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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWN - President Barack Obama wished members of the Eastern Orthodox churches a happy Easter and referred to the plight of those who suffer persecution for their faith.
“For Orthodox Christians, this is a time to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, to rejoice in the victory of the Resurrection and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in accordance with God's will,” he said in a statement, adding:
We lift up in prayer the members of the Orthodox community who have been persecuted for their faith and subjected to unspeakable acts of violence, and we seek the release of those who have been kidnapped. We remember those who have been driven from their homelands and who have seen their religious institutions desecrated or destroyed.
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CWN - The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who holds a primacy of honor in Eastern Orthodoxy, has issued an encyclical for Easter, which falls on May 1 this year in the Orthodox liturgical calendar.
“Through His resurrection, the divine Word rendered humanity – created in the image of God but wounded and stained by sin – incorrupt and deified, granting us once again the possibility of achieving divine likeness, of which we were deprived through disobedience,” wrote Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
He added:
Unfortunately terrorism, war, and bloodshed continue to this day. The lament and agony of victims, particularly as these are rapidly disseminated through modern technological means, tear the world apart and break our heart. This is why the world’s leaders – political, religious and church – are obliged and compelled by love to do everything that is possible to avoid such unacceptable conditions.
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CWN - The Chaldean Catholic bishop of Aleppo lamented the intensification of fighting in Syria’s largest city.
“The situation of the people is disastrous,” Bishop Antoine Audo said in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need. “Before the war, there were over 150,000 Christians of various denominations in Aleppo. Today, about two-thirds have become refugees in their own country or have sought refuge in other countries, such as Lebanon, but also in the West.”
Bishop Audo said that the relations between Aleppo’s Christians and Muslims have generally been good and have even improved since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.
The forces fighting against the Assad regime in Aleppo, however, “are groups that are being financed from outside of the country,” the prelate said. “They do not come from Syria.”
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CWN - On April 30-- the night of the Easter Vigil on the Orthodox calendar-- signatures will be collected at Orthodox churches calling upon Russian lawmakers to ban abortion, according to the Interfax news agency.
Russia, which has one of the highest per-capita abortion rates in the world, passed legislation in 2011 limiting abortion to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
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CWN - Coptic Christians from Egypt are flocking to Jerusalem on pilgrimage this year, the Fides news service reports, marking an end to a ban on travel by Copts to Israel.
The late Coptic Pope Shenouda III had instructed the faithful not to travel to Israel because of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that ban remained in effect even after Egypt and Israel established diplomatic relations. But pilgrimages slowly resumed after his death in 2012. Last November the new Coptic Pope Tawadros II traveled to Jerusalem for the funeral of the Coptic Archbishop Abraham, and his presence there was taken as a sign that the ban was rescinded.
This year, nearly 6,000 Egyptian Copts have already traveled to Jerusalem, with the numbers increasing steadily as the Copts, who follow the Julian calendar, approach the celebration of Easter.
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CWN - Islamic forces in Syria launched an artillery attack on Armenian sections of the city of Aleppo on April 25, the AsiaNews service reports.
The heavy bombardment, an obvious violation of a ceasefire agreement, killed at least 17 people. Residents of the city's Armenian district stated their belief that the attack was deliberately timed for the 100th anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide-- an anniversary that had been observed at churches in the neighborhood the previous day.
Residents also charged that Islamic forces in Aleppo are receiving assistance from Turkey, and blasted Syria's President Assad for his failure to protect the Christian minority.
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