The Martyrs among us

Catholic world news reports 26 Catholic missionaries were killed in 2005....

Actually that number doesnot include many other martyrs of other faiths or lay Catholics.......the word martyr means witness, and witnesses to truth might include Christian human rights advocates dying after being beaten in China or kidnapped in Iraq, Christians and Buddhists killed in terrorist attacks on their churches or temples, or journalists killed for reporting unpopular stories such as occurs here in the Philippines...

The last year I was in Zimbabwe (it was Rhodesia then) about 25 missionaries were killed in that country alone...not all Catholic...

One doctor friend (and one nurse) was shot at her hospital by robbers.
A Bishop and three companions was ambushed and killed by "guerillas"
An entire family of a British Pentecostal sect was butchered near Umtali.
Five sisters and two priests were taken out and shot one night.
An African doctor at a Swedish Lutheran mission was shot going to a late night hospital emergency.
A lay brother "disappeared"...we know who shot him, but the body was placed down a mine shaft...

And after I left, one of the sisters I worked with was beaten to death...
One of these days I'll write the stories on my screedblog...the details are pretty sad...

To this day, I can't watch the film Romero, because too many scene in it remind me of my friends...

That movie was 1989....and it only took 16 years for a major studio to film a good movie about Christians who risk their lives to help people...
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UPDATE: InTheAgora Blog has a review of the movie The End of the Spear