Following up on Wolfgang Grassl’s column this morning, where he argues that the picture of Christianity in Europe is not as bleak as it seems, comes this news story to remind me that it could be so, so much worse:
Saudi police raided a secret Catholic mass in Riyadh last week and arrested a dozen Filipinos and a Catholic priest, charging them with prosyletising, a local daily reported on Wednesday.
The raid took place as some 150 Filipinos were attending the mass in a Riyadh rest house on Friday, the second day of the weekend in Saudi Arabia, Arab News said.
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The twelve Filipino men and the priest, whose nationality was not specified, were “charged with prosyletising,” the daily quoted an official from the Philippine embassy in Riyadh as saying.
The men have been released “on guarantees by sponsors or embassies,” the report notes. How generous.
[H/t Deacon’s Bench]