Four years ago at my first Midnight Mass at the Cathedral in Springfield I spoke in my homily of the plight of Christians who are being persecuted and killed in the Middle East, saying that “we should count our blessings that we enjoy the freedom to [celebrate Christmas] in relative safety. But we should not forget our Christian brothers and sisters in other parts of the world that are not so fortunate and for whom Christmas is not so joyful.” Then and on some subsequent occasions that I have spoken or written about the persecution of Christians by radical Islamist extremists, my remarks have been criticized as being anti-Muslim. So let’s take a look at what others have been saying about this.