The Holy Month of December, the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Christmas month, is dedicated to giving and spreading joy. Also, in December, we should not forget the Feast of The Holy Innocents in remembrance of the massacre of young children in Bethlehem by King Herod in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus.
Kindly ask your councils, parish members and friends to share your Christmas donations with persecuted and at risk Christians. Please do not put all your charity eggs in one basket but spread the benefit over many initiatives which will bring aid and happiness to more refugees, needy students, the disabled, hungry families, the elderly, the sick, orphans, priests, seminarians, and the families of departed brother Knights and sisters. Allocate a budget for Christian Refugee Relief, no matter how modest it is, and choose from the many different initiatives dedicated to Christians at risk, to distribute your donations to.
Your councils will earn many credits which will get you closer to your Columbian or Star Awards. Although Christian Refugee Relief is classified under LIFE, however its initiatives, which are entirely different in nature, may also fall under FAITH, FAMILY and COMMUNITY pillars. Parishioners will also be impressed with your promotions and will donate and may join your council.
Please stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians and remember by forgetting about Christian Refugee Relief, you would have forgotten the most vulnerable, and at risk Christians. Unfortunately nowadays, the church is persecuted even more than at the time of St. Peter and Paul.
The latest statistics show that more than 200 million Christians are persecuted in some way in more than 50 countries around the world. Both the Knights of Columbus and Christians in more peaceful lands ought to do everything in their power to see that Christians do not leave their countries. The Christians in the Middle East in general have been on a continuous decline. Unfortunately, our secular media is not interested to report on their plight. In the Holy land, the decline has been from 12% in 1920 to less than 2% in 2022. If this trend is not reversed, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Beit Sahour and other places where Christ was born, walked and preached will become museums of Christianity without Christians. As the Christian Refugee Relief Director of the Ontario Knights of Columbus, I built websites which groups all my initiatives www.christianrefugeerelief.org www.jerusalemstudents.org and I ask faithful Christians around the world to support these worthy causes so that Jerusalem Students as well as my other projects established for the Knights of Columbus will grow to help needy Christian students, orphans, hungry families, priests, seminarians, craft workers, churches, hospitals, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, not only in the Holy Land but all over the Middle East. For more information, My name is Brother Hikmat Dandan. Tel 1- 416-893 8060 email: knightsofcolumbus@hotmail.com
His Eminence Cardinal Collins told us: The Knights are the strong right arm of the Catholic Church. As Catholics we have to be universal, look beyond, and help brothers all over. This is what Catholic means and not only in our community. The fundamental role of lay people is to infiltrate the world individually or through organizations like the KOFC and to let the light of Christ shine wherever we go. The more we give, the more the Lord Bless Us. The more we live in a shell, the more we sink. Vivat Iesus