Source: The Wall Street Journal Covid restrictions are mild compared with what many of the faithful endure. By Timothy Dolan and Toufic Baaklini For the first time in their lives, millions of Americans have been ordered by their government not to attend church. For millions of persecuted Christians across the globe, this is the only reality they know. The theme of persecution lies at the heart of the Christmas story. The Holy Family were forced to flee their native land due to state-sponsored oppression. As citizens of a global superpower whose lawmakers are responsive to their citizens, we are called to stand in…
Browsing: iraq
Source: Orthodox Church in America by Fr. Jerome Cwiklinski Retired Navy Chaplain Archpriest Jerome Cwiklinski, CPT CHC USN, is one of the longest-serving military chaplains in the Orthodox Church in America. In retirement Father Jerome, together with his wife Matushka Wendy, continue to serve the pastoral and spiritual needs of the Orthodox Marines at Camp Pendleton, CA. through the on-base Chapel of Saint John the Forerunner. As for many who serve their country in the Armed Forces, this is not Father Jerome’s first Pascha away from home, not the first time he has served Pascha in peculiar circumstances. Father Jerome offers…
Father Emanuel Youkhana, an archimandrite of the Assyrian Church of the East, looks through the rubble of a Syriac Catholic Church Jan. 27 in Qaraqosh, Iraq. The mannequin and poster were used as target practice. (CNS photo/Paul Jeffrey)
Source: Byzantine, TX BERUIT (Crux) – To support the faithful and encourage them to stay in their homeland, the Syriac Catholic Church has reestablished a diocese for the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan celebrated the new diocese at a Mass at Queen of Peace Syriac Catholic Church in Irbil, Iraq, Aug. 24. In his homily, he commended the faithful for being “the embodiment of the living faith, and a testimony to the challenge and steadfastness amid takfiri terrorism and in the face of evil forces that wanted to kill hope in your believing souls.”…
Source: Christianity Today The American church has a key role in rescuing, restoring, and returning Christians and other religious minorities who have fled ISIS. by Chris Seiple ‘Tell them that we Christians exist. We are the bridge between East and West,” said Felomain Nassar-Batshone, program manager, at International Orthodox Christian Charities, Amman, Jordan. The story never changes. Whenever ISIS terrorists approach an Iraqi or Syrian village, Christians are given a fateful choice: They can stay and pay a tax to ISIS. They can convert to Islam. They can be martyred as Christians. Or, they flee. We Americans would do well to…
Source: Catholic Herald by Ed West Prince Charles has a new obsession as strong as his passions for ecology and architecture. He is refusing to stand idly by as Christians are driven out of the Middle East. Who is the most formidable defender of persecuted Christians in the world today? Many would nominate Pope Francis, who has offered thunderous denunciations of attacks on the faithful ever since his election. But another candidate is emerging: the surprising figure of the future king of England. The media have barely noticed that the Prince of Wales has a new obsession, as powerful as…
Source: The Catholic Register BY FRANCIS X. ROCCA VATICAN CITY – Almost every papal trip abroad is a complex mix of the religious and political, and that will be especially true of Pope Francis’ Nov. 28-30 visit to Turkey. Given the country’s crucial geographic position straddling Europe and Asia, its historic importance for both Christianity and Islam and the wars now raging in neighbouring Syria and Iraq, Pope Francis will have to address a variety of urgent topics during his three-day visit. Here are five of the biggest issues that await him: — ECUMENISM. Like his predecessors Blessed Paul VI, St.…
Source: NewsOK Christian televisions producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, of the acclaimed “The Bible” series, are raising $25 million with help from King Abdullah II of Jordan to help displaced Christians in Syria and Iraq. by Deborah Sutton, Deseret News Film-producing couple Mark Burnett and Roma Downey have stepped up to renew attention to the needs of displaced Christians in Iraq and Syria who are in urgent need of food and shelter before winter sets in. The Christian couple behind the Emmy-nominated “The Bible” series have given $1 million to begin funding their Cradle of Christianity Fund. They hope to…
Source: The New York Times by Ross Douthat WHEN the long, grim history of Christianity’s disappearance from the Middle East is written, Ted Cruz’s performance last week at a conference organized to highlight the persecution of his co-religionists will merit at most a footnote. But sometimes a footnote can help illuminate a tragedy’s unhappy whole. For decades, the Middle East’s increasingly beleaguered Christian communities have suffered from a fatal invisibility in the Western world. And their plight has been particularly invisible in the United States, which as a majority-Christian superpower might have been expected to provide particular support. There are…
Source: Accuracy in Media by Cliff Kincaid An article titled, “Iraq’s Christians See Putin As Savior,” appeared on the website of The Daily Beast in late June. It was picked up by literally dozens of “news” sites all over the Internet, contributing to the perception that Russia was actually prepared to do something on behalf of these Christians and other minorities. The article referred to “Russia’s increasingly cozy relationship with Middle Eastern Christians” and included a photo of Putin under a halo. But when the Christians in Iraq actually needed some help, it was the U.S. and Britain which intervened on…
Source: Catholic News Agency By Elise Harris Rome, Italy, Aug 8, 2014 / 04:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A priest hailing from what used to be Iraq’s largest Christian city has lamented the exodus of over 100,000 Christians from the city, many of whom are fleeing on foot with no food, money or water.“Today the story of Christianity is finished in Iraq,” said a priest who identified himself as Fr. Nawar.“People can’t stay in Iraq because there is death for whoever stays,” told CNA Aug. 8.A priest who has been living and studying in Rome for the last three years, Fr. Nawar…
Source: The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America The recent wave of violence against innocent families and children in Iraq has rendered the world shocked and horrified. We will not remain indifferent or silent before such irrational persecution, cultural intolerance and appalling loss of life, especially when it is caused by religious hatred and racial hostility. The targeting of tens of thousands of Christians (including Arameans, Chaldeans, and Assyrians) and other religious minorities (including Turkmens, Yazidis, and Kurds) can never be justified in the name of any religious creed or conviction. What we are witnessing before…
Source: First Things by Mark Movsesian This past weekend, the United States began to intervene in the humanitarian crisis unfolding in northern Iraq. The Islamist group ISIS has made a lightning conquest of much of the region, persecuting religious minorities, and even some Sunni Muslims, everywhere it goes. In response, the U.S. has begun air drops of food and water to up to 40,000 Yazidi refugees stranded on Mt. Sinjar, where ISIS militants have them surrounded. And the U.S. undertook airstrikes against ISIS positions threatening the Kurdish city of Erbil, where hundreds of American advisers are stationed. Other Western nations…