Publisher's Synopsis
An Inquiry Into a Missionary's Violent Death in East Pakistan: "We had many talks together, Father Richard and I, at the Foreign Mission Seminary in Washington. And it began to be apparent to me that here was a young man not of the regular mold, but one looking for an outstanding challenge."He found it in the decision, approved by Superiors, to dedicate his life to the apostolate to the Moslems, admittedly one of the most difficult of all apostolates. In twelve hundred years Christianity has never really built a bridge to Islam. Yet, this is what Father Richard chose, and went off questing fearlessly and selflessly to East Pakistan where his Holy Cross confreres work in this largest Moslem country in the world. ..."There is a sort of perfect unity in Father Richard's life in that, as far as we know, he met death, like Christ, in the midst of the people he had come to help and succor. And from what we know he also met death on an errand of mercy, trying to help those who were threatened by the communal Hindu-Moslem riots that were raging in and around Dacca."The official designation of 'martyr' by the Church is a special one subject to many conditions. But in the fuller, deeper sense of the word, 'a martyr is one who dies giving witness to Christ.'"In this full, deep sense Father Richard Novak died a martyr."Rev. Arnold A. Fell, C.S.C., Johnstown, Pennsylvania, January 27, 1964
