OAK RIDGE For the last few months, a pilgrim icon of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians has been traveling to Roman Catholic and Eastern Rite Catholic parishes around the Diocese to bring home the reality of the depth of persecution of Christians around the world and the need to pray in solidarity with them. The Paterson Federation of the Knights of Columbus has been coordinating visits of the icon around the Diocese as part of a nationwide 2018-19 Marian Prayer Program sponsored by the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus.
The 12 districts of the diocesan Knights have been coordinating — and will continue to coordinate — visits of the pilgrim icon to parishes and Knights councils where they have been on display. Among the many faith communities so far to present the image are St. Francis of Assisi in the Haskell section of Wanaque and St. Thomas the Apostle in Oak Ridge. Many parishes and Knights councils have held prayer services in honor of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians, including St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral in Woodland Park of the Byzantine Catholic Rite.
“The visits of the pilgrim icon of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians are timely with all the Christians who are being tortured and killed. The image reminds us that persecuted Christians and refugees are still out there today. They are not only from the first century,” said Joseph Wickham of St. Thomas and diocesan coordinator of the pilgrim icon for the Knights.
At the Supreme Convention in August in Baltimore, deputies from each state in the U.S. received a copy of the icon, especially commissioned by the national Knights of Columbus. The icon is to serve as the “centerpiece for prayer services conducted in churches and council meeting places throughout” their jurisdictions, during the program, which concludes in 2020. The program was designed to “raise awareness of the plight of Christians persecuted for their faith and to stand in prayerful solidarity with them” and “spread devotion to Our Lady.” The icon of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians represents the 18th Marian image that the Knights have commissioned for its Marian Prayer Program, according to the Supreme Knights web site, www.kofc.org.
The Supreme Knights Council has prepared prayer cards in English, Spanish and other languages and booklets that contain suggested prayers, including the Prayer for Persecuted Christians; Scripture readings; and hymns for a prayer service. Sponsored by the Father Juan Perez, OFM, Council 262 in Passaic, Father Jack Custer presided over a Moleben — a prayer service in honor of the Blessed Mother in the Byzantine Catholic Rite — on the evening of Jan. 29 at St. Michael’s Cathedral. The service included prayer, veneration of the image and a talk by Father Custer, the cathedral’s rector. After the service, many participants approached the altar to venerate the image personally, the priest said.
“It is good to show people here, who are comfortable in the Church, to see the sacrifice of people around the world, who are making sacrifices for their faith. I also reminded people that Christians’ experience of oppression is here in the U.S., such as with the new law [that grants wider ‘rights’ to late-term abortion] in New York, It’s important for Christians to hold together,” Father Custer told The Beacon. “Survivors of Christian oppression under communism were there at the service and shared their stories,” he added.
The icon — created by Italian iconographer Fabrizio Diomedi — shows “the Blessed Mother, with the Child Jesus over her heart, spreading her protective mantle around a representative gathering of recent Christian martyrs — men and women, young and old, priests, religious and laypersons, including one of the six priest-members of the Knights of Columbus who were killed by the Mexican government in the first half of the 20th century. The four crosses represent an ‘ecumenism of blood’ among martyrs of Roman and Eastern Catholicism, as well as those of Coptic, Armenian, Syriac and Orthodox traditions,” according to the Supreme Knights Council.
Since it started in 1979, the Knights Marian Prayer Program has held more than 166,900 local council and parish prayer services with some 20 million participants. Featured images in past programs have included Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Our Lady of Czestochowa, Our Lady of the Assumption and Our Lady of the Rosary, according to the Supreme Knights Council.
In his address at the 2018 Supreme Knights’ convention, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson expressed his hope that the pilgrim icon will “focus the eyes of our Church on the sacrifice of so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ.” He also said that the Knights have committed more than $20 million since 2014 to provide food, shelter and clothing to persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria.
Helping to coordinate the pilgrim icon’s visit to St. Michael’s Cathedral was Peter Walentowicz, a parishioner of Ss. Cyril & Methodius Parish, Clifton, and deputy of District 41, which includes Passaic, Paterson, Totowa and Clifton. In that district, the icon has visited St. Michael’s Cathedral; Sacred Heart Armenian Catholic Church in Little Falls; and St. Ann Melkite Catholic Church, Woodland Park — “Eastern Rite Catholic Churches that have experienced much Christian persecution,” he said.
One attender of the prayer service at St. Michael’s Cathedral was Bob Keenan, financial secretary of the Father Juan Perez Council.
“The prayer service was very reverent and relevant to today. We need to wake up to the fact that people are getting persecuted and think about all the people around the world, who are dying for their faith,” Keenan said.
[For information about visits of pilgrim icon of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians or related prayer services in the Diocese, contact the local Knights of Columbus council.]