Monthly Archives: October 2014

Vatican City, Oct 22, 2014 / 12:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At Monday’s consistory on the Middle East, patriarchs gathered to discuss the threats facing local Christians, and focused on the key task of returning displaced families to their homes.…

Miko Morelos Pope Francis attends a meeting with refugees and disabled youths in Bethany beyond the Jordan river May 24, 2014. Pope Francis called for urgent steps to end Syria’s three-year-old civil war as he arrived in neighboring Jordan on Saturday, starting a…

Miko Morelos Pope Francis attends a meeting with refugees and disabled youths in Bethany beyond the Jordan river May 24, 2014. Pope Francis called for urgent steps to end Syria’s three-year-old civil war as he arrived in neighboring Jordan on Saturday, starting a…

A COMPREHENSIVE report on the struggle for religious freedom in countries throughout the world is expected to make a significant contribution to a subject that has become a defining issue of our times. Covering the period autumn 2012 to summer 2014, the Religious Freedom in the World…

By Roxana Popescu His reply: “I am a priest forever” Priests bless Louis Sako, 64, the new patriarch of Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic Church at St. Joseph’s Church in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic Church enthroned a new patriarch during a ceremonial mass…

By PR Newswire SAN DIEGO, Oct. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Mark Arabo is available for interviews with Father Noel of St. Peters Church. Father Noel has been threatened with the loss of his priesthood from Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Sako if he does not immediately return to Iraq.…

Catholic World News The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church has announced that priests who have left their dioceses in Iraq face suspension. Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako set a deadline of October 22 for priests who have left…

A monument in Athens commemorating the genocide of Assyrians by Ottoman Turkey ATHENS (Greek Reporter)—A memorial for the Assyrian victims of the Turkish genocide of Christians during World War I was unveiled in Athens, Greece, a city that hosts approximately 8,000 Assyrians. According to estimates from that era, the Turkish…

By Sarah Adams Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani, seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province, October 3, 2014.…

Credit: Reuters/Max Rossi Pope Francis makes the sign of the cross as he leads a consistory for the beatification of Giuseppe Vaz and Maria Cristina dell’Immacolata Concezione in the Synod Hall at the Vatican October 20, 2014.…

(Vatican Radio) A Middle East without its Christians would be like a garden without flowers: that’s what Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Thomas Meram of Urmy?, Deputy President of the Iranian Bishops Conference, says about the persecution of Christians in the region. Jihadi militants like Islamic State (also known as ISIS or Daesh) in recent…

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted and Msgr. Felix Shabi, Corbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Vicariate of Arizona, concelebrated Mass at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish Oct. 19, the day of the Chaldean festival The Middle East, especially Iraq and Syria, are experiencing “terrorism of previously…

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder on Monday addressed a large gathering of Evangelical Christians at Jerusalem’s Pais Arena in which he spoke out forcefully against the slaughter of Christians across the Middle East and in Africa.…

The following appeal, written by Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako of Baghdad, was sent to me a few weeks ago by a Christian organization based in the United States. The organization is asking for prayers and alms for the entire Christians living in the Middle East, whose presence is currently being wiped out…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expressed Moscow’s determination to continue to back the Iraqi and Syrian governments in their ongoing battle against extremism in the Middle East.…

Helen Malko, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow As demonstrated by the exhibition Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of Classical Age, the early first millennium b.c. was a time of intense cross-cultural exchange, with artistic motifs and styles as well as cultural traits circulating between Assyria, other Near…

By John Pontifex reporting back from a fact finding trip to Erbil in Northern Iraq ACN News: Monday, 20th October 2014 – Iraq RANIA and Ranin are inseparable. The twins, who have just turned 10, both enjoy school or at least they did until they were forced to flee their homes as Islamic State…

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has announced a €4 million scheme – one of the largest in the charity’s 67-year history – which will help thousands of displaced Iraqi Christians receive food, shelter and schooling. The scheme includes pastoral support for priests and Sisters displaced by the crisis that has swept Iraq.…

Iraq: Refugee camps flooded by torrential rain | Chaldean priest, Fr Paolo Thabit Mekko, Erbil, Iraq, ISIS, Bishop Nuncio Galantino, Italian Episcopal Conference, Caritas Italy, Don Francesco Soddu Thousands of refugees who fled from ISIS in Mosul and the Nineveh Plain to refugee…

John Burger World must decide whether to help them endure winter or resettle them, religious freedom activist says Tens of thousands of refugees in northern Iraq are facing a winter living in tents or unfinished concrete buildings.…