Monthly Archives: April 2020

By Joe Higgins Free at last: SOS Chretiens d’Orient volunteers in Syria earlier this year.FORMER Brisbane Catholic teacher Ora Duffley has welcomed the release of her charity worker friends from captivity in Iraq.…

Dale Gavlak CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICEA woman prays during Mass in 2019 at St. George Chaldean Church in Baghdad. Stephen Rasche, an American lawyer instrumental in aiding Iraqi Christians suffering from attacks by the Islamic State group, said Christians remain a vital part of Iraq’s…

Photo by: Nabil al-JuraniChristian sects and religious minorities face brutal persecution in areas controlled by the Islamic State. Activists say an official finding by the Obama administration that the persecution amounts to genocide should set in motion a number of legal and financial sanctions and give the issue a much greater urgency around the world.…

by Secilia Salem at University of California, Riverside School of MedicineWe live in times of uncertainty.We are no longer confident in when we can return to our normal lives, how long this quarantine will last and how much of this we can really take. Even pillars in our society, like our health care system, seem…

IS fighters use curfew and restrictions to target military assets. Operations are centred in the Kirkuk area. For Iraqi priest, jihadis carry out hit-and-run operations. The scope of violence is not comparable to the past. Although the situation is improving, focus remains on containing the outbreak.…

All the priests in the capital have decided to donate the money to the neediest. The Chaldean patriarchate had already allocated US,000 to this end. Card Sako again urged respect for social distancing in churches and government health directives. Group activities remain suspended, but the use of the Internet and social media will be…

Known for their food, the city’s Chaldean diaspora wants to revive their restaurant scene.by Priya Krishna The food at Mr. Kabob, a Chaldean gas-station restaurant that is a short drive from Chaldean Town. Courtesy of The Chaldean News…

The coronavirus has re-launched “human and social solidarity” in fighting “for our common home”. Christians distribute aid to Muslims, solidarity without religious distinctions. Thousands of people follow mass every evening broadcast through the patriarchate’s social media. Best wishes to Muslims for the beginning of Ramadan.…

Hannah Lucinda Smith, IstanbulArtefacts at the Zerzevan castle site are thought to date back 3,000 years to the Assyrian era ALAMYThe ruins of a 3rd-century castle that guarded the eastern edge of the Roman empire…

April 24th is the day the world commemorates the Armenian Genocide committed by Turks in 1915. That day, 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders were arrested in Constantinople and sent to Chankri and Ayash, where they were later slain.On this day, the Armenian genocide began.…

Siranush Ghazanchyan  The Executive Council of Australian Jewry – ECAJ (ECAJ), which is the peak public affairs representative of the Jewish-Australian community has called for Federal recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides in the lead-up to the 105th…

“The Defeat of Sennacherib,” painted by Peter Paul Rubens between 1612 and 1614 (Image courtesy of Wikipedia).By Ben HawkinsAnd the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;…

04/22/2020 Syria (International Christian Concern) – Today marks the passage of seven years since two bishops were kidnapped in Syria, with no concrete information revealed as to their fate or abductors. Msgr. Yohanna Ibrahim, head of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo, and Msgr. Boulos Yazigi, head of the Greek Orthodox…

Source: fsspx.newsSymbol of the faith of Eastern Christians beyond the persecutions and the coronavirus epidemic which threatens the region, an emblematic Catholic church in Mosul, destroyed by the Islamic State (IS) organization in 2014, will rise from the ashes.…

by DAILY SABAH ISTANBUL LifeThe historic K?rklar Church was unusually empty on Easter Sunday as the faithful followed guidelines to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Mardin, Turkey, April 19, 2020. (DHA Photo)…

 The Middle East Framed – regional photography for April 19, 2020 and now with details Hind Al Soulia – Riyadh – The Great pyramids light-up with blue light and project the message “Stay Home” on the Giza plateau outside the Egyptian capital of Cairo. AFP…

Displaced women and children wearing protective masks wait in the medical center of a camp in Dahuk, Iraq, March 7, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. (CNS photo/Ari Jalal, Reuters)AMMAN, Jordan (CNS) — A top Catholic humanitarian group expressed concern for the…

04/19/2020 Iraq (International Christian Concern) – This week, the United Nations began a push urging the Iraqi government to expedite Anti-Domestic Violence Laws. The country has remained under lockdown for almost 2 months because of COVID, and there has been a significant increase of social media reports of domestic violence.…

by James F. McGrath If the pandemic’s isolation of us all persists for another three years, you’ll be happy I recommended all three of these volumes to you. But more likely it will simply be the case that they will be useful to you despite being able to get back out and do other…

Daniel Estrin An Orthodox clergyman holds holy fire to transfer to predominantly Orthodox countries from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. In Jerusalem’s old city the traditional Holy Fire ceremony was called off amid coronavirus on Saturday.…