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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWN - Syria’s leading Catholic prelate is calling on Western nations to end their sanctions against the Syrian government and their support for rebel factions.
Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem III Younan told Vatican Radio: “I still hope that the Western countries—that means the Western politicians—would agree to stop financing and arming [rebels], because otheriwse there will be no end to the sectarian war.”
The Patriarch of Damascus also said that he hopes for an end to international sanctions. “Those sanctions surely hurt the population, not those who are in the government,” he said.
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CWN - In his Christmas message, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow reflected on the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the “resurrection of faith” in Russia since the collapse of Communism.
“Exactly one hundred years separates us from events which radically transformed the life of Russia, a great multinational country, and plunged her into the madness of civil war,” the head of the largest of the Orthodox churches wrote on January 6.
“The subsequent losses and afflictions which our people endured were in many ways determined by the destruction of our thousand-year-old statehood and the struggle against the people’s religious faith,” he continued, adding:
We give thanks to God for the miracle he has revealed to the world—the resurrection of faith and piety within our people, for the restoration of holy sites once destroyed, for new churches and monasteries, the construction of which is a visible sign of the profound changes that have taken place in people’s hearts.
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CWN - A commission of the Eastern-rite Ethiopian Catholic Church recently held a three-day conference with school leaders and teachers to help them counter the practice of female genital mutilation.
In a news release, the bishops’ conference stated that “fear of stigmatization and being unfit for marriage are the causes that lead parents and even women themselves to the practice.”
In 2013, Ethiopia’s bishops forbade Catholics from taking part in genital mutilation, which continues in some rural areas despite being illegal under civil law.
The East African nation of 102.4 million is 44% Ethiopian Orthodox, 34% Muslim, and 19% Protestant. The Ethiopian Catholic Church has 83,000 members.
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CWN - Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, extended Christmas greetings to the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church during a recent visit to his cathedral.
Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria “said that the relationship between Muslims and Christians in Egypt, which dates back thousands of years, serves as a role model of coexistence,” according to a paraphrase of his remarks in Egypt’s leading newspaper.
The Sunni leader, who has the reputation of being a leading moderate voice in the Muslim world, emphasized the “enduring reality” of tolerance despite a recent terrorist attack on a Cairo church.
The nation of 94.7 million is nearly 90% Sunni Muslim and 10% Coptic Christian.
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CWN - Doctors and other medical personnel in Belarus may soon be forbidden to display icons in their offices or wear religious symbols such as crosses.
In a letter to the nation’s health minister, Metropolitan Paul of Minsk and Slutsk criticized a proposed revision in medical ethics standards that would lead to the ban.
Describing the proposal as “abusive,” the head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church cited the nation’s constitution, which guarantees religious freedom, and said that “the wearing of the cross and prayer to God before icons constitute a normal and essential part of the life and existence of the Belarusian people.”
The Eastern European nation of 9.6 million is 48% Orthodox and 7% Catholic, with 41% professing no faith.
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CWN - Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al Sisi has announced a plan to build the largest Christian church in Egypt, on the outskirts of Cairo.
The Egyptian leader announced the project at the Christmas liturgy in the city’s Coptic cathedral. For the 3rd consecutive year, al Sisi joined Coptic Pope Tawadros II for the Orthodox Christmas celebration on January 6. The Egyptian leader has promised government support for the reconstruction of Christian churches damaged in riots in 2013.
The new cathedral, scheduled to be opened in 2018, will be part of an ambitious plan to build an entirely new section of Cairo. The plan also inclues the country’s largest mosque.
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- President Obama offers Christmas greetings to Orthodox Christians
- Eastern Christian Publications Announces New and Featured Books and Videos
- Pastoral Message of the Ukrainian Catholic Hierarchy of the U.S.A. to our Clergy, Hieromonks and Brothers, Religious Sisters, Seminarians and Beloved Faithful
- Patriarch Kirill: commemorate Bolshevik revolution without celebrating it