The following is an excerpt from Cardinal George's opening letter at the US Bishops Meeting in November. Despite the sadness of this tragedy, there is nevertheless a reason for encouragement and inspiration to be drawn from the heroic example of this little martyr.
An American Dominican Sister, a friend of a friend, has written from that country: "Waves of grief have enveloped their world, surging along the fault lines created in Iraqi society by the displacement of thousands of Iraq's Christian minority who have fled what is clearly a growing genocidal threat…One survivor was asked by a reporter, what do you say to the terrorists? Through his tears he said, 'We forgive you.'…Among the victims of this senseless tragedy was a little boy named Adam. Three-year-old Adam witnessed the horror of dozens of deaths, including that of his own parents. He wandered among the corpses and the blood, following the terrorists around and admonishing them, 'enough, enough, enough.' According to witnesses, this continued for two hours until Adam was himself murdered." As bishops, as Americans, we cannot turn from this scene or allow the world to overlook it.
Dear brothers, we have all experienced challenges and even tragedies that tempt us to say at times, "enough." Yet all of our efforts, our work, our failures and our sense of responsibility pale before the martyrdom of our brothers and sisters in Iraq and the active persecution of Catholics in other parts of the Middle East, in India and Pakistan, in China and in Vietnam, in Sudan and African countries rent by civil conflict. With their faces always before us, we stand before the Lord, collectively responsible for all those whom Jesus Christ died to save; and that is more than enough to define us as bishops and to keep us together in mission. May the Lord during these days give us vision enough to see what he sees and strength enough to act as he would have us act. That will be enough. Thank you.
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