Monthly Archives: January 2016

The oldest Catholic monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, yet another victim of the Islamic State’s relentless destruction of places it considers heretical. (Jan. 20) AP Martha Mendoza, Maya Alleruzzo and Bram Janssen, The Associated Press IRBIL, Iraq — The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a…

By RON LAJOIE Chris Sheridan An image from a photo exhibit on Syria shows Father Ibrahim leading a happy group of young children at St. Francis parish in Aleppo. The words to the 1988 Bobby McFerrin novelty ditty could sound trite coming from someone else. But coming from Amel Nona, the exiled archbishop of the…

Dair Mar Elia, known as St. Elijah’s Monastery in English, has been completely levelled by ISIS The monastery, located south of Mosul, northern Iraq, was built in the 600s, making it 1,400 years old It was Iraq’s oldest Christian monastery and had recently functioned as a place of worship for U.S. troops For more of…

AP Photo The Associated Press IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, yet another victim of the Islamic State’s relentless destruction of ancient cultural sites. For 1,400 years the compound survived assaults by nature and man, standing as a…

By Doreen Abi-Raad, Catholic News Service Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, New Mexico, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, greets Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, meet Jan. 17. They concelebrated Mass for migrants and…

By Kenya Sinclair (CALIFORNIA NETWORK) Twelve-year-old Mirna Hana, a Christian and gifted singer, was uprooted from her home in Iraq when terrorist organization ISIS threatened to kidnap her. Mirna, ‘the Chaldean Princess of Babylon,’ and her family fled ISIS after the terrorists threatened to kidnap her (comisarul).…

By Umberto Bacchi Islamic State The Islamic State has blown up houses belonging to Christian families in Iraq, according to the UNReuters The Islamic State (Isis) has repeatedly blown up houses of Christians living in areas of…

Migrants walk on a dirt road after crossing the Macedonian-Greek border near Gevgelija, Macedonia, September 6, 2015. Several thousand migrants in Macedonia boarded trains on Sunday to travel north after spending a night in a provisional camp. Macedonia has organised trains twice a day to the north border where migrants cross…

Mirna Hana, a Chaldean Christian, fled Iraq with family eight months ago Her father Anwar said ISIS wanted to kidnap singing sensation daughter Talented schoolgirl sang an Iraqi classic followed by Disney’s ‘Let it Go’ Her stunning audition film has already been seen nearly 11.8million times…

A Chaldean Catholic bishop in northern Iraq has condemned air strikes by Turkey against Kurdish villages as “real terrorism,” the AsiaNews service reports. Turkish planes hit the Kurdish villages in what was explained as an assault on the Kurdish Workers’ Party, which is classified by Turkey as a terrorist organization. Bishop Rabban al Qas of…

Khalid Mohammed | ASSOCIATED PRESS Iraqi security forces deploy Monday in Baghdad. Security forces fanned out across a Baghdad neighborhood where three Americans were reportedly kidnapped over the weekend. By Tim Arango The New York Times • Tuesday January 19, 2016 3:15 AM…

Over the weekend of 16-17 January, Turkish troops bombed the Iraqi village of Sharanish, located on the border with Turkey, in the governorate of Dohuk, inhabited by Christians, Chaldeans and Assyrians. The bombings spread panic among the population, who were forced to flee to the city of Zakho during the night, in bitterly cold weather…

35 of the 50 most dangerous countries for Christians are either controlled by or under siege by radical Islamic groups Carl E. Olson Somali women walk in front of the destroyed cathedral in Mogadishu, Somalia in November 2015. The cathedral was destroyed by radical Islamists. (CNS photo/Feisal Omar, Reuters)…

By Samer Hijazi Bishop Francis Kalabat. DETROIT — Last month, Bishop Francis Kalabat, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church for Michigan, testified in front of a U.S. House subcommittee, where he panned the Obama administration for ignoring the suffering of Christian refugees displaced by…

JIHADISTS SYRIA 16 Assyrian hostages freed after nearly a year in IS hands Syrian soldiers patrolling. EFE/File Beirut, Jan 14 (EFE).- At least 16 Assyrian hostages were released on Thursday in the…

By NEOnline | TB Millions of Christians in Africa and the Middle East are being forced to flee their homes to escape religious persecution, according to Open Door, a charity that monitors religiously motivated violence and discrimination.…

(Photo : European Commission DG ECHO/Flickr/CC) Domiz refugee camp, in northern Iraq, hosts around 65 000 Syrian refugees since its opening in April 2012. Open Doors, a persecution watchdog group, released its annual report which noted that the violence perpetrated against Christians last year was one of the highest in recent years.…

Pascale Warda Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr has called for the return of homes and property illegally taken from Christian families in Baghdad, Kirkuk and other Iraqi cities. Chaldean Christian politician Pascale Warda has welcomed this call. Mrs Warda has asked all Iraqi citizens to support the reinstatement of the rights of the Christians…

• Rebels – as well as Gov’t – are denying food aid, says charity projects chief • Entire communities at risk of starvation as aid convoys are denied access By John Pontifex FOOD has become “the most deadly weapon of war” in Syria, according to a leading…

by Catholic News Service Bishops from North America, Europe and South Africa process into the Church of the Good Shepherd for a Mass on the grounds of the Our Lady of Peace Center on the outskirts of Amman, Jordan (CNS) Catholic bishops from around the world took part in a solidarity visit with the ‘forgotten’…