A Patron for Magdi Allam and Benedict XVI
On Easter Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI baptized Magdi Allam, an Italian newspaper editor and a former Muslim, into the Christian faith. And ever since, various Muslim, secular, and even Christians have denounced this high-profile conversion as reckless and needlessly provocative. Allam, they argue, should have received the sacraments quietly, without all the attention and papal fanfare that could harm interfaith dialog and offend Muslim sensibilities.
But in terms of shock value and provocation, Allam’s conversion has nothing on Bl. Anthony Neyrot’s.
Neyrot, who celebrates his feast day today, was a Dominican brother living in Sicily in the Fifteenth Century. While sailing to Naples, Moorish pirates captured his ship, then sold him into slavery in Tunis. There, Neyrot would win back his earthly freedom by rejecting Christianity in favor of Islam. He was adopted into the Tunisian king’s family and took a wife, leaving his vocation, his order, and his faith behind.
It's quite possible Anthony would have died an apostate were it not for the intervention of his former Dominican prior, who had only recently passed away — St. Antoninus. Antoninus appeared to Anthony in a dream, the message of which was so profound that it spurred Anthony’s repentance. Neyrot sought out a priest, confessed his sins, sent his wife back to her family, and was readmitted to his order.
But his reversion didn’t end there. Anthony wanted his return to Christ to be as public as possible. On Palm Sunday of 1460, Anthony appeared at a procession before the Tunisian king, wearing his white Dominican habit for all to see. He publicly denounced his conversion to Islam and proclaimed his restored devotion to Christ.
Now that's a provocation.
Predictably, this infuriated the king, who offered Anthony rewards if he would remain a Muslim, and death if he did not. Anthony chose martyrdom. He was stoned to death that Holy Thursday, while praying for the strength he had lacked earlier, when he turned his back on Christ. In 1767, he was beatified -- one step short of canonization, or sainthood -- by Pope Clement XIII.
Like Anthony, Allam now also faces the very real possibility of martyrdom. He’s received death threats ever since making critical comments about the London terror bombings in 2003, and his conversion has only stoked Islamist hatred. But Allam accepts the possibility of his death with a composure reminiscent of Bl. Anthony. “I know what I am headed for,” he writes, “but I face my destiny with my head held high, standing upright and with the interior solidity of one who has the certainty of his faith.”
Benedict, too, no doubt realizes that his decision to give Allam’s entrance into the Church such a prominent platform carries risks. Only days earlier, Osama bin Laden, in one of his periodic, taped diatribes, denounced the Holy Father for plotting a “crusade” — a thinly veiled threat that prompted officials to boost security at the Vatican. Welcoming Allam, who’s not only a former Muslim, but a rather outspoken one at that, into the Church on Christianity’s most sacred day has inflamed the Islamist hatred, as well the danger that hatred presents.
It’s also inflamed many others, who regard Allam’s papal baptism as an insult to Islam. The Vatican, however, insists that Benedict’s involvement was intended only as an affirmation of religious freedom. And in a sense, both descriptions are apt, as affirming religious freedom is bound to insult those who reject (and despise) the very notion.
In deciding to honor Allam with such a public baptism, the Holy Father clearly decided that championing the religious freedom of would-be converts was more important than appeasing the sensitivities of wannabe bullies. The event served as an invitation not only to Muslims, but to all humanity, to “be not afraid”; the promises of Christ are well worth the sufferings they may invite.
“Today,” Allam wrote, “Benedict XVI, with his witness, tells us that we must overcome fear and not be afraid to affirm the truth of Jesus even with Muslims.” Those are Allam’s words, mind you, not Benedict’s. For his part, the pope has been more circumspect about the broader implications his actions. Still, it’s impossible to miss the case Benedict has made for a religion of faith and reason, one that inspires conversions of the heart rather than enforcing fidelity through fear.
This is the message he hinted at back in his widely misconstrued remarks at Regensburg. And it is, perhaps, a message best transmitted through the sort of symbolic, courageous witness the world saw at this year’s Easter Vigil.
So what might come next? How can the Holy Father continue to promote his message of religious tolerance and true conversion in the face of Islamist threats and the rise of Islam in a post-Christian Europe?
That will be for him and the Holy Spirit to decide. But here’s one suggestion: Canonization for Bl. Anthony Neyrot.
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