Monthly Archives: March 2020

03/29/2020 Iraq (International Christian Concern) – Iraq’s strict coronavirus restrictions are having potentially disastrous implications for Christians persecuted by ISIS attempting to rebuild their lives in the Nineveh Plains, a disputed territory currently under control of the Central Government.…

03/28/2020 Syria (International Christian Concern) – Nearly a week after Turkish sponsored armed groups cut the water supply for 460,000 people living in Syria’s Hasakah province, the supply has been restored. This restoration comes with the demand that Turkey receives 30-50% of the Mabrouka station’s total electrical output,…

Above, Mosul’s destroyed Chaldean Catholic archbishopric is shown. (Courtesy of Xavier Bisits )COMMENTARY: PART I — Iraq’s mostly Catholic Christian population declined from 5% to 0.2% between 2003 and 2019. Today, after 17 years of church bombings,…

By Samuel Smith, CP Reporter Martyrs Rally, organized by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, November 12, 2016. | (Photo: Reuters/Umit Bektas)The decaying remains of an elderly woman and mother of a Catholic Chaldean priest in Turkey were found last week, two months after she was abducted alongside her…

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.(2 Cor. 1:3-4)…

·     ACN project partner’s heart-felt coronavirus message By John Pontifex AN intrepid nun, who coordinates emergency relief in Syria, has responded to the coronavirus pandemic by sending a message of prayer and solidarity to friends and benefactors of a leading Catholic charity.…

NBC 7’s Dave Summers introduces us to two sisters who started a network of volunteers who shop for non-English speaking elderly folks.…

Chaldean couple, ?imoni Diril has been found dead 69 days later. George Diril, her nephew, says, “The spot where her body was found is 10 minutes from the village. Maybe, it would not end like this if they had been sincerely searched.”Ruken Tuncel ?stanbul – BIA News Desk…

Fionn ShinerFr Charbel Eid Rizkallah with icon of Our Lady of SorrowsChristians in Syria are an example for the whole Church of how to keep hope in a time of life-changing crisis – according to a senior priest who is working with parish communities all over the country.…

Steve Rasche speaks at a conference on Christian persecution in Hungary. (Edward Pentin photo )Stephen Rasche discusses what he has learned from 10 years working in the Archdiocese of Erbil alongside Iraq’s persecuted Christian minority.…

By Fionn Shiner CHRISTIANS in Syria are an example for the whole Church of how to keep hope in a time of life-changing crisis – according to a senior priest who is working with parish communities all over the country.…

Anti-government protesters gather in Tahrir Square during a demonstration in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 28, 2019. (AP)Baghdad – Fadhel al-Nashmi Iraq officially ended on Saturday its anti-government protests in wake of the mounting…

03/21/2020 Turkey (International Christian Concern) – Two months after the mysterious disappearance of the elderly parents of a Chaldean Catholic priest in Turkey, tragic news for the family came this week after days of searching. The mother, Simoni Diril, was found deceased on March 20, 2020. The whereabouts of the father, Hurmuz Diril, remain unknown.…

written by Gregory Pappas  It was the autumn of 1918 and by the time Fr. Nicola Yanney reached Wichita, Kansas, a citywide quarantine was in effect. The Spanish Flu had ravaged much of the United States and the towns of the American Great Plains states were particularly hard hit.…

MAHRE, ?irnak, Turkey — Smuni Diril, who together with her husband Hirmiz Diril, had been missing since 10 January of this year has been found dead nearby their village of Mahre in the mountainous Hakkari region in southeast Turkey. According to the latest information obtained by Syriac television channel SuroyoTV, the body of Smuni Diril…

Card. Sako speaks of “a tragic and difficult moment”, invitation to adhere to prevention and containment measures. The vicar of southern Arabia suspends masses for a month in the Emirates and Oman. In Bahrain the first victim of Covid-19 among the Gulf countries.…

John Burger |A country already struggling in its post-war years now taking extreme measures to fight coronavirus spread.While the United States and Western Europe are struggling to limit the spread of…

By Fionn Shiner Bishops in Israel have claimed that bigoted attitudes endemic in the country’s schools could be responsible for a recent spate of anti-Christian attacks.Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Auxiliary Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said the failure of the…

In Iraq there are 124 confirmed cases and at least 10 dead. A state of emergency lasting 30 days. Baghdad borders and airport closed. Bishop Warduni: “rigid and heavy” measures in the face of “serious danger”. The new media a channel to maintain communion with the faithful: “the strongest medicine is prayer”.…

In Iraq there are 124 confirmed cases and at least 10 dead. A state of emergency lasting 30 days. Baghdad borders and airport closed. Bishop Warduni: “rigid and heavy” measures in the face of “serious danger”. The new media a channel to maintain communion with the faithful: “the strongest medicine is prayer”.…