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A.C.N - Aid to the Church in Need Italian Office |
Religious Freedom in
the Majority Islamic Countries |
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Preface In 1997, ACN celebrated the 50th anniversary of its existence. During this half-century, thousands of requests have accumulated in its archives, requests for help from all around the world. This continual flow of information has not only inspired us to help further but has also enabled the organisation to provide the Christian community with topical information on the situation of the Church in those areas where she is at risk. In order to give a degree of coherence to this wealth of information, the Italian office of ACN has decided to produce an annual report on the subject of religious liberty. This first volume has been deliberately limited to those countries that are in the majority Islamic. It seems to us that at the present moment in history, by contrast with the implosion of the Soviet empire which we have witnessed, the Islamic world now represents something of a priority area with regard to the problem of religious freedom. But, in addition to its purely informative aim, we believe that the proposed analysis has a wider value. There is no true conversion that does not require, in order to be effective, a profound examination of the "state of the soul", of the starting conditions, so to speak, for the long journey towards holiness. The appeal by the Holy Father for a new evangelisation demands a serious response. And since it is our present world that is the object of this new call to conversion, it is clear that a detailed investigation into the present "state" of this world is a precondition of any kind of catechetical initiative if this is to be effective and more than a mere declaration of good intentions. This report, published by ACN Italy, aims to make a small contribution to this practical analysis of the conditions in which the Church of our times has to work, of the difficulties she faces and the obstacles that the Holy Spirit will encounter in the new millennium in His work of sanctification of the world. Attilio
Tamburrini |
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