They are Hebrews: so am I. They are Israelites: so am I. They are the seed of Abraham: so am I. (2 Cor 11.22)Ever since St Paul, great Christian preachers have spoken in a manner suited to the people they are addressing. St Louis Grignon de Montfort used to pick fights with yobs in the market square when he heard them blaspheming. Being a stout chap, he used to get the better of things. Then, when honour was settled, he would preach the gospel to them with, shall we say, authenticity.
Fr Zakaria Boutros looks and sounds for all the world to my suburban eyes like one of the more fiery Ayatollahs; but he is preaching the gospel to Muslims of the middle-East. Apparently his programme is compulsive viewing in much of the Islamic world with predictable results. The US government has reportedly offered a 25 million dollar bounty for Osama Bin Laden. Al Qaeda has offered a 60 million dollar bounty for Fr Zakaria Boutros.
12 comments:
Holy smokes...
Why is his show compulsive viewing in Islamic countries??
This is great news! God Bless Fr. Zacharia.
JARay
Now this is the sort of inculturation the Jesuits were once famous for, before they changed their hermeneutic lens ...
Coffee Catholic - I think his show is popular viewing because Muslims are not used to hearing this kind of message.
What a great man. Most of the Catholics in Saudi are Phillippinos and they group together in hotel rooms on a Sunday (most are workers in the hotel sector)to celebrate what in Reformation times was called a 'dry Mass'.
If caught they face public floggings, torture and imprisonment.
Could this clip be shown to the BBC's Head of Religious Affairs who is, himself, a Muslim?
This is the sort of Holy Priests that the World needs. A Billion Thank Yous and Prayers to Father Zacaria. Ad Multos Annos. I shall be saying a Rosary in Thanksgiving for Him.
!!!!!
Fr. Tim,
I always look at people's patron saints for clues about them. Fr. Zacaria's patron is the father of John the Baptist -- the "voice crying in the wilderness" -- and is the holy priest to whom the Archangel Gabriel [genuinely] appeared and gave a message. How appropriate!
Your post prompted me to watch several Youtube clips of this extremely courageous man. I was very much left with the impression that maybe the reason for the strictures imposed on non-Muslims in Middle Eastern countries arises from the unspoken apprehension that the dominant religious culture is falsely based and can easily be undermined if subjected to scrutiny and debate. Shades of the old Eastern Bloc?
Top bloke. God bless him.
>Shades of the old Eastern Bloc ?
I'd say if anything, it's the other way around. Organized Islam was oppressing non-Muslims centuries before the Eastern Bloc was a gleam in Lenin's cold eyes.
Please be aware that what Fr. Zacharia is wearing is the traditional clerical dress of an Eastern Christian clergyman. Only the headgear differs from what Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic priests and deacons wear.
Where do you think the ayatollahs got their get-up from, anyway? Mahometans have never had an original thought.
Quite a contrast to the pluralistic messages of interfaith relativism from the post-conciliar popes. Whatever happened to militant Roman Catholicism? Fr Zacharia must be an embarrassment to the liberal modernist ecumenical regime that is The Vatican these days.
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