by Robert Royal.

But first a note: We've got two days left and just a few thousand dollars to raise. There's a whole second half of this year that needs your support. One last push, please - and we'll be there.

Now for today's column.

Today is the feast of the First Martyrs of Rome, the mostly unknown group of early Christians who were persecuted and died in 64 A.D. under the Emperor Nero. Some were wrapped in animal skins and torn apart by dogs in public spectacles, others were covered in tar and burned alive as human torches. It was the beginning of anti-Christian violence that, sadly, has cropped up periodically over the past 2000 years and continues even today.

The Roman historian Tacitus lamented the deaths of the early martyrs - but not because of the inhumanity and injustice:

to stop the rumor [that he had set Rome on fire], [Nero] falsely charged with guilt, and punished with the most fearful tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were [generally] hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius, but the pernicious superstition [prava superstitio] - repressed for a time, broke out yet again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow from all quarters, as to a common receptacle. . . a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city, as of "hatred of the human race."

And you thought that it's only since the rise of "Wokism" that the Church has been reviled for "preaching hate." Or that Christianity has been charged as a depraved superstition.

Yet martyrdom presents an unexpected paradox. The earliest enemies of the Faith in Jerusalem doubtless thought that crucifying Jesus would put an end to Him and everything He was trying to do. It turned out that His death - and Resurrection - became an even greater spur to the spread of the Gospel. Tacitus noted that the persecutions and martyrs evoked sympathy from the people, which advanced the Faith.

The 3rd-century North African theologian Tertullian famously remarked that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church. It doesn't feel that way for people undergoing persecution or look that way for the few of us who pay attention to such things. But it's true.

Nigeria currently produces the highest body counts (5000 per year) of Christians martyred by Muslims. A little over a week ago, Muslims forced 200 Christians into a building there, which was set on fire. Most died from the flames, the rest were ambushed as they fled.

Yet the Church in Nigeria is the fastest-growing in all of Africa.

Sad to say, this past Thursday, something similar happened to a pair of Christian villages on the West Bank in Israel. Jewish extremists, often wrongly called mere "settlers," attacked Taybeh and Kafir Malik, burning down homes, which resulted in the deaths of three Arab Christians.

It's far from being the only time that Christians in Israel have found themselves under assault. A segment of Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel has demonstrated persistent bias against Christians, spitting on clergy, and intimidating people - typically Christians - who work or travel on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath. Christian graves and holy sites have been defaced. In 2012, a Trappist monastery had its doors set on fire and the walls were spray-painted with the insult "Jesus was a monkey."

Though clearly the work of extremist Jews, it was shocking that this could occur in Israel. The Vatican took the unusual step of issuing a formal statement, criticizing the Israeli government for not controlling such expressions of hate. The custodian of the Holy Land at the time, Archbishop (later Latin Patriarch) Pierbattista Pizzaballa, commented, "The time has come for the authorities to act to put an end to this senseless violence and to ensure a 'teaching of respect' in ...