Posted by
Buster Foghorn on Monday, July 26, 2010 8:20:54 PM
Some people just think they have a tough job, but a Catholic Bishop labors in Sudan against the odds.
Once in a while a report breaks through the routine of a day and you find yourself stopping to think about how easy we have it in America. Such a report is found in Revolutionary Father, Bishop Macram Gassis shepherds the founding of a civilization.
Revolutionary Father is an inspirational profile of Bishop Macram Gassis by Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO. Bishop Gassis is a Catholic spiritual leader in Sudan, but he is helping everyone in need with hospitals, schools and water. Although a Fatwa against his life forces him to plan his activities with care, a pending election in Sudan could help his parishioners if the South separates from the North and a favorable election result could also establish ” a “pro-American, democratic partner” in East Africa.”
Gassis knows well the need for Western support if a viable, independent state in the hotbed of radical Islam and instability that is the Sudan is to be possible. But like any good father, he tells his people not to expect or get too comfortable with “handouts.” He wants to see the Sudanese truly take responsibility for a new country. Knowing human nature, he considers it the only way, ultimately, to change the face of Sudan. And it follows in the tradition of what he’s been doing there for over two decades: fighting for the dignity and rightsof every life in a land that has seen man at his worst. He offers nothing less than truth about authentic liberation.
Because of security and stability concerns, Gassis has had to base many of his operations out of Nairobi. But his service is to Sudanese people, whoever they are, however they pray. “Water,” he tells me, is “not Catholic. It’s not Muslim. It’s water. People need it.” And so he oversees the digging of wells. He calls that his version of the “dialogue” we’re frequently talking about in the West.
Read the rest of the story here – our rules for a hostile work environment seem so pedestrian by comparison.