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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWN - Christian and Muslim clergy gathered at the Dominican Peace Center in Lahore to take part in an interfaith vigil in memory of the victims of the Easter Sunday suicide bombing.
Hafiz Muhammad Nauman, a Muslim active in interfaith dialogue in Pakistan, said at the April 2 vigil that “every Muslim who joins a terror group does not belong to our religion anymore. Terrorists are our common enemy; their religion is terrorism, not Islam. When they kill, they don't draw a line between Christian and Muslim victims.”
Although Christians were the target of the attack, the majority of victims were Muslim: 17 of the 76 persons killed in the attack were Christian, according to an AsiaNews report.
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CWN - Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic bishops praised the nation’s army, Kurdish forces, and local tribes for recent victories over the Islamic State.
During their April 5 meeting in Ankawa, the bishops prayed that God might “culminate these victories by releasing Mosul, Nineveh plains and every piece of the Iraqi land,” as well as “showering His mercy on martyrs and blessing the wounded with a speedy recovery,” according to a statement issued by the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate following the meeting.
Decrying Iraq’s “widespread financial corruption,” “sharp economic decline,” and “severe fiscal crisis,” the bishops said that the nation “stands today at a dangerous crossroads that represents a historic turning point, and we should deal with it wisely.”
Nine of Iraq’s 14 Catholic dioceses and other jurisdictions are part of the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See; the other dioceses are either of the Roman rite or are part of other Eastern Catholic churches.
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CWN - In the rubble of the ancient Mar Elian monastery in Quaryatayn, Syria, which was destroyed by the Islamic State, the former prior has discovered relics of the saint for whom the monastery was named.
Father Jacques Murad, who was taken prisoner when forces of the Islamic State overran the area, returned to the Mar Elian monastery after Syrian government troops recaptured Quaryatayn. He reported that relics of St. Elian-- the son of a 3rd-century Roman military official, who was executed when he refused to renounce his Christian faith-- were found near the saint's tomb. "The fact that the relics of Mar Elian are not lost is for me a great sign," the priest told the Fides news service. "It means that he did not want to leave the monastery and the holy land."
The Mar Elian monastery, established in the 5th century, was systematically demolished by the Islamic State last year.
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CWN - The Vatican is weighing a quick trip to Greece by Pope Francis, to dramatize the plight of migrants who are being sent back to Turkey.
Responding to Greek media reports that the Pope might visit the island of Lesbos as early as next week, Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said that no commitment had been made. "I don't deny that there are contacts about a possible trip," he allowed.
Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople has confimed that he will be traveling to Lesbos to meet with refugees, accompanied by Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens. The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in Athens has said that Pope Francis expressed an interest in joining them.
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CWN - The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) has welcomed a statement signed by 22 Orthodox priests and laity on the so-called Synod of Lviv, the 1946 meeting in which the UGCC was absorbed into the Russian Orthodox Church.
“We assure the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of our solidarity, of our prayers for all the innocent victims of this Church who were imprisoned, tortured, deported and assassinated by the Soviet government with the complicity of the Patriarchate of Moscow,” the Orthodox Christians said in their March statement. “We humbly ask their pardon for all the injustices they have suffered under the cover of the Orthodox Church and we bow down before the martyrs of this Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.”
“We sincerely admire your courage, because it is difficult to be the first-- and it is even harder to remain alone,” stated a response signed by the head of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and bishops, priests, and scholars. “Our answer can best to put into words as: ‘We forgive and ask forgiveness.’”
The response offered strong criticism of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church:
Of course, it is hard not to notice that the official position of the Church that was an instrument of persecution of the Greco-Catholics in the hands of the godless totalitarian regime is still a position of overt reluctance to accept the facts and of denial regarding historical reality.
The history of the persecution of the UGCC continues to be falsified following the example of Stalinist secret directives and becomes an instrument of neo-imperial ideological propaganda, and even of a hybrid war waged on the territory of Ukraine by those who build their so-called “Russian World” (“Russkiy mir”) by assuming a monopoly as the sole voice of “Orthodox civilization.”
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CWN - Palestinian police briefly detained a Syrian Orthodox prelate on April 2, the Fides news service reports. The reason for the arrest has not yet been made public.
Metropolitan Swerios Malki Murad, who heads the Syrian Orthodox community in the Holy Land, was stopped as he returned to Jerusalem after visiting a nearby village. He was released after being questioned.
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