Father Kapaun’s remains returned to Kansas

Washington D.C., Feb 6, 2020 / 02:49 pm (CNA).- The world must raise their voices and stand up for persecuted Christians, Hungarian State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians Tristan Azbej said Thursday.

Azbej was one of eight speakers at a Feb. 6 side-event of the National Prayer Breakfast that was sponsored by the organization Save the Persecuted Christians.

“All of humanity should stand up and come to the aid of persecuted Christians,” said Azbej.

Christian lives have the same dignity as those who follow other religions, he said. He questioned why stories of Christian persecution, such as the recent murder of a Nigerian seminarian, do not make the news, but when people of other religions are discriminated against, the stories are broadcast worldwide.

“Why is (Christian persecution) not on the agenda of the United Nations, of the European Union, and so on,” he asked.

“And I know there is no such thing as competition of martyrdom, but we have to talk about the proportions,” he said, noting that nearly 300 million Christians in the world are persecuted for their faith. This, he said, represents 80% of the total number of people who face persecution for their religion, meaning Christians are “the most persecuted religious group in the world.”

“It doesn’t get even a passing mention at the major human rights forum,” he said.

As the State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians, Azbej said that he has a “two-fold” mission. His first priority, he said, is “saving lives,” which he does through the government-run nonprofit “Hungary Helps.”

The other part of his mission, he explained, is “to be the voice of those that are not heard. To be the voice of those who are suffering.”

Azbej is, in his words “the only one with a government title that has the term ‘persecuted Christians’ in it,” something that he hopes changes as more countries move to address the plight of persecuted religious groups.

He especially called on historically-Christian countries to move to protect their fellow Christians, and he accused these countries of attempting to shed their Christian identities, which Azbej said was indicative of an “identity crisis.”

Azbej explained that when he started in his position in 2016, his main focus was on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. Now, he said, his priorities have shifted to the plight of the Christian community in west Africa.

“As we have learned more about the nature and extent of Christian persecution, now we are turning more and more focused on Africa,” he said. “In west Africa, there is a genocide going on, and the whole world is turning a blind eye.”

Part of the aid work Azbej’s organization does is the rebuilding of churches and communities that have been destroyed by the Islamic State. One Northern Iraqi town renamed itself Tel Askouf, meaning “Daughter of Hungary,” in appreciation for the approximately 2 million euros ($2.2m) donated by the Hungarian government to rebuild the town.

This, said Azbej, is something that can be replicated around the world.

“We wouldn’t only want to see ‘Sons and Daughters of Hungary,’” he said. “We would like to see daughters and sons of the United Nations, or of the United States or Germany or of the European Union.”

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Kansas City, Mo., Aug 31, 2017 / 12:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As part of a new program to educate baseball players on the dangers of substance abuse, the general manager for the Kansas City Royals added pornography to the list of potential harms for his team.

In an Aug. 29 statement, Royals general manager Dayton Moore explained that the team’s leadership formation program discusses the problems surrounding drug and alcohol use, and also “pornography and the effects of what that does to the minds of players.”

Moore expressed hope that team formation program might focus on the development of players beyond the early years of their careers, into the “next part of their journey – what type of husbands [and] what types of fathers [the players may become].”

He also linked pornography to the damage it has on family life and other relationships, saying that it can lead to the domestic “abuse of women.”

Moore’s comments came in response to questions about Danny Duffy, a Royals pitcher who was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol on Sunday Aug. 27, shortly after the Royals lost 12-0 to the Cleveland Indians.
 
Moore isn’t the first sports figure to speak out openly against the dangers of porn.

In 2016, former NFL player Terry Crews revealed that pornography had been destructive in his own life, saying that the addictive habit had cost him his first marriage. He also said pornography fed a sense of entitlement, which made him believe that his needs were more important than his wife’s.

“When you believe that you are more valuable than another person, you kind of feel like they owe you, and if they don’t do what you tell them then, you know, [they’re] not good enough,” he said on one of the three anti-porn videos he released on Facebook.

In the 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia, Pope Francis urged parents to equip children to deal with the “flood of pornography” available on the internet.  In 2015, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued “Create in Me a Clean Heart,” a pastoral letter addressing the problem of pornography.

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Washington D.C., Nov 23, 2019 / 06:50 am (CNA).- Ashley Stricklin says she had a typical Texan upbringing. She was raised a Southern Baptist in a town outside of Dallas, with a family who was active in her church. Her father was a deacon in their Baptist church, and she accepted Jesus into her heart when she was nine.

Although Stricklin lived near a Catholic church, she had never been inside it, nor did she really know any Catholics–that is, until she went off to Baylor University, one of the largest Baptist-affiliated universities in the world. There, she met faithful Catholics, and embarked on a long, and at times even secretive, journey into the Catholic Church.

The Catholics Stricklin met at Baylor were “always so joyful,” which prompted her to begin to wonder what exactly was so different between the Catholic faith and the faith she was raised in. Despite her faithful Baptist upbringing, Stricklin said that she always felt as though “something was missing,” in her life, but could not quite put her finger on it.

Her new Catholic friends invited her to Eucharistic adoration, which was the first time Stricklin had ever seen the Blessed Sacrament–and she began to see exactly what she had been missing.

After that, everything changed, and she says she “started her journey” toward Catholicism. Three years later, that journey would reach a milestone, when she was received into the Church on April 28, 2019–Divine Mercy Sunday.

Stricklin received her first communion and confirmation at St. Peter’s Student Center, which is a campus ministry of the Diocese of Austin for students of Baylor University and nearby colleges.

Like many new Catholics, there were significant hurdles that Stricklin had to overcome before being received into the Church–both in the doctrinal sense and in the personal. For Stricklin, it was easy for her to come to accept teachings she had previously believed were wrong, such as the Immaculate Conception of Mary and Mary’s role as mediatrix of grace.

“I actually did a Marian consecration before I was confirmed,” said Stricklin. “And so it just went full circle for me.”

It was the reaction of her Baptist parents, however, that proved to be one of Stricklin’s biggest anxieties before entering the Church. Although Stricklin knew from early on in college that she wanted to become Catholic, she delayed entering the Church until her senior year, because she was afraid of how they would react.

“I definitely thought my parents were going to disown me,” Stricklin said. “That’s why I waited until I was a senior, because I didn’t think my parents would continue to pay for college.”

In the meantime, Stricklin read book after book about Catholicism, nearly exhausting the Baylor library’s section on Catholicism. She read everything from “Rome Sweet Home” to the “Summa Theologica,” eventually concentrating on conversion stories and books about the Eucharist.

Still, she kept all of her religious curiosity and plans a secret from her parents–for three years.

“I would hide my books,” she said. “I cleaned my (web) browsers, which was really not a good idea looking back now.”

Fearful still of her parents’ rejection, Stricklin waited until just two months before her First Communion and Confirmation to tell them what she was planning on doing. To her astonishment, while they were certainly taken aback, they neither abandoned her nor cut her off.

“I told my mom in February and she thought I was joking, like she just thought it was a joke,” she said, laughing. “I was like, ‘Oh no, mom, it’s not a joke.’”

Despite her fears, Stricklin’s mother attended her First Communion, and her father is supportive of her religious journey, both of which were pleasant surprises. Her grandparents, however, still do not know she has converted.

Stricklin chose St. John Paul II as her confirmation saint, something that she was hesitant to do as she thought it would reveal that she was a convert. Eventually, she realized this was silly, and went with him anyways. She said she chose St. John Paul II due to both her interest in Eastern Europe, and because she found his papacy and writings to be “truly inspiring.”

Stricklin is now a student at Creighton University School of Law, where will graduate in 2022. About seven months into her new journey as a fully-initiated Catholic, Stricklin remains intrigued and fulfilled by the Eucharist, and she continues to delve more into her faith.

After initially being intrigued by the Eucharist at her first-ever adoration, Stricklin says now that she considers the sacrament to be “such a joy” and that she eagerly looks forward to receiving it. And despite her initial troubles, fears, and everything else associated with the process of converting to Catholicism, she says things have been smooth sailing.

“It’s been an interesting journey, and each day I just continue to strive for sainthood and just keep trying to increase and my relationships with God, so, yeah, it’s been good,” she said. “It’s been a cool journey so far.”

This story is part of a CNA series profiling new converts to the Catholic faith.

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