Good Shepherd Sr. Monique Tarabeh’s prayers have an urgency to them. Tarabeh grew up in Damascus, Syria, and her family still lives there despite the civil war made possible by the rise of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS. The war has raged for five years, killing hundreds of thousands of people and Read more
Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill have issued a deep and thorough call for reconciliation and unity amongst their two traditions. The two leaders met for 135 minutes in Cuba on February 12. It was the first meeting of this kind for nearly 1000 years. A joint statement was issued, in which Francis and Kirill Read more
The European Parliament has recognised as genocide the Islamic State’s killing of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. This is the first time the European Parliament has acknowledged an ongoing conflict as genocide. Lars Adaktusson, the Swedish MEP who tabled the resolution, said the significance of the move is the obligations that Read more
The plight of persecuted Christian families in the Middle East was addressed during the Synod on the Family in Rome, October 5-25. Synod Fathers acknowledged the particular and urgent circumstances that so many Catholic families face each day. The Fathers expressed fraternal sorrow for families forced to flee their homes, and gratitude for those nations Read more
“Now our people are criticising us. They want us to find them flights, visas and welcome centres in other countries. This is impossible. A state cannot do this. And neither can the Church.” The Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, Louis Raphael I, says he is concerned. He is not convinced about certain consequences of Europe’s new Read more
The heartbreaking photo of the little Syrian refugee boy washed up dead on the shore of Bodrum, Turkey strikingly illustrates the tragic plight of desperate refugees – mostly Syrian – fleeing for their lives from the Islamic State and other violent groups in the Middle East and Africa. The 3-year-old boy, named Aylan, along with Read more
There was something about Diyaa that his wife’s brothers didn’t like. He was a tyrant, they said, who, after 14 years of marriage, wouldn’t let their sister, Rana, 31, have her own mobile phone. He isolated her from friends and family, guarding her jealously. Although Diyaa and Rana were both from Qaraqosh, the largest Christian Read more
Three directors of religious studies from New Zealand Catholic schools took an opportunity in January to study the Jewish Holocaust. The Holocaust Centre of New Zealand awarded scholarships to Adele Churchman of Roncalli College in Timaru, Colin Macleod of Kavanagh College in Dunedin and Dan Stollenwerk from St Peter’s College in Auckland. The three visited Read more
Fr. Émile Shoufani, an Arab Israeli and tireless promoter of dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims, received the 2014 Judeo-Christian Friendship of France (AJCF) award on November 17. Born in 1947 in Nazareth, Shoufani was driven out of his family village the following year by the Israelis who killed his grandfather and uncle. He was Read more
New Zealand cannot stand aloof from involvement in the Middle East when so many people are suffering and dying says Archbishop John Dew, President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference. He has written to Prime Minister John Key, offering the support of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops for the cautious and measured approach to making Read more