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Cardinal Warns on Danger Ahead

"We know that Christianity is currently the most persecuted religion worldwide, both through bloody persecution and structural discrimination." That's the stark truth uttered by Cardinal Gerhard Müller in the course of a level-headed but very serious warning that Europe is threatened by mass migration and the growing influence of Islam.

In a German-language interview on the YouTube channel Kontrapunkt, Müller addressed the issues of mass migration, Islam, and low birth rates that are leading to a seismic demographic shift in Europe.

While he acknowledged that Muslims who come to live in European countries have the right to practice their religion, he said that “with this mass immigration of Muslim fellow citizens from cultures foreign to all of Europe, the problem is precisely that Islam is not just a religion … but that it also always claims political power and not only influences the culture but becomes dominant within it.”

“And that can only lead to a confrontation with our Christian culture – our view of humanity, which is based on the belief that every person is created by God, that all people are equal before God, and that this must also be reflected in equality before the law,” Müller continued.

“And that’s precisely where I see the problems – problems that aren’t just on the horizon, but are in fact already here – namely, that parts of the public sphere are being taken over, or that in schools and kindergartens, even Christian children are required to observe Muslim customs during Ramadan, or that Christian children, teenagers, or adults are restricted in their normal civic lives – their Christian lives,” he stated.

“And we see this, after all, in some cities in Europe where there’s a Muslim majority: while individuals there may well be peaceful, there can also be a group, a minority, that is aggressive and then seizes power and seeks to control and manipulate everyone else according to their own ideas.”

The former prefect of the Congregation (now Dicastery) of the Doctrine of the Faith noted that in most Islamic countries Christians live under oppression and are often “restricted or treated as second-class citizens.”

“There are, after all, many countries with Muslim majorities, where Christians are persecuted, in some cases even by state authorities, but also by certain mafia-like gangs that resort to violence,” Müller said. “And we know that Christianity is currently the most persecuted religion worldwide, both through bloody persecution and structural discrimination.”

‘Carrying a Bible in hospital may be illegal’

Routine hospital pastoral ministry may fall foul of abortion buffer zone laws, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has threatened.

Following the conviction of retired pastor Clive Johnston for preaching the Gospel within one of Northern Ireland’s controversial abortion censorship zones, questions have been asked as to what else might be deemed criminal behaviour. The Christian Institute is helping Pastor Clive to appeal.

When asked on the implications of legislation for clergy and pastors “going about their normal day-to-day work in hospitals”, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said that prayer, Scripture reading and carrying a Bible within a designated area ‘may constitute an offence’.

The Chief Constable explained that where a pastoral visitor is invited to pray with a patient receiving end-of-life care, for example, “and that patient is not attending for abortion services, this activity falls outside the scope of the Act”.

But, he added, where “it takes place within a Safe Access Zone, the lawfulness of that activity will depend on whether it could reasonably influence, cause distress to, or impede a protected person nearby”.

He stated: “As with prayer, scripture reading conducted at the express request of a patient or their family, with a patient not attending for abortion services, is not the conduct this legislation was designed to address.

“However, the same principle applies – if such activity takes place within a Safe Access Zone and a reasonable person would recognise it as capable of indirectly influencing or distressing a protected person, an offence may be committed, regardless of the consensual nature of the activity between the clergy member and their patient.”

He said that carrying a Bible “through public areas of hospitals” or providing pastoral ministry “within wards or hospital grounds” may also be illegal under the Act.

Mr Johnston held an open-air service on the fringes of the buffer zone around Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital last year.

His actions – preaching “For God so loved the world” while standing near a large cross inside the zone – were deemed “reckless” as to whether they would ‘influence’ someone accessing the hospital’s abortion services. He did not mention abortion, nor were there banners or placards.