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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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longwarjournal.org - Jihadists in Syria kidnapped a Catholic priest in the Idlib area and beheaded him as scores of onlookers, including children, cheered and recorded the event on their cell phones. The Vatican reported last week that the priest was captured by fighters "linked" to the Al Nusrah Front for the People in the Levant, al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.
The Vatican confirmed that Father François Murad was killed on June 23 after jihadists affiliated with the Al Nusrah Front overran his monastery in Gassanieh, a town in the countryside in the northern province of Idlib.
"According to local sources, the monastery where Fr. Murad was staying was attacked by militants linked to the jihadi group Jabhat al Nusrah [the Al Nusrah Front]," said the Fides News Agency, the Vatican's official media outlet.
Video that purported to show Father Murad's execution has emerged on the LiveLeak video sharing website.
In the video, Father Murad and two other men are seen kneeling on the ground with their hands bound behind their backs. A crowd of armed men as well as young boys watch as a bearded jihadist makes a speech.
The crowd then begins to chant "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest"), and another bearded jihadist dressed in black takes out a knife and begins to behead one of the men. People in the crowd press close and scramble to take video.
The same jihadist proceeds to behead the other two men. The heads of the murdered men are then placed on top of their corpses.
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Christians, Minorities Caught in Crossfire
by PETER JESSERER SMITH 07/01/2013 - National Catholic Register
WASHINGTON — Church leaders warned that more blood, martyrs and the end of the Church in Syria is the price Syria will pay if the U.S. decides to go ahead with plans to arm the rebel forces.
Syria’s two-year civil war between forces allied with ruling President Bashar al-Assad and the rebel opposition has devolved into a sectarian Shia-Sunni conflict with Christians and other minorities caught in the crossfire.
“We’re seeing what looks like an extermination of Christianity,” Bishop Nicholas Samra, head of the Melkite Catholic Church in the United States, told the Register. “It’s not a healthy situation to help either side militarily at this point.”
Bishop Samra said that Syria’s five Melkite bishops delivered a “bleak report” about the Church in Syria to him and other Melkite bishops gathered at their June annual meeting with Patriarch Gregory III Laham in Lebanon. He said Christians have lost an enormous amount of lives, and many are victims of kidnapping, mainly due to Islamist rebels.
“Our patriarch and all of our bishops are just calling for an end to all of the fighting and to create peace there,” Bishop Samra said. “We want to see what can be done by working relationships and by sitting down and talking, rather than shooting.”
After 27 months of bloodshed, the United Nations estimates that more than 90,000 perished in the bloody conflict as of April 2013, at a rate of 5,000 killings per month. CNN reports that U.N. sources say more than 30% of the country’s 22 million people have fled their homes: More than 1.5 million refugees have fled the country, while more than 4 million people are displaced in Syria itself.
Melkite Father Elias Rafaj, serving in the Houston area, told the Register that the Syrian priests and friends he has been in contact with tell him that the rebel forces are dominated by Sunni Islamists who have targeted other Muslim minorities, but particularly Christians.
Read more at the National Catholic Register website.
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ugcc.org.ua | 28 June 2013, 16:01 | UGCC |
Visiting Warsaw on June 27, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, requested forgiveness from “every Polish family who lost relatives from the hands of my compatriots” in the 1943 massacres in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.
The Volhynia massacre has been a thorn in relations between Kiev and Warsaw since the fall of communism. An estimated 100,000 Poles were killed in ethnic-cleansing operations carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between March 1943 and the end of 1944 in Nazi-occupied Poland. Polish retaliation attacks claimed lives of some 20,000 Ukrainians.
Polish archbishop Józef Michalik said Shevchuk’s appeal was “a sign of sound and brave patriotism, free of nationalist or backward thinking”.
Memorial Service in Poland
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risu.org.ua | 28 June 2013, 12:49 | International relations |
Archbishop Jozef Michalik, head of the Polish Roman Catholic Episcopate, and Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, leader of Ukraine's Greek Catholic Church, were the chief signatories of the document.
The declaration calls on Poles and Ukrainians to “open minds and hearts to mutual forgiveness and reconciliation.”
The appeal accompanies the 70th anniversary of the Volhynia massacres, which took place in a Nazi-occupied region that had been divided between Poland and the Soviet Union prior to the Second World War.
“We are aware that only the truth can set us free, the truth, which does not beautify and does not omit, which does not pass over in silence, but leads to forgiveness,” today's statement reads.
Besides citing “the evil” that was done against ethnic Poles, the resolution also refers to Polish counter-attacks, and the partisan war that unfolded.
It is estimated that about 2000-3000 Ukrainians were killed in Volhynia, and about 20,000 more when the fighting spread to other areas of south east Poland (1944-1947).
“As leader of the Polish Episcopate, I carry the request for forgiveness from our Ukrainian brothers,” Michalik stressed.
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risu.org.ua - 27 June 2013, 09:35 | UGCC
On June 27th Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church honors martyrs and confessors of the faith, who were beatified 11 years ago during the visit to Ukraine Blessed John Paul II.
"In the twentieth century martyrdom was the culmination of the spiritual life of the Church of Christ. Despite the rapid socio-economic development, the Church suffered persecution and destruction everywhere. Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church fully fulfilled the testament Christ - remained faithful through its martyrs and confessors "- said Archbishop Ihor (Voznyak) Church of the martyrs of the twentieth century.
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risu.org.ua - 25 June 2013, 11:48 | International relations
The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, will pay an official visit to the Republic of Poland from June 26 to 30.
On June 27 in Warsaw, the head of the UGCC will participate in a memorial service to mark the 70th anniversary of the Volyn tragedy, which will also be attended by Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk, the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz, Metropolitan of Warsaw, and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski. After the prayer, the head of the UGCC will have a meeting with the president of Poland.
The next day, June 28, the patriarch will have an official meeting with the Marshal of the Sejm Ewa Kopacz and a separate meeting with the Polish Senate Marshal Bogdan Borusewicz.
On the eve of the visit the head of the church told Polish media that at first the visit was planned as a “purely pastoral” visit to the faithful in the northern area of the Archeparchy of Przemyśl–Warsaw (to celebrate the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine. “However, due to circumstances (70th anniversary of the Volyn tragedy) and the new emphasis on the issue of Polish-Ukrainian relations, the visit took on another character. It has the status of a state visit from the Polish side. During this visit I will meet for the first time with the President of Poland, Marshal of the Sejm, and the Marshal of the Senate. My main message can be described with the words of the risen Jesus Christ, ‘Peace be with you,’” said the head of the Greek Catholics.
Patriarch Sviatoslav intends to “bring the issue of Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation to a whole new level.” “This is expressed in simple words, first written by Polish bishops to the bishops of Germany immediately after World War II: Forgive and ask for forgiveness,” said the head of the UGCC.
“We have no power over our history. It is complicated. We now have to be mature enough – both the Ukrainian and Polish sides – to have the strength to look into the future. Unlike in the past, we have power over the future. I am sure that we – Poles and Ukrainians – are two brotherly European nations who are called together to build a common European future,” he said.