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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWN - Lebanon’s leading Catholic prelate has decried the persistent failure of the country’s lawmakers to choose a new president.
After the Lebanese parliament announced the absence of a quorum, causing the 33rd consecutive failure to elect a president, Maronite Catholic Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai criticized the lawmakers who are responsible for the impasse. “No one has the right to make fun of the fate of the country and paralyze everything,” he said.
Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014. The parliament has scheduled a new vote for January 7.
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CWN - The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem has released his annual Christmas message.
“Alas, our situation in the Holy Land resonates that of the world facing an unprecedented terrorist threat,” said Patriarch Fouad Twal. “A deadly ideology based on religious fanaticism and obstinacy is spreading terror and barbarism amidst innocent people.”
Calling arms dealers to repentance, he said that
terrible wars are driven by arms trade, involving several international powers. We are facing a situation of total absurdity and duplicity. On one side, some speak of dialogue, justice, and peace, while on the other hand promote the sale of arms to the belligerents! We call to conversion, these unscrupulous arms dealers who may be without conscience, to make amends. Great is your responsibility in these devastating tragedies, and you will answer before God for the blood of your brothers.
“Dear friends, the birth of Christ is a sign of the Mercy of the Father and a promise of joy to us all,” he concluded. “This message shines upon our wounded world, to console the afflicted, the oppressed, and to bring about conversion to violent hearts. A blessed and joyous Christmas to all!”
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CWN - The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has told young Russians involved in politics that “evading dialogue with the Catholic Church now would be wrong.”
“We defend the same values both in public and in private life,” Patriarch Kirill of Moscow told the Youth Public Chamber and the Chamber of Young Legislators, according to the Interfax news agency. “We need to establish such cooperation in the face of the non-Christian world.”
While focusing his remarks on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa, Patriarch Kirill also mentioned that in the West “church and religion are being ousted from public life” because of “ruling liberal doctrines.”
Despite the call for cooperation, the patriarch said that “cooperation cannot abolish the theological differences” between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox, according to the Interfax summary of his remarks.
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From Gregorios, Servant of Jesus Christ
By the mercy of Almighty God,
Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, of Alexandria and Jerusalem
To my brothers, their graces the bishops, members of the Holy Synod
and our other sons and daughters in Christ Jesus, the clergy and people, called to be saints,
with all those who invoke the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, their and our Lord,
“Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor: 1: 3)
“I bring you good tidings of great joy..
“unto you is born this day ... a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2: 10-11)
The Nativity according to the Flesh of our Lord God and Saviour, Jesus Christ
25 December 2015
“I bring you good tidings of great joy..unto you is born this day ... a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2: 10-11)
This verse begins the Holy Gospel, telling the good news of Jesus to people, “all people” of this world, which is God’s domain.
Gospel means good news for mankind, news that is beautiful, lovely, joyful, gladsome, comforting, healing, sublime, close to everyone.
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CWN - At least 17 Christian churches in Syria have been destroyed or desecrated by Islamic extremists in the course of the country’s civil war, the Fides news service reports.
The documented attacks on houses of worship include cases in which churches were burned to the ground or dynamited, and some in which icons and relics were deliberately targeted for destruction.
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The Assembly of the Catholic Hierarchs in Syria met on 17, 18 and 19 of November 2015, presided over by Patriarch Gregorios III, with the participation of the Apostolic Nuncio in Syria, Archbishop Mario Zenari, to hold its regular annual meeting for autumn 2015 in the Headquarters of the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate in Damascus. On its agenda were various topics of national, ecclesial and social living conditions.
The Fathers reviewed the general situation in Syria, and considered especially living conditions, studying ways to be closer to their fellow-citizens and their faithful, and provide them with the means to live in dignity and help them cope with various difficulties and problems that they face in light of their dire circumstances given the harsh conditions prevailing in Syria, and urged all the Church’s charitable and social institutions, especially Caritas Syria, which had provided a statement on its work, to be more effective, comprehensive and useful in their services, so as to reflect in their own aspect the face of merciful Jesus who loves mankind.