Monthly Archives: June 2016

By Clare Creegan FLORISTS from north-west England came together last week to produce floral displays to raise money to support displaced and refugee families in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. The event, entitled The Work of Your Hands, took place from 25th – 27th June 2016 at…

Icon, Mother of Perpetual Help, Church of St Alphonsus, Rome A new church in Erbil was inaugurated on Monday, June 27 by Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I. Many Christians fled here from their villages in the Nineveh Plain during the IS offensive last year. Their new church in the suburb of Ankawa is dedicated to…

Translated by: Nazih Kassis, Ph.D. Amal is only a green girl who emerged from the ashes of a homeland in a Phoenician nest a long time ago. Fates brought her onto a slope of a moment that burns with impossible dreams in a tumult of darkness that flourishes with tragedies. She is still devoting her…

www.nationalreview.com In an unexpectedly short offensive, Iraqi forces, bolstered by U.S. air power and Iranian-backed Shiite militias, retook the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah from ISIS yesterday, barely a month after they started. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says that the way is now clear for an offensive against Mosul, ISIS’s last redoubt in Iraq. Such action…

Wednesday June 29th 12h30-14h00 – Room PHS 1A002 On behalf of the Friends of the Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians, namely MEPs Mr Lars Adaktusson, Mr Nart Javier, Mr Josef Weidenholzer, Mr Branislav Škripek and Mr György Hölvenyi, we are pleased to invite you to the Conference entitled “Sayfo 1915 –…

Inés San Martín VATICAN CORRESPONDENT Iraqi Christians try to sketch survival strategy amid chaos Iraqi counterterrorism forces face off with Islamic State militants in the Nuaimiya neighborhood of Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)…

AMERICAN MIDDLE EAST CHRISTIANS CONGRESS (AMECC) Dr. Ramsay Dass, President of American Middle East Christian Congress meets with Honorable Nadim Gemayel MP (Member of Lebanese Parliament)…

Three of Holy Patriarch’s bodyguards killed as suicide bomber attacks commemoration event for 1915 Assyrian genocide Robert Fisk Last weekend’s suicide bomb attack in Qamishli took place during an event commemorating the massacre of Christians more than a century ago. Getty…

Meeting with Chaldean Catholic priests in Ankawa, a city in Iraqi Kurdistan to which thousands of Christians fled two years ago, Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako called upon priests to live simply and to accompany their suffering people. “Let us learn from Pope Francis’s experience in simplicity, humility and warmth of love…

Christian Deguit The Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU) is one of the Christian militias in northern Iraq actively battling against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Now, the fighting group primarily composed of Assyrian Christian volunteers is now expecting American aid, in light of the United States House of Representatives announcing that direct…

World |Agence France-Presse People and security forces belonging to the Sotoro, a Christian militia based in Syria’s northeast, gather at the site of a suicide bomb attack. (AFP Photo) Qamishli, Syria: Three people were killed in northeast Syria today when a suicide bomber attacked an event commemorating the massacre of Christians more than a century…

Inés San Martín VATICAN CORRESPONDENT Pope Francis, the first benefactor of “Be God’s Mercy,” a four-month fundraising effort that will benefit projects such as pastoral ministry in prisons, support groups for battered women and aid for refugees. (Screenshot Be God’s Mercy video),…

On Sunday June 19th, a suicide attack took place in the district of Quwetli in Qamishli – Syria, while the Patriarch of the Syriac-Orthodox Church, Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, was present for the commemoration of the 1915 genocide against the Syriac people. The Patriarch inaugurated a monument commemorating this genocide and lead afterwards a service…

Hundreds of government troops and ISIL fighters die in fierce clashes that have caused a humanitarian crisis. Fallujah Assault: Key Facts Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been displaced and hundreds of troops killed amid an army military offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Fallujah, in Anbar province.…

By Kenya Sinclair (CALIFORNIA NETWORK) Catholic Online (www.catholic.org) ‘[F]aith is all we have that ISIS couldn’t take from us.’ Imagine walking down the street of your hometown. Families are enjoying time together at the park, children ride their bikes through the streets and a cool breeze rustles your hair.…

Associated Press This video grab made on Tuesday, June 14, 2016, in Alqoosh, Iraq, shows Assyrian Christian militiamen during a training. The group also known as the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, or NPU, are one of three Christian armed groups who are hoping for American support after the U.S. House of Representatives called for direct…

• With messages of support from Pope Francis and Scottish Government By Michael J Robinson MORE than 1,000 young people from across Scotland took part in a youth rally yesterday (Thursday, 16th June), standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with those who are persecuted and oppressed for their religious faith.…

By Reuters Masrour Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Security Council Once ISIL is defeated, Iraq should be divided into three separate entities to prevent further sectarian bloodshed, with a state each given to Shi’ite Muslims, Sunnis and Kurds, a top Kurdish official said on Thursday.…

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako of Baghdad has denounced militia groups that have attacked refugees fleeing from the Islamic State. The Iraqi prelate said that although the paramilitary groups carry crosses and other Christian symbols, they cannot be considered representatives of Christianity. On the…

Bishop John Keenan of Paisley attended the event in which Sarmad Ozan, an Iraqi-born Christian forced to flee, spoke about his ordeal Kirsteen Paterson A STUDENT forced to flee with nothing as Daesh drove Christians from his Iraqi home town told Scottish teenagers yesterday “faith is all we have left that Isis couldn’t take from…