Tag: Syrian Christians

Syrian Patriarch John X Yazigi interview

Pope Francis and Patriarch John X Yazigi, the spiritual father of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East met today. It was a time to discuss the pain and suffering that Syrian Christians face daily and to express his love to Pope Francis.

 

 

It’s expected that Patriarch John will attend Mass offered by Pope Francis. Sunday is a day dedicated in the Year of Faith as a day for catechists. The Patriarch will also be meeting the foreign minister of the Italian Republic, and with the people of the ecclesial movement of Sant’Egidio at an interface conference. Sant’Egidio is on the front lines of peace making.

Patriarch John is, as you know, the blood brother of one of the kidnapped Syrian bishops this past April. So he knows first hand not only the crisis his people live with but also deeply because his brother’s freedom (and life) is hanging in the balance.

Striking is the openness of Patriarch John for collaborating with others to bring peace and be with the people; his desire to walk the journey (a procession as the Patriarch said) to full, visible unity among Christians is evident.

Vatican Radio’s Philippa Hichen interviewed Patriarch John X and you can listen to it here.

And, an informative video on the meeting by Rome Reports.

Paolo Dall’Oglio “reported killed” by Islamic rebels in Syria

The Reuters news agency, and several other agencies are reporting, though not the Holy See as yet, that Al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria killed Jesuit Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, 59, who was kidnapped on 29 July. But there is NO definitive evidence this news is certain.

What we do know is that Pope Francis mentioned his name at Mass on the feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola on 31 July.

For the past 30 thirty years Father Dall’Oglio has been leading a religious and cultural life at the Monastery of Saint Moses (Deir Mar Musa). The Monastery and its community was known to be an interfaith center devoted to Muslim-Christian friendship. Rebuilding this 6th century but abandoned monastery was Father’s and his small community’s attempt at preserving Syrian Christian establishments. One of the stunning pieces of Syrian religious patrimony Dall’Oglio preserved was an 11th century fresco of the Last Judgment.

Father Dall’Oglio was ordained as a Syrian Catholic priest; he spoke Arabic and studied Islamic theology and philosophy. His doctoral studies and writing at the Gregorian University concentrated on the virtue of hope in Islam.

Father was expelled from Syria in 2012, though he would sneak back into the country from time-to-time.

More recently his voice has been heard in calling for the deposition of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and some Islamist rebel groups.

Conflict in Syria close to home


A friend of
mine, a Melkite priest, in fact, alerted his friends that a cousin of his in
Aleppo was abducted by terrorists and days later released. A tense time no
doubt. We are grateful to the Lord the young man’s return.

fadi jamil haddad.jpg

Of concern, too, is the assassination of a Greek Orthodox priest near
Damascus. Father Fadi Jamil Haddad, 43, pastor of St. Elias Church in Qatana,
outside Damascus, found slain on October 26, shot in head, in the Jaramana district 
of the capital. Vatican news people report that an  “unidentified armed group” was responsible. $715,000 was
demanded. Further details are really unclear. 

Of the Christian minority in
Syria, the Greek Orthodox is known as the largest; Christians represent perhaps
10% of the population. Make no mistake, Christians have long been resident in
Syria now a majority Muslim.

Continue reading Conflict in Syria close to home

Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil, C.SS.R., RIP

Varkey Vithayathil.jpgVarkey Vithayathil, 84, a Redemptorist, bishop, cardinal and Major Archbishop for the Syro-Malabar Church (in India) died suddenly today of a heart attack at 2pm Ernakulam time.

Cardinal Vithayathil was ordained a priest in 1954 and ordained a bishop in 1996. In 1999, he appointed the Major Archbishop by Pope John Paul II. The same pope created Vithayathil a cardinal in 2001 giving him the title of San Bernardo alle Terme.
Trained in Canon Law at the Angelicum, Vithayathil taught the subject in the Redemptorist seminary. For a term he served as the Father Provincial of the Redemptorists of India and Sri Lanka and later serving as the Apostolic Administrator of a Benedictine abbey of monks.
Cardinal Vithayathil was a supporter of the 5th Marian doctrine, that of Mary’s role in salvation history as the co-redemptrix.
This will mean the Church will have a third election of a Major Archbishop in 2011. The Maronite and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches have just recently elected new heads.

Christmas at Our Lady of Salvation Cathedral, Baghdad 2010

The commemoration of the Nativity of the Lord in all places of the world moves my heart as it does for all people of good will. More than ever the Christmas observance in Baghdad at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, the place of the brutal killings of Christians –laity and clergy alike– on October 31, 2010.

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OL of Salvation Baghdad.jpg
Christmas observance OL of Salvation Baghdad 2010.jpg
May the newborn Savior, Jesus –Emmanuel– lead us more deeply into our humanity
and to perfect union with God the Father.

Pope met Iraqi Catholics receiving medical treatment




The Catholic News Service reported tonight that…

Pope
Benedict XVI met privately Dec. 1 with two dozen Iraqis who were injured when
their cathedral in Baghdad was attacked Oct. 31. In early November, the Italian
foreign ministry arranged for 26 injured Iraqis — including three children —
and 21 accompanying family members to fly to Rome. The injured were treated at
the Gemelli Hospital and their family members were housed in apartments
belonging to the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, which operates the
hospital. Nicola Cerbino, hospital spokesman, said Dec. 1 that only two of the
injured were still hospitalized, but they were well enough to travel with their
family members to the Vatican for the brief audience with the pope. The entire
Iraqi group — close to 50 people — will remain guests of the university until
mid-December, Cerbino said. After that, the Italian foreign minister will help
them return home or settle elsewhere, he said. Fifty-eight people died in the
attack on the Syrian Catholic church in Baghdad Oct. 31 after military
officials tried to end a terrorist siege of the church.




Communion & Liberation invites prayer for Iraqi Christians on Sunday

Thumbnail image for Fraternity CL Logo.JPGCommunion and Liberation follows the call of the
Italian bishops to pray Sunday, November 21 for the Christians of Iraq, “who
are suffering the tremendous trial of blood witness to the faith” (Final
communiqué of the Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference, November 11, 2010).


The
Movement invites all its members to participate in Mass according to the
intentions of Benedict XVI, who the day after the grave attack in the Syrian
Catholic cathedral of Baghdad that left dozens dead and wounded, said, “I pray
for the victims of this absurd violence, all the more savage because it struck
defenseless people gathered in God’s house, which is a house of love and
reconciliation. I also express my affectionate closeness to the Christian
community, struck once again, and encourage the pastors and faithful to be
strong and steady in hope. In the face of the heinous episodes of violence that
continue tearing the populations of the Middle East to pieces, I renew my
grieved call for peace: it is the gift of God, but also the result of the
efforts of people of good will, of national and international institutions. May
everyone join their strengths to put an end to all violence! (Comments after
the Angelus, November 1, 2010).


Addressing all members of Communion and
Liberation, Fr. Julián Carrón said that “participation in Sunday Mass according
to the intentions of the Pope and the bishops is a gesture of real communion
and charity because we feel that the Christians of Iraq are our friends, even
if we do not know them directly.”


As Fr. Giussani said, “If the sacrifice is
accepting the circumstances of life, as they happen, because they make us
correspondent, participants in the death of Christ, then sacrifice becomes the
keystone of all life […] but also the keystone for understanding the history of
man. The entire history of man depends on that man dead on the cross, and I can
influence the history of man – I can influence the people who live in Japan
now, the people in danger at sea now; I can intervene to help the pain of the
women who lose their children now, in this moment – if I accept the sacrifice
that this moment imposes.” (L. Giussani, Is It Possible to Live This Way? Book
3: Charity, McGill-Queen’s University Press, pp. 74-75.)

Iraqi Christians Pray Rosary.jpg
For this reason, added
Carrón, “if a gesture of prayer can influence the change of people in Japan, it
can also change something in Iraq. May the sacrifice we make for the Christians
of Iraq and Sunday’s prayer be a gesture with which we invoke, implore from God
protection for them.”




The Communion & Liberation Press Office
Milan, Italy
November 18, 2010

Writing letters of solidarity with the Christians in Iraq


Emmanuel III Delly.jpgAs a way of
showing solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq who faced
such horrible circumstances because of their faith Jesus Christ, I am extendiing
an invitation to all of us: writing letter(s) of fraternal solidarity with our
brothers and sisters through the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, His Beatitude, Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly. He’s the head of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Iraq.

An initiative of solidarity is proposed by members of Communion and Liberation

Abp Chullikatt.jpg

Our many friends
in the lay Catholic movement, Communion and Liberation have also moved by the
plight of Iraqi Christians has organized a gesture of solidarity with the Iraqi
Christians in the form of a letter campaign. One of our friends spoke with the Apostolic
Nuncio (the Pope’s ambassador) at the UN, Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt who
said he’d be very happy for our initiative and offered his diplomatic pouch
(direct mail) to reach the Nunciature in Iraq.

So, if you are inclined to write an email in solidarity, you
may send it to tonuncio@gmail.com
and the email will be printed and hand-delivered to Archbishop
Chullikatt on Tuesday, November 16.

Messages ought to be addressed to His Beatitude, Patriarch Emmanuel
III Delly, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans.