Squeezed in a Hellish Vise

Between terrorist cultists and militant Islamists, the Christians of Africa are having a tough time of it.

A story that broke Tuesday gives details of an attack in Sudan by the crazed followers of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army in which parishioners at prayer at Our Lady of the Angels Church were abducted and then crucified in various macabre ways.

Marauding bands of guerrillas have crucified seven Christians during a series of raids on villages in Sudan.

One of the men was tied to a tree and mutilated while six other victims were nailed to pieces of wood fastened to the ground and killed.

Villagers who found their bodies near the town of Nzara said it was like a "grotesque crucifixion scene".

Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio has now appealed for international help to stop the attacks by members of the Lord's Resistance Army.

He said his government appeared powerless to prevent attacks by members of the guerrilla force based in northern Uganda. He spoke out after a spate of killings and abductions in two towns near the borders of the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In one instance guerrillas stormed into Our Lady Queen of Peace church in Ezo during a novena prayer and desecrated the Host, the altar and the building before abducting 17 people mostly in their teens and 20s. One of the captives was later tied to a tree and killed while 13 others in the group are still missing, according to Aid to the Church in Need, a charity helping persecuted Christians.

The terrorists are based in neighboring Uganda. Sudanese Christians have asked their government, controlled by Muslims, for help in repelling the attacks. The help has not been forthcoming.

Which ought to tell you something.

We may not be able to do much, but we can pray for them.