For the relative few paying attention, it seems impossible to keep up with the violence against Christians in Nigeria. A priest is killed, a group is kidnapped. It’s a place of unrelenting terror. I’m glad we care to light buildings in the colors of the Ukrainian flag here in the U.S., but Ukrainians are far from the only people suffering brutal evil in the world today. They just happen to be the ones we are paying attention to now. For good reason, their greatest fear is that the world loses interest in them before long.
At St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently welcomed the Knights of Columbus as well as Aid to the Church in Need, two groups that have stepped up to the plate to help Ukrainian refugees. The Knights have the advantage of having people on the ground in both Ukraine and neighboring Poland. He talked about the death of Christ and the Christian’s need to die to the world to follow Christ. If you’re a Nigerian Christian attacked because you are Christian, the very reality of being Christian is to die to the world and choose Christ. In the case of Ukrainians right now, a large population of Christians are being attacked by fellow Christians — the Russian Orthodox Church perversely supports the war against Ukraine. I recently attended a weekday Mass at a Ukrainian Catholic Church in Manhattan — the prayers for their brothers and sisters, some biologically, back in Ukraine came from the depths. Even with our challenges, we are free to walk from church to church or down the block without fear of attacks. (Granted, there are some exceptions to such a state of security — for example, the uptick of antisemitic attacks in New York City.)
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