Six-year-old Alex’s letter to Barack Obama asking him to send Syrian refugee child Omran Daqneesh to come and live with his family has gone viral. On his Facebook page Mr Obama said the boy, only know as Alex from New York, was “moved by the heartbreaking images of Omran Daqneesh.” Omran is the five-year-old in Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Syria’
Peace for Aleppo
Friday, September 23rd, 2016
Peace for Aleppo will come from God. 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 Read more
Babies are suffocating to death in incubators
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2016
Babies suffocating to death in their incubators is a result of bombs targeting the Syrian hospitals where they are being treated. 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. Read more
Carmelite nuns refuse to leave Aleppo – stay to relieve suffering
Tuesday, August 9th, 2016
Carmelite nuns are refusing to abandon the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo, preferring to stay and relieve suffering. This is despite intense bombing from both Syrian and Russian forces and severe food shortages. Only 40,000 Christians are left in Aleppo, according to reports. “The bombs are falling all around us, but we are not going to Read more
UK Catholics welcome Syrian refugees
Tuesday, July 26th, 2016
UK Catholics have joined a government project to resettle an estimated 20,000 refugees from the Syrian war. Although there is some obvious concern in the UK that the refugees may include terrorists, organizers say they are confident the refugees, who are drawn from predominantly Muslim camps, will not include members of the Islamic State terror Read more
Vatican takes nine more Syrian refugees
Tuesday, June 21st, 2016The Vatican has brought nine more Syrian refugees to Rome. This adds to the 12 who accompanied Pope Francis when he returned from the Greek island of Lesbos in April. The nine refugees, like the twelve who preceded them, were living in a refugee camp on Lesbos. The Sant’Egidio community in Rome has agreed to Read more
What happened to the 12 Syrian refugees rescued by the pope?
Tuesday, May 31st, 2016
When Pope Francis saved a dozen refugees from a Lesbos detention centre and took them to Rome it was ‘like a miracle’, one of them said. A month on, what is their new life like? Ramy Alshakarji was still coming to terms with the idea that at last he was safe – he was leaving Read more
Sr. Monique Tarabeh, praying for family in Syria
Tuesday, April 12th, 2016
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
Vatican calls for ‘urgent’ help for people in Syria
Friday, March 18th, 2016
The Vatican this week called for an “urgent” delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of Syria. “Recent developments coming from Syria seem to reinforce the feeling of helplessness in front of an endless human tragedy,” said Monsignor Richard Gyhra, chargé d’affaires of the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations. Gyhra Read more
Priest who survived ISIS
Tuesday, December 15th, 2015
A Syrian priest held hostage for months by the ISIS terrorist group is certain his life was saved due to his interfaith work, despite being threatened with beheading by jihadists if he did not renounce Christianity. The Rev. Jacques Mourad, a Syriac Catholic priest, was taken hostage in May from the Mar Moussa monastery, situated Read more