On Tuesday, August 20, 2024, at 8:30 p.m., in Piazza Tre Martiri in Rimini, prayers will be said for persecuted Christians. It is an initiative that has been repeated for 10 years, without interruption, in the city on the Romagna coast, the capital of summer tourism. It is organized by the Nazarath Committee, which offers every 20th of the month, starting in August 2014, a moment of prayer, recitation of the Rosary with songs, and the proposal of a direct testimony or the reading of a passage describing the situation of persecution in the world. It ends with the collection of money to support our persecuted brothers.
This year, the Bishop of Rimini, Mgr. Nicolò Anselmi, announced his presence.
We spoke about this initiative with its creator and head of the Nazarath Committee, Marco Ferrini.
– How did the initiative of prayer for persecuted Christians come about?
– We need to go back 10 years: in the summer of 2014, a few weeks after the proclamation of the Caliphate, ISIS took control of a large territory between Syria and Iraq. In the Nineveh Plain, on the night of 6-7 August 125,000 Iraqi Christians were forced to leave their lands and homes in the direction of inland Kurdistan, while another 110,000 remained as refugees in the area of Erbil and Duhok. It was not possible to remain indifferent to the destruction and the diaspora of a Christian people who always, long before Islam, inhabited the lands of the Nineveh Plain, where Aramaic, the ancient language of Jesus, is still spoken, and who could remain powerless. In the face of the dramatic invasion of Mosul, I, along with a group of friends, decided to propose a moment of prayer called “Appeal to the Human.” Let us pray for all the persecuted, Christians and non-Christians, because humanity is at stake. This prayer is the affirmation of the Lordship of Christ, who can do everything, over each one of us. Prayer is the most powerful tool to change history.
– Why did you decide to pray in the square, among the people, and not in the church?
– The event takes place in the square to underline that “going out” to Church so dear to Pope Francis, in front of everyone and not in the context of religious buildings. From time to time, we make a poster to attract people’s attention.
– The strange logo appears on your posters…
– It’s true. We used the Nun as our logo, the initial Arabic letter of “nassarah” (Nazarenes) with which Christian houses were marked in the Nineveh plain to indicate where families of followers of the Nazarene lived who were to be taxed, frightened, subdued and in many cases killed.
– The Nazarath Committee wants to raise awareness about the persecution of Christians by inviting witnesses of this persecution. Who did you invite?
– There have been many witnesses in recent years: lay people, priests, religious, bishops, journalists from Syria, Iraq, but also from Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan, Bangladesh. They took turns: Syrian Catholics, Chaldeans, Melkite Greeks, Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land and many others.
– Is your initiative limited to Rimini, or does it extend to other places as well?
– Our initiative is spreading to many parts of Italy and beyond. The prayer is always held on the 20th of every month, today in Rimini, Cesena, Bologna, Prato, Siena, Perugia, Cattolica (RN), Loreto, Forlì, Ravenna, Udine, Cremona, Busca (CN), Milan, Andora (SV). But also abroad, in Syria, Iraq and Lugano. And even in the 27 cloistered monasteries they accompany us in prayer, always on the same date. We hope that this moment of prayer can spread to other cities in Italy and the world.
– Pope Francis is very sensitive to the problem of the persecution of Christians…
– Yes, I was struck by the Pope’s words during the Angelus on December 26, 2016: “The world hates Christians for the same reason it hated Jesus, because He brought the light of God and the world prefers darkness to hide its evil deeds.” These words explain that the world will always persecute Christians: because it hates Jesus. But on another occasion Francis said: “A Church without martyrs is a Church without Jesus, with his martyrdom, with his testimony, with his suffering, even giving his own, lives that sow Christians for the future.”
– This year, Francesco gave you a pleasant surprise….
– The Pope’s handwritten message from Casa Santa Marta on July 25, 2024, is very unexpected. It certainly speaks of concern for these brothers, our persecuted people who, as he repeats, are more numerous today than in the first centuries. He writes “Thank you for the testimony of kind charity, of closeness and above all the union with the pain of the populations wounded by injustice, oppression, hatred and greed.” And again, “I urge you, therefore, to invoke the help of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Help, so that she may take us under her mantle and sustain us in our hour of trial.” We humbly accept this request and this responsibility to continue in this task of bearing witness to the world of the Glory of Christ.
