Some stunning and hopeful news, courtesy The Anchoress:
Tertullian said “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.” I couldn’t help but remember that, and the Coptic Martyrs, as I read this report from the AP: At a Berlin church, Muslim refugees converting in droves…
Mohammed Ali Zonoobi bends his head as the priest pours holy water over his black hair. “Will you break away from Satan and his evil deeds?” pastor Gottfried Martens asks the Iranian refugee. “Will you break away from Islam?” “Yes,” Zonoobi fervently replies. Spreading his hands in blessing, Martens then baptizes the man “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.” Mohammed is now Martin — no longer Muslim, but Christian. […] Martens recognizes that some convert in order to improve their chances of staying in Germany — but for the pastor motivation is unimportant. Many, he said, are so taken by the Christian message that it changes their lives. And he estimates that only about 10 percent of converts do not return to church after christening. “I know there are — again and again — people coming here because they have some kind of hope regarding their asylum,” Martens said. “I am inviting them to join us because I know that whoever comes here will not be left unchanged.”
A deacon candidate—reading this and noting that most of the converts are Protestant— asked me today: “Isn’t there some way the Catholic Church can speed up the process for these people, to help make them Catholic?”
Good question.
And today we celebrate...