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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWNews.com - Muslim extremists have burned down 69 Protestant churches-- 46 of them Pentecostal-- in southwestern Ethiopia. The violence started in the town of Asendabo following reports that the Qur’an was being flushed down the toilet at one of the churches.
Thirty homes, a school, and an orphanage have also been burned down; the number of Christians who have fled their homes has risen in recent days to 10,000, according to International Christian Concern, a human rights organization that assists victims of persecution.
“I don’t know what will be next: first they burn our churches and houses,” said Wolde Giorgis, an elementary school teacher. “Are they going to kill us now?”
“I don’t care who started the violence,” he added. “The fact is that thousands of local Muslims, my neighbors, have participated in it. That’s why I don’t see a future for me and other Christians in this town anymore.”
1% of the nation’s 79.2 million people are Catholic, according to Vatican statistics; 50% are Oriental Orthodox, 10% are Protestant, and 33% are Muslim.
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CWNews.com - Christians in the Middle East are “experiencing the actuality of martyrdom” and desperately need the support of their brothers around the world, said the prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, as he introduced the annual Good Friday collection for the Church in the Holy Land.
The upheavals through the Middle East should not distract attention from the sufferings of Christians, said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri. He called attention to the “tangible sorrow” of Christians living amid the “escalating violence.”
“The most disturbing sign” of the suffering endured by the Christian minority in the region, Cardinal Sandri said, “is their inexorable exodus.” He lamented “the sorrowful tendency of Christian emigration which impoverishes the entire area, draining it of the most vital forces constituted by the young generations.”
The commitment of the universal Church to support the Holy Land dates back to apostolic times, Cardinal Sandri wrote. The congregation that is taken up in Catholic churches all around the world on Good Friday is an important means of furnishing that support.
The faithful should also continue to pray and work for peace in the region, the cardinal insisted, despite all obstacles. Christians must “never resign ourselves to the absence of peace,” he wrote.
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On 16 March, 2011, Patriarch Gregorios III of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church led a delegation of several bishops, with other clergy and lay-people, on a visit to Bkerkeh (Lebanon) to congratulate newly elected Patriarch Beshara Boutros (al Rai) of the Maronite Church.
Patriarch Gregorios III brought greetings and congratulations from the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of which he is father and head, and from the Assembly of Catholic Hierarchs in Syria of which he is president, from the Council of Eastern Catholic Patriarchs, from the Assembly for Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon (APECL) and from the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC.)
Commenting on the meaning of the name of the new Patriarch, which means Annunciation in Arabic, His Beatitude expressed the wish that his tenure would be “good news” for the Christian world. He assured him that he and his Church would continue to enjoy communion in love with the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and that in their prayers all Syria’s Christians were all wishing the new Maronite Patriarch many years of fruitful service.
Patriarch Beshara himself expressed the wish to pay a visit to Syria this year for religious purposes and to further friendship between Lebanese and Syrian faithful.
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CWNews.com - Speaking in Ireland, a Chaldean Catholic bishop who ministers in northern Iraq offered an overview of the persecution of Christians there and lamented the “the human rights abuses and near-genocide conditions Iraqi Christians experience.”
“What Iraqis are left with is a weak constitution that tries to please two masters: on the one hand the premise of human rights supposedly for all its citizens, yet on the other hand, Islamic law for its majority of Muslims.” said Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil. “Islamists are not the only ones at fault. Secularists with an eye for profit are also responsible. Neighboring governments in the region feeding the insurgents with money and weapons to destabilize the government are also responsible.”
“The rest of world’s governments have turned their backs on us, as if the human rights abuses and near-genocide conditions Iraqi Christians experience, are temporary,” he added.
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CWNews.com - Cardinal Kurt Koch, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, met on March 16 with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.
Neither the Vatican nor the Russian Orthodox Church released a detailed report on the meeting, which was held in Moscow. But the Orthodox patriarchate indicated that Kirill had stressed his support for Pope Benedict in the effort to combat secularization, particularly in Europe. The Russian prelate also commented on the positive trend in relations between Rome and Moscow.
Cardinal Koch was visiting Moscow for the first time since his appointment as the Vatican’s chief ecumenist. Prior to his meeting with Patriarch Kirill, he had spoken earlier in the week with Metropolitan Hilarion, his counterpart as ecumenical-affairs officer for the Moscow patriarchate.
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CWNews.com - An Anglican pastor who ministers in Cairo writes that the view is widespread that recent violence against Christians is “being orchestrated by pro-Mubarak members of the State Security and by members of Mubarak's National Democratic Party, bent on revenge and counterrevolution.”
“The former ruling party took advantage of all weaknesses in the society, seeking to guide people's anger and keep their legitimate frustrations at bay,” writes the Rev. Paul-Gordon Chandler. “Most Egyptians see the recent religious conflicts as a counterrevolution plan targeting Coptic Christians, as they are the most vulnerable and hence the easiest to mobilize against. By creating chaos, instability and confusion, the secret police and the thugs of the former ruling party aim to make possible the return of the former regime in coming elections.”
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