Sudanese bishop asks Church to help persecuted Christians
Religion Today, February 4, 2000
Read Bishop Macram Gassis’ personal appeal on behalf of Sudan’s Christians on the Sudan Relief and Rescue web site.A Sudanese church leader is appealing to the body of Christ to come to Sudan and help fellow Christians in their hour of need.
“Christians in Sudan are isolated by long years of war and thirsty to have church personnel come and be with them,” Roman Catholic Bishop Macram Gassis told Religion Today. “They don’t ask for clothes or food. They say, ‘We need the church.’ ”
“Christians face terrible suffering in Sudan. Seeking to ‘Islamicize and Arabize’ the country, the Khartoum government has waged a 15-year genocidal war against non-Muslims,” Gassis said.
Charles Colson’s ministry, Prison Fellowship, gave Gassis its annual Wilberforce Award on Feb. 2. The award goes to a person who has overcome formidable societal problems and injustices, the ministry said. The award is named for 18th-century British parliamentarian William Wilberforce, a Christian who waged a long battle to abolish the slave trade.
Michael Horowitz of the Hudson Institute’s Project for International Religious Liberty, a former Wilberforce Award winner, was arrested Feb. 2 while protesting on behalf of Sudan. Horowitz was arrested outside the U.S. State Department to protest what he called the Clinton administration’s “cynical and indifferent” policies toward Sudan. Horowitz, who is Jewish, has been active in raising awareness about the persecution of Christians.
Christians have been killed, churches have been burned, and women and children have been taken as slaves, news reports say. More than 2 million people reportedly have died from violence and from a famine caused intentionally by the Khartoum government.
Churches in the north have been persecuted. The government arrested the Catholic bishop of Khartoum last year on false pretenses, and held two priests for several months on fraudulent terrorism charges, human rights attorney William Saunders said. Churches and schools that serve the thousands of refugees living outside Khartoum, who have moved from the south to escape the war, are torn down, he said.
Gassis has been a tireless advocate for the Sudanese people. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and the United Nations, and has sought help from human rights agencies. The Khartoum government has declared him an enemy of the state and issued a warrant for his arrest, Prison Fellowship said.
Gassis oversees a diocese that is split in two, with the northern half controlled by the Islamic government of Sudan and the southern half in the hands of Southern People’s Liberation Army rebels. The territory includes the Nuba Mountains and Bar el-Ghazal, where Christians have no outside contacts or international relief aid, and face aerial bombing raids and attacks by Islamic ground troops.
The Christians are in desperate need but “no one comes to help,” Gassis said. The people lack schooling, jobs, food, and shelter, and families and spiritual values are breaking down, he said.
Missionaries won’t come, despite the needs, Gassis said. He has written more than 300 letters to Catholic mission congregations, he said, but has received no positive replies. “They say they don’t have the personnel, but they are still going to Malawi and Zambia. This is an injustice. It is a shame that people go to areas where it is easy, but shy away from areas where it is a challenge.”
Protestants and Catholics should work together to help the region, he said. Some independent Protestant groups bring food, Bibles, and medicine, but don’t know the areas of greatest need, Gassis said. By working with local churches, they could make sure the aid is distributed properly.
The church has grown because of the persecution, Gassis said. There is a “stunning increase in the number of Christians” because people realize that their greatest hope is in Christ, he said. “If Khartoum thinks that terrorizing people will stem Christianity, they are wrong because it is spreading and spreading very fast.”
The war has harmed the church, too. Families are suffering because husbands are fighting and wives and children are left at home, and a “frightful shortage” of church personnel has “left a big gap in the moral formation of the people,” Gassis said.
An area of Bahr el-Ghazal has had no priests for more than 20 years. The faith has been kept alive mostly by women teachers, Saunders said. They need books and Bibles because “it has been so long, we have nearly forgotten the words,” one teacher said.
“Our biggest handicap in these areas is lack of Christian leadership,” Gassis said. Education is the key because without English and good learning skills, candidates for seminary can’t attend classes in nearby countries, he said. Four seminarians from Sudan are enrolled in intensive English classes in Kenya to prepare for seminary training.