process and in the election process.

"We are all called to be missionaries," he said, "but not all are called to be missionaries in a foreign country. Today is World Mission Sunday, but every day should be a missionary effort."

Bishop Gassis, who was a classmate of Bishop Loverde’s at Catholic University in the late 1970s, spoke at the Brent Society’s annual breakfast following Mass. His topic was "The Untold, Ongoing Story of Slaughter of Christians in the Sudan."

The Brent Society is a lay Catholic group in the diocese, which holds educational programs for members and interested guests. The annual Mass and breakfast typically begin the society's year of activities.

The society contributed $1,000 to Sudanese Relief and Rescue, an U.S.-based organization headed by Washington lawyer Bill Saunders.

"Do not compromise your faith and morals," Bishop Gassis told the audience. "There will never be a time that the teachings of Christ will be obsolete.

"Wherever we are, we have to give witness to Christ. Pray for us, but don’t have pity on us."

Bishop Gassis' local visit was part of a monthlong coast-to-coast tour of the United States and Canada to ask for support for the needs of the war-torn populations of central and southern Sudan.

In Sudan, "diversity is looked at as something dangerous and that is a mistake," he said.

The bishop recently returned to the United States from Rome where he attended the canonization of Sudan's first saint, Josephine Bakhita.

"It is wonderful to have our own saint canonized in this time of religious persecution," Bishop Gassis said. Saint Bakhita was a victim of slavery and racism in Sudan. She died as a Canossian Sister in Italy in the late 1940s.

"In Sudan there is a hidden holocaust taking place," Bishop Gassis said. "Slavery still exists and women are constantly subjected to violence."

Hailed by many as the voice of Sudan's voiceless, Bishop Gassis has been exiled by the Khartoum regime since 1990. He operates high-risk relief missions to hundreds of thousands in an area controlled by the Islamic regime's Christian, moderate Muslim and animist opponents.

Bishop Gassis began a seven-city, bi-coastal tour this week to alert Americans to the plight of the remote Nuba people of central Sudan, one of Africa's oldest indigenous peoples, who have borne the brunt of Khartoum's decade-long war of extermination. Millions of Dinka people in northern Bahr al-Ghazal have fallen victim to "political" famine and slavery.

Through this policy of genocide, the Khartoum regime is trying to change Sudan’s ethnic composition, Bishop Gassis said.

"The golden calf is oil," he said. A 2,000-mile pipeline is being built from southern Sudan to Red Sea ports in the north.

"If we don’t build society on justice, we won’t have peace," he said.

"There is a hidden holocaust in the Sudan," he added, "but after every crucifixion, there is a resurrection."

Bishop Gassis' visit to Georgetown's Bunn Intercultural Center Auditorium Oct. 23 included the screening of the documentary, "The Hidden Gift: War & Faith in Sudan," sponsored by the Los Angeles-based Windhover Forum. The film depicts the bishop's work among the war-ravaged Nuba and Dinka Ngok peoples.

Bishop Gassis praised the efforts of Virginia Congressman Frank Wolf who helped the bishop get funds from the U.S. government for a water irrigation project in his diocese. Fifty artesian wells were dug.

"For the first time the people have clean water," the bishop said.

In addition to his Arlington and Georgetown visits, the bishop was to appear at Allentown College in Allentown, Pa.; the John Paul II Center in Denver; Toronto, Canada; Boston College; and San Francisco, where Bishop Gassis will address the prestigious World Affairs Council at Stanford University in Palo Alto.

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