Pope Francis' Appeal For Nuns Kidnapped From The Santa Tecla Monastery, Syria

Vatican City, 4 December 2013 (VIS) – After today's catechesis, the Pope appealed to all present to pray for the nuns of the Greek Orthodox monastery of Santa Tecla and the Christian people of Maaloula, Syria, forcibly abducted by armed men two days ago and whose whereabouts are now unknown.

“Let us pray for these nuns, for these sisters”, he asked, “and for all those who have been kidnapped as a result of the current conflict. Let us continue to pray and act for peace together. Let us pray to the Virgin”.

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Largest massacre of Christians in Syrian conflict : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from CatholicCulture's Catholic World News:

• Rebel forces massacred 45 Christians in the west-central Syrian town of Sadad, according to Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh.
• Islamist rebels entered the town on October 21; a week later, it was captured by government forces.
• “What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two years and a half,” said the prelate, according to the Fides news service. “45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing.”

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Largest massacre of Christians in Syrian conflict : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The Silence of Our Friends -- the Extinction of Christianity in the Middle East

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• The last month and a half has seen perhaps the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt in seven centuries, with dozens of churches torched. Yet the western media has mainly focussed on army assaults on the Muslim Brotherhood, and no major political figure has said anything about the sectarian attacks.
• Last week at the National Liberal Club there was a discussion asking why the American and British press have ignored or under-reported this persecution, and (in some people's minds) given a distorted narrative of what is happening.
• Among the four speakers was the frighteningly impressive Betsy Hiel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, who has spent years in Egypt and covered Iraq and Afghanistan. There were lots of stories of Muslims protecting Christian neighbours, but there were also incidents with frightening echoes; Hiel described a man riding on his bike past a burned down church and laughing, which brought to my mind the scene in Schindler's List when local Poles make throat-slitting gestures to Jews en route to Auschwitz.
• Some of this has been reported, but the focus has been on the violence committed against the Brotherhood. Judging by the accounts given by one of the other speakers, Nina Shea of the Center for Religious Freedom, the American press is even more blind, and their government not much better; when Mubarak was overthrown one US agency assessed the Muslim Brotherhood as being 'essentially secular'.
• The night ended with historian Tom Holland declaring sadly that we are now seeing the extinction of Christianity and other minority faiths in the Middle East. As he pointed out, it's the culmination of the long process that began in the Balkans in the late 19th century, reached its horrific European climax in 1939-1945, and continued with the Greeks of Alexandria, the Mizrahi Jews and most recently the Chaldo-Assyrian Christians of Iraq. The Copts may have the numbers to hold on, Holland said, and the Jews of Israel, but can anyone else?

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The Silence of Our Friends -- the Extinction of Christianity in the Middle East

Obama Must Increase Egyptian Pressure to Protect Christians, USCIRF Declares

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• President Barack Obama must increase pressure on the Egyptian interim government to protect Christians who have been violently targeted in the past couple of months, urges a letter sent by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Monday.
• "I respectfully urge you to speak out clearly and forcefully about the unprecedented sectarian attacks committed against Christians in Egypt that proliferated at a frenetic pace on August 14 and the immediate days thereafter," wrote USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George.
• "It also is vitally important that the Egyptian interim government understands from you that it must promptly and thoroughly investigate violent incidents, prosecute perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law, and provide greater protections for Christians and their places of worship."
• While Obama has repeatedly spoken out against the violence in Egypt following the ousting of former President Mohamed Morsi, Coptic Christians have found themselves targeted by Islamic mobs blaming them for taking part in the protests that led to the government change. Muslim Brotherhood-backed attacks on Christians resulted in fatalities, as well as burnt down churches, monasteries, Christian schools and book stores.
• Both the Islamic protesters and the interim government have been blamed for using excessive force, which has led to thousands of Egyptians losing their lives, leading to a state of emergency in the African country.
• "We were deeply troubled that leaders and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood tolerated or even encouraged incitement against Christians, and that the interim authorities stood by or were slow to react when attacks occurred," George continues.
• "The extent and scope of attacks since August 14 have resulted in the sectarian-related killings of at least seven Copts and attacks on more than 130 churches and Christian religious structures, homes, and businesses."
• The letter to Obama adds that Morsi's leadership, which began in June 2012, had been marked by sectarian rhetoric targeting religious minorities, including Copts and other Christians, Shi'a, Sufis, and Baha'is. It also says that although Muslim Brotherhood leaders have called for peace in official statements, their supporters who have turned to violence have been tolerated and even encouraged at times.

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Obama Must Increase Egyptian Pressure to Protect Christians, USCIRF Declares

A Troubling Call From Syria

The following excerpts are from AINA:

• Early this morning [August 26] I received a phone call from Mary, a friend in Sweden who was born in Syria. She wanted me to check my Facebook account. A young Syrian woman, Nour, wanted to become friends with me. I accepted the request. A minute later, Nour wrote me her first message. She had pictures from Tabqa, a town that was totally emptied of Christian Assyrians [AINA 8-2-2013, 8-4-2013, 8-9-2013]. Nour also had the contact information of victims of fundamentalist Islam. They, the victims, want the world to know what has happened to them. A group of non-Syrian Mujahedeen drove them out of their homes.The message from the perpetrators was "convert to Islam or leave". I called one of the victims, and heard horrifying stories about religious and ethnic cleansing.
• Christians in Syria are a vulnerable group. They comprise approximately 8 percent of the population. Tabqa used to be a modern city with cinemas, hairdressers, fashion boutiques and restaurants. Now it is driven by men in beards who no longer allow any of that.
• An hour after my interview with that refugee, US Secretary of State John Kerry declared "there must be accountability" on behalf of the victims of a chemical weapon attack. Considering all the evidence emerging from witnesses, from images, from human-rights groups and from medical information provided by Doctors Without Borders, Kerry said "these all strongly indicate" that "chemical weapsons were used in Syria," and that they were fired by the Syrian government.
• Doctors Without Borders didnt' appreciate its medical reports being used as a justification for possible military action. It issued a statement stressing that only "an independent investigation" can determine whether the hundreds of boides arriving at hospitals Aug. 21 were killed by chemical weapons, and that the organization has not placed blame anywhere.

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A Troubling Call From Syria