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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWN - Jordan’s minister of religious affairs has said that Christians, Muslims, and Jews betray the principles of their own faith when they give offense to others.
Speaking at a conference on inter-religious affairs, Hayel Dawoud said that the violence of the Islamic state has “nothing to do with Islam,” while satirical cartoons mocking Muslims “have nothing to do with Christianity.” He added that Jewish settlements established in the Palestinian territories “have nothing to do with the Jewish faith.”
Dawoud said that the three great monotheistic faiths share a commitment to tolerance and respect for others, so that “followers of these religions who reject these concepts do themselves incur shame, rather than their religion.”
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CWN - A Christian militia of 4,000 men has been formed to retake northern Iraqi territory from the Islamic State, according to a Newsweek report.
“The Assyrians want their land back and they-- as well as the Turkmen and the Yazidis-- are sending a message that we are going to come back and we are not going to leave our villages and towns and our cultures to be destroyed,” said Sajad Jiyad, an Iraq analyst.
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CWN - The Islamic State has blown up the Church of the Immaculate Virgin in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, according to a report published by the Assyrian International News Agency.
The church, also known as the ancient Tahira church, dates back to at least the seventh century. https://ebiteua.com/en/massage
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CWN - Reports that a Catholic priest was killed in Mosul by the Islamic State are inaccurate, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate has announced.
Archbishop Amel Shamon Nona, who fled Mosul in June after the city fell to the Islamic State, told the Fides news service that all Chaldean priests have left the city. Widespread reports that a priest named Boulos Yakoub was recently killed are false, he said, adding that “there has never been a priest of that name in the Iraqi Church.”
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CWN - Pope Francis received the Catholic bishops of Greece in audience on February 5 and emphasized the importance of evangelization, especially of the young, and promotion of the common good.
The Pope called for continued service to the needy and immigrants and a “spirit of solidarity,” rather than a “culture of pessimism,” in the face of the nation’s financial crisis. In a nation is only 1% Catholic, the Pope also called for continued “interpersonal dialogue with our Orthodox brethren.”
“The weakening of the family, also caused by the process of secularization, requires the commitment of the Church to persevere in programs of formation for marriage,” he added.
Noting that a “culture of waste” abandons the elderly, Pope Francis asked bishops never to “tire of emphasizing in word and deed that the presence and participation of older people in society is essential.”
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CWN - The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has opened a market in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, to sell property stolen from Christian homes and churches, according to a report from the Assyrian International News Agency.
The market is called “Spoils of the Nazarenes” and sells electronic goods, furniture, and artwork, according to the report.
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