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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWN - Instead of seeking to impose Western-style democracy in the Middle East, the Western powers should act concretely to assist persecuted Christians, the Syrian Catholic patriarch said in an interview with Vatican Radio.
More than 150,000 Christians in Syria and Iraq are now refugees who are “still living in caravans, in very precarious conditions humanely,” said Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Yonan, the head of the Syriac Catholic Church since 2009.
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ugcc.org.ua - On 27 May 2015, the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Youngstown, Ohio (USA) welcomed over 300 students (grades K through 8), their teachers and some of the children’s family members from St. Rose Catholic School in Girard, Ohio. Upon their arrival to the church, they were greeted by Father Lubomyr Zhybak, pastor of the Holy Trinity Church and Deacon Donald Billy, who assists Fr. Lubomyr in the parish.
After everyone was seated in the church, Fr. Lubomyr heartily welcomed, on behalf of his parishioners and himself, all the guests, who were accompanied by the President of the school, Pastor of St. Rose Roman Catholic Church and the Chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, Rev. Msgr. John Zuraw, as well as the school’s Principal, Mrs. Linda Borton. Fr. Lubomyr briefly familiarized everyone with the history of the Eastern Churches with the particular emphasis on the Ukrainian Catholic Church. During his talk he likewise explained the major differences between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Roman Catholic Church, stressing that either Western or Eastern Church’s Tradition is neither superior nor inferior to the other, but both are different and beautiful approaches to one and the same faith. Using the famous expression of the holy Pope John Paul II, “the Church must breathe with her two lungs”: of the East and of the West (Ut Unum Sint, 54).
Following Fr. Lubomyr’s presentation, the school community took part in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, presided over by the Holy Trinity Church’s pastor with the assistance of Deacon Billy. After the Liturgy was over, Fr. Lubomyr asked the students whether their classes had been cancelled that morning due to the visit to the church in Youngstown, to which they replied yes. “This means that you have to come to visit us more often then,” said Fr. Lubomyr, which put smile on people’s faces. Before the guests departed, Msgr. Zuraw, on behalf of the entire community of St. Rose School, thanked Fr. Lubomyr and his parishioners for the invitation to visit their church that was followed by a jovial round of applauses. All the guests likewise received some memorabilia from the visit to the church.
Department of Information of the UGCC
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CWN - The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church decried the entrenchment of the Russian military in occupied areas of eastern Ukraine and said that his priests continue to minister there despite the dangers.
“In that territory of Donbass, which is under occupation of the Russian troops, each day [we] receive news of incoming of heavy weapons,” Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk told Vatican Radio.
“What strikes me personally, that in last few months, more than 700 tanks entered in that territory,” he continued. “My question is why? If we agreed to ceasefire, if we agreed to start a political process, if we are in favor of saving human beings in that territory, why is somebody investing in war?”
“Our priests were forced to leave that territory, but step by step we came back, even if our priests are in constant danger, direct threat against their lives,” he added. “In the city of Donetsk, we have three priests and three parishes, Greek Catholics; at the moment there are not any of the Roman Catholic priests.”
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Latrobe, PA - Father Cuthbert A. Jack, O.S.B., 64, a monk of Saint Vincent Archabbey, died Friday, May 29, 2015, at Saint Vincent, Latrobe.
He was born Aug. 17, 1950, in Butler, and was the oldest son of Eleanor C. (Wheeler) Jack, of Monroeville, and the late Claude E. Jack.
Father Cuthbert was a 1969 graduate of Gateway Senior High School, Monroeville. Following high school he attended Saint Paul Seminary in Pittsburgh (1969-1971), taking classes at Duquesne University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy in 1973.
In 1980 he graduated from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing and then worked in Mercy’s Burn Trauma Center as critical care nurse until he entered Saint Vincent Archabbey in 1984.
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CWN - The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See, has returned to Iraq from a 12-day visit to Iran.
The meetings with Chaldean Catholics in Iran “filled our hearts with joy and gratitude for your faith, steadfastness, hope, love, and for keeping your Christian values and traditions, including our Chaldean language,” Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako wrote in a May 27 pastoral letter.
“Remember that you are descendants of martyrs and saints,” he continued. “In the cathedral of Urmia there are the remains of 4,000 martyrs killed in 1918. They are a blessing and a force for you.”
Patriarch Sako added:
We invite you also to be attached to your country; you are Iranians and not a foreign community descended from another planet. You were there before the arrival of Islam, Christians were the majority, and your church was called the Church of Persia, and today you are a minority, but we felt that everyone is respecting you. Though you are a small community in number, you are as strong as the early Church. We are confident that you will grow.
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by Louis Raphael I Sako
From May 12 to 24 last, Mar Sako made a pastoral visit to Tehran and Urmia, in Iran, meeting Christian and Muslim political and religious figures. His Beatitude stressed the historic presence of Christians in Iran, a presence that precedes Islam. He invited the faithful to "stay close to your country" and reminds them "strength is in quality and not in number."
Baghdad (AsiaNews) - " you are Iranians and not a foreign community descended from another planet "; this is why "we invite you to stay close to your country," to those lands inhabited by Christians "before the arrival of Islam." This is one of the passages of the letter sent by his Beatitude Mar Raphael I Louis Sako, to the Chaldean communities in Iran, at the conclusion of the recent pastoral visit (photo taken from the website of the Chaldean Patriarchate a time of the visit). In the two-week visit the Chaldean Patriarch met with the faithful of the diocese of Tehran and Urmia, meeting local faithful, priests and nuns and bishops but also political authorities and Muslim religious figures.
In the pastoral letter, sent to AsiaNews, he speaks of the visit as a source of "great satisfaction", because "we have learned a lot from this trip." The patriarch stresses the faith, firmness and hope of the Chaldean communities in Iran, able also to preserve values and traditions, such as the language itself. Mar Sako also notes the "peace and stability" that Iranian Christians can enjoy "in your beloved country" and the "positive dialogue" with "the government and religious authorities."
Read the entire article at: http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Patriarch-of-Baghdad:-Iran%E2%80%99s-Chaldeans,-light,-salt-and-leaven-in-the-Church-of-Persia-34367.html