The Marists are committed to helping the poor and needy.

Nabil Antaki, who is a doctor and lay member of the Order of the Blue Marist friars, says living in Aleppo is "very expensive."

Salaries are low and families cannot live in a dignified way, he says.

However, improvements include increasing water and electricity rations, and the markets are offering more products.

In a letter to AsiaNews, Antaki notes the economic situation is the reason many of those who fled "do not want to come back."

From the point of view of security, he says conditions are "good" since armed groups have left and terrorists of al-Nusra have gone.

There are still mortars being thrown by rebels every day.

Last month the town had the worst day of the last 18 months "with continuous launches that caused numerous deaths and injuries."

The Marists are continuing to provide assistance to the population.

They distribute food and health parcels, although Antaki says "these distributions must end one day." Finding jobs must be the priority, he says.

The Marists are helping with training courses for adults to help them get work.

"In a year and a half we have already financed 50 projects and allowed more than 90 families to live off the proceeds derived from their profession," Antaki says.

Source

• Asia News
• Image: OffGuardian

Father Ziad Hilal said "Previously, the dollar used to be worth 50 Syrian pounds, today it is equivalent to more than 520 Syrian pounds. Ten times more! The people of Aleppo lack money to live on, few people have a job."

"They need food, fuel, they have to pay tuition for the children, university students, for milk for the children. They have to pay for electricity generators for each family." Read more

Sister Annie Demerjian, a member of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary, questioned why Western journalists focused on the plight of people in areas held by rebels and jihadis but seldom those in regions controlled by the government of Bashar Assad.

"It is not fair.

"We don't see a balance," she said. Read more

The Catholic Bishop of Aleppo says the Christian faith is still practised in Aleppo.

This is despite endless bombardment and a US strike which killed dozens of Syrian soldiers.

Bishop George Khazen said a Mass of thanksgiving for Mother Teresa's canonization on Sunday.

"The church was full, the Bishops and faithful of all the Churches in Aleppo were present.

"As pastors, we are comforted by the sight of so many Christians who live the tremendous moment we are going through in faith.

"I get emotional when I think that thanks to their faith the Lord will bless us and give us his peace"

The comments come after reports US-led coalition air strikes reportedly killed dozens of Syrian soldiers

This endangered a US-Russian ceasefire.

It also prompted an emergency UN Security Council meeting.

Tensions between Moscow and Washington are escalating.

Bishop Khazen said the truce "seems to be on the point of failing".

He added "no-one" in Aleppo believed that the US strikes were "a mistake.

"Even last night we heard the government aviation raids on [the] area in the hands of rebels.

"No one here believes that the massacre of Syrian soldiers caused by the US bombing on a barrack was a mistake."

The Bishop referred to conspiracy theories about the US having "created" Islamic State.

He said the air strike killed at least ninety soldiers.

"It seems to confirm the ambiguity of the US choices in the Syrian scenario.

"With all the tools and weapons at their disposal that air raid could not have been an accident.

"That barracks was not there yesterday".

Source

• christiantoday.com
• Image: pulse.ng

Last month, four newborns in incubators fought for their lives in a small hospital in Aleppo, the besieged Syrian city. Then a bomb hit the hospital and cut off power—and oxygen to the incubators. The babies suffocated.

In a joint letter to President Obama this month, fifteen doctors described the infants' deaths: "Gasping for air, their lives ended before they had really begun."

The doctors are among the last few in the eastern part of Aleppo, the historic former commercial center where a hundred thousand children are now trapped.

"Young children are sometimes brought into our emergency rooms so badly injured that we have to prioritize those with better chances, or simply don't have the equipment to help them," the doctors wrote.

Only a trickle of food is making it through a land blockade imposed by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"Whether we live or die seems to be dependent on the ebbs and flows of the battlefield," the doctors said.

More than a third of all casualties in Aleppo are now kids, according to Save the Children.

Among them is Omran Daqneesh, the toddler with the moppish Beatles haircut whose picture captivated the world this week.

He was shown covered with blood and dust after being dug from the debris of a bombing in Syria on Thursday.

Rescuers placed him, alone, on an orange seat in an ambulance. His stunned, dazed expression mirrored the trauma of a war-ravaged generation.

(On Saturday, we learned that Omran's older brother Ali, who was ten, had died from wounds sustained in the attack.*)

In June, Osama Abo El Ezz, a general surgeon in Aleppo, described a rocket attack on an infant-care ward.

"Nine newborns were rushed to the basement of the hospital for safety, their incubators destroyed," he wrote.

Source

• The New Yorker
• Image: www.bbc.com

Only 40,000 Christians are left in Aleppo, according to reports.

"The bombs are falling all around us, but we are not going to leave the people in their suffering," said Sr. Anne-Francoise, a French nun from a community of Discalced Carmelites in Aleppo. "The people here are suffering and dying."

The nun's comments came in a statement released by the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

ACN has been trying to draw attention to the plight of the northern Syrian city where suffering from the five-year old civil war has reached a critical point.

In recent weeks Aleppo has seen fierce clashes between Syrian government troops, backed by Russian air power, and opposing rebels as the two sides battle for control of the city.

The Carmelite convent is situated on the outskirts of Aleppo, an area under constant siege. Sister Anne-Françoise explained: "When the Syrian army attempts to prevent the opposition and other groups from entering into the city, the bombing and shelling is really close to us.

"Thank God, they haven't hit us yet, but we are constantly hearing the shells pass over our heads."

The Carmelite nuns, four of whom are Syrian and two French, have taken in a number of refugee families and are also supporting other families with the few resources they have.

Syrian government troops have reportedly completely encircled rebel-held neighborhoods last week, cutting off all supply lines to the enclave.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Flipboard.com

43-year-old Fr. Ibrahim Alsabagh, has been serving as a parish priest in Aleppo since October. He was born in Damascus, completed his studies in Rome and then returned to Syria "to be with his people".

Internet and telephone lines are working one minute and are down then next in the city that has suffered the most devastation in the ongoing conflict.

Water and electricity are a luxury. And yet this determined Franciscan friar continues to live there, helping anyone and everyone, Christians and Muslims alike, caught in a mire that spares no one.

Fr. Ibrahim, how can you live in a place like Aleppo, a city worn out by the violence of this absurd war?
"The number one thing that keeps me going is God's will, as I have perceived it in my life. Once I made a pact with the Lord, when I received a clear calling to follow Him.

"I said to Him: 'Lord, life with you is quite difficult, but without you it is impossible. I cannot live apart from you.' Then, when I realised that my vocation was to heal others, families, as a priest I asked for me to stay where I am, with my family, so I could dedicate myself entirely to others.

"I was 19 when it happened to me, but it is something I always hold close to my heart. Looking after His family, His people: this is His will and I am perfectly prepared to do this, to go to any part of the world where I am certain it is He who is sending me, through His representatives, the superiors who ask me whether I am willing to go.

"So, when I was asked to go to Aleppo, I did not feel fear, even though I knew I would have a heavy cross to carry being here." Continue reading

Sources

• Vassallomalta
• Image: Assyrian International News Agency