Tue 22 Jul 2014

NNA - Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Gregorios III (Laham) has urged Muslims and Christians to work hand in hand to rescue the Arab East from the perils of the malevolent Takfiri groups that threaten the safety of all citizens in the Arab world and its environs.

Patriarch Gregorios's fresh words on Tuesday came in an appeal to the world’s conscience, urging combined efforts to suppress these extremist groups, which are jeopardizing the security of the whole world and destroying feelings of love, communication, tolerance and friendship among all people of the Arab world and their neighbours.

CWN - “We need more than words now, we need concrete actions,” an Iraqi archbishop told Vatican Radio.

Archbishop Amel Nona of Mosul confirmed that Christians have been driven out of the city, with Islamic militants spray-painting their homes with the Arabic letter “N,” for “Nazarene,” thus marking them for looting. That, the archbishop said, “is what is going on right now on the ground.”

CWN - The Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate has published the text of a speech that Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako addressed to Mosul’s Christians after they fled their city rather than convert to Islam.

“Our suffering if joined to the suffering of our Savior Jesus, Man of Sorrows, will turn out to be a blessing and salvation to us and to others,” he said. “Be brave in front of what you are facing, do not be afraid, you have deep roots in Iraq, do not give up for frustration and despair, confident that ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the sword’ (Mt. 26:52) and evil does not last! You are the small mustard seed, the Lord will not let you fall.”

CWN - Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the jihadist group that now controls one-fourth of Syria and 40% of Iraq, stormed a Syrian Catholic monastery on July 20 and expelled the monks.

Mar Benham monastery is located in Bakhdida (Qaraqosh), a largely Christian town of 50,000 located 20 miles from Mosul. The monastery dates from the 4th century, according to an Agence France-Presse report.

Логос-ТВ греко-католицьке Закарпаття

CWN - The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church issued a statement on July 2 explaining the plight of Iraq’s Catholics.

Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako said that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) controls Mosul and most of western Iraq, while the Kurds control Kirkuk and the government does not control the major Sunni cities. In Mosul, ISIL forces kidnapped two Chaldean nuns as well as a 12-year-old boy and two orphans.

“We Arab Christians will accompany your fast
by praying and fasting in solidarity,” says Gregorios III.

On the eve of the beginning of the month of Ramadan this year, “a month of forgiveness, compassion, and generous giving,” His Beatitude Gregorios III, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem, addressed his good wishes to Muslim communities. “Good wishes from an Arab Christian patriarch,” which require them to accept his bitterness even though he cites verses from the venerable Qur’an and the Holy Gospel: “Come to a common word,” ('Āli `Imrān, 3: 64) ; “O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another.” (Al-Hujurat, 49: 13); a verse to which Gregorios III adds the phrase “and love one another,” paraphrasing Saint John (13: 35): “By this shall all men know that ye are [Muslims], if ye have love one to another.”

CWN - The Holy See Press Office has released the text of a letter written by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople extending best wishes to Pope Francis for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

The letter, dated June 24, was made public on June 30.