Father Andrea Santoro... A Modern Martyr...

A terribly sad part of the Danish Cartoon Outrage is the murder of Father Andrea Santoro, a priest in Turkey shot dead in his church by a 16-year-old boy. Currently, the Roman Catholic population in Turkey is 60,000 out of 72 million. Already, Cardinal Ruini has called for his beatification. Pope Benedict has remarked that he hopes Santoro's blood will become "the seeds of hope for building an authentic fraternity among peoples." Maybe this is the best for which we can hope. Certainly Tertullian's original quote: "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church" has never been challenged so much as by radical Islam, which itself views martyrdom as an automatic means of glorification. Unfortunately, I think the cause for beatification will sadly be stifled by a desire to keep relations with Muslims at least semi-civil.

The above picture is of Santoro's funeral at St. John Lateran.