As World War II ended, Vietnam began to suffer the same types of persecution and martyrdoms that Communism brought to China and Korea. But at that very moment a spiritual story was unfolding that shows how grace operates even in the most terrible circumstances.

As early as 1966, something unprecedented in Communist-dominated countries had occurred. There was a powerful element of independent civil society in Poland linked directly with the Church.

Pakistans relatively small Christian community of 2 million, about 3 percent of the population (two-thirds of them Catholic), has been subjected to systematic repression and death.

On Sunday, April 3, the Washington Post's Parade magazine printed an interview with Pope John Paul II. Tad Szulc, the author, seemed to focus on Catholic-Jewish relations. While praising the popes since John XXIII, he seemed to accuse Pope Pius XII of remaining silent about the holocaust during World War II.